A/N: So this little idea has been running in circles in my mind for a while, just banging on the walls to be written down. I wanted to get the first chapter out there before anyone else took the idea. All fans of my Kuroshitsuji fic, Blue Roses will be pleased to know that it will get top priority, but Ill try and update both as fast as possible.
In a completely unrelated topic… does anyone notice the similarities between Grell and Chizuru from Bleach?! It's weird!
Disclaimer: Captain Spiral does not own any part of Bleach, which belongs to Tite Kubo. OC's, however, are property of Captain Spiral.
Chapter 1: Festival Introductions
Sandals thumped against the ground with such speed that dust clouded the air behind the hurrying shinigami.
Dark blue pigtails held with lime green bows bounced up and down and followed their owner around a corner.
Periwinkle eyes were wide and panicked as they took in routes ahead of her.
Hikora Sorinchi was late.
Had the girl had any familiarity with the story of Alice in Wonderland, she'd be sympathizing with the white rabbit right about now.
She took a sharp left and nearly collided with someone for the twentieth time. She swerved and spun around the people in the crowded street and finally spotted her destination.
The division headquarters got bigger and bigger in her sights, the door came into view. Her steps went faster in one last final sprint and she reached towards the entrance.
A foot came out of nowhere, catching Hikora's own foot and she went spiraling into the door with a loud almost squawk, breaking it down.
Raucous laughter came from behind her and she looked up from her heap on the floor to see Makuro Hotoki, third seat of the third division.
Untangling herself from herself, Hikora jumped up seething. "What the hell, Makuro!? Are you trying to kill me?!"
She dusted her uniform off and adjusted her lieutenants' badge. Makuro rolled his eyes. "You should watch where you're going, Lt. Hi-chan. If you weren't running so fast you wouldn't trip everywhere."
"Oh shut up! I was running because I was-"
"Late." A voice finished for her.
Hikora went stiff as a board and slowly turned around to face him. "C- Captain Otoribashi! I was just looking for you!" she stammered at the perpetually bored looking captain of squad 3.
She searched around hakama and pulled out a brand new looking book.
"Amidst the Plum Blossoms Vol. 3 by Korogi Shibata(1), it finally came out." she announced and was please to see her captains face light up.
"Ah wonderful job, Sorinchi-chan!" he said, gleefully taking the book from her. "You are an excellent lieutenant."
Appeased, Rōjūrō, turned around with his new book in hand and left to go read it.
"Excellent lieutenant." Hikora cast an 'I'm so better than you.' glance to Makuro.
The man simply rolled his eyes. "It's easy to get on someone's good side when you buy them what they want."
"Hey I am good at all my duties! But it is also a lieutenant's job to know their captain's needs and act accordingly. If you were my captain I'd be perfectly willing to buy that koshu sake(2) you enjoy so much." Murmuring "Not that that would ever happen." under her breathe.
Makuro smacked the back of her head. "I heard that!"
"Waaah! Respect your lieutenant!"
"Yeah right!"
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Hikora Sorinchi was the lieutenant of the 3rd squad and had been for almost two years now. She had been Rōjūrō's first choice when he had become captain. A fact she had been surprised about. She wasn't particularly skilled in kido or hoho, but she was an expert in hakuda so perhaps that had been the reason?
Her abnormal strength was something she was proud of, but she didn't like the fact that everyone thought her manly because of it. Boys didn't like it when she could beat them in hand to hand combat.
As it was, she had been thrilled. She was moving up in the world! Not to mention she was a step ahead of Makuro, her rival since the Shinigami Academy. He was still sore over the defeat. Not to mention he was her ex-boyfriend. Things don't work well when jealousy rears its ugly head, and boy was Makuro jealous of her position.
She stepped out of the third division headquarters and headed through the labyrinth-like streets, her pace a leisurely contrast to her earlier rush.
She apologized to some of the people she had collided with before.
Looking around, the streets were busier than usual. There was a festival tonight and she couldn't wait.
