Hotaru stepped into the shower, toes flinching as they touched the chilled ceramic floor. Her mind was bubbling with different scenarios that she made up. The girl turned the dial, old and metallic, releasing thousands of drops from the shower head, darkening her hair into a deeper black and trickled down her back. The water is cold, nothing she could do about that. In winter it was much worse. Hotaru tensed but relaxed within seconds as she was too exhilarated to be bothered.

She quickly scrubbed her body with soap as she thought of all the possibilities in the new town she is moving to finally leaving her small town, Hayakawa, which in fact has the smallest population in the country. Hotaru was moving to a town in the west of Tokyo, Karakua, because her parents had left a small house there in her name and Hotaru was absolutely tired of the repetitive boring days that she had spent her life living here in Hayakawa. The only excitement was when a hollow appeared which only occurred every blue moon.

Apparently Hotaru's parent's friend was already filling paperwork to enroll her into the Karakura high school which she was happy to hear but was also creeped out as how the man, which she soon found out was named Kisuke Urahara, had known her number in the first place. But she had soon forgotten to even ask him how he had gotten her number so she had passed it off and simply celebrated after her call with Kisuke.

Hotaru rinsed the soap off her body and the shampoo out of her long raven her and turned off the running water. Stepping out of the shower, she grabbed a towel and dried herself and tied her damp hair into a ponytail.

Hotaru heard the beeping of a car so she quickly changed into a pair of black leggings, a white short-sleeved turtleneck, a black zipper hoodie, and red hightop converse. She grabbed her two suitcases and backpack, switched off the power in the house, and rushed outside to see a navy blue Chrysler Lebaron parked in the muddy road. Leaning against the car was a large muscular man. His hair is cornrowed and he has a large handlebar mustache, which is connected to his long sideburns. He wears a pair of rectangular-shaped glasses. His attire consists of a white muscle shirt with regular pants and a blue apron.

"Hi, you must be Tessai Tsukabishi. Am I right?" Hotaru started.

"Yes, you must be the lovely Hotaru Shimizu. It's a pleasure to meet you." Tessai greeted as he brought out his hand to shake. "I was starting to think I had gotten the wrong address."

"Yeah it a hard place to get to." Hotaru let out a half hearted smile as she shook his hand.

"Thats for sure." The man smiled, "Let me take those for you." He took the two suitcases from Hotaru's grasp which she was silently relieved of because they were quite heavy.

"Thank you, Sir." Hotaru said politely.

Tessai let out a little grunt in reply and placed the luggage gracefully in the boot and entered the car, starting it up again. Hotaru took a seat in the shotgun and settled her backpack in front of her feet in the small amount of space that there was.

The for rest of the five to six hours of driving we listened silently to jams. Hotaru found out very little about the man that was driving except that he apparently liked a lot of jazz music and his favourite food is actually olives. This is only because whenever a well known jazz song came on the radio Tessai was able to lip sync perfectly to it and also when we had stopped off at a supermarket Hotaru had offered to buy for him and all he had asked for was olived and a bottle of water. Tessai was a very quiet person for sure. The only other time he was spoken was when they arrived at Hotaru's new crib.

Her new house was a cozy two floored house with creamy yellow wooden walls on the outside with a green roof. There were no plants or even a small garden anywhere which Hotaru was secretly glad of because she wouldn't want the extra hassle of having to water anything. Tessai dropped Hotaru's suitcases next to her on the pavement and said in a deep tone "It was nice meeting you."

"You too, Tessai." The girl smiled.

Hotaru let out a sigh. She was going to have to get used to the area quickly or she'll be late for school for days on end. She pulled out her phone and looked on google maps to see where the nearest store was because she guaranteed that there was no food in her new house. Thankfully, there was one closer than she expected.

Hotaru grabbed the keys from her pocket and unlocked the door. The smell of dust and aged wood hit her quickly and it was almost comforting because it somehow reminded her of her parents. The house opened into a dining immediately with a kitchen in the center of the right side of the house with all the essentials with an island facing the dining tables. On the other side of the kitchen was the living room with a leather couch with a flat screened toshiba television on a wooden stand with drawers. On the left of the house was a bathroom and a study room with shelves of books, a desk, and an old computer. On the second floor were three rooms which Hotaru guessed was the master bedroom, guest bedroom, and another bathroom. It was much more modernised from her former house in Hayakawa and was a more comfortable living area.

Hotaru could easily settle here all she had to do now was unpack, fill the fridge and cupboards with food, and maybe even introduce herself to her neighbors.

Hotaru unbacked all her clothes into the the master bedroom storage and all her toiletries into the bathroom which only took her fifty minutes or so, thankfully. The girl then grabbed her skateboard, keys, wallet, and phone and exited the house, locking the door before she left.

She took out her phone again to look at the map unaware of her surroundings and ended up bumping into someone, her skateboard slipping from under her feet and letting her fall backwards. She let out a yelp expecting the pain to shoot through her but it never came, all that came was a strong hand wrapping itself around Hotaru's bicep and her head only inches away from the concrete.

Hotaru's liquid amber eyes trailed the arm to its owner to interlock with brown eyes and bright orange hair. The boy pulled her up to her feet before he pulled a face.

"What?" Hotaru asked panically.

"That really hurt." The ginger groaned as he crouched to grab his ankle in agony.

"Oh my God, I'm so so sorry!" Hotaru cried out apologetically as she realized that her skateboard must've hurt him a lot when she had fallen from the force. "Do you think it's sprained?"

"No, no, no, it's fine. I'll be fine." The boy grunted as he rose to his feet, he was at least over a head taller than Hotaru. "Just watch out next time."

"Yeah - Yeah of course." Hotaru stuttered. "Again, I'm so sorry for crashing into you like that."

"It's no problem. Hey, you seem similar somehow." He said, taking a closer look at Hotaru. Hotaru studied him as well. Nothing rang a bell in her head. She didn't expect it to though. She couldn't remember anything before the age of seven. "Does Ichigo Kurosaki ring a bell?"

"Nope." Hotaru said bluntly, popping the P.

"Oh well, I'll see you around then." Ichigo waved as he continued to walk off. Stange. He has a pretty powerful reiatsu.

Hotaru waved the boy a good bye and picked up her board and started again on her trip to the store, this time without using her phone.

After weaving through the labyrinth of roads, the paths eventually converged and unveiled the supermarket. Flocks of pigeons gathered everywhere; their numbers delighted the elders as they huddled around the birds, and either fed them crumbs of bread. Hotaru came to a stop on her board and picked it up, sliding it under her arm. She pulled out a trolley and dumped it in there as she entered the store.

Hotaru exited the market with bags of groceries and finally realized the mistake she had made in bringing a skateboard. She struggled the rest of her way back home trying to balance herself on the uneven pavement but when she did arrive back home she was relieved of the weight as she unpacked the grocery backs and filled the fridge and the cupboard.

Hotaru slept for the rest of the day and night hoping she could trust Kisuke to deliver her school uniform in the morning in time for her to get ready.