My name is Ichigo Kurosaki. For as long as I could remember I've been able to see ghosts. I stopped thinking it was weird long ago. Now I just know not to talk about it to others outside of my family. Besides it's not like seeing ghosts has ever gotten me into trouble.

This is the story of how that changed for me. It all started on a normal day, then there was an unexpected arrival at my home. These people dragged me into a world.I never knew existed, and while this may sound strange, next started the best year of my life.

Ichigo Kurosaki was not what most people would consider normal. For starters he had natural orange hair despite being Japanese. Maybe he had some European history, like an ancestor from Germany or someplace. He participated in no extracurricular activities, and was prone to getting into fights at school. And that was ignoring his most personal secret.

'No respect for the dead. Wonder what they'd do if it was their memorial.' He thought, still a little miffed at some hooligans desecrating a memorial for a dead girl while the dead girl's spirit was right there.

Sure the hooligans didn't see the ghost, but he could. And that was reason enough for him to make it his business.

"Excuse me, but why did you attack those guys?" A brunette girl asked, having seen the beatdown.

Ichigo didn't recognize the girl at all, and since she wasn't dressed in his school uniform he doubted she went there anyway. Quite possibly someone from another part of Tokyo who just happened to be here. "See that?" He asked, pointing to a flower vase next to a post that had been knocked over and broken. Above it was a small photo of a young girl, tapped to the post.

"A girl died there sometime ago." The brunette noted. "And those guys almost ruined it?"

Ichigo nodded. "Let's just say I have little tolerance for those that disrespect the dead."

"I can respect that. Sorry for butting in." The girl said, then walked away. Feeling better, Ichigo did the same.

Later on with his home in sight, the teen chose to push these thoughts out of his minds and simply relax.

"I'm home." He said when he opened the door to the residence portion of the clinic that was the family business.

"Ichigo!" The loud excited voice of his father Isshin Kurosaki boomed, and not for the first time was accompanied by a physical attack that hopefully was intended to be more playful than it looked.

Since this sadly wasn't an uncommon occurrence, Ichigo was prepared to get out of the strike zone.

"What was that?" A horrified girl's voice asked, one that did not belong to one of Ichigo's sisters.

He looked up and saw that apparently he had two guests in his home, sitting on the couch. One of which he recognized. "Sakura? What brings you here? And where's Tatsuki or Orihime?"

"They're not here. This isn't just a simple visit." His classmate replied. This was Sakura Mamiya, a classmate of his. Not a real friend but more of an associate by association, since she was friends with his old martial arts buddy Tatsuki Arisawa and their mutual companion Orihime Inoue. She was similar to him in that she didn't really socialize much, but she at least never got into fights.

And next to her was a boy with red hair and wearing an old jumpsuit. He wore the same kind of expression Ichigo always wore, like he had never been taught how to smile.

"Hey, aren't you the new guy in class?" Ichigo asked, not remembering his name.

The boy nodded. "Rinne Rokudo."

"You've been missing a lot of classes."

Rinne showed no signs of regret at that. "I have bigger priorities."

"Which is part of why I asked him to come here." Sakura said. "You see, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but Rinne is homeless."

"How terrible." Yuzu, one of Ichigo's younger sisters, said. In her hands was a small black kitten that she was petting. It looked rather content to remain there.

"No offense, but how is this any of our business?" Karin, the other sister, asked, sounding more apathetic than she may have intended to.

Sakura looked surprised to hear that. "He's your cousin. How can you say it's none of your business?"

"Cousin?" Ichigo, Yuzu, and Karin asked together.

Sakura blinked. "You didn't know?"

"Perhaps I should explain." Isshin said, walking towards the young group peacefully, as if his earlier assault never happened. "You see kids, I was adopted as a kid, and that gave me a brother that for reasons you're better off not knowing about. All I'll say is there's a reason I never bring him up. But Rinne is that man's son."

"So why is he homeless?" Karin asked.

"I'm not homeless. I've got a place to stay." Rinne insisted.

"But it's not a healthy place to live. There's no heating, no water, and technically you're not even allowed to be there. If you're caught you'll truly be homeless." Sakura reprimanded.

"You make it sound like he's sleeping in a shed or something." Karin commented.

