Yachiru Kusajishi swung her feet back and forth as she rode upon Kenpachi's shoulder. Zaraki, Yumichika, Ikkaku, and herself were being sent on a mission to control the hollow numbers in the world of the living. Passing through the senkaimon was always a pleasure for her since she got to watch the hell butterflies and Yumichika and Ikkaku lag behind them getting angry that Yachiru was poking fun at Ikkaku's bald head. Yachiru was too excited to pay any mind to Ikkaku's threats, she was looking forward to watching Kenny beat the bad guys and smile.

"What are we gonna do in the world of the living, huh, Kenny?" Yachiru asked excitedly.

"We're gonna kick some hollow ass!" Kenpachi said with his usual evil grin.

"Yay, Kenny's gonna beat the bad guys!" Yachiru cheered happily.

"Captain, might I ask, I know that killing hollows will take most of our time, but what about when no hollows are present? What are we going to do then?" Yumichika asked. Hollows didn't come every day so they couldn't just sit outside waiting for them.

"There's always someone looking for a fight. We may have a little extra fun on the side." Kenpachi said grinning widely.

"What about Lieutenant?" Yumichika continued

"What about her?" Kenpachi asked bored.

"In our gigai lieutenant Kusajishi will seem like a normal child. Many will wonder why she isn't in school. For instance Ikkaku and I will be attending the same school Ichigo attends to blend in." Yumichika told the captain. He was probably the most observant and thoughtful of all the squad.

"Yeah, I guess Yumichika's right; the brat shouldn't be waltzing around the streets outside of school hours." Ikkaku said in agreement.

"Shut up baldy! I don't wanna go to some stinky school! I wanna stay with Kenny!" Yachiru said sticking her tongue out at the older man. He reached for his zanpakuto and got ready to swing, but Yumichika held the weapon back.

"Hmm, maybe Yumichika's right. Yachiru yer just a kid and people'll be snooping in our business and wonderin' why you aren't in school. You should probably stay in school." Kenpachi said.

"Kenny, I wanna stay with you!" Yachiru exclaimed sadly.

"Hollows won't be around all day, you'll just be whining about being bored and these two won't be there to keep you entertained." Kenpachi told her.

"Don't worry, lieutenant, school can be lots of fun if you just give it a go." Yumichika tried to make it better.

"Shut up feather face, you're the one who got me into this in the first place." Yachiru said angrily. Yumichika sighed, he was usually the one to think of her and take care of her. He often taught her kanji and brushed her hair as well as getting yelled at for making her do something she didn't want to do. The four soul reapers crossed out of the senkaimon and into the world of the living.

Yumichika held Yachiru's hand on the way into her new school. She clearly wasn't happy about being anywhere near that place. Yumichika had tried to convince her that school was not that bad, but she didn't listen to one word he said. Ikkaku walked behind them carelessly. He just wanted to drop the twerp off and go to their own school. Yumichika led the pink-haired child to her new room and saw a bunch of children that looked her age running and having fun. Yachiru's face brightened up when she saw the crayons so draw with. Yumichika noticed,

"See, this doesn't look so bad, Lieutenant." Yumichika said to her. The teacher, Miss Higurashi, walked up to the trio,

"Hello there, I'm Miss Higurashi or you may call me Miss H, and you must be Yachiru." Miss H said kneeling down to Yachiru's level. Yachiru nodded, "Well, I'm sure that you're going to like it here." Miss H got up, "And are you her brothers?" she asked.

"Hell n-" Ikkaku started, but Yumichika put a hand on his best friend's mouth,

"Yes…we're her brothers." Yumichika said covering for his friend's stupidity.

"Well we'll take good care of her." Miss H said. Yumichika and Ikkaku bid Yachiru goodbye and left for their own school. "Yachiru why don't you go color a picture?" Miss H suggested. Yachiru nodded and went off to the coloring table. She started drawing Kenny. She drew black spikes coming from his head and added yellow dots at the end for his bells. She drew Yumichika with purple hair and red and green for his feathers. She drew Ikkaku with a black crayon and drew a circle for a head and sparkles to show he was bald. She then went on to draw herself with pink hair and on Kenny's shoulder. Then a boy came up to her and looked at her drawing, which was relatively goo considering the colors that were available to her. The boy made a face,

"What's that supposed to be?" he asked snootily. He didn't like the picture very much for some reason.

