Disclaimer: Yep, definitely don't own Bleach. This work is fan made and not for profit. Note that this an AU and premise will become clear as the story unfolds.

Note: Perhaps some more information is required. I would be alarmed as a reader if OCs started to show up and take up a lot of space and time in a story. Let me reassure you that the cannon characters remain a core part of the story, and that neither OC presented here (both of whom were introduced last chapter and are further developed here) is the main character of the story. There will be several more OCs added to the cast to fill out Ichigo's academy class and who will develop along with him, and thus I must devote time to their development. With cannon characters I can rely on the readers already knowing who they are and focus on where they're going rather than where they've been. There will be several more OCs added to give life to the new Shinigami/Soul Reaper trainees in the academy with Ichigo, though I must admit not all of them will survive the story. If the beginning of the story is some indication, I am merciless in killing off characters, both cannon and OC. No one is safe.

POV: The POV is roving with each chapter. Chapter 1 was from Ichigo's perspective. This one will be from that of one of the OCs. It will shift again to another character in the next chapter, and so on and so forth.

Chapter 2

(Xiao Lee's POV)

The new guy is a pussy. He talks tough and can fight, but that doesn't mean he's going to make it out here. He just doesn't have the edge to survive in the outer districts. Seen his type before. Tough, strong, but not hard enough.

Caleb wanted him to stay with us, so he stayed. I was even cool with helping patch the guy up with what we had. What I wasn't cool with was having to share the food we bought in the morning in a three way split. You know what that Ichigo did with such a lucky break? He fell for the old "I'm a starving orphan, please feed me or I'll keep staring at you with my big eyes" routine that the local waifs use all the time. He gave those damn kids most of his share, including his potato and most of his carrots. Caleb tried to warn him, but Ichigo didn't want to hear of it. Let him go hungry trying to feed people who probably won't even die without the food. Maybe then he'll learn.

I'd hoped we'd seen the last of Ichigo when he left to go look for his friends again. I mean, the Bellatorum would be looking for him after he killed one of them. We don't need that sort of trouble in our lives.

Turned out we weren't so lucky. The guy popped back up at night. His face was covered in bruises and he was weak from hunger. I got to admit, I was surprised he really happened to be one of those spirits that needed to eat. Guy was at least that strong.

"What happened to you?"

"Nothing," was his answer.

"Nothing," I repeated.

"Punk needed to be taught a lesson," Ichigo finally said.

I shook my head. I almost refused him entrance, but Caleb popped up behind me and asked if he wanted to come in. He's got a soft spot for Ichigo, I guess. He even gave him a bowl of soup.

"Thanks," Ichigo said as he accepted it.

"You're making friends everywhere."

"I'm not going to let those Bellatorum guys get away with their shit."

"Oh fuck, you messed with them again?" Now I really didn't want him here. What if they found out where we lived?

"Only two of them."

"You didn't kill them, did you?"
Ichigo flinched. "No. They ran off after a bit. Who are they anyway?"

I shrugged. "Every district has a gang that has the run of the place. The nicer the district, the more involved in legit business the gang is. Really bad districts have several gangs fighting it out. The Bellatorum are the biggest one around here."

"Why doesn't anyone do anything?"

"Who would care to?"

"The police?"

I didn't understand the term. "The what?"

"It's a world of the living thing," Caleb explained. "Think of them as sort of like the Central 46, but they are about keeping order among people rather than about maintaining spiritual balance of the universe." Caleb turned to Ichigo. "There is no law enforcement agency in existence that could keep the peace in Rukongai, let alone beyond that."

"What about the Shinigami?"

I laugh. "Why would they acre. So long as no full scale riots break out and there is a steady supply of recruits and material, they don't care." There had to be a potential disaster on the horizon to bring them out unless they happened upon something while already on important business in the area.

"Who prevents theft and murder?"

"No one. You've got to protect yourself. If you don't want your shit stolen, protect it. If you don't want to die, either make nice with the dangerous folks, keep your head down or kill the other guy first."

