Author's Notes: Based on the reviews, no one really seems to like this version of the story. But this version of the story is all I want to write. So here's how it's gonna be, peeps: if you're interested in reading this story further, let me know in a review. Otherwise, this is probably the last chapter I'll post. I'll continue writing this story without posting it, and will focus on posting for my other two stories instead.

The second part of this chapter is very much like Version One. But the first part is all-new stuff.

I tried make POV less confusing by putting Ichigo in first person and other people (like Rukia) in third person. Let me know what you think.

2.

Dad was up unusually early the next morning, almost as early as me, carrying a briefcase and a suitcase, in a suit and tie.

"I have a conference," he said in response to my stare. "Be sure to put the sign up on the front door saying the hospital is closed, okay? I won't be home tonight."

"Got it," I said smoothly, still making breakfast. "Hey, Dad." He turned at the door. "If you get all mushy over this I'll kill you… but you'll do great."

To my surprise, he smiled. "Thanks, kid," he said, and went out the door.

Karin turned on the morning news when she and Yuzu came in for breakfast. I told them about Dad; they were pretty casual. It wasn't the first time Dad had left home at the last minute. So we were all sitting around eating, and an alarming scene appeared on the newscast.

"And we are live here at Karakura Station! About a block from here, residents reported hearing a great rumbling, and then all the windows on all the lowest floors of the buildings exploded in a sudden shower of breaking glass. There have been serious injuries, but no one has died. The cause of the explosion is still unknown. If you travel by Karakura Station, find another way to make it through the city, because this entire block is closed for the day!" said the reporter, surrounded by crowds of people. "Police are doing everything they can to -" I stopped listening.

Behind him, sectioned off with yellow tape, was a long street full of buildings with what looked like deep, giant claw marks riven through all the lowest levels.

"It looks almost like some huge animal ripped through it," I said, frowning.

"Are you worried, Nee-chan?" Yuzu asked.

"It's just… I use that street to walk to school every day. That's really close to here," I realized. "So be careful today, you guys, okay?"

"Why don't you be careful?" Karin grinned, joking. "It seems to be after you."

I'd stopped by the alleyway with some new flowers, but the ghost of the little girl wasn't there. Maybe she had passed on? I hoped so.

In any case, I swept up the street, wiped down the walls, and left a new offering of flowers. My work here was done. Then I headed off toward school.

So I was on my phone, going around a backway, through a different street from usual to get to campus. Tatsuki and Orihime were on the other line.

"Yeah, no, I'm not there. I'm -" I began, looking around for the street sign. And it happened quite suddenly.

All the windows on the ground floor of every single building exploded.

I ducked, covering my head and neck with my arms, as people screamed and started running and broken glass went everywhere.

"Ichigo! Ichigo!" I could also hear screaming coming from the phone.

"I'm alive," I breathed into the phone. "I'll have to call you back!" And I hung up on them.

That was when I heard a scream - the scream of the little girl's ghost. A yell came shortly after that, a man's yell. Suddenly, I saw the ghost of the old businessman and the ghost of the pigtailed girl come sprinting around the corner - and chasing them was a gigantic spirit monster, as tall as a mid-sized building.

I stopped, the blood draining from my face. It looked like a huge insect, its long pincers opened to claw at the buildings around it, but its face was the worst. It had a white mask face with leering skull teeth, its eyeholes all darkness but for a single light of sentience in each eye. A mask with no person behind it.

"Help!" the little girl screamed, running toward me. "Oneechan!"

"What is that thing?!" the businessman barked. "It's been chasing us since last night!"

"I - I don't know, I don't know. RUN!" It was all I could think of to do, the shriek tearing itself from my throat. I turned around and began sprinting as fast as I could, my mind racing. What was that thing? Why was it attacking Karakura?

Suddenly, the girl stumbled and fell. The businessman paused - "Keep going!" I barked at him, and ran back to get the little girl. If it could see her, it could hurt her, and that was all I was going off of at this point.

I heard the businessman pause, and keep running.

I bent over the little girl, trying to urge her to her feet. "Come on! Come on, get up!" I shouted. Then I felt the monster's shadow loom over us. We were never going to make it in time. "NEVER MIND, GET DOWN!" I screamed, throwing myself on top of her.

I looked up, saw the monster's teeth and the darkness of the back of its throat, felt its putrid blood-stained breath…

And then there was a flutter of black butterfly wings and my vision was covered in a flash of black cloth. The shink of a sword made itself known to my ears.

