Author's Note: Hey there everybody! Here's another update for you guys~ And as always please R&R~
Disclaimer: I don't own BLEACH!
After safely escorting his client, Toushiro excused himself as he made his way to the security room. Walking through the hallway stealthy whilst avoiding the guards and disrupting the security camera for him to pass without being seen. He got himself the map of the manor after he knocked out a bodyguard that was alone by himself.
Finally he reached his destination. But before he get in, he heard a struggle inside the room Looks like someone else is here first. He placed his ear and listened. Two heavy thuds.
"Tie them and gag them. We need to check for Akita before we made our move." A gruff voice of a man ordered,
"Right. Are the others in position?" Another man with a slightly higher hoarse voice answered. Two men, he concluded. The typing sound of the keyboard, "Yes, I see them. Here."
"The woman is still alive next to Kabuto but where's Akita and the woman's partner?"
A button click, "I'll rewind the time...There. Her partner already left ten minutes ago but no Akita."
"Give me their last location, I'll go find Akita and the woman's partner. Her partner may be hired to protect her."
"Then we need to kill her and Kabuto quickly. Leave Akita here since he failed to do his job."
"Thank god you said that, he's been an annoyance from the beginning."
"Go check out with the others, it seems like someone is scrambling the phone signals. I can't reach them. Find the guy, kill him."
"Sure. Call me when the signal is clear. Then we can get rid of our targets."
"Got it."
The sound of footsteps as Toushiro ready his hidden knives in his sleeves. When the door was open, Toushiro quickly muffled the man's mouth silencing him as he dived the knife into his throat and pushing him inside the room. The man dropped dead to the ground with a thud. His partner turned around only to meet his instant death when the knife was aimed to his head. Locking the door behind him, Toushiro made his way to the security screen to start his work. But not before putting back his knives into his sleeves after he plucked out from the two dead bodies. The two security guards were tied up near the corner as Toushiro calculating his time to find other enemies before they woke up. Receiving the guest list he can began the face recognition on his phone.
Finally found a match of three people that using fake ID to get through the security. He scanned the screen as he looked for the enemies, one woman and two men. The woman was the closest to Kabuto, only a few steps to reach with her companion accompanied her. The other was apparently by the door which had security guards. Toushiro noted their faces after he finished his search. Now is the time to strike. He called Koyuki. He saw her answered an quickly ordered her.
"I need you and Kabuto move to another place. There's two people close to you. And another one by the door."
"Wh...?"
"Don't ask too much. Use the door on the right and head to the room at the end of the hallway."
"They'll followed us and we're going to be trap in the room if we do that!" She whispered angrily through the phone,
"Just go, now."
Then he hung up and made his way to rendezvous with her. He checked his phone as he saw they were already closing in to Kabuto and Koyuki, all three of them. When he turned a corner, he saw the three getting into the room. Making haste Toushiro held onto the door before it close and shoved a knife into one of the man's chest killing him with an instant. Stunned by his approach. The other man quickly charged to him as he grabbed onto his arms to restraint him while the woman pulled out her gun from her purse aiming for him. With quick thinking, he head butted the man with force. He loosen his hold on Toushiro while he was knocked to the side after being punched by the gut and a slit on the throat. Using the chance, the woman shot Toushiro by the shoulder when he wasn't quick enough to avoid it. His knife threw at her, aiming for her hand as the sharp knife slice her hand whilst her gun free from her grasp. Ignoring his wound, he grabbed her gun and landed a jab to her throat to make her choke. The woman stumbled back slightly with her hand nursing her throat and breathing heavily. He took hold onto her gun and aimed for her head. She smiled nervously,
"You wouldn't kill a woman, do you?"
"No." The woman eyes glistening with hope but was wiped out when Toushiro pulled the trigger and said without mercy,
"I'm only sending you to hell."
The sound of the gun firing was heard inside the room as the woman fall to the ground with a bullet in her head. The people in the room were stunned by his actions as Kabuto's bodyguards held out their guns aimed at him. Koyuki was the first to spoke up and stood in front of him even though she was shocked by his merciless and cold behaviour,
"Don't shoot him. He's with me."
