足らない出会い、

物語の始まり。

It felt like any other morning. She came to class, sat on her chair, did her exams, and left. Some how the prospect of doing that is utterly boring. Her friends had left earlier, they were good at written tests, but can anyone blame her if she chose to be bad in those kinds of things?

"How did you do Yukiko-san?"

"Kill me Soujiro!"

"Such a child."

"Shut it you shortie."

"Yukiko-san!"

"What? Shiro started it first"

"Yukiko, you're short too!"

"I'm taller than you."

"Please stop it both of you."

懐かしい。

Yukiko woke up to the sound of screams and hoots. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, Yukiko yawned—ungracefully, I might add. Brushing her hair with her hand she stood up and walked to get her shihakusho. She wanted to sleep some more, but Shuuei's and Kira's falsetto singing made it impossible—damn those drunken idiots!

Once dressed she opened her door, glaring slightly at the rising sun. It's morning and those idiots are still at it, unbelievable. How drunk can you get before you faint? Sighing slightly, Yukiko thought of the best route possible to avoid the disgusting smell of sake. Just thinking about it sent shivers down her spine; all those men, drunk and armed with weapons, sake in one hand, and with one wrong move, she'll end up just like them. Running as fast as her legs could take her, she jumped from roof to roof.

Walking into the tenth squad gate, Yukiko felt her mischief level soaring through the roof. There's only one man in this whole Seireitei that would have the perfect reaction Yukiko knew so well. He may be a genius in...almost anything, but she still will best him when it comes to annoying people (mainly him).Turning her head around she felt him coming. Her heart pounded for a second but she hid her thoughts down to her soul to avoid any stupidity she might do. Rounding the corner she glomped her favourite white haired friend.

"Mpphuunyinyo!"

Yukiko laughed and let go of Toshiro. She smiled as Toshiro glared at her. She could faintly hear yelps and howls from the eleventh division's party. "The party is still going on," she stated as she followed Toshiro—she guessed that he is returning to his office.

Toshiro nodded, "I'm going to let Matsumoto off today. Considering this is a holiday."

She wondered if he would work or perhaps have a nice day off too. Well, she knew that if Toshiro does intend to spend the day off—and if she doesn't get drunk—, he would spend it in a dignified manner. Then again Toshiro might just spend his time, locked up in his office with stacks of paperwork. She giggled slightly at the picture her imagination conjured up.

"What are you laughing at?"

Yukiko blinked and looked at Toshiro with surprise evident in her eyes. She followed him all the way to his room? Wow, she really was deep in thought. She looked as he wrapped a scarf around. "Is it really cold?"

"No. But who knows, it might get cold. Come on then."

She blinked and asked where to. For that she received a shrug and he began to walk away. Yukiko followed him again. Yukiko smiled and knew where they were heading the moment Toshiro turned to an alleyway that would only fit people of small stature.

They both stopped in front of the wall and placed their palms against it. Yukiko calmed herself and summoned a bit of reiatsu to her palm. The wall began to glow red and formed a door. Slowly golden ink painted above the door and formed a beautiful calligraphy of, "The Eternal Snow Garden of the Two Heavenly Beasts". She felt a bump forming on her hand and she opened her eyes. One of the doorknob was shaped like tiger's head while the other was in the shape of a dragon's head. Slowly Toshiro opened the doors and she smiled as she saw the garden.

The garden will forever be white; covered in snow. Yukiko smiled as she remembered how Toshiro complained on the silliness of using his bankai for the sake of covering the place with snow. At first she built it to congratulate Toshiro on his rise to captaincy and then on her birthday she asked for snow. In the middle was a sakura tree within the protection of a small moat. The pink flowers will eternally bloom in the garden, stopped in time. And the red bridge was just there for the sake of it.

She looked at Toshiro and sighed, "do you regret it?"

"Not particularly."

"Hn. Ne, Shiro (Toshiro interjected with his usual, 'it's Hitsugaya-taichou!), what if we add fish into the moat?"

Toshiro sighed, "How do you plan on keeping them alive?"

"…eto…I don't know…food?"

"Baka."

Yukiko idly walked to the bridge and sat against the railings. She calmly turned and stared into Toshiro's eyes. "I had a dream. What an ancient dream. It was…strange. All the three of us were having fun. That was over forty years ago," a sudden breeze whipped Yukiko's hair over her face and once the wind died down, "you suddenly became a giant Shiro."

Toshiro twitched. "Don't suddenly go looking into someone's eyes with that serious look on, only to tell them an outright stupid ending. Are you planning to kill me with stupidity?"

"Mah Shiro, you're too serious over everything! One has to relax. I bet if you hadn't met me today, you'd be off doing your stupid paperwork. It's a hassle y'know."

"You don't do any, and I know that."

"Sorry to burst your bubble, but I do. I just don't dedicate my life to it like you do."

Toshiro sighed and walked towards Yukiko. She calmly tilted her head as he looked into her eyes. "I'm glad we built this garden. Every time you go off on a mission in the living world I occasionally come here to hope that you're fine and that you'll come back safely."

Yukiko's eyes widened in shock. This may be the most he has ever said about his feelings. Again that hope began stirring up again. Hope that he will confess to her.

"Yukiko…I…was just joking."

Hope dashed. Yukiko got angry. Very angry.

"It's so peaceful and quiet without Yukiko-san around," Takizoe said as he sipped his tea with his kouhai.

"Yukiko-san is the black haired girl always loitering around here isn't she?"

"Yup. She always gets in all sorts of trouble. I guess today is a day off. Ah, the cherry blossoms are beautiful today."

"I agree on that senpai," Kazuma agreed.

"HITSUGAYA TOSHIRO! GET BACK HERE!"

"No way! Not with you on my tail."

"BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Hah! I'd like to see you try!"

"HADAZAWRI TENBATSU, KAZEMOUKO!"

"Oi! What are you doing with that! Yukiko! Dammit!"

"Ah, it's not so quiet anymore Kazuma," Takizoe stated calmly as the beautiful cherry blossoms tree he was staring at fell to the ground due to some excess wind attack from Yukiko-san.

"Takizoe-senpai, you have tears running down your face."

"Is that so? I do love that Sakura tree."

Reaching the point where the chase started, Toshiro collapsed under the Sakura tree. Yukiko glared at him before deciding that he has had enough punishment for the great insult he caused her. She calmly walked and sat next to him. She must admit though, calling out her shikai was a bit overboard, but he brought out that hope again, so he deserved it!

"Yukiko, when you go off to the living world. Please be careful."

Yukiko glanced sideways at him and smiled, "I'll come back safely. It's a promise!"

Feeling exhausted, Yukiko leaned on Toshiro's shoulder. Her eyes drifted close as she began to recuperate from using her shikai. How nice and cool.

"Sleep tight Yuki-chan."

To be continued…

Author's note:

That's the end of an introductory chapter. I think that's quite a job well done in my opinion. A nice reboot to my Snow That Never Melts. By the way, I do not own any of the characters except Yukiko, Kazemouko and Kazuma. The rest belongs to Kubo Tite. I only make my OCs and plot. So that's that. By the way, really sorry for the OOC-ness.