Disclaimer: If I own Bleach, we would get to see Ichimaru's Bankai already. But we haven't, so uh, no, I don't.

Okay, yeah, I know. This chapter was supposed to be out last week, but obviously I fail 'cause it's out right now. I'm sorry! But to make it up, this chapter was way longer than the first? :D

If you guys can, please visit my profile and vote for a pairing (or not) there when you're free. It's still undecided as of now. Just to make it clear to the few who asked, I just thought that adding a pairing would make it more interesting since it'll be more complicated and angsty. –likes to torture her favorite characters-

With that, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Taichou, what are you doin—Taichou!"

A scream, and another scream. Teal eyes, void of any emotions, watched blankly as a body collapsed, and then another. They're not dead, no, he had no reason to kill them. But he had every reason to keep going, and so, took a step one two, and he walked on as more screams filled the air.

"HITSUGAYA-TAICHOU, STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!"

Tilting his head up from the body on the floor, he watched as several captains and some others made their way towards where he was. Dropping his hands to his sides, he heard Hyourinmaru clanked noisily as it collided with the ground.

"Hitsugaya-taichou, what, pray tell, are you doing?" Ukitake asked, voice filled with horror. Ukitake, right, the man who treated him like he was his own son. Can be annoying at times, but he still, overall, was someone Hitsugaya trusted over some of the other captains. Too bad, he mildly thought.

"You guys sure are slow, huh. I've been at it for quite awhile, and just now you've only arrived?" He replied, mockingly, and heard a few gasps to his respond.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou, by your answer just now, I take it that you're fully aware of the actions you have just committed?" The second division captain asked, about to discard her current outfits to go into battle mode.

"Now now, don't be hasty." Shunsui said, placing a hand in front of her to halt her actions. "And you, Hitsugaya-kun, put away your weapon, too. The present members of the fourth division, do you guys mind treating those who've been injured?"

The forth divisions jumped slightly at the man's request, but walked forward towards the injured men and women on the ground anyway, intending to do as told, only…

"GYAHH-!" and they, too, fell on the ground instantly, joining the rest of the bodies on the floor, as a strong gust of ice – Hyourinmaru – blasted across them, millimeters away from their vital points. The other captains only widened their eyes in shock.

"It seems that you have not heard me before. I intend to go past here, to where the main central is, where the forty-six chambers people reside, and anyone who gets in my way will be eradicated."

"There is no reasoning with this guy. He is a threat. As head of the Special Forces in Seireitei, I will do my mission and eliminate him." Soi-Fong jumped out, her captain robes already cast on the ground before Shunsui can stop her, weapons ready at hand. Gripping tightly on his sword, Hitsugaya responded appropriately and called out his sword's name repeatedly, forming many paths of ice frozen in mid-air. One of them slashed the female captain on her shoulder and knocked her to the ground mid-jump.

As the other captains' faces changed from shock to even more shock, Ukitake looked at the boy captain in front of him helplessly. "Hitsugaya-taichou, please, stop this! What happened?"

Stopping his hand mid-swing, Hitsugaya glowered dangerously in front of everyone, eyes blazing with intensity. "'What happened'? You ask me what happened? It happened again! There is another two… with the same zanpakutou… and they have to… They have to battle each other to the death! One of them died again! For the sake of what – your stupid rules? Those messed up rules made up by people who don't, won't, understand anything!" He screamed out, finally unable to hold it in any longer.

"But Hitsugaya-kun, that happened before, and you were able to-"

"That wasn't the same…! Kusaka – he was wrong! He had treaded down the path of evil – even though it was us that made him go down that path, but I have learned to accept it, because it already happened, and it was too late… but these two guys, they didn't do anything wrong! It wasn't as if they chose to have the same zanpakutou," Because I, certainly, didn't, and I would've given it up, but it's too late, it's too late, and I could do nothing but accept and regret, only now it happened again, and… "Why should one of them have to die because of that?!"

Everyone looked at the spectacle presented before them in the form of a normally cool and collected captain finally letting out all his thoughts and frustrations, stunned for an answer, but it didn't matter anyway. In the next second, there was a big sound of explosion, and they could faintly register the flash of fire before their eyes, smell the smoke of the after burn, and they could only guess what happened.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou, that is enough." Planting his staff firmly on the ground, the first division captain spoke out.

