I'd like to thank: luckystars135, papercliped-angel, Lupanari, girlwhodwellsinherownworld, darkangel1910, larkinlover, Moonfayth, Suna13, RedBloodedCamelia, Catastrophic Monsoon, babygaaralover, Mrfipp, and yarra for their reviews and/or suggestions. I'm so pleased that people are enjoying this and I hope you like this one, too!
"Not so tough now, eh—shinigami?!" Ichigo just stared in horror at the burning building, unable to move as the screams of those inside washed over him.
"You were unable to protect any of them!"
Ichigo shot up in his bed in a cold sweat; his shirt sticking to him like wet, sticky glue as he gasped for air. "It was just a dream . . . just a dream," he assured himself. All the craziness going on with Hitsugaya's "substitutes" was starting to get to him. He just had a dream of Grimmjow being sent down! Ichigo had just been so stunned that all he could do was watch as the Arrancar laid waste to the entire town.
It was then that Ichigo decided that he was fully prepared to beg for the tenth division captain to come back. The teen was prepared to do whatever was necessary for that to happen. Just so long as the next substitute didn't kill him first.
The next morning Ichigo calmly ate breakfast with his family and didn't even bother to react to his father's childish antics. He was just too nervous. Once he was finished, he rushed upstairs into his room and sat down, bracing himself for whatever happened next.
"Hello, Ichigo!" Well, that was surprising. Matsumoto came bounding through the sliding doors in a pink, frilly shirt with blue capris.
"What are you doing here? Is Hitsugaya-taichou going to come back?"
"Possibly," Matsumoto smirked. "He sent me to make sure you learned your lesson."
"Oh please—please tell him to come back!" Ichigo pleaded, grasping her shoulders. "You have no idea what I've been through!"
"Oh?" the female shinigami quirked a playful eyebrow. "Tell me."
"Kenpachi endangered the lives of an entire stadium full of people, Yumichika dragged me through a mall and got me into a photo shoot, Byakuya nearly killed me, and I was almost dissected by Mayuri!" Matsumoto bit her lip uncomfortably at the mention of the scientist.
"My taichou wishes to apologize for that," she said. "By the time we discovered he had been sent instead, he already came back. I hope he didn't cause too much trouble."
"That's all right—now what can I do to get him back?" Ichigo stared at her hopefully. "I'll do anything!"
"Anything?" Ichigo really didn't like the playful glint in Matsumoto's eyes, yet this was a desperate situation.
"Anything."
"I agreed to this, why?" Ichigo mumbled to himself. At the present moment he was standing in his kitchen along with Matsumoto and Ishida. The female shinigami had suggested that Ichigo make some treats to present to Hitsugaya as an apology. She had wanted to bring Inoue over, but Ichigo quickly lied and said that she was too busy. As close of a friend as she was, Ichigo didn't want her messing up his chances for getting the tenth squad captain back. Letting those two woman be in a kitchen at the same time always seemed like the end of the world.
So instead he had suggested Ishida and quickly went to call him. Surprisingly, the bespectacled boy came right on over complete with a hand sewn apron and cookbook, eager to begin. Man, was he weird.
"Kurosaki! Get the eggs and sugar!"
"Yeah, yeah whatever," the teen grumbled. If he knew Ishida was going to boss him around in his own kitchen then he never would have invited him over. Ichigo reached into the pantry, took out the white container with the sugar, and then pulled out the egg carton from the fridge before placing them down on the counter. Matsumoto eyes the sugar and gleefully grabbed it.
"Matsumoto, you can measure out the sugar that we need, Kurosaki we need three eggs, and I'll add in the rest." At Matsumoto's suggestion they were going to make a watermelon-flavored cake for the captain. Ichigo was hoping for something less difficult, but with Ishida taking over most of the duties it really didn't matter to him.
Matsumoto quickly measured out the appropriate amount of sugar and then sampled a bit, giggling happily. Ichigo rolled his eyes and looked over at Ishida. He was carefully measuring out all the other ingredients with the precision of a professional, not giving any thought to his surroundings. Wishing he had something better to do, Ichigo opened the egg carton and snatched three eggs.
