Disclaimer: I do NOT own the Bleach series in any way! All copyrights of this series goes to Tite Kubo. The only character I do own is Yuki Hikari.


Author's Note: I'm sorry to tell you everyone, but due to unfortunate events, I am left no other other choice but to discontinue this story....APRIL FOOLS! LMAO. Don't worry; I'm not quitting this story. I'll never quit this story especially when I have a storyboard already typed up nicely on my computer.

Anyway, aside from the fact that I've just pulled a very terrible April Fool's Joke, I'm here with another completed chapter of Hitsugaya's First Love. Many thanks goes to my dedicated reviewers: BLEACHISAWESOMEANDIMAWESOME XP, HiMeChAaAn, KnowledgeandImagination, Samantha, Neko-cheung, Pieps XD, The Sweet Peach, MoonLightView. Thanks for waiting so patiently. Here is chapter nine. Enjoy!

P.S. Just to let you know, we're still in the flash back chapters of the story.


LEGEND

"Talking." "Thinking."


Hitsugaya's First Love

Chapter Nine: Drive

Forty Years Ago (from Present Time)...

Walking through the hallways of the Tenth Division Headquarters, Toshiro Hitsugaya is focused on delivering his bundle of paperwork to his captain. Five years have passed by since he joined the Gotei 13 and already he's already made great progress. In that short period of time, he got promoted...twice. Now, he's the third seat of the tenth division. Once he is standing in front of the office, he raised a hand up and gently knocked on the door. There was no response.

Letting out a sigh of defeat, Hitsugaya placed his hand on the handle, opened the slide door, and entered the room. After taking a moment to scan the place, he noticed his long haired captain sitting behind her desk. Judging by the way she has her arms on the table surface and her head buried in it, Captain Yuki Hikari appears to be fast asleep. "Mm, give me more sake..." mumbled a voice to the side.

Recognizing that voice from anywhere, Toshiro made a face and looked over to see his vice-captain, Rangiku Matsumoto lying on the couch, sleeping as well. When he was here this morning, they were both wide awake and doing paperwork. He concluded that it was sometime after he left, the two Shinigami began drinking sake in the office. So, he figure it is recently that the two girls drank too much and fell asleep. The evidence is from all the empty sake bottles and jugs on the tables and desks.

Placing a hand on the side of his head, he began scratching it, contemplating whether now a good time to wake them up is. After a moment of thinking, Hitsugaya placed the papers on Yuki's desk and walked over to the sleeping strawberry orange haired Shinigami. With one look at her, he said, "Matsumoto-fukutaicho, it's time to wake up."

Rangiku stirred for a bit before she became lifeless once more. He nudged her again.

"Matsumoto-fukutaicho..."

"No, don't touch that," she mumbled, tilting her head off to the side. "It tickles..."

He didn't want to use his last resort to wake her up. If he did so, chances are it's going to wake up Captain Hikari as well. He doesn't want that to happen. However, at the rate this is going, he has no other choice, but to do it. Putting a fist up over his mouth, he cleared his throat. Placing it back down on his side, he raised his head and yelled, "MATSUMOTO!!!"

All of a sudden, Rangiku and Yuki both sat up and began looking around to see what has possibly happened. "I didn't drink the expensive sake bottle that was hidden in the secret drawer!" the tenth division lieutenant blurted out.

Hikari then turned her head to give her vice-captain a glaring look. "What did you say?" she asked. "You drank my expensive sake bottle from the drawer?!"

"No I didn't," she suddenly lied. Noticing the white haired Shinigami beside her, Matsumoto pointed a finger at him. "Hitsugaya is the culprit!"

The third seat gave her an icy glare. "Oi, don't drag me into this!"

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Yuki questioned. "I'm not stupid. I know my third seat well enough to know that he doesn't drink alcohol at all."

"Is that right, hehe...my bad," the strawberry orange haired woman said, placing a hand on the back of her head.

"Oi Rangiku-chan, don't you dare ru--" But before the white haired captain could say anything else, Matsumoto has already bolted out of the tenth division office. "Ah! She ran away!"

Hitsugaya let out a sigh. "There she goes again..."

