Sorry for the late update...I got a bad case of writers block and I only got rid of it cause of my friends help. ;) So thank you Tuli-chan. And btw everyone, if you have any ideas or suggestions for my story, or even a character you want me to add, I'd be more then willing to listen and oblige. Now on with the story.


Chapter 54:

-Twelfth Division-

Toshiro and Nemu walked down the many steps of a poorly lit winding staircase, their steps echoing around them were the only sounds that could be heard. As they continued down, Nemu glanced over to her companion and was about to voice a question, but stopped as they reach the bottom of the stairs. As they stepped down from the last step, they were met by a long hallway with the outline of a large set of metal double doors. But once they stepped a few more feet, a set of long and bright lights illuminated the hallway, which showed five differently colored walls.

The walls themselves were transparent so they could still see their destination before them, but it was through a strange combination of all the different colors that made up the walls. Toshiro scanned the first wall, noticing that it was a dark blue color with a small keypad in the center; "These are security checkpoints that require verification of our identities for us to enter." Nemu claimed.

"The first is merely a password encryption." she continued, walking up to the pad and typing in a few numbers.

Once she finished, she stepped a few steps away, then the wall shone brightly and disappeared a split second later. They then continued on to the next wall and immediately noticed that this wall's color was a golden, very similar to Mayuri's Zanpakuto's release form. Toshiro raised a brow to this, looked behind him briefly and chuckled lightly; "Figures your father would do something like this." he muttered to himself.

Nemu raised a brow to him as they walked to the next wall; "What is it?" she asked, though her tone was emotionless, it was hiding curiosity in it.

"He chose colors that he himself has. He has dark blue hair, his Shikai changes his kantana into a make-shift golden sword. And his Bankai's creature has purple poison constantly pouring from it's mouth." Toshiro said.

He started off his words by pointing behind them with an ice covered thumb, then finishing with an icy claw pointing at the purple wall before them. All the while, Nemu merely followed his gestures and then looked further ahead of them to the two other walls beyond the one in front of them. She then nodded her head in agreement; "I truly did not notice. I have never thought of this security system as a way to show one's personal choices of colors." she said.

Toshiro smirked lightly to the way she sounded so technical about something as simple as, using your favorite colors in something. They then looked down at a small pin, which was sticking out of a round dish from the purple wall. The white haired captain raised a brow to this and looked to Nemu; "A DNA scanner." he said simply, to which she nodded.

Nemu then pricked one of her fingers and watched as the single drop of blood stream down from the needle to the small dish. As the blood hit, the wall did the same as the previous one and vanished before their eyes; "If I may ask you Captain Hitsugaya, what do you need this information for?" the raven haired woman asked, finally deciding to inquire about what he was planning.

The two went on to the next wall, which was an olive green, the same color as the Twelfth Division's. There was a bright hand shaped outline on the walls surface, but though Toshiro's eyes were on the wall, his mind was on Nemu's question; "I am creating a mo-." but Toshiro was interrupted by a sudden explosion from above them.

They both looked up and narrowed their eyes; "Sorry Nemu, but we need to hurry if we're going to stop Jin from destroying your father's division." Toshiro said, knowing that if her father was displeased, she would pay for it.

'I won't let him...this is more of my fault then hers.' Toshiro thought to himself as Nemu nodded to him and placed her hand in the same shaped outline.

A red, rectangular light showed from it and began scanning her hand from just about every angle. As the light stopped, the wall disappeared and they quickly moved on to the last wall which was an orange-gold color. The wall's hue reminded them of Mayuri's eyes, giving them an odd feeling like he was watching them somehow; 'Hmph...it figures he'd place his eye color last.' Toshiro thought, rolling his eyes.

He then looked to the small microphone on the wall's surface and smirked lightly in amusement; 'A voice confirmation? Her father certainly knows nothing about voice alterations does he.' Toshiro said to himself, sounding slightly smug even in his mind.

