A/N: For reasons I hadn't updated in a while, check my profile page. Story-wise: I am amazed at the fact that before this there WERE no Darker than Black/Bleach crossovers – several things seem to be fairly obvious connections between the two, such as Hei's mask and a Hollow/Vizard mask, as well as Hei being referred to as The Black Reaper. For those who haven't heard of Darker than Black before, I recommend you check it out – a very good (although relatively short) sort of dark, fairly realistic and scientific anime. Unlike most others, the abilities within it follow the laws of physics if you truly take a look at what the ability is. Superspeed becomes deadly in bad weather, gravity manipulation affects whether or not one can still stand instead of just having something fall on them, things like that. My hope is to inspire more Darker than Black/Bleach crossovers with this story.

…...

Fifteen years. It has been fifteen years since the anomalies known as Gates appeared, and replaced the true stars with false ones. One Gate, known as Heaven's Gate, disappeared ten years ago. Although, "disappeared" is not technically the correct term – instead it had formed an impenetrable barrier of some sort around itself and a very large portion of Brazil, where it was located. The other Gate, Hell's Gate, lies in Tokyo, and has not yet done anything of the sort. These Gates are considered by some to be either a punishment or reward by a god – while others consider them to be a form of god or divine being in itself. This is due to the curious events that occur within them, where some have reported seeing the true stars again, some have witnessed dead family and friends, and some would simply die. For the safety of the public, Hell's Gate has had a wall built around it to prevent any unauthorized access.

The false stars, it had soon been realized by the governments, represented the lives of people known as Contractors. Contractors appeared to feel and experience no emotion, and instead think and act entirely rationally, with their primary purpose being self-preservation. They also have certain abilities to do what ordinary people cannot, although they have to pay a 'price' afterwards – an obsessive compulsive need to perform one of many various acts – some prices involve self-harm, some involve eating or consuming odd things such as plants, some involve entirely pointless actions such as arranging rocks in a square, or turning down the corner of each page in a book.

There is one Contractor who is infamous among governments and Contractors alike, an anomalous Contractor who does not appear to have a price, and is capable of emotional thought and actions even when they are not, rationally speaking, the best course of action: Messier code BK-201, the Black Reaper. Contractors fear him because to date, he has killed more Contractors than any other single person alive; governments are wary of him because he is not affiliated with any known organization and seems to be unpredictable due to his ability to feel and act on feelings rather than strictly logic. His codename is Hei, although none seem certain whether or not this is his true name. He is a skilled fighter and assassin with the ability of quantum particle manipulation, normally taking the form of electricity, and dislikes other Contractors due to their tendency to sell out anybody in order to preserve their own life.

…...

Hei was startled out of his reverie by the nearby phone ringing. Finally, another job. When he answered it, he was shocked by the familiar voice on the phone.

"Is this BK201, codename Hei?"

"Yes. Why are you of all people calling me, Misaki Kirihara?"

"...Well to put it simply, I – and the group I work with – have a job for you."

"And I'm to expect this isn't some sort of trap designed to capture me?"

At this, Kirihara sounded somewhat embarassed. "Actually, it's not, strictly speaking, a job from Section 3... It's more of a job I had for you, as you are the most capable person I could think of for a job like this."

Hei thought about it for a little while. At least I might as well hear out what she had in mind – if I don't like the way it sounds I can always refuse the job. "I'm not promising to take on the job yet, but I'm willing to listen and decide if I like it or not. And if the pay is good enough."

"Great. I'll just get to the point then: lately, there have been several strange incidents in a relatively small town in Japan. These incidents involve walls randomly caving in despite being structurally sound and new enough that it shouldn't happen, people getting injured as if attacked by something in broad daylight with no apparent agressor... It sounds like there's a Contractor, or possibly a group of them, who attack random targets and are never seen. The strange part is this has happened during times when not a single star was vibrating, implying it's either a different type of Contractor or something else that isn't represented or trackable. Even the Dolls used by the police can't seem to find anything."

"That's... strange; which town would this be in?"

"It's a place called Karakura."

"And my job is to... what? Find and eliminate whatever threat is there?"

"Not exactly. Your job is to find out what the threat is – if they are Contractors, do with them as you please; if it is something else, I want you to report back with as much information as possible."

