CHAPTER TWELVE

Hitsugaya and Matsumoto lept from roof to roof in search of Kon. They'd been at if to hours and the cold night air was starting to become quite a pain. Matsumoto's breath chilled and she wrapped her arms around herself, "Oohhhhhhhh it's cold!"

"We're not going back to the Clinic until we've found Kon, dead or alive."

"Why would Kon just up and disappear though? He's been filling in for Ichigo this whole time, there's no reason for him to run off."

More buildings passed beneath them, but there was no trace of even the tiny reiatsu Kon held within him.

"Mod soul powers from back then are only as strong as students at the Shinigami academy. He probably got scared off by the increased Shinigami activity out here."

"..We've checked everywhere, Captain, can't we take a break?"

"We're on orders, Lieutenant, I suggest you keep that in mind. Finding that body is more important than anything else right now, as far as this team is conserned."

A severely powerful reiatsu came to both their senses, and they turned their heads to face to west.

"What...was that?!" Matsumoto asked, surprised. "We've never encountered anything that strong here."

"Be prepared, it could be another Arrancar invasion."

The two held fast to their zanpakutos and drew them, and no sooner had they, were they surrounded by mask-wearing men and women. They weren't in any matching uniform and they didn't have abnormal bodies,

"Vizard!" Hitsugaya stated loudly, "Criminals!"

Matsumoto was already on her knees from the group's combined reiatsu. Hitsugaya's strength was reduced drastically by the limiters, but he was still able to hold his ground for the moment.

"What are you doing here!?" He demanded, his zanpakuto heavy in his hands.

"Don't bother, you'll be cut to pieces before you can hope to lift that sword." One of them said, wearing a red jogging suit. "Just stand down."

The young-looking Captain's nerves were bristling at those orders, but he refused to accept them. Instead, he tried lifting his zanpakuto again. Just like the red-clad Vizard warned, his sword fell again, this time so quickly that it flew right out of his hands to land hilt-first in the concrete below. Hitsugaya glowered, but then turned to his Lieutenant, who was on her hands and knees now, trying not to be crushed under the intense spiritual pressure. The Hollow masks on the surrounding group gave him chills down his spine...their empty, black-eyed gazes were really unsettling.

"What do you want?" He snarled.

"We're doing someone a favor." The red-clad Vizard answered, "Don't bother to ask who or what it is, just know that you're part of it."

"You're looking for someone, aren't you?" Another one asked, this one opposite the first, much taller and lankier, a male. "We can help you with th--" A sandal beaned him in the head and he fell out of formation, the red-wearing Vizard yelling at him to shut up and that he wasn't making them look serious. The others soon fell out of synch as well, and soon removed their masks, revealing quite normal faces beneath them. The only ones still wearing them were the two bickering in the background. Matsumoto was able to stand again, though the weight in her memory made her stay quiet.

"Oh would you two knock it off?" One of them barked, pointing.

Hitsugaya grimmaced at the sudden turn of events. What seemed like a bad situation was now nothing worth mentioning in the future...it was comical and absurd, actually. The tiny Vizard continued to berrate the tall one with her shoe and wouldn't relent until he finally agreed not to talk again. She made her way back to where the Captain and his Lieutenant were kept waiting, and tilted her mask aside somewhat to reveal her face beneath it, but not abandoning the form just yet.

"All right, so the point is, we're doing someone you know a favor and we need you to come with us."

Hitsugaya and Matsuomoto exchanged glances, and wordlessly agreed to accompany the stooges despite their conflicting opinions. They all disappeared from the Karakura night, reappearing some distance away in a warehouse district, though Hitsugaya lagged by a fraction of a second as he retrieved Hyourinmaru from the street. Waiting was a rather large man with pink hair, who bowed and allowed a door to open in a now-visable barrier-box that covered one building entirely. The group went in without saying a thing, entering the building and descending into a large open area beneath the ground. Though the two present shinigami had never seen them, the area was built very much the same as Urahara and Yoruichi's training grounds, both within and without Soul Society.

At the bottom of the staircase connecting the bottom of the room with the cieling, they spotted a particularilly spikey-headed teenager sitting crosslegged on the ground. The figure seemed uneasy, but didn't try to run.

"Kon!" The tiny Vizard barked, and the teen was up on his feet immediately.

"There you are, you little twerp!" Matsumoto yelled, running up and smacking the mod soul against the back of his head, "We've been looking everywhere for you!!"

"These guys wouldn't let me leave, I promise! I didn't do anything wrong!" He answered, bowing deeply, though his hands on the back of his head instead of on the ground, pressing his wound.

"What a relief, either way." Matsuomoto sighed, fanning herself with one hand, "At least we don't have to worry about handling a rotting corpse..."

"Of course not, what do you take me for, an imbecile!? I'm as strong and fast as any of you, I can hold my own!" Kon continued to make statements and challenges to the shinigami, but his voice fell on deaf ears.

"Hiyori...we should make this quick."

