Ichigo ran, he ran as fast as he could as he tried get away from the two men chasing after him but no matter how fast he ran he knew that his short legs would let him down. Quickly turning into an alley he pinned himself against the wall. His heart beating fast as he listened to the voices of the men as the passed.

"I think the little bastard went this way" he heard one of them shout, before the sound of their heavy foot steps disappeared as they ran 'after' him.

Sighing, the little red head looked down at the food he'd stolen. Bread, it seemed it was all they had in the eightieth district and from what he'd gathered from his first few weeks in soul society; he really was in the lowest of the low. There were eighty districts and according to what he found out so far, the lower the number of the district, the better quality the conditions were.

After 'living' in Rukongaifor a month he had already gotten over dying a while back but he still didn't like the place he had turned up in. It wasn't like the heaven or hell that people had described to him. It was neither torture nor perfection, just the daily trials of getting food and finding somewhere safe to sleep. There was nothing nice about the place he was now in, so he guessed that if he had to compare where he was with either of the two then he'd have to say hell. He wondered if maybe this world became more and more like heaven the closer you got to the centre. 'it would be nice if that was true' he thought sceptically as he took a bite out of the hard bread 'but something tells me that even if it was true I wouldn't be able to get there'. It was strange for a little boy, especially a cry baby like Ichigo, to be having such deep thoughts. Dying had made him grow up quickly.

Peeking outside of the alleyway he checked to see if the men were still around, seeing they were gone he let out a sigh of relief, which was quickly followed by his stomach rumbling with hunger. It seemed that the bread had not been enough. Looking around he considered the possibility of stealing another piece of bread but decided not to risk it. He didn't want to risk a beating when he didn't have to.

Looking around he saw a big crowd gathered around a short girl wearing black robes and I sword by her side. 'Why are they all so excited?' he wondered, 'Can't they see that she wants them to leave?' he looked at the women for a moment, there was nothing special about her, tons of people carried around swords and she was plain looking. Prodding a passing woman on her back, he asked her what was happening. "Why are they all getting so worked up over that stupid girl?" he asked, noticing that the woman was, unlike the other men and women, treating the women with indifference.

"Do you live under a rock?" pausing for a moment she looked at Ichigo with pity "Actually never mind that, she's a Shinigami-a god of death" said the woman who then, seeming to think that was enough of an explanation, quickly hurried through the crowd.

"GET OUT OF MY WAY!!" he suddenly heard the Shingami shout, it seemed that she had finally lost her temper and had gotten tired of letting all the people get in her way. She jumped over their heads, making even Ichigo gasp with awe. "I'm on a mission, please refrain from getting in my way" she said, this time managing to sound more polite, though her voice still sounded strained.

"But we want to help you!" they all seemed to cry in unison, they were like moths to a flame, doing anything they could to bask in its light.

"Then tell me" said the dark haired girl, suddenly smiling mischievously "have you felt any unusual spiritual disturbances is this area recently?" The people all looked at her dumbfounded, all of them except Ichigo who suddenly found himself laughing. The people turned their attention away from the Shinigami then and onto him.

"What's so funny brat?" one of them asked menacingly but even this threat didn't put him off, this was the first time he'd actually laughed over something since he'd arrived in this stupid place, he wasn't going to let some stupid old men ruin it for him.

"It was the look on your faces when you realised just how useless you were to your precious Shinigami"

"Hey kid" he heard the Shinigami say, before she jumped down in front of him, startling him and making him take a few step backwards. "Did you understand what I was saying" she asked, sounding somewhat condescending.

"No" he said, taking the Shingami aback with his straight forwardness "I'm not even sure I know what you do" he said, speaking to her with an ease that surprised her, though it was probably the spiritual power that was coming off of him in waves that surprised her most. It seemed that she had found her spiritual disturbance, though it was not in the form of the hollow she had been expecting.

