A/N: Faithful readers, this is an 'istoric day. Despite a complete inability to write actual romance, Tolkien'sInkwell has written a chapter with ... a pairing! I'm glad you seemed to like my foray into humor, but you know me, I am still a faithful disciple of Angst.

Pairing: Tobiume/Hyourinmaru, only lightly though and not really fluffy. I used to kind of hate this pairing, probably since I'd only ever seen it written along with HitsuHina, which I specifically do NOT ship. But I kept thinking about it and then realized, Hey, I kind of like this and now it's safe to say it has officially entered the lexicon of Little Captain Topics. Still working out my Tobiume voice though.

There are two reiatsus that Tobiume can track even in her sleep. The first (despite her best efforts) belongs to her master. The second –

"Oh … I thought I sensed him here," Tobiume murmurs dejectedly. Beside her, Haineko huffs and glares – so caught up in her show of disdain, it only takes a quick, stealthy push to send her off balance. And as the catlike spirit splutters in the shiny, moonlit water, Tobiume takes off in the opposite direction with rapid flash-steps, her course straight and purposeful.

If this were about anything else, Tobiume wouldn't have minded staying with her bizarre traveling companion – in all the chaos it's nice to have someone familiar around, even just to trade insults with.

But for this, Tobiume needs to be alone.

The second reiatsu that Tobiume could track in her sleep currently forms a bright, cold trail, leading away from the forest.

He's out here, all alone, and she wants – she has to know why.

The trail leads her into a series of foothills and jagged rocks. As she gets closer she stops flash-stepping and instead goes carefully on foot, stifling her own reiatsu to avoid premature detection. Approaching him is best done on her own terms.

She is not used to seeing him in human form, but there's no mistaking his identity. No one else has reiatsu like that.

"Hyourinmaru," she calls. No response, not even a flicker of reiatsu. "Hey! Can you hear me?"

"Are you addressing me?"

One look at his face, away from the crowded dimness of Muramasa's cave, and Tobiume instantly understands. She had already guessed that something was wrong with him, as soon as he appeared in the cavern. He'd been so unresponsive, even by his standards; she'd wondered, too, what could have made him willingly turn against little Hitsugaya.

Back then, she tried to dismiss her worries – they had all been shaken to the core, no one else was acting normal either.

But now, Tobiume is certain she has the answer. She sees it in his eyes, so blank and lost – Hyourinmaru has lost his memory. He certainly doesn't recognize her. He probably wouldn't recognize his master, either. It's very possible he doesn't even know his name.

"Yes," she answers, "you."

She walks closer, sensing energy fluctuating in the air and very aware that what she's doing feels like baiting – well, a dragon. "Do you … know who you are?" A brief shake of the head. "I do. You're Hyourinmaru."

"Hmm," he acknowledges with no particular interest, as though the information pertains to someone else.

She knows that Hyourinmaru can't help what's been done to him. It goes deeper than lost memories; his identity has been torn out by Muramasa's strange power. After all, a zanpakuto without a name is just a sword – just metal, with no mind underneath.

But all the same, she feels suddenly, irrationally angry. She's here for him, saving him, and even so he barely looks at her.

"Didn't you hear me? I said I know you!"

His face is smooth and guarded as a mask, but his eyes open wide and stare straight into hers in silent entreaty, Please, help me – save me –

That is a look Tobiume never expected to see from him, ever. In fact, she's gotten used to his eyes sliding right over her without focusing – not out of cruelty, but simply because Hyourinmaru lives in his own complete world and the things outside it only seldom register.

He can't help the way he is. He still makes her want to shoot fireballs at him, though.

"I see," he answers finally – and his voice has a trace of life this time, proof that damaged though he may have been, he's still there, still Hyourinmaru underneath the amnesia and desperation. "Then … you know my master as well?"

Tobiume is not kind. She can find the words to say to anyone to make them doubt and hurt. And she guesses that now, if she says the right words, Hyourinmaru will follow her anywhere she chooses to take him.

So she debates telling him No; telling him something that will keep him here with her. She thinks it might be worth it, giving up on Shinigami and rebellion alike and staying with Hyourinmaru instead. Maybe he'll keep looking at her like this – like he needs her – and maybe she can put the fractured bits of his soul back together, little by little.

But Tobiume knows that no matter what she does, she won't be the one to take the lost look out of his eyes. There is only one person who can do that – only one person Hyourinmaru has ever needed, and it isn't her.

"Come with me." He lets her touch him – for the first and only time, she notes sadly, slipping her hand around his arm.

"Where?"

"I'm taking you home."