Yay, the wait wasn't too long this time was it :D... I tried.

Also, I'm heading back to school this week and hopefully I'll be getting a job as well, kind of a win-lose situation, but fear not I do intend on completing this story no matter how long it takes.

And to my lone guest reviewer, Alex, if your offer still stands, I'd be glad to take you up on it. Unfortunately I don't have Kik, but I can drop off an email if you'd be so kind as to give me your address. :)

Anyway be warned this chapter has been proofed but not beat'd.

Forty-six old men and women stared down their noses at me. Kisuke was right; they were a bunch of old snobs. At least half of them looked like they had a pile of dog crap permanently stuck under their nose and each one of them seemed to be disgusted with me. I probably would have curled in on myself if my arms and legs hadn't been strapped to the chair. I had been looked down on before, but never to this extent; I felt like an animal on display and not a particularly attractive one at that.

The butterflies in my stomach felt more like dragons and I was all too aware of beads of sweat forming on my face, under my arms, and on my back. I tried to swallow, but my throat had gone dry and every single muscle in my body had frozen. However, my heart was thudding away; I was surprised that no one else could hear it.

"How did you obtain shinigami powers?" the first question was like a gunshot to the head.

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out except a faint, breathless whoosh.

Hyōka, calm down, Toushiro said, his voice was level; he was the epitome of self control, Just answer their questions. You've done nothing wrong; there is nothing that they can possibly pin on you.

I nodded mentally.

"Perhaps you do not understand the question," the man with thin, arched eyebrows and a wispy, grey beard continued, "I will rephrase it. Which shinigami gave you their powers?"

I swallowed, "N-no one gave me their powers," there was a slight tremble in my voice, "they are my own; I developed them myself."

"Impossible," a woman with a tight bun and half-moon glasses exclaimed, "the boy is lying; there has never been any instances where a human has developed spiritual powers on their own. Who did you steal this power from?"

"I didn't steal it from anyone!" I exclaimed clutching the arms of the chair so hard my knuckles turned white.

"He's telling the truth."

I blinked hard then slowly turned to my right. There was a tall man in shinigami uniform, but he was wearing a sort of veil that prevented me from seeing his face.

"Neither his body nor his reiatsu shows evidence of lying."

So this guy was some sort of live lie detector. This would be helpful, I guess.

"What is your relationship with the deceased Captain Hitsugaya?"

"I'm his reincarnation."

"This is why you have his reiatsu signature?"

"Yes..."

"And not because you stole his powers before he died?"

I stared at the questioner, "I could not have possibly stolen his powers before he died."

"Why is that?"

"Because I wasn't born yet! I'm his reincarnation and nothing more."

The man raised an eyebrow, "Nothing more than a reincarnation? Are you entirely sure about this?"

"... Yes."

"He lies."

My eyes widened and I turned to look at the shinigami. I guess it wasn't such a good thing after all. A smug look passed along more than half of the Central.

"What are you, Takemitsu Hyōka?"

"I- I ... I don't know."

"You don't know?" they turned to the shinigami next to me.

"He doesn't know."

Multiple pairs of eyes narrowed.

"Why was Aizen Sosuke interested you?"

I took in a sharp breath; how did they know about that?

"I... I don't know."

"He does know."

"Do you understand the gravity of this situation, boy? We can have you executed; tell us what you know or suffer the consequences."

Toushiro?

Tell them what they need to know and keep the visored part to yourself.

"He wanted to know what happened to cause me to retain Toushiro's memories..."

There was a quiet murmur amongst a few of the councilmen.

"Was he successful?"

I blinked, each question was throwing me further and further into a place where I did not want to be. "Um...I- I- I'm not too sure..."

"What are you sure of, boy?" one of the men spat.

I swallowed and looked on nervously. They seemed to have lost interest in asking me questions and were now discussing something among themselves. It did nothing for my nerves; any more questions and I was positive that I would have a panic attack. Minutes ticked sluggishly by and I studied each one of the councilmen and women's faces. They gave nothing away, however, so I was sentenced to sit in silent dread.

