Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters, and all its associated content is copyrighted, Kubo Tite. I do not own anything. I do, however, own this story that I am currently writing. I also own "AURA", off my copy of the .Hack// soundtrack. It's creepy, and fits Ulquiorra quite well in my opinion.

(A/N: First off, I'd like to point out that I would likely not have done this if a friend of mine, NOplaceformyheart, had not requested it. I would, however, have done SOME story of my own design... But it wouldn't be posted as Fanfiction then, and I couldn't put it on as well as DeviantArt. I'd also like to post a warning.)

WARNING: This story will contain mature content, in the form of yaoi/shounen-ai/GAY couplings. Maybe a little FemxFem as well, and certainly a straight coupling somewhere... But not immediately. If you don't like this, read no further. If you do, despite this warning, and then leave a rude remark as a review, I WILL send my private group of
fork-wielding ninja monkeys after you, laugh, then make rude gestures here in front of my monitor. )

(A/N2: One further note. Yes, before anyone asks, the title WAS inspired by the song, "AURA".)

)---()[ --Visions of the World-- ()---(

Chapter one:

(I was a Teenage Strawberry)

Ichigo's Perspective)

Sunday, November 26th, 2007

It was a dreary day in Karakura town. In fact, it had been dreary all through the month. The pressure in the air was noticably higher than normal, so people were easily agitated, and nobody had seen a sunny day since just before the beginning of the month due to the seemingly eternal rainclouds hovering in the air. Sometimes it would rain, and people would hope for light afterwards, but the clouds only got darker, as if to spite the mortals clinging to the ground. Also, almost in response to this, the suicide rate was climbing.

Rather steeply too, as it seemed. Some people took this as an omen of bad things to come, and hung themselves. Some of the more extreme religious people took this as a sign from God or whatever the hell else was up there and stabbed themselves with a "blessed" dagger, found in the chest of some nutcase priest. Seriously, the idiocity of human beings never fails to surprise me. Of course... It's a shame I must be associated with their race.

Sighing, I looked out the window of the classroom. Ochi-sensei sleeping with her head on her desk, though she was having us all read the original English version of William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Why she was having us read this today, to learn English better, I had no clue. Not that I'm complaining... I like Shakespeare. He's a cool guy, and his works are magnificent. It's just that I think that some of us might pick up some strange idea of how English is properly said, read, and written. I understand it just fine... It's them I'm worried about. Just don't tell anyone I think this, though... It might ruin my image. What image, you ask? The one I've been working on for years. I've had to keep my brows furrowed and a scornful look on my face ever since mother died, just to show that I'm strong... That I won't cry or show any weakness.

I look around... Ishida's being his normal 'I'm-better-than-everyone' self; He's already finished the book, and all the girls around him are asking him to make various dresses and stuff, and some are even waving large wads of yen around to persuade him. Lucky bastard. Sado's still silent as ever, reading quietly while some people are whispering strange rumours about him... I pity. Orihime-chan's being assaulted by the red-haired lesbian freak as usual, while Tatsuki fends off her raving affections. I don't have anything against lesbians... Just the red-haired freak always trying to seduce Orihime-chan. She's creepy as hell. Mizuiro's still the ladies man, having several girls faint each second, some of them rising only to faint again seconds later. Won't be long until they find themselves strapped to a bed, Mizuiro being the little pervert he is. And Keigo... where is Keigo? Looking around, I don't see him. I ask one of the guys next to me,

"You seen Keigo?"

"Nah. He left a while a---oh, here he is."

"ICHI-GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" a loud voice screams as I turn around to find Keigo running at me from behind while I'm still in my seat. I scoot to the left about two feet, and hold out my arm to clothesline my strange friend, sending him reeling over my arm and rolling across the class until he crashes into the chalkboard, right next to Ochi-sensei's desk. Just as I see him get up, he receives a firm whack to the head with a book from Ochi-sensei. She certainly looked like she was asleep... But that bump forming on Keigo's head is the size of my fist, and can't possibly be just a reflex hit from a sleeping person. As kind a teacher as Ochi-sensei is, she can be pretty scary sometimes.

Luckily, immediately after Keigo got up, just before he was going to complain and the rest of the class got extra work because of him, the bell rang, signalling that the school day was over. I was relieved. As fun as high school can sometimes be, it gets a little stressful. Especially when Keigo or some others come up to me, claiming that I'm a traitor because I got within the top 50 for overall best students. What a load of... Eh. Walking through the school courtyard, I finally came to the gates and stretched before holding onto my bookbag by hooking it over my shoulder to my hand... The manly-and-tough way of carrying booksbags, as they say. Though, I call it just another way to keep up my image. Seriously, imagekeeping is hard stuff. There are a few times, like with every person, where I wonder if keeping the image is all worth it.

