Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or any of its characters.
"Hinamori-sama, congratulations! Here is your new son, M'Lady."
The young queen of Serra Leoa beamed as she was handed a white blanket. When she pulled it farther apart, she felt tears spring to her eyes.
Inside was the most beautiful baby she had ever seen. There was a tuft of white hair on his small head, a trait he shared with his paternal grandfather when he was growing up. His pudgy cheeks were a bright red, and his eyes were closed tight as he slept peacefully. She wondered what color they were, and hoped they were a bewitching green, like his father's. His small fists were clenched in tight fists and the tiny toes on his feet were curled. When he cooed in his sleep, her breath caught.
She was absolutely enchanted.
The maids all smiled; some reached for their handkerchiefs and dabbed at their wet eyes.
The kingdom of Serra Leoa had awaited this day for nine months. Even longer really, because the king and queen had desired a child of their own since their first night as a married couple.
The only disconcerting part of the situation was that their king could not be present to witness the birth of his first and only son.
Many had been dismayed when the news had arrived that the young king had been mauled while hunting, but none more so than his spouse, who had been eagerly awaiting his return from his trip in order to inform him of their wonderful news.
Two months into her pregnancy, there had been a period of great anxiety. The widowed queen's depressed state and crying jags had caused great harm to the baby. When she felt the sharp pain in her abdomen, the royal had been rushed to the palace healers, and the kingdom only breathed again when they learned the unborn baby had been saved.
Now, all praised and thanked the Lord that the young prince had experienced a healthy birth and was well and whole.
"I'll name you Toushiro," Hinamori whispered to her new son, afraid that she would wake him. She smiled warmly when she heard the baby's slow and even breathing. "May you be blessed with a long and prosperous life, my son."
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Aizen had a rags to riches story. His home had been burnt down at a young age; he lost his family in the fire and was shipped to an orphanage on the outskirts of his small village. The orphanage treated him kindly enough, but they had so little money that sometimes the children went without proper nourishment, so they all took work to help their caretakers.
His father, a fisherman, had many friends who were willing to teach their dead friend's son their mastery, and so Aizen immediately took hold of the opportunity. But he detested the work, finding it smelly and unglamorous; he was very inept at it, because he held no respect for it. Instead, he had a skill with things such as numbers and calculations. In other words, he was very well read.
When an old merchant passed through his town, he stopped by the peer to buy fish. By a stroke of luck, Aizen was ordered to help the man carry his load to his wagon. After a small conversation in which the young lad manipulated his words to impress, he was offered the chance to be taken under the elder's wing. When he left his small village, he never looked back.
He displayed great skill at the art and was very adept at business. Soon, he was traveling the world, and not much later, he had acquired a small fortune.
Many who met him said he was respectable and opportunistic. Only those who knew him best understood that he was power-hungry.
It was during his travels that he encountered Serra Leoa. The kingdom was the center of their planet, which was named after it; it ran exports and imports, it regulated businesses, it created rules that the entire race had to follow. It was like the entire planet was the employees, and Serra Leon was their boss.
And at the heart of Serra Leoa was Queen Hinamori Momo, who ruled their world with a compassionate hand.
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When Toushiro was only two years old, Hinamori met Aizen; even at that age, the toddler did not like the man.
His mother was another story.
She was absolutely smitten with Aizen, because he was so handsome and fair, just like her late husband. The two began meeting, and she soon started to come out of her grieving state for her lost lover. Instead, she found a new love.
When the two began courting, Toushiro did his best to keep them apart. When Aizen arrived at the palace to escort Hinamori on a walk, he would begin kicking up a fuss, and whenever his mother left him for too long, he started crying loudly.
Despite his best efforts, the entire planet was soon celebrating at the news of their beloved queen's engagement with the admirable and able young merchant.
Although the kingdom had a new king, Momo was still the rightful owner of the throne, and therefore continued running the nation that did not discriminate their ruler because of gender. She turned to her husband only sometimes to get his input, but her years of experience made her a competent ruler.
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When Toushiro was eight, his mother was sent to the palace healers with a small case of the flu.
The next day, the young child was taken aside by a hysterically sobbing maid, and learned that his mother had passed away early in the morning.
