Chapter One
Friend
"This is a new transfer student from…" The teacher paused for a second to look at Hinamori.
"Osaka Lake," She smiled shyly.
"She will be joining year 7, class 2 from now on, so please make her feel welcome."
"Hello everyone, my name is Hinamori Momo, nice to meet all of you." She bowed and smiled again at her classmates before walking down the aisle to the one and only empty seat in the back corner. As Hinamori walked through the narrow gaps between the desks, her eyes met with a cute spiky-hair boy's and she smiled. The boy grinned back while sticking out his foot at the same time. Hinamori let out a yelp and helplessly landed on the floor, face first. Following, was a loud bang on the desk on the other side of her. She looked up at the girl who had slammed her hand and saw that she was wearing a baseball cap and the hair underneath's colour was much like Hinamori's own, though shorter, and cut in a completely different style. The raven-haired girl was grabbing the boy neighbouring her by his shirt collar and throwing a bunch of nasty words in his face. And all Hinamori could do was stare along with the rest of the class.
"Kurosaki! Control yourself please." Sensei stood up, slamming one hand on his desk in the same manner that the Kurosaki girl did, and yelled at the girl.
"Why don'cha tell that to this punk here?" Kurosaki yelled back to the teacher.
"Kurosaki…" the teacher spoke his second warning.
And that was how Hinamori's day started off…
--
Hinamori sighed. One whole day of school and yet, she still hasn't made a single friend. Why couldn't they have sent her to high school with Shiro-chan? Speaking of Shiro-chan, Hinamori wondered where was he anyway? She hadn't seen him since she arrived. Lifting up her head from her sighs, Hinamori saw a girl walking in front of her that looked like the Kurosaki girl from earlier that morning.
"Kurosaki-san?" she hestitated for a moment before calling out.
"Hinamori? Hey, what's up?" Karin stood where she was, waiting for Hinamori to catch up. "Where did you say you were from again?" Karin narrowed her eyes, as she could feel an uneasy spiritual aura around Hinamori.
"Soul—" Hinamori almost blurted out Soul Society, but stopped abruptly when she realized what she was saying. "Osaka Lake? Yeah, I'm from Osaka Lake."
"Oh, uh, yeah, that's cool." Karin decided to drop the topic since it disconcerned just as much as it disinterested her anyway—Karin claims to not believe in shinigamis even though she sees them as clear as daylight, "So how do you like our school so far?" Hinamori paused to think for a second if it would be wise to be truthful and say how boring she thinks school is or to just answer politely, when she saw a short figure with white hair spiked in a style that she could recognize anywhere.
"Shiro-chan…" She involuntarily spoke out his name.