"Seireitei... At last." Natsumi's smile was echoingly familiar to Disana, but reaching the top of the stairs, she turned back and saw an expression that she hadn't seen for a long time. Regret and nostalgia, both painting her friend's face with a cold sadness, increasing the distance between them. But Natsumi walked through the crack, confidently and surely, as though she had done it all her life... And, now that Disana thought of it, she probably had.
Past: 105 years ago...
"Natsumi-San!" Temari was frustrated. Never before had Natsumi gone completely missing, though she had dropped off the map a few times. It was worrying. "Natsumi! Mi-Chan!" Turning the corner she gasped, then realizing it was only Shinji, she laughed relievedly. "Hello Taichou-San. Have you seen Natsumi-San?" Shinji immediately looked worried, something that caused Temari to smirk... Mentally, of course.
"Oh, n-no. I haven't, i-is something wrong?" Shinji only stuttered when Natsumi was brought up or around. He really wished it would just stop already. He was a Captain, and it was embarrassing. "I mean, sh-she was fine at assembly th-this morning." He shifted the book in his arms. It was uncomfortable. "Where do you think she might be? I mean, where've you checked?" And it was NOT HIM. The strand of his hair that perpetually fell over his eyes began to flutter with each breath he took.
"Um, here, the Barracks, The Assembly, Fourth Division Barracks, Second Division, everywhere I could think of." But there were two more places Shinji could think of that Natsumi could be...
~B~L~E~A~C~H~
"Natsumi-San?" Shinji parted a bush and stepped between, ignoring the swish as they closed behind him. "Are you here?" He'd forgotten it was even here, and somehow that felt disrespectful, somehow, as though his Captain would suddenly appear and accuse him of anarchy or somesuch thing. "Natsumi-San?"
"Ah! Hirako-San. I was just..." She had been kneeling, probably praying, by her brother's grave. Shinji smiled sadly, remembering how the stories of his death had been twisted into something odd and entirely different from what it really was. "But I was going to leave soon anyway. Am I late for something again? Or in trouble?" Her worry was adorable. Waaaait a minute... Shinji blushed furiously, wondering whether it was perverted for him to think that about her.
"Er, Ah, no! I-I, um, no. No. No, um, Temari-San was looking for you. She got pretty, um... Pretty worried. So I was looking for you." He REALLLY wished his tongue would stop knotting in on itself.
"Oh, okay. Shall we head back?" She smiled again.
"Oh! Oh, um, are you sure? Are you, you don't have to leave. I mean, now that we know..." She simply shook her head, laughing shyly.
"No. I don't have to hide behind my older brother now. Sora is dead, and there's no changing that, but I at least can give him a run for his money. I can be the best I can be, and show him how good I am." She locked her hands behind her back, turning to look over her shoulder at the tree. "I think I've finally figured out who I am now." She began running off into the sunny trees. "Come on!"
Later that night, Shinji sat on the roof, thinking. And he began to drift towards a subject that he had been brutally ignoring for the past three years: Natsumi and his relationship. They were just friends. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. Captain and Lieutenant. Friends. But he and Sosuke had known each other for just as long. So why didn't he feel he could trust Sosuke? Why didn't he trust Sosuke like he did Natsumi?
Then it hit him.
He TRUSTED Natsumi.
More than trusted.
He was in love with Takanaiyo Natsumi, Lieutenant Captain of Fifth Division.
So he only had one question for himself at that moment: When did it start? Was it when she had fallen over her own feet in front of the Captain Commander and stood up looking completely humiliated? Was it when she had gotten pneumonia and had refused to stay in bed for a week? Was it when Sosuke and she had come back from their mission looking completely bedraggled, but ALIVE, and he had felt immense relief? Or was it before that? Was it on that far-off day, when she had so coolly turned around and stared over five Captains down, simply saying they were late? No. It was after that... He could place the feeling now... It was when he had nearly fallen off the roof, and she had pulled him up again, laughing, and she had said: Honestly, Hirako-Taichou, will you ever learn?
He didn't sleep for a month.
End Chapter Ten. :D
