I'm sorry for taking so long with this chapter. You see, I lost touch with my beta. She hasn't emailed me back in...well, like five months. XD I didn't really want to post this un-beta'd, so I put it on hold while I looked for a new beta. Unfortunately, I couldn't find one with knowledge of both canons. Such is the trouble of crossovers. Ah well. If any of you would like to beta, feel free to drop me a line. I really want to continue this fic, and I'll continue regardless of weather I have a beta or not, but having a beta is always better than not having a beta.

oOo

Abarai Renji was not amused. Toushirou had been gone for a week now. Normally that wouldn't be a problem. Things came up, he knew that. There were two key points that bothered him, though. For one, Toushirou wasn't being clear about his reasons for taking so long. If he had directly stated the reason for his absence then Renji wouldn't have cared. Toushirou was being sneaky, though. Whatever it was, he didn't want anyone finding out about it quite yet.

Which brings us to the other problem: some of the other captains were speculating as to the reason for Toushirou's absence. Renji hadn't been a captain for long, but he was already tired of all the gossip. Renji hated it. There was a war going on, for crying out loud! They should be focused on surviving, not who was in trouble that week!

Actually, all of the drama could be traced back to one source. It was the new captain of the ninth squad. It had been easy to pick the captains of the third and fifth squads: Kira Izuru and Hinamori Momo had truly risen to the challenge. After their captains had left those two trained day and night, and using a few tricks they managed to grow to captain strength quickly. Luckily they had already been training for that purpose beforehand: Izuru had done so at the insistence of his former captain, and Momo had done so because she wanted to 'be strong for Aizen.' It was also lucky that the betrayal hadn't shattered their spirits, either, or else the Gotei 13 would have been in a real pickle.

Shuuhei couldn't become captain because he didn't know bankai at the time. (He had decided not to train with Izuru and Momo, for some odd reason. Renji still didn't know why he had done that.) Renji had wanted to take over for the ninth squad at that point, but he had been denied because of his part in rescuing Orihime. Instead, a ninth squad seated officer had stepped forward, and he had become the new captain.

From the start he was causing trouble. His favorite way of pointing out problems in plans was through tactless sarcasm, and it did a number on everyone's patience. Unfortunately, they couldn't kick him out: Renji and Ikkaku were the only others who were strong enough to replace him, and neither man could take the job (Renji because of politics; Ikkaku because of a personal choice). Apparently an annoying captain was better than no captain.

Renji was starting to doubt this decision, though. At first he hadn't been bothered by it, but that was because he didn't see this annoying captain regularly. But after Momo died and Renji became the fifth squad captain (they had finally forgiven him for running off by that point), his opinion changed greatly. Some days he would have loved to just punch the bastard's mouth in. Like today.

At today's captain meeting he was going on about Toushirou and how he was a bad captain for staying in the human world for so long without a clear reason. "I am bothered by Captain Hitsugaya's lack of information," he said to the other captains, "Anything could have happened to him. Messages this cryptic could be a sign of trouble. That's why I think we should send some people to investigate."

"More investigating," Soi Fong said, sounding annoyed, "You always suggest that. Captain Hitsugaya is one of us! He said he has a reason for this, so we should support him, not hinder him with an investigation."

"She's right," Izuru said, "Has Captain Hitsugaya ever given us a reason to question him? I think you're being a bit too hasty, Captain Kadono."

Renji knew that this wouldn't stop the annoying captain, though. It would just rile him up more. His assumptions turned out to be true, and Kadono said, "This is the problem with the Gotei 13! You're all too worried about formalities and past deeds! Aizen never gave us any reason to question him, and look at what he went and did!"

There was a general grumble of dismay among the captains. This happened far too often. Kadono pulled out 'the Aizen argument', as it had been dubbed by some of the other captains, any time someone tried to tell him he was full of shit. What was pathetic was that it worked most of the time. The other captains didn't necessarily like Kadono's ideas, but none of them wanted a repeat of that betrayal. Usually it was enough to make them fold.

However, today Kadono had gone too far. Hitsugaya was probably one of the most loyal captains. He was probably the least likely to betray them, and the mere suggestion that he might turn on them was enough to make everyone uneasy. Several captains spoke up at once, but soon they were all silenced by the first squad captain, Yamamoto-Genryusai. "Enough! This bickering will get us nowhere. Yes, I am as bothered by Hitsugaya's actions as the rest of you, but he has not broken any rules. We will all have a talk with him when he returns, but until then we will leave it be. Dismissed!"

