A/N: okay... first off? I have to say I did not, in anyway, expect this story to garner such a response, I thought it would be read by 1 or 2 people at most, but I guess you guys really showed me :) You People are Amazing! Anyway, the response kinda prompted me to write this new one, so I hope you enjoy!
Warnings: Mentions of killing, violence and attempted rape.
Matsumoto Rangiku:
May people saw the newly appointed 9th seat of the 10th and were only able to see so far as her outer beauty. Not one of them could see past her large bust and golden hair to the true talent that laid beneath, but, if she was being honest with herself, she didn't really care. If they weren't intelligent enough to see through to the real her, then they weren't worth her time. After all, humans were scum, she had learned that at a very young age.
She never really spoke of her past, any many of the people who knew her just assumed that she had been with Gin from the very beginning, or, at least, from early on, but what they didn't understand, was that she had been alone for nearly 20 years before the fox like boy had found her. And it was in those years that she learned one very important fact:
If she ever wanted anything in life, she had to take it for herself.
Life in any district of Rokungai was never easy for a child, and that difficulty was doubled if you happened to be female. The number of times she had been blatantly flirted with, hit on, propositioned, and in some cases, had men attempt to down right force themselves on her... well, it wasn't worth wasting the brain cells in counting them. It wasn't like she was going to inform the others about this anyway, even if it had lead her to her one and only friend in life.
It had been one of the particularly frightening times that had had her running off blindly from the dark alley. She hadn't had any idea of where she was heading, she just wanted to get away from the horrible shop keeper with the grime stained face and rotting teeth... and it was this desire that drove her deeper into the forests that surrounded the small village than she had ever gone before. It wasn't safe to run in so deep, especially not alone and so late at night, but at this point, she was beyond caring. 15 years of struggling to survive and she now felt that any hollow interested in eating her would be welcomed.
It had already been late at night when she had been cornered by the man, and it had taken a lot of strength to over power him just to get away, so by this time she was practically dead on her feet, but she wouldn't let that stop her as she just continued to run further, not paying any attention to her surroundings, or the fact that the air had begun to feel colder, drier and holding a sharp bite she had never experienced before. Still, it was pretty hard to miss it when the leaf strewn forest floor morphed into the shifting sands of a desert beneath her feet, and it was this that brought her up short.
Gasping for breath and desperately wiping at the tears that were streaming down her cheeks in a futile attempt to clear her vision, she tried to take stock of the world around her.
She appeared to be in the back street of some village, but it was not like any she had ever seen before. The buildings were strangely shaped, and seemed to be made from material the same colour as the grit beneath her feet rather than the wood she was so used to. Added to this, they all seemed so tall...
Shivering in the night air now that the warmth of her exertion had worn off, the young girl wrapped her arms tightly around herself and began to explore a little more.
After a solid half hour of wandering, she had come to some confusing conclusions, though none of them had been able to incite the same feel of panic in her as her position before had. So what if the spirit particles felt less concentrated here? She didn't use them anyway. So what if everyone she had observed (from a safe distance of course) were wearing strange clothes? Fashion had never bothered her before, and she had seen some very strange styles back in the districts from some of the... livelier individuals.
So what if she couldn't seem to find any indication of a road home? She didn't want to go back there anyway.
It appeared as though she had arrived in one of the more deserted areas of this strange city, but her wanderings had taken her deeper into the city-proper without her really noticing so, when she heard the agonized scream from above her it took her quite by surprise.
Almost unconsciously, Rangiku sent a quick glance around her surroundings, noticing that sound could only have come from someone on the near by roof top, though for some reason, the few people that were still around on the street were seemingly pretending that nothing had happened. She thought about just leaving the noise and going back to her mindless wanderings, but the voice had sounded like that of a kid around her age...
Cursing her own compassion that was sure to get her killed at some point, the girl ran over to the side alley of the building she thought she had heard the scream from. It took some careful manoeuvring of some of the trash she found there, but eventually she was able to hoist herself up onto the flat roof, though what she found there was not like anything she had imagined.
Sitting hunched over at the very edge of the roof to her left, was the small form of a kid who must have been the one to shout earlier. From what she could see in the moonlight, his hair was the deep red colour of freshly spilled blood, but that wasn't what held her attention. No, she was soon distracted by the swirling tendril of what looked to be... sand? Floating around his head as though it was alive...
Edging closer, she studiously ignored the smoking lump that was probably the body of an adult at some point (by now she had seen far too many people killed for it to really effect her any more). It was with silent movements that she made her way closer to the shadow of who she was beginning to suspect was a boy, but somehow he still heard her, his head snapping round to stare her down with dark ringed jade eyes.
Having had to fend for herself for as long as she could remember, it was not often that Rangiku was frozen in place by a mere look of all things, but as the boy, who she could now tell was a few years younger than her, turned to glare at her, it felt as though all of her muscles were suddenly frozen in place. Hell, even the air seemed to be thicker, and it was harder to breathe all of a sudden.
For a moment, the two children remained in place, simply staring at each other. Silent. Assessing. Until the red-head pushed himself to his feet, the sand shifting behind him the only thing betraying his agitation.
"Who are you?"
His voice was cold, like many of the older children she had come across in the slums... it made him seem dead inside, and for some reason, that made something in the girl's heart ache... it was a strong enough urge that she soon found herself telling the truth, though it had not been her intention.
"I heard you scream... I thought you might need help."
