Chapter 2

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Hitsugaya Toushirou woke up with an immense head ache, unaware of his surroundings he let out a weak cough. He focused his eyes to make out the picture in front of him, trying to stop the room from spinning, if he was even in a room at all.

He was still outside but tied to a tree.

"so she didn't turn me in yet."

Something wasn't right, the atmosphere was all wrong. Tense. He heard a clang of two metals. No, two swords. Toushirou focused his eyes to see what he expected.

About 10 meters away the bounty hunter was there fighting off twelve bandits, at least he thinks there's twelve, they were all moving too fast. He knew she was strong but not THAT strong.

And he was right since she was having a hard time focusing and losing ground to fast. Her breathing was becoming ragged and she was losing speed.

A dagger stabbed into her left shoulder causing her to cringe as she swung her sword at the man and another bandit stabbed her in the right side of her back with a short knife. She did her best not to scream, it hurt. It hurt like hell. She swung her sword once again to keep distance from her attackers.

"Oi, if you need me to kick their ass, just untie me."

The white haired boy yelled with a bored expression plastered on his face.

She just scoffed and said

"Give me one reason why I should trust you?"

"I won't run away."

"Ya, that's so believable."

Momo rolled her eyes. He could feel her suspicion of him from the tree.

"I don't appreciate your sarcasm."

"I don't appreciate you lies."

"Give us bounty 367 and we won't hurt you."

A bandit said with eyes like beady black rats.

"Oh so this is all to have possession of me, I didn't know you wanted me that much dear hunter."

Hitsugaya commented with a smirk on his face.

Hinamori could feel her head burning from anger and was going to reply to his little comment when she was knocked to the ground with a blade pointed at her.

Hitsugaya tsked

"It doesn't look like you have any other choice; it's either to die or give up your reward. Or…you can take me up on my offer. Untie me and let me kick their ass."

"You'll run away, so there's no point."

"Well, You don't know that unless you try."

"I swear to god he enjoys pissing me off."

She kicked the man in front of her HARD and grabbed his blade. She threw the razor blade swiftly at the rope cutting IT and the tree. The ropes fell and a smirk let loose on his face.

He began to run away and Momo laughed.

"I should've known."

She had to admit, she was a bit disappointed, she almost trusted him not to run away…

A club hit her hard causing her to fly a few meters and drop her only weapon. Now cornered in front of a tree, with over 10 bandits she couldn't run away, God was her only hope.

Hitsugaya heard her scream as a thud echoed in the forest. She knew he would leave, then why? He just about laughed at how trusting she was and how much he was going to regret his new found heroics.

"I guess it can't be helped…."

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"If we can't have him, then we'll just make do with you then."

The bandit's eyes were full of lust and horrible things she didn't want to know or see.

A hand reached out and touched her cheek as it started to work its way down. She almost kicked him but another one caught her leg before she could and held a switchblade to her neck.

"You sure you wanna do that."

She glared up at the man as he started to caress her breasts and the other, her now exposed thigh. Was she gonna get raped?!?!

"No…please….let go."

She pleaded in a weak voice laced with tears. Which excited the bandits even more, as another slid his hand down her shirt, another squeezed her ass and another licked her neck. She flinched but they were practically on top of her, violating her like a type of toy while she bled from he two injuries and bruises. Tears slid down her cheeks as she closed her eyes.

"Aww…don't cry babe."

"please…just let me go."

"GWAHH.."

"What the fuck. HOW'D HE GET OUR WEAPONS?"

"GET HIMM."

She opened her eyes when she heard men scream. Now a white haired boy was standing in front of her fighting them off with daggers, blades and weapons.

"SHIT, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE."

The bandits scurried away, some tripping and falling and continuing to run again after. Hitsugaya sighed as Momo recollected herself. Her eyes widened as she realized the reality of the situation. HE HAD JUST SAVED HER.

"Toushirou…why…?"

"I wanted to ask you the same thing."

He said turning around to face her, smiling a genuine smile, a sad yet gentle one. Momo almost melted.

"Your welcome"

He said and started walking away.

"Oh no you don't."

Again she knocked him out in one swift move to the neck. He was still a criminal nonetheless and she had to stay true to her job. She promised.

"I'm sorry, Hitsugaya."

She said as she brushed a loose hair from his eyes.

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The next thing he saw was a throne covered with beautiful gold, detailed carvings inside a room, angry looking guards, rich lords and ladies and the young bounty hunter. He at last recalled the happenings and realized that he was now before the young king and the trial awaiting his doom.

"Filthy low-life"

"What a horrible creature."

"GIVE HIM DEATH!!"

He could here them talk about him; he cringed at the sound of their voices and bit his lip so hard he almost bled.

"What horrible thing did he do to get such remarks thrown at him?"

Hinamori thought.

"You are at last awake, Hitsugaya Toushirou. It looks like our hunter took care of you well."

Hitsugaya's eyes darted to Hinamori and she quickly avoided his gaze, unaware why but his lucid eyes made her feel nervous. He was on his knees, hands tied behind his back and with guards all around him, there was no way for him to escape. He cursed to himself as the king spoke.