"Gah, I can't believe she's getting better at running away. It was supposed to be my job to do that!"

As Hikari pounded her fists on the table, he walked over to her desk and apologized, "I'm sorry for waking you up like this Yuki, but you have to finish your paperwork. It needs to be sent in by the end of today."

"Easy for you to say," Hikari grumbled. "I can't finish all this paperwork on my own..."

Suddenly, an idea popped into her mind. She gave him a snickering look.

"...unless you help me, then that would be a different story."

After taking one glance to see the sweet smile of the tenth division captain, Hitsugaya sighed with defeat. If he dares to disobey her orders, who knows what might happen to him. Then again, it's not like he's complaining. Folding his arms over his chest, he replied, "I understand, Yuki-taicho. I'll help finish the paperwork."

Captain Hikari then gave him a look. As she watched him remove some sake bottles and jugs from the desk and place them on the floor, she said, "Oi, you're supposed to call me Yuki, Toshiro. Geez, you're a great genius, yet you suck at something as insignificant as how to address someone correctly."

"Hai hai, I got it Yuki," the younger Shinigami said, passing her a bundle of papers. "Now, let's start working already."

Placing an elbow on the desk surface, she rested her chin on the palm of her hand. With a smile on her face, Hikari watched her subordinate take a pile of paperwork and an ink brush from her desk. He moved it to the coffee table and took a seat on the sofa. From there, he moved the alcoholic beverages off to the side and began to start his work. After all this time, the girl is happy to have a loyal and dedicated Shinigami like him. The way he acts and the way he talks; they're very alike.

She glanced to the side to see something sticking out one of her stacks of paperwork. Recognizing what it is, she removed it and took a look at the picture. Showing a smile on her face, Yuki took one more glance at the hard working Soul Reaper. "Toshiro..."


Hitsugaya let out a sigh of relief. After sitting in one spot for about a good hour and a half, he finally finished his stack of paperwork. It is when he noticed a cup of green tea placed at his side. With a blink, he raised his head to see Captain Hikari there. "Yuki..."

She smiled. "You've done well, Toshiro."

Giving her a faint smile, he picked up the cup from the table and took a small sip. "Arigato."

The white haired captain sat right next to him. Looking up at the ceiling, she said, "No, thank you for always being so helpful."

Feeling his cheeks heat up a bit, he turned his head to the side and quietly replied, "Y-Yeah..."

All of a sudden, a Hell Butterfly entered the room. Extending a finger out, the insect landed on it and transmitted its message. Once it is done, the butterfly flew back into the air and fluttered out the window. "Sorry, I have an emergency captain's meeting to attend to."

"Okay."

Picking up her zanpakuto at the side, she equipped it onto the side of her sash. "I'll see you later."

With a nod of agreement, he watched the tenth division captain bolt out of the room, leaving him behind. When it comes to meetings like those, it will take a while before she returns to her headquarters. Noticing that the room is still uncleaned from all the sake bottles and jugs, Toshiro took the liberty to clean up after his captain and vice-captain. Besides, seeing a dirty mess annoys him. "Hey Hitsugaya-kun!" called out a voice.

Hitsugaya looked back to see his childhood friend, Hinamori Momo standing in his presence. "Oh, it's you..."

"Now, what does that supposed to mean?" the female Shinigami asked as she watched him picking up a few sake bottles from the floor. "Even if we're both in the Gotei 13, we barely get the chance to see one another."

"Well, that's expected," Toshiro replied, turning his attention to her. "I'm from the tenth division and you're from the fif--"

Momo blinked. "What's wrong?"

He noticed there is something different about the raven haired girl. Not only she started tying her hair up into a bun, but she is wearing the fifth division's lieutenant armband. Raising his head a bit, he asked, "You got promoted?"

Figuring out what he is talking about, the peach girl smiled and showed it for him to take a closer look at it. "Oh yeah! I'm now a lieutenant and that means I'm Aizen-taicho's second in command."

"If you became his vice-captain, what happened to the old lieutenant?"

"Ichimaru got promoted and became captain of the third division."

"Oh..."

