9

"But, he really wants to know you a lot! He adores you!" the girl in front of her tried one more time; but Seiko knew it was futile. Like she didn't see the mountain of paper in front of her. Well, it was mostly finished paperwork; but it didn't mean Seiko didn't have any work to do after this. Silly girl. Moreover, she had never like being an object to obsess over. She was warm hearted alright; but she didn't like things like this.

"He can wait till later. You can wait till later. I'm too busy to deal with you right now so if you don't mind..." Seiko didn't complete the sentence just to be polite for it was overly obvious what she wanted of the girl. The girl mumbled a small 'sorry' and left the room she was working alone. It seemed that Seiko had hurt her feelings.

Well, she couldn't care less.

She usually did whatever it took not to hurt people; but sometimes it was just an impossible task. Also, she really didn't want to take her time being gentle right now. She sighed and turned her eyes back to her work. There was just so much she had to do because of the damn slack-off Matsumoto that she wouldn't care about little details like some hurt feelings or overly excited fans – she had no idea when or how she got them though.

Matsumoto had given up on the paperwork in two days and was now slacking off God knows where. Seiko didn't want to overwork her captain so she had taken on all the paperwork of the useless lieutenant. Captain would only need to stamp them because her stamp wouldn't be valid since she was one lower seat. She knew that by experience so she left them un-stamped... unless her Captain especially gave her the warranty to stamp them.

"MAAAATSUMOTOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Seiko snorted. She knew this annoyed voice of her captain too well. It was a sound that only the damn slack-off lieutenant managed to make that almost-too-cool, white haired little giant shout. Seiko would sometimes even feel jealous of the special deep trust and friendship they shared. She didn't like the feeling of being left out and because of her position in the team, she would naturally be left out in some issues. It wasn't anything special, she just didn't like not knowing something. Anything. She could have accepted it; but it didn't change the amount of annoyance she'd felt.

"Seiko!" Hitsugaya stormed in the room she was working in. Damn, she was about to finish; he couldn't wait a little before storming in, could he? She didn't raise her head to look at him which happened extremely rare. But she just felt too annoyed with all the paperwork and wanted it to finish; the sooner the better and she had almost no patience to anything that interrupted her work for she had spent most of her patience on that silly girl.

"Is everything done?" Hitsugaya asked.

"Not yet," Seiko sighed, "thanks to the work your slack-off lieutenant left me. It'd be finished if Captain came in a few minutes later, though."

"Don't complain." Hitsugaya breathed. Seiko raised her head to actually meet his icy eyes with her deep, swallowing, purple eyes that had flames inside right now.

"Believe me, Captain; if I were complaining, you couldn't stand it. Now, if you excuse me." She said in a barely calm voice and kept on doing the paperwork she was getting so really fed up with.

"Whatever." said Hitsugaya and started watching outside from the window as he waited for the work to be done. If he's waiting like this, it must be important, Seiko thought; but still peeked a glance at his shining profile against the light coming from the window before she went back to work. He looked like a prince she had seen from the fairytale picture books – when she was still back in her first home in Rukongai, of course. She knew her heart would melt with the pouring feelings of her childhood if she kept looking at his godly figure with the light sparkling around him, warming the color of his eyes. She averted her eyes from the pretty scene and concentrated on her work.

A few quiet minutes passed as she finished the last few papers she had to fill. The silence with him would never be akward. It would be more like calming; like the calmness you'd find in a snowy, day sitting under the snow when no one's out there. Hitsugaya wasn't the type to keep things all complex and weirdly not understandable. If he didn't talk, he didn't have anything to say and that was all. Well, mostly.

"It's done, Captain." Seiko informed him in a few minutes and got off of her chair. Almost all of her joints made strange cracking sounds when she stretched.

"Just how long have you been sitting?" Hitsugaya asked, not so much trying to conceal the tiny speck of surprise in his voice.

"For about... five hours?" Seiko answered shrugging, like it was something daily for her – which wouldn't be too much of an exaggereation, "Your lieutenant is hard on me, Captain." she added with a faint, evil grin playing on the corner of her lips.

"It's your fault for going easy on her." Hitsugaya replied, clearly having fun though it definitely didn't show on his face, "Anyways, come quick. We're heading to the real world."