"It's my family see; there's me, feather face, cue ball head, and best of all Kenny!" she said happily, proud of her hard work.

"That's not a family!" the boy told her crossing his arms.

"Yes it is!" Yachiru told him angrily.

"No it isn't; where's your mommy?" he asked thinking he outsmarted her.

"Mommy? What's a mommy?" Yachiru asked. She had never had a mother before.

"You don't know what a mommy is? You really are weird." The boy said laughing.

"No I'm not; I just don't have a mommy." Yachiru said sadly

"Who is Kenny? Is that your daddy?" The boy asked laughing harder at her. She thought and didn't answer the boy, "See you don't have a daddy either! Who keeps you safe, who feeds you stuff, who fixes your knee when you scrape it, and who teaches you stuff?" the boy questioned. He laughed at her lack of family. She didn't have a mommy or a daddy to do that stuff for her, but Kenny always protected her from stuff, Yumichika would always get her dinner even if she was angry and claimed she didn't want anything to eat, he also cleaned her up after battles, and Ikkaku taught her more about fighting and he taught her what sake tasted like, he even built her stuff like that scooter and the wheels on her zanpakuto.

"I have people who do that stuff for me even if they aren't a mommy or a daddy!" Yachiru yelled at the bor.

"I bet that cue ball head, father face, and even Kenny aren't real! You just want them to be!" the boy snickered at her! "Because you don't have a real family; you had to make one up!" Yachiru shook with anger. He could make fun of her all he wanted, but when he mocked Kenny that was crossing the line. She lunged herself on him and started to punch him quickly. The other students started to freak out and Miss H had to use the Jaws of Life to get Yachiru off of the other boy.

"Yachiru, Ryo, what on earth are you doing?" Miss H asked surprised in her behavior.

"She hit me!" Ryo yelled pointing a finger at Yachiru.

"He said my family wasn't real!" Yachiru yelled pointing back at him.

"Stop it you two! Ryo, it is not a very nice thing to make fun of somebody else's family and Yachiru it is most certainly not okay to hit someone even if they make you mad!" Miss H explained angrily.

"But they aren't real!" Ryo argued,

"Yes they are!" Yachiru hissed trying to lunge at him again.

"Now that's enough from both of you. Ryo go to the nurse and then to time out. Yachiru you go to time out for the rest of the day." Miss H said pointing to the corner with a chair. "No complaint; now go both of you." Miss H said walking back to her desk. Yachiru huffed and sat in the chair all day. She didn't really mind the chair since all of the other kids started to make fun of her family too, but she did hate being punished for defending Kenny. Yachiru waited all day patiently until the bell rung for everyone to go home. Miss H walked over to where Yachiru sat, "Yachiru, I'm sorry I had to punish you, but you can't hit people every time they make you upset. Now after today are you sorry for hitting Ryo?"

"No." Yachiru said straight forwardly. She was not sorry for hitting that obnoxious boy.

"Well, I'm sorry, but you're going to half to sit in time out until you apologize to him." Miss H said sternly.

"I don't care, Kenny would agree what I did was right." Yachiru said shortly. She would stand her ground until the teacher was the one to give in. Yachiru would eventually be pulled out of school anyway so there was no reason or her to have to behave. Yachiru heard Yumichika and Ikkaku make their way into the classroom.

"Oh yes Yumichika and Ikkaku, may I speak to you two for a moment, please?" Miss H asked. Yumichika looked over at Yachiru knowing she had probably gotten into trouble.

The two men listened to Miss H ramble on about how Yachiru needs to learn violence is not the answer. Unfortunately she didn't know that Yachiru's life is nothing, but violence especially fighting hollows, Aizen, and watching Kenpachi fight everyone in sight. She also expressed her concern that this 'Kenny' she talked about might be a way for her to express her violence and anger. Yumichika assured her that Yachiru would straighten up eventually. Yumichika got a note for their 'guardian' to sign and they took the small girl out of the room. Once they were outside Yumichika stopped,

"Aside from trying to kill that boy, how was your day?" he asked trying to make her feel better. Yachiru punched him in the stomach, but it wasn't that hard since she was so upset,

"It was horrible feather face! I don't ever wanna go to that stupid place again!" Yachiru screeched angrily.

"That bad huh?" Yumichika asked rubbing his stomach where the girl had punched him.

