Chapter 37:
-Early the next morning in the Thirteenth Division-
Toshiro, Rangiku, Zaraki and Yachiru all walked together down the hallway that led to the meeting room that Ukitake had designated. Rangiku stepped up to the door and began to announce herself and her captain in a firm and professional voice; "Captain Hitsugaya of the Tenth Division, accompanied by Lieutenant Matsumoto."
Immediately after she had finished, Yachiru stepped forward and did the same for herself and her captain; "Captain Kenpachi of the Eleventh Division, accompanied by Lieutenant Kasajishi."
Then after their introductions were finished, they both spoke in unison; "We're coming in." they claimed and opened the rather thin double doors.
"Sorry to keep you waiting!" Yachiru said, running inside the fairly crowded room with a large smile on her face.
Toshiro followed after her and began analyzing the occupants of the room; at the front was Ukitake, merely standing with a neutral expression, while waiting for the newcomers to enter the room. Beside him was Kurotsuchi, but because he was facing the opposite direction, Toshiro could not tell what he was doing or thinking. And the last person up front was his daughter Nemu, and as usual had nothing but an emotionless expression on her face, but her eyes were fixed on him.
Then he examined the row of Shinigami second to the front which consisted of: Shunsui, whom had a very rare serious look on his face. Nanao, with her signature business expression, which was mixed with a level of interest. Next to her was Unohana, with her normal gentle look, which hid her worry about the situation. Omaeda was just standing there with a light grin on his face, not even seeming to care much about the meeting at all.
Just behind the large lieutenant was Isane, with a serious but quite worried look. On the other side of her was Sasakibe, Iba, and Hisagi, whom stood grouped together and all wore the same serious expressions on their features. And finally next to them was Komamura and his unreadable look, the fact that Toshiro never tried to read the expression of a dog, and that he only showed human-like emotion was when he was angry or happy about something had much to do with it.
At the sound of Yachiru's voice, Mayuri quickly turned around and showed his displeasure of the new four for coming in so late; "What were you doing at such an important time?" he demanded angrily.
"If you were part of the normal guard, I would feed you to my pets for your incompetence!" he continued, giving them a sever glare.
"Captain Ukitake, what was it that you wanted to tell us?" Rangiku spoke up, not very interested in anything that the Twelfth Division Captain had to say.
"I'm the one who has something to tell you!" Mayuri claimed before Ukitake had the chance to respond to her and pointing a finger to himself to further emphasize it; "Huh?" she asked confused and raising a brow.
"In an attempt to keep this from spreading, Head Captain Yamamoto had me act as a decoy." Ukitake began, then cleared his throat before continuing; "Now then, would Captain Kurotsuchi of the Twelfth Division explain the situation?"
Mayuri sneered at the before he began his speech; "This isn't a 'situation' or anything like that! This was my databank! Someone snuck into the databank and stole from it!" he all but complained and slammed his left foot onto the ground.
"Stole from it? What?" Yachiru asked, staring at the man curiously.
"Bount, I wonder if saying this surprises you." he began, which gained everyone's attention.
"On top of this, he set up a trap. If I tried to remove it from that data, then that data would be destroyed. Do you understand what this means? Huh?" he demanded as a rhetorical question, but still seemed to pause in case anyone actually held an answer.
'A trap eh? Must be some kind of encryption that would destroy the data its attached to if someone tries to tamper with it. Quite clever actually, I wonder if Kurotsuchi will really be able to remove it without my help?' Toshiro thought looking down at the ground and narrowing his eyes on a crooked floor board.
"As the Captain of the Twelfth Division, as well as the person in charge of the data, this is a most contemptuous affront! If there is someone you might think to be the culprit, tell me his name! He needs to be caught immediately!" he claimed, pointing an accusing finger at all the people present.
'Tch...it figures that he would only think that a man did this.' Toshiro thought as a small smirk appeared on his face and he looked back up at Kurotsuchi's staring face.
"Do you find something amusing here Hitsugaya?" Mayuri demanded, as all eyes turned on the short white haired captain.
