Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
A/N- The words in italics are what the person is thinking. Story takes place when Soul Society is at peace. Well, find out yourself on what the setting really is. I am just dragging the characters I like into my own version. This chapter may be rather traumatizing so I am simply warning you before you read it and have nightmares later. No one was harmed (other than me for simply imagining it) in the making of the story.
Toshiro Hitsugaya splashed water on his face before looking at the mirror, face dripping with water.
He frowned at his reflection and wiped his face on a towel. Immediately, he remembered what was going to happen to him.
I'm nearly a hundred years old and already I have an arranged marriage. I have to meet that girl today too... Who CARES if she's a noble? Soul Society seems outdated compared to the human world. Who enjoys arranged marriages?
Maybe all her family wants is a good name, getting a Captain-level shinigami into the family. From what I've researched, all of the family members who were shinigami all died long ago. How strange, there is almost no information about the girl I am going to marry, besides her age and where she lives. Even this family barely has any information other than an account of their ancestor's lives. This family must be hiding something.
What should I do to get rid of her? The only thing that I can do is either cause so much trouble that the family will call it off or find another girl so that the family will call it off. Which do I prefer? Either way, it will ruin my reputation.
This fiance is ruining my life. Everyone is picking on me asking who the girl is. Momo looks so depressed these days. I'd rather marry someone close to me.
Like Momo. But who said I'd MARRY HER? Nobody. I just prefer her over this girl.
And I am going to see her all day today.
He groaned and changed his clothes into his Captain uniform and finished of the 'captain' effect by putting on his green sash. There was nothing special that he needed to do to himself besides think of what he could say to the girl and her family.
Oh yes, and eat.
He walked over to the kitchen and took a few rice cakes. If one of them cracks while I'm holding it, that means that I will fail in my goal. He was feeling a bit paranoid at the moment.
Hitsugaya carefully inspected the rice cakes before quickly eating them and drinking them down with hot tea. Unfortunately, he failed to notice a crack that had split the cake in half.
Finally, I can call off the wedding, he thought munching in relief.
--
Hitsugaya was in no hurry to get to his fiance's home but the sudden thunderstorm made him run all the way there.
Not to mention that the house was quite far from where he lived.
As it turned out, the house was actually a mansion. Nobles he scoffed. The front of it, as far as he could tell was hidden by an overgrowth of flowers and trees. There seemed to be a garden behind the simple gate that was the only form of entry into the mansion.
He walked to the tree in front of the gate and was just starting to Get a good soaking from the rain (even though he was under a tree) when he heard noises from inside the garden.
It was a woman shrieking.
He heard several sharp thwacks of wood hitting something but when he saw what was happening he tried to run inside to help.
There was a girl about his age whose face and body was being hit by a woman with a club. The woman was yelling vulgar insults at the girl, calling her several names that thankfully slipped out of Hitsugaya's head the moment he heard them. The few he understood however, made it seem as if the girl was just a living doll.
Hitsugaya tried to enter the mansion, but crossing the gate wasn't as easy as he thought. There seemed to be a huge shield covering the entire mansion.
Hitsugaya was rather reluctant to break anything but tried cutting the shield with his sword. Plus it didn't help that the woman seemed to be so preoccupied in what she was doing that she ignored him. The girl also never looked at him.
Strangely, the girl didn't even react to the beating, making the woman angrier. The woman finally hit the girl's legs and the girl collapsed to the ground. The woman, to Hitsugaya's embarrassment, stripped the top part of the girl's dress revealing that her body was swathed in bloody bandages. The woman started screaming and beating the girl's back until, after several seconds had passed, her anger seemed to abate. She then kicked the girl and slapped her in the eyes, telling her to get up.
Hitsugaya was getting angrier and angrier but there seemed to be nothing he could do except wait outside.
The woman dragged the girl into the house and shut the door.
Horrifies me, the way some nobles treat servants. What if my fiance has the same attitude?
