Tairei9: … yeah I know I gave people a challenge. I know that it hasn't been too long, but I put it up when ever it's finished. You can still guess before reading the chapter though.

Renji: Jeez you're weird.

Tairei9: yep and I'm proud of it. So back off. I do not own bleach and I give full credit to the creators.

The fight went on for a few minutes and the sand was already up to Chads waist.

"Who are you?" growled Ichigo. He failed once again to use his bankai.

The girl laughed and said, "You mean you don't know…"

Chapter nineteen.

Suddenly, the girl disappeared, leaving a dumbfounded Ichigo. The hour glass cracked and broke. Chad fell, stirring.

"Chad!!" Ichigo said, everyone running to him, "Wait, we'll untie you."

"No need. It seems that they are loose," Chad said standing up, the rope falling. Ichigo stared past him and saw something on the ground. He walked over and picked it up.

"Kurosaki?" Ishida asked.

"You can come out now," Ichigo said, twirling the object.

It was a striped hat.

Urahara came out clapping.

"Very good. What gave it away?"

"When I saw you go hide. And," Ichigo paused as the young girl with long hair came out. "When she had to keep correcting herself."

"Oh?" Urahara asked.

"She kept starting off calling everyone what she usually called us. Like now she stared to call me my nick name. Then she also never referred to the Kumiko. Isn't that right… …………… Kumiko?"

The girl giggled and glowed shrinking. The glow disappeared to reveal Kumiko smiling.

"You got it!!" Kumiko said waving her arms in the air.

"Kumiko-san!!" Ishida said surprised. He had felt the familiarity but he had no idea it was her!!

"It's hard to fight an enemy you know so little about," Urahara said, softly, "Especially when you are unable to use bankai."

"Kurosaki, is that true?" Ishida said. Ichigo just gave a stiff nod.

"Soul society is very different from here. It is easier to use things there. You must reachieve your bankai. Please," Urahara said, getting down on bended knee and looking down at the ground, "Regain it. I can not regain the Hōgyoku with out it."

"Um… sure?" Ichigo said surprised. Instantly, Urahara sprang up cheerfully.

"Phew!! What a relief!! Well these tests were to test you on how well you could handle the situation. Ishida, who lost his powers, turned out to be the one who did the best."

"Ishida you lost your powers!!? Why didn't you say anything!? That was dangerous!! We're your friends!! If we don't know what is going on, how can we be able to work together to figure stuff out!!" Ichigo said irritated.

"Kurosaki…" Ishida said.

"Well if all don't mind," Urahara said turning to go.

"Wait."

"Hmm?" Urahara turned back to Ichigo who was looking dead serious.

"The first game. If Ishida was not there, how did he do the best?"

"Oh that! We only did that because we were bored!" Urahara said, smiling and waving his fan. Everyone sweat dropped as Urahara and Kumiko laughed.

"Might I say… you all made very good couples. Especially Byakuya and Yoruichi. Hm that reminds me, Kumiko. We need to do something about them."

"Don't encourage her to do something like that!!" Renji said horrified. Nobody dared to mess with Kuchiki Taichou's personally life.

-------

Kumiko sat on the roof a few weeks latter. She was listening to the little music box staring up at the full beautiful moon. She sighed and listened to the lullaby sadly. She gentle shut it and put it away. She stood up staring at the moon.

She loved staring at the moon. She loved to walk around at night.

"Kumiko-san!! Dinner!!" Urahara called.

"Coming!!" she called. She took one more glance at the moon and went inside.

Unaware, someone was watching her.

------

Byakuya stood watching the moon, intently.

"Kuchiki Taichou. Sorry for interrupting!"

"What is the matter? Is there intruders?" Byakuya said, turning towards the person.

"The information is still unknown but…"

"What?"

"We received this from a field officer. It is a secret message from Yamamoto sotaichou."

"From Yamamoto sotaichou?" Byakuya said, taking the note. He opened it and read it. He then looked back at the moon.

"And on a night with such a beautiful moon," he said, tucking the note away and began to walk past the person, "Such a pity." The person watched him leave a little shocked.

-------

Shunsui walked down the corridor towards his office. He opened the door to it and shut the door behind him, flicking on the light.

