...Hi?...I live...sort of.

A quick note before we get into the chapter. I got a lot of questions/concerns/remarks on my original character popping up in the last chapter. So here is your public service announcement:

I can understand the hesitation people have when original characters show up. People make them main characters and yeah most of the time they are too perfect or convenient and have no flaws. Most of the time they just end up being mary sue-ish anyway. But there is something to be said about using original characters in a creative and vital way. I'm not saying I'm an expert, but becoming one takes practice and that's what this is.

Yes, I will have original characters. Yes, some will be essential to the plot. No, they will not be perfect. No, they will not be "main characters" in the way that Kaien, Ichigo and others will be. Hopefully I'll be able to work them into the story smoothly. If not? Well, people are free to stop reading.

"Inoue?" Ichigo sprinted the last half a block towards the intersection that the girl was sitting amongst skewed about groceries in. Inoue didn't look up right away as Ichigo knelt down next to her. "Hey are you okay? What just happened?"

He had only heard the screech of car tires before he managed to spot a person lying on the ground.

"I uh…"

"Did that car just hit you?"

"Yes?" Large eyes finally looked up and then shut as Inoue burst out laughing between a sheepish grin. "No? I'm not really sure. I don't think so."

She would laugh, Ichigo thought rolling his eyes. "This isn't funny. I can't believe they would just drive off like that…"

Peering down at the tire tracks that stretched down the street Ichigo frowned. He wanted nothing more than to chase that bastard down and beat them senseless. Who does that?

"I'm fine, really." Inoue got up and brushed off her skirt quickly. She quickly looked over herself and pumped a hand into the air. "See?"

Ichigo didn't really know what to say. This was either way too typical for Inoue or… well there wasn't an 'or' to be had. But he wasn't going to argue. All he could see were a few small scraps on her arms so if she said she was okay then… "If you say so…"

"Aw man…" Inoue ignored the small hint of doubt in his voice as she looked around at her scattered groceries and frowned. "And Tatski was going to come over for dinner tonight too."

"What exactly were you planning on making?" Ichigo immediately regretted asking as he took in the scattered food items. At his feet was a bushel of green onions and then there was some curry powder, and bread and… eggplant? "On second thought, never mind." Hopefully Tatski would bring real food to the table.

He bent down quickly and began gathering up different things as Inoue retrieved her bag that had floated across the street to the opposite sidewalk. Once all the items were packed away Ichigo handed the bag back to Inoue and looked her over one more time. "You sure you're okay?"

"Uh huh! Stop worrying." She smiled wide before waving and turning back onto the sidewalk. "I'll see you tomorrow at school, right?"

"Right."

"Who was that?"

"Holy-" Ichigo jumped and whirled around as someone spoke in his ear. He whipped an arm out to hit away whoever had snuck up on him, but a hand caught his wrist before he could get the punch in. Kaien? Ichigo pulled his arm back and shook his wrist out. "D-don't do that to someone!"

"Call it payback for the park." Kaien crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "So that girl?"

"She's from my class at school." Ichigo said simply. It would figure he'd spent the better part of the past hour looking for Kaien only for the Shinigami to find him first. "What're you doing here? I've been looking for you all over since school got out."

"Huh?" Kaien looked genuinely confused. Not really surprising, a Shinigami who normally can't be seen by humans probably isn't used to being saught out by one. "Why would you- is there a hollow around?"

"No! No nothing like that. I…well…" Ichigo took a step back and ran a hand through his hair. "It seemed like I kind of pissed you off back in the park and I wanted to apologize. It was dumb of me to assume something like that."

That someone who's dead can die? It still confused him, but Ichigo didn't care because he knew what it was like to lose someone and he knew that it sucked and the hows and whys and logic of it all didn't matter at all. Because dead was dead and there were no two ways about it. So if Kaien had lost a friend (if not someone more than), and with the way he had reacted how could Ichigo assume otherwise, it was rude to be so presumptuous about it all.

Kaien, on the other hand, chuckled. "You've been ditching your homework to look for me so you could…apologize?" Ichigo just nodded. "You're even weirder than I thought, kid."

Ichigo crossed his arms mimicking Kaien with a slight eyebrow raise. "You're one to talk."

It was a solid minute before Kaien loosened his stance and shrugged. "Yeah I guess you're right. Apology accepted, although, I was kind of rude to you so I guess I gotta say I'm sorry now too."

Ichigo blinked and went to say something, but Kaien cut him off.

"So what happened here anyway?" The Shinigami eyed the tire tracks in the middle of the intersection.

