A HUGE thank you to my amazing beta, KazeNoSakura. She took time out of her busy schedule to beta this for me so that I could get this second chapter out as quickly as possible. So THANK YOU!
I'm sorry if it confuses any of you, but I changed the title. I had originally only planned this as a one-shot and therefore the title was still alright. But then the story-bug bit and I just had to continue writing. So then the title became… odd. It just didn't fit. I'M SORRY IF I CONFUSED YOU!
Oh, and the summary changed slightly too, obviously. I should plan these things more… -.-'
I hope you enjoy the second chapter!
Title: Secrets, Twists and Chaos; [Who Doesn't Know]
Author: MeteorLeopard (HoneyBadger)
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
"I think he's cracked."
"More like obsessed."
"You think? I was going more along the lines of… fascinated."
"Same thing, ain't it?"
"It is?"
"Who cares?" Matsumoto puffed her cheeks out and frowned. "The point is that taicho has to get back on track! Honestly, he'd be forgetting his own head if it wasn't screwed on!"
Yumichika ran a few fingers through his hair. "But then again, Rangiku-san, you're not really able to talk. What with your ugly habit of being so scatterbrained."
A resounding crack of a hard object meeting skull shut him up instantly, and Matsumoto crossed her arms over her stomach and looked up at the ceiling a little distantly. "But… I'm honestly getting a little worried."
Ikkaku glanced at her. "About the taicho?"
She nodded once and a silence filled the room for a moment. Renji sighed and scratched his head once. "I wonder if his behaviour has anything to do with…"
Renji didn't finish his sentence but the implied ending hung in the air. That short girl with the cropped black hair from two days ago wasn't easy to forget. Madarame was still nursing a bruise from the headgear that had earned him a nosebleed back then. But aside from having incredible upper-arm strength, she had also been able to hold her own against a taicho in a mock-fight. Given that taicho had been in a gigai and holding back, but she had nevertheless managed to block a strike from a professional when it was apparent that she had been uncomfortable holding a sword.
Renji frowned. "I wonder what she's doing now."
"What's this Renji? Getting curious about her yourself now, ey?" Ikkaku gave him a leer and Renji's temper grew a little shorter. "Shut up, Ikkaku! Don't tell me you're not curious yourself!"
The bald warrior switched his gaze to the ceiling then, frowning. "Just a bit. For a girl she sure had some fight in her."
Yumichika smiled. "Agreed. I suppose I can see why the taicho is interested in her, don't you think, Rangiku-san?"
Matsumoto gave a soft smile as her only response. She was a little sorry that she'd teased her little taicho about being a stalker on their way back to the hall after killing that Menos. That had been the first girl that he'd shown any semblance of interest in, and then she'd turned things awkward by bringing up the fact about how he'd been staring.
She blinked once then and snapped her fingers. "Hey, did anyone ever catch that girl's name?"
Looks were tossed about the room as blank stares were exchanged. Matsumoto sighed again and leant her head back against the room's wall. "Aw… I could have had some fun there. I haven't done matchmaking in a while now."
Renji shuddered as he remembered Matsumoto's last attempt at matchmaking… His poor taicho. Byakuya had retreated into his office for a week straight!
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Toushirou growled threateningly at his pen before scrunching yet another sheet of paper in his fist and lobbing it into the overflowing trashcan in the corner. This was getting silly. No, it had passed 'silly' when his theories had included "secret organization" and "conspiracy against Soul Society". Was his lack of sleep really getting to him that badly? He was honestly more than a little frustrated with himself. He was a captain of the Soul Society and here he was obsessing over a little human girl?
Toushirou sighed and collected his thoughts, pinching the bridge of his nose. The only facts that he had were that she looked around 12 years old, seemed to have practiced hand-to-hand combat, had reiatsu and knew what Shinigami were. He glanced out the window of Inoue's vacant apartment. She and Kuchiki Rukia were off training in the Soul Society right now, therefore leaving him and his team alone in the real world. Come to think of it, that Quincy boy had disappeared as well and Kurosaki's huge reiatsu had vanished literally overnight.
As far as he knew, the only human he could locate was Sado Yasutora. Abarai was training with him in the underground cellar of the Urahara Shoten during most of his free time whilst the candy-shop owner watched from behind his fan.
