Life Sucks

"Yourichi-sama!" I said happily.

The cat stepped out of the shadows of the forest, "My, my, look who's in shambles? The princess of fire getting banged by the prince of ice, now I wonder what your kids will look like," She laughed.

I ignored her comment and smiled, "Did you come to take me back to the settlement?"

Her yellow eyes seemed to taunt me as she opened her whisker covered mouth and waited to reply; she closed her mouth and sat on the ground, swishing her tail from left to right.

Again I asked, "Are you?"

She chuckled slightly and replied, "I am here to observe."

My eyes widened, "No way, no way you can't-"

"Hey girl! Can I use your cow suit to as material for a shelter or something. I wanted to ask beca-"

Toshiro walked up behind me and I whirled around.

"Hey, where you talking to someone-"

"Toshiro get out of here!" I push him away toward the lake and I heard Yourichi laugh.

I stopped and glared back at her, Toshiro glanced around and asked, "Did I you hear something. Karin? Karin are you listening-"

"I thought he'd lost his memory! I came here to be sure before we came a rescued you,"

"You mean?" Karin began.

"Yes, we're getting you out of here."

Toshiro spun in circles, "Who's there? Am I hearing things?"

I grabbed his arm and he stopped.

I took a deep breath and smiled, "This is our..Well my savior, Yourichi!"

I fold my hands out in Yourichi's direction.

"Where?" He asks.

I sigh, right, he doesn't know, "The cat,"

And here it comes..He replies, "The cat, you're retarded that's just a-"

"That's right. I'm right down here," Yourichi says.

Toshiro stares down at the black cat with wide eyes and walks over to a tree calmly. Then he begins banging his head against a tree.

"Why is my life like this?" He asked.

Yourichi and I stared at him for a bit before I turned to her and asked, "So can we go now?"

"What do you mean? Hitsugaya-kun hasn't gathered his things yet."

It took a second to hit me but when it does I feel like screaming. Do they intend to let him back in our settlement after he did?! Do they remember? Do they understand what happened?! I want to leave him here. So why not?

"You can't be serious!" I say.

"Well did you expect the council to just ignore the sudden appearance of the former Ice Mage Prodigy? It's even better when his memories are erased because now they can start over and train him from the beginning! He'd never have to know about what he did and we can get a skilled Mage back in our settlement!"

I argued, "But we can't erase what happened! It's just unfair to-"

"Don't let your personal feelings on the matter cloud this issue. This a brilliant opportunity to gain support to defeat the enemy! We need him, and you know it!" Yourichi told me.

I looked away, "I know...He's always needed,"

Toshiro's POV

Ok so I know that there's something wrong with a talking cat, but your brain, like mine, will melt away after you hear this. Alright, so we're in the forest right, the girl, the cat, and I, and the girl and the cat start talking; the girl yells at the cat and the cat calms her down, they mumbled something and them it's like Poof! The second she drags me out of the forest the road is there! And on the road where 2 saddled horses.

I stood in awe before the repaired road as the girl snapped her fingers in my face, "Hey, we have to get going soon,"

"Right," I say as we make our way over to the horses.

The girl...Karin immediately trots up to the palomino horse and strokes his forelock. She grabs its reigns and lodges one foot into the stirrup of the saddle and lifting herself up.

"What are you waiting for? Get on," She says, preparing the horse by steering it slightly from let to right.

I stare at the saddle and tilt my head slightly, peering over the black horse's figure. Then I turn to the girl and say, "You expect a city boy to know how to ride a horse?"

She almost fell off her horse when she heard me say this and when she regained her footing she yelled, "You used to beat me at horse races! Stupid! You know how to ride a horse! And you're NOT a city boy!"

The black cat jump up on the saddle and then on the girl's shoulder. It swished its tail and made it's self comfortable on her. While this was happening the girl nagged, "Don't get on the saddle yet! You haven't even-Ah!"

She jumped off her horse and sent the cat flying to the ground. It landed on it's feet quite ungracefully and glared at her, "Sorry!" She said.

She shot me a look and snapped, "Look, before you ride a horse be sure acknowledge its presence and thank them for the free ride. Stroking their head is a way I do that."

"But it's just a horse, it won't understa-"

She shook her head and put her finger to her lips, "This horses are different," She whispered through gritted teeth.

Oh great...Don't tell me there.

