Notice: The Fan fiction was made with the purpose of entertainment, having in no way any relation to the events of the manga or anime that this story is based upon. Only one character is mine alone, and all others were created by Tite Kubo. It should be obvious who that one character is.

"KON! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!?!?" Ichigo yelled, throwing the stuffed animal across the room. It slammed into the wall, slid down, then popped back up.

"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!! I just wanted a peek, sheesh." It yelled in a pure fury. He stood up and folded his arms across his chest.

"DAMNIT KON!" Ichigo screamed, picking him up and hurling him into the window. "You're just like I can't kill you!"

"What is it with you? It was just Orihime, sheesh." Kon said, turning his back to Ichigo and folding his arms across his chest.

"That's exactly why you can't do that shit." Ichigo said throttling the small plush lion Kon inhabited. He then hurled Kon into the closet and slammed the door shut. Ichigo sighed, placing one hand on his head and closing his eyes. He lay on his bed, half asleep, fully exasperated with Kon's attitude. He dozed a bit, drifting between reality and dreams. Before he knew it, it was seven-o-clock in the evening, time for dinner. He headed down, waiting for his father to attack, but it didn't come.

"Ichigo, you're just in time for dinner. Dad's got a meeting tonight and won't be home 'till late." Yuzu explained, setting a plate for Ichigo. He sat down without a word, eating hastily so he could get some sleep.

"Ichigo, you shouldn't eat so fast…" Yuzu said, but he ignored her and headed back to his room. He really just wanted to sleep. He felt a sense of foreboding though, but he was unsure of what it meant. He opened the door to his room, lay back down on his bed, and tried to sleep. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a person came crashing through his window, and his deputy badge started screaming "Hollow! Hollow!" so loud he thought his ears would burst. The person was gone as quick as he came; leaping out the hole he entered from.

"Kon!" Ichigo yelled, whipping open the closet and grabbing the stuffed lion. "Keep track of things while I'm gone and stay quiet." He said, grabbing the soul pill out of the lion's mouth. He swallowed the pill himself, and instantly became a soul reaper. He leaped out the hole, leaving Kon behind.

'Damnit, where… There it is!' Ichigo thought, and he looked over the situation carefully. There were three hollows surrounding one young man, around Ichigo's own age, but he held what looked like two swords of flames in his hands, and one arm and both legs shone with some sort of silver sheen.

"I've been waiting for a good fight all day! Bring it on!" The boy said, turning and looking at each hollow. One leaped at him, and he deftly turned it aside with the flaming swords, and bent over backwards, knees at right angles, back parallel to the ground as one lunged. He stabbed it with one sword, avoiding the mask. He threw it off his sword and turned to the third, blocking its claws with the swords. The boy hurled it back and ran up its body, pulling a back flip off its neck and throwing two balls of fire at it. He rolled back a bit on the landing, then popped back up ready to roll, two new swords of fire in his hands. Then he looked right at Ichigo.

"You gonna help me out or not? In case you haven't noticed, I don't have a Zan-paku-to." He shouted, ducking and dodging the attacks of one of the hollows.

"What? Oh, yeah!" Ichigo said, startled slightly. He leaped down and cleaved the head off one of the other tow hollows while the other boy blasted the other two with fireballs, leaping off walls and ducking attacks. Ichigo struck one from behind, finishing it off. The other one was surrounded by flames being manipulated by the other boy, but they were blue and white instead of red.

"Burn you foul demon." He said, and the flames grew higher. The hollows screams intensified.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Ichigo yelled, and suddenly the flames were gone, and the boy was leaping onto a rooftop.

"Finish him off!" He shouted to Ichigo, and he crouched on the rooftop, clutching a wounded shoulder. Ichigo sliced down the hollow, and then turned to find the other guy had vanished.

"Where'd he go…?" Ichigo said, and then he turned to the hole in his roof.

"I'm in here dumbass." Came a voice, and Ichigo climbed back in.

"That how you thank everyone who saves your hide?" Ichigo said, Zangetsu still in hand.

"Only when I'm not with her." The other boy said, "The name's MI, Short for Mechanical Inferno." He said, holding out his right arm. Now that he could see it clearly, Ichigo noticed the arm was made entirely of metal, with gears and plates, and a lone spring sticking out of the elbow joint. MI's eye was a large red glass pane with a shutter and some gears going back into around his ear, and his legs were also mechanical.

"I know, I look like a walking car wreck. I did this to myself. Took a flame sword to my arm and legs. Nearly stabbed my own brain out, but someone stopped me at my eye." MI said, putting his arm down at his side. Then his eyes whipped over to the window.

"Well hello? What have we here?" MI said, walking over to a black butterfly that had flown in.

"So, you found me again." He said, holding the butterfly on one finger, and then he stood back, letting it float there, then watching with a smile as a young woman appeared where the butterfly had been.

"Rukia!" Ichigo and Kon shouted together, each awestruck by her sudden return.

"Hey Ichigo, Kon, long time no see." Rukia said with a smile. She then turned to MI.

"Hey." He said, barely managing to hide his smile.

"I still haven't repaid you for the last time we were together." She said, suddenly serious. She walked over to him, her eyes set on his.

"You don't have to, really…" MI said, backing away, but he was cut short by the wall and Rukia suddenly punching him right in the gut.

"That's for leaving me," She said, then continued with a fierce blow to the stomach, "that's for leaving me to the hollows," and then she just started punching him at random, "And these are just because I like hitting you!" MI made no efforts to resist until about the twentieth hit.

"Who knew such a pretty face had so much punch." He said, holding her fists while looking her clean in the eyes. He was bleeding out the mouth and nose, and yet he was still smiling. Rukia slowly unclenched her fists, and MI let her go.

"I just had to get that out… I'm sorry Chris." Rukia said, turning away from him.

"I thought you said your name was MI?" Kon said.

"It is… I don't know how many time's I told you that Rukia." MI said.

"I know, but you'll always be Chris to me." She said, and she turned and grabbed him in a fierce hug.

"Rukia… you're… crushing… my… lungs…" MI sputtered, and Rukia let him go, blushing slightly. Ichigo had long since put away Zangetsu and turned away. Now he had his head cocked over his shoulder, slightly scowling.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'd like to get out of Ichigo's body as much as he want's to be in it again." Kon said finally.

"Yea." Ichigo said, and he knocked Kon upside the head with his deputy pass and tossed the pill back into the stuffed lion. He got back in his body and continued to glare at Rukia and MI.

"I'd better go. Things to do, you know." MI said, and he walked over to the window, slid out, and leaped onto the city streets below.

"I'll see you tomorrow Ichigo." Rukia said, and she left out the hole in the roof. Ichigo said nothing, and did his best to get to sleep.