FULL SUMMARY:

How would life be different for Ichigo if the Vaizard were never introduced?

This tale marks the beginning of a crazy, unforgettable experience... And it was all because of two shinigami who unknowingly added flavor to the monotonous, oh-so-depressing life of Kurosaki Ichigo.

The next 96 hours with the two teenage shinigami are full of chaos and plenty of mayhem, and Ichigo and friends will soon learn that the hard way-- by experiencing it head on.

This story is divided into three arcs: Soul Core, Darkened Memories, and The Vacation. This chapter is part of the Soul Core Arc.

Spoilers: This chapter contains the name of Byakuya's zanpakuto. Not much of a spoiler at all...

Blah -

thoughts

"Blah." -speaking

-FLASHBACK- -a memory flashback

Line break/scene change

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Bleach. (But Bleach surely pwns you. :o )

Chapter One: "Hello, Strangers"

It was a seemingly "normal" day for Kurosaki Ichigo.

"GOOOD MORNING, ICHIGOOOOO!" Kurosaki Isshin, Ichigo's father, would barge into his room, launching another surprise attack on his son.

"Teme! Trying to kill your own son in his sleep?" Ichigo yelled, dodging it quite easily.

After his dad left, grumbling about new tricks and moves to pull on Ichigo next time, Kuchiki Rukia would slide open his closet door, waiting until after Ichigo's dad finished his daily attacks. She would have been up an hour ago, fully dressed and awake like the morning sun.

"Is every morning as loud as this? Anyway, I'm going ahead. Later, Ichigo." Rukia would then silently slip out of his bedroom window and head off to school without a backwards glance.

How typical… It's just as loud as always, just the same as every other day, Ichigo sighed.

Later at school, Asano Keigo would try to talk to Ichigo about the latest 'hot chicks' that appear at Karakura High School. And just like all the previous days, he blindly ignored all of this by shoving Keigo off.

Class would start and their carefree teacher would check the attendance, noticing a few missing people and saying, "Ah well. They're punks, anyway…"

Everything was getting boring and a bit too quiet. Even the bird in the tree branch beside the window Ichigo was looking out of seemed bored. Its beady little eyes gazed upon him, unwavering and still, as if to say, "At least you're not a mindless, nest-building, worm-eating, flying ball of feathers."

OK, so maybe it wasn't saying that, but Ichigo had never felt so lifeless before- he had to let his mind wander a bit...

Then, fate came and changed everything.

The door suddenly burst open to reveal a frantic, out-of-breath girl who looked she just ran a marathon to get to this classroom.

"Sorry I'm late, sensei…" she panted. Behind her was a boy of identical height, also out of breath.

"M-My apologies..." he spoke quietly to the teacher.

Who on earth are these… Oh! Them… the teacher suddenly recalled.

"Everyone, these are our new students. Please make them feel welcome here." she gestured to the two teens detachedly, almost as bored as Ichigo was a moment ago. "If you two would please introduce yourselves…"

The girl with her brown hair tied up, deep green eyes, lithe limbs and seemingly energetic character spoke up first. (Ichigo had assessed all this since there was nothing better to do at the time.)

"Yo! My name is Kazama Yuki, age fifteen, birthday March 12, blood type-"

"You don't need to tell your life story, Yuki. Hello, I am Kazama Hirosaki, Yuki's brother." The spiked blonde-haired, crystal blue-eyed boy spoke.

The first few things that looked out of place to Ichigo were their hair color and eyes... They said they were siblings, but why were their features so different?

"So where do you come from?" the teacher asked monotonously. After all, she had asked these prepared questions to every new person who had appeared... And at this particular high school, a lot of new, strange people always manage to pop up.

"Okinawa." They replied swiftly and simultaneously- almost in a rehearsed tone.

The two of them quietly walked towards a few empty seats near the back after glancing at all of the faces in the room.

Class dragged on for another fifteen minutes. Ichigo might have fallen asleep if it weren't for his Hollow Tracker that screeched, "HOLLOW! HOLLOW!".

-FLASHBACK-

Rukia had returned from the Urahara Shop a few days ago and bought Ichigo a new Hollow Tracking System that would alert him if any Hollows came within a certain distance from it.

"Here." Rukia shoved a paper bag in his face.

"What's this?" Ichigo asked, and began unfolding the top of the brown crease.

"A new Hollow Tracker. You'll need one so you can fight Hollows when I'm not there to tell you where they are."

"Wait... You bought this from Sandal-Hat's store, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Don't tell me you bought a Chappy the Bunny Hollow Tracker…?" his eyes widened.

"No, don't be silly Ichigo! It's the Chappy the Bunny 7th Edition, now with Flappy, his bunny friend on the front panel!! Isn't it adorable?"

"Oh, the horror..."

