The woman woke with a start. She had expected herself to still be lying in the alley – or even worse, with the gang members – but she wasn't. After looking around a bit, she realized she was in a bedroom. It wasn't in her own house; she didn't recognize anything in the room. She wasn't quite sure why she would be here, so she attempted to recall the events of last night, but was greeted by a searing headache that felt like it could crack open her skull. The woman attempted to get out of bed but found that her entire body ached. She groaned loudly as she collapsed down onto the bed. Then she heard the rattle of a doorknob and a door opening and prepared for the worst.

"Ah, I see you're awake. Good."

The woman opened her eyes and saw a tall, slender man in a striped shirt. His dark brown hair fell just above his eyes and he had a stern, unforgiving look about him. Despite his appearance, he wasn't intimidating in the least – as a matter of fact, he even seemed to radiate an aura of gentleness. The stranger kneeled next to the woman and felt her forehead, which revealed his rough, calloused hands.

"Do you feel alright?" the stranger asked her.

She tried to sit up and talk to him properly, but was once again greeted by immense pain shooting across her body. She collapsed onto the bed once more.

"Don't push yourself. You need rest. After yesterday, I'm not surprised. You were very brave," he whispered to her in a comforting voice that defied his serious look. "Would you like something to drink?"

She managed to open her mouth and mutter in a hoarse voice, "Water."

"Water it is."

With that, he got up and left the room, leaving the woman on her own. After trying to get up several more times, she finally decided to give up and wait until the man came back. It seemed like him getting the water took forever, until he finally returned. He walked up to the bed and raised the glass of ice water to her mouth.

"Drink slowly. If you go fast, you might end up choking."

She took a few gulps of the water and laid the glass down on the nightstand next to her. She found that the water strengthened her enough to sit up properly, even through the pain.

"Who... are you?" she asked the stranger.

"Name's Hikaru. A pleasure to meet you, though I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Yeah... thanks for saving me."

"All in a day's work. Say, would you mind telling me your name?"

"It's... Ayame."

"Well, Ayame, you look like you have the strength to move again. I would highly recommend you take a shower – or a bath, if that's what you prefer – to get your muscles relaxed so you can move properly without being in such pain. The reason you can barely move is because your muscles are as stiff as boards from exhaustion."

"Thank you, Hikaru. I think I'll take a bath."

"Very well. Meet me in the kitchen for some breakfast when you're ready."

Hikaru got up and walked out of the room. Ayame took another few gulps of water and then slowly got out of her bed and walked into the bathroom on the other side of the room. She didn't bother to look at herself in the mirror since she didn't want to see how bad she looked – instead walking right to the bathtub and running it full of hot water. She undressed and sunk in to the soothing water, immediately feeling a wave of relaxation wash over her. She figured she might be here for awhile...

After an hour or so, Ayame finally emerged out of the bathroom, strengthened enough to walk and talk properly but still exhausted. She walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see Hikaru cooking pancakes and eggs. She took a closer look and realized that the man was actually American; that explained him cooking American food. Despite being born to American parents (and looking American in her own right), Ayame had grown up eating traditional Japanese food and only had American food on special occasions. Smelling the delicious food Hikaru was cooking made her notice how hungry she was, so she took a seat at the table as Hikaru plopped the pancakes onto the dish along with the eggs. He turned around and put the plate down in front of Ayame and took a seat of his own across from her.

It was the first timed Hikaru actually noticed how beautiful Ayame was. She looked like she was in her early twenties – maybe twenty-three, the same age as Hikaru – with long, brown hair that fell down to her lower back. She had a perfect figure – supermodel level, really – and a beautiful face. With the way she looked, he couldn't say he was surprised that the gang had kidnapped her. She was breathtaking. Hikaru shook the thoughts of her beauty out of his head and concentrated.

"Thank you, Hikaru. I really do appreciate you saving me and your hospitality."

"You're welcome. I'm just glad you're alright."

Ayame smiled. Hikaru could've sworn it made the room a little brighter.

"Hikaru... I meant to ask you something..."

"I assumed you would. Does it have anything to do with how I beat a gang armed with guns with my bare hands?"

"No – well, yes. But not with your bare hands. Why were you carrying a sword with you, and how did you block all of the bullets? It would take superhuman abilities to do something like that."

