Ding!

"Hum? A text?" a girl with medium length blueish-purple hair said confused as she grabbed her phone, and opened the text,

Wanna go to the strip to see a movie with hobo, Rosa, and me?

- Kiyoku

"The strip? Hum…" the girl said to herself the replied to the text.

Yeah shur. When?

-Maria

She put the phone down for a second and read some more of the Bleach fanfic she had pulled up on her laptop.

Poor, poor Toshiro... Why can I only seem to find stories I can stand to read about him? She thought and she read. Then her phone went off again. She grabbed it and opened the text.

About 4:30. And I know that is only five minutes away.

-Kiyoku

"Jezz short notice much." Maria said to herself and texted back as she got ready to leave.

Short notice much? Ohh well I'll be there in like 15 minutes.

-Maria

Maria grabbed her keys and started to head for the door when she realized that she was going to forget her wallet. "Crap where did I put that thing." she said and looked around for her wallet. She found it just as she received a text from some random number.

"Odd?" she said and opened the text.

Don't go to the mall with your friends or you'll be killed.

-Unknown

What the heak? Sysco much. She thought and ignored the text as she walked out the door to her car. She drove quietly to the strip mall and found her friends at Barnes and Nobel.

"Hey guys." Maria said as she walked up to then sitting in the anime section.

"About time you showed up Maria." a girl with long brunet hair said and waved her hand weirdly.

"Shut it Rosa, traffic was a bit thicker than I expected." Maria said and waved to her other friends Cecil and Kiyoku.

"Well maybe you should have left earlier to get here on time." Rosa said and continued reading.

"If you wanted me to be hear on time you should have gave me an earlier warning that you guys would be here dume ass." Maria said with the smallest bit of irritation in her tone.

"Bah, you just have so many excuses for being late don't you." Rosa said and looked up at her.

"If I slap her do you think security would throw me out?" Maria suddenly asked her other two friends.

"Considering the fact that you might knock her out… I'd say yes." Cecil said as he put the book he was reading down.

Maria just scoffed and shoved her hands in her pockets. She had nothing to say to his accusation because it was most likely true. Maria had a abnormally strong amount of strength, they all knew this since it tended to get her into a heap of trouble during gym when a stray ball she returned from what ever game they were playing would hit someone else.

"Yeah what ever. Let's head to the movie theater so we don't miss to much." Maria said and jeered her head in the direction of the door.

The others agreed and put up the books that they were reading. Cecil and Kiyoku got up on their own and stretched but Rosa sat there and held her hand out to Maria. Maria looked at her for a moment then sighed grabbing Rosa's hand and pulling her up.

"Thank you!~" Rosa said and stretched as well.

"Uh-hu lets just go." Maria said and started walking away.

The other three just walked up next to Maria silently. Maria reached the door first and held it open for her friends as they walked out. She followed behind then poked Kiyoku.

"Poke." Maria said and smirked slightly and Kiyoku jumped and flailed her arms.

"Nyeh!" Kiyoku said and started hitting Maria until Maria ran ahead of the group slightly while laughing. "You know I don't like being poked!" Kiyoku yelled at Maria angrily.

Maria laughed and put her hands in her pocket before saying, "Yeah and that's what makes it so fun to do."

"Grr! I don't like you!" Kiyoku said crossing her arms and puffing her cheeks out in a childish matter.

Maria laughed knowing that she didn't mean it and walked strait ahead toward the movies. She smiled to herself as she heard Cecil and Rosa mess with Kiyoku about how she "hurt Maria's feelings." and "Now she isn't going to talk to us." Then suddenly Maria felt something pierce her body and go strait through her heart, making her gasp and frezz.

Kiyoku screamed in pain a second later as what ever went through Maria skimmed her arm. Cecil and Rosa reacted immediately to Kiyoku's scream and began trying to ask what was wrong. They noticed her arm and began trying to help her.

Maria stood there her eyes wide, her mind in shock, as blood slowly came from the spot her heart was located. She had been shot. Shot right through the heart. Wh-Wha? How? Wh-Why? Maria thought shocked as the relilization came to her. Then everything started to go insane.

"Maria! Call 9-1-1!" Maria thought she heard Cecil yell from so far away. Even though she knew he was right behind her. She wanted to do something, say something, but no part of her responded as she fell forward hitting the ground.

She heard a scream and people began swarming around her. They yelled at her but their words fell upon deaf ears. Maria could no longer distinguish what was going on. Everything was so confusing, she couldn't understand what were they saying? Why were they just standing there? Why didn't they do anything?

Then she felt someone grab her and pull her close to them and began saying something to her. She hardly could make out the words.

Please.

Don't.

Go.

Then everything just faded away.

