7 - Plans for Future (?)

"So, back to my little issue, ..do you have food?" Rumi asked, as much as she wanted to fool around more, she really didn't fancy the idea of going hungry any longer.

Renji shook his head with a sigh, "Not now. But we can go find something to eat after finding Rukia."

"Okay, then let's go!" Rumi said without hesitation. The sooner they find this Rukia person, the sooner she gets to eat, so Rumi felt a sense of urgency.

Renji, still reeling from his discovery of Rumi's unusual hunger, cast her a sidelong glance before starting to follow her to find Rukia.

He watched as Rumi walked with a lightness in her step, her gaze occasionally wandering curiously over the trees and surroundings.

"Renji, how do we exactly look for this Rukia person?" Rumi asked, pausing her steps. They had been walking around for a while, but they had yet to find another person around here.

"Well, there're a few places she frequent to. Maybe we can try one by one." He replied.

"..If you know places we should look for, say earlier!" Rumi complained. The reason she was going through all this trouble was to eat and then, get more information.

Rumi was about to complain more when she caught a glimpse of Renji sneaking a laugh.

"You're doing this on purpose!"

Renji laughed at that, "Come on, I have to make sure you're actually hungry.."

Rumi tried not to punch or kick Renji.

'I need food. I need food and I need to learn more about the school..' She reminded herself as Renji continued to piss her off

If not for needing food and information, she would've kicked his face, but, unfortunately, Rumi had to keep her calm.

Of course, she had managed to 'accidentally' step on his feet and trip him multiple times, since she was just a new soul and thus, unfamiliar with the surroundings unlike the "expert" Renji.

After a moment of more banters and chaos, they ended up at the base of a big tree.

As they approached the tree from afar, Rumi noticed that Renji had got unusually quiet.

"Huh?" Rumi took a side glance at Renji to see why he had suddenly got silent. That was when she saw a girl with shoulder length black hair sitting on one of the branches of that big tree. Rumi had to admit that the way she was sitting was weirdly elegant and there was an air of refinement around her.

Renji coughed before he shouted to the girl, "Hey, Rukia! I've been looking for you for hours.. Seriously..why would you disappear during training?"

The girl looked at Renji from the tree and laughed, "Hoho, are you worried about me?"

"A-as if! you idiot." Renji retorted.

Rumi looked at the two's interaction and nodded to herself, ' Ah, I see, future couple..'

"Ahem, ahem, I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion but I'm really hungry.." Rumi said after a while, gaining the two's attention.

Rukia, turned to look at her, then, turned to Renji and asked, "A new face?"

Renji nodded in reply, "Yeah, this is Rumi. A new soul that just arrived today and she's been saying she's hungry! Can you believe it?"

Rukia's eyes widened in curiosity as she observed Rumi. "Hungry? That's unusual for a new soul... " She jumped from the tree and walked towards Rumi, wanting to take a closer look.

"You must have substantial reiryoku."

"Well, I'm not sure about that."

Rumi said since she wasn't sure how exactly she should reply to that. She didn't have high amount of reiryoku, in fact, it was average which made her feel a bit disappointed.

Yet, both Rukia and Renji were acting like she had some amazing potential, it was obvious even when Renji was trying to hide it. Rukia on the other hand, didn't even try to hide her curiosity and amazement.

But if her reiryoku wasn't high, she shouldn't become hungry this early on, should she?

'What could be the reason...?' Rumi thought before she realized, 'Could it be my passive skills?'

If the reason was her using passive skills, it would make sense.

Like the name suggests, passive skills are always on in the background without her having to control it, well, in her case, she needed to make sure the requirements were met, but still, it was something it would always be turned on.

And, it would make sense for such passive skills to use up some reiryoku in the background.

'Wait, Guardian's Vigil uses reiryoku. Well, directly not from my own reiryoku, but it uses a portion of the reiryoku that would've been stored with Sloth passive skill.' Rumi realized.

Even if it wasn't directly taking from her own reiryoku and only taking from some sort of extra storage, it was still a form of reiryoku usage.

Maybe that was the reason she became hungry this early on.

Of course, Rumi knew it was all her guess but right now, it made the most sense.

With that, Rumi felt better and turned her attention back to the two, Renji and Rukia. They seemed to be reminiscing about the past and discussing about their experiences of realizing their hunger.

"Wow, that's an interesting story." Rumi commented as she listened in to the story.

"Stop eavesdropping!" Renji told her, to which Rumi retorted, "Then stop telling things in front of people you don't wanna share with!"

Rukia laughed at Renji getting caught offguard, "Heh, you're not so bad. Nice to meet you, I'm Rukia." She introduced herself.

"Fujiwara Rumi. Nice to meet you too." Rumi said with a smile.

Looking at the exchange between Rumi and Rukia, Renji shouted, "Don't bond over my misery! You two!!"

Needless to say, that did nothing to stop the two girls.

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Rumi was walking alongside Rukia, with Renji somewhat leading the way. The surroundings were a bit dark even as they had got back to the populated areas of the district.

Soon, Renji's steps came to a stop and Rumi saw a wooden house with torn clothes instead of actual doors.

"Right there's our home. Follow me." Renji told Rumi, after looking at Rukia who nodded.

"Okay." Rumi followed him, with Rukia beside her. She was led to a wooden table, which seemed to be a place they had their meals. There were no chairs so they probably just sat on the floor, but since the table was a japanese style low table, it wasn't much of an issue.

"Let's see...we still have some onigiri. Maybe we can have one each?" Renji said as he went through their stash.

Rumi was a little skeptical to eat any of those after seeing how unsanitary the food storage was and those origiri could easily be from few days ago. But, her empty stomach wasn't giving her much of an option.

