Chapter 4- My New Life

This is it, the first day of my new life. A life where I don't always cling to Ichi-nii, where I don't fear every little thing, where I will do anything to protect the ones I love. I was going to be assisted in my new life by Bara, my Zanpakuto and heart.

My new life started by me waking myself up for once, I dressed in a pink camisole and a black and aqua green skirt that had chains on it. Hanging off of the intersection of the chains was a skull. Karin had picked this outfit out for me a while back but Ichi-nii had said that it wasn't my style so I didn't wear it when I really liked it. Now that I was my own person, I could dress the way I wanted to outside of school. I looked at myself in the mirror and smiled, I looked pretty good. "Indeed you do." I could even hear the smile in Bara's voice when she spoke while I brushed out my hair on my own for once.

The next part of my day was cooking breakfast for my family. I was the oldest woman in the family so it was my job to cook, not my younger sister's. Besides, I need to learn to cook for when I get married because I would very much like to be able to cook for the husband I may have in the future. I found myself blushing at the thought of getting married; I had never even had a boyfriend before. Yuzu came downstairs to prepare breakfast and froze when she saw me. "Are you alright, Sister?" She asked, I nodded over my shoulder at her and continued making pancakes. "Perfectly fine, I just decided that you needed a break from cooking for once." Still my younger sibling stared at me like I was a Hollow. I chuckled to myself at the thought because I really was a type of Hollow, not that Yuzu knew about them or could even see them.

"Take a seat please Yuzu, we shall begin eating when Karin, Ichi-nii and Otousan join us." She nodded mechanically and sat down while keeping her eyes on me. My voice sounded just as emotionless as it had when I was younger, it hadn't changed and I didn't mind for once. I have accepted the fact that no matter how hard I tried to push emotion into my voice, it never worked. "How was your day yesterday, Yuzu-nii?" She blinked at me, "F-fine…I was asked about what happened to the house a few times though." I nodded because I understood what she was saying; people had been talking about it at our school yesterday too. "It was the same with Ichi-nii and I."

The others joined us and also stared at me like I was a Hollow as I finished the sunny side up eggs that I was preparing. "Good morning Karin-nii, Ichi-nii and Otousan. Please take a seat and breakfast shall begin." They nodded and sat just as Yuzu had before. "What's with the sudden change in attitude, Hana?" I smiled at my brother and placed a plate full of pancakes, eggs and toast in front of him. "I just thought that I could use a change of pace, don't you agree?" He nodded in that mechanical way, no doubt concluding that this had something to do with yesterday's incidents.

"Kyaaah! My lovely daughter is becoming a beautiful woman at last!" Otousan hugged me after I placed plates in front of Karin and Yuzu. Yuzu dug in right away but Karin stared at hers warily, "Did you poison it?" I giggled and shook my head. "Of course not! Why would I ever dream of poisoning my family?" "I can think of a few reasons…." She muttered, I giggled again and ruffled her hair. "I just don't want to be the useless little girl anymore." All four in the room blinked up at me.

Flour had managed to smudge its self on my cheek while I was baking and the ruffled apron that I was wearing probably helped to get them this way. "Ohhhh! My lovely Hana is growing into an amazingly beautiful woman!" I blushed a little bit, "Otousan, please…" Ichi-nii slammed his hands down on the table, stood up and pointed and accusing finger at me. "Who the hell are you and what have you done with Hana!?" I blinked but smiled. "I'm Hana; I have done nothing but decided that I needed to grow up in order to accomplish my goals." I expected him to say more but he only hugged me, "I'm glad to hear that, Hana."

So now Ichi-nii knows why I'm speaking and acting the way I am, for the most part. I haven't told him it in full and don't exactly plan on it because for now it is not of his concern. I hugged him back and smiled happily. "I'm happy to be able to say it." Today will be a good day for the most part, I can tell.

