Yay! Second chapter! In this chapter I'm assuming that Matsumoto is a seated tenth division officer and has been a shinigami for around 30 years. Also, I changed the rating to teen because I don't want to get in trouble or anything. So yeah, enjoy!

He hears a voice.

Calling out to him, it roars. It's too much-too much for him to control.

It's crushing, engulfing him. Falling into his hand-

It feels like thunder rattling down his spine.

It crashes around him. Two orbs glint in the darkness…

Matsumoto Rangiku was curious. She was hardly paying attention to her companions who were doing their best to intoxicate themselves. Who was the snowy-haired boy? She remembered looking into those teal-green eyes and feeling shocked at the power behind the gaze. It was like staring at the sea, enthralling and beautiful, yet deadly. Who was the boy to have such an intense stare? She remembered how his forehead scrunched up in confusion, then fury. The boy was simply the most adorable thing upset.

"Hey, Rangiku!" a voice hollered over the club's din. A scruffy looking man gestured at her. "How 'bout you join me for a little fun?"

"Fuck to you too," she yelled back cheerfully. Nothing could diminish her while she thought of the teal eyed boy. He was an enigma she couldn't shake.

Never mind that though. For now she was out with Shunsui and Shuhei and doing her best to get drunk. The room was crammed and hot. Moving bodies crushed against each other on the dance floor. The three of them huddled around a tiny table giggling.

Then it happened. The buildings rippled. Matsumoto sprang to her feet though many people were forced to the ground at the force of it. The reiatsu was primal, feral. Matsumoto braced herself against the onslaught. Somebody was loosing control of their power and if someone didn't stop them, Seireitei would be a junkyard by morning.

Matsumoto sighed and slowly sat back down. Let someone else take care of it she figured.

Unfortunately for her, Shuhei wasn't completely drunk yet. Jeeze, that boy could be such a goody-goody. He grabbed Captain Kyoraku and her and dragged them towards the walls. The reiatsu was coming from Rukongai? And they still felt it through the thick walls?

She would never admit it, but Matsumoto was slightly afraid. The power ran wild biting at her nerves. She was jumpy as she passed through the west gate alongside her friends. As they grew nearer, the air grew heavier and they slowed. It was like running head-first into a blizzard.

Matsumoto's body protested, but she pushed on determined to find the source of the power. Finally, she spotted a small house at the epicenter of the reiatsu. She signaled to the other two that she would scout it out when she quite literally froze.

Frost was settling on her bare arms, chilling her to the bone. Nevertheless she pressed on single-minded on entering the house. She shook the door which was frozen shut. It refused to budge until Shuhei rammed against it with all his might. Matsumoto flashed him a grateful smile and pushed on in while the other two set to unfreezing the neighboring houses.

It was a small house with two rooms. To her left slept two small figures: an old woman frozen over and a small boy tossing with nightmares.

The boy from this afternoon. So he was the one causing this disturbance? Matsumoto crouched over him and shook him awake.

Then, with a flash, the speaker appears, his great wings whipping up a storm.

The boy stands defiant before the creature.

"What the hell are you?" he screams in shock.

The great voice replies "Little boy…You have…"

"What are you saying? I can't hear you!" the boy yells over the squall.

"My name is…" The voice whispers violently. "My name-"

The boy's eyes widen as the storm rises to an unbearable point and renders his surroundings a frozen white…

He jerked awake. Sweat poured down his face. He opened his eyes to find the shinigami woman from that afternoon crouched over him.

"Hey!" she greeted him cheerfully. Hitsugaya jumped in surprise. What was she doing here?

"Why, you-!" he yelped in shock. "…from before…"

"Your Reiatsu," she gestured at him. She looked shaken. "Stop leaking it all over the place and get some sleep. Your grandmother looks pretty cold."

Hitsugaya glanced at his grandmother and looked back at the woman with a frightened glare. She was frozen…

"Kid, you should become a shinigami," the woman ordered. "Kids with power as strong as yours need to know how to bring that power under control."

He had power? He stared in shock. Was the voice…? No, he couldn't. His grandmother needed him-

"You know if you stay like this, you'll end up killing that grandmother of yours with that power soon enough."

Hitsugaya was terrified. He couldn't kill his grandmother! She was all he had.

"What are you saying-!" he jumped up. The woman gently placed a finger over his heart. The look in her eyes was kind and full of compassion.

"You hear a voice calling out right?" she asked. Hitsugaya nearly collapsed. She knew… She knew the pain and the terror and the exhilaration that the voice brought on. The calm look in her eyes told him that she too knew of a presence that was always there, watching. She knew how it felt, to feel like one might run forever.

"Discovering that voice," she explained. "Will help you control your power. But that means becoming a shinigami."

Hitsugaya didn't even hear her. He didn't care anymore. The voice! He shivered in fear. So beautiful, and lethal, and dangerous. What would happen if he embraced the voice? What would happen if he could name the dragon that appeared before him for the first time tonight?

He gave her a pained look. He couldn't answer, not now. He was so confused. So tired, so bewildered. She shook her head disbelievingly.

"I'll only say it once more kid. You've got to become a shinigami. I'll be at the west gate tomorrow at sunset." And with that she stood up and left. She didn't see the grateful look he sent her before crawling back in bed.

He didn't see the approving look she sent him as she walked out the door.

That night he dreamed of her.

So, I hope you liked it! I'll have the next chapter up soon. Please review!