I got a chance to update today! yay! But I'm home from school sick. Which isn't a Yay! Just a warning there is some fluff between Hoshiko and Toshiro. I didn't know what to with her in between major plot developments so yeah... I hope everyone enjoys!

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and any characters you may not recognize!


Chiki Nakayama

Hoshiko was standing on the roof staring down at us. It looked like she was strategizing. I looked over at Kabei, who was bleeding in several spots. Badly I might add. It was my fault too, which made it worse. She got hurt protecting me because I can't handle getting slapped around.

I looked back up toward the roof, but Hoshiko wasn't there anymore. I turned around, and she was there right behind with her sword coming right at me. I closed my eyes and waited for an impact, but it never came. I opened my eyes and was horrified.

Kabei was there with her shield sliced right through. There was a deep gash on her shoulder, and it was bleeding heavily. I stared at Kabei. Her eyes never left the little soul reaper. Hoshiko stood a ways back, her face had an expression that was aiming to kill.

I looked at Kabei again. She was struggling to get up and keep fighting. We all knew that her attacks were useless unless she got Hoshiko off guard. We also knew that that wasn't likely. I knew then that I was going to have to stand up and fight.

When we were little, it was always Kabei standing up for me. She was always the one who fought off bullies and came to find me when I had ran away scared. She was there for me when my parents died. Even though it seems out of character for her, I was always behind her in school. I was always watching her from behind, now its her turn.

I stood up and put myself between Kabei and Hoshiko. The little soul reaper looked amused by this in a way that makes me wonder if we just played into her hands. Her serious face became lighthearted, and she giggled.

Her laugh sounded like a child's. Well her voice did too, but her laugh even more so. I was beginning to wonder how old she really was. She had the voice of a child, she was so small and petite, and then her hair was in pigtails tied with blue ribbons. That just seems like an eight year old to me.

"Hmm. So it seems that the name caller is going to fight her own battle now. How interesting," she said with a hint of a giggle in her voice, "you know if you hadn't been so rude as to call me small, none of this would have happened. So its really all your fault."

"What do you mean by tha-" I was cut off as I was grabbed around the waist. I was lifted off the ground. It happened so fast that I had no idea what was going on.

In about five minutes, I was let down. I looked up and saw Chad. He sat Kabei down next to me. Her hair was ruffled up, but her wounds weren't bleeding as badly.

"You guys seemed like you were in a tough spot, so I helped you," Chad said.

"Thank you?" I said. I never really talked to Chad, so it was awkward for me to hear him talk. After he said that, he took off.

"That was weird," Kabei said as she struggled to get up. Her arm was almost totally broken from the impacts of Hoshiko's sword. She stumbled once she got to her feet.

"Just sit back down. You're hurt," I pleaded with her. She shot a glare at me.

"We can't keep sitting around. Someone will find us, and we now know what happens when someone finds us."

I put her arm around my neck to help support her. We were getting nowhere fast. As we walked along, I looked up at the sky. It had become bright again. The stars disappeared as the sun came back out.

"Looks like the brat put her sword away," Kabei said.

"Speaking of her, you acted like you knew her."

"She was one of the soul reapers that came to take Rukia. She was the one that stopped the black-haired one from killing us," she said softly. I knew she didn't like talking about that, so I tried to change the subject.

"So what's the new plan of action, maestro?" I asked. I must have lightened the mood because Kabei scoffed at me.

"I suggest we first find a place for me to fix myself. It wouldn't be a very bright idea to just keep standing out here in the open," she said as she hobbled toward an abandoned looking building.

I jogged up ahead of her to kick the door down. Inside there were a few old crates but nothing more. Kabei hobbled over and sat down with a loud sigh of relief. It was quiet for awhile until I said something.

"We were lucky weren't we?"

"Yeah…we were," she said quietly. Then out of nowhere she slammed her fist down on a crate next to her, shattering it into millions of pieces. Like a glass vase meeting the floor for the first time, "SHE WAS JUST TOYING WITH US! SHE NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF ACTUALLY KILLING US!"

"Kabei calm down! Someone will hear us, and besides how do you know that?" she got a dead serious look on her face.