Kuchiki-san was reading while Ichi-nii was training, she was reading out loud if I may add. He walked up behind her and scared her simply by yelling, "Hey! What are you doing!?" She screamed in fear and turned angrily. "Y-y-y-y-you fool! Don't surprise me! I'm… Studying modern speech!" Really, she has to study the way we speak today, how odd. "Huh? Studying modern speech? With that book? You're making me train while you and Hana relax and read horror manga and whatever the heck my sister is reading!?" I blushed a bit; I was reading a romance manga. (I made this next thing up so you can look for a manga like this but I won't guarantee that you will find it.) In this story a ghost fell in love with a woman who he thought couldn't see him, he desperately wished to be human so that he could speak to her and tell her his feelings. In the chapter I was on he began transforming into a human after promising to protect the girl's life with his new one as compensation.

I sighed, it was a rather nice thought but it was not likely to happen in reality. I had crushed on a ghost before but nothing happened there as you can tell. "Where did you get that from anyway?" Kuchiki-san looked up with still scared eyes, "… Hm. You done with the training?" I looked up from the page I was on in my manga to see Ichi-nii. "Hitting the 100 pepper-filled balls, right? Yeah I'm done!" I tilted my head and thought carefully about what I was going to say, "Are you sure you've done it correctly?" "Of course! Breaking open 100 pepper-filled balls, what kind of training is that? Plus, where did you get this weird pitching machine…"

"You fool! The pepper-filled balls were only the bad ones!" Then he didn't do very well, I hadn't smelled much pepper. Another thing that I noticed about being a Hollow was that my senses were heightened even when I didn't mean for them to be. "Bad balls?" Ichi-nii asked confused I sighed, "Yes!" Both were silent for a minute. "You didn't… Just hit all of them?" "Yeah perfectly!" He boasted, I sighed again and face palmed, my brother can be a twerp at times. I stood up after marking my page in the book and walked between the two of them sensing that a fight was about to begin.

"Ichi-nii," I started, "You were only supposed to hit the balls with pictures of heads on them. Those were the ones filled with pepper." I explained what I had gotten from Kuchiki-san's explanation of the training to me; I would have to do this same thing after Ichi-nii was finished. "How the hell can I make out which of her pictures are heads and which aren't!?" I sighed and sat down again seeing as my attempt at keeping the two of them from fighting wasn't working at all. "Hana, please distinguish between the head and the other." I stood up again and took the bat from Ichi-nii; I took the head ball from his hand and threw it in the air. I swung and hit it smack dab in the center to where it exploded.

Kuchiki-san smiled and nodded at me. "Hana-chan gets it so why can't you!?" His jaw dropped at me, "I didn't know that you were athletic!" I giggled at my brother and waved my hand at him. "I have been keeping quite a few of my talents hidden for the last few years. But I do believe that you should listen to Kuchiki-san." He turned back to the black-haired girl with a slight pout. "Thank you Hana-chan! Listen Ichigo! A Hollow's weakness is its head!" I flinched the slightest bit, 'Is my weak point my head?' I asked Bara, she chuckled. "Silly girl, you are different than the others, stronger. I do not yet know of your weakness but I am pretty sure that it is not your head."

Seeming not to know about the inner conversation that I was having, Kuchiki-san continued. "If you slice the head, you can defeat it in one blow! This training is so that you can accurately hit the head in any situation!" Kuchiki-san can be pretty passionate in her speeches if she wishes, I like it. "Why do I have to do that? I've been beating them fine so far." I shook my head a bit; he really needed to learn how to listen. "You fool! Have you once defeated a Hollow in one hit!? Sneaking up to a Hollow and defeating it in one hit is the basics of defeating them! Hana seems to get it so why can't you!?" I smiled the slightest bit.

"It's a miracle that you have remained unscathed so far, from the way you've been fighting!" I could feel Kuchiki-san's eyes turn to me, "Perhaps it is because of your sister that you have." I stopped paying attention and went back to my manga, oh Marybeth how I wished I could be you sometimes. Marybeth is the main girl character in the manga that I am reading, by the way. She has no siblings, two parents and a man who loves her deeply even if she does not know of it at the moment. Oh how I envy those that have someone to love them. "What are you saying, Silly girl? There is a man who will love you and you will love him very much." So Silly girl is my nickname to Bara… But what on earth does she mean? "He he, there are hints all around you. In your Hollow form you have two different markings on your face, one is his. I can't tell you any more for now but you'll meet him when the time is right." I sighed irritated, so riddles were her style huh?

