14

The night, lit by the crescent moon, was long, cold and eerie. There was no trace of a sound or a smell in the air. It was too still, so still that the whole north district seemed dead, as if everything was a photograpg, only not 2D but 3D. As if time was standing still. A door creaked in deep silence. Its effect was almost like a bomb in that perfect silence. The night air trembled. The door creaked again, revealing the insides of the house it should have been hiding. A kid slowly walked out of the door, just as silent as the night.

The Kid looked dirty. He had a light shirt that seemed too large for him. His shorts' knees were ripped. He was wearing very old and weary sandals. His hair was a bit long and was messed up. He seriously looked poor.

The door creaked close after the kid was finally out of the house. His shadow was tall and unusually dark under the moonlight and the light that came from the streetlight. He walked slowly in the little garden of the house. He looked so tiny. His face was pretty empty, the exception being the visible pain and suffering in his eyes.

The Kid sighed. The night stirred. A few leaves fell from their branches. An uneasy wind blew softly around the houses, between the leaves for a short time. One single bat flapped its wings towards its home, away from The Kid. He walked back towards the house. The door creaked open again, the kid went in and the door closed behind him, leaving the night as still as it was.

...

"Wake up, Seiko!"

Seiko jumped at the deep voice and looked around to see her captain. She saw him at the edge of the door. He was standing tall from the angle she was looking, with the usual cold look on his face. Seiko sighed.

"What's it, Captain?" she tried to ask with her sleepy voice, which came out more like "Whassit, Cap'n?"

"Morning, what else? We're not here for a vacation." He breathed, looking a little annoyed.

"Aye, aye." Seiko whined sleepily, ruffling her already messy hair even more messy. She had forgotten that they were in the real world. She had hoped it was just a really vivid and long dream. Of course it wasn't. She should have known.

"Hurry up and get ready." Hitsugaya ordered and closed the door. Seiko rubbed her eyes as she listened to his footsteps disappear. She looked at the clock. It was seven in the morning. Well, wasn't her captain pretty energetic today? It was so early, even for him. She didn't know when they had slept; but she doubted they had slept more than six hours. Oh well, she was pretty much okay with it, she was used to it.

She quickly changed her clothes and got over with the morning cleaning rituals, then hurried to the room that Urahara used as a living room – the back room of the shop. They had already started eating before her. She greeted everyone and without losing any more time she dove into the food. She had just realized how hungry she actually was. Even though the food was very simple, she was just grateful that she could get something in her endless stomach.

"Thanks for the food!" she sighed happily after she finished eating – along with all the rice that had been cooked for the breakfast, "So what are we doing up this early, Captain?"

"We're getting ready for the investigation." Hitsugaya said, sipping his tea.

"You've been eating for an hour and a half, Seiko-chan." Urahara said, fanning himself. Seiko looked at the watch. It was really half past eight. She giggled.

"Yeah, I do lose myself when it comes to food, sorry." she answered, definitely not meaning the 'sorry' part. As if she'd be sorry just because her flames had a huge appetite. The flames could be sorry in her place. "So, do we have a target today or are we patrolling around again?"

"Just patrolling wouldn't be very much of use, right?" Urahara smiled and blinked at her. She took it as a sign that he found out more while she was sleeping. But the Seiko before – the one that always got freaked out of his smile and got annoyed with every single word of his – would definitely think of it as Urahara mocking her and would get annoyed as hell. So she sighed with annoyance before talking.

"And what would you suggest?" she asked with a smile she hoped that looked forced.

"Focus your investigations on the north, for now that's all I can say."

"Oh! A great difference!" Seiko said mockingly, finding out it was surprisingly satisfying, "We're patrolling the north district, really, that made the whole patrolling thing all the more meaningful."

"Stop complaining." Hitsugaya warned her. Yeah, don't complain. She had forgotten that he used to do that. Even when he was like this(though she didn't know what this really meant) that rule didn't change it seemed.

"If you find the root, do not act." Urahara continued, "Just tell me and stay on hold, don't do anything until you hear from me."

"Got me that." Seiko nodded.

