Chapter 1

The sky was a brilliant azure, almost completely clear as a few clouds rolled by lazily on the gorgeous backdrop. Birds chirped loudly, their songs echoing loudly through the otherwise quiet afternoon. He was so relaxed by the tranquil atmosphere he almost didn't hear the rustle of the grass as she approached. Startled, the orange-haired teenager sat up with a start from the patch of grass where he had been lying. There standing blocking the sunlight was a strikingly beautiful girl. Dressed in what appeared to be a strange backless red kimono (think Yuna from FF-X, only it's red, not blue). Her long jet black hair waved gently in the wind as she peered down at him, a blank expression on her face. Her eyes, which were a piecing green, seemed to peer deep into his soul.

"Dareka?! (Who are you?)" he exclaimed, sitting up in alarm. The woman gave a little smile and her lips parted to speak, but he couldn't make out the words, nor could he hear her voice over the now gusting wind. "Nani? (What?) I can't hear you…" The woman only shook her head in sadness and turned to leave. In that instant, a dark shadow approached her, although she seemed not to notice. Alarmed, the boy tried to run to her, but found himself bound to the ground by some invisible force. Unable to move, he cried out to her in desperation in an attempt to warn her, but his cries fell on deaf ears as she continued to walk away. The flowers and the grass swayed violently in the now raging wind, reaching toward her departing figure as if they too were trying to warn her. To his horror, the darkness pounced on the woman's figure…

"Look out!"

Ichigo Kurosaki awoke to the rather annoying sound of his mod soul, Kon screaming in his ears.

"Oi! Ichigo! Wake up ya lazy bum yer talking in yer sleep again!" the little animated plush lion yelled as he repeatedly smacked the now fully awake orange haired teen. In one swift move he grabbed Kon and flung him across the room, growling in anger. "What the hell Kon? Didn't I tell ya to quit doin' that?!" he snapped sitting up and rubbing the red paw marks the plushie had left on his face. Kon, who was now lying in a disheveled heap on the floor spoke up in a muffled voice from the carpet. "But yer gonna be late for school…Rukia nee-san already left…"

"What?! Oh shit!" exclaimed Ichigo throwing back the covers and leaping out of bed, stomping on Kon as he frantically rushed around the room throwing on clothes. In a matter of seconds he was fully dressed and dashing out the door with a piece of toast in his mouth, his little sisters waving goodbye to him. His pals Keigo and Mizuiro were outside waiting for him as usual, amused looks on their faces. "Jeez Ichigo you've been sleeping in a lot lately, been having those "special" dreams hu-" Keigo never got to finish his sentence as Ichigo upper-cutted him into next Tuesday. Muzuiro sweatdropped as their friend flew into orbit and Ichigo casually finished the rest of his toast with his usual trademark scowl. "Kurosaki-kun, ohayoo!" came a soft feminine voice. The boys looked over to see Rukia Kuchiki waiting as they headed to school.

It hadn't been long since Ichigo had encountered the bossy, smart-alecky shinigami that had given him her powers, turning him into a substitute shinigami. In that short amount of time he had nearly died multiple times, discovered that he had his own hidden shinigami powers, and had managed to take a hoard of captains in Soul Society and saved Rukia from execution. Now he was still learning how to control the hollow inside and dreaded the spats he got into from time to time with a certain Sexta Espada, namely Grimmjow Jaggerjaquez, who for some reason seemed determined to make his life a living hell. Still, as chaotic as things were, and besides the fact that he had spent most of his life with one foot in the land of the living and the other in the dead, he was as normal as any other 15 year old high schooler. He went to school…and killed hollows on a daily basis. Yea, nothing weird about that…

Ichigo sighed inwardly to himself. He wondered if he would ever lead a normal life again. That is, if you could even say his life before this was normal, if you take into account the constant ghost encounters. Shrugging the thought off, his attention returned to the front of the classroom. The teacher appeared to be introducing a new student. Stunned, he dropped the pencil he had been carelessly twirling in his hands. There, standing at the front of the classroom was the girl from his dreams! Only now she was dressed in the standard grey uniform of their school.