Breathing heavily, the youngest captain in Seiretei looked down to see a huge gash through his chest with blood dripping out profusely through the hole, and hissed out in irritation. Damn. He was caught off-guard.

"If you do not come with us quietly to meet with your appropriate punishment, I shall be forced to eliminate you right here and now."

Scoffing, Hitsugaya gripped the handle of his sword and was about to raise it up just as Yamamoto started to lift his hand, when a shout interrupted their actions.

"STOP!"

Blinking in surprise, he noticed that now there was another figure blocking his view from the rest of the shinigamis. As he blinked hazily to make out who it was, something soft touch his face… hair? Strawberry blond in color? Dawning in realization at the person in front of him, Hitsugaya realized that it was his own vice-captain. A lone figure with long, swaying hair, standing in the middle, separating an entire army from a lone boy.

"Matsumoto Rangiku, if you do not step away this instance, I cannot assure you that you will not be eliminated along with your former captain, too." Yamamoto grounded out evenly.

What should he do? He could not involve Matsumoto in this. After all that they had been through, this was too much for both him and her to take. What could he do? What must he do?

"Yamamoto-soutaichou, please! Taichou's just—" The blond haired vice-captain never managed to finish her sentence, for the boy that was standing behind her had just performed a kidou spell and knocked her out. Taking a last look at her figure on the ground –It'll be better this way. There's no reason to involve you in this, to pain you more than this, after all you've been through with the previous betrayal- Hitsugaya staggered a little as he struggled to stand up, the wound across his chest was now flooding out with blood, soaking the lower-half of his body red.

Strapped for options, he chose the only course he could take other than death – escape. With one last look at the bodies on the floor – his own division and Matsumoto, along with a few other innocent people – Hitsugaya called out for a huge gust of ice dust to flow through everyone, obstructing their visions for a moment, before shunpooing away.

"You… Men, chase after them—" As if just on queue, right after the boy had disappeared from their lines of vision, a barrage of Hollows appeared out of thin air, ripping apart the sky as siren sounds started to resonate throughout Soul Society. And with that, unbeknownst to Hitsugaya, his escape was sound.

:-:-:-:-:-:

He ran like there was no tomorrow – he wasn't sure that he had a tomorrow anyway, now – letting his feet took him wherever they wanted to. Whether it was a coincident or fate, the next thing he noticed as he blinked hazily up was the old temple where he used to go to all the time. How nostalgic, letting me see a place I usually frequent when I was younger, he contemplated, looking at a lone temple in the middle of a vast grassy hill, taking step by step forward, the trail of blood steadily forming as if to mark his last time across this land, it's as if it's telling me that no matter how much I wish, I can't possibly go back to that time anymore.

After sitting down randomly on the ground, Hyourinmaru carved right through the cement in front of him, the now ex-captain rested his back against the podium beholding a statue of the Buddha behind him, and took a look around. This place hasn't changed much.

Closing his eyes slowly, Hitsugaya remembered those days when Hinamori was still at the Shinigami Academy. His grandmother was worried that he was always alone then, and encouraged him to go play with the other kids in town. She didn't know it wasn't possible, that the other kids despised him, but it was okay, he didn't really mind all that much anyway. Nevertheless, not wanting to worry his grandmother, the boy had then wandered around until he found an abandoned temple far off from the suburbs where he could just spend his days reading quietly and undisturbed, not having his grandmother needing to worry about him being lonely.

That was fine, that was how he is. He was content with that life, but it's not like he could do anything about that now.

The eyelids opened slowly at the thought, the teal orbs glazing over and hardening once again. Hand reaching out for the zanpakutou in front of him, Hitsugaya reflected on what happened, and his hands trembled unconsciously for a moment, a thought running through his mind as images and spoken words were forming vividly inside his head. A single question chanting repetitively like a curse.

Was it really all… an act?

As his body began to quiver almost violently and out of control, Hitsugaya instinctively brought his hands up and gripped tightly against himself, oblivious to the fact that now his sleeves and hands were soaked in red, as well. He hadn't regretted what he had done, no, nor was he afraid of what happened next, but the question scared him, because he wasn't sure if he really knew the answer.

Hitsugaya didn't know if that spectacle that he had performed was a façade or if it was how he had truly felt, at all.

