AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS

Hey everybody! I'm back! I put a lot of time and effort into this chapter, so please read it nicely and let me know if you see any mistakes!

Chapter Thirteen

She woke up feeling warm, not warm as in hot, but warm as in safe. She was tucked in with blankets and no one was trying to hurt her. Slowly, she opened her eyes to see a green ceiling. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Something was still off though, she still couldn't remember much.

"Ah," came a voice from behind her, "you're awake." She twisted to see the man who had been there in the field.

"Who…" she started, "Are you?" The man shook his head and walked into the room with his cane swung over his shoulder.

"Now then," he said quietly looking at her from under the brim of his hat, "are you sure you really don't know?" She frowned as she looked at him, knowing that there was something about him that was familiar. Pain twisted in her chest and she gasped at the phantom, pressing her hand to it.

"So you don't remember, but your body does." He took a step closer to her. "Let's see about your soul." Before she could move, he had swung his cane off of his shoulder and stabbed it through her forehead. She was forced back, but at the same time she fell forward. Slowly, she looked down to see herself lying face down on the futon, brown eyes empty, staring at nothing.

Although her head told her to panic, her instincts told her not too, as if this was something normal…

"What…" she said warily, "What did you do?" He smirked and beckoned for her to follow.

"If you come with me, you might just find out." He started to walk out of the room. She jumped to her feet and saw her odd costume. Her feet were shod with a strange sandal and socks. Above her feet, she wore traditional men's black clothing and a white obi held it together. Underneath was a white hakama. She frowned and followed after the green robed man.

Urahara led Ritsu into a main room in the back of his store where a hatch was located to go into the training area. He opened it and disappeared down before Ritsu came into the room. When she entered the room, she spotted the hole in the floor immediately. She walked over to it and cautiously looked down. A very long ladder led the way to the floor.

"Whoa," she said as she dizzily tried to steady herself. Unfortunately, her balance was not at its best and she fell through the hole. Somehow, she managed to catch herself. She'd gathered some of her energy and pushed it against her feet, effectively standing in midair. She was about three-quarters of the way to the ground.

"I caught myself…" she murmured, feeling like this wasn't new. Hesitantly, she tried to take a step forward, but all she managed to do was fall off of her momentary platform. She crashed to the ground painfully, glad that she hadn't caught herself sooner.

"So you've discovered that particular ability again." Urahara said, making it sound like she'd been able to do that before. Technically she hadn't, but she had used gathered reatisu to bolster a jump unconsciously all the time before.

"What?" she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. This man sounded like he knew her. He sounded like he was her friend, but something made her feel wary… Something told her not to trust him completely, but to act like she did… This something confused her.

"Do you…" she stammered out, "Do you know me?" He whipped a fan out of nowhere to cover the bottom half of his face.

"Yes." he replied quietly.

"Do you know my name? What was I like? Do I have any family? Am I an orphan?" She would've continued, but she couldn't remember anything else that might have been important.

"Your name…" he said quietly. "Your family name was Masaki." The name sounded wonderful. It was completely right, making her feel safe and secure, but at the same time, it wasn't right… She filed that away for later use.

"What about my given name?" He shook his head at that.

"I'm afraid I cannot tell you. You will have to either discover it for yourself or pick a new name."

"Oh…" Her voice trailed off softly as disappointment overwhelmed her.

"You were very carefree." Urahara said, trying to cheer her up, "And you fought for those you loved with deadly precision. Your family…" Urahara stopped himself, trying to think up a cover story very quickly. "Your mother died when you were nine. Your father was abusive, so you and your older brother and two younger sisters were taken from him. Unfortunately, you were separated in the adoption process. I adopted you, but you've always been slightly resentful of me separating you from your remaining family…"

She stiffened at the end of his tale. Parts of it rang true, clear as day, but other were carefully crafted lies… She shook her head again, straining against the blank darkness still hovering over her. No matter how she pushed or pulled, nothing came first. All she knew now was that this man was only telling her parts of the truth.

"You should probably come up with something for us to call you for know." Urahara said quietly.

"Us?" she asked, noticing his use of the plural. After a second, she raised her energies up, focusing on the surrounding. A sickeningly sweet 'flavor' brushed against her senses. This was the green robed man. He had a lot of these energies, and they were potent. She strained her senses farther. The 'flavor' that she detected next was cinnamon… Next came the 'flavor' of… She had to push even harder to detect this one… It was… Caramel? There were traces of a third flavor, but not enough for her to catch it.

"Three…" she murmured quietly, "There are three others." she said a little louder. The man nodded.

"What do you want to be called?" he asked. Urahara whipped out his fan and studied her from under the brim of his hat as she thought.

"I…" Ritsu bit her lip and thought, straining against the darkness once more. Tension built up in the air around her as an image surrendered itself from the blank canvass that had once held her memories. A red fruit… with a green top… covered with… with seeds?

"Ichi… Ichigo…" she whispered, the name causing some sort of heaviness to settle over her heart, "I want to be called Ichigo!" A small smirk made its way onto Urahara's rough face; hidden safely behind his fan. Some part of her, no matter how small, had reason to remember. Some part of her had locked them all away. With enough stimuli, she would remember, if only fragments…

Urahara turned from the newly dubbed Ichigo and unsheathed his blade from within his cane. Silently, his fan slid into his sleeve.

