Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, but if I did, Ichigo would have kissed Rukia by now and Gin would still be alive and have married Rangiku.


~Sixth Cycle~

Chapter 1

A Start

Rukia was standing in a field of pure snow. Even though she was only wearing a thin, tea length dress, she wasn't cold. "Where am I?" she wondered out loud. She looked around her, trying to spot an object that could help her identify where she was, but found only snow. There weren't even any footsteps, as far as she could see.

"You will have to find that out for yourself, young master," said a soft voice coming from behind her. Rukia whirled around and saw a beautiful woman standing behind her. The woman had long, pale lavender hair, and was wearing a Furisode kimono with a large pale purple bow in the back attached to a pale yellow obi. The kimono was very long, and both the sleeves and the bottom touched the ground. In her right hand she wielded a pure white sword with a long white ribbon coming from the end of it. Her violet eyes were kind.

Rukia turned to the mysterious woman, "Who are you?"

She smiled, "One day, young master, you will find my name, but for now, goodbye." She waved her hand and the snow-covered lands disappeared.

Rukia woke up staring at her white celling. For a moment, she thought of snow. She shook her head silently, remembering her dream. What a strange dream…

She got up slowly, and looked around her room, smiling slightly. There were few things that Rukia loved, but her room was definitely one of them. From her poster-covered walls, to her twin-sized bed in the corner, everything was covered in her favorite thing in the world, Chappy. All the posters on the wall were advertising Chappy; and her bed was adorned with millions of Chappy pillows. Her shelves had tons of Chappy stuffed animals and her books had Chappy bookends. She even had a Chappy rug on the floor.

She lifted up her rug, and set it aside. She felt around a bit, then lifted up two loose floorboards. She smiled. Right in a little hiding space beneath two loose floorboards, was one of the other few things that Rukia loved. She took out a golden case with beautiful lilies decorating the corners. She opened it, and looked at her beautiful swords, her prized possessions. She had spent most of her lifesaving up to buy those two snow-white swords so that she could participate in the Junsuina Yuki Dance, a dance made to honor the lost Seishin, Sode no Shirayuki. It was Rukia's dream to be the Rida, or the lead dancer, and every morning and night she practiced for at least an hour. She grabbed the hilt, and started carefully taking the swords out of their case when she heard a knock, then a familiar yell.

"Hey Rukia! We're going to be late! What the hell are you doing?" Renji,she thought. What is he doing here so early? She checked the time, then gasped. It was already seven-forty, and school would start in less than 10 minutes. She quickly, but genteelly, placed her swords in their case, the placed them in their proper hiding place. She covered them with the rug, then quickly threw on her school uniform, ignoring the pounding in her ears from the relentless pounding on the door. She rushed out, and ran past a startled Renji.

"Hurry up!" she called back to him.

"What? It's you who was late!" He yelled, and started running faster to catch up with her fast pace. When he had caught up he turned to her and asked: "What were you doing that made you so late? You're normally the early bird!"

"Shut up! I slept in!"

"Seriously? I must record this day in my memory forever!"

"Shut up!"

He laughed, and they continued running. She grimaced in annoyance, but eventually found herself smiling at his joyful laughter. Renji was the other thing she loved, and the only person who she truly cared about. He was a brother to her, and she loved him like a brother. She smirked, "Race you," and she took off running.

"Hey!" He called, then hurried to catch up to her.

Rukia laughed, enjoying the feeling of freedom that came with running, or just exorcising. When she pushed her body to its limits, she could sometimes forget her past.

It was dark. He knew his eyes were open, yet he could not see. Is this death? He shook his head, surprised at his own foolishness. He was immortal, he could not die. With a jolt, he suddenly remembered how he had come into this state. It was her. The face of his most hated person came to surface, and he felt a murderous rage take over. He wanted to break free and kill everyone in sight, but with a sigh, he calmed himself. That would have to wait. Just a little bit more time, and he could break out of this icy prison. Then, he could get his revenge.

Rukia stood in front of the school, panting. She checked the time; they were still a few minutes early. Renji came running up behind her, and with a satisfied smirk, she turned to face him. "I won," she said in between breaths.

Renji grimaced, "Well, I wasn't trying!" He glared at her, the suddenly started smirking.

"What?" Rukia demanded.

Renji grinned evilly, "Well, you're all out of breath. How are you supposed to do the tryouts for the Junsuina Yuki?"

"That's not today!" she said, then realized that it was. "Oh shit!"

"Ha! I win!" Renji shouted, and with a pat on her head, he walked away into the busy crowd in front of the school, where he was immediately greeted by his many friends and admirers. Rukia sighed. Renji was very popular at school, while she was just an outcast. A few girls caught her staring, and stared whispering loudly.

"Look at the slut, staring at Abarai-kun as if he would date a bitch like her."