Sakura did not respond, choosing to respect Rinne's pride a bit on this. If she could avoid spilling the truth that he pretty much was sleeping in a shed she would.

"Did something happen to Otou-san and Okaa-san?" Isshin asked.

"Jii-san has passed on and Baa-san has been forced to move back to her old home. She can't afford to support us both so I was trying to spare her the trouble." Rinne admitted.

"You lived with our grandparents?" Yuzu asked. "Did they give you this cute kitty?"

"Baa-san did. And yes." Rinne replied.

"What about your father?" Karin asked.

Rinne and Isshin both gained sour expressions. "You know what my old man did the day I was born?" Rinne asked with some resentment in his voice.

Isshin nodded. "Yeah, Okaa-san told me. She said he came to her like he wanted to show off his new son, but once she took you in her arms he ran off shouting 'He's your problem now!' and never looked back."

Everyone except Rinne was shocked to hear this. "You're kidding right?" Ichigo asked.

Isshin only gave his serious face, to better emphasize his disapproval. "Sabato had always been the kind of boy to shirk any form of responsibility and I do mean any. It got really annoying and downright intolerable when he started stealing from everyone including family to pawn it. But to me he truly crossed the line when he actually stole Masako's engagement ring."

"He what?!" Ichigo, Yuzu, and Karin asked loudly, making the kitten jump out of Yuzu's arms.

Isshin nodded. "I never got it back for her. Since then I've refused to have anything to do with him. And to this day I have to change our account passwords to prevent him from hacking him on a weekly basis."

"Surely he has his good points." Sakura suggested.

"The guy's a one man yakuza. I swear if it wasn't for the fact that Masako was able to kick his ass so many times he'd still be trying to show up and rob us blind." Isshin said bitterly. "But enough about that. Rinne needs a place to stay?"

"I have a place." Rinne insisted.

"Without any proper necessities and frankly it's only a matter of time until someone other than me knows where it is and tells you to leave." Sakura added.

"That settles it. Rinne is staying here." Isshin insisted.

"Just like that?" He asked.

"As long as you don't rob us. One thing around here goes missing and I'm kicking your ass." Isshin threatened.

Ichigo scoffed. "Oh please. The only way you can even get a hit on me is by catching me by surprise."

"And why were you even attacking your son in the first place?" Sakura asked, horrified by that scene she had seen.

"Long story short, I had to kick Sabato's ass a few times myself, and I'm still concerned that he will try to sneak in here. Guess you could say it's a force of habit."

"That's why I only ever enter here from the clinic entrance." Karin noted. "He wouldn't dare risk attacking someone like that with witnesses."

"Plus I think all the alien activity has got him paranoid." Yuzu added.

"Oh please, not that again." Karin, the expert in denial, denied.

"Haven't you seen all the footage of UFOs? What about the official reports? I'm even told there are some living in Tokyo."

Karin rolled her eyes. "Same policy I have with ghosts, I'm not convinced."

"But you actually see ghosts." The lighter-haired twin claimed.

"That doesn't mean I believe they're real." Karin stated.

"What's this about ghosts?" Sakura asked. Rinne looked interested too.

"Oh that's an interesting story." Isshin said with a grin. "This place used to be a mortuary, but I repurposed it into a clinic long ago. However, it appears sometimes we get an occasional ghost. And as a result of growing up here my kids can see them all the time."

"Not me." Yuzu corrected. "I actually just see blurs and hear whispers. It's Karin and Ichi-nii that see and hear them clearly."

"And thank you so much for blabbing about it Yuzu." Karin said sarcastically.

Sakura and Rinne looked to Ichigo then shared a look between themselves. Ichigo was certain they were judging him.

"We can convert the guest room into something for Rinne." Yuzu pointed out, changing the subject. "He can bring his stuff here tomorrow."

"If we hurry we could probably get it done tonight." Sakura mentioned.

"You may be right."

"If you insist, save it for after dinner." Yuzu requested. "We're having tonkatsu and oden."

Rinne and the black cat perked up, their interest sealed.

After dinner Rinne, Sakura, and the black cat left to get what few possessions the redhead boy had to his name. Rinne declined help, as Sakura was more than enough to assist him and he didn't really want them to see where he had been sleeping and feel sorry for them more.

