Here is chapter one. This chapter is from Daricio's fanfic but there are several changes in order to either fit my style of writing or to fit my storyline, but the overall idea is pretty much the same.

Answers to reviews:

TB: Thanks for being my first reviewer . And don't worry, I made sure I had some idea about how I wanted to end it… the only problem is getting there…

Zepher327: Thank you for your review

Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet: Thanks for the compliments. They mean a lot since I loved your story. Thanks for pointing those mistakes; I made sure to go back and change them.

Diclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Chapter 1 – Out of the Comfort Zone

Rukia's POV

Kuchiki Rukia walked through the streets of Rukongai, blatantly ignoring the stares and the whispers she was drawing from its inhabitants. That was fine with her. She didn't want to be here and definitely did not want anyone to bother her at the moment.

Not that anyone would be dumb enough to try and challenge her. The traditional shihakusho already marked her as Shinigami, and the captain's haori would scare away even the worst of criminals. A captain of one of the Gotei 13 Guard Squads was someone you definitely did not want to tangle with. (1)

Despite her particular distaste for the lower Rukongai district she was currently patrolling, Rukia had volunteered for duty today even though it was highly unusual for someone of her rank to do such a demeaning job. She knew that no one in Rukongai would be stupid enough to bother a captain, and that's exactly what she wanted. Rukia wanted to be away from the busy life of a captain and prying eyes.

And what better way to get away from that than in the busy streets of Rukongai, Rukia thought ruefully.

Today was the anniversary of his disappearance.

Captain Rukia had hoped the aimless wandering through several of the Rukongai districts would distract her restless thoughts about him. It didn't. In fact, along with the memories of him, recollections of her own life in the Rokungai before becoming a Shinigami wormed their way into her mind. Some of them brought back nostalgic childhood memories, but most of them were painful.

Rukia angrily pushed aside the things she had come out here to forget. It had already been two years and he wasn't coming back. Instead she turned her mind back to her duties as a patrolling Shinigami. They were easy enough (which may have been the reason why her mind kept wandering back to the persistent subject of him).

There was no real sense in policing the area. As mentioned before, no one was that stupid to try anything while a Shinigami was in the area; the residents huddled on the sides of the small road, casting suspicious glares. Rukia instead began to expand her senses until she became aware of the auras around her. The captain's gaze passed over the crowd listlessly, not really looking at them, but focusing on the spiritual energy. Remarkable spiritual energy was uncommon in the Rukongai, let alone one of these rundown districts, but there was always a chance, and it was her current responsibility to sense it and hopefully recruit the person to join the academy.

To her surprise, there was a sudden spike in the spiritual energy in her general facility. From the amount of it, Rukia guessed it was several people. The captain set her jaw grimly. Most people were wary of the Shinigami and the 13 Gotei Guard Squads that they represented in their black shihakusho. Rukia probably was going to have her work cut out for her trying to persuade the group to join the 'Death Gods' themselves.

Rukia's pace suddenly changed as she pinpointed the location of the spiritual pressure. The crowd parted before her nervously, wondering at the captain's hurried steps.

Abruptly, the spiritual pressure darted away, confusing Rukia until she again detected it coming slightly to her right. She turned and came face-to-face with a stunned group of people who obviously were intimidated by her captain status and uncomfortable in her sudden and unwelcomed attention.

Rukia scrutinized them for a moment before turning away (much to their relief). The spiritual pressure she was sensing was too large to be coming from that small of a group, and there was clearly no trace of spiritual pressure around them. The energy shifted again, slightly annoying the captain. She briefly wondered how the large group of people could move so fast together in this crowd; there had to at least be—

Rukia involuntarily stiffened and whirled around, her hopes soaring irrationally. She searched for that suspicious flash of orange, but then dismissed it.

She wasn't here to think about him. He wasn't going to show up randomly in the Rukongai after two years. With her growing irritation, Rukia pushed through the crowd, determined to catch the elusive owners of the high spiritual energy.

