Last chapter wasn't much, I know. This chapter will be somewhat boring, since you know most of it already. But I suggest you still read through it…

Bleach: Crossed Paths
By G.O.T. Nick

Chapter One: A Turn For…

It was 7:31 when Kurosaki Ichigo reached his home, the Kurosaki Clinic. He casually placed his hand on the doorknob, and pushed it open with a statement of, "I'm home."

"YOU'RE LATE!" replied his father, Kurosaki Isshin, with a flying spinning heel kick to the left side of Ichigo's jaw. As Ichigo momentarily lay crumpled in a heap, his father began to lecture him in his own, special manner, "You delinquent! What time do you think it is? Dinner in this house is at seven o'clock!"

Naturally, Ichigo sprang to his feet and yelled back in kind, "You bastard! Is that any way to greet your son, who just returned from helping a spirit to find peace?"

"Silence!" Isshin dismissed, "No matter the reason, those who disrupt the iron harmony of this household shall receive a punishment of blood!"

As Ichigo and his father continued to argue through a series of yells, kicks, and punches, while Ichigo's younger sisters Karin and Yuzu watched, a very different and much less exciting event was taking place in the household of Ryokuai Kouen. Much like Ichigo, he entered his home with a simple push at the door. Much unlike Ichigo, no one was there to greet him. Kouen stepped into his simple one-bedroom apartment, and sighed, flinging his new uniform on the nearby couch. He closed the door behind him, and stood there, with his eyes closed, thinking about how he'd have to start at a new school the next day. Again.

After a few minutes, Kouen realized he was hungry. Another ten minutes later, he had devoured some rice cakes, and was lying on the couch lazily, lost in thought. And then, very suddenly, something caught his attention. He bolted upright, his eyes darting about the room in search of some unseen force. "What the hell…?" It was something…immense, powerful…evil… "I've never felt it before…what is it?" After a few moments, he calmed down, and tried to concentrate on this immense new presence. It took a few minutes, but then…'There! Maybe two miles from here…and it's getting gradually closer…'

Kouen thrust himself out of the couch, and grabbed a jacket he had left crumpled on the floor. He yanked the door open and dashed outside, knowing it would lock behind him. As he ran and slid the jacket over his shoulders, a brief flash of a thought that his actions were insane appeared in his mind before he squelched it. 'Yeah, sure it's big, dark, and scary…but something tells me I just have to check it out…' Kouen never regretted his decision.

Ichigo was under the influence of a Kidoh spell, listening to a lecture by a Death God named Kuchiki Rukia, by the time Kouen found the presence he had felt. The sight of it, to put it simply, shocked him. It was a huge, dark thing, with humanoid limbs and a white, skull-like mask with a movable jaw. When Kouen set eyes on it from across the street, it was lumbering after the ghost he had seen with Ichigo earlier. The girl was running for her life (or whatever one would call her current state), ponytails flaring out behind her as she pumped her legs, but the humanoid beast was easily keeping pace with her, and seemed to be gaining ground. And then, the girl lost her footing, and began to fall towards the ground, the immense beast bearing down on her…

Without thinking, Kouen was across the street, arms clutched about the smaller girl, tackling her out of the way as one of the beast's meaty arms swung forward, cracking the sidewalk she had been running on. The thing roared, and picked up its arm, bringing the other around in a horizontal swing in an attempt to smash Kouen and the girl against the wall. Kouen let out a garbled scream of panic that was drowned out by the girl's own frightened wail, the beast's bellow, and the crunch of its arm against the wall as Kouen scrambled just out of the way. Without a moment's hesitation, he dashed down the street, hoping he was a good deal faster than the girl he had just rescued. The heavy footsteps, quickly getting closer, indicated that he wasn't quite fast enough.

Then, against all logic, Kouen heard the beast laugh, a loud, triumphant laugh that swallowed all hope from Kouen's soul. And then, it said, "Run all you like, little one… it will be all the better when I eat your enormous spirit energy…"

'Oh fuck…' Kouen mentally wailed, 'I did not want to die like this…why is this happening to me? Why why why why why…' And then something struck him. 'Enormous…spirit energy?'

