Makoto sat on the roof of the elementary school, searching for his newest target. "There are other, more powerful targets not that far," the voice of his Zanpakuto whispered in his head.

"They're on the list, but right now they are trying to lure me in. I'd rather pick my targets on my own terms," he told his sword. He could sense both the giant and the girl, trying to draw him in by sending out their reiatsu. It was obvious that they hadn't even thought to protect Kurosaki Ichigo's family, even though they were some of the brightest points of spiritual energy in the town.

Just then, the recess bell rang and the kids poured forth from the doors into the playground. Makoto's gaze was drawn to a young girl with short black hair. She was running with a group of boys, carrying a soccer ball, headed for the soccer field. "Perfect," he thought as he moved to make it to the field first.

XXX

Kurosaki Karin had had a bad feeling all day. She felt as if there was someone watching her ever sense she got to school that day, but she couldn't see anyone there. As she ran for the soccer field with her friends at recess, the feeling nearly overpowered her. Something was very wrong today…

She began to slow and then finally come to a stop just at the edge of the field. Her friends stopped just ahead of her, having past by when she halted and turned around to face her. "What's wrong, Karin?" one of them asked. She ignored his question and continued to scan the area. Someone was out there, watching her.

"Come on Karin!" another of the boys called. "Let's start before someone else gets the field!"

Karin blinked and tried to shake the feeling off and then stepped onto the field. She was about to throw the ball off to one of her friends when suddenly a ball came sailing in from seemingly no where and struck the ground with so much force near the boys, that it sent them flying.

Karin gasped and looked up to where the ball had come from. Standing in the air above the field was someone dressed like a Shinigami, pulling the ball back by the chain that was on the hilt of his sword. "Hello, little Kurosaki…" the man said to her.

Terror filled her as she realized that this was the presence that she had been sensing all day. That meant that she was his target. Glancing at her friends, she saw they were scattered about the ground looking daze and very confused as to what had just happened. Clearly they couldn't see the Shinigami or his weapon that had knocked them over. She needed to get this guy away from them before he hurt them as well.

Gathering every bit of her strength and courage, she whipped the soccer ball at the man and then took off running in the opposite direction. She didn't stop to look if she hit him, but oddly enough, she did. Makoto clearly hadn't expected anything from Karin, least of all a soccer ball hurled with that much force.

The ball crashed into his face, sending him flying backward and nearly loosing his stance in the air. He shook himself and stood up again, allowing his anger to flow through him. "Now it's personal, bitch." He muttered and took off after the girl. It might have started out as a way to Ichigo, but now he was ready to deliver a bit of pay back.

Karin ran as fast as she could off of the school grounds and into the nearby public field. This time of day there weren't many there since it was mostly the kids from school that would play there. As she made it into the field, she began to wonder what she could possibly do against this guy. She didn't have any power other than being able to sense him that could be of any use. And why was he targeting her anyway? If this really were a Shinigami, then why would he target a fellow Shinigami's sister?

Suddenly the ball slammed into the ground in front of her, sending up debris and knocking her back. She cried out as she flew a few feet and landed on her butt. Stunned, she looked up and saw the Shinigami descending from the air, diving for her. His face was contorted in rage and she knew that there was no way that she was going to be able to get out of his way.

She closed her eyes, waiting for his strike to hit her when suddenly there was a rush of cold air past her and the sound of metal against metal. She opened her eyes to see an unlikely sight. Standing between her and her attacker, with sword blocking the sword aimed for her, was Toshiro.

XXX

Ichigo suddenly came to a halt as he was shocked by the new presence that he sensed. Suddenly, right next to where he sensed his sister, was Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. "Toshiro?" he said out loud, wondering where he had come from, but realizing that it didn't matter. If the tenth squad captain was with his sister, then he didn't have anything to worry about.

With a slight feeling of relief, he hurried on to meet up with Toshiro. He was confident that the captain could take care of his sister; that was not an issue. But what would be a problem would be if he didn't know about Ishida and actually killed Makoto right now. If that happened, any hope of retrieving his friend's soul now would be lost.