"Koyuki, what's the meaning of this?"
"Uncle Kabuto, there's someone sending people to assassinate me and I've hired him to get rid of them as well as protect me."
"What? Who?"
"Doto. He's been plotting to kill me awhile now."
"And also to kill you off and Akita. I've heard it from their comrades." Toushiro added as he threw the gun at the feet of Kabuto's bodyguards.
"Really? Akita as well?" Koyuki was surprised by the fact they weren't sent here to kill her only.
"Hn,"
"That scoundrel! I always knew he was up to something after Kenta passed away. He always look down on your father when he was made the head of your family and Doto was clearly displeased. Never thought he gone this far, he will pay for this!"
"Uncle Kabuto, I know your angry at that but right now we need to clear up the guests and bring Akita to the cops."
"Akita? What happened to him?"
"He tried to kill him. He get rid of his bodyguards and tied him up in the room. He was in a part of Doto's plan." Koyuki pointed to Toushiro as he ignored them and continue getting his combat knives.
"Akita tried to persuade me to make a deal of us combining our company and made a marriage proposal to me that I declined. He wanted a part of share that Doto promised to him once he get me to his side."
"That useless fool. His father will clearly disown him for his improper behaviour and humiliation of his own company and family. I'll take care of everything here, Koyuki. I'll send a doctor here to the wound on your shoulder. We'll talk about it after things cleared out." Kabuto
After the doctor done bandaging his wound, they made his way to the grand living room of Kabuto's manor. The doctor standing beside him excused himself after he received his payment and handed him some medication to apply on his wound. Joining them in the room, Kabuto asked in corcern,
"How is your wound?"
"Fine." He said simply,
"Good. Koyuki explained to me the situation and you did a well job on finding out Doto's subordinates. Thank you for saving my life and Koyuki's."
"Don't take it a wrong way, I was merely hired to kill off people not saving you." He said curtly,
"Right," Kabuto frowned about his behavior,
"Don't mind him, he isn't much of a talker."
"I can see that. Anyway we can discuss things tomorrow, Koyuki. I'll help you with anything I can and give you full support on catching Doto in the act."
"Thank you, Uncle Kabuto. I really appreciate that."
"Your welcome, Koyuki."
Exiting the manor, they reach back to the mansion whilst Koyuki prepared the payment for Toushiro. The black suitcase filled with cash as Toushiro inspected it to make sure and counted them.
"This will do." Closing up the suitcase, Toushiro nodded acknowledging to her.
"Nice doing business with you, Hitsugaya. You'll make a great bodyguard, you know?"
"If it wasn't the high payroll, I won't be doing this kind of work. Your payment was higher than most of the other job." He admitted,
"Right, either way thank you. Now you'll best be on your way, my butler parked your car at the front. You really are a merciless, I thought you would spare the woman but I was wrong,"
"Hn." He turned away from her as he chose to ignore her comment and exited the mansion with his payment.
Arrived at a local bar the next day after he finished his work, Toushiro went inside to find Nel and Ichigo. Nel waved at him and calling out to him, they were sitting in a booth accompanied by a familiar face. He then widen his eyes as he recognises the man from his days. He took a seat next to Ichigo at the booth as he acknowledging his presence before he sat down. He glared at the man across the table. His voice cold filled with malice, "Ichimaru."
The man with sliver grey hair and snake like eyes let out a fake smile as he greet Toushiro, "Hitsugaya, never thought I'd see the man that have been MIA for three years to appear before me..."
"And I never thought I would see you again with your retarded face,"
"Ooh, that hurts my feelings... Old friend... I was expecting a warm welcome after ya years of hiding and finally came out from the dark, but why the long face? Ya should be ecstatic,"
"That's because there were some irritating people trying to get me into prison for a crime I didn't commit..."
"Really? Now that's terrible... Who would do that?" Toushiro gritted his teeth as Gin continued, "But ya know, ya've already committed many crimes that can put ya in prison for years and yet what's the point on clearing ya name ?"
