Waking Up the Devil Chapter 1: What You Gonna Do, a bleach fanfic

Have you ever had a dream that you don't remember but something about it just keeps tickling that back of your mind? That's the feeling I keep getting with this new story. The inspiration for this came from the album All American Nightmare by Hinder

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach; its characters, or any of the lyrics. Sucks though.

What You Gonna Do by Hinder

Prologue: What You Gonna Do

I'm livin life with no regrets they're on their way but ain't here yet, I just left Las Vegas in bad bad shape, I only call home if I get a chance, Every other night a new romance, Wake up in time to miss the day, Now I'm talkin to the man in the mirror, And I think I heard him say

What you gonna do, When the whiskey ain't workin no more, Life don't feel like before, What you gonna do, What you gonna do, When the ride ain't climbin no more, Nobodies beatin down your door, What you gonna do

Ichigo sat in his office looking around at the years of memories trying to drown him. He reached over and pulled the bottle of Jack Daniels, ignoring the empty glass in front of him he tipped the bottle and gulped down the harsh liquid. His entire goal in life at that moment was to get so drunk he either passed out or died from alcohol poisoning. Turning his chair he looked out the two way mirror at the club floor not really seeing it, his eyes drawn to the dark haired girl behind the bar talking to a busty orange haired customer. The two women turned and looked toward the mirror as if they could tell he was watching them. The dark girl had a familiar scowl on her face that caused him to smile a little sadly; his sister was so much like him. The orange haired woman made him almost want to puke up the bottle of Jack, she looked concerned but he knew that the look was a front. His girlfriend made a move to get up but was stopped by Karin who wore a stormy expression and he could tell his sister was laying into the woman again.

I'm still closing down these streets, I'm high enough to make believe, That I ain't ever gonna hit the ground, The one that got away from me, Every now and then she calls to see, If I'm alive or plan to settle down, Well I called her drunk last night, And I think I heard her say

Ichigo leaned back and let his mind drift again, 'Orihime, why did I call her last night?' he thought to himself. She was just another one of the long string of fucked up things that had happened recently. Ichigo had graduated college early and had taken a year off to go to America and study the way they ran their clubs there. He had been there for eight months when he got a call from his sister Yuzu, their father had been killed when the bank he was at got robbed. He had taken the first flight home, thanking god he was in Las Vegas since the west coast of America was closer to Japan it wouldn't take as long to get home. The next month had been a blur of activity Ichigo took care of the funeral arrangements, met with the lawyers about the will and Isshin's assets, took care of his sisters, and fielded all the family and friends that insisted on sticking around. During all of this craziness Ichigo's long time girlfriend had stuck by his side, or so he thought. Ichigo noticed that Orihime was getting sick a lot and that she had started to gain weight. Ichigo wasn't dumb and he had his suspicions about what she had been up to while he had been gone.

It had taken about a month to get all of Isshin's assets turned over to him and his sisters. Ichigo had decided to let them keep the house and the cars; the only thing he wanted was his father's club, the Kurosaki Clinic. Ichigo had called all of the staff in for a meeting to go over the changes in management and to get to know the people that had been hired why he was gone. Orihime had accompanied him to that first staff meeting and that's when he knew his suspicions were well founded.

Ichigo had gone into the office to retrieve the personnel records and stopped to look out at the group through the two way mirror and saw Orihime approach a tall thin dark haired boy that Ichigo vaguely recognized from high school. Orihime wrapped her arms around the man's thin waist and leaned in to kiss him, the man smiled and leaned back after a second placing his hand on the girls abdomen with a side grin. Ichigo thought he was gonna be sick, he was surprised that he didn't feel hurt that she had cheated on him but rather that she had betrayed his trust in her as a friend. He had known the strawberry blond since middle school and had been seeing her since their senior year of high school. With a scowl fixed on his face he returned to the club floor where the dozen or so staff members sat waiting for him. Taking a seat in front of the group he began the long process of establishing himself as the new owner and boss.

"Okay everyone, most of you know me for those that don't I am Kurosaki Ichigo, Isshin's son. While I know that we are all affected deeply by the loose of my father I refuse to let his beloved club close. I am more than capable of running this place, I have worked here since I was 16 and I have a masters in Business Management. If any of you object to working for me I will accept your resignations now." Ichigo paused to let his words sink in and see if anyone would walk out, when no one spoke up he continued, "I have worked with most of you before but there are a lot of new faces here that I am not familiar with, over the next week I will be taking the time to meet with all of you individually to get acquainted or reacquainted with you. The club will open its doors again in two days; I have the schedules here for all of you including your time to meet with me. Does anyone have any questions? No, okay then come get your schedules and those that are meeting with me today stick around." Ichigo handed out the schedules, told the three that were meeting with him to have a drink and reentered his office to get ready to come face to face with the dark haired man.