XXX

Karin stared up at the back of her once friend and soccer teammate, Toshiro. At the time she hadn't known that he was actually a captain among the Shinigami. He had been in a human form and looked to be about her age. She decided to invite him to play soccer with her and her team against some middle schoolers. Why he had bothered to show up, she wasn't sure. But it was a good thing he did since a hollow also decided to show up.

"Toshiro?" she said, still wondering what had brought him here.

He glanced over his shoulder at her, brilliant green eyes met her own as he said, "Run, Karin. I can handle this."

She blinked at him as it took her a second to process what he had just said. With a grunt of effort, Toshiro pushed the other Shinigami back and took up a defensive position against him. "Karin, run," he said again without taking his eyes off of Makoto. "Ichigo is nearly here, he'll take care of you."

"Ichigo…" she said, and then realized that she could also sense her brother coming closer. She stood up and ran in the direction that she felt him coming from.

"Captain Hitsugaya…" Makoto said as he squared off to the captain. "Who would have thought that you would have bothered to dirty your hands to take care of me?"

"You are under arrest, Makoto Tadaaki… please, lower your sword and come back to soul society with me."

Makoto laughed at him. "What, just give up? You might be strong, captain but I'm certainly not afraid of you." With that he lashed out with the ball, sending it at Hitsugaya. The captain deflected it with his sword, but the chain swung around and wrapped around his blade.

Makoto grinned at him, thinking that he had already gotten the captain in a tight spot. Suddenly the cresset shaped chain blade lashed out at Makoto, wrapping around his own Zanpakuto and causing a layer of ice to form along the blade.

Makoto glared back at the small Shinigami in front of him as he felt the ice creep down the hilt of his sword and touch his hand. The chain that he was holding in his other hand was also becoming frigid from the intense cold that radiated from the blade that the chain was wrapped around.

With a savage snarl, Makoto yanked back on the chain, releasing it from Hitsugaya's sword and then swung low at the captain's feet. As he did this, the ball began to glow with a white light around it, doubling its size. Hitsugaya jumped to avoid it, but had judge only for the ball itself. The light around it was an intense field of spirit energy that burned into the captain's legs and tripped him, sending him to the ground.

As he fell, he yanked back on the chain that was still wrapped around his opponent's blade, causing the crescent blade to slash back and cut into Makoto's chest as it returned to its wielder. Now up on one knee, Hitsugaya swung the chain over his head once and back at Makoto.

Makoto had reeled back from the slash, but was ready for the next attack. He deflected the chain blade with his sword and then rushed in for a close attack, sending his chain ball in ahead of him. Hitsugaya dodged the ball but wound up right where Makoto had wanted him. He brought his sword in just in time to block Makoto's attack.

"You're not going to win this one, Makoto," Hitsugaya told the other as they both pushed against each other's blades.

Makoto just snarled at Hitsugaya and snapped the chain back, bringing the ball flying in at Hitsugaya's back. With a burst of Shunpo, Hitsugaya maneuvered to the other side of Makoto. That left Makoto open for his own chain ball attack. With a quick snap of the chain, he sent the ball flying off to the side and slammed into the ground, causing a blast of dirt and dust to fly up.

Hitsugaya was forced to shield his eyes from the debris and temporarily lost sight of Makoto. As the dust settled, Makoto was standing with sword held ready in one hand while he spun the ball and chain around in the other. An enormous amount of spirit energy was radiating from him and showed in a haze of white around his body. Hitsugaya could sense that the vast majority of the energy wasn't coming directly from Makoto, but rather his Zanpakuto.

"Who isn't going to win this one?" Makoto taunted. "I have more power than you could dream.

"Stolen power," Hitsugaya called back. "Power that you don't know how to control properly."

"We'll see about that," Makoto said, suddenly launching the ball at Hitsugaya again. The captain dived out of the way but was slightly surprised how much faster it was moving now. As it barely missed hitting him, he felt the charge of tremendous power radiating from it. Being hit by that in this state would do some serious damage.

"Soten ni Zase, Hyorinmaru!" Hitsugaya called, sending out an ice dragon from the tip of his sword. He sent it directly at Makoto, forcing him to deflect it with his sword. As the dragon was forced to fly upward, the chain blade came sailing in, arcing in from behind Makoto and wrapping around the arm holding the ball and chain.

