"a day to look forward to"

By:

Chapter 1

"There are reports of menos sightings in the living world two days ago. According to those who saw, menos are appearing through a garganta that materializes out of nowhere. These garagantas also appear in just one location, Karakura Town. The reports and information are accurate. They seemed to be lured into the living by immense amount of reiatsu and spiritual particles. I will send selected lieutenants and captains to investigate these odd phenomena. Captain Hitsugaya. Captain Soifon. Lieutenant Abarai. Lieutenant Matsumoto. 3rd seat Madarame and 4th seat Yumichika shall go as well, due to their experience and knowledge of the living world. You are to blend amongst the living, transforming yourself to shinigamis only in time for battle. We wouldn't want to attract more menos with your reiatsu."

Everyone is silent. The head captain just gave orders to captains to leave for living world at once, all at the same time. If he had sent captains to investigate, then the situation is a lot worse than he made it sound to be. This is bad.

"Head Captain!"

"Yes, captain Hitsugaya?"

"The last time we have headed for the living world, we encountered a small problem. You have ordered us to investigate in living world using gigai to avoid emitting huge amounts of reiatsu, but the last time we did so, me and my subordinates realized that in order to survive in living world, we would need a place to stay, something we totally lacked. It's a good thing that Inoue Orihime gave us a place to stay for time being. I don't believe that with our actual number, we would fit in her small apartment."

"Well said, captain Hitsugaya. I forgot to tell those who would leave that I have already prepared your necessities for your mission. Even now as we speak, Kisuke Urahara is preparing for your arrival in his shop. He would tell you what to do and where to stay, as well as our current situation in the other side. Understood?"

"Hai!"

After the meeting…

"Captain! Looks like we'll have another nice visit in the living world! I'm so excited! Maybe I could stay in Orihime's house again! I already miss her home cooking!"

Toshiro turned his back to see his lieutenant following behind him. He can't understand why she's so happy about it. There was nothing really exciting about going to living world. Nothing at all. If there were no enemies, they spend the entire day staring at the window. Life is truly boring on the other side.

"Looks like it", Toshiro said.

The next day at Urahara's shop…

Everyone is to go to Urahara's shop as soon as they arrive. This is an order, so as soon as the team of shinigamis reached the living world, they all turned to go to their designated place. Not surprisingly, they found Urahara waiting for them at the door of his shop.

"Good morning to all of you! Head captain Yamamoto told me three days ago to prepare for your arrival. He told me to tell you the current situation here in living world and to find places for you to stay while you're here." Urahara waved inside his shop and invited everyone in.

"First, let's review our current situation. Great numbers of menos have been appearing recently all around Karakura town for unknown reasons. Then yesterday, I received reports from the research and technology association that the menos seemed to have been lured here by huge amount of reiatsu and spirit particles. The menos that appear are the lowest of their kind, the Gillians. As of now, there are no reports of adjuchas, or even vasto lordes appearing anywhere near Karakura town. The menos uses a low class garganta instead of the undetectable ones to travel, so hopefully, these events have nothing to do with Aizen and the hougyokou. Your mission here is to protect those possible sources of spiritual energy and reiatsu, so therefore, you will all be placed in different posts. Captain Yamamoto's orders were to protect these people no matter what. So then, let's proceed to your posts."

Kisuke took a piece of paper tucked in his kimono and read the contents out loud.

"Captain Hitsugaya- Kurosaki Clinic, Rangiku Matsumoto- Inoue Orihime's residence, Renji Abarai and Captain Soifon- here in our shop, Yumichika- Chad's residence and ikkaku Madarame- Asano Keigo's residence."

"Why do I have to stay in this dumpy old shop?"

Everyone turned to look at who said such rude words. It was Captain Soifon. Kisuke wasn't surprised to hear it from her. After all, she always hated him since the very beginning. But he knew exactly what to say to brighten up her gloomy attitude.

"Don't worry though, you and Renji aren't the only ones staying here. Yoruichi is here as well, she just went somewhere, but she'll be back in a few minutes!"

