Chapter I
Karakura High School
It was a normal day. Nothing out of the ordinary. The sun was shining with a promising glow. It was morning at the Kurosaki clinic. Ichigo Kurosaki was sleeping in bed, peacefully.
A small, lion shaped stuffed animal leapt onto the headboard of Ichigo’s bed. With a loud yell, “Get up, you Soul Reaper wannabe!” It stared at Ichigo, waiting for a result. “If you don’t get up, then you can’t go to school, which means that I won’t have this room all to myself, and can’t use all your stuff!
A hand snatched over the plush toy’s face, crushing it with anger. “What did you say?” Ichigo asked, fiercely. “Get out of the way, Kon, and let me wake up in peace.” Ichigo tossed the toy, Kon, to the other side of the room, where he hit the closet. Ichigo threw off the covers on his bed, and began undressing.
Kon stared intensely, and then remarked with a shrug, “It’s a wonder how you were able to save Rukia with no muscle!”
Grabbing Kon’s face again, Ichigo said, “Don’t push me, Kon.” He let go, and put on a white, button down t-shirt with khaki pants.
A knock came on Ichigo’s bedroom door. Ichigo and Kon quickly stared at the door. A female voice called out, “Ichigo,” it was Yuzu, Ichigo’s eleven year old sister. “Keigo and Sado are waiting downstairs for you.” The knob began to turn.
Hustling Kon into the desk drawer, Ichigo whispered, “Hide, Kon! And don’t say a word!”
Ichigo pushed Kon in, who whispered loudly, “Ow! My tail’s caught you careless dog-brain!”
The drawer shut as the door opened. Yuzu stared, confused. After a pause she asked, “Like, what are you doing?”
Ichigo was bent over his desk. “I’m doing a project, Yuzu.”
“But,” Yuzu said. “There’s a tail sticking out of your desk.” She pointed to Kon’s tail.
“That’s my project,” Ichigo snapped. “What do you want, Yuzu?”
Sighing, Yuzu replied, “I already told you. Keigo and Sado are waiting for you.” She put her hands on her hips. Her golden brown hair was in her eyes, signaling that she’s been awake for a while now.
“Yuzu,” Ichigo began, tying his shoes. “His name is Chad.”
“Huh?”
“You called him Sado,” Ichigo explained. “His name is Chad.”
“Whatever,” Yuzu shrugged. “Just get ready. You won’t have time to eat at this rate.”
A few minutes later, Ichigo was outside the clinic, standing with Keigo and Chad.
Keigo Asano is a brown haired boy with a friendly personality.
Chad is dark skinned, as he is from Mexico. His dark brown hair covers his eyes completely. Chad is also much taller than anyone else in their sophomore class. He’s even taller than most of the seniors. His real name is Sado Yastora, but Ichigo calls him Chad, and the name just stuck. His voice is as deep as he is tall.
Ichigo Kurosaki is of average height with naturally orange hair. Ever since he can remember, Ichigo has had the ability to see ghosts. His interactions with his friends allowed most of them to gain those powers as well. Keigo does not have that ability.
“What were you doing up there, Ichigo?” Keigo exclaimed, excitedly. “Aha! I bet you were trying to sneak out on us! I knew it! You don’t want to hang out with me anymore!” He began to sob.
“Keigo,” Ichigo said, almost sympathetically.
Keigo looked up at Ichigo. “Are you here to console me?” He smiled, tears flowing from his eyes in an extremely dramatic manner.
Ichigo lightly punched Keigo in the face. “Just shut up, already! You’re attracting the neighbors!”
Keigo fell to the ground, rolling on the pavement, holding his face.
“Let’s go,” Chad said, as he started to walk away.
“Wait up, Chad,” Keigo said, jogging to catch up. Ichigo walked behind.
After a short walk, they arrived at Karakura High School. They entered the classroom 3-B. It was a leisurely scene, with kids sitting on desks, talking, or writing.
Ichigo went to his desk, and put his bag down, and sat.
“Good morning, Ichigo,” said a female voice. Ichigo looked up to see Orihime Inoue. She’s a red haired girl who is very friendly, and has large boobs that attract some not-so-friendly attention.
“Oh, it’s you,” Ichigo replied. “How’s it going, Orihime?” Chad was sitting near them.
Whispers in the room said similar things to “Wow, those guys have been spending a lot of time together since summer,” or “Why are they always together?”
The rest of the day was normal. Just a regular day. It was now the afternoon and the sun was shining brightly.
