Author's Notes: This is my first fic ever so please... be gentle. Just kidding.

Chapter 1 co-written by my good buddy Pickman's Secret.

I do not own Bleach... or many other things.

10:33am May 25th

Urahara Shop

The Big Day...

"Okay, Kurosaki-kun!" chirped Urahara as the empty space within the Senkaimon filled in with the image of a long, nearly pitch black tunnel, the Dangai, "The gateway's opened, it shouldn't be long before your escorts are- HEY!" before the startled shop keeper could finish his sentence Ichigo shouted a thanks and jumped into the gateway and began sprinting towards the other end.

Towards Soul Society.

"Damn that kid… he's so impatient."

Ichigo ran as fast as he could towards the dim light at the other end, but he wasn't running so swiftly because of the rumbling of the monstrous cleaner behind him that threatened to devour him whole, it was the fact that an hour ago he'd received some amazing news, and he couldn't waste a second dawdling around.

As he ran he checked for the thousandth time that the batteries were fully charged and correctly installed in the digital camcorder he's borrowed from his father. He couldn't risk having flat batteries for the big day.

Today was going to be the day that Rukia gave birth.

The light ahead of him grew brighter and brighter, and as he drew closer he saw old fashioned paper doors slide open to let the sunlight pour into the dark tunnel, and through those doors he saw two Shinigami about to come in.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" He shouted, making the low level Shinigami halt in surprise and blink at him in bafflement.

"Kurosaki Ichigo? What are you doing? We were meant to come and escort you- OOF!"

"CAN'T STOP! I'M ON A MISSION!" Ichigo jumped through the doorway and literally trampled over the stunned death gods.

"K-Kurosaki-senpai! We're meant to guide you to the 4th Division! You're going the wrong way!"

Ichigo couldn't hear the shouts from behind him, all he cared about was getting to the hospital to see his friend.

He ran down street after street were he was followed by angry shouts from nearly trampled patrolling Shinigami.

"Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! Maybe I should have waited for those two guys," Ichigo muttered as he ran round a tight corner, "I've no idea were I'm going!"

As he turned the corner his mind wandered and only at the last second did he see a red headed Shinigami standing directly in his path, but despite his best efforts he couldn't arrest his momentum in time to dodge the raised arm in front of him, and did a full-on back flip as he clotheslined himself on Renji's arm.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" said the Pineapple to the Strawberry as he rubbed his arm and stared down angrily at the stunned Shinigami substitute who was twitching in the dirt.

"Y-YOU ASSHOLE!" Ichigo suddenly jumped to his feet and uppercutted Renji in the jaw, sending him to the floor this time, "I'm trying to get to Rukia! What the Hell's the big idea with knocking me down like that!"

"Shut up dickweed! YOU ran into MY arm, you knocked yourself down!" Renji got back up and growled as he grabbed Ichigo's kimono and pulled him face to face.

"And what the hell do you think you're doing causing so much chaos! Do you realise that there's reports going around that we're being invaded again because of your entrance! As for seeing Rukia, you're heading the wrong way ya retard!"

Ichigo pushed himself clear of Renji and wiped his face clean of dust and the red head's spittle while he looked around.

"Well which way is the hospital then?"

Renji smirked as he realised the opportunity to show off his superior knowledge of Soul Society to his friend.

"Ha! As if you don't know, its…" He looked down the street one way, and then the other, "Er… its…"

"You don't know do you? You've been here for how long and you've still not learnt your way around?" Ichigo grinned as Renji floundered and looked around for landmark to work off.

"It's your fault! If you hadn't hit me I wouldn't have forgotten which direction I came from! Thanks to you we'll never find it in time!"

"Thanks to ME! You're the one who decided to attack me instead of just guiding me there!" before either of them could hit each other again and start an all out punch-up, a high pitched scream carried over the roof tops and stopped them both with their fists raised.

"RUKIA!" they shouted in tandem and set off sprinting in the direction of the scream.

A few screams and shunpos later Ichigo and Renji finally found the main hospital in 4th Division's are and bolted inside as fast as they could.

"Welcome to 4th Division, how can I- HEY! NO RUNNING IN THE HALLWAYS!" shouted the receptionist as they ran inside.

"CAN'T STOP! WE'RE ON A MISSION!" they replied together.

They tore around corners, barely avoiding recovering patients and squad nurses carrying sheets or medical supplies, and at one instance they managed to hurdle a patient on a trolley who had been left in the corridor giving him the fright of his life. But their speed didn't improve the situation much as they'd both gotten completely and hopelessly lost.

"Why is this place built like a maze!" Renji huffed as he and Ichigo stopped to catch their breath.

"Abarai-kun! Kurosaki-kun! What are you doing?" said a familiar and friendly voice from behind them.

