Hi guys... So I feel really bad about just dropping off the planet like that so I feel the only logical thing to do is to give you all a super long chapter! I wasn't even doing anything either I was stuck with the black cloud of writers block hanging over my head. But now I'm back and would like to thank all of those kind people that reviewed, favorite and P.M.'d my story!

ON ANOTHER NOTE, the contest is still going on, I've had a lot of great guesses so far and I'm very intrigued by some of the answers I got. Just to remind you the contest is to identify what Sam turned into in her memory with her family in the woods. The winners will have their username in my authors note. It will be big and bold and have its own space. Unfortunately no one has guessed correctly so far, so I think that I will give you a HINT! *Le Gasp!* you weren't expecting that now were you?

So the hint (besides that it has to do with fire) is, that it is seen in books and media. (Movies, T.V, etc.)

Dont own Bleach, Tite Kubo does!

At first I just stared at the books that had somehow appeared on my coffee table. It was after a few minutes that I felt brave enough to open one of them. I shakily took one of the red books titled, "Magic for All Beginners!" It was a pretty big book, not to mention that it was heavy. I was about to open it when, a loud banging echoed through the house. Not expecting it, I jumped in my spot and the book tumbled to the floor. The book flipped open to a page with many colors splattered all over. I lifted it into my arms and scanned, while I went to the door.

"Hey Sam, I know you're in there!" Ichigo yelled from outside. I poked my head out, and was met with the very impatient face of a familiar strawberry. Without thinking, I pulled him in and slammed the door behind him.

"What the hell!?" He whirled around and yelled at me.

"Well hello to you too," I replied sarcastically. I waved him off and continued to read the book in my hands. Apparently the book had opened to a very interesting subject. It had something to do with color changes.

"What happened back there at school!?" He pushed. I looked up from the book and had no idea what to say. The voice was no help either; it had apparently decided to stay silent throughout the whole ordeal.

"Well, I have this voice inside my head that decided it wanted to take me on a little field trip, so it made my stomach go crazy for a minute, then led me to this little shop where this crazy little old lady gave me a bunch of magic books, and then somehow transported me back to my house…" I thought to myself. Now how could I explain that, without sounding crazy?

"W-well, I wasn't feeling all that great during lunch…" I tried to keep my eyes focused on Ichigo, but it was a bad habit of mine to let my eyes wonder when I lied. "So, I was going home but I got… a headache! And I kind of wandered and ended up in front of a little shop."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed but his expression stayed the same. "A shop?"

"Yeah it was a weird place; it was run by this crazy old lady,"

"What about those?" Ichigo pointed to the books.

"Oh, um, she gave them to me," I felt more comfortable now, besides telling him about my inner voice, I wasn't lying. "She said that the blue ones are history, the green ones are species, and the red ones are…" I mumbled the last part.

"The red ones are, what?" he walked over to the table and sat down on the couch to look at the books.

"Mag…" I mumbled again.

"What?"

"I said…magic," He looked at me strangely, and then broke out into laughter.

"Magic!?" he snickered. The voice growled in the back of my head. A strange gust of wind went over the book in my hands and turned the pages. I looked down and found that the new subject was levitation. It was labeled as a beginner spell, and I would give anything to shut him up. Besides that crazy shop owner could make hundreds of books fly then I could at least get an apple into the air. If I could make something move in the slightest, I would have gloating rights forever.

"He's a soul reaper for goodness sake! How is magic so hard to believe!" I could feel the tick mark pulse on my forehead.

The spell was simple. For beginners there was an incantation; it was short and easy. I looked over to an apple that was sitting on a counter directly across from me. If I did this right, it would go right in front of his face.

"Hey strawberry," I placed my book down and raised my hand to the apple. "Levi" I spoke. At first nothing happened and I thought of how stupid I must have looked. I didn't look at Ichigo knowing that he would either be really confused or laughing. I continued to stare at the apple it still refused to budge. I glared at it and pressed again. "Levi!" and a familiar feeling went through my body. I couldn't place where I had felt it before, but it was like something was building up inside of my body. The apple shook and rose into the air. I was too amazed to be smug about my accomplishment. I whipped my head around to Ichigo to see his mouth hanging wide open and his eyes the size of plates. I grinned at his stunned face. I wanted to make it fly over to me but just making it float in place was taking its toll.