A girl who looked around my age, small, delicate, pale, and dark-haired, was standing before me, blocking the monster from reaching me. She wore formal black robes, like those of a samurai, and carried a real katana sword.

Then the girl leaped upward and lunged, supernaturally high, at the creature. Her sword cut through its head and then down through its body and with a shrieking howl, it was gone. Like it had never been.

I stood shakily, my legs weak, and called out, "Hey -!" But the girl was already gone, as suddenly as she appeared. My hand reached out for nothing.

"How terrifying…"

"Another explosion…"

"What's going on?!"

I heard the shaken people speaking behind me. Bewildered, I turned around to one and pointed at where the monster had been. "You didn't see that?"

"See what?" the woman asked. "I saw you shout and throw yourself to the ground. I thought of doing the same myself!"

I turned around to the ghost of the little girl and we shared a serious look. What I had just seen, only the dead should be able to see. The monster had been a spirit…

But so, in fact, had been the black-robed girl.

I called Tatsuki and Orihime again, telling them only that I was fine - I'd survived the explosion.

"Don't get your hopes up, I'm not that easy to kill," I joked weakly over the phone.

"Go straight home and stay there," Tatsuki commanded icily, her voice full of helpless fury. "We'll tell your teachers what happened."

So I went home - doctor's orders. My mind was spinning. Had I imagined the whole thing - monster, girl? But then why had the ghosts been a part of my delusion?

Nothing that had happened today fit my set idea of how the Universe worked - and that frightened me. I was used to knowing more than everyone. I was the ultimate atheist skeptic with the supernatural powers. But this? I didn't understand it at all.

My sisters were nice when they came home and found out what had happened. They even made me dinner. I told them afterward that I was going to bed early, so they started up a loud video game in the living room downstairs. I went up to my bed, and then I just lay there, still in my school uniform, wondering: Who had been the girl? What had been the monster? And why had it been chasing those ghosts?

Just then, a black swallowtail butterfly fluttered through the closed window and over my head. My eyes widened, my head jerked up - and the black robed girl floated through my bedroom wall. She looked just like a living person. She wasn't transparent, there was no chain, there were no obvious signs of death - not even something subtle, like old age or chemotherapy.

And yet she was a spirit. She floated. She touched down on my bedroom floor, her expression solemn, not even looking at me. Instead, she was now looking around herself intently, as if searching for something. "It's close," I heard her murmur. "The source of spirit energy."

She was pale and dark-haired, with violet eyes, and she was tiny bordering on anorexic. Like, it looked like she could use some food. Seriously.

Getting ahead of yourself there, Ichigo. Do not just feed the girl with the sword who can move through walls.

"Hey," I called to the girl, clearing my throat, "um, I can see you." To be fair, I was used to weird things happening around me. This was just another one. But the girl ignored me, still staring around my bedroom. Maybe she was deaf?

So I walked up to the girl, bent down to her level, and said loudly right into her face, "ARE YOU DEAF? I CAN SEE YOU."

And the black-robed girl nearly had a goddamn heart attack.

"M… me? You can see… me?" she asked dumbly, her eyes wide.

I smirked and flicked her in the forehead. "Uh - yeah. Surprise? Aww. Did the poor little dead girl think she was invisible?"

The girl scowled, flushing, her eyes narrowing. "You arrogant little fool -!"

"Who did you think I was talking to, anyway?" I asked curiously, straightening, hands on my hips.

"I… I thought you were an undiagnosed schizophrenic," said the girl, feigning dignity.

"Funny. That's what I thought you were."

The girl became indignant. "I am not an undiagnosed schizophrenic! I am a noble member of the house of Kuchiki!"

"See, the problem is, that's exactly what an undiagnosed schizophrenic would say. And this noble house of Kuchiki? Never heard of it." I smirked as the girl swelled, reddening. So she was easy to rile up.

How fun.

"You're that girl from the street today, aren't you?" she asked suspiciously. "The one who called to me."

"You just noticed now? So what exactly are you, anyway?" I added curiously. "And what was that monster? And why are you here? Look, no offense, but I don't exactly like my private space being invaded." The Kuchiki girl grew more serious, nodding in response to my point.

"There is a reason why I was so surprised you could see me. Even humans with abnormal spiritual powers usually cannot see me. I am on a higher level than what you would call a ghost.

"I am a Shinigami."

Shinigami. God of Death.