"Let's just do that." Rukia said with a nod, before sitting.

Looking at Rukia, Rumi also sat down and waited for Renji to give her her share.

"Thanks." She said as Renji handed her an onigiri and took a look at it. Well, it didn't look like it had gone bad, but it looked very stale and kind of off.

While she was being a bit hesitant, another rush of hunger started to hit her.

So, she found herself munching onto the onigiri.

Surprisingly, it didn't taste bad.

It didn't taste good either.

As she was munching onto her onigiri, Rukia asked, "So, how did you and Renji meet?"

Renji was quick to answer that even though Rukia was asking Rumi, "It's funny really. While I was looking for you, I ended up in a cave where.." He paused a bit before continuing, "well, it was a very creepy cave. And guess what? She was there and apparently, she had nowhere to go or stay so she was sleeping there!"

"Creepy cave, huh?" Rukia raised her eyebrows but when Renji didn't elaborate any further, she turned towards Rumi.

Rumi didn't want to share the details either.

Because who in their right mind would proudly declare that they had slept in a cave with dead bodies?

When she was given no answers, Rukia pouted before toughening up again, "So, what're your plans for the future, Rumi?"

Rumi took the final bite of her onigiri, she had been so hungry that she didn't even notice how fast she was eating. "Well, Renji said that there's a Shinigami school and you guys're planning to go there."

Rukia's eyes lit up for a brief moment at that.

"So, I guess I wanna go there too." Rumi continued.

Rukia gave her a thumbs up, saying, "A wise choice! Since you also have reiryoku and seem to have a great amount, it's definitely a good choice. Besides, we can live in Seireitei if we become Shinigamis."

Rumi nodded, "I know, it's better than living here, isn't it? No offense to you guys but.."

Renji and Rukia said, "None taken. Honestly, we have always thought this district was way too hard for new souls and kids to live in."

Rumi studied their facial expressions when they said it and felt that they certainly must have had a rather emotional story behind it. Maybe they had friends of the same age who died due to the cruelty of this district, this world.

'Dang, imagining this even made me feel a bit sad..' Rumi thought to herself.

But, she showed the expression of understanding with a slow nod.

"I see, it must have been tough."

"It was." Rukia admitted.

"Heh, but we're going to become Shinigamis and escape from this dump." Renji announced, with a typical tough guy look.

Rukia didn't look impressed, neither did Rumi but she didn't comment on it.

"That's why we've been training." Rukia continued the conversation.

"Oh?" Rumi's eyes lit up in interest.

"You may not know it yet but there's a difference between reiryoku and reiatsu. To pass the entrance exam, just having reiryoku isn't enough. You have to know how to exert your reiryoku into reiatsu." Rukia explained.

Rumi nodded to that information as she had already figured that out during her interaction with Renji.

"So, if I want to pass entrance exam, I have to learn how to exert reiatsu." She stated.

"Yes," Rukia said. "Renji and I can already use reiatsu a little so if you want to make it to the school with us, you'd have to learn how to use reiatsu."

"Well, I'm in." Rumi said, "As long as it starts tomorrow."

Rukia looked at the outside from the window. "It's late anyways. I guess we can show you reiatsu tomorrow."

At that, Rumi smiled, "Thanks!"

"But, I don't have anywhere to stay.. for the night." She continued, looking at the outside and then at Rukia.

"I mean..you can stay here with us if you want. You better not complain tho. Or I'm gonna kick you out." Rukia said, crossing her arms.

Renji turned to Rukia and said, "Oi, Rukia, don't be the boss and decide by yourself!"

"She doesn't have a place to stay!" Rukia defended.

Renji turned sideways and made a 'Tsk' sound, but it looked more childish than anything.

Rumi looked at him and said, "It's okay, I understand if you don't want me to stay. I'll just go back and sleep in that cave-"

Renji's eyes widened at that and slammed the table, "Are you out of your mind? Why would you even think about going back there?!"

He coughed and then continued, "I guess it can't be helped then. You can stay here. But like Rukia said, don't complain and don't even think about being a freeloader!"

'Is he a tsundere?' Rumi thought, 'Also, did he seriously fall for that easily?'

Since Renji had seen the cave and seemed to hate the fact that she was forced to sleep there, Rumi thought it would be great to pull on his emotional strings a bit so that he couldn't say no to her staying here and being a freeloader.

And, it actually worked.

"It's decided then! Thanks for having me here!" Rumi said.

"I guess it's a normal thing to do." Rukia replied, "You can have the bed there." She pointed to a bed in the corner. It probably had belonged to one of her dead friends.

"Thanks. I'm actually sleepy after eating so a perfect timing! haha" Rumi said before walking over to the bed happily. It was strange but she was actually sleepy. It was as if she could never get tired of sleeping , and would fall asleep anywhere and anytime it she wanted to.

'Was it because of Sloth?' She wondered briefly before yawning.

"Alright, let's do my prized pre-sleep ritual." She muttered as she sat on the bed.

Renji and Rukia watched her, still a bit surprised at the pace Rumi was making herself at home. They then heard her chant something..

"By the power of my unparalleled beauty and unmatched brains, I, Fujiwara Rumi, shall now rest my superior self." Rumi chanted, then laid on the bed and fell asleep.

Renji pointed at the now sleeping Rumi and muttered, "Did she.. Did she seriously say that weird phrase hahahahah" He laughed as he recalled the words Rumi said with a straight face.

"She did. What a strange thing to do." Rukia muttered.

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A/N:

Here we go, first chapter released on schedule haha

The chapters will be scheduled at 12:30 am (Japan Standard Time) if you're wondering the exact time.