About a hundred years had went by since Kurosaki Ichigo defeated Aizen and build the organization V.A.S.T. to ensure a peaceful life between Human and Vampires, with the aid of the Slayers.
The world has changed over those years, technologies developed further, towns grew bigger and more and more skyscrapers grew out of the ground, like trees.
Still, the world hasn't changed as much, that it turned into a science-fiction like environment.
Cars still had wheels that rolled over asphalt streets and there were neither laser swords nor guns or anything you could name that belonged to the SF genre.

Ichigo sat in his leather seat, in the top floor of the V.A.S.T. Tower, a huge skyscraper in the center of Karakura and watched over the skyline of the town.
He held a glass with a red liquid in his right hand and his expression showed that he was more than bored to sit around in the apartment suit without anything to do.
A knock interrupted him from his musings of what he could do.
"Come in."
One of the huge double doors opened and an old man entered, a petite woman following hesitantly behind him.

Ichigo turned around with his chair, as he saw the man he looked rather surprised.
"Sasakibe? What are you doing here? You should be at home with your family and enjoy your last years in freedom."
The orangette sets his glass on a side table, his gaze landing on the girl, who's eyeing him intently.

Girls POV

'That old man, Sasakibe was it? He brought me here after those strange guys broke into my home, accusing me of hacking into top secret files and spying on them. Alright, I hacked myself into the system of V.A.S.T., but how else should I get information about this organization? Everything else that you get on the normal way are just rumors. This system is as secret as it can get. Well, I gave those guys a good beating, before this geezer caught me, but what exactly does he want? He told me I would be excellent as a guard. A guard for whom? That boy?'
I thought to myself, while that orange haired guy talked to the old geezer.

Really V.A.S.T. had a fucking skyscraper with 70 stories as it's headquarters in every nation, but no fucking soul on the world knew exactly what they were doing.
Except those that worked here, and they wouldn't let a word of it get over their lips, so I gathered rumors on the net about this organization and the one who founded all that with just a few comrades a hundred years ago.
I really looked at that boy, young man, whatever, for the first time and I couldn't help but notice that he looked a lot like the one picture I could find of the founder.

"Kurosaki Ichigo."
I whispered.
It couldn't be that the man still was alive, even if he was he'd have to look like an old man, just like the one who dragged me here.
So why did that person look not older than myself, or how did he look so similar to that Kurosaki?

Cloning?
Advanced medicine?

No, I don't think anything on that matter has developed far enough yet.
So, could that rumor...

Normal POV

"Oh, You know my name. That's very impressive. So, will you tell me yours, little Missy?"
Ichigo asked, interrupting the girl from her musings and as his words register in her mind, she gasps and fidgets in pure indignation.
Finally she sets to point a finger at him and yells.
"I'm not little! For your information I'm already 19. You don't look much older either, so don't treat me like a kid!"
Ichigo ignored her outburst and turns with his question to Sasakibe instead.
"So, who is she and why did you bring her here?"

The girls face turns red in anger and she yells some accusations, but Ichigo ignores her, in favor of listening to the answer he wants to get.
"She's the one who had been hacking into our system. Apparently she not only has a lot knowledge on computers, but a great will and remarkable physical strength. I thought she might be useful for you. Her name is Kuchiki Rukia."
Ichigos interest is picked just by that name, so as he takes a look at Rukia again he asks.
"Kuchiki?"
"Yeah. Though the names are identical, our researches showed that there isn't any relation to that Kuchiki."
Sasakibe explained, erasing every assumptions before they could consolidate.
Ichigo sighed and walked back to his seat, to take the glass and sip some of the liquid, a pair of violet eyes following his every move.
"Well fine, but you haven't brought her to me, just because of her talents right? Are you worried that I mess things up in the time that you'll be gone?"
He asked, amusement clearly audible in his voice and a slight smile gracing his features, but the two guests couldn't see it, because he had his back turned to them.
Sasakibe hurried to answer him and assure him that this wasn't the case.
"No you proved that you are a remarkable leader for the Japanese branch, just like every other branch leader and member of the Shichi Shikei."

Rukia flinched at hearing that name, remembering that she had heard it somewhere and she just knew that it was the group name for the branch leaders and...
One rumor said that they were something definitely not human.

"Then why is she here?"
Ichigos warm baritone pulled her out of her thoughts once again, just in time to hear the old mans answer.
"Rather than taking my place, she shall serve you as a leash."
The orangette turned around, to face the two, one eyebrow raised.
"A leash?"
Sasakibe nodded.
"Yes. Since the strong reign of V.A.S.T., lowered the rate of criminals and S.I.N.'s gradually, you have less and less to do. I know that you don't want to admit it, but your nature as a Slayer claims that you hunt and your other side increases this desire even more. It's not just me that is worried, but Shiro-san as well. You are breaking the one rule you yourself set for the Shichi Shikei at an increasing rate to satisfy your desire."

Ichigo had turned his back to Rukia and the old man again, and looked stoically out of the huge window, his hand tightens around the glass until it bursts and the shards dig into his palm.
With a strained voice, barely covering the anger that swam deep inside of him he asked.
"What do you think I should do?"
Rukia flinches, both at the tone of Ichigos voice and at the view of the bleeding hand with the shards sticking everywhere in it.

Ichigo turns around to them, his eyes burning with the anger he's trying to restrain.
"I'm not as fucking old as my mate and it's not my nature to sit around all day long and sip glass after glass of blood. I need to do something. If I had known that the S.I.N.'s would vanish one day, I'd never spoken out this rule. I'm just a step away from erasing it again, because otherwise I'll become the next S.I.N., because I got fucking insane of boredom."

Rukia didn't understand what Ichigo was talking about, or why he was so angry, but she couldn't bear the view of his bleeding hand any longer.
Hesitantly she stepped forward to the orangette and took the injured hand by it's wrist to inspect it.

Ichigos fury is gone in a second and he looks at Rukia, who had come into his personal space and touched him, without him being bothered by it.
"What is it?"
He asks her, friendly seeing the worried frown on her face.
"You hand..."
She whispers, but he pulls it out of her grip gently, to inspect it himself.
"That's nothing."
Ichigo tells her and begins to pull the shards out, without even flinching and making the female stare at him in shock through it.
When she sees the deep cuts heal immediately, it seemed to Ichigo like it blew even the last fuse in her brain.

"Missy."
He addresses her and she looks up to him with big violet eyes.
"Do you have even the slightest idea what I am? What you got yourself into with your curiosity?"
Rukia shook her head, just a tad, in deny, she couldn't speak, even if she wanted to, there was just something about that man in front of her that hindered her from it.

Something dark and heavy.

Ichigo sighs.
"I thought as much."
He turns to Sasakibe.
"You can go. Enjoy your freedom."
The old man bows slightly and retreats, when the big door closed behind him, Ichigo drops into his seat and Rukia stood next to an other one, uncertainly watching the orangette.

"Well, now that you're already here I might as well enlighten you. Right, little Missy?"
He said, as he grabbed himself a new glass and poured some of the red liquid in it.

Chapter 1
End