I decided to entertain this girl's idea. If it was true, I did not know as much as I'd thought I had about death, and this needed to be rectified immediately. If it wasn't true… well, I was curious to see just how elaborate this delusion was.

"You're a Shinigami," I said skeptically. "So… I've always been curious… when they're not out reaping souls… what do Shinigami do, exactly?" Shinigami were like the Japanese version of the West's Grim Reaper. Supposedly, they came for dead souls. In living world culture, no matter what they were called, they were frightening emblems of death itself, always black-cloaked, eerie beings, silent as the graves they haunted. Seeing one only meant one thing - that your life was over. So the idea of one lazing on a beach with some suntan lotion was hilarious.

Kuchiki blinked, surprised by the question. "Well, it depends on the Shinigami," she said uncertainly. "I, for example, like drawing. And classical music. I enjoy climbing to high places, such as in rock and tree climbing. And I like bunnies."

"You like bunnies?"

"They're cute!" said Kuchiki defensively.

"Hey, I'm not judging. Do you have a pet bunny?"

"Sadly… no. I do not think my older brother would take kindly to the suggestion. It would be below my station." Kuchiki looked a bit despondent at this. "He is the head of the family. He must care about these things."

"You should get one anyway."

"Clearly, you have never met my brother."

"I'd get one anyway."

"I'm sure you would," said Kuchiki dryly. And to a certain extent, she meant it. "Now -"

"Wait. I have more questions."

Kuchiki seemed impatient, but she said, "Okay. Fire away."

"What do Shinigami do on the job? And where do they live?" I asked intently.

"Shinigami have two principal duties," explained Kuchiki. "To destroy evil soul monsters called Hollows, such as the one you saw today - which humans also cannot see - and to help Plus souls, what you call ghosts, pass on to the next life, with a ritual called Konso. The next life is where we live. It is called the Soul Society."

"Do all dead souls become… Plus souls? How do you destroy Hollows? What happens to souls who die in the Soul Society?"

"Only the Plus souls with a tie to the living world become ghosts. Our job is to break their tie to the living world. We destroy Hollows with our zanpakutoh," she indicated to her sword, "and with special spells called kido - high level incantations only a Shinigami can cast."

"So your swords are special and you say funny words."

Kuchiki looked irritated. "You know, I don't have to be explaining this to you."

"Alright, alright. What can the spells do?"

"Bind, attack, shield and defend, and heal. And as for souls who die in the Soul Society… well, first, aging is slowed down in the Soul Society. Ten years for every one of yours." So how old was Kuchiki? "And only souls with spirit energy even need food. But once a soul does die in the Soul Society, it is reincarnated in the land of the living."

"Do you have to have spirit energy to be a Shinigami?"

"Yes. We are usually recruited from the masses, though the Soul Society born nobility are born to spirit energy naturally."

"Are all souls born in Soul Society considered nobility?"

"No. You have to be of an established noble family with spiritual presence," said Kuchiki firmly.

"And how do you Shinigami decide who destroys what Hollows, or sends on what Plus souls?"

"We each have missions, are assigned sectors to guard for a certain period of time - in Soul Society and in the living world both, because Hollows attack Soul Society too. They live in the space between realms, a desert place called Hueco Mundo."

"Why are Hollows so evil?"

"They have a constant emptiness inside them. They eat souls to feed this emptiness."

So like vampires. "And that's why it was after those ghosts. So… if a Hollow is destroyed, are the souls it ate released?"

"Into the Soul Society, yes. Very good," said Kuchiki, pleased.

"What is the Soul Society like?" I asked hungrily.

"It is a very good place. The commoner's grounds are a series of small villages. You would call them old fashioned… as I've said, we age much slower there." That explained the bizarre clothing. "Then there is a vast city in the center where the nobles and Shinigami live. The Soul Society is ruled by a council called Central 46, which regulates Shinigami and provisional spirit law. The Soul Society is much slower paced, full of nature and usually very peaceful. Ten to one it's better than the living world," said Kuchiki proudly.

"So… the Soul Society seems to have taken on Eastern culture… does that harken back to Ancient China being one of the oldest and first complex living world civilizations? Like, was there a war that decided this, Mayans vs Chinese, or…?" I was curious.

Kuchiki looked completely bewildered, like she had no idea what I meant. "What is… China?"

"It's… the country… near… this one?" I was now the one who was confused.

"Oh, you mean Region 45! The big one!" said Kuchiki brightly.

