Warnings, pairings, etc., all in previous chapter(s).

I am congratulating myself for getting 2 stories updated within 24 hours.

~oOo~

"Are you sure you want me with you?"

Sting blinks. "Why wouldn't we? You're an awesome teammate. Besides, you're nice."

Yukino blushes slightly from the praise. "Oh. Okay. But what about Rogue?"

"Ah, he's the one who suggested that you come along, so no problem with him. Come on! Besides, we invited Lucy and Natsu and Happy from Fairy Tail, so it'll be a blast."

Still slightly hesitant, Yukino nods. "Um, okay. I'll go then, if it's not too much trouble."

"Be a little more confident, Yukino! You'll get a new key, as well!"

~oOo~

The first time Hitsugaya meets the two dragon slayers of Sabertooth, he immediately dislikes them. Well, the Light Dragon Slayer in particular.

"Hey, who's the midget? I don't recall a new kid joining your guild."

Hitsugaya's eye twitches. "Where I am from, it is only polite to introduce yourself before you ask the other of their name. Additionally, I am not a kid, and I did not join Fairy Tail. Which I still think is spelled wrong."

"My bad. I'm Sting Eucliffe. Nice to meet you." He looks amused. "Then who exactly are you?"

"Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro of the Tenth Division of the Gotei Thirteen. I would say I am pleased to meet you but that would be lying, and I would like to consider myself honest. I am a Shinigami, a coworker of the key your friend Agria Yukino owns. This makes me older than you, which means that your use of the term 'kid' to define me would be incorrect." He turns to the other dragon slayer. "And what is your name?"

The dark haired one just blinks. "Rogue Cheney. This is Frosch." He points to a green cat wearing a pink frog suit. "The other one is Lector." A red cat waves at him cheerfully.

"Jeez, you're kinda stiff, aren't you?" Eucliffe grumbles.

"He's just like that," Heartphilia says in an apologetic tone. "You'll get used to it."

Dragneel isn't saying anything, and when Hitsugaya glances at him, he can tell he's dreading the time for the train ride. Happy looks sheepish.

Hitsugaya turns to Agria. "Call Ukitake out. It is best to be prepared, especially since this mission has a relatively high ranking."

Said girl nods and calls, "I summon thee, Shinigami!"

The Senkaimon appears, with Ukitake appearing and landing on his feet gracefully. When he spots Hitsugaya, his face breaks out into a smile. "Ah, my fellow Shiro-chan! I didn't expect you to be here!"

"Yes, you did," Hitsugaya deadpans, face remaining impassive. "Also, it is Hitsugaya-taichou, not Shiro-chan, Ukitake. At the very least Hitsugaya."

Ukitake takes it all in stride, laughing slightly when he notices Heartphilia and Dragneel along with Happy. "I am Ukitake Juushiro; pleased to meet you! Who are you three?"

"I'm Lucy Heartphilia. It's a pleasure to meet you," she says slightly awkwardly. "This is Natsu Dragneel… he's kinda bad with trains."

"Oh, like these two?" Ukitake gestures at Eucliffe and Cheney. "That means he's a Dragon Slayer am I correct?"

"I'm Happy," pipes up the cat. "It's nice to meet you."

"We should be going," Hitsugaya grumbles, "or else we'll be late for the train."

"I hate trains," Dragneel moans, but he drags himself after the rest, Heartphilia looking as if she doesn't know whether to be amused or annoyed.

~oOo~

"Wow," Ukitake says, blinking. "There seems to be quite the amount of Hollow reiatsu in this area… specifically that cave."

Hitsugaya shrugs slightly. "We should be able to take them. However, I sense a strange reiatsu in there. Slightly like the Vizards', but not quite."

There is a Zanpakuto in there, Hyourinmaru rumbles, sounding troubled. It is odd; it seems as if there are muted screams of a Zanpakuto in that cave.

Hitsugaya voices this aloud and Ukitake nods in agreement, as his Zanpakuto had warned him of the same thing.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Eucliffe asks, grinning like a madman.

"We go in through the front entrance," Hitsugaya deadpans once more. "Feel free to take out any monsters that are not Hollows in there."

"What? Why?" Dragneel complains.

"If you did, you'd be destroying a soul, and we can't have that." Hitsugaya goes on ahead, drawing Hyourinmaru. "If you need help, call on Hirako, Heartphilia."

Heartphilia nods. "I'll try not to call on him though."

Dragneel grins. "I'm all fired up. Let's go!"

~oOo~

Turns out, there are quite a few demons added into the mix of Hollows. Lucy lashes out with her whip, having summoned Virgo to drop unsuspecting Hollows and demons alike into potholes to make the two Shinigami's job easier.

She pulls the demon ensnared in her whip closer to her before dropkicking him where it hurts most. These ones are nowhere near as strong as the demons at Tartarus were, and it's almost easy for her to take them out, but there seem to be so many.

Lucy risks a glance at the Shinigami who are slashing through demons and Hollows alike, the former disappearing with a poof and the latter disintegrating.

Sting and Rogue, like the twin dragon slayers they are, are plowing their way through the ranks of the demons and landing a couple punches on Hollow masks (of course, Sting swears loudly when he nearly dislocates his knuckles punching one of them while Rogue just grimaces.)

Yukino and her spirits defeat demons as well, taking them out with relative ease.

Natsu, being the freaking monster that he can be, is tearing through the ranks like scissors through laminated paper on his own, dealing brutal kicks and punches hard enough to incapacitate but not hard enough to kill.

Within five minutes, all the Hollows and demons have been taken out, and Lucy takes a moment to catch her breath.

