like I said in the summery, it is slightly AU because Ichigo is starting grade 11 instead of 12 after first winter war, everything still happened, but I guess in this story Ichigo first met Rukia in grade 9 instead of 10, I also said this is my first fan fic, I don't know if it's any good, feel free to give me constructive critisizm, or point out errors so I can fix it, if I get a few reviews, or even one review, I'll keep putting up chapters, either way, I hope you like it, remember to please review if you do, because that determines if I'll post the next chapter or not. and Tite Kubo owns bleach, nad last time I checked, my name wasn't Tite Kubo. enough from me, enjoy the story.

Ichigo bolted upright, now sitting in his bed, from his forehead trickled some cold sweat. He peeked over at the digital clock on his night stand; it said 3:14 AM in large red numbers. Today would be the first day of grade eleven, and he would look like a zombie, because of the dreams of his time with the only girl that was ever more than a partner or sister to him. He let himself fall back over, head resting on his pillow again. He found it painfully ironic that the one girl he was beginning to consider possibly being more than a friend would die only a few weeks after meeting her, it was cruel and heartless of fate to do that, but there wasn't much he could do about it. With a heavy sigh Ichigo accepted the facts; he would live and die alone. No matter how many people he knew and trusted, he would always be alone.

Despite the animalistic want of sleep Ichigo's body craved, his mind kept on wandering, remembering his fight with Sosuke Aizen, the reason for the loss of his shinigami, and hollow, powers. It was a bitter sweet feeling, not having any more powers; he was finally able to live a normal human life, many responsibilities lifted from his weary shoulders. But it also meant he would no longer be able to help his friends or protect them, in turn it was now them protecting him and all the other people of his small town that he once protected. He turned his body so he was now lying on his side, facing his computer desk, without a computer on it. He noticed on the knob of a drawer in his desk, a red ribbon tied to it, just looking at it caused a familiar, warm, comforting laugh that belonged to the girl ring in his head, soothing his tired body, and lulling him back to sleep, and, despite everything, with a smile on his usually scowling face.

After four more decent hours of sleep, the beeping of the alarm clock woke him up, he routinely sat up and let himself fall to the ground as his dad flew over his head and into the wall.

"Good reflexes son, I'm raising you well" he mumbled into the wall, but directed his words to his orange haired son, who was already out of the room.

After showering, eating breakfast, brushing his teeth, and all of his other morning duties, he slung his school bag on his shoulder and exited his household, which was also the local medical center for the town. As he was walking down the grey sidewalk he found himself back at the bridge, the very same bridge where the large gust of wind returned her ribbon, and a girl who could've been her twin sister ran right by him. As Ichigo walked across the bridge, he replayed the scenario, trying to picture himself as a bystander, watching it all play out. He jerked his head away, hit by a sharp, emotional pain, as he imagined the girl with purple hair, run by him. Once Ichigo had crossed the large, concrete and metal bridge, he had a feeling that no matter what came his way this school year, crossing that bridge would be the hardest part of everyday.

Ichigo arrived at school with plenty of time before class started, just like last year he picked the desk next to a window, so he could put his chin in his hand and scowl out the window, but even he never exactly knew what he was looking at, or for, when he looked out the window so routinely. The landscape before him featured a school yard, with some soccer posts, and a baseball diamond. There were plenty of trees, all of them brandishing marvellous green leaves that swayed gently in the breeze. The rising sun gave what few clouds there was a strong pink tint, and the sky was an indistinguishable twilight. There were a few kids walking around the school yard, and some sitting in little groups. He was taken away from his window when someone had come up behind him and gave him a pleasant greeting.

"Good morning Ichigo!" her voice was upbeat and zealous. Ichigo turned around, already knowing who the voice belonged to, it was Orihime Inoue, and she was wearing the Karakura high uniform, a grey short skirt and a plain white dress shirt. She was rather busty, and had long, burnt orange colored hair. Her eyes were a unique silver color.

