DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN FRUITS BASKET OR BLEACH, NOR DO I PROFIT FROM THIS STORY.

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, or put this story on their favourite/follow list. It's greatly appreciated.

First of all, I would like to apologise for how long it has taken me to update. I honestly didn't mean for it to get this bad. The past few months have been a bit hectic for me, I was made redundant at my work and as you can imagine looking for a job has taken up most of my time. But I am now officially apart of the work force!

Yay!

Once again, I am very sorry for the lack of updates.

Previously…

Hana nodded, she had moved to the front of the group by now. "Sometimes that is the case, however" she stopped in her tracks, causing the group to stop with her, "That doesn't explain why I felt two sets of electric waves coming from him."

Jumping to Conclusions

Hitsugaya Taicho,

It cannot be helped if you have to interact with the people Kaibara, but tread with caution. It wouldn't be wise for them to be caught up our affairs, nor you with theirs.

Nonetheless, it would be prudent to keep an eye on the teens that the hollow targeted. I have spoken with Kurotstchi Taicho and his research has said that this is first recorded hollow attack in Kaibara, it is likely that the reiatsu fluctuations drew the hollow and that more will eventually follow.

I expect your next report in a week's time.

- Yamamoto Soutaicho.

He'd been having such a nice day today. The morning sun had woken him from a peaceful slumber and when he finally dragged himself away from bed he was greeted with a hot breakfast and a dazzling smile from Tohru. He barely registered the bickering pair of zodiac teens as they picked at their breakfast, before they left for another day at School, Tohru providing a neutral barrier between the two of them.

The afternoon had been lovely; the breeze had wafted over him in soft waves when he was dozing at his desk. The chirping birds had delivered a harmonious song accompanied by the ringing of his phone as he made himself cozy in front of the television. No doubt a frantic Mitsuru had left him multiple messages begging him to finish the next portion of his book. Messages that would more than likely go unanswered, until she showed up at his door and forced him to finish his work. Really, that woman is no fun. No fun at all.

Yes his day had been nice, if not perfect, and would be topped off with a nice helping of Tohru's delicious food. Not to mention that her girl friends would be coming over for dinner as well. High School girls, is anything better than that?

That was all forgotten when that grump Kyo came home, the others trailing in after him. Tohru had immediately bustled into the kitchen, eager to start dinner, Uo and Hana following after her, most likely offering their assistance. So he was left with four teenage boys, all temperamental in their own unique ways. What a joy.

"Now that's a sour face if I ever saw one. What's got you in such a twist?" Shigure teased Kyo as the boys settled down around the kotatsu. Yuki pulled out some of his school supplies, opening his physics book and taking down notes while Haru and Momiji were watched the evening news. Kyo, with his extensive and sophisticated vocabulary, just growled at him.

"He was there today, at School." Yuki offered the quiet exmplanation, never taking his eyes off his book. "Hitsugaya joined our class today."

Shigure blinked and let a low whistle. "You're kidding?" He had actually forgotten about the incident a few nights ago, writing off the sudden appearance of the boy as left over hysteria from Tohru's near miss. This was definitely a new, not to mention bizarre, development.

"Nuh-uh!" Momiji interjected eagerly; chipper as always, as if there was nothing out of the ordinary. "Everyone was talking about him today, how he saved Tohru and his cool demeanor. He's making quite the splash isn't he Haru?" The other teen nodded in agreement quiet as always. Well, maybe not always but you get the idea.

"Is he now?" Shigure sighed and his shoulders sagged somewhat. Such a great day, put to waste. "I guess there's no avoiding it then. We'll go see Kazuma tomorrow, he might have an idea about what going on."

They all knew that it was lie. How could anyone possibly explain this?

Yesterday, Toshiro made the rash decision that School was the biggest waste of time he ever had the displeasure of experiencing. He would now like to amend that statement.

Gym, Toshiro now knew for sure, was the biggest waste of time he ever had the displeasure of experiencing.

Now this might come as shock considering his chosen occupation, which required him to be at the peak of physical fitness at all times. But Toshiro had come to learn that there is a considerable difference between the standard training session for a Shinigami and that of a typical teenager. For example: Toshiro has never once judged his new recruits on their ability to climb a rope, and too his knowledge, neither did any of his colleagues. Why would they? That's beauty of shunpo it can take Toshiro anywhere he wanted to go, provided he had enough reatsu, and even if he didn't Hyourinmaru would gladly offer his assistance.

Yet here he stood in the middle of the gymnasium, in shorts much too short for liking, but he's sure Rangiku would love, next in line to climb a rope. The student currently attempting the arduous task was struggling, his face dripping with sweat and his legs flailing beneath him.

