Sorry for taking so long, but here's a peace offering of an update and the promise of another to come fairly soon. I know this is short, but the next one will be longer.


Hitsugaya twisted, dodging a blow from the left. He spun round and fended off another from behind. A third attack cut him across his shoulder. Blood dripped down his arm.

"Damn it. I had to return this uniform." Hitsugaya grumbled. He switched his sword to his other hand and went on the attack.

The circle of attackers around him widened as Hitsugaya came at them in a flurry of steel. Hitsugaya was surrounded by seven of his fellow students.

He hadn't been looking for a fight, but when he came back to the academy in a borrowed shinigami uniform, he had found one. Seeing the prodigy who had surpassed them in a few months in a shinigami uniform had enraged a group of 5th years.

Hitsugaya blocked four of the five attacks levelled at him. The fifth, a kidou from a tall man named Makota, seared Hitsugaya along the back. Hitsugaya remembered Makota from the week he had spent in the 5th year class. Then he had struck Hitsugaya as a bully. Now Hitsugaya's suspicions were confirmed.

Tired and unwilling to fight any longer Hitsugaya sucked up his pride and made a desperate attempt to run for it. He threw his sword forward and dived through the gap which formed in the ring of attackers. He breakfalled and caught Houinmaru. Springing forward with one foot, the other pushed sideways sending Hitsugaya into another roll and narrowly avoiding a kidou blast.

Hitsugaya gambled that they wouldn't be able to follow him with flash steps. He's only just learnt them himself, but they were enough to get him up onto the bathhouse roof.

Finally he slumped down onto his futon in the barracks. There he peeled of the borrowed uniform. There was a large hole in the back and it was sticky with blood. There was no way he could return it to Isane-fukutaicho in this state. His wound was no worse than the ones he might receive in sparring. Nothing to bother about.

Hitsugaya climbed into bed. He had to lie on his front. This afternoon had been so good, but ruined by his return to the academy. Things like this just made him more determined to graduate as fast as possible. He was fast approaching the record for the fastest graduation.

People having high expectations of him had rubbed off. With all the whispers and rumours and sideways glances as well as the supposedly encouraging words from the teachers Hitsugaya had come to realise that he was something special. Not just his age either. He could have been average and young and that would have been easier. Instead he was brilliant and young. That was so much harder.

There were rules to being a kid in Rungokai. They were much like the rules to being a kid anywhere.

Don't tell.

When Hitsugaya came home covered in mud, Momo asked "Shiro-chan? Who did this to you?"

"I slipped in a puddle. It's no big deal." Hitsugaya tugged off his sandals.

Momo bent down beside him and wiped his face with a cloth. Removing the mud revealed a rapidly swelling black eye.

"And I suppose the puddle gave you this black eye."

"Yeah. It was a really big puddle." Toshirou scowled.

"Oh Shiro-chan," Momo said as she hugged him tight.

"You're covering yourself in mud," Hitsugaya said crossly. But he was glad Momo was there to make things better.

Hashimoto was there when Aizen died. She had become 5th seat in the 2nd division. She was running a message from Soifon to Urahara when it happened.

The battlefield which had been Kakakura Town was a hell. The sounds of death and fighting and dieing, of last breaths and lost souls were everywhere.

Then into this hell of noise came silence. Pure silence.

Even this far out from the centre of the battle the combatants stopped to shield their eyes as a bright light poured out from where the last captains were fighting Aizen.

Hashimoto lowered her sword from the neck of a hollow. Then it dropped from her hand. But the hollow didn't attack. It too was paralysed.

The light faded, but the silence remained for a moment. Then the battle resumed. There was desperation on both sides now. Both sides had seen something which was terrible even if they didn't know what it was. They were all fighting for their lives. Lives which seemed tiny when illuminated by that awful light, like spots of dust in front of window.

But Hashimoto fell to her knees. She knew what the terrible light was. She'd seen it before, but it was pale back then. She had felt that fear and insignificance before. It had haunted her, and now it was worse. She couldn't live in a world where such things existed.

So when the arrancar's claws tore through her Hashimoto was not afraid. She was going in the opposite direction from that terrible light. She was running from it. Running to where it couldn't follow. Running from death, back to life.

When Hitsugaya was very small he had played a game called resurrection. It was a bit like hide and seek or sardines. There were two teams, the living and the dead. You had swap between them if you got caught by the person who was 'the shinigami'. The living could only hide with the living and the dead could only hide with the dead.

Hitsugaya was very good at not getting caught.

"Can I hide with you?" he asked a group of children hiding under Grandma's house.

"Are you alive or dead?"

"I'm dead."

"No we're living. Find somewhere else."

"But I never get to be living."

Yes, Hitsugaya was very good at not getting caught. No one ever came looking for him.

But when it was his turn to be 'the shinigami' Hitsugaya was very good at the game.

I just need to sort out the order of the next chapter which I've had sitting on my computer for over a year. I was reminded to update by RmfD so this is for you RmfD. Sorry again for dropping this for so long.