Kimi, As in You.

Three – Wandering

"…mi-sama? Kimi-sama? It's already noon, Kimi-sama."

Kimi sat up abruptly, wiping her bleary eyes with one hand and supporting her spinning head with another – that was what sleeping for twelve whole hours after a completely mind-boggling and tiring day. It took a while for all the information she had obtained yesterday to rush back into her mind, making her headache even worse than it already was. She managed, however, to squint at the person who was standing at her door. It was a servant. Didn't Hitsugaya-taicho previously say that the servants didn't have much interaction with him? She sighed and asked the first thing that came to her mind, "where's Hitsugaya-taicho?"

"Hitsugaya-sama has already left for his office at the 10th squad to carry out his daily work. His daily schedule usually begins at 7am, therefore we would usually come into the house to start cleaning from 8am to 1pm. I'm terribly sorry for any disturbance caused, Kimi-sama."

"No, that's okay." Kimi replied as she got up and started making the bed.

"Kimi-sama, there is no need for you to do so. My fellow servants and I will do it later, it will not be appropriate for a guest to be taking care of these trivial things. For now, please change into the clothes that Hitsugaya-sama has provided for you in the wardrobe. Kimi-sama, you should proceed to the 6th squad office soon, Hitsugaya-sama is probably waiting for you. Well then, I shall be leaving the room now. Take your time to change, I'll be back a while later so you don't have to worry." The servant said and gave a quick, tired smile.

"Would you tell me your name?"

The servant paused for a moment and blankly blinked at Kimi. She must've thought it was weird for someone who was a guest in the mansion to ask for a mere servant's name, Kimi pondered. "Aimi. Tsukiyomi Aimi. Have a nice day, Kimi-sama." The sakura-adorned door was slid closed.

Kimi sighed and absent-mindedly opened the wardrobe, only to be flabbergasted by the sight in front of her. How long did he think I was going to stay here? The thought echoed in her mind as her brain tried to register the sight that was in front of her eyes. The whole wardrobe was literally stuffed to the brim with clothes for almost every type of occasion – formal dresses, nightgowns (what in the world?), casual home wear. She didn't know, however, what to wear to go and meet him at the office. Just then, she spotted a yellow, crumpled post-it clumsily stuck onto the mirror of the wardrobe.

For today, just wear a normal Yukata, then come and meet me at the 10th squad barracks. Don't get lost, ask for directions if you don't know the way, I'm sure someone would be able to help you. From, Hitsugaya (that's Hitsugaya-taicho to you!)

She quickly browsed through the horde of clothes and found something she fancied. A simple, white silk Yukata with blue and purple butterflies intricately embroidered onto it. White had always been her favourite colour. How ironic, she thought, compared to her very own sleek black Zanpakuto, which was supposed to show the true desire of her soul. Did she desire to be merciless and heartless towards other people then?

She then decided to leave her straight, waist-length hair as it was, and clutching her Zanpakuto tightly in her hand, she slid open the door and left the premises of the mansion.

She looked down throughout her way wandering quite aimlessly around the confusing passageways of Seireitei, so as to attract less attention as possible. But it was mostly futile, of course, since everyone else was wearing black (and boring) Shinigami uniforms, while she was conspicuously wearing a pretty, white Yukata. Kimi understood the fact that Hitsugaya-taicho would've provided her with one to allow her to blend in if he had the ability to do so, but as she was not an actual approved Shinigami yet, she couldn't wear the Shinigami uniform… that did, in fact, made her feel like of excluded, but she knew that there wasn't a choice – her life wasn't one with a lot of choices to choose from, and moreover, she didn't even—

Bump. "Ah, sumimasen." She apologized as she looked up to see a very, very weird (and stalker)-looking man staring down at her with curious eyes. His face was painted black and white, and Kimi found herself wondering if he was human at all. His clothes were… some sort of eccentric and he had this frightening, maddened expression on his face. "Araaaa? What have we got here? I've never seen you before, young lady." His finger trailed the contours of her face, making her shiver in fright, "you look like you'd be a gooooood experiment subject." And then he flashed a smile, which only managed to freak her out more and she bowed, screamed, then subsequently ran off quickly, wishing that she wouldn't bump into any more weird people.

