I am SOOOOO Sorry for not updating for AAAAGGGEEESS!!!!! School's got me all tied up and it took a while to untie myself!!! I promise I'll do a few really quick updates during this week!!!

Don't forget that I will add in events of my own just to prolong, including some HitsuHina stuff.

Love you all,

JJ

I nodded a slight greeting. "Hello."

He indicated to the sea and sand. "It's nice here, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"You remember me? I'm Abarai Renji."

I had heard the name somewhere before, but I just couldn't place it. "I'm sorry, but I've forgotten."

He laughed. "That's ok. I couldn't exactly remember you either."
"I'm Rukia. Kuchiki Rukia."

"We use to be friends remember? In junior school." He nodded.

"Oh!" My hand flew to my mouth as I suddenly realised. "But then you left. I didn't know what had happened to you."

He nodded vaguely, as though he didn't wish to remember. "Well, I'm back now."

I grinned. Just then, Keigo ran up to me. "Rukia-chan! Orihime says that…" His ecstatic grin faded when he saw Renji. "Who is this?" He demanded.
"An old friend of mine." I said. "Renji this is Keigo. Keigo, this is Renji."

"Nice to meet ya." Renji said. I could detect a hint of humour behind his voice.

"An old friend of yours hmm?" Keigo stood as tall as he could and eyed Renji suspiciously.

"Uh, what did Orihime say, Keigo?" I asked hurriedly to break the tension.

"Lunch is ready." Keigo replied. I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to where the rest of the group was, wet and dripping. Renji waved a cheery goodbye, and walked away.

"Rukia, what did you bring?" Hinamori asked, her eyes yearning. Orihime's 'feast' was nothing short of unpalatable, as she pointed to each dish with fervour.

"That's corn jelly with leek and soy sauce, cream and onion sandwiches, cinnamon apples in seaweed donuts, green tea-"

"That's lovely Orihime!" Tatsuki interjected. Most of us were ready to puke, and I hurriedly pulled out some more conventional items for lunch. "Ham and lettuce sandwiches anybody?" I called, as everyone dived feverishly onto the small brown paper bags.

"I don't get it…" Orihime pouted as she watched all of us eat. "What's wrong with cream and onion sandwiches?" She herself took a large bite to prove her point.

"That's because it isn't normal." Tatsuki told her. "Most of us have normal tastebuds."

"But still…" She reached for a cinnamon apple and seaweed donut, still confused. "How could something this delicious be rejected?"

Nobody answered, and Keigo hurriedly made some remark about the sea to keep the conversation going.

I left the group to with its friendly banter and went off to find Renji. He was sitting a little way off with a girl with voluptuous breasts and a baldy. He caught me looking for him, and jumped up.

"What's up?" He asked.

"N-nothing." I stammered. Hurriedly, I pulled out an excuse. "Uh, you have a strange hair colour."

He frowned. "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing's wrong with it! It's kinda similar to Ichigo's, that's all." Suddenly, I regretted saying his name. It brought back unwanted memories.

"Ichigo? Kurosaki Ichigo?" Renji knitted his eyebrows together. "You know him?"

"Do you?"

"Indeed." He crossed his arms.

"How?" I pressed. Perhaps this could hold some answers to my questions.

"Oh, from…somewhere." He waved away.

"Renji." I glared at him. "Tell me."

He shrugged uncomfortably. "Why?"

I lowered my voice. Together, we walked a little way off, to a part of the beach that was more secluded. "There was a little incident that involved a certain orange haired guy and a monster."

"A monster?" Renji whipped his head around.

"Sure. It was huge, all red and lizard like, with a white skull and black eyes…" I paused for effect.
I heard Renji mutter something under his breath. I could only catch a whiff of him pronouncing the letter 'H'.

"You know something." I said.

He brought his hands up to his forehead, and closed his eyes. I waited impatiently, until he spoke.

"You mustn't tell anybody. Absolutely no one. Remember, I didn't tell you."

"Got it." I said promptly.

"You see, when a person dies, their spirit goes to a place called Seireitei. If they don't, they attract hollows, which are another form of spirits. Are you getting this?"

I nodded, but then halfway through I shook my head. "Not really."

"Ok. Think of it like this. You have the good spirits, who are called Pluses. Then you have the bad types called Hollows. They devour spirits of the living and the dead, depending on the amount of spirit energy you have. So you would ask, what kills these hollows? Well, people like Kurosaki Ichigo. They are the shinigami. They live in Seireitei in the Court of Pure Souls. They are usually spirits, but in Ichigo's case, he is a substitute shinigami. Which means he's still human."

"So, a shinigami kills hollows?"

"That, and also leads souls to Seireitei."

"Ok. So Ichigo is a shinigami person." I was feeling curiously light-headed, mainly from the fact that this sounded all too sci-fi to be believable. But I wasn't a person that pushed away Santa just because no one had ever seen him, so I continued to listen.

"But then he started developing an 'inner hollow'." Renji made inverted commas in the air with his fingers. "And so he left Seireitei to this group called the 'Vizards', who also have inner hollows. They are all made up of former shinigami. Let's see…" Renji started counting on his fingers. "There's former ninth division captain, Muguruma Kensei, his lieutenant Kuna Mashiro, the eighth division lieutenant, Yadomaru Lisa, and-"

"Wait!" I finally shouted. The names and faces were swirling around in a cavern of darkness in my head. "What are the divisions?"

"In the Court of Pure Souls, there are thirteen divisions. Each of them has a Captain and a Lieutenant. They are in charge of the shinigami."

"I see." I picked myself off the beach and brushed the sand off my knees and shins. "Well, thanks Renji. I think I've had enough of information for one day."

"See ya around." He grinned. "Here's my phone number. Give me a call when you're ready to hear more." He handed me a scrap of paper.

"And here's mine." I fumbled around for a pen, which he provided. And the paper too. Scribbling it down, I handed it to him without ceremony.

"Bye." I waved.

But this information didn't console me the least. And I realised I had forgotten to ask Renji the most important question: where do I come in?

Yay! There's the whole 'Renji and Rukia confrontation' done and over, which shome of you may recognize as Jacob and Bella's first meeting in Twilight. Next will be lots of IchiRuki, well, as much as I can fit in!