"It's a different story... Clearly I don't need to reason with you since you're just a swindler..." He snapped,
"Now now... ya know I was doing my job on the investigation so it's crucial to have a disguise... But it seems I didn't fool ya... Pity,"
"That's because I'm not some retard who tried to kill me twice when I've already seen through your intention from the start..."
"Is it? Or ya failed to get rid of me when ya have the chance that make ya frustrated? Am I a challenge for ya, Hitsugaya?"
"Then give me the pleasure to end your life right now..." Toushiro threatened.
"Now where's the fun in that?" Gin smirked slightly,
Nel broke off the tension between them as she bellowed,
"Stop it already, you two! I've want to meet up it's because I need to discuss it with you guys... So don't make a fuss about it!"
The two shut up immediately as they glared at each other heatedly while Ichigo sat there watching them wondering how they knew each other. He can sense the killer aura from the two. Normally he would stand by Ichimaru's side but right now he chose not to intervene or else it would be messy.
"We're going to discuss about the clues we gather so far and set up a conclusion with this weird case of murdering," Nel started,
"You invited him here?" Toushiro asked in a irritated tone as he gazed coldly at Ichimaru.
"Yes, its kind of a long story..." Toushiro interrupted, "...And you didn't bother to tell me after all this time?!"
"I've tried so hard just to get you accepted this... If I told you before then you won't even help me with this! You would just disappear again!"
"It's because people kept tracking on me. Especially this guy who particularly gave my place away last time and I ended up with hounds tailing me."
"Right. But this time I promised you he won't. Trust me."
"I've gave you the clues that I found, so right now I'm not needed, you guys can go figure out yourself..."
"No, we're going to discuss it right now."
"This is bullshit! I'm not going sit down and chat with people who will stab me in the back when I'm not looking!"
"Look, Hitsugaya... We promised that we won't do that kind of thing so please calm down..." Ichigo reassured him,
"Sure... I trust you but him?" He pointed at Ichimaru as he hissed, "No way in seven hell I trust him with my back..."
"Not that I trust you either, Hitsugaya..." Gin retorted back, they were about to fight when Nel stepped in to stop them.
"Alright that's enough! I need you two for this so suck it up and deal with your grudges elsewhere!" Nel snapped angrily at them as they shut up.
Nel rubbed her temples, "Ichigo, please tell Hitsugaya what we have..."
Ichigo nodded, "From what we gathered so far is that the syndicate is known as 'Arrancar', it seems that they've been doing assassination, drug trafficking and many more for a long time... We've been through the clues that you get for us and it seems like they got something to do with the murder cases..."
"Like what?" Toushiro settled back to his seat,
"The murderer was found dead in his house when we got to him... He had been dead for a day,"
"What happened?"
"He died due to heart failure..."
"Heart failure?"
"It's common with drug addicts... He had a lot of drug dose activities before and he died from overdosing it... We already run through the diagnostic tests on him," Ichigo said as Toushiro had a knowing look on his face,
"And we checked his background and found out that he had a huge amount of debts from someone inside Arrancar..." Nel added,
"How can you be so sure?"
"It's because I found his creditor in person... Got a chance to lock him up and interrogate him..." Gin announced as he continues, "That guy used to be in one of the most ruthless gang named 'Taka' but quitted the gang to join Arrancar..."
"Name?"
"Ibaragi Rei,"
"Know something useful?"
"Yeah... It seems the people who bought the gun is his comrades... They are doing an initiation for the newcomers, he or she killed the most deserve a rank..."
"Basically, the man we're seeking is dead and now it has something related to Arrancar... They held an initiation for the newbies regarding the killing of innocents and getting a rank inside the syndicate," Toushiro concluded,
"Yup,"
"The codes?"
"It was heavily encrypted. Can't find the right encryption. Do you have any lead for this? I need to solve it fast,"
"There's a place I found when I was getting the code. District 32, an abandoned warehouse for their meeting place and probably keeping more info there."