Closing in on the spiritual pressure, Rukia allowed herself to be momentarily impressed with the amount of it. She wondered for a split second how it had gone undetected for this long. Surely one of these individuals would have surely been sensed by previous patrolling Shinigami.

Her hand shot out reflexively towards the spiritual pressure, and she was surprised by the small, bony shoulder it came into contact with.

The individual beneath her hand turned around and locked eyes with his captor. He was a boy, maybe twelve or thirteen years of age, with shoulder-length, messy orange hair. Looking him over, Rukia realized that the spiritual pressure that she had assumed had come from a group of people was actually just from this one boy… funny, it was just like…

Mentally slapping herself for getting side-tracked again, Rukia kneeled down to the boy's height after noting the mixed look of awe and terror coming from the boy's face.

"Hi. My name is Kuchiki Rukia," she said, trying to make her smile convincing. Yep, she really didn't want to be here, and the boy's appearance and impressive spiritual energy was once again bringing up buried feelings and memories. The next time the anniversary came around, she was just going to lock herself in her room.

The boy quickly glanced around him, making sure she was really addressing him before answering in a soft, almost inaudible voice. "Umm… Am I in trouble?"

The shy question from the boy made Rukia laugh lightly, his shy demeanor melting any previous sour feelings. She shook her head. "No, don't worry, you're not in trouble. Why would you think that?"

He shifted nervously from one foot to another. "Usually, when a Shinigami comes, it means someone's in trouble, and they're going to be arrested or killed or something…" The boy stopped and looked up, worried that he might have offended the Shinigami right in front of him.

"I understand," Rukia replied with a smile, which made the boy finally relax ever so slightly. "I used to be from the 78th district, so I know how you feel."

The boy's eyes widened in an almost cute way. "Someone from the Rukongai can become a Shinigami Captain?" he asked in admiring wonder.

Rukia laughed again. "Yup. There are quite a handful of us actually. Not a lot, but enough not to be uncommon." She looked back, straight into the boy's brown eyes. "Have you ever thought about becoming a Shinigami?"

Fearfully, the child shook his head. "No, I could never do that! You have to go the academy and learn a lot. I'll probably fail everything there!"

"Yes, the Shinigami Academy is difficult, but it is easier for those with high spiritual energy like yours. I think you could do it," the captain reassured him, while his eyes grew bigger at the prospect of becoming a Shinigami.

Pausing, Rukia studied the boy with a sudden thought. "How long have you been here?"

The boy hesitated. "Um… I'm not really sure. I've lived here a few years, but I don't really remember…"

Rukia nodded with understanding. Whenever a soul entered the Soul Society, one of two things happened. If the soul was young, they kept their physical age, but lost some of their memories of their previous lives. If the spirit was older, he or she usually lost most if not all of the memories of past lives, and physically started over again at a young age in Rukongai. Rukia guessed the latter happened to they boy, judging by his lack of memories.

"Don't worry about not remembering," Rukia informed him. "I would guess you've only been here about two or three years. The Shinigami Academy is not too picky about your age as long as you can pass the entrance exam, but you should still wait a few years before you seriously think about it. Being a Shinigami is a serious subject, and if you're not ready for it, you should wait."

"Oh." The boy almost looked disappointed, a slight scowl scrunching his boyish features.

Rukia smiled at him as she rose to her feet. "Don't worry about it. You can start practicing to control your spiritual energy now so that you'll be ready for that entrance exam. Practice would also make learning Kido easier and might give you an edge over the other students when you join them."

"Okay. I'll try my best," he promised, brightening up.

Rukia nodded to him and proceeded to continue her patrolling, but something was bothering her. She glanced back to the kid and asked, "By the way… What's your name?"

"Ichigo. Kurosaki Ichigo."

For a moment, time seemed to freeze. Rukia whirled to face him again. "That's impossible, Ichigo is... You are..."

The boy's eyes widened and he flinched away from her. "D-did I do something wrong?"

Then, logic kicked in. Of course this wasn't the same Ichigo. The name was popular now because of him. It made sense that a family in Rukongai would name an orange-haired boy Ichigo...

