A/N: Yay~ Another chapter! I'm begging to really like this story. :D The only thing that's really bothering me is figuring out how to properly incorporate her in the original plot! AHH! Going through 300 some episodes is not fun. -_-

Oh well, Read and Review! Happy Reading~

Disclaimer: I don't own original material (anything pertaining to Bleach), I only own my ideas and characters.

Chapter 2

She kneeled on the ground, hands supporting her as she gasped for breath, her long hair flowing past her shoulders and pooling in a pile of knotted curls. Her vision blurred as she blinked out the excess tears, still gasping and chocking for breath as she looked up.

The first thing she saw was blue; she realized it was a sky as soon as she spotted the white, puffy clouds. She leaned back on her heals and plopped on her bottom, patting herself down and quickly running a hand through her unruly hair, franticly looking for blood. Anything that could have told her she had been shot was wrong; she felt nothing similar to the liquid stickiness of blood, even though something inside of her was telling her that something happened.

She looked around her and her eyes widened as she stared in horror at her surroundings.

"OH MY GOD!" She shouted as she scrambled up from her sitting position, and spinning around, she looked at the ground staring up at her. She stumbled back with a shriek, nearly falling.

She gazed around her and saw as the large buildings were turned horizontally, and also saw she was standing on the side of a building. Her hands clutched her head in distress, "Oh my God, oh God!"

A voice interrupted her coming panic attack, "Who are you?" A deep, booming voice echoed, the commanding question assaulting her ears.

She nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around again, her wide eyes scouring the landscape and came across a middle-aged looking man standing in front of her. The worst part of this whole screwed up scenario . . . she recognized him. She couldn't figure out where, but somehow she recognized him.

"Who are you?" The question came again, although slightly more impatient.

"Wha. . ." She breathed out, confusion assaulting her in waves. She didn't even know where she was; let alone who he was, so why was he asking her that?

A different voice came this time, younger but clearly strong sounding. "Hey, Old man Zangetsu! What happened, I came as soon as I could! I-" The voice cut off abruptly when he caught sight of her the same time she spotted him.

Her eyes roved over him; bright, orange hair, tall form, and the large zanpakuto could only make up one person. 'I'm dreaming. . .' She thought faintly, feeling herself become numb as everything real came crashing down on her. 'That, or I actually died. . .' Her surroundings went dark as she lost conciseness and her body came crumbling to the ground with a thump.

They both watched in shock as the strange girl collapsed.

"Zangetsu, who the hell is that!" Ichigo nearly shouted, pointing to the girl on the ground with shock and uncertainty.

"I am wondering that myself." He answered, glancing at the girl with unease.

"How did she get here? How can she even be in my soulscape? That's impossible!" He looked over to Zangetsu for an answer, his eyes wide.

"I do not know how she came here, but it seems she doesn't pose much danger, for now. The reiatsu that brought her here did not belong to her."

"I did feel something weird, like a foreign reiatsu invading mine. That wasn't her? Cause it felt pretty strong and it feels like it's coming from her." He said as he cautiously walked over to the girl, kneeling and sensing the different reiatsu.

"You're right, Ichigo. I felt something as well, although it wasn't her spiritual pressure. She does have reiatsu, but it's extremely faint and being overpowered by the other reiatsu, she's human." The zanpakuto commented, still sanding off to the side as Ichigo now examined her for injuries.

"That's impossible. . . Well . . . what's she doing here? If she was sent here then. . ." He glanced back as Zangetsu shook his head.

"Let's wait and see." He said firmly, faintly thinking of the fact that she looked more than panicked when she first arrived here. She seemed confused as well, the only thing they could do now was wait until she woke up, then they would get their answers.

The first thing she felt when she regained conciseness was a killer headache, she groaned as she rolled on her side. Her memories were muddled; she couldn't think clearly and sure as hell couldn't remember what happened. Her hand wandered to her head and felt a clear bump under her fingers.

"Great, just great." She muttered, eyes still closed as she slowly moved into a sitting position, crossing her legs. She probably hit her head and passed out, if that was even possible. Her hand absentmindedly rubbed the bump as her eyes flickered open tiredly.

The moment her eyes opened to the scene in front of her, she nearly blacked out again as the memories exploded in her mind.

"No! Come on, don't do this to me!" She shouted, closing her eyes and shaking her head back and forth hysterically. "This is a dream, I'm going to wake up and that's it. I'm just going to wake up and not be here." She chanted lowly, counting to three before flashing her eyes open again. She was still greeted by the same sight of Zangetsu and Ichigo standing side-by-side, staring at her.