"Yeah, and she's not even pretty. She just thinks she's so special just because he hangs out with her outside of school." They all laughed, and turned away, pretending she couldn't hear. She took a deep breath, and walked through the gates.

Today, the school day seemed to go by even more slowly than normal, and, finally, her last period came. Besides the taunts at the beginning of school, Rukia wasn't bothered much today. She assumed, like her, the rest of the girls were anticipating the auditions for the Junsuina Yuki at the end of the school day. The festival's auditions would be hosted at her school this year. She stared at the clock, not even paying attention to what her teacher was saying. Her violet eyes had been chasing the second hand of the clock as it traveled around the rind of numbers lining the rim of the clock for the last five minutes. Finally, after what seemed like hours rather than minutes, reached the eleven, signaling that there was only one minute left. One minute left for the end of the school day, one minute left until she would be free to get her beloved swords and dress into her fabulous kimono that her aunt had bought for her. Her aunt had bought her a pure white one with a sky blue bow without knowing the special occasion that her aunt was buying it for. Rukia's aunt didn't even know about the two swords hidden under her floorboards, or else she would have probably forbidden Rukia from participating in the dance. Her aunt was very overprotective because of what had happened to Rukia's parents and brother and hated putting Rukia near anything that was potentially dangerous.

"Ding! Ding! Ding!" The bell rang signaling the end of school and bringing Rukia back into the present. She raced out of her seat, and out the door. She wanted to hurry and get home so that she could practice a little before the auditions, and her aunt wasn't home until five. She would never suspect anything.

As it turned out, Rukia didn't even get to practice much at all. She slipped on her kimono, tied the bow, grabbed her sword's case out from its hiding spot, and left for school once again. She stood in front of the open gates, a feeling of excitement and nervousness overwhelmed her. She took a deep breath, and rushed inside to the hall near the gym. Shockingly, even though Rukia was early, there were quite a few girls already waiting in the waiting room. A few of the turned her way as she walked in, but, realizing that it was her, turned away immediately. Rukia sat down in a quiet corner of the room, away from the other girls and looked at the walls. They were adorned with many posters of a beautiful sword (which Rukia knew was named Shirayuki) and five different people; two girls and three boys. One caught her attention, a handsome, muscular young man who looked about her age (sixteen) with bright orange hair and warm, chocolate brown eyes. She turned over to the person nearest to her and asked, "Who is that man?" She pointed to the poster.

The girl turned towards her with wide eyes, "You don't know who he is?" she said in a stage whisper. Rukia shook her head. "That's Ichigo Kurosaki! How could you not know who he is!" she gasped. The other girls in the room turned and looked at her. One of them, a girl who Rukia recognized as one of the girls who was taunting her in the morning said very loudly, "Humph! The slut strikes again! Too bad everyone knows that Ichigo is dating Orihime. He would never even look at a slut like her." The girls around her giggled. Rukia turned back to the poster of Ichigo and pretended not to hear.

The girl who Rukia had first asked about Ichigo turned her way. "I'm sorry about them. I can't believe that some of them used to be my friends. I'm Atsuko, by the way."

Rukia turned to her, "I'm Rukia. And who is this Orihime person?"

Atsuko shook her head, her dark brown hair falling into her face. "Wow, you don't know her either?"

"I don't know any of them."

"Oh. Well, Orihime is that one over there." She pointed to a poster to their left of a girl with who was quite pretty, with big gray eyes and long auburn hair. "They are the five shinigami."

Rukia gasped, "These are the shinigami?"

"Yep."

Rukia looked around more closely at the posters now. So these were the famed shinigami. She had heard of them, but she had never actually seen any them before.

A door opened, and a blonde woman came in. She was wearing a very revealing shirt and a short gray skirt. "Hello girls! My name is Rangiku Matsumoto, and I'm in charge of the festival for this year to honor Sode no Shirayuki!" She looked around the room, at all of the waiting girls. "Well, well, well! Look at the girls anxious to have the main part in this dance!" She looked at all of the girls in the room. More people had arrived since Rukia had first arrived, and the room was now so full that people had to wait outside. Rangiku pointed to a few different girls. "If I pointed to you, then you will be the first to audition." She waved them in, then walked in the room while everyone else scurried to get their stuff ready. Rukia grabbed her case and scurried into the room.

"Good luck Rukia-san!" called Atsuko. Rukia turned and smiled at her.

"You too!"

Rangiku motioned for the girls to sit against the wall. Rukia looked around the audition room. It was her school's gym, so they would have lots of room to dance. As they lined up against the wall, Rukia noticed that there were a two other people on the room with Rangiku. One was a man with short silver hair and a creepy smile on his face. His eyes also appeared to be closed, which gave him a foxlike appearance. Rukia shuddered and turned to the other person, a young girl who Rukia recognized from the posters outside. As the other competitors realized who she was, there were a lot of gasps from her fellow competitors.