"Yeah." She agreed, "Hey, Death Gods." The two looked at her, the tall man standing behind her, a bruise on his head where her sandal had previously struck. "This here is the favor. We were asked to watch out for this lecherous jerk and wait until someone capable was here to pick him up."

"Who asked you to do this?" Hitsugaya said glumly, relieved to have found his querry but annoyed by him at the same time.

"Ichigo's friends." Hiyori answered.

"They were here a while back asking for help, but they're not like us so there's nothing we can do for them even if we were interested." The tall, lanky one added, "They said that Ichigo was in trouble and needed a favor though so we held up to that end at least."

"So you trained him." Hitsugaya asked, "To control that Hollow power he has."

"Yeah, what's it to ya? Not good enough? Got a problem, Shinigami!?" Hiyori was already planning on starting a fight, but the lanky guy grabbed her by the shoulders and held her still. She spat and glared.

"Yes, we helped him. His friends told us something went wrong before asking us to find that helpless idiot."

"What are your names?"

There was a brief silence, but inwardly a few agreed to give up that much information.

"Hirako Shinji," The tall one said, "This is Sarugaki Hiyori. The others are Hachi, Lisa, Love, Kensei, Rose and Mashiro."

"Toushiro Hitsugaya."

"Rangiku Matsumoto."

"Take that mod soul back to Soul Society." Shinji said flatly, "Ichigo had us find him before he left for Hueco Mundo, but since he's gotten his ass handed to him, his friends want Kon taken someplace safe, in case Aizen succeeds in sucking the life out of this city after all."

"You make it sound like Ichigo's fight isn't over yet." Hitsugaya states, looking at the mod soul still harassing Matsumoto, "What's going to happen?"

"If Ichigo actually learned anything at all from us, then overcoming his inner Hollow shouldn't take long. We've all faced lingering resentment from our own and suppressed it in the end. He'll find his way too." Shinji answered.

"He'll just be an utter failure if he doesn't." Hiyori adds, "It'd be an insult to us if he can't subdue a pathetic Hollow."

"A pathetic Hollow?" Matsumoto challenged, pushing Kon out of her way, "You don't know anything then. Stop boasting."

"What's that, tit-lady!?"

The squabbling was quickly interrupted by both factions holding back their kin. Tensions were running high.

"Ichigo is fighting for the freedom of his soul and his very life right now against that pathetic Hollow. You should know it's grown into a Vasto Lorde by now, he may never regain control!" Matsumoto finished, "Show some respect. It's the price he paid to try and save his friend. What sacrifices could you say you've ever made for someone else, huh? You who were so slefish that you sought to taint your souls for personal power instead of fighting for a greater good for everyone."

"Rangiku!" Hitsugaya barked. The woman went quiet, though retaining a rebellious and angry look in her eyes. Hiyori looked much the same. "We don't have time for this. Our orders were to find and retrieve Kon. The fact that it coincides with what the Vizard want is benificial for both parties. We don't need a two-front war...Aizen is bad enough."

The air was strangely still at that moment, and everyone felt it. Both women were released and they stood still, looking away from each other.

"We seem to have a common enemy." Hitsugaya started, "If you're associated with Kurosaki then you must feel he is a member of your group, even if he's not like you. You'll be on his side of the line when the time comes. That means you'll be on Soul Society's team as well."

"We fight for our own reasons, Shinigami, remember that." Shinji said, "To us it doesn't matter if you or Aizen wins, because your buxom associate there is right. We are out for ourselves. We crave new strength and increased power. We'll stop at nothing to get stronger." He paused for a moment, looking to the other Vizards, then back at the Captain, "You are also right that Ichigo Kursosaki is a friend, even if some of us would sooner say we're not even acquainted. The difference though...is that we've already given our support to him, and we intend to give no more. If he can't make use of what we've given him then he won't live long enough to make much of a difference. So take your mod soul and leave us. When the time comes, we'll all have our part to play. The question is which of us will be better prepared."

Another ominous silence. The group diverged and Hitsugaya stepped towards Kon and Matsumoto. They headed up the stairs without a word to say in thanks, left through the lowered barrier, and opened a gateway to Soul Society. It only took a few leaps to get from one side of the portal to the other, dragging Kon behind them as the only one amongst them without a Hell Butterfly.

In Los Noches, Aizen presented Orihime once again with sight of the Hougyoku. She seemed bored of it now, having little interest in using her power on something that didn't seem to change no matter how many timmes she had attempted anything. Not even the first time when she thought she might dispell the thing from ever existing. It disappeared and then reappeared in tact a week later. This would be the first time she would see it since Ichigo appeared in Los Noches and was staying by her side. He had spent the entire time slowly convincing her that Aizen's plans were for the better and that she was the only one holding up his plans to make the world better. To that extent, she felt guilty, and this time she agreed that she'd try harder and focus on restoring the sphere to its proper strength.

Little did she know that this would also be the first time she would actually see the real one.

It was now December 5th. The first day of winter was only two weeks away.