Yo people :) I'm extremely sorry for this late update, I've been struggling to finish my exam papers and all the other boring part of the university.

Disclaim: manga belongs to Tite Kubo.

Chapter 17: Disturbance

The cold was biting his skin for the first time in a very long time. Sure, in the world of the living he had been cold. But ever since he started living in the Seireitei cold was something he had forgotten. And he forgot just how tempting it was to lay down and sleep in the meter down snow. Looking up at the frozen sky he couldn't shake of the feeling of being lost.

It was his eighth year in Soul society, his seventh year of wandering aimlessly in the tenth division, occasionally getting to do chores for a living. It was six years since he's been able to go inside his inner world and five years since his started seriously going through every archives he could find. And 1 hour, 50 minutes and 40 seconds since he's been laying on his back wondering what in the world he was doing.

It was white and blinding, it was empty and covered in snow, it was the definition of a desert and he had no idea what to do. The only cloth on his back was a simple sleeping robe. The only sound was the wind howling over him and he couldn't see much as the smoke was literally raising from the ground.

Two hours, two hours staring blankly back at the sky, waiting. Waiting for something to happen, for something to prove he wasn't dying. Every winter he had lived here, he had spent it in his normal cloth; every evening he walked around feeling overheated while his few friends were freezing.

Freezing was odd, and strangely pleasant. Sure the first hour had past without him even registering the cold atmosphere. Nearing the second his skin had bite marks and now the cold was like a cover on his skin, lulling him to sleep. He gave up.

He opened his eyes again startled, feeling that if he feel asleep he would die for certainty. The landscape was blinding and the snow was white like he remembers. There is nothing else there but him and the cold. A movement made him turn his head as fast as he could.

There, not so far away, was a man. He wasn't moving and he wasn't looking his way either. Relief submerge him. He opened his mouth to scream for help. Finally, he wasn't dead yet but, he couldn't speak at all. Moving his hands as fast he could, he understood just how cold he was as his movements were hurting him.

Finding no other option, he managed somehow, that he isn't entirely certain of himself, to stand and just as slowly move toward the man. One step at the time he walked. Getting closer, he started to see clearer that the man in question had long white hair falling over his face and sitting on some stone cutting a wood stick. Finally standing right in front of the man, Ryuu collapsed in the snow.

"You took you're time," said the man in a low rough voice. As much as he wanted to speak, Ryuu could only look at the man with black onyx eyes staring him down severely.

"Do you know what this is," he asked showing the stick. The other just shook his head. The stick was black and not very long.

"This," he continued, sitting straighter on his stone chair, "is the remaining of your other part. This is what is left of the heat in your body. This is what is left after you destroyed yourself."

The words passed right through him. Destroy? Himself? What? He was desperate and looking up with sleep clouding his eyes. He mouthed a simple 'help', but the other person ignored him as he stood up and tossed the stick away. Looking toward where the stick fell, it was gone.

"That was you," continued the man, "that his how lost you are. Do you know what this is?" This time he pointed toward the stone. Again he shook his head.

"This," he said with sorrow in his eyes, "is what can be your grave if you don't wake up." Watching as the snow melted away just from the stone, he could read in bold letter: 'Ryuu'. Looking back up, the man just sat down again on the stone.

"Who are you?" Strangely this time he could speak, just so barely.

"Ryuu," he answered even if it felt like a thousand swords were piercing his throat.

"Who are you?" He asked again his eyes indifferent to the fact that the child was freezing. Understanding he could finally speak he said instead.

"Help I'm..." But he never got to finish as the other screamed at him.

"Who are you Ryuu? Are you human? Are you a coward? Are you a simple freeloader? Who in the world are you, Ryuu?" The youngster was taken aback by the sudden outburst. Breathing in deeply, the person asked again: "who are you?"

Feeling as if the tears would fall Ryuu looked down. But the tears never came, he was empty. Staring up again, the person was gone. Instead, there stood a woman dressed in a golden grown and with bright red hair: his mother's zanpakuto.

