Disclaimer: I do not own the rights or properties to Bleach that's all Tite Kubo.

Prologue:

"My name is Kurisaki Ichigo, ever since I can remember I've been different from most people. I've been able to see the souls of the departed. But believe it or not this ability has gotten me into more trouble than good.

I'll never forget the day she was killed.. no.. the day she was murdered. For the longest time I blamed myself but..I found out later the horrifying truth.

My mother was murdered by a monster.. Those monsters are responsible for a lot of crap I've been through.. that's why I can never forgive them.

I've always been able to see the ghosts that roam this plain and sometimes I'd even reach out to help a little.. like this one time I brought this little girl some flowers.. but.. a lot of times I did that.. I would come back only to find no trace of the spirit.. and all that remained was simply a blood stain that only I could see.

Every time I was powerless to save any of them.. it made me realize just how weak I really was. But there didn't seem to be anything I could do. But all that changed on that cold dark night.

The night I met her.

"Do you want to protect them?" that's the question she asked.. at the time I didn't even think twice. But looking back on it I realize just how much my life was changed in that instant I made the decision.

"Then thrust yourself onto my zanpakuto, and you must become a Shinigami death god."

Without hesitation I did so. And so.. I became a Shinigami.. I quickly dispatched the hollow that was attacking me but that was only the beginning.

That's right the monsters that'd been plaguing me since the beginning had a name, and that name was hollow.

A Shinigami was a transformation of your soul being. So in order for my physical body to still work while I was in Shinigami form I got what was called a temporary soul. This soul, however, turned out to be a special type of outlawed one called a modified soul.

Later I named him Kon because it was less cool than his original idea of a name. and so with Kon and Rukia, the death god who had given me nearly all of her powers, we continued to take down hollows while meanwhile my 2 friends Chad and Orihime began to show signs of developing powers of their own.

A Shinigami from Soul Society, the place where Rukia came from originally, came to retrieve her and this is when I learned the truth about my mother's killer. The hollow Grand Fisher appeared and it tried to kill me. I managed to injure but not defeat it causing it to retreat. After seeing this, the Shinigami sent after us simply gave up and returned to Soul Society.

A little later on I met a classmate of mine called Ishida Uryu and discovered he was part of a ancient clan called Quincy. The Quincy apparently had issues with the Shinigami and he challenged me to a hollow hunting contest. This eventually brought a huge ass hollow that we had to team up together to beat but doing so I released too much spiritual power and it caught the attention of Soul Society.

They sent this red haired punk called Renji after me. I later learned he was a vice-captain class in the Shinigami ranks. Anyway it took a bit but I was about to kick his ass and take Rukia back to give her a long lecture about running away when she was still weakened when.. low and behold Mr. nobility showed up.

Byakuya Kuchki, Rukia's brother and a Captain class Shinigami from Soul Society. I'm not even gonna try to bullshit you and say I had a chance. He trashed me and what's worse I lost my Shinigami powers and almost my life because of it.

But, more importantly, I lost Rukia. And to make matters even worse she was going to be executed in Soul Society for the crime of giving her powers to me.

And so the old guy with the stupid hat that Rukia was always talking to me walks over and offers to help me go get Rukia back. To train me to regain my Shinigami powers.

Well there were 3 tests. The second was by far the most difficult and dangerous. And little did I know how long the consequences would span..

My soul was removed from my body and I was thrown in a pit. 72 hours was all I had before my spirit chain would be completely eroded and I would become a hollow. Somehow I had to discover the dormant power of a Shinigami before then.

In a sense I failed. 72 hours passed and I began to transform into a hollow, the monster I hated most. But then he appeared. Zangetsu, my Zanpakuto. He showed me the way to my Shinigami powers and I followed the red spirit thread to obtain it.

I emerged from the pit a Shinigami. But the damage was done. A hollow had been created at the same time. And that hollow was inside me.

The final test was learning to produce and control the power of my Zanpakuto by knocking that ugly ass hat of his off.

Needless to say I succeeded. And not a moment too soon because afterwards this talking cat had everyone ready to go.

And so Chad Orihime, Ishida, and Salem.. er.. Yoruichi-san, and myself all went off into Sould Society to rescue Rukia.

Of course as soon as we got there we realized that it wasn't going to be quite as simple as we'd thought. The gate into Seireitei was closed by another Taicho or Captain. Ichimaru Gin. So now we couldn't get through the gates and they knew we were here.