Bump. Oh no. She made a silent prayer in her heart, hoping that this time it would be a kind—no, normal, all she needed was a normal person who could guide her to the 6th squad office. "Ojou-chan? Daijiobu?" A kind-looking (oh thankfully) old man wearing a pink cape and a straw hat asked her. She was going to reply that she was fine, oh totally great, but then she realized that she wasn't fine – she was freaked out about the encounter and she was completely lost. "Iie, not really. I'm lost." And scared, her heart screamed, but she wasn't just going to tell a stranger that. "Sou desuka. Hai, wakarimashita. Where do you want to go, ojou-chan?"

"10th squad office. Arigato Gozaimasu."

"Okay then. Nanao-chan, let's take a detour and help this ojou-chan find her way, shall we?" He looked to his side. It was only then that she realized there was another lady standing beside him, her spectacles were propped up onto the high bridge of her nose and her hair was tied up in a neat bun. She nodded and then gave an unexpectedly warm smile, "I'm Ise Nanao, Vice-captain of the 8th division. And this sloppy-looking, lazy man here is Kyouraku Shunsui, Captain of the 8th squad, even if he dosen't look like it."

Kimi couldn't suppress her surprised look as she glanced at the Captain of the 8th squad again – as Nanao-san had put it, he didn't really look like a captain. "Ah, hai. My name is Kimi, just Kimi. I'm not exactly an approved Shinigami yet so I don't know what my status is either." She smiled sheepishly and introduced herself promptly, making sure that she didn't leak out too much information about herself.

"Kimi-chan? Kimi, as in you?" Kyouraku-taicho looked amused.

"Hai, sou desu."

"Naraba, Kimi-chan, you looked kind of frightened when you bumped into me, did something bad happen?"

"No, not really." She lied, and was really tempted to blurt out "except for the fact that I was just freakishly 'observed' by some kind of mad scientist who wanted to take me as his 'experiment subject'", "Mou heiki desu."

"Okay then, we probably should get going. Taicho, I'm warning you, you better not take this as a chance to escape your work and go to drink again." She gave him a light smack on the head as they led the way.

"We're here." They stopped in front of a door that had the word 'ten' printed in Kanji.

"Thank you for your help, it was a pleasure meeting you." She bowed respectfully once again as they waved their goodbyes.

"No problem, Kimi-chan. It's nothing for such a cute ojou-chan like you. You are always welcome to drop by the 8th squad office." He said, grinning cheekily, only to be hit, this time harder, by his Vice-captain on the head once again. "Goodbye Kimi-san."

She watched their back views growing smaller and smiled to herself. At least now she had met a few friends. And one pervert. But she pushed the thought out of her mind. She was about to enter when she heard voices from the inside.

"Ahhhh~ But taicho, can't we not do it today?" A really drunk-sounding voice whined.

"No, Matsumoto, you've been delaying for weeks, and I can't stand it anymore. It's going to kill me!" Hitsugaya-taicho sounded really, really impatient.

Kimi gulped and hoped that what she wasn't hearing what she thought she was hearing.

"Taicho~~~"

"No means no, I said I want it done now!"

And with that, Kimi accidently pushed on the sliding doors of the 10th squad, causing them to open and allowing someone from the outside to see what was going on inside. Kimi immediately covered her eyes, her face growing hot and said, "Ah, I'm sorry to have intruded! I'm leaving now! Gomenasai!"

"… what are you talking about, Kimi?" Hitsugaya's amused voice caused Kimi to make a gap between her fingers, peeping through it with one eye. Until she realized that Hitsugaya-taicho was sitting in front of his desk looking pissed off and entertained by the sight of her like that at the same time. Whereas there was another strawberry blonde, with *cough* very revealing clothes (who knew that someone could do that with the boring old Shinigami uniform?), was slouching lazily on the couch, looking like she'd just been hit by a thousand trucks in a row.

Kimi awkwardly put down her hands and stammered, "Uhhhhm, playing hide and seek?" She flashed her best, white-teethed smile and waited for him to quickly change the subject.

