6 years ago. Tatsuki , Sara and Ichigo were all 9 years old. Ichigo's mother was still alive, and Sara was still living in Karakura Town. All 3 of them had formed a friendship through their martial arts class.
"YA!" Tatsuki and Sara yelled. They had both managed to hit each other simultaneously. They both fell to the floor.
"Now, now. I think that's enough for one day," their sensei said as they gathered themselves off the floor. Most of the kids looked on in amazement, including Ichigo.
"I totally won that one!" Tatsuki said.
"Dream on! That was so mine," Sara replied.
"C'mon you guys! The fight's over now. Can't you stop arguing?" Ichigo asked as he ran up to them both. They both looked each other in the eye, and punched Ichigo together, though not very hard. He fell on his bottom, and then burst into tears.
"You're crying again? It wasn't that hard," Sara said.
"Come on Ichigo, we were holding back honest," Tatsuki added. But Ichigo still cried. Both of them suddenly looked really awkward. But then they heard a sweet voice coming from the other side of the dojo.
"Ichigo," the sweet voice said. Ichigo looked round to see his mother. He instantly stopped crying. He got up and ran towards her, arms outstretched. His mother embraced him.
"He's such a mummy's boy, isn't he?" Tatsuki asked.
"Yeah, totally..." Sara said as her smile faded. "I'm gonna miss that," she added.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Tatsuki enquired. Sara didn't look Tatsuki in the eye.
"I'm...I'm moving away..." she said.
"What? When?" Tatsuki questioned.
"Erm...tonight..."
"What? Why didn't you tell us?"
"I didn't want you guys to worry...I'm sorry..." Sara looked really upset. At first Tatsuki was shocked but then she just smiled.
"I see. That's great!"
"Huh? How so?" Sara asked looking up.
"Cos that means, when we see each other again, we can fight to see who's become stronger!" Sara's face smiled as well.
"Sure! But aren't you going to miss me?"
"Yeah, but, it doesn't matter,"
"Why not?"
"Well, my mother says, even if someone's really far away, you'll always find them, in here," Tatsuki explained, putting her hand on her chest, indicating her heart.
"Till we meet again then," Sara said putting out her hand. Tatsuki took it and shook.
"Yup! I'll miss you!"
"And I will too," she finished. They both looked at each other and smiled.
It was now sunset, and Ichigo and his mother were walking along the river. Ichigo, being the softie he was, was holding onto his mother's hand. A car horn beeped below them on the road. They turned around. They saw someone getting out of the back. It was Sara.
"Ichigo!" she called. She started to run up the embankment to reach them.
"What's up Sara, my dear?" Masaki asked.
"Oh hi, Mrs. Kurosaki. Do you mind if I talk to Ichigo for a bit?" she asked.
"Go ahead," she said smiling her beautiful, sweet smile. Ichigo and Sara walked down the embankment a bit away from Masaki.
"What's the matter Sara?" Ichigo asked.
"I need to tell you something," she said. Ichigo paused for a bit before saying anything else.
"Well? What's going on?" Sara held put her hand on her other arm, almost like she was hiding behind it.
"I'm leaving Ichigo...I'm leaving Karakura Town..."
"What? When?" he said. Tears began to well from his eyes.
"Right now...I didn't want to tell you before, because I knew this would be hard enough as it is...I'm sorry..." she said.
"...But why?" Ichigo finally said. Sara looked up and saw Ichigo holding his arm against his eyes, to try and stop the mass of tears flooding out of his eyes.
"Huh?"
"Why do you have to leave?" he said almost shouting.
"...Well...my dad got a job...it's a really good one. I don't want to leave but I can't help it..." Ichigo was now sobbing.
"I'll miss you too you know! But I'm always going to be right here," she said. Ichigo felt something on his chest. He took his arm away and saw Sara had her hand on his heart, replicating what Tatsuki had done before.
"Now matter where we are, I'll be I matter most to you...in your heart," she said smiling. Ichigo couldn't say a word. Sara dropped her hand, turned around, and began to walk away.
"Wait!" Ichigo suddenly blurted out. Sara looked round. Ichigo was trying to fish something out of his pocket. She walked back over to him. He eventually managed to fish whatever it was out of his pocket, and held in his palm in front of Sara. It was a bracelet. It was made out of black thread, and had yellow and blue beads on it. On a few of the beads wrote the phrase '常に友達 - サラと苺 (Always friends - Sara and Ichigo) in white writing.
"What's this?" she asked.
"I made it a while ago. I wanted to give to you sooner, but I was scared. Go on take it," he said. She took it and observed it.
"I love it!" she said. The car horn honked. Sara's brother, Kyo was leaning out of the back window.
"C'mon! Let's get going Sara!" he called. Sara turned back to Ichigo.
"I'll see you, Ichigo!" She ran down the embankment and got in the back of the car. As it drove away, she could see Ichigo was still crying his eyes out, but was smiling too and waving back. Masaki was also waving, getting the sense of what was going on. Once again she had that amazing smile she wore. It was no wonder Ichigo loved her so much. Sara knew she'd miss that too.
…1 month later, Masaki Kurosaki died.
Ichigo stared blankly at Sara's arm.
