(A/N) Ok, maybe "I'll have this up by the weekend" would be more accurate to say than "I'll have it by next week."

Either way, here it is.

From this moment on, I've reached the extent of what I wrote oh-so-many years ago as well as any plans I have of updating this regularly.

Then again, I'm not about to put up a story only to say "I'm done with this." My goal here was to express my joy about the 20th-anniversary project and this is how I felt that I should do that. At the risk of sounding like a self-absorbed prick and decimating what little free time I have, I'd be willing to dig up where I planned to take this fic and adapt it to the current year in the event that it shows itself to be something that readers would bother with beyond the prologue and the canon intro.

TLDR (not actually): Don't mind my rambling and I hope you enjoy the read.

xxxxxxx

Kuchiki Rukia looked at the city below, her dignity as a noble not allowing the excitement she felt to change her neutral expression.

So this was the human world.

Her Denreishinki suddenly let out a shrill sound. A hollow was close.

She pulled out the flip phone-like device and followed the little red dot, but it wouldn't lock to a single location. For whatever reason, the hollow was eluding her.

She glared at the small contraption in her hand. Did the damn thing break already? She just got it, too.

BA BUMP

The petite Shinigami stopped in her tracks and jumped to a nearby lamppost. What was this feeling? It was powerful. The hollow's spiritual pressure? No, it didn't feel like a hollow at all.

Whatever it was, it was messing with her Denreishinki.

She slipped the currently-useless device back into her robes and simply followed her senses. Not bothering with the placement of human structures, she simply phased through them and made a b-line towards the strange spiritual signature.

She eventually found her way to a human's sleeping quarters. The feeling was strong, but she didn't see anything other than the teenage boy doing some sort of paperwork at his desk.

"This is strange," she muttered to herself, "It's close, but…"

"Hey, strange lady. It's rude to invite yourself into someone's room without asking ya know. It'd be weird if my dad saw this."

Rukia silently stepped off the bed she found herself on. "I don't see anything. The next house over maybe?"

The teenager blew loudly in her ear.

"KYAAH!?"

She jumped in fright, her head nearly hitting the ceiling, then backpedaled her way to the other side of the room. "Y-you… You can see me!?"

He grinned. "Was I not supposed to see the person talking to herself on my bed?"

She gaped like a fish. "Bu–bu–bu…"

"But?" he helped her find her words.

"But how are you seeing me? I'm a Shinigami! A soul reaper! A guardian of the afterlife! You're a living, breathing, human, so how…"

He scratched his cheek. "I've been able to see ghosts since I was a little kid… but seriously, Shinigami? I've seen spirits that were dressed kind of like you before, but I figured it was some sort of cosplay."

Rukia took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. He wasn't making fun of her, he was simply a spiritually aware human trying to rationalize something that didn't fit his image of how he thought his world worked.

Unbeknownst to her, Ichigo was trying not to laugh. He was totally making fun of her.

"Alright, human. Since you're already spiritually aware, I might as well explain things to you if for no other reason than to keep you out of trouble." She took a wad of paper and a marker from Ichigo's desk.

After a minute or so, the sound of the marker squeaking against paper finally stopped. She turned her "assistive schema" around so that the teen could see.

"There's two kinds of souls out there. The good ones are plus souls, which are the ones you're more or less familiar with. On the flip side of the coin, there are hollows. They're basically evil spirits that attack pluses. It's the duty of Shinigami like me to– hey, why are you laughing!"

Ichigo couldn't contain his laughter anymore. He had long since fallen to the floor holding his sides. "You… You draw like an infant!"

Rukia snarled indignantly. "Fool! Do not insult my art by calling it anything other than perfect."

His gut-splitting chortles brought him to tears. "But it's really bad."

"YOU–"

She didn't have the mind to finish her thought, since she then felt a much more familiar spiritual pressure.

A hollow.

Was this what she was trying to find earlier? It was unusually strong…

Ichigo was actually just as surprised as she was. This definitely wasn't the spiritual pressure of the hollow that should've shown up.

CRASH

The two froze. Something just rammed the side of the clinic.

