Alright, here's chapter nine! I know a few of you know I promised that it would be up by last weekend, two days late isn't horrible, right? Well, to try and appease you, this is my longest chapter ever! And all of you guys are too smart for me, it was kind of obvious, but pretty much all of you guessed right! I hope you enjoy it.

Toshiro's hands clenched and his chest constricted as he recognized the voice, only one person had ever called him by that name, that name that brought with it so many painful memories. He simply stared at the ground and didn't move. The voice called out to him again, but he chose not to respond.

The others had, by now, turned around to see a brown-haired girl with large, pleading brown eyes. Her hair was tied up in a bun and her hands were folded loosely in front of her. "Shiro-chan" she said one more time, in an almost pleading, soft voice.

Slowly, the boy turned to her, "Momo" he spoke her name quietly, not looking her in the face. The girl's eyes teared up and she flung her arms around him, sobbing into his shoulder. Toshiro stood ridged, a mixture of emotions dancing in his eyes, bewilderment being the most prominent. "Momo," he whispered, "What-"

"I'm sorry!" she cut him off, "I'm so sorry I was so stupid, I don't expect you to forgive me for what I did, but somehow I just hope-"

"Just shut up." He ordered, everyone was surprised at his words, but then he continued. "I never blamed you for acting the way you did. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"But I-"

Toshiro held up his hand, "Momo, please."

As she stood up, she wiped the tears off her face. Looking around she asked, "So who are these people anyway?"

"Friends," Toshiro replied, "Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia Kuchki, Renji Abari, and Uryu Ishida." He pointed to each person as he said there name.

"We also have four others in our group." Renji cut in, "The big guy on the team, Chad."

"Is he really a high school student?" Momo asked.

"Yup!" Renji assured her, "He's just a maniac when it comes to working out. then over in the cheerleading section, we've got Orihime, and Rangiku." He pointed them each out as well.

"Wow!"

"If you don't mind me asking," Ichigo started, "what are you doing in the Ryoka section? Some people here are super serious about school spirit and if they knew you were a Shinigami, they'd make a big deal about it."

"I just saw Toshiro and came to apologize to him for something I did before he left our school."

"What did you do?" Rukia was curious.

"Nothing." Toshiro stated quickly before Momo had a chance to answer.

"Let's sit down." Ichigo intervened, seeing as how things could get awkward. "People are starting to get angry that we're in their way." They did so quickly.

"Where are Ikkaku, and Yumickika?" Toshiro asked his former schoolmate.

"They didn't come." The girl replied simply.

"But they always come to Hisagi and Kira's games."

"Are you disappointed? They don't feel the same way I do about you." She shot him an apologetic look, but he simply kept his eyes down. "It's better without them anyway, Hisagi and Kira are taking me to a victory dinner after we win." She tried to lighten the mood.

"Like hell you're gonna win!" Renji yelled, "We Ryoka can beat you pansy Shinigami any day!"

"Oh really?"

"Really."

"We'll see."

They continued to watch the game, the group cheering when their team scored a point, and Momo looking smug and confident when her team did. It was a close game, but in the end, the Ryoka won by two points in overtime with none other than Chad scoring the winning point.

Even though her team lost, Momo had to admit that she'd had fun.

"I guess," Renji remarked, "that I will have to make a note of the few who are exempt from my 'all Shinigami must be hated' rule."

Rukia leaned over to the other girl, "He's one of those extremists we were talking about earlier." Momo giggled.

"I should get going," she said to them, "but I'll probably use the restroom first."

"Nice, Momo, we really needed to here that." Toshiro sighed.

"Oh, come on, Shiro-chan, you know I just kind of let people know."

"Yeah, yeah" he muttered as she gave him one last hug.

"I'll go with you," Rukia told her, "I have to as well." Momo smiled and told the other's goodbye, and that she'd had a great time.

"What is the deal with girls always going in groups?" Renji asked Ichigo, who merely shrugged.

Rukia walked alongside her new friend on their way to the restroom, "How did you manage to do it." Momo suddenly asked.

"Do what?" Rukia was confused.

"Get Shiro-chan to open up to you so quickly, he has only been going to this school for what, a few months? I would have never thought that he would befriend anyone so quickly after what we did to him." She said sadly.

"What did you do? If you don't mind me asking." Rukia prodded.

