Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or its associated characters. Most characters in this story, however, are of my creation.

The storm died quickly, but did massive damage throughout the village. Our little shack was not the only one that was damaged during the onslaught of rain and wind, although ours was the only one destroyed. It's been several days now since the storm hit, and the village is in the best shape it's ever been, thanks to Captain Hitsugaya. He didn't leave all the repairs up to the villagers; instead he helped rebuild and supplied families with wood and tools. I'm not sure where he got it all but if I had to guess I'd say the town east of ours.

I had noticed that Captain Hitsugaya has been seen, at least by me, less and less around the village. When I asked Yuri and Ren, they told me that they had seen him several times, but always going out of the village to patrol or dispatch another hollow crony of Takeshi's. His lack of being in the village was understandable, but there have been times where it just seemed like he was avoiding me. At night when I still woke from my dream, I would arrive at the house he was always on to either find him not there or to just glimpse his form heading into the forest.

Today I'm going to get some answers. Is he avoiding me for some reason or is he actually just very busy? I need to know. If it's the former, I just don't understand. Why would he be avoiding me? I've racked my brain for a reason and have yet to come up with a single one.

I spot Yuri ahead of me on the road. " Yuri, wait up!"

She jumps and turns around quickly, almost dropping the basket of food she is carrying. " Hey Haru." She seems to be struggling with the weight of the basket.

" Do you want a hand with that?" I offer, reaching out to take it from her.

She clutches onto it. " No, I can handle it."

" Ok, if you say so." I reply skeptically. The girl looks like she's about to drop it but I leave her alone about it. " Has Captain Hitsugaya seemed like he's acting weird at all to you?"

She pales at the question, catching my interest. " N-no why do you ask?" she is such a horrible liar.

" Well, to me, it seems like he's avoiding me for some reason I can't come up with."

She looks down, staring at the fruit and bread in the basket. " I don't see why he would be." She whispers.

" Are you sure? You seem to know something you aren't telling me." I bend down so that my face is in her line of vision.

She sighs and looks at me again. " I can't tell you anything Haru. I'm sorry."

I scowl at the answer. "Since when did we keep secrets from each other?"

" Since I promised Captain Hitsugaya. If you want to know you have to go see him and get him to answer because I can't. I'm sorry Haru."

" Fine, I guess I will."

" He's in the forest." She says as I begin to walk away.

So apparently he's told her something. Why would he tell her and not me? Obviously it has to do with me and I thought that he and I were friends. Whatever it is that he told her I'm going to make him tell me, that's for sure. There's something going on here and I'm going to find out what.

I find the white haired Captain sitting against a tree, his sword across his lap and his eyes closed. Coldness clings to the air surrounding him, covering the tree truck and the grass in a very fine layer of sparkling frost. He seems so unguarded and vulnerable like this, but at the same time he could be ready to unleash his Zanpakutō at a moment's notice. I simply stand in front of him, unsure of what to do. Normally he would have noticed me and said or done something in acknowledgement by now. Instead he's just sitting there like he's in some sort of trace, radiating cold.

" Captain?" I finally ask, trying to gain his attention.

" Yes, Haru?" His voice sounds slightly annoyed as he finally opens his eyes, the cold fading away quickly.

I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. " What were you doing just then?" Were you ignoring me in hopes I would leave?

" I was speaking with my Zanpakutō."

" You can do that?"

" Yes, I can do that. And, if you become a Soul Reaper, you would be able to as well."

" But I thought a Zanpakutō was just a weapon."

" It is much more than that. It holds the manifestation of your soul."

" Oh…" I say. My lack of knowledge about these things is starting to become embarrassing. At least he didn't sound annoyed when he was explaining it. " Captain?"

" Yes?" He leans his head against the tree and looks up at me.

If I don't just say it I probably won't at all so here goes nothing, " Have you been avoiding me?"

He blinks in response, appearing to be caught off guard by the question. " I have simply been trying to complete my mission here so that I may return to the Seireitei."

" Why the sudden rush?" He hadn't seemed like he was in a hurry to complete his mission here before. Why now?

He sighs. " I wish to return."

" Oh…" I hadn't really thought about that. He has friends there. People he probably is beginning to miss. I don't really want him to leave; I think of him as a friend and once he leaves, I probably will never see him again. He's the Captain of Squad Ten and I'm just a lowly soul in an outer village of the Rukon. " I want to tell you something, Captain." If he's going to be leaving, I need to tell him about my dream now in case there is some chance he may know something.

" Yes?"

