THE QUESTION

Well, this is my first story. I hope you like it; it is my first try after all.

Please read and review, I wanna know what you think about it.

"Daddy, where is mommy?"

"Daddy, why aren't any animals in soul society?

"Daddy, why do you and uncle Ichigo always fight?

Toshiro was working on the paper work that threatened to bury the 10th squad office as usual, while his 5 year old daughter was sitting on the sofa, looking straight at him. To be honest, he was not surprised and understood her need to ask questions. She was his daughter after all.

And her questions were easy enough to answer.

The first one, her mother wasn't there because she was on the trip to the real world, visiting her sister's family, and he assumed that she will be back soon.

The second question was a little bit harder, because he really had to explain about the difference of human souls and animal souls, but he did anyways.

The third question, well, this was the easiest, it was because Ichigo annoyed him to no ends. He was even worse than Matsumoto.

Who would have thought that the soccer game between him and Karin 15 years ago would lead them into something else, looked at them now, they were married and had an adorable daughter together. Though expressing feeling was not something in his personality, he had to admit that he loved his little girl to death. She was the cutest thing in the world.

She was small, around the same size as Yachiru, the pink hair 11th squad's lieutenant, with the same facial features as her mother's. But everybody knew she was his daughter because she had beautiful blue eyes and white hair, just like his, the only difference was that hers was straight, like her mother's, while his was spiky.

He and Karin had a big fight on where to raise her when she was born. Karin, of course, thought that it would be best if she was raised in the human world, while he was convinced that his little girl, Yuki, be raised in Soul Society. However both of them finally came to the solution that Yuki would be living in Soul Society, with the frequent trips back to the real world, so that she could get to know her family on the other side as well.

It didn't take long for her to be popular among the Gotei 13 either;

Captain Ukitake had always seen giving her candies, which almost made him dance with joy, because he was not the only person who had been given candies in the soul society anymore.

Captain Unohana, offered her a place to play in the 4th squad when he was on the mission. However he never accepted that offer because he knew, deep in his heart, that Yuki was a little devil with the curiosity that rivaled Yachiru, and to tell the truth, he wouldn't want to see the 4th squad turned into chaos, not after what Soul Society had been though.

Even Captain Zaraki didn't give her his usual sadistic smile and dared her to fight him, something that he considered to be a big improvement.

And just 3 weeks ago, he swore that he saw Captain Yamamoto and Captain Kuchiki gave her a small smile and a nod when she ran into the captain meeting without permission.

Overall, he was glad to have her, and totally loved her. But that was until today.

"Daddy, where are babies from?"

He stopped writing suddenly, totally shocked with her question.

"Huh?"

That was what the only sound that he could make.

What did he do to deserve this? This was definitely his worst nightmare, no, scratch that, this was every parent's worst nightmare, and did he really have to answer her that question?

Where was Karin when he really needed her?

Damn!

"Well, Yuki, this is a hard question. I'm busy, I will tell you later ok?"

"But, daddy I want to know now."

"You are a smart kid, I'm sure that you can find the answer. Have you asked mommy yet?"

There, he did it, throwing responsibility to his beloved wife. She deserved it; she wasn't there when he needed her to help him.

"I already asked her daddy."

"And what did she tell you?"

He asked her back, trying to calm his voice and finding the way to distract her from the question.

"You see, Dad. I'm not sure if she was lying to me or not. So I think I'm going to ask you again, just to check"

And then she gave him a big innocent smile, clearly not going to tell him Karin's answer to a question, so that he can matched his answer with hers.

Too smart, definitely too smart for a little kid. Just like who?

Okay. This was scary; it was the solid proof that she was the daughter of him and Karin. Her brain didn't ask the pointless question, but that was what to be expected from her when her father was an ex-child prodigy, and he had to add that she was definitely persistent, as same as Karin.

Under a normal circumstance, he would be glad and proud to see her intelligence and would do anything just to please her when he saw her giving him that kind of smile, but not this time, this time he just wanted to kill himself.

"Ohohohohohohohoho!!"

He turned around and looked at the window immediately. He recognized this, it belonged to his lieutenant.

"Matsumoto!!"

He shouted.

"Hello, Taicho!"

Matsumoto replied, popping her head out of the window and waving her hand at him, clearly enjoying the sight of him struggled to find the answer to his daughter's question.

"How're you doing? Taicho."

Matsumoto asked, smiling at him mischievously.

He knew it!

She was definitely eaves dropping the conversation between him and his daughter.

Damn! He was going to be the next topic of every shinigami's conversations for the whole week.

He made a mental note that she was going to be punished for this, and doing a paper work for a month would be a good idea. But for now, he couldn't do anything to her, not in front of his daughter anyways. So he did what he did best, glaring at her, but this time, he made sure he gave her his deadliest glare.

It didn't work though, she knew him too well.

So he sighed, deciding to give up, and looked back to his daughter, who still stared at his lieutenant oddly.

"So Yuki, what did your mommy tell you?"

Still hoping that, maybe some clues would be slipped from her.

"I'm not going to tell you, daddy."

"Ohohohohohohohoho!!"

It was his lieutenant's lovely laughter again, this time it was louder than ever. She definitely couldn't control herself.

Suddenly, his life was saved as the door was opened and Karin stepped into the office. She was back from the real world.

"Hey, what are you guys doing? Yuki, are you giving your daddy a hard time?"

"Not at all mommy, I just ask him questions and he answers"

"Questions?"

Karin turned her head and looked back at him.

He immediately knew that she knew from the look on her face. He frowned slightly as he saw her smirking at him.

Maybe they were together for too long. She smirked! And it looked just like his.

He finally decided, the best way was to tell her the truth.

"Okay, Yuki. I'm going to tell you. Babies are from women, so you are from your mother."

With his answer, Karin just simply looked at him.

He knew that she was quite shocked with his answer, he did too actually. But they both knew it was the best way, after all their kid was way too smart.

"So, Babies are from women." his curious daughter repeated.

"Then how did they get there, daddy?"

Then he realized his mistake, BIG mistake to be exact. He shouldn't have tried to answer her at the first place. Now it was already led to another question.

Damn!

"Umm….."

For the first time in his life that he found himself stuttering.

He looked at Karin, pleading her to help him out with his eyes. Karin didn't respond though, she was also lost for words.

He glanced at Matsumoto who stood at the corner of the office, hoping that maybe she could help him.

But she only gave him the look that implied 'I feel sorry for you, Taicho.'

Finally, it was Karin who decided to come to his rescue as she decided to speak.

"Well, Yuki, I'm going to the 5th squad to visit your uncle. Are you coming with me?"

Toushiro never loved his wife more than this. He muttered the word 'Thank you' to her when Yuki didn't look at him.

Karin simple nodded and smiled at him.

"So, I will see you soon this evening, Toushiro. Just don't work too hard, okay?

Come on, Yuki. We are going now."

With that said she turned around to leave the office, holding Yuki's hand in hers.

However, before they completely left 10th squad office. Yuki turned her head back to her dad and said

"Daddy, I still think someone is lying here. I asked Captain Kyoraku 2 days ago, and he told me that babies are from both men and women who loved each other and did something together, but he didn't tell me what they did though."

He groaned, deciding that Matsumoto wouldn't be the one he was going to punish anymore; instead it was going to be Captain Kyoraku. He swore he was going to freeze him with his zanpakuto the next time he saw him. Honestly, that was too much information for 5 year old kid.