"If she was being serious, we wouldn't be alive. We've had our powers for about two weeks. We haven't mastered them yet. If that fight had taken place a few years from now, it might be a different story."

I'm not sure what came over me, but I got up and smacked her as hard as I could across her face.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" she screamed as she held her cheek that now had my hand burned into it.

"If we're going to make it through this, you're going to have to quit the 'I'm not strong enough, so I can't do it' attitude!"

"bu-"

"And I don't want to hear any if's, and's, or but's about it! If you think you can't do it, then you won't! don't you have any faith in yourself? Any faith in me?" I glared at her. She glared back. We stayed like that for a few minutes, until her eyes softened.

"I suppose you're right…" she said softly her eyes averted away from mine like a little child that has just gotten into trouble.

"that's better now isn't it?" I said as I smiled at her. I held out my hand to help her up, "now let's go kick some soul reaper butt."

She smirked at me as I pulled her up, and we took off into the streets once more.

Kabei Misuteri

Me and Chiki were lost. There was no other way to put it. We still had no idea where Rukia was or which way we were supposed to be going. Neither of us knew where anybody else was either.

"Kabei, where are we?' Chiki whined. She was getting tired. I stopped and put on my thinking face.

"We've been running for a few hours, but everything looks the same," I said. Chiki let out a loud sigh and plopped down onto the street. She pursed her lips.

"I don't wanna move anymore! My legs hurt!"

"We can't stop! It can't be a minute past five! You big baby!"

"I'm not a baby!"

"Yes you are! Only a baby would be complaining when there are lives at stake!"

"Takes one to know one!" she yelled as she stuck her tongue out. I was going to smack her, but I resisted the urge because I heard footsteps coming. I grabbed Chiki by the arm and pulled her around the corner.

"I heard yelling from over here." I heard a voice say. It sounded like that pig man, but I wasn't sure.

'Why wou-would we wa-wa-want to find people that we-we-were yelling?"

"Cuz it might be some of our friends. It sounded like Kabei and Chiki." that voice I recognized.

"Ichigo!" I screamed and flung myself into his arms.

"I told you so," he said looking back at the people he had in tow. I lifted my head to see who was with him. The pig man and that kid from earlier were standing there. Chiki came bouncing out.

"Hi Ichigo!"

"Hey Chiki," he said. He stepped back from me and actually looked at us for the first time in almost twenty-four hours, "God Kabei. You looked like you got hit by a truck."

I mentally slapped him. First the premature wrinkles and now I got hit by a truck. Why do I like him? I guess I'll never really know.

"We ran into the cutest little soul reaper ever! She hit me and made Kabei really mad, so Kabei tried to beat her up and epically failed!" Chiki told him excitedly. The kid's eyes got really wide.

"You two fought Lieutenant Hikari?" he asked. His face was stunned.

"Yeah. She didn't even take us seriously," I muttered. The next time I see her, she's going down.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. She toys around with everyone. On top of it, I can almost guarantee that she let you go on purpose," he said. For some reason, when he talked to me he didn't stutter.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? That she let me go out of pity!"

"N-n-n-no! th-that's not what I meant! She doesn't want Rukia to be executed either. She must have known that that's what you were doing here," he started stuttering again. I must have scared him.

"Then that's what she meant!" Chiki exclaimed. She must have come to a realization about something I missed, "She told me that if I hadn't called her small, it all could have been avoided."

I actually hit myself when those words came out of her mouth. Did I seriously get beat up because Chiki had called the little brat small?

"She doesn't like height ref- AHHHHHHHHH! YOU'RE THE ALIEN!" he screamed when he saw her green arm and fainted.

The pig man bent over and picked him up. We started walking when we heard footsteps from behind. We turned around a corner and ducked into a man hole.

I was about to say something out of disgust of what we were standing next to, but Ichigo put his hand over my mouth. The voices above us got louder and then softer, as the soul reapers walked over the manhole.

It stunk in the sewers, but we were safe down here. We walked for awhile, not really sure about where we were going. Hanataro, I found out is what his name was, woke up after about an hour.

"I think we are close to the Repentance Tower," he said as he looked around the sewage pipes.

"How can you tell where we are? It looks the same down here everywhere you turn," I asked.