"That stupid boy got what he disserved!" Yachiru said while tears formed in her eyes. She hid her face behind her arm to hide her tears. Yumichika knelt down to her level,

"C'mon lieutenant, you shouldn't let that boy's ignorance bother you." Yumichika said softly. Yachiru tried to turn her back to him. Her little shoulders started shaking with soft sobs,

"I-I don't care about him saying y-you weren't real! H-he said that I-I'm weird because I don't have a m-mommy or a d-daddy!"Yachiru said through her sobs, "Is it wrong not to have a mommy or a daddy?"

"Lieutenant…" Yumichika started.

"C'mon, kid, you may not have a mom or dad, but hell Kenpachi is pretty close to a father, and damn Yumichika is as close as you can get to a mother. I mean he's always fussing over your clothes being dirty and how you should eat everyday and if you dress him up in a pretty kimono you could mistake him for a chick real easily. Next time that kid comes round just tell him to go and fu-" Yumichika stopped his friend before he put more violent thoughts that would get Yachiru in trouble into her head.

"Lieutenant, just ignore the boy. He is just too immature to understand your world and family. Not everyone has a mother and father and that's okay, it's not weird in the least. He just doesn't understand that." Yumichika told the girl. Her tears continued to fall, but she wiped them away,

"I-I drew this…but Ryo made fun of it." Yachiru said pulling out the crumpled drawing. She had crushed in her anger and sadness after Ryo made fun of her. Yumichika took it and smiled,

"It's really good lieutenant, right Ikkaku!" Yumichika said jabbing his friend n the ribs,

"Ow…yeah fine; it's nice." Ikkaku said not really paying attention. Yumichika rolled his eyes at his best friend, and pulled out a handkerchief and wiped Yachiru's tears away.

"C'mon Lieutenant, how does some ice cream sound to make things better?" Yumichika asked trying to cheer the young lieutenant up. She nodded smiling for the first time in a few hours.

The three of them went to a nearby ice cream parlor and talked about other things that didn't relate to school. Yachiru seemed to cheer up a bit, there were moments when she was sad Ukitake would give a load of candy to make her feel better, so sweets made her feel better. After the treat Yumichika led the way back to Captain Zaraki. He was strolling around the city looking for hollows, but there were only a few that day so Kenpachi was obviously bored. Yachiru ran to Kenny and immediately hoisted herself on his shoulder.

"So, Yachiru, how'd school go?" Kenpachi asked. Yachiru didn't answer and had tears sparkling in her eyes again.

"Um, Captain, I got a note that you need to sign." Yumichika got out the paper and handed it to their captain. Kenpachi read it over,

"Huh, you tackled a kid fer makin' fun of yer family? Good job, Yachiru." Kenpachi said laughing. Yachiru smiled at this, she knew Kenny would agree with her. "I'll sign it, but only cause it'll get that clueless teacher to shut her yap." He signed his name at the bottom, "If that teacher says anything again, I might go over there and straighten out the situation myself." Kenpachi said laughing. Yachiru started to smile again, maybe tomorrow would be better.

The next day Yachiru spent time in the corner again, because she refused to apologize to Ryo. She gave the note signed by Kenpachi to Miss H who still had her doubts about 'Kenny.' Yachiru had more fun in the corner thinking about how right she was and how wrong Miss H and Ryo were. Miss H went over to where Yachiru sat and knelt next to her,

"Yachiru, I saw the note was signed…I'm willing to let you off the hook if you never ever hit somebody else again." Miss H offered.

"Whatever." Yachiru said.

"Yachiru, I need you to promise." Miss H said.

"Alright" Yachiru said shortly. She got up out of the chair and went over to the coloring table and drew a picture of the other soul reapers too. She drew Ukitake with candy, she drew Shiro with a sword that was much taller than him, she drew Maki Maki, she drew Nemu, and she drew Nana-chan with glasses and all. She smiled at her hard work. She enjoyed being in Soul Society much more than Karakura Town. Of course, Ryo had to come over again and scoff at her work,

"Who's that now another make-believe family?" Ryo asked snootily.

"It's my friends back where I'm from if you really wanna know." Yachiru said plainly. She took her picture and walked away. She wasn't going to cry again, it was kind of embarrassing to cry in front of feather face the other day. She was supposed to be a lieutenant and that's more that Ryo could say for himself. She labeled each name to the person.

"What kind of names are those? Sicky Taicho, Shiro Taicho; they sound fake to me!" Ryo told her tauntingly.