"Hello Kurosaki-kun!" I jumped at Hime-chan's yell, though I wasn't the only one who was startled by her. Ichi-nii and Kuchiki-san were as well. "I-… Inoue, eh!? W-w-w-what are you doing here!?" I smiled up at my friend and she finally noticed me. "Oh! Hello Hana-chan!" My smile brightened, "Hello to you as well, Hime-chan." Orihime's eyes widened quite a bit. "Y-you talked! You actually talked!" I nodded happily and hugged her. "Yes I did, I decided that keeping my voice hidden was useless so I would begin talking again." I was hugged back tightly. "I do think you should answer Ichi-nii though." She blinked and nodded. "Eh heh heh. Just doing a little dinner shopping."

I sat back down with my book in my lap; Hime-chan is so bright and happy. She pulled a leek out of her bag and held it out to show Ichi-nii. "I bought onions and butter and bananas and gelatin!" What on earth is she planning on making with all of those ingredients? Oh well, it is Hime-chan and she is herself. "What are you doing here, Kurosaki-kun?" I giggled a little bit; she had to have a crush on Ichi-nii. "Oh? Me? I am- Umm…" Hime-chan noticed Kuchiki-san, "Kuchiki-san?"

"Hm. Who the hell are you?" She deadpanned, Ichi-nii glared over his shoulder at her. "Idiot!" He hissed, "That's Inoue! She's in our class!" I sighed as she went back to the façade that she had used during class and the two curtsied at each other. It was then that both Ichi-nii and I noticed the bandages wrapped around Hime-chan's upper arm. "What's wrong… With your arm? You fall down?" We asked, she pointed at it. "Huh…Oh this? No! I was hit!"

I stood up, ran over to her and pulled her arm up so that I could look at it. "Hi… Hit!? By a car!?" Ichi-nii and I shrieked what the hell was with that!? "Yeah. Last night I went out shopping to get something to drink and bam! I've been getting hit a lot lately." She giggled nervously, I squeezed her hand. "Hime-chan…" "You shouldn't be laughing! That's a serious accident! You should be angrier!" Ichi-nii just didn't get Hime-chan did he? My eyes softened at my friend, "You should be more careful at least."

Emotion had somehow leaked into my voice and it shocked me, how did that happen? "But it's not like they hit me on purpose…" I hugged my friend to show my concern more, "You get hurt often, Inoue-san?" Kuchiki-san asked, Ichi-nii's eyes narrowed, "More than often! It's almost every day!" Hime-chan rubbed the back of her head with her hand, "I zone out a lot- So…" "Then you shouldn't act like it's unavoidable like that!" Kuchiki-san seemed to notice something on Hime-chan's leg so I looked too.

There was a mark on her leg! "That mark on your leg? Can I see it?" She looked down too, "Oh? This? Sure. Go ahead." I moved so that she could see the mark, "I got this last night, too, so I think it must have been when I was hit by the car…" 'Oh Hime-chan…. I wish I could help you with that….' "In time you will be able to. Heart Hollows are notorious for their healing abilities." That thought made me happy, I would be able to help a lot of the people I loved with healing abilities. Hime-chan bent down so she could talk with Kuchiki-san.

"Kuchiki-san… What's with the scary face?" The black haired girl looked up at my friend, "Huh? Oh, no. I was just thinking… It looks painful…" "Wow! You're right!" Hime-chan stood straight again, held out her arm and pointed to the bandaged portion. "My leg hurts much more than my arm!" "AAH!?" I smiled again, I just love my oblivious Hime-chan. "Have you gone numb from the pain!? Go to a doctor!" "Huh? …. Um-m…." She blushed making me smile even more; Hime-chan is just so cute! "Why does that make you blush?" I giggled at Ichi-nii; he could be just as oblivious at times. 'She's blushing because you're showing that you care about her.'