"One of my jobs is to clean up down here, so I know what tunnels go where," he replied.

"That's sick! Why do they make you clean up down here!" I yelled.

"I'm a member of the fourth division. The relief squad. All the other divisions find us fourth division members useless, so we get all of the bad jobs."

"That's horrible! You guys should be seen as the most important! What would the rest of them do without people that can heal?" the poor kid. I couldn't believe he had to work down here where everybody's crap goes. Literally.

"Try telling Captain Zaraki's squad that," he said quietly, "But if we want to find Rukia, then we should probably go up at the next ladder."

Ichigo, Ganju, me, Chiki, and then Hanataro climbed out of the sewer. I was ecstatic about the fresh air.

"It's this way!" Hanataro said. We took off into the streets toward the tower Rukia was in, when suddenly an immense spiritual pressure surrounded us.

"Where do you think you're going, you little rats?" the red haired soul reaper that came to take Rukia away was in front of us.

"We're here to save Rukia! Now get out of our way!" Ichigo yelled.

"I don't think so. If you want to get to Rukia, you're going to have to cut me down first," he said. Ichigo turned around to face us.

"I want you guys to get out of here. Kabei. Chiki. I want you to run and get away from here," he commanded, staring me in the eyes.

"But Ichi-" I started.

"No. get out of here and find some other way around here to get to the tower.'

I stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. Memorizing what he looked like, in case I never saw him again. Then I nodded my head, and turned to Chiki.

"Let's go!" I said, and we took off by ourselves again. When we were a ways away, Chiki spoke up.

"Where are we going?'

"We're going to find that little brat. Hanataro said she might help, and besides, I need to kick her little ass into oblivion."

Hoshiko Hikari

I was sitting in the office waiting for To-chan to get back from the captains' meeting. I was sitting in his chair turned toward the window watching one of my friends from the academy walk back towards her division with Yumichika in tow. He's probably complimenting her beauty as usual.

"This office is so boring!" I yelled and banged my head on the window. Just then, a hell butterfly landed on my shoulder.

"Lieutenant Hoshiko Hikari, you're needed in the meeting room this instant," boomed the voice of the Head Captain.

"Uh-oh," I muttered as I dragged myself out the door.

A few minutes later I was in the meeting hall with all of the captains glaring at me. I knelt down before Head Captain Yamamoto.

"Lieutenant Hikari, earlier today your reiatsu spiked around the tenth division barracks. Can you explain why you released your Zanpakuto without permission or being under martial law?" Soutaicho drilled me.

"I was on my way back to the barracks when I stumbled upon a couple of ryoka, Soutaicho."

"And what happened to them?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow. I could feel all of the captains stiffen after I had said the word 'ryoka'. Now they were even more tense as they waited for my answer.

"They got away. Another ryoka jumped in and saved them before I could finish them off."

"Did you give chase?"

"No, sir."

"That's treason! She let them get away!" Soi Fon yelled and stepped toward me. That made me mad.

"How do you know I let them get away?" I yelled back, standing up from the spot where I was kneeling.

"Any other soul reaper would have tracked them down! Why didn't you?" she glared at me, and I glared back. I pulled part of my shihakusho down to show her the gash on my shoulder from Kabei.

"You see, I didn't make it out unharmed. I didn't chase them because I figured I would be of more use alive than dead," I said. That shut her up.

"AHEM!" Yamamoto got our attention again, "Can you at least tell us about their powers?"

"The purple haired girl has dark aura disks that shoot out of her arms, and can create a very powerful shield. The girl with the green glove I'm not sure about. She never attacked me."

"You may go, Lieutenant."

I bowed and left. I walked back to the office to wait for To-chan. I sat back down on his swivel chair behind his desk. I was dozing off when I heard the door open and then slam shut.

"So how'd the meeting go?"

"We decided that since you didn't let them go without a fight, you won't be tried for treason, but only captain's are allowed to fight the ryoka now."

"Why?"

"You, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, and several others were defeated."

"That's stupid. I wasn't even really defeated. I me-" I was cut off.

"Do you know how much stress you cause me!" he yelled. He was livid.

"No."

"It's a lot. Way too much to be exact."

"Maybe you shouldn't worry so much about me."

