September

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

21st of September


She was never certain why this place, this house had made such a strong impression on her. It was not like she had any fond memories attached to it. The first time she saw the house was when she had been brought here as a companion for Nanao by Captain Kyoraku, who had been lent the use of the house by Ukitake. It was almost a century ago now. She had been in the Gotei 13 but five years when it was shaken to it's very core by treachery. Overnight the Gotei 13 had lost six captains and three vice-captains. Amongst the vice-captains had been one Yadōmaru Lisa, Captain Kyoraku's lieutenant. There were also rumors that they had been lovers but Rangiku, who had been but a child back then didn't know the truth of the matter, nor had she cared. All she knew was that the loss of Lisa had hit both Captain Kyoraku and Nanao, who looked upto Lisa almost like an older sister, hard. Kyoraku had come here to deal with it. He brought Nanao along so that she could deal with her grief away from Seireitei and all it's troubles as well. Rangiku came as Nanao's friend, as a shoulder to cry on because Captain Kyoraku was neither able nor willing to be a comforter of another. Captain Kyoraku had dealt or not dealt with his feelings by drinking himself stupid, day and night. Nanao had cried and reminisced, sitting with Rangiku in the garden everyday she would talk about how Lisa had taken her under her wing when Nanao had first joined squad eight. How Lisa would read with her on the first of every month. It had been far from good times and both Nanao and Rangiku would go to bed every night emotionally drained.

However, the simple house with its garden full of flower and fruit trees, including persimmon, had left their mark on Rangiku's memory. Whenever she thought of the future, of what she would do if she lived long enough to actually be able to retire from the Gotei 13, she saw herself living in that house. When she found out she was pregnant, she saw herself raising her child at least part of the time in that house. Even after she lost the baby, the dreams persisted and there was the house. So it was that when she awoke once again from that wonderful dream of her dancing in the garden of this house, with her son as her only audience, that ended in the nightmare of suddenly finding herself holding a lump of meat and blood and Gin driving Shinsou through her heart, she decided that she would do something about having a more concrete future. So she had found herself in squad thirteen, asking, no, begging Ukitake to sell her that house. Ukitake was surprised but complied, even setting a fairly modest price.

Rangiku had immediately emptied her savings and arranged for the sale of some of her more expensive kimonos. The kimono dealer must have sensed her desperation because he had fleeced her. She doubted if he even gave her one third of their value. But she didn't care. All she cared about was getting her house and here she was. Drinking herself stupid. Just like Captain Kyoraku had all those years ago. The days ran together in a blur. She slept a lot and when she wasn't sleeping she drank. The room was a mess of empty and full bottles. A part of her told her that this was not the way to deal with the loss of her baby or the way to resign herself to the fact that she and Gin had no future and this certainly was no way to gather her courage to finally walk away from him. She really wasn't dealing with anything like this. When she slept she dreamt of the son who wouldn't be born. When she was awake she thought of nothing but Gin and relive her memories of him. She was not moving on and perhaps she really didn't want to move on. Perhaps what she wanted was for Gin to come and scold her for drinking so much and then wrap himself around her and tell her that it would all be alright. That he was going to be there, in her future with as much surety as this house. After all, the future was inherently uncertain. This house could be destroyed tomorrow or she might be forced to sell it down the track. But acts of provenance aside, the house was now hers and she wanted Gin to tell her he was hers too and would be hers. That the next time she was pregnant, she didn't have to worry herself about what his reaction would be. She wanted him to assure her that there would be a next time. She would one day have the son she was dreaming about.

Alas, she knew the futility of such wishes. If Gin came, he would merely come to claim her for the moment. He would never give any surety for the future and she was still afraid of what his reaction would be should he ever find out that she had been pregnant; or even that she could get pregnant. Given that they had both come from Rukongai, Rangiku had always assumed children where not something that they could have, and she had no reason to believe Gin knew anything different. But now that she knew she could have children with him, she desperately wanted one... she found herself curling into a tight little ball and starting to cry again. If she still held on to these foolish dreams she couldn't move on and if she didn't move on, she would be shedding even more tears and suffering more pain. She really didn't think she could take anymore suffering.


She was just so beautiful! Perfect in pink the little girl dancing underneath the cherry blossoms, laughing in delight at the simple beauty of watching pink petals gracefully dancing in the wind before showering down on and around her, "Daddy look!" she called out, "Aren't they beautiful!" she said as she held up a handful of petals.

"Not as much as my li'l angel," replied Gin.

She laughed again, "You think I am the most beautiful thing in the whole world!"

"That's cause ya are!" protested Gin.

"No! Mummy is! Everybody else says so," she pointed out.

"Ya mummy is beautiful," agreed Gin, "And so are ya."