Renji let out a sigh of relief as he filed out of the room with the rest of the captains. Why did Kadono feel the need to direct the topic of discussion to whatever he wanted every single time they had a meeting? It was annoying, and even the general of the Shinigami was getting irritated. And, of course, there would be a lot of talk following this meeting.

Once outside, Renji met up with two vice-captains: his own, a young man, and Matsumoto Rangiku, Toushirou's vice-captain. She spent a lot of time with Renji nowadays. This was to be expected, though: she was closest to Toushirou and Renji, especially since their time together in Karakura with the others. It wasn't that uncommon to see her hanging around the fifth squad's offices, especially since Toushirou had disappeared into the human world. Talking with Renji seemed to set her mind at ease.

For a short while the three of them walked in silence. Renji knew not to say anything right away, since he usually said unkind things after a captain's meeting. It was better if those things were said out of earshot of the other captains, too. Rangiku was the first person to say anything, actually. Once they were a good distance away from the meeting room she said, "So, did Captain loudmouth have anything interesting to say?"

Once that was said, Renji immediately let go of his previous patience. "You're not going to believe this," he said, "He was attacking your captain."

"Captain Grumpypants," Rangiku repeated in disbelief, "No way! He never does anything wrong. What was he complaining about?"

"His absence. Kadono thinks that we should go investigate to see if Tou's doing anything wrong." Renji growled. "That guy even used 'the Aizen argument.' Can you believe that? There's no way in hell Toushirou would betray us."

Rangiku made a 'tut-tut' noise. "That's sad."

She paused, then grinned. "Say…you're using the Captain's first name. He wouldn't like the informality, you know."

Renji's eye twitched. Yes, formality was a bit part of Toushirou's life. The grumpy teenager wasn't here, though. "Meh. I'm a captain too. He can live with it."

Rangiku laughed at Renji's lack of manners. It was definitely a breath of fresh air around here, where everyone was uptight. Renji even looked happy for a moment, but he quickly became serious. "You know," he said, "I have no idea what he's doing, but he better hurry up. Things are only going to get worse as long as he's gone."

oOo

To their credit, Ash and Marona waited until they were back on Phantom isle before pestering Toushirou again. He had said that they couldn't talk in public, after all; there must have been a good reason for that. Nobody talked for the entire trip home. Once they set foot in the house, though, all previous silence was gone. "Alright," Ash said as he shut the door, "We're out of public now. Why are you so interested in Marona?"

Toushirou, to say the least, wasn't happy. He didn't really want to explain everything to them. It would take several hours to go over everything, and it dug up painful memories that Toushirou would have liked to keep buried in the past. At this point he couldn't help it, though. It looked like Marona was about to become a very important player in this war, and he had to keep her on his side at all costs.

Before starting, he glanced around the room and felt out the surroundings. He couldn't feel anyone in the room besides Ash, Marona, and himself. It seemed to be safe enough, so he started to talk. "I'm sure you've figured out what I am by now."

"A spirit," Marona stated.

Toushirou stared at Marona in disbelief for a moment, then slowly shook his head. "That's not what I meant," he said, "I meant what I do, my job."

"If I had to guess," Ash said, "I would say a grim reaper."

That was close enough, so Toushirou said, "Something like that. Basically, there are a lot of people like me. We purify the corrupted spirits, and we send the complete spirits on to the next life. The big difference between what I am and he "grim reapers" you know of from stories is that we don't actually kill humans. We just come along after people are already dead."

Ash snorted. Toushirou assumed that Ash had been left on Earth for quite some time, which would explain his negative feelings. "There are only so many of us," he said, looking at Ash as he did so, "A little under four thousand, the last time we counted. At any given time, only a few hundred of us are in the human world. With over six billion people in the human world, you can see why it takes us some time to get to everyone."

Ash looked away. He was clearly uncomfortable with that statement. Toushirou continued with his explanation. "Well, we've been involved in a war recently. The hollows have gotten stronger, and they continue to get stronger everyday. We're getting stronger too, but we can't keep up with the improvements these hollows are making. In a short time they'll surpass us, and we'll be beaten."

