A/N: It's been about three years since I've published anything, and since then, I've gotten much better. I've been working on this particular story for a long time, and I hope that everyone can enjoy it!

The idea for this came about when Bleach first ended, and I, like everyone else, found myself dissatisfied about how it went. This was both therapy for me, as well as an interesting exploration into the rather simple idea of Rukia and Ichigo "trading places" in the story. It should probably be noted that, as a result of the butterfly effect, many, many other things started to change after that. Needless to say...

SPOILERS AHEAD

Please enjoy. (And expect chapters to come once a week unless told otherwise.)

Part I

Year: 2001

Karakura Town 2:23AM Friday

Under the cover of night, in a strange little town in Japan, a Spirit lurks, searching for his target.

Karakura Town 7:13PM Friday

"I'm telling you, chicks dig the tattoos."

"Renji, 'chicks dig' those tattoos about as much as the school board does."

"Strong words coming from someone who still watches kids cartoons about bunnies."

"Those cartoons are not just for kids and you know it! They have deep characters, are well written, well animated…"

"Yeah, yeah, I've heard that one a few million times."

Rukia grit her teeth at being interrupted. She'd only given him that speech maybe one other time. She took a deep breath and walked on with every intention of giving him the cold shoulder until he apologized. Chappy and Friends was not just for kids! It had a strong adult following.

Their steps sounded through quiet streets, which were pretty normal for this neighborhood. About three fourths of the people living here were above the age of sixty, and trouble really only came by every once in a while.

This was what made it so easy to hear the sounds of rolling wheels and rowdy laughter as they walked. Still, she didn't know what happened at first when Renji grabbed her by the arm to pull her to his other side.

"What the-?" A boy their age wearing a jersey and riding a skateboard rode past him, right where Rukia was standing. A couple of others quickly followed.

"Hey! Watch where you're going!" Renji yelled at them. Rukia couldn't help but bristle, too. The nerve of some people… Still, they didn't stop. She brushed Renji's hand away from her. They weren't worth it.

As the group went forward she saw one of them try a weird jump trick on the pavement. It's some trick she thinks she saw once on TV, but she couldn't be quite sure, especially since it was fumbled so badly. The trick failed miserably, and she would have snickered at him falling flat on his face were it not for the kid knocking over a small vase of flowers by a lamppost. She bolted for the group.

"Hey!" Rukia yelled. The kid was already getting up and heading over to the rest of his friends who had just finished laughing their asses off at his expense. "Aren't you going to pick that up?" she asked, glowering.

"Why would I do that?" He had a smug look on his face.

"Because 'that' was put there for a little girl who died."

One of the other guys answered, "Yeah, I think I heard about that." They were all standing now, looking right at her and Renji, almost like they were sizing them up, and definitely like they weren't impressed by what they saw.

"Then maybe you should apologize."

"Apologize? To who? I don't see no one here but you and your pineapple headed boyfriend." The last almost sounded like a threat. Renji kicked the guy in the stomach.

"If she said you should apologize, then apologize," he growled out. The guy was wheezing, hunched over. "And don't call me pineapple head! Got it!" He punctuated the last statement with another kick, which turned out to be just a bit too much for the thug. He fell over.

"Toshi-bro's down!"

Another one of the thugs stepped forward saying with a sneer, "What, you two looking for a fight," stepping towards Rukia all the while, hunched over to look her right in the eye. Rukia's nose scrunched up reflexively. His breath was just awful. "We'd be glad to give one to you–" She cut him off, elbowing him in the jaw. He choked for a moment, clutching his face in pain. A muffled curse escaped through his fingers and probably bitten through tongue.

Another one came up to her charging belligerently and yelling, "Oh, now you're askin' for it!" She side stepped him without trouble, striking him behind the knee with her foot, breaking his stance with ease. She grabbed onto the back of his hoodie, and using his own momentum, flipped him over right onto his back.

Oomph!

The final two glanced around nervously, looking between Rukia and Renji like they were trying to figure out which one would be the most forgiving. They surveyed Renji's intimidating figure and Rukia's icy glare and came to the correct conclusion. It was neither of them.

