Chapter 2: The Before And After Effect

Rukia yawned a bit, stretching as she leaned up from the bed. She scratched the back of her head a bit, still half asleep. It took her a moment before she remembered everything that had happened. She looked around the bed, noticing how Ichigo and Shiro were gone already. She sighed a bit, assuming that they had already gotten up for the day. She stretched one more time happily as she put her feet into her slippers, as well as her house robe. As she walked out to the hallway, she noticed how the hall way seemed particularly warmer. She tried shrugging it off as she walked towards the bathroom, only noticing how it only got increasingly warmer as she did. Just a few feet away from the door, she let out a small gasp as she saw it already opening. When it was finally opened, she had to use all her strength to keep from bursting out laughing at the sight: Ichigo was completely soaked, wearing only pants, with soap in his hair, and seeing Shiro walking out from right behind him, wet as well, also wrapped up in a towel.

"Oh my god, your lucky Renji isn't here to see this..." She commented, putting her hand to her lips to silence the chuckling.

"That's what happens when he's too scared to take a bath by himself. He splashed water everywhere." Ichigo replied, scratching his head as some of the soap bubbles dripped off. Rukia simply smiled as she squatted down to Shiro's hieght.

"Good morning little Shiro." Rukia greeted. Shiro just blinked a bit as if looking confused. Ichigo simply chuckled as he looked down at him.

"Remember what we call mommy?" Ichigo asked.

"Mid get?" Shiro asked, looking up at him. Rukia looked down a bit, embarassed by the fact Ichigo had told him to call her by the very nickname, not only that she hates, but the very same one he thought of himself. Shiro blinked a bit curiously as Rukia pulled the towel a bit over his head, blind folding him. He simply looked around as he was blind folded, then jumped as a startled smack was heard, followed by a crash to the floor. He looked back as he saw Rukia taking the towel off of him, picking him up after. He looked back towards the floor as he saw Ichigo completely knocked out on the floor as his leg twitched in pain, and a large bump on the head. "What happened to him?" He asked, worriedly. Rukia simply leaned his head softly on her shoulder.

"Oh, daddy just had a little accident and fell. C'mon, time for breakfast." She sttated, walking down stairs. As she walked into the living room however to go into the kitchen, she stopped in surprise and shock as she saw the outside. "Hey Ichigo, I think you should come look at this right now!" Rukia yelled through the house, in a somewhat serious tone. Ichigo moaned a bit in pain as he pushed himself off the ground, walking downstairs to see what the entire commotion was about.

"What is it?" He asked, somewhat annoyed.

"Notice anything about the outside?" She asked, in a somewhat serious tone. Ichigo looked outside, blinking a bit in confusion. There was nothing wrong with the outside. The sun was shinning, the skys were blue as usual, the grass the green, the...Ichigo stopped thinking to himself as he realized what he just said. Wait a minute, grass? He thought to himself again, jogging towards the window. Sure enough, as he thought, it was green and sunny outside. There wasn't even a single trace of snow ouside. He found it strange however, how there wasn't any melted snow what so ever.

"Where the heck is all the snow?" Ichigo stammered surprised. Rukia gave him a semi fake cough a bit to grab his attention. Ichigo looked back to see her eyes shifting back and forth towards Shiro. It took him a moment before he remembered. If anything, most likely out of fear, he created the snow storm so as to hide himself from the hollows that were attacking him. "Err...nevermind what I said. Anyway, lets grab some breakfast." Ichigo said, quickly changing the subject as to not upset Shiro. Rukia just rolled her eyes at Ichigo's additude as she walked into the kitchen. Still holding Shiro, she opened the fridge, looking at the stock of fridged foods.

"So, anything you want in particular Shiro?" She asked. She looked back as she saw Shiro pointing to something. She grew a bit surprised as she saw it was slices of watermelons they had. She grinned a bit as she knew how Hitsugaya always liked the watermelons if any foods. She grabbed one of the slices as she closed the fridge soon after. She handed the fruit to Shiro as she set him down in one of the kitchen chairs, then looked for something in the cubards and shelves to see what else they had to eat. She looked back as she heard one of the chairs moving at the table, seeing Ichigo sitting as he was eating a bowl of cereal. "Oh no, you off." Rukia deemed, pointing at Ichigo. Ichigo just gave her a depressed look.