Toushirou frowned once. Everyone else was busy training and he was sitting, thinking up theories on how a human girl knew about Shinigami? He had to find some way to train… Too bad he couldn't use the underground training room. But even if he could use it; who would he train against? Madarame and Ayasegawa were most certainly not interested. Abarai was already busy and Matsumoto was too lazy.
Toushirou rubbed his temples. There was a slight migraine creeping up on him as he stared at the paper in front of him. There were only two days to go before he had to give a report to the sou-taicho. If there was a human in the living world who was spiritually gifted that the Soul Society had been unaware of before, it was only right for him to mention her to them. Toushirou's jaw tightened slightly as he remembered that he had almost no information on her. And he wasn't going to give a report on something or someone that he knew almost nothing about.
He couldn't train right now and he needed more information for his report... At least he now had a way to pass the time.
Opening the door to the adjoining room, he walked in to find all four of his subordinates lounging about, obviously bored.
"Taicho?"
He crossed his arms and looked about. "We're leaving."
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Matsumoto glanced worriedly at her captain. Maybe he was going crazy. "Taicho?"
"What?" he sounded irritable.
She bit her lower lip a little, wondering how to phrase her next question without him blowing up at her. But since she couldn't think of a way, she let it drop for the moment. "Nothing."
Toushirou paid little mind to her as he looked at his subordinates gathered before him. "You all got that?" he asked, continuing his earlier instructions.
Four somewhat hesitant nods were given.
"Move out."
On Toushirou's order, everyone took off in a different direction. He too left, using shunpo to move quickly. When he had gathered everyone earlier, it had been half past one. So if he moved fast enough he'd still be able to catch the school children coming out.
Toushirou came to a halt on the top of a telephone post overlooking Karakura District A's Middle School. He gave it a once-over, confirming to himself that it was still filled with students. From the looks of the deserted playgrounds, it was lesson time. Toushirou hoped that it was their last lesson; he didn't want to be stuck outside the school for ages.
He had sent Ayasegawa and Madarame to neighbouring schools just outside of town whilst Matsumoto checked another smaller school. He had taken the largest one since this would give him the largest chance of finding her again and hence finding out all of the information that he needed much faster.
A shrill siren made him straighten up; the horrible noise was obviously the end-of-day bell since shortly afterwards floods of children all clad in the same light grey uniform filed out. Toushirou narrowed his eyes. If he remembered correctly, the first time that he'd seen the girl was right after she'd chased off those four bullies and helped that little kid. And he vaguely remembered her wearing a grey jacket, though he wasn't quite sure. He hadn't really paid much mind to what she had been wearing at the time.
His eyes flicked over to a figure in the midst of the thinning crowd. A slight, smallish figure with pitch black hair.
Found her.
Without a second thought, Toushirou leapt from the post and lightly landed beside the main school gate, waiting for her to inevitably pass by them. He could have simply watched her from above, but then he wouldn't have been able to hear anything. He for one needed her name if he was going to give a half-way decent report to the sou-taicho and he wasn't going to learn it by standing on the top of a pole so far away. He frowned slightly to himself. He could have hidden… but there was a part of him that was stubbornly arguing against his rational side. He wanted to see if she could really see him without his gigai. If she couldn't, then her reiatsu wasn't high enough for that. Toushirou scowled a little. He had no idea of the extent of her reiatsu thanks to that perfectly irritating barrier that she'd put up around herself! Two days ago during that stupid Kendo tournament, he had barely been able to detect that she even had reiatsu, let alone give an estimate of its size. She could have barely any for that matter.
Or…
Toushirou glanced up as a young girl's voice came closer, chattering away merrily. He spotted a girl, also not very tall, with light brown hair and brown eyes smiling warmly at her. He narrowed his eyes. Maybe if he listened he'd be able to catch her name.
"…tonight. I think we still have a packet of soup thickener in the cupboard and there should still be some chicken and vegetables left, though I think we're out of carrots. And we're low on salt and milk too."
Toushirou watched the girl with the black hair stretch a little, lifting her arms behind her head and gripping onto the handle of a plain school bag tightly before relaxing the muscles in her arms again and bringing them to rest at her sides. Toushirou noticed that her muscles in her arms were very well developed. Subtle, but tough.
"I'll go to the store quickly then."
The light haired girl glanced up. "Really? But don't you have soccer training with the guys again today?"
Toushirou watched as they continued to come closer, both still not paying him the slightest attention. Perhaps she couldn't see him.
