Hello there! Tenbatsu Shakaku here and welcome to my first story! I'm entirely not sure what I'm doing and it's on Google docs, so please bear with me. On another note, the picture that inspired this story is on my page, but I wouldn't look at it until I complete this story. Now on to "No Matter the Cost, I will Protect"

Disclaimer: the only Bleach I own whitens my clothes, not defeat hollows

"Character"

"Hollow"

"Zanpakuto"

"thoughts"

Ch. 1: Raising the Stakes

Ichigo, having just finished his training with the Vizards and still in his soul body, was on his way to Urahara's. Why? He wanted to train with Yoruichi. After his 'battles' with the Espada that came to Earth he knew he needed to raise his speed and strength even more than his mask does, plus his mask has a time limit of 5 minutes(1). So who better to train him than the Goddess of Flash and ex-Onmitsukidō?

When he arrived he noticed Urahara was missing. "Strange, normally Urahara-san is right here unless..." Ichigo made his way to the underground training area and sure enough there was Urahara dressed in his usual attire training "Renji? Chad? I guess I'm not the only one who thought to come here for training," Ichigo thought with moderate surprise. Urahara, having sensed Ichigo's reiatsu the second he opened the hatch to the training grounds, turned to speak with the orange haired Substitute Soul Reaper. "So what brings you here? I thought you were training with Shinji-san and the others."

"I was, but...wait, you know about the Vizards? How?"

"A story for another time. Now if you'd be so kind as to answer my earlier question?"

"Ah, right! Is Yoruichi around? I..."

"...Am finally going to take her up on her offer to let her be my first?" Yoruichi, having appeared out of nowhere, finished half teasingly/ half seriously. After all, it's not everyday you meet a person with Ichigo's stamina and reiatsu and Yoruichi wanted to know if those affected his 'other sword' as much as it did Zangetsu.

"HELL NO!" Ichigo screamed almost a little too quickly.

"Oh come ON Ichigo! Please? I'll let you do it any way you want." Yoruichi bribed in a pouty voice that caused Urahara to suddenly vanish(2) and caused Ichigo to nearly pass out due to blood loss.

"YORUICHI I'M TRYING TO BE SERIOUS HERE!" The word "Gay!" has seemed to be echoing in Ichigo's head throughout this entire conversation.

"How do you know I'm not? Fine, what did you need me for then?" Yoruichi asked now all business.

"I need to become faster and stronger; at my current level my only reliable weapon is Getsuga." Ichigo replied matching her somber tone.

"This way." Yoruichi proceeded to flash step off to somewhere deeper in the training area with Ichigo half a step behind.

"HIM?!"

"Yes Kuchiki-taicho, Him. Who else is qualified to fill tone of the positions?"

"While that is true Soi Fon-Taicho, His reiatsu is uncontrollable." Byakuya said, now back to his emotionless self.

"Yes, but with the right training..." Soi Fon, speaking with a calm head, began.

"Right training? Even his last teacher couldn't teach him to control his reiatsu, then who..."

"She wasn't teaching Him reiatsu control." Soi Fon interrupted now a little annoyed with Byakuya, though hiding it well, " I believe I could teach Him to control, focus, and even suppress his reiatsu given enough..."

"I disagree. His power is too wild, not unlike himse..."

"Kuchiki-taicho and Soi Fon-taicho enough!" ordered the head captain, "Both of you have made your points, but if we let this continue we'll be here all night."

"Yes Sou-Taicho," replied both taichos responded instantly. The taicho's meeting had been in session for two hours now and only had this topic on the agenda. As you can see, they were getting nowhere fast. "All other acceptable candidates have been voted down, we shall vote on this final one then adjourn regardless. As always we will start with squad 2 and work our way up, with me only voting in the case of a tie. Soi Fon-taicho?" "Yes," and from there the vote went 7-2 for with only the taichos of squads 6 and 12 voting no.

"Very well!" declared Yamamoto, "the new captain of squad 5, the 'support squad' has been decided! While Squad 3, the 'north rukongai squad,' and squad 9, the 'information distribution squad, will temporarily be run by their fuka-taichos."(3)

"Who should we send to get Him?" inquired Hitsugaya Toshiro(4),"To retrieve a taicho we should send a taicho level soul reaper, but who?"

"Perhaps, Ukitake-taicho? This does fall under his squad's jurisdiction," suggested Kyoraku Shunsui.

"It would be my pleasure, if aloud." replied the currently healthy, white haired taicho of squad 13.

"Granted, you will leave in a month so the preparations may be completed for the newest taicho's arrival. Until then, dismissed!"

4 weeks until the arrival of the new captain.

1: I just chose the limit, I don't think it's canon

2: In my story Urahara views Yoruichi like his sister, so he left out of embarrassment

3: I'll be giving all squads specific jobs like squads 2,4, 11, and 12 have

4: Toshiro is still stationed in the world of the living, he just returned for the captains meeting

Author's note: How was it? I think you all can guess who the new captain is, but I still don't want to say it or make it even more obvious, however I still have a few tricks up my sleeve. Also I'm looking for a beta reader and have no clue what to do, any takers? I apologize for any spacing problems or line spacing problems. I'm open to criticism so do PM me, but don't just say something like "it sucks" 'kay? please review!

*hopefully final revised version*