"Yes but which one of us is more beautiful," wondered Rangiku as she walked up to them and picked the little girl up into her arms.

"Ya can't make me choose, Rangiku!" said the horrified Gin.

"O the choice is easy Gin!" replied Rangiku, "It's her!"

The girl in her arms giggled and laid her head on Rangiku's shoulder, "I love you guys so much!"

Gin felt his smile broaden to inhuman proportions. Suddenly a soft voice said from behind him, "Gin, it's time."

Turning he spotted Aizen and behind him stood his daughter. Now dressed as a Shinigami with squad five Vice-captain's insignia tied around her left arm, "Come!" said Aizen as he held out his hand and Rangiku... Rangiku was no longer there.


"Gin," he heard the soft voice again. Aizen was standing in the door way that led to the garden adjoining Gin's room.

Still blinking away the residual sleep from his eyes, Gin got to his feet and stalked out the door. He ignored the still sleeping Kira, confident that Aizen had already put some sort of Kidou spell on him that would ensure that Kira did not wake-up anytime soon. Aizen sat down on the veranda cross-legged, Gin followed suit, "Well?" wondered Aizen softly.

Gin sighed, he had of course been expecting this. Aizen had one cardinal requirement for his co-conspirators, total and utter discloser. Which wasn't a problem if you were Tosen Kaname, the most boring captain ever to enter the Gotei 13 but despite all these years Gin still found it hard to share everything. Then again, given his uncanny ability to know things, Aizen probably already knew everything Gin was about to tell him and he was only there to give Gin an opportunity to once again demonstrate his unwavering loyalty to Aizen Souske.

"Rangiku was pregnant," began Gin, "But she lost the baby. She's been real upset over it and now she's gone and bought a house from Ukitake and I guess she's held up there."

"That is unfortunate," replied Aizen, "It would have been interesting to have your son in my squad. The squad has been a lot less lively since you could no longer be called a boy."

"I coulda had a daughter," Gin pointed out.

"Do not be foolish Gin. Of course you would have a son. A son as powerful and cunning as you. Besides," he said with one of his odd little smiles, "While I wouldn't mind having a lively squad again, I don't want THAT lively a squad. As much of a handful as you were, Rangiku and girls in general are so much worse."

"Ya must be the only cap'n who would complain about hav'n li'l girls in yer squad," said Gin with a laugh.

Aizen shook his head, "There is a reason why children under a certain age are only ever assigned to certain squads and even more of a reason why young girls are only ever assigned to squad 4 and 8. Unohana and Kyoraku have gone out of their way to make sure their squads are safe places for children, especially young girls. The same cannot be said of all squads."

"I didn't know ya cared, Cap'n Aizen,"

"In general, I don't care. But I would if the child was yours," replied Aizen. Gin wasn't sure if he meant it or not. It was hard to tell with Aizen Souske. After sitting in silence a few minutes, Aizen brought out a piece of paper, "Here," he said as he offered it to Gin, "It's the exact location of the house Ukitake sold to Rangiku."

"Thanks!" said Gin, all but snatching the paper from Aizen's hand, "Ya the greatest Cap'n Aizen."

"I know," with that he left.


By the time Kira woke up, Ichimaru was long gone. As it was not uncommon for his captain to just disappear, Kira thought nothing of it. The first thing he did was to go back to his room and inspect the damage. Only there was very little damage left thanks to some 4th squad shinigami the 3rd seat had managed to rangle up. However, when Kira did run into the 3rd seat a short-time later, said 3rd seat was far from happy, "Vice-captain Kira," he began, "Is the offer for me to transfer back to 9th squad still open?"

Kira blinked, "Neither I nor the captain are going to keep you here if you do not wish to be and where you want to go is between you and the other squad."

"Very well, I shall speak to Captain Tosen and Vice-captain Hisagi," the man replied.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" wondered Kira, "Not so long ago you were rather determine to make it here."

"Yes well I find that I cannot get used to Captain Ichimaru's strange moods, erratic work patterns and what happened yesterday..." he trailed off.

"If you are refering to what happened with me yesterday, then I assure you that is not normal occurance," replied Kira.

"No it's not that. I heard about that you were made the unwilling victim of one of squad 12's experiments. That's unfortunate and doesn't make me think less of you. But some of the men said that the captain carried you out of your room naked in front of Vice-captain Hinamori," Kira started, had Hinamori really seen him naked... "And then you spent the night in the captain's room..."

"What are you implying?"

"I can't imagine ANY other captain doing that! Certainly Captain Tosen wouldn't do that with Vice-captain Hisagi. If the Vice-captain was incapacitated he would order us to get him out and take him to squad 4. He wouldn't deal with it himself. You are so close to the captain!"