"Now, are you going to apologize?" Rukia asked. Renji was cracking his knuckles behind her. They were already scrambling away.

"We're sorry!" one of them called back. They didn't even try to pick up their buddies. Rukia didn't pay them any mind, though. She instead looked back at the lamppost.

"What a bunch of losers," Renji muttered.

"You're right about that," she said absently. She was much more focused on a figure before her, a figure only she could see.

She was a little girl. She had her hair in these cute pigtails and wore a pink striped shirt. She was a delicate thing, really, peaking shyly around the lamppost. The only thing that gave away what she really was, was the blood on her face, the chain on her chest, and last week's obituary that read: Akita, Maru, 10.

"I'm really sorry about that," said Rukia with a gentle smile. "I'll make sure those guys won't bother you again."

The girl shook her head slowly, as if to say, "it's no big deal." Rukia thought it was a very big deal.

Smile falling, she asked, "I can bring you replacement flowers tomorrow, if you'd like."

"No," the girl said quietly. "You've already helped so much. They've been here before, but I couldn't say anything about it." This was probably the most the little Spirit's ever spoken to Rukia, and while in a way it made her happy, what she said also really made her want to give those thugs a few extra lumps. In the end, she just sighed, a bit tired, and smiled again.

"Well, good riddance, right?" The girl giggled a bit, nodding. Straightening up, Rukia brushed off her skirt. "Bye, Maru," she said. "Make sure to go to heaven soon, okay."

"I will," she said with her own small smile. Rukia really wished she could keep on talking to the girl, but not too far stood Renji, still waiting.

"You done doing that weird medium thing?" he asked.

"It's not 'weird,'" Rukia said with a glare, "and yes. Yes I am." She began walking away from the street corner in a huff. "And wasn't the turn to your house a few blocks ago?"

"Yeah…" he drawled. "I was going to ask you if I could come over to study a minute ago, but then the fugly five came by." Rukia snorted at that.

"You're at my house every other day. I don't think you need to ask anymore."

"Sweet."

Making the rest of the journey was far more peaceful, luckily. The two ended up idly talking about the large stack of homework they would have to make their way through soon enough, and that took them the rest of the way to Rukia's house.

The Orikasa home was one of the nicest of any student's at Karakura Highschool. It was two stories high, but still maintained an otherwise traditional look. Then again, that was the kind of place you could afford when your older brother had his own law firm.

It was that very brother that was inside that very home when they entered. He was in the kitchen, wearing an apron (Rukia had to elbow Renji in the side to stop him from giggling) over his dress shirt and slacks, cooking up a stir fry that smelled absolutely delicious.

"Brother, I'm home," Rukia greeted politely.

"You're here earlier than usual," Renji commented idly.

"Actually," he cleared his throat and continued, only addressing Rukia, "You are back home late." She suddenly looked very sheepish. "We did agree on a seven o'clock curfew, did we not?"

"Yeah, about that…" She trailed off, looking to Renji for some kind of help. He shrugged, and her expression turned sour. Some help he was. She guessed she'd have to just stick with the truth. "I got caught up. These boys were harassing a Spirit," she confessed, putting her things down on the kitchen table. Renji followed suit.

"A Spirit?" Byakuya said this, raising an eyebrow. "I suppose that's a decent enough excuse." He barely even glanced up from his task. "Go ahead and wash up. This will be done in a second."

The relief Rukia felt was visible. Her brother usually didn't accept excuses, no matter how true they were. That of course didn't make the next thing she was going to say any easier.

"Um," she started lamely, "Renji's here to study. Is it okay if he stays for dinner?"

For a long second, the man looked at her. It seemed like he wanted to say something about it, but instead he just shook his head.

"That's alright," he eventually said, before focusing on the food he was making, possibly to make sure it was enough for three.

Byakuya Orikasa was a strange man, that there was no doubt. He spoke more formally than someone twice his age of thirty-nine, he kept his hair long despite being a big shot lawyer, and strangest of all, he decided to adopt a child, Rukia Orikasa, some years ago. He was a bit of an anomaly, one that Renji took for granted when he was younger, and one that Rukia still takes for granted to this day.

