Chapter 10

Please read and reveiw. Hope you liking this story as I am writing it and now i finally have a working computer again but now all my exams are comming up so i won't be able to upload too much hehe. Anyway, keep reading and reveiwing please cause it makes the little bunniieangelofdoom happy hehe

Let chapter 10...BEGIN!

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"Ne, Rika-chan, where's Toshiro-kun?" Asked one of the children in the small class as they all gathered around rika to find out. Said little was sitting in her usual chair, her head leaned down so her hair shaded over her purple eyes.

"Yeah i didn't see him comming into the gates today" Said another voice, but Rika still didn't move.

The shinigami wondered in just after the voice had asked that and noticed the amount of children around Rika. The shinigami headed to their chairs and Matsumoto headed over to Rena who looked at her and smiled weakly as she patted Matsumoto's usual chair. She sat down just as she saw the teacher head over and bent so she was the height of Rika.

"Fruude-chama, where is he?" Matsumoto and Rena looked away from the table and children around them till they were looking at the rest of the shinigami group.

"Urusai..." Matsumoto and Rena snapped their attention beck to Rika. Did she just tell Sensei to shut up?. Wondered Matsumoto. She was surprised to see Rika sudden stand, pushing her chair a good distence back, and walked straight out of the class. The Sensei looked confused on the matter and, after telling students to continue with whatever book they were on, went after Rika to see what was wrong with her and her sudden rudeness towards the other pupils.

She passed only a few open doors until she saw Rika sat on a small wooden stall in the medical room, her back to the door and looking out the window. The teacher smiled very lightly before walking into the room and resting a hand on Rika's shoulder.

"Fruude-chama, you know if somethings bothering you, you should tell me" Rika looked up to her sensei, no emotion on her face. The teacher frowned before walkng infront of Rika and kneeling down to her height. Rika looked down, now finding her hands very interesting. The teacher placed her hand ontop of Rika's.

"Please Fruude-chan" she said quietly and Rika looked up to once more, her sight not wavering on her sensei.

"Toshi toshi-kun...He....He..." Small tears welled in her eyes.

"His dad..." And that was all she had to say as the sensei quickly realised what had happened. Her eyes widened before she stood up tall. She couldn't beleive this! She looked down to Rika again before giving her a soft hug. Rika's eyes widened slightly before they closed and she fell into the embrace.

A few minutes passed and soon the sensei let go of Rika and lead her back to class, where she sat back down with Matsumoto and Rena, refusing to look at the empty seat next to her. The sensei walked to the front of the class and forced a sweet smile as she began to write some things on the board to help the younger children through their english work.

"Ne, Rika, don't worry, we'll find Toshiro-kun" Said Rena as she smiled over to Rika to make her feel more comfortable. Matsumoto nodded her head.

"Yeah, I promise we will" She said. Rika looked up at them and smiled a small smile. Rena and Matsumoto smiled back at her before everyone got their heads down and began to do some english work.

A few minutes into it, however, Matsumoto quickly became bored and gazed out to the window as two small doves flew part the window close together before vanishing into the woods. She looked away from the window and over to Rika to she her doing no work either. 'Now would be the best time to ask Rika' She thought and she pulled out a peice of paper, scribbled something onto it before pushing it forward to Rika. Said girl blinked as she looked at the peice of paper and then at Matsumoto. She carfully unfolded it and read what was inside.

'Ne, Rika, When Toshiro was younger, did his parents argue alot?' Rika picked up her pen and began to scribble on it before passing back to Matsumoto. Matsumoto opened it up and read the reply.

'Hai, Toshi Toshi-kun didn't talk about his home life but you could always tell because he would alway come into school sad' Matsumoto looked slightly sad before scribbling something else down and once again passed it to Rika.

'He used to blame himself didn't he?' Rika nodded at Matsumoto before writting and passing it back.

'Yeah, Shion told me that Toshi Toshi-kun's mother and father hardly ever argued when it was just Kibou-chan alive, but when he was born, his dad started to get more paranoid and was always lashing out at his mum everyday, sometimes he would hit Toshi Toshi-kun too' Matsumoto frowned at this news. His father was a really nasty peice of work. She scribbled something else and passed it back.

'And no one knows where he lives?' Rika shock her head before writting and passing it back.