At the beginning of the period the teacher had demonstrated the 'proper' technique to use when climbing a rope. Kaede Tsukuda had jumped to grab a hold of the rope and brought her legs up to her chest, her arms supporting her weight, before straightening her legs and catching the rope between her feet. She then began to climb, her arms doing most of the work and made it to the top a few minutes later. From the moment the woman had begun Toshiro knew it was a flawed technique that actually made the task more difficult than it should be. The problem was that it relied far too heavily on upper body strength and far too little on the legs. When you lift something you're always told to lift with your legs, not your back and it's the same concept when climbing a rope. The technique the instructor had shown only allows for the rope to be held securely between the feet, essentially making the legs dead weight and making it harder to complete the task.

The fact that no student has managed to get the top was enough evidence of that. Toshiro wasn't surprised in the least when some of the students didn't even try, the activity, Hanajima being at the forefront of this group. The girl hadn't even taken more than two steps towards the crash mats before she claimed injury and calmly walked towards the bleachers, without a backwards glance at the fuming teacher. Looking that the group, who now seem to be playing a card game, Toshiro idly thinks that Rangiku and Hanajima would get along famously.

Kaede sighed and signaled for the student struggling student to come back down. "It was a good effort Hayashi-san, but I think that's enough for today."

Hayashi was sitting on the crash mats, his breath coming out in heavy pants and in desperate need of a water break. The boy nodded, more than happy to let the next unlucky soul behind him have their turn.

Kaede crossed him off the list and looked over her clipboard at Toshiro. "Hitsugaya-san?" she gave the boy a once over, taking in his small size and lean body. "You think you can do this? You can sit out if its too much for you." She asked concerned.

Toshiro's brow twitched as some of the students snickered. How he managed to keep his voice calm he didn't know. "I'm sure that I can manage." Okay, so maybe he sounded a bit smug, but come on! He's been run through on multiple occasions, fallen from hundreds of meters in the air, nearly been cut in half by Aizen, and yet these people didn't think he'd be able to climb a rope?! A Captain of the Gotei Thirteen! A rope would not be able to best him on his worst of days.

Not that they knew any of this, but it's the principle of thing.

Kaede stared at him for a few moments before shrugging. "If you say so kid." If he wanted to give it a go than she wasn't going to stop him.

Toshiro stepped onto the crash mats, the soft material hardly giving way under him. He looked at the rope for a few seconds before he jumped to grab the rope, but instead of catching the rope between his legs, as Kaede had told them to, he let it rest on his right side. Bending his right leg, Toshiro brought his left leg behind him and hooked the bottom of the rope around his left foot, masking sure to leave enough slack rope for his right foot to rest on. Pushing the rope forward some, he managed to angle to slack bit of rope into the arch of his right shoe. Straightening his legs Toshiro now basically standing on the rope. Pulling himself up the rope he repeated what he had done moments before, once again standing on the rope, only this time he is a meter off the ground. Now it's just a means of repeating the process until he reaches the top.

He does so less than half a minute later.

"How the hell did he do that so quickly?" Kyo asked surprised, listening to his classmates congratulate Toshiro on his performance. Kyo had no doubt that he would be able to make it to the top, his training with Kazuma demanded that he have a fair amount of upper body strength, but even he knew his limits. It would take him at least a few minutes to accomplish the task, and yet Toshiro had managed it in what felt like a few scant seconds.

"He's remarkably…spry for somebody who's supposed to be dead." Yuki said quietly from behind him, only loud enough for Kyo to hear.

"Don't say that would ya? It's creepy enough as is without you brining it up all the time." Kyo growled at Yuki, sending a scathing glare at the grey haired teen. "Besides, we don't know anything yet. It could just be a coincidence."

Yuki let out a derisive snort. "You sound like Shigure. Didn't you shoot him down for saying that exact same thing you just said? What was it you said?" Yuki put his hand to his chin, and cocked his hip. "Yeah, I bet there are a ton of white haired, green eyes teenagers called Hitsugaya Toshiro running around." The impression was uncanny if not a tad insulting. "You hypocrite."

"You're a real bastard you know that?"

No sound has ever been as glorious as the final bell of the School day; the relief that flows over a person as they hear it is splendid and can never be outdone. Freedom is a wonderful feeling. Not to mention it meant that Toshiro could finally get away from overbearing teenagers and enthusiastic teachers, who he may or may not believe to be insane, and get some peace and quiet. Yesterday the students had been very energetic about welcoming him to their School, offering to let him sit with them at lunch or give him a personal tour of the grounds. Today had been worse, much worse.