Maria opened her eyes. Suddenly she was confused. Where was she?

She sat up looked around and saw that everything was the same except slightly… foggy? Why was it foggy?

She saw Kiyoku next to her crying and she reached out to her to grabbed her arm and ask what was wrong. Shock ran through her as she passed right through Kiyoku.

Wh-What? I-I passed through her! Why? Maria thought shocked. Then she felt a ting from underneath her and looked down.

A gasp caught in the thought when she saw herself lying there with a puddle of blood around her.

"I-I'm dead?" Maria said shocked.

At first she couldn't understand how this could have happened, but then everything came back to her.

She was shot... Through the heart… And now… She was dead… And she was a ghost…

Kiyoku started crying even harder when she heard someone say that Maria was dead. This hurt Maria. How could she hurt her friend this way?

Maria got closer to Kiyoku and said, "Ohh no, no. Please. Please Kiyoku don't. Please stop. I just can't stand to see you cry." Of coarse Kiyoku didn't hear her and she started crying even more.

Maria felt her heart reach in despair. She needed to comfort Kiyoku somehow. She turned around and ran to Cecil.

"Cecil! Cecil! Please! Please comfort Kiyoku! I can't stand to see her like this!"

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Maria started crying. No one could see her. No one could hear her. She was alone, and she couldn't do anything about it.

"NO! NO!" Maria suddenly yelled and shook her head furiously. "I can' t let myself think like that! I have to! I have to. I have…"

She felt her sadness flow over her as she saw her family pull up.

"No." She whispered sadly to herself as they spotted her body.

Her mother gaped and started crying on her dad's shoulder. He hugged her mother and held back his own tears and her little brother stood there shocked.

Maria tried to hold herself together after she saw their faces. She almost did it until her brother started crying. Her little brother who she always picked on and poked fun at was crying… for her.

She cracked and started crying as well.

She caused all of this? How could she have left them? Why didn't she try and cling to life? Why did she just let death consume her?

She felt so sad and angry at herself, but she couldn't do anything about it.

Maria followed Cecil and Kiyoku to their classes the next week.

There was so many people crying. People she knew when she was alive. People She didn't like. People she didn't think cared. Even people she didn't even know. And they were crying for her…

Kiyoku and Cecil had blamed their selves for Maria's death. They thought that if they had noticed sooner that Maria would be still alive.

Maria thought it was her fault that she died. She thought if she had only made some sort of noise when it happened or tried to cling to her life she would be alive and so many people wouldn't be so sad. If she had just listened to that strange text.

Suddenly Maria felt herself pulled through some kind of rift. Taking her away from her friends. Maria tried to grab something to keep her grounded there but nothing worked and she started to fade away.

"NO!" Maria screamed desperately then vanished.

Kiyoku and Cecil didn't leave when the final bell rang since today was Japanese Club. They walked to their lockers and put away all of the tings they didn't need. Then they walked to portable 1 to met all the other Japanese club members.

When they walked in they saw a lot of red puffy eyes like their own. Maria's death had really affected a lot of their friends. They all missed her random hugs, and her sweetness, even her craziness.

Kiyoku sighed and sat down next to Rosa. Rosa just said hi and asked where Maria was… Kiyoku looked at her sadly. Rosa had been denying the fact that Maria was dead.

Cecil went to try and explain that Maria is dead to Rosa again but there was a loud boom and everything went hazy…

Maria opened her eyes and looked around. She was in some weird place. And she was away from her friends. This infuriated Maria and she began screaming as she started to break apart into nothing. Suddenly a strange monster looking creature with a white mask and a hole in it's chest appeared in Maria's place.

It looked down at its self then howled out making a strange creepy sound. A ghost near by heard this and freaked out. He started running which only caught the strange creature's attention and it lunged at him crushing him under its claw then it ate him.

The screams of the ghost fell upon the deaf ears of the living as they went about their own business.

Cecil looked around as soon as he felt his eyes could open. He saw Kiyoku next to him and evil looking monsters surrounding them. They all had white mask and a hole in their chest… They were Hollows.

"Kiyoku!" Cecil yelled and tried to get her to get up.

Cecil saw the Hollows start getting closer to them and grabbed Kiyoku and ran threw a small hole in the hollows fence. The Hollows let out a rawer of anger and started chasing Cecil.

Cecil tripped and Kiyoku flew out of his arms. The biggest Hollow seemed to order some of the other to cut Cecil off from getting to her.

"No! Kiyoku!" Cecil yelled then turned to the big Hollow. "I'm not going to lose any more of my friends to you basterd!"

"Ha! Well that's to bad human because there is nothing you can do to stop me!" the Hollow yelled.

