"GOOD MORNING, RUKIAAAAAAAA!"

    "DAAAAAAAAAH!"

    Renji was on the floor with Rukia's fist smashed into his face. "Renji! You do realize that at one point I'll kill you for waking me up like that!"

    "Wah, whatever! That's what best friends are for, eh?" She kicked him off to the side. "Gah!" And before you ask, Byakuya usually allows her friends to come in the house, there was no need for her to question why he was even there.

    Rukia's thoughts switched to the events that happened last night. The crystallizing image appeared...

    She gasped.

    "Renji!" He turned his head towards her. "Is Nii-san alright!? What about his injury!? Has he waken up!?"

    "Huh? What do you mean...?"

    ~

    "It's amazing that a truck ran in through here and nobody was hurt." Byakuya explained standing behind Rukia; meanwhile her face wore a mask that said: 'Are you f**king serious?'.

"Rukia, there's nothing to worry about, insurance will cover this."

    She turned and faced her brother. "Oh...okay." He's usually the calm and cool guy.

    "We should get heading to school right now, huh?"

    "Yeah..." Kurosaki was suddenly in Rukia's mind.

    That Shinigami...is he okay? Did he go back to that Soul Society place?

    "Then, I'll go get changed..." she stepped timidly around the rubble and jogged upstairs to her room. She had her her school uniform from from last night on, but they were wrinkled and and covered in dirt. As she got her clean uniform on, the scene last night replayed in her head. 'I'm a Shinigami.' ' I've been looking for it, but something is interfering with my senses.'      'You idiot...did you think that by giving it your soul that it would carry on with it's life!?'

    'That Hollow...'

    She found herself staring off into space, gave herself a small facepalm, and swung her school bag over her shoulder while running downstairs.

    "Are ya ready?" Renji asked. "You took awhile."

    "Shut up, I walked around carefully 'cause I was afraid the floor would collapse."

    "Since when were you so paranoid?" He said jokingly as they walked through the small gate separating the house from the sidewalk.

    "Hm hm." Rukia chuckled.

    '...was really after you!'

    ~

    "Rukia-san! I heard that a truck crashed into your house last night!" A girl with dark brown hair tied up into a bun said.

    "Ah, you heard about that too, Hinamori?"

    "Everyone in the group knows!"

    "Thanks, Renji."   Renji gave a childish 'Haha!'

    "Oh, are you Kuchiki-san?"

    Rukia's eyes widened. That voice...no way... And then she turned around and knew her ears weren't playing tricks on her...maybe her eyes were in on it too.

    "Gah! You!" She pointed at the boy known as Kurosaki Ichigo who was wearing their school uniform.

    "Kuchiki, don't you know about the new transfer student in our class?" The one from the picnic named Hisagi asked.

    "Yeah! Ain't that right, Kurosaki-kun?" Hinamori Momo added in.

    "Do you guys know eachother?" Renji asked.

    "Oh, no. This is our very first meeting."

    "...!" Rukia was only speechless.

    "Oh right!" Ichigo said. "I haven't bought my textbooks yet. Do you think you can lend me yours, Kuchiki-san?" He held out his hand for the textbook, but he then turned it over and it had the words Make a scene and you're dead! written on it.

    "Gah!" Rukia exclaimed after she read it.

~

    "What the hell are you doing at my school!? Aren't you supposed to go back to that Soul Society place already?"

    "Oh yeah, by the way about Soul Society-no I can't go back." Ichigo retorted.

    "What!? Why?"

    "Idiot, can't you see that I was left with practically no reiatsu? Or are you not good with sensing it?" Rukia couldn't find any words to say. "Only shinigami can return to Soul Society, and I don't have the ability to do that right now. Because of that, I'm stuck in this gigai*."

    "Gigai?" Rukia repeated.

    "Yes, a gigai is an artificial body that shinigami must use when their powers are low, and they wait for them to return in these. So because of that, you will be helping me in my job as a shinigami, okay?"

    "...What!?"

    "It was kind of inevitable, unless you want Karakura Town to be engulfed with Hollow because you were too lazy and unfair with spirits-"

    "Okay okay, I understand...I just better not die."

    "Who knows..."

    "What!?"

    "Never mind, but there's another important thing I need to talk to you about."

    "What about?"

    "Do you remember how your sword began to crystallize?"

    "Yeah!" Rukia couldn't keep the excitement in on how she wanted to know about that so badly.

    "I think I understand what's going on, you--" Ding, ding, ding...

    "Damn..."

    "Looks like that'll need to wait until classes are over!"

    "But it's the last class!" Rukia whined.

    Throughout the whole science period, she was tapping her foot and playing with her pencils over how anxious she was to know what was happening. All she really could have remembered was that it was freezing and her head hurt like it was about to shatter into peices. After an hour of tuning out the incredibly boring lecture from her sensei, hearing chalk screech on the board, and pencils stretching stretching their papers, the bell sounded once again and she was the first out the door.

    She looked for Kurosaki around the main hallway and he wasn't too difficult to find; his bright hair could be seen for miles.

    "Ohh, Kurosaki-kun! Funny running into here!"

    "Uh, yeah!" He didn't understand the cheery attitude just yet.

    "Yo, Renji, Hinamori, and..." She looked to the boy next to Hinamori. "Hitsugaya!"

    "Hey, it's actually a little nice to speak to someone who doesn't make fun of my height with their first sentence." The white-haired boy replied.

    "That's because you're almost as tall as her, Shiro-chan!" Hinamori cheerfully said.

    "Yeah, you're pretty short Rukia -- Ksh!" She stepped on his foot.

