A/N: I have officially moved accounts, but since I didn't want to re-up this story on the other one, I'll continue it on this account until it is finished.

SO TSU ZEN

a bleach fanfiction

written by Cherry

original story by Tite Kubo

Chapter Two

Through Looking Glass and Crystal Ball

Opening Theme: "Sky High" The Gospellers

White. Just white. That one, solid, immovable expanse of colour.

It's been such a long time since this dream had come... I'd almost missed it. So peaceful... so peaceful...

There was no light spilling through the windows, no birds serenading to the morning outside, only darkness. Darkness and stars; the moon had already set. It was that time between times, world between worlds, when the moon has gone and the sun hasn't risen, and dawn has yet to shift the sleeping clouds.

Hitsugaya raised a hand before his eyes and studied it. Five prominent fingers, a bit rough and calloused, but whole and definitely solid. So, he was no longer dreaming.

He sat up.

Something tugged at his conscious mind, trying to pull him down to the unconscious again. He resisted. It tap-danced around his milk-white hair, rustling the fringes and blowing in his ear. He swatted it away impatiently and slipped out of bed. The deck below him swayed in an unexpected wave of dizziness. A hand shot to his temple upon instinct while the other raised to counterbalance his moment of confusion.

The wave passed and the sea was calm again, water still sloshing at the very rims of his skull-made ship.

Faint images rippled across the water, blurred yellows and pinks, sharp greens and orange. Voices bubbled below the surface, never clear enough to be made out, but definite enough to be alive. Hitsugaya shoved his fingers through his hair, pressing hard on his scalp. The images splashed up and his ship rocked dangerously above murky waters. He swayed, one hand still held out for balance.

A creek of seconds and minutes dribbled by. He paid it no heed. The rising light beyond his windows made the water glimmer, but the images in his mind were no clearer than before; sounds still as muffled.

"Taichou~ Ohanyouuuu!" Matsumoto's voice twirled in with her plentifully-bosomed self and settled inches in front of his face. He frowned, weights of forgotten thoughts pulling down the edges of his lips. She'd obviously not gotten the hint.

"Matsumoto..." The grumbling and growling of her stomach drowned out all other sounds.

"Ah! My stomach is calling for breakfast! Off I goooo~" She sang and danced and sang and danced until she was no more. Hitsugaya watched her go with the self-same expression. The air shifted as he took a breath and veered towards the bathroom.

It was too hot. The water from the faucet sizzled and steamed as it ran over his blistering fingers. Much too hot. Hitsugaya bit the insides of his mouth and kept them there. The shocks woke him from his morning blunder. The images in the murky waters were gone. He could at least think and sail clearly now. Sweat rolled off the walls and the mirror as he stepped into the burning rain. All the pain-receptors in his body seemed to have been turned on at once.

He only winced.

Fingers fumbling, he reached for the temperature knob and twisted it, hard. The water froze in moments, bombarding him with hail stones. He sighed. Now this was much better. Tingle after shivering tingle whispered up his spine. It was the only time he ever smiled. Cold felt good. Cold felt clean. Cold felt alive to him as nothing else did. Hyourinmaru let out a breath the same time he did and it frosted over the walls and floor, engulfing him completely.

When the hailstorm finally blew over, he was dripping in ice. Glittering gemstones scattered across the floor as he pulled back the curtains and reached for a towel. The person that stared back at him through the transparent looking-glass was pleased. Nothing cleared his mind better than an ice-shower.

"Oh! You've showered...!" Hitsugaya rubbed the towel roughly over his hair, feeling it dry beneath the absorbent material. He nodded, the towel falling limp around his shoulders.

"I see you've managed to prepare breakfast without blowing up the kitchen. Good job, Matsumoto." He drew a piece of toast from the teetering stack on the counter and reached for the blueberry jam. Matsumoto seemed momentarily stunned at the compliment, but recovered faster than ever.

"Why thank you, Taichou!" She beamed, breasts bouncing with delight.

Hitsugaya gave a noncommittal "Hm," and bit into his toast. It was warm. The jam stuck to the roof of his mouth; he took another bite. Chewing slowly, he finally decided to try and sort out the myriad of badly developed photographs from the night before. The images swam up again, peering at him through the glazed top of the waters, still refusing to completely emerge. He took another bite, it was scratchy on the way down to his stomach.

Hitsugaya frowned, trying to put the events from the night before in some sort of chronologically acceptable order. Patrol, Ichigo, Warehouse - no/ Patrol, Warehouse, Fujiwara - no/ Fujiwara, Ichigo, Warehouse - no...

Letting out a low growl of frustration, he finished off the last of his toast. Matsumoto promptly set a cup of tea before him. He looked up at her; she gave him the smallest of smiles - sincere. The clunking piece of iceberg inside his chest melted ever so slightly. She always had that effect on him. God only knows why he still kept her around... maybe it was because somewhere deep inside him, a part of him wanted that iceberg to melt just as badly as she did.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome, Captain."

Guilt and fear played hop-scotch up her back while all the reassurances she'd ever taught herself slip-n-slide-ed down. The aftereffects of her actions were starting to catch up to her and she was out of breath.

A low hissing, then, the distinct rattling of a snake's tail. The tell-tales signs of Kobasen's clockwork arrival.