Then, the sound of boots hitting the wet cavern ground catches all of their attention. Hitsugaya and Ukitake are immediately on guard, and Lucy is as well now, letting Virgo disappear in favor for Leo, or Loki.

Natsu's black eyes narrow when he sniffs the air, Sting and Rogue's as well. "She smells like blood," Natsu murmurs.

"Taichou-sama, taichou-sama…" A young girl with hair the color of amber and her eyes crimson with strangely black sclera. "Welcome to my humble abode, taichou-sama, taichou-sama. I'm afraid Aku-sama isn't here to play with you, but I am!"

Hitsugaya's teal eyes narrow as he readies his sword. "What are you?" he says lowly. "You have the reiatsu similar to that of a Vizard."

"How rude! I am Amaya, pleased to meet you! Where are your manners?"

"I do not need to nor want to abide by my system's honor code to somebody who has kept one of my comrades here for over three weeks," Hitsugaya retorts, his voice frighteningly icy.

"Ah, I see!" Amaya giggles before pointing her sword at him. "Cero."

"All waves, rise now and become my shield, lightning, strike now, and become my blade!" Ukitake calls, jumping in front of the blast as his sword changes shape. Lucy notices the changes to his sword that happen almost instantly and watches as he toys a little with the charms hanging from the ribbon attached to the swords.

The "Cero" disappears and then reappears, except this time it's returned to Amaya with more speed and power. Amaya's eyes widen briefly as her own attack is returned.

When the dust clears, Amaya is dusting herself off, coughing violently. "Well, taichou-sama, you seem to have a weird ability! I didn't know you were part Hollow."

Ukitake laughs. "No, I'm not. See if you can figure it out, little girl." He turns to the others briefly. "I can defeat her without too much trouble; go on ahead."

Hitsugaya shakes his head almost immediately. "You should go on ahead," he disagrees. "Your illness might act up and if I am correct, Hisagi may be there. I don't know him personally, but you do."

Hesitating briefly, logic eventually wins out against duty and Ukitake nods. "Alright then."

"Hey, who said you could leave? I wasn't done playing with you yet!" Amaya whines but she has to block with her sword as Hitsugaya's clashes with hers.

"I said so. And I will dispose of you."

Lucy doesn't look back as she continues to head down deeper into the cave.

~oOo~

The first thing she notices is that there aren't many demons or Hollows in this stretch of area. There are perhaps four or five but no more than that.

The second is that it's fairly bright in here.

Lucy continues to run after the Dragon Slayers and the Shinigami, panting for breath and wondering just how the hell they can run so fast and not be out of breath. It seems that Yukino is in the same sinking boat.

Suddenly, Ukitake halts at a doorway, causing Lucy and Yukino to stumble into the Dragon Slayers in front of them.

Ukitake's normally warm brown eyes are cold as he forces the door open. Immediately Natsu gags and slaps a hand over his mouth and nose, and Lucy doesn't need ask why—the smell in the room is filled with the metallic stench of blood.

She hears a faint gasp come from Yukino, who's staring wide eyed at the chained figure on the floor, the most probable source of the blood.

Immediately, Ukitake steps forward and kneels next to the figure, urgently shaking it—Lucy cannot tell who or even what it is—and murmuring, "Hisagi-fukutaicho, can you hear me?" to which the figure moans slightly in pain.

Frowning, Ukitake shatters the chains without too much difficulty using his sword (when it had returned to a single blade is beyond Lucy) and gathers the person up in his arms. "It seems that Hitsugaya-taichou is done," Ukitake murmurs.

~oOo~

Hitsugaya has to praise Kotetsu Isane for being able to push her emotions aside and start healing Hisagi whilst ignoring everything else.

He's currently sitting in a chair in the Tenth Division, having suffered no injuries. Surprisingly the Hollow-Shinigami-Zanpakuto wasn't hard to defeat… just incredibly annoying.

Frowning, Hitsugaya muses over what she said about being the "Heavenly Guardian". Certainly, he's heard the myths, but it is honestly… strange.

Turning to the blade wrapped in seals and cloth, Hitsugaya sighs. The blade had been the source of the thing's power, and he intends to give it to Urahara at some point… and after he's finished, to Kurotsuchi.

"Hitsugaya-kun?"

"Come in, Hinamori."

Hinamori enters, shutting the door behind her and looking reasonably distraught. Hisagi is her senpai, after all, and she has no little amount of respect for him. To see him in such a state is certainly horrible for her.

"Muguruma-taichou still hasn't left the Fourth Division," Hinamori says quietly, taking a seat on the couch that Hitsugaya joins her on, setting his pen and ink down. "But Kotetsu-fukutaicho says that his condition will stabilize after a little bit."

Taking a breath, Hitsugaya rests his hand on Hinamori's. The gesture isn't much but it conveys plenty and Hinamori rests her head on his shoulder. "Hisagi's definitely strong," Hitsugaya murmurs. "He'll heal, and he'll be fine, Hinamori. Don't be such a worrywart."

He feels her smile slightly. "It's in my nature, Hitsugaya-kun. I can't help it."

They stay like that for a while before Hitsugaya regretfully breaks the moment. "Hinamori, would you do me a favor?"

"Hmm?"

"Do some research on the Heavenly Guardian myth, please. I think it might help with this… incident. Because I don't think that thing is the only, nor strongest, of its kind."

Hinamori is undoubtedly confused at this strange request, but nods and doesn't question it. "Okay, Hitsugaya-kun. I'm going to go check up on Hisagi-san before doing the rest of my paperwork. Don't work yourself too hard, Shiro-chan."

He watches as she leaves the room, letting her call him by that name without retribution just this once.

~oOo~

A/N: And that concludes my newest chapter peeps!

Reviews are appreciated. Flamers will only add to my review count. XD