"What? Why?!" He complained.

"Cause your still dripping wet from the bath you gave Shiro." Rukia replied, pulling out a box of cereal herself. Ichigo just looked at her unvelievably before looking at Shiro then back at her.

"But he's wet too!" Ichigo commented, pointing. Rukia simply smirked as she poured herself a bowl of cereal.

"Yeah, but he's cuter." Rukia reased, as she began eating the bowl of cereal. The rest of the morning pretty much consisted of eating. After that Ichigo and Rukia both had their showers taken and then got dressed. Ever since being accepted as a captain of one of the 13 divisions, Ichigo always had to come to come to the Soul Society in his new captain's robe. Rukia was given special permission to place herself in the same division as her husband, and was promoted to lieutenant as well because of it. As soon as that was done, Rukia brought Shiro's clothes back down from the bathroom, getting dressed soon after. She looked back towards the stairs as she heard Ichigo walking down, just putting his arm through one of the captain sleeves. She was a bit curious as she kept seeing him wearing the captain shirt everyday, it just made her feel like he was already dead. And as for Shiro, she found it somewhat interesting to see that he was wearing a white shirt and black pants. She couldn't really make out anything that he wore, mostly because of the snow outside.

"Say Shiro?" Rukia started, getting his attention as he looked up to her.

"What?" He replied.

"Why are you scared of taking a bath by yourself?" She asked.

"Cause I'm afwaid da watew might fweeze me." Shiro replied with a scared look. Rukia just gave a soft smile as she patted his head gently.

"Why would you think that Shiro?" Ichigo asked, somewhat curious about what started his fear.

"Cause one time I put my hand in da water, it fwoze, and my hand almost did too." Shiro replied. Ichigo and Rukia both looked at each other somewhat surprised. It wasn't the fact that he could actually freeze the water entirely, considering who he used to be, it was the fact that he was able to do it at such a young age that got them completely surprised. But, not wanting to stress the young child, they both simply shrugged it off as Rukia picked up Shiro, setting him on her shoulders in a piggy back formation.

"You shouldn't worry Shiro, it was probably a bad dream. After all, you didn't freeze when Ichigo gave you a bath now did he?" Rukia commented. Shiro simply put his chin down on her head at this. Ichigo just smirked a bit as he opened the door. As if on que, a large senkai gate grew from the ground as well , connecting the borders between the two worlds.

"Last one in is a midget!" Ichigo joked, jogging into the portal. Rukia gritted her teeth at this as she quickly took off after him.

"For the last time I'm not a midget!" Rukia yelled. Shiro giggled a bit from this as he looked back at the path. He blinked a bit curiously seeing the two lights coming from where he just came from, and the one he was heading towards. He was a bit curious as to where this strange place was currently, but as to why they were going to wherever was an even bigger question to him.

Shiro simply stared on straight ahead as he saw the light growing at the end, indicating that they were finally out. Once he crossed through the end of the border, light enveloped him brightly as he closed his eyes. His vision was a bit blurry from the light for a few seconds before his vision cleared. Once he could see normally, he gasped at the sight of a large looking fortress like castle place with many different buildings attached to it.

"Welcome to the Seritei squirt. Hey Rukia, where'd you think we should go first?" Ichigo asked a bit curiously.

"Well...let's start with Ukitake first and work up from there." Rukia replied. Shiro blinked curiously as he looked back at Rukia.

"Who's Kitake?" Shiro asked curiously. Rukia simply chuckled a bit as she held him in her arms again as the two of them began to walk towards one of the buildings.

"It's Ukitake, and...just think of him as your grandpa." Rukia answered...

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At the time, Ukitake was writing in his office. Even though he was the least to show it, deep down he was torn from the loss of the old Captain, even though everyone could tell. No matter what he did, people could tell he was really torn as much as everyone else was. He didn't really have the same happy look he used to, even if he did smile every now and then. It was just from the look of it that there was something different in the way he smiled as of now that wasn't normal. His work was put to a pause as he looked back at the door, unnecesary to expect a knock on the door as he could sense the coming riatsu. But the part he found strange about was the mysterious third riatsu he was sensing. Nevertheless, he didn't lose track of what he was doing as he heard the door knocking.

