Just a few things before story - Tatsuki and Renji are both five years older than the Rukia and Ichigo are. They were twenty-two years old when they got married, and that makes (back then) Ichigo and Rukia seventeen years old. She moved at his place when she was eighteen, and they went to visit her brother before they turned twenty.
-.-.-
"Hey, mister? Excuse me?" The man passed by Rukia, without even looking at her. She stuck her tongue out - not very ladylike, as her sister would have said, but she didn't care about lady-likeness right then. She turned - only to bump into somebody really tall, with shocking orange hair and curious light-brown eyes. She stepped back.
"Oops. I'm sorry."
"No. I'm sorry. Shouldn't have stand right behind you. I was just watching you for the last half hour and..."
"You were watching me for half an hour?" She didn't know how should she feel at this - freaked out, angry or shocked?
"Yeah. Your behavior is funny and kind of fascinating." He grinned at her somewhat cockily.
"Well, thank you, but I have other things to do than making you fascinated or whatever." snapped Rukia turning on her heels, but a strong hand grabbed her wrist. She scowled at him.
"And what do you want now?"
"Look, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know that what are you trying to do? I'd like to help."
"Really?" He nodded.
"So... I'd like to get to this place..."
-.-.-
Her best friend's house, she remembered. He was about to marry some girl, Tatsuki, who just happened to be one of his friends.
She got off the bus, looking at the small piece of paper in her hands. She hoped that the man was as good as everybody rumoured him to be...
-.-.-
"So, this is my small and..."
"Utterly disfunctional," added a girl. Ichigo shot her a look.
"Family. My..."
"Crazy and hyper dad, Isshin, who can't grow up for anybody's sake," interrupted him the black haired young female once again.
"And my twin sisters, Yuzu and..."
"Karin," introduced the girl herself.
"Damn it, Karin! Stop doing that!"
"But it's funny."
"No it's not!" Rukia poked her boyfriend's shoulder, successfully stopping the sibling-fight. As soon as she was sure she had all attention, she pointed at the man, who was practically glued to a large memorial picture, crying. Ichigo frowned.
"Ah... He does that all the time. When I finished junior school, when the girls are "mean" to him, when they finished junior school, when I finished highschool, and when..."
"Masakiiii, our son has finally found a girl that does not care about his looks or terrible attitude and disrespect towards his elders! I have three daughters now!"
Rukia glanced at Karin.
"I see what did you mean by disfunctional..."
-.-.-.-
She looked up at the glass "palace", then down at her paper again.
Oh, all the furry evil bunnies on the dark side. She took the wrong turn. Again.
-.-.-.-.
"Rukia-chan, could you come here for a little talk?" asked Isshin looking somewhat serious for the first time, before shooting a wary look at Ichigo behind her. "No, you aren't coming. This is only a third-daughter - daddy talk! And don't you want to try and spy on us! Even if you don't want to admit, you inherited the power to tell whether somebody is in front of your door or not from me!"
"Like hell I would do such a thing! I'm not you!" The Strawberry stormed up on the stairs. Isshin closed the door, before offering her a chair and sitting down himself. He smiled at her.
"Don't worry I'm not gonna eat you. I just want to know a few things. Firstly. What are your intentions with my son?"
"Excuse me?"
"I mean, are you really in love with him?"
"Yes. Otherways I wouldn't be his girlfriend, right?"
"Right, that was a stupid question. I just wanted to be really sure, as there were a few before you, who thought they are in love with him, but turned out they aren't. Tea?"
"Yes, please."
"Are you still planning on moving here? You asked me last time, but I couldn't answer because of a call..." She nodded.
"I do."
"Did you two ever have sex?" She spit the coffee out, right into the man's face, though he did not seem to be disturbed by it.
"Ex... Excuse me?"
"Did you ever have sex?" asked the doctor once again. She felt hot blood rush into her face.
"No. I want to wait until marriage."
"Understandable."
"Pardon me, but what was your goal with these questions?"
"Oh, nothing really." He grinned. "I just asked what got into my mind. But listen to me... Don't ever break his heart. He can't really take things like that lightly. Well, of course it'd be impossible to take lightly, but for him, it's even worse, and his reaction might be a little bit harsh..."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"A little bit harsh... No joking," thought Rukia grimly, waiting as the secretary was talking on the phone.
"Yes sir, I understand that you've important things to do now... But she says that this case is really urgent... Or things might get ugly. That's what she said. Yes. I know. Okay."
She put the phone back to it's place.
"He's busy right now, but he'll be free within an hour or so. Can you wait that long?"