"Got it. You looked like you have something else to say when Ichigo said the guy was dead by overdosing drugs,"
"It felt off when you said that he died 'cause of heart failure." Toushiro stated,
"He was a drug addict before, he got a few cocaine, heroine and other kind of drug in his house when we were there. We also found the custom made gun and ammo. He probably was desperate, doing his job so he could cleared up his debts to Rei,"
"Hn... He used him to do the dirty work for him so that Rei could keep himself clean,"
"We searched his house but nothing unusual."
"Just a word of advice, take the drugs to your agency research group and let them have a full analysis on the drug that he used." Toushiro advised,
"Why?"
"My gut tells me that the drug he used have something to do with the whole incident."
"Ya sure?"
"It's a hunch." He said simply,
"Then we'll take it back to the lab for test. Might be useful,"
"Hn. If you need more info just go to Urahara's, he is a informant of mine. Here's the address. I don't want you guys keep bugging me."
"Thanks. But how would he recognise us?"
"Just tell him I send you there he'll know."
"Alright will do."
"Well, Kurosaki... You have a new lead now so I'll leave .. Since I help you found the already dead murderer, Nel my pay check?" He gestured,
"Here..." Nel handed a envelope with a hefty amount of cash inside. He grabbed it and counted the amount.
"Good, now I'm out..." He was about to get up before Nel spoke up, "Hitsugaya, wait...There's something I need to ask you..."
"Make it quick." He frowned,
"We called you here not only because of the clues we found,"
"Then what is it?"
"How do you know the Arrancar?"
"What do you mean? You just..." Gin cut off,"She's not asking that... You knew the Arrancar exist before she even mentioned, isn't it?" His eyes widen in surprise,
"You didn't told us about it even from the start, I figured it out when you first said that you knew the syndicate but you hid it from me..."
"Kurosaki is a cop he doesn't need to know that much, and I've already done my part so it doesn't matter..."
"No, it matters... because this is something big that we need to handle... Ichigo is a cop that deals with these kind of cases as for me and Gin, we need more information to get rid of the syndicate..."
"I don't want to get drag into this meddlesome things so I left it out... So what?"
"Ya hiding something that's crucial for us, Hitsugaya... It's not a good habit ya know..."Gin countered,
"It's my fucking business, Ichimaru..." He narrowed his eyes,
"Hitsugaya, please understand we need all the information that we can get and it's our job to stop the syndicate..."
"You're not helping if you keep it silent,"
"If ya don't we'll just have to keep bugging ya until ya spill, but that won't be a problem with us. Problem is, I doubt ya will like it,"
Letting a exasperated growled, "Fine. I know the Arrancar's higher ups... Alright?"
"How'd you know them?"
"Because of a person, but that's not the important... I tailed them a few years back when I found a lead that was connected with Kusaka's murder,"
"So you disappeared for three years to find who's responsible for killing Kusaka?"
"Hn... I found out that bastard who framed me was an agent from the agency that you two work with, he wanted me dead for a reason..."
"And that is?"
"He was sent to kill me by someone in Arrancar,"
"What's his name?"
"Tenuechi Reo..."
"Oh, the one who'd been poisoned to death in a party back in Osaka... So you're the one who did it..."
"You should be happy I've kill the mole for you,"
"Right, but this have to do with Arrancar,"
"He had a meeting with a person inside Arrancar named, Sawada Hazuki, so I get rid of him and disguised myself to get closer to my target... Sawada Hazuki was once a higher up, he ordered Tenuechi to get rid of me..."He continued, "I blended into the Arrancar higher ups meeting once, I managed to get a hold of their names and faces before I was found out... But I'm not sure who was main cause, I've been in hiding these past few years because of them and the annoying agents..."
"You provoked them it seems. The higher ups do you know them?"
"Hn... Most likely they had their names known to the people in the underworld... I never met them face to face before but I knew what their capable of, Yammy Llargo, Ulquiorra Ciffer, Szayelaporro Granz, Zommari Rureaux, Aaroniero Arruruerie, Baraggan Louisenbairn, Nnoitra Gilga, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Coyote Starrk, Tier Harribel,"
The three of them eyes widen when they heard the names as Toushirou narrowed his eyes suspiciously,
"Looks like you know,"
"We only knew Ulquiorra and Grimmjow... We used to be... comrades until they betrayed us, never thought they get into Arrancar..."