"Yeah, you know what? Never mind," I decided. "Next question. How do you get all those people from all those different countries to come together at once?"

"Well, it helps that all languages become one language in the Soul Society," Kuchiki explained. "Everyone thinks everyone else is speaking their language."

"Is there a Hell?" I asked next.

"Yes. Evil souls are sent there."

"How do you define evil?"

"Evil is one who has done dark things. Such as murder, or rape."

"And what was that black butterfly?"

"That was a Hell butterfly. Not actually related to Hell, funny enough. They relay messages, guide Plus souls on to the Soul Society - they do all sorts of useful things on command."

"So why haven't I ever seen a Shinigami or a Hollow before, then?" I challenged. Everything else fit. The souls never appearing. The souls disappearing.

"As I said, you have to be of a certain spiritual energy level to see us. Your powers have grown as you've gotten older, yes?"

"... Yeah," I admitted at last, thoughtfully. "They have. The more ghosts I come into contact with, and the more I age, the more my powers grow - like those ghosts in the street today. I knew both of them personally. So you think they've unlocked my power?"

"Exactly," said Kuchiki neatly, pleased. "That would explain it."

"So you're on a mission now? This is your sector?"

"Correct. I was searching for a source of huge spiritual presence, and then I was distracted by a Hollow alert, so I was chasing down the Hollow and then when I entered this room - which is very close to the spiritual presence - the Hollow suddenly went off my sensing radar. It's very peculiar. Like some force is obstructing my senses. That's why I'm in your room."

"And I can see you because I have the power that makes dead people Shinigami?"

"Yes, quite a lot of it. I have never even heard of a human who can see Shinigami before."

"So that could be why more and more ghosts keep finding me as I get older and older."

"Yes, it's probably a growth spurt of your spirit energy."

"Okay… prove it to me," I said firmly, crossing my arms.

Kuchiki seemed caught off guard. "... What?"

"If you have all these amazing powers… Show me some." This would be the deciding factor for me. I didn't believe in what I couldn't experience. I wasn't one of those 'blind faith' sorts of people. Con artists, fake psychics, magic, and stupid reality TV shows were not my forte, and neither, really, was religion.

"You see that I am different, yet you do not believe in me?" Kuchiki asked, both disbelieving and scathing.

"I want proof," I repeated stubbornly, lifting my chin defiantly.

Kuchiki's eyes narrowed. Then she suddenly unsheathed her sword, reached out, and made a little slice in my arm. I winced, there was a moment of pain - "How can you do that?" I asked wonderingly. "Plus souls can't touch living things."

"Do you ever stop asking questions?" Kuchiki asked in amusement. ("No," I said.) "It's all about how much spirit energy you have. The more you have, the more you can affect the living world around you. Now shush and watch me work."

Then Kuchiki put her hand over the cut in a flash of electric blue and the cut was miraculously gone. Just like that - zip. As if it had never been. I stared.

For the first time, Kuchiki smiled. "You see? Healing kido. A normal Plus spirit couldn't do that. Kido is one of my favorite parts of being a Shinigami."

The moment of peace was interrupted by a sudden roar. A horrible, piercing, screaming howl of pain met my ears, and I looked up, my face white.

"What is it?" Kuchiki tensed, half-standing, suddenly serious, immediately going for her zanpakutoh.

"Can you hear that?" My voice was shaking, and I hated it. "That horrible, piercing howl? It's coming from outside. Isn't that what you're looking for?" I recognized it from before.

Kuchiki paused, listening. "I hear nothi -" she began. And then she heard it. The howling cry of a Hollow.

"That's it!" she hissed, whirling in that direction. "That's the Hollow!"

Then there was a crash that shook the floor below, and a high-pitched female scream. The Hollow was attacking this house.

"That was Yuzu!" I screamed, and before Kuchiki could stop me I was out of the room and down the stairs. I jumped the stairs two at a time, leaped onto the landing, hurtled into the living room and kitchen. A wide hole had been made in the wall to the outside, and a great Hollow monster was hunched there. It was a huge, hunching, hulking beast with big hands and long, grabbing fingers, made of colors black, white, and grey. Karin and Yuzu screamed - the Hollow went for them - and fury blocked out my terror. I sprinted forward and pushed my sisters out of the way just in time, felt the Hollow's fingers close around me instead. I was lifted out of the house and up high above the street, my feet dangling.