"NOT WORRY ABOUT YOU? HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME NOT TO WORRY ABOUT SOMEONE LIKE YOU?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE LIKE ME?"

"YOU GO OFF ON MISSIONS TO THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND NOT TELL ME, RUN OFF WITH GIN FOR TWO HOURS AND COME BACK WITH SOME WEIRD REIATSU ABOUT YOU, AND THEN GET IN A FIGHT WITH TWO RYOKA! HOW COULD I NOT WORRY!"

"I NEVER ASKED YOU TOO! I'M PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF MYSELF!" I screamed back. That must have made him really mad. He pushed me into the wall and glared at me.

"You're right. You never asked me to worry about you, and I'm sure you could take care of yourself," he said. His voice was softer now.

"Great. We came to an understanding. Now let me go." he kept his grip on me.

"But your father asked me to watch over you. He knew you would end up in the Tenth Division when he was gone. I'm just respecting Captain Hikari's last wish, 'to keep his daughter safe'. that's why I worry," he said so quietly I could barely hear him. I felt the pressure of his hands lift off of my shoulders. I pushed past him to the door.

"So that's why you act like you care. It's nice to know that you were forced to," I said as I stormed out the door.

It was dark outside. I sat down on the roof and looked up at the stars. I could see Venus in the sky tonight. I laid down on my side and put my head on my arm.

I couldn't believe that stone's reiatsu was potent enough for him to notice. I also wonder if Gin's ever going to offer his thoughts on it.

"FML!" I yelled. Tonight has sucked for sure. Finally I just started crying. I couldn't help it anymore.

Suddenly, I felt myself being pulled up into someone's lap. I could tell from the faint watermelon smell that it was Toshiro.

"What do you want?" I asked with my face buried in his chest.

"I wasn't done when you ran out," he whispered quietly.

"What? Now you're going to tell me that you wanted a different lieutenant."

"No, I'm not. No one could ever be a better lieutenant than you. Not Abarai, Kira, or Hisagi."

"Well what then? I need to go back to wallowing in my own self pity," my voice choked up as I said that. Toshiro sighed and lifted my face up, so I had to look at him.

"That wasn't the only reason I worry about you. You're so much more than a lieutenant or a Hikari to me," he said. I felt his lips gently press against my cheek, and then he whispered into my ear, "That's why I worry about you."

Chiki Nakayama

Kabei and me had stayed hidden all night. Now that it was dawn and light out again, we hit the streets in search of Hoshiko.

"Do you really think that she'll help us?" I asked. Kabei furrowed her brow.

"I don't know, but we have to try. Do you know how good it would be to have another soul reaper on our side? One that can actually fight anyways…"

I knew she was thinking of Hanataro. She had a point there. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I felt Kabei grab my hair and pull me back.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Look at that."

In front of us was a huge sakura tree in full bloom. Behind it was a large building with a kanji ten on it.

"She said she was from the tenth division didn't she?" I asked. I looked at Kabei, who had a huge grin on her face.

"She sure did."

"Now what do we do?"

"Um…." Kabei was at a loss for words. We both knew we couldn't just walk in there. We'd get dead fast.

"Well, we could hide in the tree." I suggested.

"Great idea Chiki!" Kabei exclaimed and gave me a thumbs up. She must have been very hungry. She usually never gets this odd, but we haven't eaten any real food for a few days now.

We scrambled up the tree to wait for Hoshiko to come out. We heard a door open and close. Someone with white spiky hair came out followed by one of the soul reapers we had seen the other day and Hoshiko.

"But Captain! That's so much work!" the strawberry blonde complained.

"I don't care Rangiku. That's your punishment for the other night. Every last stack of paperwork in the office," the little captain said as he continued walking. We sat and watched Hoshiko wink at Rangiku. She took off, and before I could see what happened she was on the captain's back.

"TO-CHAN! THAT'S SO MEAN! ITS NOT FAIR TO MAKE HER DO THE PAPERWORK! THAT'S OUR JOB!" she wailed. He shook her off and looked down at her. She had a puppy face plastered across her face. He smirked.

"That's right. You can do it instead," he said. Then he looked at Rangiku, "And you can wash every single floor in the division."