Yoruichi-san had a friend that could help and we went in search of Kukakku Shiba. We figured this guy must know some teleport move or something but nooo..

First off it was a chick. And I mean a hot chick.. the only thing not perfect on her was a prosthetic arm but even still.. damn she was fine. Of course, she made up for her attractiveness by being a psycho bitch.

Number one fireworks maker in all of Rukongai, the place where normal spirits lived. And we were gonna be in a ball that would pass through the spirit barrier into Seireitei being shot out of a big ass firework launcher.

Like I said the bitch was nuts.

Well not quite as bad as the guy I would meet soon.

My first fight was with Ikakku whatever.. he's bald and I beat him down in like 5 minutes.

The next battle was with that Renji guy. But he revealed that back in the real world seated officers had their powers sealed. In Soul Society he was 5 times as powerful as last time. Of course I still beat him.

The following fight was with the captain of the 11th division. Zaraki Kenpachi. To start the fight off I slammed my sword down on his neck so hard my hands started bleeding. He didn't have a scratch. I couldn't even cut him. I then realized just how dangerous this guy was.

Well basically I learned in that fight to work with Zangetsu rather than just swinging him around wildly.

After synching together I was barely able to defeat Zaraki but I lost consciousness.

I woke up to discover a disturbing fact. That deep voiced cat Yoruichi-san was in actuality a woman. A woman who hated clothes. Uh.. yeah.. so needless to say my built in zanpakuto had already reached its "released state"

The next and final fight was with that bastard of a brother Rukia had. Or it least it would've been. But Yoruichi-san knocked me out and carried me off to teach me some release move.

I learned it was called Bankai. The second and final release of a zanpakuto that increased the Shinigami's power by ten fold.

I mastered it in 3 days using a special machine Yoruichi-san made and I managed to show up just in time to save Rukki from the big fire bird.

Afterwards the final battle was against Byakuya using my Bankai I gained speed exceeding that of shunpo. Shinigami super speed. Basically it looks like u teleport around like in dbz. Well he used his own Bankai and we were more or less even until my inner hollow decided to show up. Giving me a chance to recover, I was ready again by the time I pulled the mask off. And so I beat Byakuya.

But this other captain. Aizen had apparently betrayed Soul Society and said he was going off to get hollow powers to become stronger and get into the gates of heaven.

Renji and I tried to stop him but we were taken out before I could even blink. Even in my Bankai, I couldn't even touch him.

Well basically we saved Rukia but she decided to stay in Soul Society. And we returned to the living world to a life of normalness.. well at least for about a week. And then we learned about the Bounto.

The Bounto were super powerful immortal humans. They were a result of a failed experiment in Soul Society.

Yoshino was a good Bounto I guess, she tried to stop Kariya, the Bounto leader. He killed her and used her death to create the Bitto some insects that went around stealing people souls. We stopped them but Kariya and the remaining Bounto fled into Soul Society and challenged me to follow. I was like oh hell no!

I followed him all right. But every time I fought him it always ended in a draw. That is, until the last fight. He absorbed some energy source that he was gonna use to blow up all of Seireitei.

I faced him in my Bankai and after a long hard fight I managed to take him down. To this day I still cringe when I think about his power. A guy as strong as him.. Sometimes I wonder if he did all of it just so I'd kill him.. he told me his only regret was that he wouldn't be here to see if I followed the same path as he did, becoming so strong that eventually my allies deserted me.

Well, I don't know about that.. but I didn't have a lot of time to ponder because a new kid showed up at my school named Shinji Harako. I later learned he was part of a secret group of Shinigami who had illegally gained hollow powers called the Vaizards.

He was there to recruit me into his little group but I'm not interested. In any case newer fighters keep showing up each stronger than the last. These are Arrancar ., hollows who have taken off their mask and gained Shinigami powers. I don't know how much stronger they will continue to get but if this continues I don't know what I'm going to do.

In any case Aizen seems to operate in bursts. Currently there haven't been any major attacks in the last few weeks. I'm hoping it stays that way. I need the time to recuperate.."

"Ah.. Kurosaki-san.. eh.. that was.. eh.. interesting."

Ochi Misato blinked a few times and walked back up to the board as Ichigo walked down and ignored the open mouthed looks from his classmates.

Misato-san gathered her composure. "Ah so does anyone else want to read from their composition books?"

This assignment she was copying from the American teacher about freedom writers was certainly ah…. entertaining.

