I do NOT own Bleach. As much as I would like to own the characters owned by Tite Kubo-sensei, it's not going to happen at any given time. The ONE character I DO own is Kachi Ayasegawa.
Name: Kachi Ayasegawa
DOB: March 17
Mom: Unknown
Dad: Yumichika Ayasegawa
Siblings: None
Hair: Light Blue
Eyes: Dark Green
Height: 5'9" (175 cm)
Weight: 151 lbs (69 kg)
Race: Soul Reaper
Gender: Female
Zanpaku-to: Unknown (shows up later – Yama Kiba)
Friends: Rangiku Matsumoto; Toshiro Hitsugaya
Chapter 1 – Fireworks Display
"Oto-san! Kaku-oji! I'm home! Boy, do I love winter break!"
My dad, Yumichika Ayasegawa, poked his head around the kitchen doorway and smiled. My "uncle," Ikkaku Madarame, groaned from the living room couch. I put my bag down by the bottom of the stairs and planted a kiss on Oto-san's cheek, making my way to the living room. Kaku-oji was lying on the couch, his left arm draped across his eyes as if his head hurt.
"Kaku-oji, what's wrong? Does your head hurt?"
"I'm just sore, Ka-chan. Your father had me moving stuff over the last week. Hey, Yumichika! What's for dinner tonight?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
When I was little, I used to think that Oto-san and Kaku-oji had a special relationship outside of their decades-long friendship. Every time I saw Kaku-oji looking at Oto-san, his gray-green eyes would glaze over in what I thought for sure was lust. That got squashed some time later when Kaku-oji brought home a young woman by the name of Jin Hakkai. She had just graduated the fall after I had started at the Academy and that was three long years ago. I chuckled at their usual pre-dinner banters. I landed a peck on Kaku-oji's bald head before grabbing my bags and heading upstairs to my rooms. I was halfway up the stairs when I ran into Jin-chan.
"Hey, Ka-chan! I didn't think that you would be home until later this week! I left some stuff on your bed as an early Christmas present. Ikkaku! Are you still sore, my love?"
I stole a glance over my shoulder to see that Kaku-oji was standing a few steps below me. I rolled my eyes at Jin-chan's mushiness toward my uncle and finished climbing the stairs. I had the entire second floor to myself. It all a bed and bath, a kitchenette area that I stored all of my art supplies in and a study that I had set up to look like something out of Sherlock Holmes. I set my bags down inside my bedroom door. I spotted the presents that Jin-chan had mentioned on my bed. I moved the brightly wrapped packages to the floor before flopping down on my fluffy down comforter. I heaved a hefty sigh of contentment. I thought back to the most recent fall semester and all of the people that I had met at the Academy. I made friends easily enough but there were two people that I became especially close to over the three month period.
Rangiku Matsumoto is very loud and outgoing. I asked about her personal life and she said that she didn't remember much except when she met Gin Ichimaru and everything that's happened since. Officer Ichimaru of the Fifth Division is a very slimy man with the world's creepiest smile. How Ran-chan became friends with him in the first place is beyond me. Ran-chan just graduated and is already looking for a position in the Tenth Division, either as the Lieutenant or a high ranked seated officer.
Toshiro Hitsugaya is one of the youngest people to ever enter the Academy, being accepted the summer after I started. He's cold-hearted and very protective of Momo Hinamori, Seat Three in the Fifth Division of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies. He doesn't want to admit it but I've seen the way that his bright green eyes glaze over when he sees her and thinks about her. Shiro-kun, the genius that he is, will be graduating with my class before the next fall semester starts.
Just as I was sitting up, I heard a knock on my bedroom doorframe. It was Kaku-oji and he had a troubled look on his face. I rubbed my eyes and yawned widely behind my hand.
"Hey, Ka-chan. Can I talk to you about something? It's been bothering me."
"Sure, Kaku-oji. Do you want to talk in the study or stay here?"
"Let's talk in the study. It's the farthest room from the stairs but we can still hear Yumi if and when he calls us down for dinner."
"Okay. Lead the way."