:-:-:-:-:-:

It was a coincident – he had been summoned again, to think of a plan to infiltrate Hueco Mundo. The forty-six chambers people were all chatting among themselves, hushed whispers vibrating throughout, so it really was a coincident that he managed to catch it among the voices.

"It happened again."

"Two people with the same Zanpakutou?"

"How preposterous."

"I can't believe there's another case just like this."

"Was it taken care of properly?"

"Of course."

"Make sure to track the soul of the one that died, and keep watch on the one that's left. We wouldn't want another repeat of last time, now do we?"

The mocking tone was unhidden as another voice spoke up. "I don't think we have to worry about that. None of the two had any real potentials – they can't do anything even if they wanted too, anyway."

"Ahh…"

Feeling his world spinning around in constant, Hitsugaya had then excused himself, muttering absently about how he had thought of a plan already to get out of that place.

True to his words – even if he hadn't known it to be so at the time – the actions that he had to take was already unconsciously forming in the back of his mind.

:-:-:-:-:-:

Shaking his head, Hitsugaya tried to compose himself, and that was when he finally noticed the profuse dripping of blood from his chest down. Sighing in frustration, he tried to think of something to do to stop the blood from dripping out. Strapped for options, the ex-captain could only took off his captain's robe and tear it into long strips of paper. It's not like I'll have a need for this any longer, anyway, he convinced himself, sitting up properly to wrap the cloths around the wound.

That didn't stop the blood from instantly soaking the fabric, but it should be able to halt the process a little, and that was all he needed. The old man really went all out on me, didn't he, the boy smiled ruefully as he tightened the cloths together, it makes me wonder if he knew that it was all an act—wincing, he added, it should be, anyway. So far as Hitsugaya knew, Yamamoto had only sent him to and from the place, so if he hadn't known what was going on, the boy wouldn't be surprised.

It was then that he heard a sound, and saw the distinct light pouring out from open air, that Hitsugaya had snapped out of his internal thoughts.

"Ulquiorra."

The Arrancar only looked at him in acknowledgement.

After a few more minutes of utter silence, Hitsugaya went back to bandaging himself and ignoring the other person in the temple. After he was properly finished with everything, the white-haired boy couldn't take it anymore and snapped, "Why are you here?"

He was stunned when the Arrancar merely parroted back his question, "Why are you here?"

"I—" Taking in a sharp intake of breath, Hitsugaya bit his lips, strapped for an answer.

"Hitsugaya Toushirou, captain of the tenth division, and yet here you are, hidden away in an abandoned temple."

"Tch." The boy could do nothing but to glare at his enemy, hands gripping tightly on his Zanpakutou.

The silence one again made itself known as the two stared at each other. Hitsugaya, tired of all these headaches that he was getting, looked away first before resting his forehead against Hyourinmaru's handle. "Look, just because I'm not a captain anymore doesn't mean that I will join Aizen." The boy stated out in a harsh whisper.

He was met with silence.

"Shinigami…" is something that I'm not anymore. Hitsugaya only gripped his sword tighter.

More silence was met until the two heard a familiar voice ringing throughout the small place. "Ohhh, that silence is unbearable! Come on, you two!" Again, a hole appeared out of thin air as another person came out of it.

Hitsugaya instantly stood up, lashing out Hyourinmaru in the front, as he hissed out the name of a person he never wanted to utter. "Ichimaru."

The man only put out his two palms out in the front in response, "Now, now, Hitsugaya-kun, I mean no harm. I just thought that maybe we should have a nice friendly chat, yeah?" Ichimaru then directed his smile to the one next to him, "And you, Ulquiorra-kun, you could stand ta talk a little, ya know. Snowball here isn't going to be convinced with silence, now iz he?"

The Arrancar merely stared at him while Hitsugaya looked at him with the intent to kill again. "Ichimaru." Unexpectedly or not, jumbled in with the rest of his hatred on the man for everything he had done, was a thought of, How dare he call me 'Snowball'!

Ichimaru only chuckled in return. "Come on now, I really just want ta talk ta ya. See, I've seen everything that had happened from there." The man merely pointed up vaguely.

"You know, with you here, there's even a less chance of me joining you, if there's ever a chance at all!"

"Ahaha, now come on, Hitsugaya-kun, if ya would, just lookit yourself right now." Voice suddenly dropping down to a low murmur, the man merely smiled at the boy before him. "Why don't you just give it a try?"

"What?"

