Author's Note: I actually posted this up on Quizilla. I liked this story too much to let it go, though I did a few changes to it coughskypiratescough. I was feeling Toshiro fangirl-y-ness lately. Anyway, this is AU. ToshiroxOC (Yukiko).
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach it is copyrighted to Kubo Tite. I do however own the idea for this story so, do not steal.
Toshiro hugged Momo and his grandmother goodbye before heading to the boarding gate. He will be taking an airship to Seireitei to work some problems in his growing business. Toshiro was not fond of going on big airships, so he decided to ride on a much smaller convenient one; less people to disturb him the better.
He picked up his luggage and headed to the cabin he would be staying in for a few days. The journey was roughly about a week if there was not a single storm cloud disturbing them. It gave him plenty of time to sort out the mess his company had been forced into. Owning his business had kept him busy from socializing (which was fine), but it seemed that he distanced himseld from his family more. He didn't want to admit it, but he cared for his adopted sister.
Most of his travel required him to rest for the grueling work he was bound to have. However this particular travel made him go up to the captain and he almost begged to do some sort of work. He thought it would be useful for him to work on his sailing and it did provide him with a good view of the things they flew over.
His last night spent on the ship was looking up on the stars. Soon he would be arriving in the city and the view of the stars would be hard to see with all the lights there. Though civilization had improved with all sorts of new technology, he wondered what it would be like to live in the past where magick ruled and ships did not fly. He looked ahead to see a glimmering light approaching, he did not think of it much and just assumed that it was a private airship.
Out of the blue, the airship shook violently and he looked to the side of the deck to see an airship with a jolly roger. Pirates. Toshiro ran and saw that the amount of canons was limited compared to the pirate ship. As he ran to help the crew loading the gunpowder, he saw; "Kazemouko" imprinted to the side of the ship in big bold golden letters. The name felt familiar to him.
As the crew got themselves together, he ran to his cabin to grab his suitcase. In it was his most precious belonging. It wasn't documents to his company nor was it money; it was memoirs of his closest people. Toshiro felt the ship jerk violently again and lost his footing. He knocked himself against the floor and fell into darkness, all the while, he held his suitcase tightly.
"Oi, he's still alive right?"
"Yes he is. I don't know why you're very worried over him Ichigo."
"Oh, I ain't. It's Yukiko. She saw him and started shouting at me to take good care of this little runt."
"He looks like he's seventeen or eighteen, but the white hair makes me not so sure anymore."
"I understand what you mean Orihime."
Toshiro listened as the two people talked on and on about him. Was he rescued after the pirate attack? Was he somewhere safe? He wanted to open his eyes but it wouldn't work. He moved a finger and heard a gasp.
"He's waking up."
"I'll call Yukiko."
Toshiro heard movement. There was steps approaching him. Slowly, he tried hard to opened his eyes. It worked. He turned his head to the side and saw a woman with auburn hair and soft brown eyes. Her aura gave off a warm feeling. Looking at this kind woman, Toshiro felt a glimmer of hope that he was rescued from the attack.
He turned his head to the side and saw a woman of short stature and behind her was a man with orange hair and brown eyes. Looking at the woman, Toshiro began to wonder if he was indeed rescued. She gave off such a dark aura that Toshiro could feel it surround him and plunge him into a dark sea.
"Yukiko-san, he's awake. I suggest you not work him too hard until a few more days. He hit his head quite hard," the auburn woman spoke. The young woman nodded, a frown etching across her face. She turned to look at Toshiro once more. At that moment of eye contact, toshiro felt a shiver as she gazed him with her heterochromatic eyes: her left one blue and her right one red.
It was then that he noticed of the attire that the young woman wore. She was wearing a long sleeve dress shirt that appeared dirty and too big for her that he could see her undergarments, with black pants tied with a red sash. Her coat was long and reached her knees and she had a black triangular hat on. She had a fan-like earring on her right ear and a black chocker necklace. Her boots were small—befitting for a petite woman like her—and worn out.
"Ichigo, once he gets better put him on cabin boy duty. We're givin' Jinta back to Kisuke since he's beginning to piss me off," the young woman said, her tone authoritive.
"You're just angry he's been beating you in the ball game." The young woman growled and she kicked the man, making him double over and writhe in pain. The young woman gave him a hard glare. "I'm Yukiko, that idiot on the floor is Ichigo. And Orihime's the one takin' care of you. Get better soon so I can work you to death. Ichigo, tell Uryuu I wanna head off to Karakura. I need somewhere to spend the loot we got from that ship. After that I wanna go to Las Noches, I got some business with a certain bastard. Also tell that…..."
