A/N: It's been a while since I wrote a Bleach story. I took a break from my other fandom and decided to write something in this one. I hope you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think.

Chapter 1:

The Unexpected

My senior year in high school had finally arrived and I was, both, anxious and excited at the same time. This was supposed to be the best year of my life; however, it was starting to turn out anything but that. I had moved from the home I had known all of my life to a place that was miles away. I moved to Naruki City, a place that bordered Karakura Town. Both places were on the outside of Tokyo.

Thankfully, I moved over the summer and had a little time to adjusts to my new surroundings. The traveling between Naruki and Karakura was not always the easiest. There was always some kind of weirdo trying to strike up a conversation with me on the bus. Thankfully, I was used to the weirdos where I originally came from and knew how to get away unnoticed.

I really didn't want to think about the real reasons we had moved away when I had been so close to graduating; but those memories nagged at me more often than I would like to admit. Being hunted down like an animal by creatures that didn't seem real to me, left me feeling alone and afraid.

My parents thought it best if we started fresh in a new town with the hopes that the whatever was after me would no pursue me. They couldn't see the creatures and it made me wonder if they really believed me or just thought me crazy.

Walking through the front doors of Karakura High, the air felt thicker somehow. The hairs on the back of my neck were raised at attention. Something felt off. Curling my bottom lip inward, I took the steps needed to make it further inside the building.

"Taya!" A voice shouted.

I turned to see Ayame, the only friend I had made since moving to this area, running straight for me. Her long red hair flowing behind each step she took. Curling a chunk of my sakura pink hair behind my ear, I waved and smiled in greeting. Once she finally reached me, she stopped to catch her breath. "Are you ready for the first day?" She asked, placing a hand on my right arm.

"I think so." I answered softly, wondering if I was truly ready or not.

The standard school uniform was not really much different than my uniform in my old school minus the color of the fabric. A Grey skirt, white shirt with a red bow tie with a Grey blazer. The sound of the heels of my shoes clicked against the floor of the hallway. Ayame eyed me with a raised eyebrow. "Are you okay?" She asked just before we got to our homeroom.

"Yeah, everything is just different and I haven't gotten used to it yet."

"Understandable. I mean, you did just move here and all. Don't worry, I'll be right by your side."

"Thank you, Ayame."

She smiled, showing off her perfect features. I envied her a little. She was absolutely stunning to the eye and there wasn't a guy that didn't look in her direction as we walked by them. Taking in a deep breath, I swallowed all the negative thoughts and stepped inside the classroom that would begin my first day in a new school.

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As the day progressed, I got a somewhat comfortable in my surroundings. Ayame kept her words and remained by my side the entire time. I met so many different people; but there was one that caught my attention right away. It wasn't because he was attractive. It was more because I felt an odd sensation in the pit of my stomach that he was different. Different like me.

He had bright orange hair and soft brown eyes. The subtle softness behind them seemed to call to my own nerves and calm them. Ayame introduced me to him at the start of the first class. His name was Ichigo Kurosaki. He surrounded himself in friends that just seemed to adore him, especially Orihime Inoue. She was the first female to greet me when I first arrived in homeroom.

"Taya, how is your first day going?" Ichigo asked me with a smile.

"It's going pretty well, thanks for asking." I answered, returning the smile he had given me.

"Good, I'll see you tomorrow."

The bell rung for the end of the day. I hadn't realized that time had flown by that quickly. Tucking my books into my backpack, I started to walk out of the classroom. A sudden chill ran up my spine that stopped me dead in my tracks. "What is this feeling I've got all of a sudden?" I asked myself mentally.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ichigo, Orihime, Chad and Uryū run down the hall as if there was an emergency. Narrowing my eyes, I felt obligated to follow them. Without a single word to Ayame, I bolted after them. I honestly had no idea what I was doing; but the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach kept me going.

My eyes widened the second I saw Ichigo place something to his chest and emerged in completely different clothes and a large sword fastened behind his back. He was now dressed in a standard black shihakushō with a white tie around his waist.

If that wasn't weird enough, I stopped the second I heard a loud howl. Slowly, I crept around the corner to see a large creature with a white mask. It was rushing towards the group, slipping passed them all and coming right for me. It was the same kind of creature that had hunted me down in previous hometown. I froze almost instantly, remembering how each one was different but all had the same goal in mind. Hunt me down and devour me.

"Taya!" Orihime shouted at the top of her lungs.

It was the sound of her voice that alerted me to the danger before me. Turning, I ran in a full sprint back towards the school. The building beside me was crumbling as the creature ran into it. Ichigo appeared behind me, blocking the creatures advances. He lept into the air, aiming straight for the head as he came down.