There was a short silence, and Marona took that moment to speak up. She said, "But There must be someone who can do something!"

"There is."

Ash looked up at him expectantly, and Toushirou said, "Things are about to change, and you, Marona, will be at the center of it."

Marona looked worried when Toushirou said that. Ash stepped in front of her protectively and said, "If you're thinking about using her for your war, you can just forget it."

Of course Ash would not like that idea. Toushirou had been expecting it. Being here for a week had been more than enough for him to see that Ash was very protective of Marona. He couldn't let that stop him, though. This was bigger than any of them. "You don't really have much of a choice in the matter. Regardless of what you want, the nature of your powers is going to make both sides seek you out. You're just lucky that you went this long without being discovered."

"And we'll go on longer without being discovered," Ash said defensively, "These islands are in the middle of nowhere. Nobody ever comes here. Besides, I can protect Marona."

Marona gently grabbed Ash's arm. "Ash…"

Toushirou sighed. "I wish it were that easy," he said, "but these monsters are a lot stronger than you. I'm warning you, that line of thought will only result in disaster."

"I can protect her," Ash said, sounding angrier by the minute.

Toushirou wasn't about to give up, though. He had to make Ash see how important this was. Raising his voice a little, he said, "You'd turn your back on the world-"

He didn't get to finish his thought, though. At that moment Toushirou felt a strong presence approaching the island. It definitely wasn't friendly, either. He cursed mentally as he immediately went on the defensive and headed outside. Ash and Marona must have felt it too, because they were following him without asking any questions.

They were strong; Toushirou could tell that already. There were two of them, and they definitely weren't normal hollows. It was lucky that they weren't espada, but even gillians could be dangerous. Already Toushirou had a feeling of dread. As per the rules, he had a limit placed on his powers. Even in a time of war those limits were never removed without special permission. If there was only one of those things, or if Toushirou didn't have the limits on his powers…

As it was, though, they were royally screwed unless he came up with a plan. Marona wasn't dead, so they couldn't flee to Soul Society without extra setups to accommodate her. Running in general wouldn't work either, since they were on an island and didn't have any place to go. The only thing they could do was fight, but Ash wasn't prepared for something like this and Toushirou knew he wasn't strong enough to fight both at once. "Think," he yelled to himself in his mind, "Think! There's got to be a way out of this!"

Toushirou stopped in the front yard, and Ash and Marona weren't far behind him. "What's going on," Marona cried out, "What's that horrible feeling? Is it a hollow?"

"No," Toushirou said, sounding very serious, "It's something much worse."

He had to fight. Even if he died in the process, he had to protect Marona. That girl was the key to winning the war, and she couldn't be lost here. As long as he killed the two Arrancar heading their way, everything would be okay. Toushirou kept repeating that in his mind, even as his foes appeared on the sandy beaches of this island. As long as he killed them, it would be okay…

oOo

Rangiku sighed as she leaned back in her chair. She was having a little get-together with Renji and his vice-captain, but for some reason she couldn't sit still. She had a strange feeling, like something just wasn't right. Renji's vice-captain noticed Rangiku's antsy ness and said, "Are you alright, Vice-Captain Matsumoto? You look unwell."

Rangiku waved him off as she said, "I'm alright. I just can't be still. I've got this feeling, like I've forgotten something important or something."

" 's probably nothing," Renji said, "You forget stuff all the time. If it's really important, someone would come here and tell you."

"I suppose you're right," Rangiku said, but she still felt unsure. She tried to write it off as nothing, but that feeling stuck with her.

"Could Captain Hitsugaya have gotten into trouble," the vice-captain asked, and when Renji and Rangiku looked at him strangely he hastily added, "I mean, I've heard stories about friends knowing when their friends are in danger. Maybe it could be something like that, since you're his Vice-Captain and all."

When Renji and Rangiku continued to stare at him, the timid vice-captain looked down at the floor and apologized profusely for making such a suggestion. "Calm down," Renji said, "We're not gonna attack you or anything."

Rangiku smiled a little at this situation. This vice-captain, while he had been a Shinigami for a while now, had only become a seated officer within the last year. It must be intimidating, to be around all these powerful people. She said, "Renji's right. Besides, the captain is smart and strong. Even if he were in danger, he'd be able to get himself out of it."