Toshiro's POV
I looked over Karakura town and tried not to yell at my fukutaichou.
"Yay! Shopping time~"
Tried.
"Matsumoto! We are here to work, NOT to shop!"
"Don't be such a party pooper, Taichou! After all, it's not everyday you come to the living world!"
"Work comes first!"
"But the reiatsu outbursts we came to investigate always start at 1 am! We got plenty of time left! Come on, just for a little while? Pleaaase?"
"We still need to go to Kurosaki-taichou first to get some more information!"
"But it's only..." Matsumoto checked her soul pager "...8 pm! We got plenty of time!" I resisted the urge to face palm and asked: "What kind of shop would even be open at this hour?"
"Um..." I sighed.
"We are going to Kurosaki-taichou now"
"You're no fun, Taichou!" I ignored her and looked over Karakura town again. Nothing had changed from last time I was here. There was the railing, I usually sat on, there was grandma Haru's home and there was the soccer field. Which meant the Kurosaki household lived...
"This way" I said and shunpoed ahead.
-o-
I landed on the windowsill of Kurosaki-taichou's old room and stepped in. The room was another thing that hadn't changed, the furniture the same and in the same place as last time.
"Whoah, Toshiro?! What are you doing here?!" I turned to face the orange haired taichou.
"It's Hitsugaya-taichou," I said, more out of habit by now, since he didn't have to call me that as a taichou, "and I'm here because of the hollow attacks that have been here lately"
"Oh right, thanks" he answered. Had he seriously forgotten that he had sent a hell butterfly to ask for help for the situation? Matsumoto appeared on the windowsill just when I finished the thought. "Rangiku, you're here too?!" he almost yelled. Again, why was he even surprised?
"Concentrate, Kurosaki-taichou!" I snapped.
"Che, Toshiro, relax a bit!" Kurosaki-taichou said.
I sighed: "Just tell us what you can about the hollow attacks"
"Well, there isn't much to tell." he said and turned serious, "A few days after I came to the world of the living for vacation two weeks ago, there began to come these reiatsu outbursts, that somehow attracts hollows. They usually appear at 1 am, but they're to short for me to figure out where they came from, and the hollows that appears doesn't help either!"
"Did you manage to notice anything about the reiatsu at all?" I asked. He shook his head.
"They are to short for me to notice anything," he answered "although..."
"Although what?" I asked
"Ah, it's just that they seem a bit familiar," he said "but it's probably nothing"
"We'll take any hint we can" I said, "anything else?"
"Ah, no"
"Alright, then we'll..." I began, but then the door opened, revealing a raven-haired preteen girl.
"So it was you, Toshiro! What are you doing here?" The newly arrived Kurosaki said excited.
"Hello to you too, Karin," I said sarcastically, "and I'm here because of a mission"
"About of the increase in hollows lately?" the raven-haired girl asked. At least she was brighter than her brother.
"Yes," I answered, "do you know anything?"
"Nope, I'm sleeping at that time" I narrowed my eyes.
"Then how did you know about the increase in hollows?"
"A-ah, sometimes some of the hollows survive until I wake up" she said, refusing to look me in the eyes. I looked suspicious at her, but choose not to comment on it.
"Karin-chan~!" Matsumoto yelled and took Karin into a suffocating hug. "Remember me?"
"C-can't... breathe..." the poor girl managed to get out.
"Ah, sorry!" Matsumoto said and released her. "Ah, but you do remember me right?"
"To-Toshiro's fuk-fukotaichou, right?" Karin said, while trying to catch her breath. I made a little, quick smirk. She hadn't changed at all. Well, personality wise, at least. Physically...
"You've grown so much!" Matsumoto squealed.
"Well, humans tend to do that, when you haven't seen them in three years!" Karin answered. Yes, she hadn't changed at all.
"Get out, Karin" the orange haired Kurosaki said and began gently pushing the raven haired out. She, of course, tried to resist.
"Why can't I be here?!" she yelled.
"Because..." Kurosaki-taichou began, but I cut him off.
"I will tell you about the mission afterwards, so can you please leave for now?" I said.
"...Fine" she said, and began walking out the door, but stopped in the door and turned to look at me. "By the way, Toshiro, are you coming to play soccer with me and the boys again? We got a big match this Saturday" she said.