Momo hesitated, "It's obvious you don't know, and it may not be my place to tell you, but you have the right to know." Here she hesitated again before going into her story. "Three years ago, he came to my school, my friends and I instantly took a liking to him, I'm not sure why. He was really different, you know, I mean, when you think of a junior high student you don't think ten years old with white hair, but that's who he was, and we accepted that.

"A lot of the kids thought he was weird, and some were even a bit afraid of him, I never understood that one. We could see that it seemed to bother him, like he was ashamed of who he was, all of my friends and I tried to tell him to brush it off, we told him he was great and that the other's were just stupid, but we could see it killed him a little inside.

"He would frequently be out of school for a few days, when he would come back, we'd ask him where he had been and he'd simply say he'd been sick. One of these particularly long periods, I decided to pay him a visit and see how he was doing. I got his address from the school directory and headed over to his house. When I got there, I was a little creeped out already, the house looked like one of those haunted houses, you know? Made out of wood with many of the boards broken off or in obscure angles and dark windows.

"Well, after I'd mustered up the courage, I knocked on the door. After a minute or so, Toshiro opened it. He didn't look sick, but he didn't look well either. He had cuts and bruises covering his arms, which he had instantly tried to hide from me. He asked me quickly what I was doing there, I told him I had just wanted to see how he was, and before either of us could say anything else I heard footsteps from the inside. He pulled me down around the house and pushed me down beneath some bushes and motioned for me to be quiet.

"His dad came around the house and instantly started yelling at him, saying something about runaway attempts and how he was supposed to be in the house. His dad grabbed him around the neck and pushed him up against the wall, strangling him. I wanted to scream, to run to his aid, but I was frozen to the spot with fear.

"A police car approached, I could see it through the trees. His dad threw him behind the bushes and told him to stay. The cops got out and started talking to the father about a theft committed by Toshiro's brothers. I didn't hear anymore because Toshiro told me to leave and showed me how to get out without being seen. I got away quickly.

"He wasn't back at school the next day either. I told Izuru what had happened and he got angry. But he wasn't angry at Toshiro's dad, he was angry at Toshiro for not telling us, Izuru felt betrayed somehow. He told the other's how Toshiro didn't trust us enough and how he really didn't like us, he didn't even tell them the real story. They all kind of shunned him after that; I didn't know what to do. In the end, I took the coward's way out and went along with the others. Not long after that, Toshiro left the school, I hadn't seen him until tonight."

"Why that son of a bitch!" Rukia yelled, "why would he make something like that up and get angry over something like that! I oughta knee that guy where it hurts most. How could anyone do that to him."

Momo looked down in shame. "You must hate me, I hate myself just as much."

"I don't hate you." Rukia sympathized, "I don't know what I'd do either, it's this Izuru that's boiling my blood."

Just at that moment, said person rounded the corner with Hisagi and some of the other Shinigami. "Momo!" he called to her, running over to them he stopped when he saw Rukia. "Who's she?"

"Rukia, she's a new friend of mine." Momo introduced her.

"Izuru Kira" he introduced himself while reaching out to shake her hand. She accepted it and shook it with a strained smile on her face, it took all of her will power not to knee him in the balls right then and there.

"You coming, Momo, we're going to dinner?"

"But we didn't win!" she protested.

"It was a good enough game. Let's go!"

"Alright, I hope to see you around, Rukia." The brunette waved as she walked off with the boys.

Rukia said goodbye as well, then she whirled around and sped back to the place where her friends were. She had to tell someone, she had to tell Ichigo, she knew he would know what to do.

When she made it back to the gym, Chad had exited the locker room and was being congratulated. She went over and gave her congratulations as well, then pulled Ichigo over to the side.

"I need to talk to you!" she exclaimed.

"What's up?" the confused strawberry asked. Rukia hesitated a moment, them proceeded to tell him what she'd found out.

"I already know." Ichigo said quietly when she was finished.

"What?" she was astounded.

"He's already told me."

"Then why did you keep it from us! From me! We're his friends too!"

"Think, Rukia, after everything you just found out, isn't it obvious as to why?"

"But we're not like his other "friends"!" she protested.

"I know that, but he doesn't. he made me promise, it wasn't an offence against you, but after everything he's gone through, it was simply a protection mechanism for himself."

"We can tell him we…"

"No, Rukia, let him find out on his own, don't tell anyone, and don't let him know you know. Know would not be the good time to tell him."

"I understand."

