Author's Notes: Hello valued reader/reviewer! This is a Bleach fanfic that takes place 2 years after the winter war. Ichigo Kurosaki is a 17 high school senior, and a star athlete to boot. He's a successful, good looking, talented guy. But there's something wrong with him. Something happened in his life about 2 years ago, and for some reason he just can't remember. Follow this journey from multiple perspectives as we try to find the memories that are hidden deep within Ichigo Kurosaki's mind.

"Talking"

'Thinking'

"Quoting"

Emphasis

In addition to this fanfic, I'd appreciate it if you checked out my One Piece one, "The New Generation of Pirates. Both fanfics will be constantly updated daily." Thanks for reading!

"Ichigo! You need to hurry up if your going to make it to school in time! I heard they cracked down on tardies for high school, and since your a senior I really doubt you can afford to get a tardy!" Ichigo sat up in his bed as he heard his little sister Yuzu calling for him. He was already dressed, he just felt like resting his eyes a bit by crawling back into bed. He wiped his now visibly droopy eyes, and stumbled out of the covers. He scratched his orange hair as he took one last look at himself in the mirror on the door. He was wearing a white, short-sleeved dress shirt and some khaki pants, along with his basketball sneakers and a small black bag thrown over his shoulder. He sighed at the strict dress code influenced outfit and hurried out his room.

"Good morning Ichigo," Karin said as Ichigo scooted by her to speed his descent down the stairs.

"Mornin'!" He yelled as he continued his speedy exit. Ichigo ran right out the front door without eating breakfast so that he could be sure he was on time. He ran the length to school, stopping only once to catch his breath slightly, but mostly so he could be sure he wasn't working up a sweat. He managed to get to his first period before the bell rung by a 5 minute gap. For some reason, he was freakishly athletic. He sat down at his desk and lowered his bag onto the floor. Not soon after that, his goofy friend Keigo walked into the room.

"He-lloooooooo Ichigo!" Keigo said excitedly to his friend. He sat down in the desk in front of Ichigo and turned around to fist pound and chat with him. "You were pretty great last nite! You had like what 40 points, 12 assists, and like 7 steals?"

Ichigo smiled for once despite his usually stern personality. "36 points, 10 assists, 6 steals, and 10 rebounds. But who's counting?"

"Apparently you are Mr. Star Athlete. Your the only guy I know that would look at his own highlight tape for hours on end and memorize his stats. You play too many sports, you need to slow down before all these scholarship offers smother you to death," Keigo said. He was happy for his friend-who wouldn't be? Ichigo Kurosaki was the star shooting guard on the Karakura High School basketball team, the star forward for the soccer team, the track and field star, and the star of the baseball team. He was amazing. His kicking power and quick reflexes made him ideal for the forward position in soccer, his muscle memory and amazing accuracy made him the best shooter in the country, and the endurance he had made him the ultimate track runner. Combine that with the fact that he was pretty popular and a good looking guy, and Keigo had himself the ideal best friend to lead him to glory.

"By the way have you seen Tatsuki? She has my controller, and I need it back so I can beat you idiots online too." Ichigo said.

"What's wrong with your other one?"

"It acts funny. Sometimes I shoot for no reason and that's how you guys beat me the other day. I just need to freehand it."

"Nice excuse, Ichigo. Everyone says that. It's my controller. Haha, I can't believe you tried that."

"Shut up. I said it was my controller!" Ichigo said again as he lunged at his friend and put him in a headlock playfuly. Keigo pretended to tap out but Ichigo held on as Tatsuki walked in.

"Yo." Tatsuki simply said as she sat down in her chair, behind Ichigo. She played basketball the last night on the girl's basketball team, but unlike Ichigo, she had lost. She really didn't like losing. Ichigo released Keigo and turned to Tatsuki.

"Say do you have that controller? Keigo and Mizuiro swear they can beat me, but the one I have now is messing up all the time."

"Messing up all the time? Please Ichigo, I've played against you too and you pretty much suck. Don't blame the controller," Tatsuki said as she started unpacking her materials onto the desk. Keigo burst out laughing, and Ichigo's smile faded into his trademark scowl and he turned forward.

"Someone's a little mad they lost…" Ichigo leaned back a bit and whispered this loudly. Tatsuki slammed the book she had just pulled out of her bag and smacked her fist onto it.

'Damn Ichigo! Thinks he's so great!' Tatsuki thought to herself, trying not to let any curses come out as the teacher walked into the room. Ichigo smirked a little bit at having ticked her off (he could tell by the double slam behind him) when he suddenly noticed the teacher. He immediately sat up straight and placed his hands on the desk. He poked Keigo in the nose to alert him of the threat.

"Ouch! Geez, I see her. Class isn't for another two minutes anyway. Say, where's Orihime?" Keigo held his nose and spoke to Ichigo.

Ichigo thought for a moment. "Beats me," he finally concluded. 'Maybe she's somewhere with Uryu?'

"I bet she's somewhere with that Uryu guy," said Keigo. "They always show up late, or leave at the same time. I don't get what she sees in him, and I honestly don't know why you hang out with him sometimes Ichigo."

Ichigo scowled at Keigo's words as he realized he had a point. He didn't really know why he hung out with Uryu. Back in freshmen year he thought they were just neutral, but ever since then he's felt like he was close to him. Like he was a a brother for some reason. Ichigo shook his head as Mizuiro walked by to sit at his desk behind Tatsuki.

"All right, I'm shutting the door in 5….4….3….2….1…and closing.." the teacher spoke as she got up from her desk and walked to the door to close it. As the door closed, a hand reached to stop it from the outside. A very tired looking Uryu stumbled in and breathed out a apology for being late. Following after him was Orihime Inoue, who also looked drained. The teacher let them in and scolded them for being almost late, and how the tardy policy did not play around with matters such as this. Uryu sat in the front, and Orihime went to the desk next to Ichigo and took a seat.