"Ichigo," Caleb took over, "the closest thing around here to police are gang protection rackets and the armed men of noble houses. Those last ones tend to be better, but they also only protect their own interests. Only a few actively try to enforce the law outside their own interest. Most don't bother."

"You'd think that someone who claims to know a Kuchiki would know that."

"I do know a Kuchiki," Ichigo said.

"I didn't believe you the first time." How would a newcomer know a Kuchiki. I can't even remember the last time Soul Society used a substitute Shinigami. I've met a lot of con men in my time, and I had no intention of falling for that crap now.

"They're one of the houses that try to restore order aren't they," Ichigo said. He sounded almost triumphant.

"You tell me. You shacked up with the little princess of the house."

"We didn't shack up. She just lived with me!" Ichigo paused, then his eyes bulged a bit as he realized what he'd just said. "Not like that. We worked together is all. Look, she didn't tell me much about Soul Society."

"You two too busy for talking?"

"Shut up."

Where the argument might have gone, I don't know. We were interrupted by shouting. There was a whole commotion outside.

"What's that?" Ichigo asked, rolling over to look at the door.

"I got it," Caleb said and walked for the door. He bent to look through one of the many holes in the door. Guy straightened in a hurry. The Bellatorum. They're here.

"Shit, one of them followed you here. You fucking idiot. You've killed us all." I reached out and thumped Ichigo a good one. "How many of them are there?"

"All of them, I think," came Caleb's answer as he circled to the only other door that served as our last hope of escape.

My heart sank. We were dead. No, we couldn't die. Accepting death meant the certainty of it. I had to figure this one out. Somehow I had to think my way out of a circle of Bellatorum who were hungry for blood.

Ichigo seemed to be caught up in his own thoughts, but the loud clatter of rocks being thrown at the hovel and the jeers of the Bellatorum shook him out of it. "This is my fault. Offer me up to them for your lives."

"Your damn right it's your fault," I shout at him. I have a right to be angry. This strange boy brings trouble back to my home, fuck, he deserves what's coming his way. "Let them fucking have him."

"No way," Caleb said, giving me a hard look.

"He's right. It might be the best chance you've got."

"See, Ichigo agrees with me."

Caleb shook his head. "Ichigo saved our lives. We owe him better than that."

"Don't be stupid," I said. "He agrees with me. We housed him, we fed him when he wasted his own fucking food, and now you want us to give back the lives he supposedly saved. No way. We don't owe him that."

Ichigo gave me a look I couldn't quite understand. It was halfway between wanting to hit me and starting to cry. Dude has baggage, no doubt about that, but I don't give a damn. We've all got baggage. It doesn't give someone the right to get others killed. Didn't know what his past shit was and didn't care.

Should never have brought this guy to our home. Think I'd have learned by now. Strangers were just going to cause trouble. My mother paid with her life for helping the wrong person. I still don't know the name of the guy that killed my mother, but I did vividly remember seeing him throw her to the floor of our old home. He crushed her windpipe with his hands. She'd invited him in, saved him from freezing to death during the cold season. That was the thanks we got. I did not intend to die the same way. No way.

"Ichigo goes. That's all there is to it," I said.

"Fuck that." Caleb wasn't giving ground either.

"I'm not letting anyone else die for me. Get out of the way, Caleb," Ichigo stood up and began to move for the door.

Caleb pushed him back. "Think about it. Do you think they're just going to let us go after they kill you? No. They're not going to stop until we're all dead."

"You don't know that." Ichigo beat me to that one.

"You've humiliated them. They're not going to let that go. We're involved with you. That's all they need to know," Caleb said.

I shook my head. "Not if we prove otherwise."

"Stop thinking whatever you're thinking."

"Its two to one here, Caleb."

A big rock hit the door then, silencing our fight.

"Listen up you dumb shits," a voice called from outside. "You've angered the Bellatorum. You must pay the price."

"This guy thinks highly of himself," Ichigo muttered.

"I'll allow you to choose how you want to die. You can come out and we will nail every last one of you up, or option two, we can burn you alive in there."

"They've got torches." Caleb was again looking through one of the holes. "And if you weren't listening, they said 'every last one of you'. We're all in this together, so no martyring yourselves or selling each other out."

