I really shouldn't be writing this, but I've got writer's block for Demon King, so...

Anyway, Hikifune's personality wasn't very elaborated on in the manga, so I'm just playing with it actually. Warning: this contains spoilers so you probably shouldn't read it if you aren't up to date with the manga. This story is gonna focus on Hiyori and Shinji's Rukongai days, skipping to Shino Academy, and then skipping to when they join the Gotei 13 and so on.

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.

-prologue-

The Story of a Monkey and a Pervert

"Ya ain't gettin' that back, so deal with it, baldy!"

So declared the loud, ever-so assertive and aggresive voice of a small-framed girl, with freckles dotting her cheeks, spiky blond hair being supported by ratted tendrils of fabric, as the strong Rukongai sun battered down on the seventy-sixth district of the South Alley. The snarling girl was holding a pot of water to her chest, roughly a litre big, but painstakingly crucial to her survival. Her scratchy yutaka was dark blue and ended at her ankles, tied together by a ripped black belt.

"You little squirt!" The vendor of those careful provisions snapped at her, then lunged. The girl, instead of running and cowering like the average child thief did, kicked off a sandal.

It was just then that the vendor's eyes fell on them. They were made of some sturdy, light brown woven material, held together by brown clasps. It was unusual for someone in the lower districts of Rukongai to even possess shoes, though he suspected the demon-trapped-in-a-child had stolen it from a poor, unsuspecting shinigami while he was attacking a manifested hollow.

Crack!

The sharp pain that erupted in his cheek, along with the violent jerk of his head made him teether in his run and fall on his back, his sore muscles groaning of centuries of hard work to unearth underground springs. For a second, the bright blue sky swiveled, and he was staring at the tan, dusty ground.

Letting a moan of pain escape his mouth, he struggled to pull himself back up. Luckily, no one had noticed much this, seeing as there were many happenings of this during the day, and the other adults were either vendors, half-dead or chasing some of their own unruly children. When the sky tipped back to the normal angle, he saw as the blonde-haired menace pulled back on her sturdy sandal, stuck her tongue out - that brat, she was taunting him! - and ran, the pot of water still clutched hard to her chest.

She had slapped him with the slipper. Even though it was abrupt and unexpected, he honestly couldn't say he was surprised that she had used such a technique.

Reminds me of a monkey...

"Did ya get the provisions?"

Sarugaki Hiyori felt the familiar scowl pull at her lips, glaring at the lazy blondie in front of her. Beside him, a smaller, but kinder-face brunet looked worriedly between them. "Dickhead. If yer starvin' that much, just go get them yourself." She set the pot down, carefully, though it took all her willpower not to smash it into pieces simply to watch the boy's shocked face as the water sunk into the dusty soil. She sat down, looking around at the roughly constructed tent made of branches against a larger shack. "This the best you could do?" she asked, contempt dribbling in her voice. "Good-for-nothin', I should've done it myself."

"Shut up, Fang Girl."

"What did ya say, dickhead?!"

The two children rose to their feet, blonde hair flowing akin to their movements as a similar snarl pulled at their faces. Hiyori stared at the face of the boy she had disliked from the moment she had met, but had allianced with him.

Hirako Shinji was very annoying to her in most ways. The way he preened his hair every morning, so that it was smooth and heavenly-golden and soft and silky, not to mention the incredibly irritating flat face. That alone pissed her off to no ends. But no, of course he has to have an annoying smirk with a retarded set of teeth. His lanky body combined with his ability to do almost nothing with motivation made her want to slap him with her sandals (which she had already done several times).

However, she allianced with him because he was clever, cunning, and could get her out of dangerous situations with simply his smooth talking. Not that she acknowledged that. No way she was a sissy who needed to be saved her primsy little ass. Another was that he also got hungry. It was rare in Rukongai, and an alliance with a kid that constantly complained of hunger tended to break up quickly, when the other felt nothing stirring in their stomach.

"H-hey, guys! Knock it off!" the third boy rose to his feet, a dirty, pale gray yutaka wrapped around his scrawny body. "If you raise your voice, some older kids might find us," he said warningly.