"Come in." He replied to it. As expected, he saw Ichigo walking in with his usual laid back kinda smile. "Ah, Ichigo, what news do you have this time?" He asked a bit curiously.

"Why do you assume I have any type of news for you?" He asked, even though he knew he did anyway.

"Because you usually just barge into the door without even knocking anyway unless it's important." Ukitake replied. Ichigo just chuckled a bit as he scratched his head, knowing that he had a point. When he went back to think about it, he found it humorous that he had no idea that he always knocked first unless he had something really important to ask him.

"Yeah, I guess. Anyway, we got something to show you today. Our son." Ichigo stated. causing Ukitake's eyes to widen in surprise.

"A son? I never knew you two had..." Ukitake started, even though it was growing a somewhat nervous and embarassed look on Ichigo's face.

"No no no, I mean one we adopted. Just yesterday." He quickly commented, not wanting Ukitake to finish the sentence.

"Oh, well...can I see him?" He asked. Ichigo nodded as he looked back towards the door.

"You can come in now Rukia." Ichigo said. There was a bit of silence for a few seconds before Ukitake and Ichigo saw Rukia walking into the room. Ukitake took a moment before he saw the little figure holding tightly onto Rukia's leg from behind her. The little boy just inched his head out to look at Ukitake who was still at his desk, before hiding behind his Rukia's leg again.

"Interesting..." Ukitake whispered to himself as he walked around the desk, squatting down to the boy's hieght. He could easily tell just from gazing into the boy's eyes themself that he was the deceased captain.

"Ukitake, meet our son Shiro. Shiro, meet grandpa." Ichigo stated. As before, Shiro took only a small peek at Ukitake who was offering him a smile before hiding behind Rukia again.

"It's ok Shiro, you don't have to be shy." Rukia said comfortively, kneeling down to Shiro's hieght.

"Trust us sport, Ukitake wouldn't be able to work much before passing out anyway." Ichigo added. Ukitake just rolled his eyes a bit at the comment before searching his pockets. Rukia and Ichigo looked as they saw Ukitake digging through his kimono. They blinked a bit curiously as they saw him pull out some sort of candy from his pockets, which caught Shiro's attention quickly.

"Here Shiro, it's watermelon flavored." Ukitake offered, holding the candy in the palm of his hand to the child. Shiro simply stared at the man's hand for a few seconds, wondering if it was a good idea. He was still nervous about all the people he might have met here, and this iss one of the first people who's ever offered him something. Still shaking a bit, he slowly reached his hand over to the piece of candy taking it carefully before pulling his arm quickly away from him, unwrapping the wrapper around the candy. "See? Everything is fine." Ukitake stated, wanting to keep the young child from getting upset.

"Shiro, what do you say?" Rukia asked, reminding the boy to thank him. Shiro simply paused for a moment as he looked back at Ukitake before nodding. Rukia simply sighed a bit as she patted Shiro's head. "Sorry Ukitake, he hasn't really talked to anyone else aside from us." Rukia stated. Ukitake simply nodded as he stood again and walked back to his desk, sitting in his chair.

"It's alright. I'm actually glad you brought him here and everything, but do you mind if we chatted privately for a minute?" Ukitake asked. Ichigo and Rukia looked at each other with a questioning look before nodding to one another.

"Hey Shiro, could you wait in the hall for a minute?" Rukia asked. Shiro smiled a bit as he nodded, eating the piece of candy as he did. As soon as he walked out to the hall, Rukia gently closed the door behind him, esspecially since he'd be to small to reach the handle to pull the door closed. Shiro looked back while continuing to suck on the watermelon flavored piece of candy before sitting down on the floor next to the wall. As he waited for whatever his parents were discussing, he looked around the halls, noticing how it was quiet for quite a large place.

"Shiro..." A voice spoke out. Shiro's attention immediately looked back down the empty hallways before looking back at the door, wondering if he heard something from inside. "Shiro..." A voice spoke out agian. This time, Shiro could easily tell the voice was coming from down the hallway. He blinked a bit curiously to himself as he began walking down the hallway, almost forgetting the fact he was suppose to be waiting out in the hall...