"Hikora!"
Hikora turned around. "Kyouhei! I was just looking for you!" she smiled and ran towards him.
Kyouhei held his arms out as his girlfriend jumped into them. He spun her around and planted a kiss on the tattoo right beneath her left eye. A keyhole.
A black metal key hung on a length of leather cord from her neck. It had been a gift from her captain.
"Excited for the festival, Kyo-kun?"
The boy smiled lopsidedly, his green eyes were bright. Hikora loved his lopsided grin. His dirty blonde hair stuck out at odd angles, giving him a disheveled boyish look.
"Only if I get to see you in a cute yukata." He responded as he put her down.
She nodded. "I have a cute one just for you, Kyo-kun." She winked.
They began walking side by side. "The festival is gonna start as soon as the sun goes down, will you meet me by the pond?"
Kyouhei agreed and they went to get something to eat before parting ways.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
Later that night Hikora stood at the edge of a pond. She stared down in to the dark water.
The surface was still enough that she could see her reflection perfectly.
Her yukata was a melon green with a multicolored octopus on her left shoulder. The tentacles trailed down over the whole yukata.
The obi faded down from blue to white with orange fish swimming at the top. It was one of her favorites. She liked interesting looking designs and so she had it commissioned for her.
Her hair was up in an elaborate style held by carved bone hair sticks with shells at the top and her feet were adorned with black lacquer tengu-geta that had orange and white twisted straps.(3)
She tugged on her sleeve, waiting. She had only been going out with Kyouhei for a week so she still became nervous in situations like this.
The sun was completely gone now and she was thankful she had brought a paper lantern. From inside the red paper it cast a scarlet glow around her.
A rustling directed her attention to a nearby tree. "Kyouhei?"
"Eh? Not exactly…"
Instead of her boyfriend, Hikora saw…
"Captain Otoribashi!"
Rōjūrō waved as he moved towards her, but he wasn't the one that spoke. Shinji Hirako, Captain of the 5th squad and Love Aikawa, Captain of the 7th squad followed behind Rose. Captain Hirako had been the one that had spoken.
"Sorinchi-chan, what are you doing here alone?" her captain asked. "The festivities are going to begin soon."
"Kyouhei said he'd meet me here." Hikora explained. "He's just a little late…"
She noticed Love and Shinji studying her interesting appearance with raised eyebrows. Rose was used to the girl's different sense of fashion, but she didn't interact with Captain Hirako or Aikawa very much. She doubted they even knew her first name.
"What are you three doing out here, Captain?"
"We're not on duty, call me Rose." Rōjūrō said.
"Oh, okay."
Some more rustling came from behind the tree. Everyone turned as Kyouhei emerged. Hikora sighed in relief. "Kyouhei, I almost thought you had forgotten about me." she joked.
"Of course not." The blonde replied. He gave her a hug and stepped back to look at her yukata. "You're wearing that?"
The blunette frowned at her boyfriend's disapproval of her choice of clothes. "Yea? What's wrong with it?"
Kyouhei scratched his head. "You said you would wear something cute. Aren't girls supposed to wear flowery yukatas or something feminine and pretty?"
Hikora pouted. Was he saying she wasn't pretty? "I like this design. It isn't generic and boring. It's interesting and fun. What's wrong with that?"
Her voice betrayed her defensiveness over the clothing and Kyouhei finally acknowledged that they had company.
Indeed, the three captains were silently watching the dispute.
Kyouhei lowered his voice as he bent in towards Hikora. "Look, don't you have another yukata?"
Without lowering her own voice, the woman answered. "Of course, but if I wanted to wear those I would have."
Beginning to get embarrassed, he lowered his voice further so she'd take the hint. "Everyone is going to stare at you."
She didn't take the hint. "So what? You'll be with me. Who cares if people stare at us?"
Annoyance set in. "There is no us if you're wearing that." his voice was nearly just a hiss.
Hikora backed up, eyes wide in shock. "W-what? You're going to break up with me over clothing?"
