"WAKE UP, ICHIGOOO!"

The Kurosaki household was alerted that it was daybreak by the sound of a loud crash and a cry of pain. Ichigo had caught his father by the face and thrown him out the window. Not even bothering to shout at his loving parent, Ichigo clambered out of bed and haphazardly threw on a dressing gown that hung on the closet door handle.

I did it, he thought excitedly. I'm back! Now just to find out how far back I've come… Quickly bounding downstairs, he accepted breakfast from a bewildered Yuzu and promptly made a second one, then took both upstairs. Before he did so, the front door creaked open, and a very happy (yet bloody) Kurosaki Isshin crawled in.

"I'm so proud of you, son…I think I broke a couple of ribs…there is nothing more for me to teach you!" Ignoring him, Ichigo re-entered his room and closed the door so no-one could hear, then knocked softly on the closet door.

"Oi, Rukia. Breakfast." He hissed. When there was no reply, he started to get annoyed. "Rukia, I'm opening the door, so you better not be doing anything embarrassing." He opened the door.

The closet was empty. No makeshift bed, no stolen pyjamas. Just a vacuum cleaner and a pile of old manga. Definitely no Rukia. On the back of the door was a calendar, with the current date circled.

Aw, crap. Thought Ichigo. Damn that Urahara!

It was the day that Ichigo gained his shimigami powers. So in effect, he hadn't met Rukia yet, or gained his 'powers'.

Now things are getting complicated…


"GOOD MORNING ICHIGOOO!"

Karakura High School had its day jumpstarted by the resounding smack of Keigo hitting the floor as Ichigo clothes-lined him. The other students rolled their eyes and continued on their business quickly, trying to avoid the bloodbath that would most likely soon occur.

"Ichigo, why would you do this to me? We're best buddies!" Ichigo ignored his bawling 'best friend' and continued on to the classroom.

"Good morning Kurosaki-kun!" Whooped Inoue Orihime, jumping up and down in excitement. Ichigo always found it difficult to look at her face when she did that…

But today he looked at her in a much different light. How happy and upbeat she was…but he knew now that she was hurting inside, and that she could be very serious if needs be. She was strong, very strong. He should make an effort this time round to help her out more often. But for now, he had to act normal.

"Morning, Ohrihime," He said nonchalantly. "How are you?"

"Me? I'm great! And I just made an amazing new recipe for my lunch! Its got-"

"Don't tell him, Orihime, you'll corrupt his brain." Came the smooth voice of Tatsuki Arisawa as she strode across to greet them. "Morning, Ichigo."

"Morning." Tatsuki…he hadn't noticed before, as he was so caught up in the war, but she had quite a high level of reitsu. Perhaps she had the potential to develop her own powers. He'd have to keep an eye on her, too.

Excusing himself to get into the classroom, the first thing he noticed was the priceless expression on Ishida's face as he no doubt sensed Ichigo's reitsu. Take a picture, it'll last longer, he thought smugly as he passed the now fuming Quincy. He nodded briefly to Chad and sat down, waiting for the lesson to begin.

As their teacher droned on, Ichigo thought about what the hell he was going to do. Things were getting far too complicated for his liking, and he hadn't even been back a day yet. He had intended to reappear at some point before Rukia's execution, carry on with events as they were until he got to Aizen, kick Aizen's ass, finis. Only now that he had appeared too early, Rukia would not transfer her powers to him, and so would not need a gigai, and never become a part of the twisted plot. Instead, the Hōgyoku would remain hidden somewhere inside the Urahara Shoten.

So now a lot of Ichigo's foreknowledge was practically useless. His success hinged on Aizen not claiming the Hōgyoku, and it was only a matter of time before the treacherous Shimigami cooked up a completely different and unforeseen plan to steal it. Still, that gave Ichigo more time to plan, train and of course, train the others when their time came.

But now he had a more immediate problem. He knew for a fact that tonight a Hollow would attack his family, and Rukia would appear to fight it. He was not worried that the Hollow would cause much trouble, but he knew that Rukia would sense his reitsu, and awkward questions would get asked.

It was frustrating, incredibly so. It had taken Ichigo months to get underneath Rukia's mask and gain her trust, even friendship. And now he had to start all over again. To her, he would appear as a rogue, dangerous Shimigami and she would probably report him. While it would mean getting closer to Aizen, ruining his reputation with Soul Society- and with Rukia- was not a good idea. He would have to be very careful. Unfortunately, Ichigo wasn't renowned for such a thing.


The walk home seemed to take a lot longer than Ichigo remembered. It felt like years since he had come down this familiar track, yet he knew he had spent only a couple of days at most in Hueco Mundo. It seemed a few days was all it took to turn the world upside down, inside out, and then invert the colours till the result was a misshapen, twisted version of the original, so similar and yet so alien.