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"And when we found them, they were already dead." Rukia stated, finishing her explanation in the office.

"We couldn't just leave him there or else his own power might've froze him to death." Ichigo added.

"Hmm...I can understand that but what course of action to you plan on taking as of now?" Ukitake asked, raising a brow. Rukia and Ichigo just both looked at each other now, knowing what he meant. He wasn't talking anything about how to take care of Shiro, it was what to do about his powers.

"Well, we don't really know that much actually. We only know for the time being that his powers are stable and only act up if he's really really upset." Rukia replied.

Ukitake leaned back in his chair as he took everything in at once to understand the situation. They would deffinitely have problems as far as what to do with Shiro's abilities if he was had already progressed a huge blizzard on his own at his current age. To be able to produce a giant blizzard of such a size, and to be only the age of about two and a half, his riatsu growth would be substantial if it ever reached it's maximum potential.

The other concern they had to deal with was what to do with Shiro now. He could easily tell, based off the idea the proud parents had, that they would gladly take care of him. However, even as they do, there would most likely be a large amount of hollow activity around Shiro due to his large riatsu growth, not to mention the fact they would already be large targets with Rukia's and Ichigo's added riatsu. He smiled a bit as he nodded his head calmly, thinking of an idea.

"Ok I have an idea. You should continue living as normally as possible for the time being, but once he reaches a good age, I wish to start trainning the boy again in the ways of being a shinigami." Ukitake stated. Both, Rukia and Ichigo, blinked a bit curious at this. Was it really a good idea for them to be trainning their son in being a shinigami? As if reading their minds, Ukitake smiled as he continued, "Of course, even though you both may be worried about how he reacts to this, you must understand that even so, he will see you two as shinigamis, and more so over, he'll know about hollows as well." Rukia and Icihgo took a quick glance towards each other before nodding in agreement.

"Ok, we understand." Ichigo commented.

"Why don't we bring him back in now? He must be bored waiting out there on his own." Ukitake suggested.

"I'll go get him." Rukia said as she walked towards the door. But once she opened it, she gasped in shock, which Ichigo and Ukitake noticed with concern.

"What's wrong?" Ichigo asked.

"Shiro's gone!" Rukia said worriedly. Ichigo's eyes widened as he rushed towards the door as well, only to find it an empty hallway.

"Where could he be?" Ichigo asked, worriedly.

"I don't think he could have gotten that far for someone his size. Besides, I'm sure he wouldn't even be able to open a door at his hieght as well." Ukitake commented.

"Well where are do the hallways lead to?" Ichigo asked, somewhat worried. Ukitake rubbed his chin a bit as he went into thought, before a smile appeared which confused the two parents.

"Well, let's just say he's going to run into an old friend..."

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Matsumoto sighed a bit as she looked at her finally finished paper work. Ever since the passing of her one and only favorite captain, she had taken over command of squad 10 as the new leader. At the funeral as well, she, along with Hinamori, were one of the only two to show sadness at the ceremony. What pained her even more was to hear that she had been promoted to squad ten shortly after the war had ended. But she did know at the very least that her captain would appreciate her working. She even tried to drink herself to joy with LARGE amounts of sake, even though she could only feel a little bit of happiness even with it (after hitting the stage of being fully hammered).

However, no matter how much she tried to forget the horrible tragedy, nothing could stop her from having nightmares of the war almost 3 years ago. Almost once every week, she'd been having nightmares of seeing her captain dying over and over again like some never ending curse. Even when she tried to talk to Unohana about some way to sleep peacefully, nothing had worked. She gazed over to the side of her desk, seeing a picture of Hitsugaya as he slept. She smiled to herself as she picked the picture up, looking at it more closely. Licking her thumb once, she wiped off a splotch of dust she saw on the corner of the picture, giving it it's shine once more. As she gazed at the glistening picture, she couldn't help herself as she felt a tear drop slowly streaking down her face, missing her beloved captain.

