A/N:

This is Part I of II. The first part takes place in Karakura, and the second takes part in Soul Society. It's technically a longish story.


Disclaimer: Bleach owns me.


Prologue…

The world had suddenly stopped, time freezing before her eyes.

She was floating in a dark void aimlessly, waiting for her consciousness to return to her. She neither felt pain nor relief. She held no regretful thoughts that burdened her, and thought of nothing, but her present.

Feeling the cold pavement beneath her, Rukia sat up abruptly, taking in her surroundings. When she noticed the sound of rattling metal, and the heavy feeling against her chest, she looked down, blinking several times at the chain protruding from her chest. She wasn't sure if she was dreaming, but the chain felt incredibly real, even down to the metallic smell. She fingered the chain, feeling the cold metal beneath her fingers, debating if she should be concerned or not.

But of course, that was the least of her problems at the moment.

A few feet away, lay her still bloody corpse on the sidewalk. It was currently twilight, and she could barely make out her disturbed figure. Her eyes were open and there were bullets lodged into her head, neck, and abdomen, leaving her to bleed to death on the sidewalk. It was appalling to see herself in such a state, but it was probably worse for the people watching, the people who survived.

There had been a shooting, and she, as well as several other people, were victims. They had been at the wrong place at the wrong time. If she remembered correctly, she had blocked a young mother and her child who had been walking in front of her during the time of the shooting. And she was happy to know her efforts weren't put to waste. The same mother and child, as well as a few other survivors, were being laid on gurneys and brought to the hospital in ambulances; they were injured, but not dead.

Crowds of people gathered around the "crime scene," while the police investigated the scene with the siren lights on their cars blinking continuously. She felt rather claustrophobic and uncomfortable with so many people around, but it wasn't like she had a say in anything. She was dead after all.

Tired of the thick scent of death in the air, she stood up, stretching her arms to get some feeling back into her limbs. She still felt as alive as she did that morning, but there was one difference that reminded her that she wasn't alive; no one could see her. She didn't really mind that though. She never had many friends, and didn't like to talk to many people anyway.

She blankly stared at her corpse one last time before turning and walking away, past the crowds of people.


Chapter 1: Twist My Fate

"Kurosaki-fukutaichou!" called one of his subordinates. Ichigo popped open one of his eyes and turned toward the source of the noise, debating whether to sit up or not.

"What?" he asked, a slight scowl adorning his uninterested face. He watched as the seated shinigami ran up to him, heaving for breath while holding a report, which was probably meant to be given to him.

After catching his breath, the shinigami handed him the report, "The last patrol group sent to the world of the living encountered Grand Fisher, and was killed," he said quickly, intimidated by his superior's scowl.

Immediately from hearing the news, Ichigo sat up, "All of them killed? Grand Fisher usually evades shinigami. Still, he can't be that strong."

"Well, I don't know, sir. Apparently, Grand Fisher is strong enough to handle several low ranked officers," the seated shinigami said, laughing nervously.

"Even you?" Ichigo asked, stretching his arms out.

"Ano… I-I don't know, sir," he said, not knowing how to answer his superior. Yes? No? What if he said something ludicrous? What if what he said was wrong?

The orange haired fuku-taichou raised one of his brows at the child-like shinigami in front of him, chuckling, "Stop squirming so much, kid." He stood up and ruffled the shinigami's head, "Thanks by the way, and could you give this to Ukitake-taichou," he handed the kid some paperwork, and walked away, waving his hand in the air.

As he walked back to his office, he yawned and scratched his head, groaning at the thought of doing the paperwork he had ignored. He didn't mind doing it all that much, but he just liked sleeping much better. And that served as a problem since his taichou was also rather reluctant to do paperwork most of the time.

Ichigo was part of the fifth division under the command of Hirako Shinji, but he kept in touch with Ukitake Jushiro, who was the captain of the thirteenth division. Currently, the thirteenth was without a fuku-taichou, and as the cousin of the late fuku-taichou, Shiba Kaien, he often helped out when Kiyone and Sentarou were running errands.

Once he reached his office, he entered, not even bothering to slide the shoji doors closed, and plopped down onto the cushion he often sat on when signing papers. He sighed heavily, looking at the piles of paperwork that he hadn't touched in two days, regretting not doing them sooner. He inhaled deeply, mentally preparing himself and began to work, clearing his mind of everything but his work.

In some divisions, the taichou and fuku-taichou shared an office, like in the tenth, but for the fifth they had separate offices, much to Ichigo's relief. If he had to stay in a room with Hirako Shinji for more than five hours, he would probably explode.

