Chapter 1: See Who I Am

Ichigo's POV

I run out of the music hall, dodging and avoiding people as I go. Even here in Tokyo, there's a chance someone who knows me could be here. I don't want anyone to know what I do on my own. Just like I don't want my human friends to know what I am, or how I've become friends with my hollow, Ichimaru. Surprisingly, he's extremely supportive of what I do. It's strange, how he's supportive of my dancing but not of my friends. Yes, you read right, dancing.

It's not as if I can do it often, I'm just too busy with school and shinigami work. And since I've been instated as the taicho of the third division, I've only gotten busier. I never seem to have time to myself. Rukia's apparently caught onto this as she kicked me out today. She says I work too much, and I need to let loose and have some fun. Then, she literally threw me out the door, who knew she had so much strength for a midget.

Lost in my thoughts, I don't realize how far I've gone until I end up in front of a spewing white marble fountain. A woman with golden wheat hair bent over a notebook sits on its edge lost in what she's writing. The people walk past her, never sparing her a glance.

Is she a soul? There's only one way to find out.

I pad slowly up to her spot. If she is a soul, or a living human for that matter, I don't wanna scare her. "Hey. What's your name?"

Her head jerks up, and she blinks at me in surprise. "Umm, hello. I'm Keta, Ketakoshka Castlionia." My hollow comes into my subconscious but doesn't say a word, so I choose to ignore him for once. "Would you like to sit?"

I nod, "sure. My name's Ichigo Kurosaki."

She smiles meekly and glances at her surroundings. When she turns back to me, her gaze is sad, and her eyes are darkened with long hidden pain. "You're not from around her are you?"

"No," I answer swiftly, "I'm from Karakura Town."

If it was at all possible, it must be as it has happened, she looks sadder. "I figured as much. People around here don't talk to me. 'Cause I'm strange. They say I'm not right in the head, which I'm not, but still it would be nice to be treated like a normal girl, even if I'm not." She smiles meekly again and stares up into the sky.

"What's wrong with you?"

Her head jerks back at me; she seems startled by the caring tone in my question. "I-i have a brain condition. I don't know what it's called but basically, when I get stressed out, I act like a child. I start to talk like one, and my mental capacity decreases. I get distracted really easily. So I can't have a driver's license. And to top it off, I'm an anemic and suffer from narcolepsy. I fall asleep while standing sometimes."

I can't help it I laugh at that one. "And I only have a job because I'm an artist. You don't have to get up and go to work and be on time that way. But I still don't have a place to stay. I live on the streets."

My eyes widen. "Keta, why?"

"I like it that way. No one has to look out for me, how I want my life to be even after I die." Her words cut at my heart like a blade, like a zanpactou. I don't know why. I don't even really know this girl. "But everyone has their secrets." She gives me a strange knowing look.

"I know what you mean."

"Do you?"

"I'm a dancer."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Can you show me something?"

"Sure." I look around at the people; they still aren't paying attention. I take a deep breath. I spin around on my heels and pose; one hand clenched in a light fist away from my body and the other bent in an angle towards my face.

She claps and calls out, "Bravo, Ichigo!" I smile, a real one; something only a few people have ever seen. She looks down at her watch, then shoots up from her seat. "I've gotta go. I promised Alex and Chris, I'd meet them for lunch!"

"Who're Chris and Alex?"

"Two of the gallery workers I'm friends with."

"Keta, will you be here next Saturday?"

She gives me a calculating look. "Is that a date invitation?"

"Yup."

She smiles. "Then yes. 12:30 good for you?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, then. See ya!" She takes off and another smile works its way onto my face. I look at my own watch. 5:15. I've gotta go myself. I lope off to the bus station, a skip in my step.

Keta's POV

As I step into Calypso's, Hime calls over to me from where she's waiting on a family, "Hey, Keta! Alex an' Chris a'e in zee back."

"Thanks, Hime!" The French shape shifter nods and goes back to taking the fairly large family's orders. The entire faculty of Calypso's is inhuman. The boss, Tezuma would have given me a job here if Maybel hadn't.

Maybel's the gallery director, and she, thank god for my fortune, doesn't care that I'm not mentally stable. The Wiccan says that all great people are slightly off their rockers. Thankfully, being an artist, I have no deadlines, except when I paint churches, oh how I despise them, and other places. Maybel let me decorate the showroom, and my next project is to be the lobby. Under her supervision, I've become a highly thought of and know gothic artist. And in most of them, I, a child me, is hurt or playing near or in danger.

