Sorry to keep you waiting! ^^ I must say, this is the most boring chapter I'd ever written. -.- Warning: there may be gory stuff, so watch out! :o And there will also be a conflict between Hitsugaya and Rukia. It's alright, all relationship have conflict. Please enjoy!

"What?" Hitsugaya walked towards Matsumoto in shock, but got his leg hurt by the leg of the sofa.

"Captain Ginno…" Matsumoto repeated, choking on her tears. "He is dead."

The statement hit Hitsugaya more than anything else. That person, he's striking back. Not able to kill Rukia, he had tried to kill other unguarded people. Most importantly, he could even kill a captain. That proved how dangerously powerful this man was.

He could feel the power of this man; he could feel the evil in this menacing man. Without thinking, Hitsugaya ran off to Rukia, leaving a crying dumbfounded Matsumoto behind.

If this man was a stalker, he would know how much Rukia meant to Hitsugaya. He would probably try to kill Rukia.

He barged into Rukia's room.

"H…Hitsugaya?" Rukia said, surprised.

Hitsugaya stared at Rukia. Gosh, what excuse was he going to give to Rukia so she would not be suspicious?

"Erm…" Hitsugaya stammered. Sometimes even a genius like him could be confounded. "I'm feeling bored, so I'd come to visit you out of free time."

"Oh, okay." Rukia said happily. "I'm rather bored too."

Hitsugaya sat down next to Rukia. "I thought you have captain's duty to do?"

"Erm, today's rather free." Hitsugaya said uneasily. He was not used to lying.

Rukia nodded. "But I thought the captains today would be all doing investigation and stuff. After all, I heard that…" Rukia cocked her head. "…that Captain Ginno is dead…"

Hitsugaya looked down sadly. "Yeah…"

"Did you come because you are worried about me?" Rukia smiled contently. "You've heard that I was attacked, right?"

Hitsugaya nodded, embarrassed.

Rukia smiled. "Knew it. You don't need to worry about me, you know. After all, I'm a vice-captain too."

Hitsugaya nodded half-heartedly. He had already made a note to himself that he would stay next to Rukia all the time from now onwards.

However, it was easier said than done.

~One hour later~

Hitsugaya was writing his paperwork on the desk beside Rukia while Rukia was watching some weird children show.

Hitsugaya had asked Matsumoto to bring all his paperwork to Rukia's house, so that he could do his work. (Hitsugaya is such a responsible captain!)

However, the freaking children show was driving Hitsugaya crazy. It strongly reminded him of Hinamori at home watching Barney. He used to strike Hinamori in the head for watching these shows and immediately went to switch off the television, despite Hinamori's begs.

However this time it was different. The person watching was Rukia, not Hinamori.

He continued writing his paper work, trying hard not to strike Rukia accidentally due to his annoyance.

After two hours, he had only finished two of his thousands of paperwork needed to be done.

~4 pm in the afternoon, best time to shop~

"Rukia!!" Matsumoto burst into the room cheerfully. "Let's go central town!"

"Eh, captain?" The orange-hair female stared at her captain who was sitting beside Rukia. "So you were here all along, Captain Hitsugaya!" She went over and hugged the small boy.

"Oof, let go!" Hitsugaya struggled away. When he finally got away from his lieutenant, Rukia was walking out merrily.

"Rukia, where are you going?" He asked.

"To central town with Rangiku-san." Rukia answered, wondering why Hitsugaya was asking when it was so obvious.

Hitsugaya cursed silently. He still had tons of work undone, and Rukia's going to central town already. He watched in exasperation Rukia as she walked buoyantly out of the room.

"Wait."

The two females looked around to face a highly determined boy. "O…okay, sure."

And Hitsugaya spent the whole day in central town unwillingly.

~10 pm~

"Hitsugaya I want to sleep…" Rukia said sleepily and irritably. Hitsugaya had stayed by her all day long and it's making her tired. She had hoped privacy at night, but Hitsugaya seemed to want to stay here to do finish his paperwork.

"I won't disturb you." Hitsugaya said, equally tired. "I'd just stay here to finish up these paperwork due tomorrow. Just go to sleep."

Rukia sighed and slept, with Hitsugaya on the other side looking after her.

~3 am~

Hitsugaya laid back and rubbed his temple. Finally, he only left about 3 more to go. Being a captain was harder than he thought.

He turned and looked at the sleeping Rukia. The blanket was kicked away onto the side. Hitsugaya sighed and went to help cover Rukia with the blanket. Rukia had better not get a cold.

The next day, the bright sun shone down on Rukia as she woke up. She rubbed her eyes sleepily. She had a really weird dream yesterday, it's like somebody was caressing her hair, and it felt really warm and comfortable. She laughed a bit at the weird feeling she had and went to her cabinet of cloth to change.

She was about to take off her pajamas when a voice behind her stopped her. "Rukia, I'm still here."

"Eek!" Rukia spun around to see Hitsugaya, still on the same table.

"W…why are you still here?" Rukia stammered, face blushing.

"I finished it in 4am, I was so tired I didn't bother to go back, so I…" He yawned and continued weakly. "I slept on this table."

