Disclaimer: All Bleach characters, places, etc. belong to Kubo Tite-sensei. I receive no monetary benefit from this work.

--

It was a sunny day in Karakura Town, and Suzuki Sakura was walking home from school. She tugged at the sleeve of her top; they were never quite as long as she would have liked them to be.

A scream jerked her out of her thoughts. She whipped her head around to face her middle school.

A crowd was conveining in the faculty parking lot. She sprinted towards it; being a star on the track team, it didn't take her long to reach it.

There, splayed out across a teacher's black sports car, was the body of Satou Sayuri, Sakura's best friend since the start of gradeschool. Someone who had seemed to love her life, her friends, and her family. Dead.

Sakura screamed, sinking to her knees as a howl of rage became a tormented cry as she sank down, down, further and further into the darkness, not noticing the one teacher who stood in the back, knowing he was responsible...

"NO!" Suzuki Sakura sat up in her bed, her big amber eyes snapping open. She glanced around her, then realized she was safe in her room. Then she noticed that the alarm clock was buzzing.

"Uwah?! Six o'clock already?!" she cried, angry that a peaceful night's sleep had passed her by again.

Who're you kidding? she asked herself as she got up, put her contacts in and began to run water for a shower. You're probably never gonna get a decent night's sleep for a long, long time.

Too lazy to dry her shoulder-length hair when she got out of the shower, she braided it quickly, changed into her new uniform, and went to get some breakfast.

Her father was long gone by now, and her mother would still be asleep until after she had begun to walk to school, so she pulled some ceral out of the cabinet. A note from her father was on the table:

Sakura-chan,

Be glad, for it's your first day of high school.

A bright new future is awaiting you as Karakura High opens its doors to you today.

Do your best. I love you.

Yours, Your father

It read more like a greeting card than a note from her father. But what did she care? It was like she ever saw the man. He was gone long before she got up and came home when she was trying to work through her homework. If it wasn't that, he was away on business, usually to Great Britian or America. But she didn't usually bother herself with her father's issues, and he didn't bother himself with hers.

Her mother entered the bathroom as she was putting on her makeup.

"Good morning, sweet thing."

"Morning, Ma." Sakura replied, applying mascara with a firm hand.

"So... your first day of high school, huh?"

"Pretty much."

Sakura wished she wasn't so distant from her family. But what could she do? After Sayuri's death, her mother didn't seem to know how to handle her, and her father had sent her to shrink. But she decided not to think about that as she put her makeup back into the case and pushed past her mother.

"Momma, if I don't leave right now, I'll be late."

"Okay..." her mother said, allowing her daughter to pass. "I love you, Sakura." she said, kissing her daughter's forehead.

"Ma! What's with the sudden show of affection, ne?" she complained, trying to worm out of her mother's grasp.

"I..." her mother looked away, sadness in her eyes. "I just feel like I'm going to lose you very soon, Sakura."

She smiled and kissed her mother's cheek. "Don't you worry, Momma. I'm not going anywhere." She grinned. "Now, let me go!"

"Okay, okay."

--

Now on the road to her new school, she tugged at the sweater she'd been given. It was an incredibly chilly morning for late March, and she had been forced to wear her school sweater over the shirt and sweatervest that was the spring and fall attire.

She stopped to stare at her junior high. Not only did she miss the people there, but the building itself reminded her of the day her friend died... and she knew why.

It was that teacher. Takahashi-sensei. He'd done something to Sayuri, Sakura knew, she had seen it in her friend's eyes. But of course, with no way to prove it and Sayuri unwilling to say anything to anyone, no one had done anything about it...

Sakura wanted to see him arrested on charges like stautory rape and murder, but she knew it would never happen. If Sayuri hadn't told her something was up, then she definately hadn't told anyone else.

Sakura clenched her fists in rage. I have to get stronger... I have to protect them... Her rage spiked as she pictured the lecherous smile on his face when her and Sayuri had passed him in a hallway one day; when Sakura herself had been walking down the hallway by his classroom alone after school...

I have to get stronger! I can't let him get away with it! He killed Sayuri! She turned away from the building as hot, angry tears sprang into her eyes.