"Nee-chan!" Yuzu and Karin shouted in fear. I wasn't sure they could even see what was attacking us.

"Let me go, you stupid, fish-faced freak!" I shouted, kicking ineffectively at the Hollow's hand. Then it opened its mouth to swallow me whole - I froze in fear - "Karin, Yuzu, run!" I screamed, unable to look away - my last act, I thought -

And then Kuchiki. Kuchiki was there, blocking me again.

Kuchiki had knocked out my screaming little sisters and now leaped forward, cutting off the Hollow's arm holding me and grabbing me by the collar as I fell. She set me gently down on the ground, stood in front of me with her sword raised, as the Hollow retreated, writhing and howling in pain.

"Now I understand," said Kuchiki softly.

"What do you mean?" I asked, shaken, lying there behind her.

"The Hollow attacked your house, but did not immediately kill your sisters or go to eat them. The Hollow chased your ghost friends, yet never bothered to catch them. The Hollow attacked a place you usually frequent, yet nobody was killed. Why?"

I paused. That was actually a damn good question. If Hollows attacked people to eat their souls… why…? "I don't know," I admitted.

"Because it was looking for something else. Or rather, someone else. Hollows will eat all souls, that is true, but they prefer souls with high spirit energy. When possible, they always attack prey opportunistically, prey that will be as filling and juicy as possible.

"Prey like you.

"You, human girl, have more spiritual power than anyone else I have ever heard of. You, as a living human, can see and touch Shinigami and Hollows. And I have realized - the spiritual presence I was sensing was you. You were the source, your bedroom was. Your spiritual presence spreads out so far around you, I felt it from all the way on the other side of your district. The closer I got into the thick of it, the center of the cloud of spirit energy, the harder it was to sense anything. But the minute you moved away from me even a little bit, I could sense better again. And you, you heard the Hollow before me. Because your power, which was blocking me out, gave even your untrained soul better ears than I have.

"The thing obstructing my senses was you.

"And, most likely, these Hollows are attacking your home, and the people you know, because they are looking for you. They are attacking people you touch, people you leave your soul's signature on. You have become so strong that Hollows not even in your area are instinctively seeking you out. You leave such a strong trace that they can sense you even in the people who are not you."

I paused. "... And this will continue happening?" I asked quietly. "More Hollows will come, and they will continue attacking the ones I love, as long as I am around?"

Kuchiki winced. "... Yes," she admitted.

And then Kuchiki Rukia felt a blow to the back of her head and she was knocked out. She realized too late that she had begun trusting this human girl who would risk her life pushing her sisters out of the way of harm, who would ask such intelligent, thoughtful questions about a world she had never even heard of before. Trust.

A dangerous thing for a Shinigami.

I knew what I had to do. It was the most cliched line in all of action history, but in this case it was true. I was about to fix this problem. And what I was about to do, no one else could do, or would do, except me.

I looked fondly once more on my home, my unconscious sisters, the little remnants of my absent father, even at Kuchiki herself. I was glad, all the same, that my father was not here. That he did not have to feel helpless in the face of his daughter's death. I gave one thought to my friends at school, another thought to my friends in karate and kendo clubs, and another to my friends in the Harajuku district. They were all in danger. But I could save them - save them from myself.

If I had my way, no one had to die tonight except me.

There was no hope for me. I was as good as dead. I had no Shinigami powers, and supposedly nothing else worked against a Hollow. So the Hollows would continue stalking me, hunting me down through my friends and family, until one finally killed me. I could not count on the Shinigami to always be around.

So, I thought, take out the middle man. Just let it kill me before it killed anyone I cared about.

But I wasn't stupid. If I stayed here and let it eat me, it would just eat Kuchiki and my sisters afterward. Hollows were plagued by constant emptiness, right? But if I led it to an abandoned place far away and then let it eat me… then supposedly it would go after anyone equally.

But just in case, I should probably try to kill it.

And I kind of liked that idea. That I could die killing it. Maybe I could even be released into the Soul Society that way, and release other souls besides myself. And if I thought that through my actions I was atoning for that one horrible thing I had done to my mother - well, no one had to know that except myself.

There was a reason I had lived, I realized, a reason I had survived all those suicidal thoughts. It was so I could die today.

Of course, I faced the possibility that I would wound it and not kill it. In that case, until the Hollow was destroyed by a Shinigami like Kuchiki, I faced dark oblivion. But oblivion was what I'd always planned for anyway. So death at the hands of the Hollow didn't bother me as much as it might have other people, though I wasn't looking forward to the pain.

