A/N: I am soooo sorry for the late update!!! I had to enroll for the second semester of this school year and since the computer system they used got busted, it wasn't exactly the finest time of my life (aka it was hot, it was boring to wait for you to be called, it was noisy, it was cramped and it drained whatever 'life' there was in you by the end of the day) so I'm really sorry that I haven't been updating lately. I wasted around two to three days going to back and forth to school, and it was a relief when I finally got some of my units encoded. Some.

So anyways, I hope you guys enjoy the ensuing chapters!! And please, PLEASE review. I wanna know if I'm still on the right track.

Chapter 4

Toushiro wiped beads of sweat off his forehead as he surveyed the farmers who were harvesting his lands. It was sweltering day to be in Rukongai, but it was a harvest day nonetheless. He needed to oversee how the crop would be stocked in his barns, and he also needed to give out the shares of the farmers who tilled his land. Usually, this work was delegated to someone else but Toushiro liked to drop in his lands once in a while.

"A rather steamy day, isn't it Hitsugaya-sama?" his right-hand man Kusaka handed him a waterbag.

"Ah," Toushiro replied then gratefully took a swig of the bag. He closed his eyes to savor the cold feeling that was travelling to his stomach.

"And an awfully boring one too!" Matsumoto, who had come, whined from nearby. She was fanning herself furiously, and her normally revealing yukata was even more so, since it seemed like she wanted to take off the whole thing already. Nearby some men had stopped working to ogle at her.

"Matsumoto, close your yukata will you? You're distracting the workers."

Matsumoto pouted but she set it back to its original revealing level. Some of the men's faces conspicuously displayed disappointment. "Mou Toushiro, it's so hot here!!! And there's nothing to do but watch the stupid clouds! Soujiro-kun, do you think I can find some sake in that pack of yours?"

Without waiting for an answer, Matsumoto went on to rummage through their supplies, looking for alcohol. Toushiro groaned. He shouldn't have brought Matsumoto with him, if it weren't for her unceasing whines and numerous attempts to suffocate him with her large bosom. She soon squealed in delight when she found a small container filled with what seemed to be sake. Kusaka gave an exasperated smile to Toushiro, who just slapped his forehead. The sake was for the thanksgiving ceremony later. Maybe he should have just left her back home, no matter what she would've done to him.

Toushiro quickly snatched the small bottle from Matsumoto's hands before she could open it and gave her an indignant look.

"Toushiro!!!" she yelled.

"Ano, Matsumoto-sama, we're going to need the sake for the thanksgiving rites after the harvest," Kusaka tried to pacify Matsumoto, who was beginning to look annoyed.

"But I'm bored, and I have nothing to do, and there's sake! You always do –"

"I don't care if you're bored! You should've stayed home where there's plenty of sake and stuff to do," Toushiro replied nonchalanty as he placed the small bottle back into Kusaka's pack.

"Mou!" Matsumoto crossed her arms and pouted her lips.

When her nephew ignored her, she tried another tactic to pester him. "What a dreary life! Nothing ever happens when you're around, Toushiro."

Still no reaction. Matsumoto could feel her blood surging. She had to irk him, one way or another. She was going to get back at him for refusing her sake.

'Why? Are the gods yet too materialistic that a simple thank you would not suffice?' Matsumoto mulled over sarcastically. 'Stupid gods. They're probably making everything in this world to fill my life with miserable ennui. Nothing ever happens. I can't annoy Toushiro, I certainly cannot cajole Kusaka, I have no alcohol and –"

A loud bang was heard from afar, and a cloud of dust could be seen from the horizon. Matsumoto perked up, feeling some excitement. The sound of the crash was so distinct that Toushiro, who was usually deaf when he was working on the accounting of the farm, looked up from what he was doing with a worried frown.

"What happened?" Kusaka asked, squinting his eyes to see in the distance.

The dust settled later on, but the trio still could not see what had caused the tumult because of the wide expanse of land between them and the incident. Some of the farmers hurried to the scene, and Toushiro stood up, taking with him a sword in case it was some sort of set-up by bandits. It was a common modus for bandits to stage some sort of accident before looting and killing the onlookers, especially during the harvest season.

"Matsumoto, stay here. Kusaka, I want you to get the others ready."

"But Toushiro!!!" Matsumoto complained, being left out of the action. How could he? She was the one who prayed that something would happen. She watched wistfully as Kusaka banded the nearby famers, who readily armed theirselves in case it really was a bandit attack.

"Stay. We don't know what's going on there," Toushiro threw Matsumoto a smaller blade. "Use it if necessary."

In a flash Toushiro, Kusaka, and the other farmers ran to the place of the upheaval. A worker met them on the way.

"Sir," he said respectfully, bowing to Toushiro.

"What happened?"

"There seems to have been an accident, my lord. It's a carriage; apparently, the box and the horses got separated, and the carriage crashed into one of our ditches."

"Is there anyone inside?" Kusaka queried.

"I don't know. They didn't open the carriage yet."

"Well run to them and tell them to be careful. For all we know, bandits are awaiting in the area to ambush us."

With that the worker ran to his comrades, shouting Toushiro's order. Toushiro then directed some of the armed farmers to scout the nearby shrubbery, while he and Kusaka followed to the dislodged carriage box. When they got there, the farmers had taken a defensive stance, their pitchforks and sickles ready for action. Hitsugaya approached the dismantled coach, surveying the damage and trying to assess the situation.

"Lord Hitsugaya! Do not come near the thing! What if there is someone inside waiting to trap you?!" cried one farmer.

"Hush!" chided Kusaka. "Allow him to do his work."

Kusaka followed Toushiro, his blade also perched, ready to be drawn in case there should be a battle. The carriage box was made of sturdy oak wood, but the crash left it badly ruined in the bottom area, probably a result of crashing into Rukongai's rocky and treacherous dirt road. The top part of the box was still intact; there were some trunks firmly tied to it.

'If this was really of a rogue's doing, I highly doubt they'd go far to destroy a coach as well built as this,' Hitsugaya pondered. Upon further inspection he found a coat-of-arms embedded into the door of the coach. 'Maybe this carriage belongs to some rich person, and the bandits have already done with them, and they're now using this as a ploy to ensnare more people.'

Finding no other marks of apparent importance, Toushiro decided it was high time to open the door. He signalled to Kusaka and to the rest to get ready. He rested his left hand on the hilt of his sword, while his other hand opened the door. He was about to draw his blade when he noticed that there was no one in the couch ready to lunge at him. He instead found but two knocked out people, a raven-haired girl who head was bleeding profusely and a woman, who, judging by the state of her clothing was probably the former's maid, who was merely out cold.

"What is it?" Kusaka asked after a moment of anticipation.

"Lord Hitsugaya!" a man on sentinel duty exclaimed from the back. "There's an unconscious man in the ditch!"

End of Chapter 4