"Again, what are you implying?"

The 3rd seat dodged the question and pressed on, "Then yesterday the captain had some of the men go pick-up a whole bunch of kimonos. Some of the girls were fawning over them when the kimonos got here and few of them identified some of them as belonging to Vice-captain Matsumoto and there were implications that all the kimonos were going to her. But then when I made a simple comment that wouldn't have garnered any reaction beyond laughter in squad 9, the 4th seat warning me that if I didn't want to be impaled with Shinsou I would never, ever, ever say that again. I don't understand it at all!"

"I am not going to ask you what you said," replied Kira calmly, "But the captain does not tolerate us speaking ill of Vice-captain Matsumoto. They are... close."

"Clearly! If he's spending a small fortune buying back Kimonos she sold and also buying her new ones," exclaimed the 3rd seat, "I just don't get it! What is with Captain Ichimaru? Why does he always smile? What's with those weird eyes? How close are you and the captain? Why does he spend so much money on someone like Vice-captain Matsumoto? What's his interest in her?"

Kira raised his hand to stop him, "Not that it is any of your business but the Captain and I are not as close as you are implying. If I hear that you have been spreading such lies about me and the captain in whichever squad you transfer to there will be ramification. I also do not like what you are implying by saying 'someone like Vice-captain Matsumoto'. She is an honorable office and a perfectly respectable woman. Implying otherwise will get you impaled with Shinsou. The captain's interest in her is purer than those of most men in Seireitei," Kira informed him, "They are close and that is all you need to know. Now, if there is nothing else, I'll be expecting your request for transfer form sometime today," with that he left the 3rd seat and headed to his office.

Still seething from his encounter with the 3rd seat he entered the room to find Nemu waiting for him, "Come to gloat," he wondered in uncharacteristic irritation.

Nemu was not fazed, "While the medicine was administered to you because of your loose tongue, it is still an item that needed to be tested," she explained, "And while we have gathered some valuable data from the monitoring bacteria that were embedded in the medicine, I still need to ask you some questions," with that she pulled out a data recording device, "firstly, how are you feeling this morning?"

Come to think of it, Kira was feeling damn good this morning. Really... really good. He told Nemu as much, who nodded in understanding and proceeded with some more questions. Kira was certain that she really didn't need the answer to some those questions but simply wished to force him to relive part of his ordeal. Mercifully, the interview ended fairly quickly, "Thank you for your cooperation, Vice-captain Kira. I hope you have learnt the perils of both eavesdropping and telling tales."

"I think," replied Kira, "in this case I was not wrong. The captain needed to know."

"Why?"

"He loves her!"

"I have never claimed to be an expert on love," replied Nemu, "But one thing I do understand is ownership. The way Captain Ichimaru looks at Vice-captain Matsumoto is not very different from how my Captain looks at me," her tone was matter of fact, but she did have a very sad cast to her face.

"I don't believe that for a second," protested Kira, "The Captain loves her!"

"Believe what you choose. Only time will tell which of us is correct," said Nemu as she stood up, "Good day, Vice-captain Kira."

When she opened the door, she found Hinamori just about to knock, "O sorry," said Hinamori, "I hope I am not interrupting."

"No, I am leaving," with that Nemu left.

"Kira-kun, are you alright?" she asked, inspecting him with concern, "I am sorry I was so totally useless last night. I ran as soon as Captain Ichimaru opened the door because... because... " she couldn't bring herself to complete the sentence, "And then when I got back, Captain Ichimaru told me that I wasn't needed. I am so sorry, Kira-kun!"

"Don't worry," replied Kira, more then a little relieved that Hinamori hadn't seen him naked and lying in filth. That would have been too much, "You did nothing wrong and thou he might not seem like it, but Captain Ichimaru can be very kind and caring."

"Really?" asked Hinamori's, her skepticism plainly written on her face.

"Really," said Kira with a smile.

"Kira-kun?"

"Yes?"

"What... what has been happening? I feel... I feel so out of the loop. Like... like I have been missing things. So many things have been happening that I just don't understand! I haven't been a very good friend of late, have I?" she said, looking confused and self-reproaching.

Kira smiled reassuringly, "It's alright, Hinamori-kun. Knowing is not always better then not knowing and you are always there for your friends when they need you. Forgive me for suggesting otherwise."

Hinamori smiled, "Thank you, Kira-kun."


Author's note: Well I have now done what I said I wouldn't do. I gave Aizen a speaking part. I hope he wasn't out of character. I do try my best to avoid OOCness but it's not always possible. Anyway, thank you to everybody for their wonderful reviews and thank you also for continuing to read this story. I hope people are still enjoying this.