"Wake up," she told him as he stared at her. He never got to say anything as his eyes snapped open. "And don't die," he could swear she said in the end.

He was laying on his back again looking up at a blue sky but the snow was still there and he could still feel the biting cold on his skin. This time however, he was looking right up at a face he had learned to know over the last eight years: captain Hitsugaya.

"Ryuu." He could barely hear the voice over his drumming heart and the sleep clouding his every senses. Without thinking, he hugged the form of the captain as this one was trying to hold the kid up. "Stay awake a little longer, Ryuu and we'll get you out of here."

...

The captain meeting came as no surprise to any of the officers. Even the lieutenants were called to this meeting. Of course everyone would have been faster wouldn't it have been for the snow covering all of Seireitei. Lucky enough, the snow had only touched the inner walls and left the rest of soul society alone.

"Good morning," said the head captain as he entered the hall watching the very tired faces of his officers. No surprise there, if anyone had been able to sleep last night, they should never be put on guard duty. Well that ruled out Ichigo he supposed.

Renji watched closely as the sleepy form of the head captain sat down uncaringly on the chair that was there. Just moments after, Hitsugaya and Matsumoto made there way inside the hall looking like ghosts, apologising for their tardiness.

"I will start with one thing first, how many of you are agreeing to sit this one through?" With really no surprise the majority was for. Well apart form a very annoyed Sui-feng, she stood even if all the officers sat down happy they didn't have to stand for the next hour, or hours.

"So," said the head captain in between the yawn, "how is our precious Ryuu?"

"Sleeping." Renji had never really heard Hitsugaya so tired before. Sure he had seen him completely drained and dying before, but never had the man spoken so softly in the captain's presences.

"Without causing damages," he could hear Rangiku add in a whisper.

"Good, then let this captain and vice-captain meeting begin," stated the head commander. "This will not come as a surprise for you, but something has to be done about the kid. But I suppose we will listen to the child's progress first. Captain Hitsugaya, if you please," he mentioned to the captain to stand.

"Since last years, there has been no dramatic changes in Ryuu's ability."

"Well that doesn't explain the explosions last night." Everyone ignored Zaraki's comment even if you could see some approving heads.

"Last time we spoke of Ryuu, it was decided that he should start learning kido and not only hakuda and zanjutsu. The child is horrible at it," said the captain flatly. "He has no more control over kido than mastering his ability. His hakuda and zanjutsu however are improving, as well as his studies."

"Thank you," he said when the later sat down again. "Captain Hisagi how has Ryuu been while working in your squad?"

"There isn't much to report captain Kyoraku," said the called one as he stood up. "He has been through more than half of the archives of the seventh now, but other than that, his state of mind and work is the same as at last meeting and I think it will take him another year before he finishes cleaning the archives of the seventh."

"Excuse me captain Kyoraku, but why are we letting the kid run through all the archives of the squads," protested Sui-feng. "This task can be performed by any officers. I don't see why a child we know nothing about, and that doesn't want to share his story, is trustworthy enough to go through squad secrets?"

"We went through this last time," sight the head captain tipping his hat farther down over his eyes.

"Yes and the time before that, but after all this time I still haven't found any reasons for us to trust this child. He can be some time bomb for all we know. The recent events only prove that," she pestered. "The child just covered all of Seireitei with a meter snow layer."

"Ryuu is perfectly trustworthy captain Sui-feng and he would never use the information he gets against the Seireitei," retorted Rangiku from her seated position behind her captain. Renji could see the death glare she received from her captain.

"Excuse my subordinate captain Sui-feng, she did not mean to question your rank."

"There's no trouble done captain Hitsugaya," said Kyoraku before turning back to the problem at hand. "If you don't trust the child much, might I suggest you to be his trainer in hoho?" She send the speaker a glare but didn't comment any further on the subject; or well nothing was easy with sui-feng.

