This chapter typically picks off from where Amui was last time except it starts from Hitsugaya. Amui just found out where Hitsugaya was and they have a brief chat in the park. I've also noticed the other OC, Naori, is not in much chapters so far. I'm going to bring her back into the story soon.
So read and enjoy the chapter!
Another Night
His silver hair wavered through the breeze as he soared through the air. Hitsugaya had just finished today's work. For some odd reason, hollows were happily running amok in Karakura Town and Hitsugaya had to take off a day to dispose them. His entire body ached from having to baby sit hollows and he just wanted to go home and rest. Hitsugaya glanced at the ground below him and saw someone walking around a path. She didn't seem like a jogger since her hair was down and she wore boots, a skirt, and a coat. But what brought the most about that person was that she had chestnut colored hair that ran down to her waist. Suspicious, Hitsugaya landed right in front of that girl.
"What are you doing here? It's dangerous to be alone at night." Hitsugaya said to her.
Amui just blankly gazed at Hitsugaya as if she knew this was going to happen. "Um…" Amui mumbled so soft that he had to get closer to hear. "Can I talk to you?"
"Let me think…no." Hitsugaya immediately refused and turned to leave. He really didn't want to deal with her again. Maybe she's still mad that he stood her up on their promise, but he sent Naori in his place so everything's good. Besides, Naori should have already straightened out the questions.
Amui frowned at the silver haired boy. She reached out and grabbed onto the very sleeve of Hitsugaya's uniform. She pulled him further back to her so he couldn't move away. "I swear. This will only take like a second." Amui argued.
"Look. Naori should have made it clear for you so you wouldn't have any questions." Hitsugaya argued back and snatched back his sleeve. "Now if you don't mind, I have to leave."
"Wait!" Amui called out and she quickly ran after him. Unfortunately, Hitsugaya was walking away at an inhumanly pace that Amui had to sprint to catch up. "Wait, wait, wait! Hold on!"
Hitsugaya frowned at Amui and continued walking away, not even looking back to see if she caught up. They were already strolling past a pond and a bed of flowers. The over hanging lampposts shone only patches of the path they were walking on. Hitsugaya walked so fast that if he were under one patch of light, Amui would be at least one patch away. Amui never gave up and she kept running towards him, panting all along the way.
"Aren't you getting tired?" Hitsugaya asked back at the girl behind him.
Amui smile as ten drops of sweat rolled down her neck. "No…I'm…fine!!" She gasped out and kept running for him. "When…are…you…stop…ping?"
"Why don't you just go home?" Hitsugaya suggested and kept his steady walking pace. "It's the middle of the night, so just go home."
Amui stopped running and she collapsed on her knees, trying to catch a few breathers. She ducked her head down and just plainly stared at the ground. 'He's too friggin' fast!' Amui realized. 'How am I going to catch up to him?'
"Are you okay?" A voice was heard over Amui's head. She lifted up her head to see Hitsugaya looking at her about a foot away. The lights from the lampposts shone onto his white snowy hair, casting a glare on Amui's face. Every little strand of hair was perfectly highlighted with only the shadow being his face. Hitsugaya knelt down to see why Amui was just blankly staring at him. "Hello? Are you all right? Why are you staring at me like that?"
"Wow…" Amui breathed out. "Whether you're standing or sitting, your height doesn't change much."
A pulsing vein appeared on top of Hitsugaya's head and he haughtily stood to leave. "You know what, I'm leaving." And with that, Hitsugaya was already walking far away from Amui. His figure constantly disappearing and reappearing under patches of light.
Amui quickly snapped out of it and she scurried back up to catch him again. "Wait! Hold on!" She pleaded in a cry. "I really didn't mean that! It was just an observation! Honest! I swear I wasn't making fun of you!"
"Go home." Hitsugaya annoyingly called back to the girl without even looking back. 'This girl just never gives up!' He thought to himself and continued to evade Amui.