"It's bigger than that," I said. "Think about it, if they use fire, then this isn't the only shack that's going to go up. All the homes are smushed together close here. The fire is going to spread."

"That's it, I'm going out there," Ichigo tried to push past Caleb, and this time looked to be gaining ground. "I'm not letting more shit happen because of me."

The jeering outside grew louder each passing moment. The Bellatorum were psyching themselves up for the moment. Every second that passed made it more and more likely they wouldn't settle for anything less than three corpses on crosses.

"If you go out there, I'm going out there too," Caleb said.

"Screw that. You don't even know me. Why would you do that?"

"Because we're going to die either way, and I'd rather go out fighting than sending a good guy to his death."

"Don't be an idiot, Caleb," I said right as the first torch hit the side of our hovel.

That initial throw must have been the first droplet of rain to fall out of a storm because I could hear other impacts. Our hut wasn't made of the most flame retardant of materials (straw and old wood just make love to fire in all the wrong ways) and all too many of the torches didn't just bounce off. The fire spread fast from each point of origin. Smoke began to fill the hovel. The Bellatorum must have had a mind to cut off one escape route because the flames were thicker at the back exit than the front. They wanted to smoke us out. I didn't have time to think about how they achieved that effect; I guess they clustered their throws together on that side.

"Guess they weren't in the mood to wait any more," I said. "Fuck." I wanted to hit Ichigo. Caleb too. I had no intention of dying here.

"We charge out there now, all of us, and attack. Maybe we can frighten them off," Caleb said, diving to the part of the floor with loosened boards: our only real hiding place in here. Out of the cubby Caleb pulled a couple knives and a pair of cudgels. He gave one of the sticks to me, and we doled out the knives fast.

"Oh, now you're ready to fight?" Ichigo said, his voice muffled by the fact he'd pulled his top up over his face to help protect him from the smoke. By the coughing that followed his words, it must not have helped much.

I didn't answer. I merely handed him back the knife from last night and the cast iron pot we used for cooking. Both would do as weapons in a fight. Damn it, I didn't want it to come to this. I trust Caleb. Well, as much as I do anybody. I don't trust Ichigo. Even if the guy is a good scrapper, he got stabbed last night and got a gash on his arm. Who wants to have the walking wounded on their team when they're completely outnumbered.

I reached down as Caleb armed Ichigo and removed a small bag from the stash. That I couldn't leave without. Never. I hid it under my clothes before anyone noticed.

Caleb, like Ichigo, had his face covered, so he couldn't speak. He nodded for the one exit available to us. The heat was unbearable and all of were sweating bullets. My skin was beginning to sear without even touching the fire.

I also bobbed my head in agreement.

Caleb went first, charging through the door and bashing it open with his shoulder. He was giving what he must have thought was a war cry. It was more a manly scream with a voice break thrown in.

Even though he was wounded, I let Ichigo go in front of me, and I slipped in behind him. In my hands I hefted the cudgel.

As soon as we broke free of the flaming hovel I used to call home, I was treated to an all too good look at what awaited us. The Bellatorum formed an inverted V that would funnel us to the greatest concentration of them. There had to be a score of them. I couldn't count them in the moment, but there were a lot. The fight looked hopeless before it even began.

Caleb must have realized allowing himself to be funneled in would mean a quick death, so he charged right instead. Ichigo, being the idiot I guessed him to be, charged straight in.

I was faster. I swung the cudgel and caught Ichigo in the shoulder blade. The carrot top went down hard with a squawk. Then I leapt on him, pulling out my knife and putting it to his throat.

My actions must have surprised the Bellatorum. The counter-attack they'd already started slowed to a crawl, and none of them rushed me. Off to the right, Caleb managed to club one down before he was tackled and brought to the ground by three others. They pinned him there easily.

"I'm going to mess you up." He yelled at them. He struggled, but to no avail.

"Don't kill that one." I ordered as if I had the authority to demand such things.

