12

"I'll get your futons ready by the night. I'm expecting you to return before midnight, if you don't mind. Ururu!"

The little timid girl slowly came inside the room with her distinctive slow walking. She had two tiny cotton bags in her hand; one baby blue and one pink. Seiko stifiled a sigh and suppessed the need to roll her eyes at the girl. It was probably her that decorated the candies like that; but Seiko wondered whose idea it was.

Ururu handed the baby blue bag to Hitsugaya and the pink one to Seiko. Seiko stifiled another sigh and opened her bag to find her candy. She was kind of expecting her candy to be a pink bead decorated with little hearts or something; but the candy was normal at least. She gulped it down and got out of her gigai then took a quick glance at it which made her want to giggle hysterically. Her gigai had already taken the perfect kneeling position in front of the table with that flawless noble lady posture that Seiko could never manage. She had never seen herself look so noble, so gentle, so feminine; even in the thousands of different kimonos Matsumoto made her wear. She could guess who prepared the soul candies. She glanced at her captain's gigai, wondering if she could see anything funny; but it was also sitting with a stern expression on its face that wasn't much different from his original expression.

"Seiko." Hitsugaya called. She turned to look at him. He was looking at her with his usual expressionless face. He was calling her to mission? Outside? Probably. He was mostly a one-word commander. When he called your name, you'd have to know what to do. Seiko was totally used to it right now.

"Coming." Seiko said and reached for her bag, pulled out one pill and swallowed quickly, this would do for about two days. The last pill's effect was about to wear off now and she wouldn't take the risk of not being able to control her flames in the middle of something important. She had enough to deal with already.

When she was finished and turned around, Hitsugaya walked out of the door too. He was obviously expecting her to go right after him. She looked back at Urahara for a second. He was dead serious. When he pointed her out, her heart skipped a beat. He was dead serious for once and it mostly verified that she hadn't been wrong when she assumed there was something seriously wrong. For that one second, Seiko didn't hide the worry that struggled to show on her face, then she collected herself and followed her captain out with the poker face she wore on her worry.

...

Darkness started to dissolve around him; but still there wasn't much light around. He felt more than he saw that the moon shone on his face. Its light was warming, soothing, protective and romantic. He fell in love with the moonlight for a brief second, then he forgot that he had fallen in love with it. The moonlight, though, continued shining on him, embracing him, stroking his hair and ending in his eyes.

How long had it been since he had last seen light? Seconds? Days? Years? Decades? He had no idea how much time had passed since he had last seen something – anything. He locked his eyes on the moon, drinking it greedily, savoring its taste. He felt his legs start to numb. He had forgotten how hard it was to stand on his own two feet. It must have been decades... yes, decades since he had last heard the rustle of leaves or the wind blowing all around him; since he had last felt the touch of the refreshing coolness and softness of his clothes; since he had last smelled the air of night... since he had last remembered his own name.

"Tou... shirou..." he whispered into the night and the shadow of a lost smile started to form on his lips as the moonlight seemed to embrace him tighter, ruffling his hair with untouchable love, becalming the teal eyes that had long forgotten the beauty of the crescent moon. He fell in love with the moon for a brief second. Then he forgot he had fallen in love with it.

"Captain?" sang a voice from behind, filling his ears with incredible music, joy and warmth. He looked away from the moonlight just to see the owner of the song. He saw a burning light and the phantom of a human in the light, getting bigger every second. His heart started to beat again as his insides woke up from their frozen slumber for a split second before his vision started to blur again. the darkness and the nothingness, the deep slumber he had been sleeping and the frozen numbness that had been with him for decades came over him again as he did absolutely nothing to break free.

...

"Captain?" Seiko called with a low voice, careful not to disturb anything that might be around. Her captain looked enchanted, somehow, by the evening moonlight. She didn't like how nights were so long in winter; but he seemed to love them a lot.

Hitsugaya stopped moon-gazing and slowly turned around to look at Seiko. Something was off, she knew itin her gut; but it was kind of weird that she felt better looking at his dozed off eyes. He looked absolutely not okay to her eyes; but in her gut, she felt better. It was as if he was staring into nothingness; his eyes were looking at something she couldn't see at the same time they looked at her. Then suddenly his eyes focused again, the light that felt seriously wrong was there in his eyes. Just like when we were in th gate. It should definitely be reported to Urahara, she noted in the corner of her mind.

"Are we going?" she asked, just to have said something. She smiled slightly, she hoped her expression was like the one she wore usually around him. Too bad she had never cared to examine how her expression changed depending on which muscle she moved. Now it was all up to luck for her.

"We're starting off with east. Let's make sure it's clear." Hitsugaya said with a sligt smile playing on his lips – which was too weird now that Seiko had started paying attention. She nodded slightly anyways, then Hitsugaya set off. She matched her speed to his and followed him about two feet behind.

Karakura was surely a tiny town; they reached east in less then two minutes. It could as well have something to do with them shunpoing; but anyways. Seiko watched Hitsugaya carefully as he checked around, careful not to let him notice anything about it. She saw something off in every single move he did; but she didn't say anything. She was going to stop him only if he did something really wrong, unusual or weird. She hoped she never would have to, though.

