Chapter 4
"Mr. Hitsugaya, your last appointment for today has arrived."
'Thank God.' Hitsugaya pushed the button on his desk, "Bring her in. Is everyone heading home?"
"Yes sir, only you and a few others are left up there."
"Alright."
After a few minutes, Rukia went past through the doors of his office. She was wearing a white blouse and a black pencil skirt with matching high heels. Both widened their eyes when they were hit by nostalgia.
Rukia shook her head. "Good afternoon, Mr. Hitsugaya," she said with a small smile.
"Good afternoon, Ms. Kuchiki," he said. He stood up and offered a hand. Rukia shook it. "Please have a seat." Rukia nodded. "So, what seems to be the matter with my company's product?"
"Well, sir, I work for an insurance company, and there have been many complaints regarding your product's lack of safety warnings," she smoothly said.
Hitsugaya raised one of his white eyebrows. "That's very unlikely Ms. Kuchiki. You see, I have dutifully followed every single rule in Japan regarding safety precautions for my products."
"I am clearly aware of that, but there's another concern."
"And what may that be?" he asked, leaning closer in interest.
Rukia smirked. "You see, there have been rumors about you receiving death threats."
Hitsugaya just laughed at her. "Ms. Kuchiki," he said, standing up, "the only thing I'm afraid of are the women that crowd me wherever I go." He walked towards a bookcase and pulled out an envelope. He browsed through it and pulled out a piece of paper. "This was from a magazine." He held out the colorful piece of paper to Rukia.
When Rukia saw the article, she almost laughed out loud. "Now, this… is… peculiar…" On it was a feature about Hitsugaya being inside a restaurant with a girl. The press made a big deal about it since he was one of Japan's hottest bachelors.
"Do you get what I mean?"
Rukia smirked and stood up. She stepped closer towards him. She leaned forward, "What if I were one of your fans? Would you give me a chance?"
"As far as I've seen, I might," he said, holding her chin up.
Rukia moved even closer. "Only might?" They were now face to face, feeling each other's breath. Rukia had a little sly smile as she slowly took something from under her skirt. She then slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, making him smile in approval.
Hitsugaya wrapped an arm around her waist, "But I might change my mind."
"Well, you better hurry up," she said, slowly positioning the needle on his neck. "Your time's running out."
"What do you mean? I've got-" Hitsugaya felt a sharp pain on his neck. He moved away from Rukia, seeing her hold an empty syringe in her hand. "What did you…"
Rukia smirked. "Tick-tock, tick-tock…" she said as she twirled the syringe with her fingers. Hitsugaya widened his eyes.
"You…" He pointed at her with a weak finger. He slumped to the ground, trying to breathe. "Rukia? Is that really you?" he said in between gasps of air.
"I'm sorry, but I've never seen you before in my life."
Hitsugaya slowly started closing his eyes. "I see… It's… nice to… see ya again." He took his last futile gasp of air before turning into a lifeless body. Rukia was left standing there with a troubled expression. Was she supposed to know the man?
Rukia shrugged it off. She covered the syringe and put it back where it came from. She double checked for anything that might lead the murder to her. As soon as she cleaned the room, she calmly slipped back into the hallways, on her way back to headquarters.
She quietly walked back to the car that was parked just outside the building. She was greeted by an Ichigo who complained that she took so long.
"Shut up. You're just jealous that I get missions," she said coldly. She was still thinking of what Hitsugaya had said.
"Right," he said sarcastically. "So why did it take too long?"
Rukia rolled her eyes, "The elevator was broken." Ichigo gave her a questioning look. "Yeah, I climbed five flights of stairs in high heels. My feet are killing me."
"That guy's rich and he can't even have it repaired?"
"Yeah…"
"Unbelie-… Here we go. I'll drop you off here. I still have a date." Ichigo gave her a wink but Rukia just rolled her eyes.
"Okay… Just make sure that this time, the girl doesn't run away." He glared at her, making her laugh. She closed the door of the car and entered the building. The usual security check and report to the old man. The rest of the day past by swiftly as Rukia could only think of the man she killed.
As soon as she got home, she snatched her laptop and typed it Hitsugaya Toshiro. Most of the search results were about him being the youngest inheritor of the company and being the most sought after guy in the whole of Japan. One article did catch her attention though.
It was his biography. According to the article, he grew up in the same town as Rukia and Hisana. Rukia brushed it off since the town had a large population. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed out of frustration.
"Damn it! What's wrong with me?!" Rukia decided to take a little nap. She was about to doze off when her phone rang. She lazily took the phone from her bag. She checked the caller ID, Hisana.
"Hi Hisana, what's up?" she said sleepily.
"Rukia, I'm coming home tomorrow." Hisana said, a sense of urgency in her voice.
"Why? Anything wrong?" she asked, now slightly worried. Her sister was never like that, never. Well, sometimes she was frantic, but it was never serious, never. But this time, Rukia had a feeling that it was.
"I'll explain it when I get there. Take care, sis. Bye." The line went dead. Rukia frowned and stood up from the couch. She slowly made her way to her room and threw herself onto the bed where she immediately fell asleep.
"Rukia, it's your first day of school. Don't you dare pull off any of your tricks," Hisana lectured as she walked Rukia to her school. Rukia just pouted. "Promise?" Hisana put out her pinkie.
Rukia looked at Hisana then at the pinkie. She frowned, "Promise."
"Good, now, there it is. Go ahead, I'll pick you up at three." Hisana pushed little sister toward the schools gate. "Be good, okay?" Hisana kissed her forehead.
"Okay." Rukia heard the bell and ran inside. "See ya later sis!" Hisana waved goodbye, smiling.
Rukia wandered the school's hallways. She eventually found her room. She opened the door, only to be greeted by students talking, giggling and gossiping with each other. Rukia rolled her eyes, 'Oh brother.'
"Noisy ain't it?" She turned around and saw a white-haired boy. "Watcha staring at?" he said with a scowl on his face.
Ruki shook her head. "Nothing."
"Then do you mind moving aside?"
Rukia entered the room and chose a seat next to the window. As soon as the teacher came in, he rearranged their seating positions and Rukia found herself sitting next to the white-haired boy.
Rukia, trying to friendly and all that, mustered up the courage to introduce herself. "Hi, I'm Sasaki Rukia, pleasure to meet you," she said with a warm smile and a hand stretched out.
The boy just stared at the hand and looked away. "Hitsugaya Toshiro."
Rukia jolted upright. She just woke up from an all-too-real dream. The question was, was it? Rukia tried to remember the dream. A school, her old school. Rukia ran to Hisana's room. She knew her sister had a collection of photos from when she was a kid.
She nervously pulled out a photo album from her sister's book case. She flipped through the pages, searching, searching for anything that might help her remember the old days. The days when she hadn't entered this dangerous world she was now in. She stopped flipping, eyes wide. She removed the picture from its place and turned it over. What she saw made her eyes well up with tears.
She flipped through the pages after the picture. All of them were similar. All of them had similar writing on the back. Rukia dropped down to her knees, tears flowing slowly down her cheeks, eyes staring into nothingness. She loosened her grip on the album, making it slip down to the carpet.
"Oh God…"
She finally remembered.
I know, short chap… crappy one at that. Wrote this one around one in the morning so don't blame me for the quality…
Just… so… sleepy…
Review… please…