Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of the characters.

Kura and Ako Maruchia © 36-May-36

The World As We Know It

By: BananaMuffinz

Prologue

"Where the hell am I?"

The blonde shinigami wondered around the dull, barren expanse of the desert land known as Hueco Mundo. How had she ended up in this wasteland anyways? One second she was with Ichigo and the next second she had ended up face first in a sand dune. She was definitely going to punch him in the face when and if she got back to the human world, if this was all just a twisted joke.

Kura sighed in frustration and looked around. There was no sign of life in any direction. What kind of place had no life? Then again she had been through enough weird situations to not mind this fact much. When you had weird friends like Kura did you tended not to really care about such things. But enough of them, they aren't here right now. She needed to find a way out, plus the fact that the place was way too depressing. It looked as if the sun had never risen before; a creepy place for sure.

Something then caught her eye. What was that? An animal? Might as well check it out, she thought and ran towards the source of the movement that caught her attention. But what she found was not an animal at all. It was a person. At least she was fairly sure it was, it could have been a ghost considering how pale it was.

Kura cleared her throat quietly, "Hey there," she said hesitantly, observing the man standing before her, "I'm sort of lost... could you help me find a way out of here? ..Um…Where am I anyways?"

The raven haired, porcelain-skinned man turned to face her. He was quite thin and not very tall but still a bit taller than herself. He had some weird tattoos on his face though-tearmarks? He must be one sad guy.

"You do not know where you are? That is not surprising considering you are a shinigami." He said in a monotonous voice. "You are in Hueco Mundo: The land of the hollows."

"That explains your helmet," Kura said in conclusion. She then looked down at the object in his hands. He was holding a wilting iris. This was strange due to the fact that there was no other plants present other than than the occasional leafless tree which looked dead anyways.

She stared up at the curious man in confusion, "Why are you holding a flower?"

He looked down at the flower, "Is that what this object is? I see..."

What was up with this guy? He never saw a flower before? An idea suddenly popped into her head and she grabbed his hand. "Hey,want to see more things? If you come back with me to the human world,I can show you more!",Kura said excitedly,smiling up at him.

The man's emerald eyes widened ever so slightly in surprise from her sudden action. Come back with her to the human world? He thought about this for a moment. It would be interesting to learn about the human world,and so he nodded his head once in brief agreement.

"Great!" said Kura,smiling widely, "But first; how do we get out of here?" She had not thought about that and now that she did, it did seem to be a bit of a set-back.

With a snap of his fingers, the pale man opened a garganta before them. "This is how." he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and then proceeded forward to enter it.

Kura hurried forward to his side, making sure to stay close to him. That thing he just opened was dark and scary. Getting lost in that was not a top priority.

They walked together in silence through the garganta and into the human world. When they arrived in the human world, Kura sighed in relief that they had made it and looked up at the setting sun. Her stoic companion however did not seem to be very pleased with the sun. In fact, his frown deepened in annoyance at the bright light and vivid colors.

Kura took his hand and walked with him to the Urahara shop,unaware of his displeasure. Upon entering the shop, she called out, "Yo, Kisuke!" to which she was greeted by a sandy haired man with a hat and clogs.

"Well hello there Kura!" said Mr. Hat and Clogs, "What may I do for you?"

"I need a gigai for my friend here." she said cheerily as Kisuke eyed the hollow man standing beside her.

Kisuke shrugged and led the shorter and paler man to the back room, he knew better than to question Kura's motives and reasoning. She was not one to be fooled easily and he doubted she would have brought a hollow with her unless he served as no threat.

Minutes later Kisuke returned with the emotionless man who was now in a gigai. His inky black hair fell to one side as he observed the faux body. He wore a black and green striped shirt,black jeans,and black plaid converse. "What do you think?" said Kisuke proudly. Kura smiled, "He looks great,thanks Kisuke."

Kisuke nodded, "Any time,Kura."

She waved goodbye and once again led the pale man to her house, "If you are going to learn about this world, you can stay at my house. I have a sleeping bag."

He nodded and followed her silently, his emotionless mask still present and looked up at her house as she opened the door when they arrived.

They walked into the house and Kura led him to her room, smiling all the way, thinking of how fun it will be to show him the human world. She opened the attic door, which was also her room. The room was large and had a large window, which allowed the glow of the setting sun to illuminate her room in oranges and purples.

She smiled and got into her body that was resting on her bed. Peering up from her bed, she then looked over at him. He was observing her computer, which was on her desk in the corner of the room. She would have to explain what that was to him later.

Kura got up and walked over to her closet, taking out a dark blue sleeping bag with power rangers on it. She laughed quietly to herself as she set it out; surprised she still had it from when her brother, Ako, was in a 'power ranger phase'. Smoothing out the sleeping bag on the floor and putting a pillow from her closet down on it, she looked up at the man now observing her wii system, "By the way, what is your name?"

He looked over at her, the light from the sunset reflecting off his emerald eyes giving it a gold tint. "My name is Ulquiorra."

To be Continued...

A/N: Well,that is the end of the prologue. I'm actually pretty happy with it and how it turned out. This whole story is actually inspired by one of my best friends (the same one who made the Original Characters in this story) and I am excited to write more.