------- A little later. -------

On my way home, I stopped at nearby shop. Urahara Shoten it was called. It dealt in everything from groceries and general items to the ultra- secret pawn shopping and black market. While there was a man called Urahara in there, it wasn't really his shop. It was a sort of family-run thing. Urahara (I call him sandal-hat--he's a shady figure with a fan, always wearing sandals and a white and green striped buckethat), his half-brother Tessai (Big burly man with glasses and a mustache--he helped treat my injuries after I got myself in a fight with some orange-haired afro gangster-type dude who claimed I was copying him with my hair colour and attitude), his neice Ururu(who for a little kid, is amazingly capable, and she packs a mean punch), and his nephew, some anger-driven red-haired midget kid called Jinta(he walks around with some lead hammer twice his size). Despite the strange characters who run the shop, Urahara Shoten is actually for the most part an honest store. I suspect Urahara's the only one running the Black Market and Pawn Shop portions... But I only think he does it when it's absolutely necessary, like when he's in trouble or has a chance of losing his store... Like for extra money to stay in business. Otherwise it's a pretty handy place. Have I repeated myself somewhere? I don't know, I have a habit of doing that sometimes. I walked up to the shop, and a little girl with black, cockroach-reminiscent hair and an almost depressed-looking face waved, before going back to sweeping the pathway. Jinta, the little red-haired midget with anger management issues who I mentioned earlier merely grunted, before throwing away the broom and proceeding to scold Ururu about something... I pull open the door, and Sandal-hat man's right there to greet me, almost like he expected me.

I hate him for that. He does it all the time! I think the man waits at the side of the door, waiting to hear Ururu greet someone, then gets up and waits in order to greet the customer enthusiastically or some thing. Pathetic, really.

"Oh my, if it isn't Kurosaki-san! How do you do? Come in. Come in! We've been expecting you!"

"...Hey Sandal-hat."

Urahara looked slightly put off by this as I walked by him, picked up some gum, men's pocky and a cheap, 1,000 yen watch. My old one broke... AGAIN! I think this man's selling faulty merchandise to keep me coming back and buying them! I wouldn't be surprised... But then again, I don't think Tessai or Ururu would let him. Putting the products on the counter, I dug out my wallet out of one of my deeper pockets. After my last seven or so got stolen, I decided to have Ishida make really long pockets for me, just so I'd know if someone was digging down the side of my leg for my wallet, then I'd pick up whoever it was, and kick them across the street.

"Ehh? Another watch, Kurosaki-san? This has got to be... What, the twenty-sixth one since October!"

"It's because all the watches you keep giving me are probably fake merchandise, you cheapskate!"

Sandal-hat looked thoroughly offended, and began muttering "Oh my"s and "I'd never"s and "My goodness"es. During this time, I had managed to fish out my wallet, looked at the register price, and handed the shifty man on the other side 1,666 yen. The prices here were always strange like that; if I bought the same thing here tomorrow, I bet it'd be something like 1,222. Why I always come here instead of the normal general store around the corner, I don't think I'll ever figure it out. The shifty man's charm? Nah, can't be. On my way out, I shoved the small grocery bag into my bookbag and hung it over my shoulder again.

"Have a safe trip! Come again!"

"Yeah, seeya Sandal-hat."

I smiled as Urahara walked back into the store muttering about that nickname, and Ururu was attempting to comfort him. I got a few blocks away before I took a left. I stopped in my tracks. Looking straight at me, from the end of the street, was a pale-faced man with raven black hair, hanging naturally to the sides and back. He wore baggy white pants, and a white shirt with almost too-long sleeves that ended in bell-like cuffs. He looked at me with a pair of dark emerald-green eyes, with what looked like dark green makeup just under his eyes. It dragged on down to his cheeks in a straight line from the middle of said makeup, almost like a tear trail. As far as I knew, it looked like it had been stained there over years of crying... But that didn't look possible. His face was as expressionless as a rock, staring with a look of utmost... I don't know what to call it. I started walking again, trying to ignore him, but he kept his gaze on me. Just before I was about to pass him, he fell down, facefirst, onto the sidewalk. I stopped in my tracks, contemplating for a moment before dropping my bag and taking my fingers to his neck. There was a pulse... but it was weak. Thank goodness my father is a doctor, or else I wouldn't have known to do this. Turning him over, I found a bloodstain on the sidewalk, and a large bloodstain on the inside of his left sleeve's cuff. Upon closer examination, I found a large, precisely cut line across his left wrist, and blood was leaking out like a stream. Hooking my bookbag's handle over my wrist, I picked up the man in my arms and ran for my house. My father ran his own clinic, which sort of correlates with the fact that he was a doctor. If I hurried fast enough...

End-chapter notes: So, what do you think? Love it? Hate it? Keep in mind that this is the first chapter, and there's more to come. It might feel a little rushed, but hey! I havn't written a story like this in AGES. My last attempt was so crappy... Anywho, advanced critique is encouraged. Flaming is also welcome, if you truly feel it will help. I feel that it likely will, unless it's something along the lines of "LOL WTF BLECH SUKZ!!1!! GO WTHC A RELL SHO LYK NARUTO". In which case, I will have Gin hand your ass to me on a silver platter.

Until next time!