PROLOGUE

Jiguro did not want to do this, but it was the right thing. His brother would be the one who became the hero; and while he was a proud man he knew only one of them should be in the limelight. He had traveled long in these mountains, searching for a place where he could hide his sword and then drift off to an endless sleep.

He looked at Slayer one more time. It was a zanpakuto, and perhaps the only one of them that could rival the strength of his brother's. It had caused them both much grief. Jiguro could see a cave up ahead, out of the wind and partially obscured by shrubs. That one will do...

He had to get on his hands and knees, but he was sure a smaller man or a child could enter easily. Once he had crawled a few feet, he found the cave was large enough to stand up in, and there was a shaft of light shining down on the back wall. He wrapped Slayer in his ragged black cloak, and placed it in the light coming in from outside. He decided to write an appropriate message above it, so that anyone who might stumble upon it later would know what they found. He decided on: All who wage war know my name... and carved it into the wall of the cave. He then lied down against a cave wall, and closed his eyes.

Chapter One

It was a sunny summer day in Rukongai, and there were children playing in the street. It was a game they called Shinigami, where a few children would pretend to be monsters and the others would chase them around with sticks trying to hit them. For reasons no adult understood, it was very popular.

Kari Kuraka was playing a shinigami, as she always did. She was good at it. Right now, she was chasing a chubby young boy they always forced into being a Hollow.

"I'll beat you this time, shinigami!" Said the boy, who unfortunately was good at playing his part.

"Ha! I can never lose, I'm the Substitute Shinigami! Bankai!" She then struck a pose, and twirled her stick around a few times.

"That's not fair! You already used your Bankai this game!" Protested the young boy, whose name was Sasuke.

"No I didn't!" But she had. Not waiting for Sasuke to whine again, she ran in and swung her stick at him. He moved out of the way, but Kari was fast with her stick, and tagged him before he could run off.

"Ow! Ow! That's it, I quit!" Sasuke stomped off to join the other kids who had been tagged. They were laughing, and it seemed they had begun playing their own game. Kari watched them. The other kids never really invited her to play any games besides Shinigami, always saying they "already had enough people" if she asked to join. Kari wondered if they were scared of her.

Someone bumped into her from behind. "Sorry, I forgot to move out of the street." She turned around to see who it was, and it was an actual shinigami! "Oh! Sorry, sir!"

Shugo smiled. He'd had an easy task today, coming out here into Rukongai to get a local brand of tea for his Captain. "Oh, it's no bother. I was watching your friends play, too. What do you call the game, again?"

"Shinigami, sir." Kari's stomach growled loudly. "...um, playing it always makes me really hungry."

Shugo raised an eyebrow. This girl might be able to become one, someday. "That's okay. Do you know the way to Kuraka's Tea House?"

Kari smiled and nodded. "It's just down the street! I'll show you." Kari happily trotted off to her mother's shop, which was only a few houses down. The shop was empty, as it was about to close for the evening. Kari opened the old wooden door and called out: "Mama! We have a customer!" She let Shugo in, and they walked up to the bar.

Mrs. Kuraka walked out from the back room. Kari saw she was wearing her pretty blue scarf today. "What will you be needing today, sir?"

"Just a small box of tea, the uh, 'House Special' blend? Yes."

A few strands of Mrs. Kuraka's dark hair fell over her face as she leaned down to get the box from under the counter. "Here you go, one of the last boxes!"

Shugo handed her the coins to pay. "Alright! Thank you, ma'am!" Shugo smiled. Mrs. Kuraka and her daughter were very cute together; maybe he would come here in his time off some day.

After the shinigami left, Mrs. Kuraka took out the "CLOSED" sign and hung it on the door. Kari's stomach growled again. "Have you been playing Shinigami again, Kari?"

"Yes, but sometimes it happens even when I haven't been playing, too."

Mrs. Kuraka looked at her daughter, with the same dark hair and heart shaped face as her, but with green eyes- like her runaway father. She sighed. "Kari, Shinigami is a children's game, and you're almost twelve now! You need to start helping out here around the shop a little more, you're a big girl now."

"Sorry, mama. I... I don't know, but I just like playing it..." It was really the only game Kari played. She spent most of her free time walking out near the mountains, or practicing using her stick for Shinigami. She hugged her mother. "Mama, do you think I could become a real shingami when I'm older?"

Mrs. Kuraka held her daughter close. "Kari, you could become anything you want to..."