Exactly fifteen years ago…

Everywhere you looked there were people dressed in black kimono's running in different directions. It was as though they were performing a well-rehearsed dance. No one was running into each other nor were they stopping to move around another. Every so often one person would flash by wearing a white cloak over top of their black kimono; there were only about twelve different people who did this.

Yamamoto was the thirteenth who wore a white robe, but he was sitting in a chair in the back of a nearby building. He was writing on scrolls and papers, which was odd because he normally had his lieutenant doing to paper work. He paused every so often to shove his long beard out of the way and to wipe the sweat pouring down his bald head.

A man with lightly tanned skin, pupil-less eyes, short silver-gray hair and a small black handlebar mustache suddenly appeared beside Yamamoto.

"Well," Yamamoto asked without taking his eyes off of the papers.

"I did what you asked-"

"And?"

Then man cleared his throat nervously. "And," he continued, "I've found out that the rumors are true."

Yamamoto finally looked up, a looked of stress on his face.

"What do you want to do?"

"Gather all the captains and inform them as to what's going on. State that their top priority is to bring the illegal half breed child here and eliminate his parents! Tell Captain Kurotsuchi that I want to see him and that he is not to go with the other captains," Yamamoto ordered.

"Yes Head Captain," the man shouted, "and what about the other lieutenants?"

"Lieutenant Chojiro, as eager as you may be to help; you and the other lieutenants already have your orders and must remain in the Seireitei!"

The man, Chojiro nodded and flashed away. He stopped on a roof top where all things seemed calm and peaceful; it was hard to believe anything bad was happening. As Chojiro put his hand into the air, a black butterfly appeared from a tiny blue orb and landed on the lieutenant's palm.

Present…

Yamamoto continued to sit in his desk. The parchment he was writing on was beginning to be filled up, so he went to reach for another piece just before something caught his senses. "Reveal yourself," he called out into the endless night.

A man swung into Yamamoto's building from the roof top above the door. He landed with ease and with a smile on his perfectly shaped lips. His skin was slightly tanned, his eyes were brown and his hair was an unusual orange.

"What are you doing here, Kurosaki?" Yamamoto asked.

"I heard that you weren't busy, so I wanted to drop by and ask you something," the man, Ichigo replied.

"Make it quick, I've got work to do."

"Well," he began, searching for a way to word his question. "Well you see, I was looking for Rukia when I accidentally fell into the sewers. There was no ladder where I fell in, so I thought that I would have to walk around a bit further until I found a way out. While I was in the sewers, I overhead Captain Kurotsuchi and his lieutenant talking about… umm…" Ichigo laughed. "Well it sounded like they were talking about me, but I guess that would be odd, right?"

"Indeed," Yamamoto was quick to respond. "Tell me, what did he say?"

"I don't know. I just heard him say my name."

Yamamoto nodded before returning his eyes down to his papers.

"Well… I… Uhh… Anyways, I have to go to my studies," Ichigo stammered. He flashed away faster than Yamamoto could blink, leaving him in his new thoughts.

'I can't believe that I did that,' Ichigo mentally scolded himself. 'I mean, I heard almost nothing, it could have been nothing! Why did I even bother to tell the old man about this if it wasn't even a real problem?'

Ichigo flashed from roof top to roof top, it was his preferred way of travelling. Once he got inside of his room, in the tenth division's barracks, he took in a deep breath then collapsed onto the couch. "Oh man," Ichigo gasped, "trying to hold in my Spiritual Pressure is like hell! At least I got back here in time, and no one's gonna ever find out that I left."

"Ichigo," Rukia called. A few moments later Ichigo heard knocking on his door. "Your spiritual pressure disappeared Ichigo, what were you doing?"

"I was practicing," Ichigo simply replied.

"You know that's not good for you," Rukia scolded as she entered. She was a petit girl with skinny limbs, but no one should underestimate her. Behind Rukia's pale grey eyes was a kick ass girl who could take on any challenge she was given. She also held the most beautiful Zanpakuto in existence, Sode no Shirayuki. "What if it slipped on you or if you lost control?"

"I won't lose control Rukia."

"But you could," she returned.