The blade bit into the flesh of his shoulder before tearing back, ripping away flesh along with it. Makoto cried in pain and stumbled back, just barely being able to avoid the chain blades second attack at his back.

Hitsugaya dismissed the ice dragon and took a few steps closer to Makoto. The rouge Shinigami was kneeling on one leg on the ground, holding his injured shoulder and panting with exertion. "As I said, you can't win this one, Makoto, please, come back to soul society with me."

Makoto took a few more gasps before he gathered himself and stood up, facing off to Hitsugaya. "I will not give in to the likes of you," he said and immediately yanked back on the chain.

Hitsugaya gasp and glanced behind him as he realized that he was not going to be able to avoid the strike from the ball this time. The sizzling power from it was enough to raise the hairs on the back of his neck and there was nothing that he could do to avoid its impact.

With a sudden crash, the ball's momentum was stopped, coming up just short of striking the captain. Hitsugaya gave a slight grin at the black form that had swooped in and deflected the attack at the last minute. "Nice timing, Ichigo," he told the substitute Shinigami.

Ichigo glanced over his own shoulder at Hitsugaya, "Close call there, Toshiro. You must be getting slow."

Hitsugaya winced and said, "I asked you not to call me Toshiro."

Ichigo let out a laugh as he turned all the way around to face Hitsugaya. "Sorry, old habits…"

With a sudden clink of a chain, the two allies realized that Makoto was launching into action again. He swung the ball up and over both of their heads. Hitsugaya was impressed that it seemed to be radiating even more power now than it had before. "I'll be seeing you again soon, Kurosaki," Makoto said and slammed the ball down into the ground between them. An even larger explosion of power, dust, and dirt erupted from the ground, knocking both Hitsugaya and Ichigo back.

When they were able to see again, Makoto had vanished. "Damn it!" Ichigo cried. He searched the area desperately for Makoto's reiatsu, but that had vanished as well. For having so much power, he certainly was a master at hiding it.

"We'll find him again," Hitsugaya said as he brushed himself off. "Is your sister all right?"

Ichigo nodded, "Yeah. I found her running towards me. She said that you could use some help."

"Che," Hitsugaya clucked. "I wouldn't have if I could just simply take him down." He said.

"So Matsumoto told you about Ishida?" Ichigo asked.

"Yeah, I was trying not to do much harm to his Zanpakuto or to kill him. Otherwise I could have finished him off in the first exchange."

"With that much power?" Ichigo asked slightly shocked. He was a little afraid that the amount of power that he had felt coming off of that sword was possibly even more than he could match.

"With Makoto, it's not about the power, it's about how it's used. He might have a tremendous amount of raw power, but he doesn't know how to control it."

Ichigo shrugged and walked over to the crater that Makoto had made with that last impact. He knelt down beside it and examined the effects. It was certainly an impressive sight; nearly three meters deep and twice as much across. And Ichigo had a feeling that that wasn't all of the power that Makoto could call upon.

Suddenly Ichigo gasped as he reached out his hand and touch the edge of the crater, "Ishida's reiatsu is here!" he exclaimed when his hand touched the disturbed dirt.

"Yeah," Hitsugaya sighed. "I felt it too. I had been hoping to bring him down quickly before he was able to use too much of the spirit power that he had stolen. No doubt Ishida's power is mixed up in all of it."

Ichigo felt horrified that Makoto was throwing Ishida's own energy back at them. Now he understood the other reason he had sensed to Urahara asking him not to let the fight go too long. He must have understood that Makoto would be draining their own power from them.

Ichigo stood up, a new determination set to his face. "We're going to bring this bastard down before he can hurt anyone else."

Hitsugaya sighed, "That's why I came as soon as I could… That is exactly what Soul Society has decided, only they want him eliminated at all costs."

Ichigo spun around and stared at Hitsugaya accusingly. "You mean destroy him before we can save Ishida's soul!"

The captain nodded. "The Captain commander is going to be sending a team to do just that. After Matsumoto filled me in, I snuck away and got here first, hoping to subdue him and get him where you could try and save Ishida before the others could get to him." He sighed again and looked away. "I underestimated the amount of power that he could call upon."

