Author's Note

Yay! chapter two! This is some more setting and gets the plot rolling a bit. now enjoy!

Renji and Rukia were already arguing about something while Sado sat beside them quietly eating. Momo was bringing out breakfast for me, Rangiku, and herself from the kitchen, while Rangiku was nowhere to be seen. "Better hurry up and eat or we'll be late to class." Momo cheerfully reminds me as she sets down our breakfast.

"Right!" I cheerily reply, inhaling the scent of the omelet Momo has so kindly cooked me for breakfast. "It smells delicious, so I'm sure I'll finish it in no time!" and with that comment I dug into my omelet. About halfway through my omelet, Rangiku came in still looking sleepy.

"Ugh, I don't know how you all get up so early without feeling like zombies." she loudly complained as she lazily flung herself into the chair before her own omelet.

"That's because those four have school and I'm not lazy like you." was Renji's blunt reply.

Rangiku immediately started berating Renji and arguing that she wasn't lazy and that everyone who got up early when they didn't have to were crazy. Renji just argued back until Rukia hit him in the back of the head and told him to stop being so childish. I had to stifle my giggles in my napkin before excusing myself to go finish preparing for school.

Rangiku is the oldest among us at 25 while Renji is 19 and had only just graduated high school. Rukia, Sado, Momo, and I are all still in high school. Rukia is a senior even though she is shorter than both me and Momo, something that Renji likes to annoy her about constantly. Momo, Sado, and I are all juniors, which some people find hard to believe since Sado is the tallest of all of us. Rukia's brother also lives at the temple, actually he owns the temple, but I don't see him around very often. To tell you the truth, I've only met him twice, once when I interviewed to get my job here and the second time when I was hired. Rukia says he's gone often because he works with some organization that helps manage a lot of old temples and that they keep him very busy.

We all left for school together, waving good bye to Renji as he headed out to perform whatever maintenance duties he had lined up for today. The walk to school from the temple wasn't too long, just two or three minutes longer than what it was from my old apartment. It was nice to not be alone on the walk like I had been last week with Tatsuki gone to her tournament. When we reached the school Rukia and Momo went their separate ways while Sado and I stuck together since we were in the same class. After Sado gently kept Chizuru from glomping me and taking advantage of Tatsuki's absence again, the bell rang and classes started.

At lunch I ate with Rukia, Momo, and some other friends I'd made at school and Rukia kept Chizuru off of me there with a well-placed punch. I really need to ask her where she and Tatsuki learned how to take people out with one punch so I can go learn how to do it. Then I could be a super hero that would take people out with one punch, but then I'd get bored of being a super hero because no one could stand a chance against me. I simply let my mind wander down the path of being a super hero as I absently finished my lunch until the bell snapped me out of my musings. I packed up my lunch and headed back to class with the other girls.

After school was let out, we made our way back to the temple so we could get started on our jobs. Rukia and Momo, as well as Rangiku, work inside the temple cleaning and hosting the guests and the tourists. My job is to make sure our gardens bloom and look beautiful. I get to pick the flowers for some of the gardens while I have to make sure that others grow properly. I also maintain the temple's vegetable garden that we sometimes sell the extras from. Sado's job is to help Renji with the maintenance and me with the gardening and grounds keeping when I need it.

After I changed out of my school uniform and in to the more traditional outfit I was supposed to where while on the job I went outside to tend the gardens, quietly humming to myself in contentment. It was hot out today, but that was to be expected since it was mid-August and fall still hasn't set in yet. I was quite pleased with myself when I found I had cared for all the gardens but still had time before dinner, so I quietly snuck to one of the back gardens where a faint trail led off into the forest behind the temple. Following the small and almost completely overrun path that I had walked nearly every day for the past three months, I soon found myself in a small clearing filled with flowers. There were purple daisies, gold irises, some ume, pink lilies, altheas and red camellias, but my favorite were the blue daisies whose blooms looked so much like the flower hair pins my brother gave me before he died. In the center among all the flowers that I had planted here was a small shrine that only reached up to my shoulder made with wood painted red and with a little roof on it. The center of it was a box that was completely sealed shut and the whole thing was covered in talismans, tags, and ropes. On a stone much like a grave marker something was inscribed, but time had worn it away until only one character was still legible. I moved into the clearing and greeted the shrine, "Ohayou, Guardian-kun!"

Later, I joined everyone for dinner as we all talked about our day. After that Sado, Rukia, Momo, and I got together and did our homework. It was late when we finished, so I only had a quick bath before turning in for the night. "Good night, Onii-chan, it was nice talking to you and Guardian-kun today." I whispered quietly to the picture before drifting off to sleep.

"I want you to check all the seals on the temple grounds, there has been suspicious activity in the area as of late. Keep your guards up and take no risks. Do I make myself clear?" the question is spoken softly but all can hear it in the dark room lit by torches placed in stands around the room.

"Hai, Kuchiki-taicho," comes the reply from five voices.

"And Rukia,"

"Yes, nii-sama?"

"Make sure that girl stays in the dark about these duties."

"Hai, nii-sama."

"I will take tonight's watch. Dismissed."

One by one, the five figures slip from the room, until only one is left. He silently extinguishes the torches before departing himself to patrol for the night.

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