So caught up in his thoughts was he that he almost walked into the skateboarder who was shouting at him. Acting on reflex, Ichigo promptly kicked him in the face, sending him crashing onto the ground several metres away, much to the shock of his peers.

Whoa, déjà vu. After a swift beating and a spiritual lecture, Ichigo turned to the bloodied spirit of the little girl who had been watching the whole time.

"Thank you," she said wispily. "I think I'll be able to rest in peace now." Ichigo smiled at her sadly.

"I have a better idea. I'll-" and then he tensed, realising with a shock that he didn't have his Substitute licence, nor did he have Kon, or Rukia's glove, or Kisuke's cane. He was completely stuck in his body.

Ichigo, you dumbass! He screamed to himself in his head, and then sullenly turned and trudged off back home, leaving a very confused spirit behind him.

Ichigo was noticeably more subdued at dinner that night, much to Yuzu's displeasure, as she believed her cooking to be upsetting him. In fact, Ichigo was doing his best to suppress his reitsu so that Rukia would not recognise him straight off the bat and ask awkward questions- he would appear to be a human with high reitsu, that's all. Then, he would let her kill the Hollow and leave. Then tomorrow he could try and sort out his long-term plans.

It was difficult for Ichigo to accept that this time round he might have to forego Rukia's friendship, at least temporarily. But if that meant that she, his nakama, did not die, then it was a price he was willing to pay.

Of course, it wasn't very easy to concentrate on compressing one's reitsu while still thinking up reassurances to Yuzu's as she lamented her own cooking (which was excellent- she was far too modest), retorted Karin's suggestive comments that Ichigo was distracted because he was 'At that age', along with repeatedly fending off attacks from his father.

Once dinner had ended, Ichigo felt confident that he had suppressed his reitsu enough to convince the approaching Soul Reaper. He could feel her presence getting closer, along with that of the Hollow's. Now that he could sense reitsu levels more accurately, Ichigo marvelled at the enormous power difference between Rukia and the Hollow, and wondered why she had had such trouble with it before.

Probably because she was distracted…oh yeah, by me! Ichigo decided then that while he would still react to her, he wouldn't attempt to break out of the Kido this time, and let her do her job.

Right on cue, he walked into his bedroom to find Rukia stepping through the window, her face set in determination. All right, Ichigo, He briefed himself mentally. Time for some stellar acting.

"It's close…" Said the Death God, treading silently past Ichigo, paying him no mind.

"'It's close' to my ass, retard!" Roared Ichigo, smashing her in the back with a kick. She collapsed on the floor a few feet away, her face the picture of shock. "You're a pretty cocky burglar," continued Ichigo, who was feeling an enormous sense of Déjà vu that was increasing by the minute. "By 'It's close' do you mean the safe is close or something?"

"You…you can see me?" Stumbled Rukia, still in shock. "And…you kicked me!"

"Huh?" Said Ichigo, feigning confusion. "What the heck are you talking about? Of course I see –" While he was performing a masterpiece of acting, in his head he was counting down: 3, 2, 1…

"BE QUIET ICHIGO! DON'T MAKE A RUCKUS ON THE SECOND FLOOR!" One ass-kicked father later, Ichigo now had to keep up with the conversation between him and Rukia about boring stuff he already knew. One would think that, having done it before, it would be a piece a cake; however, he was finding it difficult to portray the appropriate emotional reaction (Usually some form of anger).

But there was another problem. Ichigo was starting to feel a bit unusual…the reitsu that he had compressed earlier was…he wasn't sure what exactly it was doing, but it felt like it was…bubbling? Stretching? Something. It started when they got to the bit where Rukia put the Kido on him, and it was gradually building up. It was getting really-

"…There's its howl right now. Do not fear, brat; I will take care of this. Your family will come to no harm." And with that, she left. Oops, thought Ichigo. I wasn't paying enough attention, I forget that I had to react to the howl before she did…doesn't matter. But what did matter was his steadily churning reitsu. It seemed it really didn't like being contained, both by him and the Kido.

After a few minutes, he heard the battle raging downstairs. He also heard the sound of one person carrying two others up the stairs and into one of the other rooms. Thank you, Shimigami senses! At least he knew that the others were all right. But the reitsu inside him was becoming unbearable; couldn't Rukia hurry it up already?!


Rukia grimaced and wiped some blood of her cheek as she squared down the Hollow that was leering at her. Under normal circumstances this would have taken seconds, but that mysteriously strong reitsu was hampering her movements. She couldn't pinpoint it's location; it was rather unstable, and reitsu detection was not her best skill. But it was close. And it was increasing.