"Well then, now that we're sure everyone is here, we can go ahead and begin with some good old fashioned algorithms and their relative use in the real world! Open your books to page 378…" The teacher said, but after that Ichigo mentally blocked out her words as he day dreamed about playing basketball in America somewhere and hitting the game winning shot. As he day dreamed, Tatsuki stared at his spiky orange hair from behind him. She always thought Ichigo was a little punk that she had to protect, but a little while after he got his bad boy reputation, and his sport accolades, she saw him a bit differently. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she saw him differently. Tatsuki turned to look at the back of her best friend's head. Orihime would frequently shoot Ichigo nervous side glances. Tatsuki pondered quietly to herself and started to doodle in her book.

After about an hour, Ichigo, fed up with the boredom, wrote a note and slowly reached forward to hand it to Keigo. As he tapped Keigo with the corner of the note, Orihime abruptly stood up and knocked the letter from his grip.

"Excuse me, Ms. Ochi…..I have to go to the bathroom. NOW." Orihime slightly yelled at the teacher in a respectful tone, and shot Ichigo a, I'm sorry look.

The teacher nodded and said, "very well . I hope you understand that for every minute you take, you'll have to give back to me after school right?" Orihime nodded and hurried out the door. Uryu stood to get up slightly, but Orihime mouthed some words to him as he sat back down, and played it off like he was reaching for something on the ground.

Ichigo bent over to grab the note. When he came back up with it, the teacher was in front of him. "And what do we have there ?" The class snickered, as Ichigo was a riot in his interactions with the teachers. In actuality, Ichigo was just blunt, but his classmates thought he was just a great class clown.

"Nothing, just paper geez," he naturally answered.

"Oh? Do you mind sharing it with the class?" The teacher challenged him as she placed her hands on her hips. Ichigo heard Tatsuki and Mizuiro snicker behind him.

"No problem," he said as he stood up. "Ahem. I think is is a darn good teacher. Do you think so? Check yes or exactly." The class laughed as Ichigo read his obviously fake and concocted letter. The teacher smirked and snatched the letter out of his hands. She adjusted her glasses and read the REAL version of the note.

"I can prove it. I'll show you who sucks. I'll freehand it on your ass and make you swallow-" The teacher read the letter out loud and stopped suddenly. Ichigo felt his face redden as he hoped she would finish the rest of the letter and not make it look as bad as it seemed. In about two seconds, everyone in the classroom burst out laughing. Tatsuki poked Ichigo in the butt as she laughed hard along with her other classmates. "Geez, I wonder who this is for?" The teacher said smugly as she waved the note in his face. Keigo's face reddened with embarrassment.

After an awkward 35 minutes, 1st period let out, and Ichigo and his group of friends (Tatsuki, Keigo, Mizuiro, and some other likable jocks) went ahead to their next classes and finished the day. Around 3 when school let out, the group all went their separate ways, save for Ichigo and Tatsuki. Ichigo didn't have practice today in any sport, since the school cancelled all athletic practice for spirit week so that the seniors could get pumped for graduation and kick back and enjoy life. Some teams tried to continue the practice to get ahead on next week's sports block, but it wasn't mandatory. Ichigo walked back to his house side by side with his friend Tatsuki since they lived in the same neighborhood.

"You know, me and Orihime don't really hang out like we used to," Tatsuki said to Ichigo. Ichigo looked over at his friend to study her face as she said this. Her head was held low, not in a sad way, but more like a matter-as-fact way.

"I guess not. Your usually practicing like me, or hanging out with me and Keigo and those other idiots. She's really been close to Uryu lately," Ichigo said. Tatsuki looked at him.

"She didn't come back to 1st period at all, and I don't think she showed for any of her classes. She's been going out a lot this past year and she's always tired looking when I see her…..like she lives a double life…"

"Do you think her and Uryu are…." Ichigo gave a suggestive hand sign as he looked her in her eye.

"That's not funny."

"I'm just kidding around. Orihime's a ditz…..in a good way. She's too innocent and all that to be getting involved with guys. She's probably just working hard on that job she said she had, and she didn't come back to class because she was sick or something. Besides, Uryu didn't leave with her," Ichigo said to Tatsuki. This put her at ease slightly. She had become more use to Ichigo and his clique as she drifted away from Orihime, and he always had a way of making her smile.

"Your going to free hand it tonite with your pal?" Tatsuki said in a tease as she stopped at her house. Ichigo's rare smile faded and he scowled.

"Shut up." He said simply as he walked toward his house. Tatsuki smiled and watched him walk away. Ichigo was quite a good guy, so it was no surprise to her that she knew Orihime had a slight crush on him, regardless of her relationship with Uryu.

Tatsuki remembered when Ichigo, Uryu, Orihime, and Chad (before he moved) would be an unstoppable foursome. They would regularly leave class at random times, and neither of her close friends would tell her what was going on. But about 2 years ago, Ichigo would passively hang out in his old group, as he was voted sophomore class king, and junior class king respectively. It wasn't that he thought he was better than them, he just drifted away like she did, especially when Uryu and Orihime would abruptly leave class for no reason. It seemed like Ichigo was left out, and he looked just as confused as she was. Whenever she brought up the old things he did with the group, Ichigo would feign ignorance and say he couldn't really remember anything from 2 years back.

"Tatsuki! Your gonna stand out there all day or what? I just slabbed some ribs on the barbecue!" Tatsuki's father yelled out to her from the front door step. Tatsuki broke from her thoughts, and smiled as she jogged into the house.

Author's Note: So what do you think? Review and critique!