Chapter Seven: Shopping and Capture

*Soul Society, 10th Division a few hours later*

Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya sat at his desk, overlooking a report that had been passed off to him by the 13th squad. What he saw in the report perplexed, shocked and disturbed him all at once. From what he read one of the 13th was on patrol in Karakura, Japan, when they stumbled across an unbelievable sight. They came across a human in the park who seemed normal enough. Until suddenly they had felt a hollow like presence from the direction of said human. only to see a startling sight.

The human was on the ground and was suddenly giving off a hollow like signature but that wasn't the most shocking thing. Upon closer inspection, they then saw the human had developed hollow like traits on their face. Black and sickly gold like eyes with vertical slits for pupils like a beast and even more disturbing. He had the unmistakable traces of a hollow mask on his face and then collapse. Before the soul reaper watching the scene could do anything. The human awoke, having returned to normal and then walked off.

"Hmmmm this isn't good." He muttered to himself. He looked over the report some more, this time looking at the description of the human in question. Mocha skin, wild blond hair with a braided ponytail, blue eyes, decent height and lean but muscular build. "why does that seem so familiar?" Toshiro whispered to himself. He thought about it, in deep thought to himself. 'where have I seen such features before?' he said in his mind. He kept thinking about it, until suddenly it hit him.

The realization hit him harder than a punch in the face from Zaraki. He had seen this human once before. It was on the mission to Karakura a few months ago with Sui-Feng, Shunsui and Rangiku. They were hunting for a vasto lord that had been detected in the town. Just as they had lost its' trail, the human had appeared before them. Walking down the street towards them, to engrossed with adjusting his guitar. They didn't pay him much mind thinking he was just a normal human, until he ran into Rangiku and fell face first into her chest. The human being spiritual aware caught them all by surprise.

They decided to interrogate the human, since he had been in the area of where the hollow presence ended. He told them what he knew, and they had decided to take off to where the human said the hollow went. The human told them rather convincingly, however Toshiro couldn't help but seem a little suspicious of the human. Overseeing the soul society's investigation division made one question everything.

While he spoke with certainty about what he saw, Toshiro noted he seemed a little too sure. Not to mention he seemed a little too comfy with having learned spirits apparently existed. He spoke what seemed a little too smoothly about everything. At the time it was well enough, and they were too busy trying to track down the hollow to give it a lot of thought. Now as he reflected on it with more emphasis on it all. Something else struck his mind all of a sudden. It was the description he gave of the supposed hollow or rather how he told them.

He mentioned how he had seen the supposed hollow from a fair distance in the air. Then gave the description of how the hollow looked. It's was how he described its' features. He knew all its' details quite well. What was bugging Toshiro was how he knew the details so well. Even if some stuck out, from the height, distance the angle it described to be at when he spotted it. Some the features would have been much harder than others to see. Unless he had, unless he had…. then it struck him.

"he had seen the hollow up close and face to face." Toshiro spoke out to himself. Now everything made more sense, he sudden appearance at the end of the hollows trail, his bumping into them, his somewhat too calm attitude with them and they way spoke about everything. While he had no hard evidence to confirm it, but he knew his instincts on the matter were correct. The human hadn't been trying to direct them to the hollow, he had been trying to misdirect them away and succeeded.

Now this same human had been seen suddenly with hollow powers and features. There was no doubt in his mind now, Toshiro knew that this human and the vasto lord they had been searching for were directly connected to each other. He didn't know how yet but he had every intention of finding out how and more. He needed to go with this information to the head captain.

A little while later, Toshiro was before the head captain and told all that he had come to conclude with the investigation so far. The head captain was in deep thought about this matter, stroking his beard as he contemplated on what to do about this. After a few more moments of silent deliberation, he had his answer to give. He looked to the young captain in front of him and gave his orders.

"Captain Hitsugaya!" he spoke with authority "you are to go to the living world, find this human and bring him back for interrogation, immediately. Dismissed!"

Toshiro merely nodded and left to head off to the living world to begin his hunt.

*Karakura, Yoshiro's home*

It was early in the morning and Yoshiro was in his kitchen making coffee. Still processing last night's events, trying to fully make sense of it.

'why do I feel like this is all going to get more crazy and out control before it gets better?' he thought to himself.

"Your worrying too much kit." Spoke his inner hollow.

"you're not exactly helping here you know?" he mentally said to the hollow kitsune woman.