"Yeah. I think, I do."
-..-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"I still can't believe it. We really are in America," said the male. She grabbed his hand, the other grasping the handle of her luggage tightly. Upon it rode Ichigo's red sportbag - it could be only fair as before they got onto the plane in Japan she strained her ankle, he had to carry her AND the bags onto the plane, as she refused to go and see a doctor just because of a strain...
"Yeah, and this is the best time of the year."
"Why?"
"It's Halloween tomorrow."
"So?"
"So we can dress up and go to get chocolate!"
He frowned.
"Aren't we a little old to do do that?"
"Silly! This isn't a thing that you can do only to a certain age. At least in my opinion."
Ichigo growled up. She smirked at him.
"Well, should I tell you now that I asked my brother to assign both of us to a group of children?"
"WHAT?!"
"You know, there are parents who have to work even then, but their children are not old enough to go by themselves... So there are volunteers that would take them, and in return they have the quarter of their collected chocolate..."
He closed his eyes, a pained look flashing across his features.
-.-..-.-.-.-.-
Murder in daylight, she read on the top of a newspaper. Apparently some teen on drugs found it a good idea to go around with an axe and smash everyone"s head in on sight.
"Would you like some coffee?" asked the secretary woman, feeling sorry for her long wait. It had been two and a half hours already. Rukia shook her head.
"No, thank you."
"Then something else to drink?"
"Water, probably." The woman nodded and left.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"What are you doing to my face?"
"For the sixth time, I'm only painting it. Stop frowning." She put some more black face paint on her thinnest brush and added the last line, before switching onto red and started working on the next part.
"Can I open my eyes?" asked the male after he felt that she wasn't doing everything for a few minutes by then.
"No. Not yet. But soon. Bend your head forward." He did as he was told. Rukia combed back his hair, attaching some longer hair to the smaller ones with a few pins, before putting a wigcap onto his head.
"And what are you doing now?"
"It's a secret." She slipped the snow white - silver coloured wig onto his head carefully. She gently pushed his chin in order to lift his head, before pushing back a few stray locks of hair under the net, then strengthened the wig to his hair and the net with some stronger pins.
"Okay, you can open your eyes now."
Ichigo gaped at the mirror, and the white haired, unknown man did the same. His face was painted to make one remind of a skull and it continued down at his throat, and stopped at the neckline of his T-shirt, which had a part of a skeleton printed onto it.
"Luckily it looks like you have some European blood in you," chirped his girlfriend. "That makes the outcome look even better."
"What did you turn me into? A zombie?"
"Not exactly. Much more like a haunting soul."
"Even better..."
"So, what do you think?"
"It's creepy."
"It is supposed to be so. And?"
"You do much better body-paints than real drawings." She scowled at him.
"Right. Will you help me to dress into my snow witch costume? Hey, what was that relieved sigh!"
"I was really scared that you'd dress as a bunny."
-.-.-.-.-.-.
"So you're dealing with an evil spirit, girl?" She sighed. She wasn't a girl anymore, but a full grown woman, thank you.
"Not exactly evil... More like confused, scared, but most definitely angry."
"Sounds like an bad spirit to me... Did it attack anybody?" She hung her head.
"Yes. It did."
"Do not worry anymore, girl! I, Don Kanonji, the most handsome spiritualist will help you!"
Rukia started to wonder whether it really had been a good idea.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-
"Do not look back," whispered Ichigo. "But I think somebody is following us."
Rukia glanced back over her shoulder. The male's grip tightened on her hand.
"I told you not to look back!"
"Not to look back at what, Kurosaki?" asked a blue haired man, appearing out of the thin air, a long wound running from his left shoulder to his waist. "Afraid that the past might catch up with you?"
"I do not know what are you talking about. You probably have mistaken me."
"I do not think so," said a nonchalant voice behind them. It belonged to a pink haired man with a gashing injury in his stomach. "There aren't many people running around by the name Kurosaki."
"What do you want from me?" he growled, pushing Rukia behind himself. A pale white man - even paler than he was because of the paint - raised one eyebrow, but his actual expression did not change. Blood was dripping from the place where his arms was supposed to be.
"I do not remember you to be such a knight, Kurosaki. Because you definitely wasn't one then." It was a brown skinned male, bleeding from several wounds.
"Your costumes are pretty good, I'll give you that. But it's time to cut this crappy play out. Did your brother hire them, Rukia? Because then I'll have to have a word with him..."
