WOW! In just a few hours of submitting Chapter 2, I got reviews! REVIEWS! I also have lots of people who have added this fic to their favourites or story alert list!

THANK YOU!!

I'm so glad that you guys are so supportive of this fic, and that you enjoy what you have read so far! I'm sorry if you had to wait a while for this one, but like I mentioned in the previous chapter, I am having exams in early October.

Replies:

Orabit – I am replying only your review because you did not leave your email address when you dropped by (it will not be shown in the review itself; I am the only one who can see it). If you do not mind my replying you in this manner, then you don't have to leave your email here. If you give me your email, I will reply you personally.
I am glad you enjoyed it so far, Orabit. Thank you for your suggestion – it gave me inspiration for an idea I will use either in this chapter or the next one. The credits will be placed after this paragraph and one more time at the end of this chapter. Thank you for reviewing and showing your support.

Credits: Chapter 1, Deliver Us from Prince of Egypt. Chapter 2, Another Day Goes By which is sung by Dope. Chapter 3, I wrote it myself. It has no title or tune because it was created specifically for this story. Should you wish to use the phrases, add more words, a title or a tune, feel free to do so, but please inform me first. If you want the link from where I got the other lyrics, tell me and I will gladly give them to you.

As for everyone else, thanks for reading up to this point too. The fact that you are here shows that you like this story, and are keeping track of it, so thank you again. I will reply as many reviews as I can. If you leave your email address (which is not shown), I will be able to contact you directly.

Disclaimer: One of these days, I'll get Kubo Tite up here to tell you that he owns Bleach and I don't.

Deliver Us

The moon was covered by clouds. Perfect conditions for a shinigami Captain to sneak around a dead-quiet village. Hitsugaya slipped from his hiding spot and flash-stepped to the shadow of a hut, making sure to mask his riatsu. He glanced up at a nearby roof, on which an Adjuchas crouched. Close-up, they were even bigger and more grotesque.

Waiting in the shadows

To win a fight,

You must first find out 'bout your enemies

He made sure that the creature was looking the other direction before he entered the hut. Hitsugaya was lucky. The hut contained a family of five. The parents stared at the ground hopelessly, while their three children muttered worriedly to each other in a tone children should never use.

When Hitsugaya walked in, the children stopped talking and they stared at the ground. The parents did not seem to have any reaction to this sudden silence, but Hitsugaya could feel five pairs of eyes swivelling in his general direction. All five people in the hut were looking at Hitsugaya out of the corner of their eyes.

Hitsugaya felt their eyes on him and fought the urge to shiver. It was rare to find an entire family so perceptive to spirits. He tucked away every last tendril of his spiritual power and felt their eyes leave his face. Inwardly sighing with relief, Hitsugaya approached the family and tested their riatsu gingerly. All of them had quite high spiritual powers, but only enough to sense him or Hollows without being able to see them.

Is this why they're so silent all the time? Because they sense the Adjuchas? Hitsugaya mused as he left the hut. Looking around, he made sure the coast was clear before moving.

In the next few huts, the situation was the same. Families sat quietly, the children whispering among themselves. All of them had a surprisingly large amount of riatsu. He slipped out of the last home.

Hitsugaya's head snapped up, and he froze in the shadow. Somewhere to his left, around the corner, was an Adjuchas. He could not see it, but from the power it emitted, Hitsugaya guessed that it was just a young Adjuchas, barely sixty years or seventy years old, with no chance of evolving anytime soon. The voices in the hut fell silent. Obviously, they could feel its presence outside their home too.

Hitsugaya tensed. If the Adjuchas ate a soul, there was no telling how much damage it would cause, not to mention the spiritual power it might or might not gain – whether Adjuchas could evolve by consuming human souls was still unknown to Shinigami.

The best thing to do in this situation would have been for Hitsugaya to lure the Adjuchas away to a deserted area, interrogate it, and then finish it off. However, this was only in the worst case scenario, if the Adjuchas attempted to eat someone's soul.

Draw my gun, finger on the trigger

Ready to pounce, to devour

Don't destroy that innocent family

Hitsugaya reached behind him and grasped Hyourinmaru's hilt, ready to attack at a moment's notice, and peeped around the corner. His eyes widened. The Adjuchas, a muscle-bound giant of a monster, had begun cackling as his hand stretched out towards a window. Hitsugaya shifted into decoy mode and flash stepped in front of the creature, before moving quickly onto the next roof.

