Images flashed through his mind. Blood and death wracked at his mind. Black hair was mixing in a puddle of red blood. Normally blue eyes were dull with death. Pale hands contrasted the cold stones. She was whimpering tearfully as painful spasms shook her tiny form. Then he woke up.
"Dad." A pair of blue eyes bore into his dark ones. They blinked.
"Dad, it's time to get up." The eye's owner said. Jinta Hanakari, twenty-eight years old, sat up to see his lovely fourteen-year-old daughter in her middle school uniform, pouting at him.
"Dad, Kisuke-ji-san will get angry at you again." She huffed standing up, hands on her hips. Her wavy dark red hair cascaded down her back pushed out of her face by a single butterfly hairclip, her sapphire eyes blazed with the same spirit as his own.
"I'm coming Miko." He called her by her nickname, short for Michiko. He followed her down to the hall to the kitchen and sat with her while they ate breakfast. He watched as she went out the door, to school. He felt sad, knowing that she would eventually have to accept that she didn't belong anywhere. She wasn't human or shinigami, or even artificial being. She a mutt, a mix, she doesn't belong to one world or the other. Worst of all, in this world, she's a bastard child, born between foster siblings, a child of relationship frowned on by society. She was disgusting to them just because her mother had grown up with him in the manner of a sister. Even though they could not be farther apart.
"Bye Dad!"
"Bye Miko." He told her.
Miko ran outside onto the sidewalk into the sun. She skipped down the sidewalk and stopped in front to the park watching mothers and their children playing. She always wondered who her own mother was, but her father refused to tell her. She saw a ghost of a woman trying to grasp a child. It was sad to see, but Miko was used to it. She could see ghosts longer than she could remember.
"Where are you Mom?" She whispered so that only she could hear it. The alarm on her watch went off and she freaked.
"Great I'm going to be late" She grumbled she sped off to school, struggling to be on time. She was late of course; entering the room two minutes after the bell rang.
"Ah, how nice of you to join us Hanakari-san." Her teacher told her.
"I'm really sorry sir!" She shouted to no avail.
"Detention."
"But-"
"No buts now go to your seat Hanakari-san." Miko huffed and sat down; she noticed all the boys were drooling over her as usual. She sighed loudly, causing a few to giggle. Miko hated school, she hated it. She preferred fighting; she had inherited her father's rough nature. There was something about herself that didn't seem the same. Sometimes when she sparred with Kisuke-ji-san, she felt her humanity simply slip away. She felt as if she would kill and not care. Why this was, she might never know. Absorbed in her thoughts the day seemed to fly by. Soon she found herself sitting in detention. Her teacher hated her, she was sure. He hated her because she was her father's daughter. Her father had mellowed out over the years. Then again her father was a troublemaker, and she was born when he was only fourteen. So her teacher was probably trying to make sure didn't she end up the same way.
"Hanakari-san you can go now."
"Thank you sensei." She picked up her bag thinking of how angry her dad was going to be when she got home. She was late after all.
"It's a shame really, taking after your father more than your mother." Miko froze.
"What?"
"Your mother was sweet and quiet; your father was delinquent that knocked up his own sister." Miko didn't want to hear anymore. She ran out and all the way home. She rushed into the shoten and ran straight to her father who was scrubbing the hall.
"Oh Miko where were you, did you get detention again?"
"Dad."
"Yeah Hon?"
"Who's my mom?" Jinta sighed and stood up and put his large hands on her small shoulders.
"Miko, Hon, I'm not going to discuss this with you. It's hard."
"Was she your sister?" She felt her father's grip tighten on her shoulders.
"Where did you hear that?"
"From my teacher."
"Miko, your mother, I." He didn't really know what to say.
"Was she you sister?"
"Foster sister, she saved my life and brought me here. We grew up together here."
"So you weren't blood related." She mentally sighed in relief.
"Even so, our relationship would have been frowned upon." Miko scrunched up her face.
"Would have?" He smiled fondly, as if remembering.
"Your mother and I were never really together. I never even got to tell her I loved her."