Still, they even went so far as to give him the same last name, too? That would be taking it kind of far... Her face set in hard lines as she focused back on the boy in front of her. "Who named you after Kurosaki-taichou?" she demanded all previous gentleness gone. (2)

Confusion mixed with the terror on his face. "What?"

"Who told you that your name was Kurosaki Ichigo?" she rephrased her question irritably. The whole day she had been trying to avoid him, and now a boy with the same exact name ruined her whole plans of forgetting.

He frowned, his wide eyes fixed on her face. "W-well... N-nobody did, it's just my name... I... I think it was my name before I died."

Rukia stared at him in shock. Slowly, she dropped to her knees in front of him, grabbed both of his shoulders, and stared into his eyes. Could it really be...?

He fidgeted uncomfortably, looking away and trying to pull away from her grasp. Being grabbed by the shoulders for the second time that day was making him nervous.

"Ano..." It was obvious that he would very much like to be running away from her as fast as he could.

Rukia frowned; she still couldn't tell, not with that expression on his face. "Glare at me for a moment," she directed.

He glanced back up at her, his eyes widening further. "What?"

"Make your eyebrows go together; glare at me."

He turned slightly red, but hesitantly did as she asked.

Rukia stared, her mouth falling open a little. "It... it really is you, isn't it?"

Confusion spread across his face again and he opened his mouth to respond, but she didn't give him a chance. Standing, she grabbed a hold of one of his wrists and began dragging him back towards the Seireitei. "I've got to find the other captains!"

Ichigo's POV

Kurosaki Ichigo was immensely confused, and admittedly, a little scared. Usually, in the 78th district he was fearless. He had created his own reputation as a loner, yet someone you would definitely not want to cross paths with, and he had felt comfortable with that. Not content, but comfortable. But now, in the grasp of a Shinigami—a Shinigami captain—any brash attitude or confidence had left him.

The day had begun like any other day in the Rukongai. Each day consisted of constant survival, which included stealing, not getting caught by store owners, finding a place to sleep, and avoiding the Shinigami. He had failed the last one and now was being forcibly dragged by this Shinigami captain.

He had heard rumors of the Shinigami captain patrolling today, and he had never been close or even seen a captain before, so his twelve-year-old curiosity had gotten the better of him. (3)

Ichigo stumbled again as he tried to make his much smaller legs keep up with the captain whose unrelenting hand was closed firmly around his own. As they passed through crowds, people whispered to their neighbor, undoubtedly wondering what a Shinigami captain wanted with a child as young as himself. The boy couldn't help but agree with the questions and confusion in their eyes. He had absolutely no idea where they were going or why the captain had taken such a sudden interest in him. His current situation had all resulted because of his name…

Now being jostled and pulled painfully along, Ichigo wished he had stayed far away from the Shinigami.

Apparently, the Shinigami found walking too slow and crowded, so without any warning, she jumped, dragging a protesting Ichigo, up onto the top of the rooftops.

Ichigo's world suddenly became a blur, and he couldn't breath. In the back of his mind, the sensation felt familiar, but he couldn't place a name with it. He didn't really dwell on that thought much as the world seemed to shift violently around him. It was hours or maybe just a few minutes before the world returned to its natural normal-paced state. Ichigo was winded like someone had punched him in the gut, but the slower pace allowed his coherent thoughts to return and with it, confusion and bit of annoyance.

"Where are we going?" he asked wildly when the Shinigami had taken a break from the rapid movement.

The Shinigami seemed to be selectively deaf at the moment because she didn't respond or even turn towards him.

The boy couldn't help the small bit of anger that flared at the much bigger and much more powerful person with a death grip.

"Hey!" he practically shouted. "I asked, 'where are we going?'"

This time she glanced down at him, but as if she was trying to increase his temporary anger, she smiled down at him with mixed amusement and anticipation. The world once again began to move in a blur, and all Ichigo could do was focus on breathing.

The captain eventually stopped her quick stride and settled for a hurried walk. She was still moving fast, but at least it didn't make Ichigo want to hurl.

The walk allowed the boy to catch his breath, and Ichigo was just about to yell again when he caught sight of her destination. His voice caught in his throat as a wall of fear crashed down on him.