As expected, Soifon's eyes lit up at the mention of her old mentor's name. But that's not where his problems end though…

"Kurosaki Clinic? Isn't that Ichigo Kurosaki's residence? Why do I have stay there? If there are people there with immense reiatsu, Ichigo can protect them by himself."

There we go again. Another complaint. This time, it was captain Hitsugaya who seemed not too happy about his home-to-be.

"Oh, he would be able to if would be there."

"What do you mean?"

"Kurosaki left this morning with Rukia to Soul society. They have been summoned by the head captain to guard the Senkai gate until they have solved the strange phenomena. There is always a possibility that all these are just distractions to lure captains from Seireitei. We can't take any chances. And because they are gone and the Kurosaki family is probably one of the main targets of these menos, you will have to protect them until Ichigo comes back."

After hearing so, Toshiro did not complain anymore. Besides, there is someone there that deep inside, he really looked forward to seeing.

It was almost lunch time. Urahara Kisuke invited them to stay for lunch. He also told them that he already talked with the people concerned about 'parental permission' to stay in their households. According to him, he had Ichigo and Keigo tell their parents in advance about certain 'friends' from a foreign place who would come and stay with them for a few days. Orihime and Chad have no one to ask permission to, so it's easier for them to accept guests. They are expected to arrive today.

As soon as they ate lunch, everyone headed towards their destinations. They are all in their gigai forms in accordance to the order of the head captain. They all carried a small bag that contained the clothes they had to wear in this world. They all headed in different ways. Toshiro went towards the kurosaki clinic, like he was instructed to do. He knocked as soon as he reached the front door. After a few seconds, someone opened the door. A short haired girl opened it.

"Yes?"

"I… uh… I 'm Hitsugaya Toshiro, kurosaki ichigo's friend."

"Oh! So you are the one he was talking about! Come on in!"

It was Yuzu, Ichigo kurosaki's little sister. As soon as she realized who he was, Yuzu pushed the door wide open to let him pass. They were really expecting him.

"Ichi-nii isn't here at the moment. He left with Rukia Kuchiki this morning. They said they'll be back after a few days. I think they have a school activity or something, but I'm not really sure. Ichi-nii never tells us anything anyway."

Toshiro didn't bother replying. He can't even think of anything to say anyway. Besides, he already knew Ichigo wasn't there anyway. He knew that their presence were requested in Seireitei. He just stood there looking around. Indeed, this house is packed with tremendous amount of reiatsu. No wonder menos would get lured into this area. This house alone is enough to lure about 50 menos to Karakura town!

Toshiro was disturbed from his thinking as Yuzu shouted for another girl to come.

"Karin! Dad's not home yet and I'm kinda busy down here. Could you lead Ichi-nii's friend to the guest room?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"

A black haired girl ran down the stairs. She turned to see toshiro standing near the doorway.

"You, look familiar somehow. Have I seen you before?"

He was surprised by the question. Yes, they met before, months ago. He even joined her team in soccer before. But she's not supposed to recognize him at all. They used a special memory replacement spell on her because she was able to see him in his shinigami form. She shouldn't be able to even have a vague memory of their past meeting.

"Umm… I don't think so. This is the first time I've been here."

From the look on her face, she doesn't seem to be convinced at all. Instead, she seemed confused. He was nervous that she might be able to regain some of her memories about him if she kept thinking so much so he tried to change the subject.

"I'm toshiro, Hitsugaya toshiro."

"I'm Karin, Karin kurosaki. Ichigo's younger sister."

There was a loud clang in the kitchen. Yuzu accidentally dropped some cooking pans while trying to get a saucer from a cabinet. Karin sighed.

"And that's Yuzu, my twin sister."

As soon as she said that, she grabbed hold of toshiro's hand and said "Follow me."

Toshiro felt his cheeks burning. He must admit that he was really quite surprised when she suddenly pulled his hand like that. He followed her immediately, trying not to face her way. He was afraid that she might see him like that, blushing. Karin stopped in front of a room, as soon as she did, she released his hand.

"This is where you would stay. You and Ichi-nii will share the same room since Rukia is currently using the other room."

"Hai."

"Make yourself at home. I'm just downstairs if you need anything."

