A/N: Because I've always been a huge fan of Bleach RPs, I've decided to make a more in-depth story for my characters which has a few more plot twists—as in freeform RPGs, plot twists are often known as godmoding unless vigorously preplanned. Aside from this, I do not have the power to initiate a timeskip, thus I cannot employ the character growth I want in the amount of time I want (it would indeed be hard to live two hundred years). Here lies the story of two of my characters, Taketa Masaru, and Aosawa Kaki. Many OCs will be placed in this story, many of which are based off of OCs from the RP I've been in. This story begins from the eyes of Masaru, and will remain from the eyes of Masaru, and only from the eyes of Masaru.. Enjoy, and please do review when you're finished. Critique is always appreciated. As a note, I've taken a few assumptions on the bleach universe since Kubo Tite has not fully informed us on his universe:

Rukongai:

*Citizens in the rukongai—or Soul Society in general—age at a ten to one proportion. Meaning that years are counted the same as on Earth, but the aging process of people has slowed to ten percent.

*Most people do not have reiatsu and thus there are few restaurants in the rukongai.

*People pay for water—this was implied in the manga/anime flashback.

More to be added as I get to it. New words in Japanese will be put in italics.

Cold. My eyes squeeze shut, I shiver. Chills needn't run down my spine. My spine is already frozen. I am frozen. I've taken shelter in this tiny little hovel, this dilapidated mess. Yet snow finds its way through the holes in the roof, the broken paper windows. Winter in this district has never been easy. This winter seems the coldest yet. How long have I been here? Alone? At least a year. It has to have been a year. And it's been the longest year of my life—I feel like an old man now. Rambling to himself. I am a lonely old man by now, am I not?

I've never been very big, just a little scrawny boy. I know that my father was a shinigami, and that my mother threw me out as soon as I was old enough to walk. At first, I was able to pick little scraps out from kind strangers—this hunger is a tiny gift from my father, but it's really a curse. I'm the only person from my district who gets hungry. I'm always weak. Sometimes it's from fear and sometimes it's from hunger. The thing is, when I started getting older, the men in my district grew less sympathetic. They would chase me out of their huts, and they would beat me if they caught me trying to take food or water from them without paying my dues. I ran to the outskirts of the district, where I found this ramshackle hovel, falling apart at the seams, a door that will not slide shut unless you force it, broken paper windows and a roof that leaks horrendously.

But this is home, and it's my home. No one else wants me.

I shut my eyes. Maybe I'll die, and maybe it will be the end of me. Maybe I'll freeze to death in my sleep—peaceful, painless. Maybe I'll die a slow, painful death while I'm awake, suffering from hypothermia and starvation. As the icy world around my fades away, as I drift to a frigid slumber, I know I won't dream. I never do. I haven't had a dream since I was thirty-seven.

"Oi, gaki," I hear. I let out a tiny groan. I'm far too tired to care that there's a person in my hut… a person… in… my hut…

There's a person in my hut?

"Gaki," the voice says, "You still breathin'?"

I'm too lost in the fact that there's a person in my hut, and when I open my eyes, sure enough, it's a man, and he's tall! He has to be at least six feet tall, but that's speaking lightly! His feet are huge! His footprints are big enough for two of my feet to stand toe to heel within them! I throw myself up against the wall, staring at him in horror. I open my mouth to speak, but I just don't have a voice anymore. It's raw and hushed from disuse. All that comes out is a tiny whimper.

"Eh?" The man mumbles, confused. I look at his face, but all I see is a shadowed silhouette. The morning sun is blocked out from behind him and we are encased in shadow. I can't get a good look at his face, and I doubt he can get a good look at mine. I'm sure my cheeks are blue by this point; my fingers must be frozen through. I can't even feel them. Slowly, I edge away from the man until my back meets the wall and a panel of wood falls off and lands right beside me. Crunch. There's snow on the back of it. "Oi, gaki, I'm not gonna hur'cha."

"N-nani?" I squeak.

"Y'heard me, I'm not gonna hur'cha," the man repeated. "It ain't m'job to go 'round beatin' up little kids."

I nod, slowly, though I don't understand.

"Geez, gaki, ain't ya freezin'?" he asks, raising a brow. I nod again, and he walks towards me. I notice he's wearing a scarf, and just now it registers that he's wearing gloves, and a sakkat. Lucky bastard—he doesn't have to go barefoot. He has tabi and they have to be warmer than I am. He extends a hand to me. I jump; I smack my head against the wall. He cringes. "Oi, chibi, don't hur'ch'ur'self."

Realizing that I'm not about to stand up, he reaches down and yanks me to my feet, looking down to see that I'm barefoot. "Ah, kami. Ye'r gonna kill yer feet that way."

I look down dejectedly, and he chuckles nervously.

