Author's Note: Just a question in response to the reviews for chapter eight…how many of you like tea? XD

Disclaimer: Read previous chapters.

Chapter 9 – The One (Not) Being Trusted by the 12th Division

Note to self; never ever get on the bad side of Hyousetsu-oniichan.

Because when you do, you'll regret it for the rest of your afterlife.

That was the (painful) lesson a certain white-haired troublemaker learnt after the tea incident at the 6th Division just two days ago; the older of the two white-haired children had locked him in his own room with three sets of locks and threatened him that if he should ever escape to the other divisions again, he would increase the number of locks used to the point whereby the little troublemaker would never even dare think about asking candy from Ukitake or have a tea party with Byakuya.

But then again, there were many things in Seireitei that appealed to the young but mysterious shinigami, and heck, there could very well be a place where he could regain his memories. That was the priority at hand…wasn't it?

And so, he had decided, that he would tell Hyousetsu-oniichan to bring him to a place where it would be most possible for him to get over his amnesia. Hyousetsu-oniichan should know where to go to, right?

When the apparent 'Hyousetsu-oniichan' stirred awake, glistening midnight black wings fluttered and touched his finger before leaving via the window. He stood up from his futon, putting on his captain haori, and young Toushirou opened his mouth but Hitsugaya beat him to it. "Toushirou, I will be leaving for an emergency meeting. I'll probably not be back very early, so stay in this room, be quiet and if there's anything you need, tell Matsumoto. Just don't.leave.this.room. Is that understood?" Toushirou pouted slightly but nodded anyway. Hitsugaya mumbled a 'good' before he turned to leave the room, closing (and locking) the door behind him.

The amnesiac whitehead pressed his ear against the door, and heard the familiar masculine voice of the onii-chan telling Matsumoto-oneechan not to let him out of his room, and the familiar squeaky high-pitched voice of onee-chan telling onii-chan that it wasn't safe to 'leave a kid all alone in a room', but onii-chan said that 'it would be absolutely fine'. Whatever absolutely meant, anyway.

And then all that came up was silence. Had Hyousetsu-oniichan left already?

He tugged at the door, and frowned. He tugged at it more, and his frown deepened. He let out squeaks and squeals as he tugged and tugged till the door shook as if an earthquake were occurring. When he found that it didn't work, his frown further embedded itself onto his facial features, before a pout replaced the horribly cute frown. He crawled back into his futon and sat there cross-legged, folding his arms and pouting even more. There was no horrid, cruel plan to get himself out of Hyousetsu-oniichan's trap this time round; was it really going to end like this?

Toushirou couldn't imagine one day without any excitement...it was akin to feasting on nothing but tofu, bread and water for the rest of his life. That was why he thought Hyousetsu-oniichan should loosen up a little...life would be fun if he had fun!

A sigh left his lips. He stood from his sitting position, getting ready to really knock the door down this time. Pressure was placed on the upper sole of his feet as he leapt and dashed towards the door, headbutting the door...and immediately fell flat on the wooden floor, lying before another person's feet.

--The One 09--

A blank stare fell upon the room which was void of all things except for two separate futons. The stare then diverted its attention to the torn up door, before it converted into a glare meant for someone who was wholly responsible for the commotion caused within the division. He left the corridor for the division office, shocking the wits out of his (poor) lieutenant who was about to doze off on her working desk. He stopped, and instantly sent the glare meant for her and her alone, sending her cowering to the sofa instantly. A sweat drop ran down her face.

Matsumoto had a hell lot of explaining to do...

"T-taichou, is something the matter?" the blonde fukutaichou asked, grinning uneasily.