Eventually the man with the glasses cleared his throat again. "The fact that Aizen had an interest in you says that you have to potential to be dangerous. Now we will ask again; what was he hopping to get out of you?"

"I d-d-d-don't kn-" I cut myself off with a glance at the veiled shinigami, "He said something about harnessing my powers."

"What powers?"

I paused, "Toushiro's powers."

The man narrowed his eyes but he did not ask anything else. Instead he turned to the person next to him – a man with a pointed, black goatee – and whispered something into his ear. They both nodded and the bearded man opened his mouth to speak. My stomach began to churn on the first syllable.

"How did he plan to do so?"

My eyes widened and my mouth went dry. Instantly I felt red, hot fire coursing through my body. I must have been silent for quite some time because the man scowled at me and banged his fist on the desk to get my attention.

"Answer the question, boy."

My breathing became short and shallow. "He... h-he manipulated m-my thoughts and in-injected me with some poison."

"What thoughts did he make you have?"

I licked my lips and felt tears prickle my eyes. "He... He tried to m-make me a-a-angry."

"Angry? What kinds of powers do you posses?"

I was hyperventilating now. "I-I-I can w-wield the zanpakuto Hy-h-hyourinmaru."

"And what else?"

"Nothing else!"

I did not need to look or even listen to know that the veiled shinigami had identified my lie.

"What else?" the councilman asked again.

"T-t-that's it."

He sighed deeply, "We have ways of extracting information; you could choose to make this easy for yourself."

I clenched my jaw despite the panic that was threatening to burst from my chest. "If you torture me that makes you no better than Aizen."

"We never said that we were better than Aizen; we're just on different sides. It is our job to maintain the balance of the worlds and anything that threatens it is directly our business. The Central Forty-six has done its job faultlessly up to this point and not a single one of us sitting here will allow everything the Soul Society, The Gotei Thirteen, and the Soul King has strived for to be destroyed by such a small thing such as questioning ethics. We will get this information from you by any means necessary."

Bastards, Toushiro growled.

The councilman nodded and the veiled shinigami grasped one of my hands in his. He forced my hand open and pressed it down on the chair palm up.

My eyes widened even further and I tried to struggle against him but the bounds around my wrists and his strength proved me fruitless. I couldn't hold back the panic attack anymore the world was spinning around me; I felt light headed and I couldn't catch my breath.

"Now, why was Aizen Sosuke interested in you? What powers do you posses?"

"I already told you!"

There was a glint of steal and I felt a searing, burning sensation in my palm. I screamed and struggled against the bindings. "I don't know what else he wanted! I swear that was it!"

The veiled shinigami grasped my other hand. I swear I saw Aizen's face and I could feel him injecting the poison into me again. Hyourinmaru roared in anger while I saw Toushiro sink to his knees and clutch his head.

"No! No! That's it; I told you everything!"

The same pain repeated itself and I screamed so loud that it echoed around the room.

"Answer the question."

"I already did!"

The knife was suddenly at my throat. I froze and looked at the man's covered face. Tears caused me to see blurry and my heart was beating so fast I thought that it would explode. But then I felt a sort of internal shudder; I instantly knew something was wrong.

Toushiro screamed and curled into himself. When he looked up his eyes were gold and lifeless. I glanced to Hyourinmaru and the two of us seemed to have the same idea. I threw myself at him and managed to knock him over. Hyourinmaru growled and placed a scaly foot over his chest.

Toushiro, snap out of it! I yelled into his face.

The hollow growled at me but he couldn't get past Hyourinmaru's hold.

"If they find us out they'll kill us!"

He continued to glare at me and my inner world started to get dark. Clouds began to form and snow started to fall from the sky. I looked around, starting to feel panicky again; this was not going to end well if we continued like this.