Thirty or so minutes later, Rukia and Renji found themselves with full bellies, and (after the dishes were washed) they began their study session in Rukia's room, door open upon Byakuya's request.

"Is it just me," Renji started, "or does your brother not like me very much?"

"Oh, he definitely doesn't like you that much," Rukia said casually, flipping to the next page in her textbook.

"Thanks," he said glumly.

"He's always commenting on how you're a bad influence, a delinquent, a moocher…" Renji's eye started to tick

"I think I get it! Now can't we work on school or something?" Rukia laughed. If Renji wanted to do school work rather than literally anything else, he must have been really desperate. That being said, she may have been exaggerating Byakuya's opinion of him.

"Yeah, we can start on World History," she said with a smile.

"Crap we have a test for that Monday, don't we?"

Rukia nodded, "It's-" and suddenly she found the words stuck in her throat. It was like a strange pressure washed over her, a chill in her bones. She got a similar feeling when she was very close to a Spirit, but this…this was far more intense. It was like a whole hoard of them were just sitting right outside her window. Her eyes snapped to it, searching for where that feeling might be coming from, and in the distance, she saw it.

"It" was a figure, standing quietly in the darkness. She couldn't make out any features, but she was sure it noticed her.

"Hey, what's going on?" Renji asked. "What are you seeing out there?" He glanced out the window too, but all he saw was an empty roof and an overcast sky. When Rukia looked again, that was all she saw, too.

"It's nothing," she said, swallowing thickly. She was telling herself that as much as she was telling him. "Let's keep working."

Part II

What was that thing outside of her window? This was a question that Rukia couldn't get out of her head the entire weekend. It was definitely some kind of Spirit, but none she'd ever come across.

"Miss Orikasa?"

There was always the chance that she would see it again, but she wasn't actually sure what would happen. Would it attack her, or would she be able to talk to it?

"Miss Orikasa?"

After seeing spirits for so many years, neither would surprise her.

"Miss Orikasa!"

"Huh?" Rukia blurted out, startled. A few in the class snickered.

"Since you seem so confident that you know the material," the teacher said with a deep frown, "could you find the derivative of this equation?" He said this, holding out a piece of chalk, inviting her to come to the front of the room, and for a second, silence stretched on in the classroom. People were staring, waiting to see what would happen, but before the teacher could withdraw the offer, Rukia stood up in her chair, trying not to wince at the scraping noise it made. She walked up to him, carefully took the chalk from his hand, and stared at the problem.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief. She could do this one. She set to work, going carefully and slowly through each step. She got to the solution, put the piece of chalk down, bowed, left, and hoped to god she didn't get any of the steps wrong.

The teacher appraised it with a careful eye before nodding.

"Thank you, Miss Orikasa," he eventually said. He turned back to his book, and Rukia sagged in her chair a bit. "Now, as I was saying…" The teacher's voice faded into the background once more, and before long, the bell rang signaling break.

People wasted no time getting up or walking around, but before Rukia could even think to stretch her legs, an arm rested on her shoulder. If he didn't speak up immediately, she might have turned around and punched him in the nose.

"Hey, you're being a bit of a space case, today," Renji commented with a curious expression on his face. "What's up?"

"It's nothing. I guess I'm just distracted."

Leaning in closer, Renji asked in a hushed tone, "You still thinking about that thing you saw? It was a Spirit, wasn't it?" He knew her all too well. She hadn't even mentioned it since.

"Yeah," she admitted letting out a long puff of air through her nose. "Whatever that thing was, I've never seen anything like it before." Kind of, she thought. There was something oddly familiar about it.

"Sounds scary," he said with a grin. She just shrugged.

"What sounds scary?" a new voice asked. Renji jumped.

"Christ, don't sneak up on a guy like that!" he yelled.

Rukia rolled her eyes. Pot meet kettle.

"Hi, Keigo," she said.

"Hey, Rukia," he said with a grin before continuing. "Seriously, though, if we're taking about scary, a buddy of mine was telling me about a haunted house he went to a while back…"

Keigo was an interesting guy. He was easily excitable, always one for conversation, and maybe a bit of an idiot. He probably wasn't the type of guy Rukia would make friends with, but he just kind of…asserted himself.

