Venturing.. [Shin]

Haruko had never been to this part of the Soul Society before, it didn't look like the nicest of places, certainly not the worst but not the best either. She was in her academy uniform and she stood out like a sore thumb amongst the dull and earthy colours all of the people around her seemed to be wearing. She walked over to a small stall, selling fruit and picked up an apple, asking how much it was before quickly paying the woman and continuing on her journey.

Her curiosity found her here, she came from a fairly well off background so she rarely ventured outside her house until she joined the academy. She enjoyed the freedom that came with not having to answer to her mother every second of every day, but sometimes was unsure of how to react to even the simplest of social situations. Which is why she found herself exploring on her days off.

She avoided people as she walked, munching in her apple in a carefree manner, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear before she rounded a corner...

[fairly short, sorry!]

Shin had just finished a delivery and was heading off towards one of his favorite places to train, the forest. He often trained there practicing how to dodge people by dodging trees and bushes, it really helped although he also had to be careful of certain bushes and tree,s if he wasn't he could get cuts and bruises, like the last time he trained and someone interrupted him and he richoceted off a tree into some bushes.

He was on his way over there and he was weaving through the people in the streets at a fairly high speed. Suddenly someone quickly dashed around the corner, shin panicked slightly and spun around to the side, keeping his forward momentum and dodging the person, unfortunately another person had just rounded the corner, he caught a quick glimpse of a shinigami before he crashed straight into her, sending them both sprawling on the streets.

Completely unaware of the approaching child, and caught completely off guard, she didn't expect to be knocked to the floor. Of course she had seen him coming, but it was a moment too late and before she knew it she was on her butt in the dust. The apple flew from her hands, and she was more pre-occupied with trying to grab hold of it that worrying about the fact she had just fallen over. Her efforts were in vein however as in a final attempt to catch the piece of fruit she fell on her front, making a noise of annoyance as the half eaten apple rolled away, covered in dust, never to be seen again.

She sat up, turning her head to look at the small boy who had knocked her down, a couple of people hand stopped to stare, but now pretty much everyone was walking around them as though it were a regular occurrence. After a few seconds she rose to her feet, her eyes still locked on the boy, not entirely sure what to say. Sure, she was a little annoyed, she was all dirty now, but he was just a kid, she didn't want to upset him or something ridiculous. She sighed out, and crouched down a little putting her hands on her knees and mustering the sweetest smile she could bare.

"Hey, you okay there? You gotta watch where you're going!" she tried to laugh it off, and sound cheerful, though it could have probably been interpreted more negatively than she wanted it to..

Shin scrambled to his feet and saw the woman sit up and look at him, a few people had stopped to stare and he was fidgeting a little because people were stopping and staring, She stood, while staring at him the whole time, which freaked him out a little bit, then she leaned down and asked him if he was okay, and that he needed to watch where he was going. The only reason he wasn't freaking out at that instance was that this had happened to him before, and he realized that she was trying to be nice to him.

He gave himself a glance over and tested out his feet, he seemed to be okay, he looked up at her and said, "I'm okay, and i WAS watching where i was going.... you suddenly came around the corner, I didn't have any room to stop or dodge though... Are you okay?" He looked up at her with concerned eyes, he had been going quite fast, though he never ran at top speed through the crowds, he couldn't avoid people if he did that.

She waited for his reply and then her smile broadened as he spoke, children were strange, some of them bratty or annoying but this one seemed to be kind of sweet. "That's the thing with corners, people tend to come around them," she laughed, one note of the sound before straightening herself up and dusting herself off, stopping briefly to look at him as he questioned her.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. It'll take more than that to do damage to me!" She grinned down at him. Sometimes she could be a little immature, though she tried to keep those times to a minimum. "Where are you off to in a such a hurry anyway Kid?" She asked, calling him 'kid' for lack of anything better seen as she didn't know his name or anything. She didn't want to sound nosey, she was just genuinely curious to know what could possibly be interesting enough to warrant such speed.

"You're not up to no good are ya?" She said, whispering as she bent closer to him, before laughing it off as a joke whilst waiting for him to reply, shooting a glare at an old woman who had been staring at her a little too long, the woman quickly began shuffling off in the direction Haruko had come from.

Shin looked up at her as she cracked an obvious joke, it seemed that she was an odd enthusiastic type. It was really hard for shin to predict what these types of people would do, and that made him cautious. She asked him where he was going in such a hurry. Then cracked a joke for obvious self amusement, seeing as noone laughed at it but herself.

