12 12 - Friends?

Taking one final look at the house, Renji and Rukia said goodbye to their house, the one they had so many memories with their late friends. Rumi waited in the distance as they then visited the graves of their friends one last time. After all, none of them planned on coming back after passing the entrance exam and getting into the Shinigami academy.

"Alright, let's go." Renji and Rukia said after saying his goodbyes.

"Okay." Rumi replied.

----------

Shortly after leaving the 78th district, they found themselves walking into a forest. Since they ended up leaving late in the afternoon, it was already evening when they got to the forest. As the sun was starting to set, it was getting more difficult to see their surroundings.

"What should we do? If we go further into the forest now, it'll be really difficult to see anything." Rukia asked.

"Not to mention there could be bandits hiding deep in the forests.." Renji added.

"Well, I'm sure we'll be fine. Surely, normal bandits without reiryoku could be no match for us." Rumi said, as she scratched the nearby trees with a stick.

"Oh, you're marking our trail? Good idea." Rukia said when she noticed Rumi was scratching the trees as they moved forward.

"What?" Rumi blinked in a bit of confusion as she was genuinely playing around and thought that scratching the tree trunks and drawing weird pictures would be fun.

Renji looked closer at the trees at Rumi's confusion and choked on his words. "R-Rumi, what the heck are you drawing?"

"Uh..that's a rocket and two stones underneath." Rumi looked at Renji like he was asking the obvious. But, it wasn't that Renji was dumb, it was just that the picture resembled entirely something else.

Renji's face got red as he realized he imagined something else and tried to snatch the stick from Rumi's hands.

"Why're you snatching my stick away?!" Rumi shouted.

"Damn it, Rumi. Just shut up! And stop drawing!" Renji shouted as he saw Rumi drew another 'rocket'.

"Stop drawing those rockets!" Renji shouted.

But, this time, Rumi smirked playfully and said, "Oh, this time, it's not a rocket. It's a p-"

And, Renji ended up covering her mouth.

"Have some decency!" He said.

"I'll pass." Rumi replied as she hopped over to another tree and drew again.

"Come on, Renji. Just let her be." Rukia said with a sigh.

"Not when she's drawing ...that!" Renji replied.

"I'm sure she's only doing it to piss you off. Are you sure you want to humor her, Renji?" Rukia asked playfully. She noticed Rumi had only started drawing that after Renji overreacted to her perfectly fine rockets.

Yes, Rukia didn't see any problem with the rockets Rumi drew on the trees. In fact, she thought they looked cute. Maybe adding bunnies would make them better but she didn't hate it. As such, when Renji started imagining things and shouted, Rukia also thought he was overreacting.

But, Renji paused his steps at Rukia's words. If Rumi was only drawing pen*ses to make him mad, he would stop getting mad. Then, Rumi can't have the fun of messing around anymore.

"Fine, I'll stop shouting." Renji said although he wasn't happy with it.

They continued walking for a while and Renji found that Rumi was still drawing on the trees. But, he fought the urge to look closer as he wasn't sure if he wanted to see what the drawings were this time.

Advancing into the deeper woods, Renji noticed that the sky was getting darker and it was getting more difficult to see where they were going. He glanced at Rukia who was beside him and saw that she was also having a little difficulty seeing the surroundings.

"It's getting dark. Maybe we should find a place to rest and start a fire." Rukia suggested.

Renji nodded as it made sense to rest and recharge instead of blindly going through the dark forest late at night. Although they could somewhat still see the surroundings, it would become more difficult to advance as the night fell.

There was also Rumi who was a new soul so Renji felt that she wouldn't be familiar with traveling through the dark woods like this.

But when he was about to suggest rest, he felt Rukia tugging at his arm.

"What?"

Rukia pointed towards Rumi who was still hopping around and drawing on the trees despite the darkness, and whispered, "Do you think she can actually see what she's drawing?"

"...I don't know." Renji replied after a pause.

If it was before, Renji would have said 'no way!' but with Rumi keeping to surprise them in different ways, he wasn't sure anymore. Maybe Rumi could see what she was doing or maybe she didn't and just random scratching, although that might not explain how she could hop around without tripping over anything in the dark.

"Rumi!" Rukia called her while Renji was lost in his own thoughts, "Can you see?"

Rumi turned around and waved at Rukia, "Yeah, kinda!"

"How?" Rukia found herself asking.

Rumi thought about her sitting in the dark room every night because she couldn't afford high electricity bills and replied, "Poverty."

"Huh?"

"Couldn't really afford to have lights on at night. I was really poor before I died, you know.." Rumi said with a bitter smile.

"Really? But you remember your past life so that's still something." Rukia said.

It was Rumi's turn to be a bit taken aback, "You don't?" She asked.

Both Rukia and Renji shook their heads.

Rukia then said, "I was a baby when I got here."

Rumi's eyes widened at that as she realized what it meant. Rukia died when she was a baby and then came to soul society.

From the beginning, Rumi had thought that she was too unfortunate to die that young. She was only twenty one, she was in her prime, yet she had to die in a house fire which could easily have been prevented.

But now that she heard Rukia's story, she couldn't help but think she at least had a chance to live a life, no matter how short it was.

"What about you, Renji?" Rumi asked Renji. But, according to what she knew so far, Renji might also have died pretty young. She had heard that Renji and Rukia met when they were younger, after all.

"I don't really remember the exact age but I was a kid." Renji answered, but then scoffed when he noticed Rumi got silent unlike her usual self, "It's been years anyway and we've gotten over it, you know."

"I know.." Rumi said, although her heart was still heavy.

"Well, since you actually remembered your previous life, why don't you tell us while we make a fire and rest? It could be a fun story time, you know." Rukia suggested.