"What is it this time?" Seiko sighed, "Last time they called it 'urgent' it was all about a bunch of extra-weak hollows."

"Kurosaki was away for a week that time and that town is helpless when that hot-headed substitue is away. You can't help it."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, don't complain." Seiko said sarcastically, "So who else is coming?"

"If you're asking Matsumoto, she chose to stay back and do the paperwork for a change." said Hitsugaya. Seiko was sure that she heard an evil kind of joy in his voice.

"Yeah, I'm sure she did." Seiko grinned. She was positive that Matsumoto would definitely find a way to slack off OR call some poor fourth or fifth seat for 'help'... or maybe Hisagi. "So who's actually coming with us?"

"No one else."

"No one... seriously?"

"Do you need help with some extra-weak hollow?" Hitsugaya replied, knowing Seiko would never accept something like that. Seiko shook her head no. Hitsugaya continued; "Since we'll be staying for at least a month-"

"A MONTH? Just what IS this mission? Do you wish to work me to death?"

Hitsugaya snorted at her over-reaction.

"Urahara's gigais are always comfortable. And since we're staying for a month, the less the better."

"So it's just us with a crappy mission at real world for a whole ultra-long, useless month." Seiko sighed, "Oh great. Great. I'd volunteer to stay back too."

"Don't complain! Think of it as a vacation, if it bugs you that much."

"Sure, sure..." Seiko frowned. Vacation, yeah. Well, even if it was tiring, she would rather be of use instead of a vacation at a time like this. The untamed foreign energy frames were roaming just outside of Seireitei and if the shinigamy city weren't being protected by the wall, it would invade the Seireitei instantly. Just in three days, five people had gone missing from Rukongai and one lower-ranked shinigami was also lost in the woods never to be found again. The whole Seireitei was alarmed even though there were no official declaration of emergency and that was the very reason of the billions of paperwork. Mayuri had gone insane researching and there were lots and lots and lots to do here; yet they were going to the real world, away from the place they could be needed.

"What about this much paperwork I did?" Seiko complained but Hitsugaya interfered before she could continue.

"Matsumoto will stamp the ones you already did and the rest is up to her."

No problem at this part either. For a second Seiko focused on the colorless reiatsu – she had started to call the foreign reiatsu 'colorless' because every single reiatsu, even hollow reiatsu had a color(definitely burnt black) to her, but this one... it didn't have a color. Seiko had given even the most soulless reiatsu she had seen before a color; but she couldn't give a color to this. It was a first to her. But maybe the mission was something about it. No, it had to be about the colorless reiatsu. Why couldn't she think of it before? In the end, she decided to ask as if she hadn't understood yet.

"Say, captain," she started with a little hesitation, "why are we being sent away while there's such a mess in Rukongai?"

"To investigate." Hitsugaya said easily. She had been right. All those hours of paperwork must have clouded her brain for a while. But then, there came the other questions.

"What do we investigate in the real world?"

"The same reiatsu was spotted in the real world and it's much stronger than here. Though there it's harmless for now. We think the reiatsu isn't truly awakened there yet and we don't want to awaken it; but we still can't miss any chance to investigate."

"So we go and look into the roots of it." Seiko mombled, more to herself. She hadn't heard about the same reiatsu being in the real wold. Of course, it was probably kept a secret still, just in case. "Now it makes sense that you're chosen, you know the real world the best. But, why choose me to accompany you?"

"You're the best choice, that's why." Hitsugaya replied without pausing to think. So he trusted her that much. Well, that of course made her happy, but...

"Best choice?" she couldn't help chuckling sarcastically, "What part of me is a best choice? I don't have a Bankai, I'm not cool-headed, I don't know the principles of an investigetion and there are still a lot I'm unable to understand. You are better off alone."

"You're called the Queen of Flames because of your captain-class fire-power without a bankai. You achieved your shikai in just four months. You're strong, you can watch your back and also watch my back too, when needed. You can react to the reiatsu changes in the air the best and you can easily tell how it's changed even in the slightest change. You're more rational than most of your higher-ups and you can think both complex and simplistic depending on the situation. You can see lots of possibilities and you see the possibilities none of us can think of. Is it enough, or do you want me to continue my reasons of choosing you?"