"Hold up," a voice called. The man at the center of the v stepped forward. He was dressed in a flowery kimono and wore some sort of high crowned wide brimmed hat that I didn't recognize. At his side was a sword he wore in the style of a Shinigami's zanpakto. It was a clear imitation. I assumed it was to demonstrate status. I recognized him. His name was Lang.

Caleb noticed the change in the behavior of his captors, probably because of the fact that he wasn't already dead, and he stopped fighting too. He twisted in the arms of the guys holding him as much as he could. That's when he saw what I was doing. "The fuck, Lee?"

"Shut up," I shout at him. Then I look to lang. "I'm sorry, Princeps Lang." That was the title that Lang had appropriated for himself. I knew he took it from a civilization long gone from the world of the living, but that didn't matter much. I'd call him "Chief-Big-Dick Lang" if that's what he wanted. "I beg forgiveness for my offenses and am eager to atone."

"You fucker," Ichigo growled from below me. "I saved your life."

I pressed down just a little bit more with the knife, the blade touching Ichigo's throat. "Please, allow me to end this man for you."

"Why would you do that? You know the Bellatorum do not forgive slights," Lang's voice was calm, controlled. He had the power to decide who lived and who died here. Bastard was savoring it. "We only grant forgiveness through death."

"Ah, but you do offer rebirth, as a Bellatorum. You make men kill to join you. Let this boy be my kill."

"Damn it, Lee. Don't you dare." Caleb yelled before one of the Bellatorum hit him across the face.

"Why would I want you? The Bellatorum are honorable, loyal warriors."

"I have loyalty. That is very important to me. In return, I want him to live." I nod at Caleb.

Caleb opened his mouth, probably to say something very rude to me, but a fist silenced him.

Lang glanced at Caleb, then back to me. "Why him and not this boy?"

"Caleb is the only family I have left. I want to spare him by blood I shed. That is your way, is it not?" It does pay to know as much about the customs of each gang as possible.

Lang smiled. "Your offer and cunning do impress. If you're willing to kill for family maybe you do have what it takes to be one of us. We'll see. Take the orange one."

Two of his guys came forward, and I let them have Ichigo. They kicked his weapons away and grabbed him by both arms.

I got off once they had him and stood up. I no longer needed the club, so I dropped it. The knife I pushed into my belt.

Lang sidled over to inspect his new acquisition. "You're the one who killed Klein, are you?"

"Who is that, your boyfriend?" Ichigo said with the same confidence he exuded when last I saw him in a dangerous situation.

Lang laughed. "I'm going to have fun seeing if you hold onto that courage when we're nailing your hands to boards." He turned to me and clapped me on the shoulder. "And you. We'll see if you have what it takes. You will drive in the nails."

"I'd love to see that stupid punk suffer. He never would have survived anyhow." As I spoke, I wrapped my hands around the knife in my belt and then, quick as I could, drove it into Lang's throat. I know I got the windpipe and maybe wedged the blade into the neck bone. That meant Lang was dead, no doubt about it. Didn't even bother trying to pull the knife out. That would be too slow. I reached for the sword hilt at Lang's side and drew it around in a wide arc. I had no training with a sword what-so-ever. But the blade was sharp and strong, probably the best Lang could afford, and I brought it around to slice off the head of the guy holding Ichigo's right arm. Then I turned and ran for the group holding Caleb slashing widely with the weapon. Didn't get any of them, but they fell back in surprise, releasing Caleb.

Behind me I heard Ichigo shout and someone else grunt in pain. I guess Ichigo had turned on the other guy trying to hold him as I hoped he would.

"Get up, Caleb. Grab a weapon and fight."

He didn't need to be told twice. He was already diving for that club.

The death of their leader must have shocked and confused the Bellatorum because they were a mess. Some of them tried to fall back, which got in the way of the ones who bellowed with rage and attacked. They were tripping themselves up, giving us a chance to reform.

Don't get me wrong, we were still screwed. But the chaos gave me faint hope we might just be able to drive them off. I thought about making a break for the bikes, but they'd grab me before I even got it up to pedal. An on foot escape was out of the question. I was stuck in corner with a sword I didn't know how to use. Damn it, I wasn't going to die. I had to keep telling myself that.