"His reiatsu is changing," the veiled shinigami spoke.

Shit.

"Changing into what?"

"What is the meaning of this?" a familiar, booming voice sounded simultaneously with the banging open of heavy wood and steal doors. Every head to turn towards the entrance as three people burst in as if the hounds of hell were on their tails.

I didn't think that I would have ever been happy to see Yamamoto, but I could have cried out of relief right about now. Right behind him was Ichigo and Kisuke. The former looked like he was out for blood and Kisuke was unreadable as usual.

Ichigo locked eyes with me and was at my side in a heartbeat.

"Hyōka! What did you do to him, bastards?!"

And of course the hollow decided not to let us forget about him. I felt my fingers go cold and a cackle that could curdle milk rose up in my chest. Thankfully before anything else could happen a heavy hand was placed over my eyes and I felt every single ounce of energy drain from my body.

...

My hands were itchy. I flexed my fingers; it stung a bit but it helped the itching. I had woken up a few minutes ago in a hospital, of course. I was still in The Seireitei;I noticed shinigami hustling around and I spied a woman with a thick, brown plait wrapped around her neck and a white haori coming over to me. I pushed myself up onto my elbows and followed her with my gaze until she was at my bedside.

"Hello, Hyōka-kun," she said with a smile, "how are you feeling?"

I blinked. "And you are?"

If she was taken aback by my bluntness she hid it well. "I'm Captain Unohana; Captain of the Fourth Division."

As she spoke she reached out and placed a hand on my forehead.

"What am I doing here?" I asked and brushed her hand away.

"Resting; you've had a long few days."

I huffed and plopped back down on the pillows. I was about to ask where the others were when I heard my sister calling out my name. I shot back up just in time to see her run up to my bedside. She looked out of breath and her eyes were wide with... fear?

"Hyōka!" she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me into a tight hug.

"It's okay, Mikami, I'm fine," I muttered and hugged her back.

She held on to me a bit longer then pulled back and held me at arm's length. "What did they do to you?"

I glanced down at my hands but almost instantly realised my mistake and pulled my arms behind my back. She raised an eyebrow and grabbed one of my arms and yanked it towards her. A thick piece of gauze was wrapped around my palm. She clicked her tongue and pulled it back to inspect the wound underneath it. It wasn't really a wound anymore, actually, my eyebrows raised as I saw a pink scar running diagonally across my palm – another one to add to my collection – it was mostly healed and very itchy. I glanced towards Unohana. She just smiled at me and nodded her head.

"Is your other hand like this?" I froze at Mikami's tone. It was quiet and a little too emotionless for my liking. I nodded and winced as she sighed deeply and hung her head.

"Mikami?"

"I can't take this anymore," she raised her head and there were tears in her eyes, "Every time I think we're going to be alright something like this happens. We shouldn't be tied up in this; I don't want to be scared of you dying any given moment, Hyōka. I can't do this anymore."

I tried not to look too shocked but I don't think I succeeded. This time I pulled her into a hug and let her cry into my shoulder. I couldn't say anything to comfort her; I didn't know where to begin. I knew this was going to come up sooner or later; Mikami had always been paranoid about my safety and all of this must have been just as hard for her as it was for me.

"Hey you're awake," Ichigo came bounding into the room but froze when he saw Mikami, "Um, Mikami, what's wrong?"

She stiffened at his question, drew away from me, and wiped her eyes. "It's this place; we shouldn't have come."

Ichigo clenched his jaw and let out a sharp breath. "Yeah, I know."

"What happened back there?" I asked, "What did you guys do?"

"Yama-ji was really pissed that they took you without him knowing. Can't say that he's changed his mind about anything but he didn't want them dealing with you like that. It was surprisingly easy to get you out of there; he just had to stay back and clear some things up with them. We'll have to discuss this later, though. Is he clear to go, Unohana?"