Ichigo was sitting in his desk, paying little attention to the lecture that was being given by the teacher, Mrs. Ochi. A sharp, piercing sound erupted in the room. Much like an alarm clock. Ichigo, startled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a bronze, skull shaped object. The eyes were flashing yellow. It’s a spiritual object, so only those with high spiritual energy can see, or hear it. This would be Chad, Orihime, and Ichigo. “Mrs. Ochi,” Ichigo began.
“What is it, Ichigo?” she asked. “I’m in the middle of a lesson.”
“I need to use the bathroom,” Ichigo explained, as he got up from his seat.
“I’m sorry, but it will have to wait until later. This is an important lesson.”
Ichigo rushed out of the room. “Sorry, can’t wait!”
“Ichigo!” Mrs. Ochi called out of the doorway after him. “Why does that boy need to use the bathroom so much?”
Ichigo rushed onto the field outside, where he pressed the artifact (which is called a combat pass) to his chest. His soul was immediately released from his body. He was now dressed in black robes with a white cloth belt, and a large sword wrapped in bandages on his back.
A blood-curdling howl exploded into the air. A large creature materialized in front of Ichigo. It had a large white mask, and a human like body. This is an evil spirit, called a Hollow.
The bandages unraveled as Ichigo reached for the weapon on his back, revealing his sword, which is now in his hands.
The Hollow gasped and coughed. “Feed me,” it said. “A soul!” It leapt at Ichigo, who dodged easily.
Ichigo brought his sword down hard, aiming to slash the Hollow’s mask, but it dodged as well. Not without cost though, as Ichigo managed to cut off its left arm. Blood splattered across the grass, gushing from the Hollow’s wound.
It howled in pain. Ichigo, seizing the opportunity, leapt into the air, and once again brought his sword down upon the Hollow’s mask, this time aiming true. His sword cut through the Hollow’s mask cleanly, and the Hollow dematerialized, defeated. Ichigo sighed, as he sheathed his sword.
He walked calmly to his body, which was lying limp on the ground, because there was no soul in it. Ichigo used his combat pass to return to his body, and then he walked back inside the school, spending the rest of the day as any normal high school student would.
Later that night, Ichigo was in his room with an mp3 player in his ears. He was staring out his window, daydreaming.
Kon was snuggled on Ichigo’s pillow, sleeping. He gave an occasional twitch. Ichigo felt something on the bottom of his mp3 player. “Huh?” He flipped it over to see the name ‘Kon’ written in permanent marker. Ichigo clenched his fist. “Dammit, Kon!”
All of a sudden, one of his earpieces was ripped out of his ear. Ichigo turned to see his black haired sister, Karin.
“Can’t you hear?” she asked, angrily. “Yuzu says dinner is ready!” Karin left and went back downstairs.
Jeez, Ichigo thought. Although Yuzu and Karin are twins, they act so different.
After dinner, Ichigo went to bed, and slept peacefully. He tossed and turned every so often, as Kon twitched, until he too, fell asleep.
* * *
Ichigo woke up the next day and got ready for another day of school. Once again, he met Keigo and Chad, and they walked to school. Except this time, Ichigo actually had time for a healthy breakfast.
They walked into classroom 3-B once again. Ichigo sat down and began unpacking. “Well,” he sighed, taking out his history textbook. “I guess it’s time for another day. The weekend can’t come fast enough.”
Keigo walked up to Ichigo. “Hey,” he began. “I forget, what do we have first period on Wednesdays?”
With a blank stare, Ichigo replied, “What does it look like?” He tapped on his textbook.
“Oh, yeah,” Keigo said, jogging back to his desk to take out his own textbook.
Sighing again, Ichigo thought to himself, “Man, only a few minutes into the day, and I already want to get out of here.”
“Hello, Ichigo,” said a female voice.
“Hey, Orihi…” He was cut off mid-sentence because it wasn’t Orihime greeting him. It was a raven haired girl, who was rather short, with beautiful black hair curving outwards near her shoulders. She also had deep blue eyes.
“Rukia!” Ichigo exclaimed.
“What’s wrong, Ichigo?” asked another classmate, who sits behind Ichigo.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Rukia answered. “Right?” She had an innocent tone to her voice.
Ichigo paused. “Yeah,” he answered, finally. He pulled Rukia out into the hallway. The other classmates stared, wondering why the urgency. “So what are you doing here? And why do all my classmates act as if you never even left?”
