Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach
A/N: Welcome... to my new Bleach story!
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Enjoy :)
A young girl with jet black hair remembered waking up in a tree.
Her memory was hazy, she could remember her name, her birthday, and some memories here and there.
What in the world was she doing on a tree? If Mama saw this, she would scold me!
She sighed and started to make her way down the tree.
Maybe she could figure out where she is.
She ran her fingers through her hair.
Why was it so messy?
Her fringe kept falling back into her eyes and covering it.
She sat down at the foot of the tree and tried to recall what had happened exactly.
She closed her eyes.
She could remember some dude wearing cool black robes kneeling in front of her. He was talking to her at the time. For some reason, his voice appeared to be coming from far, far away.
"Now listen here... It's not safe to stay here any longer. If you do, more monsters like the one you saw just now will come after you."
She had nodded, and the figure raised the hilt of the sword before raising it to her forehead.
"Don't worry. I'm sending you to a place where it is safe."
He stamped her forehead with the back of the sword.
Light shone out from her forehead and she could feel herself fading away slowly...
"Wait!" She called out to the figure, who had gotten up and prepared to take his leave.
"Where exactly am I going?"
The man in the black robes smiled.
"Soul Society... You'll be safe there."
She watched the man walk further and further away, before dissipating completely, and suddenly she felt like she was rising in the air.
Blackness was consuming her vision.
She yawned and closed her eyes.
So sleepy...
She had promptly dozed off.
Poke.
Poke.
The little girl's eyes snapped open and she suddenly jolted up.
Her eyes widened as she saw two strangers kneeling in front of her.
There was this pretty-looking girl with her hair tied up nicely. A little bit behind her, a boy about her age (5? 6?)stood with an annoyed look on her face.
The pretty girl currently had her back turned and she was talking to the boy.
The little girl frowned.
The boy had white hair and pretty turquoise eyes.
The two were currently squabbling.
"Oi, bedwetter Momo, is she OK or not?!"
"I don't do that anymore Shiro-chan! And for that matter I'm not sure..."
The boy made an annoyed noise.
The little girl sat up a bit, blinking rapidly in confusion as she cautiously spoke.
"...Excuse me?"
The pretty girl in front of her, who looked older than her by a few years, turned around and smiled.
"Huh? Oh! You're awake!"
The pretty girl stretched out her hand to help her up.
"You see, me and Shiro-chan here was passing by but then we saw you here!"
She and the little girl stood up.
"Oh! And in case you're wondering, my name is Momo Hinamori and this little fella here is-"
She was suddenly cut off by the white-haired boy rather rudely.
He huffed and crossed his arms, looking at Hinamori.
"I'm Toshiro. Hitsugaya Toshiro."
The little girl nodded, tilting her head as she glanced at him with wide eyes.
Hinamori turned to her, asking kindly.
"So what's your name?"
The white-haired boy, Toshiro, suddenly turned to look at her. Their gaze met and she immediately looked away in utter embarrassment (Staring was bad!), and also feeling somewhat shy.
"I'm..."
She turned back to face Hinamori , and said.
"My name is Misaki. Shinozaki Misaki."
"Aki-chan! If I may ask, what were you doing under that tree?"
Misaki was walking with Hinamori. She noticed that while Hinamori was older and taller than she was, she was the same height as the white-haired boy, Toshiro.
She looked at Momo-chan, frowning a bit.
"You see, after I woke up in that tree, I made my way down and I was trying to remember something..."
Hinamori nodded and they continued walking. Toshiro was following them from a distance.
"Momo-chan?"
"What is it, Aki-chan?"
"Where are we exactly? I know we are in Soul Society, but... Is there a name for this place in particular?"
Hinamori smiled.
"Of course!"
She smiled and gestured around herself.
"This here is Junrinan of West Rukongai. You see Aki-chan, there are 4 regions in Rukongai: North, East, South and West. In each region, there is 80 districts. The smaller the number of your district, the better the living conditions. Junrinan is District number 1 in the western zone."
Hinamori let out a small smile.
"We all are really lucky to be here, you know?"
Misaki agreed.
So she was lucky that she appeared in this district.
"Hey, Shiro-chan!" Hinamori suddenly turned and called out to the boy behind them.
It was then that she realised they had stopped walking, and was standing in front of a cozy little house.
"Stay here with Aki-chan, alright Shiro-chan? I'll go talk to Granny."
"Don't call me that stupid nickname, Momo the Bedwetter."
"I don't do that anymore, Shiro-chan!"
Misaki sat on the little porch next to Toshiro.
It was awkward.
They were just sitting there, and waiting for Hinamori to come back out.
Misaki wondered if she was imagining it, but...
Toshiro seemed to be rather cold.
Maybe it was just his body language that had given her that impression in the first place.
Silence. Silence that for some reason, seemed to be very loud. (Was that even possible?)
Suddenly, a purr was heard, and a black little tabby cat came into view.
