"Think he's dead?" Ichigo's eyes twitched beneath his eyelids at the unknown voice as his consciousness came back to him. Why did someone think he was dead? What was going on, last thing he remembered was…

"Idiot, clearly he's not dead if he's breathing now give me some room." His train of thought was interrupted by the girl that had spoke, shuffling was heard as a soft touch was placed at his neck, obviously searching for his pulse, the female let out a soft sigh clearly relieved he was actually alive. "Get me a wet towel or something." The female voice spoke again.

"Huh, how come?"

"Just do it!" It would seem that the woman had a fiery temper, or just didn't have the patience to deal with idiots, he could understand the issue, he himself had a hard time dealing with idiots. There was movement beside him once more before a splash of water. Another sigh of annoyance from the female before a wet towel was placed on his forehead, it smelt like salt water.

"Think he's an alien?"

"Just be quiet."

"He has the same hair colour as you, must be your brother."

"I'ma smack you Luffy, now shut up." The obvious sound of this Luffy being hit sounded out with an echoing thud, it was clear the woman had hit Luffy before she had given him the warning, his whining of such was also evident to that fact. Quiet passed over them for some time, and Ichigo could have almost returned to unconsciousness with the feeling of the cool towel on his forehead, however something just wasn't right. He shouldn't be lying down, that last thing he remembered was…

Brown eyes snapped open his eyes frantic as he searched for a familiar face, his vision was filled with an orange haired teen girl in a white and blue shirt looking down at him with wide eyes before a dark haired teen with a straw hat appeared in his vision. Instantly he knew something was wrong, it was no longer night and these two were completely unknown to him. The last thing that he remembered was Riruka crying out his name and Orihime's tear stained face as Tsukishima...

"Easy there." The girl spoke to him as she saw the look in his eyes, the anger and remorse held deep in his brown eyes after everything that had happened in the past few hours. In return, he could see it in her eyes, she was nervous, was it because of him or something else? "You had a pretty big fall."

"Yeah, you hit the ocean like a rocket!" The one named Luffy laughed before his face became serious as he stared down at him. "Are you an alie-ow!" The girl had smacked him upside the head with enough force to send him a few feet back, only then did he feel the rocking sensation of the sea beneath him as Luffy collided with the side of the boat that they were now on.

"Oi, watch it." A third voice spoke causing Ichigo to turn to see a third among the unknown, his back was to them but his green hair was distinctive. From what he could see, the green haired man was cleaning his swords, a total of three in the man's possession. Raising a hand to his forehead he went to sit up only for a soft hand to land on his shoulder causing him to look at the orange haired girl who was halting his movement.

"You really shouldn't, you need to rest. We're not far from an island with some settlements on it, once we get there we'll see if they have a doctor so they can treat you properly." Ichigo was about to retort that he was fine, but there was no denying that his body was in pain, whether it was from the fall that they were talking about or if it was something else, he was unsure. Now that he was more aware of his surroundings it was clear that his clothing was completely drenched simply adorned in what he had been wearing earlier. A black t-shirt beneath a white open jacket, white pants and sneakers. If they were on the ocean and from what he was guessing they were, then he had somehow landed in the water.

"I'm fine." He stated as he continued to sit up protesting the pain that flooded his body, he had lived through worse after all, this time the girl didn't stop him simply scooting back a bit to give him some room. Luffy, the one in the straw hat was simply sitting with a grin on his face as he watched the new commodity to come aboard their boat, or from what he was now seeing, boats. While they were on one boat, there was another boat off to the side, the two tied together with a rope, probably to keep them drifting from one another.

The one that they were on had a plain white sail, while the other, somewhat larger than the one that they were on, had a large black sail with a comic-style skull-and-crossbones, with the unique feature of a large red clowns nose, and black crosses on the eye sockets. Everywhere else he could see was nothing but open ocean.

"Where..." He managed to get out before he was interrupted by the shouting of the straw hat wearing teen.