Amui mumbled something under her breath and she got back up to sprint after Hitsugaya yet again. This time she ran even faster, more agile, quicker. Sweat gradually rolled down from her forehead and off to the edge of her head. Her long chestnut hair flew all the way back and snapped as the wind blew by. Her mouth and eyes ran super dry and she felt like a breathe of cold air had rushed right into them. Amui ran so, so fast that she was able to go right past Hitsugaya himself. When she passed right by him, Amui swiveled to the right and made herself a roadblock in Hitsugaya's path.
"Care to move?" Hitsugaya glared at Amui in the most death-like icy look he could come up with.
"No." Amui boldly replied.
Hitsugaya shrugged Amui off and simply walked around her. He was about to shunpo away when he had gotten at least a foot by her when suddenly, something tugged onto the collar of his haori. He felt himself being forcefully pulled back and his body being whipped forward with a fist still clutching onto his collar. He could clearly see the brown eyes of Amui as she daggered eyed at Hitsugaya. Their faces ended up only inches away from each other and not in a very good way.
"Don't make me have to use force to get you to listen." Amui growled at him. She could be mean and forceful if the situation called for it.
"Don't make me break your arms." Hitsugaya coldly replied backing the same manner.
"Don't even try to manhandle me." Amui managed to remark back, almost leaving Hitsugaya speechless.
Hitsugaya glared at the girl for the last time before pushing her away from him. "Fine…you win." He told Amui as he fixed up the messed clothing that Amui made. "Now, what do you want to complain to me about this time?"
Amui stared daggered eyed at Hitsugaya for the last time before she relaxed herself. "It's about your little subordinate, Naori Hibana. She said a couple of kind of terrible things that were troubling me."
"Like what?"
"Well…" Amui trailed off and she sat down on a nearby bench to try to recollect what had happened. "Well, she said that I should stay out of your Shinigami business and-"
"Naori really told you that?" Hitsugaya asked, interrupting Amui in mid-sentence.
"Yes." Amui replied with her interests going up a little.
"And here I thought Naori would be the perfect person to ward off annoying people like you." Hitsugaya smirked at Amui, who was slowly getting what he was saying. "I guess her other colder personality doesn't really scathe you at all."
"Wait!" Amui exclaimed in realization. "You mean you set me up!"
"Yes, what else." Hitsugaya replied. "If you haven't noticed yet, everything that Naori does in a mission are always under a direct order. Besides, a captain's presence in the world of the living means there is serious business that needs to be taken care of and I can't have a mere human butt in all of a sudden."
"Is that why humans are not allowed to interact with shinigami?" Amui asked.
"Likely." Hitsugaya responded. "There are exceptions, which are humans with high spiritual pressure and are able to see shinigami in their real form. You for example." Hitsugaya nodded at Amui.
"So I'm an exception, but why do you and Hibana-san keep warding me off like some pest?" Amui asked again.
"Because you are a pest from our point of view." Hitsugaya told her in pure bluntness. "From the very beginning, you have been meddling into every one of our affairs. Affairs that you were never a part of from the first place."
That's because…" Amui tried to say, but couldn't spit it out. Her face gradually fell back to the floor. She couldn't think of an answer for that one. They were right after all. She was just butting herself into their personal space. She couldn't figure out why she would do it, she just had a feeling that she should. Amui thought for a while and then she answered in the most rational way possible. "Because all of your affairs involve Ayumishi-san and she is my friend. Which is why…why I feel I need to meddle in. To protect her."
"Is that it?" Hitsugaya asked.
Amui nodded to her partial lie and she still kept her head down. What she had just said was pretty much not the real reason she would meddle, but a good logical one. It was also her second reason so it was also the truth.
Hitsugaya continued to observe the girl, trying to catch if she was lying. Amui clearly showed no signs of deceit to him. Hitsugaya sighed and lifted up the girls face with his fingertips lifting up her chin. "So you're getting in our way because you feel the need to protect your friend? I assure you, we will do nothing to harm her so you don't need to worry. Okay?"