"If that's all, then we should head out as soon as possible." Hitsugaya said, putting his tea cup on the table.

"Wait, I've got one last question! What exactly should we look out for?" Seiko asked quickly.

"We don't know." Urahara blew her his sweetest –which meant creepiest – smile.

"Then how are we supposed to patrol effectively when we have no idea what to look out for?" Seiko asked.

"Trust your instincts and stop complaining." Hitsugaya reminded her.

"Aye, aye." she said and quieted down. The second warning had come sooner than she had expected, she really must have been complaining. But it was the truth that she always failed to understand how it was possible to search something that you don't know what it is. She thought that if she didn't know, then she wouldn't notice that she found it even if she did find it out by luck somehow. That was why she respected researchers, they somehow managed to do what she could never do.

"Also, you will stay in the gigais this time." Urahara said.

"And why could that be?" Hitsugaya asked.

"Isn't it better if we're in Shinigami form? We won't be seen by anyone thus we'll be able to move freely." Seiko said.

"I've started to think that the reiatsu is tamer when the sun is up; but it reacts much harsher to exceptionally high reiatsu. Though I don't know the reason for it yet, that seems to be pattern so we'll go along with it." Urahara said.

"And what good will the gigais do to us?" Hitsugaya asked.

"They have a filter-like device that can suppress and contain the reiatsu inside so none will leak out. I activated it tonight when I realized that behaviour pattern of alien reiatsu." Urahara explained, hiding his face behind his fan, his eyes gleaming in that unreadable way.

"Sensible. Right, Captain?" Seiko asked before Hitsugaya could ask anything more. What Urahara had said could be simplified down to "reiatsu filter" and Seiko was almost absolutely sure that there was more to it than Urahara had just told. Moreover, if he was telling them to do something, there would always be a good reason.

"Yeah." Hitsugaya agreed after a very short pause.

"Then, good luck." Urahara stood up smiling. Seiko and Hitsugaya stood up after him, then Hitsugaya walked out of the shop and Seiko followed him from two steps behind. Right before she went out, she heard Urahara call her name quietly.

"Yeah?" she answered quietly, pausing her walk.

"Be careful for yourself too." Urahara said.

"What do you mean?" Seiko quickly whispered, taking one slow step towards the door.

"Whatever had happened to him, it could happen to you too; there's just no guarantee. Be careful about that." Urahara said hurriedly.

"Aye." Seiko breathed and returned her steps to their original pace and walked out of the shop.

With the sunlight as cheerful as it can possibly be, the previous day seemed like a dream to her for a second. She felt that she had no will to play the detective. She'd leave it to her captain and – oh wait, she also needed to look out for him too. When the illusion of the bright and cheerful morning broke, she felt so helpless for the first time since the mission started. How was someone like her supposed to solve such a case? If the answer didn't come out and dance in front of her or punch her in the face, she doubted she'd ever find it. Then again, her beloved captain was also involved somehow, so she had no choice but to manage. Urahara was helping her, that was one good thing though it was weird she had started to think of him as a good thing so quickly; but out in the open she was all alone. She was the one to decide, she was the one to look out for all the weirdness when she had almost no idea what was weird, what was not for her life wasn't so normal either. The only thing she could actually detect was the changes in the reiatsu flow and the unusual actions of Hitsugaya. But then she probably couldn't connect them and come to a conclusion and she probably couldn't act right if anything urgent happened. She also had no idea what she would do if Hitsugaya started acting even more weird than he had been yesterday. She could of course take action; but Urahara had confirmed her thoughts about Hitsugaya being somehow affected by the colorless reiatsu so she could never know what would happen to Hitsugaya and it'd definitely hold her back. Maybe her holding back would be the best, who knew? She was so clueless anyways.

"Stop thinking."

"Huh?" she raised her eyes to look at Hitsugaya.

"You function better when you're simple." he stated matter-of-factly. He had been waiting for her.

"Oh... 'kay." Seiko murmured on the outside. Function better? Really? Am I a damn machine or what? she mocked on the inside.

"What did Urahara want?" Hitsugaya said skepticially.