"Hehe… you've got pretty good stamina to be carrying that weight and still be going at this speed," the beast mocked, "truly your soul will be delicious… a much better meal than that pathetic Plus's…"

'It's after me, then,' Kouen concluded, 'for one reason or another, I've got some sort of power, and it wants to eat me instead of this girl…okay then…' He darted around a corner, into a slightly narrow alleyway. He looked over his shoulder, and saw that the beast was having some degree of trouble fitting into the alley. Kouen knew eventually it would get sick and just smash the buildings up until it could fit, but this would buy him all the time he needed. He set the girl down on the ground, and leaned down to her to say, "Get out of here, now. I'll distract him, okay?" the girl nodded, panic evident in her eyes, and ran down the alley away from the beast. Kouen quickly sought out a door in one of the buildings, and kicked it down before dashing inside. He briefly looked around, and saw that he had entered a restaurant of some kind. It didn't matter though- what mattered was to keep moving, and hope he could outrun the thing hunting for him long enough to find some help. He jumped onto a nearby table, and to avoid stumbling through the restaurant's furniture proceeded to leap quickly from table to table before he reached the front of the store, and hurled his body through the large glass window.

Kouen managed to land on his feet, and without bothering to look around simply bolted down the road, knowing the beast would be only a few meters behind him. Sure enough, the heavy footfalls started again, and he felt the immense presence exuded by the beast swiftly closing upon him. Luckily, without the weight of the girl to slow him, Kouen was matching the thing's speed, the distance between them not closing. The problem was that Kouen had been running all-out for several minutes, and was now feeling the pain that his fear had kept him from noticing before in his shoulders, forearms, and legs. There were a few shards of glass embedded in his skin, and with every bound he took it dug into his flesh, but he dared not attempt to pick them out because doing so might slow him a step or two. No, better to keep running. 'Keep running,' Kouen ordered his body, 'keep running, don't you dare stop…I don't care if my lungs and heart can't keep up with the energy I'm spending, just keep running…'

'Keep running…' his breath was coming in deep, quick gasps.

'Keep running…' his heart pounded painfully in his chest.

'Keep running…' his sleeves and pant legs were sticking to his limbs thanks to the adhesion provided by his sweat and blood.

'Keep running…' his vision was getting blurry.

'Keep…running…' he faltered, just one step. His right foot tilted just a bit to the side, and his shoe failed to grip the ground. His body fell forward, expecting the leg to provide a support and a launching point to move into the next step, but instead the leg was going back behind his body while the rest collapsed to the ground. At the last instant, Kouen thrust both hands down into the concrete, pushing his body back up, and he stumbled forward, but it wasn't enough. That one mistake had lost him too much distance. There was no way to make it up. Any instant now, the hands would be upon him-

Kouen took another twenty steps before he realized he was no longer being chased. He stopped dead in his tracks, and turned around. The beast looked…distracted. Very distracted. Distracted by a building to its left, with a white sign on it that read, in large kanji, "Kurosaki Clinic". The beast let out a loud roar, and approached the building. "Kuro…saki?" Kouen half-muttered, half-gasped out. The beast looked at the front wall of the building, with the human-sized door positioned under the sign. There was no way it could fit through that small door. So with a swing of its arm, it made a new one, and then lumbered in with another, louder roar. And then the screams began.

Kouen couldn't take anymore. His body was too exhausted and he was so terrified that he didn't even think to react to the bile gathering in his throat, and he vomited up the rice cakes he had eaten earlier, along with whatever other substances that his stomach held. After that he could only kneel and stare at the ground, so terrified and tired that he could only shake and gasp. He vaguely managed to wonder why in the world the thing had stopped chasing him in favor of going after the occupants of the building, but then he remembered what had happened less than an hour ago, 'Ichigo can see ghosts too…which means it's probably after him. And it knows I'm too tired to run, too, so it's trying to get as much as it possibly can in one go…'

Just as he had worked this out, he saw the beast reemerge from the hole in the wall it had created, gripping a young, brown-haired girl in its enormous right fist. 'No…it's going to have her as an appetizer, and then move on to Ichigo and me…damn it…we're all going to die.' "We're dead…we're all fucking dead…"

"YUZU!" Kouen jerked his head from staring at the beast just a bit, and was shocked to see Ichigo standing there, holding a simple baseball bat in his right hand and with a look of desperation on his face. He ran forward and swung the bat at the immense beast, who responded by swinging its meaty left fist at the teenager. Ichigo managed to get the bat in the way and reduce the force of the blow, but he was still sent flying by the strike, and landed on his butt some dozen meters away. The bat was now little more than a stump of wood that ended just a few inches above Ichigo's grip. The beast moved forward, preparing to swing the arm that held Yuzu down onto Ichigo.

In a blur of motion that Kouen only barely managed to keep up with, a black-haired woman in black robes appeared in mid-air, swinging a katana-'A katana?" Kouen thought in bewilderment- down on the beast's limb. It penetrated about halfway through, and with a bellow of pain the beast released Yuzu, whom Ichigo slid under and caught, before it took several steps backwards.

