She pulled her hair tie out again and her hair fell back in her face. She looked at the black elastic memory.
"Renji, why is your hair always up in a ponytail?" laughed the carefree and loving girl, eyes dancing with life.
He laughed at the cute little girl and mussed up her hair. "It's so that my hair stays out of my eyes, Rukia." He took his hair out of the ponytail and handed the hair tie to his best friend. His hair cascaded down around his face and his back. "Here. You keep this one; next time you need to concentrate, use it. It helps."
"Yes, it sure does Renji." Rukia muttered to herself, back in her sad reality. Her eyes vulnerable for the first time in a long time. "I'll find them Renji. I promised you. I won't go back on that promise." She made an 'x' shape over her heart with her pointer finger.
She looked ahead of herself again. The world was a hard place to be in since the apocalypse. If you wanted to live here, you had to survive. You had to be heartless. Her eyes went cold and emotionless again.
It was the only way. That's what he has told her at least.
She sighed and stood up again. From what she understood, there were reports of a house not too far from here. She could rest there; maybe if she was lucky even scavenge something. But before that…
The bodies were lying face down on the ground. She went to look through what they had that was helpful and easy to carry.
"Oh, water…and this guy has some bullets. Nice."
Satisfied with her find, the petite female walked off into the horizon, muttering a song from her happy past.
"Don't know where I'm at. I'm standing at the back and I'm tired of waiting. Waiting here in line hoping that I'll find what I've been chasing I shot for the sky I'm stuck on the ground but why do I try I know I'm gonna fall down I thought I could fly so why did I drown? I never know why it's coming down down down…"
Her singing was stopped when she saw the house though. She smiled. It looked like the place she, Renji, and her brother Byakuya had stayed for a few days. That was a good time. They had a lot of fun teaching each other new tricks and trading items. The smile faded when she saw the tire tracks in the dirt. Looks like she wouldn't be staying here. Just a raid this time.
The door was swinging open. She slid through the opening without touching the door and creating extra noise, in case someone was still here. She crept into the house, her knife in hand.
After looking through the kitchen to no prevail, she headed towards the bedroom. She went into the closet and found a bag. She sheathed her knife, and started to go through it when she felt something at her back.
"If you move, I won't hesitate to push this into your lungs and leave you here to bleed to death or suffocate. Whichever one happens first. Wanna see which is faster?" A rough voice said in Rukias ear.
She mentally kicked herself for making herself this vulnerable. She knew better.
Rukia tried twisting her body, so that she could attack him. Maybe she could startle him so he would let go and she could run or get her gun.
He quickly recovered from the surprise of the movement, but cut her arm in the process of getting her again in a tight hold. "Did you think I was kidding? You have a death wish? No answer? I'll take that as a yes. And since I'm in a generous mood, I'll help you out with that…and slit your throat." The large violet orbs went wider when she felt the cold metal slide up her arm and went to her neck.
"Whitey, what are you doing to her?" A cute little voice asked, out of her view.
"Yachiru, leave. I don't think Kenpachi would be okay if I let you see this. I'm not as clean as Kurasaki is." The husky voice growled.
"Let go now, whitey." The voice was still the young one, but now held authority.
The hands loosened its hold on the girl, slightly. "Hey. Kid. You mind your own business, and scram."
Suddenly there was a loud screeching sound coming from behind Rukia. Both her and the guy holding her flinched. Chills ran up her spine as she heard the stomping of, what sounded like, an incoming Giant.
"God dammit." The voice behind her muttered.
"What's wrong kiddo?" A new deeper voice asked, as the stomping ceased.
"Whitey-chan isn't letting go of Sakura-hime."
"Wait, what did you just call her? You don't know her! Don't lie, kid!" The captors' voice yelled in fury.
"Sakura-hime!" A little hand pulled Rukias away from the man holding her. The man let go this time though. Rukia took this moment to jump away and slam herself against the wall, creating as much space as possible between her and her captor.
A little pink haired girl walked over, with absolutely no fear and grabbed Rukias hand. Rukia automatically flinched from human contact, but held on. She didn't sense any danger. The girl was a cute little thing. She was probably about five years old. Hard to believe that this little thing caused the horrible screeching from just a minute ago.
The man who had been holding her down was a lean guy, maybe 20. He had tan skin, and spiky white hair. It was pretty easy to see why the little girl called him 'whitey'. He was pouting, and glaring at Rukia, but that was nothing to the death stare he would give to the little girl when the newest enterer wasn't looking.
The giant held up to her imagination. He even surpassed it. The man must have been at least eight feet tall, had long spikes of hair with little bells on the ends, and an eye patch. But despite all of that, all Rukia could stare at was the animalistic grin he had on with absolutely no falter.
Rukia just looked around wildly, scoping for an escape. Once she was out, she could run. She would usually just shoot her way out, but she really had a soft spot for children. She couldn't imagine missing and shooting the little girl on accident. Maybe if she grabbed the little girl and jumped out of the window, taking her along….
"Why do you wanna keep this one?" The monster of a man grunted towards the little girl, grin never wavering.