Toshiro Hitsugaya, miserable, angry, cold and wet stood outside in the freezing rain. He kicked the ground angrily and then he noticed a small rope on the side of the gate attached to a bell. He pulled it as hard as he could.
The gate opened and to his disgust, the same woman who had been beating the girl came out of the mansion holding an umbrella. She was smiling.
He, in deep contrast, was frowning so much that the lady's smile dwindled into almost nothing. He stomped over to the doors of the house and noticed that it seemed a little smaller up close. The garden was growing wild though it seemed to be cared for. The lady did not offer him the umbrella.
The lady ushered him inside the home the moment he took of his sandals. "I am Mira's step-mother. Could you please wait here while I go fetch her?" The lady asked.
Hitsugaya, on the other hand, had just seen two servants walk side-by-side carrying what appeared to be several bottles of medicine and blood-stained bandages. The sight made him feel slightly sick and wonder at the well-being of the mistreated girl he had seen earlier.
Hitsugaya turned to face the hall. "Which room is hers?" Hitsugaya blandly asked. He had no desire to stay in the house or near the woman. He did not look at her face. "I wish to see her alone."
Mira's step-mother's face blanched slightly, but she regained her composure. Her voice sounded a little angry and mechanical as she gave quick instructions, "Turn left from here, go right, walk up the left stairs, turn right, turn left, her room is on your left side."
"Watch her for me will you? I will be leaving this house for the entire day. Do not go out of the premises of the house. Take care of her until I return," commanded the woman. "I will take all of the servants with me so you can be alone in the house with Mira."
I wasn't planning on showing her off around town anyway. Hitsugaya thanked the repulsive woman for the directions and quickly walked away.
--
He reached the room in ten minutes flat. The hallways were longer than he expected and the flight of stairs were quite high. Seeing nobody in sight, Hitsugaya began to wonder how many people actually lived in the house. He knocked on the door politely.
"Please come in," said a soft voice. Was it his imagination or did the voice sound miserably lonely?
He opened the sliding door and to his surprise, the girl from earlier was sitting on the floor, seated on a black cushion. She gestured to the empty seat in front of her with a long, sharp stick she was playing with.
Hitsugaya couldn't see her face very well, only her mouth as the rest of her face was obstructed by a dark veil. Her right hand was halfway covered by white bandages. Strangely, she wore clothes similar to the shinigami yet they were all white on the outside, black on the inside.
Her clothes are like an arrancar or a prisoner, Hitsugaya found himself thinking. Can she even see me through that veil? He was unsure of what to say.
"Your name is Toshiro Hitsugaya?" the girl asked as she put the stick down at her side. "Mother said that Toshiro Hitsugaya would be coming today to play with me. What should I call you?"
Hitsugaya paused for a while. "Toshiro-sama," he replied. He was older than her by a few years. "What is your name?" He was bored already. I am her playmate? Whatever happened to the fiance bit?
"Mira-san. Does Toshiro-sama want Togo outside?"
I just got up here. "Anything," he said coldly. He stood up when she did so. Mira turned around and walked to the door behind him, taking her stick with her. Toshiro saw that she was shorter than him by a few centimeters. Her feet were bare and did not seem to notice the slight chill in the air. She opened the door and walked silently through the hallway. The way she moved was stealthy and smooth.
"Is Toshiro-sama angry that Toshiro-sama came here?" Mira asked him. "Toshiro-sama doesn't seem to be happy or," she stopped and turned to face him, "is that Toshiro-sama's usual expression?"
"The second one," Hitsugaya said weakly. She keeps speaking to me in third person yet she never refers to herself in third person. It's annoying. I'm so bored.
Mira walked forward and turned at a corner to reveal another hallway, but this time with one of the walls missing so he could see the beauty of the wilderness below. The rain had stopped and everything was glistening in the morning sun with dew.