"Hey kid, come with me" she said shocking Ichigo and all the people surrounding her "there's somewhere I want to take you" she said, holding her hand out to the little boy.

"I'm not sure… a person called a god of death sounds kind of scary" he said staring at her hand dubiously.

"Just come with me!" she said angrily grabbing his hand and pulling him up with her as they jumped onto the roof of a small shanty house.

"What are we doing up here?" he asked, though no sooner had the words left his mouth, they were jumping from roof top to roof top, or rather the Shinigami was jumping and he was holding on for dear 'life'. There was nothing he could do to stop her, so even though he wanted to get away from her he couldn't, so he'd decided that he'd let her take him to this place and then run off as soon as he had the chance.

Finally after what had seemed like hours of running along building tops to Ichigo (ten minutes) , she stopped on top of a large roof much bigger then any he'd seen previously in Rukongai.

"Where are we?" he asked as he looked down, seeing to his surprise that all the buildings seemed to be much larger than they had been previously.

"Rukongai, seventy seventh district" she stated, then she rummaged around in her robes for a few moments before pulling out something in a brightly coloured wrapper. "Here" she said, tossing it at Ichigo who clumsily caught it. Ignoring the packet he asked the Shinigami a question which had been bothering him for a while.

"Why did you take me here? Don't you have more important stuff to do then babysit some kid like me?" he asked, not really understanding why the girl was giving him so much attention.

"The mission has already been accomplished so I kindly decided to pity you and brought you here out of kindness" she said, her voice filled with the sound of self importance.

"Feels more like a kidnapping" he murmured to himself as he wondered what was so great about being stuck on a roof. The Shinigami, luckily, didn't seem to hear him and urged him to open the package. Opening it, he stared at the object in his hand suspiciously. "What is this?" he asked. "Some kind of monster shape?"

"NO! It's a rabbit! A cute bunny rabbit!" she said suddenly seeming to lose herself in her anger because of his disrespect for the rabbit. Turning it around in his hand he could sort of see a rabbit…maybe. Decide not to further anger the girl he decided to keep quiet.

"So why are you giving me this? Don't you want it?"

"I do… but my lieutenant said I wasn't allowed to pin it onto my uniform, so I thought I'd be kind and give it to you instead" she said, not realising that the little kid was trying to decipher what she'd been talking about when she'd said lieutenant. 'Must be her head of work' he decided pushing the thought aside.

"Why me?" he asked again, still not understanding why she hadn't given it to someone else instead. He was a bit irritated that he'd been picked on and been given such an ugly thing.

"By drawing attention to yourself, you made it easier to find the problem, it's a thank you for making my work easier" she said smiling at the boy as she said it. "Well goodbye kid, I'vegot stuff to do" she said, quickly jumping off the roof and on to another, repeating this process until she was so far away tat he could no longer se her. It was irritating, Ichigo thought, how everyone he met always disappeared without explaining themselves. Looking over the edge of the roof he cursed the Shinigami as he realised how high up he was, he wondered how the hell he'd get down.

The Shinigami ran along the roof tops thinking about her encounter with the young boy, she knew that if he managed to survive long enough to actually age. He could probably become a Shinigami and with his level of spirit energy it was only a matter of time before someone else noticed his potential. Though having seen him he'd probably have to wait eighty years or so, since aging was so slowed down in the soul society. Though that amount of time was only an estimate based upon his level of Reatsu , it would probably take much longer than that.

She was glad she had come across him and moved him into a safer district, God knows how he'd survived as long as he had. Though now he was in a safer place he had much more of a chance for survival. Though the rude loud mouthed kid probably didn't know it yet, it was true that by depositing him on that roof top she had most probably saved his life.

…………………………………………………………………………………………

Here's a game, its called guess who the Shinigami was!

It's very strange but I find this story really easy to write, for some reason I can just do the chapters pretty much in one go… I wonder why

Oh and I'd better apologize for any spelling or grammar mistakes in advance.