Matsuoka Sei, a boy that Shinji had saved while he was being cornered by a few older children. He, unlike the two blonds, didn't get hungry, but he was extremely grateful, seeing as he would've probably been beaten to a pulp just to give up his rations. Hiyori and Shinji had found out pretty quickly that he was pretty nimble in stealing things, and his fingers worked steadily. However, he had just recently been injured when a crashing tree fell on him. Though the injuries wouldn't last long, his fingers were bound in whatever cloth they could find, resulting in the shitty shack that Shinji had created.

"At least I didn't hafta rip apart their face with some footwear to escape!"

"You want me to rip apart your face with 'some footwear', dickhead?!"

"Bring it on, Fang Girl!"

"Guys!"

As the two tussled and kicked at each other, pulling at each other's hair and calling names all the while, the cracking noise in the air, and Sei tried to futilely break the two children apart, they failed to notice the screams of the women and children, a trampling of feet on the ground as they made a desperate move to escape.

Hollows were attracted to spiritual pressure. Anyone who possessed it in Rukongai, and who didn't know how to control it, was a living magnet for the dark, twisted spirits. It was just a bonus if they lived far from where the Soul Reapers stayed, the Seireitei.

And if those two people in question had teamed up together, and whose spiritual pressures were rising in every grappling movement, quickly surpassing the ones of lower-ranked officers in the Seireitei.

The frail shelter that Shinji had made with a bunch of tattered branches fell in a matter of seconds from the roar of the hollow. The branches flew everywhere, and Hiyori had to jump off Shinji to avoid them. Sei yelped in surprise, his warm brown eyes flickering in surprise as he jumped back from the debris, and held a tattered sleeve in front of his mouth, blocking the entrance for dust.

"See, dickhead, I told you this fuckin' shelter wouldn't wor - " she stopped suddenly, and looked up at the massive, towering, ghoul-like form of a black creature. Its black skin looked almost like fabric, and spikes protruded from near its white mask, which had glowing red eyes from the sockets cut, a long, pointy nose, and a mouth. A large, gaping hole was punctured in its chest. It looked almost like a human soul, and that sickened Hiyori.

"Ho - " Sei choked out, his body already falling numb to the sudden exposure to heavy spiritual pressure.

"Sei!" Shinji kicked Hiyori off (the latter yelling in irritation and insulting him with colorful vocabulary) and ran after his fallen friend. He heaved Sei up with relative ease, seeing as the latter had a smaller build than him, and jumped back, narrowly missing one piercing leg.

"I think he's leering at us," Hiyori muttered as she crouched low to the ground, dodging the bits of peaty soil that had been thrown up at her.

Shinji landed beside her, putting Sei down. The latter gasped the moment his hands came in contact with the soil, sweat dripping off his brow as the world spun dizzyingly around him. "Th-thanks," he managed.

Shinji nodded at him in acknowledgement, before turning to Hiyori, his mouth twitching in amusement. "I don't think your precious slippers are going to work here," he supplied helpfully.

Crack! Shinji's head was forced to one side as Hiyori's slipper made painful contact with his cheek.

As Shinji massaged the red mark on his face and tried not to glare at Hiyori, seeing as it would probably result in another slipper to the face, he instead focused on the hollow. It was huge, easily towering over the trees of the forest that surrounded them. He didn't know what it was, but he felt a sort of power come off him, like a pressure, and boy, it was strong.

He realized with a jolt that it had hands, arms even.

"Help..." Sei whispered, the normally-gentle boy falling to his knees.

Hiyori looked over at him, the scowl on her face lessening a little bit. "Get up, ya dickhead," she said. "Moping ain't gonna save us."

Before she even finished that sentence, a large, bone-like hand flew toward them, and Shinji almost wet his pants jumping back. Hiyori herself was biting back a shriek as she was blown back by the force of the blow.

When the dust settled, Shinji felt like someone had grabbed his heart and shoved a sharp stone through it. Horror and panic was rising through him, and he felt himself stumbling back in disbelief.

Sei's limp body was speared through the pale, bony hand, crimson in stark contrast with the white. Without even so much as a regard for the soul it had just murdered, and flung the konpaku to the ground.