"Hum maybe he can't but I certainly can." said some dude with purple hair as he appeared between Cecil and the Hollow.

"Oh a Shinigami! I will be having a very nice feast tonight! First you then the boy! Then his little friend over there!" the Hollow said confidently and jeered its head towards Kiyoku.

"I highly dought Ikkaku would let you do that and neither will I." the purple haired man said and drew the sword that he had on his waist.

Kiyoku woke up after her head hit the ground and saw that she had been surrounded by scary monster creatures with white mask and holes in their chest. They looked at her hungrily like she was food and one suddenly leaped at her. Kiyoku's eyes widened and was frozen in fear.

Move! Move! Move! Kiyoku thought as she sat their terrified, but her body didn't listen. Then some one suddenly jumped in front of her and killed the creature.

"Hey kid you ok?" the guy asked and looked back at her slightly.

Kiyoku quickly found her voice and said, "Y-Yeah."

"Good. Now just stay out of my way and let me fight." he said and smirked.

This sudden demand mad her angry. "What don't tell me what to do tero tero bozu!" Kiyoku said and quickly stood up.

"What did you call me brat! My name is Ikkaku not tero-tero bozu!" the guy yelled and her.

One of the creatures took the advantage of the two yelling at each other and launched its self at Ikkaku. Ikkaku quickly responded to this and dogged then sliced its head in two. Kiyoku suddenly realized that all of these monsters were Hollows.

"Ha. This will be as easy as it gets." Ikkaku said confidently and took a fighting stance. All of the Hollows started attacking Ikkaku and he just cut through all of them with out a problem.

Cecil watched in amazement as the purple haired guy Yumichika, fought the Hollow with out even breaking a sweat. Cecil also felt worried for Kiyoku and looked over where she was. He saw all of the Hollows slowly disappearing as that Ikkaku dude killed them off.

Suddenly the Hollow got past Yumichika and headed strait for Cecil. Cecil saw this and tried to doge.

The Hollow hadn't expected him to even move and hit the ground where Cecil just was. Yumichika quickly decided to kill the Hollow and sliced it in two.

Ikkaku killed his last Hollow at the same time Yumichika did and Cecil rushed over to Kiyoku checking if she was OK. Cecil felt he had to because he had made a promise with Maria a long time ago…

Cecil stood in his normal spot in the morning waiting for someone else to get there. Soon Maria walked up with a neutral look on her face like she normally had, even though she had been acting weird lately.

"Hey lady." Cecil said and gave her a hug.

"Hey Cecil." Maria said in a more tired tone than normal, she had seemed to be out of it as well.

This didn't go unnoticed by Cecil and he looked at her concerned. "Is something wrong?" Cecil asked.

"Huh? Ohh its nothing Cecil. I just didn't sleep good last night." Maria said and rubbed her eyes.

"Why not?" Cecil asked curiously.

"No reason just couldn't get to sleep last night… Had a lot on my mind." Maria said in a almost flawless way that would make any one think nothing was wrong, but Cecil had learned better.

"Come on I thought we were friends!" Cecil whined and pouted.

"What? We are." Maria said slightly shocked.

"Then why are you hiding things from me!" Cecil said suddenly serious.

Maria looked at Cecil a little taken back but then sighed. "I… I had a dream that I and Kiyoku got in trouble. She was out numbered and I wasn't there to protect her because I couldn't reach her… And because of that they killed her… It scared me."

Cecil just smiled and patted her on the back and said, "Don't you worry! If you aren't there to protect Kiyoku then I'll do it!… Even though she may kill me for it."

They both laughed and everything went back to its normal ways.

Kiyoku pushed Cecil away from her as he tried to check if she was hurt.

"I'm fine Cecil." Kiyoku said and pushed some of her thick hair behind her ear.

"You two are lucky that we got here in time to save your sorry asses." Ikkaku said with a smirk on his face.

"Shut up tero-tero bozu." Kiyoku said annoyed and glared at him slightly.

"What the hell did I tell you earlier! My name is Ikkaku not tero-tero bozu, brat!" Ikkaku yelled then suddenly hit Kiyoku forehead with the hilt of the sword, which made her gasp.

Yumichika did the same to Cecil and watched as the two of them were sent to the soul society.

"Good reddens. I think I should have let that Hollow eat her" Ikkaku said and turned to walk away.

"Ohh come now Ikkaku you shouldn't say such things. Besides what if she becomes a Shinigami like us?" Yumichika said slightly picking on Ikkaku.

"If that brat becomes a Shinigami I'm going to kill her." Ikkaku growled and stuck his Zanpakuto out in front of him and turned it like a key.

Then the door to the soul society appeared in front of the two of them and it opened. They walked through it into the soul society.