Seiko blinked a few times after this long speech, it was unusual for him to talk this long if he wasn't explaining something and he definitely wasn't explaining anything right now. She had no idea that he thought of her this way, though, she felt so proud. Still, she wasn't convinced.

"Then what about the times I'm hot-headed?"

"I'll be there to cool you down."

"And about the things I'm unable to understand?"

"Those are mostly the things that none of the shinigami understand. I really wonder when you'll stop underestimating yourself."

"I'm just stating the truth!" Seiko frowned.

"Fine," Hitsugaya breathed, "I won't argue with you on this anymore, it's pointless AND you're coming with me." He turned around and walked out of the room.

Seiko let out a low groan with annoyance. Why was it that nobody believed her when it came to her powers? She was the only one who didn't exaggerate them. She knew herself. She wasn't strong, she knew that and wasn't ashamed to admit that; yet everyone kept saying the opposite, arguing with her when she stated it simple and open, it was annoying. And the colorless reiatsu wasn't helping at all. It was so empty that it also annoyed her, made her want to fill the hole OR get a bucket of paint and color it. Jeesh.

Hitsugaya stopped right out of the door and turned his icy stare on Seiko, waiting for her to start moving. Seiko sighed and gave in, walked after him as he led the way. She sure wanted to act selfish and stubborn; but it had been long – almost twenty years – since she had given up on childish acts. She remembered how it was back then, how she wanted to please "the big brother" and how hard she tried for that. Not much was different today, she still wanted to please Hitsugaya; the only difference was that he was her respectable Captain now, not The Big Brother which meant she had to act a lot more careful now. Though she was getting used to the fact and starting to relax lately.

Drowned in thoughts, she realized a little too late that they were headed for the Senkai gate. It confused her a little.

"Captain, what about the papers I need to sign, or a notification about me being your company? Are we going directly?"

"Everything's taken care of. I expected the question a bit earlier, though. Get focused." Hitsugaya said. Seiko chilled. He had always been good at reading her of course; but at times, it kind of felt creepy. Then again, neither his words nor him reading her was the thing that gave her the chills. It was the tone of his voice. There was something in it that she couldn't quite make out. It almost sounded like he... hated her? No way, that wasn't possible. But it was obvious that something was disturbing him. She wondered if Matsumoto had annoyed him out of his mind again. If that was it, Seiko was seriously going to scold her after she came back from the real world.

Thinking on it, she'd have to stay there for longer than a month and she bet she couldn't hang on without her pills and other stuff. She had to grab some of them before they left or she wouldn't be of any use, she'd be a burden instead since the night burns would come back instantly, even with Hitsugaya there to help her.

"Captain, I need to grab some things from my room before we take our leave." Seiko informed him and heard him sigh with annoyance.

"Are you sure all that paperwork hasn't clouded your brain yet? Do these things in time, we're about to reach the gate." Hitsugaya said, barely glancing at her from the corner of his eye.

"I'm sorry, Captain." Seiko said. He was definitely annoyed like hell, she knew that if she were obedient and calm, he would also calm down very soon. Though every cell in her body screamed that this weird mood was causeless, she decided to postpone the issue a little.

"Hurry up, I'm not waiting for you." Hitsugaya said, looking back at the road he was walking.

"Aye!" Seiko said and shunpoed towards her room. She believed she'd make it before he reached the Senkai gate – if she hurried and he didn't hurry, that is. One thing certain was that she was going to murder Matsumoto when she returned form the real world.


A/N: Sorry, I couldn't make it, I almost couldn't make it today either. It was weirdly very busy these two days, I couldn't predict. But, well, in the end I finished editing it. Honestly, every time I read it, I found a few more things to add or correct, I was scared that I could never finish editing it so I put it up the way it is. I don't know if it still needs editing, so please tell me if you see anything, anything wrong with it. Please. So please review, I hope you like this chapter too. And the new ones too, the action has already started. In the next chapter... well... I'm changing Little Icicle to my liking with good reasons, this way I can get the scenes that make me drool while keeping him in character... technically. Oh well. Again, please review!