Mori: I DEMAND REVIEWS! (lies face down on the floor, unmoving) I'll suffocate. . .

Utsoski!

Haruko scrunched up her eyes and buried her head beneath the covers, refusing to let the sunlight in. She grumbled, already feeling the heat of the day so early in the morning. She inhaled deeply, sighing, and caught a whiff of a scent that was not her own. Surely, even though she'd only slept in her borrowed futon for a day, it would've smelled like her by now from her constant tossing and turning. She froze in place, trying hard to remember the events of last night. She remembered running into Ikkaku because she couldn't sleep from a nightmare. She remembered trying sake for the first time. She pondered a bit more. She definitely didn't remember being drunk, or even drinking more than the one gulp she'd tried. So what happened?

"Rise and shine, kid," She felt Ikkaku shake her awake with his foot, instead of kicking her, "C'mon, it's going to get late,"

Haruko was half across the room before he could start another sentence. She was sitting, back to the wall and arms spread out against it, "What the hell's going on?!" She nearly shouted at him, "Why am I in your room?" She looked at him, almost horrified. He had his standard shinigami uniform on already, but a slightly damp towel rested upon his shoulders, telling her of his recent bath.

"Ch," He rubbed his neck with the towel a little more and threw it in a corner of the room somewhere, "You fell asleep on me. I didn't know which room you were stayin' in so I let ya sleep in mine for the night. And, no," He answered before she could think to ask him, "I didn't sleep in the same futon as you,"

"U-un," She nodded and stood up, "Thanks. Sorry for falling asleep though," She averted her eyes to the side.

"Don't worry about it," He shrugged, "It happens," He quickly changed the subject, "So where are ya headed today? I mean you're going to take a look around seireitei right?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I think I'll go down to squad four first,"

Ikkaku froze as he was picking up a few pieces of clothing that'd been tossed around. His back was towards her, so she could not read the horrified expression on his face. He turned his head ever so slightly to her, still not allowing her to read his expression, "Why would you pick that one first?"

She swallowed a nervous lump in her throat, "Just thought it'd be the easiest to start with," She lied, "Why?"

He visibly shook his head from any thoughts, "Nothin'," He resumed picking up the clothes and threw them in a hamper. He hated doing so, but old habits died hard. Of course it wouldn't have become a habit in the first place if it weren't for a certain someone, "Just curious," He turned to her, a smirk spread out across his lips, "Not exactly squad eleven's favorite team," He walked up to her and lead her by the shoulders to the door leading out of his room and into the building hallways, "Now, hurry up and get moving before most of the other members wake up. Don't want them giving you looks do you?"

She chuckled, "Yeah. You're right," She stepped out into the hallway and bowed her head lightly in respect, "Thanks again,"

"Right. Right," He waved her off and closed the door as soon as she was out of his sights. He sighed heavily and continued to waltz around his room, picking up random dirty clothes and throwing them in the hamper. He hated the habit that he'd picked up from Kiyoko, but he had to admit that it did give him a bit of thinking time. Was it rotten luck, fate, coincidence, that she just happened to pick squad four first? It couldn't have been…but there was still a possibility that she didn't know anything. After all, Yachiru was watching her before they arrived, right? The pink-haired vice captain was a complete goof off and slacked in almost all of her duties, but even she knew when something this important was at stake, right? Surely she didn't let Haruko near vital information about her mother's past.

He threw hakama pants in the basket angrily.

Maybe she didn't have to. Maybe Haruko already knew something without even having to ask around or having other people tell her. Did Kiyoko tell her anything about her days as a shinigami? Haruko never talked about such things and no one, so far, has been able to pry it out of her. It was irritating him, and making him even more worried by the second. He no longer picked up clothes, for there was none left, and simply paced around his room and grit his teeth in frustration. He stopped suddenly as a thought crossed his mind, seemingly out of nowhere. He relaxed and sighed with a bit of relief. Perhaps Unohana-taichou had warned her squad already.

…Hibana…

"Ohayo," Haruko removed her sandals at the entrance of squad four and greeted the first person she saw walking by. The woman in a nurse-looking uniform stop and greeted her back politely, "Ano…Is Yamada-san available right now?"

"Yamada-san?" The woman placed her index finger on her chin in thought and averted her eyes to the ceiling, "…Ah! Hai, the boy with a gopher-like aura to him, right?"

