My Sunshine, My Strength
Feeling of Intrapment

A flash of black caused the small taicho's head to dart up. His finger reached out to allow the black butterfly to land on his finger as his mouth twisted up. His eyes snapped shut as he heard the message telling him there would be a meeting in the morning. "Duties. At least that's remained the same."

Two bright teal eyes opened up as he looked at the trey of food Rangiku brought him. His zampaktuo spirit spoke in the back of his mind. "She certainly acts like your mother."

"Will she still act that way if I tell her I'm the son of Ichimaru Gin and that he cheated on her." The young taicho began to scoop the food into his mouth. "I don't know what I would do if she stopped acting like a mother to me. I can't..." Toshiro's eyes snapped shut as he savored the food. "All I know is I found a place to belong with her. I don't know how to tell her that though."

"You'll need to eventually tell her."

"How? That Quincy girl claimed I'm not a Quincy." Toshiro finished his food and set the trey on his nightstand table. He changed for bed and set an alarm on his Soul Phone so he could wake up in the morning. He flopped back onto the bed and placed his thin hands behind his head. He closed his eyes and let Hyorinmaru talk to him so he would forget the troubles bothering him.

The alarm went off in the morning, and the young taicho woke up and proceeded to change into his uniform. Toshiro stopped short when he realized the haori was missing. "Wait..." His small hands began to pull uniforms out of his dirty clothes basket and toss them onto the floor as he tried finding his regalia. When he couldn't find the haori he proceeded to look through his closet and his clean clothes letting them end up on the floor as well.

His bony fingers reached out for one of the books on his book shelf when his zampaktuo pointed out the fact the haori wouldn't be there. "Think of the last place you had it."

"The last place I saw my haori was in my office." Toshiro stood up and headed to the door so he could head to the office. His thin hand slid the door open, and what he saw caused him to flinch. Standing in front of him was the dark haired Quincy who was paired up with with the adult Quincy he ran into earlier in the day. "You..." The boy's bright teal eyes looked down to see the man was holding his haori. "What..."

Toshiro's thin hands reached out to grab the haori the man was holding before using flash step to get away from the man. He carefully pulled the haori over his shoulders and glanced back to see the man move to the roof. "What the hell is he doing?"

"I believe he's following you."

"What ever for?" Toshiro stopped short. He stood there watching the man carefully. A shiver ran down his spine. "It feels like I forgot something from yesterday."

"Yesterday you were panicking so it is understandable there were things you didn't notice that you would normally notice."

"Just because I was panicking didn't mean I didn't notice it. If I stop and think hard enough I might be able to figure out what I missed."

"Would you be able to do that with what's bothering you right now young master? You also don't have much time. The captain's meeting is early this morning. You should get something to eat before you go to the meeting."

Toshiro held back a sigh and instead pushed his lips together. The child taicho spun on his heals and headed towards the division kitchens. A couple of times the boy stopped and looked over his shoulder and saw the Quincy following him out of the corner of his eye. Nobody else was around that place as he headed to the kitchen. He could sense the man coming back out of the kitchen after he finished the task. For some reason he wanted to find Rangiku, but he pushed the feeling to the back of his mind.

The young taicho headed to the first division and tried to ignore the fact he was being followed by the Quincy. Thinking about that particular man following him simply caused a shiver to run down his spine. Toshiro arrived at the first division hall and stepped in. The young taicho took a deep breath as he went to stand in his position. "Yamamoto... gone. Unohana... gone. Komamura... incapacitated. Ukitake... gone."

"You're here early."

Toshiro turned his head to see Kyoraku standing in the door way. "Good morning."

"You don't look like you're having a good morning." The tip of the man's fingers touched the rim of his hat lightly. "How are you doing Hitsugaya Taicho?"

"Doing?" The white haired youth looked at the wall. "I don't see why that matters. I don't see my situation as any worse then anybody else."

"Really? You're the youngest of the taicho. You're also still a child so the way this emotionally effects you is going to be different from us adults." The man started to step past the young taicho.

Toshiro's bright teal eyes blinked a couple of times before a thin hand reached out to tug the head taicho's sleeve causing Kyoraku to stop and look at him. "Don't you miss Ukitake to?"

"I'm missing a friend. You're missing a mentor." The man watched the young taicho carefully. "This isn't to say I'm not grieving."