It didn't help that the Hollow, rather than be intimidated or hampered by this high level of spirit energy, seemed encouraged by it. "Yeeesss…such a tasty smelling reitsu! I cannot wait to find its source…but you will make a wonderful appetiser, shimigami!" And so they continued to fight.

Meanwhile, Ichigo was really struggling upstairs He felt like he was going to split in two from the reaction between his reitsu and Rukia's Kido!

And then he split in two.

With a final burst, Ichigo's reitsu broke the offensive Kido that was containing in, but it also broke out of Ichigo's body, carrying his soul with it. Ichigo stood there in his Shihakushō, looking extremely confused and emanating a vast amount of reitsu.

Downstairs, Rukia screamed and keeled over. What the hell is this?! She screamed inside her head It's so strong…I can barely move! Suddenly she felt a sear of pain go through the side of her body and she was sent careening through the air. She screamed as she collided with the wall, and her vision swam. She could just make out the Hollow, who was trudging towards the staircase. The way it was moving, it appeared to be attempting to walk through sludge; the reitsu was hampering it now.

Dammit Rukia, she berated herself. Being put out of commission by a weak hollow that swung at you by accident? What have you sunk to?

And then he came down the stairs.

Rukia's breath hitched in her throat. This. Was. Impossible. Standing at the base of the stairs, looking up at the Hollow with only a slightly annoyed expression on his face was the human she had suppressed earlier. Only he wasn't human. He was dressed in a Soul Reapers uniform, and strapped to his back was an enormous Zanpakutō that had no hilt or hand guard, and resembled a giant, yet elegant, cleaver.

The enormous reitsu that was dampening her senses…it was emanating from him! It had to be a least captain level…or higher, if that was even possible!

Who is he? What is he?

"Heh heh ha ha! This is just too good!" Cackled the Hollow as it looked down on Ichigo. "A feast laid out right in front of me! You power will become mine, boy!"

"Sorry," Said Ichigo lazily. "But this restaurant is reserved for those of higher status. You can't eat here." And with that, he punched the Hollow in the face with enough force to shatter its mask. It vanished with a chilling scream.

He didn't even use his Zanpakutō… Suddenly Rukia felt very afraid. This being was completely different to the human it had posed as moments ago. This creature was bordering on being a deity, in her eyes.

She knew that, if he wanted to, he could kill her right now…

"Hey, you listening to me?" She looked up in surprise, and swallowed as she saw him there.

"Who…what are you? Why were you concealing your powers? Why…how?" Rukia stumbled over her words, terrified of the man in front of her. Pull, yourself together, Kuchiki! Her inner voice told her. You are not afraid of death! But that was easy to forget in the process of this man. "Your reitsu…its choking me…can't you lower it, please?"

It broke Ichigo's heart to see her in such torment because of him. She must think him some kind of monster. "This is an after-affect of compressing my reitsu too much when trying to conceal my identity from you. It broke free, and so it's thicker than usual. Or something like that. It'll die down in a while." He looked down at the adopted noble, concern in his face. "Looks like he clawed you pretty badly. Lucky for you, this place is a hospital. You have any memory-modifiers on you?" Rukia only nodded dumbly. "Right, well you're going to hide in this place while you recover. We wipe the memories of my family. Only Karin will be able to see you, and she'll dismiss it. She always does. Once you're healed, you can go back to Soul Society. In exchange for my help, you don't mention I was here, got it?"

Again, all Rukia could do was nod. True to this guy's theory, his reitsu was decreasing, and she could begin to feel the pain in her wound. It was bad; limited, to only human medical supplies, she could be here for five days, at the least. She felt the mysterious stranger lift her up bridal style, and she fought back the urge to protest with one her typical outburst; she did want to give this man a reason to go back on his generosity.

He glanced back at her. What was that curious expression on his face? Concern? Pain? This being truly was an enigma. Tentatively she asked him:

"I'm Kuchiki Rukia…what is your name, Shimigami?"

"It's not Shimigami. Its Kurosaki Ichigo." And she knows then, somehow, that despite being with a complete stranger with terrifying power, that she is in the company of a friend.


Wow, this took a lot longer than I thought it would. Natrually, that makes it longer than the previous chapter, so I think it was worth the wait. Expect similar waiting periods for future chapters, and one major one I have planned is looking to be enormous...I may have to split it up into smaller ones. My thanks to my sole reviewer, Ayumu Narumi. I'm not a nooby writer who doesn't update unless I fufill a quota of reviews, but some constructive criticism is appreciated. Natrually, flames will be ignored.

Bringing the next update as soon as possible,

Reduxer.