"No no, please go one, I'd like to know what he has to say about us." And sure enough they talked, just like the cat does. Ok, this one what a little bit more expected so I had time to prepare. I still flipped out though and I said, "the-there the same as the cat!"

"Well not really, Yourichi is just mascaraing as a cat now whereas this is these horses' true forms. They- all horses are granted speech when they are 2 and sent to the academy where everyone gets a horse to cast the gift of speech spell on them. Of course, the academy no longer stands so..These are the last of the surviving experiments, the horses, I mean...."

I kinda didn't want to think about what she was saying but she managed to show me how to get on the saddle. I saw, from the corner of my eye, the cat moving deviously underneath the girl's horse. It used its claw to cut away the buckle on the saddle. And as the girl was walking away I said, "Wait a sec, the buckle thingy-"

"Oh don't worry about that, it won't come undone unless you mess with it so-"

She got on the horse and upon getting on the saddle she swayed left as she and the saddle fell. She snarled at the cat who was chuckling happily.

"Fine then!" She said, "I'll ride without it!"

She removed the reigns from the horse's mouth and grabbed the top of its neck, she jump up on the horse and gazed back at me, "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be..." I held onto the reigns and gripped them in my hands, I suppose this was like driving a car except it's alive..You have to be more considerate and since these things can talk you can perhaps just tell them where you want to go..Either way, I just couldn't stop cursing my life. I hate world. And I still and probably always will hate my worthless, stupid self for not leaving the girl when I had a chance.

Karin's POV

With little difficulty we made it to the waterfall. Behind which was the entrance to the settlement. It'd been an hour since we left the forest and Toshiro fell over on his horse and fell asleep. I suppose the "city boy" the government raised couldn't handle the fast pace life of one of us.

The waterfall, of course, was part of a river, it was naturally made that way and behind it stone wall. Only with the seal of a member can you get it and only with one can you get out. The seal is a ring given to anyone born or in the settlement. You just punch the wall with the insignia of the ring and the cave tunnels that lead to the settlement will appear.

We made it up behind the waterfall and carefully I lead my horse, then Toshiro's behind it through the slippery surface of the in-between region of the water falling and the rock wall. I counted the rocks, 5 to the left, 8 down, and 1 right...There! I made sure I hand my insignia pointed right by twist my ring from left to right. I then gave the wall a good whack, one that gave my hand a bit of a hard time. The fake wall was dissolved and the horses and all where let through to the caves.

Beyond the cave tunnels was the underground settlement. The small trading market, the gathering center, and housing. Above where tunnels that led to the surface of the top of the waterfall, 100 acres cleared in a circle and surrounded by thick forest, the training area. Another 5 miles away is another 10 acres cleared in the forest for the horses to live. There is also a tunnel that leads to this.

And because we cannot risk being discovered everything looks as natural as possible, horses cannot speak in the pastures, the training center will be repaired, healed, and all equipment will be taken in after use, and of course, no buildings above ground are allowed. Thus, we all live beneath the ground.

The sun no longer cradled Toshiro in warmth and he stirred in the cold darkness of the cave. He woke up and blinked a few times, "We're in a cave..." He says subconsciously.

"Gee, you think?" I say.

He props himself up and finds he's on a horse so when he yawns and leans back, he tips off the horses back and lands on the ground. I laugh hilariously and turn forward, focusing on the navigation of the trip. I ask my horse, "You tired?"

He grunts, "Not on your life."

I look left a right and decide this is the place. I hop down to take a short break and again, when Toshiro gets off his horse, he falls.

I laugh at him again as Yourichi hops of my shoulder. I watch as her brings his hand up to stroke the back of his head, he probably bumped it- His arm...The one I shot...It's...Healed..

And for some reason I remember when I had gotten my tests for healing ability done:

"Daddy, why is it Yuzu and me have to get cut?" My young self asked my father.

"Because the doctors need to know how fast your boo-boos heal up."

I couldn't comprehend why they'd hurt Yuzu and I for such a trivial reason but it wasn't until later that I figured out that little cut on our finger was to test our regeneration ability. Some are like normal people, and some are like Toshiro- near immortal in the fact they can heal themselves in just one breath if they focus on relieving the pain. Of course, Toshiro didn't even know how to do that and yet he healed as fast as I do when I concentrate, naturally.

I walked over to him and ripped off the bandage on his arm. He looked at it once, then twice, "Whoa! It's healed! Look at it! Look!"

