Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman.EXE or Bleach

Hikari Shinigami

Reviews:

miforever29 - Yes Rockman is still going to be involved just not much until later chapters. And thanks for your support.

Dragon and Sword Master - This takes place before the Soul Society finds out about Rukia, but I'm going to break off from there into my own universe. I'll try to include things from the Bleach anime.

Yami Ami - For now Netto just looks like himself, but with Shinigami apparel. I'll change his appearance and attitude a little in future chapters. And I'd love to see a picture of him as a Shinigami. I'll also write out Rukia mothering Netto as the progresses.

Slayer.EXE - I believe that this chapter will give you the answer to your question about Netto's friends and their reactions. There will be more in the next chapter.

Kawazoe Kazuma - Thanks. I've recently taken an interest in Bleach since the dubbed version first started airing which is why I may be missing pieces of information here and there. For that I am sorry.

Angels Draco - I'm glad that I managed to surprise you and hopefully many others. I actually rewrote chapter 2 three times to get it just the way that I wanted it.

Saber-chan - Yep, Netto died in a sense. Not to worry though. He'll still be getting into trouble.

He who needs no introduction... - Thanks. I try to write to the best of my ability and keep everyone in suspense. My beta is always a big help there.

Hotshot45 - It is sad to see the hero die, but it does happen and is necessary for the plot line.

Hacka.EXE - Thanks.

Thoughts "blah"

Chapter 3

Enzan and the hospital security rounded the corner and found a huge hole in the wall. "This, no doubt, is where Netto went down. Let's get down there before he gets himself killed!" He knew from the shaking that the four guards were scared and to be honest so was he. He'd seen the Hikari boy running like some of demon was after him and the hospital walls practically exploding couldn't be just a coincidence.

They took the stairs down to the basement because it was faster than using the elevator and it went all the way down to the basement. While the dual-haired teen rushed down he couldn't help but let his mind wonder back to the destruction that he'd seen, but then his mind came to a more disturbing thought. "Please let us get there before Meiru and Dekao. I'm sure that they've already ignored my warning to stay there and taken the elevator. Urgh! I only wish that I had an extra man that I could've place to watch them."

When they reached the door to the basement they immediately found a human heart, lungs, and liver thrown against the stairway. Their immediate reaction was the gag reflex at the scene as they looked further in. Face down on the ground, surrounded by a pool of his own blood was Netto Hikari. It was easily to see more of the brunette's insides scattered about the hallway and claw marks around the wounds. The scene was too gory for even Enzan to handle as he turned his head to a corner and began to vomit.

Ijuin wasn't alone as one of the security guards followed shortly after. The other three were sure that this would certainly be a memorable first-day for the guard huddled over one of the large ash trays. "I don't think that we'll be keeping that guy." the shift leader thought grimly before turning his attention back to the massacre.

-BING!-

Enzan looked up as the elevator door opened and Netto's friends exited. He knew that they could see the body from where the elevator, but he couldn't do anything as he began to puke again from the picture that would follow him to his grave. The picture of Netto's disemboweled body lying down and his remaining organs exposed to the world.

"NETTO! OH GOD WHAT HAPPENED!" shouted a hysteric Meiru as she tried to run over to the body. One guard firmly held on to her and tried to make her look away from the gruesome sight.

The other two guards slowly descended into the basement noting the claw marks around the door frame and destroyed equipment in the basement itself. When Enzan had regained enough control of himself he saw red and tore off into the basement after the monster that had killed Netto.

Meiru continued to try to get around her captor, but she couldn't. She broke down into tears while Dekao had simply fainted from the sight of so much blood and gore. He'd always loved horror movies, but the real thing is so different from movies. The sight, the feeling, and most of all...the smell of blood.

The security chief notified all hospital personnel to be on the lookout for any kind of wild animals or strange occurrences. Never in his life had he witnessed such brutality in a killing and he hoped to never see it again. Half an hour later the search came up empty and it was concluded that the 'wild animal' had killed Netto and escaped, but for Enzan that made no sense.

The door had clearly been blown inward whereas if the creature had escaped then it should have been blown outward. Then there was the matter of Dekao stating Netto claimed to see a huge creature attacking the hospital when he didn't see anything other than exploding walls and windows. There were a lot of questions and no answers for what was going to becoming a huge story. Netto was a very public figure as a NetSavior and many important people were going to want real answers. There was also the issue of the Press having a field day when word got out about the death of an Hikari. They were after all the pinnacle of the scientific community and the death of one, even so young, wouldn't go unnoticed.

Hours later the former NetSavior began to stir. After all of the excitement Rukia and Ichigo had decided that it was best that they took him to their hotel room. They returned to Shinigami form to explain things to the newly born Shinigami. The idea behind it was that normal humans couldn't see or hear them, so they could explain things uninterrupted.

