Chapter 1.

If you asked me how my childhood was, I wouldn't say, "My mom took me to the park everyday," or "I was happy." No, if you asked me whole-heartedly, how life was as a child, I wouldn't say such blissful experiences like those. I would say, when I was small, I was cold. When I was small, I was hungry. When I was small, I felt like I was missing a piece of my heart and missing a piece of myself.

And water will keep flowing regardless of me.

I was little when my sister abandoned me and I could never blame her for that. She was scared and tired. There was no use in hanging on. She left me on the streets of Rukongai with the yearning of a better life. I? I was yearning for a warm hand.

A cold hand picked me up, but I felt the nice warm tenderness inside her skin. I don't remember much of this blur, but I remember living with a faint smile. At least for a little while. They at least taught me how to say my name. Rukia, Rukia, was what they taught me to say. My surname? I'm not sure. I'll let people make one up. By the time I reached the age of a child, my new family died. I surprisingly did not feel sadness. I felt like another kid on the street, stealing my damn butt off for a tidbit of food.

As a child living in the streets, I often distanced myself from the public. I learned to never trust adults and to make sure the children were honest. I often looked for animals in the wild and the only animals I found were bunnies. They were cute, but frail from the conditions, yet I still liked them. I liked that they couldn't tell you their troubles so they couldn't scream pathetically either. I became to like them even more and more. They became my favorites.

It was an autumn morning when it happened. I was stretching my arms and looking up at the dust in the sky. It was another day in Inuzuri. I kicked the dust and blew the sand clumps away. At that time I was a loner, wearing a simple purple-pink kimono with dots and petals. It was stolen, truthfully, from a little dead girl in the alleyway. I heard a yell from afar and it sounded like the old man I used to steal from everyday. I went to go see and in the distance I saw a head of red hair followed by some other boys. They were screaming something and behind them was that dangerous man. I thought about my options. Should I go save them? Or should I watch if they were able to make it themselves or not. I decided.

"I can't go anymore!"

Like an animal, I flew in to save them. Tripping the man, he shouted in surprise and fell to the dirt, face flat. He fixed his gaze to me and laughed about utter nonsense. I knew better to listen to his mouth run so I stomped his head to the floor numerous times. What were those children standing there for?

"This way! Follow me!" I told them, running ahead.

"Hey, wait a minute--" The red-head said.

"Hurry up, do you want other people to come after that water!" At that I continued to run. I supposed they would follow. That was plain instinct. We stopped after out-running the man through the streets. Huffing and coughing, we sat down on the pavement.

"So, why did you help us back there?"

"I had no choice. We children should just stick together, right? My name's Rukia."

"Renji," he stated.

--

We arrived in a small brown tent in the grassland, away from the streets of town. There, kids relaxed if only for a second and it was where we dwelled from there on. Renji led me inside and I placed myself on a barrel. He held up a small bag up to my face and I questioned him like anyone else would.

"What's that?"

"I divided up the candy we got. This is your share."

"Thanks." That was all I could say and I took the offering from him. I raised a piece up.

"It's confetti."

"Confetti?" I asked.

"What? You never heard of it? It's sweet."

"Oh." I was about to place the sweet confetti in my mouth when I heard a cry from within the tent. A taller boy was holding up a bag of candy and the smaller boy pathetically reached for it, wanting it back. The small boy jumped up and caught a part of the pouch, making it rip and all the contents spilled out onto the floor. He immediately started to cry.

"What! You don't need it, you don't even have a shred of spirit power!" The older one said. "'Long as you have water, you won't get hungry! Geez stop crying like a baby..."

I stood up and slowly walked to the older boy. What was I thinking, I didn't know, but it was so wrong. These thoughts churned inside my head and the only way to get rid of them was to speak them out loud.

"I told you to stop crying. It's freakin' annoyin'."

"Hey!" I grabbed onto the punk's shoulder. "None of us get hungry!"

"What the hell, you newbie!" He shrugged me off like a bug and swung his arm. I saw that coming and tripped him off his feet. Before he could sit back up I sat on his chest to hold him down and took hold of his head.

"We may not get hungry, but we could taste flavors! We could smell scents! We all share the enjoyment! Don't act like the scumbag grown-ups! Got it?" He nodded and I got up from his chest. I took my own bag of candy and went to the poor kid. He still weeped sorely so I held up my own bag. "Don't dry anymore. Take this." I left the tent with their eyes on me. I needed fresh air from the wicked aura of that moment.

I wanted to climb. Ever since I could remember, I loved to climb things: trees, houses, even on the shoulders of my past family. I saw a nice tree in front of a view of the rooftops. With ease I stepped up and seated myself on a branch. Do you know how beautiful it is to climb a tree? One might think it's just something a child would do. You would laugh at the immaturity of it all, but that is coming from someone that is ignorant. To climb a tree is a bliss. I can forget the troubles by smelling the wind and feeling it run through my fingers and toes. To have the time to climb one is a blessing. If the weather is nice, then the dreamy surrounding could take you away and if it rained, you would be one of the first to be cleansed by it.

Renji ran by under me and he stopped to look around. He was looking for me. "Hey, Renji! What's up? Need to talk to me?"

He didn't answer for a second, but only stared at me from below. Was that a bit of red coming to his face?

"No, it's nothin'."

I laughed. I giggled from his stupidity. Anyone could tell that he did want to say something, or check up on me. Hiding it was so foolish. So foolish, Renji. "You're a strange one."

"You're the strange one!" He pointed at me. I could only laugh at him. "Hey, what are you laughin' at! Dangit Rukia, I said quit laughing! Ah dangit!" He was raising a fist now and jumping around on his toes. Foolish Renji, you always made me laugh.