" I've been having this dream lately." I notice the interest and hope spark in his turquoise gaze, making them blaze with such intensity that I look down at my feet. " I'm not sure what exactly it's about but I know that I knew this boy when I was alive that was killed trying to save me and I can't see his face or hear his name in my dream. But, I think tha-" My breath was forced out of my lungs forcefully as his body tackled mine, sending us both to the ground. " What are yo-"

" It's time for round two little Captain!" An insane, blood thirsty voice sounded maliciously through the air as a monster appeared before us, where we had been a blackened piece of ground behind him. I snapped my eyes up to Captain Hitsugaya who was now standing in front of me, his Zanpakutō in his hands and ready to attack.

"Reign over the frosted Heavens, Hyōrinmaru!" Captain Hitsugaya shouted, charging at the Arrancar, a dragon of ice swirling from his blade.

It had to be Takeshi that he was fighting, but he looked so different. Before the Arrancar had been thin, only semi muscular, and by all appearances, minus the hole in his chest, appeared human. But now he definitely did not. Multiple limbs with wicked sharp blades extruded from his back, his arms now twice the length they had been and tipped with talons. He looked painfully thin and his skin was a sickly grey brown color. He looked like something pulled out of a horror story.

His movements were faster, blurring my vision with their speed, but somehow Captain Hitsugaya was able to meet him blow for blow. They began disappearing and reappearing all over the clearing, causing trees to crash down and the ground to crumble under the force and power they released. It was rather startling really, the destructive force they were emitting. If they were any closer to the village, they could very well destroy it as well.

" Haru!" The Captain's voice snapped at me, causing me to jolt out of my thoughts and the thrill of watching them battle to notice the tree about to fall over on me. Panic seized me as I tried to run, even though I knew I wouldn't be fast enough. Something caught my wrist and pulled me sharply to the side, allowing the tree to crash to the ground harmlessly, and also almost dislocating my shoulder. Snapping my gaze up, I find the Captain, tense and looking around us, scanning for where Takeshi disappeared to, his hand still firmly around my wrist. Finally he moved his gaze to me, releasing my wrist. " Stay here and stay alert." He ordered, disappearing and reappearing in the center of the clearing. Immediately Takeshi appeared before him, an insane smile on his face, full of anticipation and bloodlust despite the bleeding wounds inflicted on him.

" Ready for more?" He taunted. Captain Hitsugaya scowled at the remark, charging forward. Maniacal laughter rang through the air as a thick, sickingly grey cloud of gas suddenly erupted out of the appendages sprouted from his back, quickly enveloping the area around him and Captain Hitsugaya. It dissipated quickly, allowing me to see the duo again. The Captain was on one knee, coughing violently as Takeshi stood over him, smiling like a manic. " You fell for it little Captain! That gas, that was poison. A poison that slows your movements and attacks the tissue of your throat and lungs, leaving you unable to breathe. Hope you were ready to die, because you are!"

The lunatic began to laugh again, lashing out with the blades on his back to hit the Captain, sending him flying backwards, blood spraying violently from his now ripped open skin and through a tree, then grabbing him again around the torso. " Captain!" I yelled out in horror and panic, taking a small step forward before my dream suddenly forced its way to my attention, allowing me to finally see it clearly. I watched in horror as Captain Hitsugaya was whipped through the air in what seemed to me slow motion as my dream overlapped what I was seeing in front of me. I saw Captain Hitsugaya, but I also saw the boy from my dream, my brother from when I was alive, who, I could now so clearly see, also had white hair. As the Captain was slammed forcefully into the ground a name, the same one as from my dream that I could finally remember, ripped from my throat. " Toshiro!" I began to run forward. I couldn't stop myself, the dream influencing my actions as I still saw both events happening before me.

Suddenly Captain Hitsugaya's image cracked, the sharp sound of breaking ice penetrating the air. " You are foolish to believe that I would fall for such a trap so easily." Both Takeshi and I snapped our attention to where the Captain stood, completely unharmed only several feet behind the crazed Hollow.

" What?!" The Arrancar bellowed in rage, tearing his eyes away toward the figure he had wrapped in his grasp. A cracked, mirror image of the Captain laid unseeing. " Ice!?"

" Of course." He said, smirking sarcastically as he slid his sword from its sheath, the ice shattering and spraying out as he did, rewarding him with a howl of pain as the sharp shards of ice pierced through the blade tipped tentacles that had been wrapped around it.

" You'll pay for that!" he roared, looking back up only to find that Captain Hitsugaya had vanished.