"there will be some struggles on this path you find yourself suddenly on kit. All who find themselves walking such unexpected roads do. You did not ask for this, but fate has decided to have you undertake this journey for a reason. All you can do now is face the road ahead and do all you can. If not for yourself, then do it for those you hold closest to you kit."

He stood there contemplating what she had said, then replied mentally. "okay that was actually helpful. Thanks for the advice whoever you are."

"your welcome kit." She politely said back.

"speaking of which, why exactly can't I know your name again?"

"because kit, you are not yet ready for it. Be patient, you will learn it when the time is right, I assure you." She said with a sagely like tone.

"alright I get it. There better be a good pay off for all this holding out though." He retorted.

Before the hollow woman in his head could reply, Emilou strode into the kitchen with some cheer.

"good morning!" she chirped as she strode over to her lover and gave a quick kiss. He merely replied in kind with a kiss and good morning greeting of his own.

Emilou, noted her boyfriend seemed distracted and lost in thought a bit. "are you ok?" she asked with concern

"yeah" he said, "just so much has changed so fast and I guess I'm just having one of those deep in thought moments about it all." That was only the partial truth.

Emilou looked with concern at Yoshiro, trying to gauge him. She knew that lots had happened in the last few weeks and that he prone to bouts of deep thinking. She then sensed something different about him, there seemed to be some sort of unique hollow like presence around him. She quickly brushed it off. 'it's probably just residual hollow energy from me, the others and being in hueco mundo so much lately, just lingering around him.' She thought to herself.

"ok' she spoke gently. "if you need to talk to me about something, you know I am always willing to listen."

"I know, thank you." He softly replied.

"I'm gonna get ready and head out for to the store for stuff we need for the week." She said.

"sounds good, I may not be home when you get back. Might head down to the local music shop to see what's new and what not." He replied

"fair enough" she chimed and headed off to get ready for the day.

As Yoshiro watched her walk off, taking a moment to admire her a bit. His inner hollow spoke to him.

"she's a sweet little doe, isn't she?"

"trust me, she's a lot more fiery than you think. You should see her when she wants to kick someone's ass." He replied mentally.

"I can tell, she's a lot stronger than one would think and she's unwaveringly loyal. Plus, she can be quite caring when needed. You have excellent taste for mates kit." she said with an approving tone

"glad to see you approve."

"she sure to provide you with a good sized litter one day kit." She spoke playfully.

Yoshiro spit out his coffee all over the kitchen table. His inner hollow mischievously chuckled.

Soon enough Emilou came down the stairs in her gigai ready and strode out the door after a quick goodbye. Yoshiro decided to get ready for the day himself after cleaning up the coffee. A while later he was ready for the day. With his hair done in its' usual style. Dressed in black camo cargo shorts that hung below the knees. A slim fit t-shirt with the album art of 'Hellbilly Deluxe by Rob Zombie' on it. He had on his cut-off gloves as usual but switched his usual shoes for all black style combat boots. He grabbed his portable music player put it in his pocket and put the headphones around his neck. He headed out the door.

He traveled around the town a bit just sort of lost in thought. Ultimately, he did decide to go to the music store. It always calmed him down, he felt truly at peace surrounded by all the different instruments. The shop he frequented was a rather large shop. It had entire wall lined end to end with about 100+ guitars, another wall was equally covered with bass guitars. The middle of the sales floor held a collection of microphones, amps, peddle boards and such. The back of the shop was dedicated for the display of drum sets. There was another section of for DJ tables, and such. Finally there was in back corner, was a quiet room where people could test out the guitars in.

He walked to the wall with guitars and found one that caught his liking, it was a Fender Player Stratocaster that had a maple fingerboard. It had a black plate and the body was painted in a dark electric blue that darkened at the edges and slightly lightened as it went to the center. It took to the back room and tested it a bit, it was a beauty to his ears. He decided to buy it since he needed a new one to keep at the house since his Les Paul was being kept at hueco mundo now. Checking the price that was labeled in Japanese yen and USD, it was about 700$ USD, "fair" he said. He took it to the counter to hold while he kept shopping.

He chose to buy a whole new drum set for Emilou, the one in hueco mundo wasn't bad but it was only a basic 5 piece and was a little old. He had bought it second hand. So he went to the back and looked at what the shop had. He didn't have to search long thankfully. He found a TAMA Imperial star 8-piece double bass drum set with 4 cymbals. It was painted in a dark forest like green that had a slight sparkle mixed into it. It was perfect for Emilou, he checked the price tag. 1500$ USD, "worth it." He muttered. He ran to the counter and told them to add the drum set to his list.