Nemu walked up to the microphone and spoke in a serious and completely emotionless voice; "Lieutenant Nemu Kurotsuchi."

The wall shined brightly, even more so then the rest and when it cleared, the only thing left were the double doors themselves. Then the two looked up as they heard another explosion; "Come on." Toshiro said, opening the double doors and walking into the room.

The room was as poorly lit as the stairway they had walked, but the many computer screens around them made up for the lack of light. They walked past a few status tubes, which had hundreds of thousands of small green orbs inside them; "You wish for this information...correct?" Nemu asked, walking up to one of the larger computers and pointing to its screen.

Toshiro looked at the screen, which showed a small sphere in a graph-like background and a few readings for the objects size, weight, status and purpose. He simply nodded to her, then looked up once more as yet another explosion sounded and shook the ground beneath their feet; 'I suppose I'll just leave this to Nemu. It'll be trouble if they cause this place to cave in.' Toshiro thought, looking back to the entrance.

He quickly took a blank disc from his haori pocket and handed it to Nemu; "Download all that information onto this. I will assist Kurosaki and his comrade in fighting against Kariya."

Nemu nodded to him, took the blank disc from his ice covered hand, inserted it into a port next to the computers keyboard and pressed a few of the buttons. Another window popped up on the screen, which showed a spinning disc and a status bar with the word 'Downloading' on it. The emotionless woman looked to him blankly; "The process will take a few minutes."

Toshiro nodded as well, then turned around and headed for the entrance; "Join me once your finished." he said glancing to a computer screen, narrowing his eyes briefly before vanishing in a shunpo.

The raven haired woman watched the computer screen intently as her fathers words echoed in her mind; "Let no one in this lab! If this information goes beyond this room, it could lead to total war in the Seireitei!"

Nemu looked down for a moment, before hovering her slim index finger over a button with the word, 'cancel' imprinted on it. She looked from her hand to the screen as her father's words repeated in her mind over and over again; "Forgive me." she said silently to herself with a tone that showed a hint of sorrow.

-On the stairway-

Toshiro shunpoed up the steps with his eyes narrowed and his icy hands clenched; 'I knew something was wrong. That computer I saw before I left...it had the room's history of entry. And the most recent, besides me and Nemu, was someone from the Dangai Research Division. But the entry itself just vanished before I could read the name. Who the hell could have done that without even having to be in that room?' he thought as he went.

'Plus, no one would ever go into that room for an innocent reason. But that means someone is actually one step ahead of me. So I guess I'm not the only person getting ready for something. The only questions are; who is it? And what are they getting ready for?' he continued.

As he reached the top of the steps, he suddenly stopped, looked down at the metal floor, seemingly saddened by something. He glanced over his shoulder for a moment as if looking at someone; 'Sorry Nemu. I just needed you to show me how get inside. But I promise...I won't let your father find out.' he thought before once again vanishing in a shunpo.

Toshiro ran along the long hallways, following a path of knocked down walls and doors; "Could they make this any easier?" he asked himself rolling his eyes.

Then, as he reached the end, he saw two small figures cowering behind a large piece of the ceiling that fell. Toshiro walked up closer and saw that it was the mod souls, Noba and Ririn; Why are you two still here?" he asked suddenly, starting the both of them.

The two were about respond but Toshiro just waved an icy hand to stop them; "I think I'll just see for myself." he said, walking through the door.

Toshiro looked to the side to where he saw Chad staring in slight awe at Ichigo and Jin as they attacked one another in midair. The icy captain rolled his eyes, then narrowed then as he saw how reckless both of them were being. Then, just as Ichigo and Jin were about to clash with both of their most powerful attacks, Toshiro suddenly shunpoed between them, grabbed Ichigo's blade and Jin's wrist, and simply withstood both onslaughts. The two combatants became wide eyed and just stared at Toshiro; "I'm not interested in having this place destroyed." he said simply, looking from one to the other with an icy stare.

