The day started out as normal, except that I'd figured out that my haori had been absentmindedly tossed aside when I darted from the meeting hall. It had taken me hours to find out which captain to go to without asking Toshiro Hitsuguya for help and it was such a relief that it was Ukitake-taicho and not any other captain.
Ukitake-taicho was happy to return it, but before I left, his third seats had dumped a pile of sweets on me. When I took a closer look, all of them had cards that said "To Shiro-chan. I grimaced when they ask me to deliever it to Squad 10 since their captain was to sick to go anywhere that day.
I didn't go anywhere near Toshiro's office. Instead, I asked a lower ranked officer to point me to his room. In truth, everything in there was so neat and tucked away. Even my room wasn't this neat and I'm in the Omeitskidos. So I had an idea to mess it up my way. I spread out his futon on the floor and dumped the candy on his bed, then I took a brush and a piece of paper drew a kid-like picture of him sucking a lolly.
"Show some class, Hime-san. You're showing this to a captain, so do it the right way."
"You are absolutely right, Shirobara," I said. Then I drew a top hat, mustache, and a cigar sticking out of the opposite direction of his lolly.
"That's class right there."
However, I wasn't paying attention to the shadow on the other side of the door as he opened the door. So I ditched the painting and darted for the nearest window or exit. I really hope I didn't leave anything that would point everything at me.
***
Toshiro was tired by the time he finshed his paperwork, so he decided to get a couple of hours of sleep. Sadly, he found his futon covered in sweets. He was surprised that someone had broken into his room, but angry that they had defiled his room. A piece of paper was left lying on top of the pile and he picked it up. The detail was stunning, but all he noticed was him in a ridiculous outfit eating a lollipop. Hitsuguya probed for any sign of a reiatsu in his room but failed. Suddenly, he detected a scent in the air. Roses, he thought.
He stormed through Squad 2 barracks, scattering soul reapers everywhere. Hitsuguya even burst through the office without requesting entrance. "Oh hello, Hitsuguya-taicho. How are you doing toda-" He slammed his hands on her desk which pulled her out of which dimension she was in. "May I ask what were you doing in my chambers, Hinamoto-taicho?"
She wasn't looking him but rather the picture of him found in his room. "Hisuguya-taicho, why are you carrying that? Did you draw it?" If she was lying then she hide it well. Then a musical laugh escaped her. "Hime-san?" She was now laughing harder and failing to contain it. "I'm so sorry, Hitsuguya-taicho. But I can prove that I did not do anything . . ."
"Show me your hands." Kurohime stopped laughing and gave him a puzzling look. "Show me your hands now, Hinamoto-chan." Toshiro said this with a chilling tone which caused her to extend her hands out to him. Sure enough, they were covered with ink stains. He made an expression that was a cross between a frown and a smirk. "Hehehehe . . . I must be going right now, I can hear my tea kettle whistling. We'll do this another time."
Hitsuguya lashed out and snatched her wrist and pulled her to her desk. Her eyes widened as his face nearly collided with hers. "What did you hope to accomplish by defiling my room?" He leaned closer until he could feel Kurohime's ragged breathing on his neck. "Uhhh . . . I absolutely have no idea what I was doing, so, yeah." He snaked his arms around her petite waist and whispered into her ear. "Make sure you don't do it again or I'll make sure your punishment will be equally uncomfortable."
Her face flared up a couple of shades and she untangled herself from his hold and exited out the door. But when he walked outside, he couldn't find her anywhere. It was in the forest in the farther quardrents of Squad 2 did he find her. She was muttering incoherent words to herself and she was rocking back in forth in a distressed manner. "Stay away from me or you'll regret it, Toshiro Hitsuguya!" He ignored this and went up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. "Please go away. I don't want you to end up like them."
She was muttering more now and the rocking did not cease. "If you value your life, then I suggest you stay away from me. I do not want you ending up like the people I had cared about." Toshiro noticed how she emphazied on the people. "I must end this before I lose control. I must not hurt anyone here." She wasn't crying but she was tearing up. But she didn't complain when he picked her up in his arms.
***
That encounter with Toshiro had opened my eyes. I had to stop gallavanting before someone got hurt because that was how my family was killed in the first place. I felt so tired that I started to nod off so I decided to close my eyes for a while so I had more energy to think later on. My last coherent thought was how I could crush myself before I could do any harm to anyone.
I woke up in my own room (?) and Toshiro was sitting at the desk buried in his paper work. Then it hit me like a fist in the face that this was his room. I was quite prepare to escape when a deep voice spoke. "Are you okay, Hime-san? I ignored this comment and walked toward the door, eager to escape into the outer world. He stood up at this immediately and was about to pull me back in.
"Do you really think that this personality that I was born with." He looked at me with stunned eyes and said "What do you mean?" I narrowed my eyes and said "All that I've said was a façade. Every laugh, joke, and word that you is false. But the encounter this morning has opened my eyes and I must acting like my former self. Thank you, Hitsuguya-taicho."
I left without a word, cursing myself for my weakness, but deep inside I really wanted that inner child to sprout so she could have a second chance. The shocked image of Hitsuguya Toshiro was burned into my mind and I wish I could discard it. What were in those emerald eyes? Betrayal, pain, sorrow? I visited Squad 4 and Unohana-taicho said that Soi Fon had already left her barracks this morning and had been filling in for me since then.