Haruko sweat dropped at the woman's description, but she guessed that was close enough, "H-hai,"

"Alright, please wait here. I'll be back in a flash,"

Haruko nodded and waited. She watched curiously as a black swallow tail butterfly floated past her and fluttered down the hall. She blinked in curiosity, wondering what such a butterfly could possibly be doing within squad four. For a moment, her instinct told her to follow the butterfly, but she quickly shook her head free of such thoughts. She waited patiently. How long did it take to fetch a guy? She sighed inwardly and allowed her posture to slouch a bit as she leaned on one foot and crossed her arms. Her thoughts drifted towards Hanatarou. How much did he know about her mother? Did he know anything about her father? Or perhaps another lost member of her family? What was he about to say before Yachiru had bit him? She shifted feet impatiently. She needed to know and now. Her eyes cast downward at the clean hardwood floors and narrowed dangerously at the thought of her mother. Her mother had indeed been a wonderful person, but she almost hated remembering. At times, Haruko wished to just forget about everything and just live her life out however it happened to go. She closed her eyes in annoyance and grit her teeth. He really was taking too long.

"Ah, Madarame-san!" She heard his boyish voice from down the hall and gradually get closer with each syllable, "I'm sorry for making you wait so long!" He stopped in front of her and bowed deeply in apology, "My captain wanted to see me for a moment,"

"That's fine," She shrugged it off and unfolded her arms, "Mind if I ask you a couple of things?"

He looked at her, studying, weighing his options, "I suppose,"

()()()()

Haruko stormed through the maze that was seireitei, angry and frustrated. Hanatarou was no help to her at all. Everything was always 'I don't recall' or 'I wouldn't know about something like that'. She grit her teeth in tremendous frustration. He definitely knew something; he was just hiding it from her.

Throughout the rest of her day, Haruko attempted to go around to different squads, doing what she was supposed to be doing in the first place. But when someone gave her an awkward look or if she heard whispers about her, she immediately began to question them about Kiyoko. They, of course, would quickly deny it and cower away, making Haruko bite the inside of her lip in frustration. She was just about ready to start pulling out her hair, when a white haired captain walked by. His eyes lit up instantly at the sight of her, making Haruko raise and eyebrow at him curiously. Before she could even blink, he was by her side, annoying her with chitter-chatter and loads of candy. He claimed her 'the most adorable thing he's ever seen' as he walked off with a huge grin on his face. Haruko's eye twitched in annoyance at both the captain and the superfluous amount of candy in her arms. She sighed and figured she'd better make her way back to the eleventh division.

As soon as she stepped into the eleventh division, plenty of stares were directed towards her. Her face went red with embarrassment. Thankfully Yachiru bounced up to her happily, asking her about the candy and where she got all of it. When Yachiru finally paused long enough to let Haruko get a word in, Haruko spoke up.

"Yachiru, do you want this candy?" Haruko was definitely not in a good mood. She'd spent about an hour trying to interrogate Hanatarou, about another ten minutes trying to find her way to the next squad over in the hot sun, and bombarded by the thirteenth captain with an enormous amount of sweets. Then, because she didn't want to carry sweets everywhere she went, she had to walk all the way back to the eleventh squad in the hot sun. Haruko really hated the fact that it was hot and that they had no grass and shady trees within the walls of seireitei.

Yachiru's eyes lit up like a kid's eyes on Christmas morning, "Really?! I can have some?!"

"No," Yachiru stopped jumping up and down suddenly. Haruko held out her arm full of candy and let it all fall in a pile on top of the little girl, "You can have all of it,"

Yachiru's head popped out of the pile, "YAAAAAAY!!" She exclaimed loudly and began to munch on the candy without even removing excess items (such as wrapping or boxes). Haruko would've sweat dropped at the vice captain, had she not been so irritated.

"Heh, which captain gave you those?" Haruko looked at the source of the voice beside her. Ikkaku wore a big smirky-grin on his face.

"The one with long, white hair," She clenched her fist in front of her, a vein popping out.

He held back a laugh, "That's captain Ukitake. He's head of the thirteenth squad division," He folded his arms and got slightly serious, "So, how'd the fourth squad go? Did you even get to another squad yet? It's already after noon,"

Haruko sighed heavily, a dark aura filling the air around her, "Went to fourth squad. Got lost. It's fucking hot. I think I've had enough for today," Ikkaku smirked, "I'm going to take a bath,"

Ikkaku's internal alarm went off, "Eh?! W-wait! This squad is entirely made up of men. So naturally…the bath is…for men,"

She shrugged and continued to walk away.