Amui looked up and just stared at the shining teal eyes of him. Eyes that showed clear honesty and no guilt. Glistening eyes that sparkle at every angle. Deep eyes that made Amui feel her heart was slowly sinking into a dark pit. "You won't hurt her." Amui finalized and Hitsugaya nodded. "Then I guess I should get out of your hair now and let you guys get back to work." Amui was about to stand up from the bench and walk away when something grabbed her sleeve.
"Wait a minute!" Hitsugaya gripped onto her sleeve and he slightly nudged for her to sit back down again. Confused, Amui did as told and she let Hitsugaya start explaining. "You say you are Ayumishi's friend. Correct?"
"Yes." Amui answered, still visibly confused.
"Than maybe you are not much of an unwanted pest." Hitsugaya mused on. "I was wondering if you could tell me any background information about her."
"Why do you need to know that?"
"Confidential." Hitsugaya bluntly answered again. "This is the only time where I don't have to criticize you for being an unwanted annoying idiot, so are you going to help me or not?"
Amui thought about it for a while. She didn't feel sure about Hitsugaya's proposition, that it maybe had another loop she missed. She felt she was going to end up in a bad situation because of this in time to come. But if they were to spend time together, she would eventually get that confidential information running out of his mouth. Maybe that could work. "You swear Ayumishi is not going to get hurt in what you're doing?" Hitsugaya nodded. "Fine, I'll help you Hitsugaya."
Hitsugaya suddenly glared at the girl with his infamous icy glare. Amui felt a couple degrees had suddenly been dropped and found herself shivering. "Didn't Naori tell you about my identity?" Hitsugaya asked in an irritated tone.
"No, not really." Amui answered. "She just said that you two were shinigami and that's pretty much it."
"Well…" Hitsugaya recollected himself. "I am the Tenth Division Captain, Hitsugaya Toushirou. I am one of the highest-ranking officers in Gotei 13 and a respected position of authority. Now that you know my true identity, you are to refer to me as "Captain Hitsugaya" and not simply by my name."
"Oh! You mean that "-taicho" honorific that I have to say like Hibana-san." Amui pointed out. "Since you asked, I guess I'll call you…Hitsugaya-kun!!"
"That's not the point." Hitsugaya grumbled.
"I'm sorry Hitsugaya-kun, but I don't work under you so I'm excused from calling you a captain." Amui teased on. "Besides, you're on the same boat. You never really called me by my name as far as I can remember."
"I wasn't even associated with you till now." Hitsugaya pointed out. "And it's Captain Hitsugaya to you, Shizumiya!"
Amui gasped and she immediately lost her teasing façade. "What did you just call me?"
"I called you by your name." Hitsugaya simply said. "What's so important about it?" He seemed completely oblivious to the fact of what a name change like that meant.
"Oh…it's nothing." Amui murmured out in disappointment. After a while, she turned back to Hitsugaya who was standing just opposite of her. "Hey…do you know…well…what's so special about Hibana-san?"
"You mean Naori?" Hitsugaya asked back.
"Yeah her. You refer to everyone else by his or her last name, but you use Hibana-san's first name whenever you're talking about her." Amui pointed out.
"That's simply because Naori insists for everyone to use her first name." Hitsugaya said in a long sigh. "She hates that her last name makes her look soft. I used to call her Hibana when she came into my division and she forced me to call her by her first name."
"I wonder how she did that…" Amui mused on in deep thought. "You don't look like someone who can be pushed around so easily."
"We had a bet. She won. I don't want to talk about it." Hitsugaya groaned as he reminisced that day when he was forced to call Naori by her first name. It was not a pretty picture to remember.
Amui thought about it for a while. Naori really just forced her captain to call her by her given name and it was not because of the other reason… Maybe that was proof enough that they weren't anything special together… Just maybe… 'Wait! Why am I thinking about that?' Amui suddenly thought and she felt blush rise to her face. 'Why do I care if Hibana-san and Hitsugaya-kun are together!?'
"Shizumiya!!" A voice barked out, immediately waking up Amui from her daze. Shocked, Amui frantically looked around to see who had just called out her name. Luckily, it was just Hitsugaya with his sword at her face! His eyes and entire face remained calm even though his position absolutely did not look right.