Toshiro returned to his duties, cleaning up the tenth division office. Deciding to give him a helping hand, Momo began cleaning up as well. Along the way, she asked, "Hitsugaya-kun, do you remember Kira-kun?"

"Yeah, I remember that scrawny friend of yours who was in the fifth division, but got transferred to the fourth division," he replied. "What about him? Did he die or something?"

"Now that's mean to say," Hinamori commented. "Anyway, he got transferred again. Now, he has become Ichimaru-taicho's lieutenant."

"Hn, really now?"

"Hai!"

Suddenly, they heard the slide door open. Turning their heads to the side, the childhood friends from Junrin'an watched the strawberry orange haired woman walk across the room with her arms stretched into the air. "Man, I'm beat!" she said.

"You definitely took your time to come back," Hitsugaya commented.

Noticing the white haired Shinigami and his raven haired friend, Matsumoto looked around and asked, "Oh hey Hitsugaya, have you happened to know where Yuki-chan went?"

"She went to an emergency captain's meeting."

"Now that sucks," she pouted while taking a seat on the sofa. "I was thinking we can have a drink together here in the office."

"Oh no, you're not going to drink with her again! I just finished cleaning up the place!" he snapped. "Besides, didn't you already have enough drinking for one day? What would happen if we have been called up to exterminate Hollows?"

"You're such a worrywart Hitsugaya," Matsumoto said, putting her hands on the back of her head and leaned back. "Just relax for a bit."

"How am I supposed to relax when I have you as my fukutaicho?"

"Now that's mean to say. What about Yuki-chan? She's practically the same thing!"

Hitsugaya gave her a look. "You do understand she's our captain. How am I supposed to go against her?"

Rangiku then folded her arms over her chest. "Oh yeah, you're only a third seat. Privileges of being a vice-captain or captain and the privileges of being anything lower than that are different."

The white haired Shinigami shot a glare towards her general direction. "Daijobou Hitsugaya-kun, knowing you, you'll easily become a vice-captain in the near future," Momo encouraged. "Besides, you have already achieved the necessary requirement to become one, right?"

Toshiro then let out a deep sigh. "I suppose..."

"Hitsugaya is going to become a vice-captain?" Matsumoto asked. "I feel sorry for the captain who is going to be working with him."

"Mou, that's mean to say Rangiku-san," Hinamori commented. "He worked hard to becoming a third seat."

Letting out a sigh of defeat, he walked over to the desk to pick up his zanpakuto. After equipping his weapon on him, Toshiro began walking to the door until he heard his lieutenant call out to him, "Oi, where are you going?"

He stopped for a moment and glanced back to his superiors. "I'm going to do some training."

"Be careful out there Hitsugaya-kun," Momo said.

"Yeah, be careful not to get lost or anything!" Matsumoto exclaimed. "Or else I'll get in trouble by Yuki-chan!"

Upon hearing that comment, Toshiro muttered a shut up from under his breath before leaving the tenth division office. Now, the two vice-captains are left alone together. Hinamori let out a sigh, turning to the strawberry orange haired woman, she commented, "You sure love to push his buttons."

"Of course," she replied. "He's easy to get annoyed. Don't you do that back when you two used to live in Junrin'an?"

Momo slowly shook her head. "It's actually the other way around. Hitsugaya-kun was a bit of a brat back then."

Matsumoto then stared up at the ceiling with a smile on her face. "Well, it goes to show you how much he has grown up over the past few years, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose you're right."


Yuki stretched her arms into the air for a brief moment before putting them down again. She is walking back to her division headquarters all the way from the first division. "Gah, that meeting was pointless," she complained. "The emergency didn't turn out to be an emergency at all. It's only a stupid minor budget issue."

By the time she arrived, the ponytail haired girl noticed a group of her subordinates gathering just outside the division barracks. Curious, she approached and asked them, "What's going on? Why is everyone gathered here?"

"It's Hitsugaya," one of them replied.

She blinked. "Toshiro?"

Giving the captain some room, Hikari took a peek inside to suddenly find the walls, floor, and ceiling frozen with ice. Even though she knew the young Shinigami had the potential to become very powerful, she still finds Toshiro's rate of development mind blowing. "What is he trying to do in there?" another Soul Reaper subordinate asked.