"That's it! I officially went insane!" She clutched her head, feeling a panic attack coming but she couldn't do anything to stop it. "I probably did get shot and now I'm in a mental hospital dealing with my post-traumatic-stress disorder, or I'm in a coma! Yeah, that's it! I'm dreaming this in my coma just because I didn't want to remember what happened!" Her breathing was labored by the time she finished speaking, her eyes downcast as she tried to will herself awake, or at least do something to get out of this very real feeling dream.

"Uhh, can I . . . do anything . . . to uhh . . . ya know . . . help?" A very hesitant voice came, jerking her out of her stupor. She looked up, tears gracing her eyes as she looked at the one who spoke, the orange haired one.

"Oh God, please don't talk. I'm trying to wake up!" She shook her head again, but when nothing changed, she just sniffled, tears cascading down her cheeks once again.

Ichigo and Zangetsu looked at each other in confusion. They both had absolutely no idea what was going on, one moment the girl gets here, passes out, then starts crying and having a panic attack. But they could both easily come to the same conclusion, she didn't know what was going on either, and it seemed to be affecting her much more severely.

Ichigo walked over slowly and kneeled down. He gathered her in a hug, trying to console her in any way he could. She latched on and started sobbing, realizing that it didn't matter which situation she was in, all that mattered was that it was real right now.

She cried into his chest for nearly five minutes, trying to come to terms with her situation. When she finally calmed down enough to talk properly, she pulled away slightly and looked down, rubbing her eyes. Although tears were still leaking, it wasn't a full blown sob fest anymore.

"So . . . uhh . . . what's your name?" Ichigo said gently, he felt comfortable enough to start asking her some basic questions now.

She glanced up at him and answered in a near whisper, "Nakano Kimiko."

"Ok, that's a start." He nodded, "I'm Kurosaki Ichigo, it's . . . nice to meet you." He nearly winced, not the best choice of words for this particular situation.

He took a deep breath, he really didn't want to start asking her these questions, she was in a delicate situation and he didn't want to make it worse. But they needed to know what was going on lest is become a serious problem.

"Can I . . . ask you what happened, Kimiko?" He said, trying to make eye contact.

She sniffled and rubbed her eyes again, "What do you mean?" She was stalling, but she didn't even know if this was real or not so if she started babbling like an idiot it could be like stepping on land mines.

'Crap,' Ichigo thought, he's gonna need some help. He looked back to Zangetsu; his zanpakuto got his silent signal and walked over, copying his master's position.

"Nakano-san, I would like for you to tell us how you got here. It appears another reiatsu has overpowered your own." Zangetsu said, watching her eyes widen.

"Wait, what?" She exclaimed, another spiritual pressure? That's . . . weird, all she remembered was hearing the unmistakable bang of a gunshot and-

She cried out and clutched her head as images started flying through her mind, she couldn't make sense of them. Her vision blackened, the images becoming clearer. She saw people, a lot of people, with a man talking to her, saying something important. Another image popped up, this one just consisted of black smoke tendrils, curling around her and dragging her somewhere.

She opened her eyes, panting, and sweat running down her brow.

"Hey, Kimiko! Are you ok?" Ichigo asked loudly, shaking her shoulders slightly. He had immediately become concerned when she wouldn't respond to him after she grabbed her head.

She faintly nodded, responding, ". . . I think so . . ." She was still extremely confused about what that was.

"Were they memories?" Her head snapped up and focused on Zangetsu.

"Uhh, I don't . . . know." Now she was even more confused, it seemed right, that they could be memories, she could feel it. But she was sure she didn't forget anything, even though it seemed a part of her memory was missing. She sighed; this whole thing was becoming too overwhelming.

"So, is this real, or am I actually dreaming, cause I have no idea." She said nervously, not really wanting to know the answer, she'd rather go on thinking this was a dream or something.

"I don't know how this could be a dream to you, but . . . yeah, I guess it is real." Ichigo answered. "Does it have something to do with what you said before, about being shot?"

She hesitated and thought, 'I guess it couldn't hurt'

"Yeah, just before I . . . got here, I was in a kind of situation." She launched into an explanation of what happened; the hostage situation, the NPA, and the bang of the gun.

They both absorbed the information, "I don't know how that could relate to what's going on right now, but are you sure you don't remember anything after that?" Ichigo asked curiously.

Kimiko nodded, "Uhh . . . look, can I just lie down, or somethin', cause . . ." She let her sentence run off, glancing to the side.

"Yeah, sure." Ichigo said nodding; he stood up and offered her a hand. She stood up and wandered off to the side of the building and sat down, looking at the scenery she let her mind drift.

