Disclaimer: I do NOT own Bleach. Just Shizukesa, Takahiro, Emi and Hina.
Before I was born there was nothing.
And when I am gone the same.
But I am now where all things happen
And are written and conquered and seen.
Our lives like a blip
On eternity's radar
Our dreams, desires, arts and philosophies,
All our good deeds and heinous atrocities
Witnessed, recorded, judged and forgotten.
Despite wish and prayer and dream and talk
Our footsteps sound only while we walk
And not while we are carried in the womb
Or lying cold and mindless on a slab in a tomb
I did not exist before I existed
I will not exist when I am no more
I want no so-called god to intervene
With what I am doing
Between.
(By: Joseph Kane)
"Ohayo Shizukesa." greeted one of my best friends, Tatsuki, as I walked into the classroom. I waved cheerily and set my things on my desk.
"Hey! Where's Orihime?" I inquired curiously. Usually the perky red-head was always here before me. It was weird.
"I don't know. Maybe she forgot something, you know her." she shrugged, I chuckled softly.
"Yeah, with that half empty head of hers." I agreed. Orihime was one of my best friends along with Tatsuki and Ichigo. She tended to be a little spacey and not really down to earth when she thought about things, but I love her. Actually a lot of times I encouraged her not to think. She just laughed, but everyone knew I was serious.
Tatsuki sighed at my insult and shook her head. Someone behind her caught my attention causing my left eye to twitch and my smile to turn into a deep scowl as he made eye contact.
"KESA-CH~AN!!!" cried an over-dramatic Keigo lunging at me. A pressure vein appeared on the side of my head as my anger began to rise. When he was close enough my fist, along with another that came out of nowhere and punched him square in the face.
"PERVERTED BASTARD! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT TOUCHING ME?!" I yelled in aggravation.
"Not...to?" he moaned.
I gave a mushroom sigh releasing my anger and turned to thank my accomplice. Immediately I recognized the bright orange hair, and smiled brightly.
"Arigatou Strawberry-kun!" I said using the nickname I gave him when we first met. He long since gave up trying to get me to call him 'Ichigo', but I told him 'Strawberry' was more cute, so he left it alone.
"Seriously, every single time..." he trailed in thought causing me to raise an eyebrow.
"Strawberry-kun?" at his name he seemed to snap out of it.
"No, problem." he replied waving it off and sat at his desk calmly. At that moment Orihime decided to show up. I ran to her shaking her shoulders rapidly to the point that it made her dizzy.
"What happened!? When I didn't see you here before me I assumed it was the apocalypse!" I exclaimed. Tatsuki walked over and pried me from our bean paste eating friend.
"Geez, don't listen to her Orihime. She's just being the dunce she always is if one thing doesn't go right." sighed Tatsuki which caused me to glare at her.
"I resent that." I stated simply. Tatsuki ignored me and walked to the back of the room for something so Orihime and I decided to go talk to Ichigo's little group.
"Ohayo Kurosaki-kun, Sado-kun, Ishida-kun." greeted Orihime. Chad gave a simple nod while Ishida made a comment on Ichigo's unruly hair. I pouted messing up his hair even more.
"But it makes him look even more cute, ne, Orihime?" I questioned. Ichigo's cheeks gained a rose pink tint as Orihime turned red and gave a soft agreement. Keigo was in the background bitching about being dumped by his friends. So Ichigo said his assumption was true and to get lost, but Mizurio told him it was a lie.
Chizuru, with her dumb self, decided that touching Orihime was a good thing, but as usual she got her ass kicked by Tatsuki, literally.
"Hey Ichigo, how's the report coming?" I asked completely out of the blue. The blank look on his face told us he forgot.
"Report?"
"Yeah, the one assigned while you were all on vacation. We told you about it the other day, remember?" Tatsuki added.
"Obviously he forgot. So it's not our fault if you don't get it in on time Strawberry-kun."
"Yeah, yeah. I know." I took the time to look over Ichigo as Tatsuki scolded him. Something seemed very off or different about him and for some reason I couldn't place it. It was, yet again, weird.
Something on his person caught my eye. It wasn't shiny or anything but it wasn't something he usually wore. I think Tatsuki also noticed it for she voiced the question I was thinking.
"What's that?"
Ichigo looked down and explained that his dad had sewn a good luck charm on his uniform. It made me giggle. Kurosaki-san's antics always made me laugh.
"We could've guessed that without you telling us." I grinned.
"How?"
"It's obvious. Who else in your life would do something like that?" Tatsuki stated. Ichigo paused knowing she was right.
"Anyway, not that, I was asking about that skull there." She pointed. Ichigo looked down and was stuttering out an explanation, but something caught his attention.
"Tatsuki, Kesa-chan! You...can see this?" He inquired.
We blinked a few times in confusion before the sensei walked in with a new student in tow. He had strangely cut blonde hair and a wide mouth. He wrote his name, Hirako Shinji, on the board, backwards might I add, and went into a too long explanation about his name for me to listen.
I noted that he gave off a strange aura that caused my guard to go up. Playing the jester, he asked the sensei if he could sit next to a pretty girl and pointed to me, but got stuck next to Ichigo, who by default was to my right. I sighed.