"But then, how was I…..?" He grinned mischievously.
"That is a story for another day Miko." He began to scrub the floors again.
"Dad?"
"Yeah Hon?"
"Did you really love Mom?"
"Enough to never love another woman, Miko, I'm twenty-eight, yet I've never been on a serious date. That is because I love your mother too much, even though I can never have her."
"Oh."
"Now go do your homework before I chew you out for being late."
"Fine. Can I spar with Kisuke-ji-san after?" Miko hated homework too, if it wasn't obvious.
"If he agrees." God he felt like such a dad. Well, he was after all. It was amazing what his daughter had done for him. That girl, the baby that almost caused her mother's death, had matured him into an adult. It was hard raising a baby and being in middle school. How people talked about him, and stared at him. The delinquent that knocked up his foster sister and raising the baby by himself.
"Geez, this is annoying." She grumbled writing down the answers to her homework. She twirled he pencil in her hand reading the next question.
"What's the point? I'm going to become an assassin anyway."
"You better hope you're joking young lady."
"Kisuke-ji-san?"
"You done yet, I heard you wanted to spar."
"It's good enough." She said slamming her book. She leapt to her feet agilely grabbing her staff.
Michiko was a natural born fighter. The combination of her father's rough nature and her mother's physiology designed to fight was powerful indeed. Urahara almost felt bad for her, he saw her inhumanity show when she fought. One day she would kill somebody and she would simply not care. Mayuri's influence spread even to a child he had only touched once.
He would always go easy on her but he never let her win. He wanted to give her something to aspire to. She was getting better every day. Ururu was like this too, back when she was young, she fought the same way. He wondered if he'd be barely fending off that child by now. Michiko fought with a staff and knew some hand-to-hand, Ururu was more about hand-to-hand and less about weapons. Ururu had her cannon but she preferred hand-to-hand. He had her pinned in a matter of minutes.
"Guess I lost Kisuke-ji-san." She laughed.
"Now for the usual penalty, go clean!"
"Hai!" She chirped. She scurried off.
She started with her father's room. She spun around tidying things up. She noticed that her father had forgotten to put his futon away. She picked up the pillow and found a rectangle under his pillow. She picked it up curiously and looked at it. She almost fainted when she saw it. It was a picture of a sixteen year old girl, a pretty girl. The girl had long ink black hair and big blue eyes, she had ivory white skin. The girl was wearing a white summer dress and a straw hat with a blue ribbon on it.
"Hey Miko?" Jinta walked into the room and froze. Miko was looking at his prized photo.
"Dad, who is this?" Jinta made a grab for it but Michiko was too quick.
"Dad?" She whispered urgently. He said nothing. Michiko looked at the picture again, this time she noticed the uncanny resemblance of herself.
"Dad, is this Mom?" She asked slowly. He stared for a moment then sighed.
"Yes, that girl is you mother, Tsumugiya Ururu."
"Tsumugiya…… what an odd name."
"Her original name was Kurotsuchi, but Kisuke changed it." She didn't look up from the photo
"Why?"
"He wanted to protect her from her father. Her father would beat her and her older sister."
"Did my grandfather kill her?"
"No.
"Who did kill her, or what?"
"Your mother's not dead Michiko." Michiko dropped the photo.
"Mom's alive?" She spun around with wide tearful eyes, not sad but hopeful.
"Last time I saw her." Michiko became angry.
"Then why the hell isn't she here? I find it hard to believe that she would abandon me!" Jinta looked away in shame.
"A deal was made that you got your freedom in exchange for Ururu's. You were allowed to leave as long as she stayed."
"Stayed where Dad?"
"Where she came from, where she was made. In the land of the dead." Michiko staggered backwards.
"You're joking, right Dad?" He shook his head.
"Michiko there are three known dimensions, there's this one, the Soul Society where dead souls go and the Hueco Mundo where hollows reside. You know hollows right Hon?"
"Yeah but, Dad, is Mom okay?" He nodded unsurely.
"I don't know. I wish I did."
"What about me Dad, am I half ghost?" He chuckled at such a statement.