"Are we still gonna talk to her later, ask her stuff?" Ichigo asked his Zanpakuto, looking at Kimiko.

"Yes, it would be best. It seems she has misplaced her memory, if we could get her to remember, I think it would explain how she could enter our soulscape."

"But should we tell anyone . . .?" Ichigo's mind spun, thinking of all the pros and cons, and the amount of cons were winning.

"I don't think that would be best until we have everything figured out." Zangetsu seemed to be on the same thought train as Ichigo.

He nodded, "Alright, but I have to go; Renji's calling me." He pulled a face, he knew he would probably get kicked if he didn't go soon, "Can you take care of her?"

"Of course." Ichigo nodded and faded out of his inner world.

Kimiko sat on the edge of the building, thinking of everything that happened so far. It shouldn't be impossible that something even remotely close to this situation should happen, 'I mean, now that I think about it, it seems like something that would happen in a fanfic or something.' She sighed; people don't just randomly get zapped into different dimensions, or worlds, whatever you want to call it. Sure, she's read her fair share of those kinda stories, but it's an anime!

She's gotta be dreaming or something, but if feels so real. Even in dreams, you have that feeling were you can't control yourself; you just move or say something without your own control. It's frustrating to say the least, but at least it would be better than this! Every second, she feels as if she's going to have another panic attack and just go crazy. She couldn't help but think of all her friends and family, if this is real, then what happened to her in that hostage situation? Did she really die and just get transported here or something?

Also, what's with her being in Ichigo's inner world? Couldn't she have ended up near Urahara's shop or something? Everything was so confusing to her; she couldn't get her thoughts straight. She decided if this was going to work, she might as well get some rest and talk to Zangetsu and Ichigo about this later. Maybe they could ask Urahara to help her.

She woke up slowly; trying to make that sleep induced stupor last as long as she could. She went back to sleep for another ten minutes, and when she felt she wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, she got up into a sitting position. She ran a hand through her tangled and matted hair, and figuring it would take hours to do what a brush could do in minutes, she gave up and put her long hair up into a messy ponytail with a hairband she still had on her wrist. She stood up as she looked for Zangetsu and furrowed her brows, she couldn't find him.

"Zangetsu!" She called out, her voice echoing.

Her body went completely rigid when she heard maniacal laughing, her wide eyes shifted and landed on a white Ichigo sitting casually on what was once a window sill.

"Not quite." He said mockingly, laughing slightly again. Only one thought entered her mind, 'This is not good'

He stood up and began taking steps toward her, "So you're the girl that has Zangetsu and the King all riled up. I gotta say, you made quite the entrance." He said, his psychotic grin widening. She wanted to back up, so bad, but she slept near the edge of the building and she sure as hell wasn't going to jump.

She didn't even know if he was going to kill her or not. Even though half of her still believed this whole thing to be a dream or something, she really didn't want to die, even dream deaths sucked. Also, it reminded her, where was she in the Bleach plot? It couldn't be after Ichigo became a Vizard, then this wouldn't be happening.

She jerked out of her thoughts with a shriek; he was right in front of her, grinning madly as he grasped her neck. She clutched desperately at his hand, trying in vain to loosen his grip; her nails couldn't even find purchase in his skin. She coughed, trying to breathe as he laughed again.

"Ya know, I haven't fought anyone in a while, so I'm getting kinda bored." He grinned as she whimpered. Suddenly he jerked his arm, throwing her with ease across the expanse of the building. She landed roughly, rolling and scraping her arms and knees. Her ankle also twisted again, and it was just healing too.

She stopped rolling with a grunt; he had stopped her body with his outstretched foot. He leaned over her with a leer, his sword slamming into the ground near her head.

"Ya think you can give me some fun?" He sneered, his insane laughter starting up again. She screamed and held her hands up to protect herself as he lifted his sword up again.

A few seconds passed, and when nothing happened, she peaked out of her closed eyes and lowered her arms slightly when she caught sight of his expression. His grin was gone and his eyes wide in a rare expression of surprise, his eyes focused on something past her.

When she followed his gaze, her eyes widened as well, a black cloud, swirling with smoke, levitated about a foot off the ground. Suddenly, the smoke shot out with lightning speed and engulfed her, solid-like streams wrapped around her. She screamed at the top of her lungs, thrashing as she began being forcibly dragged toward the swirling mass of darkness.

A/N: Yup, pretty much just a chapter of her freaking out. But hey, wouldn't you? I know I would. :D Ah, I love cliff hangers, if you're wondering what's going to happen, tune in for the next episode. ;)