"Please," Renji interjected. "Haunted houses are lame. If you really want to get scared, you should try the abandoned hospital. That shit's spooky."

"Whaaaat? There's no way you did that," Keigo said nervously.

"Are you sure about that?" Renji asked with a dark grin. Keigo whimpered.

"He's never been," Rukia confirmed, arms crossing. Renji turned to her with a look of utter betrayal. Keigo laughed.

"You probably should have seen that one coming," said Mizuiro, who had just walked in on the conversation with a smirk. "As far as I know, nobody goes in there. Not since that poor class went missing inside, anyway." Keigo paled.

"You guys just love freaking me out, don't you?" he moaned.

"Well, you do make it easy," Rukia said with a smile. Still, the conversation did have her thinking.

The abandoned hospital wasn't a place Rukia like to go anywhere near. The presence there just screamed bad news, so she always tended to avoid it. Now, the feeling she got on Friday, and the one she gets whenever she steers too close to the hospital are different, but the fact that they are so unique from anything else she's felt… Maybe some "investigation" was in order?

"Could everyone please sit down?" asked a new teacher at the front. "I hope you all studied well for today's quiz," she said. She could hear Keigo groan just behind her.

The day went by pretty easily, after that, and Rukia didn't feel so distracted anymore. She had an objective in mind, now, one that she could probably get done before she got home. All that was left now was to think about how she was going to do this and to possibly ask Renji for help. This was on her mind as the final bell of the day rang.

With that ring came an ear-piercing screech. The windows shattered inwards, a figure crashing through the classroom, and then through the far wall, as well.

"Everyone get under the desks, just like we practiced," their teacher said with utmost urgency. Everyone quickly followed the instructions. Just as Rukia was starting to wonder what the heck was going on, Renji voiced her thoughts.

"What the hell was that?!" Renji yelled. Rukia had absolutely no idea, and was about to say as much, but then she realized something.

There was that feeling, the same feeling she got Friday night. This was definitely the strange Spirit, but there was something else with it, something much more sinister, and it was closing in.

"We have to get out of here," she said quietly, voice shaking slightly. She said again, this time, louder, "We have to go!" Some of the students whimpered.

"Calm down, Miss Orikasa!" their teacher ordered. "There is no reason to panic. Whatever happened seemed to have passed, so everyone needs to get up, and make their way outside in an orderly fashion."

Every person in the classroom was eager to follow that particular command. They filed out in record time, going into the hallway, which had a similarly pierced window. Whatever was thrown through here could not have been in good shape, Spirit or otherwise, and though Rukia probably should have filed out with the others to escape danger, she couldn't help but wait until the teacher turned the corner to look outside the large hole in the window.

She had to be careful when taking a peak as to not hurt herself and/or fall out of the window completely. The hole was about as tall as her, and the broken edges were sharp and jagged. Still, she leaned out as far as she would dare.

What she saw was unexpected. The guy was a Spirit, that was certain, but he didn't look like any Spirit she's ever seen. He wore a black kimono and hakama and had bright orange hair that she could even see from here. He was pulling himself up using a Katana, and well, he didn't look too good. He was swaying slightly, blood on the ground below him.

"Hey!" Renji said in a hushed voice. "What happened to 'we have to go!?'"

"He needs help!" Rukia urged. Renji gave her a look of shock.

"What are you even talking about?" She started looking for a way down.

"There's a Spirit down there," she explained. "He's the same one from Friday, and he's hurt." She started running toward the opposite stairwell. "He needs help." Renji started following her.

"I thought you said Spirits looked hurt all the time?" Renji asked, panic starting to tinge in his voice. They turned into the stairwell.

"This is different!" she exclaimed back. "He looks like he's in pain."

"Wait!" Renji grabbed her by the shoulder, stopping her descent down the steps. "Whatever got him, could get us. We should go with the others."

"If you saw him, you wouldn't be saying that." As she said this, she turned right back toward Renji, looking him in the eyes, and he looked back. For a moment, they just breathed.

"Shit," he finally said, going down the stairs again. "Let's go save him or something." She smiled widely, before running down, too.

