Liking Oneself II: Thank You (Bleach Fanfic)

Letters to Them (Part III) To a Friend

Eventually, the small taicho was able to get away from the noble house, his nerves strained from having to deal with the exuberance of the female head. The sun was setting as he headed to his next destination, which caused his muscles to relax and his mind to wander as he stepped down the dusty road.

Eventually he came to the small graveyard, which stood quite, much like the last time he happened to visit. He stepped through the rows of gravestones and eventually came to the one he was looking for. Glancing down, the blade he had placed near the grave was no longer there, which caused him to let out a sound of disgust.

"Grave robbers. If I had my way, I would have had it buried with him a long time ago. I wonder why anyone would even think about taking it, when it is useless to anyone broken as it is." His teal eyes took in the grave, remembering the fact when Shojiro had his funeral, he couldn't go to it under orders from the Gotei Thirteen.

A good deal of the events involving his friend had been bittersweet. There were all those memories of them spending time with each other, competing with each other. Well, it was more of a competition for his best friend then him, but that was another matter. Shojiro also had a lot more faith in Toshiro then the small taicho had ever had in himself.

A nice cold breeze blew by and Toshiro took a letter and fixed it so it simply wouldn't blew away. There wasn't much he could say, as there were things that he didn't wish to talk about, and things that Shojiro already knew about. So, he wrote out a rather simple, almost childish letter. Then again, his old friend wouldn't have cared that it was childish, which was what made him such a great friend.

Kusaka Shojiro ~

I am sorry that your death happened. It is something that I never wanted to happen, nor something I wanted to see. I wish to thank you for always being there and always telling me that I could achieve great things, despite the fact I never believed in myself. I regret not having the ability to spend more time with you. I might be a different person that way.

~ Hitsugaya Toshiro

As he stood up, he suddenly found a blade pressed against his throat. His eyes darted to the right and saw that one end was broken, and then his eyes darted to the left, recognizing the hilt of a very familiar zampaktuo. "Would you care to explain why you share the same zampaktuo as my brother?" A female piped up from behind him.

"Do you realize to this day, I am still asking myself that question?" Toshiro stated lightly, not bothering to push the blade away.

"Then you did in fact know my brother back from the academy days." The blade was withdrawn and suddenly the female moved beside him and reached down and picked up the letter from under the rock.

"Oi. Reading private letters is seriously rude you know. As is taking the offerings left for the dead." The small taicho snapped his words out as she opened up the letter.

"Yet you didn't have the respect to write down your rank into the letter." The girl, who was much taller then him muttered, opening it up. "Don't you owe him that much respect, to use your full title?"

"Why? Kusaka Shojiro was one of the few people I ever have allowed to call me by my first name with out chiding him for it I wouldn't have let him use my title, if..." At that, the young male paused. "There is no point in speaking of ifs that would never be."

"You speak strange for a child." The female stated, glancing at the letter. "Why is it that you appear to be close to my brother, but I never saw you at his funeral. Why did you wait to drop of his broken zampaktuo until recently? Are you not his friend?"

"Do not repeat this, but the reason I didn't come was because I was under orders from the forty-six not to come near your family, not to mention what happened. I didn't have anything to drop by until recently either. I never thought I would ever meet a member of his family." Toshiro then paused for a few seconds. "Also, I am no child."

"My brother could have gone places. He was supposed to have come home to visit us around the time he died, but choose to stay at the academy, so we figured it had something to do with graduating. He never did graduate."

"It is likely no consolation for what happened, but I fully understand that he should have gone places. Many times I wonder why it was him, rather then me that died that day." The small taicho made a quick bow and turned to leave, only to have his shoulder grabbed roughly.

"So you're just going to leave?"

"If you're looking for answers about what happened that day... well, as I told you, I don't know why we both ended up with the same zampaktuo. I don't know why I was the one to live and he wasn't. I do know that this subject isn't something I like talking about." Hitsugaya watched her carefully. "Do you wish revenge on me?"

"Shojiro spoke of a friend and that being the reason he was staying. A very important friend. A few people who attended the funeral, they said that said friend likely had something to do with his death, but no one dared approach to ask why. Everyone was nervous about talking about the subject." The female stated, refusing to let go of his shoulder.

"Why wouldn't they? The forty-six was involved." Toshiro glanced away.

"Everyone knew that the subject had been hushed up, but this is the first I'd heard it was because of the forty-six. I thought that there was something about his friend, that made people fear him and that was why no one spoke up about it." The female tried to turn the small taicho around.

"That isn't exactly the first time I've invoked that reaction, so that would honestly not surprise me if that was the reason no one approached me about the matter. I would have been honest at the time about the fact I wasn't allowed to speak of it, but I don't think I would have gotten this elaborate about why, including who barred me."

"The thing is, I honestly don't understand why anyone would fear you. Now that I think of it, what the people were showing may not have been fear of you, but of the circumstances behind it. Not many things get hushed up by people."

"Tell that to the villagers where I grew up, they think otherwise." The small taicho turned to look her in the face, a frown plastered on his small face. "Is it revenge you want?"

"Revenge?" The female paused. "I had thought about it, when I saw this zampaktuo simply sitting there. I felt it was cruel. But the strange thing is, you may claim to not be a child, but physically you are one. You had to have been pretty young when you entered the academy."

At that, Toshiro let out a deep sigh, his face turning away from her. "Youngest captain, youngest to ever enter the academy. People think it is absolutely amazing, I think it is a pain."

"Because you don't get to be a child anymore?" As the female said this, the small taicho turned to her, his teal eyes filled with surprise. At that, he reached into his uniform and handed her something. She took the wooden piece in her hand. "This is?"

"A pass to get into soul society. I can't guarantee that I will be up to answering your questions if you come and visit the tenth division, or if I will be there, but a good deal of my division, due to recent events along with a few others know about what happened back then. They won't say anything, but they'll give you another pass if I'm not there."

"Arrigotto..." the female muttered, looking at it.

"Word of advice... don't use that zampaktuo as your own. There is a reason you only hear of one person ever having one zampaktuo. Also, I did want to go to the funeral." The small shinigami made a bow to her and then the grave. "I need to be leaving now. Shinigami... we aren't supposed to show emotion." And with that, he disappeared from her site.