AN: Hey, sorry it's been so long! I've had a lot going on. Inspiration smacked me about an hour ago and I got this chapter done in a whirlwind of motivation. I had a vague idea, but suddenly the outline of the chapter came to me...

Thankyou to everyone who has favourited/subscribed/reviewed this story!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach *spoiler below*

ICHIGO WENT TO SEE RUKIA. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG. That panel where he was yelling for her just made my entire week, and I can't stop fangirling :') sooo cute... and how Rukia noticed he was upset before anyone else did... I almost fainted. Honestly and truly.

Kubo trolled us with Byakuya being alive! But it's good to know he's not dead. And Kyoraku would make the best Soutaichou, in my opinion.

Onwards!


The silhouette stood framed against the rapidly darkening night sky, her dark hair blowing gently in the wind, a simple white dress adorning her. Rukia frowned a little, curious, before gingerly climbing up the slightly sloping hill to meet the woman. As she approached the woman, the waves crashing distinctly in the background, the woman turned towards her, and the scene changed. Instead of a moonlight night by the sea, Rukia saw that instead she and the woman were suspended in midair in a large, white space. The lighting was neither bright nor dim, but just about correct.

Feeling slightly apprehensive at this point, Rukia approached the woman, who seemed to be muttering to herself. It was then that she realized that she couldn't actually see the woman; but faint flickers of her.

"Save me…" she whispered. "Help me…"

"Who are you?" Rukia asked, her small voice echoing around the suspended dimension.

"Please, help me," she begged, her voice becoming clearer. As Rukia waited, the woman came into focus, slowly, bit by bit, until she found herself staring at a mirror image of herself.

In that second, the image of the suspended dimension shattered, and she found herself back at the hill by the sea, the air rich with screams. The sky was tinted with the colours of sunset as the large, radiant sun continued to creep beneath the horizon, the ground shaking slightly, increasing with intensity as each second passed.

With a jolt that ran through her as fiercely as an electric shock, Rukia noticed that the sea was gently crashing over the shore in waves of blood.


My eyes snapped open, and I blinked a few times, feeling slightly disorientated. I gasped slightly, my heart hammering, as I struggled to get my eyesight in focus. With some alacrity, I picked up my glasses and jammed them on, just to assure myself that I wasn't still dreaming.

I looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, scrutinizing myself closely. Several weeks had passed since joining Seireitei Academy, yet nothing much had changed. On the outside I was still the same, pale, pinched girl that had arrived from the other side of the world not long ago. Yet, I felt something inside me had changed. I had friends- not just people who worked for me, but real friends. I'd developed a nice schedule too; I usually walked up to school with Rangiku, Orihime and Momo, hung out with Nel and Tatsuki (who, it turned out, were close friends) and usually spent most of my lunch in the library. The girls kept asking me to join them, but I kept refusing, and after some time they dropped the subject- there were only so many times you could ask. Besides, I needed some quiet time too.

Senna kept shooting her dangerous glares at me, as always, but I ignored them- I soon realized she was mean to everyone, not just me, excepting Tatsuki and Nel, and for good reason too. But I'd followed what I'd promised myself after my first English lesson- that I would stay as far away from Kurosaki Ichigo as possible. I just didn't want, or need that kind of hassle. We usually talked during lessons, but after that first lesson I'd resorted only to talking to him if I really needed to- which wasn't often. He was seen prowling the library and reading Shakespeare like me often, but I didn't say anything, and neither did he. And that's how I liked it.

Too bad you don't always get you want.

It was a crisp week in early November, and an adequate amount of frost was covering the ground that had stuck to it the night before. My roommates had left early to go chase something or the other- so it was alone that I made the journey to school, the leaves from autumn crunching satisfactorily beneath my feet. This was one thing I enjoyed- stepping on leaves, and hearing the telltale crunch. Before long, I was stepping out of my path, stepping on every single leave I laid my eyes on.

It wasn't long before I heard another set of footsteps doing the same; only these were heavier than mine- so I assumed they must be male.

Sure enough, across from me, Kurosaki Ichigo was going out of his way to step on every crunchy leaf he found. Shaking my head, I began to take a step, when his voice stopped me.

"Rukia?" he called out, genuine curiosity in his voice. Sensing that I had no choice but to go over to him, I crossed the road and approached.

Who do you think? "Um… hi," I said, the cold tingeing my cheeks pink, my breath tumbling out in a translucent mist.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same," I answered, breathless from the cold. He only frowned, raising an eyebrow.

"I like standing on crunchy leaves," he stated.

"Me too," I said.

Why was I having this conversation? I wondered, before his voice broke into my thoughts once more.

"You settling in okay?"

"Yeah."

We walked in silence towards the school, the wind bringing an occasional burst of cold, causing my hair to lift itself gently.

"You come this way often?" he asked after a few moments, looking down at me.

"I live close by. You?" I replied, my voice slightly shaky from the cold.

