Hey there! I just finished watching the whole Arrancar arc up to Aizen's defeat when this idea popped into my head. I just had to write it down. Because of I'm new in the Bleach fan-section there might be some mistakes. If you find any, please tell me so that I can correct them. Also English isn't my first language but I try my best.

This story will contain violence, bad language and dark moments but also hints of humor. However, there won't be any pairings.

I always try to keep everyone in character. But even though I know that Gin has some kind of dialect I won't use it.

The story starts between Aizen's betrayal and the Arrancar arc and will not follow the actual plot line. Nel is already playing eternal tag in Hueco Mundo and the ranking of the Espada is as it was during the Arrancar arc.

The name of my OC, Akane, means dark red (according to google translator).

The italic written passages will be flashbacks.

I only own the things that don't appear in the manga/anime, the credit of the rest goes to Kubo.

I hope I said everything I wanted to say… Enjoy reading!

Chapter 1: Akane Kudo

He was sitting on his "throne", his elbow placed on the arm-rest, his fingers touching his cheek.

Sosuke Aizen was thinking, thinking about his ultimate plan and everything that had already taking its course: His hollowfication experiments, the deceiving of the soul society, the theft of the Hogyoku, taking over Hueco Mundo and the creating of the Arrancar and Espada.

But still, even though everything had turned out exactly how he wanted it to be, there was still a slight crack in his castle of planning, one happening he couldn't quiet sort in yet. The danger going from this crack wasn't that great, it possibly wouldn't have any effect at all but Aizen was a careful man that let nothing in the hands of fate. He wasn't the type of person who would just ignore it and let it be. There still existed the chance, a slim tiny slight chance, yes, but it existed, the chance of a miscalculating.

"What's the matter Captain Aizen? Is something troubling you?" Gin asked. He was standing at his right side, with his usual wide smile on his face while Kaname stood at his other side, silent. Aizen smiled slightly.

"It's nothing worth mentioning."

"I heard that we will get a new member who will straightly get the seat of an officer" Gin Ichimaru said curiously as he stepped into Aizen's office room.

"Yes, apparently she's a prodigy just like you, Gin." Gin's grin widened if it was even possible.

"Please Captain Aizen, I'm no prodigy at all compared to your skills." Sosuke Aizen only smiled, turning his attention back to the papers on his desk.

"When will we meet our new fellow?"

"She must arrive soon" Aizen answered his lieutenant and as if she had heard it, there was a light knock on the door.

Aizen looked up, as well as Gin, when the voice of a young woman was heard. "Captain Aizen, I was told to meet you. My name's Akane Kudo."

"Please come in." The door slid open and a red haired young lady with average height, intelligent amber eyes, and reckless on her cheeks entered.

"Welcome in squad five, Akane Kudo. I'm Captain Sosuke Aizen and this is Lieutenant Gin Ichimaru."

"Kaname, would you please call in Starrk, Ulquiorra, Grimmjow and Yammy?" Aizen asked with his usual gentle voice though there was a clear order hidden in it. Kaname Tosen nodded.

"Of course Captain Aizen" he said and left while Gin watched Aizen curiously though he didn't say anything.

It was only a small crack in his plan, something one couldn't even see with bare eyes. It could turn out that the crack would remind in its place, unmoving, but it could also happen that it would spread out; creating gaps and making everything collapse.

Akane Kudo… As much as Aizen hated to admit it, she was the only one who saw through his disguise right from the beginning and whom moves he couldn't fully predict. He wouldn't take the risk that she might endanger his plan. It was time to do his next move in order to making the crack disappear or turn it into a piece of his planning castle.

It didn't take long and the giant door to the throne room opened. Kaname entered, followed by the four Espada he wanted to send out. The blind fellow appeared once again at his left side and Aizen looked down at the group.

"I've got a mission for you" he began, his voice smooth but with a hint of coldness and authority. "You should go to the world of the living and capture one person. Bring her here under all circumstances but don't kill her. She has long red hair, amber eyes, the appearance of a young woman and she's living alone in the outskirts of Karakura Town." Gin's smile loosened for a moment as he tried to remember why this description seemed so familiar to him.

"Her name is Akane Kudo" Aizen finished after telling the group the coordinates. "You can go now." They all bowed and left the room to head to the world of the living.

Gin's grin had reappeared. "Akane…" he said remembering the girl. "How do you know her position, I thought she disappeared from the radar after the little… incident." He chuckled.

"I already knew it for a while and now seems to be a good time to go after her."

"But why her?" Gin continued asking. Sure, that girl had been intelligent, a skilled fighter and she had looked through their façade right from the beginning but Aizen had taken care so that she wouldn't be a danger to them anymore.

Aizen shrugged slightly and rested again his chin against his fingers, the smile never leaving his face. "Didn't you tell me yesterday that Las Noches would become boring, Gin? Well, why don't you see her as an amusing to pass the time?" Gin didn't reply to it. He knew that Aizen wouldn't tell him his true intentions, at least not yet.

