The students had gathered around the postings showing their grades, talking loudly to one another, a mix of anticipation and dread.

Ichigo and two of his friends, Keigo and some unimportant person, were looking for their names on the list, along with everyone else (except the cool, school-is-for-chumps hunk rebels who lived by their own rules).

"AHA!" yelled Keigo, "293rd! I can now proudly claim my place as one of the underachievers along with my bestest buddies! Ain't that right guys?"

"You know there are only 255 students in our year right?" asked Ichigo.

"What they don't know can't hurt them."

"Huh?"

"SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, what place d'you get, Ichigo?"

"16th."

"WHAT THE HELL MAN?" yelled Keigo, with such fervor that one could actually see the punctuation forming in the air as he shouted. "YOU'RE A FRIGGIN NERD!"

"I don't exactly want to spend my life flipping burgers."

"You lameass tosser." He turned to [that guy there] "How much did you get?"

"50th."

Keigo stood there, looking at them with a very displeased look on his face.

Slowly, his unhappy face turned to an unsettling expression of understanding.

"I getttt itttt. You guys…heh, so much like you guys…"

"What?" asked Ichigo.

"You clearly slept with all the teachers."

"…"

"Oh come on, Ichigo, if I'm so wrong, why don't you give me a better reason!"

"How about, I don't know…actually studying?"

Keigo stared at him for a few moments, then broke in a loud guffaw.

"Oh god you're killing me, Ichigo." he said, wiping tears from his eye. "Studying…heh…" he said in a lower voice.

Ichigo closed his eyes, trying to remain calm.

"Okay, fine, I'm just going to leave the retard and the other guy alone, while I get back to class."

Ichigo left the two there, trying to block Keigo from his memories.

..

"That wasn't nice of him to call you a retard." said Keigo.

..

As Ichigo walked away from the gathered people, his shoulder knocked into some other person, thereby letting the viewer know that this person would show up later as an antagonist of some sort.

..

"Do you suppose Ichigo will ever notice me?" asked Orihime, a girl whose most important characteristic is her large breasts.

Seriously, nothing else about her really matters much. She might have long hair or something, but there's no way to know for sure, since there's no real reason to look all the way up or pay any attention to what she says.

"When you say keep saying it out loud like that, it's just a matter of time before he finds out." replied her tomboy friend Tatsuki.

"Before who finds out?" asked Ichigo, who had walked up behind them.

Orihime let out a surprised cry.

"Oh no, it's the target of my crush and affection!" she shouted.

"Who is?" asked Ichigo.

"You know, it's been like this for about 2-3 years, and I still can't believe you're as oblivious as ever." snarked Tatsuki.

"What are you talking about?"

"Sigh…nevermind."

Ichigo raised his eye brow, puzzled, wondering what was going on, before heading to his desk.

..

As Ichigo sat down, he heard a voice coming from the desk next to his.

"Good day, I just transferred here. It's nice to meet you."

Ichigo turned around quickly, recognizing the voice. It was Rukia.

"What the hell are you doing here!"

"I'm afraid I don't understand your question." said Rukia, with a large smile on her face, as she raised her open hand so Ichigo could see it.

"Thirty-eight, eight, fifty?"

"Oops, that's my locker combination. Here it is."

She lowered that hand and raised the other.

On it was written: 'Say anything about the other night, and nobody will believe you.'

Ichigo briefly looked puzzled.

It continued:

'Everyone will think you're crazy. You'll become an outcast and will lose all your friends. This reputation will follow you even after graduation, and you will be haunted by these memories. As you lie in the street, you will yell out to passersby about the injustice of the world, and how you did see what you saw that night long passed, but all you will get from strangers is creeped out looks, as well as occasional expressions of pity. You will die alone, with no one to comfort you in the dark, cold night. As you take your last breaths, you will curse the world, you will curse the monster from that night, you will curse me, you will curse yourself, and when you finally lay to rest, the life seeping from your body, you will know the price of the decision you made at this point in time, the decision to speak up about things best left unsaid."

