Summary: Hit by a drunk driver of all things, Ichigo's human life comes to an abrupt end. Believing he knows what is beyond death, Ichigo expects merely to reappear in his shinigami form- not flung over fifty years into the past, to when Aizen's plans are coming into fruition and a single misstep can change the entire course of the future as he knows it. Time Travel AU~

Rated T for mild language, violence, blood and gore.

Genres: Family, adventure, hurt/comfort, fantasy

Disclaimer: I don't own bleach and never will.

Warnings for this chapter: Blood&Gore

Screeching. Eyes widening. I dodge, but it's useless. Stars dance in front of my eyes, then a mess of black and gray splotches. My head hits the ground. Hard. Shouldn't I be unconscious? But no, I can feel everything. Everything from the excruciating pain in the back of my skull to the countless pebbles digging into my ripped, bloodied skin. All is quiet, there is ringing in my ears. I gasp, blood spurting out of my mouth like some type of broken water fountain, and the world is thrown back into motion. Someone screams.

"Dear Kami-!"

"Is he alright?!"

"Of course not, you baka! Do you see all that blood?"

"Kachan!" A child's cry.

"Look away, sweetheart, it's going to be ok… Hello? I need an ambulance. Yes, we're at…" I groan, turning onto my side and setting the palm of my hands on the bloody gravel below. I need to get up, get to Urahara's. I'm supposed to save Orihime. I will save her!

There is a hand on my shoulder, gently prompting me to lie back down while stuffing something soft, a shirt, underneath my head. "Hey, just… just lay still, alright? It's going to be ok." Some college guy. I snort. Even he doesn't believe it, I can hear it in his voice. The action makes me cough again, cough up blood.

"He'll drown on his own blood if you leave him like that. Turn him around."

"But we're not supposed to move-"

"Really?! Do you think that'll matter if he drowns in a few seconds?!" I'm painfully turned onto my stomach, but I make no protest, not even a groan. I don't want to start coughing again, even though I numbly process how I'll need to for everything it's worth soon if I don't want to die. There is the sound of a car door opening. "Damn drunk! Look at what you did!" Someone screeches, trying to act tough but the fear and panic in his voice is plainly evident.

"Sorry…" Someone slurs, taking a few shaky steps forward. "So sorry-" he stumbles and hits the ground next to me- unconscious, but not a scratch on him. Lucky bastard. I'm pissed at this whole situation and this guy for being so blatantly careless, but even so I feel no hate towards him. I just want the pain to stop. I have stuff to do.

Another cough. Blood and spittle drip from my lips and despite the situation I'm conscious of the shirt that was offered to me earlier on the ground, trying to keep all of my bodily fluids off of it. A hand rubs circles on my lower back where for the most part my skin is intact, unlike my upper back that took the brunt of the fall and skidding. I don't… need to be comforted though. I'm the protector. I'm the one that's suppose to help people… Like Orihime. I need to save… Orihime! I try to swat the guy's hand away, but pitifully I don't have enough energy and only manage to grip it. He takes this as searching for more help. "Orihime? Is that your girlfriend? Sister? Do you have a cell with her number in it? I can call her for you…" Huh. I must've said her name out loud. I shake my head some and is promptly thrown into a coughing fit. My eyes water, head pounds. I feel like I'm about to throw up a lung and yet still, blood and vomit continue to pour from my mouth.

A child screams and cries loudly. "I told you not to look!" A mother scolds, frantic as she simultaneously tries to comfort her child and talk on the phone.

My arms shake at the strain of holding my upper body up and I wonder… Is this how my life will end? After everything? Everything I've been through and still need to do… Hit by a drunk driver, drowning and soaked in my own bodily fluids, dying next to complete strangers, no matter how kind… Is that the way I'm going to go? I find myself inwardly calling out to Zangetsu, who I find to have already been slowing my blood loss, but he knows and I know… There is too much torn, broken and punctured. What he's doing is only the delay of the inevitable. If I don't get help in the next couple minutes, that'll be it… After being so immersed in the world of the dead and knowing for a fact exactly what is beyond death, you would think I wouldn't be afraid, but that's not true. I'm damn well terrified. All I can think of is how I can't die. I can't die. I can't die! Not now, not here, can't die, can't diecan'tdiecan'tdie Hollow!