The sun was shining down. The birds were singing. The grass was rustling in the slight breeze. The sky was painted in blue; there wasn't even the trace of a cloud in sight. I was lying on a deck chair in front of my little house in the middle of nothingness, relaxing, sun bathing and reading in the newest book I've bought.

Yeah, I was kind of a lazy person who often only had her books in her mind.

The sky had been as blue as today except for that there hadn't been any bird singing or grass rustling.

I could hear other soul reapers chatting in the streets under me as I was lying on a roof with my book in my hands, completely drawn into the story.

Suddenly a shadow fell on my form and I slightly turned my head. When I caught a glimpse of the white robe of a captain I jumped up and faced the person straightly with my book hidden behind my back. Luckily it wasn't Aizen but he was definitely a captain. The man wore a rose robe over his captain's attire. He had brown hair, a straw hat on his head and looked at me with a smile on his lips.

"Well that's unusual to find someone up here. Don't you have some work to do?" he asked friendly.

"I already have finished my work Captain, so I decided to take a break and come up here. I hope I didn't do anything wrong" I replied, putting on the façade of innocence.

"Oh, no, it was only a curious question, nothing else. I'm sure that such an innocent and beautiful woman like yourself will never do something wrong." He smiled brightly. I frowned at him, irritated. Did that guy just try to flirt with me?

The man then looked me over more closely before he asked with a slightly more serious tone: "I've never seen you before, in what squad are you?"

"I'm Akane Kudo, third seat of squad five" I introduced myself with a lazy small bow. The brown haired captain chuckled.

"Oh yeah, I heard of you. Well then, my name's Shunsui Kyoraku, captain of the eighth squad. So, does Captain Aizen know that you're up here?"

"No" I simply answered. The reason why I came here was because I wanted to avoid him long enough for me to finish my book. I already completed my paper work but who knew when new stuff would appear that had to be finished.

Without another word Kyoraku lay down next to me. "I guess we will have time then until either Captain Aizen or my sweet lieutenant Nanao will appear." He chuckled, closed his eyes and pulled his straw hat deeper into his face.

In the end it was Nanao who appeared with an angry expression. She hit her captain over the head with her folder and then dragged him with her without even glancing at me.

I looked up from my book and into the surroundings. There was a large field of knee-high grass surrounding my little plain house. It was peace on earth. Who would have known I would find it in the world of the living after all? Although I knew that of course this peace wouldn't last for long. There was still a prison cell waiting for me in the Soul Society and furthermore there was the guy who had forced me to flee from the Soul Society and to hide in the world of the living. I knew that someday one of these two parties would come after me but until then I would enjoy the peaceful atmosphere, reading my books and bathing in the sun.

I just wanted to lay back down when my cell phone started to beep. However, it wasn't my usual cell phone but my second one, a special and old-looking thing. As a listed criminal I was of course not allowed to carry one of the Hollow-detector-phones but luckily I had some contacts in Karakura Town (*cough* Urahara *cough*) who had helped me out after I had arrived here.

Frowning I picked up the phone and stared at the four red dots which had appeared on the screen, not too far away from my position. Even though I was already suppressing my spiritual energy, the Hallows still seem to notice it and so it wasn't unusual that one would appear near me. But I couldn't sit back and wait until one of the Soul Reapers would arrive because I couldn't allow any of them getting near me. They could recognize me, inform the authorities or start a fight with me and that was a scenario I wanted to avoid. So whenever there was a Hallow arriving close-by I took care of it myself, hoping that the arriving Soul Reaper would notice its sudden disappearance and turn right back.

A sudden explosion shook me out of my thoughts. It was coming from the hill behind my house, where the Hollows must be. Sighing I lifted myself out of the deck chair, put the phone and my soft-cover book into the back pockets of my jeans, grabbed my Zanpakuto Doubutsukage (according to google translator it should mean "Animal shadow") and headed to the hill.

When I arrived at the top the first thing I saw was a crater in the earth on the back side of the hill. This must have caused the explosion but where were these damn Hallows? It wasn't like these things were too small to miss.

Suddenly I felt something appear behind me. Without turning around I jumped away. Just in time, because something crashed down onto the spot where I had been standing only moments ago. I whirled around; drawing my Zanpakuto, but what I saw wasn't exactly what I've expected to see. Standing behind me was a mass of a man. He was big, muscular, had a white skeleton-part under his chin, and there was a big hole in his chest.

"You're quite agile, little fly" he said grinning down at me while I could only stare at his bizarre appearance. "Hey Ulquiorra, is this her?"