Kuchiki-san seemed to be deep in thought, I was about to ask her what was wrong when Hime-chan cut me off. "Oh! It's this late!" I glanced over to see her looking at her watch before she turned and began running to the stairs. "In a rush?" Ichi-nii and I asked her, "Yeah! Laugh Hour is almost on!" She was halfway up the stairs by now. "You want me to walk you home!?" Ichi-nii called up to her, I flashed a smile at my brother, "Wha… What!? N…no, I'm fine!" Hime-chan called back blushing. "Ok-! See ya tomorrow!" She turned fully to face him with a bright blush, so cute! "Huh? Umm…. Yeah! Tomorrow!" My smile didn't falter as I waved to her, "Bye Hime-chan! See you at school!" "Right! Bye Hana-chan!" And with that, she was gone.

Ichi-nii sighed, "Looking at her wears me out, because you start worrying." I nodded slightly in agreement, "But she's still an amazing person, Ichi-nii." My voice was back to normal now, what was it about Hime-chan that made my voice hold emotion? "That Inoue girl…." Ichi-nii and I both turned to look at Kuchiki-san, "Are you close?" I nodded but he was a different story, "Not really. Well, I guess so. She's been best friends with someone who lives in our neighborhood since 8th grade." "That's how I met her and we just kind of hit it off and became really good friends."

Unlike others who had tried to be friends with me in the past, Hime-chan had never tried to push me to talk, she just accepted me as I was. "Any family?" I looked down as Ichi-nii looked up at the sky, "…. One. She had a much older brother." "Had?" I nodded, "Yeah…. He died 3 years ago." He took over from there, "I was the one who opened the door so I remember it well, it was as we were about to leave for school. The clinic wasn't open, yet I heard the bell ring. A girl was there with her brother on her back." "It was a car accident… There was blood everywhere…" I continued before he took over again. "There was nothing we could do with our equipment." "He died before the ambulance could take him to a big hospital arrived…" "That's it." We finished together, I sighed at the thought and a tear fell from my eye. "Well, I only recently found out that the brown haired girl from that day was her. But why are you asking this, you seem interested in her." Kuchiki-san deadpanned a bit, "Not really, I'm not interested." I shook my head a little bit, 'Then why ask?' Ichi-nii glared at her, "WHA… What the hell is that!?"

Kuchiki-san turned her back to us, "Now! Let's go home too!" She began walking away, I smiled but I had to admit that I was curious as to where she lived. I opened my mouth to ask her but Ichi-nii cut me off, "Oh yeah, where do you always leave to?" 'Well…. That's one way of asking where she lives…. I guess…' She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked over her shoulder. "Heh, what? You're interested in my personal life?" I smiled; Ichi-nii can be pretty foolish at times and often makes it seem as if he's more interested in someone than he really is. It took him a minute but he finally realized what she said. "I… I'm not interested in that!" "Then don't ask." I sighed and placed my hands on my hips.

"You two are acting almost like a married couple, you realize that right?" They rounded on me with a glare so I backed away a little bit before steeling my eyes and my own stance. "DON'T EVEN SAY THAT!" I giggled, "I was just saying. Sometimes friends act like that towards each other, ya know. It was just a joke…" They calmed down a little bit, "You need to work on your sense of humor… Hana…." Despite my having lifted the mood a little bit, Ichi-nii was still angry with Kuchiki-san. "I'm going."

I smiled to myself and decided to try something out of the ordinary for me. After all, isn't that why I decided to change my life? Isn't that part of a new life? I ran up and hugged Kuchiki-san from behind. "Bye-bye, Kuchiki-chan!" She froze before looking over her shoulder at me, "Uh…. B-bye…. Hana-chan…" I let go of her with a nod that went well! Better than I had expected anyway…. "Good job, it's about time you tried something new."

Ichi-nii and I went home; he had just finished taking a bath, after I had gotten out earlier of course. "BROTHER! HANA!" Yuzu opened the door to Ichi-nii's room, "Have you two seen my dress?" He huffed with the towel over his shoulder. "Hey! Don't open without knocking!" "Oh! You two took baths! I wanted to go in, too!" I blinked; did she not realize how bad that could be? "Are you stupid? You're in 5th grade now, learn to go by yourself already."