“Because,” Rukia explained, her tone more serious. “To them, I never did leave. It’s a revolutionary new device called ‘Memory Replacement’.” Rukia reached into her breast pocket on her school uniform. “Research and development came up with it ten years ago, in case a soul reaper had to return to a previous post, but they had already removed the humans’ memories.”
“Memory replacement?” Ichigo repeated.
Rukia nodded, as she removed a cylinder shaped object from her pocket. The top was shaped like a rabbit. She handed it to Ichigo. “Here. You press the top, and whoever is in the vicinity will instantly remember anything you made them forget.”
“It’s…” started Ichigo. “A bunny?”
“Oh, shut up!” scolded Rukia. “So I like bunnies! When I ordered it, they let me customize it, okay?” She took it back from Ichigo, and put it back into her pocket. “Anyway, to your classmates, I’m just Rukia Kuchiki, the new transfer student back for her second year at high school.”
“I get it,” replied Ichigo, slightly annoyed.
“Don’t forget,” Rukia said. “I still need to tell you why I came back to the world of the living.”
“Oh, right. Well, go ahead.”
Just then, a loud bell rang, and Mrs. Ochi poked her head into the hallway. “There you two are,” she said, relieved. “I should have guessed that you two would be together. Flirt on your own time, but that was the bell. Class is beginning.”
Rukia blushed, and turned away from Ichigo and Mrs. Ochi. Ichigo said, nervously, “That’s not what we were doing!” But the teacher had already returned into the classroom.
At first, Ichigo kept glancing at Rukia, eager to hear why she had returned from the Soul Society. After a quiz was handed out, he forgot all about it, and became deeply involved in his work.
Finally, after several hours, lunch period had arrived. Ichigo got up, grabbed his bag, and prepared to leave for the cafeteria. Rukia, grabbed her things, and quickly caught up to Ichigo before he left the room.
In her sweet voice, Rukia asked, “Ichigo, can I talk to you for a moment?”
Having forgotten about their earlier conversation, Ichigo replied, “Just say it, I’m right here.”
Rukia then leaned close to Ichigo, so her face was mere inches away from Ichigo’s. She was frowning, and staring up at Ichigo with her deep blue eyes in a puppy like stare. “But,”
Feeling an unfamiliar emotion, Ichigo leaned forward as well, his heart beating faster and faster. They were staring in each other’s eyes.
Rukia said, “…it’s private!” as she kicked him.
Ichigo bent down to rub his shin, as Rukia grabbed his wrist, dragging him into the hallway once again. “Dammit, that hurts!” he complained. She dragged him all the way until they were outside in a fenced in courtyard, where she finally let go.
“That hurt, dammit,” Ichigo said, still rubbing his shin. “You know those are hard tipped shoes, right?”
Rukia glared at Ichigo. “Well I had to get you away from the other classmates. You’re so clueless. Do you want normal humans to discover the existence of soul reapers and Hollows?”
“What did you say?”
“Have you forgotten,” Rukia asked. “That I need to tell you why I’m here. I’m not on vacation, you know.”
Instantly remembering, Ichigo replied, “Of course I remember! So out with it. Why are you here?”
Rukia leaned against the fence behind her. She pulled out a sketch pad. “A few days ago,” she began, flipping through her pad. “A large mass of spiritual pressure erupted in region 32-X, point K23428.” She pointed to a drawing of a blue circle engulfing a town.
“I don’t know what that region, point crap means,” Ichigo grunted, crossing his arms.
“Just pay attention,” Rukia scolded, flipping to the next page. “You probably didn’t notice the eruption, because you were never very good at sensing spirit energy.” Ichigo grumbled, but Rukia ignored him. “Anyway, the Soul Society sent a small group of soul reapers to this area. They arrived, and the communication line instantly went into static, and then died.” She showed him a picture of a rabbit like drawing, holding a radio, then being crossed out. “No further reports were made by that group. So a reconnaissance team was made up, consisting of members from the stealth force. But they didn’t return either. We had the same results.” Rukia paused, showing another picture of rabbits dressed in black, being crossed out. “So a new group is being formed. Not to scout the area, but to destroy any enemies within.”
Ichigo thought for a moment. “Does this have anything to do with Aizen?” he asked, unfolding his arms.
“We don’t know,” Rukia answered, truthfully. “However, the Soul Society is formally asking you to join this group. We are requesting your assistance, Ichigo. You can think on it if you want.”
“I’ll do it,” Ichigo said, without hesitation. “But tell me, does this place have a name? And is it even in my realm, or is it in the Soul Society?”
“It’s in this realm,” Rukia answered. “And it’s a town called…
‘Silent Hill’.”