"The hell?!" he thought as she bowed and introduced herself. "Hajimemashite, atashi wa Honou Chigusa. Yoroshiku ne." (How do you do, I'm Chigusa Honou. Nice to meet you)

Ichigo couldn't help but stare in confusion as she took the seat behind Rukia sitting beside him. Clearly perturbed, he wondered who she was and furthermore, why was he dreaming about her? As she took her seat, she felt his gaze and turned to shoot him a quizzical look. Embarrassed to be caught staring, Ichigo quickly averted his gaze, his trademark scowl deepening.

Ichigo wasn't the only one wondering about this girl. A dark haired boy who sat nearby narrowed his eyes and shoved his wire rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose. She was emitting some strange spiritual waves, ones that even Uruyuu didn't recognize. Orihime and Chad both felt it too and also looked on in wonder. Ignoring the stares from the rest of the class, Chigusa faced the front and class continued on.

Later that afternoon Ichigo dealt a final blow to a rather hideous hollow, releasing a large blast of energy from Zangetsu, which connected with its target, blowing the large monster away. "Tch, that was too easy." He thought as he replaced Zangetsu on his back and sighed. "Why do they always pick the worst times to appear?" he grumbled as he turned to Rukia. "Stop complaining, you're lucky it was just a low level hollow and not someone like your favorite blue-haired Espada," scolded Rukia.

Ichigo made a pained expression. She was right. He turned to head home when a dark shadow suddenly fell over him. "Ichigo, watch out!" before he had time to react, something heavy landed on him, squashing him on the sidewalk.

"Ow, ow, ow, that hurt!" said a familiar voice. Ichigo looked up from his back on the ground to see a long pair of legs and a grey uniform skirt. "What the…?" A pair of startled green eyes met his now angry brown ones as he squirmed under her weight. "Get off! You're heavy!" he yelled angrily. The surprise in the green eyes was replaced by a snapping green fire. "How rude! You shouldn't have been in the way of my fall!" she retorted. "Just get off!" he exclaimed shoving her off and jumping to his feet. There, lying on her side on the sidewalk was the long haired girl from class earlier. Astonished, Ichigo's mouth dropped. "I-It's you!" he pointed a finger at her in shock, then froze. "Wait…you can see me?" he was still in his shinigami form in his black hakama, they had left Kon in his body at the house.

The girl didn't answer his question; in fact she out right ignored him and turned to Rukia as she stood up and dusted herself off. "Oh, hi! Aren't you from my class? I'm Chigusa Honou, how are you?" "Hey! Are you listening? Aren't you gonna apologize?!" demanded Ichigo also standing up and shaking the gravel from his hair. Rukia sighed at his outburst, but turned and replied, also ignoring him. "Uh, yeah. I'm Rukia Kuchiki! Yoroshiku ne! And this hothead here is Ichigo Kurosaki."

The girl, who seemed somewhat distracted, nodded absentmindedly. She kept looking around rather nervously as if looking for something. "Um, is something wrong?" said Rukia. Before she could respond, Ichigo flashed jumped and knocked her to the ground as the spot where she had stood exploded. The air filled with smoke and debris as the three of them coughed uncontrollably. The smoke cleared and there stood a man with shocking blue hair and cold turquoise eyes dressed in a singed white hakama, a lone hole in the middle of his abdomen.

"Bitch, did ya think ya'd get away that easy?" he growled angrily. In an instant, Ichigo jumped up, grabbed Zangetsu, and stepped in front of the girl. "Grimmjow?!" he said as he eyed the Espada warily. "What the hell do you want?" Grimmjow glanced over at Ichigo in annoyance. Ichigo tensed and eyed him warily. This was all he needed, another battle with this psychopath. It just wasn't going to be his day…

Hah! So this is my first Bleach fanfic...ya'll might remember me from the RE: New Beginnings fanfic that I wrote like, light years ago and never finished...-_- anyways, so! I had vowed I would try a Bleach fanfic and here it is! I've already got two other chapters done I just gotta put em' up...so yea...bear with me I haven't written anything in almost 5 years so I'm rather rusty...let me know what ya'll think and I'll see ya in chapter 2...boy it feels good to be back :)