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Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
Chapter 21:
-Continuing-
After Toshiro had shunpoed to his room, he finally realized exactly what he did and whom he did it to.
'Hyorinmaru did I just...?' 'Yep you did Master. And Haineko says she's mad.' 'Can you help me with this?' 'Nope. About time you did something about your stupid crush.'
Toshiro was about to curse the dragon to all hell until he felt Rangiku's reiatsu getting closer and closer. Oh crap. This really won't end well. 'Wait! Why is she mad?' 'Something about you kissing her and leaving.' 'Oh crap.' That last thought sounded as though he had given up on life.
No sooner then that final thought, Rangiku burst through the door looking mad as all hell. 'Quick Master think! Before its too late.' Hyorinmaru's words fell on deaf ears as Toshiro just stood there, to shocked and afraid to move. Yes, the great Toshiro Hitsugaya, Captain of the Tenth Division and one of the most powerful beings in this world was afraid of his lieutenant. Rangiku walked in, ever so slowly and locked the door.
"N-now Lieutenant Matsumoto it's not-." Rangiku's glare could put Yamamoto's bankai to shame. She walked to the very center of his room and looked him dead in the eyes. But Toshiro was not a captain just because of his looks. No, no. He was looking death in the eye and still managed to maintain his dignity. She said nothing, just glared to the point where Toshiro though he would burst into flames from the sheer intensity.
"So Captain Hitsugaya..." Oh no. She only called him his full title when she was pissed. "What was that downstairs?" Rangiku spoke cool and collected, completely missing Toshiro's eye's moving towards the door.
"...what was what?" He responded and to his surprise, he managed to keep the fear of castration out of his voice.
"That peck, Captain. In case you forgot." She spoke as she slowly backed Toshiro up against a wall.
"...um,...you know what. To hell with it." Toshiro spoke as he gave Rangiku a small kiss on her lips. The second time that day, Rangiku's eyes widened tremendously and before she knew it, the kiss was over. Toshiro just closed his eyes and tilted his head down as if accepting his fate. "If you're going to kill me, make if quick." His voice was void of all emotion.
Rangiku was honestly so dumbfounded by the turn of events, she didn't know if she should indeed kill him or kiss him. So after no thought at all she did the latter. The kiss was nice and slow, but Rangiku was a difficult woman. She was about to let Toshiro deepen the kiss until she pull away with a very mischievous grin on her now pink face.
"That's what you get for leaving." Was her words before she disappeared out of his room.
For about five minutes, Toshiro stood there. No moving. No talking. Just standing there. He felt himself about to burst and quickly shunpoed far, far away from their new house. He felt he was far enough away when he passed the sign for the Fifth Rukongai district and did what Ash told him to do when he was upset.
"AHHHHH!..." Toshiro screamed as he let all his monstrous reiatsu out in one prolonged burst. Despite being at least a hundred miles away from the Seireitei, his reiatsu still managed to unknowingly knock out most fifth seats and below. The captains all had widened eyes as the reiatsu was just plain random and they didn't have time to prepare for the immense cold.
-Ash's inner world-
Ash shunpoed along the floating islands at speeds faster than teleportation, carrying two large boulders on his back as he tried to avoid mountain sized fireballs raining down from the magenta sky. He kept moving until he arrived at the middle island. All of a sudden, an island sized meteor broke through the clouds and was heading straight at him. He did what any logical man would do in his situation; he turned his arm black and punched it with a good amount of force. As expected, it shattered on impact but that wasn't why Ash stopped.
"What was that? Why'd ya stop?" Kuro asked as she lazily back floated on the water.
"I don't know. I felt...a disturbance." Ash said as he dropped the two boulders. "It's probably nothing." He shrugged as he made a tied two bigger rocks to his back. "Keep em coming Kuro."
-Back with Toshiro-
Toshiro stood in the centre of a now very frozen forest panting heavily. 'Well...it helps.' He thought as he turned around to go home. About halfway there he met with a grinning Rangiku.
"You okay Captain? That was a pretty powerful burst." Rangiku asked with fake concern.
"Zip it woman. I'm just peachy." Toshiro grumbled as he tried to ignore the laughing woman. Honestly he doesn't know how or why he puts up with her.
-Back at the House-
Everybody was lounging around at the pool, just enjoying themselves before Kukaku asked the question.
"What was with that power spike earlier? You ok Toshiro?" She asked as he propped herself on the pool wall. Toshiro simply looked at her and nodded, to which she then turned to Rangiku whom winked at her and mouthed, 'I'll tell you later.'
Yoruichi was sitting next to Kisuke, grinning widely as though she was about to win two lifetime supplies of milk.
"Guess what guys. Me and Kisuke are dating." She announced with a wide smile, secretly hoping that everyone would be surprised. Her words shocked absolutely nobody.
"And? We all knew that." Kukaku waved her off nonchalantly. To which Yoruichi's eyes went wide.
"How?!"
"What do you mean how? It's obvious. Ever since you came back, I noticed that you and Kisuke always woke up together. So either that's just how you sleep or you're together. It's not rocket science." Kukaku explained. "And hey. At least you can date."
Everyone but Toshiro raised a brow to this statement but Kukaku answered the oncoming question.