The appearance of an unusually high reiatsu made her freeze. The space before her suddenly opened up; she took a step back, her pupils dialated in terror as a man dressed head-to-toe in painfully bright white stepped out, a sadistic smile on his face.

"W-who are you?!" she demanded, taking another step back.

"My name is Aizen Sousuke," he purred. "but that is beside the point. I have a question for you, Suzuki Sakura. Do you want to get stronger?"

She blinked. "What did you say...?"

His wicked grin continued to widen. "Do you want to become stronger? So that you can protect your friends, prevent tragic... accidents like these," he gestured to the school, "or perhaps, exact revenge on those who you feel deserve to be punished?"

Her eyes widened."...Yes...!" she breathed.

He offered a hand to her. "Then, come with me, Sakura-chan, and I will make you strong."

She wondered how this man could possibly make her stronger, but there was no doubt in his eyes. There was something else there, too, and whatever it was made her shake...

"Alright." she said firmly, placing a small, cold hand into his warm one.

His smile turned slightly more evil, but the satisfaction was clear in his dark eyes.

"Excellent. My dear, I shall make you stronger than you ever dreamed you could be."

She merely nodded as he led her through the portal.

--

"Okay, so you're telling me that this Aizen guy is some power-hungry shinigami with a God complex that thinks Sakura could aid him in his quest for power?!" Akemi slammed her fists on the table.

"Calm down, Akemi-chan. Although you have got the jist of the situation."

"Why?" Mizuki questioned. "Why... would he want her...?"

"Sakura-chan's reiatsu is incredibly high for a human girl who has no real fighting talent whatsoever. My guess? He's gonna try and use Hougyoku to see if he can turn humans who aren't shinigami into Arrancar."

"In other words, it's safe to say he wants to experiment on her."

"Correct."

"And how do we stop it...?" Akemi asked quietly.

"You two are gonna have to go Hueco Mundo yourselves and try and convince him to fork her over."

"But she's a fifteen-year-old girl, not a piece of meat!" Mizuki said angrily.

"Well, actually, in Aizen's eyes, she's more like the best candidate for a new study. Or very nice-looking prime rib."

"We've got to do something!" Akemi yelled, rising. "I don't care what it takes, we're going to this Hueco Mundo place and we're gonna save Sakura!"

Mizuki nodded. "She would do the same thing for us, even if it cost her her life."

Urahara smiled. "Well. Why don't you two ladies go about your day, the return here after school? I'll have a portal open for you."

They nodded.

"Okay, then. I'll see you this afternoon. Also, if you need to say anything to anyone before you leave, you'd better do it before you come back here. I can't guarantee you'll return home in one piece."

They nodded again, determined.

"If Sakura was in our position, she'd already be in Hueco Mundo. I'm sure I want to go, even if I die there." Akemi said.

Mizuki gave a small nod of her head in agreement, pushing her blond hair over her shoulder. "Besides, it's not like anyone's at home looking for me." she said. And that was true. Life for Nakamura Mizuki was like living alone.

Akemi patted her shoulder. "At least leave a note for your mother." she said gently.

Mizuki continued to stare on.

"C'mon now, Mizuki-chan, let's go to school."

They exited the shop, both on the verge of tears.

--

"What is this place...?" Sakura muttered, turning her head around to look at the painfully white walls of the building she was in.

"This is Las Noches, our castle and your new home, my dear." Aize nsaid, turning around to smirk at her. She chuckled, and the smile disappeared from his face. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing. It's just, "Las Noches" is translated literally from Spanish as, "The Nights". It kind of fits."

He stared at her, not knowing what to say.

"I took Spanish during my third year of middle school." she explained. "I have a love of learning forgein languages."

He nodded, commiting it to memory. After all, part of the experiment would be if her personality was affected at all by the transformation...

"This is where you'll be staying, Sakura-chan." he said, gesturing to the door on her right. She turned the handle slowly.

"Thanks..." she muttered. Sakura still wasn't sure what to make of all this. After all this place was so painfully white... it almost bothered her.

"I wonder..." Aizen mused to himself, then turned to her. "Sakura-chan." he said seriously. "Do you... by any chance, do you drink tea?"

She face brightened a bit. "Actually, yeah, I'm pretty fond of it." she said, putting it very mildly.

Aizen smiled. He certainly had picked out the right one.