Bleach: The Great Story

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach/ any Bleach paraphanillia or murchandise. To the best of my knowledge, Tite Kubo owns it all

(but i do own any characters, objects or plotlines of my own designs mentioned in this fanfic, unless I borrow a bit of content from one or two other fanfics, which I will only do once I have permission from the authors, I will give FULL CREDIT to any/ all donors)

Welcome to Bleach: The Great Story. The fanfic that I plan to put a little bit of everything into: Love, Hate, Angst, Humor, Fighting, no heavy gore though, since it's just plain gross in my opinion, mention of blood. I hope that you enjoy my very first fanfic. This takes place after Ichigo and his friends save Orihime from Aizen's Lackeys in Hueco Mundo, so this may take a different direction than Tite Kubo intended Bleach to go, so I guess this would count as AU. Before I start to ramble, I'm just going to get this first chapter up. enjoy

Chapter 1: Light of Hope

Ichigo sat on his bed, staring out the window into the rainy, stormy karakura town night- time scenery. It seems that all he could think about was how oddly easily he escaped from Los Noches. Ichigo's compatriots didn't pay it much mind, which seemed odd to him. It couldn't be an illusion as he'd never even seen Kyouka Suigetsu. It was almost like...

"No way!" The orange haired death god's eyes widened as he came to this possibility. "Could that bastard Aizen have...?" KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK Ichigo's thoughts were interuppted by a frantic knocking at his door accompanied by a high pitched scream that could have frightened a deaf man. The Substitute Shinigami bolted out his bedroom door, jumped down the stairs and scrambled to the door, knocking several pieces of furniture over, not that tripping over a table would daunt him in the least.

The carrot topped hero opened the door to the Kurosaki clinic/ residence, letting the cold air of the night flood his front. Ichigo looked around for a split second before noticing a collapsed, rain and blood soaked Yoruichi. The half- conscious goddess of flash was holding her right side with her left hand and reaching up to her would be savior with her trembling, cold right hand. The only words that she could force out of her bleeding mouth were a weak, barely audible: "I...I...IIchhhi...g..go...h..h...h.h...hhheell..p" before fainting on the Kurosaki's door step. Ichigo was frozen with fear, or he would have been, if it weren't for the overwhelming, burning drive to save the poor girl in front of him. Ichigo kneeled down and gently scooped up the knocked out girl in his arms and carried her inside to set her down on his couch. "This is a really deep wound" Ichigo said in a much more that worried tone. "I should get to cleaning it first". After many hours of tireless labor and a few touch and go situations, The super powered High School student wiped sweat from his brow and took one more look at the various applied bandages and salves, quite tired and dissatisfied. "Dammit, is this all that i can do?" Ichigo harshley whispered into the darkness of the living room and punched the floor. "It's not enough, at this rate she'll...she'll " "Ichigo". The teenager felt a small bit of frustration dissipate as he heard the voice of his Zanpakuto. "Listen to me, there is one more option". "Zangetsu, what do you mean? Can't you see that I've tried every surgical technique known to my family?" Ichigo began to tear up as he said those last words, as though they were an admission to his mortal limitations. "Oh, for God's sake, Ichigo. You know you really are an idiot, can't you remember a simple healing kidou in a life or death situation?" The scared boy heard the voice of his hollow, chiming into his mind. Confused, scared, tired and angry do not make a good combination of emotions, so Ichigo, feeling all of these things at once, kind of half whispered, half screamed rather: "what do you mean kidou? I don't know any of that death god magic crap!". If Yoruichi had been awake, she'd probably have a very, VERY confused look on her face. "Tch, whad'd I tell ya, Zangetsu? If he can't find the strength to save one woman, how can he be expected to defeat the great puppet master and achieve his destiny?" The demon's question was clearly rhetorical, and meant only to shake his king out of his state of despair, but Zangetsu quickley tried to get Ichigo back to the matter at hand before his wielder had become too distracted. "Ichigo, before we last fought Grimmjow in Los Noches, Rukia taught you a mid level healing spell to reverse the fatiguing affects of your hollow transformation, do you now remember the incantation?"

Ichigo shook his head at the word's of his sword's spirit. "No I don't remember a thing about any kind of chant or incantation." The hollow inside him struggled to steady his tongue at what his host replied. "But I do remember the spell's name and that should be enough, right?" The crochety old man nodded at his owner's question, which, in his mind, Ichigo clearly saw. Wiping the tears from his eyes, the young death god placed his hands just above the gash in his very first live patient's gash and focused his spirit energy as best he could. Ichigo could feel a gentle, loving warmth flow down his arms and into his hands, and finally onto the insufficient, albeit well bandaged wound. A soft, greenish light began to illuminate throughout the small building, Ichigo's spell was working and he could see it, feel a desire to protect Yoruichi's life, and a sense of pride in himself and his abilities. Now all he needed to make the spell successful was its name, Ichigo knew what he needed to do, a few simple words would save this beautiful goddess's life. "Way of Healing number 35: Light of Hope."

As the light faded and the deep gash closed, Ichigo knew his spell had worked. A mid-level kidou and he succeeded the first time casting it. And it was a good thing too, because he pushed all of his reiatsu into that one light. Feeling quite tired, Ichigo sat in the reclining chair next to the couch, just before he fell asleep, he heard Yoruichi whisper something just over her breath. the boy strained his tired ears and she could just barely make out a phrase that sounded like "look out for the arrancar." Ichigo wondered for just a minute or two before feeling a strange spiritual pressure and an unmistakable feeling of two bloodred eyes gazing inward at the Kurosaki residence. Sighing, Ichigo grabbed his shinigami badge and pressed it to his chest, forcing his soul outwards, fully donned with the over sized soul slayer and shihakusho. The substitute death god opened the front door and took one last look at Yoruichi before flash stepping outside to challenge the evolved hollow.

"Just what the hell are you doing on my turf, arrancar?"

so what did you think of the first chapter?

I encourage you all to offer constructive critisism and/ or compliments

The spell that Ichigo used is my intellectual property, but Kidou is property of Bleach and by extension, Tite Kubo.

I will try to make the next chapters as long or even longer if I can, but I do plan on making a lot of chapters, which will be uploaded as soon as I can, thanks to you all for reading.