"Hitsugaya..." She said sadly, holding onto the picture as if she was holding onto Hitsugaya's own life. She jumped a bit as she heard a strange knock on the door. She quickly slid the picture back into a desk drawer and wiped away one of her tears before replying. "Who is it?" She asked. She was expecting some form of verbal use as a reply, but all she got was another knock on the door. She reolled her eyes a bit, thinking it was someone who came to just annoy her, as she walked towards the door. As she opened it however, she grew a bit surprised as she didn't see anyone there. She looked left and right again before she looked down, gasping at the sight of the small child who was standing at her door step. "GAH!" She screeched as she fell backwards. Shiro just chuckled a bit as he happily ran up to Matsumoto's side, looking at her curiously.

"W-Who are you?!" Matsumoto stammered. Shiro just tilted his head curiously before the two of them looked back down towards the hall way, hearing the sound of running footsteps coming towards them.

"Shiro!" Ichigo and Rukia shouted worriedly. Shiro raised his arms up as Rukia scooped him up into her arms as hugged him tightly, feeling a wave of releif from finding him.

"Shiro? So that's his name?" Matsumoto asked as Ichigo helped her off the floor.

"Matsumoto, meet our new son Shiro." Ichigo greeted. Matsumoto's eyes widened at what he said before looking back at Shiro.

"Son?!" She said in shock and surprirse. She looked back as she saw Ukitake walking towards her. She could easily tell he had already met the boy.

"I can explain everything to you. In the meentime, perhaps you guys should see...you know..." Ukitake gestured. Ichigo and Rukia both nodded to each other as they walked down the halls. Just a few seconds after turning a different direction at the end of the hall way, Shiro looked back a bit startled as he heard a loud "WHAT?!" coming from Matsumoto. Silence maintained a bit along the way between the two parents as Shiro simply looked at where the two were heading. After awhile, Rukia finally spoke.

"How do you think she'll react?" Rukia asked curiously. Ichigo simply grinned as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I really don't know that much. Last time I checked, she ended up quitting her place as the leader of the fifth division." Ichigo replied.

"Oh yeah, you got us both stuck with that job didn't you?" Rukia teased.

"Hey, it was that, or she would've died...

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"HE'S DEAD BECAUSE OF ME!" Hinamori stammered as tears streamed down her eyes. A few shinigami, Ichigo and Rukia included, watched in disbelief at Hinamori, who had her Zanpakto pointed directly towards the middle of her chest, planning on killing herself. Each passing minute, she inched her Zanpakto closer and closer to her chest. From the looks of it she was only three inches away from her own chest before she would kill herself.

About a week after the war, the funeral was held in Hitsugaya's honor. Many of the people who were there barely showed any signs of sadness except for Matsumoto and Hinamori who were both in tears completely. Even after Matsumoto made a slight recovery from the practical trauma that ensued after the funeral, Hinamori was in deep and total depression from his death, which she still blamed herself for. It only ate her up more as she heard that they had promoted Matsumoto to be the new leader of the tenth division. She kept contemplating about how they could easily just move on and forget all that had happened, even though it wasn't the case, but received no acceptable answer from them.

On the brink of insanity and guilt, she was ready to take her own life like she felt she had taken Hitsugaya's. No matter what shinigami have tried to say to her to get her to stop, nothing had seemed to be working, as everything they had said seemed to not even reach her because of her sadness. And everytime someone had tried to take a step closer to Hinamori, she simply pulled her sword closer to her chest unless they backed away again. Even as it had happened, she always reached a bit closer to her chest, knowing that even though she wanted to, bringing herself to kill herself was hard for anyone too. The current shinigami in the room, including Rukia, looked back as they heard Ichigo running into it.

"What's going on?" Ichigo asked, surprised at the sight.

"Ichigo, you got to help us!" Rukia practically demanded. "Everything we've said isn't working, and she's close to killing herself." Rukia stated. Another wave of gasps were heard by some of the shinigami as they saw the sword moving closer to Hinamori, practically touching her chest now. Ichigo simply stood there as he stared deep into her eyes, recognizing that old sight. He looked back as to when he had the exact same problem: after his mother had died.

He could remember the greif and guilt that filled her eyes as he remembered himself years ago. He had blamed himself for her death for a long time, even after he found out it was Grand Fissher's fault. Nothing could replace the feelings he had from blaming himself, nor could anything make him remove the guilt he felt. But with these memories returning, he grinned inside of his mind as he grew an idea, seeing how nothing else had worked.