The white-haired captain said nothing as he just glared at her while walking in her direction slowly and steadily, which made things all the more unsettling. She watched his every action, having horrible thoughts about her captain screaming at her for making an offence again (she didn't understand what was wrong with drinking sake while doing paperwork; wasn't it like killing two birds with one stone?), and heard the soft footsteps come to a stop. He turned and locked eyes with the sneaky cat, narrowing his eyes. Matsumoto blinked, not realising that she was wiping away the beads of sweat rolling down her face with the sleeve of her shihakushou. Since when did taichou's glare become so heaty...?

"Matsumoto," Hitsugaya growled, voice dripping with so much venom that his second-in-command actually thought she was poisoned. "What did I tell you before I left this morning?"

"Uhm...er...to keep an eye on little Toushirou-chan?" she replied, scratching her head sheepishly.

"Yes, and what do I see when I return?" he continued asking, eyes narrowing further to thin slits.

"...I dunno."

"I see..." he motioned, pointing at the knocked down door. "...a shattered door. And no one is inside the room. Do you know what that means?" He saw her open her mouth, but he wouldn't give her a chance to make another excuse added to the Poorest Excuses list, and immediately continued from where he stopped. "That means that Toushirou has escaped. Again. And I am going to hold you responsible to his escape."

"Ehhh?? Taichou, hidoi (mean)! Why must it be my fault? I was being a nice little fukutaichou too..." she grumbled, rubbing fake tears from her eyes.

Hitsugaya, of course, didn't buy that.

"In the first place, I told you that Toushirou is not to leave the office, and you agreed. But when I returned, I found you sleeping on the couch while the door has been smashed, and no one inside. How do you explain that? And no excuses or else, Matsumoto," he added cautiously, gazing at her warily.

"Eh...but I really don't know what happened, taichou! I didn't sleep well last night so I tried to get some sleep and when I woke up, taichou you said Toushirou-chan is gone!" Her captain said nothing; he merely stared at her suspiciously. "It's the truth, taichou! How can you doubt your own fukutaichou!?" she protested, raising both arms in the air and waving them frantically.

The white-haired taichou sighed and shook his head in what seemed to be of disappointment. "...Forget it, then. I'll just go look for him myself."

--The One 09--

The masked captain held the syringe as if it were his weapon, standing in the battlefied and facing his enemy of the moment. Lifting the syringe and sucking up the medicine, he placed the bottle aside and gave the syringe top a hard tap. Colourless liquid came out in the form of tiny droplets, bursting and dissipating away into nothingness like fireworks. Cat-like eyes stared at his target, narrowing. He moved closer towards his trapped prey, scratching at the bed as he raised the syringe, and grinned down at the motionless figure. "Don't worry, my little treasure, this won't hurt one bit..." the captain hissed, pressing the needle against the subject's soft, baby-smooth skin, and pushing the needle in...

The slamming of doors and echoing footsteps along the hallways dragged him out of his sadisicm. Kurotsuchi turned to look at whoever it was, not realising that he had left his test subject's body numb with the needle still poking through the skin. A tuft of white hair and glaring emerald orbs came into view, and it didn't take the mad scientist long before he knew exactly who had arrived at his laboratory without so much as a notice. How rude.

Well, brats would be brats.

"Hitsugaya-taichou, what a pleasant little surprise," the masked taichou sneered, diverting his attention away from the invader. He grabbed the syringe and pulled it out immediately, disrupting the procedure and drawing a bit of blood. Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes at the emphasisation on the word 'little' and at the blood dripping as a result of Kurotsuchi's madness. "Now, what brings you here? Make it quick, or else this syringe will go into your neck next," giggled the masked sadist, enjoying the thoughts of strapping the young captain to the bed and ripping his clothes, bringing the knife down and opening him up...

"I would like to know if you have seen Toushirou around," Hitsugaya replied icily, looking at the supposed corpse on the bed. He knew it wasn't him, but still... He closed his eyes and sighed. "If you haven't, then I would leave you to your work, Kurotsuchi-taichou."