"Yeah, I'd like to hear about your poverty." Renji said with a laugh.

"Alright, alright, I'll tell you guys about my greatness." Rumi said, before laughing at her own words.

Soon, they made a bon fire and sat in front of it.

Looking at the charred wood in the fire, Rumi couldn't help but comment, "You know, this reminds me of my old place." 'and me..' Her voice was light and humorous, but her eyes didn't match the humor quite well.

"Your old place?" Renji raised an eyebrow.

"Why? Was there a fire?" Rukia asked, leaning in to listen to more of the story.

Rumi bit her lips, not really expecting to have to share any further but seeing the two's eager looks, she decided to add, "Well, kinda. I lived in this really cramped apartment and the highlight was the weekly game of 'Guess which appliance will break next.'"

"That's tough." Renji commented.

"Yeah..sounds like a lot." Rukia agreed.

"It kinda was." Rumi sighed. "But guess what? The grand finale was a house fire. Slept through it and didn't even realize until it was too late." She said with a light tone, despite it being one of her worst experiences. She didn't know why she had the urge to talk about it right now but it just felt like the time to share it to someone. Maybe she needed to talk to someone and made fun of that experience as if it never bothered her and finally move on with her new life.

Renji and Rukia , on the other hand, were shocked to hear that as they weren't expecting something this serious and tragic.

"Is that when you..." Rukia asked.

"Yep, I think I was burnt to a crisp like the chicken wrap I cooked when I was fifteen. Maybe it was karma for ruining a perfectly good chicken wrap." Rumi said with a sigh.

"Did you just compare yourself to a chicken wrap?" Rukia asked in disbelief. She was puzzled on how Rumi could joke about her own death like that.

"Yep, why? Do you like chicken wrap?"

"No!" Rukia said, "That's beside the point!"

"Well, thought you guys would appreciate my humor." Rumi said.

"I like the humor but something that dark? I'd have to be an a*shole to laugh at that." Renji said.

"He's right, Rumi." Rukia agreed. "You've gone through a lot."

While she was unsure of what to reply, Rumi felt Renji wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "Like Rukia said, you've been through quite a lot. But you know, you're going to be in a better place now. Once we get into that Shinigami academy and become Shinigami, we will have a better life."

"Yeah, and you know, you have us now." Rukia said quietly.

"Well, I guess Rukia's right. You're our friend now, Rumi. And that means no more guest treatment for you!!" Renji said, wrapping his arm tighter around Rumi's shoulder.

"Thanks." Rumi said, before pulling Renji's arm away and hitting his arm, "It hurts, you idiot!"

"Heh, are you sure you aren't just being weak-"

"Take this!" Rumi hit Renji's back with the wooden stick, the same one she used to draw weird pictures on the trees.

"Seriously, you two.." Rukia looked at Renji and Rumi fighting again, and shook her head.

After another childish fight between Renji and Rumi, Rukia found herself asking, "So, how old were you? It's just kinda weird to see you or refer to you as a few days old."

"I was twenty one when I died." Rumi replied.

"Pfft, twenty one?" Renji laughed at her answer, "Wow, you were old- oww!" He winced as Rumi hit his head at his comment.

"As if you're not old as well! I don't believe you guys aren't twenty one in soul society years!" Rumi said.

"Well, she's right." Rukia said to Renji, nudging his shoulder.

"Yeah, but she looks older than us now." Renji said and Rumi had to hold back herself not to push him into the fire. Like, of all the things he could comment on, he did that on her appearance?! Rumi had always thought she looked great and perfect so why wouldn't she be offended when he said she looked older?

'He doesn't have fire resistance. I can't push him..I mean I technically can?' Rumi shook her head, 'No, just because I can doesn't mean I should..yeah, I really shouldn't..'

Unaware of Rumi's intrusive thoughts, Renji continued teasing her.

"...."

"I think I'm going to end up throwing you into that fire." She stated, making Renji shut up suddenly and breaking out in cold sweat. He had always teased her and she had always teased him. But not once did it get this serious.

Noticing both Renji and Rukia staring at her in horror, Rumi laughed, "Just kidding!"

Renji and Rukia sighed in relief at that and Renji started to talk about Rumi needed to work on her sarcasm and stuff.

Rumi laughed and then said, "Alright, alright. But you know it's not nice to tease a woman's age and looks!"

Renji paused a bit before replying, "Fine, I won't tease you that anymore. Happy?"

"Yep." Rumi said and then clapped her hands, "And let's get back to our storytime."

Now feeling more at ease with them, Rumi further told them about her very boring routine life and how she had always hated it. She told them how she struggled to make ends meet every month and how her aunt had been at the hopsital almost all her life. She also told them about the house fire she was in and how she actually died because she couldn't wake up on time after excessive drinking.

Rukia also shared her experiences and life in the 78th district. Then, Renji also added his own experiences and the three of them bonded over their shared experiences of poverty and lack of parental figures.

Rumi laughed at Renji and Rukia's jokes and funny encounters and Renji and Rukia laughed at her chaotic moments in life. They laughed at each other's jokes and made fun of their own hardships.

[Name : Fujiwara Rumi.

Age : 3 days. (Soul Society)

Race : Newly crossed soul.

Relationships : Abarai Renji (Friend), Rukia (Friend).

Reiryoku level : Moderate.

Stored reiryoku : 283/1000.

Skills : Sloth (Passive), Guradian's Vigil (Passive), Fire Resistance (Passive), Mind's Momentum.

Tools : None.]

Rumi smiled as she saw her relationship with the two changed into friends when she checked her stats.

She had found herself new friends in this world even though she wasn't expecting much from his life, except for having fun.

This wasn't so bad, after all.