"Nah. Those jerks dumped me for some boys-only weekend training camp. Idiots, the lot of them. So I'll run by the store quickly. It'll give me a chance to loosen up before I check in with the others."
The brown eyed girl nodded once, understanding, before handing over a list. "Well then, I guess here's everything that we need for supper. Make sure you drop everything off in time, alright?"
Looking a little bored, Toushirou watched the black haired girl take the list. "Sure sure."
The brown haired girl puffed her cheeks out. "Don't be so flippant! We need the milk or else the stew won't turn out right!"
"Oh calm down, Yuzu."
So the light brown haired one's name was 'Yuzu'. Now if this Yuzu would only say her name.
Yuzu started waving her arms around wildly. "Just listen to me for once! Don't lose the list, you hear? If you do I'll be upset! Very upset! Because then I can't…" Yuzu's protests slowed and stopped suddenly as her brown eyes fell onto Toushirou.
Toushirou tensed slightly. There was no doubt that the Yuzu girl was looking at him. But why was she looking at him? Did she have reiatsu too?
The two girls were right up alongside him now between the pillars of the gate where he was standing. The brown-haired girl gave a slight smile. "Hi there."
Toushirou had to blink once. She was definitely seeing him. He just nodded in response and looked towards the black haired girl again. She was obstinately studying the list in her hand, scanning down the items on it.
The brown-eyed girl took a step towards him and gave a slight smile whilst holding a finger to her chin. "Hm… are you Zennosuke-san's replacement?" Toushirou felt somewhat confused at her statements as she continued to peer curiously at him. "But then again, Zennosuke-san was still here yesterday and he didn't say anything about getting replaced. And you're wearing a white haori. So that means you're a captain." Toushirou's eyes widened a little. "And I doubt they'd send a captain to be the resident Shinigami in Karakura."
Toushirou was staring at the girl by now. Just how much did this human girl know? And why was the black haired girl still not looking at him?
As though reading his thoughts, she glanced up and looked at him with her mercury eyes. Toushirou's muscles involuntarily tensed as though preparing him for some form of onslaught, though he highly doubted she was about to attack him. Maybe he was just a little paranoid about her. The girl seemed a little skeptic about him herself, tossing him a somewhat curious glance before sighing once and folding the list into her pocket. "You again?"
Toushirou felt like growling. "What of it?"
She gave him a sideways look, staring him down again and Toushirou glared back, the air charging between them and making Yuzu glance back and forth uneasily. Toushirou felt like they'd just continued their staring contest from two days prior. Good thing Matsumoto wasn't here. And this…girl! It was like she was pushing all of his buttons without even trying! She'd hardly even said anything and he was already annoyed with her! Was she out to get him or something? Toushirou gritted his teeth as he held her glare.
The black haired girl turned away first and Toushirou noticed her hair swinging around her jaw line.
"Come on, Yuzu. We shouldn't hang around Shinigami for too long."
Toushirou continued his stare whilst Yuzu gave a small pout. "Moh… Fine then." The two girls walked right past him then and Toushirou glared at their backs. Actually, only her back because in her cocky attitude she was mocking him! Sneering at him and antagonizing him! And she was doing it on purpose! He knew she was!
As he watched her round the nearby corner, he ground his teeth together. That brat…
"Hitsugaya-taicho!"
Toushirou turned his head as the red-head landed beside him. "Abarai."
"I've got news, taicho! Big news!"
The white-haired taicho frowned slightly. "News?"
"Yeah! The school that you sent me to look over was right next door to Karakura High where Ichigo goes! And while I was waiting outside the gate four people ran up to me!"
Toushirou's eyes widened. Four people?
"Well actually," Renji laughed slightly whilst rubbing his jaw. "Only three of them ran up to me. The fourth one punched me in the face. That chick's got some spunk."
Toushirou massaged his temples. So in addition to the black-haired fury from two days earlier, there were now an extra five people who could see Shinigami. Oh, perfect. Now he'd have to find information on them as well.
"Abarai, go find Matsumoto, Madarame and Ayasegawa. Each of you take one of the humans and find out about them. Report back to Inoue-san's apartment at eight."
"Got it." Abarai nodded and jumped up into the air again, heading towards Matsumoto's reiatsu. Toushirou narrowed his eyes and focused. If he concentrated hard enough, he could just make out that girl's reiatsu about five blocks down.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
Eggs, milk, carrots, annoying-shinigami-taicho still on her tail… yup, she had everything. Karin sighed once silently to herself whilst she replaced Yuzu's list in her pocket. She was just lucky that Yuzu had modified her uniform skirt to accommodate one. Karin couldn't stand having to carry everything around in her hands all the time. She needed those free.