Hikaru was shocked. He wasn't expecting to hear something like that. She could see his sword? To any normal person, it would have merely looked like he dodged the bullets and dispatched the gang all at once. He remembered the gang didn't react when he drew his sword – as if they didn't even see it – so her seeing it was no simple fluke.

"You... could see the sword?"

"Yes... why wouldn't I be able to? A sword is a sword. You say that as if it's troubling to you..."

Hikaru reached down to his waist and pulled his katana out of a hidden sheathe in his pants that could easily be mistaken for a normal pocket. Ayame was startled by the sudden appearance of a sword at the kitchen table and got out of her chair and backed up a few steps.

"So you're saying that you can see this sword?"

"Yes! I said that already! Why wouldn't I be able to? Now put the sword away, please! It's quite uncomfortable having that around..."

Hikaru did as he was told, putting it back into the hidden pocket. This would be a long day of explaining what Ayame really was to her, but then something very, very odd happened.

To any normal person, it would have simply looked like the roof of the house collapsed due to some engineering fault, but to Hikaru – and more importantly, Ayame – what they saw was unexplainable. The roof was literally ripped off the house, and not by some magical hurricane – it was ripped off by a massive hand. Hikaru knew immediately what had happened. Ayame had to follow the hand to its arm and then follow its arm to reveal the monster it was connected to. She wasn't quite sure what to do; scream or run away. Not that she really had a choice – after all, her body was completely frozen in fear. The monster's body was completely pitch black, and it was connected to a head that looked more like a skull than any normal face. It was about as tall as a five-story building, and about as wide as a truck. Red eyes of hatred gleamed behind the skull of a face. And then it started talking in a voice that sounded very far away, as if it was a ghost.

"Mmmm... tasty souls. WHAT A FEAST!" it yelled as it swung its massive fist down onto Hikaru. The force of the punch sent a column of dirt and rubble flying into the air as a cloud of dust covered the area.

"HIKARU!" Ayame yelled as she inhaled a mouthful of dust and broke into a coughing fit. Her eyes began to water as the dust irritated them. She couldn't believe what just happened. An alien of some sort just destroyed the house in one punch, and it killed Hikaru. He might have blocked some bullets, but there was no way anyone could block, or for that matter, even survive a punch of that force. At least, that's what Ayame was thinking until she managed to open her eyes and bear the pain of the intense stinging and saw a dark silhouette in the smoke. At first she thought it was the monster's fist, but then it spoke.

"A Menos? That's it? And I just cleaned up the house, too..."

And then a massive force came down on Ayame's shoulders. She couldn't quite describe the feeling of it, but it smothered her and nearly stopped her ability to breathe, and was so heavy and dense that she fell to her knees. She looked up and saw that the cloud had cleared almost instantly – most likely from whatever force this was – and in the middle of it, with the massive fist of the monster in his bare hands, stood Hikaru.

Ayame was shocked. There was no way this man was human. He blocked bullets with sword and stopped a force powerful enough to shatter a house with his bare hands. Just who was this guy?

She watched as Hikaru flipped his sword out from its sheathe. As soon as it was firm in his grip, he threw the monster off its feet and across the street, and then turned to face Ayame.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to release my spiritual pressure so recklessly..." he said to her as the massive force slowly lifted off of her shoulders. She stood up and looked at Hikaru with a look that said "Who in the hell are you?"

Hikaru read through the look and simply raised his hands to his sides in innocence and said, "You'll find out soon enough."

By now, they were interrupted by a large force stirring behind them. Ayame looked past Hikaru and saw the monster – whatever it was – getting to its feet. It roared in anger and began to charge Hikaru, with each step causing the equivalent of a mini-earthquake.

"Hikaru! Watch out!" Ayame yelled over the sound of the monster approaching them. Hikaru merely smiled and turned around. The monster reached the house and wound up another punch, but then Hikaru disappeared completely, only to reappear behind the monster a split second later.

"Sorry, pal. No "feast" for you today." he said as the monster's skull head snapped in half and its entire body evaporated into thin air.

Ayame was at a loss for words. All she could do was stare blankly at Hikaru and hope that it was a dream.

Hikaru walked up to Ayame and smiled.

"I suppose an explanation is long overdue. Allow me to give you the rest of my name before anything. I'm Hikaru Kuchiki, Captain of the 6th Division of the Gotei 13 and head of the Kuchiki family. Welcome to the world of the Shinigami."