"Give it a try, visitin' Hueco Mundo." He clarified. "If ya really hate it there, ya can always go back, yeah?"

The boy's eyes narrowed. "And I'm supposed to believe that you people will just let me come and go as I wish?"

"Why, 'course!" Ichimaru exclaimed. "In fact, Aizen-sama doesn't want anyone beside him who doesn't want to be there, ya know." Grinning at Hitsugaya, he added with a mutter, "If he had really wanted ya to be there, even unwillingly, ya really would be there right now, dead body or not. Ya know that, right?"

The boy flinched back instinctively. Damn him for striking with precision! He had to admit, deep inside himself, that what Ichimaru said was true, all true.

That didn't mean he had to like it. "So what?!"

"So, I said." The ex-captain of the third division said patiently. "Just give it a try! Ya don't plan on goin' back to Seireitei, now do ya? Why, ya would be dead fer sure, and that'd be a shame!" Ichimaru threw his hands up in the air for effect. "And ya don't plan on staying here hiding in this small ragged place forever, yeah?"

"Urg…"

"Hitsugaya-kun, tell me, do ya have anywhere else to go?" Ichimaru murmured out, low but evenly, taking a step forward and holding out his hand.

Damnit! Even as much as he hated to admit it, the guy sure can be scary when he wanted to. Quite persuasive, too. And logical. Even if he was creepy beyond belief.

Hands gripped tightly on his sword for a moment before they loosened up, Hitsugaya glared at his once fellow captain before stomping into the space distortion and vanishing from the temple, all the while ignoring the hand that was presented to him earlier. Ulquiorra merely looked at his comrade's smiling face before going inside, too. All that was left was a man standing there, a hand crossing his chest and the other on his chin, as if he appeared to be thinking to himself.

"Now, now, little snowball, let's see how this will turn out, neh? Don't think I don't know, now." With that quiet whisper that only he himself could hear, Ichimaru made his way inside as well.

Two seconds later, it was as if nothing had happened inside this little abandoned temple on the outskirts of a little town, save for the little pool of blood on the ground in a corner.

:-:-:-:-:-:

Aizen Sousuke slowly opened his eyes as he sensed the presence of another in the large, though hollow, room.

"Aizen-sama, you requested my presence?"

"Ah, Ulquiorra." A smile. "I wanted to tell you what a job well done it was, bringing that boy here, but now, if you would look at this." A hand reached out and pointed at the large monitor beside him, seemingly playing back an event that happened some time ago.

The Arrancar did as told.

"Would you look at this! Such repulsively ethereal power, is it not?" The man clicked his tongue in distaste. "Still… it is quite intriguing." Glancing at the boy standing in the middle of the room, Aizen smiled. "Neh, Ulquiorra, go and bring back that person to me, would you? It sure would be appropriate here as a part of my collection, now wouldn't it?"

"As you wish, Aizen-sama." A flash, and there was no one there saved for the one sitting on the throne.

"Ah, it seems like I really cannot ever be truly satisfied, after all." The man sighed almost regretfully. "Don't you think so," his eyes drifted back onto the screen, where a bunch of people was gathering around an injured individual, "Inoue Orihime?"

I wrote a Preview this time, since obviously my summary of this chapter in the last one fails. -.-;; Scroll down if you don't want to read my nonsense lol.

Anyway, I… don't like this chapter at all. Too much introspective & dragged out & boring! I've cut so many parts of this chapter just to make it more… clean & precise. I'd REALLY appreciate it if you guys could tell me the bad points of this chapter & what you didn't like so I can shape up & express this story better next time. You don't know how happy I was that the majority of my reviews last time were long & constructive. Sankyuu!

And Ichimaru! Yay Ichimaru! He's one of my fave. characters in Bleach. But unfortunately, since I was writing in Hitsu's POV, I had to make him sound as creepy as possible lol. And I'm excited as to when Ichigo & Co. will be making an appearance. I can't wait! XD

Urm, anyway. I talk to much… as always, please review & tell me what you think of this chapter. 'Til next time!

Preview of Chapter III

"This is our family, Hitsugaya-kun." The man smiled, arms spreading out to signal to the ten people sitting at the long rectangular table. "They all have a number assigned, although you can choose any number you like and keep it as your own." Aizen smiled as the atmosphere of the place seemed to tense up in a matter of seconds.

"That is, if you can kill the person currently holding the spot."