The Spirit landed in the track field in the back of the school, not close enough for any of the students being herded by teachers to see them, but just close enough for her to be incredibly nervous about their safety. By the time they got down to him, he was standing up, but he didn't seem to notice them, at first.

No, he was paying too much attention to another figure coming in overhead, jumping off the roof of the school and onto the ground in front of them.

This figure was like no Spirit Rukia could have even imagined. It had an indescribable presence, one that made her skin crawl and set her teeth on edge, as well as a bone white mask and a hole right in the center of its chest. It looked like a monster, plain and simple.

"Gotta finish this quickly," he muttered to himself.

"What the hell?" Renji asked right next to her. His eyes were searching wildly, and he had broken out into a cold sweat. So, even he had noticed it.

"What the-?" the human-like Spirit suddenly asked, and then he made direct eye contact with Rukia. He froze. "You can see us?" he whispered. "How…" The Monster took this moment of hesitation to strike.

Cruuuunch!

It had bit down right on the Spirit, trapping his arm and piercing his shoulder. He couldn't even make a sound, but he could still move. He had his sword wedged within the creature's jaw, and with a push (a push that Rukia suspected took the last of his strength) he cut into its face, causing it to reel back screaming, a sizable gash in its mask that crept into its eye partially blinding it.

The Spirit stepped back once, twice, and then fell.

Rukia was frozen in shock.

"Rukia, you're going to have to explain to me what's –" Renji was cut off by the Monster, lashing out at the sudden sound in its blind spot, which in this case was Renji. He was knocked aside like a ragdoll.

She was the only one left standing in front of what was basically a desperate wounded animal, one that was about three times her height.

Well, what was she going to do now? There had to be something, anything, to use to try and not die, but right now, she was in an open field. Every last piece of equipment was put away. There was nothing.

Almost nothing.

Her eyes slid to the sword the Spirit was wielding earlier. She'd never held one before in her life, but she did just see it hurt that Monster. She made a mad dash for it.

She knew vaguely in her mind that she was panicking as she ran, but her body propelled itself forward, like it too knew that this was the only option. She was so close to it, close enough she could almost–

The Monster shoved her down into the ground right in front of it. For a few seconds, she was dazed. Dirt was in her mouth, her face was scratched up, her head was spinning…

"…stand…" a voice whispered.

"What?" she groaned back.

"Can you stand?" the voice said again, stronger.

"Yeah," she said, getting up to her hands and knees. She could see the monster circling them, waiting for an opening.

"Good," he said gruffly. It took a second for Rukia to realize this was the Spirit. "That makes one of us. I–" He was cut off by his own wet sounding cough. Rukia winced, but he continued, voice sounding harsher, "I need you to finish this fight, okay? You can borrow some of my power, just enough to be able to kill that Hollow and save everyone here."

Save everyone, Rukia thought dumbly. Everyone was just in the field over. If they died here, nothing would be stopping that Monster from…

She stopped her train of thought.

"How would I even do that?" she asked.

"You trust me," he said grabbing his sword and holding it up in the air, pointing it right at her. Pointing a sword at someone didn't usually inspire trust, but in this case, she was willing to bite. He continued, "but first, I have to ask you something. What's your name?"

She gulped.

"Rukia Orikasa."

"I'm Ichigo Shiba." He ran her through with his sword.

For a second, Rukia thought she was just tricked, and that this was a mercy killing. She thought that Monster, that thing the Spirit called a Hollow, was actually going to rampage across the entire school. She thought that everyone was going to die, and that her brother would be getting a call about how his little adoptive sister died due to mysterious circumstances.

Then, she realized something. She realized that her blood was pumping. She felt full of energy, almost hot, and most importantly, strong. This is what power must feel like, she thought. She took another look at the creature, hissing right at her. A part of her still felt afraid, but another part of her knew that she could do this.

With a sword clutched in her hands she ran towards it faster than she had ever ran before and with a single slice managed to cut through its arm like butter. It let out an ungodly roar, stumbling back. With another well-placed cut to its thigh, it was on the ground, down one foot. She then realized that this is what power must feel like.

"This one is for hurting Renji!" she yelled, before slicing through its head. It disintegrated into nothing.