Several snickers were heard from the class and Oshima Reiichi chuckled saying "Yeah I would but I don't think any of us could match that load of bullshit haha.. you should look into kiddie story writing Kurosaki.. maybe a 5 year old will believe you."

Ichigo shrugged. "Whatever." He took his seat and sank down in boredom. Yeah he'd just told about shit that he probably shouldn't have but the assignment was to write about his life.. So why not be honest.

He just hoped that Aizen's crap would give it a rest for awhile. But he couldn't help but wonder why Aizen had backed off so much. He was definitely glad but.. what would make Aizen decide to back off. It was probably nothing.. but still he had to wonder..

BLEACH

HOLLOWED SPACE

Chapter 1: (Masks of the past)

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Misato held up a sheet of paper. "Now don't forget the assignment for this break is to make contact with a pen pal in your assigned location."

Ichigo groaned. "You've got to be kidding me" he muttered.

The papers were passed out and Ichigo got a look at his location. Hmmm America huh.. now who do I know in the U.S… Ichigo would prefer not to have to meet someone new if there was a way to get in touch with someone he'd at least already met.

He knew he'd been to America a few times with his mom to visit her friend.

Suddenly his eyes widened. Oh those two.. damn.. I haven't seen them in years.. hmm I wonder if that number still works..

He suddenly closed his eyes grating his palm into his head. "Ah.. this is assignment is gonna be irritating."

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Ichigo was sitting in his room in his chair with his leaned back listening to a portable mp3 player with clear earphones. He wondered how long Rukia would keep yapping at him before she realized he wasn't listening.

"I cannot believe you would compromise all of Soul Society like that!! Do you have any idea how many minds we had to erase because of that stunt!!"

Ichigo nodded pretending he was listening but in fact it was bobbing his head to the music he was listening to.

"Even worse Yamamoto-sama is furious he could have you detained or even arrested for a stupid move like that what the hell were you thinking!"

Ichigo yawned and shrugged. Rukia screamed in frustration before hopping in the closet and slamming the door.

Ichigo laced his hands behind his head and leaned back further before a yellow blur shot at his face kicking him and knocking him over.

"Mother f.. Kon what the hell was that for!"

The stuffed lion jumped up in the air and landed on the desk "You made Nee-san mad!!"

"I Kon challenge you to a Shinigami duel!!"

Ichigo blinked in confusion and Rukia opened the closet a little to poke her head out.

Kon ran out of the room and returned wearing a black robe similar to the Shinigami outfit that belonged to a samurai doll Karin had.

He then pulled out a butterknife duck taped to his paw from his back wrapped in string.

"Bankai!!" Kon called out.

He threw the Butter knife away and pulled out a Butchers knife then he went charging at Ichigo who was twitching slightly.

Ichigo closed his eyes a vein visible on his forehead and dropped his fist down on Kon then stomped on him squishing him and he took the butcher knife of his paw and picked Kon up and used the string to tie him to the butter knife like a stake.

He walked by Karin's room and he tossed the butter knife on her bed.

Kon's eyes widened in fear. "N-no Ichigo don't, you can't leave me here!! Nee-san help!!"

Ichigo continued out into the kitchen and handed the butchers knife to his father. Isshin Kurosaki widened his eyes. "Ohh my son you come to me presenting a mighty blade!! You challenge me to a duel to the death.. oh Masaki… our son has grown into such a violent man!"

"I accept your challenge my son" Isshin grabbed a spatula and leveled it in front of his son. "On guard Ichigo!!"

Ichigo stared in disbelief at his father. "N-nani!! What are you doing you nutcase!"

Isshin lunged at Ichigo who side stepped and he crashed into a cabinet smashing through it.

"Oh I have been defeated and so easily. "My son, I am proud to have fathered such a strong warrior… I am prepared, finish me off."

Ichigo closed his eyes and a vein bulging on his head "I just came to give you back your stupid knife baka"

He tossed it in the sink and walked back down the hall.

Isshin closed his eyes and opened them again wide as tears streamed down in rivers "oh Masaki!! Our son is such a merciful warrior to spare a defeated opponent!"

As Ichigo was passing the living room he spotted the phone lying there. He shrugged might as well get it out of the way.

He picked it up and headed back to his room.

He walked over to his closet. "Oiy Rukia, come out the closet already!" "After all we all know you like girls." He muttered.

Ichigo reached up to tenderly rub the large set of bumps on his head as Rukia stood over him sporting a broken wooden Sword. She looked at him killing intent shooting of the scale. "What was that ichigo?"

