PART II

'Thank you for making the time to attend this meeting,' the Soutaichou announced to the room of officers. The Taichou and Fukutaichou of each squad nodded. 'The Sixth Division has an important matter to report on behalf of the Fifth Division, of which the current leading officer, Hinamori Momo Fukutaichou is out of commission.'

Abarai Renji stepped forward. 'Earlier today, the Fifth Division was attacked by a group of Arrancar. It appeared that their target was Hinamori-fukutaichou. Both the Fourth and Sixth Divisions intervened and exterminated the Arrancar. However, they left us a message.' The redhead sighed. 'Why do I always have to say the weird stuff?'

He received a cold glare from none other than Kuchiki Byakuya. 'Ah. Erm, fine. I'll continue. Uh, Aizen wants the power of Hyourinmaru. We believe it has some link to that, uh, myth.' At this, Renji received more than just a few odd stares and raised eyebrows. 'Uh, you know, that myth? The one about Hyourinmaru? The only one, if I'm not mistaken…?'

'Thank you, Abarai-fukutaichou. Kyouraku-taichou, please send an officer down to the Transient World. Tell Hitsugaya-taichou's team to return immediately and that their mission is suspended.'

'Yes sir,' the man in a bright pink haori replied, summoning a Jigokuchou almost instantaneously.

Ukitake chuckled quietly. The young Taichou would not be happy; he made a mental note to get some candy ready. After all, it always helped the little one from the Eleventh.

'Back to the issue at hand,' the Soutaichou continued. 'The only possible reason Aizen would want Hyourinmaru would be because of the myth. One cannot do much with the zanpakutou of another. We can only conclude that he's going to destroy Soul Society with the combined power of the Heavenly Guardian and the sword's spirit.'

'N-no way…it's just a myth, isn't it?'

'Does that mean that all this while, the legend of Hyourinmaru was true? That we actually had such a power within our forces?'

'The story of reincarnation…was never true. It was only a fairytale for children, right?'

Quiet murmurs spread messily around the small room, but were quickly hushed with a sharp tap of an old wooden cane. 'Silence. Does Hinamori-fukutaichou know of this?'

'No sir.'

'We need to inform everyone of Fukutaichou rank and above of the situation. Nobody else is to know about this,' the old man rumbled.

'Yama-jii,' interrupted a lazy drawl that was immediately recognised as Kyouraku Shunsui. The occupants of the room turned their gaze to the elderly captain. 'If Aizen wanted Hitsugaya-kun, why did he target Momo-chan? He could have attacked the Tenth Division from the start if that was his real motive, ne?'

It was only after an uncomfortably long silence did Yamamoto reply. 'We will bide our time and wait for Aizen to make the first move. When he does, we will have all our defences ready. Until then, all of Soul Society will be under heavy guard. We will inform them of the current situation, but Hitsugaya-taichou is not to know about the Heavenly Guardian. Is that clear?' the elderly shinigami gazed downwards. 'If he learns to abuse that power, Soul Society will have a whole new enemy to deal with.'

He continued after a short pause. 'Soifon-taichou, I trust you will organise a guard system. Dismissed.'

0o0o0o0o0o0

'Taichou! I knew it! Caught you red-handed, too!' screamed a hysteric Matsumoto Rangiku. Whatever Kyouraku-taichou had done about summoning the team back had been more efficient than the blond Fukutaichou could have anticipated and as such, the slightly tipsy lady had escaped for yet another round at the bar.

'What did I do, and tell me about the meeting, that was apparently important enough to drag me back here? I was only told about the attack on the Fifth,' came the dull and monotonous reply from behind the stacks of paper on the table.

'Did? You're still doing it, taichou. The paperwork, of course! There's a Matsumoto Rangiku Rule that says that when you have free time, doing paperwork is absolutely prohibited!' she declared with one foot slammed onto the sofa.

'And there's a Hitsugaya Toushirou Rule that says that whenever I command Matsumoto-fukutaichou to do something, she does it or else her sake disappears. Tell me what happened in the meeting.'

'Nononono, Taichou! No can do; NC16 stuff.'

'NC16?' Hitsugaya exploded. Stacks fell off the table. 'Matsumoto, I'm nearly ten times that! You tell me what happened or the sake disappears,' he threatened, pointing a dripping brush at the top shelves and the boards across the ceiling.

'Your height tells me otherwise,' she replied lazily.

With another explosion, Hitsugaya slammed the brush into his tea and stormed out of the room. 'I'm going to the Fourth.'

'Ah, young love, it's a wonderful thing, Taichou.'

'I am NOT!'

'It's okay, Taichou! Denial is all part of teenage love! When you finally grow up to be mature like me, you'll broadcast it to everyone! Trust me!'

'SHUT UP!'

'Don't worry Taichou! These childish crushes wear off soon! Until then, have fun!'

After a final inhuman roar, the door slammed.

0o0o0o0o0o0

Hinamori Momo woke to an empty room. Thin rays of sunlight streamed through between the curtains and instinct had her sitting up, lifting her right hand to shield her eyes.

Hinamori never liked staying in the Fourth Division. The whole whiteness of the place was incredibly unnerving—the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the sheets, the curtains, even the yukata she was wearing.

Voices from outside.

'Good afternoon, Taichou.' A short pause. 'Hinamori-fukutaichou is still unconscious, Sir.'

She scanned the room and quickly found Tobiume sitting on a sword rack on the far end of the room. Slipping quietly off the Western-style bed, she headed towards the rack, knocking a tray of medical supplies noisily to the floor as she did so.

Oops.

'I don't think so,' it was a different voice this time. The door slid open. 'Bed-wetter, whaddya think you're doing?'

'Hitsugaya-kun! What are you doing here?'

'Running away from Matsumoto, what else? The mad woman's mad again.'

Hinamori laughed lightly. The timid-looking Yamada Hanatarou inched in from the doorway. 'Umm, I'm sorry for interrupting, but-' he was cut off when Unohana-taichou stepped through behind him.

'It's good to see you're awake, Hinamori-fukutaichou. I take it you are feeling well?'

Hitsugaya rolled his eyes. 'Probably,' he drawled sarcastically

Hinamori only laughed harder. Hanatarou slowly inched back out of the room, with a terrified look plastered to his face.

author's note:
alright, it actually wasn't ready for an update, because I wanted to write a few chapters ahead, but then I realised that I've probably been torturing any poor soul out there who might be waiting for an update, assuming there is one. I'm really, really, really, really sorry for not uh, writing. And also, just a warning, I've been trying to straighten out what happens in this fic and I realise that I might just take hitsugaya out of the official character listing for this fic. Sounds kinda strange, sure, but if/when I ever get down to writing more and bishing down the wall known as writer's block, and you play the wonderful waiting game with me, I'm sure we'll all find out eventually. Just give me some time, thanks.