So I ran into the kitchen, grabbed a knife, and then ran outside to stand in front of the Hollow in a strong wide-legged stance. My face was hard, my eyes stony pieces of flint, fiery and determined.

"Hey, asshole!" I shouted to the Hollow. "You want my soul?!" The Hollow, which had recovered at least somewhat by this point - its arm was regrowing - snarled, roaring. I raised my arms. "Then come and get it!"

And I turned and ran.

The Hollow followed me.

I was a good runner. I'd always prided myself on that. I could sprint, and tonight, being chased once more, I sprinted faster than I ever had before. There was a fleeting kind of triumph, I thought, to the way I always ran just that much faster than the snarling Hollow - though maybe that was just the adrenaline talking. I ran through darkened streets, passed by houses standing in rows on either side of me like silent sentinels, until I finally made it into an empty black park near an abandoned housing unit. Skeletal tree branches lifted long tendrils up to the sky as if in a kind of prayer, the leaves obscured by darkness. I stopped in a space between two trees. Turned around.

I got into a stance and held the knife before me, scowling firmly. And I waited. Unable to speak, breathing hard.

The Hollow paused. Then charged toward me, howling.

I looked into the teeth, felt the putrid breath once more, and tried to position the knife so that it would go right for the Hollow's center. This thought grounded me. Distracted me from my overriding fear.

For the third time that day, I was prepared to die.

Kuchiki Rukia woke up, her head pounding, only to find the human girl and the Hollow gone. Gasping and cursing, she looked up and around wildly - she was still alive by a dead person's standards, still a Shinigami, and the human girl was running away, the Hollow following her, a knife glinting in her hand.

That idiot.

An honor sacrifice.

Kuchiki jumped to her feet and ran after the Hollow and the girl. She arrived just in time to see the Hollow snarl and fly at the girl, who had stilled, the glinting moonlit knife in her hand poised at the readiness -

And Kuchiki Rukia also ran faster than she ever had in her life. And for a Shinigami, that was saying something.

Because for a moment, she was there in the forest again, watching Shiba Kaien-dono die at the hands of the Hollow; Kaien-dono… who looked just like this random human girl. She could have been his female twin.

Kuchiki Rukia couldn't stand by and let Kaien-dono die again.

And for the third time, my vision was covered in the shink of a sword and a flash of black cloth.

Kuchiki had run in front of me and taken the attack for me. The Hollow's teeth crunched around her small frame, her sword poking out through the top of its mouth in a glint of silver. It wasn't dead, but it was severely wounded. It spat her out like a bad piece of meat and retreated again, writhing and howling in pain.

"You… idiot…" Kuchiki panted from the ground, bleeding everywhere, her face deathly white and her lips blue.

"I was doing the only intelligent thing!" I said fiercely. "Damnit, Shinigami girl! You should've let me die!"

"You wanted to save your family and friends."

"Yes."

"There is one other way you could do that." Kuchiki was speaking quickly now.

"And that is?"

"You could become a Shinigami."

It took a while, for the words to hit me. "But I'm not dead," I pointed out at last uncertainly.

"If I pierce the tip of my zanpakutoh through your heart, I can temporarily gift some of my powers to you," said Kuchiki seriously from the ground. "I am too badly injured to fight it myself, but you…" She sounded hopeful. Then she winced. "There is a high probability it will work, since you have so much spirit energy, but if it doesn't you will die. But there is no other way. No time to ponder it. Make your decision now."

I paused. "So let me get this straight," I said. "I could either face oblivion at the mouth of a Hollow, let a bunch of my friends and family get killed and then face oblivion at the mouth of a Hollow… or I could take the option where I either save everybody or get sent to the Soul Society?" I grinned viciously. "And you call that a choice? Hell yeah I'm taking option three!"

Kuchiki smiled, warm respect in her eyes for the first time.

"Give me the zanpakutoh, Shinigami girl." I reached out my hand. "We'll try your plan."

"Not 'Shinigami girl'," said Kuchiki quietly. "My name is Kuchiki Rukia. Rukia. You can call me by my given name." I got the feeling that she was some sort of noble and this was important.

I smiled. "Kurosaki Ichigo," I said in return. "And you can call me Ichigo. Let's hope this isn't the last meeting for either of us, yeah?"

The Hollow had recovered again, was coming after us.