Kyouhei didn't answer out loud. That was exactly the reason. Hikora Sorinchi looked good on your arm when she was in uniform, but she was too weird whenever else.
He was getting points from his friends for going out with the attractive girl, but if they found out how 'interesting' she was, he'd be a laughing stock.
He wouldn't say any of this, of course, at least not with captains watching.
So instead he turned and walked away.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^
The three Shinigami Captains watched Kyouhei silently disappear from their sight.
Rōjūrō was the first to turn back around towards his subordinate. She looked as if still in shock at what had just happened. Her arms were slack against her sides, the red paper lantern nearly dropping from her lax hands.
Her eyes were fixed at the spot were her now ex-boyfriend had left.
"Hikora."
Cloudy blue eyes snapped over to Rōjūrō. She looked as if she had totally forgotten about their presence there. She smiled a strained smile. "I'm fine." she whispered and then unexpectedly let out a weak laugh. "I shouldn't be surprised. I have terrible luck with boys, don't I, Captain?"
The lieutenant was right. She had at least five ex-boyfriends, none of which had lasted more than three weeks.
Rose put a supportive arm around her shoulders and smiled. "I told you to call me Rose."
Hikora's smile became more genuine with his support.
"Oi, oi." Shinji interrupted. "The fireworks are starting so be quiet and watch them with us."
The other two captains sighed at his rude speech habits.
"The fireworks? We can see them here?"
Love nodded and pointed to the pond. "This is where we watch the festival fireworks every year."
Sure enough, a loud blast lit up the sky and was reflected perfectly on the smooth glassy black surface of the water.
"Amazing!" Hikora gasped. The fireworks looked abnormally close when reflected in the pond.
"We are the only ones who come to watch the fireworks here, besides a very few others. No one else knows of this place." Love said and Shinji turned to her.
"Yea so don't tell anyone. Our secret got it?"
The blunette girl looked at the three men facing her. These two other captains were so accepting! If she could cry she would've from all the joy she felt at this moment.
"I won't tell anyone, I promise." She said eagerly, feeling the honor run through her.
Shinji patted her on the head. "Then I guess we can let you join our little firework club." he said in a deadpan voice. "It'll be nice with a cute girl for once."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean, Dickhead!" A hoarse yet feminine voice growled out.
Shinji sweatdropped. "H-Hiyori we were waiting for you."
The tiny blonde girl gave Shinji a dirty look. A large man with silver hair and a young thin woman with lime green hair stood behind her.
Rose greeted them. "Kensei, Mashiro."
Mashiro spotted Hikora next to Rose. Unlike Love and Shinji, Hikora was very familiar with the green headed girl. Birds of a strange feather flock strangely together as they say.
"Hikky-Chan!" She skipped towards the fellow lieutenant.
"Mashy-Chan, I told you not to call me that! It sounds inappropriate."
They grinned widely at each other and hugged while everyone else mentally pondered over the awkward nicknames.
"Why didn't you tell me this is where you watch the fireworks?" Sorinchi pouted.
"It was a secret."
Kensei snorted. "That didn't keep you from telling Hiyori."
Mashiro stuck her tongue out at him. "Shut up, meanie."
They all laughed at the immature girl as they settled in to watch the fireworks together. Blue, red, and yellow, burst across the lake surface before being replaced by a red, pink, and green explosion of colored fire.
After a few minutes everyone had gone silent and settled down, even Mashiro and Hiyori who had been threatening Shinji.
Now all they did was sat together transfixed on the water. Purple and gold rained down until like comets of silver took their place.
(1)- This is not a real book, it's a fictional romance/mystery novel that I made up that Rose is a fan of.
(2)- Aged sake.
(3)- Go to profile for link to picture.
So there you have it. The fact that every captain and lieutenant was turned into vizards, save for the 3rd division Lt. (who is unknown currently) was too good a story chance to pass up. I didn't really like this chapter, lots of character establishment… hopefully the next one will be better.
Review!