A few hours past and he was nearly done when Shinji came walking in with a bottle of sake in hand, "Oi, Ichigo, how about some sake?" he sat down in front the small table and dropped the sake bottle on top of it.

"Beat it, Shinji," said Ichigo, rolling his eyes. "I never get anything done 'cause you always come in here and distract me! Don't you have your own paperwork to do?" he glared at the blonde haired man, and proceeded to do his work.

"Of course I do! But we have plenty of other seated officers to do our work for us," laughed Shinji, his bowl cut hair swaying unnaturally. "Momo's more than happy to help!"

Ichigo's eyebrows scrunched up more than they were before, "You can't just throw your work onto your third seat, asshole." He signed the last paper before slamming it onto the top of the "done" pile.

Shinji smirked, "Exactly. That's why I throw it onto you. I couldn't possibly have such a sweet maiden do my work," he said, his smirk growing.

"How are you my commanding officer, again?"

"Because I'm stronger, more experienced, better at kidou, better at not acting on impulse, and am just better looking in general," answered the blonde shinigami, his voice turning a little arrogant near the end.

Again, Ichigo rolled his eyes, "So, why are you here?"

Shinji's attitude then turned more serious, opposed to his previous behavior, "About the last few hollow incidents, the Grand Fisher has been a dick lately, and it's getting annoying how none of the unseated and seated shinigami can defeat him… which is where you come in."

Ichigo raised a brow, waiting for him to continue.

"I'm going to send you to the world of the living to beat the hell outta him," Shinji smirked, and unceremoniously fell down to the floor, and lied down. "I also need you to give something to Hiyori for me."

"You're going to send me down for something as stupid as that? Why don't you just send Hinamori, or… the fourth or fifth seats?" Ichigo paused a moment, unable to remember the names of the fourth and fifth seats. He brushed it off as unimportant at the moment, and continued to stare his taichou down.

"Yeah, what's the problem? It's not like you do anything anyways, and I can't have girls doing my dirty work," answered the other shinigami. "Plus, I can't have them knowing I've been sending Hiyori crap."

"Why?"

"Because they'll get jealous."

Ichigo inhaled deeply, suppressing the urge to step on Shinji's face. He really didn't mind going down, but he was second out of his whole division, and the only real work he did was run his taichou's ludicrous errands. All the divisions were run differently depending on the taichou, and he sometimes wondered why he joined the one he did.

He sighed, straightening out his thoughts, "Fine, I'll go. How long?"

"A week and a half. It shouldn't take you too long to find Grand fisher, and with the remaining time, I promised Lisa you would help her with some things," Shinji flashed one of those fake smiles that made anyone who saw it want to deck him in the face. "Don't worry, it's nothing mu-," instantly Ichigo's foot met with Shinji's face.


"So... the perks of being dead?" Rukia asked, to no one in particular. She leaned up against the pole, watching children as they played in the park unaware that dusk was soon approaching.

She reminisced about her current "deceased" status, thinking back to her days alive. She recalled seeing spirits near her home throughout her life. No one ever saw them, but she occasionally could see or sense them. They never scared her though; she merely found them interesting. Sometimes, she could even see spirits that wore black kimonos move from atop the buildings with their swords. She had to admit, she was slightly concerned about her sanity at that point, but since those kimono-wearing spirits didn't affect her life in any way, she chose to ignore them.

She yawned, watching as the sun began to set. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to do now. Weren't ghosts supposed to go to the afterlife… world place? Yeah, she sounded ridiculous, but being freshly dead, she was ignorant of what was supposed to happen after death. What did the chain mean? And why is she still on earth if she had no regrets or negative feelings?

Sighing from all the unanswered questions, she got off the pole and walked elsewhere.

She had no family, so she didn't have anything to take care of other than her pet rabbit. And she never kept many belongings, so there was nothing she was heavily attached to. She had only had two close friends, one of which balled her eyes out for five hours the moment she heard the news. That friend was Inoue Orihime. She was always sensitive, and her childish ways never failed to bring a smile onto other's faces. Her other friend, Arisawa Tatsuki was better at masking her emotions. She and Tatsuki had many things in common, like their belief that they had to be strong and hide their emotions so that people like Orihime wouldn't be overwhelmed by too many emotions, if that made any sense. Tatsuki, despite being equally sad about her death, allowed the bustier woman to cry her share of tears as she knew there was no way of stopping the waterworks any time in the near future.