"Kuchiki-taichou, I don't think I'm allowed in here!" he yelped as he stared wide-eyed at the huge gates of the Seireitei.

The captain didn't even hesitate as she dragged him right through, ignoring his protests and struggles, and continued their journey. It was a long fruitless battle for the Rukongai boy as he fought against the iron grip, ignoring his surroundings and not caring which streets she took him down. All he cared about was getting away from the scary shinigami.

Ichigo was just about to try another protest when they abruptly arrived at the captain's destination. It took his breath away. The fear he had felt when passing through the gates of the Seireitei paled in comparison to the terror he felt now.

Kuchiki-taichou had stopped in front of two impressively large doors. Ichigo had no idea where they led, but a strange apprehension warned him of danger on the other side.

Not hesitating any further, Kuchiki-taichou barged into a large room without even knocking. Inside the room, several people were standing in two lines. Their previous discussion stopped short by Kuchiki-taichou's abrupt entrance.

"I found him!" Kuchiki-taichou announced dramatically while holding up Ichigo's wrist triumphantly.

There was a long silence that followed, and Ichigo's apprehension increased when all eyes turned on him. He gulped, realizing that each person in the room wore the white coat that was a symbol of captaincy. He had been dragged into a room full of Shinigami captains!

He still had no idea what was going on, but he must have done something horribly wrong in order for him to be here right now.

One of the other captains who was wearing a straw hat and pink haori spoke for them all. "You found who exactly, Rukia-chan?"

"I hope you have a good reason for interrupting us, Kuchiki," another added.

Kuchiki-taichou smiled grimly. "Trust me, I don't care what you were talking about before, you will want to hear this." She finally released his wrist and gently pushed him forward towards the other captains. "Introduce yourself," she instructed him.

With wide eyes, he glanced back at her, rubbing his sore wrist. "A-ano... I really don't understand what's going on; I'm not this important."

She laughed dryly. "You're very important," she assured him. "Introduce yourself."

Taking a deep, shaky breath, Ichigo frowned at her. "Are you sure I'm not in trouble?" he asked in a voice that was far squeakier than he would have preferred. Ichigo could not think of any other reason why Kuchiki-taichou would bring him before a room filled with eight captains.

"Just introduce yourself!"

Reluctantly, he faced the other captains and bowed, keeping his gaze very firmly on the ground. "Ano... well... I'm... My name is Ichigo...Kurosaki Ichigo, I mean..."

There was dead silence in the room. Ichigo glanced up. Everyone was staring at him in various states of shock. "... Nice to meet you?" he added hesitantly.

The room of captains suddenly snapped out of its frozen state as all the captains turned to his or her neighbor to talk at the same time.

Ichigo stared in wonder and confusion. At the moment, none of them looked like they wanted to kill him, but their reaction still puzzled the boy. All of this because of his name?

He couldn't help remember Takeo's reaction to his name a long time ago. None of the captains were laughing like Takeo had, but their current actions still seemed strange just for a name.

"Is it really him, Rukia?" The same captain with the straw hat called over the sudden noise. "Are you sure?"

She nodded firmly. "I'm positive."

"How can you be sure?"

A large captain with black spiky hair stepped out of the line, a huge grin spreading over his scarred face. "There's one easy way to tell if it's really him," he said, walking steadily towards them. With one fluid motion, he unsheathed his sword.

Ichigo honestly hadn't thought he could get more scared than he was; turns out, he was wrong. His knees buckled underneath him and he screamed, trying to scoot backwards as fast as he could. His momentary relief that none of them seemed to want to punish him for whatever he didn't know he did vanished in a single thought of terror.

Thankfully, every other captain in the room seemed to think that what was happening was a bad thing and several of them grabbed the first by his arms and dragged him back.

"What are you thinking, Kenpachi?" One of them yelled. "He's just a kid! He doesn't even have a sword!"

"But if it really is Ichigo..." Kenpachi whined.