()()()()

Haruko stood in the doorway of the public men's bath of the eleventh division. Every head turned to stare at her, stopping what they were previously doing. Her white bath kimono hung loosely around her petite frame. Her facial expression spelled out death for them. Most of the men knew better and chose to look away. Several others, however, didn't and walked up to her, cocky and stark naked. She resisted the urge to flinch at their dental hygiene and directed her glare towards the few that chose to surround her.

"Hey there. A little lost aren't we? Or maybe you're just lookin' for a bit of…fun," He placed a hand on her shoulder. Haruko quickly reacted by grabbing his arm, flipping him over, and throwing him down on the floor. He lie there, unconscious and drooling.

Another thought he'd get close, stubbornly, "C'mon, babe, we just wanna play with ya a little," He grabbed her bottom and squeezed it roughly.

The rest of the men watched in horror as they witnessed their commerade being beaten to a bloody pulp and thrown roughly out of the bath area, swearing they heard bones cracking. Haruko turned her attention back to the rest of them and glared harshly, "Out. Now," Her voice was filled with venom as she commanded them to get out. Each one scrambled to get their towels and wrap it around their waist as they stumbled out of the room in a hurry. Haruko smirked in satisfaction to herself.

Meanwhile…

Ikkaku stood just down the hallway from the men's bathing area. Although the men where headed in the opposite direction, they paused, feeling his familiar reiratsu skyrocket. They, in unison, slowly turned their heads around to see the demon that was Ikkaku. He stood partly in the shadows, seemingly red eyes glaring at them. They began to sweat profusely out of nervousness. He took a heavy step forward, causing them to flinch.

"So," He took another heavy step, earning pitiful whimpers from some of them, "You thought that just 'cause I wasn't around, that maybe you'd make a move on her," They didn't dare run. Not only because they were too afraid to move, but because they knew Ikkaku would be able to hunt each one of them down and hand it to them twice as bad as he had originally planned. He cracked his knuckles, "Let me make it clear about how serious I am," He advanced slowly with intimidation.

Back in the bath…

Haruko sighed with content as the hot water relaxed her muscles. She leaned back against the edge and let her elbows touch and lean against the cold surface of the edge.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

Her eyes opened lazily as she looked at the doorway. Shadows danced across the rice paper. Screams of 'please forgive us!' and 'we'll never do it again!' made her smirk like crazy. She continued to watch the shadows dance and fall over and over, until her mood lifted. She smiled happily and continued with her bath.

Don't Touch That!

Haruko walked down the hallway, her bath robe secured tightly, in bliss. It'd been a while since she enjoyed a bath all to herself. She kept a towel around her neck, lazily drying her hair. She heard another set of footsteps approaching and tensed slightly.

"Ah, Haruko-chan," Yumichika's voice made itself clear to her and she relaxed. Haruko's judge of character was usually pretty good. She knew Yumichika wasn't like the lower seated men from squad eleven, "Did you enjoy your bath?" He smiled at her innocent beauty.

She looked up to him and smiled brightly, nodding her head vigorously, "Un! It's been a while since I've had a bath to myself. I enjoyed it,"

"That's good to hear," He walked with her down the hall, "There's still a bit of time left to review one of the neighboring squads, are you sure you want to quit for the day?"

"Yeah," She stuck out her bottom lip in a sort of pout gesture, "As irritating as this whole thing is, I kinda like it here. It's not all full of chatty and gossiping women all over the place," He chuckled at her, "What? I'm serious! Those women are all so bored that they start a rumor from nearly anything! Someone could be talking about their fantasy dream with another man and next thing you she's sneaking out to meet said man, apparently," She shook her head at the ridiculous thought.

"I see. Seems pretty boring,"

"Very," She stopped at her shared room with Yachiru (who was currently off pestering some poor soul), "If you don't mind, I kinda need to get dressed," She bowed her head lightly and retreated to the room.

Yumichika waved as she closed the door, but his smile quickly faded as soon as she closed the door. He walked away calmly, noting the clear footsteps behind him, "Hm," He smiled to himself as he stopped in front of the small pond that was in the eleventh division, "If you're going to stalk me, you could at least hide your presence a little better, Ikkaku,"

"Ch,"

"Did you want something?"

"Looks like she's pretty comfortable with you," His voice was emotionless.

"It would seem so," He knew that voice. It was the tone of voice he used when he wanted to hide his discomfort or pain, "What would be your point?"

"Mind doing me a favor?" Yumichika turned his head to the side, glancing back at his friend in curiosity, "Find out how much she knows about Kiyoko,"

There was a long pause, a long moment of silence. The bamboo shoot in the pond filled the tip with water and poured out the water once it got too full, making a sort of hollow clanking sound.

