2

There were gossips going on and on around about the strange kid screaming at night. No one seemed to know who actually the kid was, but it seemed that they had a good guess.

There had been bagillion of rumors going on around the Rukongai about a burning kid. It was said that the kid was neither male, nor female. It was just a kid. It was also said that he had burned down a few buildings when he had been angry. Of course, those were the rumors that no one actually believed. Stil there was something true behind the rumors. That was exactly what she was looking for.

Matsumoto Rangiku wandered around the place where was said to be the strange kid's hometown. Oddly enough, there was not one kid around. Even the adults looked pretty tired and they probably were, if the latest rumor she's heard had been true: she had heard that the kid kept screaming each and every night, waking every single person in the neighboorhood up with terror to find themselves woken up at the same suffering voice.

She was walking around in causal clothes with her hair pulled back into one neat braid and she was also wearing a hat so no one would actually know her. She knew it was troublesome when a famous captain or lieutenant went out to the Rukongai to search for something. People would be… well, she didn't know, she couldn't point it out but there was a difference. Maybe it was the eyes on her clevage when she wore her uniform that made the difference; even though she didn't mind the eyes(or actually enjoyed them) it wasn't good when she didn't want to attract so much attention. Today her outfit certainly didn't show her clevage – though it wasn't able to do a good job at hiding how absurdly big her breasts were. Again, it was more innocent than her shinigami uniform.

She carefully approached one of the citizens. The man was pretty old and looked good-natured except for the purple rings under his eyes.

"Sorry, mister," she started off sweetly, "do you know about the kid that screams-"

"Don't look for him, little miss," the old man cut her off, "that kid is nothing but trouble. He will surely bring you bad luck, too."

"Well, i'm interested in that kid. So, can you tell me where he lives?"

"I insist, little miss, don't look for him." Said old man, persistently.

"But, mister-"

"He's from my house." Said a deep and tired woman voice from not very far away. Matsumoto looked her way. She had dirty-blond hair that was pulled back into a very messy bun. Her eyes were a very light and soft color of green but lacked life. The woman was definitely very tired and fed up with this exhaustion.

"Then," said Matsumoto, smiling with all her might, "I'm inviting myself in. May I see the kid?"

"Naku isn't home. Naku's never home at mornings. That kid just disappears and never comes back until the sun goes down." Said the woman in a cold, soulless voice that would be very beautiful if it was filled with warmth.

"Well, i have some questions."

"I know what you're gonna ask. He never lets us sleep. He always screams his lungs out till we actually wake him up. If we don't wake him up ocassionally he'll fall asleep again and start screaming again. Eventually the lower parts of his limbs will burn; until dawn, that is. We bandage the burns and he disappears again. He doesn't let me wash him. He doesn't tell me his dreams. The other kids are starting to get traumatized, so i cannot keep him for longer, i guess; but anyways. He doesn't ever talk. The only time we actually hear his voice are when he screams. We don't know his name so we had named him Mucchi, but changed it to Naku since he keeps crying out. That's all."

"No, that's not all." A little kid from inside the house interfered. Matsumoto carefully entered the building and then squated down right next to the kid that was sitting in her bed. She looked like only five with her short blond curls and big blue eyes.

"What more do you know?" Matsumoto asked in a sweet voice.

"I know that he's in pain. He doesn't want to disturb us, but he had nowhere else to go. It's not that he doesn't want to talk; he can't talk. Something is not letting him talk. He brings us water sometimes, we don't know where he'd find it. And when mother isn't around he eats some kind of fruit, but it's like he's hungry, he needs it. He doesn't share it with us. Maybe he's sick." Said the little girl with worry painted on her face.

"What's your name, sweety?" asked Matsumoto with a loving smile on her face.

"Elisabeth. Elisabeth Gennie."

"Thanks for telling me this." She patted the girl's head with clear symphaty, her blond curls scattered all over her face. She blushed.

"What will you do with Naku-chan?" she asked curiously.

"Nothing bad, darling; don't worry. We will try to solve his problem. Now, sleep. You look very tired."

The girl smiled gratefully and after saying "Thank you, sister!" she went back to her sleep. It took her only a few seconds before sleeping again. It was like she had woken up just to tell her that. She was definitely a fine girl.

Matsumoto thanked the woman – which she didn't know the name of and didn't want to ask – and went on her journey to look for the weird kid again. She didn't know where he could've gone, so she would have a hard time finding him. In worst case, she'd go back to the house after the sunset. Not too much of a problem. She was going to find out what was going on. Well, this meant slacking off of another day's paperwork; but, well, who cares? Her captain would most definitely finish them off by himself and she'd be alright with just a "MATSUMOTOOO!" along with the invisible lightning bolts that shot through her. Not too bad.

She wandered around, not exactly sure of what to do, hoping that maybe she would come across a clue of where the kid could be. Though she was sure she wouldn't call him "Naku" when(or if) she found him, no she wouldn't. What kind of name was that anyway? What kind of person would name a child like that? What a sad name.

She was pretty close to a burnt forest (probably burnt while some hollow attack, she thought) when she felt a wild, foreign reiatsu. It was nothing like she'd ever felt before. It was nothing like a hollow, definitely; but it also wasn't some kind of familiar shinigami reiatsu. It was probably a raw spiritual energy coming from someone who couldn't control it yet. The situation definitely reminded her of some similar situation in the past. She smiled despite the intensity of the reiatsu. She was either really close to a soul with his raw power flowing out or a little far away from some really powerful reiatsu gone out of control.