Rukia glared at Hitsugaya. "You know, you don't need to go this far to protect me. You can't stay with me all the time! I can protect myself. I still need my own space and privacy!" Rukia stopped immediately, looking at Hitsugaya's sleepless eyes.

Hitsugaya frowned. "Look, I'm sorry I slept here, alright? I've got a lot of things to do, and I could have finished it if you didn't go to central town!"

"So you're saying it's my fault? You don't have to follow me around, captain!"

The atmosphere around them tightened with the angry aura of Rukia.

A hell butterfly flew in. Hitsugaya held it and received a shock.

"What is it?" Rukia asked.

"2nd squad 9th seat Severus Snape, was found severely injured yesterday at the streets. He died in the hospital today." Hitsugaya said, swallowing his saliva.

"Another case?" Rukia said, appalled.

"Yeah." Hitsugaya said thoughtfully. "Hey, Rukia, can you go with me to the crime scene where Severus is attacked?"

"Er, sure." Rukia said tentatively.

They walked towards the streets, and saw a whole group of squad five people surrounding a particular place.

"Oh hey, Captain Hitsugaya." Captain Aizen smiled. "You've come here to help us investigate?"

"Not really, just wanted to know the information." Hitsugaya said.

"I see, follow me then." Captain Aizen led Hitsugaya and Rukia over to an area with yellow tape blocking the entrance of passer-bys. There was blood shattered all over that area.

"That's a lot of blood…" Hitsugaya commented, sounding disgusted.

Captain Aizen smiled. "Yeah. Whoever who did this is very sadistic indeed. You want to see Severus' injuries?" He handed Hitsugaya a few photos.

Rukia saw Hitsugaya's expression changed from serious to absolute abhorrence. "What is it?" Rukia asked, straining her head to see.

Hitsugaya pushed Rukia away on her face. "Don't look."

Rukia, irritated by what Hitsugaya did, retorted. "Why can't I look? You were the one who told me to come here with you, and you won't let me see anything. That's unfair!"

Hitsugaya stared at the pouting Rukia, and finally relented. "Fine, look all you want, but don't get too gross out."

Rukia took the photo. There was a disfigured person, the right hand were half torn away. The left eyeballs were on the floor, dug out from the eye directly. The rest of the body looked like it was tortured cruelly, covering with blood. There was stuff on the ground that resembled toes from the feet...

The goriness of this photo caught poor innocent Rukia off guard. She dropped the photo on the ground and fainted.

"Rukia!"

The whole world went blank.

The same hand was caressing Rukia's hair. The warmth and affection on the hand warmed up Rukia's heart. The comfort on her hair was indescribable.

The hand stopped caressing and left Rukia's hair. The huge sense of loss landed on Rukia immediately. "Wait, don't go…" Rukia cried out. "Don't leave…"

"Rukia?"

Rukia opened her eyes and saw Hitsugaya leaning over her. She put her hand and felt the hair that was missing the caress of the hand. It was a dream after all, Rukia thought dejectedly, recognising this place as Hitsugaya's house.

"You okay, Rukia?" Hitsugaya frowned. "I told you not to look, and see what happens when you don't listen to me?"

Rukia glared in annoyance. "Shut up!" She stood up from the bed and prepared to leave. Hitsugaya followed suit.

"Are you following me?" Rukia asked irritably.

"I'm not following you…" Hitsugaya said uneasily.

"You are! Stalker!" Rukia rebuked and ran off, only with Hitsugaya following her.

~the next day~

Rukia woke up to find Hitsugaya still in her room. This ruined all her mood. She had had that wonderful dream again, and she wanted to continue having that warm, loving feeling. The way Hitsugaya stalked her completely put her off the mood.

"Don't tell me that you stayed late until four again and had to sleep here, because you obviously did not have a lot of work this time." Rukia said monotonously.

"Fine then, I just want to stay here, so I stayed." Hitsugaya answered blatantly.

"You…!" Rukia wanted to kick this pompous boy in front of him.

"Another person died today." Hitsugaya said seriously.

"Another victim?" Rukia said with nauseate. "Who is it this time?"

"Naruto…" Hitsugaya said sadly.

"What?" Rukia stared unbelieving at Hitsugaya.

"And Echizen Ryoma was also utterly injured trying to save Naruto." Hitsugaya added.

Rukia was apparently shocked. Her eyes softened. "They're you friends, aren't they?"

"Yeah, sort of." Hitsugaya said, lowering his head, hiding his face in the shadow of his bangs. "It doesn't make sense, why would Naruto be killed? He didn't do anything to me…" Hitsugaya thought, heartbroken, as he stared at the equally gory photos Captain Aizen had sent him.

"But if Echizen is alive, then we can ask him who did all these." Rukia said.

"No." Hitsugaya shook his head sadly. "Apparently Echizen had lost his memory about what happened that day. All of it. That person seemed to have done something to charm his brain or something that made him forget."

"I...I see." Rukia looked down, feeling helpless.

Somewhere hidden in the sky, an orange hair guy was watching Hitsugaya.

Chapter ends here! I'm sorry to Snape fans and Naruto fans! But well, they will be revenged! By Rukia's dear dear Hitsugaya! XD Hope this chapter is nice! Three people died in this chapter you know. ): Oh well, still, hope you enjoyed it. ^^ Reviews!