Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
Chapter 15: Book
Miya flipped through a large stack of old books on a vendor's cart. She picked up a large green colored book, held it inches away from her mouth, and blew the thick layer of dust off the cover. A few seconds later she heard someone cough.
"Hey, watch it!" said a tall shinigami who she hadn't even noticed had been standing there. "I have allergies."
"Oh, sorry," she replied with an apologetic smile, "I didn't see you standing there." The shinigami snorted, glared at her, and then briskly walked away. She sighed and then continued looking through the stacks of books.
After Byakuya had walked her back to the Thirteenth Division the day before, Miya had spent the rest of the day in her small apartment. She had spent a few hours flipping through the books that she had borrowed from the library but was unable to get into any of them as her mind kept wandering elsewhere.
Giving up on reading but unable to leave her apartment due to the continuing downpour, Miya had spent the rest of the day meticulously cleaning every square inch of her apartment in an attempt to get her mind off Jushiro. It did no good. She ended up thinking about him while she scrubbed the floors, while she rearranged the furniture, and even while she whisked the couch. Finally, she had just given up trying to distract herself and went to bed early hoping to fall asleep quickly. No such luck. She had ended up lying awake in bed for several hours before finally being able to fall asleep.
Determined not to ever get stuck at home with nothing besides her thoughts to keep her company on a rainy day ever again, Miya had decided to go book hunting at the market. She had woken up early that morning, showered, and then walked to the market district.
Although she had only been to the market once before with Rukia and Matsumoto, she had distinctly remembered seeing a book vendor there. The market was larger than she had remembered after stopping to ask directions thee times, Miya finally found the book vendor on one of the market corners.
The book vendor was a bald little old man who smelled like old paper. His shop was a large cart whose sides would open up revealing row after row of books.
"Is there anything in particular that you're looking for?" she heard the cart vendor ask her from his chair located at the front of the cart.
"I'm just looking," she replied.
"Okay. Take your time."
Miya slowly made her way around the back of the cart reading title after title. Her eyes stopped as soon as they read the binding on a two inch thick maroon book on the top shelf.
She reached up to grab it and her hand hit the binding the same time as someone else's did. She turned to see who had also grabbed the book and let out a small gasp when she found herself staring into a very familiar pair of warm brown eyes.
"Captain Ukitake," she stated in shock.
"Miss Miya," he replied with an equal amount of shock in his voice.
"It's nice to see you," they both said in perfect unison. She looked down nervously and a moment of silence passed between them.
"I was just doing some book shopping," she finally said as casually as possible.
"Oh yes, me too," he replied. "Have you found anything you like yet?"
"No, I'm still looking. You?"
"No such luck," he replied. "But, I do think that this one did catch both of our eyes." He reached for the book she had been about to grab, pulled it down, and then handed it over to her. She took the book and ran her fingers over the chipped golden letters that lay on the front cover. "Are you a fan of the writer?" he asked after she hadn't said anything.
"As a matter of fact, I am," she replied before looking up to meet his gentle gaze. "This, was actually my mother's favorite book. She used to sit on the porch and read from it every night while me and the kids from my neighborhood in Rukongai would play in the streets. It was one of the few things of hers that I kept after she passed away." Her eyes left his and went back to the worn book cover.
"A few yeast after she died," she said, her voice softer than it had been a moment before, "Kazuma and I hid from a snow storm in a storage shed on the outskirts of Rukongai. The storm was so bad it ended up trapping us inside. It was so cold in there. I thought we were going to freeze to death.
"Kazuma eventually got into my bag while I was sleeping and pulled my mother's book out. He ripped it to pieces and used it to start a fire. I could have killed him," she said with a nostalgic smile. "It worked though—we were able to stay alive until the shed owner went out there to get something, dug the snow away, and found us. Our relief at being saved lasted about two seconds. The shed owner was pretty mad when he saw that we had burned his work benches in order to stay alive."
"After my mother's book was destroyed, I started looking for another copy of it any time I would pass a book vendor in Rukongai. I'd never seen another one until now. Who knew I would find one here of all places?" She flipped the book open and ran her fingers along the raised black lettering on the first page. She looked on the inside front cover and nearly had a heart attack when she saw the price.
Seriously? she thought, who can honestly pay that much for a book? It's nearly ten times what my monthly stipend is!
Her chest fell.
She closed the book and handed it back to him.
"You're not going to get it?" he asked, a confused look on his face.
"Not today," she replied. Or tomorrow, or anytime within the next ten months.
He took the book from her and placed it back on the shelf.