Toshiro's mind worked overtime. The way they're dressed, the way they talk. He was on the pirate ship. A hard hit to his head snapped him out of his thoughts. He rubbed his head and saw the young woman glaring at him, her left eyebrow twitching. "Listen to me when I'm talking to you dammit. I'm a damn captain so treat me with respect you brat!" the woman's voice hardened.
The door was knocked down as a man with red hair appeared in the room panting, "Yukiko, the child we found, the men are…they're going…" Everyone in the room exited hurriedly, leaving Toshiro confused.
Yukiko walked on deck to see the men grabbing on the young girl. She was already half naked as one of the man tried to force himself on her. She took out her sword and mercilessly cut the man hovering over the girl. The other man backed off in an instant. Yukiko shrugged off her coat and threw it to the small girl.
Yukiko glared at them. She remembered ordering the men to leave the small girl alone. "You dare defy my orders?" she said lowly that it sounded like a snake hissing. They knew that they were as good as dead. "Orihime, bring the girl into the infirmary." Orihime was quick to respond and brought the shaking girl away from the soon-to-be-morbid-scene.
"Tell me. Who first suggested to ignore my orders?" Yukiko said calmly. She received no reply and repeated the question shouting. All the man pointed at the bleeding man that Yukiko just cut. "Shoot him out of a canon Ichigo and make sure he lands in the sea."
Ichigo took the bleeding men by the collar and dragged him down the brig to where the big cannons were. Yukiko gave another hard glare at the crew and sheathed her sword. "You dare not listen to me again and I'll shoot you out of the cannon alive and let you sink to the bottom of the sea," Yukiko ordered, "Renji help Ichigo out. Back to work you scoundrels!"
Toshiro saw a small girl with come into the room led by the auburn hair woman. The coat that the previous black haired woman wore was tightly wrapped around the child. The woman led the small shivering girl to the bed. She remembered the small girl as someone who gave him a glass of water when he was working on deck.
"Ano, would you mind looking the other way. I need to inspect the girl." Toshiro nodded at the woman and turned his head the other way and faced the wall. It was strange to hear about a woman on board a pirate ship, not to mention a captain of the pirate ship.
"You can turn back now." Toshiro turned back and saw the girl sleeping peacefully.
"I believe we need proper introductions since Yukiko-san didn't do it properly before. I am Kurosaki Orihime, it's a pleasure to meet you. And you are?"
Toshiro was baffled. A pirate so kind and different from the rumours he heard of. "Ah, I'm Hitsugaya Toshiro."
"I see. Hehe, it suits you. Tell me Toshiro-kun, where were you headed?"
It was strange to have such a casual conversation with a pirate. "Seireitei. If you don't mind me asking, how did you end up here?"
"My ship was attacked by a pirate ship, not this one though, so I hid and when I thought I was going to die Kazemouko came and saved me. I was the only survivor of the ship. Yukiko-san decided to put me to safety, but I volunteered to stay, because I owe Ichigo my life. He saved me from being taken to that horrible ship."
"Aren't all pirate ships horrible, even this one."
"No!, this ship isn't horrible. It's my home. The only thing that makes this place bad is all those evil crewmen outside. Yukiko-san plans on kicking them off her ship once we get to Las Noches and find new people to help out on deck. And besides I get this very nice room. Ichigo had to through a lot of trouble fixing up this room for me; he even took a beating from Yukiko when she went on a rampage about him changing the cabin without her knowledge.
"And even though Yukiko-san acts harsh at times, I', sure it's just for the best of the people she cares about on this ship—even if she won't admit it. Oh my, I'm rambling on aren't I? Anyway, you better rest Toshiro-kun. I'll come back and check up on you again in a few hours."
Toshiro nodded his head as Kurosaki Orihime left the room. He couldn't believe the things the woman just said about this ship. His head was pounding with all the information he just gathered (that there were 'nice' pirates) and he decided to rest.
End Note: Yeah. Airships. Like those ones in Treasure Planet movie! Oh and I sort of got the idea of the civilization of this AU if Treasure Planet meets Final Fantasy XII. I love the FF series! This is a pretty long chapter in my opinion over 1500 words! I'm proud of it. Review if you like and if you don't, such a pity.