"No Miko. You're half Ryoka, half Artificial soldier."
"Soldier, what are talking about?"
"As I'm sure you know by now, you're not human." He cut off by a shriek.
"No, I'm human I have to be!" She ran out of the room. Jinta picked up the photo.
"Sorry Ru, I know you would have wanted her to be younger when she knew this but I didn't have the heart to tell her." He let a few tears slip by his eyes.
"Man Ru, you've missed so much. You missed everything that you get from parenthood. You missed her first steps, first tooth, first words, and first day of school. I miss you though, Ru, she needs a mother." He looked fondly at the photo on the dresser. He was in his high school uniform with a three-year-old Michiko in his arms. Her first day of pre-school.
"Okay manager that's enough pictures." Jinta sighed getting tired from holding his three-year-old in his arms.
"Yeah Ji-san!"
"But our precious jewel is going to apart from all of us for the first time!" Urahara spazzed. Jinta sweat-dropped.
"It's just her first day of school, and now I'm going to be late for my first day of school."
"Something odd about a high-schooler is dropping off his kid for her first day of school."
"I'm going to get that a lot today and I hoped I wouldn't have to get it from you."
"Daddy I wanna go to school!"
"Alright Hon, come on." He walked along happy to see the next phase of his daughter's life beginning, and sad that her mother was missing it. Michiko's most noticeable feature was her hair, that was all she really inherited from him physically, although her skin was rather dark compared to her mother's. Michiko had her mother's eyes and facial structure. He dropped her off at the preschool and she adapted without a hitch. After he was satisfied that she was fine he ran to his own school. He was late.
"Why are you always late, you got detention again. Keep this up and you won't be able to stay on the team!" Karin yelled after class was over. Jinta scowled at her.
"I was dropping Miko off for her first day of school, and I'm ditching detention, tell him I had to pick up my sister." He had gotten into the habit of calling Michiko his sister to spare the cruel prejudices from his teachers.
"What Michiko's three now?"
"Yeah, I have to go pick her up from school."
"Well Yuzu and I are coming too."
"No, I'm her father so I'm picking her up."
"Yuzu and I are her aunties."
"Since when?"
"The more you argue the later you'll be."
"Fine whatever." He stormed off. Karin chased him with Yuzu in tow. They all walked a good number of blocks before they heard the laughter of children. They approached the school with Jinta in the front.
"I'm Hanakari Jinta; I'm here to pick up Michiko." He told the woman out front.
"Aw how cute, her big brother is here to get her. Where are your parents?" Jinta's eyebrow twitched.
"My parents have been dead since I was four. Michiko is my daughter." The woman blinked a few times.
"Oh, well, this is unusual." She faked a smile.
"What's unusual?" he expected the answer but he liked to make people uncomfortable.
"I mean, most parents your age put their children up for adoption, and even if they don't, normally the mother takes care of the child."
"Is that what you think?" he raised an eyebrow at her.
"Yes it is." Jinta chuckled exasperatedly
"Listen Lady, before you get on your high horse you might want to consider that I could possibly be a good dad. I don't neglect, beat, abandon or insult my daughter that makes me a hell of a better dad then a lot of dads out there. Just because I'm young doesn't mean I can't be a good dad to my little girl. On top of that her mom is dead so I take care of her and even if she was alive we would raise her together like all parents should. So shut the hell up and stop acting like you know everything." He spat at her feet and walked in catching the attention of a small red-head.
"Daddy!" Jinta's face melted into a warm fatherly smile.
"Hey Hon, how was your first day?" He scooped up his giggling daughter.
"Great!"
"Really now? Did you make new friends?"
"Uh-huh!" Jinta continued to chatter to his little daughter, such affection surprised the twins.
"Kisuke-ji-san." Kisuke looked up from what he was doing.
"What is it Miko-chan?"
"Who was my mother really? I know her name, but nothing else." Kisuke said nothing for a long time. He took in the face of the half hysterical girl.
"Your mother wasn't human."
"I hoped you wouldn't say that."
"But you knew." Michiko was quiet.