"Then if they sound so fake to you, why don't you go and draw your own family?" Yachiru asked with a bite. He huffed and turned around to the drawing table. While Yachiru kept drawing Miss H came over and knelt next to her,

"Yachiru, you know tonight is open house, right?" she asked

"No, but I do now." Yachiru told her,

"Well, I am looking forward to seeing your family." Miss H said,

"Why? If you don't believe that Kenny is real, why are you so excited to meet him?" Yachiru asked after she had overheard her talk with Ikkaku and Yumichika. Miss H didn't know how to respond and got up and left. Yachiru celebrated in her head, she said that one for Kenny.

Yachiru managed to make it through the day without getting in anymore trouble. She rejoiced when she saw Yumichika and Ikkaku again to take her away from that place.

"So lieutenant how was your day?" Yumichika asked

"It was better, but I still don't like it there." Yachiru told him about how Ryo made fun of her picture again, but she didn't tackle him this time. She pulled out the fresh picture that she didn't crumple this time and showed it to Ikkaku and Yumichika. "Miss H said it's open house today. I think they said it was at five." Yachiru told the two.

"Well, we'll have to go." Yumichika told her

"But I don't wanna!" Yachiru whined. She had enough of that place already in the day, so why should she have to go back at night too?

"Let's ask captain and see what he says." Yumichika told the girl. They found Kenpachi in the same spot as yesterday and told him about the open house. He cracked an evil grin,

"I think I'd like to go to this open house and meet this Miss H of yours." He said deviously. Yumichika feared for Miss H's life, but Yachiru started to think that this open house wouldn't be so bad.

The four soul reapers went to the school and into the small room. There were colorful pictures and drawings that the kids made in their day. The only thing Yachiru had to show was the timeout chair, but she was proud of herself anyway. Kenpachi decided to wait outside for a while and keep the element of surprise. Yumichika and Ikkaku looked at the pictures parted from Yachiru and Yachiru was just standing waiting to surprise Miss H and Ryo.

"Hey weirdo; where's your cue ball head, feather face, and Kenny now?" Ryo asked laughing. Yachiru just grinned and motioned for Ryo to follow her. She walked over to Yumichika and Ikkaku and tugged on their sleeves. They turned and saw the boy who had been bullying Yachiru.

"See, this is cue ball head, but his real name is Ikkaku and this is feather face, but his real name is Yumichika." Yachiru said victoriously. Ryo realized how the two boys looked a lot like Yachiru's picture; he frowned and crossed his arms,

"They aren't so cool." Ryo said nastily. Ikkaku put a hand on his wooden sword,

"What'd you say, punk?" he asked with a cold glare at the boy

"I- uh- your Kenny isn't real though." Ryo said running away before Ikkaku lashed out his sword. Yumichika nodded for Yachiru to go get Miss H and he would go get Kenpachi. Yachiru went to Miss H and tugged her sleeve,

"Yachiru, you see the reason I needed to meet Kenny is so I know he's real, but since he's not here I need to tell you that your Kenny may only be a part of your imagination." Miss H told her gently.

"Actually, I don't think it's her imagination and I think that I am very real." Kenpachi said sneaking up behind the teacher. She turned slowly and saw the face of Captain Kenpachi Zaraki. "You see, I'm Kenpachi Zaraki, and I don't like it when Yachiru is told I'm not real or that I don't exist." Kenpachi said darkly. "I am very real, Miss H, and if you don't mind me saying so you should take the time to find someone before you dub them fake." He said angrily. He hoisted Yachiru on his shoulder and walked away, "By the way, we won't be coming back to this school anymore, got it?" he said over the shoulder without Yachiru on it. "Let's go guys." He told Ikkaku and Yumichika. As they exited the room Ryo stared up at Yachiru with a terrified look. Yachiru giggled at his face,

"Look who isn't fake!" she said with a grin. Ryo's face turned into jealousy.

Back in soul society Yachiru felt at home again. She didn't have to put up with stupid teachers or stupid kids. Well, with the exception of Yumichika teaching her how to write and stuff, but he didn't count, because he was fun to be around. Kenny was happy to have the burden known as Miss H off his back and Yachiru didn't cry about it anymore because she realized that not every family has a mommy and daddy, but as long as there was love of some sort, even if it was strange, there was always a family to love her. She asked Yumichika if she could put up her picture of them, but before she did she added on final touch. She added two words that made it absolutely perfect it said,

'My Family'