~Cold but I'm Still Here~
A Bleach fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own bleach at the moment…but I am working on an EVIL plan to STEAL the bleach rights…I won't say what those plans are in case of the unlikely chance that Tite Kubo is reading this disclaimer…

Summary: Ember is an ordinary girl, leading an ordinary life. But it was boring, lacking, and downright depressing. Her only high points were when she was watching anime, listening to music, and sleeping-all of which sent her to a better place. She longed for something to happen that would turn her life upside-down, anything to bring her out of her lonely, miserable shell, she longed for adventure. She never thought anything would happen, until one day, a mysterious stranger transferred to her school and turned her life out-of-whack. Yet for some reason, this mysterious stranger was highly reminiscent of her favourite anime character….

~CHAPTER FOURTEEN~

(EMBER MATTAYA)

"ohohoh, Kukaku-sama, can I tell them about the chances they'll die?"

Ichigo fell over Chad moved back a bit, Ishida's eyes went as wide as saucers and Orihime just looked a little worried. Ganju started laughing at their faces, and Kukaku smirked at my eager face.

"Why yes, Ember, please share about the HIGHLY LIKELY CHANCE THEY WON'T SURVIVE." She emphasized the last six words to amusing results. Everyone of them (excluding chad) started freaking out. It was quite amusing actually.

"PIPE DOWN AND LISTEN!" Yoruichi yelled. They immediately sat down on their knees, but they still had looks of pure terror on their faces.

"Well you see...you make a sort of bullet-orb with your reiatsu. If your spiritual energy falters, or you lose focus...you will probably die...Ichigo I'm directing this mostly at you." I said brightly.

He did an anime fall and I started laughing again.

"No worries. Ember, Ganju, teach them. I'll blow you up tomorrow morning, so make sure they're experts by then." We both army saluted her, and ran off to get the strange, reiatsu orbs I only mastered the day before.

...

"DAMMIT ICHIGO, HOW COME YOU SUCK??!?!?" Ganju and I were scolding Ichigo due to his level of suckishness at controlling reiatsu.

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!! THIS IS FREAKING HARD, GIMME A BREAK!!" he yelled back. I smacked my forehead out of aggravation at his idiocy. He learned this in one day how again?

I totally gave up and let ganju deal with him. Throwing my hands up in despair, i stormed out of the room and sat outside kukaku's house. I soon felt another presence coming towards me, and someone-or something-sat down beside me. It was both. That something, was a cat, the someone was yoruichi (though I was the only one that knew she was a person...though she didn't need to know I knew)

"...You know who I am." Yoruichi stated plainly (still in cat form)

I looked at her shocked, trying to keep my cover, "What do you mean Yoruichi-sama?"

"That's exactly what I mean. You addressed me as 'sama' even though I'm a cat. I can put two and two together Ember-san. I'm no idiot. The only question I have, is how much do you know?" I paused and looked at her in the eyes. I knew she had caught me, what was the point in lying? And for some odd reason, I felt compelled to spill my guts.

"I know...a lot more than I let on. I know who you all are, your personalities, and your powers. The only person I don't know about is myself." She nodded and replied.

"I can see that. You have that look in your eyes. Sadness, confusion, and yet there is still hope. You are human, you don't belong here. You want to get home, ne?" I looked down sadly, focusing on my now bare feet.

"...Yeah. At the moment, soul society's after my neck. They want me dead or something. I just want to go home. All my friends and family don't remember me, I'm a human in soul society. Only souls exist in soul society. The only people who know me want me locked up in that dungeon in first division. I technically don't even exist." She looked at me sympathetically.

"I am curious as to how you know so much...but I won't ask you, because I know you won't give me a straight answer. You're very similar to Ichigo. You're both humans lost in soul society, working hard for one purpose. Family and friends. He's here to save a friend, though I think you knew that. The good thing is though...we can get you home. After we survive this whole mess, we're going back, and you can come." I looked at her surprised, then smiled widely and appreciatively.

"Thank you, Yoruichi-sama. I will assist you as much as possible in seireitei as repayment." She chuckled and looked me in the eye.

"I can tell by that look in your eye, you know more than you should. I'm not sure if I should be thankful or worried, but I think you'll come in useful nonetheless. Now you should get inside and help Ichigo, he'll get us all killed if he doesn't master that ball thing." I laughed and stood up, walking back inside with yoruichi.

....That Night....

After everyone else had gone to bed (Ichigo having finally gotten the hang of it...somewhat) I found myself once again sitting outside the house. I stared into the starry sky, pondering what would happen the next day. Would I get caught? Would my being here influence the story line?...Would I survive?

Once again, someone else sat down beside me, but I was able to recognize them immediately.

"Good evening, Kukaku-sama" I whispered softly. She smiled kindly and followed my gaze to the stars.

