DISCLAIMER : I do not own Bleach

A NEW BEGINNING

Blood splattered all over the ground just in front of Ichigo as he fell to his knees. He knew that if he didn't manage to get out of his body, he would die. He grimaced as the Hollow before him pulled its claws from his body. As he looked up at the monstrosity that was about to end his life, he realised that he wasn't scared at all. Wasn't everyone in Soul Society already dead? If that was the case, what did he have to worry about? Surely that meant that he would have a second chance as a deceased soul in Seireitei. He felt a terrible pain lance through his chest and then all was black.

Rukia was looking out onto the school grounds through the class window thinking about the Ichigo, he had just left several minutes ago when she had felt a Hollow appear several streets away. She was only half listening when the teacher asked her a question. Almost on autopilot, she turned around and opened her mouth to answer when she felt Ichigo's spirit pressure disappear. It took her several seconds to realise what this meant, when she did she swiveled in her chair and threw up into the aisle. She looked up at Chad, Inoue and Ishida and saw the shock in all their eyes. Without any warning she knocked back her desk and sprinted outside.

Hitsugaya frowned momentarily as he glanced up from his paperwork, he couldn't quite place it, but he felt that someone's spirit pressure had just disappeared. He couldn't figure out who's it was because it was so faint, it was like something that he had gotten so used to that he started taking it for granted, only to really notice it once it was gone. Shrugging, he decided to put it to the fact that he had been doing paperwork for several hours and it was just a trick of his mind.

In the 11th division headquarters, Zaraki Kenpachi faltered in his sparring which resulted in him nearly being hit by Ikakku's flailing sword. Realising that his error had threatened to put his reputation on the line, he ignored the feeling in his gut that something very bad had just happened.

Ukitake had long given up on trying to convince Rukia to do something. He was having a hard enough time preventing her from simply wallowing in her own grief all day. Rukia had returned to Soul Society several weeks ago, immediately returning to her previous squad and putting a face to the mystery spirit pressure. The fact that Ichigo, a friend of Soul Society, was dead had hit everyone hard. There wasn't one person in all of Seireitei that hadn't been shocked to hear the news. Despite the fact that there had already been a ceremony for Ichigo, Rukia seemed unwilling to let go. Ukitake sighed as he threw one last glance over at Rukia before he returned to his work.