"Dun worry 'bout it," he laughs, picking me up and letting me hang off of his back. He hooks one of my arms around his neck and tells me not to let go. The next thing I know, I feel like we've just moved at the speed of light.

Away from the broken hut which I once considered my hell of a home, my first thought is, K-kuso, what the hell is this guy gonna do?

Turns out, Teketa-san was actually bringing me several districts up, where he found a ramen stand. I now stare at the bowl put in front of me: the biggest amount of food I'd ever seen in one place at once. W-wow.

"Gee, chibi, I was out patrollin' for a hollow and all I found was a little kid," he laughs cordially. "Good thing y'have some reiatsu or I might not've found ya." He leans over me, grinning profusely. "Oi, oi, eat some, it's great. I had some on the way out there."

I look at the bowl, and then back to Taketa-san. He's a tall man, and well-built at that. His skin is lightly tanned, like he spends all day outside and under the sun, compared to my pallid complexion. His gray eyes are kind of narrow, and a long scar runs across one of his eyebrows. His hair is cropped close to his head, and the color reminds me of tree bark. He's given me his long gray scarf, and I notice he's got a tattoo running up his neck—some sort of tribal pattern.

"Arigatou, Taketa-san," I say, looking to my bowl and reaching for my chopsticks. However, by the time my hand reaches where my chopsticks had been placed, they're gone! Taketa-san has already snatched them up and broken them, and now he's clicking them together in front of my face. "O-oi, no fair!"

"Who says I play fair, eh, chibi?" he laughs, shutting his eyes. I take the opportunity to snatch my chopsticks free, except he's got an iron grip on the damn things. He opens his eyes and chuckles, sticking my chopsticks into my ramen. "Go ahead, chibi, eat."

I oblige, and as I eat, Taketa-san and the tenchou talk about the weather, the hollow activity, and how the other's been. They know each other then. I don't think into it too much, and I focus way more on eating this ramen. Taketa-san said it was great, but I beg to differ. It's the best thing in the world. I devour it voraciously, and I know I'm attracting stares but I don't even care anymore. I'm hungry. I'm starving. I've never seen so much food in one place, and who knows, it may never come again! I've gotta get my fill now.

However, just as I finish, I feel Taketa-san's eyes on me. I look to him and cock my head to the side, wiry strands of gray hair falling to the side. "Nani?"

"Ye'r eatin'… a bit too fast," Taketa observed, beads of sweat dripping down his incredulous face. "I mean, I know it's good an' all… but don'cha think ye'r overdoin' it?"

I blink in response.

"Y-er, ah, when's the last time ya've had a good meal?" he asks.

I look up, trying to remember. "Uh," I stammer, "I think a few weeks ago I found a sack of nuts someone dropped on the ground."

Now Taketa-san looks like a chibi. His head inflates as he looks at me. I shrug and return to the ramen, which I eat—albeit, I eat slower now. Apparently I shouldn't eat so fast, so I guess it can't hurt to slow down a bit. When I next peek to the side, Taketa-san has a large bowl of ramen himself, and he eats it slowly, savoring it. I look down at my Ramen—it's almost gone, but I'm still hungry. I even go as far to say as I feel a bit bloated, but I still want more. I finish my ramen, bringing the bowl to my lips and drinking it all down.

I wait for Taketa-san to finish before I say, "My name's Masaru."

Taketa-san looks up from his ramen, setting the bowl down after a long swig of the miso. In response, he grins and replies, proudly, "Taketa Maeru."

I nod.

I don't know, but this is the start of something brilliant—no, I don't know it but I can feel it. This is the start of something wonderful, and I look up to Maeru. The man grins, eyes shutting in his relaxed state. "Let's move out, Saru-chibi."

"I am not a midget!" I squeak. Point… not made as well as I would have liked. Maeru laughs, but he leads me off and our journey, I realize, has only just begun. I smile as we leave, the afternoon sun peaking through the mountains of clouds and shining off of the snow, casting a brilliant shine into my own crystal blue eyes, and into his caramel brown ones. Rags to riches, I wonder? Maybe not quite so drastic, but out of the fire and off the stove. I turn to Maeru with a stupid, lopsided grin. He smiles to me, and I've never felt more at home. I've never felt at home, but now I know what it feels like. I want this to last.

It will.

A/N: So review! I love getting your feedback, and there's nothing more helpful than knowing what I have to improve on.

Japanese vocabulary:

Oi - Hey

Gaki - Brat/Kid

Nani - What[?]

Sakkat - A straw hat (the kind that Shunsui wears)

Tabi - Those socks you see the shinigami wearing

Kami - God

Chibi - Midget

Saru-Chibi - Maeru's nickname for Masaru. Basically, "Midget Monkey."