"Now come on!" he smiled, "tonight's a happy night, we're going to Grater's to celebrate our boys beating the Shinigami, put on a smile and let's go"

At Grater there was much cheering and excitement. Everyone in the building was a Ryoka, and everyone was having a party. Ice cream buckets were constantly being emptied, and the poor employer's were having a hard time keeping all the rowdy high schoolers in check.

Toshiro sat in between Rukia and Ichigo enjoying his mint-chocolate chip ice cream cone. Rukia would ask him if he was having a good time, she was constantly making sure he was alright. He couldn't figure out why, though, he supposed she was just one of those girls with an overly working maternal instinct, and since he was the youngest in the group…

"I'm not a child." He muttered, mainly to himself.

The clock rang out eleven, and the employers were shooing customers out the door; they had stayed open too long already. Rangiku left the restaurant with Orihime, arm in arm they skipped out the entrance. But all their bouncing caused Orihime to drop her unfinished orange sherbet-cotton candy ice cream cone, she let out a sigh as Rangiku dragged her away from her precious treat.

Out in the parking lot, all of the boys paired up and drove to Ichigo's house. When they got there and opened the door, the smell of freshly ordered pizza hit their senses.

"Alright Donatos! My favorite!" Renji shouted.

"Not so loud!" Ichigo hushed. "My dad's asleep."

"What about your sisters?" Uryu inquired.

"At a friend's house." He answered simply, "So decency tonight can be damned."

Toshiro's face got red, what the heck was that supposed to mean anyway? Renji saw his face and howled in laughter. "I think you just scared the crap outta the little one."

"I'm not little!" the boy protested, his face still red.

"I think, Ichigo, you should explain yourself to him." Uryu suggested, Chad nodded.

"Well, you see, when the boys come over to my house, my sisters are normally here. Some of us like to sleep in simply our boxers, or undershirts and my sisters are too young to be exposed to a bunch of half-naked men, so when my sisters are here, we all need to dress for bed decently. But tonight my sisters aren't here, so we don't."

"that would be Ichigo, Renji, and Chad." Uryu put in, "Even with my friends, I like to retain some sort of decency."

Toshiro only nodded, understandingly, and Renji snorted at the remark.

"He's just scared we'll make fun of his toothpick arms." He laughed.

"They are not toothpicks!" Uryu argued.

"Yeah they are, they're just like the rest of ya, scrawny and weak!"

"I am not weak!"

"Are so!"

"I Am NOT!"

"Guys seriously, stop." Ichigo stopped their quarrel. "Now, we're gonna watch a movie, which kind do you want, I've got scary, just got the new one that came out The Wolfman, I also have comedy, action, or" here Ichigo sent an evil smirk in Toshiro's direction, "chick flick."

"I do NOT watch chick flicks!" the boy shouted, angry that Ichigo would bring that up, "it was a good book."

Ichigo shrugged and turned to the other's, who all looked utterly confused. "Inside joke" he explained, they nodded understandingly. "So which kind?"

A vote was taken, Ichigo and Renji voted for the horror movie, Toshiro was in the mood for a comedy but he didn't really care either way, Chad wanted action, and Uryu, to the surprise of everyone, wanted a chick flick.

"What the hell, Uryu!" Renji exclaimed, "A friggen Chick flick!"

"I like the softness to them, they help to understand girls better, and girls love a man who will watch chick flicks with them." The four-eyed boy stated.

"Yeah, but we're a bunch of guys!"

"Hey! We've already got our genera, so cut it out!" Ichigo again stopped their quarrel. He popped in the movie, and they all sat around the TV eating their pizza and watching the movie. Ichigo and Renji would comment now and then on the movie and would shout at the characters on the screen to watch out. Uryu would remark on how well the graphics to the movie were and how everything looked so real. Chad sat passively through the whole movie, Renji even got up to make sure he wasn't dead. Toshiro sat the whole movie with wide eyes glued o the screen, blocking out the other's around him.

The movie ended in a most violent and horrific way, Renji had even had to close his eyes. Once it was over, Chad calmly got up and walked to the bathroom, Ichigo and Renji took care of the dishes. Toshiro was still staring at the screen, he hadn't moved through the entire movie. Uryu went over to him and nudged him on the shoulder, he jumped at the older male's touch.

"Are you alright?" He asked him.

Toshiro nodded, "I'm gonna go get ready for bed." He went into another bathroom and Uryu went to go help the other two boys.

"D you think we should have watched a different movie?" Ichigo asked.