He walked off leaving the two of them speechless. I couldn't help but snicker.

"Sorry Rangiku."

"That's okay! I won't do it anyways!" she chirped and then skipped off. Hoshiko was now sitting by herself.

"Now? Lets go now!" Kabei chattered. I really needed to get her something to eat.

"You two can come out of that tree now," Hoshiko said looking up at the tree.

'How did she know we were here?" Kabei asked as she climbed over me knocking me out of the tree. I landed on my butt with a loud thud.

"You two look like crap," she giggled.

"We need your help. We heard from a fairly reliable source that you are against Rukia's execution," I said. Kabei was twirling around behind me. Hoshiko looked surprised by my request.

"Come with me. We can't talk out here," she said as she walked back toward the building. I grabbed Kabei and followed her inside. She shuffled us into what I presumed was the office and locked the door behind her.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered.

"if you want Rukia to be saved, then why wouldn't you be doing this?" I asked.

"How dense can you humans get? What I'm doing right now, I could be executed for treason for doing. Now how do like your tea?" she put a tea tray down on the table.

After we had our tea, and Kabei had something to eat, Hoshiko stared at us with a serious look on her face.

'So what is it exactly you want me to do?" she asked.

"We need to get to the Repentance Tower as quickly as possible," Kabei told her. Seems like she's back to normal.

"The Repentance Tower? Well, I'm not going to have time to take you there myself, but I think here's a map of the Seireitei in To-chan's desk," she got up to go look through his desk.

'What do you mean you have no time? Don't you live forever or something?" I asked.

"Not necessarily. I'm not going to die of old age. I don't have enough time because I have a lieutenants meeting in a half hour," she said looking at the clock.

"But we might not get there if you don't take us," I said trying to sweet talk her.

"And that's a chance I'm willing to take," she flashed a smile at us.

"But…" I started. Kabei jumped up and picked Hoshiko up by the front of her shirt.

"Look here you little brat! You're going to take us there or I'm going to kick your little ass! Got it?"

"I'm so scared. Whatever will I do?" she put a fake scared look on her face.

There had to be some way to make her take us at least so we can see it and get there without getting lost. I looked around the room. My eyes landed on the desk and a stack of papers with a bottle of ink next to them. I went over to the desk and picked up the ink bottle.

"Oh Hoshiko!" I chirped. She looked over at me, and her eyes got really big.

"Don't. you. Dare." she glared at me. I was holding the open ink bottle over the stack of papers.

"Take us to the tower," I said with a devilish smirk.

"I already told you I can't!"

"Take us to the tower, or the papers get it," I was tipping the ink closer and closer to the papers.

"FINE! I'll take you, just don't spill that ink!"

"I knew you'd understand," I said. Kabei looked at me like I was the spawn of Satan. I just smiled.

Kabei Misuteri

Hoshiko was taking us to the Repentance Tower. I'm not quite sure what was so special about those papers that Chiki had to threaten to make her take us, but it worked.

"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Hoshiko kept muttering that to herself as she kept an eye out for any other soul reapers.

"What's your problem?" I asked.

"My problem is that this is the second time you two have caused me some serious trouble. When I fought you two, the captains thought I let you go on purpose. Well, I did, but I was almost executed for treason! And now here I am again! Helping the 'enemy'," she put air quotes around enemy, "I'm clearly insane."

She hopped up onto a building to look around. She gave us the go ahead signal as she jumped down. We continued on with that pattern for awhile until the tower loomed in the distance.

"I'm sorry, but this is as far as I can go. The security around the Repentance Tower will be tight, but I'm sure you can handle it," she said and gave us a wink. Before either of us could say anything, she was gone.

"Chiki tell me something, how did you know to use those papers as blackmail?" I was still in awe over her display of utter genius.

"Remember when we were in the tree, her captain told her to do all of the paperwork. I kinda just lucked out that it was the right stack," she said. I was still in a state of amazement when we reached the tower.

As we got closer, there were more and more soul reapers. None of them seemed as strong as a lieutenant or captain, although, my sense of spiritual pressure sucked worse than my personal record.

"We need to be sneaky if we are going to reach the tower, so lets wait for an opening and make a ru-" I was saying until I saw Chiki walk right out into the street. I ran out after her and pushed her behind a building.