"Now who's the child?" I chuckle.

Toshiro's POV

We traveled underground for awhile and while we rode the girl told me all about the settlement. The way it was made, the rules, and the people. She also warned me to keep away from certain people who give me a look because they most likely know what I did. What I did meaning the action I must have committed before loosing my memory that caused this girl to try and kill me.

I kinda wonder what I did but I don't want to know because it might turn out like in the movie or books where they get that major memory and everything unfolds and they become the same psycho as before...Anyways I just wanna stay myself and not fade into some other person I was...If that makes any sense...Cause it barely does to me..

We make it through the tunnel where beyond I can see fire light. When we reach the end of the final tunnel it seems as though There's another world beneath the ground. The settlement was not a muddy, shrouded is darkness place like I thought, but a city like any other. Instead of the muddy facades of a muddy dome, there was the night sky staring down of us. I know this is just some sort of spell because when it ends, crystals begin. Everywhere green crystals pop up in the town and they seem to glow in order to light the town.

The buildings are squished together in the center and there's a huge space in the middle with a fountain. On the outskirts of the tall buildings where spaced out houses. They where moderately old and in the style of the 70s. And beyond the huge space was what I suppose was the town hall, beyond that, many tunnels that led to other places.

The girl led us down the steep hill that led to the town. And finally, as we drew closer, I could see people, a ton! And I knew what this was; a marketplace. Shops where set up everywhere with vendors calling out to people. Women and their children where buying food and in the streets where people snapping up fire like the girl did.

As we passed a vendor he was yelling, "Finest training potions in the settlement! Guaranteed to enhance your training abilities ten fold!" The man snapped his fingers and brought up fire, "See? With this potion you can use elemental techniques-"

His voice could not longer reach my ears as we pressed onward. As the girl had said, some people glared at me And I didn't know if it was because I was an unknown guy with no shirt on prancing into their neighborhood or if they where people that remembered what I had done. Either way I got shot nasty looks.

"What is a princess doing with a man like that?"

"Is the boy important?"

"Why is the princess stripped of her clothing?"

"Is he from the outside?"

I heard people say as I passed by.

"What's this about you being a princess?" I asked the girl.

"It's just what they dubbed me because of my skill level with fire. My full title is Princess of fire meaning I'm the princess of my element. Each time an old princess dies a new one is elected. I am the second princess of fire and the princess of ice was Rukia. There are princes too but I'd rather not talk about them.."

"But didn't you say you where a priestess?" I questioned.

"Well that's a different story.." She said blowing the topic off. I suppose there was something sensitive in that she didn't want to talk about.

The cat on the girl's shoulder stands up and moves to the top of the horse's head. Everyone that witnesses the cat clears away at it's sight. The cat turns back and says, "We're heading for town hall,"

the girl nods and says, "What do they plan to do with him?"

Is that "him" meaning me?

"We'll see when we get there." The cat says.

"I hope they punish him for what he's done." She mumbles through gritted teeth and then she slaps her reigns down on the horse and we break off into a gallop down the streets which where now stripped of life, all who had seen the cat fled.

When we made it to the building beyond the fountain the girl handed her horse off to a guard and told me to do the same. With some difficulty I got down off the horse and gave it to another guy and as the grand wooden doors opened, the girl brushed off some of the dirt on the t-shirt she was wear(as it'd help, she was filthy and as I said before, in a t-shirt) if she was going to meet leader's she'd have to looker her best, I suppose.

As we walked through the doors I found all off the ground covered in marble tile and the inside of the town hall looking more like the inner of a palace. Everything was cloaked in velvet and white. Large red drapes to cover the tall windows, antebellum style couches and chairs and a white staircase made of cherry wood. A grand chandelier was above the whole scene, sparkling faintly.

"Welcome home!" I heard a sweet voice yell happily.

And out from a hall to the left of the staircase came a girl with short, light brown hair, who ran up to the girl and hugged her tightly.

"Hey, sis, been awhile," the girl said, stroking her hair.

I found the girl with the light brown hair was crying when she looked up from hugging her. She stuttered, "I heard you got blind sided by the enemy and...You got injured and....I was so worried about you!"

She hugged her again and then looked up to see me looking at their little moment, She looked at me with wide eyes and then she stepped back and examined the girl.

"Why are you in a shirt, sis? And why does this guy have no shirt on- Oh! Is he your boyfriend?"