"Thankssss for the meal earlier today..." Saya clamped her eyes tight and didn't move. The voice continued on, "But it wassssn't really a meal, wasss it now? More like a sssssnack... just a bite, bite." The voice giggled, the sound slithered through Saya's ear and wrapped itself around her brain, squeezing tightly. She flinched.

The carrier of the hissing voice curled itself comfortably on her stomach, tail dangling over her waist. Its forked tongue wisping through the air, tasting her fears and relishing them. Saya's eyes relaxed, finally cracking one open, she regarded the snake on her stomach. Distaste.

She must have been the only Shinigami who disliked her Zanpakutou so heartily.

"Zanpakutou," the elder Shinigami paced before a group of eagerly listening students all dressed in blue or red robes, "are much like projections of your mind and soul. And thus, they take on the form that is closest to what each and everyone of you are like inside here," he pointed at his head, then to his chest. The class waited on bated breath.

"That being said, the release of one's Zanpakutou marks the first stage of spiritual release and deeper understanding of yourself. The second step is the communication between you and your Zanpakutou, and a mutual quest for knowledge. Only by embarking on this quest together can you discover planes of higher power and release; those are known respectively as your Shikai and Bankai." The Shinigami drew his own Zanpakutou and called him forth. The blade glimmered and unfolded into a huge scythe-like object, glinting dangerously in the light of the classroom.

The students ooh-ed and ahh-ed, muttering excitedly amongst themselves.

Saya lifted her head to glance once at the released Zanpakutou before lowering her head onto her arms and resuming her nap. Aizen-sama had taught her all this ages ago.

"But I have to admit... that Captain'sss memoriesssss tasssted so fressssshhhh and delicssciousssss. Sssuch a wonderous sssssnack. Isss there... more?" Her tail rattled; exicted. It tickled Saya's stomach.

"N-maybe... I don't know," Saya sat up. The snake chuckled its amusement, head bobbing up and down, swaying in front of Saya's eyes.

"Well if you don't make any more... blundersssss... then I won't have a chance to tasssste those memoriesssss anymore, now would I?" Its eyes glinted, the light splitting the air between them into miniscule chunks, sinking to the ground like technicoloured pebbles. Saya couldn't breathe, she opened her mouth to retaliate but shut it again like a dying fish. Her words were all trapped in soup-scud bubbles and floating away. The snake only sniggered and watched her suffocate, slowly, slowy.

"I-I..."

"You... what...?" Kobasen watched her struggle for words. Her tongue lashed out and popped all the bubbles, tail still rattling with apparent enjoyment at the Saya's silent convulsions. For five breathless seconds, she watched her master reach for invisible strands of thought before giving up and slumping back down onto the couch. The air flowed back into her lungs and she gasped at the sudden release. Peering up through shuttered lashes, Saya scanned the bredth of the room.

The snake was gone.

"I look forward to my nexsssst meal... ssssweeetheart..."

The kettle screamed on the stove, calling out its displeasure at being boiled. Matsumoto reached over, plucking it from the stovetop and quickly pouring the steaming water into the teapot, watching as the leaves inside swirled round and round and round.

"Oi Matsumoto... what's taking so long?"

The kettle slipped from her fingers, tumbling to the ground with a clatter, simmering the air as it spilled

"O-oi! Matsumoto!" She was shoved to one side. She stumbled, hip connecting painfully with the countertop. The kettle lay, lolling side to side, on the ground, silver seeping from the nose. Across the miniature lake of boiling water stood her Captain, wide-eyed.

"Oh... Taichou..." She blinked at them for the infinite space between passing seconds and then snapped out of it. "Taichou! I'm so sorry! I was spacing out, and the kettle slipped." Her waist bent of it's own accord, muscle memory kicking in. Kneeling down, she hurried grabbed a rag and began to clean up the transparent mess on the ground. The kettle still burned to the touch. Her reflection rippled in the lake of boiling glass, distorted and faint. But the woman that looked back up at her was not someone that she knew. She was foreign in a way that Matsumoto could not understand.

A pair of rough hands smacked hers out of the way. Matsumoto toppled backwards at the sudden shock and watched as her Captain continued to wipe away at her mistake. His brow was furrowed and his expression was that of utmost annoyance, but the edges of his lips were not pulled down, rather they were pressed into a thin line. Never a good sign. He was worried.

His lieutenant's momentary lapse in attention had set off a series of alarm bells in Hitsugaya's head, tolling gongs and banging metal cans. Even as the nerves in his fingers began to show their displeasure at being exposed to such high temperatures, he continued to mop up the last of the spilled water. The rag was so loaded with crystaline mistakes-her mistakes-that it was heavier than pure lead in his hands.

He stood up and dropped the rag in the kitchen sink, turning on the water to let it soak. The sound of running water behind them masked the uneasiness in the air.

Matsumoto glanced at the clock behind Hitsugaya and blanched.

"Taichou! We have school today!" And without another word, she was gone. A moment later a loud thump followed by a series of crashes told Hitsugaya that she was currently getting dressed.

Rumpling up his hair in a digruntled fashion, Hitsugaya scoffed and dragged himself back to look for a suitable outfit for their 'first day of school'.

Ending Theme: "Please Stay With Me" YUI

A/N: Apologies for long wait. School and SAT's are getting in the way. Leave a quick review, please and thank you.