Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. It is the property of Tite Kubo; I merely borrow the characters for my own amusement.

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Zealousness

She was born in blood, raised in blood—lives in blood.

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Her first memory is of the evening sky, tainted with the painted hues of the sunset. She remembers looking down, and seeing that her hands – small, chubby, like a baby’s – dipped in the expanse of sky, as if she had gone swimming in those crimson waters. All around her was red, and when she opened her mouth in astonishment, she could smell the stench of the sky, and taste it in the back of her throat.

Red used to remind her of loss—she was young – so young she doesn’t remember the years – when she found herself suffocating in it.

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Vice-Captain Yachiru Kusajishi is a little girl—her stature is minute, her form slight, and her ridiculously pink hair testifies to the innocence of a child no other trait can. Her eyes, however – large and alert and a dirt-dirty brown – speak otherwise, of a history grown men would shudder to endure.

Her eyes speak of someone who has experienced loss, and Yachiru – through the veneer of childish giggles and halting baby-talk – promises herself that she will never lose anyone-anything to anyone-anything again—ever again.

She is friendly to everyone in the Gotei 13, her actions are affectionate and her smiles half-genuine, but she is not attached—Yachiru knows that attachment is the easiest path to loss, for all living – even nonliving – things die. She may be young, but she knows this much—as far as she is concerned, besides the extensive knowledge of swordplay, not much else is important.

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The first person whom she remembers in her early life stands as a giant even in her eyes today.

(Most people do, but he is different, and special to her, in more ways than one.)

There is no one more powerful than Ken-chan, and there is no one so wonderful as Ken-chan. And because there is no one better, she entrusts herself to him – entrusts him to himself – and for him, she holds the greatest regard, because there is nothing to fear, when it comes to him.

She is not afraid, because she cares for one person who will never die, and Yachiru knows that she will never lose again.