Time went on as they checked around for anything unusual. There was nothing else but the usual colorless reiatsu flow that didn't change in density or power. As they reached the north district which was the last place left, something in the flow suddenly stirred. Seiko immediately looked at Hitsugaya, waiting for his commands; it was a habit. But he was walking like he had noticed nothing. Was it her imagination? Was Seiko too tense? Or maybe he really didn't notice it because of whatever happened to him. In case that was the reason, she wasn't going to say anything.

The colorless reiatsu flow stirred again. Chills went down her spine. Gosh, things were so eerie around here! Urahara Kisuke, Hitsugaya's weirdness, the colorless reiatsu... everything was very creepy lately.

The stability of the flow disappeared and it started coming in giant waves that made it hard to keep in balance with it. It invaded her world for a second, then it completely disappeared, then it came again. She looked around – at least she tried – to find out what was causing this; but there was nothing visible and the reiatsu waves already made her spiritual perception go down to zero. Thankfully, the waves subsided in about one minute and the stability of the flow returned. She shook her head as if she wanted to shake the shock of it away.

"What was that just now?" she muttered under her breath. She had decided that Hitsugaya had to have noticed this much change at least.

"I don't know." Hitsugaya answered her with an equally shaken voice, "But I think we can consider this a forewarning of something big."

"Let's return to the shop, Captain." said Seiko, more like she was pleading, "It's getting creepier every second. I don't want to face this something big unless I actually have method of handling it."

Hitsugaya stayed silent for a few seconds, then answered her quietly: "Right, let's go."

They didn't use shunpo on the way back. Not that she minded. She didn't want to disturb the flow so she was very pleased by the fact that they simply ran their way down to Urahara shop. Gazing at his back, she thought about what could have happened to him. It was obvious that whatever happened to him was because of the colorless reiatsu; what she hated was that she had no idea what happened. She hated the vagueness. She hated the idea of her being unable to protect him and for the first time in her life, silently she prayed: dear God, if you do exist, please don't let him die before me. He's a little too precious for me not to follow even in death.

A door creaked.

Seiko suddenly snapped from her daze to look around as they both stopped immediately at the sound. Nothing looked out of place. Then the door creaked again. This time she could tell which direction it came from and quickly turned around to look that way. It was nothing too out of ordinary. A door had opened and a child had appeared right behind it. Seiko couldn't tell his gender; but he looked six years old. And a little dozed off, Seiko noticed, when the kid took a few steps forward and stepped under the light. It would be just a usual sight if the kid wasn't staring directly at the two shinigami.

"What are you doing, kid?" Seiko called to the child suddenly, surprised that she had actually done that. It was a really weird and meaningless action, considering the child probably wouldn't even hear her. But the child tilted his head to the side very slightly. Could it really be?

"Hey, did you hear me?"Seiko called to the kid again and immediately felt Hitsugaya's cold grasp on her arm. At the same time, the colorless reiatsu stirred. Again. She looked at captain's face, wanting some kind of explanation; but all she got was a stern look that she could never read. She stayed quiet, it seemed like that was what he wanted. She looked back at the kid still standing there. The kid stayed motionless for a few second before taking a few steps back into the house and closing the door with another creak that made Seiko shudder. Hitsugaya let go of her arm after that.

"What in the world was that? And why did you hush me?" Seiko breathed quietly. Hitsugaya gazed at the house for a while before looking at her.

"You have no idea how much power your voice carries, do you?" he said smoothly.

"How can that be possible?" Seiko laughed, unable to hold back. That was it? That was the explanation? It definitely didn't satisfy her.

"You don't have the luxury of trifling your reiatsu here and now, under such circumstances." Hitsugaya replied.

"Aye, aye." Seiko breathed but didn't say anything more to oppose. She had forgotten that she was supposed to act like everything he said was right. She would correct him only if he did big mistakes and this little thing was no big mistake. When they started running again, she tried to feel and weaken the power in her voice bofore muttering her question – though it was an useless attempt.

"So, what was that kid?" she asked.

"I don't know for sure; but most probably, it was just a kid with high reiatsu." Hitsugaya replied.

"Is that why he looked so weird? I mean, Urahara said-"

"Yeah, that should be it." Hitsugaya interefered. That was the end of the conversation, Seiko knew that tone. He didn't want to say anything more. So she quieted down and took the lead from Hitsugaya as she picked up the pace. She wanted to reach the shop as soon as possible so she was running as if she was running for her life. Hitsugaya soon matched her speed too. Seiko soon sped up even more. She hated to admit it; but she really needed Urahara and the safety and knowledge only he could provide right now.

A/N: i know, this one took longer than usual. but i have reasons! i spent almost all of the day sleeping yesterday cuz i've been too tired for about a week now, if not, this chappy would be up yesterday. anyways. here we're returning to shop Urahara. hopefully we'll talk to him in the next chappy. i know things aren't going that fast right now and i'm sorry for that; but this process is needed. i can't just jump to the battling parts(oops!) like that, i need some process for that. just be patient for a little more while. i'm doing my best typing; but remember that i'm still a med student even when i'm in holiday and i have so much to do already. anyways, please tell me if there's anything wrong or anything you wanna see in this story. please review, thanks!

P.S: Unnamed, you're right about your theories except the growing up part(i believe he'll grow up when his bankai is completed) and that's why i could say it's a little... classic. i wanted to surprise(and maybe shock) you and all the others who'd read this; but that was the only idea that would come to my mind. oh well, guess the process is more important than the idea itself. hope you like the way things go from now on too.