Author's Note:

There are bits of episodes 11, 12, 14 in this chapter and the next. Enjoy~!

This fanfiction is rated M because it may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.

Bleach and its characters © Tite Kubo
All of the inserted, non-canon characters are © me

There was doubt in her mind about what she saw last night. A reflection of herself in a black outfit wielding two swords had stared at her. She remembered how her heart pounded. Cold sweat dropped down the back of her neck. Faint voices and giggling came to her attention. Someone saying her name – their voice drifted in and out of hearing range. "Ayame-san?" Her world snapped back into view. As soon as she found out three girls were crowding her desk, she realized what happened. Ayame apologized for zoning out.

"Is everything all right?" the middle girl asked.

"Y-yeah," Ayame answered with a smile.

"Are you sure?" said the one on the right.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ayame replied. "I'm just a little tired."

The middle one grinned. "You must have been studying hard."

Ayame nodded. "Uhm, excuse me." She stood up and left her desk. Though she was back in the present day, she could not shake her feelings. The girls let her leave without a fuss. They showed that they worried for their new friend. Ayame would not let them comfort her. This was not something they could understand. She walked down the hall. Walking toward her was Ishida Uryuu. The air about him was serious and distant. There was rarely any reason to talk to him. All she knew about him was that they were in the same class, he was number one in the class for grades, and that he was a demon with a thread and needle. Ayame held her breath as he passed by her. He never blinked.

Then, "Nakahara-san," Ishida said.

She turned to face him, but he still had his back to her. "H-hai?"

"I would like to speak with you after class."

"Hai," Ayame responded.

Ishida left her alone in the hall. A cold spot was left where he had stopped to address her. She started wondering more about what he wanted to say to her than what she saw last night. Ayame found a drink machine, and paid for a can of coffee. After opening it and taking a sip, she went back to the classroom. She was left alone when she returned. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, visually. Something did not feel right. A minute after Ayame was back in her seat with her coffee, she felt a bolt of energy. It was a negative kind of energy. Ayame looked around the classroom, wondering if anyone else felt it. No one seemed to show any response to the energy. She asked herself if she was the only one who sensed it. Her sight fell on Ishida's back. He stood at the window, looking down at whatever could be on the ground outside. There was no telling what he was looking at, but she did not want to walk up to see. That would show that she had been staring at him. What if she did that and he thought she was stalking him or was interested? Ayame felt her skin crawl up her spine. Ishida turned away from the window, and she looked away. Trying to look like she had not been staring, Ayame started copying notes from an open book on her desk. She glanced up as he passed the front desks and left the room.

"Where is he going?"

Ayame gasped quietly when one girl from before appeared at her side.

"I have no idea, Ren-san," said a second. Ayame turned her head to see a girl standing to her other side.

"Hey, Nakahara," said the one called Ren, "do you like Ishida? You were staring at him, weren't you?" She winked at Ayame, who gave a lop-sided nervous smile.

"Seriously? Ishida?" The second girl sat on the desk behind her, not caring whose it was. "He's really cool, but his attitude is a big turn-off."

"Aw, but I kind of like it," said Ren.

Ayame did not want to say anything. She figured that if she denied it, Ren would tease her and say Ayame was lying. "What? N-no, not at all." She looked back down at her book with a blush on her cheeks. It would not be smart to tell them that Ishida wanted to talk to her after class. Just then, she realized he left the class. Did he forget about seeing her after class? School was not over yet, but their free time was ending soon. Where did he go off to?

Ren smiled. "If you don't like him, why were you staring at him? You must feel something for him." She seemed to love pushing Ayame.

"No! It's… I was just wondering what he was staring at," Ayame answered.

"Oh, yeah. Maybe it was Kurosaki and the others he was looking at," Ren said. "They got sent to the principal's office didn't they? I heard it was because they were on TV."

"TV?" Ayame knew what they were talking about, but she never really watched the television in her grandparents' house.

"Yeah," the other girl chimed in. "That one show: Ghost Bust."

"Ren, Izumo!" The two beside Ayame said good-bye before joining two other girls across the room.