Karin spotted a colorful package on the top shelf and grinned. Those were Yuzu's favourite crunchy ginger cookies. Mentally she did a quick calculation. Yes, there would still be enough change leftover from the other items to buy the cookies. Unfortunately, the cookies were right on the top shelf on a very large rack. Karin scowled as she studied the shelving. There was no way that it would hold her weight without collapsing.
Of course, there was another way to get those cookies. The question was just if she was willing to try it. The jump itself wasn't the problem for her. It was just the fact that normal humans shouldn't be able to jump that high from a standing position and also awkward since she had a spectator two aisles down. Damn Shinigami… always making things complicated…
"Oi! Karin!"
Karin turned her head towards the sound of that voice. As expected, a short girl dressed in a red tracksuit with blonde hair and blunt fangs peeking over her lower lip stood at the end of her aisle with her arms crossed and her trademark scowl on her face.
"Oi, Hiyori."
The blonde's mouth turned downward. "What's with that crappy greeting? Someone steal 'yer lunch?"
Karin grimaced slightly. "Shut up already. I'm not in the mood to argue."
"Eh? That so?" Hiyori started strolling down the aisle with her arms linked behind her head. "And I went to all the trouble of getting a gigai too. These things are annoying you know!"
"No I don't since I've never had to wear a gigai, Hiyori." Karin threw the shorter blonde a grin.
"Shut it already! What is it with you and your smart-ass comments? I'm gonna kick your butt!"
Karin leant forward then, smiling. "Really now? In that case I can't wait for later!"
"You betcha! I've got the urge to fight someone with some real backbone for a change! I'mma gonna beat you black and blue!"
Karin's smile only widened and met the shorter girl's challenging stare. Hiyori straightened up as Karin did and gave a satisfied grin. The mutual silent agreement to go all-out later satisfied them for now. The blonde glanced up at the cookies for a moment before briefly checking over her shoulder and jumping up lightly to retrieve the pack. "Here. You wanted these for Yuzu-chan, right?"
"Yup." Karin slid them into the basket with the other groceries. "I figured I'd surprise her."
Hiyori nodded as they headed off towards the tills and Karin turned her dark eyes on the shorter one. "So, why'd you come out here anyway?"
Hiyori shrugged. "Had to get away from baldy. Honestly, that carrot-top is pathetic at this! Almost two weeks and he's still only able to hold it for 8 seconds! That's so sad I wanna pound him!"
Karin let the basket at her side swing a little as she stared upwards thoughtfully. "I wonder what's wrong though. Maybe he has some sort of mental block against it…"
"Who cares?" Hiyori huffed irritably. "Whatever the reason, he sucks. And it's making me go crazy too! So I snuck out for a bit."
Karin nodded once. "I'll be along later today after I drop this off by Yuzu so she can make dinner."
Hiyori nodded once. "Just hurry up, squirt. I've got a lot of anger that needs venting."
"Don't think I'll just lay back and be a punching bag. I've got plenty of frustration to let loose too."
Hiyori sent Karin a grin from beside her and then turned her head to the side. "By the way…" she jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "We've got a peeking cabbage rack over there."
Karin just nodded as she picked up a jar of pickles. "Yeah, I know. He's been following me ever since school came out."
Instantly, and within two long bounds, Hiyori was towering above the nearby vegetables, thrusting her hand behind the crates and grabbing something by its collar and yanking a very startled Toushirou out into the open.
Hiyori exploded. "You disgusting little vermin! What do you think you're doing spying on girls like that? What are you, trying to get yourself labeled as a stalker or something? If I didn't know better, I'd say you've done this before!" Hiyori gave him a harsh, neck dislocating shake. "Hiding behind vegetables is pathetic, you baldy! I'll tell you something, idiot! No decent gentleman goes around following a lady like you're doing right now because that's just low and disgusting and way too creepy! You're just lucky Karin wasn't in a bad mood today or she would have beaten you up by now-"
Karin looked up from her pickle jar. "Hiyori."
"-knock you off your high horse! For a moment I thought you were just a kid pretending to be a captain but then no captain or kid would go around stalking some innocent twelve year old!"
"Hiyori."