In The Shadows of Secrets, my highest priced painting, a child me is playing in a garden near a shaded doorway. The entire scene is bright: red roses, white calla lilies, emerald grass covering the garden ground; with the exception of the doorway. The child me seems oblivious to the shadows and the creature within. Said creature's just a disturbance in the shades of black and grey with ruby red eyes and sharp, pointy teeth.

Despite the obvious grim quality to the piece, it now resides in the home of Ryuuken Ishida, one of my best clientele and is worth over $20,000.

"Keta!"

I'm jerked out of my thoughts for the second time today, not by Ichigo and his kind temperament, but by my friend, Chris's shouting and her shaking me. "What?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes!" The woman's Brooklyn accent shines through as she pushes me into the booth and slams an innocent looking pill bottle onto the table top.

I flinch at the loud noise and shirk into the seat cushion. Alex taking pity on me, pulls me into his chest. "Are you okay, Keta-chan?" I blink up at the gay, Japanese man. His coal black irises glow, and he pets at my hair. He clutches me tighter, as he would his lover, the incubus, Xander, and glares up at Chris. "You didn't have to slam it."

I know, I know. I'm sorry, Keta."

"'Tis otay, Chris-sama. You jus' stardled me. So, Saya maded me some mor'?"

Chris's eyes soften even more. "Yeah," she says leaning back into the seat, "Grimmjow dropped it off about an hour ago. He said that Lord Aizen wishes you'd come home. They all do. He said it's too quiet in Hueco Mundo without you."

"I sorry. I no want Kitzan to be sad. I sorry. I love my Kitzan. I no want him sad." A tear drips from my eye and I snuggle closer to Alex. "But I no want Kitzan to get hurt. An' I get peoples hurt."

AN:/ Keta's mental disability gets worse the more stress she's under.

"But Keta! Lord Aizen's practically her father!"

"It no matter. I no want my family to get themselves hurt fo' me. Anyways, I got a date!"

"Really?" Alex asks, jumping into the conversation.

"Yup, um… next Saturday!"

"What's his/her name?"

"Ichigo. He are really sweet and cute. He like dancing, too!"

"Oh," Chris exclaims, "You hit the jackpot, baby girl! I bet he's incredibly sexy!" I nod. "Damn, you did hit the jackpot!" I laugh. Chris can be quite ecstatic about the littlest of things. But the change of topic is quite welcome. I'd rather not speak of subjects that cause me to cry, my Kitzan being one of them. 'Him' being another. Oh how I miss my prince.

I sigh. "Keta-chan is there something wrong?" Alex is staring at me intently.

"No, Alex. I jus' thinking. Jus' thinking 'bout him."

"Oh, honey, you have to let him go." I turn around to find Hime looking down at me. She places a hand on my arm gently; she knows how untrusting I can be of people or creatures touching me, and says, "you've got a strong heat, a glorious body, a wonderful soul and a kind disposition. You're practically the embodiment of love and beauty, and I know quite a few incubi and succubi. And you're ten times more radiant then even Xander. Isn't that right Alex?"

"Yeah, Xander can't even hold a candle to you."

I smile and burry my face back into Alex's chest. "Thanks guys."

Ichigo's POV

I run into Urahara's place, feeling giddy as can be. I slide open the door, giving a rushed apology to a startled Jinta and running into the room we use for meetings. As I expected, my friends, Urahara and Yoruichi are sitting at the table, drinking tea or in Rangiku's case sake.

"What's got you so excited, Kurosaki-kun?" the shady blonde asks, grey eyes glinting.

Normally, I'd scowl at him, but I'm far too ecstatic for that. "I've got a date!"

"Aww, who's the lucky guy?" Anyu asks, smirking.

This does elict a scowl from me. "'Her' name is Keta, Ketakoshka Castlionia."

Uryu chokes on his tea before blinking at me. "'The' Ketakoshka Castlionia? The world renound gothic-style artist? The woman who my father spends thousands of dollars a year for just one of her paintings?"

"I guess."

"Damn, you're on lucky bastard. Is she as off-kilter as they say?"

My scowl deepens. "Just because she has a mental instability doesn't make her crazy. She's sweet and kind. And apparently, I'm one of the only people who'd talk to her."

His eyes widen. "Sorry, Ichigo, I didn't mean to offend you. But you haven't seen her art yet, have you?" I shake my head. "That's wh people think she's crazy. One of them my dad owns, actually the first one he bought has a hollow eating the soul of a little blonde girl. Dad says her spiritual pressure is so high for a human. He thinks she can not only see but talks to hollows."

"What?" we shout.

"Yeah," he mutters meekly, "he saw her talking to Ulquiorra Schiffer. He said she hugged him, and they talked for a while. Then before he left, she hugged him again and gave him marshmallows."

"Marshmallows?"

"Marshmallows shaped like bats."