This is a Oneshot of the Hungry Ghost Festival.
It is well known in Asian Countries when ghosts are let out of 'hell' and roam freely in the living world. Many festivals are held and performances are held to sort of, entertain the ghosts.
I hope you enjoy it and any constructive critisism is wanted badly! :)
Review please!
Paperwork
The Hungry Ghost Festival is the bane of Toshiro Hitsugaya's existence.
Every single year for an eternity, his lieutenant will abandon him for sake and parties, and thus leave him with four times the normal amount of paperwork. The child prodigy, of course, hates it, but he has long given up on the lazy cat he calls his Lieutenant, because, he knows that if he is in trouble, Matsumoto Rangiku will drop everything she is doing, sober up within seconds, and take a strike to the chest for her Captain.
His alarm clock rings shrilly and pulls the white haired captain from indulging in his paperwork. Disgruntled at the untimely interruption, the tenth division captain just frowns at the alarm he had set up himself and just jumps out the window and shunpos over the large crowd gathering before the gate that would, soon enough, open a pathway to the world of the living.
The white haired child thinks it is all a big fuss to go back to the world of the living- It means more paperwork for him.
Having seen his captain floating in the air, the fourth seat of the tenth division scurries over to him and is about to report to him when a loud siren cuts through the peaceful air of Soul Society, signaling that the gates can be opened.
Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro breathes in deeply to calm his palpitating heart, and after a second's hesitation, nods his approval.
Festivals
Every year, Rukia Kuchiki looks forward to the Hungry Ghost Festival, but this year, it's special because Ichigo Kurosaki and his human friends will be there. Before they had come into her life, the Hungry Ghost Festival was just this hole in her heart; a boring procession which takes place every year. She's tired of going out to patrol alone, and now that the strawberry is here, she thinks that she will never be alone anymore.
What she looks forward to the most is when she will finally be off patrol. That was the thing that most Shinigami and Souls in general, look forward to during that month of roaming ghosts- the festivals.
That's when she will wear her gigai, dress in her favourite kimono- the one her sister bought for her- andd go to a human festival. She loves these festivals because the place was always bustling with activity. There were games and there was delicious Japanese cuisine that rivaled her nii-san's cooking, though they were not so...eccentric. But the real reason why she loves those festivals is because, for awhile, she can forget the fact that she doesn't belong there anymore. She can forget the duty she has to the Kuchiki clan and even the haunting presence of her dead sister that no matter how hard she tries, cannot leave.
That's why the young Kuchiki loves festivals- she can loose herself in the crowd and never find her way back again.
Substitute
As he watches the shinigami shunpo through the air above the town in the midnight sky, busy on their patrols, Kurosaki Ichigo thinks about his family; his father, his sisters...his mother. That's when tears threatened to break free from their furious swim in his eyes, so he stops thinking about the times before he killed his mother.
Although, he is sure that even having defeated Aizen, and even proving himself in his comrades eyes, deep inside his heart, the strawberry will never forgive himself for what he had done to his mother. He knows that his family needs him, and will not do anything stupid that he believes he will regret in the end.
To take his mind off things, the substitute shinigami pops soul candy into his mouth and subsequently pops out of his human body as a legendary Death God. The lieutenant of the sixth division peeks into Ichigo's room with a huge grin on his face which is almost fighting the very lines of his face, and brings in with him a woman with long, wavy brown hair, warm eyes and the slight marks of smiling wrinkles imprinted on the edges of her eyes and mouth.
A woman that Ichigo thought that he would never see again.
"Ka-san"
Sake
Rangiku Matsumoto knows many facts. She knows that her captain hates the Hungry Ghost Festival, that she is a warrior and that she loves Sake.
Somehow, the spicy drink that burns down others' throats is like a drug to her. Proudly, she can say she is an alcoholic, bound by the limits of her drink. Many question her rights, her honour and her loyalty.
Matsumoto Rangiku knows she is loyal to only two men in her life: Toshiro Hitsugaya and Gin Ichimaru.
People think Toshiro Hitsugaya is Cold, Distant, polite and justice seeking, and that Gin Ichimaru has no morals, a thickheaded idiot, a tease and a dickhead.
Rangiku thinks differently.
She thinks Toshiro Hitsugaya is a warm, cute, fun loving puppy and that Gin Ichimaru is a kind, stealthy, smart and warm man.
It's no wonder why people think she's crazy.
When Gin died, Rangiku partied endlessly and never stopped drinking- shot after shot. The drinks help numb the sensation, the pounding music blocks her ears off to the nasty remarks and the flashing lights a paradise to the realization of the situation. Her captain understood the situation and had been an angel to her numerous absentees.
They were back to the same boring cycle. The lieutenant of the tenth division silently thanks her captain whenever there is a nasty remark about her, or even them, and he ignores them, because they both know:
A lieutenant's loyalty lies in her captain and no one else.
She would never have gone over to Gin's side.
Change
The shinigami of Soul Society treat the Hungry Ghost Festival as a normal procedure that has to be done every year. Just like the killing that has to be done to rid the world of hollows, it is just a numb sensation that changes slightly from soul to soul, shinigami to shinigami.
The years flow by fluidly, and suddenly your great grand niece's daughter's granddaughter is in Seireitei, ready to fight of hollows. Things continue as they are for an eternity, and in that eternity, many things do not change. It is a cycle that will never end- a new soul here, a fight there.
Change does not happen in Soul Society.
~END~