"Nanao-chan, what are you doing in here?"

Nanao looked at him and sighed. She lifted up a folder and said, "What is this? I thought we were supposed to be focusing on Bount. Not a little abandoned shinigami girl!"

"Now, Nanao-chan, her name is Kumiko and don't talk about the poor thing so coldly. This happens to be of great importance."

"How so?" she said, tersely.

"Sit down and listen," he said taking the folder from her. Nanao sat waiting for this oh so wonderful explanation.

"You know that Kurotsuchi experimented on this kid even before she was born, right."

"Right, but I still don't see-!!"

"My, my Nanao-chan. Be patient. Well anyway, there was a rumor around fifty years ago that he was doing experiments on nobles. This unfortunately was never proven. So it was left alone. But now we find Kumiko-chan and we can obviously tell that this child's reiatsu definetly is noble. Even Yama-jii says so."

"Sotaichou said this?!" Nanao said, shocked.

"Yep and he's normally pretty good about these things."

"Who else is in on this?!"

"Ukitake and Byakuya," Shunsui said, adjusting his hat with his free hand. She gapped.

"But how is this more important than-!?"

"Nanao-chan, think about it. If the child is noble, what do you think is going to happen? Enemies are going to go after her to try and use the noble power. Bount, hollows,… Aizen…," Shunsui said, thoughtfully. Nanao eyes went wide.

"Then that child should be brought here to be kept safe immediately!! She should-!" Nanao said, horrified.

"There is only one problem," he said, cutting her off, "Kurotsuchi refuses to admit anything more so there is no solid proof. We can not do anything with out solid proof."

"Then who else could we possibly get-," Nanao started then stopped. She slowly looked up at a grinning Shunsui.

"Wait, if they had her since before birth, which means someone had to deliver her. A woman. And the only one he would trust is…"

"I see we think alike." Shunsui said, putting the file down, "I'm going to go to Yama-jii in the morning. See if we can get permission. The hard part will be to get-."

"Don't worry. Leave that to me. Just tell me when and where."

"That's my Nanao-chan."

-----

"I see," Byakuya said, looking at Yamamoto, "But…"

"It is difficult to believe, but it is a certainty. If it wasn't I would not have made the effort to call you here. Despite Kurotsuchi's Taichou efforts to hide it, he is unable to deceive my eyes. Thinking about the disturbance last night, it seems like sabotage. We must acknowledge this. There is a traitor among us."

"Could Aizen be…?" Byakuya asked.

"Possible. But I don't think he would side with Bounts. More importantly I have a favor to ask. Among the four great noble clans, The Kuchiki clan was in charge of care for historical documents. Are there any information on the bount?" Byakuya was silent, "I'm sorry but could you look into it?"

"Hai…" There was a knock at the door.

"Come in," Yamamoto said. Byakuya made to leave but Yamamoto stopped him.

"Stay for this," Yamamoto said as Shunsui came.

"Ah, Byakuya! Yama-jii! What a lovely morning this is!"

"Shunsui, you said you had information about the child?" Yamamoto said, indifferent.

"Yep, I did a little digging and I found a lead," Shunsui said, adjusting his hat. Byakuya looked at him but did not say anything.

"What is it?" Yamamoto asked.

"Well, I found out that the best and most effective way to perform an experiment is to have a child from birth. This increases the percentage of success by a lot. Now, we're pretty sure that it wasn't somebody from a clan otherwise we would have heard about it. But there is a way to transfer the unborn infant into another person with out it inheriting any genes."

"Yes I know of that way," Yamamoto said, sighing.

"So we have a pretty safe guess that someone is squad twelve deliver the child."

"There are many women in squad twelve he could have done this with," Yamamoto said, impatiently.

"But nobody that he would trust with such an important experiment," Shunsui argued, "There is only one he would trust to do something as such. I've looked into one woman that was on a seven month leave because she claimed that she was not the slightest bit well."

"Who…?" Byakuya said and then realized who he was referring to.

"I see. I give you full permission to do whatever you can to get that woman to talk. But you must make it discreet or Kurotsuchi will realize what is occurring."

"Don't worry," Shunsui said, "I already have a plan."

Tairei9: that is the end of this chapter! Review and tell me what you think!