Ayane: All right. I will only post the first chapter and decide from reviews whether it will last or not!

Yusuke: You only have one chapter! You can't tell them you'll continue if this is the only chapter you have!

Ayane: …Shut up. I only own my OC! Please be gentle with it reviews. I'm not completely comfortable with Bleach yet.

More than Meets the Eye

Chapter 1

"I…chi…go…-nii…-san!" a girl with long, dark blue hair and fierce, light blue eyes called out as she spotted the orange-haired boy. She dove at him, launching herself onto his back. "Ichigo-nii-san, where've you been?" she whined, arms tight around his neck.

"Can't…breath!" he struggled, twitching. "K-Koro-chan…!"

"Ooo, Ichigo-san, she's so cute!" a strawberry blonde woman Koro had never met before exclaimed, peering at her. "Hitsugaya-taichou, her eyes are bluer than yours!"

The small girl released Ichigo's neck and slid down his back, studying the small group. "Onii-san…you've sure made some weird friends." She smiled up at the woman. "Yanagisawa Koro!" she chirped, bowing.

"Matsumoto Rangiku," the much taller, much bustier woman responded, seemingly amused. "It's good to meet you!" There was a pause before the boys started grudgingly began introducing themselves.

"Abarai Renji," the tattooed redhead muttered, arms crossed. He looked none too happy about being where he was at that moment.

"I'm Ayasegawa Yumichika, obviously the most beautiful of this…bunch." The man was frowning at his friends, a small sigh leaving his lips.

The – shaved? bald? – man standing near Yumichika made a "tch" sound and introduced himself as "Madarame Ikkaku".

Silence fell on the area as the last of the group stood stoically, face turned from the nonsensical group. She huffed and stalked up to the not-much-taller silver-haired boy, tapping his shoulder. "Excuse me, not introducing yourself…is…" – she gulped as his teal eyes turned to bore into hers – "rude…"

Another thick silence filled the air and Koro blinked owlishly at him, her heart beating so loudly she swore they all heard it. He seemed so far away that it hurt her to look at him; she wanted nothing at the moment than to wrap her arms around him and tell him it was all okay. Somehow, she felt, he knew this. At least, his next action showed her that.

"Hitsugaya Toshiro," he muttered before turning away again.

"Pleasure to meet you all!" she laughed nervously, stomach still in knots. "To school then?" The group followed Koro at a distance, sharing telling glances now and then. Silence reigned for a while.

"Crap," Ichigo muttered as he checked what looked like a cell phone that had just gone off simultaneously with the others in the group. "I, uh, gotta go now, Koro-nee-chan. Catch up with you later?" He did not wait for a response as he turned away, intent on catching up with the others in the group who had left him behind. He frowned and turned back to face her when she grabbed his wrist.

"…Be careful, Ichigo," she whispered, eyes downcast, before turning away and finishing her walk to the school alone.

Ichigo's frown increased as he watched her, then he turned and went in the opposite direction.

~*~*~Koro~*~*~

Did they really think she was a complete moron like everyone else was?

Koro stared blankly out the window, every now and then answering a question so as not to seem completely out of it.

It had started long before she had met Ichigo, in a town she no longer remembered the name of. What started out as chills and brief headaches soon turned into blurred figures which slowly morphed into people – people she knew no one else could see, hear or touch – with chains coming out of their chests. She would talk to them, do her best to help them, then be on her way.

But, as always, with the good came the bad.

Monsters were everywhere within a few weeks. They were big, scary, and had a big hole in their chest where she was sure their chains should have been. She tried to explain it to her parents but they could not see the monsters; they did not know.

And, just like that, they noticed her. She shivered as she touched her shoulder and the start of the scars that went diagonally down her back.

"Nice of you to join us," the teacher snapped suddenly, pulling Koro from her reveries. She looked in time to see a heedful of silver hair crossing the threshold of the room. "Hitsugaya-kun, ne? Go sit next to Yanagisawa-chan."

