I do not own Bleach

I co-write this story with one of my roommates and as it is Winter Break we are no longer able to publish as often as we have been. The good news is we stocked up on chapters before the break began so we should be able to post about every four days for the next two to three weeks. Thank you so much for all of our faithful followers and readers you make us want to keep writing and we truly enjoy this story!

Chapter Nine – The Three gifts

Kiskue smiled, pulling out his fan and genially waving it in front of his face. It was done. It had taken him almost four years, but it was done. He had made a gigai for Hinata. As he had watched her, he had noticed the sadness she felt that others could not see her. It was for this reason that he had decided to make a gigai for her.

It had been hard because she was an arrancar. With Shinigami, it wasn't too hard to create a gigai because their bodies where so similar to humans. With arrancars, their spiritual bodies had been consumed by the darkness inside them to such a point that they could not be put into a gigai that looked like a human. Though Hinata was an arrancar, he had greater hope that she would be compatible with a gigai. The happiness that she had around her gave him hope that her spirt hadn't been completely consumed. All the information that he had gathered over the past years led him to believe that he was right.

Sitting in front of him was a gigai that looked just like Hinata. He smiled one more time; all he needed now was for Hinata to come and visit.

…

Hinata stretched to her full height of five foot five. She was already taller than all the other girls in Ichigo's classes. She smiled, looking down at Ichigo, who was sleeping on the hill side facing the river. They had spent the day going around Karukura, and just having fun. She sighed as she laid back. Summer was almost over, and she would soon lose all the time that she had together with Ichigo. He would go back to school to a world that no one could see her in. It was hard; they weren't able to do lots of things because people couldn't see her. She wanted to have her own ice-cream cone, but she was only ever able to steal some of Ichigo's when he got some.

What she really wanted was to be able to go to school the same way Ichigo did. To have the friends she had made actually be able to see her. To touch them and give them hugs without them thinking there was a ghost. She was smart enough to go to school; she would even say that she had passed Ichigo a while back, but she would never know.

She was tired of this world in which she was just a figment of nothing, flowing through without even being able to make a difference. She ran her hand through Ichigo's hair and smiled. It was so soft. If it wasn't for him, she wasn't sure she would have kept coming back to the world of the living. She had other family, but Kisuke and Tessai worked and weren't able to spend much time with her.

She waited until Ichigo woke up before telling him she would see him later and left. She could tell that he was worried about her. He had asked what was wrong, but she had shrugged it off. There wasn't anything he could do.

. . .

Nikko and Masaki were walking back to the little red and yellow house when a chilly breeze caused them to pause. Looking up, they saw the sky begin to darken, slowly changing from its usual clear, sunny skies to cloud shrouded moonlight.

"What's going on, Nikko?" Masaki asked, wide eyed.

Nikko stared up at the night sky. "It's Hinata," she whispered. "She's never been this sad before."

. . .

Hinata found herself in front of Uncle Kisuke's shop after she left Ichigo. She smiled as she ran in yelling, "Uncle Kiskue, Uncle Tessai, Ururu, Jinta!"

She picked Ururu up and swung the solemn girl around before jumping on Jinta, who was trying to escape. "Love you, Jinta!" she cried as he struggled to get away from her.

"Stay away from me!" Jinta hollered, leaning away from her.

Dropping him, she skipped and jumped into Tessai's arms as he hugged her and swung her around. She kissed him on the cheek. "Uncle Tessai, it has been so long!" He gave her a smile as he put her back on the ground.

"Hinata, it has been too long. Kiskue is in the back." Tessai said as he patted her on the head. She skipped away, but not before Jinta tried to throw something at her. She caught it, laughing as she danced away.

She found Kiskue waiting for her in the hall, holding out a lollipop with his arms wide open. She ran to him yelling, "Uncle Kiskue!" before throwing herself into his arms. He was braced this time, so he was only pushed back a foot.

"My little girl, you have grown so much!"

She giggled as she hopped back down to her own feet. "I haven't grown that much since I last saw you, silly."

"What do you mean? Of course you have grown!"

She giggled again as she grabbed the lollipop he extended towards her. She ripped off the wrapping and put it into her month, sighing happily. Strawberry her favorite flavor. It was only at Uncle Kiskue's shop that she could eat sweets without having to worry about people seeing her.

Kiskue smiled down at her, ruffling her hair as she ate the candy. "That's not the only gift I have for you."

Her eyes got big as she looked up at him. "You have something else?"

His eyes glistened with mischief. "Do I?"

She hit him on the shoulder softly. "You do too! You just told me!"

He walked away, fanning himself. "Why, I don't know what you are talking about?"

She jumped on his back and he faltered for a moment before standing tall again. "Come on, you can tell me," she whined.

"I have no idea what you mean?"

"Kisuke!"

He laughed. "I'm joking, joking. Hold on tight." With that he flash stepped and she let out a cry of pure joy as he sped down to his basement. At the foot of the stairs, she saw a large box bigger then she was. "Tada!" Kisuke proclaimed.

Hinata jumped off his back and looked at it.

"Well, aren't you going to open it?"

With no need to be told again, she jumped on it. In a matter of seconds, there was paper flying through the air. Kisuke laughed as he watched her. Tessai was climbing down the ladder towards them when the paper finally settled.