'No, they never had guests or visitors because Toshi toshi-kun's dad threatened them if they asked if anyone could come over' Matsumoto write something else down and passed it back.

'Why did nobody try and help him?' Rika sighed quietly before replying.

'Its not that nobody tried to help, but when the social care went round, both Toshi toshi-kun and Kibou-chan said that nothing was wrong in the house,' Another message written from Matsumoto and passed back.

'Why, they could've been helped?' More scribbles and another note.

'Shion said that it might be the fact they were hoping that everything would get better, but Mion once told me that it was because that their dad said if they ever said anything, he would find and kill the no matter how long it took to find them' Rika frowned before leaning back down and getting on with her work

Matsumoto tucked the note into the pocket of her trousers before looking back down at her work and frowning lightly. 'Taichou...Where are you?'

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A figure slowly made its way out of a small room and headed down the stairs as it tried to get dressed. Within the room that the figure had left, the sound of quiet sobs and light pants could be heard.

Toshiro pulled the sheets up high over his head and buried his face in the not so soft pillow. How could he let that happen?! His mind weakly argued with him. He let that man... Toshiro choked on his breath as he rolled over. After a few more minutes he heard the sound of the front door shutting and let out a light sigh of relief as he tried to get comfortable, even with the amount of pain shooting up and down his spin. He closed his eyes and slowly began to drift away. Until...

"BAKA! WAKE UP AND GET YOUR USLESS ASS DOWN HERE!" He heard his 'Father' Shout. Toshiro got out of his bed, neatened it up and headed straight downstairs into the living room, where his Otou-'sama' was standing. Toshiro walked up to the man and bowed his head so his eyes were hidden.

"...Hai?" He asked quietly as he waited for what ever his father wanted to yell or do to him. The man pushed Toshiro off of his feet, so his stomach resting on the cold wooden floor, and pressed his foot into his back painfully.

"YOU FORGOTTEN TO CLEAN THE HOUSE AFTER LAST NIGHT! HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME TO LIVE IN A HOME LIKE THIS?!" He shouted as he continued to push his foot painfully into his son's back. Toshiro gasped for air as felt everything begin to ache.

"...G-Gomenasai...I-I cle-clean it u-up" He said through gasps. His dad smirked darkly before taking his foot off of Toshiro's back and took a step back to watch his son push himself up on shaky arms.

"Good boy, and once you've finished that, we're out of food, make sure you get some!" Toshiro pushed himself to his feet before nodding at the monster infront of him. The man infront smirked again before picking up his beer and heading back upstairs for another nap.

Toshiro waited until he heard the door slam shut to his dad's room before he walked slowly over to the cabinet when all the cleaning supplies were and, after getting plently of water from outside, began to pick up all the rubbish scattered across the floor, clean the windows and floors from all the alcohol that looked as though it had been thrown around the room, and do all the washing up that had just been dropped all over though the downstairs half of the house.

Once that was done, he headed upstairs, making sure not to wake his sleeping father, and into his room where he took the bed sheets off the fouton, folded them up before before carrying them downstairs and putting them into the washing machine to clean later.

He then decided that he should make some food incase his father woke up any time soon. He went into the fridge, pulled out the last bits of bacon and the few eggs that remained, got out the last of the susages and soon began to cook a small meal.

Once it was done, he set it all out on the table and sat down at the table and waited. He didn't have to wait long until the man came walking back down the stairs and over to the plate of food. He pulled out his chair and sat down and began to eat the meal infront of him. Toshiro looked down to the floor as the man continued to stuff his face with the last bits of food.

Once he was finished, he sat back and Toshiro picked up the plate and washed it up quickly before handing the man a mug of coffee. Toshiro's dad nodded and drank the drink, despit its hot temperature, and stood back from his seat and walked behind Toshiro to grasp his shoulder firmly.

"I want you to clean yourself up and go down the shop for me" He said as he leaned closer to Toshiro as his tight grip on Tosiro's shoulder became even tighter, if possible.

"And remember...We're a happy family..." Toshiro sat dead still in his seat as he nodded his head.

"Hai, Otou-sama..." The monster of a father smirked as he let go of Toshiro's arm and headed into the living room. Toshiro stayed seated for a few moments before heading upstairs to get changed and sorted out.

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All of the class ran out the door making as much noise as possible as the bell rang loud and clear. The larger group of children walked quietly out of the door and into the town of Hinamizawa. Once there, they all decided where they had looked the night before, so they begun to wander around the more busy part of the small town.