No sooner had I thought of moving the apple did it shoot over hall and go for my head. Thinking fast my outstretched hand made a quick grab for the apple. Now it was my turn to be surprised. Apparently my thoughts affected my magic. Quickly my surprise melted into hyper squeals. I flopped down onto the couch next to the dumbfounded strawberry and flipped through the book excitedly.

"This is so cool!" Still Ichigo didn't move. I turned and waved my hand in front of his face.

"So what were you laughing at?" I smirked. He huffed as his signature scowl returned. I continued to flip through the book until I found the page I had seen before. It was a bright and colorful page all about color changing. It was the first part of a chapter dedicated to transformation spells.

"This is exactly what I need!" My eyes widened and another happy grin spread across my face. The spell was labeled as a higher level than the beginners levitation spell. However this was my chance to change my electric blue hair back to my comfortable dirty blonde. Now, of course, I wouldn't try a higher level spell on myself, and it just happened that I had the perfect guinea pig, and he was scowling right next to me.

By this time Ichigo had stopped sulking and was staring at the book with uncertainty. "Hey Ichigo," I asked. He just hummed in response. "I just need you to hold still, for a few seconds." I looked back to the book and read the first word listed. "Clob" The same feeling ran through my body, and before you could say chappy, Ichigo's orange hair had turned bright blue.

"Oh come, on why does everything have to be blue!" I face palmed.

"Wait, what?!" he ran into the bathroom and yelled. "What the hell did you do to my hair?!" he ran out, veins pulsing. I chuckled nervously and felt sweat start to pool up.

"Now hold on, I can fix it," I went back to the book. It turned out that the spell to change colors was simply 'clo'; but when trying for a specific color, the first letter of that color becomes the last letter of the incantation. So because I have what appears to be the curse of the blues, I chose to change Ichigo's hair blue.

"Ok I got it now, just don't move, I don't want to screw this up," he only crossed his arms and continued to glare at me. Before I could change it back there was a knock at the door. I blanched; no one had ever come to my house but Ichigo. He seemed to have the same thought and hid behind the counter.

"W-who's there?" I stuttered.

"It's me Rukia, I know Ichigo is with you." I opened the door as fast as I could and pulled her in lighting fast. She stood there dazed as I ran back to the book trying to find something to counter the spell.

"Ichigo, come out its just Rukia," at first he didn't get up. "Ichigo, I won't fix it if you don't get up; now man up!" he trudged out from behind the counter and scowled. It would have been intimidating if his hair was normal, but now it just looked comical. Rukia had started laughing so hard that she was clutching her stomach. Comical tears were streaming from her eyes as steam began to form over Ichigo's head.

"What happened to you!?" she choked out.

"Just fix it," he ground out. I had found the counter while Rukia continued to cackle.

A thought occurred to me though. "I don't know Ichigo, you haven't been very nice to me, and blue looks very good on you." I leaned back onto the sofa. His eyes widened and his scowl grew tenfold. "I can't fix it without the magic word."

He looked about ready to kill me. "Please, fix it," he growled.

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" I smirked. "Lamron" with a wave of my hand his hair had returned to the florescent orange we all know and love. I let out a tired sigh and smiled up at him. He left to the bathroom to check that I hadn't screwed it up.

I was very tired for some reason, probably due to the magic that I had just done. Besides transforming between my human form and the other form, this was the first magic I had ever done, and I was feeling drained.

"So, what exactly happened?" Rukia asked.

"Oh, um, I was trying out some magic, and made an apple fly, then changed Ichigo's hair," she had picked up one of the green books and opened it.

"Where did you get these?" she was smart enough to know that magic was real.