"Let her." Ichigo said boldly. Hinamori blinked a bit surprised as the other shinigami looked at him shocked at what he just said.

"What the hell are you saying?!" Rukia stammered angrily. No matter how much of a pest she thought Ichigo had been in her life,

no matter how much he annoyed her, and no matter how many times he made her angry, she had never heard him saying anything so heartlessly as this.

"Hey, why should I care if she kills herself? I mean, Hitsugaya was the weakling who couldn't even protect himself, no reason to..." Ichigo didn't even get time to finish his sentence as he quickly blocked the oncoming strike from Hinamori. He smirked a bit as he saw not just sadness, but now anger in her eyes.

"HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT HITSUGAYA LIKE THAT!!!" She shouted. Ichigo flinched a bit startled as he felt himself being pushed back from Hinamori.

Maybe I should've rethought my plan. Ichigo thought to himself nervously. He quickly jumped backwards as he quickly ran for it, narrowly dodging the oncoming lightning blast towards him. He looked back as he continued running, seeing Hinamori quickly dashing down to the end of the hallway he just turned from, firing another array of kido lightning towards him. He yelped a bit as he quickly ducked out of the way, concentrating on only running.

After about a few minutes of running, he grinned to himself as he saw the door, quickly picking up speed and dashing outside. The sun was just setting as an orange sky filled everything above the soul society. He was satisfied he was outside now, knowing that if the fighting had continued no one would get hurt and nothing would get destroyed from the battle. As he looked back, he saw Hinamori just coming outside, her Zanpakto in it's shikai state, glaring past the tears at Ichigo.

"Take back what you said right now!" Hinamori shouted. Ichigo simply chuckled a bit to himself as he shrugged.

"Hey, can I help it if what I said was true?" He teased. He quickly grabbed his zanpakto as he blocked the oncoming blast from Hinamori's zanpakto, getting blown back from the explosion. As he looked back, he quickly flashed stepped from one place to another to quickly dodge the oncoming kido spells that were shot at him. He could feel the tensity and rage from the spells themselves as Hinamori sent practically a never ending barrage of them towards him. Neither of them saw as the other shinigami running out the door, observing the battle at hand.

"What the hell does he think he's doing?" One of the shinigami yelled confused.

"He's gonna get killed unless we help him." Another one added. The two shinigami quickly pulled out their zanpaktos, ready to help Ichigo, but stopped as Rukia held her hand out in front of them.

"Wait..." Rukia commanded, looking back at Hinamori. She couldn't tell if what she thought Ichigo was trying to do was right, but either way she saw it it was working. "Look at Hinamori for a minute..." Rukia commented. The two shinigami looked a bit curiously at her then back at Hinamori. Their confused expressions only increased as they couldn't see anything.

"So what? She's still the same, so what's wrong?" One of them asked.

"Look at how she's breathing." Rukia stated. As the two shinigami looked agan, the gasped in surprise as they saw Rukia was right; Hinamori was breathing alot more than she was before, indicating that she was already getting tired. "Ichigo never planned on getting her angry for no reason in the first place. He's trying to get her to calm down."

Ichigo breathed a bit heavily after dodging for nearly half an hour. He was completely exhausted from the point of when they began as far as playing dodge ball with kido instead. He was glad that the other shinigami, Rukia included, knew what he was trying to do, and knew that by seeing Hinamori himself that she was to angry with him to even know what he was planning. Just by looking at her, he could hear her heavy breathing, and she had the zanpakto itself slouched on the ground, He smiled a bit as he sheathed his zanpakto. "Your too tired to fight Hinamori. Just stop it." Ichigo said as he walked back over towards him.

"Shut up!" She shouted, swinging her zanpakto right towards him. She was stopped however as Ichigo simply grabbed her hand tightly that was holding the zanpakto, keeping it in place. She grunted as she tried to break her grip away, but to no success.

"C'mon Hinamori, just stop." Ichigo commented.