He then swung both of them around and flung them into opposite walls, but he seemed to throw Jin harder then Ichigo. Toshiro sighed lightly, clenched his icy hand into a fist, then slammed it into the floor, completely shattering it in a twenty foot radius; "There...now take the damn Jokaisho." he said in annoyance as he stood in midair.

Jin looked at him shocked for a moment, then smirked widely, jumped into the air and straight down into the crater. He landed on a large rock with a red glowing symbol of the Bounts on it; "Thank you Captain Hitsugaya. Now I will gain the ultimate power!" Jin yelled out.

The symbol glowed even brighter, completely engulfing the white haired Bount in it's enormous power. Then, the light suddenly surged out of the crater, pushing everyone but Toshiro a few feet back and even reducing the ceiling to dust. Jin smirked widely and looked up at Ichigo; "Nothing will be able to stop me now." he said, his voice echoing from the bottom of the hole.

"I can destroy the Seireitei any time I want. But I'll give the people of Soul Society one day to tremble in fear before I do." he continued, then vanished in a shunpo-like movement.

"Wait!" Ichigo exclaimed, moving forward to give chase, but Chad held him back and shook his head.

"If what he said was true, then we can't just go running after him with no plan. We need to think things through Ichigo." the dark skinned teen said.

Toshiro smirked, walked through the air and toward the two high-schoolers; "He's right Ichigo. You need a well thought out plan before you go." he said, stepping onto the ground before them.

Ichigo snapped his head toward him, then narrowed his eyes, dropped his sword on the ground and fiercely grabbed Toshiro by the front of his uniform; "What the hell were you doing! Why did you give him what he wanted!" he demanded, lifting the shorter captain into the air.

Toshiro merely closed his eyes, sighed lightly, then grabbed the teens wrists and gripped down tightly. The action caused Ichigo to release him and wince in pain; "Didn't I already tell you. Jin getting the Jokaisho's power was something that I had accounted for." he said simply, releasing the orange haired teen's wrists.

Ichigo began rubbing his already bruising wrists and looked at him with a slightly confused expression; "But why? Why did you need him to get it?" he asked.

"It was to rid Soul Society of it and it's power forever. Something like that should be destroyed. But the only possible way to do that, is to allow it's power to be taken and then kill it's new vessel." Toshiro explained.

Both Ichigo's and Chad's eyes widened, then they both allowed a light smirk on their faces; "You really did think this all the way through, huh?" the former commented.

The white haired captain nodded his head, then noticed Nemu's figure coming towards then from the doorway. He then walked directly up to the emotionless woman, as if he had forgotten the two teens. As he came up to her, she automatically offered him the disk in her hand, but as she did, she gave him a nodding bow. Toshiro took the disk, looked down at it, then nodded to Nemu and whispered a quick; "Thank you." before he turned back to Ichigo and Chad.

"Sado, go with Nemu to my division, and take the mod souls with you." he said, placing the disk inside his haori pocket and pointing to the doorway.

Chad looked in that direction and immediately noticed the two small stuffed toys hiding behind a ceiling tile. He then looked back to the icy captain and nodded; "Alright." Chad said simply, walking over to them and picking them up in his large arms.

Toshiro looked to Nemu and nodded to her as if giving her the silent order to go. She simply nodded back, looked to Chad's hair covered eyes, then turned to the door; "Follow me." she said, leading them away.

As they walked out of the room, Toshiro turned to Ichigo and gave him a hard stare; "Listen Kurosaki, Ran'Tao's plan can only go so far. Her device will not be able to eliminate the Jokaisho's power, merely weaken it for a limited time. You must beat him within that time limit. I know you're powerful, but you may not have enough of your own to beat him if he gains all of the Jokaisho's power back."

The teen looked at him slightly shocked but then he nodded his head and thought for a moment; "Well...how long will I have?" he asked, trying to think of his battle strategy ahead of time.

