Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. How could anyone think that I did?

Shiranai

By

Marie Darkholme

CHAPTER ONE: Two Strangers Meet

How had this started again?

Ah, yeah. Kuchiki Rukia.

The name rolled into her mind not without certain bitterness to it. No, she had nothing against the petit black haired shinigami. What she was against was the havoc said girl had somehow managed to bring into her life. But Rukia was an alright person. She might have even befriended her if the shinigami had been interested in it; which apparently she hadn't been.

Roll back. Backhand spring. Right. Left. Right. An opening! Axe kick. And a crack appeared in what was supposed to be the thing's face which obviously sent it into an angered frenzy. Letting out a deafening cry heard only by those spiritually aware the hollow raised his deformed hand and even though the girl rolled away avoiding most of his claws, one of them still managed to imbed itself into her right shoulder blade. She winced, the pain partially dulled by the fight induced high adrenaline state she was in.

Damned hollow! She thought as the blood started gushing from the wound. For brief moments she revaluated the option of running away. But once more she discarded it for the same reasons that had her rejecting it the first time around. She could not outrun that hollow. And if she could not outrun it, the only option left was to try and fight it. That was the shitty thing about the situation.

She had just finished her day at the University. It had been a pain to keep herself awake throughout the seemingly never ending lecture that albeit being interesting had her yawning every few minutes. That was probably due to the fact that she hadn't been able to catch much sleep lately. She just seemed to always have something to keep her occupied. Between her university assignments, training and working there wasn't much time left. But then, there were also the hollows that for some unknown reason had just been extremely annoying the past two weeks. So, as she was taking her usual path from the university campus to the dorms, her brain had only been half awake. That was probably the reason she didn't felt the hollow coming until it was practically turning the corner to grab her. being a spiritually aware human in a town where there were few aware people tended to make her somewhat of a target for hollow attacks.

Tsk! Where the hell are those damned shinigami when you need them? She thought annoyed. It was supposed to be one around every city, but so far she had yet to see the asshole in charge. Taking advantage of the wall by her side, she gained impulse and height by kicking it upwards, she channelled her kinetic energy into one point and slammed her fist into the hollow's mask once more.

And the crack spread which only got the hollow more pissed and not exactly dead.

"You puny human!" it howled. "How dare you? That fucking hurt!"

Oh, boo-hoo for you. As if I could care less. The girl thought as she ignored the hollow's complaints and sprinted down the street trying to put some distance between them and at the same time looking for something hard and preferentially pointed that she could use as a weapon against it. The raw power emanating from the creature was clearly above her level. But she wasn't just going to nicely hand her soul over.

Being able to track reiatsu, distinguishing the several types of it and grading it into levels was the most interesting thing she was capable of using her spirit energy for. That was handy when she detected hollows, allowing her to try and avoid the ones clearly too strong for her current level. Unfortunately when the option of running away was out of the table so were her chances of winning.

Ah damn! I was actually looking forward to tomorrow's presentation. And after I worked so fucking hard on it too, I'm just about to become hollow food. Wasn't getting attacked all the time the reason why I left Karakura? A stingy feeling in the back of her mind reminded her that had been merely part of the motives.

Dodge right. Dodge left. And another claw made its way towards faster than she could move, this time hitting her leg that had lagged behind for nanoseconds. She felt the anterior muscles of her right thigh getting dissected and this time she couldn't avoid a scream of pain getting squeezed out of her as her knees gave in.

This is annoying. She thought as the hollow took the moment to laugh at her imminent defeat. It reminded her of her last battle in Karakura. It bared a wicked resemblance to the one going down at the moment. The marks where still visible on her body as a large scar on her left arm and five puncture marks over her lower abdomen where the beast had impaled her. When the hollow had removed his claws from her abdomen and the sudden blood lost had caused a drop in blood pressure and send her to near unconsciousness, she had thought death was upon her. Fortunately, Yoruichi wasn't called Goddess of Flash just for amusement. In less than a minute the fight was over and even thought she was glad her life had been saved, the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach could not be avoided. Being protected sucked.

The night was cold but she felt nothing as she sped up through the empty street. She didn't want to die but she wasn't about to attract the beast to a street filled with defenceless, blissfully ignorant human souls.

