Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any characters contained herein. I will not and cannot use this fan fiction to make a profit and if through the intervention of god I ever did I would insure that the owners of Bleach and its distributors in the US would receive all the profits. Everyone reading this story should support the official release of Bleach by buying the manga and anime DVDs.

Note 1: I will finish Legends of the Academy. Eventually.

Chapter 1: Death of Strawberry.

The rain was cold and merciless. Pounding and constant it beat down on the boy like thousands of tiny fists endlessly reminding him of just how great he had failed. It drove him into the ground and held him down despite all of his efforts to rise up. The rain struck him furiously and washed away his blood. Around him his blood was thick and almost glorious like some velvet blanket that he could rest on. But even a few inches beyond his broken body the rain swept his blood away as if the world refused to allow even his death to have any significance.

The boy punched the ground and pushed against it desperate to pull his body up, desperate to see her one last time. His strength was draining faster than his blood, he could barely even lift his head up, but he saw her. He saw the girl who had changed his entire life in a single night. He saw the girl who had saved his life at the cost of her own. He saw the girl he could not save. He saw the girl who would now die because of him. He couldn't take it. As she passed through the doors that led to her utter destruction his head dropped. As the doors closed he passed out in the freezing rain.

He awoke, and that surprised him. He didn't expect to ever wake up again. He certainly didn't expect to wake up in a surprising warm bed. He couldn't feel any pain coming from his chest and he didn't smell the sticky iron scent of his blood so he probably wasn't in danger of dying any time soon. He risked opening his eyes. He immediately regretted it because there was a very large man lying on top of him.

"Whaaaaaaa!" The boy cried out as he threw the man off of him with a judo move. He was surprised that nothing hurt and all of his strength seemed to have returned.

"Oh so you are awake Kurosaki Ichigo. This is all very good. I will inform the Shop Keeper immediately." The man said after he got back up. And then he opened the door and revealed a tall strange looking man standing behind it. He wore a green coat that seemed much too large for him along with a wide brimmed hat and a pair of sandals. He also carried a cane behind him where it couldn't possibly do any good.

"I remember you." Ichigo said, "You're the strange shop keeper that Rukia went to for help from time to time. Hat and Sandals man."

"Correct. You can call me Urahara. How is Rukia?" The shop keeper asked.

Ichigo couldn't respond. His wounds were fine but his chest still hurt terribly because of her name. He looked away to avoid the question.

"So they took her back to Soul Society." Urahara surmised. "If she stays there she will be executed."

Ichigo smashed to wall nearby him. Every fiber of his being tensed up as his eyes closed. He spoke briefly, "I know."

"Would you like to rescue her?" Urahara asked almost casually as if her life was some trivial matter. Ichigo looked at him like the world had just shattered, he was utterly dumbfounded.

"I have a way to get to Soul Society you know." Urahara said as if it was an interesting topic that had just come up, "If you want I could send you there to rescue her."

Ichigo leapt up in an instant. Everything had changed about him. He was no longer so tense or depressed. He radiated readiness.

"What are we waiting for then?" He exclaimed as he leapt forward but stopped dead in his tracks when Urahara put his cane to his chest. For some reason Ichigo felt that this cane had to be taken very seriously.

"Soul Society is filled with many powerful warriors. If you go there as you are now, you will die and you wouldn't do Rukia any good at all. But I can make you strong enough to save her if you want to."

Ichigo silently nodded to Urahara. He resolve was visible; he was going to save Rukia at any costs necessary.

"For now," Urahara continued, "Go home. Get some sleep and go to school this morning. Then come back here and in ten days I will get you ready to save Rukia."

Ichigo nodded again and then he left. School the following morning was almost surreal. No one remembered that Rukia had ever existed much less that she had suddenly vanished. Uryu Ishida wasn't present at School but that didn't surprise Ichigo. Ishida had fought against the same people who had crushed Ichigo to take Rukia away he would either be recovering from the fight to training for the next one.

Sado and Inoue were there but neither of them seemed to notice anything different. Not that Ichigo expected them to. The school day was the last before summer break so none of the classes were very long. And before much time had passed at all the teachers were saying good bye to them all for a month. Several of Ichigo's friends were making plans for the summer but he didn't pay attention to any of them. He simply packed up his things and slowly made his way home.

