One Voice

By Janine (see profile)

Assistant captains Matsumoto and Kira entered the Tenth Division's building, strolling at a leisurely pace. Matsumoto was complaining at the top of her voice, apparently not considering the fact that her captain might be in the vicinity and would hear her.

"Ah, I want a vacation already," she was saying. "Or a mission. Anything's better than all those stacks of paperwork being thrust upon us."

"But you'd have report-writing to do if you were on a mission," Kira reminded her.

Matsumoto pouted. "Oh, I forgot! Well, I want a vacation. I sure hope the captain's ploughed through all the paperwork already."

"Not likely," said Kira.

"Ah, well, you never know. He wouldn't want to be sleep-depriv –" She stopped dead. Kira almost smacked into her. They had been about to pass the captain's office, but something was seriously amiss. Matsumoto pressed her ear to the closed door. Strange sounds – very strange sounds – emanated from the room beyond.

"Argh!" she heard Toshiro scream. "What are you doing?"

Matsumoto withdrew from the door, turning towards Kira with a guarded look on her face. "Come here for a moment," she beckoned him. They both plastered their ears to the gap between the door and the wall.

There was the sound muffled thumping, but neither Matsumoto nor Kira moved, as they sensed no immediate danger. "Ugh!" came Toshiro's voice again. "Ow – ow – ow – it's digging into me! Stop! You're the one who – wah! Holy – ouch!"

"Erm," said Kira, looking increasingly unnerved, "Has he developed a split personality?"

Matsumoto opened her mouth to pass it off as a joke, but found that she couldn't. This turn of events was simply too much, even for her.

Then something extraordinary happened. Two voices cried out at the same time – but both of them were identical, and they belonged to Toshiro. The two eavesdroppers jumped in shock. Kira's hand whacked into Matsumoto's boobs, but the latter was too flabbergasted to notice.

"Hang on," said Matsumoto slowly, brows furrowed in concentration, "whose spiritual pressure is that? I can hardly sense it, but it's there."

The words had barely left her mouth when there was an unprecedented explosion of enormous spiritual pressure from inside the office. A blood-curdling scream echoed from within.

"Captain!" Matsumoto, gripping the hilt of her zanpakuto, reached out to fling the door open with her other hand. She didn't make it. There was a blinding flash of blue light and the door simply vanished into the wall.

"Someone's coming!" shouted Toshiro. "We have to stop! Now!" Thump. "No!" Thump. "Argh!" Thump. "Stop, shorty!" Crash! "Who's the shorty here? You're twenty two centimetres shorter than me!" Smash! "That's seventeen, imbecile! Your measurements were inaccurate." Boom!

A deadly silence followed.

"Growl, Haineko!" cried Matsumoto. She was on the point of dissolving the wall and charging into the office when the sound of running footsteps announced the arrival of the captains and assistant captains of the Second, Eighth and Thirteenth divisions. They all began talking at once.

"What was that?"

"I sensed an immense spiritual pressure –"

"Must be an intruder –"

"The captain's inside!"

Their exchange was cut short as the two identical voices from the other side of the wall screamed out, once again, simultaneously.

"I'm going, dammit!"

"No, don't, they'll –"

At that moment the door reappeared in another flash of light and was flung open from within. Behind it were two people: Toshiro, face flushed, hurriedly righting his captain's robe . . . and a boy in nothing but a sleeveless black shirt and a pair of pale blue boxers, clumps of gold hair escaping a very messy plait. His right arm and left leg appeared to be made of metal.

For a moment he stared at the scene outside the door. Then he spoke, and his voice was virtually identical to Toshiro's. "What are you all looking at? He invited me, okay? Blame him." He jabbed a thumb accusingly at the captain in question.

Matsumoto and the others looked past him and gaped at the sight of the office. The desk had been tipped over, the couch lay in tatters in a corner, and sheets of crumpled paper blanketed the floor.

"You invited him?" said Ukitake incredulously, staring at Toshiro, who had busied himself with gathering up documents and who was avoiding eye contact with anyone.

"Never mind that," said Kyouraku. "Why do you two – er – sound exactly the same?"

"I think you owe us all an explanation, Captain Hitsugaya," said Soi Fon angrily.

Toshiro didn't look up. His last shreds of dignity were gone.


For the lulz. XD I love Romi Park. *commences wild fit of fangirling*