Her voice seemed so very small in the surroundings of an empty star filled sky, and the reasoning, though completely truthful, seemed weak even to her own ears. It was no surprise then that the boy's eyes narrowed with suspicion, a slim tendril of sand beginning to edge, unnoticed, towards her feet, moving silently through the shadows. Absently, Rangiku realised that she had not answered his question, instead she had just blurted out the first thing on her mind, but she couldn't help but think that was a good thing... something in her mind told her that it was best that this boy didn't learn her name just yet...
"Why?"
For a second, that question brought her up short, she had no idea what he was questioning, but then realisation hit, and she began to ask herself the same question.
"I don't know."
And she really didn't. Normally she wouldn't have just run off blindly to help someone she had never met before, surviving alone was hard enough with getting involved in other people's problems, but something had made her want to help this boy, to the extent that her body had started reacting even before she was even consciously aware of it.
Across from her, the boy's eyes only seemed to narrow once again, to the point where he was glaring at her through slits, before his entire stance seemed to relax and the sand retreated.
"Weird."
It was so unexpected, and stated in such a matter of fact way that Rangiku couldn't help it. The shock as the word registered was enough to spark off a rare fit of giggles, and she found herself in control of her body once again.
Moving to the edge next the to boy, following that voice that was telling her that this was the right thing to do, she flopped down next to him, so that her head rested lightly against his knees... and act that seemed to shock him more than her laughter had.
"Yeah... I guess I am."
For a few moments more, the boy only stared at her, a frown on his face as though he was trying to solve some complex puzzle, but was unable to. However, after about another 20 minutes of tense silence, he moved so that he was seated a few feet to her left, though his jade eyes never once left her face. In fact... it was because of this staring that she was able to make out the shimmering tear tracks that still streaked his pale face.
"Why were you crying?"
After the prolonged silence, the sound of her own voice was nearly enough to make the blonde jump, but she made sure to watch the boy for any reaction. It was because of this that she was able to catch the brief flash of pain that flared up before being stifled back into cold apathy. In some ways, she was already expecting her companion's response when he began to speak in an icy tone.
"My Uncle tried to kill me. I killed him instead."
The words themselves were shocking at first, but Rangiku forced herself not to respond. Instead, she chose to think.
In truth, she couldn't really find anything wrong with those statements, other than the flat way in which they were delivered. If someone had tried to kill her, she would have killed them too, if she had had the chance... it was either fight or die...
So instead of shying away from the sand tendrils that reached forwards to brush her face, the girl only sent the boy controlling them a short nod.
"It makes sense."
Once again, her words were clearly no what he had been expecting to hear, and his rigid control snapped, though only for a second this time. And it was almost with a smirk that he looked away from her, and out over the village that stretched out below them. It seemed so small from up here.
"Weird."
It was spoken as nothing more than a whisper this time, and she was pretty sure that she was not meant to have heard it. Still, she smiled over at him anyway.
"I know."
Silence fell over them once again, and as it seemed to drag on for a long time while both of the children traced their own thoughts. This time, it was the blonde to break first.
"A man tried to rape me today. I forced a broken bottle into his face so I could get away. He didn't come after me... I think he's dead."
It was surprisingly easy to talk about the nightmare that she had been caught up in only a short while before, but she must have been able to take some form of comfort from the boy's apathetic countenance as the words came out in a monotone. Instead of the fear she had been expecting at admitting her actions to both her companion and herself, Rangiku felt only a cold sense of detachment... it was nice.
In response to her words, the boy only sent her nod, mimicking the way that she had replied before. Though instead of speaking, he shifted himself so that he was a few inches closer to her, his sand moving to wrap around her shoulders in a way that others would probably have found threatening, but for her it offered only comfort.
"The people here call me a demon. My father wants to kill me."
"I often have to fight off men. I'm sure many of them would kill me if they got the chance."
For a while, their statements hung in the air around them, neither of them trying to comfort the other, or even really acknowledging that the either of them had spoken at all, but somehow it seemed to make Rangiku feel that little bit better.
"Humans are scum."
"I know."
Nothing more was said that night, but it was this that sparked off a friendship that had supported Rangiku for all of the years she had lived since. Although they never met like that again, nor were they truly able to see each other, they were still aware of the other's existence. It was enough to keep both of them from the dark depths of loneliness, and sometimes, in their dreams, they could talk once again, sharing the horrors of their daily lives. 5 years after their first meeting, Rangiku stumbled across a boy her age with silver hair and crimson eyes... a boy who quickly became her friend, though he would never replace her first friend in either her hear or her mind.
It got to the point where they were strong enough to talk to each other ever night... and it was something they made great use of... Together, they thought up the perfect plan. They would not try and change people's views on them... there would never be any point.
She said that she didn't care about those who did not see past her appearance, but, in truth, she glorified in it. What better way could you find to disguise yourself than by using a mask that others already wanted to force upon you? Let all of Serentei think that she was some mindless bimbo surviving on her looks alone. In the end, when the time came for her to show off her true self, she would be the one left laughing.
But for now, she would continue like this, living only for herself. Loving only herself. And perhaps Gin too... but only if Haineko approved of course.
A/N: um... I have no idea where dark!Rangiku came from there... honestly... it was just meant to be her comforting Gaara... but oh well... it looks like Shukaku is contagious. Please don't kill me...
I hope you enjoyed this update! Please let me know what you thought, and if you have any ideas for future chapters!
Ella