Ichigo was silent a moment before he asked, "Who is the old man sending?"

"Second squad captain, Soifon and a group of her elite guard." He replied.

Ichigo swore under his breath. If it had been a different Captain, he might have been able to convince them to give him some time. But Soifon would adhere directly to her instruction without exception. The only one that could possibly sway the second division captain was Yoruichi, but she had been off on some mission for Urahara for the last few weeks and no one knew when she would be back.

"I left Matsumoto to try and buy us some time, but I don't know how long she can stall."

"What do you mean the gates are down!" Captain Soifon demanded of her subordinate that just reported that they couldn't leave for the real world yet.

The young man flinched and bowed as he said, "I'm sorry captain, but no one has been able to get any of the gates to open."

Matsumoto hid a smile as she walked by the scene, one of the small explosive devices that she had 'borrowed' from the twelfth division hidden in her sleeve…

Hitsugaya sighed as he thought of how Matsumoto might attempt to stall the second division.

"We have to work quickly if we are going to rescue Ishida," Hitsugaya said.

"Well it seems that he's targeting me and my friends and family for some reason, so we had hoped to lure him into a trap. Unfortunately, we were only watching Inoue and Chad and didn't take my sister into account…" Ichigo said with a sigh.

"So he hasn't told you who he is yet, I take it?" Hitsugaya said.

Ichigo shook his head, "Do you know?"

The captain nodded, "We've done a little more digging in soul society and think we have come up with a motive for why he has targeted you."

Makoto Tadaaki sat in solitude on the top of a roof at the back of a darkened ally. He had already used the energy from his captive souls to heal his wounds that the tenth squad's captain had delivered and now he was brooding on how much he wanted to thrash Kurosaki Ichigo.

Ever since that day when he had heard that the substitute Shinigami had been responsible for the death of his half brother, Hanza, Makoto had vowed to carry out justice on Kurosaki. Makoto had loved his brother, but he had been born outside of the Nukui line and so would not be accepted into the guard for the Kasumioji house.

The only place left for Makoto to go where his fighting skills could be put to use was the 13 protection squads as a Shinigami. He had enjoyed his time there, until they betrayed him. They allowed the murderer of his brother to get off unpunished and had the nerve to say that Hanza has been the criminal.

His brother may have gotten mixed up with some bad dealings, but it was his job to follow the direction of the Kasumioji house. He was only doing his duty, and that… that pretend Shinigami, came along and killed him for doing his duty.

Makoto ground his teeth in irritation as he thought about it. Kurosaki Ichigo had taken his brother from him, the only person that had ever really mattered in his life. Now he intended to take all those that mattered to Kurosaki and use their own power against him. He was going to crush that upstart if it was the last thing he did.

And he would eliminate anyone who got in his way…

"So, he's the half brother of Nukui Hanza…" Ichigo said as he and Hitsugaya made their way back to Urahara's shop. The sun was now setting and it didn't appear that Makoto was going to show again today.

Hitsugaya nodded, "It seems that he may have developed a grudge against you, Ichigo." He said. "You took his brother away from him, so now he's going to take you friends and family away, before killing you."

Ichigo sighed, why was it that he was always roped into these things. "I didn't even kill Hanza," Ichigo complained. "The guy killed himself by using that Bakkoto!"

With a sigh, Hitsugaya said, "I know that. But it is hard for someone to see where a loved has gone wrong. Makoto doesn't want to believe that it was his brother that had been in the wrong; so he had come to believe that you were his downfall. He needed to blame someone and you were the last person that Hanza fought…"

Ichigo ran a frustrated hand through his hair and said, "And now my friends and family are getting hurt because this guy couldn't accept his own brother's guilt!"

"There's no helping it, Ichigo… we're just going to have to find him before captain Soifon does and enact whatever plan it is that you've come up with."

Ichigo was silent as he began to wonder how well this plan was going to go now that he fully realized the power that Makoto had at his command. Adding Urahara's own power to the mix would probably only make things even worse… but it was the only plan with which they had to go.