She resisted the urge to squeal and run over and start admiring the adorable little kitten.
Misaki really loved cats.
She wondered if it would be weird if she just randomly walked over and play with the cat. Especially when the atmosphere was already awkward...
"Hey."
She jumped and turned to look at Toshiro. She blinked as she tilted her head and replied.
"Hi."
There was silence for a few moments. Then...
"You want to play with that cat over there, don't you?"
Misaki jumped and looked at him, surprised.
How did he...
"Just go. I won't mind."
Misaki blinked, registering his words. Then, she broke into a childish grin.
"Thank you, Hitsugaya-kun!"
Then, she practically made a beeline towards the cat. She plopped down onto the ground and petted it. It rubbed its head against her hand affectionately.
She looked up and smiled at him.
"How did you know that?"
Toshiro shrugged and looked at her playing with the cat looking somewhat amused.
"How do I put it... It was obvious to me."
Misaki nodded and stood up.
"I see..."
She petted the cat a last time before it walked away.
She grinned at Toshiro.
"Hey! You're really smart!"
Toshiro looked confused by the random statement.
"From now on, I'll call you Toshi-kun."
Toshi-kun twitched. He sighed as he stood up.
"What... is with girls and stupid nicknames?"
He sighed as he retorted.
"Huh? Crazy cat lady?"
He turned towards her, his eyebrows raised as he glanced at Misaki, gauging her reaction.
"H-Hey! That's not fair! Toshi-kun is a flattering nickname, OK?"
She walked up to him.
" 'Toshi' means 'Bright' and 'Intelligent'! It's suits you perfectly... Also..."
Toshi-kun sighed indifferently.
"I'm not a crazy cat lady! Don't be so mean, Toshi-kun!"
"Me, Shiro-chan and Granny has been staying here together for about a few months now! Or rather, Granny and Shiro-chan took me in about a few months ago."
Hinamori sat with them, as she thoughtfully bit a piece of watermelon.
"Now that I think about it..."
She turned to Misaki, who was helping herself to a slice of watermelon.
"You must be about the same age as Shiro-chan!"
Misaki blinked. It would be so strange if that was true.
So, watermelon in hand, she turned to face Toshiro.
"Toshi-kun. When where you born?"
Toshiro answered between chomps of watermelon. He really, really liked watermelons.
Misaki gaped.
"Toshi-kun. My birthday is 5 days after yours."
Toshiro continued eating his watermelon. He looked up before answering.
"So it's true... I knew you were younger than me."
He continued to eat watermelons relentlessly.
Hinamori clapped her hands together.
"Wow... Five days apart, but otherwise the same age as Shiro-chan..."
As if on impulse, Toshiro suddenly started to spit watermelon seeds rapidly at Hinamori.
"Ah! Shiro-chan, stop it!"
"Don't call me that nickname, Bedwetter Momo!"
He then fired some watermelon seeds at Misaki. She protested immediately.
"H-Hey!"
"You also! Misaki the crazy cat lady!"
"I'm not a crazy cat lady, Toshi-kun! Give me another nickname!"
"Aki-chan, come here!"
Hinamori grabbed hold of her and had her sit on a stool.
"What is it, Momo-chan?"
"Aki-chan... It's time that you got a new hairstyle! Your hair is too messy, you know. Let me tidy it up for you."
Misaki knew that Hinamori was being nice, so she decided that she would just go along with it. Not that she really cared of her hair was messy or neat!
Hinamori placed a towel over Misaki's shoulders and started to comb her hair. She then carefully trimmed parts of her hair and her fringe.
"Here! Take a look!"
Momo-chan did a great job with her hair.
Instead of the messy bundle it was last time, her shoulder-length was now neater, and instead of her fringe covering her eyes, it was now cut in bangs that had a portion parted to the right side of her face. There was also bangs framing the sides of her face.
"Thank you! You're really good at this, Momo-chan!"
Misaki grinned as she tackled Hinamori in a hug.
She then had an idea.
"Hm... You should give Toshi-kun a haircut one day too..."
Hinamori's eyes lit up.
"Huh?...That's a great idea! I'll start thinking of a haircut for him right away!"
...
Somewhere outside the house eating watermelons, Toshiro sneezed.
He rubbed his nose.
"Did I... catch a cold?"
After a few months of happiness spent living together with Toshi-kun, Hinamori and Granny, one day, Hinamori came to talk to Misaki and Toshi-kun about something.
Misaki wondered what it was about.
Toshiro had a distant look on his face. It was almost as if he was scared of what he was going to hear.
And Misaki knew that Toshiro never got worried or scared, and that what Hinamori was going to tell them was a really serious matter.
However, even when Misaki thought she was prepared for the unexpected, what Hinamori said when she walked in shocked her to the core.
"Shiro-chan, Aki-chan... I'm going to attend an Academy to train to become a Shinigami. I'll be leaving tomorrow in the morning."