"An old lady, who ran a magic shop gave them to me" I sighed tiredly. "But now I'm exhausted. I didn't know magic could be so tiring."

"You just need more practice; I could help you if you want and show you some of my kido," she looked excited at the thought of showing off her skills. Ichigo had come out by now looking perfectly normal. He continued to scowl until he saw how tired I looked.

"You ok?" he asked worriedly.

I smiled up at him, "Yeah I'm fine, just tired."

"Hey Sam," Rukia was looking down at the green book in her lap. "Why is this blank?" I looked at her strangely and moved closer to see. I was surprised to see that it was in fact completely blank.

"Well that's a problem for tomorrow," I stood up abruptly and staggered slightly. Ichigo and Rukia both gave me a worried looks. "Now if you would both be so kind, please leave so I can collapse on my bed," I pointed to the door and accidently made it swing open.

"Woops! Sorry!" I rubbed my neck and laughed nervously. Both gave me a disbelieving look and left my lovely abode.

I never thought about how exhausting doing magic could be, it was even tiring to keep my human form in place. At some point while I was trekking up the stairs I just let my disguise slip and all of my senses were heightened. I could hear Isshin yelling and the frantic movements of the Kurosaki family. The smell of human blood was strong and I could smell everyone there. It was strange how everyone's scent was different. I could smell Isshin, Yuzu, Karin, Ichigo, Chad, Rukia, and even the bird.

Having these heightened senses was very strange but at the moment I was too tired to care. As soon as I got to my room I really did just collapse onto my bed and fell asleep instantly.

Morning came too soon. I woke up to frantic knocking and still being in my other form my hearing was a lot stronger, meaning pounding on the door scared the living crap out of me. I looked to the clock to see that he was at least forty-five minutes early. I slumped out of bed and opened my window.

"What the hell do you want!? I still have time before we have to leave!" I nearly cried. To which I was met with not only strawberry but an annoyed Rukia. That's when it hit me.

I threw on my uniform and sprinted down stairs. I threw the door open and ran out. Ichigo suddenly caught me by the back of the shirt and flung me back inside.

"Tail!" I blanched remembering that I had changed forms the night before. Quickly fixing the problem, they filled me in about Chad, the bird and the hollow chasing them.

"Yeah I know, I could smell them last night," I explained as we ran.

"How?" Ichigo raised an eyebrow. I pointed to my nose.

"Dog's sense of smell," both gave me a strange look.

"Rukia, do you have any info?" Ichigo asked as we stopped.

"Not yet there's no news from the soul society,"

She continued on with her presentation of hollows with her horrible drawings. "Do you both understand?"

"I think I can understand your kindergarten drawings," Ichigo deadpanned. He was rewarded with a sketchpad to the gut. She turned to me with a dangerous gleam to her eyes.

"Um, I love your drawings, they're amazing!" I waved my hands frantically. Ichigo glared at me

"Traitor," he grumbled. "So the hollow is targeting Chad to gobble up his soul, but if we wait for it to show up and attack him it'll be too late."

He proceeded to think for a solution. "I got an idea! We can use Chad's bird friend! Can we use that bird to detect the presence of the hollow?"

"No, that's impossible," which was not the case as he made the spirit ribbons appear. It was strange seeing all of the ribbons; there were so many of them. One caught my eye, it wasn't white like a regular human's or red like a soul reapers but it was grey. It wasn't so noticeable that you would automatically see it but it was still easy to see the difference and it lead strait to me.

"I gotcha!" Ichigo shouted. He pulled on the bird's white spirit ribbon and took off.

"That was…amazing," I breathed. Rukia and I continued to follow the orangette until we found Chad.

"There he is!" he shouted. Chad took one look at us and sprinted in the opposite direction. "Wait Chad!"

I remembered what happened next. Karin staggered in trying to get her brothers attention.

"I-ichigo," she coughed.

He whirled around. "Karin? You look sick!" he ran over to her. He knelt down beside her as she coughed.

"Ichigo, you take her home. Sam and I will handle them." I nodded my consent.