They had ended up walking around almost all of the houses, when they decided they wanted a drink so the huge ground headed into the closest store there was. They all headed in and saw how small the shop was, but still there were many people within it. The Shinigami followed as the girls lead them over to the drink isle before selecting the one they wanted. Most of the shinigami never even knew most of these drinks so it was just a random selection on their half. They all smiled at the different choices and headed over to the one till. Thats when Ichigo noticed something. The shop sure was cold considering the heat that was comming from outside. But soon forgot about it as he waited and waited for the line of people to slowly move.

He leaned to the left to take peek so he could find out how far they had to the till. His eyes widened as he saw what was at the front of the line. Ichigo turned to Matsumoto before plucking her from her small convosation with Rena and pushed head so she could also see what he could. Matsumoto's eyes widened at what she saw.

Rena, wanting to know what the were staring at, also leaned to the left. Soon pretty much everyone was leaning to the left, all of them with their eyes wide. There, collecting the large bag of all sorts of food, was Toshiro himself.

Matsumoto looked asthough she was ready to run over, give him a huge bear hug and tell him off for disapearing, when she noticed that he didn't bother looking up as he walked out of the door in silence. Everyone quickly forgot about the drinks as the put them on the closest isle before running out of the shop, just to see Toshiro heading up the lane.

All the shinigami forced theirs, and Ichigo's, reitsu down so it couldn't be sensed by anyone as they quietly followed behind him. Toshiro walked through the whole of the town, up an old dusty road until they reached the woods. Toshiro moved a small vine out of the way to reveal a small path that none of the girls had ever seen before, even in all their time living in the small town.

They all followed as Toshiro walked up the newly discovered path until a semi-large house came into view. It had two floors, a small garden that looked very neat with a small pond in the front which rippled in the light breeze there was.

They hid in a small bush on the side and watched as Toshiro walked silently up to the door and rested the bag of foods and drinks on the floor as he took off his shoes, placed them under a sort of porch and pulled out a pair of black and white stripped slippers. Toshiro got up a small step and was about to unlock the door, when Rika had had enough and ran straight out from the bush, before anyone could stop her, and over to Toshiro where she hugged him tight.

"Baka Toshi Toshi-kun! Come home!" She shouted lightly as he grip tightened around him more. Toshiro didn't look at her so Rika tried to make eye contact. It was then she noticed the small scratches on his face and the bandage around the top of his head, just hidden by his hair. Then his eyes. His eyes that once shone(Sp?) so brightly in the light, were now dull and hollow looking. Rika couldn't beleive it. What had that...that man done to her best friend!. Toshiro remained silent as he managed to pull Rika off of him. Rika's eyes widened at the response.

"You should go, Otou-sama will be angry if he knows your here" He said, barley a whisper, before opening the door and closing it tight behind him. Rika stood there for a moment, her eyes widened at Toshiro's words. A strong wind blew by as Rika clenched her hand till her knuckles turned white. She looked away from the door and into the woods before she took off in the direction she had been looking.

Everyone blinked. 'What the hell?' They all said to themselves. What happened. None of the Hinamizawa girls had Ever seen the two act like that around eachother. They needed to know what had happened there. Everyone made sure Toshiro wasn't there able to see the rest of them and ran out from the bush and into the woods. If the girls knew Rika well enough, they know very well where she had gone.

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The huge group ran down the small hill of the woods, until they came to another path, that looked alot more used then the one they had been following Toshiro on. They all headed down the path, which had all sorts of flowers growning up the path.

When they had been running down the path for about a minute or so, the hinamizawa girls slowed down and began to walk, and because they were infront of the shinigami the shinigami had to stop running too.

They all stopping infront of a huge oak tree and looked up to see a huge wooden house, with two floors and a railing going around it, with a small light on. Mion and shion looked at eachother before Mion began to climb up the wooden steps that were nailed into the tree.

At the top, she climbed over the railing and opened the small wooden door and wondered in. She saw Rika sitting cross-legged on the window beam, gazing out of the window with a small pink shell in her hand. Mion noticed the shell and smiled as she walked up behind Rika.

"I see you've got still that shell with you Rika" Rika looked away from the sky above and smiled softly at Mion.

"Yeah, i'd never get rid of this, it means so much to me..." She sadi gazing back out of the window.