Ichigo felt his cheeks go red. "Someone asshole almost hit her with their car and just drove off! Can you believe it? Who would do that?!"

"You do realize you were both almost Hollow bait right?"

"I mean he didn't even- Wait, what?" Ichigo froze mid-rant and looked around the street. "A hollow was here? Just now?"

And he didn't notice?

Kaien nodded slowly. "You and I showed up at about the same time and it was standing right by your friend there until you scared it off."

How did he miss that? Was that even possible?

Maybe Ichigo could only see some of these hollows or maybe the one that chased him and Kara was a fluke. That still didn't explain how he could see Kaien, but if there was a massive monster standing over Inoue, Ichigo was pretty sure he wouldn't just…not see it.

Unless he was too busy watching the car drive away or too focused on trying to figure out just who was lying in the street. Which meant he really needed to work on his observation skills.

"Why would it go after Inoue?" Ichigo glanced back down the street that the girl had gone. "Didn't you say they only go after spirits?"

"Aside from you that is usually the case. But there are always exceptions to the rules. Hollow go after spirits because they are helpless, easy targets. They come after Shinigami like myself because we have lots of Reiatsu. Our spiritual pressure draws them to us. That, and we're an obvious threat."

Ichigo felt something knot in his stomach. He was always so sure he was the one freak in town. The one who could see what others couldn't. The one who dealt with the crap so other people didn't have too. Although, now that he was thinking about it, that was kind of dumb of him to assume. He just didn't want other people to deal with what he had to. Like his sister. If he took care of it then she could live more at least a little more normally.

Kaien put a hand to his chin thinking. "The only conclusion I came to after that hollow went after you was you definitely have a high spiritual energy. If you could see both me and the hollow it was the only logical conclusion, but I could barely feel anything spiritual coming from that girl."

"So it was a coincidence?" Unlikely, but it was worth a shot, right?

"I don't believe in those." Kaien's eyes went dark. This was obviously much more serious than it seemed on the surface. The Shinigami let out a sigh and continued, speaking more to himself than Ichigo. "I don't think it was after you. It was way to focused on that girl and it ran away pretty fast once you got close enough. Damn, I should have pursued it, but I was worried about her. I'm pretty sure it had a hand on her leg…"

"Whoa whoa, wait. Are you telling me that thing grabbed Inoue?" Ichigo felt a sudden spike of anger well up. "And you didn't do anything?!" She really did seem fine, if not a little rattled, but who wouldn't be? If anything she definitely hadn't seen the hollow. She wouldn't be able to hide that with any amount of over cheer. "Can that do anything to someone?"

"To other spirits? It can do any number of things. Sometimes a mere touch is enough to drain a spirit of its essence. Hollow have also been known to mark a spirit, leave some of their reiatsu behind in order to track it. To a human I honestly don't know. It has been a very long time since I've dealt with Hollows outside of Soul Society."

The look of genuine concern on Kaien' face didn't make Ichigo feel much better.

"Should I go make sure she's okay or something? I mean if that thing's going to go after her she's...well Inoue won't have a clue." Ichigo eyed the sidewalk leading towards Inoue's house ready to take off.

Kaien shook his head. "I'll keep an eye on things tonight. I can't detect the hollow right now, but if it pops back up I'll know."

Ichigo wanted to be okay with that. He really did, but somehow the knot in his stomach was only getting worse. It wasn't that he didn't trust Kaien, he's been given no reason to distrust him since they met. and he was clearly damn good at his job.

Oh that's an awkward way of looking at it. A job, like someone who works at a coffee shop or a teacher or… does he get paid for this crap?

But if it was a job, if Kaien's purpose in Karakura Town was to keep people safe from these Hollows then Ichigo should let him do his work. Because Ichigo definitely didn't know how the hell to fight against one of those things. What could he do to help Inoue if one should try and hurt her? Run like he had with Kara? He wouldn't always be that lucky.

So in the end, the answer was nothing. And no matter how much that sucked and how much he wished he could change that he couldn't. Not fast enough to be of any help right then, if it was even possible to be helpful at all in the future.

That seemed to be a reoccurring theme.

Ichigo nodded slowly. "Yeah, okay."

Contrary to popular belief it was very hard to find a lone Shinigami in a town full of humans. It wasn't as if Karakura town was particularly big or crowded, it was just….a little off. Which ended up throwing Rukia off just enough to get in the way of looking for Kaien. The ground just felt weird under her feet or maybe it was the air; she couldn't quite put a finger on it.

Either way the afternoon sun began to dwindle way to fast and just when Rukia began to wonder if Kaien just didn't want to be found, she found him.

Him and a Hollow and three humans.