"Well if you know him so well lieutenant Matsumoto why don't you enlighten us on his parentage and maybe that would explain his wild reiatsu. Because by now everyone knows that you know."

"I hardly doubt that has anything thing to do with our problem at hand," said the highest ranked of them all. "Please drop the subject or we might lose another half an hour on this again and I rather not repeat the last meeting we had. That would be entirely pointless. Lieutenant Hinamori, how has the kido training, that he had with you, been?"

"I must admit captain," she said shyly, "that I do not fit the expectations to teach him. I would advise someone who had the same difficulties to teach him. Up until now, all the spells I tried to teach him, has ended up blowing up."

Renji nearly laughed, but managed to suppress it before anyone else noticed. He could however see that both Matsumoto and captain Hitsugaya had the same problem as him. No one could understand how outrageous the spells were performed if they hadn't seen it. He managed to blow up a binding spell. That was on the same level of stupidity as Ichigo.

"You say you are not capable or that the child is incapable to learn," asked captain Kuchiki.

"I mean I don't understand how he manage to blow up the simplest of binding spells," she said nervous. Captain Hirako didn't seem to care as he started laughing out loud when the image came to his mind.

"That bad, huh?" Asked the head captain stunned. "I should have guessed that," he muttered. He must be thinking about Ryuu's wonderful parentaged. But last time he checked both parents were capable kido users. He might admit that apparently it took some time before Karin got the spells; but when she learned them, everything went smoothly.

"Well if anyone would just let me run some few tests," Mayuri never finished as ichigo raged an " out of the question" that made Hitsugaya nearly cover his ears to protect them from his neighbour.

"That's not an option," stated Kyoraku more calmly but deadly anyway. "What exactly happened last night before the accident. Anyone?"

"I saw Ryu wandering near a few shops in the rukongai with a friend of his near the end of the day," said his former captain. "He looked extremely tired."

"When was this?"

"In the evening past seven."

"Ryuu was back at the barracks at nine o'clock," stated the captain of the tenth squad, "but he was reported being alone. And anyway, what did this friend look like?" The captain of the six looked skeptically but answered anyway.

"She had blond hair and not so tall. I supposed she was from the tenth."

"Maybe," he said lost in his thoughts.

"That doesn't seem to be the solution to our problem," stated sui feng. "I want to know how his reiatsu has barely changed over the past eight year and then suddenly, out of nowhere, is exploding and could be compared to the energy of a captain? Is there no one else that think this is suspicious?"

"We do captain Sui-feng, but that doesn't answer the question either," stated captain Kuchiki.

"Well the kid has a stable ability," added captain Kurotsuchi.

"Explain yourself."

"Well for starters, if no one else has noticed, the child has had outburst, that gave remotely much damage, every half year. This is not approximately either. Each year on the same time, the same day, the kid has these outburst. I support captain Sui-feng on this one and say he isn't trustworthy."

"I already told you we are not taking up that discussion again," sighed the head captain. "And you can not just want people to be enemies just so you can use them as test subjects. Do you have anything to add."

"Actually I do. The midget's ability has changed since he came to soul society. The first outburst was a very strong one and after time went by, it became somehow different." The scientist played with his fingers, thinking. "I think he has gotten weaker."

"Are you expecting us to believe you," raged the captain of the second squad. "After the chaos that child has caused outside, you are telling us his ability has gotten weaker?"

"I barely stated that before the last one, his ability had diminished."

"And why exactly haven't you brought this up before," spat Ichigo only half listening to this nonsenses.

"Because I wasn't sure about my data and I needed to confirm something."

"What exactly would that be?" Said Ichigo rolling his eyes.

"When the midget had his first spiritual catastrophe, I could pinpoint it back to him immediately and notify how it was composed. As time past, I have difficulties knowing if it is captain Hitsugaya or the child's reiatsu. It is my guess that the midget adapts to his surroundings. If that is the case, him being much in the presence of a captain will make him lose..."

"Wait a second," said captain Hirako after a while, "you're telling us that the kid has the ability to reflect others reiatsu?"