His performance in gym had spread through the student body like wild fire and his popularity had grown even further. He didn't even have time to open his lunch before he was accosted by every club president in the School, all of them talking over one another for the entire lunch period, getting louder and louder as time went on. The only one he would consider joining would be the soccer club, but the extra hours would interfere with his mission. He politely declined every offer saying that he wanted to focus on his studies and wouldn't be able to commit to any club. They had been disappointed but understood his reasoning. It was only when the history teacher had walked settled down at their desk that Toshio realized he didn't get to eat his lunch, effectively putting him in a lousy mood for the rest of the day.

So the last thing he wanted to see when he left the School grounds was Uotani and Hanajima, the former leaning casually against the School gates. Hoping beyond all hope that they weren't waiting for him, he quietly made his way past them.

"Hey shorty! Hold on a second."

'This day just keeps getting better and better.' Toshiro thought as the two girls caught up to him. "I would prefer if you didn't call me that, it's demeaning." He stated in an icy tone, looking directly at Uotani who shrugged in response, not caring either way. Toshiro rolled his eyes and continued heading in the direction of his apartment, a little dismayed to see that the two girls were rather insistent on walking with him.

"You did well in today. You impressed a lot of people." Hanajima gave him a small smile. Uotani smirked and punched him good-naturedly in the arm. "Yeah kid, you put everyone else to shame with that little stunt."

"It wasn't my intention, but thank you." Toshiro said to Hana, giving her a nod before sending a bored look up at Uotani. "Don't call me kid. It's Hitsugaya."

"Whatever, you can't tell me that you weren't showing off when you did that." She laughed and put an arm around his shoulders, bending down quite a bit to do so. "The look on your face when-" She was abruptly cut off when a shrill ringing came from Toshiro's pocket, a catchy pop song silencing the obnoxiously, at least in his opinion, tall teen.

"Is that Girls Generation? Cute." Uotani smirked at the blushing Taicho as he fished his phone out of his pocket, glaring at the offending object, ignoring the inelegant snort from Hanajima. Such a cutesy song should not be the ringtone for a Captain, especially when he distinctly remembered setting it to the default tone when he was first given it. It was only a few days before he was deployed here, he had been fiddling with the device when he was summoned for a meeting with the Soutaicho. He remembered putting it in his desk before he left so there shouldn't be any reason that…oh she did not!

"Damnit Matsumoto." Toshiro muttered as he flipped open the phone, seeing that Ukitake was trying to contact him. He shrugged off Uotani and quietly excused himself, answering the call when he was out of hearing range.

"Hello Ukitake-san." He hears a faint crackling on the other end and rolls his eyes. Ukitake has put him on speakerphone and Toshiro didn't need to guess as to who was with the man.

"Toshiro-kun! I'm glad you were able to pick up, it's been too long since we last spoke." Came the jovial tone of the sickly man.

"I've been busy."

"No need to be so callous Shiro-kun!" Kyoraku teased as he inserted himself into the conversation. "We called to check up on you and this is how you treat us? For shame."

"You called me so that you wouldn't have to do your paperwork, and don't call me that!"

"I don't know why you're so upset Shiro-kun," Kyoraku continued unperturbed, "you're living the dream. Constantly surrounded by pretty High School girls. How many numbers have you gotten? Don't be shy now, tell uncle Kyoraku everything."

"Keep your perverted thoughts to yourself old man," Toshiro growled down the phone. "Did you have a reason for calling me other than to annoy me?" The silence on the other end of the line was the only answer he needed. "You two are unbelievable."

"Don't be like that Toshiro-kun! We just wanted to see how you were coping with everything." Toshiro didn't know that Ukitake was capable of sounding so petulant. "We can pass on messages for you if you'd like?"

"Tell Matsumoto that she's a dead woman."

"That's our Ran-chan, able to cause trouble no matter great the distance." The pair erupted into uproarious laughter, despite not knowing what woman had done to he poor Taicho.

"If she ever does something like this again-"

"Hey, who you talking to?" Uotani called out as she interrupted Toshiro, the teen had obviously grown impatient with how long Toshiro was taking.

A heavy silence fell on the other end of the line, and Toshiro discovered just how loud silence could be. He stood as stiff as board, and his hands shook as the quiet stretched, becoming more and more awkward for the small Taicho.

"Was that a girl!?" Kyoraku asked excitedly, "Did you hear that Jushiro? Shiro-kun is with a girl!" There was a loud sniff from the other man as he gave a garbled response of 'being so happy'.

"It's not what you think!" Toshiro yelled down the phone, startling the two teens behind him. He had gone from quiet to enraged in less than a second. Hanajima frowned at the boy, his electric waves were becoming eratic.

"It's alright Shiro-kun, you don't have to pretend with us." Ukitake was still too emotional to respond, so Kyoraku had full reign over the conversation. "I always knew you were a ladies man!"