"Ukitake-taicho!" they once again said in tandem, causing them to glare angrily at each other for copying the other, "We're looking for Rukia's room."

"Come with me, I've just found out off the nurse where it is, you can take it easy for now, she's only just entered labour so it's going to be a few more hours before-"

"Someone get Kotetsu-fukutaicho! The baby's coming early!" someone shouted from the other end of the corridor.

"Could they mean Ruk-" began Ichigo but he was cut off by another of their friend's screams.

"I think that answers your question!" Ichigo, Renji and Ukitake-taicho sprinted off once more down the corridor like mad men being chased by a herd of buffalo, and burst into the maternity wing.

"Hey! You can't run in here like that! There are expectant mothers in here-"

"CAN'T STOP! WE'RE ON A MISSION!" the three of them chorused.

"She's in room twelve! Up ahead!" Ukitake pointed at a door up ahead on their right and all three of them skidded to a halt and booted the doors open together.

"What the hell do you three think you're doing!" shouted Isane Kotetsu as she came up from under the blue sheet that was draped over the raised legs of Rukia.

"Oh thank god! We've not missed the big moment!" cheered Ukitake before suddenly collapsing flat on his face and coughing blood up all over the floor. "Go Ru...ki...a!" he managed weakly as an orderly came in and dragged him out while everyone else stood and stared in confusion… apart from Rukia who was lying down and screaming in pain.

"Rukia! I came as fast as I could, I'm glad to see you're doing ok!" said Ichigo as he stepped forward and switched on the camera with a warm smile.

"Doing ok! I'M GOING THROUGH HELL! WHAT TOOK YOU SILLY BASTARDS SO LONG!" Ichigo jumped back as if attacked and Renji flinched at the verbal assault.

"We-we got a bit lost…" Renji managed feebly as both brave warriors became as sheepish as children caught with their hand in the cookie jar.

"Maybe I should buy you two retards a compass!"

"Hey! Getting here from my house, which is in the living world if you remember, in just over an hour is no easy feat!" countered Ichigo, his earlier concern momentarily forgotten.

"Don't you dare yell at Rukia at a time like this, Strawberry!" Renji interjected while poking the substitute Shinigami in the chest with his finger.

There was that damned nickname again, thought Ichigo then another voice could be heard in the inner recesses of his mind,

If he says it again I'll take his eyes!

"Umm... s-sirs, can you p-please keep your voices down", squeaked Hanataro nervously in the background.

"Kuchiki-san, please try and relax or it'll make this more difficult." Pleaded Isane who was having a hard enough time as it was, "And you two! Stop aggravating the patient!"

All those present in the room calmed down or at least tried expect for the patient, but that was understandable. However Murphy's Law predicts that at a time like this someone somewhere will say something stupid. Unfortunately for Ichigo, it was him.

"So Rukia... you sure you want this recorded because I really can't see the point beh..."

"Yes! I'm absolutely one hundred and ten percent sure I want this recorded", Rukia replied not wanting an argument. God knows she had enough problems as it is.

"Well if you're sure", to be honest he wasn't pleased that he would have stand there looking at Rukia's... well he just didn't want even think about 'that' area at all.

Why not King? This is the closest you'll ever get to one.

"Yes for the last time I'm sure! Now what I really need is someone to hold my hand please!" she said in an almost pleading tone.

Yes! It's Abarai Renji's time to shine!

"I'll do it Rukia", said the red-headed Shinigami, elbowing Ichigo out of the way to stand next to her bed. He turned and smiled back at Ichigo who was now nursing his ribs, and said, "You have to tape the illustrious moment."

"Illustrious? That Word-A-Day calendar is really proving it's worth."

"Shut up."

Renji stood there, holding Rukia's hand with smug look of satisfaction on his face like he'd won some great victory. What victory he won, Ichigo couldn't begin to fathom.

"Rukia", said Isane sticking her head out of the sheet to look at the patient, "I can see the baby's head now but I need you to give me a big push on three, ok?"

"Okay."

"Right here goes... 1...2...3."

"Aaaaaaaagghh!", the sound of crunching bone immediately followed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHHH!" Renji screamed as intense pain shot up his arm. With surprising strength in such a petite body Rukia had managed to crush the bones in his hand. The pain was unbearable and to make matters worse Rukia still held the ruined hand in a vice-like grip.

"Okay, now another big push."

Oh fu...

"Aaaaaaaaaagghh!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHH!" Renji's vision started blur and finally he blacked out hitting the floor with a dull thud.

"Hanataro can you please drag Abarai-fukutaicho outside into the waiting room, fix his hand and hurry back if it's not too much trouble", Isane said calmly without even looking up. Hanataro nodded and quickly grabbed the unconscious man's legs and with some difficulty dragged him into the waiting room.