"Whoa!! What are you doing?" Amui exclaimed out and she pushed away the weapon from her face.
"Saving you." Hitsugaya grumbled at her and placed the sword back onto his back. "If you were to lean any further, this would have scratched your cheek." And with that, Hitsugaya threw a bloody red rose at Amui.
Amui nimbly caught the rose with only two fingers of her hand. She studied the little flower. It didn't look very dangerous. Lush bloody red petals that have stretched out when the flower bloomed. A dark deadly center right in the middle of the flower. She peered down at the stem and there was one of the largest thorns she ever saw. Amui didn't even realize her face was only a couple of centimeters away from that. Wait! Where did this rose even come from anyways? Amui peered up from her bench and there, she spotted a familiar arch of bloody red roses.
'Damn it!' Amui thought and she scrambled to get out of that bench. 'We're in lovebird zone!' Amui ran up to Hitsugaya and grabbed his sleeve and started to lead him away from the area. "Let's go!" Amui hastily said.
"Hold on Shizumiya." Hitsugaya said and he swatted away her hand. He started to move even closer to the bench.
"Look! I don't like this place, so can we leave!?" Amui begged, backing away from the area. "Please, can we leave Hitsugaya-kun?"
"No and that's final." Hitsugaya barked back at her and bent down at where the bench was. He peered at the ground in front of the bench and placed his hand on the ground as well. Amui just continued to observe him with interest, wondering just what the hell he was doing? She made no motion or attempt to stop him. Hitsugaya brushed a pack of dirt away and he squinted down to try to see what he had uncovered.
"What are you doing Hitsugaya-kun?" Amui cautiously asked and she inched a little closer to him.
"What do you know about this area here?" Hitsugaya asked back and he glanced at Amui with a slight glare. But maybe that was because his eyes seemed to always be shaped into a glare.
"That." Amui scoffed and she turned away from the place. "That's a lover's area. Only couples ever go there but nobody does since it's always dark and creepy."
"Do you know anything else about it?"
"For all I know, that thing's been there ever since I was a kid." Amui replied. "I remember there was a legend with it but nobody remembers the legend. All they know is that couples only go in there."
Hitsugaya stared at her, thinking maybe there were more. But Amui looked as if she could care less about the couple's only place. "Shizumiya." Hitsugaya asked and motioned the girl to come forward. "Can you tell me what this plaque says?"
"Huh?" Amui ran up next to Hitsugaya and knelt beside him as well. She squinted her eyes at the plaque since Dark Haven's always dark. "I don't know…I never knew this plaque was here." She squinted even more, trying to make out what the plaque said. All she could see was:
In Memory Of ***
**** love lies **********
Where ****enco*******s ********
**** the***********som**
"Yeah…you think I can read it when half of it is covered in crap?" Amui sarcastically replied. "I guess somebody built it for somebody else."
Hitsugaya continued to analyze the plaque that he had just uncovered. It was small and around the size of a standard holiday card. The thing had rusted up into a shade of disgusting gold. Most of the words on the plaque were blocked out by huge chunks of dirt, moss, and mold. The plaque didn't look at all flattering, yet it fitted with the dark dense background of the scenery. Hitsugaya shook off the plaque from his head. It didn't look at all mysterious or suspicious. Creepy yes, but unimportant. Hitsugaya stood up and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Amui asked.
"Home." Another short and smart answer from Hitsugaya. "You should go home too or do you want to stay here a little longer?"
'What!! Just what is he thinking?' Amui thought in plain shock. 'Me and him in Dark Haven! No thank you!! We're not even a couple!' And with that, Amui quickly rushed over to Hitsugaya's side.
"Are you planning to hang on to me till I get home?" Hitsugaya asked with clear irritation in his voice. He slightly glared at Amui with his icy eyes shining with a sparkling ocean. Though his icy glare seemed to be nothing to Amui.