"We weren't hired by anybody, and this isn't a play," said a young female with green-turqoise hair. An ugly injury was running across her forehead. "Do not tell us that you don't remember, because that equals impossible. So tell us why."
"Why what?"
"Why did you kill us?"
"What?" He looked dumbfounded. The blue haired growled up.
"And he was the one talking about crappy play. Don't do like you don't remember anything!"
"But if I don't!"
"If he does not," grinned the pink-head, "Let's make him remember."
"Agreed." Three of the four male stepped forward.
"Wait," said the woman. "What are you going to do?"
"Obviously, he doesn't know who we are. So we'll beat him until he remembers."
"Only a trash would do something as cowardly as that."
"And which of it is exactly cowardly? We're dead thanks to him, if you would have forgotten."
"I did not. I was merely stating a fact."
"Stop. Nobody will beat anybody up tonight. We're here for answers, and not for blood."
"Speak for yourself, Neliel." She gave him a cold look, before turning back to the two.
"Please, Ichigo... We do not ask much. Just remember and tell us why did you do it."
He shook his head desperately.
"I do not know what are you talking about."
"That settles it." She turned around, preparing to leave.
"What the hell, Neliel? You're just gonna...?"
"Yes, Grimmjow, I'm going to. We can't possibly make him beg for forgiveness for a thing he does not remember."
She faded away, followed by the dark skinned one. The last one to go was Grimmjow. He gave a loathing look to Ichigo, before he disappeared too.
"What on earth was that about?" whispered Rukia.
"I wish I know."
-.-.-...-
"So this spirit materialised to the point that others could see and touch him and even normal pictures could be made about him, and lived like an actual person? Except for barely changing and aging? And he had a sort of heartbeat?"
"Yes. He also didn't know about that he was dead." Kanonji hummed. He actually acted sane for an hour by then. Probably it was due to the fact that it was only the two of them there.
"Then he must have died a very... Strong place spiritual-energy wise. While alive, he must have had a plenty of it, himself. More than possibly the place he was buried at was at a kind of energy-point. Although I've heard about this kind of thing only once. It is possible that the heartbeat you and everyone else felt was the energy pulsating."
"Is it possible to send him into the afterlife?"
"It is. But if he's as strong as you said, there might be some trouble."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-
"What are you talking about? I am Kurosaki Ichigo. Do I look dead to you?"
"You can't possibly be."
"I can show you my ID if you want. If you're saying that I can't be "him" even then, I'll..."
"I'm saying you can't be, because we've found his corpse," said the cop, wide eyed in shock. "In the mountains. Rather, a group of camping teenagers found it..."
"And why do you think that it'd be me?" He crossed his arms.
"DNA. Kurosaki Ichigo was suspected of participating in raping and mercilessly killing a ten years old girl, but was cleared later on."
He pressed his lips together. He remembered that too well. What did they think, what kind of sick people was he?
But it explained why did they force him to drink the water.
"Well, then you've messed something up."
"We checked it twice. There is no mistake. But that's not all. We've found several other corpses as well. Five men and a woman. According to our files, they used to be a part of the Espada."
"But..." Now he looked truly confused. "That's impossible. I'm standing in front of you..."
Was it only Rukia's imagination, or did Ichigo become transparent for a second?
"What's going on here?" snapped a voice. The policemen turned. It was Isshin Kurosaki, standing tall, his face more serious than ever before.
"Kurosaki Isshin if I'm not mistaken?" asked the taller man.
"That would be me, yes."
"We've bought bad news. We've found the corpse of your son, although this young man claims to be him."
"Therefore it's obvious that you're wrong. Right, dad?" asked the male, turning to his father desperately. If they would be right that would mean that he was either an adopted child, with somehow manipulated memories and same name, or...
Isshin hung his head, avoiding his eyes.
"Hey, what the hell... Gah!" He roared in pain and fell onto his knees, pressing his hands onto his temples, eyes glaring into the nothing. He continued howling, shocking, but most importantly scaring the two policemen.
"Ichigo!" yelled Rukia, crouching next to her beloved, putting a hand onto his shoulder...
At least she wanted to.
She gasped in surprise as her hand went right through him, and jerked it away, just before a strong gush of wind knocked them off of their feet.
"Rukia, get over here!" yelled Isshin, trying to be louder than Ichigo and the rampaging wind together. The young female started crawling, before stopping as suddenly pain shot through her left leg. She looked back - black and red tentacles of fire and energy were dancing around Ichigo, slowly devouring his form.
And then everything blew up.
-.-.,-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Checkmate," grinned Kanonji. The black haired woman gave him an angry glare.It was obvious that the man was very good at chess - and she was not.