Toshiro merely shook his head and shrugged; "A half hour...five minutes...thirty seconds. I'm not sure. It all depends on the information I get from Ran'Tao."

Ichigo's eyes widened once more, then looked down, slightly discouraged, not knowing if he can win or not; "But if you don't win...your friends and even your family will die. If he succeeds in destroying the Seireitei then there will be nothing stopping him from destroying the World of the Living. So you better kill him quickly before he has that chance." Toshiro continued, turning around and heading for the door.

The orange haired teen looked slightly shocked once again, but then his eyes changed to determination and then narrowed; "I won't give him that chance." he stated, with no doubt in his voice whatsoever.

Toshiro smirked lightly to his words and just kept walking; 'That's what I want to hear.' he thought, then stopping in the doorway.

"Go find your Quincy friend. Once you do, join your friends at the Tenth and wait for me there. I have a few more things left to take care of." he claimed, vanishing in a shunpo, leaving the orange haired teen with a raised brow.

"How do I even get there?" he questioned, calling out for the icy captain, but no response came; "Great...what a time to get lost." he continued, frowning deeply and crossing his arms as he walked out of the room.

-Outside the Twelfth Division-

Ran'Tao stood a top a tall spire, over looking much of the Seireitei as she watched the sun set in the distance. Toshiro suddenly appeared beside her, to which the brown haired woman simply glanced over and nodded to acknowledge him being there. She took in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh; "Like the calm just before the storm." she whispered out.

Toshiro nodded in agreement, neither looking at the other as they stood in silence; "So did you finish?" he asked after a few moments, knowing that she'd know what he was talking about.

"Yes. But it is not what I expected to be. It will not remove the Jokaisho's power for as long as we hoped. And considering how powerful Kariya already is...Kurosaki won't be able to beat him within the time limit." Ran'Tao reported, sighing halfway in sadness, halfway in frustration.

"Don't worry. I wasn't actually expecting him to beat Jin within any time limit. Kurosaki's power is constantly growing, he can and will be able to defeat Jin when the time comes." Toshiro claimed, no doubt coming from his words or tone.

Ran'Tao looked over at the icy captain with a slightly surprised expression; "You really trust in that boy a lot don't you?" she asked, slightly smiling as she spoke.

Toshiro smirked lightly and shrugged; "He's so much like his father, how can I not. Besides, he has the same effect on people...including me. It's almost like I'm befriending Isshin all over again."

The glasses wearing woman smiled a bit wider and looked back to the setting sun; "He was one of your best friends. Of course you'll see a lot of him in his son."

The white haired captain nodded his head, sighed lightly and after a few moments spoke once more; "My Lieutenant isn't going to be happy."

Ran'Tao glanced over to him and raised a brow; "What brought this up?" she asked in a confused tone.

Toshiro sighed once more, but then allowed his lips to curl up in a smirk; "Nothing. I was just thinking about a promise I made to her. I said that while she took care of all the messages from the other Divisions, I'd go out and defeat one of the Bounts. Then come back so we could switch places."

The glasses wearing woman chuckled lightly and smiled wider then she had in many years; "I bet she said that you'd owe her something if you didn't, right?" she asked knowingly.

"Yeah...she said that I'd owe her a drink if I don't come back before all the Bounts are dead." he said, chuckling lightly.

Ran'Tao smirked widely, then nodded her head; "Well you know you're going to owe her that drink. But as an extra treat...you should get her something really nice. Just to tell her that your sorry for leaving her out of the fun."

Toshiro raised a brow to her; "That's what the drink is for." was all he said, not understanding why he'd need more.

The brown haired woman rolled her eyes and sighed deeply; "Anyway...just make sure you make it up to her. I have to go and prepare." she said, turning away.

"Hmph...I'm going to go as well. I think I'll leave that last Bount alive and have him stay in your care." Toshiro said turning in the Tenth's direction.

"You're willing to do that?" Ran'Tao asked, looking over her shoulder to him and sounding almost shocked from his kindness.