The captain had faded into the background, as good doctors sometimes did. She nodded but stopped me as I was hopping of the bed.

"I can remove the scars for you if you'd like, Hyōka-kun."

I looked down at my hands wrapped in gauze and hesitated. I felt a dull anger build in my stomach. "Actually, no thanks; I'll keep these."

Both Ichigo and Mikami raised their eyebrows, but Unohana nodded her head in understanding. I jumped off the bed and strapped back on my shoes.

"Why?" Ichigo asked as we left the hospital ward.

I clenched my fists and walked ahead. "As a reminder."

"A reminder of what?" Mikami asked her voice was full of rage, "Of what they did to you?"

"No. To remind me that the good guys aren't always so good."

...

"I would like to apologise on behalf of the Central Forty-six," Yamamoto sighed, "they acted wrongly and did not consult me before sending the Second Division Captiain, Soi Fon, to apprehend you. I am sorry for what transpired in their presence."

I still didn't like Yamamoto, but I liked the Central even less. I nodded but didn't say anything else. Once again Ichigo, Kisuke, Mikami and I stood in the meeting hall.

"We explained to them your situation and they have agreed to give you a choice."

I raised an eyebrow; how gracious of them. Of course they only listened to my end of the story after they had their way with me. Toushiro snorted from his position in the snow. He was lying on his back looking worse for wear with Hyourinmaru curled around him.

"You can either join forces with us and fight alongside with us as a substitute shinigami or you can return to the world of the living and never associate yourself with the Soul Society again."

"No offense, but the first option doesn't sound that much appealing," I snapped.

"If you do end up choosing the second option I would like to make it clear that it means that you will not be allowed to further your powers."

"What?"

"That is you will be forbidden to learn shikai or bankai or any other shinigami arts which you haven't already learnt."

I stared at him and tried not to let my anger show too much; again I don't think I was too successful.

"Is that your idea of trying to control me?"

"What is your answer?"

I turned around and made for the exit. "I'm done with you people."

"Hyōka, don't make any rash decisions," Kisuke stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. I glared at him and he hesitated then nodded. "Well, I think you have your answer, Head-captain. We'll be on our way now; thanks for the hospitality."

I could hear the sarcasm in Kisuke's voice and cracked a smile as we left.

...

"Are you guys leaving now?" Rangiku asked with a pout.

"Not at this very minute," Kisuke admitted.

"'Cause there are a few people who wanted to see Hyōka."

"See me?" I asked with raised eyebrows, "I'm not some kind of freak show, you know."

Rangiku smiled at me and patted my head. "Come on; they've been waiting since you've got here to meet you."

Minutes later she was leading us to the Thirteenth Division –us being everyone except Kisuke, who had disappeared again. I was more aware of the reiatsu of the shinigami around me, even if Toushiro was still dozing off, and Ichigo was right; they were all weak. Well, not all of them were weak more like one in every five. They really must be desperate to beat Aizen, huh. I guess, if he had put them all through the same shit he had put me through then I understood why, but it still didn't feel right. I sighed inwardly actually if my treatment was any indication the Central Forty-six had probably made it so that none of these shinigami were prepared in any sort of way. These people weren't fit to be in charge of anything; they just seemed to mess things up. I felt my palms start to itch again and I grit my teeth and managed to pinch my tongue in the process which caused my scowl to deepen.

"Hey, what cha' thinking about so hard?" Rangiku asked.

I jumped slightly. "Nothing."

"Hmm, must be some pretty important nothing," she grinned.

"How much longer until we get there?"

"We just passed the main gates so we're almost there. They're waiting in Captain Ukitake's office."

"Ukitake..." I paused remembering the sickly man with long, white hair and kind, brown eyes. The memory almost made me smile, but instead I opted for feeling inexplicably nervous.

Either I had made a face or Ichigo had gotten to know me really well because he placed a hand on my back and gently pushed me forward.