She noticed his hesitation as he moved to the desk next to her. She bit the inside of her cheek and glared down at her own desk, furiously doodling. If there was nothing else to focus on, she felt afraid she might crack… A quick peek over at him and all progress on her doodle stopped, her hand paused over her paper. She felt her pulse speed up and her body hum as she studied the way the light wind from the window blew his hair and how pristine he looked with his eyes shut and his hand rested in his hand…

"Sensei, I need to be excused!" She raced out of the classroom without waiting for a response, taking her belongings with her. She failed to notice Toshiro watching her while discreetly sending a message to the others.

~*~*~Outside~*~*~

"Bah! I'm insane!" Now that she had admitted it, she continued to talk aloud to herself. "Orohime-chan can answer my questions…she has to. She's been hanging out with Ichigo-nii-san… She can't say 'no' to anyone. Ever." She slowed to a walk and frowned. "Not again."

It was that unshakeable feeling something was amiss again… Then there was a scream.

~*~*~Renji~*~*~

Before Renji was able to react, Koro had vanished from his sight. He shut his phone. "Damn," he muttered, having told Ichigo he would keep an eye on her. He paused before shaking his head; there was no way she could have heard or felt that.

After a few more moments, to be safe, he hurried over to where the Hollow's presence came from. Sure enough, Koro had the small spirit child crooked under one arm as she avoided the fatal blows of the massive, under-formed Arrancar that chased them around. He knew he should have rushed forward and saved them, but something held him back from doing so, literally.

"Just watch her, Renji," Rukia murmured beside him, her hand on his arm.

"She'll die!"

"No. Just watch."

~*~*~Koro~*~*~

Koro sensed two more presences near her fighting ground but, after affirming they were friendly without glancing over, she relaxed and focused on the small spirit.

"Hey, hey, little one, it's okay. I got ya," she tried to soothe the little female spirit. "This big, ugly thing won't hurt you." She hid the small spirit behind a tree and turned to face the monster that looked so much more threatening than the many others she had seen in her life. "Back off, creep, and you won't get hurt!"

The monster started guffawing. "And who, exactly, will hurt me? You?"

"Got that right," Koro responded coldly. "My name's Yanagisawa Koro and you'll pay for your sins!" In less than a second, she made her way to the top of the monster by running up its outstretched arm. She placed a fingertip to the part of its mask that covered its forehead. "You will pay for your sins," she repeated softly, pushing some spiritual pressure through her finger and straight into the creature. There was silence for a moment before the monster disappeared into millions of tiny specks, destroyed from the inside out, the vanished entirely. Koro said a brief prayer for the souls that had been taken before she heard an intrigued whistle and turned to it.

"K-Kuchiki-san? Abarai-san? What are you doing here? What's with those clothes?"

Hey blinked at her for a while before hopping down from their perch and approaching Koro slowly.

"You leave onee-sama alone!" the small spirit Koro had just saved cried out, jumping between them. "I don't like that look in your eyes!"

"Sh, sh, it's all right."

"Onee-sama, you don't understand! People in those same robes took mama away! They're called…uhm… Soul Reapers!"

Koro tried to hush the small girl but Renji already had his sword drawn. She, instead, turned to him and glared at him – quite a sight with her being insignificantly shorter than him.

"Back off," she growled dangerously, "Abarai-san. It's for your own good, really."

"Feh. Pick your battles, Yanagisawa-san."

Her eyes flashed and she grabbed his wrist, intent on crushing it, and made him drop his sword in surprise. "I said…back off."

Rukia's hand on her shoulder broke her rage. "We're only going to send her to Soul Society," she said softly. "It's where her mother is."

The blue-haired girl reared back and looked down at the small spirit. Kuchiki-san wouldn't lie about something like that, little one."

"O-okay, onee-sama! Thanks for saving me!" With one big grin and a sword hilt to her forehead, she was gone, much the same way as the monster only moments ago.

"I'll take this time to warn you once," Rukia started gently. "Stay away from all of us."

Ayane: ...Blah...