Rukia shot out the bedroom door like a bullet and hit Ichigo with a bakudo number one: sai.

She barely took the time to turn and face him when she said, "Sorry, but a human shouldn't get himself involved! Stay here, I'll deal with the hollow."

She was gone before she could see that her bakudo barely did anything at all.

Ichigo didn't feel like arguing with her. The moment she left, he jumped out of his bedroom window and circled around the front where he knew the "new" hollow would be.

"Damnit Hat'n Clogs… Sorry, but I won't be able to stick to the plan!"

xxxxxxx

"Ichigo, what do you plan on doing when the Kuchiki girl is taken again?" asked the shopkeeper somberly.

Ichigo was honestly confused by the question. "What do you mean? I'm gonna stop her from being taken, obviously."

"…You can't do that."

"What!?"

Urahara put his hand up. "Listen to me. Aizen is no fool, so if something isn't following his memo, then he's going to do something that we won't be able to plan for. It's for the best that you try to go through everything just as you remembered it, from the moment you meet her up until your 'friend' brings her home. Find a way to bring her to the shop; I'll… influence the way she remembers the last little while, and I can prepare a gigai that will suppress her powers and Zanpakuto."

"That doesn't feel right," grumbled the boy.

"I'm sure it doesn't, but since we can control what we know is going to happen, we should keep it that way. Right?"

xxxxxxx

Ichigo's mind was working a mile-a-minute. Why was there a different hollow attacking his family? Did Aizen catch on to something?

The hell was he going to do about Rukia now?

When he got to the front of the house, the lead ball that was forming in his stomach dropped. The entire front half of the clinic caved in on itself. He could see his dad out cold on the floor, and his sisters…

"Ichi-nii… run!" They both passed out soon after.

Yuzu and Karin were on the ground in front of some quasi-humanoid hollow. It was bipedal, but both its arms and legs were beastly and covered in a strange, coarse black fur. Its chest, similarly colored, was almost comically muscled. Its mask covered its whole head and was some kind of perverse imitation of a goat's skull, horns and all. Its hollow hole was relatively oversized, crossing the chest from shoulder to shoulder.

Ichigo hadn't ever seen that thing in this life, or his last.

Only then had the teen noticed something else. Rukia was lying in a pool of her own blood behind a pile of rubble.

Ichigo had to stop himself from hyperventilating. She had to be alive, she had to be. For now, he would take out this hollow, then take his friend to Urahara. They could figure out what the hell was going on later.

"So, you're the human whose soul will supposedly taste better than anything I've had before."

He didn't let himself be bothered by the hollow's words. Without missing a beat, he let his mother's cross dangle out from under his sleeve and touch the seal on his palm.

Spiritual energy began to gather around him as Urahara's bakudo seal undid itself. His shoulder guard appeared as if he were wearing it the whole time, and a strange-looking black blade manifested in the hand that held the cross.

"A Quincy, hm? A surprise, but it's no matter."

The hollow didn't expect an answer, so Ichigo didn't give him one. With a flash of hirenkyaku, he appeared before the beast and brought down his weapon with a powerful swing.

"It's no use."

Much to Ichigo's surprise, the blade didn't kill the hollow. Hell, it didn't even wound it. His spirit weapon was stopped right at it touched the black skin of the creature's shoulder.

The "Quincy" made space between them as quickly as possible.

"…How?"

"…I suppose it wouldn't hurt to say."

It disappeared from Ichigo's line of sight.

"Fast!"

The next thing he knew, the teen was being held up by his neck. The hollow kept his head in place to force him to look in its terrifyingly calm, yellow eyes. "No matter your strength, Quincy child, your efforts are meaningless. No Quincy, no Shinigami, no soul can pierce my flesh. The only thing that could make me bleed is another hollow, which you are not."

Damnit! He was too far for Kisuke to get here on time, and Yoruichi was currently in Soul Society. He needed to find a way to–

"GAAH!?"

The claws wrapped around his neck loosened their grip, only for the beast's leg to come crashing into his side. His body flew into his house at alarming speeds.

"Oh, bother. You're not dead, right? I didn't think I hit you that hard. I'm not done with you yet."