"He's not going to eat you, kid; might give you candy, but he won't bite."

I glanced up at him and rolled my eyes. Minutes later Rangiku was knocking on a door.

"Captain Ukitake?" she called out.

A deep, slightly breathless voice bid us enter and she slid back the door and pushed me in first. Sitting on a lavish, red cushion behind a low table was Ukitake. I froze as he studied me for a short while. His appearance was overall the same from Toushrio's memories but he looked more rundown somehow; there were a few wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and he seemed to have lost a lot of weight. His smile though, when it grew on his face, was exactly the same; warm. The grin split his face from check to check and was contagious soon everyone in the room was smiling along with him. He beckoned me closer and when I was close enough he pulled me into a one armed hug.

"I never thought that this was possible," he grinned, "I'm happy to see you again."

"Likewise, Ukitake," I replied.

"It's good to see you Shiro-chan," a different voice alerted me to another person in the room; a man with curly, brown hair and a pink kimono over his haori sat across from Ukitake.

"Kyoraku?"

He grinned, "You do remember me after all."

I nodded, "what's with the eye patch? I don't remember you having that."

He touched the black piece of leather that covered his right eye. "Battle scar," he stated simply.

"Hyōka," Mikami admonished, "don't be rude."

Both captains turned to face my sister.

"Oh, where are my manners," Ukitake chuckled, "My name is Ukitake Jushiro captain of the Thriteenth Division," he held out his hand to Mikami, "And this is my friend-"

"Kyoraku Shunsui and may I seek the pleasure of knowing your name, darling?"

She blushed slightly. "Takemitsu Mikami."

"A gift from the gods indeed,"

I saw were this was going and before Kyoraku could say anything else I cut in. "She's my sister."

Both Ichigo and Rankigu sighed while Kyoraku shrugged.

"Worth a shot," he muttered.

Ukitake then offered us some tea.

"I don't have any candy on me at this moment," he told me, "But I can send for some."

"No that's alright don't trouble yourself; I don't really like-"

"Nonsense, it's no trouble at all."

"So Hyōka-kun, is it?" Kyoraku started.

I nodded.

"Hyōka-kun, how are you enjoying the Seireitei so far?"

"To be honest, I haven't really gotten the best impression of it."

The two captains chuckled.

"That sounds about right, huh Ichigo?"

The red-head snorted and rolled his eyes. "It's gotten worse since I was last here."

Ukitake sighed heavily, "I wish you could have said the opposite. The Head-captain is refusing to consult his morals."

"But couldn't you two talk to him? This is crazy; he can't mass-produce soldiers!"

"We've tried, Ichigo. We even refused to take any of the new soldiers into our squads."

"There's a but..." it was more of a statement than a question.

"Apparently, that kind of thing can put you on probation," Kyoraku finished.

"At least this way we can personally train any of these soldiers who end up in our squads. It's not much, but it will be better than sending them to war without even knowing how to release their zanpakuto."

"Most of the captains have set up programs within their squads to help the new shinigami," Rangiku added.

Ichigo sighed, "it still doesn't feel right."

"That's because it isn't," Ukitake said gruffly, "I wanted to fight more against it, but in the end I didn't have enough energy and the little I can do for them now is still better than losing my captaincy and not being able to do anything."

There was a thoughtful silence as each of us thought about this. It was a horrible, horrible thing that Yamamoto and Central Forty-six were doing but these two here in front of me were making the best out of a bad situation. I took a sip of my tea, rolling it around my mouth before swallowing.

"Now enough of this dreary topic," Kyoraku said while adjusting his sleeves, "we have a lot of catching up to do, Hyōka-kun; tell us about yourself."

"Um..."

"He's actually quite similar to Toushiro, actually," Ichigo saved me, "personality wise, not just appearances. It's been a nightmare trying to take care of him."

Mikami chuckled, "you don't even know the half of it."

I rolled my eyes as the rest of them laughed.