The Adjuchas moved according to plan. He paused, hand outstretched, and turned to look at Hitsugaya on the roof. Then, the Adjuchas laughed. "You are a Shinigami? You are even punier than those humans! I will crush you easily!" The Adjuchas rumbled and tried to snatch the Captain off the roof.

Hitsugaya reacted with equal speed, dodging the massive hand and landing on another roof. He made sure the Adjuchas saw him before he started running, heading for his hiding spot on the cliff overlooking the village.

"Ha ha! You think you can escape Hinakao that easily, puny one? That's right, run, you cowardly shrimp, RUN!" The Adjuchas laughed again and lumbered after the Captain thoughtlessly.

Don't be too mindless; it could mean your death

They arrived at the cliff, and Hitsugaya stopped at the edge of the rock formation. He spun around and stared at his opponent head on.

"Heh. No where to run now. The time for fun and games are over. I'll finish you off quickly," Hinakao said as he pointed a glowing palm at Hitsugaya, preparing for a Cero.

Hitsugaya raised an arm to shoulder height. "That's right. I will end you – as soon as I get some answers. Way of Binding, Number 61, Six Rods Prison of Light!"

Six wide beams of light appeared around Hinakao and slammed into his waist. The Adjchas' yellow eyes widened behind his mask. He was trapped at the mercy of Hitsugaya, and he knew it. Hinakao struggled in a vain attempt to break his bonds.

"Tell me everything. Even if you refuse or lie, I have my ways of making you speak. You might as well make it easier for yourself."

Hitsugaya really knew how to get people to do things his way.


"Captain-General Yamamoto. This is Captain Hitsugaya, calling from the human world to report on my findings. I have just captured and interrogated an Adjuchas. What has been revealed is disturbing.

Sometimes, it's better not to know

It's easier to sprout wings and fly

But the truth must be made known

"According to him, the ruler of this village possesses Hollow-like powers, probably similar to those of Substitute Shinigami Kurosaki Ichigo. Ever since the Hollows in the area discovered this, their respect for her grew, and she became their leader."

Hitsugaya recounted everything he had learned from the Adjuchas. How the Queen, as a Princess, could always see Hollows, and how she had one day killed one. How her abnormal Hollow powers grew, and how she locked her mother up, took the throne, and ruled the village with an iron fist.

How the villages had tolerated it for a while before the rebelled against their new Queen; how she had barely won by commanding the Hollows living there to kill all the influential people of the village, how, after the common dream of overthrowing her had been squelched, she had sent Hollows to kill all the villagers and visitors with low riatsu to attract more Hollows.

The Queen also used the Hollows, now Adjuchas from feeding off each other, to keep the villagers in check. She kept them there with the claim that she could transform them into Vasto Lorde, and possibly even arrancars. The few who did not desire that stayed for the high spiritual powers of the humans or the large numbers of Hollows that gathered there.

"Sir, I await my instructions." Hitsugaya paused respectfully to allow the Captain General to consider everything that he had just learned, as well as to come up with a suitable plan.

Yamamoto was silent for a few minutes, and then he issued his order to Hitsugaya. "Use your gigai and infiltrate the village. If you do not have it with you now, contact Urahara Kisuke and have him give you one. I am sure he has spares lying around. Learn everything that you can about the Queen. Try to capture her and bring her to Soul Society; if you are successful, I will have Captain Kurotsuchi to probe her and her powers. However, if you find that you are unable to take her back alive, then kill her. We must not allow someone like her to exist.

"Use any means necessary, Captain Hitsugaya. She is a threat to everyone, especially if she possesses the ability to create Vasto Lorde or arrancars. Her capture will now be your top priority; after that, I will send someone to clean up the Hollows – they will be disorientated without their leader. I expect that you will be able to handle the capture of the leader on your own; we will not send backup unless requested. Also, keep in mind that should you need a limit release, we will be on standby waiting for your call. Dismissed."

The Captain General severed the communication link. Hitsugaya was left standing on the cliff. The wind ruffled his hair as he pondered his next move. Whipping out his phone, Hitsugaya punched a number into keypad and held the phone to his ear.

"Urahara Shop, how may I be of service?"


"Considering I don't know which part of the Human world I'm in, you came pretty fast." Hitsugaya commented casually, his remark laced with suspicion.

Urahara shrugged. "I would tell you how I managed to get your position so quickly, but then you would probably have to arrest me." Beside him, Yoruichi washed herself, too busy to offer her comments.