"I have to admit though, you were a hard catch but that's no matter since you're captured now and I must inform you the reason you were allowed to live until now."

Toushirou's eyes narrowed and he stared at the towering king on his throne curiously.

"Let's start at the beginning, are you familiar with Project Nero?"

After a moment Hitsugaya didn't answer but just stared scornfully resulting in a hard strike on the head from a guard, causing him to wince.

"No."

"Then are you familiar with Professor. Hatsuto, if you shall speak 'no' I would see through your lie at once."

"Yes"

He replied in a half whisper concealing a harsh tone underneath.

"Then I find it really hard for you not to know about Project Nero for I do remember hearing that he devoted his life to it."

"…"

"Now, can you tell me the where-a-bouts of the blueprints for Project Nero or any information regarding it? I guarantee that your punishment won't be as harsh if you should speak. Now any source of information is fine, I would think you would have at least some information on it since you being one of his -"

"I AREADY TOLD YOU, I DON'T KNOW."

He screamed this in a both harsh and lifeless tone causing it to echo in the grand room. Startling both the king and Momo, She could clearly see his bleak eyes staring down with his head hung breathing coarsely.

"Toushirou…"

She whispered his name without realizing it.

"Fine have it your way then, I'll give you a few days to reconsider your answer. Guards! Take him to the dungeon."

The king rubbed his temples thoughtfully as he directed the guards with a brush of his hand. As if on cue, the guards dragged Toushirou up roughly while completely ignoring his injuries. Bringing the almost seemingly dead Hitsugaya to the back door where he assumed where the 'dungeon' was. On the way they passed Momo who never shifted her gaze off of him. Why did he suddenly loose his cool and what is Project Nero? A million questions flied through her mind. Her eyes widened as he glanced up at her with lifeless eyes then continued to walk down until he disappeared into the darkness never looking back once. Momo was about to leave the court when the king stopped her. The king was young, maybe 5 years older than her the most. Blond hair and flawless green eyes, he was nothing short of gorgeous.

"Would you care to join me for a glass of wine?"

"It would be my pleasure your majesty."

She could never turn down a business opportunity but her mind kept on repeatedly shifting to the white haired boy.

"Please, YOU may call me Ryouichi, dear Hinamori."

As he kissed her hand instead of melting like most girls do, she shuddered, not letting it show of course she let out a fake smile and wondered how Hitsugaya's lips felt –

"No I can't think like this. I MUST BE A STRONGER WOMAN AND NOT GIVE IN to his clear blue eyes…AHHH NO, I MUST STOP THESE THOUGHTS."

"Also, you can't dine in those robes, though I'm glad your wounds are treated, that Hitsugaya really must be a savage"

Somehow this angered her and as she was about to protest she was interrupted by the king.

"Come. I'll show you to your room, there you can choose among some dresses."

"Um…no, that's oka-- "

"I insist."

He said this with such a kind face that she decided not to complain. He led her into a grand room, decorated if possible, more than a ball room. Her eyes were as wide as saucers with little aliens dancing in them when she saw the dresses, tens no hundreds of dresses lined up for her to choose.

"This is SOME dresses?"

She chose a lightish blue one that contrasted with her eyes and were the same as HIS eyes. She walked out the room to be greeted by the king who put out an arm for her, she hesitated.

"What's wrong?"

"I…"

She tried her hardest to think of an excuse.

"I have to use the loo (bathroom)."

And she ran, not sure where but she had to get away from the king, for some odd reason she couldn't love him, she couldn't. She took at least 10 corners until she had to stop because her ankle gave out.

"Damn, I think I sprained it in the fight."

In front of her was a long corridor leading downstairs and since she's always been a curious one, she followed the path in front of her. It was dark, the corridor light was the only reason she didn't immediately fall flat on her face. She knew this was the dungeon the king referred to. Momo almost tripped when she got to the last step expecting more stairs when there were none. She walked blindly in through touch, feeling the brick walls as they turned to bars then brick then bars until she touched something soft between. No, behind the bars. And before she could react quickly enough, that something rung her neck, forcing the back of her head to hit painfully against the bars. One hand grabbed both her wrists behind her back through the bars so she couldn't fight back from his strong grip. As the arm that rung her neck's hand revealed a knife and brought it up to her throat threatening to cut it open from the slightest of movements.

"Now, what's a pretty girl like you doing down here?"

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OK I AM SO SORRY THAT I DID NOT UPDATE FOR LIKE 2 MONTHS AND THANK YOU FOR YOUR AWSOME REVIEWS!!!

An emergency took place in china so my whole family had to fly there and stay there for a month. AND I SWEAR TO GOD WE ARE STILL IN THE STONE AGE IN MY APARTMENT SINNNNNCCE WE DID NOT HAVE A COMPUTERRR ANDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD THE INTERNET CAFÉ AND SCARY PEOPLE SO YA. Following that I had to catch up in school thus delaying my updating. Very sorry and I shall make up the delayed chapters by posting more quickly. And I was going to make part of chapter 3 with chapter 2 but it ended up being like 10 pages so I made it cliffy at the end. I SHALL UPDATE SOON