"Hey kiddo. You nervous?" I stayed silent for a second, then shrugged.

"I...don't know. I am, but I'm not, you know? The only thing I'm worried about...is what will happen if we get caught. I don't care if they catch me specifically, but if they catch Ichigo and the others. I don't know what they'll do to us. They already want me dead, I'm not sure about everyone else." She nodded and stayed quiet. I decided to lie a little bit...just to foreshadow what may happen.

"I also have a bad feeling about this whole thing...it's just...there seems to be more than meets the eye. There has to be a deeper cause in all of this, otherwise it just wouldn't add up. Someone, or something else much worse is at work...and that unnerves me quite a bit..." She nodded and looked directly at me.

"I have the same feeling. Just...be careful, okay? And if you go back to your world...try to come back before you leave...just to say goodbye. Human time is different form soul society time, so I'm not sure if you've lost track of time...but you've been here nearly two human weeks. I gotta honestly say, I got pretty attached to you in that short time. So....good luck. And try to come back in one piece." I looked at her thankfully and gave her a sincere reply.

"Thank you...Kukaku-sama...I owe you so much...If you ever need anything, gimme a holler and haul my human ass back here to help out." She laughed and nodded.

"Okay, don't worry, I won't hesitate to. Also...I have something for you...well, it's more like some words of the wise while you're in soul society. One, kick some soul reaper ass. Two, I know you're strong, but don't take on anyone wearing a white haori, those are captains and way out of your league. And now...we need to make a decision." I looked at her questioningly, and she reluctantly brought a black bundle out from behind her. I gasped as I realised it was my shinigami clothes I got rid of the first day she found me.

"...Will you be able to better hide from those seireitei bastards as one of them, or dressed in something they haven't seen you in before?" I looked at her strangely. I thought she got rid of those clothes because she hated soul reapers. In fact, she asked me to stop carrying around my zanpuktoh.

"Umm...you know what? Screw soul reapers...I'm going to wear the clothes on my back. I don;t need to blend in...I don't want to be associated with them anymore...though they would make a good disguise when needed..." She looked thoughtful, and threw them aside.

"meh, If you need a disguise, I trust your skill to be able to get one. Now, one more thing.." She pulled something long and slender out form behind her. I realised if was my zanpuktoh.

"You're not going to want to forget this. If I knew you were going back into seireitei, I would've made you train with this. Oh well, I'm sure you'll do fine. I hope you don't mind...but I had it polished and sharpened for the trip. Easier to slice up soul reapers that way. I also noticed your old strap was like a string, I got you a new one." I shakily accepted my shining zanpuktoh from her. The sheath was now attached to a silver strap. The strap had gold and black embroidery in it, It was beautiful.

"Oh my...Kukaku-sama, I don't know what to say..." She just laughed at me.

"Then don't say anything! I remember, the first day I met you, I told you no mushy thank yous?? Now, you need rest, You'll probably end up babysitting Ganju and Ichigo, mainly because you're more mature than them. Oh, and don't forget you'll be on the run...yeah, you need to rest for that too." I laughed and stood up, facing towards the house. She remained sitting. I turned my head back towards her and smiled.

"Thankyou....Kukaku-sama. I won't let you down, that's a promise." She nodded peacefully, and waved me off. I turned back and walked into my room for the last night. What was going to happen next I wonder...

(M'kay, for those of you who care...[this is just an outfit description of what Ember will be wearing in seireitei...just in case you're curious. You don't like it...well then, it's your imagination, change to how you want!!] anyways, she'll be wearing baggy black shorts that go down to her knees, with a white tank top, and a black and grey striped scarf wrapped around her neck. Her zanpuktoh strap is slung over her right shoulder. Her light brown hair is going to be in two, low pigtails, and she'll be wearing black shoes that look an awful lot like the ninja sandals in naruto xD. She'll have fishnet from her wrist to elbow on both arms, and fishnet on her left knee. She'll also have a plain black hat that goes down over her ears, and covers most of her forehead. Loosely around her hips, she'll be wearing a grey belt with lots of pockets to hold stuff like the smoke bombs, and fireworks that Kukaku and Ganju showed her/gave her...that is all xD)

I woke up to loud bangs in the room next to me. I realised what we were doing in a few minutes...and lept to my feet in a panic. I pulled some clothes on, and grabbed my zanpuktoh just as I ran out the door. Everyone was already in the room with the bigass cannon. I slung my zanpuktoh over my shoulder, and went to stand beside orihime.

Ganju pulled out the strange, reiatsu-orb and started walking towards the base of the cannon. After a small wave to kukaku, I went in after him, the others following. We all put a hand on the orb and fucused some reiatsu into it, making a hard outer bubble around us. I could tell that some of the spiritual pressure was wavering, but before I could do anything, Kukaku fired the cannon and we were all hurtling towards seireitei.