She sped up towards the source of the reiatsu. It faded away as she closed the distance and disappeared completely. She stopped uncomfortably when she reached the forest and looked around. She was looking for someting – anything – that could release that much reiatsu. She walked around between the burnt bodies of the trees. She was feeling pretty restless. Something about the forest – or something inside the forest, she didn't know – was disturbing her. Then she saw the silhouette of something; something tiny, behind one tree and moving. She approached it and as she did, she discovered that it was because of the smoke around that the figure looked just as a silhouette. It looked like a child sitting next to a burnt tree. She closed the distance between them and stood just in front of the kid that was sitting with his bandaged legs pulled to his stomach, his bandaged arms wrapped around his knees and his face buried in his arms.

"Hey, kid, what are you doing here?"

...

The Kid didn't respond to the voice coming form above. He kept on trying to focus on the burnt feeling inside him. It was as if the feeling would materilize and burn him when he was sleeping, so he wanted to destroy the feeling as well as the burnt nightmares he had every single night. This had been the only thing he had ever thought ever since he had come to this place. Other than that, he had not thought at all. He was a blank.

"Kid, are you ok?" said the voice from above again. He felt a warm weight on his head and he instinctively raised his head just enough to see what was touching him. He saw light skin framed with orange hair and his eyes plainly locked on the light blue ones of the woman in front of him. He didn't respond and just looked deep into the refreshing lightness.

"What have you been doing here, kid?" asked the woman again. He found the voice somehow soothing. It wasn't bad. It wasn't wrong. It was warm, just as Mother's was once. He realized something heavy inside him was gone. Something started burning his insides again. He tried to remember from the words he had heard. Could it be the so called "i missed you" feeling? The fire in his stomach grew and spreaded again. He automatically concentrated on the feeling to keep it locked in his stomach. He had discovered that if he had let the fire reach his hands and feet, it burned them. He didn't want to be hurt. As the fire grew more and more intense in him, he used the easing color of the eyes as a source of power and kept pushing the fire back into his stomach.

...

Matsumoto looked at the kid, not believing her senses. How could so much and so wild reiatsu come out of such a helpless kid? Well, it could be that she had judged wrong and the kid wasn't so helpless actually; but if the power was so dense even when it was so raw, this kid could even surpass Yamamato Genryusai-dono after being trained. It was also possible that it was so dense because it was raw, though.

She shook her head. Whas that the kid the woman had talked about? She doubted they could stand the kid any longer. If the kid let out reiatsu as dense as this at home, it would probably maket hem feel like they were being crushed – they were just normal souls after all. He needed to be taken to Seireitei immediately.

She looked at the face of him more carefully. The emptines that she had seen before was replaced by some intense concentration. His deep purple eyes that were like two black holes back then were now drowning, enchanting and completely mysterious. She didn't look away as it seemed like his reiatsu calmed down a little when she was looking into his eyes.

"We have to take you to Seireitei, kid. You are meant to become a shinigami. This power may destroy everything if left alone. Do you understand me?"

The kid kept on looking without responding.

"Can you hear me, kid?"

The kid's expression and the flow of reiatsu changed a little, as if to say "of course i can!"

"Can you speak?"

There was no response. Again. She decided that kid could clearly hear her and understand her a little; but he couldn't talk and since he could scream, it wasn't because of some phsycal problem. She also decided that feelings affected the flow of reiatsu. She didn't know what kind of feelings made him release so much at once, but she'd find out once he talked.

The density of reiatsu decreased and gradually disappeared again. She patted the kid's head again.

"I see you can't talk to me yet. Let's settle with nods and head shakes. Did you understand me?"

The kid nodded. Big improvement. At least she could get answers to her yes-or-no questions.

"Do you have any stuff at home?"

The kid shook his head.

"I have to take you with me. This means taking you away from your place. We will infrorm them afterwards, are you okay with that?"

The kid hesitated for a second, and then slowly nodded.

"Are your arms and legs burnt?"

The kid nodded again and broke the eye contact. He was clearly affected by it a lot. Well, it must have hurt a lot. But she had to ask one more question.

"Did you burn them yourself unintentionally?"

The kid stayed motionless. She wasn't so sure of what that meant, so she chose to think he didn't know or couldn't figure out. She stroked his shouler-length hair.

"Don't worry, you'll be all better, little kid. But, what should i call you? Should i keep calling you Naku? Do you really cry that much?"

The kid shook his head.

"Then, what am i supposed to call you? Shall i name you myself?"

The kid stayed motionless. She took it as yes.

"Then… let's call you Fuji. Do you know what it means? It's a purple flower. But since it's also the name of a mountain, it fits you well. Aren't you also all brown and purple?" Matsumoto smiled sweetly. The kid stayed motionless for a little, then nodded lightly.

"Alright, then, Fuji. Let's go. Can you stand? Can you walk?"

The kid got on his feet as a response. He looked in Matsumoto's eyes with an empty face. She had noticed that it was like that during the conversation too – what kind of conversation would be that one sided, she wondered – but had pretended not to notice. She was starting to get really curious about what had happened to the kid. She held his hand in a gentle yet firm grip.

"Come on, then. Let's go."

A/N: Sorry for the very late chapter, I'm a slow writer and when the studying interrupts me too, I get a little too(impossibly) slow. It's still in the start of the story, I'm just preparing the plot of it. The real fun is yet to begin. When I'm finished with the start of it, I'll try to make it fast and swift; I don't know if I'll be able to though. Oh well. Hope y'all enjoyed!