"Okay, I give up," she said, before touching the faded scar on her ankle.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
She opened her eyes. It was dark, way too dark. And then the headache striked.
Rukia moaned in pain.
"You're awake?" She nodded, but the throbbing in her brain signaled that it wasn't a good decision. "Careful. You've hit your head pretty hard."
"What happened?"
"He lost it."
"What do you mean he lost it?"
"His sanity. The fact that you're dead is not easy to take in," he said grimly. "And I do not doubt that there are other things I do not know about."
"So... He really is..."
"Dead? Yes. He died about half a year before he met you."
"But... That's impossible. He can't be a ghost. He's too... Solid. And he has pulse."
"That wasn't pulse. Every soul has a chore that gives of signals and vibrations. That's how a spirit can have an appearance. But it changes due to how he feels about himself. At least that's what I was told."
"So that's why we can't see him right now? Because he doesn't know what to make of himself?"
"Correct."
"Right. But what happened to the lights?"
"That was also his doing. When he blew up, the energy - technically his energy - shut down the electrical system in the whole town. How lucky that Ryuken made a back-up generator for his hospital," he said it mostly to himself by the last sentence.
"But it still does not makes any he's a ghost, how come we can all see and touch him?"
Isshin frowned.
"I don't know that."
"And why didn't you tell him what is he?"
"Hello, son, welcome back after six months. You aren't ought to be here, because, well, you're dead. Yeah, that'd have went well," he laughed dryly. "I was just happy to see him again, and so were the girls. And even more happy that he couldn't remember a thing what happened in that year. The way he died wasn't exactly... How do I put it? Peaceful."
"You were there when he died? But the cops said they found him in the mountains."
"Yes. I buried him and the others there, because that's what he asked. He was worried that it'd be bad for us, if everybody would know the circumstances."
A picture from two years before flashed in front of Rukia's eyes. A woman and four man.
"Why did you kill us?"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Are you ready, girl?" asked Kanonji. She nodded as she looked up at the house. The weather wore it down somewhat ever since Isshin, Yuzu and Karin moved; no, literally escaped from there.
She looked at the five man - Kanonji, a camera guy from his crew, and three other men from some American show, Ghost Seekers. She wanted to scream and tell them to leave - she didn't want to make a show out of Ichigo. She didn't even know what were they doing here - for one thing sure, Kanonji did not invite them. He is an idiot maybe, but he's an honorable idiot, that was clear. But she couldn't do anything to about that.
She turned the key and stepped into the dark house, the men trailing after her.
"Should I turn on the lights? That way we'll see something," she said, but the tall and lean blonde, Tony, shook his head.
"No. The audience likes better when it's dark. It makes things more scary. So let's start, shall we?" Rukia shrugged.
"Come out, bad spirit!" yelled suddenly Kanonji, taking his ridiculous pose. "I, the great spiritualist, will put you to a final rest!"
"Will you?" whispered something into his ear. He spun around - but nobody was standing behind him.
"Kanonji?"
"Th-there is nothing to be scared of, children!" The other five groaned in union - all of them was well past twenty, no matter how much they wished to be children again sometimes. But it was just so annoying.
Suddenly the strange device in a plump American's hand came to life. He raised his eyebrows - it had never ever gave signs this strong. He looked up, then nodded to Rukia. It was her turn.
"Ichigo? Can you hear me? Please, come out and let Kanonji do his work. I want you to leave. I want you to find peace."
"Peace, you say? Why do you not mind your own business, first?" asked a distorted voice. They all turned around - Ichigo was standing on the top of the chairs, as solid as Rukia remembered him to be. But something was off.
He was exactly what he looked like three years ago at Halloween. With the addition of golden-coloured eyes.
"There you are, bad spirit! Brace yourself?" He raised his "spirit staff", ready to attack with it, but it suddenly freezed in the mid-air.
Ichigo was looking at Rukia with the mixture of bored, annoyed and I-so-not-want-to-believe-this face.
"This guy? I mean, like for real?"
"He'll send you to the afterlife," said the woman coldly.
"And if I refuse to...?"
"You have no choice."
"Look out, miss!" yelled Tony, pushing her out of a small black box's way. It crashed into the wall above their head's, breaking into pieces.
"You know, that's the problem with you. You always want say to everybody what should and what should they not do, even if you know that you are the one who's wrong. But your damned big confidence makes them believe you."
"To answer your question, I love your confidence. You're like a ray of light in darkness. If there is an unstable situation, you come and make everything right again without hesitation. It's like you always know what do you have to do." Tears filled Rukia's eyes, but they were swept away by an angry movement of her right hand.