'My life just got difficult. I can feel it.'
"WHAT THE HELL HINA!! THAT'S CHEATING!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. Hina just laughed insanely before practically jumping over the table for my money.
Yes, we were playing Monopoly.
And yes, I was losing.
Badly.
Hina had just bankrupted me. She rigged the Community Chest deck so that when I pulled the next card I had to pay for EVERY hotel and/or house on the board.
How is that bad you ask?
I only had 500 dollars and there were at least 2 hotels on each of hers and Emi's property.
Which was like 3 sides of the board.
With a heavy sigh I called it quits and went to sit next to Takahiro on the couch.
'He was smart.' I thought glaring at him out the side of my eye.
'He left the game as soon as it started.'
After the girls finished cleaning up the game they joined us as we watched what was on television. Only about 2 minutes had passed when the twins decided to speak.
"I'm bored." they said in unison. I sighed in boredom.
"So am I. I'm going for a walk, wanna join?" I asked getting up and putting on my sneakers. The twins and Takahiro shrugged before joining me in the open air of night.
I took a deep breath of air letting it out slowly.
"It feels nice out, ne, you guys?" I asked as we walked down the street. They nodded in agreement before the weird aura from earlier caught my attention.
Then altogether it disappeared.
I stopped and looked around frantically for another sign but nothing happened.
"Daijoubu, Kesa-sama?" asked Takahiro but I ignored him.
It was kind of creepy how empty and quiet the streets were.
They were too quiet.
I strained my ears to hear anything beyond the silence. Fortunately lady luck was on my side as I picked up the faint sound of metal on metal.
"Did you hear that?" questioned Emi. I nodded.
"Yeah, let's follow it." I replied as I went to run in that direction, but Takahiro took hold of my wrist.
"It might be dangerous Kesa-sama." He said sternly. I grinned knowingly.
"I know, but you guys will be there to protect me if anything happens."
"That's right! Plus, I wanna check it out." exclaimed Hina running ahead. Takahiro sighed letting me go seeing as he was out numbered. We followed the sound persistently until it rang so loud it was like it came from all directions. Luckily we saw the source when we ran up.
We stopped and watched in awe. Up in the air were 2 familiar figures. Ichigo and Hirako. Ichigo wore a black hakama with matching pants and traditional sandals from old Japan. It seemed at the moment that they hadn't seen us but I couldn't help but think that Ichigo's attire looked familiar.
'Shinigami.'
I heard the word whispered as if it were carried on the nonexistent wind. I looked around for a moment but noticed that no one had said anything.
"Ichigo-niisan looks cool!" exclaimed the twins.
"I guess. Although he has a huge amount of reiatsu." added Takahiro.
"Takahiro?" I asked my hair covering my eyes. He turned to me after hearing his name.
"What's a Shinigami?" At this they all turn to look at me. They had conflicting looks as if debating on whether to tell me or not.
Nodding to himself, Takahiro looked me straight in the eyes.
"Shinigami's are spiritual entities or Death Gods, as they are formally called, protectors of the living world from the beings called Hollows." He explained. I nodded in subconscious understanding.
As he finished, my head began to throb painfully. Quickly my hand flew up to cradle it, but it didn't help as the pain became worse and a there was a loud ringing in my ears.
"AHHHHH!" I screamed probably catching the attention of everyone. The pain became too much as the last thing I saw was the color orange.
|Forgotten Memory | 01
"Shizukesa, I want you to meet my former students: Kyouraku Shunsui and Ukitake Junshiro. They're captains in the Gotei 13." Introduced her grandfather.
This had been the first time she had seen other people in her home besides that of her parents and grandfather. To her they looked weird, although they wore the same thing as her grandfather.
She shied away from the 2 foreign men in her home hiding behind her grandfather. She wasn't scared, per say, just insecure. For all she knew they could have been mass murderers.
The man she assumed was Shunsui, bent down to her height and held out a hand with a goofy smile.
"Don't worry Kesa-hime. We won't hurt you. You're too kawaii." she blushed faintly at the complement but took his hand. He looked safe enough. As soon as she took his hand though her shy exterior melted away and a cocky grin replaced it. Shunsui's smile fell causing his face to be riddled in confusion along with his friend's.
The little girl took advantage of the situation and kicked Shunsui in the leg and when he was down on his back, straddled him in an attempt to not let him escape. Yamamoto-taichou watched in amusement as his granddaughter caught the 8th division Taichou off guard. He had already concluded that as soon as they met they would be a hilarious pairing.
"Wh-what are you doing?" asked Shunsui in confusion. The little girl continued to grin.
"And you call yourself a Captain! You just got taken down by a 4 year old, a girl no less." She scolded. This statement caused the 3 men to laugh heartily and they suddenly felt compelled to be around her more. She was like a breath of fresh air to them as she stuck out her tongue playfully and hopped off the grounded captain.
"Ne, Kesa-hime, you will be a strong Shinigami one day, just like your grandfather." said Junshiro. This brought a spark to the child's grey eyes as she smiled gracefully and nodded.
"I hope so."