A/N: Wouldn't it be like really weird if this story got an update after almost 5 years? Sure would be. Honest to god I didn't know it had been that long. I had like 4 chapters written on my hard drive for this story and 9 for others, but after I switched computers I accidentally formatted my hard drive (I had both my boot SSD and storage HDD plugged in at the same time) and lost everything…. Kinda lost motivation to write after that. But I've been kinda bored lately so I thought I'd take another look at these here stories. So yea, project isn't dead. Just…. On life support.

Chapter 6: Complications

Toshiro splashed Shinsuhei with a bucket of water, instantly awaking him. Looking around, clearly dazed, he realized Toshiro had bound him behind with a hadou, as well as his grandfather.

"Come quietly, we don't want trouble." Toshiro warned.

"Yet you come to my home and attack me, why do I find that difficult to believe?" The boy yelled.

"I'm not looking to hurt anyone, I just want to figure out what happened. If I say please will you come quietly?" Toshiro dryly asked. Shinsuhei gazed scorningly, before looking aside.

"Fine." Toshiro looked at the boy, saw his compliance, and released the hadou from him and the old man.

"We have no intention of embarrassing you. If you would prefer to walk out without a scene, now is the time to do so. Not like you could escape regardless." Toshiro turned to the door and waited for Shinsuhei to follow.

"Very well. Thank you." Shinsuhei turned to his grandfather, and helped him up. L observed quietly, keenly ensuring there was nothing missing from the puzzle. "Relax, grandfather. Everything will be ok."

"But you said…."

"Don't worry. There is plenty of food in the house, and if I'm not back within a few days be sure to ask the neighbors for some help." He turned to Toshiro and L.

…

Shinsuhei sat across from Toshiro, L in the corner, while he was shown photos of the crime scene and other evidence gathered.

"You were clearly there. What did you see?" Toshiro asked. He had hoped his response would be a confession. Instead, the boy looked to the side with his eyes lowered. L observed the reaction as though Shinsuhei had given up. What, exactly, he wasn't sure. It wasn't the typical reaction of someone who was caught red handed, he had seen that enough times to know it wasn't remorse for his actions or even that he had been caught.

"Why bother asking. We both know what I'm doing here." Shinsuhei finally responded. Toshiro looked on, it wasn't a confession. He couldn't shake this odd feeling. "In a few days this will come to light and then it won't matter. So let's just get this over with." Toshiro, now confused, continued for answers.

"Look, if you did it, own up to it. I'm not here to pass judgement, just trying to figure out what is going on. I am willing to overlook your attack when we arrived, if you give me a solid confession. It's likely the council won't sentence you to death. For all I know it was self-defense, I just want to know what happened." Shinsuhei looked at him irritatingly.

"Why give me that? We both know you aren't here to give me a slap on the wrist. I'm just your damn patsy."

"….Patsy?" Toshiro asked.

"Assume we know nothing. Assume we don't have any idea what happened that night." L walked closer to Shinsuhei, and looked him in the eye. "Let's go with those assumptions, and just tell us everything that happened. No detail missed, no action overlooked." The boy looked at L, noticing he wasn't wearing a shihakusho or wielding a zanpakutou.

"You aren't a Shinigami. Why are you here?" He asked.

"I am just trying to get to the truth." L responded curtly. Shinsuhei looked at both of them, confused himself.

"You guys should already know what happened. The Soul Society is just setting all this up. I really don't know why I'm alive, I was surprised you didn't kill me on the spot." He said. Toshiro and L looked at each other, silently exchanging looks of both concern and confusion, then looked back at Shinsuhei.

"Setting what up? Can you please just tell us what happened? I am not setting anything up, I am investigating." Toshiro said, starting to get agitated.

"I guess you need to talk to another captain then, because someone knows I wasn't the one who killed that Shinigami, it was the other one and someone's trying to pin the blame on me." With this startling revelation, L realized what went wrong.

"You saw someone else get killed, but didn't report it" Toshiro asked.

"How could he? His evidence was all over the crime scene. It was another Shinigami, he had to assume it was internally set up." L stated. Shinsuhei looked at both of them, and realized there was no conspiracy. Or at the very least, these two weren't part of it.