Ichigo, in his own room now, could understand that. He could tell just from looking at his apparent cousin that Rinne and him had a lot in common. Both were distant from others but not because of attitude problems, rather as a point of pride. Ichigo hated being pitied, as the older brother of three and because he blamed himself for his mother's death he couldn't stand to have people think that he was incapable of being his true namesake, a strong single guardian. He was okay with being hassled as long as he wasn't pitied.

Rinne was likely the same. He was currently in a situation where pity was the only thing people could give him. Had Sakura not somehow found his family he would stay wherever he was until he had no choice not to.

"That reminds me, I got to talk to that girl about how she found us. Maybe Tatsuki had a hand in it?" He muttered to himself.

Then something caught his eyes, making him stop his train of thought. A black butterfly had somehow found its way into his room, and the windows were closed. It went to a wall and a large shadow appeared. From that shadow emerged a young woman with short black hair and a old fashioned black kimono set. And if that wasn't weird enough, she had a sword strapped to her waist and she looked like she wasn't even aware he was in the room.

"It's near." She said quietly to herself, walking around his room.

'I'm not putting up with this.' Ichigo said to himself, getting up and kicking this woman in the rear. Caught by surprise she stumbled and fell flat on her face. "Who the hell are you? What are you here to steal?"

The woman gave him a very surprised look. "You can see me?"

"You weren't even trying to hide. How stupid do you think I am?" Ichigo argued.

"Just my luck, I end up in a house with a sighted person." The woman groaned, getting up.

"You were expecting blind people to live here?" Ichigo asked.

"No, perhaps this will make it clear to you. I'm a shinigami. You shouldn't be able to see or hear or touch me. The fact that you can makes you a rare case among living people."

'Okay, this chick's crazier than Orihime on a sugar high.' Ichigo thought. "And you expect me to just believe this?"

The girl pointed her right index and middle fingers together at the strawberry blonde boy. "Bakudo Number One: Sai!" Next thing he knew, he couldn't move.

"What the heck?" He asked, struggling against invisible binds that he could feel but not see. The girl then kicked him as payback and stepped him into the floor.

"Little up mortal, I've got a job to do. And since you insist on getting in my way I have to keep you tied up like this. Now, just stay here and if I'm still in a good mood later I'll release you when I'm done as opposed to letting it fade away naturally." She warned, with an expression of mirth.

"What job?"

"What do you think a shinigami's job is?" She asked back. "I'm searching for a departed spirit. It's near here, but now I can't sense it anymore. It's like it's thrown up a filter over it's reiatsu."

"Well I can tell you there's no ghost around here. Believe me I would have seen one." Ichigo stated.

"Hmm..." The shinigami said as if thinking. "How long have you been able to see ghosts?"

"All my life. Why?"

"Yet you've never seen a shinigami before. Have you ever actually been instructed in how things work and why normal humans can't see spirits?"

"I admit I have wondered, but who would I ask?" Ichigo asked rhetorically.

"Well, since I can't sense the spirit, I'll take the time to explain it to you. That way if we cross paths again you'll do the sensible thing and leave me to my work." The shinigami started. "There is an energy called reishi, and it creates the spiritual version of body heat which is called reiatsu. When you sense a ghost what you're really sensing is their reiatsu. Usually humans are blind to it, in the same way how you can't perceive ultraviolet light. But occasionally a human can perceive it, like you. Usually a human is born to this or is exposed to a strong source of reishi for a sufficient time. In your case I'd say it's the first one, meaning the second one happened to one of your parents."

'It had to be Kaa-san. There's no way it happened to Tou-san.' Ichigo concluded. "So what does that mean for me?"

"Mean? Why should it mean anything to you? It just means something happened to your parents that had an effect on you and as a result you can perceive reishi and entities that emit reishi. This doesn't mean anything, it just is this way for you." She said. "Did you think your ability meant you were special or something? You'd be surprised how more common this condition is then you'd think."

She looked around. "Now, like you I should be able to sense some reiatsu around, but that filter is still interfering."

There was a loud almost animalistic roar outside that made Ichigo tense up, but the shinigami didn't react at all. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"There's no way you couldn't have heard that. It was like there was an elephant in the streets." He insisted.