She had been filling in for me and was in the world of the living on patrol. I resorted to destroying the practice dummies that were supposedly used to train new recruits. Suddenly, a new, moving opponent had countered my next punch. He had wavy, brown hair and brown eyes that were covered with plastic framed glasses. He also had the Squad 5 insignia. This was the Squad 5 fukutaicho, Sosuke Aizen. "Pardon me, Hinamoto-taicho. I was just here to ask you about Yoruichi Shihoin. I've heard many things from Urahara-taicho. But if it is too painful then please don't answer." My only answer to his question was get out.
Soi Fon came back a couple of hours later and I told her get some rest. I had only said this because I wanted to sort some things out about myself. Just then, a hell butterfly flew through my window. It landed on my finger and I repeated its message in a monotone voice. "In 2 days, we will welcoming a new captain among the ranks of the Gotei 13. The captain that will be replacing Hirako Shinji will be Sosuke Aizen. Please report to the Captain's hall in the 2 days. That is all."
Sosuke Aizen, huh? I've heard of him before. He was Shinji Hirako's fukutaicho and a good fighter, but something about his aura made me distrust him almost immediately. The waves of ambition and ruthlessness had clashed with my own aura so I made sure I'd be wary of him. Shirobara had remained silent since I had told off Toshiro.
***
In his office, the Taicho of Jubantai sat at his desk with nothing to do since he finished his paperwork. He had just received the message that Squad 5 would be welcoming a new captain. He ran his hand through his hair and thought about Kurohime. Her intoxicating features, her strength and mercilessness in combat, and what she had said to him before she left. A chilling wind blew through the open window and Toshiro was about to close the window when the window had disapeared. He had been taken to a beautiful grove of flowers, roses to specific. His arm reached forward and a thorn cut his index finger.
Hitsuguya was about to curse when the cut healed at an alarming rate. A gentle laugh reached his ears but it wasn't like anything he heard. "Hitsuguya Toshiro, do you know why I had called you here?" He turned around and was confronted by a woman. She had long, pale rose colored hair that was done in an elaborate hairstyle and she wore a blood red kimono and a obsidian and silver head piece. But what struck him the most were her eyes. Just like Hinamoto's they were forever changing but they held their stories.
"You're Shirobarakaze, Hinamoto-chan's zanpaktou," he breathed. "Yes, I already know that fact. I had high hopes that you would help my mistress out of her masochist atomoshpere. Sadly it didn't work. Her past is just too bitter." She frowned slightly and a breeze blew past them with a loud whoosh. "I've seen your mind and how your guard weakens at the mere sight her. She is like a siren that calls to you isn't she?"
Toshiro reddened slightly at this, but he was still taking in everything. The mysterious beauty that had reflected Kurohime. This was her inner world. "Can you tell me about Hinamoto-chan, then?" He honestly wanted to know everything about her, but the magnitude of respect for her privacy is preventing him to do so. "She wasn't always like that. I was still lying dormant in her heart, but I saw everything. The charming, young flower she was had wilted into an ugly weed when those despicable people had tormented her."
A picture of young girl flashed through Toshiro's mind and Shirobarakaze continued. "A sadastic side of her was born out of her lust for vengence, for all the sadness and sorrow she has endured and it has surfaced again. In fact you just saw her yesterday. That is not her. A girl as delicate as her had grown up among monsters like the townspeople of Rukongai and she still took her punishment with grace fitting for a princess and she still stands strong. What do you think about that?"
More picture flew through his head and he realized these were Shirobarakaze's memories. A girl lying on the ground with a bloody stake through her chest, struggling to breathe. Another of the same girl plucking petals of flowers and through them into a stream. "I had no idea that she feels like this. I've only seen her smile," said Toshiro.
"She was lying, then. She wants her old life back, not the one that is soaked in blood. She had been through so much. To lose two families that she had obviously cared about to the idiotic people just because her reiatsu was a little abnormal. Kurohime even tried to kill herself once by hanging, but she couldn't bring herself to do so because the woman known as Miss Saihete had saved her by taking her place as a distraction and Kurohime was powerless to do anything as the sword impaled itself in the woman's body. To kill herself would insult Saihete's memory, so she relives that moment every day."
Hitsuguya was still processing the information when Shirobarakaze snapped her fingers and he transported back to his office, his hand reaching for the open window. When he turned around back to his desk, he found a blood red rose an his desk and message written in the same color that said "Help her."
***
Since there was nothing to do and Shirobarakaze blocked me from entering my inner world, I sat under a cherry tree and was carving a flute from one of its branches. When it was done, I played a song I had made up. It was a sad melody, but it sounded so captivating that even its creator fell under its spell. I had a sudden urge to dance, but I suppressed it and turned the song into a more complicated melody. The notes reached higher and higher and I felt like I was pouring out my soul into the flow of the rythme.
When I reached the climax, it was like someone had ripped my essence out and fed it to the flute. The last note came out and a deep voice said out of no where "What a beautiful song, Hime-san."
I've always wanted to do this so now would be a good time to do so.
Omake theater #1
Flames:What a sucky cliff hanger, if you would call it that.
Kurohime:I thought you said you wanted no one to come near me!
Hitsuguya:You've made me a potential stalker to Hinamoto-chan
Flames:Well sorry, but its my story and none of you can mess it up! so ha!
Hitsuguya:I hope that the next chapter is more action then all this drama cus' I'm a guy and I can't go all touchy-feely on people.
Kurohime:What a sexist!?!
Shirobarakaze:What's goin' on here?
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