Rukia
We started at district one, hoping that he'd be in one of the best families. It'd be easier to contact those within the nicer districts, but the worse the district, the harder it was to find people. Ichigo was well known to most of the people in district one, and they knew right away that he wasn't there. We looked everywhere, knocking on people's houses. We brought along a picture of him, in case they didn't know who he was. We asked those who hadn't seen him to notify us if they saw him.
The search was endless; we decided to start at the north districts, trying our best. This was the worse thing possible, not only are there four parts of each district, there are 80 in general. We wouldn't be able to even locate what district or direction with ease. Even if we found out what district, it would take forever to search within the districts. It was just a hell within a hell. I mean this place was big enough to hold all the people who died on earth, which is many people every second. It was impossible to find someone. I just wished we were more organized, but we had other things to worry about, one fight after another. A year wasn't enough for us to recuperate, then after that the Quincies, they just kept on coming. Even if we handled all the disputes, we'd have to deal with the large count of Hollows. For as many shinigami there are you would think that Hollows would almost be extinct. District 5 is when I gave up, wouldn't it just be easier if they made an announcement? I met up with Renji at sunset, and we headed back into the Seireitei. We talked with Captain Commander and I suggested the announcement.
"Rukia, we should wait. It would be a lot of trouble explaining why we should try to find Ichigo. Plus, Ichigo's pretty dependable, he'll come to us when he feels it's right. Rukia, the reason I sent you out is if Ichigo couldn't find the way back, he'd kind of meet halfway through. If you want to be taken off the job, you'll just have to wait longer to find him. I have a mission that has your name on it that you can go do."
"It's fine, I'll look for at least another month or two, and if there's no luck, then you can take me off the job."
"Oh, we also set up a flier asking the person who assigned Ichigo to his district to contact us. So it's a matter of if a Shinigami wants to say where he was sent to and if he even remembers. It's a hard thing to remember if you do it over and over again for days at a time. That's all." If only all the things related to Shinigami and our recent battles weren't a secret, everyone would know Ichigo, and then it'd be easier finding him.
Ichigo
The rush was exhilarating. I don't believe I did stuff like this in my past life. I mean the rush felt familiar, all too familiar, but it didn't feel the same. I mean the way my senses feel, it'd be irrational for me to have done this frequently but get so nervous and unprofessional, you'd think the experience would lead me to becoming useful. 5 of us were running from the fat man that sold the star candies on the side of the street. Of course my orange hair came to a disadvantage, but it was fun running for our lives. I felt like I've read a story like this before, the life of someone living in filth and poverty, sounds like many people actually. Even though I wasn't used to this, I could still run fast, I must've been a great runner in my old life.
Pondering about the things I could've been was useless, it wouldn't help me survive out here, when everyone was starving and dehydrated. One of the older guys from our group decided to trip the man running after us. He fell and something clicked in my mind, an image of a young girl with black hair tripping a man, just like Goro had. A sharp pain formed in my head, a migraine had begun. I became dizzy and staggered to the right, running into an old woman in shredded rags. The group slowed and Mikan, the youngest girl in our rag-tag group, came back and gave me support. I leaned a little bit of my weight on her, my head throbbing. Everyone else ran while Mikan stayed behind to give me support. We were heading in a different direction than before.
"Mikan where are we going?"
"To our new house, didn't you hear Akane? Jeeze you're the eldest, shouldn't you listen more?"
"Sorry… I was kind of busy with other things."
"Hmmph, even though I look 10 technically I'm 13, I can listen better than you." She smacked me right in the middle of my forehead. I winced, hitting my head with a migraine hurts like hell.
"10, really? You're very tall for the body of a 10 year old, it's abnormal." I stopped leaning on her, being able to regain my footing.
"You're so rude!" Mikan ran off sticking her tongue out. I had no idea where we were going so I ran after her, catching up in an instance.
"You're going to have to run faster if you want to outrun me." I say taunting her. She gets a gleam in her eye, and sprints off, trying her hardest to outrun me. As the sun starts to set we began to get into the area called the 80th district. It was a long run from there to here. Suddenly Mikan turns into a small wooden doorway, and I skid when I stop, thrown off by the abruptness. When I enter the doorway I'm breathing heavily and my hearts pumping hard. The migraine has started to subside and Mikan starts laughing when she finally catches her breath. I feel more alert, enjoying myself. I guess being dead isn't oh so bad.
"Ichigo, you're weird, and what's with the girls name." She sticks her tongue out at me again, taunting me. Before I can say anything she runs off, going to claim her room. I look around our new house, it was larger than the others. In the past 2 weeks we've gone to 30 different houses looking for the rumored one. Hikaru, a guy who looks 14 but is actually 15 now, shows me the places open for a futon. All the beds were taken because I was the last one back. It was pretty roomy though, considering there were 10 of us. In the past we slept on the floor and the younger ones all shared one futon. I don't know how we would've lasted if it wasn't summer, with the lack of blankets and such.
"Is this the house?" I ask as I walk up to Hikaru. He's searching the numerous cupboards, a nicer wood that's not usually found out here.
"No, but it's been nicer than the others. I guess someone rich wanted to get away from the busyness. It doesn't have much food in it though. I'm assuming the people here didn't have much rietsu…"
"Uh, what's that?" Hikaru gives me a strange look. He shakes his head in disappointment.
"You've learned nothing, haven't you… It's the kind of power that the Shinigamis run off of. It's what differentiates them from regular people here. Normally people aren't hungry, you know that right?"
"Wait what? Then why do all of us experience it?"
"It's cuz we have a rietsu, but, sadly not enough to be a Shinigami, who have huge amounts. That's the reason why we're together. Normally families are made up of 5." Hikaru continues scavenging. Shortly Akane's voice rings throughout the large house, calling us over for dinner. We all sit down in the courtyard in the middle of our house. It has a big fruit tree in the middle and little patches of grass, but mostly dirt. Everyone enjoys the shade the tree gives off, protecting us from the summer sun. The younger ones have huge smiles on their faces, happy with the candy and fruits. I grab an orange and climb onto the roof, sitting next to Mikan who is watching the sunset over the numerous houses.
"Somewhere out there is our house Ichigo." She lies down on top of the brown old rusted tiles.
"Yep little sis." I bite into my orange, licking my lips and winking at her.
"You sure are delicious Mikan."
She scowls at me. She quickly shoots up from lying down, and squats right next to me.
" Gross… You're such a pervert." She coils then socks me hard in the arm, and a slight throb begins. We lie back down, waiting for dusk, the feeling of homeliness surrounds us.
Hi there!
Sorry it's been so long... I hope you guys enjoyed this. I'm hoping to finish it up soon, it's a really short story.
*If you didn't know, Mikan means Orange, so Ichigo was taunting her.
Also I'm not using honorifics because it's really troublesome, sorry if that bothers you!
If you have any good (or bad) thoughts/opinions feel free to tell me, it'd be very appreciated!
-Slipsilvermoon