Ichigo sighed. Why did everyone here always treat him like he was a child? Ichigo was fifteen now so why did everyone keep lecturing him? Well, at least Rukia made some sense. She was right about Ichigo hiding his Spiritual Pressure though. In order for Ichigo's Spiritual Pressure to be hidden, he has to keep it from 'leaking' into the air. However, his Spiritual Pressure is so great that if he hid it for too long, all of Ichigo's power would eventually tear his own soul apart.

"Well," Rukia giggled, "I guess you're wondering why I'm here."

'Not really,' Ichigo thought knowingly.

"Sheesh Rukia, you can't say it like that," Rangiku scolded from the window. She jumped inside and marched over to Ichigo and Rukia holding a bottle of Sake.

"Hello Rangiku," Ichigo greeted with a smile. "What's the occasion?"

"Don't act so naïve," Renji ordered, slipping in through the second window. "You know what the occasion is."

Ichigo raised his eye brow which seemed to frustrate Renji.

"Now come on Ichigo," Rangiku said, still laughing. "What kind of a man forgets his own birthday?"

"That kind of a man," Ichigo replied, pointing at Renji. Everyone but the red head laughed.

"I was tired! And Byakuya had me working all week!"

Soon many other lieutenants and captains showed up and sat laughing or talking with everybody else. Rangiku sat with Toshiro, Gin and Momo each laughing so hard at Toshiro's seriousness that they couldn't see through the tears in their eyes. Every few minutes Momo would secretly move closer to Toshiro or she would offer him a drink, hoping that she'd get to kiss him tonight. Over at Ichigo's desk was Rukia, showing off some of her recent drawings to Renji, Kira, Isane, Byakuya and Ichigo. Her drawings were getting better, but they still sucked in Ichigo's opinion. Then at the far back of the room, Nanao stood with Shunsui, Aizen and Jushiro bickering that the three of them were brilliant captains and therefor shouldn't be drinking.

All was going well in Ichigo's room, but that was about the only thing going right inside of the Seireitei.

In a part of the sewers, Mayuri was running his nightly routine with little knowledge that something was about to go terribly wrong. He rounded the final corner into a secret laboratory. Glass jars and the likes were stacked up on shelves, beakers filled with different colored liquids sat on hot plates attended to by men in white coats and there was a strange purple mist in the air that came from a failed experiment.

Mayuri passed through the lab and towards a small, calculator-like device hanging on the wall. He typed in numbers, seemingly random to the untrained eye, and the wall split. Behind the wall was a dark staircase that led down towards a softly glowing room.

Mayuri traversed down the stairs and into the blue light. Within the small room there were no chairs, no tables and nothing resembling a laboratory at all. There were only the stairs, Mayuri himself, a guard and a bolted metal door.

Behind the metal door was a cell, holding the most important prisoner of all time. He lay across a metal board that was slung up and chained to the wall like a hammock. Every so often there was a loud bang as the board crashed against the wall. The occupant was bored.

"Knock it off!" The guard roared.

"Come inside and make me!" the prisoner hissed, his voice empty and hollow as if he were talking into a large pipe. He giggled mercilessly, "Or are you just afraid to face me?"

The guard fumbled with the keys and threatened to enter the cell. "Why you little-"

"Don't let him rouse you." Mayuri ordered. The guard backed off from the door and stood to the side.

"Oh, Mayuri, is that you?" the prisoner questioned with mock interest. "Back from your stroll already? Or did you just miss me?"

"Of course I missed you. A little lab-rat that can't die, what a perfect test subject!"

The prisoner rolled over onto his side and glared at the wall. "So, tell me, how's my Shinigami doing up there?"

"Ichigo? Well, he's doing-"

"Just fine," the prisoner finished. "Just like you always say, but that's not true. He feels empty, alone, incomplete... and so on. He feels like something's missing, like he's swimming in a pool of despair and depression. I hate it, watching him suffer because you refuse to allow me to be with him."

"I know well what you're trying to pull and it isn't going to work."

The prisoner punched the wall. "I'm not trying to pull anything!" His hand slid down from the wall, a grin appeared on his white lips, his gold on black eyes shot up to stare insanely at Mayuri and he started laughing. He laughed so hard Mayuri was worried that he'd pass out. Then the laughter died down and the prisoner sung, "Ichigo's gonna find me~! And when he does, you'll be sorry~!"