So...I'm not entirely sure where the idea for this story came from. I have a document on my computer where I type up plans for stories [that never get written], and I found this one on there. I don't even remember this idea, but I liked it, so I wrote it out and it looks pretty damned good. It'll probably only be a four- or fiveshot at most, so it won't be too awful long. This is to keep me from losing my interest in it, as well as to make it a little more interesting, as I've never done anything more than a oneshot or less than...ten chapters.

Review it and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Never have, never will.

Orphan

By Kouzumi93

Chapter 1: Prologue

I have no parents. At least, not anymore. But ever since I can remember, I've lived in an orphanage. It's not even that great of an orphanage. There's only enough room to house maybe three or four orpans at most, but they have upwards of eight of us crammed in the small building at one time. The number of residents constantly fluctuates, what with some dying from illnesses or running away, and then there were always kids arriving from the street and such.

This is the year 1879. I'm seven years old, and I'm not particularly sure of exactly what's been going on around the world. Japan is undergoing many changes due to the shift in the government, but that's about all I know. Those who take care of us orphans feel that we're too incompetent and unimportant to have a need to know about what is going on. That doesn't mean that we don't overhear little snippets of conversations here and there, but they're never enough to piece anything together. In fact, those snippets that we hear are the only reason that we know about the reactions to the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate. Not that many of us were born during that era.

It is rather rough here. While everyone is friends with everyone else, it's not because we all get along, as we don't all of the time. We've banded together in hopes of having something solid to cling onto in this world full of uncertainties at every turn. The only downfall of the friendship method is that we usually suffer minor symptoms of depression when someone dies or runs away.

Run away.

I don't think I'll ever understand why anyone ran away from this place. Running away from here is like slowly killing oneself, as life on the streets is a hell of a lot worse than living in an orphanage. It's not like someone is just going to take in some random, stray child from the streets. The orphanage is surely not the best place to be, but at least we have shelter and food, albeit the fact that the food can be rather scarce at times.

None of us have any possessions to call our own, with the exception of our names, but even those don't belong to everyone. Some orphans arrive here without a name, age or origin, so the caretaker gives them only a name, but only a first. Last names belong only to those who had arrived here with them.

They include me. I am one of the privileged ones who has both a first and last name. From what I've been told by the caretaker and those who brought me here, my parents died less than a year after I was born, so I was brought to the orphanage once their death was made known. I don't know very much about my parents, except that my father had once been a Samurai. But the Samurai class has been eliminated recently. That is one of the events that had happened that I overheard between some of the neighbours.

Oh, I suppose this is the point of my story in which I should introduce myself. Because there won't be much of a break after this for me to speak casually.

My name is Matsumoto Rangiku.

Welcome to the tale of my short life, painful, yet quick death and strange afterlife.

So it's...erm...rather short...But this is the shortest chapter of them all, I swear! I have to say though, I'm relatively disappointed with the length, because it looked oh-so-much longer in my notebook. And I have teeny-tiny handwriting, too.

I really hope you enjoyed the prologue, and I look forward to seeing you in the next chapter!

Review please! I would very much appreciate it, and then I'll know that I at least have an audience before the next chapter pops up. One review at least would be very nice! I'm curious about the interest level for this.