It was depressing to say the least to see her friends that way, but she had no control or say in the actions of the living.

Bored, Rukia checked her apartment. She was glad to find everything the way she had left it; she forgot to turn off the coffee machine though, but that was common. Her clothes were still neatly hung on the hangers in her closet, and a single bowl and lone spoon sat waiting to be cleaned in the sink. Now that she looked back at her apartment, she realized how depressing her life was. Her parents died when she was a baby, her sister Hisana died way before she could even remember, and she just died yesterday as a twenty-two year old without many friends or even a lover.

What a sob story.

Yawning, Rukia sat down on her sleek couch and watched the city from afar through her living room windows. She could hear her rabbit, Chappy, destroying something in her cage in her room, and smiled, finding it kind of comfortable. She eventually fell asleep as the sun dropped lower below the horizon, caressing her body in darkness.

Later that night, she woke up to the sound of a roar, or some kind of inhuman cry. She sat up immediately, and went outside, nearly falling over at the feeling of pressure against her body. She heard the cry again, but she wasn't sure what it was, or where it was coming from.

She looked around to find that others didn't even notice the loud cry, and came to realize that whatever was causing the disturbance was a spirit. She walked in the direction of where the cry came from, and felt the pressure that enveloped her become more intense, as if strangling her. Before she knew it, she was at the park from earlier. The only thing present was another ghost, a boy, except this one was different.

The chain on his chest was practically destroyed and the ghost was grabbing onto his chest in pain, letting out that bestial cry she had been hearing.

She stared, her eyes wide in fear. What was going on? She had never seen something quite like this, and it frightened her to know that something like this could happen. The chain on the ghost's chest completely eroded, leaving a black hole where it previously was. Roaring again, a thick white fluid began to burst out of the ghost's mouth, covering his face to make a white mask. The ghost, or rather creature, jumped into the air with much power, leaving a hole in the ground.

Surprised, Rukia looked around the area, rather insecure. "Where did… ?" as if on cue, the creature pounced down behind her with so much force, nearly knocking her over. She gasped quickly, ducking and rolling away when its claws came forward.

The inhuman creature was certainly a sight to see. It didn't resemble anything she had ever seen in her life other than demons from the horror movies Tatsuki had forced her to watch. Its white bone-like mask had slanted holes for its unnatural black eyes while its mouth consisted of only sharp teeth, befitting of a monster.

Getting up quickly, she pulled off her heels, and as some sort of effort to distract it, she flung the heels towards its mask. And as she expected, it barely grazed the creature, but it was worth a try though.

Biting her lip, she ran for her life, questioning the situation. Wait, why am I even running if I'm already dead? Is it possible to die twice? she thought, scrunching her eyebrows. She glanced back, to see the creature jumping full speed at her. "Shit… !"

A single clawed hand came crashing towards her, causing her to dodge by jumping away. One of the claws slashed at her leg, causing her gasp loudly.

She was so lucky that used to run the track and take self-defense classes. Sure, the self-defense lessons didn't really help her in this situation, but it did aid her in avoiding the monster's claws. Tatsuki always did praise her on her cat-like reflexes, if that was something to be proud of.

As if the sharp claws weren't enough, it began shooting some sort of substance from out of its mouth. Just from observing its misses, the substance had a high acidity, and could most likely burn through her skin. "Just my luck," she hissed, attempting to avoid the shots of acid. She continued running, fear enveloping her insides. The creature proceeded to follow her from the roofs of the building, easily outrunning her with its strong limbs.

It roared, sharpening its claws before jumping off a building and landing directly in front of her. She screamed, falling backwards to dodge the hit directed at her neck, her back meeting with the cold pavement painfully. She tried to get away, but the creature grabbed a hold of her waist, the sharp claws digging into her flesh. It licked its lips, bringing her up to its mouth. She struggled and kicked, but met no success, "This is pathetic. I haven't even been dead for two days, and I'm about to die again!" out of frustration, she kicked at the edges of the creature's mouth several times, trying her best keep herself from being eaten.

Suddenly, the arm that held on to her was slashed apart, leading her to fall to the ground, "Hmph!" Blood splashed out of the arm, staining her face and clothing. Her clothes were already stained from the blood of when she was shot, but now it was further stained, practically drenched in blood.

She quickly sat up, prying the claws away from her abdomen. She looked up to see what had slashed the monster to find one of the black kimono clothed spirits she sometimes saw. Despite having the moon as the only source of light, she could barely make out a head full of unruly orange hair.