"I guess so; I was always faster and stronger than the other kids."
"I figured this day would come, your Dad's not too bright. It was only matter of time before he slipped."
"What my father did is another conversation, this is about my Mom." Kisuke raised a skeptical eyebrow.
"Your mother Kurotsuchi Ururu was built to fight and kill. She was built to follow orders without question, decision making skills extremely limited." Miko blinked.
"Did she feel?"
"Feel?"
"Emotions. Dad gave me the impression that she didn't act very emotional." Kisuke considered his answer.
"Your mother could feel emotion. She felt affection for you and everybody at the shop. Her ability to show affection was more limited than feeling. Her father and sister showed her no love, even though her sister loved her and only her. She never learned how show what she felt. For most of her life she didn't even cry." Michiko smiled.
"It's nice to know she loved me."
"Loved you enough to stay with her creator who treats her like a machine."
"That's another thing, why are you acting like she's a robot or something?"
"In a manner of speaking she was." He smirked.
"A robot?"
"She was a synthetic shinigami. Her body was made up of compounds similar to flesh. Her blood was her only natural body part."
"Then how could she have me?"
"There in lies the question."
"Eh?"
"Never mind, is there anything else you wanted to ask?" Her face grew stony.
"Is she being held against her will?"
"Interesting, why do you ask?"
"I'm a teenage half-human girl; I need my mom."
"You're willing to risk death to save her?"
"Will it really be that hard?"
"More that you need to endure than overcome."
"I'm willing to fight for her."
"That's what I wanted to hear, grab your staff."
"Eh?"
"Well if you want to save her you have to continue your training right away."
"Hai!"
Michiko dreamt that night. She dreamt of the photo that showed her mother's face. The photo became a landscape with her mother standing and laughing. Her mother had not aged a day from when the photo was taken. She blushed madly when her father, twenty-eight, came in and wrapped his arm around her, holding up a camera. Michiko came in and her parents put on each of her shoulders. They were a happy family.
It was a nice dream while it lasted.
She woke up. Her father was shaking her awake.
"Hey Miko, time to get up."
"Yes Dad." She sat up slowly.
"Dad, I had a dream about Mom. All of us actually as a family."
"I've had that dream a lot, when I'm not having nightmares about the last time I saw her."
"Dad?"
"Hm?"
"What happened to Mom the last time you saw her."
"She was hurt Miko, they cut her open to take you out, and then they left her."
"They left her for dead?" She whispered wide-eyed.
"No, she's too valuable to lose; she wouldn't die from a wound like that. She was bloody as hell; she walked knowing it would make things worse."
"Why?"
"To make sure that you, Nemu and I got away safely."
"Nemu?"
"Your aunt, Ururu's older sister."
"Dad?" Her blue eyes were downcast.
"Hmm?"
"Did Mom love you too?" There was a brief pause, and then he cracked up.
"I sure as hell don't know. I was terrible to her when we were kids. I don't even know why, I guess I felt stupid that a girl kept savin' my ass."
"Dad, didn't you say she saved your life?"
"Yeah why?"
"Well, is that the reason you live with Kisuke-ji-san?"
"Yeah."
"What happened to your folks and could they see ghosts like us?" She was excited about learning about her heritage.
"My Dad had no powers whatsoever. My mother was a different story; she was a powerful priestess from a race similar to the quincies, a race known for unusual hair or eye coloration. They seldom interact with the modern world, living in secluded villages in the wilderness. My mother just happened to fall in love with a normal human. That's how I was born; she had her powers sealed shortly after as punishment for leaving behind her people, I of course inherited her exorcism abilities. My mother's people tried to take me back to 'my people' but my father put a stop to that."
"So you're not entirely human either?" He smirked.
"Diverse back round you have."
"I know, is anybody in my family normal?"
"Your grandfather."
"That's it? No grandmother on Mom's side?"
"Not that we know of."
"Do you think your folks would have loved me?"
"Well, I don't think that they would have been happy at me becoming a father at fourteen, but they wouldn't hold it against you."
"So they wouldn't hate me?"