"Not particularly." was all Toshiro responded with; "It was you wasn't it! What have you done with my data?" he yelled, now pointing his accusing finger directly at him.
But then Ukitake stepped forward and looked at the painted face man; "Don't be so harsh, Kurotsuchi. We all share a feeling of responsibility in capturing the culprit."
Mayuri turned to him now and glared at him angrily; "Have you forgotten that among those responsible Captains there have already been some traitors?"
"This is something that could endanger all of Soul Society. We should avoid acting rashly." Ukitake claimed, trying to keep the other man from starting a fight.
"Hm! Your useless aren't you!" he said in annoyance and turned away from the Thirteenth Division Captain; "Well its okay, but if there is another instance of someone trying to anger me, I'll have an idea who it might be. Be prepared!" Mayuri called out harshly.
After that was said, Ukitake dismissed everyone and told them to return to their normal duties; "So...do you actually know who it was that stole the data?" Rangiku asked as she and her captain walked back to the Tenth.
"I have a theory...but I'm actually not exactly sure yet." Toshiro responded with a thoughtful expression and a glance up at his following lieutenant.
"Hmm, well at least your better off then Captain Kurotsuchi." she said with a light laugh; "I'm sure that he has a few theories and suspects of his own. But doubt any of them even come close to who I have in mind." Toshiro said,looking back at their path and narrowing his eyes.
"What do you mean by that?" Rangiku asked with a raised brow; "He thinks that the information was stolen just recently...but in fact, no one has looked the Bounts up in the archives in a little over a hundred years. Its possible that this data has been gone for quite some time, but only now has it been realized." Toshiro said glancing up at her.
"So it was stolen between this week and a hundred years ago...but that means it could be any number of people. Who exactly do you think did it?" she asked, leaning over towards him to get a better look at his face.
"Don't worry, its no one that you would know. Plus she's technically on our side." he responded as they finally arrived at the Tenth Division.
"No one I would know? Oh so its a 'she'...no wonder why she's on our side." Rangiku said in a giggle.
Toshiro looked at her and raised a brow; "Whats that supposed to mean?" Toshiro asked, only somewhat confused at her words.
"Oh nothing, nothing at all." she said smiling widely and giggling a bit more; "Hmph, whatever. I assume that the paperwork I left you with has been completed." he said as walked towards the door to their office.
But before Toshiro could reach his hand out to the door handle, Rangiku stepped in front of him and blocked his arms with her body; "That paperwork...um...that paperwork was..uh..mostly..totally..com...comp...compared to other divisions that have completed theirs of course." she claimed with a sheepish smile.
Toshiro sighed deeply and shook his head; "How much is left?" he asked knowingly.
"A stack about this thick." she claimed as she brought her thumb and pointer finger up in a little less then an inch apart.
He looked at her fingers and nodded his head; "So that means there's about three times that much sitting on my desk." he said aloud, which slightly shocked his lieutenant at how well he knew her.
Rangiku stood off to the side, then opened up the door for her captain and allowed him to walk through first. But Toshiro stopped a few steps into the room and just stood there, Rangiku looked inside and saw Soifon at Toshiro's desk filling out the last of the paperwork.
"Captain Soifon? What are you doing here?" Rangiku asked with a raised brow as she walked into the office.
Soifon looked up and immediately shot out of Toshiro's chair, ran up to them and bowed down to the ground a few feet from Toshiro's feet; "Forgive me Captain Hitsugaya! I was only attempting to help with your divisions paperwork, I did not mean to insult you or your division." she said in the humblest way that any human or soul could muster.
"Don't worry Soifon...its not like your in trouble. Thank you for your help." Toshiro said with a sigh and an encouraging smirk.
He then stepped towards her, knelt down and helped her back to her feet; "You really don't have to do that, I'm glad that you came here to help us out." he said putting a frozen hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze.
"Thank you Captain Hitsugaya." she said with a bowing nod; "Actually, if you don't mind...I have a favor to ask of you." he claimed, now hardening his stare on her.