"I don't live far off," he admitted. "I don't come this way often, but my dad dropped me off here today before going to work,"

"I see." And that was that. Soon, we approached the school building, a familiar marble structure, and there we parted ways wordlessly. Just before I entered the school building though, I caught a glimpse of Senna running up to him and giving him a hug. He seemed unperturbed, and returned the hug, seemingly oblivious to her crazy feelings for him. Biting back a smirk, and wondering how long it would take Ichigo to realize what was going on, I stepped inside the building.


My morning passed in seemingly normal fashion, if you count Szayel being 'admonished' by Unohana-sensei and Rangiku flirting with Gin-sensei as normal. Even as my English class approached in the afternoon, shouts of 'faggot!' and 'pinky!' could be heard so frequently that teachers were handing out detentions simply out of sheer irritation. Sure enough, as I stood outside English, waiting for the bell to ring, I could hear Grimmjow complaining loudly about his six detention slips and missing his date for tonight.

After the bell rang, I entered the classroom and took my usual seat next to Ichigo, pulling out my now worn-out copy of Othello from reading it so frequently. Beside me, Ichigo pulled out his copy, which may I add, looked even worse than mine.

"Hi," he said, looking straight at me. Before I could say anything, Kyoraku-sensei took his place at the front of the class, donning a shiny pink suit, sake in hand, his assistant Nanao-sensei glaring on at him in disapproval.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen," he slurred in his usual flamboyant, tone. "Today… ah, we will continue reading…"

The reading continued for most of the lesson, with Senna shooting her usual glares at me, until there were about 20 minutes to go. As soon as the large hand of the clock hit 8, Kyoraku-sensei jerked awake, pulling his straw hat off his head, blinking rapidly before smiling widely. Nanao-sensei looked completely outraged and grabbed his sake, stalking off.

"Nanao-chaaaan!" he exclaimed playfully, pouting slightly, before regaining composure and turning to face the class.

"That will be all folks," he said, grinning, raising a hand to stop Emina, who was reading the parts of Desdemona, and Jack, who was reading the part of Othello. Both stopped, looking at each other in confusion, as did everyone else. Even Senna forgot to glare at me for a few moments.

"The reason I have stopped so early is because I ah… have a special announcement to make," he said, oblivious to the collective audible groans heard. It seemed obvious that Kyoraku-sensei saying that he had an announcement to make was not a good thing.

"As you can see, we have nearly completed our first reading of Othello, a most charming, eloquent play by the master of plays himself, William Shakespeare! And in commemoration, or whatever you youngsters want to call it, you shall all be preparing a project for me to mark, out of 100. Each of you shall receive a grade. Best one gets a prize.

"I shall be allocating a theme to each of you, and you will prepare a project on how that theme is presented. Use anything you want, movie clips, audio, music videos, whatever. But you have to show me how that theme is presented, with evidence,"

Muttering ensued at these words, and it was obvious that nobody was entirely sure of what was happening. Sure enough, Senna was the first to raise her hand.

"Yes Senna-chan?" he cooed.

"Sensei, if there is…" she did a quick count, narrowing her eyes at me, "20 of us, then how will you allocate a theme to each of us? Isn't that a bit tough?"

"Oh, I didn't mention the exciting part, did I?" Kyoraku-sensei exclaimed, clapping his hands. "You will be completing these projects with a partner, and I expect you to work on this dutifully in your own time,"

I froze, surprised. Partner? I was usually an independent worker, so the idea of working with a partner didn't quite appeal to me.

"Your partner… will be the person sat next to you," Kyoraku-sensei announced, with the excitement of a three-year old on Christmas Day.

I looked around at Ichigo, who seemed just as perplexed as I am, distantly noticing Senna's look of outrage, and an expression that immediately brought the expression 'If looks could kill…' to mind. He shrugged nonchalantly, turning back to Kyoraku-sensei.

"I expect these to be done in the third week of January, the Monday after you return from your Christmas breaks," Kyoraku-sensei stated, sounding a lot sharper than his usual airy-fairy self. "Class dismissed."

Feeling utterly bewildered and surprised, and I admit, slightly annoyed, I stood up, packing my books, before hearing my name. I turned to see Ichigo standing, looking just as confused I was.

"This is it, I guess," he said, with what sounded like exasperation. "We're project partners, so I suppose…"

"What?" I asked, my tone sounding slightly sharper than intended.

"I guess you'll have to come round to my place sometime? I got plenty of stuff on Shakespearean literature that might help," he added.

"Oh… I guess so," I answered, not oblivious to the simmering anger coming from Senna, which was so intense that I could almost feel the heatwaves from her. As usual, I ignored her.

He got out a pen and paper and quickly scribbled his address and mobile number, before handing it over to me.

"I'm free Friday, so um… how about you come over then? And that's my mobile number, in case you need anything," he spoke, his voice fluid and rapid.

However, before I could say anything more, he had swept his bag off the table and exited the classroom without further ado.


I hope you guys enjoyed that! I wanted to make a purely IchiRuki chapter, because since yesterday I've been in IchiRuki fangirl mode. I'm ALWAYS in IchiRuki fangirl mode, but this is just so... CRAZY. Anyway don't forget to leave your reviews!

~Tazski