Yuzu's cheek puffed out, "Brother…. You've become colder since going to high school!" "No I have not! And I don't know about your dress." I walked over to my younger sister and put a hand on her head. "Do you really mean that, Yuzu?" She looked up at me with a slight blush and nodded. "Yes, but you on the other hand, Hana…. You've grown up… You remind me of…." She cut herself off and shook her head before returning to her previous task and remembering what Ichi-nii had said. "WHAT!? I'm also missing a pair of pajamas!" I shook my head and walked over to my brother's side. "I don't know about that, either! Why do you think that we know the answers to everything?"

We were now in Ichi-nii's room, despite my deciding to grow up quite a bit; I still wanted to stay close to my big brother. I had been sketching in one of my many sketch books when we heard it; beep beep beep beep beep. It kept going, we both looked around confused. "What's this?" "At this hour. Yuzu or Karin are playing video games or something?" The sound stopped, "Oh." "It stopped." I shrugged and went back to drawing. "HANA!" I flinched at Bara's yelling voice and the line I was working on went the wrong way. 'You messed up my drawing…' I hadn't noticed that Kuchiki-chan had thrown open Ichi-nii's closet door and was yelling at him.

"Don't worry about the stupid drawing for now! Get off of the bed, NOW!" I nodded and jumped from the bed just as a hand came up through it, a hollow's hand. Kuchiki-chan had separated Ichi-nii's soul from his body but how do I do that without being hit by her? I didn't try to think about it for too long before I yelled out to her. "Kuchiki-chan!" She nodded and pushed my soul from my body as well. "Thank you."

The hollow pulled its self through the wall and roared at the two of us. "GO FOR THE HEAD!" "I KNOW!" I just nodded and pulled Bara out from my heart while Ichi-nii attacked first. My hair was pulled up into a half ponytail on the top of my head by what looked like a piece of skull that had two short horns coming off of it. Where my heart had been was now a full hole and I could feel the two markings engrave themselves on my face. On the right side it felt as if a tear ran down my cheek while on the left it felt as if water had collected on my bottom eyelid and went out slightly from there.

I stood and waited to see what would happen, Ichi-nii had hit the hollow but it didn't seem like it was deep enough to do any real damage but I still waited to make sure. A piece of the mask fell off of the hollow as its head flew back. "He didn't hit it hard enough!" I nodded and went to attack but the hollow had already gone back through the wall. "Damn!" "He got away!" Kuchiki-chan jumped up and began to run, I followed without hesitation. "We're going after it!" "WAIT!"

She stopped so I did as well though I felt as if I should keep going, like someone that was very close to me was in danger. "What's going on? … That was… Inoue's big brother!" My eyes widened, it was Hime-chan's brother?! I looked to Kuchiki-chan for her explanation, "I told you that sneaking up from behind and killing it in one hit was the basics against a hollow, right… That's to protect against being damaged… To kill them in one hit…. And avoid seeing the hollow's identity!" I blinked and stepped back. "It's true Hana… Just as you are a hollow… Others become them… She'll tell you more, listen." My eyes fell to the floor as I nodded to myself.

"Because all hollows…. Are the souls of formerly normal humans!" My teeth clenched, 'Like me….' "I'm sorry to say that you were never normal… You were born a hollow with not even the Soul Society knowing about it…." Bara explained I waited for her to continue, "The only reason that the Soul Society finds out about a heart hollow is that the hollow, unlike others, fights for it… Not against. Though you have a special ability that will make dealing with hollows easy… Well two but that's beside the point."

What do you think? I explained Hana's Soul Reaper/Heart Hollow form in this chapter because I forgot to do it earlier and it gives you more of an idea about who this will be a love story for. Bara told Hana that she has the marking of the hollow who will love her. Also, Hana began calling Rukia Kuchiki-chan instead of Kuchiki-san because she wants to show that they are becoming friends. As to when the person who is involved in this love story shows up…. I'm not entirely sure…. I know that he shows up around episode 100 but since I am going by the manga and getting to know Bleach as I go I am not sure when he will come in. So it may be a while before this turns into a real love story.