The young taicho watched as the man stared at him for a few minutes before moving to the spot near the front of the room. The boy's eyes widened as he observed the behavior of the adult in front of him. "It's as if he wanted to say something to me, but is holding back for some reason."

"It may be something he can't tell you because of protocol."

The white haired taicho folded his arms across his chest and one of his feet twisted as he waited for the other taicho to arrive. Every so often he would look up to the front of the meeting hall, and up at the roof. "Is he still there? I don't get why he is following me. I honestly don't like it."

Kyoraku acted in his usual manner when the taicho got into the room. "I know not much time's passed since the wars ended, but there is something we need to discuss regarding the Quincy."

Toshiro moved so his other foot was father forward, and his shoulders leaned back. "That Quincy wouldn't be following me because he's wanting to find out what ever Kyoraku is going to talk about?"

Soifon let out a sigh. "They aren't making any unrealistic demands are they?"

"If anything the demands coming through the sixth division have been holding back on the things they are needing." Byakuya continued with his train of thought. "It's almost as if they're afraid their requests will be rejected."

Kyoraku's eyebrows rose up quickly as his mouth twisted down. "The Quincy came to my office yesterday were very upfront with what they wanted." The young taicho flinched as he realized suddenly the man was looking at him. The head taicho looked away before continuing his speech. "A few Quincy came forward claiming one of our Shinigami is actually one of their own."

Toshiro felt a shiver run down his spine. "Claiming... does he mean that girl and a few others... about what she said yesterday?"

Soifon's eyebrow's darted up as she looked at the head captain as her arms crossed her chest. "Are they claiming there is a spy among us?"

The young taicho felt his skin break out in a sweat. "I'm not one of them."

"No." Kyoraku moved his hat slightly. "They're claiming one of the Shinigami is their missing kin."

The child's body quickly tensed up as words came out of his mouth quickly. "I died on a plain of ice. I wasn't born in soul society." The young taicho flinched when he realized the eyes of the other captains were suddenly on him. His bright teal eyes darted to the ground. "I..."

"You don't have to explain Hitsugaya Taicho. I'm a bit surprised you already know the Quincy are referring to you." Kyoraku's frown suddenly turned into a smile. "I guess that makes things easier."

The second division's frown deepened. "Easier? They're trying to take Hitsugaya Taicho away. They're claiming he's actually a Quincy."

The young taicho felt his chest tighten. "I'm not a Quincy! I'm a Shinigami!"

Kurotsuchi let out a sound of disgust as he kept his arms folded across his chest. "Are you sure of that? The look on your face says you doubt your own words. We of course could run some kind of tests which will tell us if the Quincy are telling the truth. They will tell us if you are related to them, but that's only if one of these Quincy is a direct blood relation."

The sweat on his skin became worse. "Test?"

Byakuya's voice caused the young taicho to turn his head towards the sixth division captain. "Hitsugaya Taicho? Do you suspect any person of being a blood relation to you?"

"I..." The young taicho looked quickly at the ground. "I told you. I died on a plain of ice and came to Soul Society. I wasn't born here."

A silence fell over the room. Shinji let out a sigh as he worried his short hair with one hand. "Hitsugaya Taicho doesn't have any known blood kin."

"That simply means he doesn't know who his blood relations are." Byakuya's comment caused Toshiro to look away.

Soifon shook her head as she continued to frown. "Then he shouldn't be held accountable for their actions."

Toshiro swallowed. "Does that mean I should be held accountable for Gin's actions because I know he's my father."

"I don't think that is what she meant young master."

Soifon turned to the head taicho. "You aren't going to hand over one of our own just because of this claim. Even if it does turn out he's related to them, which I honestly doubt is true, they can't claim him as one of their own after all of this time."

The young taicho swallowed. "What ever needs to be done needs to be in the best interest of Soul Society. If there is truth to what they say then me not... let's just say there would be problems."

"That..."

"We don't know if any of this is true or not. Hitsugaya Taicho can go to the twelfth division so Kurotsuchi can run the tests. They're harmless from what I understand and those would be the only tests we would run. All of us should be thinking about what to do though if the situation arises. That's why I called this meeting together."

Toshiro took a deep breath. "Could you not tell my fukutaicho?"

"Shouldn't she know?" Soifon tapped her foot on the ground.

"I really don't want her knowing about this, so don't. Just this one favor."

Kyoraku let out a sigh. "Nanao isn't going to like it, but I consent at this point in time to your request."