"If I got time," I answered.
"Alright!" she grinned, "See you later!" and left. Kurosaki-taichou closed the door after her.
"Taichou~" Crap "Since when did you let people call you by you first name, hm?" Matsumoto half-sang with a smirk. I scowled.
"She's human. It would be weird if she called me Hitsugaya-taichou in front of her friends" I answered, glaring at her.
"But she still don't have to be so informal with you~ you also call her by her first name~" she continued. This was bad. Matsumoto had that twinkle in her eyes, meaning she was in "gossip" mode. She is really hard to stop, when she thinks there is some juicy gossip. I scowled deeper.
"She won't let me call her anything else," I answered.
"Oh~ so y..."
"That would sound like her" Kurosaki-taichou cut in. I silently thanked him for stopping Matsumoto. "Although..." Crap.
"We should work on a plan for tonight" I quickly said.
"Buh~ Taichou~" Matsumoto pouted.
"Toshiro is right," Kurosaki-taichou said. I had never been so grateful for the fact that the orange haired Kurosaki had matured since becoming a taichou.
"Alright... But you're not getting away that easily!" my busty fukotaichou said and pointed at me. I ignored her for now.
"Alright, this is the plan," I began "when the time comes, we will split up in two groups. You two will take care of the hollows, while I try to sense where the reiatsu comes from". They nodded.
"Seems simple enough, but what are you going to do, when you find the source?" Ichigo asked.
"I will observe and see, if I can do something about it myself. If I can't I will call you" I answered. Kurosaki-taichou nodded.
"Alright. All there is to do now is wait for it to be 1 am," he said.
"What time is it now?" I asked
"It's..." he checked his alarm clock "...almost 9 pm". Crap.
"So~ Taichou~" This was going to be a long wait.
-o-
Finally, it was 1 am.
"It's time. Get ready!" I said.
"Hai!" the others answered in chorus. I sat on the bed with crossed legs, like when I would go into my inner world. The others stood by the window, ready to shunpo out at the first sign of hollows. I closed my eyes and concentrated on sensing reiatsu.
It is different how people sense reiatsu. For me, it is like I can "see" every way at once. There are no walls, or anything else that blocks my view. I "see" people's reiatsu as lights, whose size depends on the amount of reiatsu. The lights differ slightly from person from person. Like Kurosaki-taichou's and Matsumoto's reiatsu. Kurosaki's reiatsu was big and burned erratically, while Matsumoto's reiatsu was a bit smaller and kinda "pulsed" fast. The colors are different too, but that is so little a difference, that you need to see it yourself to understand.
I "looked" around, trying to find a suspicious reiatsu. At first I didn't find anything, which I also expected. The one responsible would have been found long ago if it was that easy...?! Suddenly the outburst came, which was greater than I had expected. I immediately "looked" to where the outburst came from. There was no one in that area, except... WHAT WAS SHE DOING THERE?!
The alarm from our soul pagers interrupted my thoughts.
"Here they come," said Kurosaki-taichou and drew his sword. I checked my soul pager. 5 hollows?! And 2 of them was menos to boot! I putted my hand on my swords handle.
"Don't, Taichou!" Matsumoto yelled.
"Huh?" I said.
"We'll take care of the hollows! You find the source of the reiatsu!" she yelled. I hesitated. I wanted to help them, but...
! The reiatsu hit again.
"Find that source already, Toshiro!" Kuroski-taichou said. They were right. I would be of more help if I found the source of the reiatsu. I took my hand away from my sword and began "looking" again.
! This time I was ready for the outburst. I scowled. So I was right, it WAS her!
"I'm going!" I said and didn't even wait for their answer before shunpoing away.
-o-
I landed in the park, where Karin and her team trained for the match against the middle school students. I looked around for the reiatsu. I really hoped that I was wrong, about the one responsible being her. Going after the reiatsu, I worked myself through an area full of bushes and trees, until I came to a clearing. The clearing was obviously not a place people usually came. They would have been suspicious of all the destroyed wood and flat soccer balls. The trees surrounding the clearing were in a bad shape too. In the middle of it all stood a raven-haired girl facing away and breathing heavily. I frowned. So I was right.
Damn.
"What the hell are you doing?!"