Yumichika's bangs covered his eyes, "Seems a bit sneaky don't you think?"

"Yeah," Ikkaku's voice was quiet, "I thought so too…but I need to know this. I need to know how much she's been told before I start runnin' my mouth off,"

"Oh? Does that mean you plan to tell her yourself? About who you are to her?"

"No," He answered a bit too quickly, "At least…not now anyway,"

Yumichika sighed heavily, "I'm not promising anything,"

"Thanks,"

Jodanda janai yo!

"Ah, Ikkaku-san!" Haruko ran into Ikkaku yet again on the outside hallway, relaxing and drinking sake while watching the sun recede, "Evening!" She said brightly before plopping herself down next to him.

He glanced curiously at her and continued sipping his sake, "You seem happy,"

"That's 'cause I had a bath to myself for once!" She smiled brightly.

"Heh, I take it you never get some alone time,"

She kept her smile, but her voice was slightly bitter, "You have no idea,"

He chuckled at her and held up an empty cup, "Wanna go for some more sake?" He asked teasingly.

She glared playfully and gently pushed his hand away, "No thanks. I've learned my lesson,"

The smirk on his face grew and he placed the empty cup back in the tray along with his own. His expression grew more serious without her noticing. Haruko happily swung her legs back and forth over the edge of the hall. He hated to bring up a difficult subject when she was so content at the moment, but he needed to know. He wanted Yumichika to do as little as possible for him, because even he hated the idea of sneaking around her for information, "Hey, kid,"

"Hm?" Haruko recognized the uneasiness in his voice, but chose to push it aside.

"What do you remember about…your mom," He nearly choked out the words. He found it difficult to think of Kiyoko as a mother, then again she always had a bit of a motherly streak to her at times. Gentle and caring, always calm…or at least most of the time.

She stopped swinging her legs and, refusing to look at him, in a serious tone replied, "Why do you ask?"

He shrugged and folded his hands in the sleeves of his haori, "Just curious I guess. I heard she was a shinigami," He stiffened at his own words, not sure if Haruko already knew this much or not. If she didn't, she showed no expression of surprise.

"I see," Her hands gripped the edge of the laminate wood harshly, "So you knew?"

Ikkaku was the one to be surprised, "What do you mean? Of course I knew! She-" He took a deep breath and calmed himself down, "She used to be here. Working with all of us,"

Haruko turned her entire torso to look at him sharply, "You're lying," He looked back at her, unblinking and unmoving.

At first Ikkaku was a bit disappointed that she didn't come out with Kiyoko's eyes, but now, as he stared her down, he was glad. If they had been Kiyoko's eyes, he wasn't sure he'd be able to hold his gaze towards her, or possibly even look at her entirely. A thought crossed his mind quickly, still continuing to stare at her. Had Kiyoko ever looked in her eyes and wondered about him? They were his eyes after all…

Haruko realized he wasn't lying. Her eyes grew wide for a second, but quickly regained their composure, "If that's true then…then why does everyone turn away when I ask them something about her? Everyone acts like they don't know who I'm talking about!"

"It's an old wound," He raised his voice a little to get her to stop shouting. There was a short pause. Even the crickets nearby seemed to stop for their sake, "Everyone likes to avoid it because it's an old wound they don't want to reopen. They all really liked her. Hell. Everyone loved her," He closed his eyes and smirked, "She was always kind to everyone no matter the circumstance,"

Haruko looked at him curiously, "If you're telling me the truth, then why don't you have a hard time talking about it?"

Ikkaku sighed heavily, slowly, "I do. But the wound's still open anyway. Might as well,"

"I see," She lied down on her stomach, looking up at him. She leaned her head on the palm of her hands as her elbows bent to hold her head up, "How'd you know my mom? Who were you to her?" She began her interrogation.

Ikkaku's eye twitched, "A really good friend,"

"Hmmm," She looked at him curiously, "How'd-"

"Look, kid, it's dinner time," He got up and began to walk away, "C'mon. Lets go before all the good food is gone,"

Haruko pouted and followed him. She knew what she wanted. She was definitely going to get what she wanted.

SCHEAMING! :D

Mori: Sorry, guys! I had a lot of writers block in this chapter, so I couldn't get it out to you sooner (sad face) Also for there no being action scenes in this one xD It'll get much more interesting next chapter I promise!

One more thing! I start school on Tuesday! (hysterically cries) GAWDS! I hate school…Hopefully I can keep my grades up.

Well anyhow, thanks for reading! Please review while you wait for the next chapter! LOVE YOU ALL LOTS