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Chapter 6: Day One

Once they had left the meeting hall, Kiyone led Miya across the Seireitei to the Division Thirteen grounds. Miya had waited outside the main office while Kiyone had run inside to retrieve a small silver key. After that, Miya had continued to follow her as she led her to the Division Thirteen barracks. Kiyone took her to a door on the third floor that she opened it with the key she had retrieved. Once the door was opened she motioned for Miya to enter. Miya took a few steps inside the door and glanced around the small apartment.

"This is where you'll be staying for now," Kiyone said in a bitter voice. Miya turned around and Kiyone tossed her the silver key.

"So, what am I supposed to do now?" she asked after a moment of silence. Kiyone let out a frustrated huff crossed her arms across her chest.

"You stay here for now. I'll be back early in the morning to get you." With that, the girl had turned and stormed down the hallway before disappearing around the corner.

Once Kiyone had left, Miya was alone. The apartment that she had been given was small and cold. In the main room there was a small yellow couch, a bookshelf, and a coffee table. On the back wall of the room was a pair of sliding glass doors that lead to a small balcony form which she could see most of the Seireitei. The main living room was connected to the kitchen. A small wooden table and two chairs were pushed up against one of the kitchen walls and above the table hung a faded painting of a cherry blossom tree. A thick layer of dust coated the shelves and furniture as well as the table, stove, and kitchen counter. A narrow hallway ran alongside the kitchen and led to the bedroom at the back of the apartment. The bedroom was small and consisted on only a small bed, a desk, and a short nightstand.

It had taken Miya less than a minute to finish exploring the apartment. When she had finished exploring, she went back into the living room and sat down in the middle of the floor. The silence that surrounded her was deafening. In Rukongai, it was never truly quiet. There was always someone talking loudly on the street outside her window or yelling in the distance. During the day you could hear the sound of the people's feet slapping against the stiff red clay streets as they went about their daily activities. Even at night, the city never seemed to sleep. But here, it was completely quiet. It was unsettling.

So there she was. Alone in a place she had never been before and far away from everyone she knew. She began to wonder what things would be like from now on. She had always hated shinigami and had grown up swearing that she would never become one. And now, she was going to have to live in the Seireitei and do their bidding for the next 150 years. For the first time in a long time, she didn't know what to expect and that frightened her.

At least, in the end, she was able to save her friends. Most of the night thieves had families back in the Rukongai —families that depended on them to provide for them. Their families couldn't have survived without them. And after all, it was her fault that things had unraveled and blown up the way they had.

Besides, 150 years wasn't too long was it? Maybe time in the Seireitei would just fly by and before she knew it, she would be returning home. Who was she kidding—150 years was an eternity. After being in the Seireitei for that long, would she even have a life to go back to?

She felt her throat tighten. She desperately tried to focus on the grain in the wood floor under her to prevent herself from crying. It didn't work. Soon her eyes were stinging as tear after tear fought their way out fell to the floor. Eventually she quit trying to hold them back. She laid down on the cold wooden floor and hugged her knees to her chest.

And she cried.

She cried until her eyes went dry. And for a long time afterwards, she just lay in a puddle on the floor.

She was startled a few hours later when she heard voices outside her front door followed by a loud knock. She got up and rubbed her hands over her face, desperately hoping that her eyes weren't still red from crying earlier. When she opened the heavy wooden door, she was greeted by two smiling shinigami that she hadn't seen before.

"Hello!" said a small raven haired shinigami with dark blue eyes, "I'm Rukia Kurosaki and this is Rangiku Matsumoto."

"Hey there!" said her tall blonde companion.

"Hi," said replied timidly, "I'm Miya."

"It's nice to meet you Miya. We wanted to welcome you to the Seireitei," said Matsumoto.

"Oh, um, thank you," replied Miya awkwardly. There was a moment of silence between them before Miya spoke again.

"Um, are you both in Squad Thirteen?" Miya asked.

"Oh, no," replied Matsumoto with a smile. "I'm the lieutenant of Squad Ten. When my captain came back this afternoon and told me that someone had kicked Byakuya's ass during the captain's meeting I just had to come over and meet you!" she said excitedly.

"I'm in the squad five," said Rukia. "My husband Ichigo is the captain and I'm the lieutenant. Anyways, Ichigo came back from the meeting today laughing like an idiot. When I was finally able to get him to calm down, he told me about what happened and how you'll be staying here with us for a while."

"We figured that you didn't have very much with you, so we brought you some things to help you get settled in." said Matsumoto.

"Oh," was all Miya could say as Rukia handed her the large brown paper bag that she had been holding. On the very top of one of the bags was a pair of hot pink and yellow Chappy the Rabbit bed sheets. Matsumoto then handed her a second bag.

"Thank you, thank you very much," replied Miya taken aback by the friendly gesture. There was another silence between them before Miya spoke again. "Um, would you like to come in?"

"Sure," replied Matsumoto. Miya held the front door open with her back since her hands were occupied and let the two girls in. She walked over to the small kitchen table and laid the bags on top of it. "Wow, it seems like forever since I was last in here," said Matsumoto as she walked into the living room.

"I know," said Rukia. Rukia made her way across the small living room and peeked through the dark green curtains that covered the sliding patio door. "Even now, I still believe this place has the best view in all of the Seireitei," she said as she looked outside. "I started out as an unseated officer in squad thirteen and this used to be my room," she said over her shoulder. "I switched squads six years ago, but I moved out of here long before that when I married my husband. As far as I know, no one's lived here since."

"That would explain the dust," replied Miya.