The woman and Ichigo were talking, but Kouen wasn't paying attention now. He looked back at the beast, and pondered what had just happened. 'Ichigo fought it, even though there was no possible way he could hurt it. He would've died if that girl hadn't stepped in. Why did he do it, though?' It didn't take long for him to figure out the answer, 'Because he wanted to protect his sister. I tried doing that with the ghost girl earlier, but I didn't try to fight it. I ran away…' He grimaced in self-disgust, 'I'm a cowardly bitch…back in all my old schools, I was the best fighter. I knew I was, so I was never afraid to pound some heads if the occasion arose. That's why I had so many discipline problems, and landed here in Karakura. But now that I've come up against something that's definitely stronger than me…' He growled, and unsteadily pushed himself off the ground.

"Wait a sec…he came for me?" Kouen turned to look at Ichigo, who was speaking to the girl with the katana. She turned to look at him, a bit confused at his tone. "So does that mean this is my fault…? The reason my dad's over there almost dead…the reason Karin and Yuzu's lives are in danger…it's all…"

"Wait," the girl interrupted him, turning to face him with a sudden look of concern. As she spoke, she didn't notice the beast come up behind her, arm raised to strike, "I did not mean…"

"You idiot!" Kouen heard himself yell as the arm swung, "LOOK OUT!" There was a loud smack as the beast swiped her, sending her flying in Kouen's direction. He clumsily caught her as she shot through the air, and then the two of them fell to the ground. "Damn it, watch your back you moron!"

She winced and disentangled herself from him before standing up, "I was careless to neglect defending my back before an enemy," she admitted. "Where did you come from?" she suddenly asked.

"Long story," Kouen stated concisely. Further comments were halted as the two turned their attention to Ichigo, who was speaking directly to the beast.

"Hey…bitch…you want my soul, right…?" Ichigo said, a slight grin evident on his face.

Kouen's eyes widened as he suddenly figured out what Ichigo was doing. It was a similar tactic to the one Kouen had employed to get the beast's attention before, but at least then he had had the sense to run. "No way…" he clambered to his feet and shouted, "Kurosaki, don't be a fucking hero!"

Ichigo didn't listen, "THEN FIGHT ME FACE TO FACE LIKE A MAN!" he challenged, with a jerk of his thumb at himself, "NO ONE ELSE HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS! TRY KILLING ME AND TAKING MY SOUL!"

"FOOL!" the girl shouted, running forward as the beast let out a battle cry and lunged forward, teeth bared. The girl managed to get in front of Ichigo in time, and ribbons flew everywhere as the beast's jaws closed around her. Ichigo and Kouen stared in shock, and it looked like the girl was going to be ripped in half. But by a stroke of luck her katana was wedged between two of the beast's mask's teeth, and she used it to slice away a portion of the mask that included one of the teeth. The beast reared back with another howl of pain, releasing the girl as blood shot from its jaw and her torso. She collapsed to the ground, blood flowing unimpeded onto the concrete of the street.

"Death God!" Ichigo gasped.

"No…" Kouen breathed. The Death God had been the only one capable of hurting the thing so far, and there was no way she could gather the strength to stand, let alone fight back the beast. Maybe they could run, but the Hollow had displayed the ability to run just as fast and easily much longer than normal humans. His eyes drifted over to Ichigo's younger sister. What was her name again? Yuzu, that was it. He didn't know anything about her, though she appeared to be only about ten years old. But for one reason or another, she had been important enough for Ichigo to run forward in an attempt to save her that could not possibly have succeeded. 'Ichigo…I don't know why you did that… And I don't know why you just tried to play Jesus Christ by sacrificing yourself to save everyone…You're either really brave or really stupid…But whatever the reason, I'm not gonna let you steal the spotlight without a fight. I'm not going to die a coward while you die a fallen hero.' "Kurosaki!" he shouted at Ichigo, who looked up in surprise from the Death God.

"Ryokuai?" he said in surprise, as if he hadn't noticed Kouen's existence until now.

"Listen up," Kouen ordered, "I don't care what you do in the last few moments of your life, but I'll give you as much time as I can. I'll fight this bitch with whatever I can, and you do whatever you can to live as long as possible. Run, hide, pray, whatever. If you have any good ideas on how to actually survive, though, be sure to tell me. And think them up really quickly, too, they won't do me any good when I'm dead."

Ichigo looked taken aback, then somewhat angry, "You idiotic bastard! There's no way you'll even last five seconds against that thing!"