I'm desperate. Usually when someone is so desperate, instinct takes over and the person does whatever they can to survive but… didn't I just lock that instinct, that strength of desperation and terror, to the farthest corners of my soul? I've never regretted any decision in my life, my life that could very well end momentarily, more than I do right now. Only now does it finally occur to me how much I've relied on my hollow- how many times he's saved me… and how many times I've shoved him down, swearing to myself that I would be rid of him, and now that he is… I find myself hoping, begging even, if he can somehow still hear me, that I am wrong. That he isn't as truly gone as I had joyfully envisioned just a few minutes before…. but wasn't it justified? He'd threatened countless time to consume me and kill, devour, my friends and family! It needed to be done, didn't it? Of course. So why, why, why…

Another coughing fit. Or is it the same one, and it just has yet to stop? Zangetsu sends waves of calming Reiryoku toward me and my mind clears of all panicked thoughts, giving me a moment of clarity to plan. I work at a family clinic for Kami's sake, I can do this! Alright, so I have ribs broken, which is probably responsible for why my lung (I think it's one, Kami I hope it's just one) is full of blood- the broken bit punctured it. Ok, so I need a better way of draining it out than just coughing because I kinda need my windpipe to breathe. I push myself further up with one arm despite the protests of the guy still frustratingly rubbing circles on my back. I try to communicate what I have discovered to them while sounding like I am about to throw up my insides (which I probably am), leaving us to communicate through a messy array of bloody charades. I mimic the motion of stabbing myself in the lung. Through my blurry, disorientated vision I see them… stare blankly. I scowl deeply and repeat the motion urgently.

"What's he…" One murmurs, voice trailing off.

The other college student isn't much better. "I'm sorry, I don't…."

Fortunately it clicks for the mother and I can just hear her chattering urgently and nervously over the sobbing screams of her panicking child. You'd think the kid is the one in pain by all the racket she's making… I think with some sense of dark amusement. More coughing. For a moment, everything goes dark, and even though it's only for a moment, that really scares me. Oi, hollow! You damn bastard, get out here! I'm your king, aren't I? Answer me!.. Hell, when I finally want you to interfere… They have forced me onto my side. All of them, minus the drunk and the little kid, are crouching next to me and I stare at them through swollen, streaming, red eyes. A hollow needle attached to a syringe is clutched in a white knuckled grip by the mother and I look at it dubiously, wondering where she got it. When the wife of the town vet leans over to get a better look at me my unasked question is answered. She's on the phone now too, probably calling my dad. Although the veterinarian is a good deal older than Oyaji, the two of them are still pretty good friends and I see him and his wife from time to time. The mother of the crying child leans forward, bringing the syringe close to me and I hold whatever remains of my breath… As she abruptly tries to pass it over to one of the guys who promptly falls on his butt and scrambles away like she just offered him a poisonous snake. In other circumstances I would roll my eyes and even crack a smile at the sight, but right now I just want them to hurry up. And for me not to die.

The syringe guided by shaking hands somehow manages hit home. I silently applaud the lady's strength and fortitude, and my own when I only wince slightly. She carefully pulls out a good deal of blood with the syringe, looking horrified at the amount. It fills up the tube. She stares at me incomprehensibly. They all do, including the veterinarian's wife who can't seem to get ahold of my family. So this is it then… I think, and give them a small smile. I don't want them to believe they've failed me. They've done everything they can… One of the college students finally loses his nerve and has only enough time to turn his head from the group before he vomits. I wrinkle my nose. Somehow I thought it would end better… Less vomit and drunk drivers, more blood and self-sacrifice, and if I am extremely lucky, a comfortable bed in my old age… Then again, do I really want to look like an old man my whole time in the Soul Society? These are my thoughts as I stare blankly ahead, unblinking and without breathing. The sunlight takes on a brighter and brighter hue until I can barely see anything but. Vaguely I process paramedics hopping out of an ambulance at a dead run, but by the time they slap an oxygen mask over my mouth, it's already too late.

Girl-of-Action- Time travel fics are so overdone in this fandom, but I love them just the same! I thought I would try my hand in one as a part of my "bleach marathon". Basically since the beginning of this year I've been unexpectedly sucked back into the bleach fandom and have been writing random bleach fanfics ever since. Only now will I be posting them however, thanks to summer break and consequently more time on my hands. I've really enjoyed all the fanfics that I've read thus far that involve Kaien and Ichigo meeting (especially Swinging Pendulum) and wanted to try out my own, albeit with a different relationship between the two, different circumstances and different time frame. Reviews are always welcome, including /friendly/ constructive criticism!