"Shut up! I hate you!" She shouted angrily again. She pulled her fist back, ready to whack him in the chest, but instead collapsed to her knees as she sobbed loudly to herself. Ichigo patted her head softly, seeing how she was finally all warn out from her long fight. "I hate you...Hitsugaya wasn't weak...he wasn't..." She cried. Ichigo simply smiled as he rested his chin softly on the top of her head.

"I know. I never meant any of that stuff. I would never say that about him." Ichigo replied. The two other shinigami and Rukia all looked at him in amazement at his plan. They never would've thought a plan like his would even work, but then again, they never bothered to try it in the first place. Rukia was most impressed though, never seeing this side of Ichigo before. Mostly just the smart part. "Just calm down Hinamori. You don't need to be sad all the time. Find a way to bring yourself out of your misery. I've done it so you can to." Ichigo added. Hinamori simply sniffled a bit as she looked up at him with watery eyes.

"R-Really?" She asked sheepishly. Ichigo nodded a bit as he helped her stand back up. "B-But what am I suppose to do? How can I get rid of the pain?!" She asked, still crying into his chest.

"Just find something, anything, that brings back memories of your pain, and forget all about it..."

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"SHE WHAT?!" Ichigo stammered, jumping out of his chair. He, Rukia, and Ukitake were all sitting in Ukitake's office, discussing the sudden situation. For Ichigo, his day went from bad to worst. First he gets summoned to the soul society, then he's told he's the new fifth division captain, and Rukia is also a lietenant in his division.

"You really spoke out to her. She decided to quit and become a new teacher at the shinigami academy." Ukitake replied after telling Ichigo what Hinamori did.

"But I didn't want to be the new captain! I was just deciding to keep herself from killing herself!" Ichigo protested, sitting right back in his chair.

"Oh calm down, at least your not doing all the paperwork." Rukia argued.

"I never asked to be a captain in the first place, and I really rather not."

"But Ichigo, you living in Karakura town has opened a new idea to the Soul Society. We've decided to place fifth division in the living world in order to help better maintain balance, as well as act quickly when needed in the the world of the living. Surely, you still live there...I hope." Ukitake teased.

Ichigo felt his eye twitch for a second before he groaned, knowing that Ukitake had a point. Whether or not he really wanted to, and he REALLY didn't want to, he knew that he wouldn't be able to talk his way out of it. Besides, considering that he was the reason they are now without a fifth division captain, and the fact he already acts as a substitute shinigami, he thought he might as well go along with it. Still, the part which he didn't like, was having Rukia bugging him no matter where he went for probably the rest of his life...

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"Well we're here." Rukia stated as she stood in front of the Hinamori's house.

"Are you sure its a good idea to do this? Who knows how she'll react?" Ichigo complained.

"Hey, if everyone is to know about it we might as well tell her too." Rukia replied.

Ichigo just sighed a bit as he thought about how Hinamori was doing at this point, and how she would react to this. Even as Rukia knocked on the door, Ichigo looked at Shiro who was looking at the door curiously too, before looking back at the door. He shrugged off his feelings as he saw the door opening and Hinamori standing on the other side of it.

"Hi guys. What brings you here?" She asked, not noticing the little child in Rukia's arms.

"We want you to meet someone." Rukia answered. Hinamori gasped a bit curiously as she just saw the small white haired child in Rukia's arms.

"Oh, why hello there." Hinamori greeted happily. "What's your name?"

"His name is Shiro." Ichigo answered. That word rang in her ear like an echo as her whole body stiffened. She thought it was weird at first about who the kid was, but that name placed every little detail into it together. She saw deep in his eyes the same person who she lost long ago, thinking that she would never see him again.

"S-Sh-Shiro..." She muttered. With one loud groan, she fainted as she fell backwards. Ichigo just blinked a bit surprised and embarassed at this, not expecting this type of reaction.

"Holy crap I think we killed her."

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Well another mundo mondo update! Sorry for the delay on this one folks, been working on other chaps for other fanfics as well, and been getting this one up slowly. But don't worry, if it becomes a good success and I get reviewed for it a good # of times, I should be able to have the next one, hopefully, by the end of this week if everything works out just find. Remember to review and no flamming, flamming gets ya no where. Once again, thank Hitsu-taicho for letting me copy his idea!