"No, why?" Renji wondered.

"Well, I wonder if it was too much for Toshiro, I mean it was rated R and he's never seen a movie like that."

"Then it was a good experience for him." The red head stated firmly.

"You can't change it now, Ichigo," Uryu said, "He'll be fine."

"I hope."

"Hey! Watch me scare Chad!" Renji told the two. He crept up to the bathroom door where the big man was and waited. When Chad opened the door Renji let out a loud "BOOO!" but Chad didn't even flinch. Uryu and Ichigo laughed at his antics. Chad was impossible to scare.

Toshiro came out of the bathroom in sweatpants and a tee-shirt. He walked strait over to the other boys and stood near them awkwardly, not saying anything. He wasn't scared, he tried to convince himself, but the shadows kept appearing more and more ominous.

"We're going to my room, okay?" Ichigo brought the boy out of his thoughts. The younger male nodded and they all went upstairs.

A woman stood before him, looking directly at him with cold, haunting eyes. She took a step forward, he tried to take one back, but found he could not move his legs. .

"It's your fault!" she screamed at him, while moving closer and closer. "Your fault we live like we do! You're the reason my husband's a drunk! And the reason my son's are now too!" tears streamed down her face, "You're the reason my world crumbled! If you hadn't come along, my life would be better, my life would be perfect! You cause all my heartache! You and your damn father! You are my living HELL!"

He could only watch and listen as she tore him apart with her words, hurting him deeper than anything ever had before. Ikari soon came into view. He saw how upset the woman was and got angry. He grew into a hideous monster, resembling the one in the movie. With inhuman speed, he leapt at the boy, poised ready to kill. The child found he could move, and quickly turned and sped away. His breath was coming in pants, he couldn't lose him, the monster was going to eat him. The thought came to him that it would probably be for the better, if he was dead, the woman, his mother, would not be living such a nightmare. The monster was upon him now, it leapt.

"Toshiro!" it roared.

"Toshiro!"

"TOSHIRO!"

Toshiro started awake, panting and sweating, Ichigo was over him, hands on his shoulders and a worried expression on his face. "You were tossing and turning and crying a bunch of incoherent things, then you started to get frantic, you even started shaking! What happened?'

The young boy looked up, his eyes brimming with tears he refused to lose. "I-Ichigo" was all he could say before he buried his head in the boy's chest, still slightly shaking.

"It's alright." The older boy stated as he wrapped his arms around the boy's small frame. Toshiro's breath hitched, but he was slowly beginning to calm down. "Do you want to talk about it?" Toshiro's head shook; no he didn't want to talk about it. "What do you want?"

The child was silent for a while. "May I uh… may I take a shower?" the request too the older teen off guard.

"What?" Ichigo pulled back to look at his friend.

"Water helps me calm down, it relaxes my mind somehow." Toshiro explained.

"Sure." He got everything ready for him, then went back to sleep by the sound of running water.

Toshiro allowed the cool water to run over his body, thinking of nothing in particular, simply enjoying the moment. He always took cold showers, it was just how he was, he preferred cold to heat. After a while, he turned off the shower and stepped out, wrapping himself in a towel. He checked the clock, 7:00 am; he'd been in the shower for half an hour now.

He decided it was pointless to put his sleeping clothes back on, so he decided to grab his day clothes. Trying to be as quiet as possible as to not wake anyone, he opened the door… and ran into someone.

Renji stirred in his sleep, he heard the sound of running water shut off. It reminded him of the fact that he needed to use the restroom. Getting up, he headed over to the bathroom and opened the door. The red-head stopped when he ran into something small and light, looking down, he saw Toshiro in mid fall. Even half-asleep his reflexes were quick and he caught the boy before he hit the ground. Toshiro, still wrapped in a towel, starred wide-eyed at the other boy.

"Sorry," Renji muttered, bringing the boy back up to his feet. His eyes ran over Toshiro's torso, bruises and scars ran across it. He was about to say something when the younger male ran around him. Involuntarily, Renji reached out and caught Toshiro's wrist. Turning around he stopped when he saw a burn on the boy's back. It was big and ugly, looking to be on the verge of third-degree, and definitely very bad.

"Toshiro," the red-head breathed, "What the hell happened?"

OOHHH! What's gonna happen? You'll have to wait to find out. remember, the more reviews I get, the more it will motivate me to update faster for all you fine people. So please review.