He then decided he should also get a bass guitar for Mila, so she could have one of her very own. He went to the bass guitar wall and searched a bit before finding the perfect one. He found a Fender Aerodyne 4-string Bass with a black rosewood fretboard and a matte black paint job. He looked at the tag, 825$ USD. He just shrugged and brought it to the counter.

Finally he wanted to get a nice mike for Sung-sun. so off he went to look. He looked around wanting to find a mike of the highest quality, Sung-sun would need the best for the best results for her singing voice. Which he had to admit was spectacular. He found it, a Sennheiser super cardioid Dynamic microphone. He checked the tag, 900$ USD. 'it will be worth it.' He brought it to the counter to pay for it along with everything else.

The total came out to be, 3925$ USD. After paying for a shipping fee it brought it up just past 4000$ USD. He hung around while the shop employees went about loading up the equipment in a shop truck and went off to deliver it to his house. He decided to stay around a bit more just to kill time and test play a few more things for fun. Yoshiro walked out of the store excited about it all, he noticed three hours had passed since he first entered the store. He decided to head back to the house.

As he started walking home, he failed to notice a certain white haired captain and his busty lieutenant. He decided to cut through an ally as he walked through, he suddenly felt the temperature drop a good bit.

"Kit! Be on your guard!" his inner hollow warned

He stiffened himself and waited in place, whoever it was chose this place specifically just to confront him. Then he heard a voice from behind him.

"So, we meet again. You hoodwinked me and my companions pretty well last time." Yoshiro felt he knew that voice from somewhere, he thought back and then remembered. "oh shit" he muttered to himself. He turned around and saw him. The middle school kid looking soul reaper captain with the snow top and he looked mildly pissed off.

"well this is an unexpected surprise." Yoshiro said doing his best to keep calm. "if your looking for that vasto whatever, I'm afraid I can't help. Haven't seen it since." He lied as smoothly as possible.

"Is that so?" said snow top. "cause, I am well aware that's a lie." He said as he narrowed his eyes and temperature dropped even further. "You see, I already know that you and that hollow are connected somehow. I already have figured out that you purposely misdirected us that day. I already know your protecting the vasto lord for whatever reason. I also have a very strong hunch that you probably currently know where it is."

"Look, I really don't where your coming up with this? I'm just a 16 year old guy who likes music and baking." Yoshiro retorted as calmly as possible. Doing his best to keep his raising nerves in check.

"kit, he knows too much about you. Be ready to make escape using our power. He's someone you can't hope to fight and win against at the moment." Said the hollow kitsune woman with urgency.

"trust me, I'm already thinking on that we just need some kind of chance to make the break but also, how am I supposed to use my hollow powers? I literally just awoke them last night." He retorted mentally to her.

"leave that to me kit, grant enough control and I'll give the power needed you'll just need to do the aiming and moving." She said

"fair enough."

Then snow top spoke top with authority. "fact of the matter is your going to have to come with me for questioning. For the truth about the vasto lord and why you have hollow powers."

This caused Yoshiro to break his demeanor as his eyes went wide from that last bit of news. Before he could do anything, there was a sword suddenly at his neck being held by the large chested blond from before.

"well this clearly isn't good for me now is it?" He said somewhat cheekily.

Snow top wasn't amused. "really think it's time for being so sarcastic?"

"oh no not at all but this is just how I deal with things at times when I am under a lot of pressure." He said regaining composure.

"kit, I'm ready when you are." His hollow said.

"got it, I have an idea on how to make an opening to make a break from here, it's a long shot but no time to come up with a better idea." He replied.

"I get it, you have lots of things to ask me and maybe do to me? Thing is you need to consider one thing first." He said casually.

"and just what is that?" retorted snow top.

"well you see the thing is…" he started calmly, then he went wide eyed, pointed to the roof top of the alley to the side of them and yelled "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?"

Snow top and big chest both looked away breaking their concentration on him. It was the opening that was needed. Suddenly he felt a mass surge of energy that rocked his body, he could feel his eyes change and the mask fragment re-appear on his face. The surge knocked big chest off her feet and before snow top could react. Yoshiro with the help of his inner hollow started using sonido to make a break for it.

"I actually can't believe they fell for the 'Marty Mcfly trick', these guys are a little gullible." He muttered to himself.

"don't get relaxed kit, we made a good initial run but we're far from having made a clean escape just yet!" The kitsune hollow spoke.