"Is that a challenge?" Kouen replied with a forced smirk. Then he turned and ran to intercept the beast, which was beginning to make its approach again. "Hey, asshole!" he shouted up at the thing, "Kurosaki's too much of a weak pussy to be a challenge to you! You know I can survive a pretty long time at least, so fight me first!"

The beast stared at him for a moment. The last time someone had stood boldly and senselessly in front of it and issued such a challenge, it had ended up biting a rather savory soul, this was true. However, it had also been injured. Kouen realized this, and began preparing, 'It's not going to attack so quickly this time, and it's probably not going to attack with its jaws because of that injury. That means I just have to watch for its-' Before the thought could finish, the left fist was hurtling down, at high speeds even though Kouen could tell there wasn't as much force behind it as the previous flails. Kouen's reflexes took over, and he jumped up just as the fist smashed into the concrete below him, sending debris in all directions. He managed a flip in mid-air and landed on the beast's forearm. 'Got it! Now if I can just reach…' He took a jump to get higher on the arm, for the beast was trying to swat him with its other palm as he ascended. He planted his feet against the beast's upper left arm and shoved himself backwards, quickly flipping again so that his feet landed on the back of the thing's right hand. Beyond the white mask, the yellow eyes widened slightly in surprise, and then Kouen bounded forward and swung his leg up with all his strength, striking right where the Death God had wounded it earlier.

It howled and stumbled backwards, another small chunk of the mask broken off from Kouen's successful assault. Kouen very nearly fell on his head the way down, but managed to get his hands under himself first, and rolled into the force of the fall to avoid any great injury. He allowed himself to smirk in triumph at seeing the beast recoil from him. Yes…he might actually be able to do this! He could react to the monster's attacks quickly enough to avoid injury, and more importantly, he could hurt it! He stood to his full height and grinned like an idiot, "That's right, bitch! I don't go down that easily." He jerked a thumb at himself, the way Ichigo had done before, and said, "I'm Ryokuai Kouen, and I've never lost a fight in my life! There's no way a dumbass like you can hope to kill me!" He let out a cry of fury and dashed towards the monster. The beast responded by swiping with its injured right arm at him. Kouen grinned and simply hopped over it, "Idiot, I'm too fast for that!" But then suddenly he noticed that the other arm was already swinging. Contrary to what he had thought, the beast had actually learned from his last attack, and had prepared for this one. 'It knew I would dodge…and it knew I would jump up like before so I could reach its face and hit it again…so it set a trap…' But there was nothing he could do about it. The meaty fingers closed around him, as he was unable to change his trajectory in mid-air. And then it proceeded to choke the life out of him.

The air left Kouen's lungs in the form of a scream of pain, and that was all he could do in reaction. 'Damn it…I couldn't pull it off…' His mouth opened as he tried to gasp in air, but it never got any further than his throat. To make matters worse, he could feel his own bones straining under the pressure of the beast's grip. If it squeezed any tighter, Kouen would snap like a twig. 'So this is it…' his head drooped forward, for his strength had already faded to the extent that his neck could no longer hold it upright. He could feel his body being carted forward as the monstrosity lumbered towards the remainder of its prey. Kouen was held in such a way that he could see Ichigo and the Death God, a mere half dozen meters away. But something strange was happening…the Death God had her sword positioned at Ichigo's chest, and the boy was helping to hold it in place. And then…it plunged forward, clean through his torso. 'What the…'

There was a surge of energy and a burst of white and blue light. By the time it had faded, Kouen had been suddenly freed. He felt the pressure loosen around his chest, and then the impact of his body striking the ground. The fingers holding him loosened, and as his vision cleared he was able to see that the beast's arm had been cleaved clean off. His body reacted, and he began to gasp for air. He rolled over onto his hands and knees, and propped himself up so that he could see exactly what it was that was happening. "Holy shit…" he managed to breathe out. A few meters from the beast, Ichigo was standing, an immense katana-esque sword held over his shoulder, glaring at the now one-armed beast.

Ichigo charged forward, clashing with the beast, and slicing its leg off below the knee. "Feel my wrath for hurting my family…" he shouted, as the beast slowly teetered forward, "FISHFACE!" The sword swung down, cleaving right through its head, and the beast deteriorated into shadows.

Kouen stared in shock, baffled by what had just transpired. Ichigo had somehow gotten a sword, and he was dressed like the Death God woman. On top of that, within a span of about twenty seconds, he had slain a behemoth that Kouen had been trying to survive against for nearly twenty minutes. Kouen wanted to ask what was happening, what the demon that had wanted to eat him was, why Ichigo had suddenly become a Death God, and many more questions, but his fatigue and injuries would not permit him to do anymore than collapse on the street, and fall unconscious.