"Red long hair, amber eyes, the appearance of a young woman… Yes, that's her." I whirled around when I heard the calm emotionless voice. There were two people standing, the right one was the one who had spoken: Male, black hair, green eyes, lines that went down from both of his eyes, a white skeleton part on the side of his head, a hole in his throat and a blank face. The left man was brown haired, with a bored expression, having also such a skeleton thing, this time around his neck and it looked like a row of teeth.

"Good, at least we don't have to waste time searching her" the left man said.

Who and what in the Hell were these guys?! I was supposed to meet Hallows on the top of this hill but they looked too much human-alike to be Hallows! But with these holes and skeleton parts they could neither be humans nor soul reapers. But why did the Hollow-detector beep then? Unless of course that damn thing was defect, after all I was already using it for quite some time and Kisuke had mentioned something about it being a prototype.

Whoever these guys were though, they were apparently after me.

I had to jump away as the giant fist of the big guy interrupted my thoughts. He was slow but had an incredible strength, leaving each time small craters when he was striking down. Blade met fist when I was suddenly attacked from the right. The newcomer had blue hair, a hole in his lower abdomen, the skeleton part on his cheek and a big grin on his face.

"Who are you?" I growled out when we pushed away from each other, landing on the earth. I was cycled in by the rest of these guys, the big one behind me, Ulquiorra on my right and the bored guy on my left. They were powerful, I could tell that much.

"I'm Grimmjow Jaegerjaques and I hope you're strong enough and worth fighting against" the blue haired man said with a grin, his eyes were sparkling with blood lust and the anticipation of beating me into the ground. Yeah right, like I would let that happen.

"Don't kill her, Grimmjow" Ulquiorra said emotionless. "Remember, Lord Aizen wants her alive."

I froze on the spot by hearing that name. My blood ran cold and a shiver ran down my spine. I turned by head to look at the green eyes guy.

"What did you just say?" It was only a whisper but I could tell that he heard me. However, he didn't reply. He didn't need to anyway. I knew that I had heard right. These guys were working for Sosuke Aizen. And suddenly everything made sense: the Hollow-like holes, my Hollow detector that wasn't in the slightest defect, and these skeleton parts that in fact weren't skeletons but the cracked masks of Hollows. They must be the newest results of Aizen's experiments and research.

"So, what did Aizen do this time?" I asked, sitting in a backroom of Uruhara's shop, drinking tea.

"He stole the Hogyoku" Kisuke answered, taking a sip of his own tea. It was one of the rare times I've ever seen him this serious.

"Hogyoku? What's that?" I asked frowning. And then Kisuke told me about his inventions and its ability to making the line between a soul reaper and a hollow disappear, creating something that might be stronger than either of them.

"It's kind of frustrating knowing that your own brilliant invention is being used for such evilness" he finished with a sigh.

Still processing these things I dodged another one of Grimmjow's attacks. "Wait, time out!" I called out, making him actually stop.

I turned so that I had all four of them in my vision. My whole body was tensed and I was constantly on the edge, shifting my gaze from one of them to the next.

"What exactly is your current mission?" I asked, addressing more Ulquiorra than the others. He was it who answered me after a short pause.

"Lord Aizen told us to capture you and to bring you to Hueco Mundo under all costs. However, you shouldn't die." The thoughts ran through my brain, so quick that they were about to give me a headache. However, in the end there was only one way out of it.

Sighing deeply I put Doubutsukage back into its sheath. "Okay, if that's the case I will go with you." I didn't have another chance anyway. I knew that he would come after me someday and if Sosuke Aizen really wanted me these guys must be so strong that there was no question about them being able to beat and capture me. A fight would be completely useless it would only end in me being dragged to Aizen, beaten up into a bloody pulp. And that was something I wanted to avoid under all costs. If I had to confront him I wanted to do so as prideful and confident as possible.

Ulquiorra simply turned and lifted a hand in the air. A moment later it parted and a black nothingness appeared, a Garganta. Ulquiorra and the bored hollow-man entered, with me following them. The big guy and Grimmjow were the last. I felt the eyes of the ones behind me on my back, studying me but I ignored the slightly uncomfortable feeling and instead my mind wandered back into the past while we were walking over a straight silver-white path.

I was standing by the door in the office of my new captain, Sosuke Aizen. My eyes were taking in each detail about his and the lieutenant's appearances like every time I was meeting someone new.

"Akane Kudo, as requested you will become directly my third seated officer. I hope we will get along well."

"Hm" was my only response. Even though that wide unchanging smile of Gin Ichimaru should have given me the creeps it was the slight smile on Aizen's lips and the brown amused eyes behind the glasses that made me feel uneasy instead. There was something about him which had made my alarm bells ring. I already had felt back then that something was wrong with this man. I had known that he wasn't quite the kind warm-hearted guy everyone believed he would be. Instead I had seen the coldness in his eyes, the cruelty in that slight smile, the evil aura surrounding him.

And Aizen always had known that I knew it.

What do you think about the first chapter? Do you like it? Please tell me! I'm open to any criticism as long as it's not mean.