"Nah, they'd chew me out for knocking up a teenage friend but, eventually, they'd be too busy fawning over you to be angry with me." He gave a hearty laugh, and Miko found herself giggling too.
"Dad tell me about when Mom saved your sorry ass."
"Watch your langue young lady."
"God you sound like a dad, what are you thirty five?"
Jinta was perched on his father's shoulders, he smiled brightly. It had been three years since his mother's horrible death. His father let him down and he scurried to the swings and sat down immediately beginning to swing back and forth. As father struggled to catch up with his rambunctious son Jinta noticed a girl on the swing next to him. She was pretty in his opinion she seemed to be older than him. He stopped swinging. She had really long black hair worn loose that fell further than the swing; her bangs were messy and hid her face.
"Hey!" He shouted at her. She pushed away her bangs showing pretty blue eyes.
"Hi." She spoke so softly he could barely hear her.
"What's your name, mine's Jinta!" He spoke so cheerfully it was almost obnoxious to the sullen girl.
"Ururu."
"Where are your mommy and daddy?"
"I don't have any."
"Oh, why don't we play together?"
"O-okay." He took her hand and they sent the entire day playing together. She pushed him on the swings. They played the sandbox although he crushed all the structures she made. Even so she always laughed and started over. The day came to an end and Jinta was led away by his father, Ururu waved good bye. Jinta held his father's hand and left looking over his shoulder at the pretty girl with the knee-length hair.
Ururu walked home by herself her hair swinging. She was rightfully proud of her hair; it looked like a silk tapestry. She smiled rethinking the day's events, it was rare that a child took interest in her and wanted to play. Without warning she felt a jolt of spirit energy. She spun around so fast her hair looked like a cape. She ran in direction that she felt it.
Mean while Jinta was practically skipping. His father struggled to keep up. Jinta suddenly stopped; a cold shiver shook his small body. His father asked him what was wrong. He turned to his father just have blood splattered on his face. He stared at his father, his eyes were blank. His father toppled down in front of his son. Three huge claw marks were sliced in his back, blood was pooling from his mouth.
"Daddy?" A creature stood above the corpse with the face of a skull.
"Well it was you with the tasty soul, I was mistaken." Jinta was too horror struck to say a thing.
"Hey!" A voice came from behind. It was the girl.
"Well another tasty soul, I'm in luck today!" Her eyes turned pale and she disappeared. She reappeared behind the creature and made a blow its head. She missed and the creature swiped at her with its claw and caught her by the hair. She was she was tossed around by the scalp. Eventually she grabbed a sharp rock and hacked at her long beautiful hair. Ururu stood up and ran head on to the creature and literally tore it apart. She was covered in blood and her hair, once a tapestry was now a tattered mess. Her silken locks were still tangled in the creature's claws. She touched her hair sadly. She proceeded to forget about her hair and help the child in front of her.
"Are you alright?" He didn't respond he was covered in his father's blood.
"I have to get you out of here." She pulled his frozen body onto her back and ran to her home, the Urahara Shoten. She sat him down on the floor of her bedroom and grabbed a pair of scissors. She cut her hair until was neat again, unfortunately it was almost up to the back of her head. She ran her fingers through her hair sadly. She then knelt down and patted his red hair.
"Do you have any family?" He shook his head very slowly.
"Come with me." She said softly taking his small hands in hers. He followed her clinging to the blood stained skirt of her denim jumper. She went into the backroom where a man was sitting.
"Kisuke-san." He glanced up and jolted.
"Ururu?! Why're you covered in blood and what happened to your hair!?"
"Kisuke-san, I am fine, this is Jinta, and his only family was killed today because the hollow was after him, he's part Wiccan, can he stay with us?"
"He has no other family?"
"None that he knows about." The man sighed.
"He can stay with us if no one comes to claim him." Ururu smiled.
"Come on Jinta-kun, you can share a room with me." Ururu took Jinta's hand and led him away.
"Wow, so Mom really did save your sorry ass!"
"Miko…." He warned.
"Kidding Dad." She laughed.