"ICHIGO YOU IDIOT!!! You're putting too much energy into the orb, you're going to kill us all!!" Ishida and Ganju yelled. Ichigo then struggled to suppress his outrageous spiritual energy. What was was wrong with him? I had just as much reiatsu as him and I was doing just fine...

He was now putting not enough reiatsu into the orb, and the bubble started to crack due to lack of balance.

"ICHIGO!!! More spiritual pressure damn you!! Everyone, try to match Ichigo due to the fact that he is an idiot!!" He growled at me, then went back to his normal amount, everyone else trying to apply the same amount as him.

Just after we cracked the surface of the protective barrier surrounding soul society, Ichigo's spiritual energy wavered again, and the crack grew. Panicking, I tried to match his increasing reiatsu, but this just cause the bubble to crack more.

"ICHIGO YOU BAKA!!!" I yelled out as the bubble completely broke. We were all hurtled in separate directions. '...well shit...'

[ahh, Nuu!!!...ugghh...I can't really remember how they got split up...hmm...mostly, I just can't remember where Yoruichi went...If this is way too off, I'll fix it later, but for now...]

We all struggled to get back together, but instead got put into groups. Chad, after risking his neck to get Ishida back to the group, fell away from all of us by himself.

"CHADD!!!" Ichigo was yelling frantically. However, he couldn't do anything. He had to worry about himself. He and Ganju went the opposite direction as chad. Ishida and Orihime fell in the opposite direction of me. I realised Yoruichi was still following, and made a desperate attempt to catch her...I succeeded to my very great surprise. I found myself hurtling towards the ground, but I didn't scream. I did my best to not attract even more attention to myself than I probably already had due to the noticeable explosion.

As we neared the ground, I spinned in mid air and grabbed yoruichi tightly so I could take the fall. I faced upeards towards the sky and braced myself for landing. I took a bumpy landing right on my back, causing me to open my eyes in shock and start coughing from the impact. We slid to a stop, and I released a unscathed yoruichi to roll onto my hands and knees, gasping for breath.

"Thanks for the save Ember. Are you okay?" Yoruichi asked, walking up to me cautiously. I nodded hastily, still unable to talk due to lack of breath. She nodded and sat beside me, waiting for me to stop coughing. A few minutes later, I stood up to observe my surroundings...I had no idea where I was. There was a lot of tall white buildings...just like every place in seireitei. I looked at yoruichi hopelessly to find she was already running the other way.

"We need to find the others before we search for Rukia. They won't be able to handle themselves." I paused a minute before sprinting after her with a serious look on my face. It was crunch time, Note to Self: Keep an eye out for that Aizen-bastard.

We ran for nearly half an hour, with no signs of life. Just a whole lot of white, looming buildings. We stopped to take a break, I bent over, putting my hands on my knees panting slightly. We had been sprinting full speed for thirty minutes, something I had never attempted to do in my life. Yoruichi looked at me, she hadn't even broke a sweat, and was looking like she usually did.

"i hate to say it, but you're really slowing me down." I threw her a dirty look.

"Yeah, like you're one to talk. This is like a snails pace compared to what I can do." She threw me a questioning look and I sigh heavily, reaching up to stretch, a newfound cocky grin on my face.

"I nearly forgot who you are, oh goddess of flash dance. Come on, we got a lot of ground to cover." She smirked as I flashed up to the top of a building, hair swinging slightly in the breeze as I overlooked where she was still standing.

She followed me a second later, and we just stood there for a minute, overlooking seireitei.

"Hmph. If I had known you could use flash step, this would've been a lot easier. Let's go kid." We the flashed away, still looking for everyone else.

(TOUSHIRO HITSUGAYA) [finally!!!!...gawd....]

I walked through first division in a storm. No one had heard word of Ember, and no one knew about the death of Aizen. It was totally, and utterly pissing me off. And now, we had to deal with six ryoka who were reported for breaking into seireitei. I heard they had managed to beat the gate keeper the other day, and also managed to escape ichimaru. Now, they had found a way into seireitei and every single squad was out looking for them, including mine.

I jumped to the top of a building in a huff, and saw someone was doing the same in the distance. Raising an eyebrow, I jumped to a building slightly closer. It appeared to be a girl...or someone with long hair. They were facing the opposite way of where I was standing. I noticed two pony tails blowing in the wind, so it was probably a girl. I then noticed her clothing. I couldn't see it very well...but it was definitely not shinigami uniform. Upon even closer inspection, I noticed she had a familiar look zanpuktoh on her back...

..

No...

It couldn't be....

The sheath...

The zanpuktoh...

I thought for sure she had died or something similar.

But there was no doubt about it. That was the very recognisable zanpuktoh sheath of Ember Mattaya.

...I should've reported her appearance right away.

I should have gone running to Yamamoto and had her arrested.