Everyone started walking out of the class. Ayame tried concentrating on the energy she had sensed before. When the girls were near her and talking, she still felt it. Even when they were gone, it was still there. Suddenly, it was no longer there. She was confused. The energy just vanished. It was gone in the blink of an eye. She waited for a few minutes to see if it would come back. More students left the classroom. Every time the door opened, the voices of others talking leaked into the room from the hallway. When she was the last one in the room, Ayame retired her attempt to try to sense the negative energy. New energy signatures came to her attention just as she was about to give up. Three of them were out in the hall. Two were similar, but a third was different. The odd one was moving toward the classroom and the other signatures that stood right outside the door. Then, out of the blue, another negative energy signature appeared. Ayame opened the door and saw students grouped around a poster on the wall to one side, and Ishida coming up from down the hall on the other end. His signature was the different one. The two that were similar came from inside the group of students. She pin-pointed them on Kurosaki and Kuchiki. Kuchiki looked rather flustered and in a rush when she grabbed Kurosaki. The two of them ran down the hallway and passed Ishida. Ishida looked unfazed when Kurosaki bumped him in the shoulder.

"It's time to talk," he said to Ayame when he came up to her in the door.

Izumo, Ren, and some girls watched and whispered behind their hands to each other as Ayame followed Ishida out. She ignored the whispering and stares. It would not be easy to avoid the girls' teasing about her feelings for Ishida after this. Ayame clutched the strap of her bag as she walked behind Ishida. The silence between them was stuffy. Only the sound of their shoes hitting pavement made sound. They were a couple of blocks away from the school campus now. Ishida stopped before the steps of a walkway leading to houses. She did not notice he was not walking until she bumped into his back.

He turned his head to look at her over his shoulder. The cold look scared Ayame, and she stepped back to put space between them. "Tell me, where did you get that pendant?"

"Huh?" She blinked, and then looked down at the cross hanging around her neck. "This?" Ayame put a hand to her chest with her fingertips facing the symbol. "It was a gift."

"You don't know anything about it, do you?" Ishida turned around. He crossed his arms and looked down at her. His serious expression did not change. "I sense spirit energy from it. And you, but yours is not the same."

"Spirit… energy?"

"Yes, spirit energy. You can sense it too, can't you." His last words sounded more like a statement than a question. "I'm surprised that you know nothing." He did not look surprised. "That cross around your neck is a Quincy's cross. Since you obviously don't know anything, you don't deserve to wear it."

Ayame tensed up. She had no idea what he was talking about. Quincy? What was that? The pendant she wore was only a gift. She admitted to herself that she could feel a power coming from it, but she was so used to it for so long that she easily overlooked it. "What are you talking about? " Ayame put one foot back and clenched her hands into fists. Her face expressed uncertainty of what was going to happen. The negative energy signature still tugged on her mind. "I'm not going to get rid of it. When I got it, I made a promise to take care of it."

He did not seem to care about what she had to say. Ayame could not tell if he was angry or not. "Do you at least understand what it means to carry that?" As they stood there, the sky started turning colour. She did not understand. The cross, as her grandparents had mentioned once before, had been in her family since before she was born. They, however, knew only what they were told by their step-son – Ayame's father. Ayame was told that she would know its importance at the right time.

She looked down at his shoes and grasped the cross in her hand. "I may not understand what it stands for, but I do know that it was important to my father." Ayame put her eyes back on him and showed that she was finally getting agitated. "I don't care if it's a… a Quincy's cross or not. I don't care what you say! Whether or not I deserve it, I'm not getting rid of it."

"Let me see it," he demanded.

Ayame clenched her teeth and scowled at him.

Ishida's expression was no longer serious, but he was not smiling. "I'm not going to run away with it." Ayame hesitated, but consented. She reached both of her hands behind her neck, unclasped the chain, and then handed it to him. He walked up to her then took it. At the same time, he took her right wrist in his hand. Her expression relaxed in surprise. His grasp was gentler than his attitude. The silver chain was clasped around her wrist, but had to be looped once more around because it was too big to be worn as it was. "Continue keeping your promise," he said when he was done, "but make sure you understand the responsibility that comes with it."

This was new to her. Ayame's skin flushed where Ishida held her wrist. His hands were warm, but she forgot that when she looked back up. He was staring at her with a blank expression. She looked straight into his blue eyes. They appeared to be taking in all they could about her. It could be said he was analyzing her, thinking things over in his head. As soon as he took hold of her wrist, he let go, and then walked away. Ayame's face blushed as she watched him leave. What just happened? That was all she could think. She lifted her right arm to look straight at the cross hanging from the chain looped around her wrist. The silver metal glistened in the sun's light. Cicadas began chirping in the heat. Then the hyperactive sound of a cell phone broke nature's song. Ayame took out her phone from her bag with her right hand, the two golden bells hanging from the charm holder ringing as they moved, flipped it open, and then put it to her ear.