"Sing, Benihime." Urahara turned to her and swung his released blade, sending a crimson wave towards her. She dodged, and her hand automatically went to draw a blade from a sheathe on her back.

Ichigo had no idea how she managed to do it, but she managed to defend herself time after time. Even though her mind had no idea what to do, her reflexes were toned to do this. He stayed on with his level of attack and at one point; she saw an opening in his stance and took the chance.

Urahara purposely left himself open at intervals throughout the fight. After a particularly hard swing of Benihime, Ichigo took advantage of one such opening. Urahara strained backwards to avoid the deadly precision of her blade and managed to overreach himself. His eyes widened a fraction as he fell onto his back. Ichigo ended with her sword pointed at Urahara's throat. She didn't have any real need to hurt him, so instead she pushed his hat off of his head and slipped it on her own head.

"I win." she stated simply. She had no clue how she'd done it and honestly didn't care. For some reason, the earlier heaviness was replaced with such ecstasy that she was wary. Why was defeating this man so important? Why did she take his hat? What did…?

Ichigo collapsed to a heap on the ground and Urahara smirked. He had a feeling that when 'Ichigo' came back, she would be Ritsu.

Urahara climbed slowly up the ladder after stretching Ritsu out. He'd left her the hat though, she'd earned it and he had spares. After grabbing one such spare from the back of the shop, he went to check on the boys.

Uryuu was still unconscious and that worried Urahara the slightest bit. He really hadn't suffered any major injuries. The worst that the Quincy had gotten was from helping to stabilize Ichigo's spiritual pressure. So why wasn't he up?…

A blue glow came to life out of the corner of his eye and hot reishi burned behind his back.

"So you are awake…" Urahara mused as the image of Uryuu laying on the pallet flickered out of existence, "And you have your own version of shunpo…"

"It's called hirenkyaku." Uryuu said stiffly, "And don't make the mistake of comparing it to your flawed shunpo, shinigami." He spit out the name, his tone brittle, wanting to make the distinction as insulting as possible.

Urahara just smiled and shook his head.

"Would you mind putting down your arrows?" Urahara asked. "I think you still might be worried about Ritsu-san. And if you are," Urahra's simple smile turned into a frightening smirk, "I have a proposal that might benefit the both of us…" He dropped to the floor and sat as the arrow point disappeared from his back. Uryuu took the opportunity to stand over him in an intimidating manner.

"Tell. Me. What. Happened. Now." Urahara silently slid his fan out of his sleeve and began to explain what he had in mind…

Ichigo faded in and out of consciousness, catching bits and pieces of a conversation that sounded very unusual…

"Deadly reatisu… Insuppressible… Fiery… Kidnap… Execution… learning… name… zanpakto…

"Pride as a… Absolutely not… Sensei… Escape… He can…"

Snipits of the conversation floated around in Ichigo's head until he was awake enough to realize they had stopped. Blearily, he cracked open an eyelid. As a ceiling swam into focus, all he could really think was that it wasn't his ceiling… He went to sit up and the room spun. Promptly, he laid flat and passed out. Getting up was not worth that much effort.

She walked with her footsteps hitting the ground without a sound. All around her was mist. There wasn't any visible way out. Only the eerie sounds of a dead forest and shifting rays of darkness surrounded her. When it was clear that walking didn't do anything, she sat. Why was she here? How did she get here? Wait… Her reason… Had something to do with… Her name?

"Was it… Ichigo?..." Her soprano rang out into the mists, echoing and jumping back at her. When it finally died, the mist got even heavier.

'No!' it seemed to tell her, 'That's not your name! Think harder!' she thought, trying to break through the blank canvass again.

"Ma… Masa… Masaki?" The mist surrounding her vanished, sucked off into the rest of the void that surrounded her. She found herself in the middle of a clearing. It wasn't the way someone would picture a clearing though… She was standing on the underside of the branches of an immense tree that grew out of the sky. Behind her came the slither of cloth rubbing against bark.

A figure slowly emerged from the mist. It was a woman that wore silver robes with a black cape. The cape had a hood drawn up and over the eyes of the lady. Brown hair spilled from either side of her face and to about her knees. Her shape wasn't substantial though, it seemed to be ethereal…

"Your name should come to you child…"she said, her voice sounding ancient and young, smooth and rasping, deep and high all at once. It was an endless voice, belonging to a being who held all the knowledge of the world, and was saddened by what little good was left in it.

She concentrated on the voice and the meaning of the lady's words. Her thoughts went automatically to the name she had presented to reveal the clearing.

"Masaki was… my… mother's name…" she began to shake and dropped to one knee. "I… I… I…" She shook more violently, straining to remember and at the same time trying to forget. "Kuro… Kuro… Kurosaki was… was my… my father's name…" She dropped her other knee and fell forward onto her hands. "I… I am… R… Ri… Rit.. su?" Ritsu collapsed fully and the woman from the mist let a smile drift over her lips.

"You may not know me yet, but you will. First you must know yourself Masaki Kurosaki Ritsu…"

AUTHOR'S RAMBLINGS

Well? What do you guys think? Also, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to Beta for me? Grammar and spelling aren't usually an issue, I just need someone to motivate me more... I'm really bad about consistant updates... I always abandon you... Some one help? Please?

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