"What's your name!? Where are you from!?" He had to wince at the sudden barrage of sound, catching movement from the corner of his eye he could see the orange haired girl shaking her head as she sat back against the side of the boat.

"Yo, Navigator, there's an island ahead." The green haired swordsman spoke, Ichigo, along with the navigator looked up to see that there was indeed an island ahead in the direction that they were sailing in.

"I told you." The woman grinned as she got to her feet before leaping over the side of the boat they were on before landing on the other boat with the black sail on it.

"FRESH MEAT AT LAST!" Luffy shouted as he made his way to the front of the boat, taking his seat at the very front.

"And booze."

"Is that you all you two ever think about!?" The navigator shouted, it was clear to Ichigo that they had, had this argument several times already if he was going off by what he had heard. The three began to talk, mostly the Navigator trying to get the other two to understand what they needed, or what they didn't have to venture forth to something called the Grand-line.

In truth, Ichigo wasn't paying much attention to what was being said. Instead, he sat at the back of the small boat with Luffy and the swordsman, his head somewhat down as his orange locks covered his eyes as he gripped his substitute badge in his hand. If only he had been stronger, if only he had been able to break through to Orihime and Chad, this wouldn't have happened. Instead, Tsukishima had used his weakness for his friends against him. He had seen it in her face, the pain Orihime had felt as she defended Tsukishima, how reluctant Chad had been to attack him. But it wasn't enough, Tsukishima's power, they couldn't break through it on their own.

Ichigo's grip tightened on his badge as his thoughts turned to how it had all come to an end, but before he could mull over what had transpired, the boat he was in came to a sudden halt causing his head to shoot up in surprise, having completely forgone his surroundings delving deep into his thoughts to even notice that they had gotten closer to the island.

"Land! We made it!" Luffy shouted jumping off the boat as Ichigo saw the Navigator sigh with a comment on how it was stupid for a pirate to have no navigation skills. In truth, Ichigo would have never even expected that these three were any kind of pirates. Sure the strange mark on the black sail kind of looked pirate like, but these three? No way. Deciding it wasn't his place to judge what they believed themselves to be he rose to his feet, placing his badge in his pocket as the green haired swordsman gave him a glance.

"Should you be up?" He questioned.

"I'm fine." Ichigo replied simply getting a nod from the swordsman as they both stepped off the boat, stepping across the sand Ichigo glanced around, cliffs welcomed them from the beach with a large path leading up to what seemed to be a village, with a quick glance over his shoulder there was nothing but open ocean behind him.

"Now that I think about it, we never got your name." Ichigo turned back to the Navigator who had spoken to him, having walked over from the boat she had been on. Both the swordsman and Luffy were looking their way now, Luffy seemingly more interested than the swordsman.

"Kurosaki Ichigo." Ichigo replied, he had no reason to hide his name from them, plus they did pull him out of the ocean.

"Ichigo huh." She mulled over the name for a moment before shrugging. "I'm Nami, the idiot in the straw hat and vest is Luffy, the Captain." Ichigo glanced to Luffy who grinned at him, it was clear that the abundant amount of curiosity for both searching this island and meeting the unknown person they had pulled out of the sea was at its boiling point and was about to explode. "The idiot with the swords, is Zoro." It was clear the swordsman wasn't fond of him being called an idiot but didn't comment on it.

"It feels good to be on dry land again." Zoro groaned as he stretched his arms above his head.

"There's a village around here somewhere right?" Luffy questioned, looking from left to right with a wide grin on his face as if he was going to find a village just by looking up and down the coast line.

"Yeah, it looks like a small one though." Nami stated as she looked at a map she had with her.

"Oh, oh, then there's meat! There's meat, there has to be a place to eat meat in this village!" Luffy shouted as he dashed to Nami's side, intent on getting an answer from Nami that would lead him to a food source.