"What? Didn't think I'd still be wearing this thing after 6 years?" she asked snapping him back.
"No, I really didn't," he said. She put the bracelet back under her sleeve, in order to protect it.
"So? Did you miss me?" she questioned with a grin on her face. Ichigo suddenly noticed how much she had changed in terms of her personality. She had her arms folded and was leaning to the side, and of course her grin on her face. He could tell just by her body language that she had become harder over the years, and also a more laid back approach to things. He answered Sara's question with a simple gesture. He leaned forward and hugged her, this time not getting kicked.
"Of course I did. You were my best friend," he said. He took his arms off around her. "So, fancy meeting the new crowd?" he asked charismatically.
"Whatever feels good to you," she said not sounding like she was 100% interested. He walked her over to the people she had marched through earlier.
"Guys, this is Sara. She's an old friend of mine, we used to do martial arts together when we were kids," Ichigo explained. Sara looked at the group of friends this was. This really seemed odd. There was a girl who looked absolutely stunning, a really tall tanned guy with enormous muscles, and a skinny looking guy with glasses.
"Hey! I'm Orihime!" she said excitedly.
"The name's Uryu Ishida. Pleasure to meet you Miss. Kishi,"
"And I'm Sado, but you can call me Chad,"
"Hey there. Nice to meet you all," Sara replied.
"So, you seem like you know Tatsuki really well. Did you know her years ago like Ichigo?" Orihime asked.
"Yeah, we're rivals but don't get me wrong, we've been friends for ages," Sara responded. Ichigo noticed how relaxed Sara seemed to be talking to Orihime. Kinda different from her harsh body language earlier.
"I must say that fight you two had was pretty impressive," Uryu commented.
"Thank you," she replied.
"So I take it that you could easily beat Ichigo then," he enquired smugly.
"Hey, come on Uryu you know I-" Ichigo was interrupted by Sara kicking him off again.
"Not a problem," Sara chuckled and put her leg down.
"Why does this always happen to me?" Ichigo muttered to himself as he lay in a crumpled heap up against a wall. Just then the bell rang out.
"Looks like we'd better get back to class," Chad said. They started to walk towards the door that led inside.
"Better hurry up Ichigo. Don't want to be late would you?" Uryu smirked.
"Oh shut up Uryu!" Ichigo said as he got himself off the floor, and began walking back to class with the others.
As Ichigo was sitting in class, he looked over at the desk next to him, Rukia's desk. It made him remember the last time they had spoken, back in the soul society. He let out a sigh.
"Where are you hiding? Come on out here!" bellowed a voice outside. Everyone in the class instantly looked confused.
"I know that voice!" Uryu said, also shocked. It was Renji.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, I know you're up there, don't pretend like your not!" Renji yelled. Several people gathered at the window.
"What?" Ichigo exclaimed.
"Ichigo you know that guy? He's all hippied out!" Keigo said.
"Oh that's very retro! Kurosaki is any-" the teacher tried to ask as Renji continued to shout.
"He's a relative!" Ichigo said as he rushed out to confront Renji. About a minute later, Sara could tell who Renji was, now that he was out of his gegai - he was a soul reaper, and a powerful one at that.
"This spirit energy. If I had to make an estimated guess, I'd say he was around a lieutenant level," Sara thought. Just then a Hollow appeared next to the school. "OK Ichigo, let's see what you got…" The hollow got closer and closer to the school. Soon enough it was at the window. Orihime got ready to use her Shun-Shun-Rika. Just then Ichigo appeared and killed it. Sara was shocked. "I knew had soul reaper powers, and he had strong spirit energy from the way he leaked it out so appallingly, but man, that zanpaktou was enormous! Is that really the size of his spiritual pressure? More importantly, I want to know where the hell he got his powers from…"
"Yes! Way to go!" Orihime's remark brought Sara back to the present.
"What are you doing Orihime?" asked the teacher who was standing right behind her. Orihime just laughed nervously and soon everyone else was laughing.
That night, Sara was sitting having dinner in her apartment alone, when suddenly a ring sounded. It wasn't Sara's phone or home phone. She went into her room to the in ear phone that was on her desk. She placed it in her ear, and answered the call.
"Hello?" she asked.
"SARA!" screamed a high pitch voice belonging in a girl, on the other end of the conversation. Sara instantly ripped it out of her ear to stop herself from becoming deafened. After the screaming stopped she put it back in.
"Do you have to be so loud?" she exclaimed.
"Was I being loud?" the voice asked.
"Yes! Very!"
"Oh, sorry!"
"Man, I swear…OK what do you want?"
"Oh yeah I almost forgot. You've been summoned,"
"What now?"
"Yeah. He knows it was your first day back and all but he said to go ahead and call you anyway," Sara let out a sigh.
"Fine I'll be there as soon as I can,"
"YAY! Can't wait to see you!" Sara then ended the conversation and put the ear piece back on the desk.
"Seriously? Of all the times why now?...Oh well, guess I have no choice in the matter," she thought. She went over to the cupboard and pulled out a rucksack. She then began packing some spare clothes and some essentials, ready to leave town that night.
After Sara's departure of Karakura Town that night, Ichigo and the others, including Renji encountered 3 people with strange abilities. That night, Orihime disappeared through a strange gate.