"Of course. Whatever you wish Captain Hitsugaya." Soifon said as Rangiku walked around them with an amused smirk on her face.
"I need you to head over to the World of the Living, tell Yoruichi to go to the Bounts hideout at these coordinates." Toshiro began as he walked over to his desk, wrote a few numbers on a spare piece of paper and handed it to her.
"Then I want you check on Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends, just see what they are doing and report back to me." he finished with an unintentional commanding voice.
"Yes sir! As you command!" Soifon said before bowing at her waist and heading for the door; "But before you go...I have a quick question." Toshiro said before she reached the doorway.
"Yes Captain Hitsugaya?" she asked, turning around and bowing once again; "How did you know where Yoruichi and I were yesterday?" he asked with a raised brow and an actual interested expression.
"I...um...I sensed a sudden spike in your spirit energy and followed it till I found you." she responded in a stutter at first, but finished it as quickly as possible.
Toshiro smirked at her, then nodded in approval; "Alright then, your dismissed. And thank you again for your help." he said as she bowed even lower and left the office with an; "Of course Captain Hitsugaya."
Rangiku raised her brow from her place at Toshiro's desk; "Why exactly did you want to know that?" she asked, giving him a suspicious look.
"Just because I did." was his blunt response, but she just continued her suspicious stare and then smirked deviously; "Did something happen between you and Yoruichi?"
Toshiro's eyes became wide for a split second, but returned to normal and then narrowed on her immediately after; "So some thing did happen!" she exclaimed after seeing his reaction.
But he just rolled his eyes, walked past her and sat down at his desk; "What happened? What did you two do? Was it something the SWA would make a fortune on?" she asked like a giddy little school girl.
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Even if it was...do you think I would tell you, the main reason why I'm a popular item in that organization in the first place." Toshiro said in irritation.
Rangiku just smiled at him and waved off his words with a dismissive hand; "Oh come now Captain, you were always a popular item in the SWA, long before I started taking those pictures of you while you were sleeping or eating. Or even before I started the segment of 'An Ice Dragon's Passion' in the Seireitei Communications monthly magazine."
Toshiro looked up at her with a suspicious raised brow; "And what exactly does this segment feature?" he asked seemingly far too calm for what he just heard.
It was because of his calmness that Rangiku actually forgot whom she was talking to and answered his question without a care; "It features you and every woman that you've interacted with for the whole month. It's kind of like getting a know-how on what type of woman you might be attracted to."
Toshiro's right eye began to twitch and the right side of his upper lip began to curl up and reveal his teeth in a slight snarl; "But of course at the beginning of every article...it has a picture of you and me together, I mean we do interact the most you know." she continued, not even noticing the drop in temperature inside the room.
"I have recently gotten a few pictures of you and Yoruichi though...and I think one of them would make quite a few woman blush if they saw it. I haven't quite figured out if I'm going to publish that specific one though, but I do know that any of them would definitely make the article sell even more then normal. I mean you with the Head of the Shihoin clan? There would be an insane rush to get as many copies as possible!" she finished with a wide smile and a look of accomplishment.
"Matsumoto." he mumbled out through his grinding teeth, which seemed to bring said woman out of her daze and realize that she was talking to the one person that wasn't supposed to know any of the information she gave.
"C-C-Cap...tain." Rangiku stuttered out nervously, while smiling sheepishly; "Matsumotoooo!" Toshiro yelled out as the room began to fill with a cold fog that froze everything on contact.
"C-C-C-Cap...tain? Your not...that angry at me...are you?" she asked in an almost frightened voice, as she began to constrict her body from the cold.
Toshiro growled at her for a moment but relaxed in his chair once more; "I am quite angry Rangiku...but fortunately, just not enough to want to freeze you into a block of ice." he said in a loud sigh.
Rangiku sighed in relief and unconstricted herself after the cold resided; "Well its a good thing that I didn't tell you about the poll that has people vote on which woman you'd fit best with." she said, but clamped her mouth shut after the words left her lips.