She sighed.
"I should probably be heading back to the Thirteenth," she said.
"Allow me to accompany you then," he said, a smile on his face, "I was just about to head back there myself." She smiled and nodded in return and they both began making their way out of the busy market and towards the Thirteenth Division.
"So, are you excited about the gala tonight?" he asked as their way down the crowded market street.
"I don't think I'm going to go," she replied. Truth be told, she had originally planned on going—that is until Kiyone and several other squad members made it pretty clear that event was strictly for shinigami and she would be unwelcomed and unwanted there.
"Oh, really? Why not?"
"Because, well, I don't think that I would really fit in there. I mean, the gala is for shinigami after all and I'm most definitely not a shinigami."
"That doesn't matter," replied Jushiro. "The gala is for anyone who lives in the Seireitei and assists the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squads. You most definitely fit that criteria."
"Still," she said, "I just don't really feel like I would fit in. I live here and I work here, but I'm not really one of you. Come to think of it, because of my special abilities, I never really fit in in Rukongai either. So, I guess I've never really fit in anywhere. Sometimes I wonder if I ever will."
"I know exactly how you feel," he said with a thoughtful look.
"You do?" she asked surprised.
"Yes. Do you remember how I told you that Ukitake's are a noble family?" Miya nodded. "Well, what I didn't tell you was the fact that we're actually at the very bottom of the nobility totem pole. That wasn't always the case though. Our family head a few generations back had a little bit of a gambling problem. Over the course of a few years he managed to squander away most of the families' fortune and tarnished the family name. After that, my families' nobility status began to decrease until we eventually wound up on the very bottom of the noble hierarchy. Many of the highest ranking noble families, like the Kuchiki's for example, don't even consider us noble at all.
"However, since we're still officially classified as 'noble' because of our name, we're still required to attend all noble events and attend all the proper schools. Up until I was a teenager, I attended the King's Royal Academy, a school strictly for the children of noble families. I grew up with highly ranked noble children but, because of the errors of my ancestors and my families' subsequent demise, I was always treated as a second class citizen. I was a noble by birth, but that fact alone didn't help me fit in. I was clearly different from the rest of the noble children.
Eventually I got fed up with it all—the cutthroat fights for status, the sideways comments and glances—the petty games that nobles play. So, I quit going to the noble academy and started going to the shinigami academy. Although I hated shinigami, I disliked nobles and their way of life even more."
"Wait a minute," said Miya thinking that she might have heard him incorrectly, "You hated shinigami?" He nodded. "Why?"
"Because a lot of the ones I knew up until then were crooked. They were mostly employed by the noble families and abused their powers and took whatever they wanted."
"I don't understand," replied Miya. "If you hated shinigami, then, why ever did you become one?"
"Well, because for each bad shinigami I met, I met five times as many good ones. I believed in the basic shinigami code—truth, honor, and justice. Shinigami's serve an important role here in the Seireitei—they help provide order in an otherwise unruly world. The longer I lived and trained here in the Soul Society, the more and more I began to see how most shinigami were people who had the same values as me.
"The shinigami world is very different form the noble one. Unlike the noble world where birth, family name, and title determine a person's position, the shinigami world is run based on the merit system. It doesn't matter if you were born a noble or came from the poorest district in Rukongai, in this world you progress by earning it. Nothing comes easy and nothing is ever just handed to you—you have to work for what you get. We're all on equal footing here."
Miya thought about what he had said. She had never really thought about it that way before. The longer she stayed in the Seireitei, the more and more she had come to believe that maybe she had been wrong about shinigami.
"Anyways," he said as they reached the Thirteenth Division, "You should really think about coming to the gala. There'll be live music and there's always dancing. I know how fond you are of both." Miya sighed, her resolve wavering.
"I don't know. I mean, it's not like anyone's going to miss me if I don't show up."
"You're wrong. I know lots of people who'll miss you if you don't come."
"Like who?" she asked while quirking an eyebrow.
"Well….like me." Miya tried hard to stop the blush she felt creeping into her cheeks at his response. He smiled at her and bowed before shunpoing away.
After he left, instead of going back to her apartment Miya quickly made her way to the Tenth Division. She needed to see Matsumoto as soon as possible.
A/N: This chapter and the next one were also originally one chapter. The chapter was over fourteen pages when I finished typing it so I decided to split it up. I'll be posting the next chapter tomorrow or Tuesday at the latest.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Thank you so much for all of your reviews on my last chapter. I'm really glad that you're enjoying my story!
Review Please :)