Disclaimer: I unfortunately do not own Bleach, but the plot is all my own.

This is an Erisgodessofchaos story. The summary doesn't do this story justice, so if you're reading this please keep going and read the whole thing! Constructive criticism is desired! Please review and don't just tell me that it's awful, tell me how to make my story better! Check out the poll too! Thanks! :)

Thunder crashed and lightning rent the sky. Violent winds carried the ominous storm clouds away.

Ryuu sat on the frozen ground staring at the black sky. The world around him was nothing but bare rock

and turbulent sky; nothing grew here. He was utterly alone in this desolate place. Suddenly he felt a

tap on his brow, and looked up to see it start to rain. It seemed as if the great sadness of this place

could simply be contained no longer and it wept openly sending a multitude of tears cascading to the

cold, barren ground. Within seconds Ryuu was drenched and sitting in a puddle. He watched the

ripples form as more raindrops joined his puddle, then stood and looked back up at the lightning-

streaked obsidian sky. --- *BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!* --- Ryuu's alarm clock roused him from his slumber

reminding him none too gently that today was a regular miserable Tuesday school morning and that

Hanako wouldn't be too happy if he neglected to get up on time. His little sister was rather dependant

on him on school mornings. Years ago she had gotten used to ignoring her alarm clock and drifting back

to sleep, but years of practice of listening for him to get up and try to sneak out of the house without

her in the summertime had trained her mind to wake up when she heard him getting ready. He had

once slept in for fifteen minutes on morning following a late night of rigorous studying and Hanako

hadn't gotten ready in time, so they had both been late. She had complained to their parents about it

and somehow it had all ended up as his fault. He had been pretty much on house arrest and forbidden

from touching his computer or iPod for a month. Ryuu stumbled into his bathroom and splashed cold

water on his face. He looked bleary-eyed into the mirror. His black spiky hair was all disheveled and his

grey eyes were red rimmed from lack of sufficient sleep. For the past four nights sleep had evaded him.

Last night he had finally been able to cease his tossing and turning, but no sooner had he drifted off

than he was besought by that bizarre dream. *Plink! Pla-Plink! Plink!* He looked up at his skylight to

see four more raindrops hit the glass. It was raining again. RAINING?! It's supposed to snow in

December not rain! At this rate it seemed like it would be a very soggy Christmas indeed. He got a quick

shower and slipped on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a black hoodie. He grabbed his homework from his

desk and headed downstairs to make his lunch. Masashi, his little brother, was down eating his

cheerios soon after and Hanako was down last as usual just in time to wolf down a Pop Tartbefore

they left for school. Lucky for her they only lived about ten minutes from the school, so they had plenty

of time to get ready in the mornings. They quickly piled their stuff in the trunk of Ryuu's little old silver

car, and headed to school. Masashi headed in the direction of the elementary building, Hanako the

middle school one, and Ryuu walked into the high school. He dropped off his stuff in his locker and

grabbed the necessary books, folders, and notebooks for his first few period classes before heading to

homeroom. Homeroom was chaotic as usual. Nearly all the desks were overturned and were being

used as makeshift forts, and a rather violent paper wad fight was going on over the tops of them. Ryuu

stood against the wall by the door. Tanaka San, a very small timid lady, sat crouched behind the large

teacher's desk frequently peeping around the edge of it to count the students for attendance, but

quickly ducking back to avoid errant projectiles. She then boldly stood up and shouted above the

clamor, "Lunch count!" Everyone in the room stopped and as she went through the roll call stated

whether or not they wanted lunch and if they did how many lunches they wanted. Almost all the boys

ordered three lunches. Immediately afterward, the paper wad throwing resumed just as voraciously as

before. Just when the floor was fairly covered in crumpled up homework, the bell rang. Ryuu breathed

a sigh of relief and hastily headed out the door. He felt sorry for Tanaka San cleaning the room all by

herself, but he first and foremost had to get to his first period class. His science teacher was rather strict

and extremely intolerant of tardiness.

***

It was ninth period; the last period of the last day before Christmas break. Oshima San, the history

teacher, was droning on … and on … and … ON! She had long since left the main topic of Ancient Japan's

Feudal system for a ramble about everything she hated about the government and was now on the topic

of health care. Ryuu thought he had even heard her say, "If I were Emperor…" somewhere in her

monologue. One of the teens in the back of the room groaned. Ryuu looked out at the droplets swiftly

scurrying down the window pane to join the vast pools of water far below. He pondered his dream

again. What was it? It seemed so real. The place was … familiar. Had he had this dream before? No,

he was certain he had not. The rock plain, the storm, and the howling wind had been so real. He had

felt the raindrops fall on his face, felt the wind blow through his dark hair, felt the thunder rumble

through the ground beneath his feet. He had been there, but where was there? What was that

mysterious place? All at once he was back there, sitting on the wet ground staring at an onyx,

windswept sky. It was so peaceful here, but it was a sad peace as if it had once been a happy place but

was now barren, lie something was missing. The wind howled over the rocky plain, and rose into a long

mournful wail. --- *BING!* Finally the bell rang breaking his trance, and all the students jumped up and

rushed out of the room in under five seconds, most completely disregarding the homework assignment

Oshima San yelled after them. Ryuu like most of the other students quickly grabbed his nee books and

drove his siblings home.

***

The night was strangely warm for winter, so Ryuu pulled off a few blankets from his bed. He could never

sleep if he got too hot. The full moon shone brightly through his window bathing everything in pale

moonlight. Oddly enough, Ryuu fell fast asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Normally he would

have stayed up watching the moon travel across the sky. No sooner had he drifted off than he was

there again. This time there wasn't even the slightest breath of wind. The whole plain was deathly

silent. He stood up and started walking. The sky was darker than before, and an ominous air hung over

the place. He felt as if he was standing in the eye of a great hurricane. Everything was dangerously

peaceful and foreboding. He thought he heard a breeze begin to blow across the plane, but felt nothing.

There! He heard it again louder this time. It wasn't the wind; it was a voice whispering a word he

couldn't quite grasp. Then there it was clearly, "Saigai." "Saigai," it whispered. He turned to find the

source of the voice. Standing not too far away was a man. He had his back to Ryuu. His long sea green

hair fell down to his waist. He turned to face Ryuu revealing an 'x' across his face, and started walking

toward him. "Everything is about to change." He said.

"What do you mean? Who are you?" inquired Ryuu.

A look of pain quickly flitted across the man's face then disappeared. He stopped and said, "Once you

remember who you are, you will remember who I am." A large bolt of lightning struck the ground

between them and the wind suddenly picked up with alarming force as if it had been released from a

sealed jar.

Please, PLEASE, PLEASE review! It would totally make my day! The first person to review gets a virtual cookie!

"Saigai" means disaster or misfortune in Japanese. :)