"This is my Sakura-hime." The girl pointed to the dainty, yet strong, silver bracelet on Rukias wrist, which only had one simple cherry blossom hanging on it.
Whitey rolled his eyes. "So because this thief has a bracelet you like, you wanna keep her?" He turned to the giant, who was obviously in charge. "I say we kill her, and give the bracelet to your pink haired menace, Kenpachi."
"No! I wanna keep her!" She hugged Rukias legs.
"Do you really want her Yachiru?"
"Yes daddy!"
Rukia's eyes widened. Daddy? Whoa. Didn't see that one coming.
Whitey stormed out of the room, knowing the battle was lost.
Kenpachi shrugged, and turned to Rukia. "Okay, First thing's first. Hand everything over. Knives. Guns. Supplies. Everything."
Rukia pressed her back up to the wall even more. She released the little girl's hand, and raised them, to hold back the man. Even though logic told her she could never take someone his size, her brother had always told her to trust her instincts, and her instincts were telling her to fight for her life. Without a weapon, she was as good as dead.
"Aye, girly, just hand them over, and we won't have a problem. I'm saving your damned life, here!" The monster chuckled darkly.
She just pressed her lips closed, and held her hands up a little higher. She calculated the probability of reaching for Shirayuki before anyone would get her.
Just as she was about to make her move, though, there was another presence in the room. He was tall, had dark eyes, a frown, and bright orange hair. "Hey, Kenny, what's taking so long? The gang's ready to go! I even hitched the horse to the caravan, and you know how much I—" He stopped short as he laid eyes on Rukia.
She stared right back at him, trying every possible approach at telling these people she wasn't going to be an easy target. She had to remain emotionless, like Byakuya. She couldn't let them know how terrified she was. Too bad her heart rate didn't want to cooperate.
The orange haired boy walked closer to Rukia. "Hmm. What's the chick doing here? What are you doing to her? I didn't think you liked midgets." He looked slightly nervous, as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"Ichigo, this is my new Hime! Sakura-Hime, this is Ichigo. Please talk, Hime! Please!" Yachiru grabbed Rukias hands back, and looked up to her with huge brown eyes, pleading with her.
Rukia sighed. "Hello." She muttered, still assessing him to see if she could possibly take him on in combat.
Ichigo looked at her with a worried face. "Kenpachi…you weren't planning on using her, were you?" he asked, without taking his eyes from Rukia's face.
"What do you mean 'use'?" Kenpachi growled.
"You know…use…" he glanced at Yachiru. "As a man…using her as a woman."
"What are you—oh. No. I'm considering killing her, seeing as she won't drop her damned weapons. Why do you care so much? Because of your mother? Calm down, man." Kenpachi waved him off.
Ichigo's face turned red. "Do not bring my mother into this, Kenpachi. I was looking out for her because even though some people out there seem to think that we have to be hard-asses all the time, I have some kind of humanity left. Is it such a bad thing?!" his wrist flickered towards his gun halter.
This didn't escape Rukia's attention. She tightened her grip on Yachiru.
Kenpachi didn't seem to miss the twitch, either. He started laughing hysterically. "Do you want to fight?!" His smile got impossibly bigger. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. "Let's tussle, kid!"
Rukia quickly pulled Yachiru behind her, to shield her with her own body. She pulled out her knife, and crouched defensively, while still facing the two angry men. As soon as she did so, both males turned to look at her.
Kenpachi put the knife away, and Ichigo took his hand off of his gun halter. Rukia didn't let up on her defense, though. These men were dangerous. She would take this girl and run. It would be hard, but she couldn't leave her with these maniacs.
"Okay, so Ichigo, you watch her. She's your responsibility now. And don't let her escape…Yachiru seems to have some kind of a fascination with her, and it may keep her out of my hair for a little while. Literally. I just have some things to tell her some things, then she's off my hands." He said nonchalantly. Then he turned to Rukia. "Before we introduce you to the gang, here are the rules. Hurt anyone in our group, and you're dead. Probably tortured first. Try to escape and you're dead. Try to steal anything, and you're dead. Make me angry, and you're dead. Any questions? Good." He didn't even look at Rukia to see if she had any questions. He just walked outside, Leaving Rukia with Yachiru and Ichigo.
"You can stand up now. I'm not going to hurt you." Ichigo muttered. "My freakin' luck, ending up with the new huge responsibility."
Rukia stood up cautiously. She didn't sheath her knife. She had learned her lesson the first time.
"Well, you heard the rules. You're gonna share a caravan with me and a few other people. Don't rely on me to save your ass every time someone wants to kill you around here, cus it happens way too frequently. We never wind up killing each other though. We are kinda just a big family." He added thoughfully.
Yachiru held Rukia's free hand and guided her towards the door, Ichigo following. "Wait 'til you meet our family. They'll love you Sakura-chan. They will. I can tell that you're gonna fit in real nice."
Rukia answered only by squeezing the little girls hand a little. She knew she would probably be dead within the week. But, if she was going down, she was going down with a bang. She would make Renji and Byakuya proud.