Her features brightened slightly when she spotted mere metres ahead on her path what appeared to be an iron bar. Why it was there, seeing as there were no constructions nearby, she couldn't care less. Biting down her lip to counter the ripping pain on her leg, she made a renewed run for it. The timing was flawless. Just as the huge hollow was about to chop off her head, she skidded on the asphalt ignoring the consequent burns and swung the bar with her remained strength to hit the monster squarely across his mask covered face.

The thing let out a loud and strident pained howl as its grotesque mask cracked across its entire width and...

...it didn't break.

The girl's eyes widened as the furious creature approached, his claws clutching his cracked mask as it screamed.

"You fucking, little, useless human! I'm going to kill you! Kill you!"

No strength left to fight back, she simply lay down and said goodbye to the cruel world, hoping her body wouldn't be too battered so as not to disturb her parents more than her death would.

When she looked back up to the hollow decided to face death with her eyes open, she was surprised to see the white mask shatter and the creature literally disintegrated in a myriad of spiritrons with a final howl. Resting her upper body over her elbows she got a glance of something glowing in the dark night just behind the disintegrating hollow.

"Well, that was certainly a nice demonstration of fighting skills and improvising. But I suggest you leave this job to the pros next time."

Standing at her feet, his sword still on his hand, was a man all clad in black. Ignoring his imposing figure and the stupid comment, the girl sat and started to inspect her injuries. This time she would really have to go to the hospital. She sighed knowing the trouble it would be to deal with the questions at the ER, but quickly decided it was better than being dead and having her soul eaten.

"Let me tend to your wounds." The man was suddenly kneeling beside her, his sword already in its scabbard neatly tied at his side. She couldn't help noticing the brilliant green of his eyes as he looked into hers.

"Thanks." She muttered as he lifted the torn tissue of her shirt, exposing the cut on her back.

"Part of my duties. Don't sweat about it." he replied with a goofy grin. "So, what are you? Quincy? Fullbringer?"

She could feel the heat generated by his hands as he used his kidou to heal her injury. "Quincy?" she snickered at the thought. "Don't bundle me in together with those snob bastards." She smiled.

"So, a Fullbringer?" By now the young looking shinigami, she was sure he had a few decades at least on top of that appearance, had finished her back wound and was moving towards her leg. "Wow!" he exclaimed as he parted the torn tissue of her jeans. "This looks painfully deep."

"Nah, just a little cut." The girl laughed but her braveness was betrayed by a wince when the shinigami's hand slightly brushed against her skin. "And I'm not a Fullbringer either. Just a human with a stronger reiatsu than normal souls."

The shinigami averted his eyes from the wound to watch her for a few seconds. "I see." He replied, a hint of is that so? showing in his voice. "That's very rare stuff to come by seeing as most spiritually aware humans seem to eventually develop Fullbringing abilities." He narrowed his eyes at her as if he was evaluating her. "And you have quite an amount of spirit power."

"Yeah, well, it didn't serve me much seeing as I was almost hollow's dinner tonight." She looked up into the star filled night sky.

The silence lasted for a few minutes.

"You seem well informed about these matters." The shinigami watched under suspicious eyes. Having finished what he had called his job, he stood up, his hand resting on the hilt of his zanpakutou. The girl stood after him and rewarded him with a sorrowful smile.

"That might be because you're far from being the first shinigami I've met."

"I see." His hand remained on the hilt of the sword, even if slightly more relaxed now.

"And I'm actually also acquainted with a Quincy and my own share of Fullbringers. So yeah, I'm a tad more informed about Soul Society's shit than your average human." She cleaned her dirty hands to the ragged jeans before extending it to the shinigami. "Arisawa Tatsuki. Law student at the local Human University."

The shinigami blinked in surprise at the hand offered before deciding to accept it. "Kazuma Usui. Third Seated Shinigami in the Ninth Division." He grinned.

Hello everyone! Did you like this try out? I actually wrote this almost without any context in mind when I was on the bus to the hospital and during a lecture. Well, then I had to type it in the computer, hihi.

I'm actually not sure if I should continue this even though it clearly feels like a beginning and has no substance for a one-shot. I've got a few ideas in my head, but not sure if they are not too cliché.

Tell me what you think, pwease. ^_^