"You must be-" She started, but stopped when there was another roar, and this time she heard it. 'There is a noise, but it's muffled. Is the filter affecting my ears too? How is this hollow able to do that? And why could this human hear it before I could?'

Ichigo might not have been able to move his arms, but he could move his legs, and carefully made himself get upright. "I have to warn my family." He struggled to get out of his room.

"You stay here. You can't do anything regarding this entity." The shinigami told him.

"You expect me to just sit here and do nothing when there's some kind of monster outside?" Ichigo argued. "Undo this spell of yours!"

She ignored him and went outside his room. As soon as she did the filter was down and the reiatsu of her prey hit her all of a sudden, almost overwhelming her due to the sheer shock value. 'The reiatsu is now in full force. Does this mean the hollow wasn't hiding itself? Something else must have been obstructing my senses. Is there a second hollow around?'

Ichigo pushed past her and went into the hall, struggling to stay balanced and not fall on the floor again. When he got downstairs, the first thing he saw was his sister Karin hurt on the floor, bleeding a little above her right eye like she had been hit. "Ichigo..." She groaned.

"What happened?" He asked.

"We heard a wall break in the clinic. Tou-san went to check and screamed. Yuzu and I went to check and saw him covered in blood. Yuzu's being attacked by some giant creature. She and Tou-san couldn't see it. I tried to get to you, but it hit me too. Try to call for help."

Karin then closed her eyes, as if napping. That didn't comfort the teen boy at all.

"Relax, she's not dead." The shinigami said, appearing by him. "The spirit's still in the body. Now do you see why I said to stay here?"

Ichigo glared at her. "My family is being attacked, and rather than do something about it or release me you're standing there trying to prove a point?" With that he yelled and struggled against his bindings, trying to break himself free.

"Stop what you're doing!" The shinigami ordered. "You can't break a kido with mere human power. If you try, your soul will-"

And against the odds, the bindings around the strawberry blonde shattered. The shinigami was speechless. Freed, Ichigo ran into the portion of the building that was the clinic. He saw some wrecked furniture, dents in the walls, and his unconscious father, bleeding but still alive. Then he saw a hole in the wall, and a silhouette of a large hunched being outside the building. Ichigo turned on the light to better see, and once he did the silhouette turned into an amphibious creature with a white skull-like face, streaks down the body, and a huge hole in the chest that would kill any normal lifeform.

"What the heck is that?" He asked himself. "She said it was a departed spirit so I was expecting something like a human. But this is a monster."

He was shaken up by this unfamiliar thing, but he stopped cold when he saw it had Yuzu clutched in its hands. She had a cut on her cheek but that was the only visible injury, and she was still conscious.

"Yuzu!" Ichigo called out.

She turned her worried eyes towards him. "Ichi-nii...?" Her tone was pleaded, but she sounded afraid, like she didn't know whether or not to ask for help or tell him to save himself.

Ichigo made the choice for her. He chose to help, running towards the creature despite having no weapons or idea of what to do here. All he knew was his little sister was in trouble and that was all he needed to know. The creature made a fist with its free hand and threw a fist at him, hitting him from the side and making him skid across the ground, ending up on the street outside his family's property. Luckily no one was around so there wasn't a panic.

Ichigo tried to get up, and that was when the creature tried to crush him with the fist that was holding Yuzu. It was forced to stop, by two thins hitting it. The first was the shinigami, sword unsheathed, and slicing into the creature's arm below the elbow. The second was something Ichigo didn't get a good look at since it was from behind the beast and looked like a white blur to him.

The shinigami severed the arm, allowing Yuzu to go free. Ichigo immediately moved to catch her, succeeding in doing so. "Yuzu! You okay Yuzu!"

Someone came running up to him. "We're not too late are we?"

Ichigo looked and was really surprised. "Sakura? What are you doing here?"

"We were bringing Rinne's stuff here, remember?" She asked, then looked to the creature for a moment. "Though we didn't expect this to be here."

"You can see it too?" He asked.

"Long story short, yes I can see ghosts. Right now that's not the issue." The braided girl said, looking like she was looking for something. "Rinne?!"

The creature was frozen, and from behind it stood Rinne, but now he wore a white haori with yellow flames and red rings sewn decorating it. In his hands were some ofuda and a dagger. "What is it Sakura?" He called back without looking.