"Anyway," he cleared his throat, allowing her to finally relax from her tense position, "I've been waiting for you for quite awhile Kimi, but then I came to a conclusion that you had probably overslept, then got lost, and just those two things would take up a lot of time, which explains why you only arrived at 3pm."

"Taicho~ who's this pretty little ojou-chan? Did you finally get yourself a girlfriend?" "Matsumoto" grinned and teased him.

"No, Matsumoto, and for goodness sake, you need to do your job as a Vice-captain! Do the paperwork, damn it! And I don't have as much time as before to settle every single little thing for you, Matsumoto. I've got to handle Kimi's matter too, so you're going to have to do something about this stack of work yourself. Goodbye Matsumoto, and I seriously expect it to be done when I come back here at midnight." A vein popped on Hitsugaya's head as he grabbed his Zanpakuto, a black velvet bag, and stormed out of the room, motioning for Kimi to follow after him.

"Well, that was… unexpected." Kimi gulped and spoke, breaking the uncomfortable silence as Hitsugaya-taicho brought them towards who-knew-where. "No, it wasn't unexpected. It happens on a daily basis, that lazy-assed Matsumoto." He grumbled, Kimi smiled internally – he really was like a grump little kid who got mad after not getting his toy.

"Anyway, we're going to the training grounds now. You're going to show me how well you can fight, Kimi. The battle with the Hollow you had in the real world that day was too brief, it's hard to find out more information about your standard. Nonetheless, there's always room for improvement, and you should know that the examination held by Captain Commander will not be easy. You need to train, and it will be all the more better if you train with me, since I'm a Captain. This will give you a rough idea on what you will be facing when the Captain Commander decides to see you." Hitsugaya-taicho said with a stern face.

All Kimi could do was nod and think about the days ahead of her. She knew that they were going to be tough, but what she was worried about was that – would these days continue to go on? Would the days of having a purpose, having people to interact with continue? Because she knew that if she didn't succeed in the meeting with the Captain Commander, that might very well be the end of her short, memory-lacking life.

"Change into this." Hitsugaya-taicho said as he passed her that black velvet bag. "You wouldn't want to be training in a Yukata."

And this time, Kimi agreed with him.

What she didn't expect was that she had to wear something like this. A bareback vest with ribbons that started off from the base of her neck, then made a criss-cross to the back of her neck, forming a graceful butterfly knot, with the ends travelling all the way down to near the ends of her hair. Black, skin-tight knee-length tights were wrapped around her legs and her hair was loosely tied into a ponytail with a black ribbon, strands of fringe escaped from the tie and hang around her face.

"So, why this?" She pointed at herself with an annoyed expression once she emerged of the changing room.

"This is the specialized clothing that most women in Seireitei wear when they're doing vigorous training." Hitsugaya-taicho replied matter-of-factly.

She wondered if he was really telling the truth – usually uniforms for women would wrap them up like a mummy so as to not 'reveal skin' and cause the attire to be 'inappropriate'. But this was an entirely different story. Well, Seireitei was an entirely different place, so Kimi guessed that she should prepare herself for surprises like these in the future – that is, if she had any future at all. The thought seemed to never cease to haunt her.

"Then, taicho-san, don't you have to change into training clothes too?" Kimi gave a sly smirk.

"There'll be no need to. You won't even touch me. And I won't even need to release my Zanpakuto." Hitsugaya taunted her, probably enjoying the miffed expression worn on her face.

"Hikari o kesu, Kagerui." A soft whisper blown in the wind and she promptly disappeared, flash-stepping around Hitsugaya-taicho. She allowed her Zanpakuto to slowly seep into the ground as she did so, buying time for it to reach the ground near Hitsugaya. Of course, she knew that it wasn't going to hit – she wanted to see how Hitsugaya would respond to her attacks. She needed a plan.