"What exactly is the pay, if I do this; and you do realize if they ARE Contractors, I am far more likely to simply kill them instead of trying to find their motives, right?"

"The pay is one million yen upon completion, with one hundred thousand up front. Yes I do realize that... however as I said the decision as to their fates is left to you."

"Very well. I will accept the job for now; after all it is outside of the jurisdiction of any officers you might know well enough to entrust trapping the 'infamous Black Reaper'. I expect you to leave the first payment at the location we were in on the night of the rumor that the stars would return by 8 PM tomorrow. I will not be there myself until an indeterminate amount of time afterwards to reduce the chances of a working trap or ambush."

"That's... fine then. Goodbye, Li."

The call was disconnected. Hei was not certain yet that this was not a trick of some sort – however she had allowed him to name the time and place for her to leave the first payment, and it didn't seem as if she intended to capture him. If it was a trap, why would one of the few people he would know be the one chosen to call him instead of how the last trap went – somebody he didn't recognize offered him an assassination job, he took it and arrived at the set location – only to realize it was a group of Contractors who wanted to take him out before somebody hired him to go after them. Idiots obviously underestimated his skills, considering they thought tying him up instead of killing him was a better idea when he appeared to be unconscious.

…...

A week after picking up his payment, Hei finally arrived in Karakura. Due to this town's only active police force being relatively small and not in contact with the Tokyo police, he had decided to use his old, already-established alias of Li Shengshun, a 24-year old recently out of schooling who wished to travel for a while before settling down with a particular career. So far he had not seen any evidence of these strange occurences, and so he was currently visiting a restaurant. Sure are some strange people here though – I've seen a teenager with orange hair and a very short temper who appears to be well known enough that most gangs or delinquents either have a problem with him or are terrified of him. As he sat down to eat, he watched in amusement as the teen he had just thought about walked in with a few others – a dark haired man with glasses and all-white clothing, a man who appeared to be of latin origins and was large enough that he had to duck to walk through the doors, a young woman with orange hair – perhaps they were family? - and a very short woman with black hair whose temper appeared to match that of the orange-haired teen. Like I said, he thought, strange people.

About half an hour later, when Hei had nearly finished his food – with the entire restaurant staring at how much he had ordered – he noticed the group of teenagers gasp in shock just before the wall imploded. What the-- he watched as the first teen pressed something to his chest before collapsing, and the short woman swallowed something. The rest of the group appeared to be preparing for a fight of some kind, apparently familiar with such a situation. Hei felt something he couldn't see grab him, and promptly electrocuted it with a bit more than enough to kill your average human. He fell to the floor as whatever it was released him, but he couldn't see anything and it didn't appear to have killed it. What the hell is this thing? The next thing he knew he had gotten hit – hard – across the head, and was staring at – himself?

Taking a quick look at the situation, he seemed to suddenly have a chain stuck to his chest, and could see a pool of blood forming under the other him. Hearing a voice, he looked over and-

He could finally see the thing that had attacked. It was large, bone-white, wearing a mask not too dissimilar from his own except for the design, and had a large black hole in its chest. One of its hands appeared to be smoking slightly. Must have been the one that grabbed me... He could also see a grim look in the eyes of the teenagers nearby. The one with glasses had some sort of bow in his hand, the large man's arm was a strange coloring of black and a reddish-purple, the young woman was looking at him with tears in her eyes, and the orange-haired teen and short woman from earlier also appeared to have doubles – they were both wearing black robes and sandals, while wielding swords – more of a cleaver in the teen's hands, really – and all seemed to be fighting against the creature without doing a lot of damage. Curiously, everybody seemed to be aiming directly for its head or mask, and any blows elsewhere didn't quite seem to stick or do much to it.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed the end of the chain stuck to his chest and threw it, one end wrapping around the creature's neck, before sending as much electricity as he could into the chain and thus the creature. He saw the teens stop what they were doing out of sheer surprise while the creature went into spasms and, incapable of dealing with the amount of electricity he was pumping into it, began to disintegrate once the chain and electricity blew apart its mask.

The teens were staring slack-jawed at him. Eventually they seemed to get over the shock enough to speak, and one of them voiced what was on his mind - "Did that plus just- WHAT THE HELL?!"

"Excuse me, but what's a 'plus'?"

…...Back in Tokyo

The Tokyo police force stared in shock as they watched BK201's star vibrate, then fall from the sky.