Author's note: Okay, this is the first thing I've written on this site in a really long time, so have sympathy. This is going to end up being a series of drabbles, following a loose plot, probably in a somewhat achronological order. So, if you're into that sort of thing, bear with me. I'm rating this T just to be safe. I probably won't raise it to M, since I'm bad at writing porn, and even romance in general. This may end up being IchiHitsu, since I'm a huge queer. There may be other pairings on the periphery, it depends in how I manage to develop the dynamics between the characters. This first chapter is just to lay out some background. I can't say I'm too happy with it, but it gets the job done for what I have in mind in later chapters. Take it for what it is.

Having your soul forced from body by an oncoming bus, as it turns out, was an altogether different experience from the many times Kurosaki Ichigo had been knocked out of his body by the wide array of paraphernalia he had used in the past to take his shinigami form. In later years, he would look back upon this day as merely transitioning from his original body to using gigai when he had to traverse the material world. He was, after all, dead anyway. He was dead the moment the chain grounding him to his body was severed, which was quite some time ago. However, such technicalites are not likely to occur to you after being hit by a bus. The screaming crowd, paramedics carting his body away covered by a sheet, having to explain what happened to everyone he knew who could see and hear him, and having to sit beside his family at his own funeral as they pretended to be sad rather than annoyed or amused really made the whole ordeal feel much worse at the time than he would later remember it being.

Fortunately, at the end of it all, he had the elusive and infuriatingly vague Urahara Kisuke to put a few things in perspective.

"Ah, Kurosaki-san, you certainly can't go back to living your old life anymore, now that you've been officially declared dead in the living world. Not that your old life had been quite that normal lately anyway." Urahara said.

"So what do I do?" Ichigo asked, annoyed. He had been annoyed almost perpetually for the last two weeks.

"Well, fortunately, you still have duties that you can fufill as you are, and a place in another world. Most don't get that luxury of oppourtunity when they die."

"You don't mean...?"

"There is a place for you in Soul Society." This was not Urahara speaking.

Hitsugaya Tōshirō had appeared in the dorway of the Urahara Shōten.

"Tōshirō?" Ichigo gave him a puzzled look. Hitsugaya was visibly agitated by Ichigo's use of his given name, but said nothing. Urahara smirked, and Hitsugaya continued.

"As you know, there are some vacancies in the higher ranks of Soul Society, and only a handful of Shinigami able to fill them. Many have singled you out as a suitable candidate for a position as a division captain, and recent events seem to have made it more feasible."

"Me? A captain?" The notion was somewhat suprising to Ichigo.

"A terrifying thought, I know. Zaraki seemed pretty enthusiastic about it. Not many shinigami get an oppourtunity like this, you should be grateful."

"And what if I don't want the oppourtunity?"

"Then instead, consider it a responsibility. You have few choices, Kurosaki Ichigo, and this is by far the best one for you."

In later years, Ichigo would look back upon the choice he made that day, and wonder why he was ever unsure to begin with. Later that day, however, he silently nodded his assent, and tentatively followed Captain Hitsugaya and the hell butterflies through the senkaimon to Soul Society.