"What kind of ghost is this?" She asked.

"What are you doing?" The shinigami girl yelled. "I'm the shinigami stationed in Karakura!"

"Who said I'm stationed here? I just live here." Rinne stated. "Now if you don't mind let me make one last adjustment then you can kill this and we can split the bounty."

"You go away! This is my assignment!" She continued to yell.

Rinne ignored her, jumping up onto the creatures back and putting his last ofuda on it. "There, it's motionless for another thirty seconds. Put your sword to use and kill it."

"Hold on a minute buster. Who are you and why are you interfering?" The girl continued to ask.

"Fine, I'm Rinne Rokudo. And you are?"

"What squad are you with?"

"Squad? Oh, you're one of those rich shinigami that got to afford certified training and those magic swords. Nope I'm one of those shinigami your kind all call bumpkins and bottomfeeders." Rinne said, sounding a bit offended.

"You understand any of this?" Ichigo asked Sakura.

"Not as much as I wish I did."

The creature then started to twitch, then flexed and roared like it had been unleashed, knocking Rinne off the back.

"Oh great, you took too long and now I'll have to buy more of the paralysis seals." He complained.

"We got bigger problems than resupplying!" The girl yelled, only for the creature to hit her from behind with enough force to send her flying. In doing so she smacked into Rinne and the both of them crashed into a streetside wall.

"Rinne!" Sakura yelled, concerned and ran to her classmate. Ichigo couldn't help but follow. Sakura helped Rinne lean up. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I don't know. I don't have any weapons for something of this scale, and I don't have a way to lead or force it to the spirit road." He groaned.

"I could fight it off, but my body's too sore to move right now." The female shinigami added, then looked to Ichigo. "You, boy. Do you want your family to die?"

"How can you even ask that?" He asked, offended.

"Then you and I need to do something very unorthodox." She said, then pointing her sword at him. "Impale yourself on my blade. With that, I will give you a portion of my powers to fight in my stead."

"Are you crazy?" Ichigo asked.

"We're out of options. And in case you haven't noticed, the hollow is resuming destroying your home."

Ichigo couldn't bear to look back, but he could hear the action. And he could hear Yuzu's plea for him to save himself, like she had given up on herself getting out of this alive. That thought more than anything gave him what he needed to make up his mind. "Fine. But don't call me boy. I'm Ichigo Kurosaki."

She then grinned. "And I'm Rukia Kuchiki. Let's hope this works."

Sensing the focusing spiritual energy of the sword, the fish-faced creature turned its attention away from the humans and towards them. Ichigo was naturally nervous at the idea of intentionally impaling himself with a sword, but the roars of the creature heading towards him helped push any and all though out of his head, allowing him to actually act.

The sword went thru his body, the pointy end coming out his back, and normally that would be the end. But here there was a bright explosion of energy. Everyone shielded their eyes, but the creature just kept going, refusing to stop.

Until there was a slicing sound and its left arm was severed at the shoulder that is.

The light faded with some residual energy in mist form, and Ichigo stood on the opposite side of the creature now, wearing a black kimono and hosting a large katana. He looked at the creature with an expression that said 'You're going to wish you never came here'.

"Whoa, that's just a portion of shinigami power?" Sakura asked.

"No, how could this be?" Rukia asked, finding herself devoid of her own black kimono and stripped down to the white under-kimono, her own sword gone entirely. "I only meant to give him half at most, but he's somehow acquired all of it."

"You gave him all your shinigami powers?" Rinne asked.

"Not by design, but by accident." Rukia insisted. 'Who is this human? I've never seen a human that could see shinigami, and he seems to create so strong a spiritual presence that it filtered my senses. And above all else, I've never seen a unreleased zanpakuto that large.'

While she could only ask herself about the situation, Ichigo was at work hacking away at the creature, cutting it apart limb by limb without remorse or enjoyment.

"Attacking my family was a big mistake creep!" Ichigo yelled when the creature could no longer support itself, swinging down his sword to cleave its head in half from the front. It roared in agony, then seemed to simply evaporate, leaving Ichigo standing victoriously.

"Nice job." Sakura praised.

"I really need to invest in a weapon." Rinne said to himself.

'Just who is this human?' Rukia asked.