"You know that he's going to freak out, right?" said Kon as he lounged about in Ichigo's body. Some of the many things that he enjoyed was using his friend's body to eat and pickup women if he got the chance. Unfortunately for him the other two knew him far too well for Kon to get away with that...just yet.

Ichigo picked up Netto's Zanpakuto and examined the blade. It was roughly the size of Netto's body which told him that the kid had a large reservoir of spiritual power. "He's just like me only I didn't become a Shinigami through death." Holding the sword where Rukia could see it he said, "Hey I wonder what kind of power this thing has. What do you think Rukia?"

"We won't know until he's been properly trained. Until then your guess is as good as mine." she said as she sat down on the best next to Netto.

"Umm." Chocolate brown eyes slowly opened and then quickly slammed shut again. "Stupid light..." he muttered, but loud enough for Rukia to hear him and giggle. Given that his head was lying in Rukia's lap he felt the giggle as well as heard it. Slowly reopening his eyes he looked in the only direction that he really could look...up. Netto saw Rukia holding his head smiling and began to drift off again until his brain kicked in.

Ichigo and Kon were forced to move back as Netto leapt from the raven haired Shinigami's lap. "Who are you? Where am I?" he demanded rather than asked.

Kurosaki, being the blunt Soul Reaper that he is tried to grab the boy and force him to settle down. Big mistake for Ichigo as Netto instinctively grabbed his Zanpakuto and held it in front of himself. "Woah! Woah! Take it easy. We're not here to hurt you." he said while holding his hands up.

Rukia slowly stood as though this were a common thing for her and her two friends were sure that it probably is. "My name is Rukia Kuchiki and you are among friends Netto Hikari." Walking towards her friend she pointed at them and said, "The guy in black is named Ichigo Kurosaki and the one in white is name Kon."

Netto still looked suspiciously at them and then focused on the large sword in his hands. For a blade it's size it should be incredibly heavy and yet he was wielding it as thought it were as light as air. His attention left the blade and turned to a throbbing pain in his head and chest. Netto started clutching his hand over his heart as the pain in his chest continued to increase forcing him to drop his Zanpakuto. "Argh! It hurts! What's wrong with me?"

Rukia recognized his condition and rushed forward easily avoid any defense that the boy could muster. She pulled him back onto the bed and sat him down before turning to Ichigo and Kon. "Help me hold him down you two." she commanded and they did just that. In their vice-like grip Netto continued to squirm and fight because of the pain. "Hikari I need you to stay with me. I'm going to try to heal you, so try to relax as best you can."

Ichigo watched as Rukia demonstrated her prowess at healing as light came from her hand over the brunette's chest. "What's wrong with him? What's hurting him?" Kurosaki asked.

The elder Shinigami frowned and said, "This is the pain that he was feeling at the time of his death. It'll take a moment to pass." As she'd predicted five minutes later Netto stopped struggling and his pain diminished. After instruction Kon and Ichigo to release the boy she gently set him up. With a pained look in her eyes she began to explain what had happened to Netto. "By now you've realized that I'm not normal and neither are my friends or you."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Sighing Rukia decided to cut straight to the chase. "Netto I've never been good with delivering bad news, but I feel that it's better that you hear it from me rather than one of those two." she said pointing at Kon and Ichigo. Ignoring their indignant protests she got to the point. "Netto you died just a few hours ago."

Netto started laughing. "Yeah right. If I was dead then we wouldn't be having this conversation now would we. Did Enzan put you up to this?" He started tapping on his chin and muttered, "He must still be ticked about being stuck watching over me."

"And tell me genius how could he be stuck watching you if you are not even at the hospital?" said Ichigo. The Shinigami walked forward and sat next to Netto making sure that he couldn't get to his Zanpakuto again. "You're, for lack of a better term, a spirit now." When he noticed Rukia about to about to say something he stopped her saying, "One traumatic event at a time, huh."

"One traumatic event at a time? What are you talking about?" he asked. Netto was curious as to what kind of sick mind game they were trying to play on him. He knew that he was alive otherwise he wouldn't be standing, right? "I'm telling you that I'm alive and I'm beginning to think that you three are nuts."

"I can prove it to you Netto Hikari." said Rukia gaining the brunette's full attention. "If you were alive then you would have a pulse. Go ahead and feel for a pulse. You won't find one for yourself or me."

"What about the orange-haired dude?" asked the brunette pointing to Ichigo.

"Well Ichigo's an interesting case himself. You see unlike with you and I Ichigo's body is still alive." She pointed to Kon and said, "Kon here is what we call a Kaizō Konpaku or a modified soul. His job is to control Ichigo's body while he's not in it."