She blinked several times as the male spirit slashed at the creature with his meat cleaver sword as if he was cutting through butter. He then jumped into the air and cut the creature in half, smashing its mask in the process. The creature then disintegrated into nothing, leaving only the spirit of the ghost that she had originally saw transform left. Soon, that spirit began fade away in white before turning into a small ball of light that floated up to the sky. Rukia stared in awe, completely forgetting her surroundings.

"Oi, you going to keep staring or are you going to get up?" she blinked again, realizing the spirit was standing in front of her, a mix of a scowl and a smirk on his face. He lent her his hand, which she gladly took.

"What was that creature?" she asked, brushing dirt off of her clothing.

The guy looked at her, "That was a hollow. They're corrupted souls that feed on other spirits," he answered simply, resting the back of his blade on his shoulder. The end of the hilt of his sword began to glow, "So, to further avoid that kind of situation, I'm going to send you to Soul Society, or what humans call, 'the afterlife.'"

She frowned, "What?" Corrupted souls that fed on other spirits? Soul society? None of this was computing.

"What do you mean, 'what?'"

She lifted a single brow, crossing her arms, "I don't understand this whole situation. I'm dead, and you're dead. But why are there 'hollows' running around everywhere, and what is this 'Soul society' place you speak of? And what exactly are you?" Normally, she was a fast learner, but she couldn't quite grasp the concept of this other world that had existed that she wasn't aware of. All those times she was simply living her life, there were hollows outside killing spirits even after death. She had some sort of aptitude for seeing ghosts, but never once did she encounter a hollow.

The man raised both his eyebrows, surprised at her curiosity, "You're going to end up in Soul Society anyways. It's pointless to try and understand it now," he said, shrugging. Seeing as she wouldn't give up on the subject until he told her, he sighed and plopped down onto the ground casually.

She lifted her brow higher on her head before also sitting down.

"Let's start from the beginning," he said, mentally groaning at the long lesson he was about to give. Why was he even telling her this? He could quickly perform konso and be on his way. "You are a plus, or a ghost. That chain on your chest is known as your chain of fate; it binds you to your body. Long story short, if that chain completely corrodes, you turn into a hollow. I'm a shinigami, or a death god, and you could say I lead pluses to the other world before they can become hollows, and then I cleanse the roaming hollows."

Rukia nodded her head, all the new information processing in her internal computer.

"So, to prevent you from being devoured by a hollow, or to become one, I need to perform konso on you, or a ritual that sends you to hell or Soul Society," he said, amused at her facial expression. "And I don't need to explain what Soul Society is since you'll find out for yourself," he was only a little bit impatient to send her.

She eyed him suspiciously, "If you think I'm going, you guessed wrong."

Now this turned his previous look of amusement into a frown, "What do you mean you're not going? You'll be either turned into a hollow, or eaten by one."

"I'll go eventually, but there are still some things in this world that I want to see off," she said, standing up. The wind blew her hair wildly around her face, swaying her clothing as she stood in front of the moon. "How about this, give me four days, and I'll go to this Soul society place with no fuss. Okay, Shinigami?" she reasoned, a small grin on her face.

She offered him her hand, which he looked at, smirking. That didn't sound too bad, and since he would still be here during that time, he could watch over her in case her chain of fate decided to give out. "Fine, only four days. And it's not 'Shinigami.' The name's Kurosaki Ichigo," he said, taking her hand, his smirk still on his face.

"I'm… Rukia, just, Rukia," she said, readying herself to forget her previous life.


Preview…

"There's nothing you can do for them anymore," he said, leaning on the railing of the bridge, glancing at Rukia from his peripheral vision.

She scrunched her eyebrows and looked down at the water, resting her arms on the railing, "I know that, but seeing their daily problems, and knowing how to solve them, but not being able to… it's a nuisance," she said, exhaling.

Ichigo sighed, enjoying the breeze that blew his orange strands away from his face, "Can't say no to that," he looked up the twilight sky, thinking. "It seems you haven't completely accepted death yet."

Rukia rolled her eyes, "Who can within a few days?" she chuckled, pushing herself off the railing. "There's no point in sulking anymore is there?

"Oh, and by the way, there's a hollow over there," she said, pointing in the direction where a garganta had opened, a hollow coming through.

He widened his eyes as his hollow detector went off. Normally pluses couldn't sense hollows, but she sensed it even before his hollow detector went off.

She might actually be useful for something after all.


Please tell me what you think!