The orange haired boy chuckled nervously. "Ah.. um.. Nothing I just need to get some stuff out of my closet."

Rukia narrowed her eyes.. fine then I need to get out to get some air anyway!"

She split from her gigai and into Shinigami form and hopped out of his window.

Ichigo sighed and rubbed his head as he reached into his closet to pull out some dusty boxes. "Now let's see it should be in here somewhere."

He searched through several boxes before finding what he was looking for. An extra dusty box smaller than the rest contained some of his childhood stuff. From back when his mom was alive.

He searched through some of his old sparring gloves he'd used when training with Tatsuki and then he found some terrible drawings he'd made as a 5 year old. "Oh shit he'd never live it down if Rukia ever saw them.. even as bad as she was her stuff looked like DiVinici compared to him.

Past all that he found a small folder. Old. He blew dust off of it. Then he opened it up. "let'see here.." turning a few pages he found what he was looking for circled in red was a faded number.

Ichigo shook his head damn I can't read the last number is that a seven or a one... he took a guess and dialed.

It rang a few times before a female voice answered.

"Hello goddess assistance agency this is Urd I'm filling in for the current operator since she's.. ahh… detained.. now can I have your information and I'll be right with you for your wish.

Ichigo blinked in confusion. "Wish uh.. you're crazy lady."

He pressed the power button terminating the phone call just before Yaggdrisil had a chance to trace the call and so Urd was left blinking in confusion before narrowing her eyes and screaming "Well what the hell was that!!"

Meanwhile Ichigo scratched out the possibility of a seven so it must be one. He dialed again.

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Tatsumaki was lazily lounging on the couch watching American idol re runs. "Go William you rock dawg I'm sooo voting for you!" "Or like, I would've but it's a re run so I guess it'd be kinda stupid.. but I don't care you're still cool!"

Tatsumaki had naturally brown hair she had died certain streaks blonde and had lighter blonde highlights. She kept it bunched up in a spike braid. She had sky blue eyes and tapered chin.

Her bust was close to D but probably still the C's… but she was only 17 so it was understandable since she was still growing. She had on a black Bandanna keeping her braid in place. And a white bikini top revealing her belly button rings one holding a red ruby like stone.

She also wore a pair of cut off jean shorts and at the moment while lounging in her apartment she was barefoot with a toe ring on her second to last toe.

She picked up the phone to dial American idol just as it rang. "Huh well that's weird.. I don't recognize the area code.. hmm"

She pressed the talk button and pressed the receiver to her ear. "Hello?"

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"Hey uh.. Tatsumaki.. he.. it's been awhile and I know you probably don't remember me but uh.. well this is kinda embarrassing.."

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"Uh. Sorry I don't think I know anyone from japan.. but you know my name so I'm guessing I musta met you before.."

"What you look like so I can make a picture?"

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Ichigo sighed. "Ah well I have orange hai-"

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"Icky!! Oh, My. Gosh. I cannot believe you're calling me.. like you haven't called in like… forever!"

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"H-hai ahh gomen.." Ichigo's eye twitched. He'd always hated that nickname she used American spelling to pronounce his name ich meaning ick so Ickigo or icky for short. "So um Tatsumaki ah.. I was wondering if you could do me a small favor."

"See I'm supposed to have been corresponding with a pen pal from America."

"Is there any way you could write some fake letters and mail them here to make it look like we've been doin the pen pal thing?"

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"Awww Icky, I'm hurt is that the only reason you called to ask for a favor.. that's soo mean.."

"Heh.. anyway you shouldn't try to weasel out of school like that if you didn't do the work you should take responsibility for it." "Besides I didn't know you lived in Japan.. I mean who in Japan has orange hair?"

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Ichigo chuckled nervously. "Ah n-no I didn't just call you for that.. if I had wanted to do that I coulda just called someone else I called you because I just figured we could chat some."

"But eh.. you.. are gonna help me right?"

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Tatsumaki rolled her eyes "Duh."

"But since you asked it's been so crazy.. like after camp we tried to get Terrance to go fishing but he didn't even wanna go near the water. Oh and the counselor with the apple.. the health nut.. yeah.. he is soo fat now.. and then you stopped coming to camp. You missed a lot. Oh last year me and Kiro were counselors.

"Hah we got kicked out for being 'irresponsible' .. oh it was soo funny the look on the old lady's face when we won the food fight.. Kiro was all like.."

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Ichigo was surprised. On one hand it was annoying to listen to her ramble for hours but at the same time he was genuinely curious what they'd been up to.