Ichigo's blut saved him from most of the damage, but the strength behind the blow still left him a little winded. How in the hell was that hollow so powerful? Other than the Arrancar, he had met very few menos hollows that could hit that hard. Was it a Vasto Lorde?

With nothing more than a wince, he pushed himself to his knees.

The thing said that only a hollow could hurt it for some reason. How was he supposed to get around that with only Quincy powers? If only…

His eyes found Rukia's still body.

The hollow seemed more than fine waiting for him outside, so he quickly ran to the injured Shinigami's side.

"Come on, you gotta wake up! Please wake up!" he nudged her shoulder gently. He almost slumped over in relief when he heard her groan.

She opened her eyes, though they felt weighted to her. "Fool… You're still here? Run…"

He ignored her. He tore part of her Shihakusho and pressed it against her injured shoulder in an attempt to slow the bleeding. "There's no time for that! If there's anything you can do, that I can do, you have to tell me now!"

He was practically forcing the answer he wanted out of her, but for all of their sakes, she needed to say–

"There is one way, but…"

"There's no time! Hurry up and tell me what to do!"

She weakly unsheathed her Zanpakuto and pointed it at him with a trembling arm. "I don't know if it will do much good against such a powerful foe, but… Take my power. If my blade pierces your heart, it is supposed that I may be able to temporarily give you the abilities of a Shinigami."

Ichigo grabbed the tip of the blade and positioned it at the center of his chest. "Do it."

"I must warn you. You may–"

"I don't care. At this point, we all live or we all die."

"…You have guts, human, I'll give you that."

"You can call me Ichigo. Sounds a little better than 'human'."

"Hah. Very well. I am Rukia. Kuchiki… Rukia."

The blade went forward.

xxxxxxx

Rudberri had always been a solitary hollow. In the most desolate of pits of Hueco Mundo where it resided, it had never spoken to another of its kind. A moment wasted speaking was a moment you weren't fighting, after all.

It was a perfect life for it. It loved to fight; to be the strongest.

The first time it recalled ever speaking to another was when that strange Shinigami came to it.

It tried to kill him, of course, but loathe as it was to admit, it could not. The Shinigami was too strong.

Oddly enough, the Shinigami didn't end its life. Instead, the Shinigami offered power in exchange for a favor.

It was strong now. It knew that there wasn't a hollow in all of Hueco Mundo that could defeat it, and now, thanks to the Shinigami, nothing other than a hollow could defeat it.

It was the strongest now, wasn't it?

At first, it had half a mind to just kill the Shinigami, but he promised a meal more scrumptious than anything it ever had before. He allowed the Shinigami to live, as the sound of such a delicacy pleased him.

And here he was, sorely disappointed.

It was supposed to be the best meal of his life, no? The Quincy boy most certainly had a potent spiritual power, but the hunt was no thrill whatsoever. It just tossed him around a little, but he still hasn't come out of his little nest!

Oh my, the Quincy boy didn't accidentally die, did he?

Maybe it should go wake him–

"Ah?"

There he was… did the boy change his robes? No, it was more than that. Now he smelled like…

"Your power has changed, boy."

"…"

The boy flashed out of sight again. At the very least, he was fast.

"Your struggling entertains me, but at least do it where I can see– bleurgh!"

It looked down in shock. Going right through its center was a different blade that what the human had before. It was darker than the canopy of its world. Its aura was powerful and mocking, like the demented jeer of a–

"…I must admit, I'm not quite sure what you are."

"Just die already."

It was over as soon as it happened. The cleaver was pulled in an upward swing that cut the hollow in half from its stomach to its head.

Ichigo sheathed his weapon at the waist as it joined its sister blade. "That was rough. I need to tell Hat'n Clogs about this."

"No need, I heard."

It took all of Ichigo's willpower not to turn to the offending voice and scream at the top of his lungs. "You… were here the whole time. Of course you were here the whole time. Why the hell didn't you do anything to help?"

The shopkeeper jumped down in front of the teen from his perch upon the clinic's roof. "Were you not paying attention? Do I look like a hollow to you? What could a little ol'shopkeep like me do to such a scary Vasto Lorde?"