"I still don't believe you. It looks more like they are twins if anything and believe me I would know about twins." said Netto as he defiantly crossed his arms and waited to hear what else they might say. To his surprise the 'twins' immediately started glared at each other and muttered a few crude remarks about each other. "Yep, Saito and I used to fight like that all of the time." he said not mentioning that his brother was technically alive as a navi.

Rukia decided that she'd had enough of this kid's denial. "Netto I know that you remember a creature with a mask shoving it's claws through your body and removing your internal organs. Don't kid yourself, it was no nightmare. That creature killed you Netto turning you into a...a Shinigami."

"Smooth move Rukia. Now the kid's going to go further into denial and when we do prove it to him he's going to go postal." thought Kurosaki. "Might as well get this over with." he said to himself then to Netto he said, "Feel for your pulse. Do it now."

Netto begrudgingly did so checking his throat and found that he indeed lacked a pulse. Frantically he started searching for a pulse on his wrists and his chest only to once again find no pulse. "But...there's no way...I just can't find it that's all." he said even though his mind was screaming at him that he was truly deceased. "But then Saito would've died too. I've killed my brother because I was careless."

Ichigo heard the brunette's sniffles and knew that he was trying to hold back tears. He started patting the kid on the back in an attempt to soothe the kid as much as he could. "I'm not going to tell you that everything is going to be ok because it's not. Your life or afterlife is going to be difficult and dangerous from now on."

The former NetSavior looked up with watery eyes and growled, "I'm concerned about my brother you idiot."

"That's right. Your profile said that you had a twin brother name Saito Hikari, but why are you thinking about that now." The orange-haired Shinigami was confused as to why the boy spoke of his brother in present tense rather than past. "I know that the profile said that the boy was dead...and I don't recall there being any mention of him becoming a Shinigami."

With a tear slowly making it's way down the brunette's cheek he said, "Because my brother was brought back to life and reconnected to me. It's a kind of psychic link that we've always shared...when one hurts the other hurts."

"And when one dies then...the other dies." finished Rukia. "That explains why Saito's soul was never recovered. We thought at first that he might have turned into a Hollow, but we never really knew. Where was your brother and I'll see if I can find him?"

"He was at the hospital inside of my PET. You see papa resurrected my brother as a navi." said Netto as he calmed down at the notion of being able to interact with his big brother again as siblings rather than NetOp and NetNavi. "He's my navi Rockman." He then remembered something that Rukia just said and asked, "What's a Hollow?"

Ichigo took over and explained, "Hollows are the souls of the deceased that have been corrupted either by their attachments to the human world or turned by another Hollow. They are monsters that were once human and now feed off of the souls of the dead as well as the living. The spider Hollow that was chasing you said that he was a man named Dr. Regal, but the one that killed you we know nothing about."

"REGAL!? You mean to tell me that that bastard is still causing trouble even after he was killed!" Netto's mind began to fill with images of all of the pain that the mad scientist had put him and his friends through. He remembered Dark Blues and Dark Rockman, the attack using Laserman, and kidnapping Meiru when Regal went after Duo's power.

"Well that's what he said. I couldn't tell because I've never met Dr. Regal before and I also didn't get a chance to see behind his mask." said Ichigo as he picked up Netto's Zanpakuto and handed it to him. "Regardless of that Netto you are now a Shinigami and have a calling to help the souls of the dead crossover. It's also our responsibility to protect innocent people from Hollows like the ones that killed you."

Netto accepted his blade and scanned it again. He felt a strong connection with the blade as though it were alive and even a part of him. 'Rekka-ryu' "Did it just speak to me just now?"

Rukia 'humphed and said, "You seem to have changed Ichigo. Before you said that you chose to be different and now your telling him about the same thing that I told you."

Kurosaki glared and snarled, "I am different. You choose to do this line of work because of what your Soul Society tells you, but I...I choose to do this because I hate to see innocent people suffer."

Netto scooted next to Kon and whispered, "Do they do this often? Fight like brother and sister I mean."

Kon just nodded and whispered back, "Just give them a few minutes and we can make a break for it. I saw some beautiful women down in the lobby and the best part was NO ENGAGEMENT OR WEDDING RINGS IN SIGHT!" He quickly slapped his hands over his mouth knowing that he'd gotten too loud and glancing at the two arguing Shinigami proved him right. They were now both glaring at Kon with a particularly sadistic gleam in their eyes.

"Kon you are so lucky that you are in my body right now." said Ichigo letting Kon's imagination fill in the rest. He knew that the mod soul wouldn't try to slip away for a little while longer after being heard, but that didn't mean that Kurosaki was going to take his eyes off of him.