"Ouch! That hurt, you big meanie!"

"Oh yeah! Well, the big dumbie is going to get the big meanie killed by walking out into the open like that!"

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Yeah, you better be. Now lets move before we get caught."

We reached the tower without any problems. The problem was how we were going to get in.

"Maybe we should ask someone where the door is!" Chiki chirped. Looks like her brain shut itself off again. I resisted the urge to smack her to reduce the risk of killing any developing brain cells.

"Just stop and think for a minute will you!" I said. I looked up and seen a bridge that went from one building to the tower. That must be the door, "I think that's where we need to go."

I didn't wait for her to answer I just grabbed her and ran. I headed toward the building that had the bridge in it, Chiki trying to keep up.

We got to the bridge in one piece. Everything was fine until Chiki wouldn't move.

"Come on move!"

"No! I can't go out there, its too high up!"

Crap. I forgot about her fear of heights. "Then just stay here and keep watch. don't let anyone by unless they're not an enemy."

"Who isn't the enemy?"

"Just use your better judgment," I said as I walked out toward the tower. There were soul reapers guarding the place. I threw a couple of discs at them and knocked them out. I would've thought they would have had higher ranking soul reapers guarding the joint.

"Well, look what we have here! If it isn't Vegetable Girl!" I heard a voice from behind me.

"What do you want Pig Man?" I turned around to see Ganju and Hanataro.

"Same as you. Rescue this Rukia girl. Ichigo's orders."

"Where is Ichigo?" I asked. I could feel myself stiffen now that I noticed he wasn't there.

"He's fighting some big soul reaper, but don't worry about him. He's stronger than he looks," he gave me a thumbs up. I rolled my eyes at him and went to open the door.

The door slowly opened and stopped with a loud thud. We stepped inside. I looked up and saw Rukia sitting in the window.

"RUKIA!" she looked down with a disbelieving look, and then her eyes widened. She came down to make sure I was really there.

"Kabei, it really is you. And Hanataro. What are you guys doing here?"

"R-re-rescuing you," Hanataro stuttered. He seemed nervous being here. I wonder if he would be in as much trouble as Hoshiko. It was also then that I noticed Ganju wasn't there.

"You guys are such idiots! Who else is here?" she asked pointedly at me.

"Chad, Uryuu, Orihime, Chiki, and-"

"Ichigo," we said in unison. Just then I heard a scream. Chiki!

We ran outside to find Ganju face to face with that soul reaper with the black hair. One of the one's that took Rukia. I looked past him to see Chiki laying on the ground with a small trickle of blood coming from her mouth.

Hanataro was holding me back. I wanted to beat that guy to a bloody pulp. He beat Ganju out of the way and looked at us. I kept struggling to get out of Hanataro's grip.

When I finally did, I was so blinded by rage that I just went at him. The last thing I remembered was falling off the bridge and Ichigo's worried-anger filled eyes before I blacked out.

Hoshiko Hikari

I was moving as fast as I could towards the meeting room. I had this feeling that I should have stayed with those two, but I couldn't risk it. It seemed too quiet as I got to the meeting room. I obviously wasn't the only one late.

"Where have you been?" Omaeda, lieutenant of squad two, yelled in my face as soon as I walked in. he was a good two and a half feet taller than me.

"I woke up late," I lied.

"Why did you wake up late?" he kept interrogating me.

"I didn't sleep well," another lie, but I wasn't about to tell them about what really happened, "but is this really the time to be inter-"

"CAPTAIN AIZEN!" everyone heard the blood curdling scream.

"That sounded like Momo!" Isane said.

We all rushed out of the room to where we had heard the scream. I skidded to a stop, horrified by what I saw. The rest of the lieutenants screeching to a halt behind me.

Up above on a tower, Captain Aizen was hanging. Pierced through the chest by his own Zanpakuto. His blood splayed out in such a pattern that it looked like a blooming flower.

Momo was on her knees in hysterics. None of us could do anything out of shock. We just stood there gaping, like hungry fish in a koi pond.

"Oh dear. This certainly isn't good." Captain Ichimaru came out of nowhere. That sly fox-like grin on his face.