Two of them already had a small hole in them, but Ichigo thought nothing of it and cracked all three of them together, careful not to leave any egg shells in the gooey mix. After what seemed like hours later, the watermelon-flavored cake lay in the kitchen counter and all that remained was for Hitsugaya to try it.
"Surprise, taichou!" Matsumoto yelled as the silver-haired boy walked through the lattice doors. He raised an eyebrow at the display in front of him and turned to Ichigo.
"I uh . . . guess I'm sorry about the jokes I played on you earlier and I want you to take this cake as an apology," Ichigo mumbled. He could have sworn there was a small smirk on Hitsugaya's face.
"I suppose you are forgiven, though I don't know why you had to make a cake." He glared at Matsumoto. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't like these kinds of things?"
"Oh don't be silly, taichou! Ukitake-taichou says you always appreciate the treats he gives you!"
"I'm going to kill him," Hitsugaya muttered darkly.
"Would you hurry up and eat it already?" Ichigo said, folding his arms angrily. "We spent a lot of time on it."
"I'm sure you'll find it to your satisfaction," Ishida said. Hitsugaya looked back and forth between the three "chefs" and the cake, before finally giving in with an irritated sigh. "Fine, I'll eat it." Everyone waited with anticipation as Toshiro dug a fork into the cake and sampled it.
"It's okay." Ichigo let out a sigh of relief while Matsumoto cheered and Ishida smiled smugly.
"I knew you would enjoy it! An old family recipe that my grandfather taught me!"
Ichigo smirked. "Your grandfather is the one who taught you how to cook?"
"Men can cook too, Kurosaki!" Ishida argued. "Believe it or not but there is more to life than just swinging a huge sword around—"
"Shhh!" The two teens turned to Matsumoto, startled by her angry tone. Their attention was quickly diverted to Hitsugaya, and it became immediately apparent that he wasn't feeling very well. His breaths came in heavy gasps and his face was plastered in sweat. His skin had turned a sickly, pale color and he clenched his stomach.
"Are you all right, taichou?" Matsumoto asked in concern.
"M'fine," Hitsugaya mumbled before grunting in pain.
"Hah!" Ichigo pointed a finger at Ishida. "Looks like your family recipe isn't that good after all!" Ishida slapped Ichigo's hand away.
"There's absolutely nothing wrong with my recipe!" he hissed back. "I've made it a hundred times before and no one has ever gotten sick! It must have been something you did!"
"Me? All I did was add the eggs!" Ishida frowned and glanced back at the half-eaten cake, to Hitsugaya, and then to Ichigo.
"Was there anything wrong with the eggs, Kurosaki?"
"What? No! They looked like normal eggs."
"No discoloring? Were they broken already?"
Ichigo fidgeted a little. "Well . . . two of them had a little crack in them, but what's the deal?"
"You idiot!" Ishida yelled. "That means that they could have been poisoned!"
"Poisoned?" The orange-haired boy felt Ishida was being a little unfair. "How could they have been poisoned? No one would try to poison my family through cracked eggs!"
Ishida looked like he wanted to bang his head against something. "You don't get it, Kurosaki. When an egg is cracked there's the chance that bacteria can grow inside it! Those eggs were probably infected and now Hitsugaya's could have gotten salmonella poisoning!"
Ichigo blinked. "And that's bad, right?"
This time Ishida did bang his head against something. "Of course it is! Your father is a doctor, isn't he? Shouldn't you know these things?!"
"Hey, just because he's a doctor doesn't mean that—" Ichigo was cut off by something colliding with the back of his head. He turned around to discover that Matsumoto had thrown a fork at him. Ichigo bit back his angry retort when he noticed how frightened and concerned Matsumoto was for her superior. The young captain really looked sick and the fact that he looked as old as Ichigo's sisters didn't help.
"We need to get him to Unohana-taichou!" Matsumoto nodded at Ichigo's suggestion before quickly opening the gate, carrying Hitsugaya in her arms. It was a mark of how sick he felt that he didn't have the strength to protest his current treatment.
"I'll let you know how he's doing," Matsumoto said before disappearing. The kitchen was silent for a few moments.
"Oi, Ishida . . . how long does it take for someone with salmonella to get better?"
"About five to seven days."
Ichigo hated his life.
You didn't think this was over, did you? I've still got a few ideas in mind. :)