" No, I don't think I will." His cool voice floated to him. " You should not have tried to poison me before."

" It doesn't matter if that wasn't you, I have an infinite supply of poison!" He yelled triumphantly.

All I saw was the flash and glint of his sword before it was over, Takeshi's eyes widened in shock as his body froze, blood pouring out of his now sliced open chest. He fell to both knees, beginning to dissipate, body completely disintegrating as his torso began its decent to the ground.

I stared, not believing it was over so quickly, still trying to process what had happened. The Captain was walking towards me now, his expression completely closed off and guarded. He stopped several paces away from me. " Are you injured?"

" No. I'm perfectly fine. When did … How did you…?"

" I have the ability to create a mirror image of myself through ice. When I saved you from the tree is when I switched."

" Oh…" I said dumbly, not able to think of when exactly in that moment he had.

" How do you know that name?"

I blinked. " What?"

" You shouted 'Toshiro.' How is it that you know that name?" I don't understand why there is a hesitant eagerness in his gaze.

" I…I just remembered something… That dream I've been having. It's about…about my brother's death. He was killed by a hollow protecting me… His name was Toshiro… He was… He's you…" Realization and understanding finally dawned on me. All the odd looks, the openness, the avoidance, everything; He remembered and I didn't.

" Now you understand why I had been avoiding you." I looked at him questioningly. " You do not understand how much torture it is to be beside your brother once again and them not even know who you really are. I lost hope that you would remember and simply wished to leave this place, to allow you to live as you have been and unhindered by memories from your life."

" I'm glad I did remember then. Now you can't just leave and I never see you again." I'd been dreading the day when he would leave honestly. He's my friend and apparently my brother, now he can't just leave and never see me again. I'll hunt him down now if he tries it.

" That is something you needn't worry about now."

" Toshiro?"

He paused before answering, seeming to want to say something, then stopped. " Yes?"

" Why did you use an ice clone? Did you know that he was going to do that?"

" In a sense. When we battled before he had attempted to poison me by cutting me. He managed to graze my arm and by that injected me with a small about of it, but not enough to kill or even really hinder me. It was due to that that I knew he would try something else now so I was cautious until I knew what it was."

" Why didn't you just kill him like you did in the beginning then?"

" Because I didn't know exactly what he had up his sleeve with that poison."

" That's a good point." I conceded. I gazed at him silently for a moment, thinking of the clear image I finally have of my twin. He still seemed almost exactly the same. White hair, bright turquoise eyes, serious expression, chilly attitude. He was older and a Soul Reaper Captain now, but still similar to the twelve year old I remember. " I can't believe I didn't remember." I stated, looking away from him as guilt stabbed at me. He remembered; right away, at the first glance, I know it by the look he had given me when we were taking shelter from the ceros in his barrier of ice. I didn't remember him in the slightest.

" You are not supposed to remember when you cross over to the Soul Society. Only when you died unexpectedly or suddenly does a soul tend to remember."

" That would explain why you did then, huh?"

" Yes it would." He said, stepping around me to walk further along the forest path. " Why did it take you so long to get here, Haru?"

" What do you mean?"

" I died almost a hundred years ago."

" What? There's no way it was that long ago!"

" Did you not cross over right away?"

I scowled in thought. Did I? It's still so hazy. " I remember that I was much older than I am now…"

" So you were reborn here." Toshiro stated. " It's amazing then, that you are able to retrieve memories at all."

I ignored his comment. " When I died, I was convinced you were still in the world of the living and I searched for you. I don't know how long I roamed."

" I'm sorry, Haru. I should've kept tabs on you. I should've been there to cross over your soul. I should've-"

" Don't worry about it, Toshiro, I don't hold anything against you. You gave up your life to save mine, if either of us owes the other I owe you. Not the other way around."

" I didn't save you in order to have you indebted to me."

" I'm not saying you did." We fell into silence for a few moments before a thought appeared to me. " I never got to thank you, by the way. For saving me back then. You didn't have to."

" I do not leave those I care about to die." He answered dutifully.

" Well it's an expected thing for a Soul Reaper Captain, but a pretty noble thing for a twelve year old." I teased lightly. He scoffed at me quietly, opting to remain silent. I sobered up, thinking now of what was to come. "You've fulfilled your mission here. You'll be going back to the Seireitei now, right."

" Yes, I must return as soon as possible. I will most likely have much to do there."

"So what happens now?"

" Who knows. We will just have to wait and see what the future holds. But don't worry, this won't be the last time we meet." I smiled at him thankfully, happy to have my brother beside me again.