He glanced down and said,"I was going to go train..." It sounded really weird to shin at least, a little kid telling a shinigami that he was going to go train, he didn't want to add that it was how to go faster and how to avoid people at high speeds. There was also the problem that she might now believe him, and he started to get a bit worried about it, ready to run if he felt the need to.

She straightened up, her hands resting on her hips lightly, she smiled down at him. She thought that he may be a little young to start much in the way of training but instantly mentally scolded herself, it was his choice and for all she knew he might be able to wipe the floor with her.

“I guess I can forgive you for knocking into me in that case,” she said moving her arms to cross one over her chest, the other tapping her chin briefly before pursing her lips a little. “Doesn’t look like you need to be training your speed very much,” she observed, it was true the fact that she had neglected to see him proved he was fairly fast especially for a child, faster than her certainly. She had hated being young, not able to do anything for herself, but the older she got the more she realised she didn’t want to ‘grow up…’

[Just so you know she’s still in the Academy] ^^

Shin really didnt want to spend that much more time here, he wanted to go over and train, but he wasn't sure how she would take it if he just left so he just kind of sat there waiting for her to do or say something, she was the law after all. It wouldn't be good to run away from a shinigami. Then shin suddenly remember he hadn't gotten any food or water for his breaks, which he felt he would need, he had some bandages on him because of the cuts he would recieve. What should he get? He loved pork buns but he had been eating them so much lately that they we're that special for him anymore, and it had to be portable.... hmmm he couldn't think of anything in perticular that would be good.

He glanced up at the shinigami in front of him, and wondered what she was doing here and what she would do, "Are you on patrol?" Maybe if he played his cards right he could make her pay for him like the last one did.

Haruko shifted her weight so it was more centred to one side, resting a hand on her hip as she studied the boy. She could tell just from the way he was looking he didn’t really want to stay and talk to her, she didn’t mind she could be fairly boring and she was well aware of that.

Her mouth pulled to the side slightly at his question and she shook her head sideways. “No, I’m only in the academy at the moment, I’m not even sure if I should be out here without permission to be perfectly honest,” she said, scratching the back of her head and laughing humourlessly for just a second. She looked around, everyone was just completely ignoring them now; good.

She looked down at the child and contemplated her next sentence wetting her lips slightly before she spoke, “are you hungry? I was just about to buy some fruit or something because my apple seems to have disappeared and it would be rude of me to just eat in front of you,” she asked closing her eyes in a sweet smile before she awaited his answer, she had enough money to spare a little for something for the boy…

Shin was slightly surprised to find out that she was in fact, an academy student rather than an actual shinigami. He pondered this for a moment, there were a lot of things he would like to ask her, about what life in seireitei and life in the academy was like, how the training was was it fun? Why did she choose to become a shinigami? His thoughts were interrupted when he heard her mention food, so he rewound what she had just said in his head and replayed it. She was offering to buy him food.

Shin nodded his head in an affirmative motion, showing that he was hungry. On speculation he realized that many of the shinigami he had met were quite nice, and that fact that he heard that they were mean could be a lie, then he recalled the first one he had run into, she had yelled angrily until she realized it was a child that had run into her, he was sure he was going to get beaten and it had taken him a while to calm down, She had bought him food as well. Shin wondered if most of what he had heard about shinigami from second-hand sources was even true or not. He was going to have to use this opportunity to find out.

Shin looked up at her and asked, "Why did you decide to train to become a shinigami?" Hopefully he would be able to learn more about the academy from this person, seeing as they still attended it.

She smiled at him as he nodded his head and pulled a somewhat thoughtful expression as he questioned her. No-one had ever asked her that before, even though it sounded like a fairly obvious question.

“I got hungry,” she stated with a shrug, before deciding that probably wasn’t the greatest explanation for it. “My mother didn’t want me to be a Shinigami, but that made me want to be one even more, so with a bunch of encouragement from my father I went to the academy,” she continued. “I always liked the idea of it, but when I didn’t feel hungry for a long time, I kind of gave up hope. Then one day a few years back I just…” she paused thinking of the right way to continue “was hungry,” she finished anti-climactically, with a short laugh.

“What about you? Do you wanna join the academy?” She asked before she looked around at the various stalls that littered the area, deciding in her head what she might like to eat while she waited for the young boy to answer her question.

Shin was interested at her response, she was hungry? So she must have been poor then, but at least she had a family, that was more than shin had. Though he also had a steady Job and food so he never had a real reason to even consider that that might be a reason to join. She asked him whether or not he wanted to join the academy, he had been asked this many times and was about to give his usual answer when he decided to think about it a little more and then come up with an answer. He didn't like the idea of fighting so much, and he wasn't hungry because he supported himself, but he did like all the little things that they could do, like Shunpo.

