A/N: Thanks to seal-chan for showing interest in this!
Disclaimer: Prepare to be shocked: I do not own Bleach or anything associated with it.
As a high school freshman she would have found it disgustingly beneath her, but a six-year old Kunieda Ryõ had no qualms about spending hours hiding behind garbage cans. She was sure that if her parents or any other people saw her doing so they would immediately begin questioning what she was hiding from; in fact, one or two adults had already given her odd looks as they passed by. But Ryõ was not someone to be scared away from what she wanted, and today she was a young girl on a mission.
It had begun on her first day of kindergarten. Ryõ had already been seated quietly, a book of nursery rhymes larger than her head in front of her, when a young man had walked into the room. He had been holding the hand of a little chestnut-haired girl who was smiling too much for Ryõ's liking. Most of the children in the class had sad looks on their faces from being left behind by one or more of their parents; one boy with messy, orange hair sat bawling his eyes out near the toy trucks in the corner. Ryõ herself did not have a problem with leaving her family for a few hours each day, but she could not see why anyone would be so excited looking about starting school. She glared as suspiciously as a six-year old could at the man, who whispered something into the ear little girl he was with before hugging her and leaving. The girl, still smiling, was led over to the rug right next to Ryõ.
"Ryõ, this is Orihime. Can she sit here?" Ryõ shrugged and made a small noise of consent, before looking back at her book. She heard the little girl adjust her billowing skirt as she sat down.
"What are you reading, Ryõ-chan?" Ryõ's head shot up at the stranger's casual use of her name. She then promptly spit out the strands of brown hair that had found their way into her mouth when she had turned her head toward this girl. Who did she think she was, just coming in here and sitting so close? Orihime just continued smiling and waved a bit. "Ara ara, gomennasai!" Ryõ gave another shrug before showing Orihime the cover of the book. Orihime smiled at the image of the long-haired princess in the tower. "She looks like me!" Ryõ took a closer look at the cover.
"No, she does not. She has blond hair." Orihime giggled.
"But we both have long hair, Ryõ-chan!" Ryõ did have to admit that was true. Orihime had longer hair than anyone she had ever seen. Everyone she knew, both boys and girls, had short haircuts. In Ryõ's mind it was just another reason to not trust this new person.
This was why Ryõ was behind the trash cans in the first place. She had gone home that day, bored with how easy kindergarten was, but disturbed about the feeling that Orihime girl gave her. She had sat on her bed, without even opening a book, and tried to come up with a reason why. Then it had come to her. Orihime was obviously an alien, sent to take over young children's brains. That man she had walked in with must have been the alien leader and her bubbly personality a clever way to trick people into thinking she was a good person. The two had to be stopped before something happened. So Ryõ sat, waiting for Orihime to leave her apartment.
"KONNICHIWA, RYõ-CHAN!" Ryõ spun around while jumping up, almost knocking over one of the bins. Orihime stood behind her, beaming while eating some confetti candy. Her long hair swayed in the wind, a receiver for alien transmissions.
"Hello, Orihime," she was able to stammer out after catching her breath. Orihime, oblivious to Ryõ's discomfort, stuck a hand into her pocket and took out a small package.
"Would you like some? I think food always tastes better with friends!"
Ten minutes later, Ryõ walked away from Orihime's house. As the taste of candy left her mouth, she wondered how she would look with long hair.