A strangled cry tore from his throat, and Shinji blatantly found that it was the name of his friend, his late friend, he realized with a jolt. His bare feet were pounding into the dirt as he tore after the body, and Hiyori was screaming at him not to run, that he was a stupid dickhead and that he was gonna get killed, while the humongous hollow opened its mouth and something red charged from it and all Shinji cared was getting to Sei's body.

He heard the firing of the red ball that the hollow had been charging, and in a split-second he knew he was gonna die.

A flash of black and white flew at the corner of his eye, and when he looked over, it wasn't there, but in front of him, a sword slashing off the red beam that was fired at the two of them. Another flash of silver, so quick that Shinji was pretty sure if he blinked he would miss it, that cut the large hollow in half vertically.

It was so quick and effortless that the same time that Shinji could only gape in surprise as a pretty woman with purple locks (almost better than his own). She had swirl-shaped markings on her cheeks, and something pink on her mouth. Though she wore the black kimono most shinigami that Shinji had seen wore, she also had a white overcoat to accompany it.

With an audible click, she slid her sword back in its scabbard. Her eyes flickered to Sei's body, now ragged and bloody, in despair. "I was too late, huh.." she murmured quietly.

Shinji lunged, and just barely managed to grab Hiyori's arms and hold the girl's violent thrashes back. "What the fuck?!" she spat angrily at the purple-haired shinigami. "Our friend gets killed, and all you can say is that you're late!? I'll pummel yer sorry head in!"

She looked over at them, remorse showing in her eyes. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, "but I can't revive the dead. Shinigami make mistakes, too. We're not perfect, hollow-killing machines." Her brow furrowed, and she looked back at the space where the large hollow once stood. She looked confused.

"Does anyone here...in this district, get hungry?"

"Us," Hiyori scowled at her.

Her eyes gazed at them, and Shinji could see a hundred unasked questions behind them. Instead, something from her flared up. Shinji's eyes widened, seeing their surroundings shake. He associated that feeling with the same sort of power he had felt from the hollow. Hiyori was looking visibly shaken, but none of them moved, being pressed down by an unseen weight.

The shinigami persisted, as if waiting for something. The weight got heavier and heavier, but both Shinji and Hiyori remained standing. Shinji wanted to blurt out what this was all about, and all he really wanted to do was go over to Sei to futilely check if he was still breathing.

Of course, he wasn't, but he could hope.

Finally, she stopped, and both Shinji and Hiyori slumped, Hiyori giving her a particular piercing death glare at her, though beads of sweat shone on both their faces.

"What the hell was that for?!" Hiyori was the first to grind out, shooting daggers at the older woman.

The shinigami stared at her for a moment, before beckoning Shinji over to her. While Hiyori tried not to murder both the baldy and the woman, she whispered something into his ear.

The freckled girl saw her ally visibly tense, surprise glowing in his eyes. His hands, which were previously lax, curled up into fists. Once the woman was done, she stepped back and gave them both a warm smile.

"I'm Hikifune taicho, of the Twelfth Division," she introduced lightly. "I hope we can meet again soon..."

"Hirako Shinji," the dickhead supplied. Hiyori bowled him over and tried to strangle him while he (just barely) fended off her attacks. "And that's Sarugaki Hiyori."

"Whaddaya mean, 'meet again soon'?! Hey, come back here, you little - " Hiyori went after her, but Captain Hikifune had disappeared.

The blonde girl huffed in anger and irritation. "What was up with her, that stuck-up woman!" she spat. "'I hope we can meet again' my ass! Don't sound so fucking superior, you little bitch!"

"Hiyori," Shinji said quietly.

"And when she killed the damned hollow! 'Oops, I was late and your friend had to be speared on his claws'! Who the hell does she think she is?! Pinching her nose and looking down on us just because she got lucky and became a fucking Soul Reaper and we get to starve slowly to death out here, in the friggin' sun?!"

"Hiyori," Shinji repeated, but Hiyori wanted to ignore him. Ignoring the next rant that Hiyori was sure to burst out in, he plowed on, just as the freckled girl's mouth opened.

"I think...I'm gonna go become a shinigami."

I don't think Hiyori and Shinji and basically all canonical characters are IC...oh well..

-alittlebitlate