"Are you ready?" said Rukia solemnly from the ground, pointing the sword at my heart.

I swallowed, nodded. My palms were sweaty, my heart pumped. Somehow, the leadup was more awful than the idea itself. "Yes," I said.

And then the sword plunged through my heart and I felt a flash of electric energy inside me. It touched off some sort of spark, like my heart was made of wood, and then in a great explosion I felt something inside of me jump on top of Rukia's sword - pin it down - suck up more and more of that addictive energy even as the sword struggled - it felt so good I couldn't have stopped if I'd wanted to -

And then, in a vicious and unrefined burst, my power plunged over the barriers of my body and leaped into the ether, where my soul shifted, changed, reformed.

After that, everything was different. Irrevocable, though I didn't know it at the time.

Rukia might have. Rukia might have known, even then, that this was irrevocable.

Rukia knelt in the cold night air, shivering, only her white under-robe and her wounds left on her. She was now no more than a simple dead soul, no longer a Shinigami. She'd planned only to offer Ichigo half her powers. She had not counted on Ichigo's soul being that powerful and unaccountably vicious. All of her power was now gone.

Just what was that girl? Where did the power inside her come from?

Rukia was left strangely shaken.

Ichigo's body was unconscious beside her, but her soul had reformed in front of the Hollow. The transfer had worked. And supposedly, Ichigo could now travel to and from her living body as a Shinigami, unfettered.

Watching the new Shinigami form, she saw Ichigo's eyes come back into focus, saw the power fade from her expression, saw that reassuring consciousness return. The same warm consciousness that had grinned and agreed to do something that might kill her just for the chance to save everybody.

Rukia definitely preferred that Ichigo over whatever horrible spirit was trapped inside her.

Ichigo looked good as a black-robed Shinigami, she had to admit. And sheathed at her back was a massive sword, larger than any Rukia had ever seen. The unformed sword, the asauchi, changed according to the power of its wielder. Never had Rukia seen one become so large on an untrained rookie.

Ichigo's increased confidence could also be seen. A deadly calm had come over her face.

Then in a burst of newly controlled speed she'd unsheathed her sword and flown at the Hollow, and began a wild, graceful, elegant dance around its blows. Never once was she hit. She'd been trained. She was good. It was mesmerizing to watch.

And then, in a few neat sword strokes, she had cut her zanpakutoh through the Hollow's limbs and then through its head and the Hollow disintegrated into thin air with one last screech as the souls inside it were freed.

Rukia stared in silent amazement as Ichigo turned to look at her… Then Ichigo's eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed into unconsciousness.

"Ichigo!" Rukia did not even recognize the horrified, fearful scream that issued from her lips. It was unbefitting of both a noble and a Shinigami. But Rukia was no longer technically either, and anyway, in her defense, it had been a weird night.

She crawled in pain over to Ichigo's Shinigami form, crying out the girl's name pitifully, unable to do anything else -

"Relax. Her soul's just adjusting to its new form. It's a natural process."

Rukia froze at the new voice - the new voice that could apparently hear hers. She whirled around to look.

A man was standing there, and he had a body but somehow she sensed great spirit energy inside him. He was looking right at her, his smile whimsical but his eyes cold and clinical. He had stubble around his chin, longish unkempt blond hair, wore a boat hat and clogs, had a long coat and carried a cane.

"Wh-who are you?" She tried to sound confident. Instead of helpless. Which she was.

"Urahara Kisuke, at your service." He tipped his hat politely.

Rukia felt fear clog her throat. Urahara Kisuke was a traitor, a former Captain-class Shinigami, exiled from the Soul Society for illegal experiments on other souls in the name of spirit energy research. That body must be his own creation. That cane must be his zanpakutoh. They never did manage to take it from him.

"S-stay back!" She began pulling herself backward along the ground. "Traitor!"

"Relax, relax." Urahara put up a hand. "Now I'm just a lowly underground Shinigami equipment black market salesman who happens to reside nearby."

Rukia's eyes narrowed. "Happens?"

"Okay. So, I'm interested in the girl behind you. Have been for a while. And I'm willing to help you out."

"So you can get to her?" Rukia asked in a hard voice.

"In a way," said Urahara enigmatically. "If you find that hard to believe…" His smile became icy. "Just… call me bored."

What could Rukia do? She couldn't go back to the Soul Society like this.

She closed her eyes in defeat. "I accept," she finally whispered helplessly.