Mayuri, however, stopped the young taichou in his tracks when he was sent in his mad scientist giggling fit. Hitsugaya ignored the goose bumps and waited for the other to recover from his giggling fit. The mad scientist stopped, but a smirk was still plastered on his face. "Ohh, you mean your cute little friend, don't you?" He then sighed. "I should have indulged in the pleasure of experimenting on him while you hadn't reached here, but another of my subjects caught my attention."

Hitsugaya didn't want to know what Kurotsuchi was doing, let alone how he wanted to so-called indulge in the pleasure...it was just sick enough that the 12th Division captain got rid of so many lives as if they were nothing to him. "So, where is he?" he asked - demanded, rather - impatiently.

"Just go to the back and you'll find him meddling around with my chemicals." Hitsugaya suddenly looked mortified. "Ah, well, kids these days...touching things that aren't meant to be touched and barging in on private property..." Mayuri mumbled to himself before looking into the shorter taichou's emerald eyes. "You'd better warn him not to mix the chemicals in the opened bottles; those chemicals are highly explosive, radiative and corrosive. I can't afford to have my precious test subjects and lab gone in an explosion, you know."

What about your subordinates, Hitsugaya wanted to ask, but eventually he didn't, knowing fully well what the other captain would say. "...Alright. I'll keep that in mind."

"And leave when you get him; it had been a complete waste of my effort and time to get Nemu to go to the 10th Division to fetch him for me..." the captain mused on, but Hitsugaya was already out of earshot by then.

--The One 09--

By the time Hitsugaya had returned to his office with Toushirou in his hands, he yelled at the top of his voice for his lazy pighead of a fukutaichou to wake up and stop drooling on the paperwork before retreating back to the room. He held the door frame back in place, entering his room and holding out an exposed palm. A mirror-like projection appeared in the empty space of the door, reflecting both white-haired males' expressions - one serious, the other, pouting and confused at the same time. The white-haired prodigy then sat next to Toushirou, removing his haori. The young troublemaker tried to seize this chance to escape but Hitsugaya held him back in time.

"It's no use even if you want to go out," the elder of the white-haired youngsters muttered coldly. "The kidou used was kyoumon, easy to break from the inside but difficult to break from the outside."

Toushirou struggled in Hitsugaya's firm grasp, but failed to get the other to loosen; he tightened his grip even further, in fact. "If it's easy to break from the inside, then I can break through it, can't I, Hyousetsu-oniichan?"

"Of course not," Hitsugaya sighed. "It depends on the location; I used it from the inside, so now the effects are reversed (1). It would be near impossible for you to break out of this, for tonight."

The younger of the two pouted, and that ended their conversation.

But still, Hitsugaya figured, it was best to be on the safe side for now. He waited for Toushirou to get bored and sleepy so that he would be able to get some rest, before Hitsugaya could get on with the paperwork outside; he'd be out of his mind if he entrusted Matsumoto with the task of completing the paperwork. She wouldn't get a single one done, and if she did, it wouldn't be done properly. When the younger white-haired child finally rocked himself to sleep, the elder stood up noiselessly, grabbing his haori as he did so, and proceeded to make his way towards the kyoumon. If he were to break this barrier, there would be a chance Toushirou might awaken and escape again, but at the same time, he'd be outside and keeping an eye on the door at all times, so...no harm in breaking the barrier, right?

Before Hitsugaya could even lift a finger, a loud noise coming from a division nearby reached his ears, but passed by the sleeping child's. He frowned and broke the barrier with slightly raised reiatsu before restraining it, and dashed past the empty office, putting on his haori. Yells and gasps of surprise came into his hearing, while the fluctuating reiatsu allowed him to pinpoint exactly where the commotion was coming from. Hitsugaya's frown deepened, and he changed his inital direction to where the 12th Division was.

A/N: Anyone noticed a slight difference in the chapter title? Heheh, it was deliberate xD

I'm beginning to realise how much of a brat I'm making Toushirou...does anyone think so too? Because I may have to tone down the brattiness a little...