Aizen was immediately named the new ruler of Serra Leoa. He now had an entire planet under his command.
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Toushiro and Aizen never saw eye-to-eye. Toushiro absolutely loathed his stepfather. The man was fake, and the teen did not understand how his mother could ever have been so infatuated with him. Nevertheless, he was stuck with the brunette as his only last remaining family.
The young boy detested that this man had taken away his mother's time from him at such a young age, for thinking he was good enough to marry his mother, for not taking good enough care of his mother to prevent her death.
When Aizen began forcing him to take many different classes, including archery, martial arts, swordsmanship, calligraphy, tea ceremony, winged-horse riding, and many others, in addition to his schooling, to prepare him for his approaching inheritance of the throne, Toushiro detested him even more for restricting his freedom.
The young boy began rebelling. He let winged-horses out of their stables during his lessons and let them run amok, broke his calligraphy brushes, spilled tea during his tea ceremony lessons, and purposely lost arrows by releasing them into the woods surrounding the palace gardens and then claiming he simply had no talent at the sport. His tutors hated teaching him and complained frequently to their new king.
Aizen never once punished him. This, instead of warming Toushiro up to his new father, only made him suspicious. Even his kind mother had administered some consequences to his acting out. But Aizen simply claimed that he was growing up and this rebellious streak was simply a part of it, and would soon pass.
It never did, and though Toushiro stopped acting out so obviously as he grew up and matured, he still despised Aizen, and wished him out of his life.
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When Toushiro was eleven, their planet entered a war.
Aizen explained to the frightened Leoans that the planet Earth, which was a celestial body located not far from their own in a galaxy many referred to as the Milky Way, had recently ordered their army to prepare for an attack on their planet, which they thought posed a threat. Apparently for no reason, or so Aizen said.
He informed them of the many brave Leoans that were still now poised at Earth among the humans, and that they had intercepted and decoded a secret message sent to and from the many rulers the opposing planet possessed that consisted of a detailed plan to invade their territories.
The kingdom cheered as he declared that they would enter this war courageously, if only to prove that Serra Leoa could never be overtaken by such an inferior planet.
Toushiro did not believe a single word of the bullcrap that spewed from the man's mouth.
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When Toushiro was seventeen, the war was still waging heavily. Many lives had been lost on both sides, but the Leoans were still keeping hope that they would win in the end.
One day, the young prince overheard some guards talking animatedly about the new prisoner in the dungeons. Apparently, he would be the first of many, and this would lead to their victory on the battlefield.
He was well aware of where the dungeons were located; years of sneaking around the palace at night to pull pranks had taught him all the secrets of the castle, such as the secret passageways and hidden doors.
Aizen had assumed he had been stealthy enough when leaving the dungeons. He missed the pair of teal eyes that had watched his departure from the hallway.
Toushiro overheard him and Gin speaking of the very same prisoner that infatuated the palace guards. Apparently the captive was a...manly female. Or was it a feminine male?
Despite his confusion, he was still eager to meet this hostage. And though the dungeon doors had been locked by Aizen, he knew of the secret exit of the guards within, and only had to wait for the prison to empty, so he could catch a glimpse.
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When Toushiro was seventeen, he caught his first glimpse of a human, whom, he had grown up learning, were the most despicable of all races, and would forever remain the enemies of the Leoans.
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When Toushiro was eighteen, he fell in love with a human.
This chapter is just to give you guys a bit of history on the story and characters that live in Serra Leoa, which is why it is all in italics (past).
I had to think long and hard to think up a name for Toushiro's planet/kingdom. Through a stroke of luck, I came across a website that tells you how the names of the countries in the world are pronounced/spelled in different languages (www. geonames .org - now I've given credit). 'Serra Leoa' is how you pronounce 'Sierra Leone' in Galician and Portugese (the similarities are probably obvious now that I've told you).
And no, the story does not take place in Sierra Leone. I chose it because the name sounded "old kingdom-ish" and fitting for the story. I actually wanted to figure out how to say 'Japan,' but it turns out prett much everyone pronounces it the same way, or not different enough, and Sierra Leone sounded exotic enough even without a change, so it seemed perfect.