Rukia stood up and started walking towards her Gigai. "We really should get going before anything else-"

The door to the room flew open and the intruders made Kon and Rukia very afraid while Ichigo ready to fight. Netto watched the scene not really sure what was going on, but believing that he was safer with his new friends than these new guys.

"Rukia do you know these clowns?" asked Ichigo as he lifted his Zanpakuto. He was surprised when he saw the Hikari kid do the same thing. "Good. He trusts us now. That'll make things a lot easier...I hope."

"Division Six." she stuttered in a voice almost too low for Ichigo to hear. She knew very well who these two were and Rukia knew full well that they had no chance against them.

The orange-haired Shinigami understood that these guys were the group of Shinigami that were sent to collect Netto. He could also tell from the look on Rukia's face that she hadn't expected them to be here so quickly, but he was worried because he could see fear in her eyes. "So you're here for the kid."

The raven-haired Shinigami entered the room first followed by his partner who had flaming red hair. He completely ignored Kurosaki and spoke directly to Rukia, "I have been given some rather disturbing information...my dear sister. According to my contacts here you gave your powers to a human and from what I'm seeing that seems to be the only plausible explanation. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Just who the hell are you?" shouted Ichigo as he put himself between his friend and the stranger. The new guy seemed to stare right through him as though he wasn't even there and that only ticked him off. "Stop ignoring me!" he shouted swinging his Zanpakuto at the Shinigami only to see him disappear. "Huh?" The next thing he knew the man had reappeared on top of Ichigo's blade. "Unreal. Such speed shouldn't even be possible."

"My name is Byakuya Kuchiki and you must be the disgraceful substitute Shinigami that I've heard about. The funny thing is that they said that you had talent and yet all that I see is a little boy waving a sword around without any grace or strategy." The man now known as Byakuya then back flipped kicking Ichigo into the wall on the other side of the room. "Be a good boy and stay there. I'll be getting to you soon enough, but first I have business with my adopted sister and the newborn Shinigami."

Netto lowered into a defensive stance and his eyes narrowed on Byakuya. He then surprised Rukia by moving himself between her and her brother just as Ichigo had done.

"You must be Netto Hikari. It's an honor to meet with an Hikari Shinigami." Kuichiki then looked past him to his little sister and said, "I'm also under orders to bring your back to the Soul Society to await trial for your crime. Please just come along quietly. There is no need for anymore violence here."

"Like hell there isn't." said Ichigo prying himself out of his impression in the wall. "I'm curious did you ever think about the reason behind your sister's actions? We let me tell you, Rukia was badly injured by the Hollow that she was hunting and couldn't fight back anymore. She gave me her power so that I could protect my family and her from that thing. My family owes her our lives, so if you are going to take her you're going to have to go through me first."

"The same goes for me." said Netto surprising everyone. He noticed the smirk on Ichigo's face and said, "I don't really understand all of this stuff about being a Shinigami, but I will always choose to follow my heart. Right now it's telling me that she is a good person with good intentions. I know about breaking the rules in order to save people and this looks to be the same thing."

"Thank you." muttered Rukia just loud enough for the two Shinigami to hear.

"No sweat. What are friends for?" said Ichigo before glancing to Kon. "Hey Kon get my body out of here. We'll catchup with you later." Without another word the mod soul jumped through the window and dashed off into the city.

"You do realize that he's probably going to go flirting with every beautiful woman that he finds right?" questioned Rukia. Even with a situation like this you could always trust Kon to be Kon.

Rukia's brother sighed and then looked at his companion. "If this is the way that you choose to be about it then I guess that you leave us with no other choice." Before they could ask what he had meant the three Shinigami were rendered unconscious due to strong blows to their stomachs. "Renji take the loudmouth while I carry my sister and the Hikari. We'll take the three of them to the Soul Society and work it out from there."

The red-haired Shinigami did so very reluctantly as he'd already hated the Kurosaki teen and then they departed for the Soul Society. "The Hikari kid must not know about his family's true legacy. This is going to be very interesting."

"Dr. Hikari I failed. We found Netto a few hours ago and...he's dead." informed Enzan. As he'd expected both Haruka and Yuuichiro broke down into tears. Rockman wasn't taking the news any better, but what surprised Enzan the most was that Saito was still alive. He knew from a conversation with Netto that if one of them died then the other would also. "Guess Dr. Hikari was wrong for once."

Ijuin sat down on the couch watching the grieving family with a bit of envy and prepared himself to explain what little they knew. On the inside he was also crying over the loss of one of the few people he would dare call 'friend'. He swore that he'd find out what happened and make who or what killed Netto pay. If he knew...

Author's Note: Again thanks for all of the reviews. They help me avoid writer's block by keeping me motivated to write, so review already.