"Fight," I yelled again. "Both of you sons of bitches, fight." I kept swinging. None of the other Bellatorum had a weapon quite like Lang's and the range gave me the edge in keeping them at bay. I couldn't look to see how the others were faring. The only thing really keeping us alive was the fact that the Bellatorum kept getting in their own way.

There was a massive, drawn out crashing sound as our old home collapsed. With just a glance I realized that the flames were already spreading to other houses. People were now fleeing into the streets. More chaos. That could only be good for us.

I slashed one of the thugs who decided to get a little too brave right across his face. Somewhere off to the side I heard Caleb give an ump of effort and there was an ugly squelching sound. Then I heard Ichigo yell, "I've got you, Caleb."

Damn it, I couldn't turn and see what was going on. I had to keep the rest of these monsters off us and rely on the fact that Ichigo was a better fighter than me. Maybe I should have taken my chances trying to become one of the Bellatorum. Hell, what am I saying, they would probably have nailed me on the next cross after I did the same to Ichigo. It's just their way.

A high pitch whistling noise rent the air. Looks of terror crossed the faces of the Bellatorum, and though my mind took a second longer to equate the noise with what it meant, I too felt a burst of adrenaline. I'd only heard it once before. It was when a group of Shinigami had suppressed a water riot.

Had the fire attracted them?

The Bellatorum turned and fled as one, moving in unison for the first time I'd seen that evening. They all knew that they had to get out of there. Shinigami administered harsh justice. And not all of them were fast enough. A figure wearing the robes of Shinigami dove amid their ranks, cutting two of them down.

I was hit from behind and bowled to the ground. Damn that hurt. I let the weapon fall from my hands and held them up to prove that I was no longer armed. Surrender was the only way to placate an attacking soul reaper, and that was no sure bet. Rolling over, I emphasized my capitulation with a clear cry of "I give up. Don't hurt me. We're not with them."

Another Shinigami leveled their zanpakto at me, the tip of the blade two inches from my nose. "Stay down."

"No problem, man."

In the chaos of the night, I could still hear some voices clearly. "Get that fire out," someone ordered.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" Ichigo cried, probably because another soul reaper was on him.

I glanced to see what had become of Caleb, but I couldn't find him. Was he still alive.

"What gang are you from?" The Shinigami asked me.

"I'm not from one."

"Don't lie to me. No civilian from this district could afford a weapon like that."

"I'm telling the truth. I got it from one of them. You can check me. I have no tatts or anything else like that. There are people around here who know me."

"We'll see."

"Hey Ichigo," I called, hoping it didn't get me killed to raise my voice. "If you really do know a soul reaper, now is the time to say."

"What do you think I'm trying to do? They're not listening. Ow. Fuck. Don't you understand, I'm a friend of Rukia's. Kuchiki Rukia. Haven't any of you heard that name?"

"Silence you," another voice said.

"Hold on, don't kill him," came a woman's voice. It was high pitched, not the sort of voice you'd expect of a hardened killer or one who could command Shinigami.

I looked for the source. It was another Shinigami, a girl. Her hair was done up into a sort of bun with white cloth. The decoration was sort of cute. She also had a lieutenant's badge on her shoulder. Fuck, we'd managed to find a lieutenant. Damn, those bastards were stone cold killers. We were dead. Doesn't matter what she looked like.

"You know Kuchiki Rukia?"

"Yes I do. She must have returned to soul society by now. We are friends. She's looking for me."

"You don't believe this thug, do you Lieutenant Hinamori?" The soul reaper guarding Ichigo sounded ready to kill him.

"She's arrogant, irritating, has black hair, and draws like shit. I'm telling you, I know Rukia," Ichigo said as he continued to plead his case.

"Lieutenant?" Her men were eager to act on her orders.

The girl considered it for a moment, then reached a decision. "Focus our efforts on putting the fire out. It could consume the district. We'll take these men into custody. Rukia has recently returned, that much is true. We'll find out if they're telling the truth. Captain Aizen will get to the bottom on this."