"Would you two shut up? You always jump to conclusions!" He was getting louder, making the girls behind him grow more concerned.

"Is everything alright Hitsugaya-kun?" Hanajima now called out to her frustrated classmate.

Toshiro felt like banging his head against the wall lamenting the impeccable timing of Uotani and Hanajima. Really the girls were a huge help.

"Two?! You have two girls? Shiro-kun you are one lucky man!"

"I'm hanging up now."

"Of course! Give your full and undivided attention to those lovely-"

If Kazuma had to choose one word for what he felt when he answered his door this afternoon, he would have to go with 'befuddled'. Not because Kyo had rung his doorbell, the boy was respectful of his privacy and didn't like to come in uninvited. What surprised him was that there were five zodiac members perched on his doorstep, all waiting patiently to be welcomed inside. Shigure had been known to drop by from time to time, often unannounced, and would stay until the wee hours of the morning until he was dragged back home by a disgruntled Yuki or Kyo. However, he can't recall a time that Hatsuharu or Momiji had ever been to his home.

And that's what set him on edge.

'Which is why tea is a good choice.' His guests began to settle themselves in his living room while he bustled off into the kitchen, keen on getting the kettle boiling as soon as possible. There is no doubt in his mind that this was going to be a visit to remember whether he would like it or not.

"Sorry for intruding like this." Shigure calls from the living room, his tone conveying that he is anything but sorry. The man lived to make others uncomfortable.

"It's quite alright, I enjoy the company. But I must say, it is rather odd to see you without Ayame and Hatori. It seems like you three are joined at the hip when you're out and about."

Shigure barked out a laugh. "Very true, Kazuma. They don't exactly know that we're here, no doubt Ayame would blow everything out of proportion."

"That's an understatement." Came the harmonized voices of Kyo and Yuki, causing them both to scowl at one other. Hatsuharu snorted and Momiji coughed to hide his own.

Kazuma stepped out of his kitchen and leaned against the doorframe, his eyebrow cocked. "Oh? So I'm correct in assuming this isn't a social call?"

"Anything but my friend. In fact, what we're about to tell you is rather disturbing."

'Perhaps I'll need something stronger than tea.'

There is no way, absolutely no way they're telling the truth. It's all a trick, a cruel prank that Shigure managed to talk or more likely blackmail them into. That's why Hatori and Ayame didn't come with them. Hatori would never go through with such a farce nor would he let Shigure do something so nasty. Ayame wouldn't be able to keep his mouth shut, proclaiming it as a joke and laughing it off before anyone could step through the front door.

Then why was Kyo with them? No, that's not fair. Why would any of the younger zodiac take part it in? They're good kids, they wouldn't do something like this.

Something that Akito would do.

He knows that he's kidding himself. Knows that despite everything that Shigure's done and what he's willing to do, this is something he would leave alone, he wouldn't dare touch this without good reason. Because it's precious and oh so breakable and he hopes to god that they're wrong. That it's all a dream they'll wake from and never speak of.

Except there's no denying the feeling bubbling up in his chest. No matter what he thinks or feels to try and keep it down. To keep it contained. It consumes fear; it relishes on his disgust, it taunts confusion and walks all over bitterness like it isn't even there. It refuses to be locked away and forgotten, taken over from a depression long since passed. Others come with it, hand in hand, dragged from the recesses of his mind, of his heart.

Joy, fascination, relief, wonder…

Happiness.

Mission status update.

I've still been unable to locate the origin of the reiatsu fluctuations. Kaibara looks promising and I believe the Sohma's are involved in some way. Will investigate further.

On another note, could you please forbid Ukitake Taicho and Kyoraku Taicho from contacting me about anything that doesn't pertain to this mission?

Awaiting further orders.

- Hitsugaya Taicho

Hey buddies!

Its good to be able to update again, hopefully there wont be another break as long as this one was.

Not much happened this chapter, the next few are mostly setting up the plot and generally covering all my bases, but I know I've bound to miss some. So if you're confused about anything or I've stuffed something up, please feel free to leave it in a review or pm me!

I actually googled proper rope climbing techniques for this chapter and I got to say, it was pretty interesting. The technique that Toshiro used is called the Brake and Squat technique, you should check it out if I didn't explain it clearly enough and you want a visual reference. Keep in mind that there are a couple of different ways to execute this technique so the video you see might be different to the watched. Luckily I have never had to climb a rope but my condolences to anyone who has, because good god that looks like hard work.

I'm pretty sure that Schools don't actually do the rope thing anymore because 'hey, you wanna get sued?' but for the sake of this fic, it still goes on.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed it!

R and R

DragonShenron