"Or any girl for that matter, you sick jerk! I have a good mind to tell you what I think of you-"
"Hiyori!"
"WHAT?" Hiyori finally stopped shaking Toushirou long enough to look at Karin who was still holding the jar of pickles.
Karin just looked annoyed. "Stop yelling. You look like a lunatic."
Hiyori's eyebrow twitched. "I'll yell all I want! Who are you to tell me to shut up? I'm telling this guy off for his bad manners here!"
Karin stared at Hiyori skeptically. "Hey, I've got no problem with that. It's just that he's not in a gigai."
Hiyori blinked once, letting that sink in for a moment, and then looking back at a simmering Toushirou glaring at her in his Shinigami uniform.
"Mommy, mommy, look! That weird girl is yelling at the air!"
Hiyori blinked at the smiling little girl before her anxious mother hurried her along, sending worried glances back at Hiyori.
She blinked once. "Oh."
Toushirou wrenched himself free of Hiyori's grip. "Will you just shut up? I was not stalking anybody!"
Before Hiyori was able to go off on another rant, Karin cut her off. "Really? And I guess you wanted to do some shopping here in your soul form, right?"
Toushirou felt his face heat up as Karin's mercury eyes bore into his. Again that need to swallow presented itself but he stubbornly pushed it away. Toushirou huffed and looked away. "Fine. I followed you."
"And what for? If you really are a taicho, shouldn't you have better things to do with your time?" Karin stepped closer so that she was just a step away from him.
Toushirou kept his eyes averted, her advancing was making him somewhat uncomfortable. True, he was a taicho, and there were other things that he could be doing. Like training. But that issue still hadn't been resolved. And otherwise, he really couldn't think of anything else that he could be doing instead. There were the odd forms or briefings that he could be finishing off… but those were nothing that he couldn't deal with later. At least, that's what he reasoned.
He shifted his eyes back to her to find her still staring at him unperturbed and he closed his eyes for a moment before answering. "Not really."
Karin continued to stare at him, silently demanding a better explanation. Toushirou could feel that she was expecting more and unwillingly faced her again. "It's not every day that we find six humans with the ability to see Shinigami, that's all. Although," he glanced at Hiyori standing beside Karin. "From the looks of things, I'd have to say that there are more than just six of you."
Karin's eyes narrowed at him and Hiyori spoke up then. "So what's it to you?"
"Nothing that you need to worry about." Toushirou replied, trying to make his voice sound levelled.
Karin could feel Hiyori seething beside her and hurriedly stepped in to prevent another full-blown rant. "I think we need to know." Karin held his eyes steadily. "What are you planning to do with this information?"
Toushirou locked eyes with her and met the full force of them head-on. He almost buckled. "That's none of your business."
A gust of wind stirred the still air around them as a fourth reiatsu presence appeared just beside them.
"I think it is."
Toushirou turned to catch a glimpse of a tall, gangly blonde man with over-prominent teeth leering down at him before a splitting pain erupted from the base of his skull, knocking the sight from his eyes and turning everything black. Vaguely, Toushirou felt himself hitting the shop floor, recognizing the signs of passing out.
That Hiyori girl's voice sounded above him. "Oh, nice shot there Karin."
Karin… So that's what that girl's name was.
It had a nice ring to it.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
OMAKE:
SMACK!
The shoe connecting smartly with Renji's face sent the red-head bowling over onto the pavement.
"There's the Shinigami! Get him! He'll tell us what we want to know!"
Two sets of hands grabbed him and roughly shoved him further into the dirty sidewalk. Renji could feel some gum rubbing into the back of his neck. Ick.
"Um… Arisawa-san…"
"WHAT?"
"Is it really necessary to use duct tape?"
Renji's eyes popped open. A fierce and scary girl with black hair and a maniac grin wielding a full roll of tape was leering down at him in glee. Renji began thrashing and the girl yelled, "Asano! Get his arms!"
"But…"
"Now, Asano! Or I'll tie you down next!"
Renji's arms were promptly pinned down. Overpowered by some humans. How degrading.
"Chizuru! I told you to get Mizuiro!"
Renji lashed out and Keigo went flying a couple of meters. Tatsuki fumed. "Hey! I needed him to hold you down!"
"Like hell I'm letting you lunatics keep me down! Get the heck off me!" Renji tried to squirm away.
"Shut it, Pineapple!"
WHACK!
A long interrogation session later, Renji left with an aching jaw.