Chapter 1

Crash. She had barely dodged the small rock thrown at her, which had in turn broken the glass window of the bakery store behind her. The young girl cowered to the ground, protecting herself with arms raised as best as she could as more rocks and fruits were thrown at her, tears raining down on her face. Before the black-jet haired beauty was a group of young teenagers who had noticed her on the streets, despite her best efforts to go about her food errands inconspicuously.

Hikari had arrived at the town nearly 40 years ago with no memory of who she was or where she came from, except for her name. Despite her suffering from amnesia, the townspeople had been friendly to her, helping her set up a new life in the friendly town. She had had a big group of friends that she had trusted.

Had. As the years grew by, so did her friends and the remaining townspeople's fear of Hikari. While they had aged as any normal human being did, she had not. Hikari's look still remained that of an 18-year old girl. She had long, shiny black hair that reached mid-back, clear gray-blue eyes, red pouty lips and white-doll like skin, in addition to an incredible lean but curvy figure despite her short stature. At one time, she had been the center of attention of the male population, which too had lessened over the years. Her inability to grow older in terms of looks had scared off all of the townspeople, including her so-called friends. The fear that grew in the hearts of the adults soon evolved into hate from their offsprings.

Over the years, Hikari had moved away further from the town, but still making incognito visits for her weekly errands for supplies. Merchants would try to get rid of her as soon as they could, rushing her, not wanting to be seen near her. The children of the town, however, would begin harassing her every chance they could.

And here they were once again, Hikari experiencing one of her worst encounters and attacks yet against her. Wanting to quickly finish her errands, she had accidently bumped into a young woman in her late teens. Despite apologizing, the situation quickly escalated to the point where the said young woman, Thalia, began screaming that Hikari had put some sort of spell on her.

"Get out of our town, witch!" everyone had begun screaming at her as they threw tomatoes, rocks, and the such at her.

Hikari's head had already begun bleeding after and had twisted her right ankle after being pushed by an unknown assailant and a small rock had been thrown at her initially. She also acquire several bruises and cuts from the attacks. The bakery store's owner stormed out of his building and glowered at her, "You! Because of you my window is broken! Stay away from my store, be gone! You're nothing but trouble! Go! Shoo!"

But there was nothing she could do as the townspeople in front of her continued to barrage her with hateful words and rocks, and no one was stopping them. No one would come to her rescue. Or at least, that's what she originally thought.

"What the hell are you doing?" Hikari looked up to see a tall man with broad shoulders wearing a green jacket stand above her, glaring angrily at the people before them.

"Out of our way, Kariya, this is none of your business. She's attacked one of our children and she must pay," said a male adult from the crowd.

"Attacked? And I presume that you only have this child's words. As far as I'm concerned, this woman has done nothing wrong. Now leave before I make you," sneered Kariya. The man who had spoken before glared at Kariya, but knew better than to go up against the dangerous man. Kariya was not one to go up against, that he knew and so did the rest of the townspeople.

After the crowd had dispersed, albeit involuntarily, Kariya turned around to help Hikari to her feet and allowed her to lean on him on the account of her injuries and twisted ankle.

"Come my dear, let's get you taken care of." Without another word, he led her to his black stallion and galloped outside the town. Soon, they neared a medium size wooden house on the outskirt of town. Just as they came to a stop, a giant man with long brown hair and a beard covering most of his face wearing a white long sleeved shirt and black pants and boots stepped out of the house.

Jumping down from the horse and helping Hikari down, Kariya spoke to the bigger man he called Koga and said, "She's been injured, Koga. The townspeople attacked her."

And just by those simple words, Koga understood, a face of irritation and anger replacing his once neutral face. Soon, Hikari found Koga cleaning her wounds and wrapping her injured ankle into a secured cloth. To this point, Hikari had not said a word to either men, still shocked at the attack and that these two men had willingly helped her through the situation.

"How are you feeling, my dear?" asked Kariya, sitting in a chair next to her as she sat up underneath a comforter in a bed. The fireplace was lit up behind him, cackling the room with heat. Koga was nowhere to be found after he had mend her earlier before placing Hikari into an empty room.

"I'm all right thanks to you sir," she replied in her soft voice. She took the chance to examine her savior. Kariya had white hair, almost shaped as if he had devil's horns on top of his head, and red-blood colored eyes. He had a sharp chin, broad shoulders and, she noticed, a scar on his chin as if someone had attacked him with a knife. "May I ask, who are you, and why did you help me? Not everyone would have. They would have left me to die," she whispered those last words.

Kariya observed her for a few seconds before replying with a small smile. "My name is Jin Kariya. I've had dealings with those townspeople before," and what he said next shocked her. "I've been in your situation before, what humans do not know and understand, they fear. Their fear transcends into hate and this type of situation is the result."

"I've heard about you. The young beauty, Hikari, who entered the town nearly 40 years ago with no memory of who she is whatsoever and continues to look as if time has no effect on her at all." At those words, she looked down at her hands, as if ashamed. He cupped her chin with his left hand and made her look at him with her gray-blue eyes. "But there's nothing wrong with that. I myself have stopped aging nearly 70 years ago. It is in my blood."

"Am I like you then?" she asked, her eyes beginning to fill with questions. Would she finally get the answers of who she is after all these years of empty memories?

"Would you be interested in finding out?"

"Yes," she replied, "More than anything."

He pulled back and walked to the window across the bed, looking thoughtfully into the night sky with his hands behind his back. Without turning around, he said, "I am preparing to go on an exciting venture, to explore the world. Meet new people. Koga is set to accompany me and we will be setting out in 2 days time."

Kariya turned around to face her, "Will you accompany me?"

Hikari looked at him, stunned at his sudden request. Here was a man, much older than she, whom she had just met after saving her life, asking her if she would accompany him and his longtime friend on a world quest to explore. What choice did she have? To stay here, where a town full of people hated her mere presence and would more sooner rather than later most likely kill her next time they saw her, or go with two men she had just met, but who had helped her in a dire situation, and did not seem to have any intent on harming her?

This was her way out. And so she replied:

"Yes."

Author's Note: I apologize ahead of time for any out-of-character lines concerning Kariya and Koga, and any future Bleach characters. I will try my best to keep them in character as much as possible.