Toshiro nodded his head and just before he jumped down from the spire, he spoke his leaving words; "Yeah. Koga is the only one that has any chance of redeeming the Bount's tainted existence."

-Southern area of the Tenth Division-

Koga walked with his Doll, toward a destination only known to the Bount himself; "I thank you Go Koga. You allowed my squad members to live. So I won't kill you in return." Toshiro said, suddenly landing in a shunpo before the two of them.

"I do not want to fight you Captain Hitsugaya, I merely want to finish my business with Kariya." the large Bount said.

Toshiro nodded his head to him; "I know. But I'm afraid your going to have to let Kurosaki take care of that."

Koga narrowed his eyes and shook his head; "Sorry, but I can't do that. He deceived me too far for me to just let someone else handle it. I will confront Jin...even if I have to go through you."

"Hmph, that's the kind of attitude that separates you from the rest. Even though you know you'll loose, you're willing to fight and die for what's right." Toshiro commented with a light smirk.

The orange and brown haired man raised a brow, then briefly closed his eyes and smirked back; "I haven't felt like I was on the right side in many years."

Toshiro nodded to him, glanced over at Koga's Doll and let out a cold breath; "Well...I guess it's time to see if my plan for you will truly be probable."

He then clenched his ice covered hands and narrowed his turquoise eyes; "Let's begin."

Koga nodded his head, shifted his body into a fighting pose then looked to his Doll; "Dalk!" he called out.

Said humanoid spider nodded her head and smiled widely; "You got it!" she called out, lunging forward, her stinger-like arms aimed for Toshiro's neck.

Her arm hit the ice covering his neck, but neither moved or cracked from under the pressure; "Hmph! Looks like that ice is tougher then it looks. I guess I'll just have stab you here!" Dalk cried out.

As her words left her metal-like lips, she cocked her other arm back and sent it straight for Toshiro's stomach. But before it reached, Toshiro caught it with one of his ice covered hands, then side stepped up to her and sent a powerful palm into her arm. The limb shattered apart, causing Dalk to let out a gasping scream from the pain and shock. But Toshiro continued his onslaught by spinning her remaining arm in his hand, stabbing it through her chest and then delivering a spinning back kick to the limb in her chest, sending it even deeper.

The power of the kick had also sent Dalk flying through the air and tumbling across the ground. But Koga had already taken her place and began throwing punch after punch toward Toshiro's face. Though the icy captain dodged each one, his movements seemed rather sluggish; "What is going on? He doesn't seem to be moving as fast as I've seen him in the past." Koga muttered to himself.

The Bount continued throwing punch after punch, he even put in a few kicks, but each one was either dodged or blocked. Then as Toshiro ducked away from one of Koga's kicks, he swept the large man's other leg and as he fell over, Toshiro sent a powerful palm to his face. The blow snapped Koga's head back and for his to start to fall backward, but then Toshiro spun a back kick to chest and knocked him into a wall. As Koga hit, his body imbedded itself a foot into the wall; 'That one hurt...but something is still off. He could have sent me straight through that wall if he wanted to. So why didn't he?' Koga thought in confusion as he saw Dalk leap at Toshiro.

The spider-like Doll lunged at him, but though Toshiro dodged it she just kept on going, throwing blow after blow toward him. Once again, the icy captain was able to dodge each attack that came at him, but his movements didn't seem to be as fast as they should have been. Toshiro suddenly shunpoed off to the Dolls side and delivered a round house kick to her face, knocking her into the same wall Koga was lifting himself away from. The two made eye contact and nodded their heads as they looked to Toshiro with narrowed eyes; "It's time we ended this!" Koga called out.

They suddenly rushed toward Toshiro, Koga going to his left, while Dalk came up on his right. The two suddenly vanished in a shunpo-like movement, making Toshiro's eyes widen slightly and to look around for them. Then the Doll came up from behind him and attempted to stab him through the back, but Toshiro moved slightly out of the way. Just as Dalk passed by him, Koga came up behind him and sent a powerful punch to the back of his head. Toshiro ended up flipping into the air after his body slammed into the Doll's metal body, then Koga used her back to jump into the air, just above Toshiro and send a stomping kick into his chest.

