Author's Notes: Bleach is not, and (thankfully) never shall be, my property. This story is purely fan-made. Bleach is property of Tite Kubo and/or Shonen Jump, yadda yadda yadda, disclaimer disclaimer disclaimer, characters in this story (except the one OC) are property of the creators of Bleach, et cetera, more stuff nobody really reads, and you get the point. If the creators/owners of Bleach so ask, I will remove this story.
Chapter 1
As Ichigo returned home from another long boring day of school, he did something abnormal for him. He thought. Ichigo walked straight to his room and sat on hid bed, absorbed in thought. Normally Ichigo wasn't one for great amounts of thought, but this was different. He thought back to one week ago, puzzled.
It had just been a normal day up until lunch time, but after lunch, Rukia was gone. Not a trace of her anywhere. Ichigo had searched for her the entire week after school. Nobody had seen her since that day. It wasn't normal for Rukia to disappear like that. What was stranger was that everyone knew she had been there up until that point. If Rukia did leave, surely she would have made everyone forget she had been there that day at the very least. Rukia had just disappeared. No warning. No reason.
Of course, Rukia had been forced to live in the world of the living, in Ichigo's closet, since she had recently been severely wounded by a particularly strong Hollow. Ichigo had been dealing with a different Hollow then, and arrived just as Rukia had collapsed after receiving numerous stings from the giant stinger on the massive wasp-like Hollow. Oddly enough, the Hollow left after seeing Ichigo, and didn't return. As a result of her wounds, Rukia had been unable to return to the Soul Society. She had laid in his closet, drifting in and out of consciousness, for two days, during which Ichigo had feigned sickness to make sure Rukia was okay, though he never told her.
But now she was gone. Ichigo sighed, remembering how they had first met. As if by his thought on the matter, a moth fluttered into his room. Ichigo's eyes widened as a woman in a black kimono stepped into his room through the window.
"I sense it is nearby..." said the woman.
"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" Ichigo shouted at her.
"Looking for the Hollow you failed to kill." the woman responded dryly, not even looking in Ichigo's direction.
"What Hollow?" Ichigo asked, confused.
"The one that almost killed Rukia." the woman answered.
"Well it's not here I'll tell you that." Ichigo responded.
"No." said the woman "But for now, I'm here for something else."
"And what might that be?" Ichigo snorted, not actually caring.
"You." the woman answered "Your powers as a Soul Reaper are to be taken away since Rukia was placed in your care before she disappeared." The woman pulled out a small hammer with a skull surrounded by blue flames on it. She whipped it around her head, slamming it into Ichigo's, knocking him unconscious. She then turned away, and left Ichigo in his bed as if he were sleeping.