"Good morning orihime" their tones were polar opposites; Ichigo didn't bother to say anymore. Ever since he lost his shinigami powers he had a lot more free time on his hands, and most of that free time was spent thinking, reflecting, often times brooding. And that was when he remembered her, and since then all he wanted was to see her, and hear her voice, he remembered her laugh, and that was plenty, but he wanted more. And he would never be able to accept the fact that she was gone, he would tell himself that he accepted it, but in truth he never would. Always holding himself responsible for not having the power to keep her alive, the power to stop what she sacrificed herself to put an end to. it tore him apart emotionally, he remembered when she used her power to stop the dimensions from colliding.

'I'd rather sacrifice myself than have you die ichigo!' she yelled

Ichigo wanted to jump at her, use his power so she wouldn't of had to, then maybe she would've been here today,

"Um…" Orihime said awkwardly "how was your summer?" she sounded a little nervous

"My summer was quiet for the most part" he wanted to stop there, but he didn't want to seem cold, especially to someone he considered his sister. "How was yours?"

Orihime's face lit up, like she was hoping he would ask, "my summer was amazing, I went on a cruise with Tatsuke, it was so nice, it was one of those HUGE luxury cruise ships, it had a pool on it, a giant dining area, but the food there was so weird, they didn't have any bean paste!" she rambled on "but I also enjoyed the second half of my summer, when you me, Uryu, Chad, and Tatsuke would hang out all the time, go to the mall, the beach, the outdoor diner, I had a great summer"

"Yeah I enjoyed hanging out to" Ichigo replied

"Good morning Orihime, good morning Ichigo" it was a very confident voice coming from behind the two. Ichigo moved his head so he could see past Orihime and Orihime turned right around.

It was Uryu, as expected wearing the high school uniform, but the boy's outfit obviously, grey jeans and a stark white dress shirt. Uryu had straight, chin length raven colored hair that framed his face, and blue eyes.

"Oh, good morning Uryu how was your summer?" Orihime gave Uryu the same zealous greeting she gave Ichigo

"What do you mean 'how was my summer?' I spent half of it with you, Ichigo, and the others, it was great" Uryu's good mood surprised Ichigo; he was usually a lot more serious and stoic.

Nobody except Ichigo noticed Chad follow in after Uryu "hey Chad" Ichigo greeted, chad nodded in response. Orihime was quick to strike up a conversation with the two of them, letting Ichigo finally continue looking out the window, the most noticeable change was the school yard, it was now packed with kids, he also noticed that the sum was higher in the sky, the clouds were no longer tinted pink and the sky was now a light blue.

As the early morning passed Ichigo began hearing more and more voices in the classroom, and the school yard slowly empty as kids rushed into the building, from his view it looked like the school was sucking up all the kids.

When the bell finally rang to tell all kids to hurry to their home rooms Ichigo looked away from the window and towards the front desk, and to his surprise he was in 's class again, not that he minded, she was a great teacher, she gave them half the morning to do homework or study each day. But most kids used that time to talk to their friends. It was time to finally get to go to school like a normal high school kid, no more running off to 'use the washroom' to save the town from a rampant monster only a select few could see.

In the soul society

"We are getting a new third seat, the last one was killed hunting leftover numeros" Toshiro told his lieutenant grimly, Toshiro never knew his previous third seat very well. It was because he was always keeping himself busy doing his and his lieutenant's paperwork. "I need you to get her from the Shino academy; she's graduating early, very, very early" Toshiro felt his feet firmly planted on the ground and a small spark of happiness hit him, he was ecstatic that he had finally started growing, he was almost as tall as Rangiku now.

"HER?" his lieutenant clarified excitedly

"Yes Matsumoto" Toshiro was already feeling sorry for the new third seat, and with that the cherry blonde disappeared from the room using Shunpo, he promised himself that this time around he would make more of an effort to get to know his third seat, not a huge effort, but more so than last time.

"Um whats her name?" she peaked her head in the open doorway

"Kanari Dakuenjeru" and with that his lieutenant was off and on her way.

"Ugh, this sucks" she said to herself "I was only at the academy for three weeks, and I'm already a full-fledged shinigami," she complained

"Hey are you Kanari Dakuenjeru?" she turned to see a taller much more robust female standing next to her. She had long, wavy, cherry blonde hair, and was wearing a thin golden necklace around her neck. Her katana-like Zanpakuto was carried horizontally across her back. Her lieutenants arm band was worn on her sash rather than on her arm. Her eyes were a vivid blue color.

