I smile like I know something you don't. I smile to ward off my enemies and fend of the demons. It's a barrier that keeps away the living, and the dead.

Sinister and uncaring, my demeanor tends to set people off. Good. I like to laugh at your mistakes and blithering. No one is good enough for me or as me.

I've often been compared to the Cheshire Cat, with my bewitching ways and smirks.

My name is Gin Ichimaru and this is the memory of me meeting fate.

Why the hell was this line so damn long? And why won't these people shut up? I hate the world of the living; much too many idiots for me to count.

Sitting, smiling, waiting for the line to shorten.

All I wanted was a corndog, because yes; I was hungry and was told that human food could be exceptional. So here I was, contemplating how I would kill every single person in front of me to get to the window.

I felt a tug on my sleeve and look down to see a little girl with hopelessly large eyes and a pink bow in her brown hair. She was short and maybe only four years old. She held a teddy bear in one hand and an earring in the other.

"Mister," seeing as though I was the last person in line I assumed she was talking to me.

"Yes, girl?"

"My mommy was standing right there," and she points to where I was waiting.

"Well, I'm here now."

"B-But. My mommy dropped her earring. It rolled under the bench and I ran to get it. See, all the way over theeere," and she stands on her tiptoes as she stretches her arm to point at a park bench almost a whole block down.

"I don't know where she went little girl." But her eyes were pleading with me to help her. And even though I am normally a cold, heartless bastard, who would leave a little human girl all alone? "I'll help you look for her."

With that she smiled up at me and grabbed my hand. Not a fake, cold smile, but a whole-hearted happy one that showed all her teeth, which weren't many.

I stepped out of the crowd and listened, just listened. There was nothing out of the extraordinary going on, nothing that I could sense. And I was a captain after all, so I'm pretty powerful.

"What does your mommy look like?" I stared down at the little girl and she frowned, on the verge of tears from missing her mother.

"She's pretty. Pretty mommy. She has long brown hair and sparkly green eyes. And she's taller than me," she says this as she clings to her teddy bear and quivers.

"Ok, let's look for her."

I head off into the opposite direction in which the girl went looking for the lost earing. We passed side street after side street and corner after corner. Nothing.

I was just about to turn to the young human and tell her that we should find the nearest phone and call the police, but through one alley I heard the heavy breathing of human males.

We ran towards the street, and came into view of three men hunched over a young woman. They were ripping off her clothes and calling her crude names. She was struggling and crying out "Where's my daughter? She's all alone! Help, someone find her!"

She wasn't even worrying about herself, just the welfare of her child. I caught up to the men. Instead of frightening the girl with my sword, I just punched them instead. I didn't want to get into too much of a scuffle, so it was quick and effortless. They lay on the dirty alley floor, wounded and bleeding. But so was the mother.

She was gasping for breath, bloodied from multiple stab wounds and kicks. Her young daughter was kneeling by her side, holding her hand. "Shh, it's ok baby. Mommy loves you, mommy loves you." And then, the woman looked towards me and smiled, while closing her eyes for the last time.

I stood there, replaying her happy smile over and over in my head.

Eventually I picked up the girl and held her to my chest, letting her cry into my shirt and cling to my chest. Her small, quivering body was shaking from sadness. I walked her away from her mother and out into the streets.

I walked slowly so she wouldn't be jostled and become more upset. We finally arrived at what I thought was the nearest police station.

I didn't want to face anybody else, so I just opened the door for the girl. She reached up and grabbed my hand; not wanting me to go. But I was a busy captain, and had no time for little human girls.

Now, decades later, I still think about that day. It reminds me of the cruelty of the world; not just our world but also that of the living.

Smiling is all I have left. It barricades me from little girls and frightening demons. It keeps me locked away so I don't have to deal with unwanted people. This is how I cope with the wrongs of the world.

I hope you liked my memory.

Do you want to know what this experience taught me? How to be a cold, heartless bastard to the utmost degree so I don't get affected by crying babies and wailing children; the needy, hopeless, the poor.

I'm sorry if I got anything wrong with the times, characterization, powers, etc. but I really just wanted to write a short piece on Gin (one of my fav characters) on what goes on inside his head, why he acts the way he does, and his past. So I know this is really weird but I hope you like this short story