With one last ditch effort, the creature swung with his tail, knocking the rest of the building down in a rain of concrete. The stones were falling around me as I ran, until I could no longer run forward. All I could hear was my name being screamed one more time and then everything went black.

"Taya!" Orihime screamed again.

When I opened my eyes, I was floating in the air above a large crowd of people around the debris of the collapsed building. That's when I came to terms that I had been caught beneath of all that rubble. The police department, fire department and hospital personnel were present trying to keep the people from getting involved.

I could see Ichigo, Chad, Orihime and Uryū standing outside of the group with solemn expressions on their faces. Ichigo had returned to his normal attire of clothing. Looking down at myself, there was a small chain hanging from my chest that looked like it had been broken from something. I was completely confused about what was going on. Was I dead?

"We've got a body?" A police officer shouted.

The stones were pulled away and my body was pulled out from the obstruction. Blood was evident all over me. That was the realization that I needed to know that I was indeed dead. Turning away from the image, I could see Ichigo lower his head. Orhime reached for him, doing her best to comfort him. "We can't save everyone." Uryū stated.

"It almost seemed like that hollow was after her right from the beginning. It didn't want anything to do with us." Orihime commented.

"That is a possibility. She probably had spirit energy that the hollow wanted to devour." Uryū quickly answered.

"Does it really matter now? She's dead because of me." Ichigo finally said, clenching his hands into tight fists at his sides.

Did he really believe that? It was my fault for following them in the first place. I put myself in the path of danger without really knowing what was going to happen. My hand instinctively came to rest on my chest where the chain was now present.

I really didn't expect to see my parents arriving there with tears streaming down their faces. My mother was hysterical and had to be calmed by my father, who wasn't in the best frame of mind either.

"Mom…Dad…" I whispered.

This was not how today was supposed to go. I was supposed to start at a new school, make friends and graduate. I sure as hell wasn't supposed to die because my curiosity got the better of me. Shutting my eyes tightly, I could still hear my mother's hysterical cries at the scene below me. The guilt of breaking her heart weighted heavy on my heart, or where my beating heart would be if I had been still alive.

"Taya!" Ayame's voice shouted.

Her tear stricken face came into view. My mother immediately took a hold of her from pushing forward through the crowd. The two women held onto each other, crying. My father placed comforting hands on their shoulders. How was I supposed to handle this? I caused them this kind of pain. How could I move on from this?

"Ichigo, this is not your fault. Please don't blame yourself." Orihime pleaded.

Those words echoed inside my head. Once again, I closed my eyes and found myself standing behind them. Orihime was the first to notice me. Her eyes connected with mine almost instantly. "Please don't blame yourself…there is no need for it." I said softly, trying to hold back my own tears that threatened to spill over the situation.

Ichigo finally turned around to face me. My long hair was over my shoulders, brushing up against the links of the chain was the embedded in my chest. "It's my job to save people from hollows and I failed…"

"I was curious and followed after you guys, I just had this feeling that I needed to follow. There was no way you could have known that I was there."

"Doesn't matter…you still should have been saved."

I tried to smile to assure him that things would be okay. There really wasn't much else I could say on the subject. He didn't know that these things had been after me for quite a while now. He had to be the one to let it go; but from what I could see, he wasn't going to do that no matter what I said.

Floating over to the scene of my death, I could see the hospital personel cover my body with a sheet and load me into the back of the ambulance. It was like watching a scene straight out of a movie, it didn't seem real to me.

"You need to perform a konsō on her…" Uryū suggested.

"There are too many people around for me to get out of my body, I'll have to come back tonight and do it." Ichigo answered, turning away to start walking in the opposite direction.

Konsō? What the hell was that? Was it some kind of passing on ritual to people that were killed not of their own accord? I didn't understand anything that was going on around me anymore. Suddenly, the sound of a howl could be heard in the distance. My eyes went wide as I looked up to see the sky darken and another creature emerged.

"Even in death you still are after me…" I said softly, clenching my hands into fists at my sides.

The creature called a 'Hollow' howled once more, salivating over the sight of me in such a defenseless state. Bracing myself for what was to come, I covered my face with my arms. A flash of my mother's smile came to mind and all I wanted to do was embrace her one last time. How had everything turned out so wrong? "I'm so sorry…" I whispered.

The sound of metal against metal echoed inside my ears. I slowly lowered my arms from my face to see a person floating in front of me with a katana sword out, blocking the claws of the hollow. Slightly looking down, I could see that Ichigo's group were looking straight up at me with concern on their faces. Shifting my eyes back to what was in front of me, I could see the person who had protected me much more clearly.

With his back to me, I could tell that he was fairly tall. He had short black hair and wore that same style shihakushō that Ichigo wore, except his was sleeveless. There were to black bands around both of his arms and one around his neck. I stood in awe as the wind whipped my hair around me.