Title: Forget Me Not
Rating: T (Just to be safe)
Genre: Romance/Comedy/Angst (maybe)
Characters: Ichigo Kurosaki and Rukia Kuchiki
Summary: Once a soul dies and enters the Spirit World, he forgets everything from his past life…and Ichigo Kurosaki was no exception.
Author's Notes: Salutations to everyone who has opened this fan fiction! This is a sequel of my first fic entitled A Hollow Named Ichigo. This fic can stand alone but it will be better to read its prequel to fully grasp the emotion of this fic. You may link to it through my profile or through here (just remove the spaces.) It's only about 6 chapters long…
This is a revised version of the first one. Since I thought, the first version was poorly made. This is technically FORGET ME NOT V2.0!
Anyway, Forget Me Not will be composed of 10 chappies (8 main chapters, 1 prologue and 1 epilogue) Please review! I would really appreciate it if you did. Tell me whatever you think. No matter how horrible it is. Please tell me so I can revise this chapter or write better on the next chappie.
I know. I'll stop my babbling. Here it is! Drum roll please!
Disclaimer: (almost forgot the disclaimer)I do not own Bleach! If I did then this story would not have been fan fiction.
Without further ado, I give you Forget Me Not.
Forget Me Not: The Prologue
"Tell me Ichigo Kurosaki," a voice said. "How much are you willing to give to escape hell? There has to be some reason you toil to get out of this wretched place."
There was no reply. The voice continued. "How much are you willing to give to break away from hell's rage?"
"Anything," the boy finally answered. "Anything; as long as I could keep my promise. I'll give up everything I have left." A pause, "even my soul."
"Interesting." The voice chuckled. "Very interesting, indeed."
"Enter."
The vice-captain of the thirteenth squad said in her ever serious tone that could make almost anyone step back with fear. Rukia Kuchiki, the vice-captain's name, took out files of the newly transferred shinigamis. A new shinigami recruit from her squad was said to have picked a fight on a group of eleventh squad. They were making fun of his hair, the records said. This new guy must be pretty strong if he knocked them all out. She scanned the papers noting class records. Either the new one was a class bully or he was really good. "Sit down. Name please."
She was really busy. She did not time acting as a guidance counsellor to the transferee. He was supposed to be old enough to take care of himself. Furthermore, Rukia Kuchiki was not in the mood to listen to some cocky punk. It was his death anniversary. Technically, it had been fifty years since she lost Ichigo. She was a bit sentimental that day. She just wanted to reminisce on moments how he died…for her.
Sometimes, she really was cheesy, corny, and sentimental; and these were the times. She just wanted to be alone. She fancied on how much she longed to see him again. Too bad though, he was taken to hell; really, why did he have to become a hollow and kill many shinigamis? Most probably he was rotting in hell right now. Why did she have to keep his promise? And how come he's not keeping his? Does he have any idea how hard it was to wait in vain?! Ichigo could really be a jerk, sometimes.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, ma'am." The new shinigami replied; obviously a bit frightened with his superior.
The Kuchiki wasn't paying attention. She continued to scan through the papers. "Strawberry?" she absent-mindedly offered a bowl of strawberries on her desk. Her search in the papers finally took her to the hiragana 'ku'. She could not believe what she was reading at first. It had to be a joke or a dream. Ichigo Kurosaki was in her squad. Why didn't she see him? She mentally slapped herself to wake her up if she was dreaming. (Apparently, she wasn't) She looked intently at the résumé of the boy. She stared at it, forgetting the presence of the shinigami in her room.
"Ma'am, are you deliberately mocking me?"
The vice-captain put down the paper she was holding. She wasn't doing anything to annoy the boy. Heck, she did not even care about him. She finally decided to look at the shinigami in front of her. She hoped that she would scare him away. She knew she had more important business to do. But as she saw the shinigami, she had no idea how to react. She swore her jaw dropped. She could not believe what was happening. For one hundred and fifty years, she waited for him to arrive. And here he was standing there. "Ichigo?" her voice shook and basically unable to say anything with sense.
"Yes ma'am. I am Ichigo Kurosaki. You sent me here, right?" Rukia looked at him in the eye, "because I beat up the goons from the tenth squad. You were yelling about punishing me for soiling the thirteenth squad name. Isn't that what you said before I entered the door? Sir…I mean, ma'am? Are you all right? 'Cause I might not be on a good timing here. Kuchiki-fukotaicho? You know what? Maybe, I'll just leave. I'm sorry for disturbing you, ma'am. I'll just come back some other time then."
"Wait." She said still unable to believe what was happening. The boy, who was about to leave, stopped dead on his tracks; Rukia swore the boy was afraid of her. She looked again at him straight in the eye; this time deeper. She looked through his eyes. She sought something in those amber orbs. However, she could not find it. This was Ichigo. She knew it was him, and no one else, yet it felt like it was another man. She stood in front of him trying to figure out was wrong with him.
His hair was the same: bright orange. His height was the same as what she remembered. Even his reiastu felt that same…still it was different. It felt foreign to her but it had that distinct Ichigo-factor. The colour of his eyes was the same but he looked at her differently. Heck, the way his face scowled looked like what she remembered, but there was something about that told him that he wasn't the Ichigo she had longed for. She looked at him analytically. After twenty seconds or so, the answer finally hit her.
Ichigo Kurosaki died. He wasn't suppose to remember anything; even Rukia...