He remembered running. His first memory was of running amidst a thunderstorm in winter. The icy raindrops stung his skin like thousands of needles while the snow beneath his bare feet attempted to swallow him up. He ran with his white-blue eyes open wide with fear as his silver hair was pulled every-which-way by the wind.
When the storm passed and the night sky emerged past the purple clouds, he stood still and looked up at the sky. The stars and moon sparkled against the dark blue backdrop and the snowy hills ahead of him shimmered in their light. His breathing was still rapid, but the beauty of it all would have left him breathless anyway.
That night he knew he had nothing to fear anymore. So long as there was beauty in this world, he wanted to coexist with it, protect it even. He'd live another day, just so he could see this splendor once more. And as such, he lives many more days.
"Those who do not know what love is
liken it to beauty.
Those who claim to know what love is
liken it to ugliness."
Since he didn't know of love, he likened it to beauty. Those he met spoke of love as something ugly. He realized those kind of people had never really been in love to begin with, yet he had yet to meet someone who knew love. That is, until he learned what beauty truly was.
It came in the form of a starving girl with sunset hair and a pair of sky blue eyes. He didn't learn much other than her name when he brought her to his humble hut in a desolate Rukongai district. While she slept to regain her strength, he watched her with curious eyes. This poor creature had been abandoned, bruised, and beaten all in her struggle to stay alive. Her plight fascinated him. Had she forced herself to live just so she could see the sunrise or a flower bloom? Was she like him?
Rangiku woke up after a solid twenty-four hours of well needed sleep. She didn't shriek when she found him leaning over her, instead she stared back at him. She too was curious about this other child. "H-Hello... Gin..."
Gin smiled. "Good morning Rangiku."