The girl blushed and stuttered, "N-no! This is-....A friend of mine..." She looked away and glared at me, saying, follow my lead.

"Ah...Yeah, she's my friend..." I say.

"Really? Then why is it she's naked except for that shirt and your shirt is what's covering her up?" The girl's sister asked.

"Umm..." I begin, "He can't be my boyfriend because he's umm..He's gay!" the girl says.

"What?" I ask.

"Ah yeah, he's homo, right?"

She glares at me and right as I'm about to say 'no I'm not' she jabs my stomach with her elbow and I mumble, "Yeah, I'm gay," as convincingly as I can, leaning over and gripping my stomach.

The cat dismisses the girl's sister and we wait for a bit before these weird old guys come out...One with blond hair...One with a weird goat-face looking haircut...And then next to them was this young dude with orange hair. Did he dye it?

"Dad!" The girl says. But as she runs up to him he shakes is head and she steps back and takes a bow, "My apologize, commander, I could not retrieve Kuchiki but I have brought Hitsugaya here. You must forgive me for being late, however, it is of not fault of my own-"

"I understand, Princess. That was a set up by Ichigo in order to insure Hitsugaya was safe to bring back to the settlement,"

"So it was you!" She says looking up but then back down.

Wait a sec? Did she just call him dad? And why am I some type of item?

"We have decided to reward you for your admirable actions. You will be given one final task before becoming vice-Roy of the settlement's warfare. And after the task is done you will receive the said position which you so desired."

She looked up happily as if she'd forgotten everything about the forest incident and before bursting out she nodded and said, "Thank you,"

"And as for you, Hitsugaya. Despite having your memories erased we of the settlement's warfare instructors have found it would be more beneficial to punish you rather than kill you."

Gee, thanks. I think. I've been decided more useful alive than dead. That was a hard decision.

"Since we where originally planning to have Rukia Kuchiki be our spy. We have decided your punishment be going back to your district and reporting back to us all information on their and the government's weaknesses. At no point in time will you apprehend sending us any information, if you are discovered doing you, you will be killed. And also we will train you to re-attain your powers which you had lost; you trainer will be our general, Kisuke Urahara." He explains, the man with the blond hair bows slightly.

"Completing this mission will earn you your old title as Prince of Ice and be awarded the insignia ring of the settlement."

I sigh, I guess I'm being forced into doing this then..

"And Princess of fire, your final task is to travel with Hitsugaya and do as you did in the outside world; disguise yourself as a citizen and watch Hitsugaya's move. You will eliminate him if necessary. Death is not preferred of him, but if it is vital, you have the right. Accepting this is your choice and if you do you will be granted Vice-Roy."

She looked up, her eyes wide and she shook her head. "I...I can't put up with him he-"

"Remember, Karin, do not let person matters cloud your judgment." The cat said to her.

Karin sighed and said, "I accept the task with honor and grace and vow to complete it to the best of my ability if that mean death then so be it. For the honor of Karakura and the resurrection of the new world to come." She recited this like a robot.

And gloomily she walked turned around for the doors, "Karin, you need to change and don't forget to give your dad a hug," The man said.

She turned around and walked upstairs, "You don't deserve to be hugged. Try not to ask for one after you just destroy the one good thing in someone's life!" She opened the door to a room and slammed it behind her.

The black cat walked over to the man with blond hair and sat on the ground, "It's been that girl's dream, becoming the vice-Roy and her task is so simple, yet so very hard..."

"Why is that?" I whispered.

And then I saw the man as well as the other guy with the orange hair staring at me.

"If I had it my way I'd kill you on the spot," The orange-hair guy growled.

"We cannot penalize those who are unaware of their crimes." The guy with a goat-face hair cut said.

And that's when I know whatever I did before I lost my memory was horrible and that is why everyone was doing what the did. And now it doesn't really seem like I'm being punished, more of paying off a debt, and for some reason I thought I needed to, even though I didn't know what I did.

Author's Notes:

Again, I was hoping to put more humor in it, but I just spit it out of my mind like this and I'm hoping next week will be more humorous..But we'll see.

Reviewers to thank:

Sorry, ya'll my computer isn't picking up the reviews page...If you're a reviewer, you know who you are and thank you! SOO much! Sorry for the inconvenience of this and I'll be sure to double thank you all next week!

Love ya,

~*RukiaRocks*~