"After I saw the other Shinigami kill this guy I ran for it. I thought he was gonna kill me too. When I got back, I got worried that the Soul Society was going to instead use me as a scapegoat for the murder."

"So you gave something of vital information to your neighbor, in case that happened." L interrupted. Both Shinsuhei and Toshiro, taken back by this comment, looked at him.

"Yea…. How did you know?"

"You told your grandfather to go to your neighbors. You don't have neighbors for the nearest half kilometer or so. Do you remember what the killer looked like?" L asked.

"It was extremely dark. Honestly, I thought the less I saw the better. At least, at the time. I was worried if I was able to identify someone they would come looking for me. I guess I should have taken the time." L looked on, still pondering. Toshiro looked back at Shinsuhei.

"I have to ask what you were doing out there so late. And why that area in particular?"

"That…. Isn't something I can say."

"You were looking for weak points in seireitei." L stated. Shinsuhei looked at him, shocked. "I suspect you were attempting to also learn the routes surrounding patrols took as well, to avoid them when you were going to infiltrate Soul Society. My guess is to find illegal experiments that were being undertaken to expose them to the masses." Toshiro observed Shinsuhei's reactions to L's deductions.

"I don't understand…."

"You don't need to, although if you ask me having a zanpakuto and a clear intent to attack a shinigami on sight doesn't paint very good pictures. Seeing as how your family was exiled from Soul Society I didn't think you'd be taking a frontal attack to them. You'd just like the public to scorn them. Regardless, personally I don't care about that. This murder is far more interesting anyway." L put his hand on Toshiro's shoulder, prompting Toshiro to look up at him. "A word please, Toshiro?"

"It's Captain Hitsugaya." He said while getting up. Outside the interrogation room, L addressed both Matsumoto and Toshiro.

"I suspected this was an inside job, his reactions confirmed that when we first started questioning him. The gentleman who Rangiku and I spoke to in the Squad 11 barracks seemed to know what happened. I would venture as far as saying he might be the killer." L stated. Toshiro was clearly rather aggravated with L's lack of disclosure.

"Why didn't we arrest him when we were there? Why did we let him go?" Matsumoto, also angry, demanded an explanation.

"If we began to question him thoroughly, he would have been tipped off. We can't randomly take other squad members into custody without evidence to support the arrest. I'm not interested in seeing Mr. Kisagi disappear because we couldn't keep him locked up. That being said, we have someone who can put him there now. Although, our visit alone might have been enough to scare him away.

"Matsumoto, go to the Squad 11 barracks and see if Kisagi is still around." Matsumoto nodded, and ran out of the room. Toshiro turned to L. "I sincerely hope we don't end up with a missing perpetrator because you failed to mention something this important."

"I had no reason to. Would you have really accepted something I simply had an intuition about?" L inquired. Toshiro turned away, knowing he had no ledge to stand on for being upset.

"I have some things to do regarding the investigation. Is there anything else you would like to mention before I take my leave?" L looked at him deadpan, unsure if the young captain wanted an apology or not.

"Nothing else comes to mind, aside from what I suspect to be the motive." Toshiro sighed, he shouldn't be surprised.

"That certainly counts."

"Kenpachi said Kisagi didn't belong in Squad 11. He was right. Past files indicate himself, as well as the deceased, at one point was in Squad 4. Once it came to light they were both very skilled in analytical analysis, they were moved to Squad 12. The reason Kisagi was moved to Squad 11 was due to a fight between the two. Not sure what the fight was about, but they moved Kisagi to 11 due to it. I'm sure he felt the deceased was the reason for this change, and wanted revenge." Toshiro thought for a moment, then turned his head slightly.

"Thanks for the information. If you will excuse me." He headed to his office, he still felt something wasn't right. L stared at Toshiro for a moment before turning to head back to the Hitsugaya residence.

A/N: Not gonna promise anything anytime soon, no idea when the next chapter is coming out. But I do intend to write still. Reviews are nice, so drop a comment if you like (or, you know, if you don't, whatever).