The shocked expressions of the other officers was understandable as it left them all to think about that.

"Well not exactly, but if your primitive minds would understand it if we put it that way, then yes."

"You theory has a flaw," said captain Hitsugaya. "If you are saying he is adapting to the reiatsu around him, why is his reiatsu like mine and not like Matsumoto's. Or even, what happened when he was recovering in the fourth squad." The questioning didn't seem to please the captain of the 12th squad as he narrowed his eyes.

"And that is the reason why I never brought it up, because it is just a theory and I am working on it. My guess would be that he adapts to the highest energy."

"He's been in my squad for a long time too, but he clearly didn't take anything from me."

This was way too strange. The perturbation he felt could be mirrored in the face of Rangiku he guessed. Ryuu have had problems with ice over eight years, but he had problems with fire in the world of the living. Meaning he fed on Karin's energy.

If Ryuu really could mirror other's abilities, making him grow up in the world of the living might have been the stupidest thing to do. Not only had he adapted to his surroundings with nearly no reiatsu but the fact that he had been thrown in with captain ranked shinigamis must had destabilised his entire harmony.

But there was still the problem with what Ryuu told him two days after his 16th birthday: he had been talking with Hyorinmaru. The fact that he was drawn to Hitsugaya might be something related to that.

"Do you agree captain Abarai?" Asked the captain commander. Oh he forgot to listen again.

"Pardon me, I fell out for a moment."

"We were saying that if that was the case, we might try to send the child back to his family and see if that changes anything about his energy and that you could accompany him in case he draws too many hollows."

"Oh, yes, of course." What exactly had they been saying? The look that Rangiku was giving him held nothing good.

"Well, I suppose there isn't much we can do with the snow outside so I suppose you can enjoy the snow a little while it's still here," commented the captain. "We will discuss this later when we get the results of the experiment." Then he turned to Renji.

"You will be leaving on the 16th of June, so two month from now. And I would like the child to stay in your squad until you leave. That way, we can tell if he reacts to you or not." The way he said that made Renji believe captain Kyoraku knew something else. Maybe something like he knew Ryuu wouldn't be drawn to him.

"Of course captain Hitsugaya, tell the child after he wakes up. We don't want to disturb him while he sleeps. Oh and while I remember it, no kido or anything else for the next month. If he needs to do something, he can try some meditations again."

Tumbling back to his office, Renji couldn't shake of the feeling that there was something else than reflecting the energy of others. Ryuu had reflected Hitsugaya's and in the world of the living Karin's. In other words, he was only drawn toward his parents. He had to ask Karin about everything concerning Ryuu. That could be crucial.

It wasn't much later, after he sat down looking at the odd pile of papers, that his office door burst opened and closed just as fast. In stormed a distressful strawberry that went straight to his desk and slammed his hand down.

"Does he know?" He asked straight. Okay no one could understand that straight question.

"Presitions please?"

"Does Ryuu know's his father is captain Hitsugaya?"

"When?" His face must have been pretty pathetic as Ichigo somehow had sparkling eyes as if winning the big prize.

"He is drawn to Hitsugaya and no one else," he stated relaxing a little and crossing his arms. "Does he?"

"Nope," might as well tell it to his face. "Don't even consider telling him?" The questioning look followed. "Karin will tell him when he is ready."

"So he is Karin's child," he said. Oh damn he spoke to soon. "Don't worry I got the message. I saw the kid training some time ago with a zanpakuto with light blue hilt. Of course that wouldn't have sat me off hadn't it been that you asked me to procure it for you because of my sister's child. When I heard Yuzu had twins, there was a hitch. Today only confirmed it."

"Damn, strawberry you're actually smart."

"Does Toshiro know," he asked after nearly throwing the chair in his face, missing by a millimeter.

"Nope, Karin's orders."

"I don't believe you didn't tell me," he said sitting down. "So who many know's your little secret?" Asked ichigo still with that half smug smile of his to prove he got it right.

