A/N: Hello again, peoplez! How have you guys been doing? I just finished my exams and am now enjoying three whole months to myself xD Though, I must admit, it does get quite boring without my friends sometimes. Anyways, lots of thanks to:
Black Cat Angel and SnowAngel607
For the amazing reviews! You guys kept me alive =P Well I won't keep you here any longer…..Happy reading!
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To say that she didn't believe her eyes would have been an understatement. Raika was under the strong suspicion that she had finally lost it. Either that or she was hallucinating out of extreme obsession. But there wasn't too much possibility of that since she had crushes on numerous anime bishies. Toushirou Hitsugaya just happened to be number one. She had already ruled out the possibility of it being a dream. She rarely ever visited dream land at night (probably because she was there all day) and when she was graced by dreams, they were usually fuzzy and not clear. And in dreams, she never thought anything was out of the ordinary; even if she'd once used one of her friend's heads to break a wall. Nope, there was no contradicting the supernatural, in dreams.
Raika could only stare at the 10th Squad Captain, dumbfounded. She blinked once or twice and even kept eyes closed for a full five seconds. There still wasn't anything. Rubbing her eyes didn't produce any fruit either except for making her eyes red and watery. Meanwhile, Hitsugaya only stared at her in confusion. He had already looked her through and come to the obvious conclusion that she wasn't a Shinigami, since her garb was that of a human. It was only after a while that Raika realized that Toushirou was present and watching her crazy antics. Oh great, now even an anime character would think she was blind; or cracked in the head at the least.
Joy to the world, Raika thought sarcastically while trying to come up with something to say. But the boy saved her the pressure.
"Are you a new soul?" he asked, looking confused. She didn't blame him. Souls practically never turned up in the Seireitei. The closest they could get was Rukongai. But telling him the truth at this point would literally be a one way ticket to Intensive Mental Care, in the words of 'Bleach', that meant Squad 4. Unohana-taichou would not be very pleased. So Raika tried to play along with him. Hopefully, her acting skills were sufficient to trick the Captain of the 10th squad.
"I…I don't know," she feigned confusion as she stared at the live version of the boy whose picture was behind the mirror of her compact. Hitsugaya, apparently, finding nothing suspicious in her acting, uttered a sigh.
"Come with me," he said, not harshly before leading the way. Raika followed him to the Squad 10 barracks, past the many small houses built in the traditional Japanese style and into his office. The entire room was dimly lit and there was a figure crouching over the desk where Hitsugaya usually sat. The sight confused the young girl until the figure stood up and revealed itself.
"Taichou…is that you?" Rangiku Matsumoto's drunken voice rang out as she came towards her very annoyed Captain.
"How many times do I have to forbid you to drink in the office, Matsumoto?" He chided her, more dismissive than angry, since this was a scene he was extremely familiar with.
"You naughty taichou! You brought a girl into the office and you're angry at me for drinking?" she pointed an accusing finger at the white haired boy, having finally noticed Raika among the shadows.
"I did not bring her! I found-" Hitsugaya's angered retort was his lieutenant.
"Oh no need to get all flustered, you naughty boy. I'll leave you two alone," she departed with a knowing wink at her Captain, while all the giggling like a school girl.
"Matsumoto! Get back here!"
Toushirou's yell was cut short by laughter being emitted by someone in the room. He turned around to face the new 'soul' that had been sent to Seireitei for some unfathomable reason. She was laughing at the scene that she had just witnessed. Television had never done any justice to the real bickering between the Captain and Lieutenant.
The silver haired boy stared at her for a while before finally uttering a dismissive sigh and left her alone for a while. Five minutes later, he was back with a pillow and a blanket and he handed them to the girl, motioning for her to sleep in the bed for the night, before sitting down on a couch beside the bed.
"Before you sleep, we have to talk about some things," he said gravely looking at her.
Raika groaned internally. She had banked on their 'talk' being postponed until the morning, by which time she would be gone. Not to get a bad impression, it was absolutely beyond thrilling for her to have met her favourite character but staying there might have gotten her executed. Yamamoto- Genryuusai wasn't very considerate and Central 46 was heartless- plain and simple. All in all, prolonging her stay any longer would not have been a very good idea and she needed to find a way to get home; unless all of it was a dream of course, in which case all she had to do would be to wake up.
Still disappointed at her bad luck, Raika just nodded.
"You haven't told me your name yet," He inquired.
Finding no danger in revealing her real name, she decided to tell him the truth, "Raika Misaki."
Hitsugaya nodded before continuing, "So Misaki, do you have any memories of what happened before you came here?"
Raika shook her head so as not to lie so directly. She was good at lying but that didn't mean she liked it.
The silver haired boy seemed to consider that, "Do you know where you are?"
"Soul…..Society?" she pretended to be confused.
"Precisely. However, your appearance seems to be an anomaly. You see, Soul Society has many divisions and souls are usually sent to other districts. Seireitei is solely for the Shinigamis or Soul Reapers and a soul has never ended up here." He explained thoughtfully.
Raika nodded at the information that she already knew. But there were more pressing questions that revolved in her head. Why was she here? If this was truly the Soul Society, how could she have crossed the Dangai without a stabilizer? Did that mean that she was dead? Even if she was dead, that didn't explain the enormous black hole glaring at her from her dressing table mirror. Would she ever get the answers to these questions?
The girl sat in silence, enraptured in her own thoughts until she was interrupted by Toushirou.
"I should let you sleep now. Tomorrow, I'll take you to the Head Captain."
The silver haired boy misinterpreted the terrified look that struck Raika's face and reassured her that Yamamoto-Genryuusai was not a bad person, before he left. Easy for him to say. He wasn't the one who got transported to another dimension. Great, now she had to strangle her imagination till it came up with a good enough story that would seem true enough to fend off the ever suspicious Head Captain.
She watched Toushirou's back disappear slowly as he flash stepped away, all the while trying to rack her brain for a story. Amidst her terror and headaches, the tiredness finally set in and though she tried to keep awake numerous times, even slapping herself once, the attempt was wasted, as she fell back into sweet slumber.
The following morning, she awoke quite early despite her tiring adventures the previous day. At first, her surroundings puzzled her and she wondered whether she was dreaming, but as the complete and strange events of the day before, returned to her in full swing, she threw back the blanket and hastily made her way towards the door, trying to be silent and not catch any attention to herself.
"Halt." A voice uttered from behind her. It was so familiar and yet it sent chills down her spine. Hitsugaya's voice was no longer calm and kind as it had been the night before. Now, it was quite the opposite. Raika felt the tip of a blade touch her back and suspected it to be Hyourinmaru. She stood still, as if frozen by the angered voice.
"I know you're a human." He said icily, dangling her iPod before her, "And I have no hesitation to kill you."
Uh-oh. Busted.
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Well, what do you think of it? I know this chapter was a little short but that's for you to decide. So tell me whether you want long or short ones, k? Suggestions, constructive criticism and praises(If any were so awesome) can be left in the form of a review! I'll be waiting so….
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