"…Shit, Rukia!"

"Don't worry, I already took care of that while you were distracted. By tomorrow morning, everyone will be good as new… and everything will be remembered as it should."

Ichigo glared at the man. "Did you set this whole thing up?"

Urahara made one of his serious faces again. "No, I didn't. The fact that Aizen came up with something so elaborate means that he knows something. The question now is how much."

"You think it's Aizen?"

"…"

"Right, sorry."

The hollow was somehow altered to only take damage from a hollow's spirit signature. Aizen must have feared that Kuchiki Rukia wouldn't unlock Kurosaki Ichigo's Shinigami powers, and decided to force a situation where he would have no choice but to take the power. Did he think that Ichigo was aware of his hollow side? Did he think he would simply be desperate enough to try anyway? No one could say.

Urahara gave the boy a once-over. He wore the standard Shinigami Shihakusho, the only differences being the shoulder guard and the cloak at his waist that was eerily similar to a tattered captain's Haori. "Hmm. Let's take the robe and shoulder guards off for now. We don't want to confuse Kuchiki-san more than we have to. Don't worry, I'll find an excuse to give them back to you as soon as I can. Go grab your body and meet me at the shop."

Ichigo glanced at his body left unconscious next to where Rukia was moments ago. "Damn, that's kinda freaky to see after so long."

xxxxxxx

Kisuke and the "substitute" Shinigami sat at the older man's table with cups of tea in front of them. Yoruichi stood further back in full Onmitsukido attire, having just returned from whatever she was trying to get done in Soul Society.

"So my family's good? Rukia too?"

Yoruichi sneaked up behind the teen and slapped him on the back, making him spit out the tea he was trying to sip. "Don'tcha worry about that Ichi. The Kuchiki girl is sleeping soundly in the next room over. Your family wasn't hurt that badly at all, so we patched them up, wiped their memory and put them to bed. Tessai said that repairing the clinic could be done in less than an hour."

"Tessai, huh? Now that I think about it, I don't see him around too often." Ichigo closed his eyes and took another sip of tea as if he didn't spew his last sip all over Kisuke's fan.

It was true. The first time he'd seen the ex-Kido Corps captain since he turned into a kid again was when he turned eleven, and after that he was only around once in a blue moon. Apparently he was off dealing with something with the Vizards.

The shopkeeper gingerly folded his fan and placed it to the side. "Well, now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about something that's quite honestly bothering me: Ichigo, do you recall Aizen ever using a method to make hollows impervious to Shinigami or the Quincy?"

"…No, I don't think so…" –Ichigo stared into his teacup, deep in thought– "Now that you mention it, the Winter War wouldn't have gone very well for us if the Gotei Thirteen couldn't even hurt the Arrancar."

Kisuke motioned to crab his fan, but thought better of it when he remembered that it was soaked. He had nothing to mask the worried expression he was making. "I thought as much. If Aizen is doing something differently, then that just confirms that he either caught on to something you're doing, or…"

"Or?"

"…Let's not worry about that for now. Go home, get some sleep. Assuming tonight was just an outlier, you can expect Kuchiki Rukia to 'transfer' to Karakura High in the morning."

Yoruichi finally decided to sit down at the table with them. "Actually, I'm curious. Now that you have your Shinigami powers back, are you in touch with 'Zangetsu' again?"

It was the scientist that answered her. "No, that wouldn't be possible. Ichigo's Quincy, hollow and Shinigami powers have been activated, but by an external source. He's in a peculiar situation where he still has his soul chain semi-attached, so he still wouldn't be able to manifest a Zanpakuto spirit of his own. It would be more accurate to say that Kuchiki-san's Zanpakuto spirit is acting as a stand in to 'hold his powers together', if you will. The blades he carries may look like a Zanpakuto, but they're nothing more than shells; how he imagines his spirit weapon should be."

This was new information for Ichigo. "Huh, that explains why no one was answering. Now I just feel plain silly for talking to myself."

Yoruichi snorted and looked away.