I followed him to the study with the blanket from the end of my bed. He sat in one of the two chairs by the gas fireplace, which I had turned on upon entering the room, before sinking into the chair opposite, which just so happened to be my favorite worn brown leather chair, with the blanket around my shoulders.
"What's bothering you, Kaku-oji?"
He took a deep breath before looking at me and starting. "Do you remember when you were little and you came to my rooms to ask me about my relationship with your father late one night?"
I nodded at him, the memory still clear in my mind's eye. It was definitely more than a decade earlier if he had called me "little," not to mention it had to have been long before I started at the Academy.
-Flashback-
I knocked on Kaku-oji's bedroom door late one night. I couldn't sleep because I had "accidentally" caught Oto-san and Kaku-oji kissing in the kitchen like there was no tomorrow. Oto-san was sitting on the counter and Kaku-oji was standing between his thighs, both men too caught up in the moment to see me standing there. A quick come in greeted my ears through the thin rice papers of the screen door. I entered the room and folded my legs beneath me, averting my still bloodshot eyes. I was crying until I had finally pushed myself to come here.
"Kaku-oji…how well do you know my Oto-san? I can't sleep because…well, because this has been bothering me for a while."
"We've known each other for a long time, Ka-chan. If you want, you can stay in here with me. You have to promise that you won't tell your Oto-san about this, though. Promise?"
I smiled. "Promise." We looped our pinky fingers together and shook. I climbed under the blankets and nestled close to my uncle. No more than a few minutes went by and I was already asleep.
When I woke up the next morning, I could smell breakfast being made in the kitchen.
-End Flashback-
"Dinnertime!" Oto-san called from downstairs.
Kaku-oji looked disheartened at not getting the chance to tell me what was on his mind. I reached out and took one of his hands in mine. He looked up, smiling, that same lust from earlier still in his eyes. I squeezed his fingers, and he nodded, both as dismissal and acknowledgement. I stood and tossed the blanket over the back of the chair, thinking that I would come back up after dinner and Kitchen Duty to put it back on the end of my bed. Just as I was making my way down the stairs, my uncle close behind me, the doorbell started ringing almost impatiently. Oto-san must have answered it because I heard his voice greeting whoever was at the door. The two voices that answered him, simultaneously mind you, sounded like Ran-chan and Shiro-kun. I leapt the last few steps and walked slowly toward the front door. Sure enough, the two people that I saw over Oto-san's shoulder were my two favorite people in all of Seireitei, Rangiku Matsumoto and Toshiro Hitsugaya.
"What's up, docs?" I asked, my Bugs Bunny accent flawless. "Don't you two have any other plans?"
"Hinamori is spending time in the office doing paperwork and my grandmother told me that I shouldn't be spending all my break 'moping' around the house and that I should spend time with friends. I don't know about Matsumoto though."
"Gin is in the office as well. Being that I have nothing better to do and no real family to go back to, I thought that it would be fun to see where Shiro-chan went and what he did with his time."
Shiro-kun rolled his eyes, Ran-chan looked excited and Oto-san was looking back and forth between me and my friends, a confused look on his face. I invited them in, showing them to the kitchen and asked if they were thirsty. Ran-chan immediately asked for sake while Shiro-kun asked for hot tea. I pulled the "public" bottle of sake down from a top cabinet while Oto-san busied himself with getting the tea for me and Shiro-kun. There is a reason why there is a "public" and a "private" bottle of sake. The "public" is used for me, friends, and anyone not in the Eleventh Squad. The "private" is just the opposite and always kept under the sink in Oto-san's bathroom.
"Hey, Ka-chan. Who are your friends?"
"Kaku-oji! This squirt here is Toshiro Hitsugaya and Sake Girl is Rangiku Matsumoto. Ran-chan just graduated last week while Shiro-kun here will be graduating with me this coming summer. I was just getting ready to take them up to the study. Guys, this is my uncle, Ikkaku Madarame. The guys with the feathers is my dad, Yumichika Ayasegawa, who I am sure you've already met. Both are seated in the Eleventh Squad under Kenpachi Zaraki-Taichou. Can we eat upstairs, Oto-san? I promise that we'll clean up any messes that we make."