"Your mouth is big, until I do not close it with my spirit staff!" The ghost looked at the "great spiritualist" obviously bored, before pointing a finger above him.
"You mean the same one that is still hanging in the air?"Kanonji gasped, his fake braveness long gone. Only a crack could be heard, and the staff was lying on the floor in two pieces.
The third American's nerves gave in. He ran to the door, but was shoved back onto the ground by some unseen barrier on the entrance.
"And where do you think you are going?" appeared the ghost out of the thin air. Rukia looked at the stairs, then back at him, before noticing as something started to flow out slowly from the American's pants. She grimaced.
The man pissed himself. Ichigo gave him a cold glare.
"You lick that up. I wouldn't want to get my mother's carpet stained."
The man looked up at him, trembling. The ghost raised an eyebrow.
"No? Well, I guess, we can do it this way, too..." He raised his right hand, pointing in between the man's eyes. Red energy swirled around his hand, before gathering on his fingertip.
"You lick, or you die."
"Ple... Please d... Don't..."
"I'll take it as an "I'll die"." Something flared in the colour of scarlet, followed by the noise as something wet landed on the floor.
Rukia looked at the corpse in horror, then at her ex-boyfriend. Ichigo shrugged.
"What? We've seen this guy before at your brother's place on TV - he said that he'd give his life to meet a materialised ghost. He did, and so he had to pay the price." He stepped over the dead body, walking towards the others. "But what am I supposed to do with you now? I can't let you go, but it'll be no fun to kill you just like that." His face suddenly lit up. "I got it. We'll play hide and seek. You hide, I seek. Now... Run."
And they did as they were told.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Your ex-boyfriend is freaking insane," gasped Tony, taking another turn. "And is this house really this big? Didn't look like from the outside."
"He didn't use to be like that. And no. But I suppose he did something otherworldly to it."
"Of course he is insane," panted Kanonji, looking sane once again. "He's a Hollow."
"A what?"
"Hollow. Souls that drowned in their own fear, sadness or anger. Either that, or they stayed here too long. They're sort of like poltergeists, only much more powerful and evil."
"Much more powerful in what ways?"
"I thought the little show gave the answers to you."
"But how are we supposed to make him pass over?"
Kanonji's face was pale.
"We can't."
"You mean that all we can do is running around here, hoping that he won't find us?"
"Yes." Rukia shook her head.
"I can't believe it. There has to be a way..." Kanonji looked thoughtful for a moment, scratching his chin.
"Actually... There is. We have to make his spirit to see reason and find peace. That's why I get it easy with most ghosts - they want to pass on."
"But not him," said Tony.
"Yes. Not him."
"Great," mumbled the American, "Just great."
"A window!" yelled the cameraman, jumping up, but Kanonji grabbed him by the hand. "Don't. Look."
"Look at what?" The spiritualist sighed.
"I get it - you can look, but you don't see. See."
"What are you talking about?"
"Don Kanonji... What is this?" asked Tony with snow-pale face, glaring at the women and men agonised face - luckily the screams couldn't be heard.
"Forgotten souls. Not yet Hollows, but not whole spirits either. If my guess is right, your boyfriend, either jumped over that state, or it was shorter than the time when lightning strikes."
"That is correct. But may I ask you a question? Why did you stop running?"
"Ichigo," whispered the woman.
"Great, at least you still know my name."
"Why are you doing this?"
"Why not? It's funny?" Somebody shrieked - the cameraman. He was grabbed by several "souls" their mouth open, but no other sound could be heard than his screams as they pulled him outside.
Ichigo was watching the scene with mild fascination.
And then doubled over as a well-placed kick found him in his mid-section. He hissed.
"Good. At least we found out that he still can feel pain," thought the female.
"Girl! What are you doing?"
"Take Tony and run!" she shouted punching the ghost in the face as he was trying to get up.
"You can't be serious!"
"Oh, I am. Deadly serious," she growled emphasising the word dead. For a long second Kanonji stared at her, before the two started to run.
"That was one of the most foolish thing I've ever seen you to do."
"No. That was going out with you." She jumped away from a hook. Even if he was stronger and maybe faster, her smaller frame meant a kind of advantage, too. He scowled.
"Really? Good to know. And you know... Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" He screeched as suddenly a chain of light wrapped itself around him.
And then the world went white.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-O.o.O.-.-.-.-.-.-
O-kay, it was gonna be a one-shot, but it got just too long... O.o