Karin left toshiro in ichigo's room. After she left, toshiro looked around. Lots of things have changed since the last time he's been there. Instead of a single bed, there are now two beds in the room. He placed his bag on top of the nearest bed and lay down. Now, what is he supposed to do? He took his hollow detector from his pocket. He flipped it open. There is nothing. No menos. No arrancar. There's not even a single ordinary hollow nearby. He sighed. This is all too boring. There's nothing to do. He can't go around town because everyone might end up looking for him if he suddenly vanishes without saying. And if he did ask permission, they would certainly ask where he's heading and he won't know what to say. He sighed again. If only matsumoto is here, then it wouldn't be that boring since there would be someone he could talk to. Toshiro sat up and stared at the open window. It's midday. Therefore, there is no sunset for him to watch. Finally, he decided to go down. He was still in the stairs when Yuzu came and approached him.

"Your name is toshiro, right? My name is Yuzu. I'm ichigo's younger sister! Nice to meet you!"

"Uh… nice to meet too."

"Come on, lunch is ready! I made a special dish today because I knew Ichi-nii's gonna have a visitor."

Uh-oh. Another lunch. He just ate at Urahara's. He had this crazy thought in his head to just tell her he already ate on the way here, but when he realized she went through all the trouble to cook a special meal today just because he was coming, he changed his mind. He doesn't want to hurt her feelings after all.

He followed her into the dining room where he found Karin already sitting on her usual place in the table. Yuzu motioned him to sit on an empty chair just beside Karin. Stay here. I'm just gonna get the lasagna from the kitchen.

"So… uh… we're the only ones eating?"

Toshiro tried to start a conversation. After all, he'll be staying here for some time, might as well try to get to these people. After all, it's just normal, right?

"Yeah. Dad's in a meeting with professional doctors today in Karakura medical hospital, while Ichigo left with Rukia this morning. Don't know where they're going though, he just said it's important business. I have this feeling though that this 'business' of his is nothing normal."

Toshiro didn't know what to say next. He is, after all, not an inquisitive person, the reason why he didn't want to ask her a lot of questions. But still. Her last sentence has some sort of meaning in it. He can't help but ask.

"What do you mean by 'nothing normal'?"

Karin looked straight at him and sighed.

"Ichi-nii does nothing normal at all. He's a really weird guy and he never tells us anything. Sometimes, I think he trusts his friends more than he trusts his own family. But I can't blame him though, our family's really kinda strange sometimes."

Just then Yuzu came into the room carrying a big plate of lasagna. He looked around the table. There sure is a lot food in it. There were spaghetti, lasagna, rice balls, barbeque and pizza. There were also cookies for desert. They all look delicious to him. Yuzu must be really good at cooking.

"Ok then. We can eat now!", Yuzu announced happily.

Yuzu passed the plate of rice balls to him. He took only one because he's still full, since he ate at Urahara's before coming. He took a bite from it. It sure is delicious.

"You sure like to cook, huh?"

Yuzu looked at him and smiled.

"Uh-huh. It's the chore that I really enjoy doing."

Then toshiro remembered something. Ichigo's mom died a long time ago, so Yuzu must have been the one doing all the house chores all these time. From the looks of it, Karin doesn't seem to like house chores at all. Toshiro was lost in thought when he suddenly heard a loud noise, like something metal dropped on the floor. He turned to look. Karin dropped her spoon, trying to reach for the plate of lasagna. It was nearest to him. As he bent to pick it up, he noticed Karin is doing the exact same thing, but it was too late. The moment Karin's hands touched the fallen spoon, his hands fell on top of Karin's.

Surprised, Karin stared at toshiro's hand which was holding hers. Her face turned brilliant red. Toshiro noticed this so he looked at where she's looking. Uh-oh. He forgot to let go of her hand. As soon as he realized it, he quickly dropped her hand and turned to look at a different direction. He's blushing again and he can't let her see it.

"Uh… sorry… I was just uh…. I mean… it's just…."

Toshiro was so embarrassed that he can't find words to say.

"It's okay. Don't worry about it."

He turned his head a little to her direction to see her face. She was blushing.