FLASH BACK

It was a beautiful sunset. The clouds had turned a light shade of pink, which reflected perfectly on the long river below that run threw the village of Hinamizawa. Everything shone with happyness at the wonderful veiw.

All by a small Rika, who was sitting by the river on a small deck bit that spread over some of the water, hugging one knee as the other one was just submerged in the cool water as she stared thoughtfully at her own reflection. She didn't understand why she was so sad of such a lovely day. She just was.

Sure, she wasn't exactly friendly with any of the children around her seeing as she was the only child who hadn't started at the small school yet, but that wasn't the real reason.

No, the true reason was that it was her deceased mother's birthday today. If the young woman was still alive, she would only be about 26 years old. Rika sighed as she frowned at her reflection, hoping that maybe her reflection would do something different to prove she wasn't so alone.

She stayed still for a few more minutes, until she heard small footsteps behind her. She blinked before she turned back around and came face to face with a small boy, around the same age as her, with bright white hair and emerald eyes. He smiled at Rika before sitting down next to her and putting his feet in the water and kicking lightly.

"Hi, whats your name?" He said with a bright smile and Rika couldn't help but smile too.

"My name is Fruude Rika, whats yours?"

"My name is Hitsugaya Toshiro...What you doing all the way out here on your own?" Rika stopped smiling and looked down.

"My...Its my mummy birthday, but she died a year ago so i usually come up her every year" Rika stayed quiet for a moment, before her brain clicked in.

"Wait, why are you here alone?" Toshiro looked up to her sky and put a finger to his chin.

"Ano...Mummy and Daddy are having a private convosation so i came out here untill Onee-chan comes back from her mini job" Rika nodded lightly and everything went quiet between the two, until a small call was heard.

"Toshiro-kun, time to head home!" Both Rika and Toshiro turned round to see a young girl, about 11 years old, waving her arm above her head happily. Toshiro smiled as he got up from his seat and took hold of Rika's hand.

"Ne, ne, lets be friends" Rika smiled happily and nodded. Toshiro smiled back before he let go of her hand and ran over to his older sister, waving as he walked back down a small road. Rika waved goodbye and, as soon as he was out of sight, opened her hand to see a small pink shell that Toshiro had dropped in her hand before he left. She smiled at it and hugged it to her chest before gazing back up at the sky with a smile on ehr face.

Today had been the best day of her life.

"Arigatou, Okaa-san..." She whispered to the heavens above.

END OF FLASHBACK

During Rika's flashback, everyone else had climbed up the tree and were now either sitting in one of the bean bag chairs or outside leaning against the wooden railing looking at the dark sky. It was pretty quiet, people having small convosations, waiting for Rika to calm down and say what was up.

"You calm now Rika?" Asked Mion from her purple chair. Rika looked at her and nodded as she climbed down from the window ledge and, was about to sit down, when she was grabbed around the waist playfully and pulled into the lap of Rena. Rika squeaked lightly before settling in Rena's lap.

"Ne, Rika-chan, what happened?" Rena asked peacfully and Rika closed her eyes and shock her head lightly.

"N-nothing..." Rena frowned. She needed to know what happened. She took off her hat and plopped it on Rika's smaller head. Rika blinked and looked back.

"Please tell me" She begged and Rika looked down to Rena's lap.

"...Well, i don't think Toshi Toshi-kun is well Rena-chan, he looked sick" Rena sighed deeply as she hugged Rika lightly.

"Tell you what, we'll go back after school tommorrow and drag him to the doctor weither his dad likes it or not ne?" Rika smiled slightly at this and nodded her head. Rena smiled. She had such a gift for making her friends happy even in the darkest of times. Suddenly, Rika found herself being shifted so now Rena was standing up with Rika in her arms.

"Now, lets get you home for some sleep" Rika nodded and waved goodbye to everybody as her and Rena slid down the huge slide, hidden under a trap door under a small mat within the tree truck and headed towards the town.

Everyone watched as the two left and all let out a group sigh. Rena's promise may be hard to keep, but knowing that girl, she would manage it somehow. Everyone who were outside headed in as a small burst of rain came down. They all got comfy in some beanbag chairs and watched as the rain fell from the heavens above. Everything was silent within the group, until someone let out a dark growl. Everyone turned their gaze to the person who made the noise, Shion.