"Miko, are you sure you want to go through with this?"
"With what?"
"Finding your mother."
"Of course, don't you want to see her Dad?"
"Yes, but I never came back because I was scared they would take you away from me, and I knew Ururu would never forgive me for that."
"I see." Her eyes fluttered downward. Then she got up.
"Later Dad. I'm going to train with Ji-san."
"Good luck." Miko was becoming a strong independent woman, just as he had always wanted her to be.
The next two months were filled with intensive training on Michiko's part. She was spending almost every waking hour working hard on her skills. She was getting better every day. The drive her mother gave her pushed past her limits. The dream of finally meeting her phantom mother was enough to get her to jump off a cliff with only a piece of thread to catch her. Michiko had always displayed inhuman qualities but now she could meet someone who would explain them.
Then the day came; she was leaving to rescue her mother, sweet and gentle. Kisuke had set up a portal. To prepare for her journey she was given money, food, a new staff and an outfit like those worn by natives along with a battle outfit. Her father told her hair clip was her mother's and to show her the picture of herself on her first day of preschool in her father's arms. She hugged her dad and promised to come back safe.
"Michiko."
"Hai?"
"I wrote down a contact that can get you into Serietei, her name is Akahana, she runs the Star's Inn. Tell her I sent you and she'll help you, she used to work patrol so she knows every flaw in the wall."
"Thank you Ji-san and you too Tessai-ji-san for making these clothes for me." She smiled.
"No problem, anything for our princess!"
"My mother was your princess before wasn't she?" A silence crushed them all.
"I guess since I'm the princess now that makes Mother your queen, don't worry the courageous princess will rescue her lovely mother!" With that she ran through the portal, she rushed through the purple Tunnel. She wanted to stop and look around but Kisuke warned her to get out soon as possible. She let her inhuman speed take over and she ran like the dickens. She saw the other end and rushed out only to trip on a rock and fall flat on her face. She sat up embarrassed and looked around. She clearly stood out with her blood red hair and sapphire blue eyes. The entire place looked like some pre-WWII village, the kind she had only seen in movies.
"Hey pretty thing, you lost?" She turned from her seat on the ground to see a fat, ugly middle aged man. He reached out and took hold of her chin.
"You looking for work sweetheart? I know a place where men pay a lot to have pretty girls like spend time with them." He smirked. A vein throbbed in her brow and without a second motion she used her staff to send him flying. She didn't explode surprisingly, she normally did, she was her father's daughter after all.
"Filthy old man." She sauntered off swinging her hips slightly. She paused when she noticed men were staring
"Well?! Take a picture, it'll last longer!" She snapped all the men scattered. For once she was glad to have her father's temper and attitude.
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-Omake-
"She's been really weird since she visited that friend's house." Jinta sighed looking at his five-year-old daughter happily scribbling away with a black crayon.
"How do you mean?" Kisuke asked in a bored tone, he did admit it was nice having Michiko around. Even though having a kid could be troublesome, as he knew from raising both Ururu and Jinta.
"She keeps drawing pictures of girls and Moms….." He sighed.
"It's normal for a girl to wonder where her mom is." Kisuke chuckled.
"Daddy, Uncle Kisuke, how come I don't have a mommy?" She asked holding a picture in one hand.
"Uh…." Jinta's eyes were wide, how would he explain this.
"That's easy sweetie, your daddy gave birth to you himself!" He told her cheerfully.
"Oh! That makes sense!" She chirped. Jinta punched Kisuke in the head.
"Don't teach my daughter stupid things!"
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Princess: For those of you who read this enjoy this chapter. We delve into Michiko as a person instead of an infant. Yeah she tries to be a hero and save her momma. I personally like writing Michiko, she's sort f a conflict between regular girl and tomboy. Her father raised her as boy, and she wanted to be more girlish. So yeah, she's superhuman and obsessed with Mom. The omake I thought was hilarious but others may not share my sentiment.
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Reviews
gubgub434: Thank you for the kind review, I love getting it every chapter.
Sakura otome: You're awesome, thanks