"Oi."

xxxxxxx

"Hello, I'm Kuchiki Rukia! Nice to meet you!"

Homeroom started a little while ago, and Rukia now stood in front of Ichigo with her arm extended for a handshake. Just as he expected, on her hand she wrote, make a scene and I'll kill you.

Ichigo smiled deviously. It was okay to have a little fun at her expense, right?

Rukia didn't like the look on his face.

"Oh, how cruel of you, Rukia," he whimpered in an exaggerated tone, "I can't believe you'd treat me as a stranger after all the things you've done to me." He shied away from her, wrapping his arms around himself protectively.

"…"

Rukia froze. What did he just say?

Most of the onlookers didn't fare much better. Such a switch in personality from Ichigo was quite unexpected.

The exceptions would be Ichigo's friends. Keigo whined a little that Ichigo didn't tell him about a girl, Mizuiro didn't even notice because he was busy on his phone, and Chad just waited curiously to see how the situation would play out.

Tatsuki shook her head in disappointment. "Geez, what's that idiot doing? He's a pretty terrible actor, don't you thin, Ori–"

Snap.

Orihime crushed the pencil she was holding. Her smile would've been convincing if it weren't for the twitch in her brow. "Hahaha… yeah, that's a funny joke, Tatsuki."

Tatsuki sighed. The girl wasn't listening to her at all.

"Okay, Kurosaki. As amusing as this is –it isn't, by the way, it's pretty creepy– I'd kindly ask that you leave the poor girl alone and take a seat."

Ishida Uryuu, the class rep, finally decided that enough was enough and stepped up.

Ichigo scratched the back of his head bashfully. "That bad, huh?" –he faced Rukia with a smile– "Sorry, I was just messing with ya, no hard feelings. Let's get along, okay?"

Rukia smile threatened to break into a scowl, but she held strong through the pure power of will. "Y-Yeah. Let's… get along."

Ichigo's smile stretched.

That was totally worth losing a few cool-points, right?

xxxxxxx

"Fool!" Rukia kicked Ichigo in the shin as hard as she could.

"Argh! Damn midget!"

"That's what you get for what you did earlier! You were supposed to act natural."

It was lunch break. The two made their way to the rooftop so that they could discuss what the future would hold for Ichigo as a substitute Shinigami.

Ichigo shook off the pain. He had a pretty decent Blut Vene, didn't he? How in the hell did that still hurt so damn much?

"So, short stuff, I suppose we're gonna talk about what happened last night?"

Rukia's scowl deepened, but otherwise chose not to comment on his rather unflattering nicknames for her. "Yes. Now that you've taken my powers, I'm practically useless until they return. In the meantime, you're the one who's going to be fulfilling my duties. That includes helping plus souls get to soul society and purifying hollows."

"Okay."

"Now I don't want to hear any arguments. This is an important responsibility that cannot be– huh?"

"That's fine. When do we start?"

"Uh…" the powerless Shinigami didn't think it would go over so easily with the teen, but she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. "I guess we'll head out whenever I get notified that there's a hollow nearby. My Denreishinki has an alarm that–"

As she spoke, the contraption tucked away in her blazer let out a shrill sound.

"–Sounds like that. We'll head out now, then."

Without warning, she put on a "glove" and slammed her palm into his chest.

Hard.

Ichigo took a moment to compose himself. Not ejecting his soul from his body for five or so years meant that this would probably take another adjustment period.

"Hmmm, I must say… You wear that Shihakusho well, Ichigo. Though it would seem that my… sources were right. Your Zanpakuto looks nothing like a real one. Almost like a…" she crossed her arms and shook her head. "Never mind that for now."

He chose to ignore the bit where she essentially called his weapon a fake and pulled on the collar of his uniform proudly. It did fit him nicely.

"Oh… Also, put this on." Much to his surprise, Rukia threw him his shoulder plate. "I've been told that as a substitute, this could help you control your new powers."

Hat'n Clogs came through for him then. Good.

The two made their way to the local park. They were both silent since Rukia didn't feel like there was anything important to say, so Ichigo took the time to soak in his friend's appearance.

After so many years, it really was good to see her again.