"Rangiku, me and you I suppose." After a while thinking he added: "oh and the head captain."

"That explains the trust he has in Ryuu. But what's up with the kid."

"The only thing I know, is that he is not human but a pure soul that has grown up in the world of the living. Else I have no idea. No idea what-so-ever."

…

"What is eating you up, captain," asked Matsumoto as she entered the office. The captain had been spacing out ever since he came back from the captains meeting. "Something you would like to share?" She sat down on one of the couches.

"How is Ryuu?" She rolled her eyes.

"He is fine captain. You should worry more about your officers that nearly died."

"I don't understand what happened," he sigh finally after the uncomfortable silence. "He was nearly there you know." Her captain looked at her with an expression she hadn't seen on his face in a long time and that was worry and confusion. "Last night he managed to repress his spiritual energy and contain it. He even managed to split his zanpakuto."

"Wait, captain, did you just say he managed to split his zanpakuto?" she asked incredulous. He looked at her as if she was stupid, now that was a look he gave her often.

"Yes, but I don't think he managed to make them merge again. Didn't you find two swords beside him," he looked skeptical back.

Now that she is thinking of it, there was a black hilted katana on the floor next to his bed where she found the other one. She had just brushed it off and thought it was someone else's. So Ryuu's zanpakuto was not really an iced based one.

"Matsumoto? I asked you a question."

"Yes. I mean yes I saw another one, but I didn't think it was his."

"That wasn't what I asked," he sighed and looked in another direction. "I said are the officers doing better?" Officers? did he mean the ones lying in the 4th squad? He didn't honestly believe she was going to go all the way to the 4th and back again, did he? "I meant the ones that are not in the 4th. You know, the ones who are currently repairing the buildings."

"Oh, I think they're playing in the snow." She gave him an amused smile, but he didn't comment on it. "What was it you asked before?" she said in a more serious tone. She knew he hadn't asked about the officers because he wouldn't have needed a heartbeat to remember the question.

"I do not know what you are talking about."

"Captain," she growled making him understand she was serious.

"You heard what captain Kurotsuchi said, Ryuu can reflect other's abilities. What happened in the world of the living?" when he looked back at her she could see the hurt that came back, an expression he didn't have lately, an expression that only meant he was thinking back at her.

"He burned down a house," she stated after evaluating the pros and cons. "We don't know what happened but suddenly his reiatsu flared up and we needed to calm him down by waking him up by tossing a bucket of ice cold water on him."

"How old was he," asked the captain in a serious tone again, leaning further over his desk, she could see his mind worked fast behind the closed eyelids.

"The first time he was three, the second he was five and the third he was seven. After that he rarely had them at all."

"But he never froze anything," he trailed off as he stood up looking out of the window. "So technically what captain Kurotsuchi said was wrong, Ryuu doesn't reflect others zanpakuto, we are the ones that are triggering it." His voice gradually lost warmth and the bitter tone could freeze anyone really.

"But he doesn't take randomly, he is only triggered by elements that are opposite of each other. In other world like fire and ice."

"But Karin's zanpakuto is not fire..."

"I'm well aware what kind of ability Karin has," he half screamed at her. He started mumbling incomprehensible words under his breath, she could only imagine he was overthinking. She didn't even think he noticed he just said her name for the first time in a very, very long time.

"How old is Ryuu?" He suddenly asked as his perpetuum mumbling came to a stop.

"Actually, it is his birthday today," she said happily. Thinking about it he was actually 25 years now and Renji had organised a little party, with all the ones that actually cared for Ryuu in the Seireitei, that evening.

"I know what is wrong." The voice of her captain brought her back. Looking up at him, she could see how his jaw was clenched and his fists tight. His eyes were filled with hatred.

"What?"

"I said, I think I know what is wrong with Ryuu."

Thanks for reading :) (and waiting this long... sorry again)

Thank you for the review, it always make my day when I see someone has made a review on this story :D I will try, I promise, to be faster with the updates... :)

Have a nice week :D