"Too obvious." Hitsugaya-taicho said as he dodged it easily, the shadow breaking through the ground, creating a nasty hole at the position in which Hitsugaya was standing just a few seconds ago. He flash-stepped towards the position Kimi was in the blink of an eye, giving no mercy and aiming for a strike immediately. Kimi barely managed to counter-attack when he stroke. A loud clash of steel echoed throughout the vast, grass-floored space. Kimi clenched her teeth and fought harder against Hitsugaya's experienced sword. The dark shadow around her blade began to waver. It soon became a battle of strength – to see who would last longer and overcome the other. Hitsugaya seemed to face little difficulty trying to keep up with holding her back. Kimi narrowed her eyes at him and pressed even harder. A bead of sweat trailed the side of her face. Kimi knew that she was going to lose this fight if she didn't quickly think of something – she didn't have enough strength and stamina to fight a Captain-ranked Shinigami yet.

Escape! The thought echoed in her mind. She carefully manipulated the shadow in her blade while trying to keep up with the strength Hitsugaya was exerting on her. Black wings sprouted from her back and allowed her to glide with the wind to another spot distanced quite far apart from Hitsugaya, the ribbon in her hair fluttering while she did so. They disappeared shortly after, though. Kagerui couldn't be used to multi-task – it was either used to attack, or to escape and defend. Not both at the same time. It would be too hard. Hitsugaya looked surprised, just for a moment though, until he regained his composure and began to stride towards her slowly. Kimi was already gasping for breath, while HItsugaya seemed not at all fazed. Kimi wondered how long the fight had been. It felt as if it had started a few hours before, but she knew that it had probably only been half an hour at maximum. "Bunkatsu." Her blade began to split into a thousand shadowed shards. "Lock on." And as she stared straight into Hitsugaya's eyes, the blades began to charge towards him, from all directions.

Hitsugaya seemed startled, realizing he didn't have enough time to dodge, he sighed. "Souten ni zase, Hyourinmaru." All it took was those four words, for him to freeze every single shard that had been skillfully aimed at him. That only left Kimi staring at him with a defeated expression on her face, as she fell to the floor, exhausted. Her hair was surprisingly still quite presentable, although more strands of loose hair had escaped and now stuck to the side of her face. He was right – it wasn't much of a fight at all. But at least she had forced him to release his Zanpakuto.

"Damn. At least now we know you'll at least be a seated officer, that is, if you ever get accepted as a Shinigami." Hitsugaya flashed a quick, but rare smile as he sheathed his sword. He reached out a hand and said, "Come on. That's enough for today." After a moment's hesitation, she grasped his hand and pulled herself up, "I made you release your Zanpakuto." Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow at her and commented, "Yes, you did. Hyourinmaru is known as the most powerful Ice-type Zanpakuto in Seireitei. Also, your Zanpakuto's ability that you used just now… 'bunkatsu', was it? It reminds me of someone else's Zanpakuto… Kuchiki-taicho, to be specific. You'll get to see his Zanpakuto in time." Kimi nodded briefly and wondered if she would ever get to see that "Kuchiki-taicho". From Hitsugaya-taicho's respectful tone when he spoke about him, she guessed that he was probably someone of high status – someone who Hitsugaya-taicho acknowledged as a person that was worthy of fighting.

"Well, that's enough for today then. I need to get back to doing my paperwork since my wreck of a Vice-captain is probably not doing anything but slouching on the sofa at the moment. It's the second day you've been here, so you might want to take a look around the premises of Seireitei. Don't get lost." He said as he waved a hand dismissively, turning around and walking towards the 10th squad office with a tired expression on his face. Kimi wondered if this was the boring schedule that took place every single day of his life. If it was so, then he definitely needed some excitement – badly.

"Hitsugaya-taicho! Don't overwork yourself!" She shouted to him through the hallway. He didn't turn back, but said, "Arigato, kodomo." It took a moment for her new nickname to be drilled into her mind. What? Kodomo? She resisted the temptation to roll her eyes. Of course, she was fourteen, but the nickname was more befitting for him, in her opinion, but she sighed and decided not to retort.

She decided to take a leisurely, aimless stroll around Seireitei. After all, she had free time and getting to know this place better wouldn't hurt, would it? Everyone else seemed to be in a rush, walking briskly to their next destinations in their black Shinigami uniform. The people here really needed a break once in a while.