Shin looked at her and said carefully, "I've been told many times that I have the skills required to make it into and through the academy, but I'm not sure whether or not I want to join. I have a job so I can support myself so I don't need to join for food, and I don't really like fighting, I'm much better at escaping and running away. Though I do like all the little tricks and things I've seen them do, like... Shunpo I think he called it."

“I didn’t think much to the idea of fighting when I was younger, but my sister always wanted to. So she’d drag me out into our yard with wooden Kendo sticks and pretty much force me to spar with her, after a while I grew to enjoy it,” she said with a reminiscent smile, she missed her carefree younger days.

“Well, you’ve certainly demonstrated your speed, and I can feel your reitsu a little, so I can’t see why you wouldn’t have the abilities to join,” she said with a genuine smile. “Yeah, shunpo. Looks pretty cool, I’d like to learn that myself,” she said, raising her arm to scratch the side of her head.

“So, what kind of things do you like to eat, because I’m pretty much good for anything that doesn’t amount to more than I brought out with me,” she said, feeling around her shihakusho for her coin pouch, and pulling it out of a small compartment within the top half of the material. She shook it lightly before clutching it tightly in her fist and waiting for the young boy’s answer, surveying her surroundings quickly before looking back to him.

Shin listened to her speak, apparently she had a sister as well, she was lucky to have family out in the rukongai, almost no one did, so she and her sister were probably born here he decided. She mentioned his speed and that made him smile a little bit, almost no one could match his sheer speed. She asked him what he wanted to eat, he honestly didn't know what he really wanted, he had eaten too many pork buns lately and was a little tired of them, so he thought about it for a little bit and decided that he would really like Barbecue, though he didnt know if she had enough for that, he decided to push his luck however and said, "ummm, how about barbecue?" and lightly bit his lower lip while staring at her hopefully. He had enough on him to pay for it easily but she didn't need to know that.

Her face lit up a little at his suggestion, she hadn’t had barbecued food in a long while and instantly at the mention of it, she found she craved it. “Should be fine, Barbecued food here can’t be too much,” she hoped. “Now, would you rather find a stall or something that sells it, or eat in like… A restaurant type thing?” She asked, not sure if they even had had restaurants for barbecue in this part of the Rukongai.

“You can just show me to your favourite place to eat, I’m not really familiar with these parts,” he laughed once rubbing the back of her head in an almost awkward manner, slightly embarrassed, she had never really got out much as a kid, her overprotective mother wouldn’t let her. She kicked at a tiny stone with her shoe whilst waiting for his answer.

Shin thought about the nearby places that he knew of, he knew of a few places around here that served barbecue, most were decent but there was a really good one in 6th district, but he didn't know if she was willing to walk that far, so he decided to ask. "Well the best barbecue place I know of is in 6th district so it's a little bit away, are you willing to walk that far? or would you want something a bit closer to us?" Shin would obviously prefer to have the better quality barbecue at the further away place, it was also more expensive but he wasn't the one who was going to be paying the check. Shin needed to remember not to eat too much however if he still intended to train after they ate. He looked up at the woman before him wondering how fast she was.

She thought about it for a couple of seconds, tapping her finger on her chin before shrugging her shoulders loosely at the younger boy. She didn’t really know much about the layout of this place but she didn’t think it could be too far away from their current location and better quality food was always worth walking longer for in her opinion.

“Take me to the one you like, I don’t mind how far away it is,” she said with a sweet smile, desperately hoping that she would have enough money to pay for all of this. She had a fair amount with her but if the kid was a big eater and the place was expensive she didn’t know if she’d be able to cover the bill…

He stared at her for a moment, he was glad that she was prepared to go that far but he was starting to get hungry, so he wanted to hurry. However he had no idea how fast this shinigami could run or if she would be willing to run. He was almost certain he was faster seeing as most shinigami could not even keep up with him, but he didn't exactly want to be rude. Then again she might not want to run because they might bump into some one like he did to her. after thinking about if for a moment or two more he figured he might as well ask, so he said, "Its a bit far away so do you mind if we run there?" He looked up at her wondering if that was the best way to phrase it and the worries that she might not want to because of the chance of bumping into someone. He added onto what he had said before, "I wont run into anyone I promise." Now that he thought about it this was true, going at the average shinigami speed he should have no problems avoiding people at all, but he wasn't going to tell her that, he didn't want to insult her.