"He asked if I could bring some Wasabi on the way back." Seiko shrugged indifferently; but that wasn't what she was feeling at all. Hitsugaya had noticed alright, she knew he would; but he had become suspicious.

"And he told that to you only because..."

"He thought you wouldn't accept. Personally I don't think you'd accept either, Captain; I know you, you take missions far to seriously for that." Seiko said smirking. She hoped he would believe that.

"Right, I wouldn't." Hitsugaya said. Those three words relaxed Seiko a thousand times more than she though they would. He had believed it. Safe.

"So, you ready?" he asked.

"No I'm not and I don't think I'll ever be but it doesn't matter. Let's go." Seiko said. She hadn't meant to say that; but she had to let out steam somehow. Lately she was kind of stressed out. Guess why.

Hitsugaya just nodded and started walking. Seiko quietly followed him out of the reiatsu filter that protected the shop. The change she felt was unbelieveable. It was safe inside; but outside felt like it was boiling with anger, hatred and deep sorrow. Seiko felt like she was being suffocated by the heavy emotions she breathed in from the air. She struggled to act like she felt nothing for Hitsugaya looked like he noticed nothing at all and she didn't want him to notice anything. And Urahara said it was tamer. Hell, I even thouth there might be a reiatsu filter in the gigais! Behaviour pattern, my ass!

The energy was a little less compared to the night; but somehow the force and effects of it were a little extreme. Even she was about to feel depressed because of all the agony the reiatsu beared. She didn't want to feel depressed because whenever she did, she couldn't control her reiatsu properly and... yeah, just like this. Her flaming reiatsu had already started to go wild inside her despite her being in the gigai. She hoped that Urahara made her gigai fire-resistant but she couldn't risk it. As she tried to suppress the reiatsu, she realized that it seemed to reduce effects of the colorless agony. Interesting. Definitely worth telling Urahara; she could be of use in the end. She stopped her efforts to suppress the reiatsu and tried her gigai. As the flames reached her arms and legs, nothing happened at all. Not even erythema, let alone any burns. Urahara had thought everything. As expected.

"Hey, won't you stay close?"

She gasped and raised her head quickly at her captain's annoyed words. She was supposed to have been getting used to it since she had been hearing it very frequently lately; but she still wasn't used to it yet. It startled her every time he raised his voice annoyed at her. For her, having him scold her was a rare thing, especially since she started to understanding him better than anyone or anything else. She noticed that she had fallen a few meters back and hurried towards him as he looked down at her clearly showing his annoyance, she really wondered how he managed to do that with such height though.

"I'm verry sorry. I must have dozed off, my bad." she apologized quickly. Hitsugaya sighed and changed his eyes from annoyed to piercing-through.

"Fine, be more careful from now on. It's crowded so looking for you will be troublesome if I lose you." he said, then turned around and kept walking.

"Aye!" Seiko said simply and followed him from one step behind, trying to act as normal as she could in this situation and hide her panic. They had been walking towards the north for a while now and they were close to the high school; but the school had already started so there were no students around. In fact there were almost no one around, except for a woman on bicycle, a jogger and one old lady with her tiny furry doggie. Definitely not enough to call the street crowded. Unless he's hallucinating, that is.

A/N: oh Gods; it's been such a hard part to type! Seiko was acting so silly in the original story that i had to rewrite more than half of it. I was truly a teenager it seems. her problems, her thoughts... they lack logic sometimes. and after this chapter, i see there's a short part necessary which i didn't even write in my red notebook, i'll need to write that short part... oh, so busy, so busy! and now i have to go to the lessons and study too... yeah, that's the reason for me putting up the chapter late. i ain't apologizing for that. i'm trying my best here and that best will have to do for all of us - me included. oh well, hope i'm still doing a good job despite the busy times. please review and tell me if i have any grammar or reasoning mistake, thank you!

P.S: Unnamed and Kiwi, thank you a lot for the reviews up till now. Unnamed, especially you have been such a great support, reviewing every chapter. if i'm still up typing the story, that's because i know someone reads and looks forward to reading my story. so i'm very grateful. i just had to say that.