"Whether it's Ichigo or not, you're scaring him out of his mind," the shortest captain in the room observed almost in a bored manner. "Rukia, didn't you explain anything to him? He looks absolutely shell-shocked."

An explanation would be definitely help things, Ichigo agreed sourly as he remembered the journey to this place, but he was still to terrified to voice his thought

Kuchiki-taichou looked defensive. "I thought that bringing him here first was a bigger priority."

The other rolled his eyes and walked over to Ichigo, extending a hand to help him up. Hesitantly, Ichigo took it.

"I'm Hitsugaya," he introduced himself.

"Nice to meet you," Ichigo squeaked automatically.

Hitsugaya-taichou smirked, and then turned to the other captains. "That's Ukitake-san, Kyoraku, Soifon-san, Kenpachi, Unohana-san, and Yamamoto-sou-taichou."

Ichigo gulped again. He hadn't realized the head of the captains was here as well...

Hitsugaya-taichou laughed. "Don't worry; if you really are who we think you are, everyone here is your friend."

Ichigo looked up at him in disbelief. "Even him?" he asked doubtfully, pointing at Kenpachi-taichou.

Kenpachi-taichou grinned at him and Ichigo very quickly looked away, hating the fear he felt. Hitsugaya-taichou smirked again. "Even him." He looked back to address the room as a whole. "So what are we going to do about this?"

"Well, first we still need to confirm that it really is him," Soifon-taichou said reasonably.

Ukitake-taichou nodded. "True. He certainly hasn't been acting much like Kurosaki-san..."

Hitsugaya-taichou snorted. "Put yourself in his shoes. He obviously doesn't have his memories. He doesn't remember any of us, so to him, he was just dragged in front of a bunch of captains for no reason. You'd be scared witless too."

"If you won't let me fight him to test it out, you should at least see if he can release his sword," Kenpachi-taichou suggested, obviously still put out by the loss of a good fight. "If he can, one glance at it will tell us. It's not going to change."

"That might work," Ukitake-taichou mused.

Kyoraku-taichou shook his head. "If he's lost his memories, he probably doesn't even know who Zangetsu even is..."

Ichigo perked up at the familiar name. "... Zangetsu? You mean old man Zangetsu?"

Everyone turned to look at him and he flinched again. When nobody spoke, Ichigo hesitantly continued. "He lives in my head. He says he's a sword, but I don't believe him..."

Several of the captains chuckled at this. Kuchiki-taichou grinned triumphantly. "Do you believe me now? I told him nothing."

Unohana-taichou stepped forward and kneeled in front of Ichigo, placing one hand gently on the top of his head. She smiled warmly at him. "Hold still for just a moment, Ichigo." Her voice was gentle, and Ichigo nodded.

Briefly, her hand on his head began to glow a light blue and her eyes closed. Ichigo felt a strange tingly warmth flood through his whole body for an instant, and then it faded. Unohana-taichou opened her eyes and stood.

"I almost don't believe my own reading, but it really is him," she confirmed. "He's completely healthy, if a little hungry, and if it weren't for the fact that he's looks twelve when he's supposed to be in his early twenties, I'd say there was nothing wrong with him..."

Hitsugaya-taichou looked down at him. "So exactly how much does he remember?"

"Remember about what?" Ichigo asked in slight exasperation, finally voicing one of the questions he'd been wondering about this whole time.

"Your life before living in Rukongai," Kuchiki-taichou explained briefly. "What can you tell us about that?"

Ichigo hesitated. "Um... not much... a few random things, like some peoples' names, random facts...Like, I know that Renji is really mean, but I don't know who Renji is..."

Kuchiki-taichou smirked.

Yamamoto-sou-taichou finally spoke up for the first time. "I believe we are all in agreement that this boy is, indeed, Kurosaki Ichigo, although he appears to have lost most of his memories. What do you propose we do, then?"

There was silence in the room. Finally, Soifon-taichou spoke up. "Perhaps we could have 12th division take a look at him? We need to figure out what exactly happened to him and whether or not it can be reversed..."