Hinata sat with wide eyes as she stared at, well. . . herself. It looked just like her: from her waist length orange hair, down to the small bones holding her bangs out of her eyes. She looked back at Kisuke who was smiling. "What is it?" she asked as she turned back to it tentatively putting her hand out to touch it.

He walked up beside her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's called a gigai. It's a temporary body that allows you to be seen by other people besides Ichigo."

Her hand paused just before touching it, and she looked up at Kiskue as if asking him if it was real.

He smiled down at her. "It's real my dear. There are some drawbacks, however. You won't be able to fully use your spiritual energy when you are in it, and you will be physically human in both speed and strength. You will, in all senses of the phrase, be a normal human being." He sat there with her for a moment as she looked back at it. "Do you want to try it on?"

At that moment she nodded and reached out her hand, touching it. There was a bright flash of light. When it cleared, Hinata was no longer in front of the gigai.

"How does it feel, my dear?"

Slowly the gigai stood up, flexing its hand. "It feels . . . small . . . and restraining."

He gave a smile. "Sorry about that, but to get you to fit I had to make lots of restraints, but you'll get used to it. Why don't you go and try it out?"

She gave a nod as she slowly walked around before trying to run. Once she was comfortable with her new body, she ran back to Kisuke, doing some cart wheels along the way.

"Thank you so much, Uncle Kisuke!" She yelled as once again she threw her arms around his neck. This time though, she found herself crying tears of joy. She could be seen now; she wouldn't have to hide anymore, pretending she didn't exist, and carful to not touch anything. "Thank you."

He patted her back. "You're welcome." They sat like that for a couple of minutes before he gently pulled her away from him. "You need to know that I made it so that your gigai can go back to Hueco Mundo with you without you having to take it off. If you ever want to take it off, just bring it back to the shop and we will watch it."

"Thank you, thank you so much!"

He gave another smile. "Why don't you go outside and have some fun?"

Her eyes lit up. She could go outside and people would see her! "Yeah!"

She was about to start climbing the ladder when Kisuke hollered, "Wait! There is one more thing I need to tell you!"

She stopped and looked at him.

"We had one more surprise for you. . ."

. . .

Hinata was skipping through the streets. This was the best day ever! She had a body now and people could see her. Originally, she had wanted to run and show Ichigo, but Kisuke had said it would be better to surprise him after she had gotten use to her body. So here she was with an hour before sunset, just wandering the streets, touching things as she went. The world felt so different when one had a physical body.

It was as she was skipping that she felt the appearance of the hollow. She skidded to a stop. She felt around and stretched out her spiritual pressure; once she knew where it was, she took off at a run. She was slightly frustrated at how slow her gigai made her, but she eventually made it in time to see the hollow chasing a small spirit. She jumped at it, kicking it behind the head. She was surprised when it didn't die.

She quickly jumped back as it turned on her. It let out a shrill scream, taking a swipe at her. She managed to jump out of the way, landing on its arm as it swung by. Running up its arm, she kneed it in the face and causing the mask to crack, but it wasn't enough. Again, she was forced to retreat as it tried to grab her. She watched it with a close eye as it put its hand to its mask, roaring again. It lowered itself to all fours before running towards her. She took a defensive stance and was ready to attack when a blue flash of light raced past her, slamming into the charging hollow and causing it to dissipate. Startled, she looked back to see a young man with black hair hanging in his face wearing glasses which he pushed up. What surprised her most was the blue spiritual pressure in the shape of a bow. He looked at her.

She felt an innate fear take over, and she turned and ran. She heard the boy yell out from behind her to stop. When she didn't, she heard him give chase. She ran for only a few minutes and was about to lose him when all of a sudden he appeared in front of her. She screamed and smashed into him. He seemed unprepared for this as they tumbled to the ground, becoming entangled. Frightened, she tried to get off him and run away, but he grabbed her arm before she could move very far.

"Hold on, will you!" He said as he sat up. His glasses had been knocked off; he reached towards the ground, trying to find them. She was shaking by the time he managed to put them on and look at her. "Now," he said as he pushed his glasses up, "you can see hollows, can't you?"

Her face grew pale. "I see that I am right." He gave a small smile. "I have felt many hollows over the past year, but before I could get there, they would always vanish. That was you're doing, wasn't it?"

He seemed nice, even though her instincts were telling her to run. She nodded her head, shaking.

He seemed excited by this. "So I was right! How long have you been able to see hollows?"

She looked up at him, "I've. . . I've been able to see them my whole life." She said in a quaking voice.

He smiled at this. "Are you a quincy?"

"What's a quincy?"

His eyes got wide at this. "A quincy is one who fights hollows and kills them." Then, in a much quieter voice, "she definitely has the spiritual pressure of a quincy; how can she not know she is one?" He seemed to be mulling this over before he spoke again. "My name is Uryu Ishida, what is yours?"

"Ah. . . Hinata Kurosaki."

His eyes widened at her last name. "Humm. . ."

They sat like that for several minutes before finally she shifted her weight and he realized she was still sitting on him. His face went bright red as he gently pushed her off of him. "I'm so sorry!"

She looked at him, puzzled. "It's fine."

He pushed his glasses up awkwardly.

"Can I go now?"

He flushed again, letting go of her arm. With that, they both stood up. As she began to walk away, he hollered out to her once more: "Will I see you again?"

She looked over her shoulder, "I don't know." With that, she turned and ran away.

. . .

Author's note: Thanks for reading everyone! Please review and guess what the third gift is!