"Matsumotoooo!" Toshiro yelled out again as said woman went running out of her division at speeds that blew everyone over as she passed.
-Later on that day in the Tenth Division office-
"I said that I was sorry Captain. Why are you still punishing me with paperwork?" Rangiku whined as she sat at her desk, scribbling on the piece of paper in front of her.
"I'm not punishing you anymore...these just came today therefore should be done on time." Toshiro said as he finished the last page of his stack.
"But they're not due for another week!" she said continuing her whining voice; "Its better to be ahead then to fall behind. Besides...once your finished here, you won't have much to do for the rest of the week." he claimed as if it should have been obvious to her by now.
"Yeah I know...your paperwork motto; 'better to be ahead then to fall behind'. But what about my paperwork motto? Just so long as it gets done, why worry?" Rangiku said with a wide smile on her face.
Toshiro sighed and looked at her with a raised brow, he was about to say something but was interrupted by a knock at the door; "Captain Hitsugaya, Captain Soifon reporting in!" was heard from the other side.
"Come in." he said and a split second later, Soifon did just as she was told and kneeled down before his desk; "I'm back from the World of the Living with a completed mission." she began, looking up at him from her spot on the ground.
"Yoruichi-sama went to the Bount hideout and returned without any problems, she also wished for me to tell you that Jin Kariya will be making his move on the Quincy and Yoshino Soma soon." Soifon continued.
Toshiro narrowed his eyes and then nodded for her to keep going; "I also looked into what Kurosaki Ichigo and his friends were doing as you commanded. They were merely looking for the Quincy the entire day, other then that...they did nothing." she finished.
"Alright...thank you Soifon. You can return to your division." Toshiro said with a thankful nod; "As you wish Captain Hitsugaya." she responded and vanished in a shunpo.
"She needs a hobby. All she thinks about is work, I think that getting a hobby would be a good thing...what do you think Captain?" Rangiku spoke up cheerfully and a glance over at Toshiro.
"Hmph, she's just very loyal and duty bound. Which is rather admirable...just so long as its not a blind loyalty. If you follow someone blindly, it can lead to disaster." he said, making it rather apparent that he was talking about the Aizen incident.
"Do you think that I follow you blindly?" she asked, now seeming to become rather serious and looking at him with a very solemn expression.
Toshiro looked over at her with a raised brow, but his eyes softened and then lowered to his desk from the look she was giving him; "What do you think?" he questioned back, giving her the chance to decide for herself.
"Honestly? Yeah..." she said seeming to be somewhat saddened but also proud by the fact, making Toshiro's eyes become wide; "But I don't care. I'll follow you no matter what your decision is. Even if it means going against everything else I believe in." she claimed, without a single shred of doubt in her voice.
"Cause out of everything and everyone...I believe in you the most." she finished with a small smile, but Toshiro just stared at her with his eyes wide, which returned to their softened stare after a few moments.
"But...you know that, that kind of attitude is-" "I know, but...I would rather betray the Soul Society before I betray you." she interrupted, which only made Toshiro's eyes widen once more.
"Rangiku..." he whispered to himself; "I know that you must be kinda disappointed, but...I can't help it. I hope you don't think of me as weak, Captain." she said, lowering her gaze to the ground.
"How can I? Your one of my best friends and my Lieutenant. Its not always a bad thing to want to follow someone that you just about know everything about." Toshiro said with an encouraging smirk.
"Captain..." she whispered to herself, but then smiled widely at him; "Thank you." she said, holding back her temptation to run over and hug him so she wouldn't ruin the moment.
Alright, another update finished. :) I hope everyone enjoyed it. Just to let all of you know, I plan on trying to update every Tuesday from now on. And I'm also holding a poll on my profile of which you would prefer for me to use with the Captain suffix; either keep it as 'Captain', or to go with 'Taicho'. I hope everyone votes. Don't forget to review as well, I'm hoping to reach at least 200 reviews after this one. :)