Toshiro hurled straight into the ground, his body looking broken and his eyes rolled in the back of his head as if he were dead. Koga walked up to the body and shook his head; "I knew there was something wrong. There's no way he is that weak." he said looking up to one of the roofs around him as the Toshiro on the ground shattered into ice.

"Hmph, maybe three percent power wasn't actually enough." Toshiro suddenly claimed from the roof top behind them.

Koga turned around to him with his eyes narrowed; "I'm glad you were able to figure out it wasn't me that quickly. I would have lost a bit of faith in you if you didn't." Toshiro continued, jumping down from the roof.

"What did you mean; three percent?" he asked, not engaging in the white haired captain's conversation.

Toshiro smirked lightly and crossed his arms; "Basically...it means that the real fight begins now." he said, moving his ice covered feet slightly to a fighting position.

He vanished suddenly, then reappeared right in front of Koga, uncrossed his arms and simply flicked his forehead. The act had sent him flying backward, straight into and through the wall that the Toshiro clone had kicked him into. Toshiro shunpoed once again but this time it was before Dalk, then he swiped his hand through the air like a sword and sliced her in half. She let out a scream as she separated into hundreds of small metal orbs; "Dalk!" Koga called out, as he got up.

But he was immediately slammed back into the ground as Toshiro suddenly sent a merciless kick into the Bounts face, causing him to tumble across the ground and go through yet another wall. He then used the kicks momentum to keep spinning, switch his legs around and back kick Dalk, just as she reconnected herself and came forward for an attack. She went flying through the air, hit the top of one of the roofs, bounced right off and hit the ground on the other side of the wall.

As Koga picked himself up painfully, he looked around for his Doll, but he saw her nowhere in sight, then he looked to Toshiro as he walked towards the Bount; "I'm guessing your still holding back." he said, rubbing his jaw.

"Of course. Six percent was enough to handle you two." Toshiro said, suddenly shunpoing in front of him and sending such a swift and powerful punch to Koga's temple that it knocked him unconscious instantly.

"Sorry...I think I might have used seven percent." Toshiro muttered out silently.

"Oh come on! Are you seriously saying that?" a sudden voice claimed from the roof behind Toshiro.

"Hmph. I guess it does sound a bit ridiculous." Toshiro said in an amused sigh, then he turned around and looked to the dark silhouette of Yoruichi sitting on the roof, holding a metal orb in her hand.

"Well at least you let him live. There won't be any genocide here today." Yoruichi said, smiling to her long time friend.

Toshiro smirked back to her and nodded lightly; "Yeah. Would you mind taking him to Ran'Tao's hideout. He needs a place to stay and she's the only one that will be able take care of him."

Yoruichi blinked at him somewhat shocked, then she smiled and chuckled lightly; "Wow...you really are taking this thing pretty serious."

"I suppose. But I just want to atone for my actions in at least one way." Toshiro said, causing Yoruichi to raise a brow, then to smirk lightly yet a bit sadly.

"Yeah...I can do that for you." she muttered silently, nodding to him and shunpoing down beside him.

She looked down at him, smiled a little wider, then lifted the large Bount on her shoulder effortlessly; "Don't worry Yoruichi...I'll tell you everything soon." Toshiro said, turning around toward.

The tan woman smiled lightly as she gazed at him for a moment, before looking in her own direction; "Thank you. I look forward to it." Yoruichi said in a genuinely happy and slightly excited tone.

They both smirked in unison, even though they could not see one another and then they vanished in shunpoes at the same time, not seeing a smirking shinigami in the shadows; "As do I, Captain Hitsugaya."


I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I really tried to make Toshiro's and Koga's fight interesting. Sorry if it wasn't. =/