Warning: May or may not contain spoilers. May be offensive to some people, so I apologize. Rated T for possible coarse language and possible violence.

A/N: Main characters are Hitsugaya Toshiro and my OC. I placed the story after the Hueco Mundo Arc and after Amagai Shuusuke became the captain of the third division. I do not and never will own Bleach, all credit for characters and most plots belong solely to Tite Kubo. I own only Hachi Inayuki and Michio Okatashi. Thank you for taking your time to read this.

Thanks for your patience, guys. I went to Santa Cruz for a couple of days. I'm back! Still clueless as ever though. Ha. Enjoy. (It's kind of short. Well, all my chapters are short…sorry about that)


The captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads stood in two lines facing each other. Again. They had gathered like this in the morning for the Captain's Ceremony. All the captain's faces were unreadable, including Hachi Inayuki's face. But her insides were flipping with anxiety from all the tension in the room. She could feel the unease coming from all angles, despite the calm postures and appearances.

At first, Hachi had assume it might be a test for her, the newly assigned captain. Maybe a false alarm to assess her abilities for preparation; seeing her reaction to emergencies. She had kept her suspicions quiet, knowing that she should assume the worst. Surely a test of her was not the worst? Ha, of course not. She was right to keep her suspicions in her head, for as soon as she walked through the doors to the meeting room, she sensed the anxiety in all the other captains as she, Ukitake, Kyoraku, and Hitsugaya had taken their positions in the line. Hachi stood between Kenpachi Zaraki and Komamura Sajin, both about two feet taller than herself.

At last, the first division captain, Yamamoto Genryusai, came through the door into the meeting room. A gasp escaped through the lips of two or three of the captains, but no one looked to see who had let out their shock.

It was not the Captain Commander, despite his old age and brilliant skills, that had shocked the captains in the separate lines, but the person who followed him. He was an average sized man, a few inches short of six feet. His flaming red hair hung down, concealing his face. His uniform was like all the other shinigami's uniforms, except that it was torn and covered in blood. A lot of blood.

The arms of the man were covered in deep cuts, still oozing the red liquid through his skin. Blood dripped onto the floor as he struggled to take a step forward, reaching to the wall for support. His breath came in rough, shallow gasps. Slowly, the red-haired man looked up, his flaming hair framing his face, which was just as scarred as the rest of his body. Hachi noticed black lines above his eyes that looked like tattoos. His eyes were narrowed, looking like he was deeply disappointed. The strange, tattered man took another step forward, wincing in agony.

"Renji, what happened to you?" came a heartless voice from the other side of the line that Hachi was in. She quickly noted that this man's name was Renji, and she assumed that he might be the sixth division lieutenant, seeing as he had not been at the welcoming party earlier. With a quick glance to see who had spoken, she saw Byakuya, captain of the sixth division, looking down at Renji with an emotionless glare.

"I'm sorry…Captain…Kuchiki…." Renji said in ragged breaths. The lieutenant would not meet his captain's eyes. Before he could say anything else, he collapsed onto the ground, unconscious. Hachi held her posture, but her stomach twisted at the sight of the lieutenant on the floor. If it wasn't for the quick rise and fall of his chest, she would have thought him dead. Not like she hadn't seen that before. A shudder ran down her spine at the memory.

"Captain Unohana, please take care of the sixth division lieutenant," came the voice of the Captain Commander. All heads snapped in his direction, again focused on the meeting. Though the memory of the red-haired man lying on the floor remained in Hachi's head. Unohana nodded once and walked over to Renji, gently placed him on her back, and exited the room.

"Before I called the meeting, Abarai-san came to the first division headquarters to confront me," Yamamoto began explaining, "And he told me this:

"The group he had gathered to come with him on his mission had been slaughtered, all but him, for he had been knocked unconscious by his opponent. Abarai-san said that his attacker had admitted to his crimes. So he did find who we sent him to look for…" he trailed off. Yamamoto had noticed Hachi's confused expression, and remembered that she had no idea what in the world he was talking about. Yamamoto cleared his throat and began to explain once again.

"Captain Inayuki, listen closely, for all the other captains have already been informed on the situation," he paused quickly, awaiting Hachi's answer. A quick nod and the Captain Commander continued.

"A few months ago, a group of shinigami were in the material world on a mission to destroy hollows that had been appearing in random placed all over Japan. They were in Nishimura, Japan at the moment."

Hachi's interest peaked at the sound of her hometown- Nishimura.

"The group encountered a man who seemed to be a soul reaper, but when they confronted him they were slaughtered easily. This information came from a member of the Secret Guard Force who had been keeping an eye on the town. This member informed us of the man's appearance: tall and dark skinned, with black eyes and black hair. Ever since that encounter, we have sent small groups of shinigami to search for him. The man seems to go to a few other small villages before going back to Nishimura, so we sent groups to the immediate area he was in. All have been killed, so we decided to send a lieutenant. As you have seen, his group failed as well. It's apparent that we must send captains," Yamamoto directed the last sentence to all the captains in the room. No one spoke.

Hachi tried to imagine a man like the one the Captain Commander had described, but only one image came to mind. A chill ran through her body, refusing to think about such things.

Yamamoto began to speak again, while everyone listened, "So as I just said, I'm going to send two captains to search for this man. It is volunteer, but if no one comes up to volunteer, I will choose. No one is being forced to do this, so step forward if you would join the mission."

At first, no one moved. Tension gathered in the room even more than before, awaiting for someone to come up. Hachi decided this would be a good chance to prove herself to her division. Well, she hoped so anyway.

The new, young captain took one pace forward, strangely, at the same moment that another captain did. She didn't look to see who it was, but she focused her attention on the Captain Commander.

Hitsugaya eyed Inayuki suspiciously for a couple of seconds before turning his attention to the Captain Commander. He, like Inayuki, awaited further orders from Yamamoto. The two captains that would be going to search for the murderer would be Hitsugaya Toshiro and Hachi Inayuki.

"That is decided then. Captain Hitsugaya and Captain Inayuki will question Lieutenant Abarai tomorrow when he is well enough to speak. Make preparations, then leave the next day as soon as possible. Is that clear, Captains?" Yamamoto declared. Both Hachi and Hitsugaya nodded and stated a clear and firm,

"Yes!"

"Dismissed!"

The captains in the room quickly left the division meeting room. When Hachi and Hitsugaya got outside, they exchanged a quick glace. Hachi's gaze was interested; Hitsugaya's glare was cold. They both looked away swiftly, Hachi in disappointment and Hitsugaya in irritation.

It's going to be so hard to break down the wall of ice around him…Hachi decided. Subconsciously, she was relieved at a chance to try to make friends with him while they were on the mission.

Of all the captains to be on a mission with, I get the strange, inexperienced one…Hitsugaya thought. He did feel an urge to know more about her abilities though, and measure her true strength. Hopefully he would be able to witness her in action, if she could even handle this shinigami murderer.


Hey, I hope you liked this chapter...the next one will be exciting! I hope. Ha. Um, I want to ask for more reviews, just opinions on what you think I could improve on or what you think so far of the story. I hope I'm not being pushy...? This might be the only time I ask though. Well, if you could, I would really appreciate it. Thanks so much.