Chapter Three- Hisagi and the Forty Thieves

Hisagi and his brother lived a good life. Their father was a wealthy merchant and they were much better off then most. Well at least had a good life.

One day their father became ill and passed away. The elder brother Ōmaeda was a greedy man. He quickly claimed all of their fathers wealth and outcaste Hisagi from the business and the inheritance.

Hisagi did not panic or complain. Ōmaeda was the elder brother. So the younger brother set out to make some kind of living. He chopped wood in the forest to make a decent living.

One day a group of shady looking riders rode past him. Curious he followed them to a cave that was sealed. There a female voice called out; "Open Sesame," and the door to the cave opened. The men all rode in. Mesmerized Hisagi slowly made his way to the cave and said the words to open the cave. The words worked for him as well.

He carefully walked inside. The riders were not in sight. However what was there were mountains of gold that filled the chamber. Surly the men wouldn't know if a small amount of gold went missing? After all it was most likely all stolen anyway.

So he filled his pockets with gold and left the cave.

He made his way back home. Thankfully his brother still let him stay there, even if he wasn't allowed any of the inheritance. However his brothers wife was just as vain and selfish.

The woman spied on Hisagi. Where had he gotten all that gold? Ōmaeda's wife, Rangiku quickly ran to her husband to tell him of her findings.

The heavy set brother listened to his wife's findings and a smile quickly spread across his face. He cornered Hisagi.

"You ungrateful maggot! After all I've done for you! You've been holding out on me."

"But brother," Hisagi tried to explain. "You have all of our fathers inheritance."

"Where did you get the gold!" Ōmaeda demanded.

With a heavy heart the younger brother told him of the cave and the magic words to get in.

Without another thought the older brother ran out of the house to collect all the gold he could.

But Ōmaeda was a greedy man. And those kinds of hearts can be careless. He wasn't careful as Hisagi had been. He marched into the cave loudly laughing as stuffed coins into his pockets.

Of course he had been caught. The thieves killed him and chopped him into many pieces and left him in a pile at the door to the cave. As a warning for anyone else who would try and steal their gold.

Hisagi grew worried when his brother never returned. So Rangiku and a slave girl they had, Nemu, went to the cave to look for him. As they entered they saw his body.

The strawberry blonde covered her eyes and wept. Hisagi heartbroken at the loss of his brother grabbed a rug from the cave and he and Nemu placed the body pieces on it so they could take Ōmaeda home and give him a proper send off.

Rangiku did not want to burry him in pieces. It wouldn't be right. Hisagi agreed.

"My masters. I know of a tailor in town who can put anything back together. If you blindfold him no one will ever know what happened to the late master."

Agreeing that this was a good plan they set off to gather the tailor following Nemu's instructions.

His name was Izuru and he was a fine tailor. In one night he was able to put Hisagi's fallen brother back together.

The leader of the forty thieves looked at the bloodstained spot where a body had been. Someone else knew their secret. This could not be allowed. The pink haired leader led her band of thieves through the towns asking if anyone had seen anything suspicious.

One of the thieves, Nanao, found out that a tailor was seen leaving a home in the middle of the night. The thief realized that the tailor must have been stitching up the body. So she found the tailor who could only find the house blindfolded and followed him to the Hisagi's home. Smiling at a job well done he marked the door. That way they could find the house once everyone was there.

Their plan was for naught. The slave girl Nemu saw Nanao. She quickly marked the neighboring houses with a similar mark. That way the thieves would not be able to tell the houses apart.

That did work. The leader in her rage killed Nanao who had made this plan.

The next another thief tried again. The thief Renji decided to do what Nanao had tried. He found the blonde tailor who again led him to the house where he had stitched up the body. This time he did not make a mark, instead he took a chunk of the stone step in front of the house. Then they would come back to the house missing a stone step and kill everyone in the house.

But once again the thieves plans were for naught. Nemu again saw the thief and took chunks out of the neighbor's stone steps as well. When the thieves came back they were once again unable to tell the houses apart.