    "I don't remember asking you, Renji!"

    "And I don't remember purple being a natural eye color, freak-of-nature!"

    "Bringing back the old childhood nickname, huh!?"

    "Do you guys...always speak to each other like this?" Ichigo asked.

    "Well...yeah." Rukia replied. "But that's just how our friendship works...ara, Kurosaki-kun, are you feeling okay?"

    "What ar--" She stealthily pressure pointed him and he collapsed within the next few seconds.

    "Oh no! I think you need to go to to the nurse!" She said as she dragged his limp body elsewhere, the rest of the group staring with sweatdrops.

    "Uh...sure..." Renji said.

    It was silent for a few seconds.

    "...She hit him, didn't she?"

    "Yup."

    ~

    "Now hurry up and explain what you were going to say to me earlier!" said Rukia as they walked around the town, Ichigo rubbing his shoulder.

    "Where did you even learn pressure points, geeze." Was the first thing Ichigo said. "And since you're so eager to know, then I won't sugar coat it. You gotta learn how to control your power or else you'll die."

    The words were far beyond what Rukia had prepared herself for. "Wh...why would I die?"

    "Alright, I'll start from the beginning: I'm not a normal shinigami. If you remember, my zanpakuto was no where near the size of a normal katana. My reiatsu is so high that the sword is like that; a shinigami's zanpakuto is also a reflection of of their reiatsu.

    I'm not exactly at a seat in Soul Society, I'm more of something different, but I'll explain those later. And somehow, you managed to take all of the reiatsu I had. And yet look at your zanpakuto, it's normal sized. So this also means that you're able to hold all of that reiatsu."

    "Well..." Rukia didn't know how to respond. "So..."

    "In other words, you're powerful. But what happened last night..."

    "What?"

    "Well, you'll have to go with me somewhere and have someone else explain it, because it will take a while to explain."

     Rukia wanted to protest waiting immediately, but knew that he won't be persuaded to tell so easily and saved her breath. "Ugh, fine."

    "And we need to hope that you won't have to transform into a shinigami again."

    Transform into a shinigami again... "Oh yeah...I never really really thought about how I'll..."

    "We can explain and sort out everything once we get there. We're going to Urahara's Shop. Don't worry, he's an ally." Rukia simply nodded. "Hehe, nothing to be so worried about, he did save you last night."

    "Really?"

    "Yeah. I never got the chance to but, do you think you're ready for the task as a shinigami, Rukia?"

    "Hm..." Rukia thought about it for a while. "I'll need to fight one of those things again and see how it goes."

    *Ichigo's flashback*

    "Hey!" Ichigo shouted as Rukia lost consciousness. The grip of her blade was suddenly covered with a sheet of ice, and it slowly began to spread throughout the sword. "What!? What's happening?" Her reiatsu is just soaring! He thought.

    "It looks like we need to suppress all of that raging reiatsu." said a cool voice.

    "Who's there!?" Ichigo asked to a dark spot in the street where where the voice came from.

    A man with a white and green striped hat that covered the top half of his face emerged from the shadow. He wore a dark green shirt and pants that matched the stripes on his hat, and and a black robe over that, and sandals. There were wisps of sandy blonde hair showing from the shadow of the hat, and he walked around with a cane (not that he was hurt, he just had one).

    "And it seems that you'll need a gigai." He added in.

    "And it seems that you haven't told told me your name." Ichigo replied harshly.

    "You don't have to be so uptight, I'm not an enemy. My name is Urahara Kisuke. And I'll take a guess that if we don't stop that reiatsu from bursting out, she'll die."

    Ichigo looked back at Rukia; the ice had covered her blade and the ground under it began to freeze and the tips of her fingers were purple. Her eyes were shut tight and she was gritting her teeth even though she was out cold (no pun intended).

    "So, what can you do?"

    "Hm..." Urahara walked over to Rukia and kneeled down. He took the cane he was holding and placed the tip of it on Rukia's head and it glowed blue. Ichigo felt her reiatsu slowly return to a tolerable amount and the ice melted, she no longer had an expression of pain and looked peaceful. The shinigami robes had faded back into her school uniform. "There, all is well!" He said.

    "How did you...?"

    He lifted the cane up and pointed it to the sky, and like like a gun, blue reiatsu shot out of it and exploded like a firework. Snowflakes fell moments later.

    "Wow, it's freezing out here! Seems like she's bound to have ice-type powers." Urahara said.

    "Did you absorb the extra reiatsu?"

    "Yes, actually. How did you figure that out?"

    "I still felt it's presence, just not with her."

    The snow had stopped. "So, I was able to force her back into her normal body, but that seal I used to suppress the reiatsu won't last forever. The next time she changes into a shinigami, it'll only be a matter of time before it goes out of control like that. Bring her to my shop when things get chaotic and we can fix it right up."

    He picked up the girl and disappeared for a second, and then returned to the spot where he was standing without her. "Now that she and her brother are safe and sound with a false memory placed, let's get you in a gigai."

    "Sure..."

    "Oh right, what did you say your name was?" he asked calmly as they began walking.

    "I didn't."

    "Well, out with it!"

    "...Kurosaki Ichigo."

    *End of flashback*

    Ichigo wanted them to reach the shop soon, but not to draw attention. So they had to walk. Walk and pray that a Hollow wouldn't--

    *Beep beep beep* The Hollow alarm on Ichigo's cellphone went off.

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The doujinshi had Kurotsuchi as Urahara's replacement, but I'm going to keep it as Urahara because, c'mon, who can replace him? :3 And an awesome pic of him over to the right for ya guys :)

*unedited chapter*

Gigai = Faux body

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