"Just forget about meat for a second would you." Nami snapped at him as she pushed him away by the face. Ichigo smiled softly, it was a nice atmosphere between them. Taking a glance over the cliff face, his eyes scanning the trees and bushes that lined the cliff only to raise an eyebrow as he felt the presence of four above, three seemed to be children while the fourth seemed to be a bit older. The soft click of Zoro flicking his sword up a few inches broke his concentration.

"Careful, we're being watched." Zoro commented as his eyes took in the cliff face, a serious expression on his face. It was clear to see he was ready to draw his sword at a moment's notice.

"Huh, by who? Where are they? They got meat?" Luffy shouted, grinning all the while.

"Watch out!" Zoro shouted. The projectiles themselves were easy to see for someone who had trained with the fastest woman in Soul Society's history, but Ichigo still found it impressive that Zoro was able to warn them that they were being fired upon. The small metal balls hit at Luffy's feet causing him to stumble off to the side as Nami quickly retreated behind a boat out of the line of fire. They hadn't been fired upon by a gun, there was no gunshot nor was there the scent of gunpowder in the air, it was a wonder how they had been shot at.

The moment that the onslaught of fire had stopped, flags were raised upon the cliff face by the dozen. There was no way there were more than four people up on the cliff face, so it must be a pulley system or something, Ichigo mused to himself.

"Whoa… that's so cool!" Even after being fired upon, Luffy seemed to not even care about that fact instead engrossed in the obvious trick to try and scare off anyone that might come to the island looking for a fight.

"Is this suppose to be when we're impressed?" Nami muttered to herself, still hiding behind the boat clearly not impressed by what was happening, nor of her fellow crew members attitude towards being attacked.

"Hahahaha!" Laughter erupted from the cliff face causing the four to look up to see a teen in brown overalls with a white sash wrapped around his waist with an abnormally large nose standing there with his arms crossed. "I am Usopp, leader of the invincible nation of pirates who reign over this island. You stand before a living legend, the most revered pirate who ever lived, I am the great Captain Usopp!"

"He sure thinks highly of himself." Ichigo thought with a slight smirk tugging at the corner of his lips, the kid had the guts to stand up to what looked to be four pirates coming to raid the town, his heart was in the right place, his head? Probably a few screws loose if all he brought was three kids to help him warn off potentially deadly pirates.

"If you're thinking of attacking this village, then forget it! My army of eighty million mean pirate soldiers would squash you like bugs!" He roared down to them. Ichigo had to forcibly stop himself from face palming, seriously? If he was going to lie, at least make it somewhat believable. Eighty million people, this small island wouldn't have enough room for that many people and what he could sense, there was less than three hundred people on the island.

"So AWESOME!" Luffy shouted, clearly believing the flat out lie he had been told, seriously how did Zoro and Nami think he was good enough to be the captain of their crew, he was bound to get them into more trouble than not.

"You expect us to believe that?" Nami questioned, at least she had a decent head on her shoulders

"Ah, she knows!"

"You just admitted it." Nami smirked as she leaned up against the boat.

"What!? He was lying!?" Luffy questioned turning to face Nami who ignored his outburst.

"Curse you, you crafty tactician!" Usopp shouted down at Nami who shrugged the comment off. "Eighty million may have been an exaggeration, but I have a great many men under my control!" The flags that had been raised began to move, or more so only six of them began to move up and down while the rest were all held in place.

"My guess is three." Nami replied coolly as she spotted the small metal balls that had been shot down at Luffy. The three children hidden in the trees all jumped up shouting that Nami was some kind of witch for knowing everything she did before running off leaving Usopp flabbergasted that his 'crew' had abandoned him. "A pirate using a slingshot huh, now I've seen it all."

"Hahahaha, that's pretty cool!" Luffy laughed, truly enjoying the moment.