Said girl was looking down to the ground so her face was shaded over, but everyone could see her shoulders shaking in anger and her fists clenching and unclenching. Mion stood up from her seat and wondered over to her twin sister.

"Shion...Are you ok?" Shion made another strange noice, before standing up suddenly and pushing her sister to the ground. Mion looked up wide eyed at her sister. Shion walked slowly over to one of the drawers, opening it and rumaging through. A few seconds later, pulled out a huge knife and closed te drawer. Everyone's eyes widened. What the hell was she doing?!

Shion slowly began to make her way over towards the trap door, but Mion quickly blocked her path.

"Shion, what the hell are you planning on doing?!" Shion looked up to her, her eyes wide and the same claw mark the shinigami had seen in Toshiro's eyes a few times.

"What does it look like! I'm going to kill that bastard and get Toshiro back!" She shouted as she pushed her sister again. Mion stood as still as possible to not get knocjed out the way. Mion glared back at her sister.

"Do you really think killing him is the way to do it?!" Mion glared darker at her, raising the knife slightly.

"Kibou asked me to always look after him when she wasn't around, she thats what im going to do!" Mion looked at the knife, scared incase her sister would stab her in her anger.

"So how do you plan to look after him when your arrested?!" Shion blinked at this and looked confused for a second, before becoming angry again.

"LIKE HELL THAT WILL HAPPEN! EVERYONE KNOWS THAT HE DESERVES IT FOR TREATING THOSE TWO LIKE SHIT!" Shion had finally had enough of her sister and brought the blade down on her twin. Mion put her arms over her, waiting for the blade to hit, but it never did. Mion looked up to see Ikkaku holding Shion's arm in place.

Shion was struggling to get her arm out of his grip, but it seemed usless. Ichigo walked up infront of her and looked her dead in the eyes.

"Shion, like your sister said, if you go through with this, you'll get arrested by the police and then you wont be able to protect Toshiro from anything" Shion's eyes widened and she suddenly stopped struggling and dropped the knife on the wooden floor with a loud bang. Ikkaku let go of her arm and waited to see what she would do.

After a second or so of her standing there, she collapsed to her knees as tears ran from her eyes. Mion shot up and ran over to her, where she gave her a huge hug and tried to relax her sister. After a few seconds of this, everyone heard Shion's breath even out and saw she had fallen asleep.

"Don't worry sis, we'll get him back for you" She said at ehr sister's sleeping head as she brushed her hand through her twin's bright green hair. Mion looked up at the shinigami and smiled lightly.

"You guys should head home, i'll phone my Okaa-san and tell her me and sis will stay here for the night upstairs" And with that, Mion somehow managed to pick up her sister in her arms and take her upstairs. The shinigami alled did as Mion said and soon began to run home through the heavy pour down of rain, all the while thinking of the way Shion had acted. It was just like Toshiro did when he was angered deeply.

It didn't take them long to get home. Everyone was almost ready to go to bed and sleep, when something caught Yumichika's eye hanging from the letter box. He pulled it out and opening it up. It was a peice of old paper with writting on it with something to do with the deasease. He handed it over to Matsumoto, who also read through it quickly.

We have calculated when the young children will reach level five with the help from their sample of blood and who will be most at risk from catching it faster:

Mion: sixteen or seventeen (4/5)

Shion: sixteen or seventeen (3/5)

Rena: fifteen (4/5)

Rika: ninteen (2/5)

Toshiro: thirteen or fourteen (4/5)

We will be keeping a close eye on the three who leveled the highest at risk from now on

Matsumoto passed on the note to Ukitake, who also read it and looked back at Matsumoto. So Toshiro, Mion and Rena were most at risk of snapping at any given moment. Sure, they could think of that possiblity with Toshiro and Mion, but they hadn't really seen Rena act as bad as those two. Maybe they had got the results wrong.

But there was no way to find out. The doctor was dead and Takano had been missing since the festival. Matsumoto closed her eyes and thought for a second before saying goodbye to everyone and heading up to bed. She got changed as fast as she could and climbed into bed.

She tost and turn in her bed for a while, thinking of everything that had happened in the last few days, when she had an idea. She thought it through clearly before falling asleep and dreaming about it working perfectly.

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Sorry it to so long to write but i was writting other stories which will be uploaded as so as possible but until then...Ja ne

THE END XDDD