"Yes, that's me, are you the lieutenant of the tenth division?" she asked

"Yes, I am, and we are going to be the best of friends, the Gotei 13 needs more girls! Tell me, do you drink?" the sudden change in the blonde's personality startled Kanari, but she adapted quickly

"No, I'm sorry I don't drink" was her modest reply

"aw, that's too bad" then she went bi-polar again, "but don't worry, I can fix that, trust me, by the end of the week, we'll be drinking buddies" she said happily, with a huge smile on her face.

Kanari wasn't sure if that was a promise she wanted her new superior to keep "so where is the tenth division barracks lieutenant?" she asked, desperately wanting a change in subject.

"Oh, yeah, follow me" she was about to start her Shunpo when she remembered something, and turned to face the younger girl "you do know Shunpo right?"

"Of course"

"then follow me" and without warning she began using flash steps to move at an incredible speed, Kanari easily kept up with her, but she wasn't used to going so slow.

In just a few seconds they reached the barracks "so Kanari, tell me, how do you feel about work?" she asked as they began walking through completely wooden hallways, wood floor, walls, even the roof was polished hardwood. There were slight grooves in the walls and knobs sticking out, making it obvious that they were doors.

Kanari thought out her answer carefully before speaking "work is crucial to the organization of the division, so I take work very seriously, if no one did any work the division would become unorganised and dysfunctional, and it would look bad on the captain, lieutenant, and everyone else in the division, and how are you supposed to be proud of your division if it isn't taken care of? I am proud to be in the tenth division, so I'm going to do everything in my power to make it even better, and I'll do anything to make that happen"

"I see" it was just as Rangiku feared "you view work just like my, our, captain" she let out a disappointed sigh "it's such a shame, someone with a body like yours should be out drinking every night" she was going bipolar again, serious to light hearted "a body like yours Kanari, could get you any guy you wanted, even if your breasts aren't as big as mine, they are certainly larger than Rukia Kuchiki's"

How she could talk about such things so casually, Kanari wasn't sure if she would ever find out, or if she even wanted to know, she felt her face get hot and began feeling very self-conscious, looking down at her feet as they walked. But no matter how much her lieutenant would complement her, she knew that she would never ever compare to the lieutenant.

"Oh Captain!" Toshiro looked up from his paper work to see his lieutenant burst through the door, with a shorter girl in tow. She had silky looking, straight, shoulder length, light brown hair. Her bangs curved to the right, covering the centre, and right parts of her forehead; she had some of her hair right next to her left eye, sometimes a strand or two would blow in front of it from the gentlest of breezes, creating a triangle of exposed forehead above her thin left eyebrow. Her eyes were a very dark blue color, like the ocean at night.

One thing that immediately bothered Toshiro was that she had no spiritual pressure. "Motsumoto, is this the third seat?" as he continued to study the new girl he noticed that she wasn't very tall, she would maybe come up to his chin. It sent another wave of pride through his body, a few months ago she would've been quite a bit taller than him.

"Yes, she is, I'm so happy that another girl is part of the division" she wrapped Kanari into a tight hug, for two large reasons Kanari was obviously uncomfortable.

Toshiro couldn't help but grin at Kanari's face "welcome to the Gotei 13 Dakuenjeru, Motsumoto please help her get comfortable, and start with a, preferably modest, shihakusho" Toshiro knew he would've had to add that or the new girl would wind up in something skimpy, he immediately went back to his ever so important paper work when he dismissed the girls.

"Yes sir" Motsumoto said excitedly "Let's go Kanari!" She grabbed the back of her academy uniform and dragged her out of the room. Motsumoto was always happy, but she seemed even more cheerful now that another girl was in the division, although Toshiro would never admit it to anybody other than himself, he was happy that Motsumoto finally had another girl to talk to in the division, he just hoped that she wouldn't get Kanari into too much trouble. With an inward laugh he once again gave the stacks of paper in front of him his full attention.

so? did you like it? I said it back at the top but if you enjoyed it please review so I know you did, even one review will be enough for me to post the next Chapter, I'll be happy as long as someone enjoys it, until next time, hoping there will be a next time. See ya 'round.