"IT WAS YOU! YOU DID THIS!" Momo screamed. She pulled out her Zanpakuto.

"Now now. Let's not get hasty," Ichimaru said. He stood there, unmoving.

"MOMO STOP!" I screamed, but it was too late.

"Snap, Tobiume!" A burst of energy came out of her Zanpakuto. Ichimaru didn't even move as it went at him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Izuru move. He blocked Momo's attack. He rushed at her.

Before their swords clashed, they were stopped by someone. I looked up and saw To-chan in between them.

"Shiro-chan!"

"Captain Hitsugaya!"

"You two should be ashamed of yourselves! Attacking each other like this! When the real matter at hand is to get Captain Aizen's body down. Not to mention you broke the law. Someone get over here and take them to the prison!" He ordered.

A few lieutenants responded and took Momo and Izuru away. I looked at To-chan. I thought sending them to prison was a little harsh, but I suppose it can't be helped. As I stood there still stunned, my eyes wondered over to Gin, who, to my surprise, was looking right at me. That smile plastered to his face like always.

We stared at each other for what seemed like an hour until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Let's go. I have something I need you to help me with," To-chan said. I followed right behind, wanting to get out of Gin's sight. It was quiet between the two of us. We hadn't talked at all since last night, except for me attacking him this morning, but that wasn't exactly talking per se.

"Where are we going?" I asked quietly. I had to break the silence; it was killing me.

"We're going to the Fifth Division to look for anything that might have to do with who might have done this," he said just as quietly back. Looks like he was still either as shocked about Aizen as me or still very shy about what he did last night. I would assume both. It was dead silent the rest of the way.

When we got there, Rangiku was waiting for us.

"I want you two to look for anything out of place. If you find something tell me. Got it?" To-chan ordered.

"Yes, sir!" me and Rangiku said, and we went into Captain Aizen's office. Rangiku immediately grabbed me from behind.

"Hoshiko, this place is scaring me," she said in a low whisper, so To-chan wouldn't hear.

"Oh stop it. Its just Captain Aizen's office," I whispered back and I pushed her off.

I started walking around the office. It was a lot different than To-chan's office. For one, Momo's desk didn't have any paperwork on it because she actually does hers. Honestly, who does paperwork? I know I don't.

It was really quiet. Not one of us made a noise as we crept around. I felt like a cat burglar looking for valuables. I was getting sick of the silence. I hate it. It makes me feel awkward. But right now, there was nothing for me to say to break the silence. To-chan probably wouldn't answer me, and Rangiku was scared out of her mind.

I looked over at Aizen's desk. The only thing that seemed out of place on it was an envelope. I walked over and picked it up to look at what was written on it. The envelope was addressed to Momo.

"Hey, you guys might want to see this," I said quietly. To-chan came over and took the letter from me.

"What is it Captain?" Rangiku asked from across the room.

"It's a letter addressed to Momo."

"Should we turn it in for analyzing?" I asked. I was more interested in seeing one of my friends from the academy that is in the Twelfth Division than taking the letter there, but it was a good excuse.

"No. we should give it to Momo, since this letter is probably his last words to her. I'm almost positive he knew he was going to be killed," To-chan said. His voice wavered. He sounded like he was getting angry thinking about it, "Rangiku, take this letter to Momo later. Hoshiko, I need to talk to you."

Rangiku took the letter and left. She was probably going to go find her sake To-chan hid from her. The thought made me smile until my thoughts drifted back to the matter at hand.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked as we walked down a deserted street.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of Rangiku because I know they used to be close friends," he began, "I think Gin Ichimaru is the one who murdered Aizen."

"TOSHIRO!" his accusation took me by surprise, "Those are very strong words to say, especially about another captain!"

"I know, but I heard a conversation between the two. Aizen told Ichimaru to watch himself. Something isn't right in the Seireitei, just promise me you'll stay away from him," he stopped walking and turned to look at me. His face was turning pink, which made mine turn pink because we haven't really even looked at each other since last night. I averted my eyes.

'But Ca-"

"Please?" he asked moving my head, so I had to look at him. He had a look of genuine concern on his face.

"Alright," I said, "I promise."


The fluff wasn't too bad was it? I hope not! Please review!