"Hey you, don't insult me!" Usopp shouted, becoming angry at being laughed at as Ichigo saw him reach for his sling shot. "I'm a proud man, and I won't stand for it. This is your last warning, or you'll get to see why they call me 'Proud Usopp' and not 'Pushover Usopp'." However as soon as Luffy saw the tension in the band of the sling shot pull back, the atmosphere changed dramatically. "You've already seen for yourself just how good I am with this thing, so, you know I can rival anyone with a pistol."

"No matter how strong a human being is, there is no way a slingshot like that can match the power of a pistol." Ichigo sighed to himself as he saw Luffy tilt his straw hat forward slightly, the rim covering his eyes.

"Now that you've drawn your pistol, are you prepared to use it. Guns aren't for threats there for actions, are you willing to risk your life?" Luffy stated in all seriousness, Zoro chuckled lightly to himself as he placed his hand back on his sword, flicking one of the blades up like he had done earlier as he turned up to Usopp.

"I can assure you, we're real pirates. Consider your next move very carefully." Zoro called up, Ichigo smirked to himself, while the two looked serious it was clear they were just messing with the kid, or at least Luffy was. Taking a seat up on the boat that Nami was leaning against, he decided to see how this would unfold. Nami, unlike Ichigo, was unsure of what was going on and simply had a quizzical look on her face, were they really going to kill this kid?

It was a while before Usopp let the metal ball fall to the ground as his slingshot went limp in his hand and he fell to his knees did Ichigo hear Nami let out a soft sigh of relief. Luffy and Zoro both laughed as the tense atmosphere simply faded away, no longer any concern for potential blood shed.

"Those idiots." Nami huffed causing Ichigo to glance down at her, Luffy and Zoro were now speaking with Usopp who had fallen down the cliff after hearing that Luffy knew Usopp's father or something.

"If they're such idiots, why be in their crew?" Ichigo asked honestly causing Nami to look up to him with slightly wide eyes, obviously not having been expecting the question from him.

"Who knows." Nami shrugged with a slight smirk. "So, how'd you end up falling from the sky like you did?" She questioned leaning over the edge of the boat, still staring up at him only getting a slight smirk from him in return.

"Who knows."

"Nami! Ichigo! Usopp's taking us to a restaurant to get some meat!" Luffy shouted causing Nami to hang her head slightly, not even five minutes of not keeping an eye on that idiot and they were already going for meat.

"You coming with us? It'd be nice not to have to put up with idiots being idiots, and you don't seem like that much of an idiot." Nami told him causing Ichigo to shake his head, a frown coming to Nami's face. "Do you even know where you are?" She asked as Ichigo landed on the sand, his feet firmly planted beneath him as he slipped off the side of the boat.

"I don't, but I know I'm along way from where I'm suppose to be and have no way to get back." Ichigo told her, his voice soft as he pulled forth his substitute badge from his pocket, Nami eyeing it slightly, he was looking at it the same way that Luffy looked at his hat. "So, I've got to make do with what's in front of me. Abandon my fear. Look forward. Move forward and never stop." He told her looking at the sky. "I've wanted to live my life by those words since I heard them, unfortunately, I haven't been able too. But from now on, I'll keep going forward."

"Seems pretty deep." Nami told him getting a shrug from Ichigo.

"It is what it is, thanks for pulling me out of the water and dropping me off here. But I think it'd be best if I was to see where I'm suppose to go on my own." Ichigo told her with a small smile. "Maybe I'll see you around."

"Yeah, maybe." Nami grinned at him. "I'll send you the bill for saving your life." She laughed as she ran off to catch up with Luffy, Zoro and Usopp leaving Ichigo on the beach. Ichigo simply shook his head in amusement, they were certainly and interesting group of characters, that was for sure.

When the four had disappeared from sight, a frown came to Ichigo's face as he looked to the sky, unable to help the sorrow fill his eyes as tears formed in the corner of his eyes trickling down his cheeks as he stood there, he knew he wouldn't be able to return home, after all Orihime's power of rejection was absolute and other worldly even Kisuke was baffled by it.

He had completely been rejected from reality by Orihime, because Tsukishima had made her do it. There was no going back.