A/N- I have decided to discount any information that I may or may not get about Hitsugaya's past from the Diamond Dust Rebellion. Why? Because information from Memories of Nobody can be disproved, and that tells me that they are not facts from the actual Bleach series. Plus, I can already tell that it's going to mess me up.

X

The last time he had seen purple eyes like that out of focus, they had already been dead. But that was not a very good thing for Hitsugaya to think about as he tried to calm himself down. Several hours had passed, and it was dark as Ayumu lay on the floor of Kotarou's room. He turned out to be 12th seat in the 4th squad, so he was now trying to heal her. He had been trying ever since they got to his room, but she still had not awakened. He had taken a break a short time ago to check Ayumu's records, and come to the conclusion that what she was experiencing now was some sort of aftershock from the poison Kitsune had given her. Hitsugaya squeezed his hands together tighter as his thoughts wandered back to things that certainly wouldn't cheer him up. He remembered those out-of-focus eyes as Ayumu nonchalantly asked Ichigo when in the fight your vision started to blur in that childish tone, surely he should've noticed something then-

"You know," Kotarou said suddenly, "it's shameful to admit, but when my sister was still alive I used to love her hair. I don't know why. When mother gave her that comb, I thought it looked so beautiful on her." Hitsugaya was slightly surprised by his sudden speech, but did not say anything. "That was the same day she died," Kotarou said, looking back down at Ayumu. "At that moment, through the shock of it, my world became a numb, twisted type of reality. Through it all, the only thought that I was able to pull out was how sad I was that that comb had slipped out of my sister's hair." He paused. "I'm not sure I believe her."

"Hm? About what?" asked Hitsugaya.

"That she's not my sister. I don't know why. The things she told me make sense… I guess, they just look so much alike, those two. They even have the same personality. And her name, and seeing her with you… it just makes it seem so impossible for her to be anyone else." He looked down, and so did Hitsugaya. There was a long pause.

"Poison, huh?" Hitsugaya got up and left the room without another word.

…

By the time he rounded up Ram it was almost sunrise. He then dragged him to the Urahara shop, woke Yun (who had been staying there) and dragged them both into a back room (Yun still wearing the yellow-and-white striped pajamas that she had borrowed from Ururu).

"Alright, what do you two know about demon poisons?" He asked as soon as Yun was awake enough to open her eyes fully.

"They're really weird. I'm serious, one time this little girl demon poisoned me for no good reason, and I turned purple for like a week," Ram said without hesitating.

"Why?" asked Yun. Hitsugaya explained what happened to Ayumu. Yun thought about this for a moment. "Huh. Well, I guess you could make a poison that does something like that, but it would be really hard. Like, it can't think to stall to wait for another attack, so she must've put in some type of trigger."

"Would the fact that she was stressed have changed anything?" asked Hitsugaya, eager that they might be on to something.

"Yeah, it might be something like that," Yun replied. Hitsugaya looked at Ram for conformation.

"What are you lookin' at me for?"

…

Once Hitsugaya got back to Kotarou's room the sun was already up. Much to his relief, so was Ayumu. After awkwardly expressing how glad he was that she was alright, he began to question her about why her reaction to the poison the second time was worse than when she had first received it. She spent almost a half hour convincing him that it was only because her guard was down, and that if she had known to try and fight it she could have done so easily. She probably would have been able to do it much quicker if she had believed it herself. She then somehow convinced him to let her go back home, since her family would probably notice that her personality had drastically changed.

…

As the tension from Ayumu's collapse dissolved it occurred to Hitsugaya that he had not slept at all that night. Taking advantage of the fact that Matsumoto was in the living world he took her usual spot sleeping on the couch for a few hours. When he awoke he immediately felt guilty that he had left Ayumu to her own devices when she might still not be at her best, and decided to check back on her in the living world.

"Ayumu!" he called, tapping on her window.

"Hitsugaya, why are you here?" she said, walking over and opening the window.

"I came to check on you," he said without going in.

"Oh, well I'm ok—" suddenly a telltale spirit force spiked around them. "Although it looks like it's a good thing you showed up anyway." She grabbed a green pill off of her night table, swallowed it, and followed Hitsugaya out of her body and onto a nearby building.

"e-Again? I need a vacation! You hear me? You'd better put me in some beautiful celebrity next!-e" her body called after her.

O

"Hello! Isn't anyone going to come try and fight me?" a female demon walked lazily down the street, casually destroying a mailbox with a knife on a string as she passed it. She wore something black and gold that seemed like a cross between armor, a leotard, and a corset. Her shiny black hair that fell to the floor was tied back in a ponytail with a choppy layer over it and similar bangs. "Come on, this is boring!" she said, leisurely destroying a traffic light.

"Ah, sorry to keep you waiting," Hitsugaya said as he and Ayumu appeared down the street from the demon.

"Well what do you know, this town really does have a lot of shinigami! I only ever expected to find maybe one lower seated officer, but never a captain. And from your spirit force I can tell that you're probably captain-class as well. Oh, this is going to be fun!"

"Then I think you probably have a different definition of 'fun' than most people," said Ayumu. As though they had planned it, both she and Hitsugaya unsheathed their swords at the same time.

"What excellent spirit force! It's almost hard to believe that you're ordinary shinigami," she said with a smug look.

"No, we're not," said Hitsugaya. Suddenly Ayumu charged forward and slashed at the demon. It jumped to dodge, and Chitose grazed the ground leaving a large crater in its wake. Ayumu turned to look up at the demon, but before she could move any further it was gone. Suddenly it stood directly in front of her, one hand draped over her shoulder, the other resting on Chitose's hilt.

"You know girl, that's a pretty sword. Seems like it has a good power too. Careful now, or someone's going to steal it!" she jumped to avoid another slash and landed on the traffic light opposite the one that she had destroyed.

"This sword is part of my soul. It's not so easy to steal," Ayumu said and then jumped after her, slashing again when she landed on the traffic light.

"I wouldn't let my guard down just because of that!" she jumped to the ground. Ayumu followed, making a stab at her that missed by a hair. Ayumu stepped forward and turned the motion into another slash, which the demon ducked under.

Suddenly the ground beneath them seemed to explode. Both the demon and Ayumu were tossed into the air. Out of the dust cloud came something that seemed like a moving metal string. The tip was pointed, but otherwise the whole thing was exactly the same. It was about the thickness of a typical pen. Away from the dust cloud more of it could be seen weaving in and out of the concrete like a sea monster might weave in and out of the water or a needle and thread might weave in and out of fabric. The pointed end touched the demon's feet and the rest curled in circles around it, then pushed her upwards like a spring.

"Sorry, looks like I'm infringing on someone else's territory. If you don't die girl, I'll see you again!" with that she jumped away. The metal thread withdrew, and continued to recede along its path, jumping in and out of the concrete and leaving a line of holes in its wake. It pulled back all to its origin, in a woman's fist. She was tall and thin, with curly red hair. She wore Black armor which was tight to her body, breaking into several sections on her midriff, arms and legs to allow her to move freely. At her right hip, as though clipped into a belt, was a cracked vice-captain badge with the number seven in place of a kanji. Her eyes, which once had green irises, were now completely white. This did not stop Ayumu from recognizing her features.

"A-Anna…"

The woman bent over as though to begin running. From her back protruded three katanas, linked with chain. She raced forward to attack.