"The money that's why... High pay, high rank," Ichigo stated plainly,
"The agency doesn't satisfy their greed for money so they left... I heard they were doing jobs for someone but never expected it to be Arrancar..." Nel said disappointedly,
"No surprise there. From what I gather, they've already been doing some work for Arrancar before they quit the agency," Gin stated,
"True... But the Arrancar is getting way too bigger so we need to stop it, they're putting innocent people in danger," Ichigo decided,
"Good luck with that."
"Won't you help out with this?" Ichigo raised his brows,
"If I get paid then I'll help, I don't do things for free."
"Innocent people is at stake here and you just care for money?! "
"That's your job not mine, Kurosaki..."
"Either way you can help... If we don't stop them, many deaths will be occurred. People will be in crisis,"
"That's none of my concern."
"How can you be so cold blooded?! You're just like them!"
"It's part of my profession," He shrugged,
"You...!"
"Get into your head, cop... I'm not like you, I work to get paid not to get praise for being a hero." He coldly spat,
"But..." Ichigo wanted to continued but he was stopped by Nel. "Ichigo, that's enough."
"Why'd...?" Ichigo wore a bewildered expression as Ichimaru shakes his head to Ichigo,
"Hitsugaya, thanks for your help." Nel thanked plainly as Toushirou got up from the booth and walked away from them without a word.
"Why'd you stopped me?"
"He doesn't listen to people, Ichigo...He was pretty much a lone wolf since the beginning and you don't want to get on his bad side," Nel warned,
"How can he just ignored it as innocence died because of the criminals wrong doing?"
"Ya forgot that he is one, Ichigo."
"Still..."
"Don't waste your breath on him. He can't be change and he might never will, if Kusaka is alive I think it may be possible,"
"Even if Kusaka is alive, I doubt that he can change him. No one can,"
"Who is Kusaka anyway? Toushiro seems fond to him," Ichigo asked curiously,
"An agent and friend of ours, he died years ago,"
"Then Hitsugaya..."
"A tale for another time, Nel. He might not be happy if we spill his story. Sorry Ichigo this is a classified info," Gin stopped Nel from talking and warned her as Ichigo frowned unhappily,
"Your right. Well, I need to go... I got something else to do. I'll see you guys later, bye bye!"
"Sure,"
They nodded as they watched her leave. Gin spoke up as he took a sip of his drink,
"Ya know, Nel is right about one thing. Don't waste your time on him. Hitsugaya isn't called a cold blooded person for nothing... He doesn't even have any emotion to begin with anyway."
"Yeah. But he gotta have some, even if its little,"
"Trust me, he doesn't... Ichigo, I know him before ya do and I don't ever see him show any bit of emotion..."
"Right, but somebody did..." Ichigo recalled his memory on the day when Momo said his name at the diner, "Somehow Momo and Toushiro are... friends,"
"What do ya mean? Momo doesn't even know him much more meet him in person..." Gin looked confused and bewildered,
"Remember that day when we were at the diner, you weren't there..."
"Yeah, I was hold up by my job. What about it?"
"Momo told us she met a guy and went on a date with him that Rukia and Izuru forced her to... You know the time when Izuru happily announced that Momo has a crush on someone..."
"This someone is Hitsugaya? How can ya be so sure? It can be someone else ya know,"
"That's because at the diner Momo said his name, it fits him perfectly even when she described him matched his appearance... If you were there you would have the same thought as me,"
"Hmm... If this is true, things would be bad if she fall for him,"
"Yeah, especially for Momo..."
"So what are we going to do about this?"
"I really don't know..."
"Somehow we need to stop them before Momo gets hurt,"
"Yeah, I agree."
Thank you for those who favourite, read and reviews~ Krisaku, gamma2015, Dalmin Sahara, x1999kamui, Nara Yasmin, Shiks, DinosaurKing2002, Giselleki, chowdowntown, leafpool5, sasusaku-anne, HibarixZhen, thank you all for the support!