"well aware, we need to get back to the house as fast as possible, grab Emilou and make a break for hueco mundo. Doubt they'd try to follow us there. Far too dangerous, even for them." He replied.

"Agreed."

then snow top showed up in front of him, sword drawn "oh, bullshit!" Yoshiro said.

"Surrender yourself you cannot escape. Whatever you are." Snow top spoke.

"forgive me for not wanting to get dragged to some other worldly place to be interrogated and question in most likely would be not so fun ways." Yoshiro chimed

"kit, hold out your hand with your thumb, index and middle finger out and point it at that annoying brat." She ordered.

He did as he was told and suddenly a sphere of white energy formed in between his fingers and shot off in a beam at the midget captain. He was caught by surprise too much to dodge in time and ate the blast head on. Yoshiro kept moving with sonido towards his home.

"what the hell was that?!"

"that was your cero kit."

"think that killed him?"

"doubtful kit, it wasn't that strong. At most it probably did some superficial damage and aggravated him more than anything. It bought us valuable time though."

He kept moving as fast as possible, but he noticed he was starting to feel very fatigued.

"I don't think my body can keep this up for much longer, this power is great, but I am far from used to it and it's really starting to strain me." Yoshiro stated to his inner hollow.

"I know kit but hold on a little longer we've almost reached your den. Once there, your mate can take care of the rest from there." She retorted.

Yoshiro rounded the street to his house which sat on the other end. Then suddenly the temperature dropped what felt like by 50 degrees and massive walls of ice appeared in front and behind him. Suddenly snow top was right in front him incased in a mass swarm of ice shaped like a dragon. His sword immediately pointed to Yoshiro's throat. His white coat was gone, and the top part of his uniform was partially blown away. He had superficial burns and cut marks on him. His expression clearly giving the impression he was not fucking around anymore.

Then big chest showed up and slapped some weird cuffs on him and he felt his energy disappear. But he could feel the hollow characteristics had stayed on his face. Then snow top spoke in a very ice cold fury like matter.

"your leaving with us, now move." He said as a gateway of sorts opened up.

"sorry, I didn't do good enough to get away." He said mentally to his inner hollow.

"its not your fault kit, you did your best with what you could do. This is all just unfortunate circumstance. Do not fret, a smart fox never gives up so easily. We'll be patient and find our opportunity too escape when the time comes." She calmly replied.

"I'm more concerned with how everyone else is going to react to this." He retorted a bit worriedly and stepped through the portal. As the soul reapers prisoner.

Emilou had just finished setting aside all the music equipment that had been delivered to the house. Yoshiro had apparently bought a bunch of new equipment for everyone as some sort of massive gift for all. She had been home from her own shopping for a little bit when it had arrived. "I swear, I think he's too generous at times." She said to herself warmly.

She was getting ready to do some more task, when suddenly she felt a very odd presence. It felt like a hollow but had another presence to it. Emilou felt out to try and recognized it. It was Yoshiro's but she could tell with surprise that the unknown hollow energy was also seemingly coming right from him too. How? That makes no sense, why the hell would he be radiating his own hollow energy? Then she felt another presence and a sense dread suddenly washed over her. It was the presence of a captain level soul reaper.

Emilou didn't know what the hell was going but ran out of the house still in her gigai to see if she could view anything that could make sense of this. She stepped out of the house and gasped at what she saw. The end of the street farthest from the house had two walls of ice at the end of it. Emilou moved to see what laid between the walls. She gasped in horror, she saw one the captains and the large chested woman Yoshiro mentioned from a few month's ago. They had Yoshiro cuffed and at sword point.

Then she noticed something that made her freeze up, when she saw Yoshiro's face, she saw without any mistake the fragments of a hollow mask on his face. His eyes looked hollow like, but how? How was that even possible, none of it made sense. Then before she could think to do anything else the soul reapers made Yoshiro walk through a portal, they followed and disappeared.

Emilou just dropped to her knees in shock and grief. The person she loved more than anything was somehow showing hollow traits and powers, despite being human and had been taken away to soul society as a prisoner for whatever reason.

"no" was all she could say.

A/N:

Yoshiro: I am pretty well screwed at the moment.

Author: Don't worry everything will work out I am sure!

Yoshiro: You said last chapter, now look at me. Not exactly buying it.

Emilou: You better not have anything weird happen to him!

Author: Me? Why I would never imagine it.

Both: We don't believe you for a second!

Rangiku: Please review! *winks*