"It's Orihime Inoue!"

"Oh my god! A Shinigami is here! Really here!"

"Well girls, as I'm sure you all know, this is Orihime Inoue, and," she gestured to the foxlike man leaning against the wall, "this is Gin Ichimaru."

Gin nodded in head in acknowledgement, still smiling creepily and Orihime smiled sweetly at all of the competitors. "There seems to be a lot of people competing this time," she said.

Rangiku smiled at her. "Oh course! A chance like this only happens once every 500 years!" she turned back to the competitors, "So who goes first?" Rukia looked around, but no one stepped up. Rangiku looked disappointed, "No one? Aww. Oh well, that means I get to choose randomly!" She closed her eyes, and got ready point, but then Orihime put a hand on her arm.

"Do you mind if I choose instead?" she smiled sweetly, "I've never been to something like this before."

Rangiku smiled enthusiastically, "Sure! I don't mind."

Orihime looked around the room, her gaze landing on each one of the girls lined up against the wall. Her gray eyes met Rukia's violets ones and she smiled slightly. "How about you."

"Me?" Rukia pointed to herself.

"Yes, you."

Rukia stepped up to the mat, clutching both her swords tightly. Her heart was hammering in her chest. Rangiku smiled, "Whenever you're ready."

Rukia nodded and swung her swords into the starting position, preparing to aim for the sweeping high arc of the Earth Seishin 3rd; one of the many sequences in the swords dance. She tried to ignore it stares from the other girls, and took a deep breath to settle her nerves, then she elegantly swung down one of her swords in a deadly arc and brought up the second to cross with the other. Water Seishin 1st. Doing good so far, she thought. She uncrossed the swords, turning on her heal and lashing out with each of her sword and taking a step forward with each slash. The punishing form of the Fire Seishin 5th. She lifted her head, preparing for the high arc of the Air Seishin 8th, and accidentally met Gin's eyes. He still had the same smile on his face, but noticing her looking at him, he opened one of his eyes, revealing their bright blue color. A wave of Déjà vu hit her, and she suddenly felt sick. The last thing she remembered was sharp pain in her head as she hit the concrete hard. Then, nothing.

"Rukia! Rukia! Get away from there!" her mother called, running after her. Right behind her mother was her older brother, Satoshi.

"But mommy, I like playing here!" the young Rukia said back, refusing to budge.

"Hurry Rukia! We must leave! They are coming!"

"Who is coming, mommy?"

"Come on, darling! Hurry! You have to run!"

Rukia turned to her mother, and was shocked to see tears running down her face. It suddenly occurred to her that her mother was serious. "Mommy…" She ran over to her mother, also crying. Her mother never cried. Why was she crying now?

"Mother! He's here!" Satoshi cried.

Her mother gasped. "Grab Rukia and run! Find your father! Hurry Satoshi!"

"But mother…"

"Go!" Satoshi grabbed Rukia and started to run. Behind them, Rukia could hear the sound of pounding, and a loud crash. Then there was a low voice, and her mother's scream. A gunshot rang through the air, then silence. Satoshi ran even faster, and then stopped at their mother's closet door. He pushed in Rukia first, then crawled in after her, shutting the door behind them quietly. They heard a crash as the door to their mother's room was broken down, and the sound of footsteps.

"Mommy?" Rukia called out, not knowing the danger they were in. Satoshi put a hand over her mouth, cursing.

"Shh!" But it was too late. The people on the other side heard her. The footsteps walked to the front of the door and opened it a crack. The person peeped in with a startling blue eye.

"I've found you, my little ones." He opened the door, and a knife glinted in his right hand. His other hand held a gun. "Hide and go seek is over."

When Rukia woke up again, she was in the nurse's office. Atsuko stood over her, worried. "You fainted, Rukia! I was so worried about you!"

"I what?" She sat up, and looked at her new friend. Suddenly, she remembered what had happened. A wave of sadness hit her. I blew it, she thought, I had the chance to become the Rida, and I blew it. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she held them back.

Atsuko looked at her, worried. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. You should go back to the auditions."

"Are you sure, Rukia?"

"Yes." Atsuko still looked uncertain, but she must have sensed Rukia's need to be alone, so she left. As she closed the door, Rukia laid back down. Disappointment welled up inside of. She had failed them. Her dream… her mother's dream… There was no chance for her anymore. She sighed and checked the time. It was almost five o'clock. She slowly got up and got ready for the long walk home…


AN: Sorry if the characters seem a bit OOC, but like I said, I'm new at this. Sorry the chapter took a REALLY long time to write, but I was kinda busy with my grandpa in the hospital and my mom being sick... But I finally completed it. Yes! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review! Yes! Review! Review! REVIEW!

And thank you for all of the wonderful reviews from the last chapter from sphinx, Eilyn, fujingodofwind, chibiyukia, and Mari! Sorry to make you all wait so long!