-END FLASHBACK-

Ichigo was caught up in that flashback and almost forgot that the Chappy the Bunny- whatever edition- was still mercilessly screaming "HOLLOW!" into his ear.

Oh, right, a Hollow! Ichigo suddenly jolted up and unevenly said, "Uh, I got to go to the bathroom!" then bolted out the door, followed by Chad, Orihime, and Rukia, who all suddenly had an urge to use the bathroom as well.

"Oi! You'd better come back soon!" their sensei yelled after them.

Hirosaki and Yuki glanced at each other quickly and soon followed suit.

"You guys, too? Jeez…" the teacher looked around the room as a good portion of her students fled due to a suspicious toilet epidemic...

Ichigo slashed through the low-level Hollow before Chad, Orihime, and Rukia arrived.

"It was just one Hollow. I would've been more than enough by myself..." Ichigo frowned.

"Kuchiki! Behind you!" Hirosaki yelled from afar, sprinting toward them. Two Huge Hollows had unexpectedly formed behind her. They both clawed at their newfound dinner, but Rukia dodged the monstrous spirits with the Kazama sibling's warning.

Hirosaki cursed under his breath. It was unfortunate that he had to resort to desperate measures now, of all possible times... He did not want to show them so shortly after their first meeting, but plans changed when two gigantic Hollows appeared.

Hirosaki popped a Soul Candy capsule into his mouth and his body separated from his spirit, taken over by a Mod Soul.

"Stay back and don't get hurt!" he shouted to the the Mod Soul in his body.

"Roger!" Mod Soul Hirosaki fled from the battlefield.

Soon after, Yuki did the same and extracted her Shinigami form out.

At the sweet smell of fresh souls with immense reiatsu, more Hollows emerged from the ground, totaling to eight creatures. They circled the small group, with anticipation and hunger evident in their actions.

"Hold on… You guys are Shinigami?" Ichigo asked incredulously.

Hirosaki turned to Ichigo and the rest of the bewildered group, "We will explain later."

"Right now, let's concentrate on destroying these Hollows!" Yuki grinned.

Oh boy. When something gets her in the mood, she could kill… Hirosaki sighed.

In a matter of seconds, she slashed through the first Hollow several times in quick succession; the first six slices were visible, but Yuki's incredible speed masked the next four. It shrieked in pain before disappearing into nothingness.

Ichigo, Rukia, Chad and Orihime didn't stand around too long and started activating their respective powers.

"Tsubaki! Kotenzanshun! I reject!" Orihime sliced through the second Hollow.

"Destructive Art 33: Blue Fire, Crash Down!" Rukia shot blue flames at the third hollow, but it did not disappear instantly until Ichigo sliced through it down the middle, while Chad dissipated his own Hollow with his monstrous strength.

"Glide, Yukitori!" Hirosaki's zanpakuto released and took form of an icy bird, wrapping the Hollow in its frigid blanket and slashing it to delicate crystalline shards.

That's almost as scary as Byakuya's Senbonzakura… Ichigo shuddered.

The sixth and seventh hollow were destroyed by Chad and Yuki, and Orihime fired Tsubaki for the last one.

"Che. Way too easy." Yuki and Ichigo whined.

Silence fell within the group. They all glanced at Yuki and Hirosaki as inconspicuously as they could.

"It's time to head back to class." the two simply stated, completely ignoring the looks from the others.

The rest of them reluctantly walked back to school, hoping that these two strange students will tell at a later time.

During lunch break, a note was slipped to Ichigo, Rukia, Chad, and Orihime simply stating:

Meet us at Ichigo's house tonight at 8:30.
-Y & H-

Ichigo looked at the note and narrowed his eyes.

"Since when did I agree for them to crash my place?"

More importantly, how the heck'd they find out where I live...?

At 8:45 that night, Ichigo sat on his bed waiting impatiently while Rukia read her manga on the floor.

"They're late." he frowned, his eyes drifting to the circular clock in his room for the fifteenth time.

"I can tell..." Rukia replied, keeping her eyes glued on the fascinating shoujo manga.

As if on cue, his ceiling tile opened to reveal a group of teens poking their heads out.

"Yo!" Yuki said cheerfully.

She was followed by her older brother, Orihime, and Chad. Surprisingly, Kira Izuru jumped down from the odd entrance as well.

"Kira?" Ichigo asked the blond-haired boy in confusion, "Why are you here?"

"I was told to go to the living world with Saki-kun and Yuki-san." He replied, sitting on the floor with the rest of them.

"It's about time you should know why we are here." Hirosaki and Yuki nodded to Kira, who quickly became serious.

"Soul Core has begun."

TBC

This is my first Bleach fanfic! Please be gentle. :)

R & R please! Flames will be used for my bonfire, BWAHAHA! (-glances over at bonfire-- there's a can of TAG, a fistful of dryer lint, and lots of foam plates-) :D