Oh, no. Stay away from 12th division, Ichigo, a familiar voice sounded in his head. The sudden appearance of the voice made Ichigo jump slightly, but none of the captains seemed to notice as the continued to talk. Don't you remember what happened last time you let those freaks take a look at you?

No. In case you hadn't noticed, Shiro, I apparently don't remember much at all, Ichigo mentally shot back at the white version of himself.

After a certain incident Ichigo had, which included a very close call with some bandits, Shiro (as Ichigo had named his white doppelganger) along with Zangetsu had appeared in his head. This had happened over a year ago, and Ichigo had long since gotten use to their presence.

When the other him had saved him from a certain death experience, Ichigo had easily learned to trust both of them no matter how annoying Shiro could get sometimes.

It was bad, Zangetsu agreed with the other him. Stay away from there.

The fact that Zangetsu had actually spoken up was enough to convince Ichigo. Zangetsu was normally quiet and only spoke up when danger arose.

"I don't want to go to 12th division," Ichigo stated aloud, causing the captains all to stare at him again. Ichigo frowned defensively. "They do bad things there."

Ukitake-taichou hesitated. "He is right, you know. You remember what Kurotsuchi tried to do to him before because of the whole Vaizard thing?"

There was a respectful pause, as if for the remembrance for the dead and fallen on the anniversary of some great, horrifically bloody battle. Ichigo was simply confused, though he took comfort in noting that if things got too weird, the other him and Zangetsu both seemed to remember all this stuff they were talking about...

"What if I take him to Urahara instead?" Kuchiki-taichou suggested. "Ichigo would probably feel much more comfortable there, and we could still get closer to figuring out what happened."

The other captains thought about this, and then one by one they all nodded. Yamamoto-sou-taichou spoke again. "All right, so be it. One last thing: keep what you've seen here today quiet. If the situation calls for it, this information may be shared with the other captains and any others. But I would like to keep this strictly within the circle of captains."

"Why?" someone asked.

Kyoraku-taichou responded, "The last report we had of Kurosaki-taichou was 'missing in action, presumed dead.' If it was to be widely spread that he was back, but like this, it's possible that people would panic."

Kuchiki-taichou frowned. "So what are we going to do with him, then? Keep him in obscurity until he grows up again?"

"To some extent, yes. Perhaps when he is older and hopefully has regained at least some of his memories, he may be able to resume his position as captain without causing any rumors or panic."

Ichigo frowned at this, but said nothing, trying to piece together all the random information they were throwing around. Supposedly, he used to be a captain himself, specifically, he had been the captain that Takeo and Shuu had clearly admired and idolized. All of it seemed too incredible for his mind to take in, but all of the captains seemed to agree on it and neither Shiro nor Zangetsu had denied any of the claims… and now they wanted to make him be a captain again when he didn't even know what was going on...

"How exactly are you going to prevent people from finding out? He'd be conspicuous just about anywhere in Seireitei, and we're definitely not going to just dump him back in Rukongai..." Kuchiki-taichou said; her face became thoughtful as if an idea came to her even as she spoke.

"We will figure that out at a later time," Yamamoto-sou-taichou decided. "For now, take him to Urahara Kisuke for further observation. The main goal here will be to get his memories back, if at all possible."

Soifon-taichou nodded. "I'll inform Yoruichi-sama." With that, she disappeared from the room.

Kuchiki-taichou took Ichigo's hand. "Come on. We have to get people to set up the gate in order for you to get through."

Ichigo looked up at her in confusion. "What gate?"

"Urahara's shop is in the real world," she explained to him, leading him out of the room. "While we're waiting for the gate to get set up, I'll try and explain all this to you."

The real world… Ichigo was unsure about how he felt about that and all the rest of the information, but an explanation really did sound nice right about now…

(1) AU Rukia became the captain of squad 5. Will be explained later in the story.

(2) AU Ichigo was also a captain (as mentioned before). Will be explained later.

(3) Ichigo still appears 12-years-old because people don't age as quickly in the Soul Society.

Words: Taichou - captain; Ano - um; Sou-taichou - head captain; Shiro - Ichigo's hollow, means "white" or "bleached"

~Bluesky21543