Oto-san looked at me then nodded and I helped him get a tray together that had a little of everything that he had made in case Shiro-kun or Ran-chan didn't like everything that I usually did.
"I'm hoping that when I graduate, I will get a seat in the Gotei 13," I whispered to my two friends as we made our way upstairs to my study.
I was about to turn the corner when Jin-chan called out to me. I looked over my shoulder to see that she had some papers in her hand. I frowned in confusion. I handed the tray with the food on it to Shiro-kun, told both where the study was and slipped past Ran-chan. I was on the last three steps and reaching for the papers when my toes got caught in the loose bottoms of my red Academy issue hakama bottoms. Jin-chan caught me in time and held me for a second until my vertigo returned to normal.
"Whoa! Careful, Ka-chan. We wouldn't want to ruin that pretty face of yours, now, would we?"
"Thanks, Jin-chan. What are those papers for?"
She handed them to me. The name in the top right hand corner caught my attention first followed by the fact that there were only three sheets rather than the usual stack that Kaku-oji used to bring home when something major happened and neither captain nor lieutenant were available. It looked like a report at first, but after looking at the additional two sheets, I realized that they were appointment and Zanpaku-to registration papers. The top page contained two separate letters. The first was from the head of the new Central 46, telling me that I had two weeks to fill out both papers and have either Oto-san or Kaku-oji escort me to where I had to be when I turned the paperwork in to them. The second letter was from the Captain-General of the Gotei 13 himself, welcoming me into the ranks and ordering me to only tell only direct superiors and direct family.
I went to kitchen and showed the papers to Oto-san and Kaku-oji. The top sheet was the two letters, the second was my appointment paper and the third was my Zanpaku-to registration.
"Are these genuine, Oto-san? Or are they a joke from Kyoraku-Taichou?"
"They're genuine alright," he answered a moment later. "I would know Yama-Ji's handwriting anywhere and this is definitely it. And this is definitely from the head of the Central Forty-Six. See the seal up here in the left corner, Ka-chan? That's the seal of the Central Forty-Six Headmaster. He dictates to his secretary and then presses his seal to it to confirm that the words are his. I wonder though… What do you think, Ikkaku?"
"I don't know, Yumi. I guess we wait and see what happens. We'll fill this out, Ka-chan. Go spend time and have fun with your friends."
"Arigatou. Both of you."
I made my way upstairs. I stopped in my bedroom first to get something that I would never let either Oto-san or Kaku-oji throw out. It was the lieutenant's badge from Thirteenth Squad. Oto-san had gotten it from Ukitake-Taichou several years before I was born. Whenever Oto-san and Kaku-oji would go to the Human World and take me with them, they would sit me down in front of a television. I would watch Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd while dressed as the Thirteenth Lieutenant.
"Eh, what's up, docs? Looking for some wiley wabbits to make into a wiley wabbit stew?"
My obsession with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd would always make me smile at the looks on my friends' faces.
"I never did see the humor in those idiotic Western cartoons you watch, Kachi. Besides, when was the last time you saw a wild rabbit in the Seireitei?"
"Why can't you take a joke, Shiro-kun?" I whined "I almost hate to say it but I think that's why you don't have very many friends. I watch them because they make me laugh. Now go on and eat up. I have a lot that I want tell you guys while you're here."
By the time we were finished eating, Ran-chan was drunk as a skunk and Shiro-kun was nibbling on the fingernail of his left pinky finger. I was going on and on about how much I remembered of the Human World when I wasn't watching "those idiotic Western cartoons," as Shiro-kun called them. Oto-san called up to us that they had company downstairs. Ran-chan hiccupped and giggled and Shiro-kun snorted. I stood up and excused myself to the bathroom. I was almost to the door when I felt something crawling up the inside of my right leg. I didn't dare show my discomfort to my friends, so I just calmly made my way to my bathroom. I stripped off my bottoms and began vigorously brushing at whatever was there. Then it started up my spine. I was about to pull my top off when Shiro-kun knocked on the door. I felt a little pinch where my hairline stopped on my neck before I opened the door slightly.
"Are you okay, Kachi? You were acting a little odd before you went in there."
"Tell Ran-chan to come here quick…"
Before I could finish my thought, I had blacked out.