The leader killed Renji on the spot.

The leader would not have these failures again. She rode up to the house and memorized every inch of the house.

She rode back to the house earlier that morning and knocked on the door. She wore a hooded cloak so that no one would recognize her neighbors and towns people alike. She informed Hisagi that his late brother had ordered thirty-eight oil jars.

Hisagi looked behind the merchant and saw many camels with woven baskets on each side, with the said oil lamps. He thanked the merchant.

Of course inside the baskets were not oil lamps but the remaining thieves. Who would sneak out in the middle of the night and kill Hisagi and everyone in the house.

Nemu would not be fooled. She got to the thieves first and poured boiling hot oil in all of the baskets killing all of the thieves. She then disposed of the baskets.

Of course the leader learned of this and was outraged. All of her men were dead. She was determined to get her revenge.

Hisagi had taken over the family business now that his brother was gone. He had made friends with a female merchant who was eager to do business with him. He invited her over to his home to discuss final business arrangements. Their pink haired guest enjoyed a nice dinner with Hisagi. Nemu doing the serving. Hisagi talked on and on about the great business they could do in the future together.

"I see," said the pink haired guest reaching into her cloak for something. "Yes I can see us doing well in the future."

Nemu suddenly froze the plate in her hands dropping to the ground. With amazing speed a knife was in her hand.

It happened so fast. The pink haired girl was lunging towards Hisagi a knife in her hands. Nemu quickly was on her. Placing the knife through the heart of her master's attacker.

Hisagi sat frozen in shock. "Nemu what are-"

Nemu covered in the blood of the head thief got on her knees before her master. "I beg your forgiveness, my master. This was the head thief. For days they have been trying to kill you. But now there are no more. All of those men are dead now. You are safe again."

Hisagi patted her head. "Thank you for saving my life, Nemu." She looked up at him happily. "As a reward, I shall give you, your freedom."

Her dark green eyes grew wide. "No! I could never except that. I want to be here to serve you,"

Hisagi smiled at her loyalty. She had always been kind to him. "Then will you be my wife."

She looked up at him shocked. She nodded to happy for words.

Soi Fon finished her story and a silence followed it.

"That story sucked about as much as I thought it would," grunted Kenpachi.

"That's it?" whispered Momo to Kira who shrugged.

Ōmaeda looked outraged. "Captain!" he began. But a quick glare from Soi Fon silenced him.

Hisagi was happily surprised. Nothing bad happened to him and he got the girl. Even if that girl was Nemu. He would've liked to have gotten Ōmaeda's wife though. His eyes landed on the strawberry blonde who looked disgusted with the whole story.

"I feel sick," she said to her captain, who merely shrugged bored out of his mind.

"Tsk tsk." said Gin. "Ran-chan, I thought you had better-"

"Captain Ichimaru," Yamamoto began cutting off the silver haired captain. "It is your turn."

"Me?" he asked. He then began to look thoughtful.

Everyone looked warily at the smiling captain and then worried as his trademark smile stretched wider across his face.

His squinted eyes turned to the lieutenant of the fifth division. Momo almost squeaked in fear.

"I got the perfect story."

Aizen sighed warily somehow knowing where this was going.

"My story will be Lil Red Ridin' Hood," His eyes still on the frightened girl. "If Rukia-chan was here I'd let her play the lead, but you're gonna have to do, Momo-chan~"

Her fingers were wrapped tightly in her captain's coat. Almost pulling it off the man. Her brown eyes wide and a little bit fearful. "Me?"

"Ya, ya, It'll be fun."

"Very well, Captain Ichimaru. Please begin." Yamamoto insisted

"Course, course." Ichimaru's gaze now back to the captain's at the table.

A/N

Sorry, Ali Baba not one of my favs. I know it's not very good. Next one should be. After all its the one that that inspired all of this. Thanks to all the readers and reviewers this story is doing so well. I'm shocked really. Big hugs for all of you!