Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings aren't mine.
Hitsugaya had the uncomfortable feeling that the Jushiro and Shunsui were getting close to Ichigo. It was nothing definite, just a feeling.
Not a lot of people knew it but he always trusted his feelings. He'd actually forced Rangiku to do the paperwork today so he could try to figure out a way around the senior captains.
It wasn't going well. It struck him for the nine thousandth time, the academy was a really rotten hiding place. Kurosaki was taking a hell of a chance every single day.
Annoying prick.
But, if it worked Kurosaki would graduate the academy, quietly join a squad with a sympathetic captain (Zaraki probably) and with any luck find a better much hiding place. With the right missions and a little care none of the other captains would ever know Kurosaki was back. A few would probably even look the other way; he was pretty sure all the Vice Captains would. Give it a few hundred years and they'd forget all the havoc he'd caused. It'd be hard to argue with a few hundred years of service to the Seireitei. Once the old man was gone-
Hitsugaya shook his head. That was long term. He had to think a little closer to the present.
Was there any point in seeing if Jushiro and Shunsui actually were anywhere close to catching Ichigo? Kinda iffy. He'd really prefer to keep an arm's length from everything to do with Ichigo, the moment anyone suspected him Ichigo would be that much more likely to be caught. As long as no one did Hitsugaya had some options.
So what could he do that wouldn't expose himself, Ichigo, anyone else who might know (Kuchiki?) and still keep the oldster brigade away from the academy? He needed that long term solution, Ichigo would be found the moment someone thought to look at the academy. And it would happen, Jushiro was meticulous, and really, it made sense to look. If Ichigo had died where else would he have gone in the Soul Society?
How to take on the senior captains? What were their weaknesses?
Poor health, sake and bouncy females. Toshiro assumed a plan could be crafted with just those three elements but maybe he'd save that plan until he'd tried everything else. Like getting down on his knees and begging the old man to change his mind. After all, old geezer, it's been two thousand years since you changed your mind about anything, can that rusty old brain even change directions anymore?
Hitsugaya smiled very slightly, turned a corner and nodded to a pair of his younger subordinates.
Obvious. Times had changed and the senior captains hadn't. He needed a modern solution, something that wouldn't occur to them.
A conundrum. How to deflect two older (and he was sure they felt wiser) captains without giving himself or Ichigo away in the process?
He could volunteer to go to the academy with them, send them away from Ichigo's building.
Too haphazard and too obvious. Get a message to Ichigo? Nah, too risky – he could get both of them caught, especially since the senior captains would only have to listen to the students to figure out something was wrong, just getting Ichigo off campus for a day wasn't going to cut it. He had to keep them away from the academy permanently without getting himself caught.
Divert them away from the Seireitei entirely.
An Ichigo sighting in the real world.
Perfect. He could tail someone through the passage to the real world, refocus Jushiro and Shunsui there.
He couldn't do it alone though. Hitsugaya had more than one trick other shinigami didn't know about, but it'd take someone here to spot it right away, raise the alarm.
He was going to need an accomplice, someone he could trust.
Now would be a good time to visit Hina-
But he couldn't, could he? Momo couldn't get involved, she had none of his tricks so she was a lot more likely to get caught. She was already in trouble; Hinamori would never be a shinigami again if she got mixed up in this.
She had a light touch though, that was what put Kurosaki's other friends out of contention - Madarame and Abarai were gorillas.
Kurosaki Karin?
He wasn't sure he was brave enough to see her again.
Kuchiki Rukia? Yeaaaah, that could also work. She had to know Ichigo was at the academy; she was teaching first year kido. Ichigo was never going to get through first year kido without someone to fix things for him. Hitsugaya remembered the one battle Ichigo had been taunted into using kido, it was hands down the most frightening thing Hitsugaya had ever seen. Ichigo's crimson fireball was the size of a Gillian's cero and five times as hot – it scythed the battlefield clear of all the Gillians and left a trench taller than he was down the middle, fused the dirt into black glass. Or that shaky Black Coffin, that was really scary – the coffin was supposed to be straight up and down, Kurosaki's was wobbling and shaking all over the place and what was left of that Espada-
Hitsugaya shook a little at the memory, Kurosaki was almost as dangerous to his friends as he was to his enemies. Kuchiki would be giving him passing gradesnot to try kido.
Waaaait a sec, what grade did they have to take kido until? Fourth year? Was Kuchiki even qualified to teach fourth year? If she wasn't-
Kuchiki would know that Momo was.
The air around the young captain chilled so quickly that frost formed. A few shinigami noticed.
Dammit. The captain stalked away from it. He had to watch that.
He also had to get Momo away from the academy. The Gotei owed Kurosaki, fine, but there were limits. After this one Ichigo was on his own, the man was- had been a comrade but Momo was too much to ask. Her entire future was at stake. He had time but he'd have to get Momo out of the academy before Kurosaki reached fourth year, simple as that. Kuchiki could find somebody else to get him through basic requirements.
Oh, this was going to get ugly. Getting Momo away from the academy assumed he could get her some kind of posting, that wasn't going to be easy. The other captains thought Momo was unfit for duty, he'd heard one or two had even mentioned retirement, though never to his face. If Momo had to stay at the academy-
Momo wasn't getting involved. Hitsugaya would turn in Ichigo himself before he let that happen.
And Kuchiki herself was completely out as an accomplice for his little trip to the real world. He wouldn't put himself on the block with someone who'd put Momo at risk to protect her boyfriend. If he had to deal with her at some point he'd be vague but Kuchiki Rukia would get the message. Momo was not an option. After this, neither was Hitsugaya himself.
He didn't need an accomplice that badly. It'd be harder but he could do it by himself. Twelfth was monitoring the real world constantly, Mayuri was already making noises about the 'useless deployment of his resources.' Hitsugaya could impersonate Kurosaki's reiatsu well enough to fool the sensors for long enough to register Ichigo's presence.
He couldn't call it an innocent prank if he were caught though. It wasn't supposed to be possible to replicate another person's pressure signature. There's be a hell of a lot of explaining to do, assuming the crazy old coot didn't try to have him executed on the spot.
One of these years the captains would have to deal with the old fool, force him into retirement. The Captain Commander was becoming an impediment to the efficient running of the thirteen squads.
Still, there'd be trouble if Hitsugaya were caught. They'd send him to Retsu-san, she frightened him more than any other captain, the old man included. Captain Unohana had never addressed him as anything other than Captain Hitsugaya, but she was saving it up, he was sure of it, so that when she finally called him Young Man or something -
He had terrifying visions of being forced into a real world elementary school as punishment, with Unohana playing his mother and Zaraki -or worse yetUkitake playing his father. Captain Hitsugaya had exactly one nightmare that drove him from bed in the night and that was it. She'd bring him his lunch and wipe smears of invisible dirt off his face in front of people and Matsumoto would see and the entire Women's Association would be there and-
Hitsugaya shut his eyes and concentrated.
They'd have to catch him first.
Toshiro grinned the sort of fox faced grin that Gin used to wear.
Like anyone was going to catch the Iceman.
The only problem with being this damn good was he couldn't tell anyone.