Mira climbed the railing with such agility, it was hard to believe that she was injured. "This way," she said tilting her head downwards, "is faster."
She leaped downwards and landed in the grass on two feet. Hitsugaya followed her, though he did it much faster than she.
"Where does Toshiro-sama want to go?" Mira asked. Her veil had never moved the entire time.
Hitsugaya looked around him. "Your favorite place," he said. That way, he wouldn't have to waste time thinking or feel nervous.
Mira walked slowly to a Sakura tree completely hidden by the other plants, cutting through the undergrowth and ducking underneath the branches. She pushed several flowers away with her stick and took her time smelling them.
She must have been doing this for a long time. If only she would go faster.
Mira stopped at the foot of the tree and sat down cross-legged on the fallen sakura petals. Petals were continuously falling from the tree and Hitsugaya simply stood in the foot-deep pile. "This tree cannot be seen from above, except at a certain time of night," Mira murmured as she propped her stick on the tree.
"Why do you like this place? Because it is beautiful?" queried Hitsugaya sarcastically.
"No, because every full moon, when the Sakura tree blossoms at its fullest and there is a continuous shower of petals, someone will visit me here," she replied softly. Her voice was brimming with happiness and, was it, thought Hitsugaya, love? He had only heard a few people speak in the same tones as Mira was doing now wen they spoke about their dearly cherished ones.
"Who?" Hitsugaya asked curiously. Sounds romantic.
Mira shrugged her shoulders and reached out a hand to catch a falling blossom, still perfect. "He will come today." She out down her arms and leaned on them.
"Why are you wearing that veil?" Hitsugaya asked. He didn't notice that Mira's head lifted as if she were surprised, then she hunched her shoulders as she faced the ground.
"Mother," Mira hissed. Whatever love was in her voice earlier, was all vaporized in a single instant. She now sounded like shinigami who got angry for being hurt and were bent on killing for revenge. Mira clenched her fist tightly and suddenly calmed down. From her hand she shredded the now-ruined flower between her fingers. "That woman," she spoke gaily, "tells me to call her 'Mother', even though she's not mine. My mother was killed by a hollow but before she died, she sent it to Soul Society." It was hard to believe that Mira could talk so peacefully about something sorrowful and violent.
Hitsugaya sat down on the grass and made his first attempt at being polite and friendly to his fiance. "Your step-mother is not around Mira-san. You can take it off."
Mira removed her veil, revealing pitch-black hair. It looked and was tied in a fashion similar to Momo's except she did not wear a covering for the bun at the back of her hair. Why did it remind him of Momo? But it was her eyes that held much of Toshiro's expression. Her dark-green eyes mirrored his own teal ones as she stared into them. Toshiro could see flecks of gold and light shades of violet in them. Her eyes were... intriguing. They bore no expression and were ringed with thick, dark eyelashes, making her seem more like a doll than ever. He had never seen anything like it before, but then again, Soul Society was full of weird-looking people.
She fingered the veil before throwing it up high so that it hung on a flowering branch. Hitsugaya's eyes followed its progress.
There was a silence between the two for a long time.
Hitsugaya broke it. "How are you feeling today?" he asked. He just had to say something. He was getting drowsy.
"Painful," was her innocent reply. "Toshiro-sama saw what happened earlier today." It wasn't a question, it was a statement.
"You saw me? Then why didn't you say anything?" Toshiro demanded. He felt horribly moody at this point.
Mira turned her head. "You are wrong for saying so.I," she hesitated for a second, "can't see."
A/N: Well, the 'dark-green eyes' came up by chance because I am tired of seeing blue eyes, red eyes (kind of scary sometimes), brown eyes and yellow eyes (as much as I like them). I forgot that Hitsugaya had near-green ones. A lot of by-chance rhymes too. Oh, and I just realized how close 'Mira' sounds to 'Misa', who talks in the same manner. Sorry if the chapter was boring. Please R&R. As always, anyone can do so (even if you don't have an account).