Hitsugaya raised an eyebrow but refrained from asking. Instead, he directed the conversation to the reason why Urahara had gone all the way from Japan to an isolated little village. "Do you have the gigai, Urahara?"

Urahara smiled. "Of course. I also took the liberty of bringing one of my latest inventions. It's a riatsu scrambler, so that no one can recognise your riatsu from the time you inspected the huts. You can also reset it any time you wish, so that you'll have a new riatsu.

Hitsugaya felt a bit more relaxed. He had been wondering how to tackle he would tackle the problem of the first family that had felt his presence and would definitely identify his spiritual power.

"So, Hitsugaya, what's the plan?" Urahara glanced sideways at Hitsugaya while he packed away the gigai and riatsu scrambler he had taken out to show the Captain.

Hitsugaya pondered the question for a moment. "We should rest for the night. At dawn, I put on the gigai and you help me with the riatsu scrambler. After that, I will infiltrate the village."

Urahara nodded. "Okay. Goodnight then, Toushiro." He promptly lay down on his side and fell silent, with the cat curled up in his hat.

Hitsugaya frowned, wondering if he should move further away from Urahara to sleep, but decided against it. "That's Captain Hitsugaya to you." He lay down, facing away from the older man, and fell into a dreamless slumber.


Phew. Done at last. After a month of preparations for my exams, and a few days, I have finally been able to finish this chapter. I'm sorry if I kept you waiting.

Oh, and I apologise for the 'song' as well, which in my opinion, was quite badly done and too short. Heck, it's only made up of random phrases! Please tell me what you thought of it, and if you would prefer if I wrote phrases instead of searching for songs. It was written by me because I couldn't find anything that would suit this chapter.

Thank you, dear reader, for reaching this point. I think that the fact that you are still here means that you are enjoying the story so far, and that you are waiting to see what will happen next. Well, I think it will be an interesting chapter four up next.

Please give any suggestions you might have as they will be greatly appreciated, and will probably be used. Also, for reaching this point, I have a random little Hitsugaya one-shot for you (which is related to the chapter above, and there might be future references to this part).


Hitsugaya awoke with a start. For a moment, he didn't know where he was, then, he remembered his mission. He got ready to get up, clean himself and do his morning exercises when he heard voices behind him, where Urahara and Yoruichi were sleeping. Hitsugaya strained his ears to listen and got a shock.

"P-please, harder!" A deep voice purred. "As you wish, Yoruichi." There was silence, followed by a throaty moan and a purr of pleasure.

Hitsugaya's eyes widened. He may have been young, but Hitsugaya had been taught how babies were made. From what he had heard from his Academy days, it was supposed to be pleasurable, with lots of moans. He had even once been shown a 'video' by a classmate who had smuggled it to school, and was given very detailed descriptions by adventurous peers who enjoyed showing off.

He was surprised, too. He knew that Urahara was single and quite old, but he never suspected him of being desperate enough to do a cat. Yoruichi was definitely in cat form. He had no doubts; the voice which was purring was very deep and masculine.

"Thanks, Urahara. I've been trying to get someone to do it for me for a few weeks now, but people are just so mean nowadays. Ururu said she had to sort out the goods for Jinta, Jinta threatened to tie my tail to the ceiling beam, and Tessai put me outside! In fact, if you hadn't helped me out just now, I would have asked Hitsugaya.

Hitsugaya paled, and then blushed furiously.

"Oh, look at Hitsugaya!" He felt two pairs of eyes on himself and sincerely hoped they wouldn't ask anything of him.

"Hehe… His ears are red." Urahara chuckled. "Wonder what he's dreaming about…"

"Maybe about that Lieutenant from the Fifth Squad?" Yoruichi's soft footsteps approached the Captain.

Hitsugaya decided to start moving, before either of them could ask him to 'help Yoruichi'. He made sure the blush was completely gone before he sat up.

"GoodmorningexcusemeIneedtocleanup." Hitsugaya mumbled while he got up and ran off in search of some water.

"Ehh? Maybe he had a nightmare…" Urahara mused as he crawled over to Yoruichi and scratched her back, making her resume her purring.


That was fun. Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I think the next chapter might include some humour, depending on your suggestions and my muses. The chances of something to make you laugh are quite low, though.

I hope this chapter isn't too short, and that you don't wait too long for me to update.

Well, the chapter has finally come to an end. 15th October, 2008. The day the new episode of Bleach was released that was not a filler. The new songs are great! Ok, I'm sidetracking. Well, please look forward to the next chapter!