What Brings Us Together [Bleach-Ichigo] *OH HOLD!!!!*

Prologue

It's rather peaceful on my walk home. The sun's setting which created an array of beautiful oranges and yellows painting the sky.

I just finished kendo class and I'm worn out. Kendo's sort of a hobby for me to do seeing as I'm just a sixteen year old girl that's in the 9th grade of high school. Besides kendo classes, homework, studying and the duties of being a Substitute Soul Reaper (an unofficial one at that, which Kisuke told me is illegal according to the Soul Society and I could get killed for it), I'm still just a teenager.

Things have become very stressful the past few days. It seems I just can't catch a break! Hollows are popping up at the most worst of times, me having to think of a lie to get out of class and a new Soul Reaper is lurking about here in Karakura! Luckily they haven't noticed me and to give myself a little leisure, I have been leaving the hollows to them so I could take a nice break.

My life hasn't been all that normal to say the least. Well, I don't think it was ever normal. Allow me to elaborate a bit on my not so normal life...

I had a family just like any other but they of course weren't normal in the least. There was just something about them that I knew just wasn't human. I've known Ichigo since I could remember but of course there was just this nagging at the back of my head that whenever I heard something my family mention or I see something familiar, I could never place it, it was like a part of my mind had been cut off from seeking certain memories. For some reason I feel like that my family had been hiding something from me for a very long time.

As I said, I've known Ichigo since I could remember and with knowing Ichigo, I got to know his family and vise versa. Mixing both our families together was just a recipe for disaster. My dad and Ichigo's together in the same vicinity was not a good combination. And since I could remember I've also been able to see spirits and unlike Ichigo, I didn't mind seeing ghosts. They were actually good company until you run into the real annoying ones.

Ichigo is a dense person...a complete idiot sometimes. I'm not allowed to tell anybody about my powers, something Kisuke said about humans not fully being able to comprehend such anomalies and that it was just better that humans didn't know. Something about so they could just go on with their lives normally without any knowledge of what really existed.

Normal.

There's that word again.

I mean...who wants normal? Normal is boring! The thrill of being a Soul Reaper is exciting to me. I've never wanted to be normal; I've always wanted adventure like in all those books and movies! To protect people from danger, to save the day!

I'm not sure if I would like to be a hero per se, but I just have this affinity to protect people.

Boy, keeping a secret is hard work though, especially when you have to keep it from your best friend. When you make your first pinky promise in pre-school with your best friend to never keep secrets from each other you know that shit is legit.

It felt like the guilty weight of forty body builders (I'm exaggerating of course) were resting on my shoulders from breaking that pinky promise. I've debated on telling that idiot what I was for three long years now but he was too dense and telling him would be a complete waste of time because he probably wouldn't believe it anyway.

One day I'd tell the strawberry but right now, he's just too stupid to insult.

It's around 7 o'clock when I finally make it to my house. I stop when I reached the door and search for the key that's buried somewhere in my school messenger bag.

Seriously, I need some organization in my life.

Once my hand touches metal, I give a triumphant grin and yank the key (and the lanyard attached to it) out of my bag. Don't even question why I'm not wearing it around my neck because I'm not so sure myself.