For several summers he'd go to summer camp and the only kids that would hang out with him were Kiro and Tatsumaki. They were his best friends in America. Even when he returned to Japan he'd still kept in touch with them but as he got older slowly.. he lost contact.

The last trip to the camp his dad had gone along and taken them fishing. He had said goodbye to Masaki's friend and to give Ichigo a chance to say goodbye to his friends.

The final meeting was definitely one to remember. Y'see like Ichigo Tatsumaki and Kiro were spiritually aware also. They didn't think he was weird because he tried to help ghosts and they would join in and help him sometimes themselves.

But.. they were always stronger. Emotionally at the very least. Before Ichigo had last his mother he had been a very soft kid. They had watched his back at camp several times.

He owed them a lot and Tatsumaki, especially was understanding when his mom died he actually confided in her a lot and both knew that the stuff he'd told her would never be told to anyone else.

It was good to hear from them again even if it was a little irritating to her banter, her voice and even her mannerisms hadn't changed much.

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Tatsumaki kept the phone to her ear using her shoulder while walking over to check her calendar. "Yeah me and Kiro had been wondering about you.."

"Oh hey I got a crazy idea.. "Your break is starting soon right?"

"Cause we got 2 weeks off starting next week.. we were talking about going somewhere for vacation but didn't have any ideas.."

"Well what if we came to visit you?" I could turn in the letters to you personally and plus we could hang out for a week or two."

Oh ok karakura huh.. ok I'll like mapquest it or something.. cool ok keep in touch.. I'll let you know when we set up a date or something ok.. g'night."

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Ichigo blinked a few times. "So they're coming to visit huh.. well it'll be nice to see'em again but since they can see spirits it's gonna be interesting hiding my Shinigami powers from them."

Just then Isshin Kurosaki burst through the door and drop kicked Ichigo knocking him to the ground. He grabbed the phone before it could fall after being released by Ichigo and with his other hand he pointed accusingly at Rukia's gigai. "My son what have you done!!! Have you cut the fragile string of this girls life!?"

Ichigo sat up balling his hands into fists. "Hell no she just um.. dammit it's not what it looks like!"

Isshin fell to his knees oh Masaki our son has committed murder, I have fallen in my duties as a father!!"

Ichigo slapped his forehead muttering "Ohh this is gonna be a long night"

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Tatsumaki walked silently up behind Kiro . he was standing on a bridge supporter high above the passing cars underneath.

She was dressed in white sneakers and her jean shorts with a large hooded sweatshirt half zipped up.

She stopped exactly 3 paces behind him without making a sound.

Kiro opened his eyes. "Sup?"

Tatsumaki spoke slowly choosing her words carefully. "I got an.. interesting phone call today."

Kiro looked back at her out of the corner of his eye. "Oh?"

Tatsumaki nodded. "Kurosaki Ichigo."

Kiro nodded "I see."

She put her hands in the pockets of her baggy sweatshirt. "I told him we'd decided to pay him a visit for spring break."

Kiro smirked. "Hm.. Kurosaki.. eh this should be fun."

Tatsumaki looked over the sky. "And what of the Quincy?"

Kiro sighed "It's already begun" "Those pompous idiots in Soul Society have no idea.. it's so pathetic it's funny.. even a insect like Sosuke Aizen has become aware of it before the mighty ruler of the final gate.."

Tatsumaki nodded. "Is there any possibility we can simply visit without any incidents taking place?"

Kiro sighed running a hand through his spiked back hair. "Unlikely, at the rate this is going down.. We'll probably have to reveal our true nature to Ichigo.. if we are to help him survive this."

Tatsumaki closed her eyes. "Understood."

Note: yay infamous got bored again.. anyway I been watch a lot of bleach hehe.. I know about the Orihime getting kidnapped thing but I haven't read about it in the manga just seen up to episode 110 or so in the anime so that's what I'm workin with.

As for the spoiler.. well I don't want people who see my author alert go off and try to read a story about a anime they know nothing about so I made sure to go over the whole strpoy pretty much up the point where I am so everyone knows what's goin on. And I worked it into the actual story with the freedom writers thing.

I released the next chapter of BP to keep yall sated while I work on this for a bit.. anyway good idea or two so I figured ah what the heck I'll write it. So this is the beginning of my attempt at a bleach fic. Like all my others it'll; prolly be epic length if I ever finish it so.

Anyway review and let me know what u think sux, like it ect.

Pace.