The scenery pretty much stayed the same: concrete structure, office, concrete structure, office. That is, until she reached an open space. She hopped off the wooden platforms and walked around the space, towards the single, Sakura tree in the middle of it. She smiled. Sakura trees were pretty, pink – the colour that many girls liked, although she admitted she liked blue and purple more than that, pink was definitely a decent colour. "Kimi… dare?" Someone spoke and broke her train of thought. She briefly glanced at the person who spoke, mistaking the informal way of saying 'you' for her name. It was a woman. With black hair and depthless-looking violet eyes. "Kimi." She gave a small smile, then looking at the confused expression on the woman's face, she sighed and explained, "My name is Kimi. Yes, Kimi, as in you." The petite woman nodded, understanding as she replied, "I'm Rukia, from the 13th squad. Nice to meet you. I've never seen you here before, are you a newcomer?"

"Iie, I'm just someone who has yet to become an official Shinigami."

"So, you're from the Shinigami Academy, I suppose?"

"Mm, iie… it's not really very convenient to explain…" Kimi felt bad, but she thought she shouldn't talk about her situation until she had met with the Captain Commander.

Rukia shook her head. "That's okay. Everyone has their own secrets."

Kimi appreciated that thought and she decided that she liked Rukia – she looked nice enough, and she didn't pry. She was just being friendly. "Don't you have work to do? Everyone here seems to be rushing for time."

Rukia shook her head and laughed – it was a low, but pleasant-sounding laughter. "I'm currently free, and have no missions to run, if that is what you mean. What about you?"

"I'm free too, at least until sunset. I haven't really seen a lot of Seireitei yet, and so I've been wandering around."

"Ah… how about a tour then? I can take you to the places that I've found while wandering around Seireitei. They're pretty nice, and some of them are private. Sometimes I can spend a whole day sitting at those places, relaxing and thinking. It helps calm the mind."

Kimi nodded enthusiastically, and internally thanked the heavens for Rukia's kindness.

"Well, let's go then."

Rukia had brought her to a lot of places, places like her office, the meeting place at which they would hold events – which were although rare, but very fun and entertaining, she explained – but the place which struck her most was a cliff. Sougyoku Hill, it was called.

"You know, I was once almost executed here, ironically." Rukia chuckled. Kimi wore a shocked expression on her face and looked at her – how was it possible that she carried such a calm expression as she talked about that? As if answering her internal question, Rukia continued, "But this place reminds me of my friends, who were willing to sacrifice everything that they had – their home, their family – in order to save me. Well, he had put it is 'paying back a favour', but I knew it was more than that. Ichigo had never been the one who was good at expressing his feelings anyway. He always, always scowled. The times in which you could see him actually smile were rare – but he cared. I knew he cared." Her tone had a tinge of fondness as she said that.

Ichigo, huh? That was a really funny name for a guy. Strawberry. But then, Kimi herself had a weird name too, so she couldn't blame him for that either. Rukia seemed to like him a lot, so he had to be a good person. Again, for the second time that day, Kimi wondered if she would be able to meet another person. This time, it was "Ichigo".

"Thank you for sharing all that with me, Rukia-san, I hope that I'll get to see Ichigo-san one day. For now, I have to go. It's already sunset and I bet Hitsugaya-taicho would scold me again if I was late for dinner."

"No problem, Kimi-san. Eh? Hitsugaya-taicho?" She raised an inquisitive eyebrow, but Kimi was already running towards the mansion. "I'll tell you another time!"

But Kimi arrived in the mansion only to find the servant, who she remembered was Aimi, tell her that Hitsugaya-taicho was "busy and staying at his office to finish the paperwork". Kimi sighed and decided to join him at his office. She would probably be able to help him with a little of that paperwork, and she was sure that he certainly wouldn't have minded a late-night snack. "But before that, I have to bathe." She muttered to herself as she stepped into the bathroom, to find it already filled to the brim with hot water, with flower petals floating on the clear surface. Kimi mentally reminded herself to thank Aimi.

"Hitsugaya-taicho?" She said as she knocked on the door. No response. She frowned and slid open the door slightly, peeking in to see whether he was inside.