She herself wondered how far away this place would be, she wasn’t particularly hungry but she gathered by the time she got there; were it far away, she most definitely would be. Her suspicions were confirmed when the young boy spoke again. She shrugged her shoulders, “no I don’t mind, but you’ll have to run slowly, I don’t think I’m as fast as you,” she said. Then she laughed, just a little “Can you promise that though? And lead the way, but if you lose me-“ she shrugged “-No barbeque for you,” she said with a smile on her face to let him know she was only joking, even if she knew she wouldn’t be able to find him if she did lose him.

Shin checked to make sure she was ready and started to run through the crowd at a light pace, until he was sure she could keep up and was keeping pace with him, then he went slowly faster and faster, all the time making sure she could keep up. He wasn't running nearly as fast as he had been before, and dodging people at this speed was not that difficult for shin to do. He thought ahead top the Barbecue place that they were running to, they could do anything at all that involved barbecue, and they made the greatest barbecued pork buns. Shin's mouth started to water as he thought about the food that they were going to get to eat. He really hoped that she had enough and he wouldn't have to break out his own money to pay the difference.

She followed him, noting that he started off unusually slow. As she ran she took in the sights of the world around her, the colours were earthy and dismal, rarely would a flash of anything other than green, grey, brown or black be seen, and if it was usually it would be on a merchant of some kind. Throughout her childhood she had been able to wear any colour she liked, and she had always thought it the norm, but it seemed to be that she was lucky, just for something as simple as that. She found that the culture interested her, but it was not somewhere she would like to spend a great amount of time…

She sped up as he did, dodging people with a certain amount of skill, only knocking into people a couple of times, appolagising as best she could to them whilst still keeping herself moving. She had a feeling he was going slowly, for he had demonstrated much more speed earlier, but even so he was hard to keep track of, this was one speedy kid that was for sure.

Shin glanced behind him once more, making sure he could see her, and there she was, good. He decided to not to speed up more, seeing as she was having difficulties not running into people even at their current speed. He wasn't exactly impressed, after quite a bit of experience with shinigami, he had learned that generally he was faster than most shinigami and those few that he wasn't faster than, were really strong. Shin thought about that for a moment, if he continued to train his speed as he had been doing recently he might be able to become the fastest, if he enrolled in the academy and got training. Then Kuro popped into his head, 2nd fasted he decided, then thought about it for a little while longer, maybe eventually he might be able to be faster than even him, though he doubted it.

Shin looked at the surrounding buildings getting his bearing and realized that they weren't that far away from the restaurant now. It would still be a little while before they got there at this pace though, maybe 5 minutes off or so? No he saw moving slower than normal, about 10 minutes. yeah that sounded about right. He thought about telling the shinigami, but couldn't think of a good way to convey a message to her so he just kept running.

She wasn’t physically tired by this point, no she was more mentally tired, they had been running for a little while and she was bored of the scenery by now. Yes, the place interested her a fair amount and she was curious about the culture, but seeing the same colours and sorts of people everywhere when she was getting hungry was making everything that little more tedious.

The weather was actually fairly warm, not overly so but enough to cause her forehead to dampen slightly the more they ran. She felt about calling ahead and asking how long it was going to take, but thought better of drawing a great deal of attention to herself so she just followed the boy silently, never letting him slip out of her vision for longer than a couple of seconds.

Shin was aware that they were nearing their target now, the smell of barbecue permeating the air around them as they ran along, his mouth started to water with the thought of the variety of barbecue they offered. He started to slow down his running down to a jog then a fast walk til he was walking at a normal pace, his legs burned to keep go faster, used to running so often, it was like they didn't want to slow down, they didn't want to stop. It happened every time he ran for any good period of time and he was used to it.

Shin glanced behind him, glad to see that the shinigami girl was still there, he turned back towards where he knew the resteraunt was and pointed in that direction, and said "It's over there, Come on." Shin quickly went over to the entrance to the resteraunt and looked over at the shinigami.

She was, arguably unfit, for a Shinigami in training at least and she felt more than a little bit embarrassed by the fact she was finding difficult to keep up with a child much younger than herself. Although it made her a great deal more content when the distance between them was being closed a little ‘perhaps he’s tired too… No, he’s just slowing down’ she thought, staying at the same pace until she got nearer to him, stopping completely when she came up beside him.

She looked over to the direction he spoke in and nodded her head, following him over to the entrance and walking in. It wasn’t overly busy, but there were a few people dotted around, some people alone, in groups of two and one larger party of five or six in the corner, she looked around and waited for him, not sure if he had a preference as to where he wanted to sit.


[Sorry I took so long, been super busy at college!]