The first two employees were ones that had worked for his father since the club opened when he was 15, eight years ago. Hirako Shinji and Madarame Ikkaku were both long time friends of his family and their interviews passed quickly and no changes were made to their employment status. Shinji was still in charge of entertainment and Ikkaku still kept his position has head of security. The dark haired man finally entered his office and took a seat; Ichigo glanced at him as he pulled his personnel file. "Hello, your Ishida Uryuu correct." The man nodded pushing his glasses back up his nose. "It says here you were hired by my father six months ago as a floor manager. Your record over the past six months leaves something to be desired," Ichigo said looking at the papers in front of him. He had decided that he would deal with this man on a strictly professional level, he couldn't afford for his personal feeling to affect the club. However the man was a piss poor manager and there was an abundance of documented evidence to support the claim. "I have never worked with you so I will give you the benefit of the doubt, you have one month to prove to me that you can do this job competently or you will be demoted or possibly let go."

Uryuu stared at his high school class mate with a slightly shocked expression. "I wasn't aware that Isshin felt that I wasn't performing to standard. Would you mind telling me what he felt my short comings were so that I may improve upon them?"

"According to your file it says that you have poor people skills, are easily distracted by friends that come by, and are unable to deal with violence on the floor without involving the head of security. As the floor manager you should be able to defuse any volatile situations that arise without relying on Ikkaku and his staff. If you have friends coming into the club that's fine but you need to do your job, if they are too much of a distraction I will either ban them or fire you. People skills are gonna be a hard one for you, I remember you from high school, and you have always been a quiet person that didn't deal with people if you didn't have to. Which makes me wonder why you are working in a club as a manager?"

"My father thought that it would be a good growing experience, he used his friendship with Isshin to help me get an interview and your father hired me. I am still in college so the hours are good for me and Isshin allowed me to work on my assignments here during my breaks and slow times."

"Ok, fair enough. One month Uryuu, show me that you can do the job or you won't have it anymore. Are we clear on this?"

"Yes sir."

Ichigo left the club and drove Orihime home, not saying anything to the perplexed girl. He was too tired to deal with the situation at the moment. "I'm tired; I'm going home to sleep. I'll call you tomorrow." Orihime nodded and when she tried to kiss him he turned his head so she kissed his cheek. She frowned as she got out of the car, did he already know? She had to call Uryuu and find out how their meeting went.

I can't sleep and I can't hide, Cause the voices inside my head, Are getting louder getting louder every night

I'm livin life with no regrets, They're on their way, But ain't here yet

It had been a few weeks since that staff meeting and Ichigo saw no improvement in his floor manager. He did however notice that the distraction that had been noted in his file was limited to Orihime. She was shameless in her flirting with the man and they both seemed clueless to the other members of the staff giving them death glares. Ichigo had taken to drinking whiskey on nights when his emotions got the better of him, locking himself in the office and letting Ikkaku and Shinji run things. Neither man ever said anything about it, they both knew that Ichigo was hurting bad over the loss of his father and the betrayal of his girlfriend. What neither one of them could understand was how he was still with the girl. Only Karin knew the story, Ichigo would not break up with her until after Uryuu's month trial period was over to ensure that there wasn't any appearance of personal agenda involved. Karin had started working there a few days ago, she bartended part time to help out and to get away from it all. The customers loved her, she was blunt and crude but she had grown into a drop dead gorgeous woman and had a flair for bartending.

Ichigo groaned as his cell phone rang pulling out of his drunken funk, looking at the id he smiled a little. Flipping it open he thought about how long it had been since he had seen his old friend.

"Hey," he slurred.

"Are you drunk?"

"Well nice to hear from you too, asshole. What's up?"

"I'm back in town. Me, Grimm, and Uli got in last night and we wanna come see you. You at the club?"

"Yeah, come on by. I'm in the office when you get here ask for Ikkaku at the door he'll bring you up."

"Cool see you soon, oh and berry, sober up or I'm gonna let Grimm pound you into the ground."

"Fuck off, see you soon." Ichigo smiled as he dialed Ikkaku. After a few rings the man's voice finally came across the line sounding very put out.

"Hey Ichi what's up?"

Ichigo frowned and looked through the mirror again finding Ikkaku standing with Uryuu and two very pissed off looking customers. "Hey what's the deal down there?"

"I got it handled boss no worries," Ikkaku drawled in a slightly strained voice.

"If you say so, I've got some old friends comin by. I told them to ask for you at the door so you can bring them up. You can give me the full story when you do." Ichigo hung up without waiting for an answer from the bald man. Leaning back again he watched the scene as Ikkaku diffused what was probably a less than volatile situation. He got up and unlocked his door and called his sister at the bar, asking her to bring up a large black coffee and a bottle of water when she got a chance.