A smile crept up onto her lips as she saw him fast asleep, with his face plastered onto the table. He had to be really, really sleepy to fall asleep in that uncomfortable position, Kimi mused, better not wake him up from his beauty sleep, then. She searched around the room and found a thin blanket, which would have had to do as she didn't have anything else to keep him warm, and carefully draped it over him. Then, she took up a piece of the paperwork and squinted, trying to read it in the dark. Not quite understanding much of the tiny text on the sheet of paper, she decided that she couldn't do much to help with it either. At least he'd have something to eat if he woke up in the middle of the night.

Thud. She left a nicely wrapped bento on the side of his working table, and turned to leave.

Creaaaaaaaaaaaak. Wait – that wasn't supposed to happen! Kimi silently groaned as she realized that she had stepped on a wooden plank that definitely wasn't in its top condition. She heard Hitsugaya-taicho stir behind her. Great, just great.

"Who's there? Matsumoto?" His voice was hoarse from sleeping.

Kimi turned around, blushing sheepishly. "Iie, Hitsugaya-taicho, it's me."

"Kimi? Why are you here?" He sat up and then looked at the thin blanket, then at the bento on his desk, and gave a long, tired sigh. "Thank you." He said so softly that she almost hadn't caught it.

She smiled and she thought she saw him tilt his head away slightly.

"Well then, I suppose you haven't eaten either. Want to join me on the rooftop?"

"Eeh? On the rooftop?" She wondered if he had made a mistake.

"Nights on the rooftop are really cooling, you know."

Hitsugaya looked very happy at the sight of his favourite fruit, and started on it immediately. Kimi laughed softly as she nibbled on an onigiri. "I told them to pack more watermelon, since I thought you'd like to have it after a stressful, brain-killing day of work."

Hitsugaya gave a grunt, with two pieces of watermelon stuffed into his mouth, Kimi guessed that he meant "thank you", and replied, "you're welcome."

And then a cold breeze blew past. Hitsugaya looked as if nothing had happened, but Kimi was perpetually on the brink of freezing. "If this is what you mean by 'cooling', I don't want to know what your standard of 'cold' would be." She said as she rubbed her shivering arms and curled up, looking as if she was trying to become a ping-pong ball.

Hitsugaya then flash-stepped away, only to reappear a few seconds later with the thin blanket clutched in his hands. He then gently laid it across her and went back to sitting beside her on the rooftop again. "Arigato." She smiled for the millionth time that day, hiding her face in the warm blankets and blowing warm breath into her hands.

They continued to eat in silence, with Hitsugaya continuing to munch on watermelons. The silence wasn't awkward, though, it was more of the calm, peaceful silence.

It was only awhile later when the sun peeked out, seemingly bathing the whole of Seireitei in its glorious light. It was a breathtaking sight. "Hey, Kimi, look at the sunse—" He stopped when he saw her on the brink of dozing off, her head almost touching his shoulder a few times. He rolled his eyes, and Kimi's head just landed on his shoulder. Her face carrying a peaceful expression, her breaths slow and steady.

It's been the second time she's fallen asleep without me knowing now, he thought.

But he didn't push her away.

Definitions:

Sumimasen – sorry

Ara – well…

Ojou-chan – young lady

Daijiobu – are you alright? (as a question) / I'm okay. (as a statement)

Wakarimashita – i've understood

Hai – yes

Iie – no

Sou desu – i see

Sou desu ka – is that so?

Naraba – then

Mou heiki desu – i'm alright now

Kodomo – little child

Author's Note:

Hello! I'm back again with Chapter 3! :D

I have completely no idea why I'm so enthusiastic in writing this even though there are few comments. But I've enjoyed writing it very much. My longest chapter so far xD

A big thank you to snickerslol4 for consistently reading my fanfiction (: even though it might not become famous HAHA.

Hope you'll enjoy this chapter! (:

P/S. You'll notice the change in how Kimi addresses Hitsugaya during normal times and during fights – this is because she usually becomes more serious when fighting and regards every opponent as an equal, thus she does not add prefixes to names. :D