"What? No!"

I gave him a reassuring smile. "Ichigo, you would just be worrying about her. She'll be safer at home, ok?" his eyes became shadowed over.

"Rukia, I hope you know that you don't have the strength to fight a hollow, and Sam, I know you're still exhausted," he said. He carefully lifted his sister into his arms and turned away. "Please don't risk yourselves for my sake."

"Don't be stupid," we both said flatly.

"A veteran soul reaper never takes unnecessary chances with a hollow," Rukia huffed.

"And I have enough energy to kick some hollow butt," I added. "Now get going!" Rukia and I took off in the direction that Chad had run off.

We rounded a corner and found him still running. The blood on his shirt was still there and I feared that he had reopened the wound. Beside me Rukia was breathing hard, she was barely keeping up with me. I knew she was having problems with the gigai, so I just continued running.

Suddenly there was a low whisper from behind us that sent us skidding to a halt.

"You smell good," It breathed. There was a shift in the air that had the hair on the back of my neck standing up. "You smell delicious," the hollow opened its mouth ready to strike. "Time to eat, your souls!" I hadn't gotten out of the way fast enough, his attack nicked my arm. It wasn't bleeding but it stung badly.

I lightly touched it. "Ouch," I hissed.

"So you're both still alive, and you can see me quite clearly. That makes me curious," his yellow eyes narrowed. "Just who are you?" he was cut off by Rukia giving him a knee to the face. She grabbed the top of his mask, flipped around, and performed her kido incantation. The spell created a huge blast that was ultimately useless. I held my arm and watched her shocked face.

The hollow ignored me and focused on Rukia. "I see, so that's what you are. I now that spell, it's a soul reaper spell! But yours was so weak, it had no bite to it," he sneered. "Too bad." he made a move to bite her.

Something was wrong though, she didn't jump out of the way like in the anime. She stood there frozen, her eyes wide with shock. I changed forms hurriedly, allowing me to move faster. I grabbed her around the middle with one arm and clawed his face with the other.

He threw his head back and roared. "Gah! That hurt!" I ignored his cries of pain.

"Rukia what happened?" she blinked and moved back.

"I don't know," she looked down and shook her head.

"Hey! Why you little," he moved to grab Rukia. I could see he knew that she couldn't run as fast as I could. I ran in front of her and let him catch me by the throat. My head crashed against the wall as he pinned me to it. It was painful. I could barely breathe, and I was seeing dark spots.

He laughed darkly, I tried to growl at him but it only came out as strangled gurgles. "I'll eat you first and then your little soul reaper frien-," he was stopped short but a familiar shaggy head of hair. The hollow yelled as he was punched away. I fell to the ground gasping for air.

"Hey… I hit something," he stared at his fist then went off and tried to land another hit on it. only he just repeatedly threw his fists at nothing. I sweat dropped.

Off to the side the hollow chuckled. "It was just a lucky punch; he scared me for a second. I thought he could see me!" and of course the universe loves to prove everyone wrong as Chad landed another hit on him.

Rukia and I just stood there with what I could only explain as a 'WTF' face. How he could hit something he couldn't see was beyond me; and doing it twice was just awesome.

"Damn you!" the hollow yelled as he spread his hidden wings and took flight. I had pretty much forgotten that he could fly, and I knew that there was still more to come. I couldn't smell or sense Ichigo near, so we were on our own until he got here. I know I can fight but for how long I didn't know and if things unfolded like they were supposed to Rukia and Chad would get hurt very badly. Just thinking about that made me want to protect them with all my power. And as long as I could move, as long as I could breathe I wouldn't let them get hurt.

So what did you guys think? Read and review please let me know what you think. Remember the contest; you have to guess what Sam turned into in the forest. Review or P.M. me what you think. The hint is that this creature is seen in books and media.(movies, T.V., ect.)

One last thing the love triangle thing is still going on so choose between Renji, Byakuya, and Grimmjow. and please give me a reason why you think that it would be a good match, I love reading your ideas!