"Everytime I get a date, Ash always does something to mess it up. Like the last guy. Ash may have heard him saying something about leaving me after he gets that one thing and instead of telling me, he killed him!"
"He didn't kill him. I was there, he just scared him into a coma. Where he died in a completely unrelated explosion." Toshiro defended smoothly. Everyone turned towards with an expression that basically said, 'Really?'. "What?"
"Oh nothing. So Soifon when are you going to confess to Ash?" Yoruichi questioned suggestively and with a nudge at said woman.
Soifon however choked on her drink and turned hot pink. "What? Confess what?" She said a little to quickly.
"You like my brother?" Toshiro questioned with a slightly amused smirk.
"Yeah she does! I mean I'm surprised the microwave doesn't know himself." Kisuke said as he dived into the pool's deep end.
"I-I don't like him." Soifon sputtered out.
"Uh-huh. Sure you don't." Rangiku teased.
"Come on Soifon. Either admit you like him or I'll tell the SWA that he's looking for a date." Yoruichi threatened with a hearty laugh. But despite the laugh she was very serious. She knew alot of woman who would kill just to feel his general heat.
"You wouldn't." Soi responded as though her worst fears had been realized. Yoruichi just nodded and continued grinning. "Okay, okay. I like him." She muttered out.
"What's that? We didn't hear you." Toshiro taunted as he put his hand to his ear.
"Ok! I like him!" She yelled with a red face.
"Haha. I can't wait to tell him!" Kukaku laughed out.
"No! I want to tell him." Soifon demanded a little quicker and higher pitch than she intended.
-Back with Ash-
Said man was currently sitting on top of Kuro Enkei's head in a meditating position as she floated in the water. He eyes burst open and he sneezed.
"Someone's talking about me again. How much longer Kuro?" 'About ten days.' "Damn."
-Ten Days later, fourth division-
Ash opened his eyes very slowly and blinked quickly to adjust them to the very bright light overhead. On instinct, he let some of his reiatsu leak to alert the nurses of the fourth that he had woken up from his long nap. Unohana was the first to arrived.
"You're awake Ash-kun?" She sounded very surprised. Ash knew his body couldn't take any sudden movements so he settled for a dry and raspy 'Hai'. "Let me get you some water." She helped to prop him up on a series of pillows before gently pouring the water down his throat "You gave us quite the scare Ash-kun. Mind telling me what happened?" Retsu knew full well what had happened but was far too overjoyed to remember the exact reason. Ash turned his eyes away from her for a brief second before looking at his right arm.
"Well. I was visiting my sister until Kagerosa came with the regais of Gin, Tosen and Aizen. I did beat them but not without sustaining major injury. And you know what happened to my arm." He said as he unconsciously clenched his fist.
"Do you want me to alert Toshiro-kun that you're awake?"
"Nah, I'll just surprise them."
For some reason Ash felt that not only would the gang be surprised.
-Later that night-
Everyone piled in the living room just talking and drinking tea as usual but all paused as they felt it. The reiatsu that had been gone for almost two weeks now. The extremely dense reiatsu that could only mean one thing.
Ash had awoken and he was here.
They wasted no time in reaching the door and Soifon almost tore it off of it's hinges. Ash's appearance didn't change much except now he had a new long sleeve haori and his right arm was completely covered in bandages.
"Hey guys. It's been a while hasn't it." Ash spoke as though he hasn't seen them in a thousand years. Rangiku and Yoruichi squeaked and ran to hug Ash. They kept in mind that he was fresh out of the hospital and was still relatively weak. Toshiro had walked up to his brother and gave a very rare smile, to which Ash returned and every female could swear that they would've died at the sight of the two smiling men.
Kukaku had walked up to Ash with tears in her eyes and punched him right on his head.
"Ok. I deserve that one for leaving." Ash grumbled as he rubbed the bump developing on his head. Kukaku just hugged him with an angry smile.
"Don't leave me again, Nii-sama." She whispered into his ear. "Of course not, Nee-chan." He whispered back. She then pushed herself away from him and moved away so Soifon could greet him. And yes said woman was glaring at him. She approached him very slowly until she was right in his face. It was pretty funny to see Soifon do that. She was about to Ash's shoulder and was trying to glare up at him.
She hit him over the head with her sheathed katana and pouted. Ash just looked at her and smiled. It truly was a shame that he didn't smile more often because even Soifon just melted from it.
"So, how'd we afford this house?" Immediately tension filled the air. Everyone stopped smiling and looked at Toshiro nervously, hoping that he would save them from the ball of fiery death in front of them. Ash saw how everyone was looking at Toshiro; whom was sheepishly grinning at him and remembered that he gave his now dead brother his wallet. "You didn't!" Toshiro just nodded. "Well. Excuse me for a brief moment." He spoke in a scary calm tone. He shunpoed away and a second later his reiatsu was felt all over the Gotei 13. But there was something different about it.
It was at a whole new level than it was before. It wasn't higher by any stretch, just denser and more refined. It forced Rangiku, Kukaku and even Soifon to their knees and even made Yoruichi and Kisuke tremble violently under it's pressure. Then it just stopped and Ash reappeared, panting heavily.
"So, care to give me a tour?" Ash questioned as though he didn't just do what he just did. Everyone heaved a collective sigh and though what would happen when they told Ash that they all had new cloths.