warning! Ice Prince will be extremely OOC at times; just be patient and keep reading. please?

11

Seiko looked around as they stepped out and the doors of the gate disappeared behind them. They had come right in front of the Urahara Shop and Urahara Kisuke was in front of the door, waiting for them. He took two steps towards them and gave a smile that was supposed to be sweet. Seiko felt a chill run down her spine. It wasn't weird that he'd known exactly when and where they'd arrive. Hell, nothing would be weird if it was about Urahara Kisuke; the man was usually freaking her out, especially when that helpless dumb guy smile combined with the power beneath that weak mask of his.

"Welcome! Captain Hitsugaya! Seiko-chan!"

"Don't call me that, freak!" Seiko blurted before she could think. It had turned into a reflex that last time she had been to the real world. Whenever he called her name, she would automatically say that.

"My my, you're lively as always." Urahara smiled sweetly at her. He could have made a nice dad, she thought for a second, then beat the thought right out of her mind. She didn't need a father, that was a fact; but more importantly, she couldn't live as the daughter a man who had the potential to scare the life right out of her. No. Never.

"Soooo, why don't you come in?" Urahara asked, bowing slightly and pointing at the door elegantly with his fan. He could have been in a kimono with his face painted white, Seiko thought.

"Right." Hitsugaya responded coldly and walked towards the shop. She looked at him, at the shop and back at him before hurrying after him. Could he have calmed down this fast? She heard absolutly no hint of annoyance in his voice and she could always tell the mood he was in just by his tone. One minute before he had been so harsh and hating with her, his whole being had been overflowing with annoyance and now he was perfectly calm. It was surely the first time Seiko had witnessed such a thing with him. He could control himself perfectly when he wanted so; but it took him time to completely calm down. Oh well, she wasn't going to complain about him calming down now.

They went in to the back room of the shop where Ururu, with her timidness, served them some tea after they were handed their gigais by the creepy mountain – Seiko had never been good at remembering his name. It was then she noticed that she couldn't feel even a speck of colorless reiatsu inside the shop. She decided to ask about it later. There was a big silence that had been going on for a little too long now and she was a little scared the break the silence for it had almost materilized around them and was threatening to cut her up if she happened to make an noise. She took a big gulp of her tea to calm down instead. It was obviously hot enough to burn her whole mouth if she wasn't already invulnerable to heat. She patiently waited for someone to break the silence first. After a few more quiet minutes, Urahara finally spoke.

"Sooo! Captain Hitsugaya and Seiko-chan-"

"Don't call me that, freak!"

"-were sent here to investigate the alien reiatsu, I guess?" Urahara completed his sentence as if he was never interrupted.

"Yes." Hitsugaya replied, he had also ignored Seiko's automatic interruption.

"I've noticed it isn't present here in the shop." Seiko said, awaiting an explanation.

"You're pretty sharp about it." Urahara smiled at her, sending shivers down her spine, "Yes, I have put up some kind of filter around the shop when it first appeared here in Karakura."

"Why would you need to do that?" Seiko asked. He would always have a reason to do something.

"Well, I just felt like it; but it seems I was pretty much right doing this, after the sudden disappearances and deaths of people with unusual spirit force." Urahara said smiling; but his eyes gleamed under the shadow of his hat.

Seiko felt herself gasp with suprise and panic started to rise inside her. She had no idea things were this serious here. She had learned that the real world was in this mess just about ten minutes ago; but she had never thought it was this deep in a mess. The mission was a lot more than she had imagined in Seireitei. She absolutely regretted now underestimating the mission, just as she regretted accepting it. She wasn't good enough for such an extreme "investigation" mission, the panic was already starting to climp up her throat. She gulped it down before it escaped her throat as a hysterical squeak and looked at her captain to draw strength from his presence. As always his face was calm and collected, though his eyes were slightly narrowed and darker than usual.

"I was never informed of this." Hitsugaya stated slowly. So he didn't know either. Seiko turned her eyes on Urahara.

"Soul Society wasn't informed of these deaths and disappearances." Urahara literally answered his never-asked question, "I didn't want to cause an uproar there when they have enough to deal with." he completed with a serious voice and expression, then turned to Seiko and smiled sweetly: "Right, Seiko-chan?"

"Don't call me that, freak!" Seiko muttered under her breath before she even realized herself. She had to get over that habit.

"Wouldn't it make more sense if we were informed about every detail of such a thing?" Hitsugaya asked. He had not raised his voice; but the power in his words had clearly increased, "Soul Society is responsible of this world's safety too. Also, I assume it isn't a good idea to keep things from Captain Mayuri since he cannot find an answer for us with faulty information. Am I wrong?"

Seiko shuddered instinctively. She was used to her captain's cold and the power in his words though it never ceased to amaze her; but this time was different. His words were persuasive, his eyes were closed up to the world, refusing to show anything that was going on in his mind. His reiatsu was far too dark compared to before. Before, she would say it was teal or more like 'Caribbean Sea Green' as she'd heard; but now it was colder. It was more blue, colder and duller; yet it was deeper and stronger. It was a weird, wrong color; but she didn't know why it was so wrong. Neither did she know why she was getting so worried.