"Well, raising children is no walk in the park, after all." Ukitake said smiling.

"Yeah well, he's scared me off from ever having kids of my own."

"It's probably best that you don't reproduce anyway," I stuck my tongue out at Ichigo.

The rest of the evening was spent sharing embarrassing stories – most about me courtesy of Mikami – and drinking tea. Toushiro was on the brink of falling asleep and Hyourinmaru was gently vibrating the ground with a content hum. When it was time to leave I almost didn't want to go. If the Gotei Thirteen still had captains like these two maybe it wasn't doomed after all.

...

I had fallen asleep somewhere between waiting for Kisuke at the Senkaimon and wishing everyone goodbye – we had taken two more stops to see Rukia and Renji. I had also met two more shinigami ; Izuru Kira and Hisagi Shuhei. That's all I remembered before waking up to the sight of yellow curtains blowing in the early morning wind. For a minute I was confused but then I recognised my bedroom. Then I realised how long it was since I had been back at our apartment. I stood up and slowly walked around the room. Everything looked it same; it was weird how so much had changed for me yet nothing had really changed at all. All my books were neatly stacked on a shelf in the corner, my desk held a multitude of text books that I was never going to use again, and there wasn't even a speck of dust anywhere. The same blue and yellow sheets covered my bed and my stuffed Hyourinmaru looked strangely at home amongst them. Even the wall that was blasted open with kido was-

I cut my self off and sank back down onto my bed. That was the last time I had been in here; before Aizen had taken me. So much had happened after that... I ran a hand through my still short hair and rubbed at the scars on my palms. I had changed so much and the room was just a reminder of simpler times which I couldn't go back to. I felt tears prickle my eyes and didn't even try to stop them.

Honestly, what was I doing right now? Where was I going? Aizen had abducted me right from this very spot and had tried to manipulate my hollow powers; he had tortured me. The tears ran faster. I had held on to the fact that someone was coming for me and there were good people in this world that would stop him. Now I had met the good people and they had kidnapped me as well, bound me to a chair, and sliced open my hands all because they wanted my powers as well. Who the hell could I trust then? If both sides wanted to exploit my powers who could I turn to? I closed my eyes and buried my face into my hands. Serves me right for trusting someone else. That was why I never relied on anyone else; it always blew up in my face when I did.

"Hyōka?" there was a knock on my door, "is everything alright?"

I hurriedly wiped my eyes and cleared my throat. "Yeah."

My door opened and Teito slowly entered. "Everything doesn't look like it's alright," he sighed and sat down next to me, "What's wrong?"

I hung my head, "It's nothing."

He raised an eyebrow. "Nothing?"

"I'll be fine; just give me a minute."

He shook his head, "They told me what happened in the Soul Society. Are you sure you don't need to talk?"

"I'll be fine," I repeated.

"What if I don't want you to be just fine? I want you to be feeling outstanding like there's nothing wrong."

"Well there is, sorry I can't be happy-go-lucky like you," I didn't mean to snap and winced when he looked at me with exasperation.

"I just want to help, Koko-chan."

"I thought the Soul Society was going to help and look what happened!"

"I'm not them," he stated simply, "and neither is your sister nor Ichigo or Kisuke for that matter. We all genuinely want to help you so please don't mix us up with anyone who hurt you."

I flopped backwards onto the bed and closed my eyes again. Teito was right, of course, but that still didn't mean I wanted to talk about it.

He seemed to have read my mind, "I know you'll take your time in coming to any one of us, but when you do we'll all be happily waiting. Now come," he poked me in the stomach, "help me make breakfast before Mikami wakes up."

And so concludes the Soul Society part next is visored training :D pshh if you actually thought that Hyoka would listen to Yamamoto's warning then either you haven't been paying attention to the story or I haven't gotten Hyoka's character across. Either way he's once again disregarding the rules surprise surprise.

So feel free to drop a review now that you're here

-Mymomomo