"Yes, I'm training to be a pedophile when I grow up." Amui sarcastically remarked back at him and Hitsugaya's glare at her intensified. "Did you forget? We live in the same neighborhood."
"Then, don't walk so close to me." Hitsugaya shot back and started to walk even faster.
Amui shot another annoyed face back at the boy in front of her and she sped up to keep up with him. She didn't know how the two of them could get along if they're constantly at each other's neck. Hitsugaya would always distance himself away from Amui whenever she got to close and Amui admitted herself that her annoying personality was also a cause. They silently walked side by side, about a good five feet away, through the park and out back to their neighborhood. They continued to walk together a couple of blocks until Amui crossed the street to get back to her home.
"Good bye Hitsugaya-kun!" Amui waved back at him.
"I'm a captain so address me correctly." Hitsugaya called back to her.
"Whatever!!"
He already knew it would be fruitless. She was just as ignorant as any other human girl. Hitsugaya walked back a couple of yards on his street and went into the building where he and Naori were staying. It was moderately big, not that fancy and not that much in the poor section. The building was shared with Orihime and a bunch of other people already living there. Luckily, he and Naori were able to get two available rooms for the both of them.
Before heading into his own place, Hitsugaya first stopped by Naori's apartment. He needed to talk to her about something. Hitsugaya nudged the doorknob and realized it was unlocked. He slipped in and looked around to see if he could find her. The place was super neat and clean as it can possible be. Yet, there wasn't a sign of Naori anywhere. She wasn't in her room, the kitchen, or the den. Hitsugaya walked into her room and glanced in the bathroom. No sign of her there as well. Suddenly, a strike of lightening could be heard outside. Hitsugaya walked over to the balcony door and there, he spotted Naori leaning out over the railings.
"What are you doing?" Hitsugaya asked in concern. "You shouldn't be out in the open during a lightening storm."
Naori blankly stared up at the sky. It was murky and occasionally shined when lightening struck. The dark clouds showed only shades of black and gray. There were no signs of a moon above those very clouds. The clouds occasionally rolled with thunder and bright flashes of lightening usually struck down somewhere in the distance. Naori sighed and turned back to face Hitsugaya just as another lightening bolt shot down behind her.
"You really shouldn't worry about me in a lightening storm." Naori lightly replied back to Hitsugaya. "Remember?"
"Oh, right." Hitsugaya said once the gears in his head clicked. He had almost forgotten about Naori's abilities as a shinigami. Her zanpaktou enabled her to control electricity so lightening wouldn't affect her in any way. Pushing away the realization, Hitsugaya motioned for Naori to come in.
"And what do you want this time? Aren't I doing my job correctly?" Naori questioned him as she went into her room. She plopped herself onto her bed while Hitsugaya remained standing.
Hitsugaya's face stayed straight, a sure sign he was very serious. "You're doing fine." Hitsugaya responded. "Except, now I want you to completely focus only on our target. Haruka Ayumishi."
"What about the other girl? Amui Shizumiya?" Naori asked. "Did she agree to stay out of the way already?"
"No." Hitsugaya admitted. "I'll deal with her myself. You just concentrate on Ayumishi and leave Shizumiya to me."
Naori suspiciously eyed her captain. She didn't feel sure if his plan was going to work. But then again, he was her captain and she was supposed to follow orders since she was only a fifth seat. "Ok Hitsugaya-taicho." Naori quietly said with doubt clearly in her voice. "I will only focus on the target and I'll leave the other one at your hands."
Hitsugaya nodded and he began to walk out of Naori's apartment. But suddenly, he stopped in mid-step out of the entrance door. "One more thing." Hitsugaya said and Naori quickly rose up to hear what he had to say. "Next time, follow only the orders I give you and don't do anything rash on your own anymore."
If you don't know what Hitsugaya meant, he means that when Naori was telling off Amui, she actually did that on her own. She really wasn't under any orders from Hitsugaya to tell Amui to stay out of the way. Hitsugaya actually made that part up. Why? I can't say…yet…
Review please!!!!!!!!
