His legs were far past their limit. He could tell. The brisk, cold night air of the empty alleys made its way into his breathless lungs, giving his parched throat a frozen feeling, as ironic as it was. For one thing, the small white haired taicho had no clue in why he was running, to be exact. He had a general idea though, and it wasn't pretty.

He was being framed for the attempted murder of Hinamori Momo.

When he first came to this stunning realization, he was shocked. There wasn't a legit reason to try to murder his childhood friend. She was kind, sweet, and considerate. The more he thought about it, the more bewildered he became. At the moment the only thing that made perfect sense was to run, and far away at that.

There was no way that he'd be able to make it to the real world, not with General Yamato, the whole Special Forces squad, and his own fuku-taicho after him! Thinking about it, he probably could have a good guess or two on why his lieutenant was also chasing after him. Not to mention that she was the mother-hen out of the whole tenth squad. She wanted to know why. Why would he do such a thing, is what she wanted to find out. Well, that was for him to remember, and her to find out. He hardly remembered any of it.

Flashback

He heard a scream, and he vaguely remembered what he was doing. His teal eyes opened to see red. Blood. At first, he wasn't too shocked, he was used to blood after all. What he didn't know yet, was that the blood wasn't his own. But as his eyes traveled upwards, what he saw would scar his mind forever. It was Momo, on the wooden planked floor, blood pooling around her small, frail body. There were footsteps, coming closer by the second. If he was seen with blood on his hands, and sword, he was sure to be thrown in jail. And what he did next was something he might've regretted.

He ran. The taicho opened the window to reveal the waning full moon and stars. Toshiro took in a deep breath, and was about to jump out the window, until he heard a familiar voice.

"Taicho?" He cursed himself mentally, and froze in place. If he wasn't in deep shit then, he sure was now. His lieutenant gasped.

"It's not what it looks like, Matsumoto." For attempted murder, his voice sounded pretty calm and even. His head craned towards the tenth squad lieutenant.

"Then why are you running?" She asked, pale blue eyes ablaze, but her stance defied her calm voice. She was trembling from head to toe. They looked each other in the eye for a moment. He turned his head back towards the moon, ready to jump.

"I'm running, because I know that I did it." That was all he said before leaping nimbly out the window. He swore that he heard his fuku-taicho murmur something.

"You're not planning to leave me too, are you?"

End of Flashback

And that was it. He didn't remember anything before that moment. He knew that he tried to murder Momo, but why? That was a hard question to answer, especially if there were going to be people asking you that same question you had no answer to. He felt his lieutenant's reiatsu fairly close, and to avoid her, he rounded a corner. She probably caught a wiff of his icy energy. If he was going to hide, it shouldn't be in the Rukon District, nor the real world. Those were both places that he knew the Gotei 13 would look for him. If they were smart, they would search right under their noses.

Then again, that was something only he would do.

Thinking this, he allowed himself to smirk, but then shook it off. Why was he smirking? He shouldn't be proud that he was probably out-smarting the other captains as a criminal. He leaned against a wall and took in a few deep breaths, making sure to keep his gasping for air under his breath. He had to be quiet, but at the same time, he needed to be quick.

That was hard. Especially since he couldn't use the shunpo. That would immeadiately give away his location.

His pale, clammy hands found themselves weaving through his white un-combed hair. This was not his night. It was even worse, because not even Hyonimaru was giving him tips or attempting to calm him down a bit and think rationally. Well, more rationally than he was at the moment. Toshiro rubbed his eyes tiredly; by now it was four o' clock in the morning. He needed to find a place to sleep, and a quiet place at that. He snapped his fingers. Of course! No one would think to look for him in Yoruichi's cave. Then again, there were few people who knew where it was. Getting a grip on his surroundings, he started to head towards his destination. That was when he heard his lieutenant call out to him.

"Stop where you are, right now, taicho." She commanded, holding out her zanpakuto.

"I'm in deep shit now." Was all he said as he ran.