Inoue and Sado watched him go. They both wanted to say something to him. Anything. But they thought better of it. They knew what was going on and they knew that Ichigo had to deal with it himself. All they could do was support him with all their strength when the time came.

Skip

"'What a huge underground space! How did they ever fit it all under one little shop?' Is what you should be saying right about now Ichigo." Urahara explained as he led Ichigo into a immediately very impressive room.

It was massive. Much larger than any room that Ichigo had ever seen before. It looked rather much like a desert. The floor was covered in dirt. Random huge bolderes dotted the landscape alongside withered and dying trees and above their heads was a huge single light source the beat down on the room like the noonday sun.

"Yeah, yeah. It's all very amazing, are you ready to start this training or what?"

"Are you always so eager Mr. Kurosaki? Or am I special?" Urahara asked as he drove the butt of his cane into Ichigo's forehead. It passed right through and for a moment Ichigo could see back of his own head moving away from him with a cane sticking through it. A moment later the body in front of him fell down and as Ichigo looked down on it he saw the chain running from his chest.

"As you can see, you're no longer a Death God Mr. Kurosaki. Your powers have been destroyed and in its place you have become a normal human spirit. And that is useless if you are determined to save Rukia. So our first goal is to regain your Death God powers. So let's begin. Ururu would you come here please." Urahara said referring to a small girl standing a bit behind him. She had black hair done up in pig tails with very rosy cheeks. She seemed the definition of sweet and innocent. And she was wearing boxing gear.

"This is Lesson 1 of 3. Please fight Ururu here until one of you passes out."

"Are you kidding?" Ichigo asked.

"Please try not to die." Urahara added as Ichigo saw a faint movement in the corner of his eye.

He lunged to the side as Ururu smashed into the ground where he had been standing. Her fist left a crater in the ground. Ichigo panicked and took off in a sprint. Ururu followed him always a step behind driving after him with destructive punch after punch.

'This is nuts.' Ichigo thought to himself. 'If she hits me I'm dead. I'm running at full sprint and I can barely keep up with her. Wait a moment. If I can out run her then I can dodge her and if I can dodge her attacks then I could get it one of my own.' Ichigo realized as then he turned around.

Ururu came at him at full charge her right arm pulled back ready for yet another devastating punch. Ichigo watched it come. He studied intently and saw its inevitable path and at the last moment he jerked his head to the side and avoided instant death. Then he swung forward himself. He was aiming at her headband trying to push her to the ground with his greater weight. But, just a moment to late she jerked her head to the side and Ichigo clipped her face.

Her pupils dilated and before Ichigo knew what was going on she was standing on his fist. He noticed a moment later that she was also in the middle of a kick aimed at his head. Then there was a searing pain and then he had smacked into a surprisingly soft nearby bolder and he wasn't dead which once again surprised him. Then he saw that he smashed into the arms of the large man who had woken him up and that Urahara had grabbed Ururu's foot just before it smashed into him.

"Lesson 1 clear." Urahara declared.

"But she beat me." Ichigo stammered out dumbfounded.

"Of course she did. There was no way you could've beater her. What's important is that when she threatened your existence with that first punch you reacted and your soul gave you the power needed to dodge."

"And if it hadn't?"

"Then you would've died. But you didn't so own to lesson 2." Urahara died as his associate took out and axe and cut through Ichigo's soul chain as a massive hole opened up underneath him.

"Ichigo!" Urahara called to his pupil as he weaved a spell around his arms the bound them up quite tightly. "Your soul's chain has been cut and that means that you are now dead. If you don't become a death god within the next three days you will become a hollow and we will have to kill you. Good luck."

Skip

The hours passed quickly and Ichigo had no way to count them. He could only mark time by the erosions. They were few and brief and hurt like all hell. He could barely stand during them much less try and climb out of a hole without using his hands. He was running out of chain though and hand made no progress. He was down to maybe a forth of his chain left and was tired beyond all reason. Then it started.

All of the remaining links in his chain started to eat themselves. All of his chain was vanishing. The pain was excruciating and it only got worse when the chain stated to eat the link that was anchored in his chest. It felt like his chest was exploding it felt so much worse than being stabbed in the chest. It also felt very empty. And then he blacked out.

