Me: OK! Here's a new fanfic! I hope you like it!

Ichigo: Errrrr...why have you already beaten me...?

Me: Erm...

Allen: WHEN DO I COME IN?

Me: Just wait...*evil grin* Anyway, Ichigo, will you do the disclaimer?

Ichigo: Grrr...fine. AkuRoku18 does not own Bleach and Man or it's characters.

Me: Thanks Ichi! Now, enjoy!

Tarot

Chapter 1

Ichigo had always had a deck of tarot cards in the back of his bag, and, occasionally, he looked at the cards in the deck, wondering what their meaning was. So, on that particular day, Ichigo was sitting alone looking at the cards. Uryu, Chad, and Orihime went on ahead to lunch and Ichigo decided to stay behind. He shifted through the deck when he came across the card labeled 'Death.' Number 13. Picture of a skeleton in black armour on a white, red eyed horse. Dead and dying people in the background. One man pleading for his life pathetically. Oh, yeah. Ichigo had seen that card loads of times. It always had creeped him out, but that time, it felt really...wrong...

"Hey, carrot-top. Whatcha doin', starin' at those messed up cards?" a taunting voice asked. Ichigo looked up from 'Death' and saw the common thug named Gyoru; one of the guys who frequently decided to pick on Ichigo. Gyoru never completely wore his uniform as he was supposed to. He always wore a black undershirt with the standard uniform pants and the uniform shirt slung over one shoulder. Gyoru constantly smelled of marijuana and cigarettes, due to all of the time he skipped class to smoke in the bathrooms.

Ichigo sighed agitatedly and said sarcastically, "I'm being a fortune teller, what does it look like? Care to have your fortune told? If not, then kindly stay the hell away from me."

"Grr...you're pretty funny, Kurosaki. But, if you must..." Gyoru sat down heavily across from Ichigo, "Read away, strawberry."

Ok...in the last minute or so, he called me carrot-top and strawberry...keh...is even worth my time?...oh well...it'll be fun to mess with him!

"Alright, let's start, shall we?" Ichigo said, drawing the first card from the deck. He continued to draw the cards until he came to a final conclusion.

"So, basically, you're day will progress as it normally does; smoke in the bathrooms, throw rocks at junior high kids, deface cars, spray paint on buildings, or whatever the hell you do. But, this is the twist..." Ichigo held up the final card he drew; Death. "...you're going to die."

Gyoru snorted disbelievingly, "Right, Kurosaki. That sounded like a bad fortune cookie."

"My predictions don't lie," Ichigo said calmly.

"You're so full of crap!"

Ichigo shrugged and said, "Fine. Don't believe me. It'll be your own damn fault when you end up dead." Heh...another dumb-ass prediction...of COURSE it sounds stupid! That's 'cause it's not gonna come true! I just wanna scare you!

"Sh-Shut up! I'm not gonna die! Stop acting so damn calm about this!" Gyoru stammered angrily.

"Oh, a little scared, are we? Such a shame the cards never lie...you poor doomed soul..."

Gyoru finally snapped and snarled, "Shut the hell up, Kurosaki!" He threw a punch at Ichigo, and he easily stopped the attack. Gyoru saw the perfect opportunity to throw Ichigo off guard by kicking him right in the gut. "No dumb-ass like you can scare me into believing that crap!" He threw another punch, this time making it's mark square in the jaw.

Before Gyoru could land another blow, luckily, Chad stepped in to defend Ichigo.

Chad grabbed Gyoru's shirt and said threateningly, "Beat it. Now." Gyoru whimpered like a dog and ran as far away as he could from the tall, looming form of Chad.

Ichigo wiped a bit of blood from his mouth and said gratefully, "Thanks for that, Chad. I owe ya one."

"Ichigo! Are you okay?" the voice of Orihime asked urgently, immediately coming to Ichigo's side on the floor.

"Yeah. I'm fine. Just one punch is a LESSER beating that guy dishes out..."

The slightly annoyed voice of Uyru asked, "Why didn't you just go into your Soul Reaper form? THAT probably would have scared Gyoru off before he could kick your ass!"

"Well, Quincy-Boy, if I HAD gone into Soul Reaper form, Gyoru probably would have just beat my seemingly-dead body!" Ichigo growled, getting up and in Uryu's face.

"Yes, but, if you were in your Soul Reaper body, you could just wave a textbook in front of his face and he'd think you were a ghost!"

"That ass doesn't BELIEVE in ghosts!"

"Well, whatever! You could smack him over the head with the book, knocking him out, and THEN run away in your body!"

"I'm not that much of a coward! You think I would just-"

"I'm sorry for cutting your pointless little squabble short," an agitated voice said from the window said. Ichigo, Uyru, Chad and Orihime saw the short, white haired Squad 10 Captain, Toshiro Hitsugaya.

"Toshiro! What are you doing here?" Ichigo asked, completely surprised, and also completely forgetting about his argument with Uryu.

"That's Captain Hitsugaya to you,"said Toshiro, "but, anyway, I'm here on official business." When no one asked 'what official business (much to Toshiro's dismay),' he continued, "There's been some abnormal activity happening around Karakura Town, so I've been sent here to investigate."

"What kind of abnormal activity?" Uryu asked.

Toshiro looked away and answered, "The Soul Society doesn't know, so I don't know either."

"Keh. How helpful is that? If you ask me, you're just here because you miss us," Ichigo said sardonically.

"Why would I miss you and your stupidity ("You son of a-!")?" Toshiro retorted. The white haired captain noticed the tarot cards lying scattered on the floor and desk. Wh-what is this feeling? Something feels...very wrong here... Toshiro shuddered for a moment, but almost instantly went back to being a professional and said, "I didn't know you liked tarot cards, Ichigo."

"What? Oh, yeah. Well, I'm not THAT interested in tarot. It's just a little trick," said Ichigo.

"Right. A trick..." Toshiro said blankly. "Uh, I'll keep looking around town for whatever is causing this unnaturally spiritual pressure." The Squad 10 Captain leapt out of the window, leaving Ichigo and friends behind.

Orihime spoke up and asked, "Is it just me, or did Toshiro acting a little weird?" No one answered, but Chad and Uyru nodded in agreement. Ichigo went back to his tarot cards, picking them up off the floor and putting them back in the box.

Toshiro would probably deny this, but I saw him flinch when he saw the tarot deck... maybe the spiritual pressure is coming from these things, Ichigo thought. He shook his head incredulously. No way, what the hell am I thinking? Wouldn't I have sensed if they had ANY spirit energy at all? Gah...too much thinking... "Hey, y'know class is starting..." Ichigo mused. Everyone went back to there seats for their next class. Eventually, the day was over, but Ichigo was still troubled by Toshiro's reaction to the tarot deck. Even when he went home and was greeted by his insane father, Isshin, Ichigo STILL couldn't get Toshiro out of his head. That night, Ichigo had very bad dreams. He saw Gyoru hanging out with his gang, picking on younger kids, doing illegal activities, just as Ichigo told him. Then, the dream flashed forward to Gyoru walking alone in a dark alley. There was a huge cracking noise, like a gunshot, and a glowing purple purple bullet struck Gyoru in the back. Black pentacles appeared on his body, he turned to dust in about a minute, and the dream was over.

Me: Thank you for reading! Review if you want! :D