"Oooh! Mayuri!" Urahara smiled cheerfully, "So he is also in this! I need not worry then!" after saying this, he turned serious again, sending chills down Seiko's spine, "But if I told him about this and Soul Society rushed to send a bunch of Shinigami here, we could have lost the chance to investigate it. Moreover, we still don't know what kind of effect it may have on the Shinigami that come here, passing Senkai Gate which happens to be our weak spot." Urahara grinned. Seiko sweated. Had he just implied what Seiko understood? What exactly had he meant? How could she get him to say it openly?

"I see what you mean. We'll see how it'll effect us with time." Hitsugaya said as an end to that part of discussion, then continued, "So is this all we know about the alien reiatsu?"

"I managed to gather some information; but it's mostly uncertain. We don't have any choice but to wait for it to show itself I guess – whatever it is. I recommend you to rest since we don't know what you will have to face." Urahara said, hiding his face behind his fan. The way his eyes gleamed made Seiko want to shrink up and disappear; but that wouldn't happen of course, so she focused on what his words could mean. He had said 'itself' so he definitely thought the colorless reiatsu had a source that had a conscience. That was all she could make out at the time.

"I'd prefer going on a search tour before that. Could you lend me a soul candy?" Hitsuagya asked. Seiko looked at him for a second.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I thought you were tired." Seiko said. Something in his tone had disturbed her, so she wanted to be cautious.

"I'm okay, you worry too much." Hitsugaya said. Seiko decided to let it go. She somehow felt like not pursuing it woud be better for her own good this time.

"Alright then." Urahara said after a very short silence that felt like he was calculating something in his mind. Then he turned to Seiko and smiled. "What about you, Seiko-chan?"

Seiko shuddered but managed to stop herself from calling him freak again. It was going to be hard completely giving up the habit; but in this mission, Urahara was probably her most important ally so she had to be nice to him. Not that he looked like he minded her calling him freak, but still.

"You're pretty detached today. Why don't you stay here, rest and let your Captain satisfy himself, hmm?" Urahara said when she didn't answer.

How the hell can I refuse when you're asking so sweetly? Seiko screamed inside her head. How could he expect her to say tell her honest opinion when he talked that way and freaked her shitless? Wait, maybe he wasn't expecting such a thing. Maybe he had a plan or something; but what could be? It didn't make sense at all. Well, she would give the same answer either way; if that was what he wanted.

"Alright, it would be good." she answered, trying to put on a geniuine smile with her best acting abilities. The last thing she wanted to do righ now was to smile, though. But she didn't have a choice right now.

"I'd rather have you watch my back, though." she heard Hitsugaya say with a blank voice. Seiko turned to look at him slowly, wondering what she would do. She couldn't say no to Urahara; but she couldn't refuse an order from Captain either. What she saw, though, cleared all thoughts off of her mind. She blinked a few times, unable to believe her eyes. Her captain's normally expressionless face was clearly lit with a smirk! That was a sight she had never seen, not even once in her life and this wasn't helping at all. Oh, dammit! He had always been so hot, so dreamy in her eyes and she had always locked away her teenage blabbering about that, satisfied with what she had and doing her best to be professional; but with him looking at her like that...

"Umm, so, what do you choose?" Urahara's voice brought her a little closer to reality.

"I think I'll bear the fatigue for a little and accompany Captain Hitsugaya." Seiko smiled at Urahara. She was surprised that her voice was extremely normal, she definitely didn't feel normal. She felt like she was in the clouds still, with the effect of the smile she had seen for the first time in her life. Like she would choose to stay. Like any girl would choose to stay when the other option was to go with Hitsugaya who wanted her around and was so absolutely hypnotizing and hot... wait, hot? And wanting her around, huh? She smacked herself mentally and turned entirely to solid reality. No matter how enchanted she was by the Ice Prince, she couldn't afford not to notice the extreme weirdness of the situation. It was almost, almost like he was flirting with her. She had three words for this: No. Damn. Way. Something was extremely off.

Seiko heard Urahara's words ringing in her ear. They still had no idea what kind of effect passing the Senkai Gate would have. She tensed her muscles to keep her face in the same smiling expression. What if the fainting wasn't just fatigue? The weird changes in his actions kind of proved it. Well, she had already accepted his offer, now she couldn't turn back; but she didn't like losing the chance to talk to Urahara alone because of her silly teenage hormone things or whatever. Looking on the bright side, she could watch over him during the city tour; but she'd have to act clueless like she had noticed nothing. Well, she could manage that. But, no matted how much she didn't like him, she had to talk to Urahara about what was happening to Hitsugaya. Urgent.

A/N: wow, i actually finished typing the full chapter today! i'm happy. personally, i like the places where Hitsu-chan isn't the Little Icicle anymore because those are my personal fantasies; but i'm fully aware that this Hitsu can't last long, it'll ruin the whole story. and you know what? Seiko wouldn't want this to last either. she's some kind of mazochist that likes it better when Hitsu is out of reach... or maybe just wants him to be fully himself that's all, haha! ah, i'm blabbering. again. i feel kinda hyper right now. i got my test results, seems i'm highly anemic and i got my contact lenses today, it's a first. oh, i bet no one wants to read my daily life here. anyways. Hope you liked this chapter enough to look forward to the next, please review! i mean it, please tell me everything you think directly, i really do want that. thank you!

P.S:Unnamed, there is a reason to Little Icicle's weirdness though i don't know how sensible it is. i hope you like it when you read it, and please tell me directly if it's extremely silly when you read; i can change it immediately. Also, i'd like to hear your ideas about what it could be, if you'd like to share.