Title: An Abundance of Genius Midgets

Disclaimer: Don't own.

A/N: Here we finally find out Hawkeye and Ed's zanpuktos! Yay! The quotes at the beginning and the end are from the theme for You Only Live Twice and a line from the book You Only Live Twice respectively. I heard the song and thought it would match Ed perfectly, particularly with this story. Ed plus 007 equals awesomeness.

Wish: Reviews please!


This dream is for you,

So pay the price.

Make one dream come true,

You only live twice.


Edward sighed. It had been unnaturally quiet in Sereitei as of late, and not just concerning Arrancar. The Cracking of Hitsugaya as he had come to label it had not had much effect on the day-to-day life as he and several other top-level shinigami had been dispatched to the real world directly after the incident. He leaned back in his chair, sighing again.

Hawkeye seemed to sense as well as share his relative boredom. "I'm in the mood for a little sparring. Feel up to it?"

Ed grinned like a maniac. "Never better."

The two of them went to Fifth Division's training grounds. They spent half an hour just working on their form, then Ed insisted on pulling out their shikai. Probably because he couldn't really work on form against Hawkeye's short throwing zanpuktos, just shunpo.

"Separate and join together, Fumito." Ed's zanpukto melded itself around his metal arm, neatly fusing with it and becoming somewhat shorter in the process. "I promise I won't kill you."

"Fly to kill, Erina. I would hope that you would have that much control by now." Hawkeye's throwing zanpuktos formed together into a wave of icy shards.

Ed neatly dodged the sharp icy shards with inhuman speed, coming closer to Hawkeye. "You doubt me?"

They sparred for another half-hour, then Hawkeye took a break to commune with her zankpukto as Ed procured a dummy from a storage closet and released his bankai. Eventually a hell-butterfly flew by, and Hawkeye lifted her hand to receive the message. Her eyes grew bigger at the contents as she stood up and put her zanpukto back in her sheath.

She turned towards Ed to see him turn the sand inside the dummy into glass by stabbing it, then break the glass with the flat of his blade, causing glass splinters to stick out of the rough burlap. "Taichou!"

Ed looked up, turning the glass back into sand with another stab as he did. "What?"

"Direct orders from Yamamoto-soutaichou. Hitsugaya-taichou's team just fought some Arrancar and had trouble. We're to go down and back them up in the case of another attack."

Ed sighed, sheathing his zanpukto. "Well, let's get moving then."


"Hey, Hitsugaya, hear you got a bit beat up last night."

Hitsugaya looked up from his phone. Sighing, he looked back down at it. "You're my reinforcements, Elric?"

Ed shrugged one-handedly. "You say that like you hate me. Don't worry, it's not just you, Mustang can be a bit hard at times."

"So is that that man's name?"

"Yeah, Roy Mustang." Ed tugged at the Karakura High uniform. "I hate uniforms."

"What is this, the midget convention?"

Two short people glared at the suddenly appearing Ichigo.

"Ahem."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A MINIATURE PINT-SIZED BEAN!?!?!"

Ichigo wasn't fazed. He pointed at them. "Hey, Toushirou, who are these people?"

"That's Hitsugaya-taichou! This is the captain and vice-captain of fifth divison."

Ichigo looked at Hawkeye. "Oh, so you must be the new captain?"

Ed was fuming. "This is worse then travelling with Al."

Ichigo looked form one to the other. "You mean a squirt like you is the new captain? Seems like Sereitei has an abundance of genius kids."

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, I'M SO SMALL YOU'D LOVE TO SQUISH ME LIKE A BUG!?!?!"

Hawekeye and Hitsugaya rolled their eyes. "He didn't go that far."


You only live twice.

Once when you're born,

And once when you look death in the face.