"Moshi moshi," she greeted the caller.

"AYAME!" She flinched and jerked the phone from her ear. "Where are you? Your grandmother and I are concerned that you haven't come home yet! You know you're supposed to be home early tonight!" Ayame let out a small gasp, and then put the phone back to her ear.

"I'm sorry! I'm on my way right now!" She turned and ran toward her granparents' house.

"You better get back here or I'll –"

Her grandmother took the phone from grandfather before he said anything more. "Ayame, dear, you don't have to worry about being late. I'm sure you have a good reason. See you soon." A click from the speaker meant the other line ended the call. She closed the cell phone, and then put it back in her bag.

Ayame continued down the way. She was surprised to see Kurosaki Ichigo going in the opposite direction. "Hey," she smiled and waved to him, "Ichi… go." He looked determined about something. Does it have anything to do with Ishida? She wondered. Forgetting about following through to see what he was up to, Ayame continued to run. The school came into view. She stopped outside the campus and looked up to the sky. "I've got a bad feeling," she said under her breath. A couple of things that looked like black rifts opened against the blue sky. She started to feel several spirit energies at once. Most of them were not friendly. What is that? There was one black rift above the school, and it bothered her. The sound of rumbling thunder and glass shattering scared her.

"What are you doing just standing there?"

An echo of her own voice shook her out of her terror. A brush of sharp wind flipped a corner of her skirt up. Blood splattered beside her on the ground from behind, and a short cry of pain spooked her. She turned around, honestly scared about what was behind her but letting the curiosity get the better of her. Ayame's eyes grew wide and she gasped. The image she saw the night before appeared again. Two wakizashi were drawn, and a serious expression dawned on the other girl's face.

"Wha-who are you?" Ayame was flabbergasted.

Her mirror image rested both wakizashi on her shoulders. "I could ask the same of you, but right now this city's in danger."

"You mean those tears in the sky?" Ayame asked.

"Not just those, but the Hollows, too."

"Hollows?"

"The creatures with masks. Like the one that almost attacked you from behind. They go after anyone with high levels of spirit energy."

They must be the source of the negative energy I've been sensing, Ayame thought, ignoring the fact that she did not know what a Hollow looked like. She gasped, and then exclaimed, "My grandparents! They might be in trouble!"

"Your grandparents? Hey! Wait!"

Ayame ran away before more time passed. She was worried about her grandmother and grandfather. Both of them had some experience with spiritual practices, but she was not sure if they could sense or see the same things she saw. Even if they were not in trouble, Ayame wanted to make sure they were okay. She wanted to see them die from old age, not from being crushed or killed by anything. Not like what she witnessed happening to her family when she was young. A flashback to the event came to her. Then, she knew what a Hollow looked like. That monster that murdered her family was a Hollow.

"You can't just go off on your own!" The blade-weilding girl ran up to her from behind. She caught up and took a spot beside her. "You have nothing to protect you or your grandparents. Blindly running to them could put them in more danger than they could already be in!" Ayame knew she was right. But what else could she do? Both of them ran for another minute before taking a left turn. In the middle of the street was a Hollow. "Get back!" Ayame skidded to a stop, and then ran to hide behind the girl. Then, she watched as the girl fought off the Hollow. It looked effortless how she dodged two attacks in a row, and then chopped off one of its fingers. Suddenly, the girl was smacked into a solid wall. A crater was left from the impact and the girl emerged. The Hollow roared before reaching for the injured one with his good hand. A blade sliced his hand off from the wrist. The girl stood up with one weapon in her hand instead of two. Her wakizashi had been combined, joined at the ends, to form a double-bladed sword about five feet long with a foot-long light-blue handle between the curved blades. It looked like an elongated S. The girl switched the blade to her other hand, then jumped forward, and then struck at the Hollow from an angle. This blow was final, making the Hollow disappear.

Ayame looked on in awe and horror. "If you care about your family so much, we better hurry," she was told. A quick nod and dash past the damaged wall showed that Ayame understood. She felt safer with this girl around after watching what she did. Ayame glanced to the weapon. It was still one object. Her curiosity was not welcome at this time. To ignore any other objective on her mind, Ayame concentrated on getting home as soon as possible.