"Maybe he's doing a good deed for us," a third person suggested. "It is a hot day today."

"You're probably right; he wants to give a nice place to cool down."

"No, he isn't cooling things down," Yuki answered.

Heads then turned to their captain. "Then, what is he trying to do Yuki?"

Sensing the increase in spiritual pressure in the room, the ponytail haired woman let out an amused smile and said, "Toshiro's trying to master Bankai."

"What did you say?"

"Bankai?"

"Is that even possible for someone like him?" another Shinigami asked.

"As you guys have already known, after achieving Shikai, there is a chance you can master Bankai," Hikari explained. "However, it takes at least ten years of training to complete the technique. So, I'll tell you this; it's not an easy task. Even I had trouble mastering my Bankai back when I was training to achieve it for the first time."

"S-Sugoi, if he does achieve that level one day, he'll become a reckoning force."

"Do you think he's able to achieve it in ten years?" a female Soul Reaper asked.

"No," Yuki replied. "I think he'll be able to achieve it a lot sooner than expected. Besides, he has a purpose for trying to master it. As long as he stays motivated, before long, he's going to become one of the strongest Soul Reapers in the tenth division."

Noticing what is going on inside the division barracks, a Shinigami jerked back and yelled out loud, "Look out everyone!"

Once they realized it, people started to scramble out of the way before the walls broke and let loose a giant ice dragon. Eventually, it made contact with a tree and froze it. Everyone is astonished by the amount of power that was applied to that attack. Taking a look back inside, they saw the white haired Shinigami standing in the middle of the room with his head slightly tilted forward. With his zanpakuto, Hyorinmaru in his right hand, his feet and left arm became encased with ice.

Kissing between his teeth, Hitsugaya began moving and soon broke all the ice that was on his body. Letting out a sigh, he stepped back all the way to the wall before slide down to sit on the cold floor. Achieving Bankai is harder than he thought despite knowing that it is not going to take one night to learn. "I will achieve it. I will become stronger..."

"Hey Toshiro."

He blinked and raised his head to see his captain standing there in front of him. Realizing what he has done, he quickly got back on his feet and bow down to her. "I'm sorry Yuki for destroying the division barracks!"

She smiled. Placing a hand on his head, she began ruffling through his snowy white hair. "It's alright. You were only trying to achieve Bankai, weren't you?"

"H-How did you know?"

"It's quite obvious after sensing your spiritual pressure." Yuki placed her hands on her hips. "It's quite cold, but in a good way. Luckily, right now is the summer time. So, I'm sure that everyone is going to enjoy the nice air conditioning."

"Eh...hai."

"Don't worry, I won't penalize you. Besides, I do that myself sometimes when I'm facing against powerful people like you and Rangiku-chan."

"I see."

There was a brief moment of silence. "Hey, I have a proposition for you. I'll supervise your Bankai training."

"What? You will?"

She nodded with agreement. "Yep!"

"What about your duties and everyone?" he asked. "I can't ask you to do something like that for me."

Placing her hands on her hips, Hikari leaned over to the younger Shinigami and said, "Hey, if you try to achieve Bankai alone, you'll probably freeze over half of Seireitei! So, just to be on the safe side, it's better to work with someone who has already attained that level of power. Besides, I can give you a few pointers if you want."

Toshiro then smiled back and gave her a short bow. "Arigato Yuki."

"No problem. Now, let's start training right now, shall we?"

Hitsugaya nodded with agreement. "Hai."


References

Gotei 13 - The Thirteen Court Guard Squads, Shinigami - Soul Reaper, Fukutaicho - Lieutenant/Vice-Captain, Taicho- Captain, Arigato- Thank You, Zanpakuto - Soul Cutter, Daijobou - It's Alright, Sugoi- Amazing, Hai - Yes


Author's Note: Yay, Toshiro's Bankai training! We all know what happens to him after that...xD Speaking of Bankai, gah...I'm so excited! For those of you who read the Bleach Manga, you've got to read chapter 398. All I can say, it's just plain...EPIC. I can't wait to read the next chapter! In the meantime, please review! Thanks.