Kouen awakened a few hours later. He was in his own apartment, in his own bed, alone. He wasn't even in street clothes anymore, but rather just boxers and a white shirt, which was odd because he was usually too lazy to change before he went to bed. Memories of the incident that had occurred flitted through his mind, but they were blurred somehow. "Was it…a dream?" He sat up, and tried to think of what exactly had happened. He racked his mind for answers, and finally turned up one. He had watched anime for several straight hours as soon as he got home, and eaten some weird-looking sushi for dinner. "Hm…that must've been it…" he muttered with a nod to himself, and lay back down, hoping the meal would stop disturbing his slumber. He threw off the covers though, because they were constricting him. His hands fell to his sides on the bed, and he let out a sigh.

He felt something at his waist. He tilted his head down to look. He didn't see anything. But…there was something by his left hip. He could feel it. It wasn't material, but he felt it there, a cold feeling, like a presence in the air. He stood up, out of his bed, and felt around the area. The sensation extended beyond his hip, as well. He felt it all along a thin stream, starting a few inches above his hip, down to a point just above and a distance behind his ankle.

Now, this was weird. His apartment had felt cold before, though that had just been when he had put the air conditioning up a bit too high. And he had never felt a sensation of cold in an area so small before. On top of that, there were those memories. He closed his eyes and thought again, slicking back his hair as he did so. After several minutes, he noticed something about the conflict between them. He had assumed one memory to be a dream, and the other to be an explanation for it. But…the explanation didn't seem authentic. It was as if it had been placed on top of the "dream" memory, to cover it up. He mentally reached out for that veil…and peeled it off.

Kouen opened his eyes. Yes, the memory was real! It had happened! He hadn't eaten sushi, but rather rice cakes. More importantly, he had run from, and fought, that masked thing. And Ichigo had suddenly received power from that girl. But how? Kouen continued to rack his mind, searching for that answer. 'The sword…she pierced the sword into him, and gave him power…' But…the sword Ichigo had was not the same as hers. Meaning somehow, the power had allowed Ichigo to create another one.

"A sword…" he looked down at his waist again, and felt around the area of cold. "Ichigo received a boost of power due to a physical connection with that Death God, and he was able to manifest it in the form of a sword." He thought back to the battle, to the earliest part of it, when the beast had struck the Death God and she had collided with him, "So, because I touched her, I gained a degree of strength as well…enough to slightly harm that thing…" He peered at the area at his side, speculating the implications of this event. "Ichigo became a Death God…and when he did so, an enormous amount of power was flowing from his body. So, perhaps…" He narrowed his eyes at the area, and reached down with his right hand to the topmost part of the area. He let his fingers close around it…and felt something solid. "Yes…"

There was a flash of light, but it was not quite the same as the one that had occupied Ichigo's transformation. It was a crimson shade, and it momentarily lit up the room so that it seemed the walls were covered in blood. When it faded, Kouen saw in the light sifting through a window that a sheathed katana was at his side. The sheath was red, and the hilt was geometric pattern of crimson and gold. The cross guard was golden as well, and was circular with points jutting about its circumference, like a glinting star. Kouen grinned, and pulled the katana out, admiring the small sound it made as it exited its case. The blade glinted in the moonlight, a meter in length if it were straight. It curved gracefully, however, and Kouen knew simply by holding and gazing at it that it was a beautiful, swift, and deadly weapon.

Kouen smirked, the light shining on the silver blade dancing in his green eyes. He permitted himself to look down, and was not surprised to see the robes of a Death God draped about his body. He knew what this meant. Ichigo had been able to kill that monster with little effort upon transforming, and now that same power belonged to him.

It was late. He was tired. In the morning, he would figure out what he would do with this unexpected blessing. Perhaps he would seek out the female Death God, and find out more. Perhaps he would bring it up with Ichigo, for he was certain fate would lead them to meet at school the next day. Or perhaps he might even…He shrugged. Maybe, maybe…But now was not the time to decide. He sheathed the sword, and there was a glow as his uniform disappeared. He wasn't sure how that was happening, either, but his brain refused to try to work out anything else tonight. He lay down, a smirk pasted on his lips, and went to sleep.


Next time on Bleach: Crossed Paths! It's Kouen's first day of school at Karakura! There, he realizes the true meaning of last night's venture, and at lunch takes advantage of some time alone with Ichigo to express his true feelings and-

SECURITY! Get that fan girl out of here! I want her on Soukyoku Hill immediately!

AH! It doesn't matter what you do to me, you can't stop the path of true love!

You're right, I can't. Luckily, you know nothing about that. Take her away! Aw, fuck, we're out of time again!