But I didn't. As much as I knew it was wrong of me, there was a little voice...in the back of mind. That voice didn't want her to be arrested. That stupid little voice had unexplainable control over everything i did.

I stood there, wondering what I should do. Then she disappeared. Panicking at her abrupt departure, a wave of her abnormal spiritual pressure slapped me in the face. With a slight smirk, I started following after her. If I couldn't turn her in, I could at least find out what she was doing.

(EMBER MATTAYA)

Yoruichi was still slightly faster than I was, but she stayed at my speed contentedly. We sped towards where we had split up from the eyes, keeping our eyes and sense sharp. I had an odd feeling in my stomach, like something was wrong, but I ignored it. Instead, I kept speeding along with Yoruichi.

What I didn't know, is that Yoruichi had the same uneasy feeling.

After a few more minutes of speeding away to find the others, Yoruichi took and abrupt turn and started running a different direction. I recovered from my shock quickly and chased after her as fast as I could, she was gaining speed fast.

"Yoruichi, what are you doing? We're going the wrong way! And you have to slow down, I'm not as fast as you are!" Yoruichi ignored my pleas and sped up faster. I struggled to keep pace with her, and soon found myself get slightly exhausted. I was overusing my reiatsu, and therefore, was weakening my shunpo.

"Speed up kid. We're being followed, and they're catching up to us. Whoever they are, they have amazing spiritual pressure. I can't fight, and I'm not sure if you can take whoever they are. They seem to strong. If it comes to a fight...i don't know what we'll do." Panicking slightly, I did my best to speed up, but it was futile. I was faster than the average soul reaper for whatever reason, but I was no where near Yoruichi's level. I had reached my limit.

She came to a stop on a tall building and I landed beside her, slightly exhausted. She seemed very edgy and alert, and was glancing around hastily. I looked around timidly before she growled at something behind us. I turned to see the flutter of a captain's haori as whoever it was disappeared. My eyes widened in fear and I took a step back out of instinct.

We went back to back and started walking in a circle, trying to catch sight of whoever it was. I didn't think we'd be caught so quick...whoever it ws, I hoped they would recognize me.

"Come out coward. We know you're still there. You want us? Come and get us." Yoruichi growled to no one in particular.

I saw a movement in the corner of my eye, and pulled my zanpuktoh out due to instinct. My reiatsu started to become visible and swarm around me.

Gathering up some courage and confidence, I bit my lip before bursting out, "GET OUT HERE WHOEVER YOU ARE! I know you were following us, and I know you're watching us right now! Get your ass out here so I can beat it back to your sorry little division!"

Zanpuktoh grasped out infront of me, I walked around the edge of the roof, trying to find whoever it was. I heard a gasp and hiss from yoruichi behind me. I spinned around to see what it was and came eye to eye with the last person I was expecting.

My eyes withened with shock and fear and I started shaking slightly. I nearly dropped my zanpuktoh, but remembered what was happening and held it firmly with both hands. I growled and moved my head a bit, trying to look confident and intimidating. He simply grasped the hilt of his zanpuktoh and faced me with an impassive face.

"What are you doing here Ember?" He said, slowly pulling out his zanpuktoh, placing it infront of him in a defensive position.

I growled and hissed back, "I should ask you the same question, Captain Hitsugaya."

A/N: ...okay, if you ask me, that was the best chapter ending I've come up with so far!!

So, I know I promised five updates, but my internet wasn't working properly and I couldn't post anything. But the good news is, I do have chapter 15 and 16 nearly done, I just can't post them cause...well no internet, and I don't want to post like 5 chapters at the same time.

Anyways, I hope you liked that chapter!! ^_^ sorry for any spelling and grammatical errors...but I typed it in the car again, and it was a bit shaky and hard to type. Also, I'm sorry about inaccuracies but my memory of the soul society arc is really horrible, so I'm trying my best

Anywho...I usually thank people for their reviews and stuff...But I don't have internet at the moment so...I can't check who reviewed :/ So when I DO connect to teh net however, I'm just going to write everybody's pen names at the bottom of the authors note okay :D

Anyways...Raine20oo, I know you must hate me right now, but I promise I haven't forgotten your earned oneshot! I just didn't have a proper net connection, therefore couldn't message you...so yeah....

Anyways, Thanks for reading!!! xD Please review for free cookies!!!!...well...invisible, virtual cookies.

Thankies once again ^_^

~ember-chan

Deenami-Nicole-Sciashi, Skye The Golden Dragon, Springflowerangel, Midnightxwolfx, crystalstar83, Vampire Girl for LIFE, KoottaSakura, Bitja, demon of my heart and mind, Raine20oo, frozen ice cream, HitsugayaDream, MillieEllie

THANKYOUZ!!!! Hope I didn't let you guys down with this chapter ;)