"We can help you clean up if you like," said Rukia excitedly.

"Oh, that's not necessary. I wouldn't want to trouble you."

"No, really, it'd be no trouble at all. We'd love to help you get comfortable and settled any way we can."

"Um, okay then," replied Miya surprised by how nice the two girls were. "Thank you."

"Rangiku!" exclaimed Rukia.

"I'm on it!" replied the blonde vice captain with a wink. Before she knew it, the girl had disappeared and reappeared with a mop, bucket, broom, and several feather dusters. Rukia and Matsumoto had spent the next several hours with Miya helping her clean her apartment. Once they finished, Rukia pulled out a blue teapot and a box of tea that she had packed in one of the brown paper sack. For the next hour, the girls had sat down in the living room and talked over tea. By the end of the evening, the awkwardness that Miya had initially felt between them had completely disappeared. Miya had truly enjoyed their company and they had both seemed very nice. For a while, Miya had even forgotten that they were shinigami.

The next morning, Miya was woken suddenly by the sound of knocking. She rubbed the sleep from his eyes before flipping over and glancing at the rectangular alarm clock sitting on the nightstand. The illuminated red numbers read 5:00 am. Kiyone hadn't been kidding when she had told her that she would be conning early in the morning to wake her up. Miya groaned loudly before slowly rolling out of bed.

She ran to the front door of the small apartment and undid the small gold chain and the top lock and opened the door. Standing there looking very angry was the third seat of the Thirteenth Division. The short blonde shinigami quickly shoved a plain black uniform at Miya before crossing her arms angrily across her chest.

"There," she said in an acidic voice, "Since you don't have a uniform of your own, you can borrow one of mine."

"Um, thanks," replied Miya as she eyed the plain black garment.

"Well, it looks like I'm stuck babysitting you. We need to be in the office by six. I'll meet you out front at five fifty and we'll walk there. Don't be late." Miya nodded and the girl quickly turned and headed down the hall and disappeared around the corner.

It was clear that the Kiyone didn't like her. That fact alone didn't really surprise her; shinigami in general usually didn't like her. She just couldn't seem to figure out what she had done to Kiyone in particular that had caused her to dislike her so much already.

Miya got in her small shower and began to shiver violently when the water came on freezing cold. After what seemed like an eternity, the water finally began to warm up. She quickly washed her hair with the shampoo that the girls had brought her and breathed in the sweet strawberry smell. She wrapped herself up in a large pink towel and walked into her room and to the black uniform that she had laid on her bed. The uniform pants were too short. Miya sighed and instead decided to put on a pair of black calf length pants that had been in one of the bags the girls had given her. The kimono top was also too small for her. Miya rummaged through one of the bags and found a red tank top that she put on underneath the black uniform top. She tied the uniform with a red obi that was also in the bag. She opted not to wear the socks and wooden sandals that Kiyone and brought and instead wore her black ballet flats.

She towel dried her waist length coal black hair, parted it on one side, and then brushed it until it was smooth. Miya quickly grabbed her zanpakuto off her desk and placed it in her red obi before she ran to the front of her apartment. She locked the door behind her and quickly flew down the steps. When she reached the front of the apartment complex, Kiyone was already waiting with her arms crossed tightly across her chest and her right foot tapping furiously on the ground.

"Well, you finally decided to show up. I was about to leave without you," she spat.

"Sorry. The water in the—" Kiyone lifted up a hand and cut her off.

"Save your excuses for someone who actually cares." The girl glared at her from head to toe. Feeling self conscious, Miya tugged the black uniform top down. Kiyone huffed and turned on her heel and began to walk off. Miya followed her a few steps behind her.

The early morning sky looked like a bowel of orange and strawberry sherbet as she sun made its slow assent into the sky. The Thirteenth Division grounds were buzzing this morning with lots of shinigami running around and darting into different buildings. The cherry blossom trees that lined the main road were already starting to become bare. Behind the Division Thirteen grounds and past the Seireitei walls, Miya could see the woods. The tall oak and maple trees were already freckled with yellow leaves. Soon they would all turn brown and slowly fall off as winter settled in.

When Miya walked into the Thirteenth Division Office, she was surprised by how quiet it was. Based on the chaos outside, she had been expecting it to be filled with randomly running shinigami. There was no one in the quiet front office. Suddenly there was a loud slamming sound and Miya and Kiyone spun around to see an out of breath shinigami with what seemed like spaghetti covering his head and shoulders standing in the doorway.

"Third Seat Kiyone!" exclaimed the small boy, "Come quick!"

"What happened?" asked Kiyone surprised.

"Ebisu and Makoto started fighting in the mess hall again and it escalated into a full on interdivision food fight! I barely made it out of there alive!" Kiyone groaned causing the boy to shrink back. She turned to face Miya.

"I've gotta go take care of this. Stay put and I'll be back soon. Don't touch anything," she ordered and with that, she took off back through the office door. The boy turned to follow her and the door slammed shut behind him. The office was quiet again. Miya sighed.

The front room to the Thirteenth Division Office contained two wooden desks that were covered in stacks of papers and a few bookshelves that were littered with books. In the back right corner of the room there was a large flower pot with what used to be some sort of plant in it. Completely brown and withered over now, there was no possible way to tell what kind of plant it had used to be.

There were several frames hanging on the wall near an adjacent hallway and Miya walked over to look at them. She was in the middle of examining the various Squad of the Year certificates that lined the wall when she heard the door creek. She looked over at the door and her breath caught in her throat as she saw the white haired captain enter.

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