"Uhh…Ichigo…why are you starting at the new student's armpit?" asked Tatsuki.

"Goddamnit, why'd you have to write all the way down your arm?" asked Ichigo in a whisper to Rukia.

"It's not my fault I do not have a freakishly large hand that can fit all that text." she replied (also whispering).

"Maybe not, but it is your fault for writing all that in the first place!" exclaimed Ichigo, while still whispering (it's weird writing that, but it's do-able).

"Do you two know each other or something?" asked Orihime.

Ichigo and Rukia looked at each other with not-quite-glares, before Ichigo replied:

"Why would I know a bitch like this?"

Rukia's expression changed to an annoyed look.

"That is what I was going to say."

"Ouch." said [nameless].

"BUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRR-" started yelling Keigo before being punched mid-sentence by Ichigo.

"Anyways, I need to…uhh…'talk' with you outside." said Ichigo to Rukia.

Keigo immediately jumped back up to his feet.

"Woah, can I watch?" he asked excitedly.

Everyone gathered gave Keigo a weird look.

Except Orihime, who was so cutely oblivious to these kinds of remarks (though you'd think she'd understand these kinds of things, given just how often she'd hear stuff like this on her way to, from, and while in school (because of her tits is what I'm saying)).

"Anyways…regardless of what Keigo is thinking…Rukia and I have some things we need to discuss."

"How do you know her name if you just met her?" asked Tatsuki, with a slightly suspicious look on her face.

"Didn't she say it?"

"I don't think she did…" said Orihime.

"Well, I'm sure he has a lot of things to tell me, like little school boy crushes and his aspirations to be a spaceman and whatnot, so we'd best get going." said Rukia with a large smile on her face, dragging Ichigo out of the classroom.

..

"I'd hit that." said Keigo.

"Yes, we know you would…" said [I forget].

"But do you know how I would?"

"I'd rather not."

..

Ichigo and Rukia had gone to the roof of the school, because Japan is weird that way ('go ahead and jump kids, we don't care').

There, Rukia started explaining things to Ichigo, and the conversation they had would change Ichigo's life forever.

He learned of the existence of spirits, both good and bad, of the balance of the different worlds, and of the organization charged with keeping said balance, the Metal Reapers.

He also learned that since that night, Rukia had been unable to materialize her mech, and how it now fell to Ichigo to carry out her duties for her, lest the spirits in that town be placed in harm's way.

(This was a lot to take in for Ichigo, and he perspired a fair bit, as most people probably would.)

Ichigo was hesitant at first, however he quickly found inspiration, and resolved to do whatever he could.

In hindsight, the conversation itself should probably have been shown, instead of just using the cliffs notes.

..

They had re-entered the classroom, and shortly after that the others had come back to ask them stuff or something annoying like that.

"Ichigo, why are you covered in sweat?" asked Tatsuki.

"Rukia doesn't seem to have any." added Orihime.

"The action must've been one-way then." said Keigo suggestively waggling his eyebrows (it wasn't pretty).

"It wasn't like that!" shouted Ichigo, getting fed up with Keigo's remarks (well, with just about everything about him, really).

"Ohhhhhhhhh, so you were in the sun and she was in the shade when you were doing the dirty?"

"Why the hell do you talk like this!"

"Oh come on, Ichigo" he said as he put his arm around Ichigo's shoulders. "It's nothing to be ashamed of. The dirty deed, the double-headed porcupine, the devil's -"

"We get it."

"I've got like a hundred of these."

"Yeah, and we get the idea."

"I meant, I'd appreciate being able to get through more of them."

Ichigo sighed. He seemed to be doing that a lot (most of it was probably because of Keigo though).

..

"God, this day sucks." said Ichigo in a low voice. Only Rukia was able to hear him.

"Well, lucky for you there's a Hollowtron that appeared nearby, and you're the only around who can eliminate it."

"Let's get to it then."

..

A few days had gone by like this, Rukia detecting the locations of new Hollowtrons, and Ichigo eliminating them.

One day however…