Author's note: This has been in the backburner for a while, ever since I started reading Bleach again a month or two ago. I was originally going to post this when I finish an entire longer chapter of drabbles (I'd planned on 2, maybe 3 chapters or arcs), but I got stuck on one in the middle. I thought if I started posting them slowly one by one it'll get me started back up again. And then I might actually remember why I wanted to write this in the first place. I swore I had a plot in mind. This is AU from chapter 423, in case it wasn't clear from the summary. GEN, no pairing for the foreseable future, but I might change my mind later. Title subject to change if I ever find a better one.

Kurosaki Ichigo was dead. Five years, two months and sixteen days after he'd won over Aizen with the Saigo no Getsuga Tensho.

Ichigo was a protector. That had never changed and will never change. It was in his name, in every fibre of his being. So when he saw a little boy on the road about to get hit by a speeding car he didn't even hesitate. The next time he woke up it was to clear blue skies above him and the hard ground below him in Rukongai. He was alone. After a cursory look around him, he flopped back onto the ground, draping an arm over his eyes.

"Sorry Goat-chin. You told me to live well, age well, go bald well, die after you and die laughing. Guess I only got one out of five..."

Despite what everyone else thought, Ichigo was actually pretty okay with losing his powers. He'd been (mostly) normal once upon a time, and going back to it hadn't been as completely awful as everyone had made it to be. (Of course it HURT, there was hole in his world but it was hardly the first and wallowing extensively in self-pity was one of the most useless things to do and he'd learned that real early in his life.) He didn't regret using the Final Getsuga Tensho one bit. All he ever wanted was to protect his friends, and he had succeeded in doing exactly that. Besides, they were all strong enough to protect themselves now, and each other too.

What he couldn't stand however were the whispers, the nervous sideways glances and the looks of pity directed at him. He may have lost his Shinigami powers but it didn't mean he was deaf, dumb and blind, damnit! (And the almost never-ending parade of thugs and wanna-be yakuzas looking to pick a fight kept him in fine physical HUMAN form.)

So right after finishing high school, he'd moved away from Karakura, keeping contact with his old friends only through occasional emails and phone calls. It was just easier that way for all of them. Ichigo's marks in high school had been good enough to get him a scholarship in a college away from Karakura. Not having to worry about madman with aspirations of godhood and murderous monsters out to eat his soul had done wonders for his class rankings. (The look on Ishida's face when he'd beaten him for the top spot in the mid-term exam rankings had been hilarious and remained one of Ichigo's fondest memories.)

He missed Zangetsu of course but it wasn't like they were separated forever. Zangetsu was and still is a part of him after all and Ichigo was sure that one day sooner or later he'd have his Zanpakuto's comforting weight back in his hands. (He wouldn't admit it under torture, but some days he even missed the damn hollow.)