He came to a moment later in a completely different place. The pain was gone, as was the chain that should have come out of his chest. He was standing on the side of a building. If he looked straight ahead he could see the sky and behind him was the pavement. Beneath him was a window into the building. It was rather disorienting.

"Ichigo." He heard a voice say. It was deep and powerful and seem to be coming from an older man standing on top of a flag pole. He was wearing a long dark cloak had five o clock shadow and was wearing some very cool shades.

"Who are you?" Ichigo asked.

"You don't know? How pitiful. You should know me best of all."

"I don't know anyone so gloomy so you must be mistaken."

"Fine then I'll tell you. My name is -"

"What?"

"So you still can't hear me. How pitiful." The old man said as he stepped onto the side of the flag pole so that his feet now pointed at Ichigo's head.

"How are you standing like that?" Ichigo asked.

"Curious. I was about to ask you the same thing." And then Ichigo fell and so did the buildings around him. As they collapsed they broke apart into thousands of cubes and fell through the streets beneath.

"What's going on?" Ichigo asked the air. The old man appeared next to him to answer.

"Your world is falling apart because you are becoming a hollow. There is only one way to stop it all. In one of these countless cubes is you Death God powers if you find them you can unleash your power and stop this transformation."

Ichigo nodded as he hit the pavement and splashed through it like it was made out of water. Beneath it he saw numerous cubes land around him. He knew had only one guess. So he calmed his mind and focused on how his powers felt. In a second he knew which one it was. He rushed over to that cube and opened it up. He saw what looked like the handle to a sword and he smiled.

"I knew you could find me." The old man said appearing behind him in a moment. Ichigo looked back at him and smiled. Then the world around him shuddered. "Hurry!" The old man commanded.

Ichigo grabbed hold of the sword's handle but then a hand grabbed hold of his. It was white as a sheet of paper. Ichigo looked up and saw his own face looking back at him. It was almost completely white. Except for the lips and teeth which were as black as the night sky, and his eyes which were a golden as the sun.

"You don't think this is honestly going to work do you?" The face asked in a high pitched erratic voice. "You had this sword when they first came for her and it didn't do one damn bit of good. If you want some real power sit back and enjoy the ride."

Ichigo hesitated for just a moment and that was all it took.

In the real world Ichigo was still in the midst of his transformation. His face was slowly being covered by a hollow mask and he was striving against the restraints on his arms and he was about to break through them.

"Shop Keeper!" The assistant shouted.

"Very well Tessai. Go ahead." And with that Tessai began chanting under his breath weaving very powerful spells. First Ichigo was wrapped up like a mummy then dozens of pins were driven into him to hold him in place. Then a massive weight appeared over him and began to fall. A moment later the hole erupted in a brilliant light and exploded.

As the dust cleared it was clear that a man was standing in the midst of it all. One of Urahara's assistants, a young red haired boy named Jinta walked forward a bit a called out to Ichigo. Urahara drew his sword. The figure in the dust opened its eyes which glowed red and brilliant and for just a moment Urahara saw a tail flick out behind it.

They both moved in the same instant. Urahara swung at its head but the creature was already ducking and rolling past the shop keeper. It rushed at Jinta grabbed him and flew well back behind the group. It was about Ichigo's height with pale white skin and a hole in its chest. It wore a simple mask the looked a bit like a skull with red line marking the side of its face. Its feet looked like bird talons sinking into the ground. It had a short tail with a red tip. It also had a set of spike coming out of its shoulders.

It roared in the low powerful voice that only Hollows are capable of and held Jinta tightly by the throat with a sharp figure to his head. Urahara matched its gaze for a moment or two and then dropped his sword with a sigh. The creature dropped Jinta and took off at blinding speed towards the exit.

"Destructive art 61: White Fire wave lash out!" Urahara yelled at the creature with an outstretched hand as the world turned white for just a moment. White fire erupted from his hand and surged towards the hollow scrambling out of the giant room. The fire followed him and poured through the shop above them incinerating everything. The Hollow leapt through the roof and out into the air. Still the fire followed him. So it turned and lashed out at the fire and sliced through it with its bare hands. The fire poured around him and an instant later it had opened a portal through the skin of world and was gone. Beneath the ground Urahara cursed to himself as he felt the creature vanish.

"Well," He said to himself, "This could complicate things."