Hey everyone,

This is the new chapter! Sorry for letting it taking quite a bit of time before this update again, I'm trying my best, but sometimes I just don't know what to write... And it happened two times in this chapter that I typed an amazing part, forgot to save, and closed fanfiction down. Amazing part gone... .

Enjoy~!

Thank you so much for reviewing, protovy, Denidene, Mary Akataki, Kigaroo, crazyfreakazoid, Mungetsu and bunannza! (if I forgot you, please say ^-^)


Rangiku was standing for the mirror, putting on her small scarf.

When Shūhei gave it on one of her birthdays, it had been a good length, but now it was becoming a bit small.

Whatever, she didn't mind. It was a sign Shūhei cared and still cares about her, in contrary to Gin...

She felt that her eyes started to water again, but roughly she wiped the gathering tears away.

Today, she wouldn't shed any more tears about the past. Gin was just a stupid, sad, foxfaced bastard and not worth crying about! When she looked back at everything, she felt such a crybaby...

She sighed deeply, and then she left the barracks.

"Hey, Rangiku," a voice said, and Rangiku turned around.

Shūhei was standing next to the entrance of the barracks and walked up towards her.

"Any specific plans for today?" he asked, after giving her a short hug.

Rangiku smiled, and shook her head.

"Not really... I wanted to walk a bit around through the Rukongai markets of today, to see if there is something nice there. Do you want to come along, or do you have too much work to do?"

"Nah, I got a day off today from my captain, he said I would overwork myself if he wouldn't do that..."

Rangiku grinned. "You're really working too hard... It'll only take some more time for you to become a workaholic.. "

Shūhei smiled a bit clumsy. "Er... Is it really that bad?"

"Yes it is~!" Rangiku said, smiling. "I bet that if I wasn't here, you just were sitting behind your desk again, working your ass off while having a day off~!"

Shūhei grinned. "Yeah, maybe you're right... But you don't become a captain by just slacking off, do you?"

"So you want to become a captain, don't you?" Rangiku said, serious again.

Shūhei sighed. "I don't know, but... Well, in case that whén I would like to become captain one time, I then have a good base for it..."

"Okay," Rangiku said, shrugging. "Are we going now or not?"

"Y-yeah, of course!" Shūhei said, and he and Rangiku left the 10th squad grounds, and walked through Seireitei.

"We're quite lucky, aren't we?" Shūhei asked.

"What do you mean, lucky?" Rangiku asked.

"Well, that we are together again here, on this beautiful location with plenty of food and warmth and that we don't have to die to get our food to survive... I guess our young days were a lot harder than those born in the good circles, like the Kuchiki's..." he added when they walked past the Kuchiki Manor.

"Yeah..." Rangiku said, staring to the big, beautiful manor with its wide garden and koi pond. "Well, it makes you stronger and shows you you have to be happy with what you've got."

"Yeah, guess you're right... We already need to be happy with the luck of us two both being gifted with spiritual power. We need to eat because of that, while other Rukongai members don't, but we have the privilege to become shinigami so we can learn how to defend ourselves, so we can't easily be abused, while other Rukongai members can..."'

"Shall we go now or do you want to wait until the market comes walking up to-" Rangiku froze in mid-air when Gin turned around the corner. "you..."

She wanted to run. She wanted to hide. She wanted to get away as fast as possible, but remembering the promise she made to herself this morning, she didn't.

"I hope those guy with the jelly beans is there again," Rangiku said, walking some faster than usual and not paying attention to Gin at all. "I really like those~!"

"Y-Yeah, I hope so for you," Shūhei said, catching up to her. "But otherwise I think we can still find something nice to eat".

Gin stood still when Rangiku walked past him, not knowing if he should say something or not.

He hated this.

He hated being ignored, feared and hated by the one he loved, just to protect her. He had done it himself, just for her sake, but it was killing him.

He sighed and looked to Rangiku who was running away with Shūhei, happily laughing.

No, it was better this way...

Rangiku ran onto the local marketplace, which was again a lot smaller than the previous time. The market seemed to become smaller with the day, but fortunately, the guy with the jelly beans was still there.

Rangiku's breath caught when she looked at the little stall, but it was just a second till she realized the silverwhite hair didn't belong to Gin, but to some other kid. It was quite messy, and not as smooth as Gin's.

She walked towards the stall, wanting

The kid just bought some jelly beans, and held up his hand for the change, but the man hesitated and then just put the change on the counter.

"Go home as soon as you're finished here," the man said, turning around and not even looking the boy straight into the face.

Rangiku just couldn't stand it any more.

"Hey, you!" she yelled. The kid looked around and was knocked down by Rangiku's ample chest, but Rangiku didn't notice this. "You shouldn't treat customers like that! Are you taking advantage from him because he's a kid?" Rangiku added, walking up to the stall, past the half-unconscious kid. "I've never realized how rude the people at this store were!"

"N-no-," the man tried, but Rangiku wasn't listening to him any more and turned around to the kid lying on the ground.

After watching him for a few seconds she grabbed his kimono and lifted him up. "How long are you going to sit and cry? Man up and say what's on your mind!"

"And just whose fault is it?" the kid yelled back, trying to break free from Rangiku's grip on his kimono. "Besides, I'm not crying! Lemme go!"

Rangiku blinked a few times when seeing the power that was still in this kid after being treated like that.

"I said let go!"

The kid got some advantage of Rangiku's weakened moment and managed to break free.

"Hey, wait a sec!" Rangiku tried, but the kid was already running away.

Rangiku sighed. "Maybe I should have been a bit friendlier..." she said softly to herself.

Shūhei came standing next to her, and pushed a package of jelly beans in her hands.

"Wow..." he said after a few seconds.

"Yes, I know he-"

"Why can't I be greeted like that?"

"What?" Rangiku asked, half laughing. "Do you want to be knocked unconscious by my ch- by me every time you see me?"

"I wouldn't mind at all..." Shūhei said grinning.

"You're really a pervert, aren't you?" Rangiku laughed, clapping Shūhei on the shoulder.

"And still there is something strange about that boy... He seems to have reiatsu, but I don't think he's able to control it..."

"Aah, whatever," Shūhei said, turning around. "Let's go, Rangiku, then I'll treat you on some sake."

"Sake, what's that?" Rangiku said vaguely while turning around, still with her mind at the little kid she knocked down.

"You'll see," Shūhei said mysteriously, with a half-evil grin. "And I think you'll quite like it..."


Hey,

The next chapter is the second part of the meeting between Rangiku and Shūhei, but then I think I ran out of flashbacks, so we can go back to the original story line!

Oh, wait, I still got one surprise flashback left ;)

But if you know a really nice flashback you réally want to see, then you can pm me or put it in your review~!

See ya next chapter~!

SeireiteiFantasy