Ichigo was having the time of his life with the camcorder recording Renji passing out and then being hauled outside, he called out between fits of laughter, "Don't worry buddy! I made sure I taped the 'illustrious moment'."

"A maternity ward is not the place for laughter, Kurosaki Ichigo…" the cold voice was painfully familiar to Ichigo, and a cold shiver ran down his spine as he pointed the camera up towards the doorway and the man who stood in it.

"B-Byakuya-san!" Ichigo stammered at the sight of the veritable Ice Man.

"Do you find my sister's suffering amusing, Kurosaki Ichigo? And you will address me as Kuchiki-taicho, I neither know you well enough nor like you enough to warrant such familiarity."

Ichigo said nothing in reply and returned to sheepishly pointing the camera at Rukia who hadn't noticed her brother's entrance.

As Byakuya approached the screaming Rukia, the surrounding crowd peeled away like the Red Sea before Moses, and when Isane looked up to see who had entered even she almost moved away, that was until she realised she was the one delivering the baby, and things couldn't exactly progress without her.

"Screaming like a little child isn't befitting of a member of the Kuchiki family, Rukia." Said the stone faced captain, making Rukia look up and stifle her screams as not to let down her brother. Those around them looked at Byakuya's back with venomous glares at how heartless he was being, and as if he felt their eyes upon him he turned around and glared right back at them, making them all take another step back and everyone nervously turned away inspecting the walls as if there was something interesting on them.

Byakuya turned back to his sister when he was sure no one was looking and leant down to place a kiss on her forehead, and with a barely audible whisper he said, "You're doing well, keep it up."

"That's it, Kuchiki-san, you're doing great! Just a couple more pushes and we're done." Isane said encouragingly from beneath the blue sheet, and in response Rukia silently pushed and strained.

"I think I'm gonna be sick…" mumbled Ichigo as he moved round behind Isane and zoomed the camera in to look at what Ichigo had never though a woman's body was capable of.

"There we go!" Cheered Isane as Rukia gasped for air and finally relaxed. A few moments later the air was filled with the first cries of a new born baby, and despite the awful sound, everyone greeted it with expressions of affection, and the ring of people began to close in as people waited to see the baby.

"It's a girl!" called Isane again as she wrapped the baby up and cut the cord with Hanataro's help. Rukia looked over at the lieutenant who was smiling down at her child, and Rukia gratefully awaited the moment were she could hold her baby in her arms.

But her relieved smile faded as Isane's already pale face turned almost porcelain.

"I-Is something wrong?" asked the new mother with more than a little concern in her voice.

"I-…er… W-who did you say the father was…?" asked Isane sheepishly as everyone tried to get closer but the other nurses held them back. Only Isane and Ichigo got a look of the child, and he was as pale as her.

"I-I didn't say? Is something wrong?" Rukia began to panic and she held tightly onto the hand of Byakuya, who despite himself had a slight expression of worry.

"I'm not sure…" Isane slowly stood up and walked round to Rukia's side and gently handed her the bundle of cloth that held her baby.

Rukia pulled the cloth away from her child's face and her eyes opened in astonishment.

"Is that… part of… a Hollow mask?!" she squeaked as she struggled to decide whether to be happy that she had a baby, or scared that her baby had a half mandible of pure white bone over the skin.

Byakuya leaned forward and got a look for himself and gasped in horror as he tried to come to terms with this new revelation.

A lot had happened in the last nine months. He had discovered his sister was pregnant by a man she couldn't remember, it was the first instance in the honourable Kuchiki family that a woman had become pregnant outside of wedlock, and didn't know the father. It was an incident he tried his hardest to keep quiet for the sake of his family's reputation, but one can only hide a lady's growing stomach for so long before questions are asked. Then he became concerned for Rukia's health. To see such a fine soldier laid low and become subject to involuntary vomiting seemed almost like a punishment to him, and he had been torn between love for his sister and the hatred he felt for her sullying his pride. And finally he had tried to be the dutiful brother, protecting her from those who was try to sully her honour with foul words and talk of promiscuity, but now in her arms she held a child which at first he had thought had been born deformed, with no skin on half its face, however upon close inspection it was clear that it was extra bone on top of the skin. A spongy white half of a lower jaw with tiny stub teeth.

Byakuya thought for a moment.

How could such an anomaly occur? he thought, then he remembered his fight with Ichigo almost a year ago, and how the young intruder had acquired…a... hollow mask!

"You…" Byakuya said low and dangerously as he looked up at the camera toting youth, snapping the youngster from his bafflement.

"Huh?" Ichigo looked up slowly and as soon as he locked eyes with Byakuya he felt as though the gates of hell had opened before him and were ready to pierce his heart and drag him inside.

"Did you do this to my sister?!"