OK, I got this idea when…I don't remember. But it seemed good at the time, and I have no school today. Basically, today is my day to write as much as I want, for about 14 hours. Not my ideal way of spending time, but hey, there's nothing else to do. My writing might be a LITTLE strange because I basically wrote this out on a whim, but hey, it's still pretty decent, I hope.

I don't own Bleach!

Ichigo POV

Whenever I'm in training with Rukia or Renji and we're sparring, I always feel a sense of awe whenever they use kido. I mean, to be attack your foe with just a placement of your hands and the incantation of a spell is rather amazing to me. Sometimes I wonder how epic my fights would be if someone had bothered to teach me kido while I was training. But no one ever did, so I'm always relying on my swordsmanship, my large amount of reiatsu and my hand-to-hand combat skills. If I learned kido, I'd have more attacks available to me, and my battles would probably be a lot shorter then they usually are. No one has ever mentioned teaching me kido, though, not even Urahara-san, though I probably wouldn't want that old hat'n'clogs man teaching me again.

So here I am, sitting on my school's roof, trying to pay attention to what Keigo and Mizuiro are saying, but I just can't concentrate. Chad, who's sitting across from me, isn't listening either, I can tell. Even though no one else in our school (except for Inoue and Ishida, of course) knows it, there are a bunch of hollows currently swarming the sky above our school, and it's quite nerve racking, since I can't just turn into my shinigami form in front of my friends and leave my body here with no soul in it. So I guess we're kind of stuck. Either risk our friends knowing our 'secret' or watch the hollows slowly destroy the school. Suddenly, I felt a burst of reiatsu and looked into the sky, hoping that help had come. Well, it had, in the form of Rukia, Renji and Toshiro. Breathing a sigh of relief, I looked back down to my friends. Chad seemed a little less tense, and seemed to have joined in on the conversation, even if all he contributed was a couple of grunts. A few minutes later, the bell rang, and we all packed up our trash and leftovers, then left to go back to the classroom.

~In Class~

No POV

"And if you have an equation like this, what do you do to find x? Does anyone know? Kurosaki!" Ochi-sensei's words rang through out the classroom and caught the attention of the day dreaming strawberry.

Darn, I was thinking about kido again, the teen thought as he stood up. "Y-yes?"

The brown haired teacher tapped on the math problem she had written up on the blackboard. "This equation," she said. "How do you find x?"

"Erm…" Ichigo replied, scratching his head. "I don't know…"

Ochi-sensei snorted. "Fine," she said. "Does any one else know the answer?"

From across the room, Ishida raised his hand.

oOo

"Oy, Renji!" the voice of a female drifted across the chilly autumn wind. "Did you kill all of the hollows on your side of the school."

Sheathing his zanpakuto and walking over to his friend, the red pineapple nodded. "Duh," he said, looking at his 'territory' of the sky over the school. "How about you?"

The lieutenant of the sixth was met with a sharp elbow jab to the cheek. "Rukia!" he bellowed, holding the smaller shinigami up by the collar of her shihakusho. "What the hell was that for?"

"Of course I exterminated all of the hollows!" came the irritated response. "If I haven't, would I be talking to you right now?"

The two continued bickering until they noticed a drastic change in the air around them, and they drew their arms around their bodies for warmth. The figure of Hitsugaya Toshiro appeared in front of them, eyebrows drawn downwards, sending a death stare at the pair. "Shut up!"

Once the trio had confirmed that there were no more hollows in the area, they quickly made their way to the Urahara Shoten, Renji protesting the whole way with Rukia shutting him up with "We need to pick up our gigais, idiot." When they had finally reached the small store, Rukia pushed Renji forwards.
"Knock, Renji," she instructed.
"W-why me?" Renji spluttered, looking back into his friend's dark violet eyes.

"Isn't it obvious? Because you stayed here the longest!"

"But you were in the human world far longer than me!" Renji protested, backing away from the doorway.

Hitsugaya sighed as the two continued to bicker. Why was I chosen to come to the real world with these two? he thought, stepping between the two and rapping on the wooden part of the shoji door and waiting for a response.

"Yes?" came a familiar voice from the other side. Seconds later, the door was slid back to reveal Urahara, Tessai, Jinta and Ururu all standing in the doorway of their shop.

"Ah, Hitsugaya-taicho, Kuchiki-san and the freeloader! What brings you to the real world?"

Renji's anger cracked, and Rukia tackled him to the ground in order to keep him from bellowing his anger at the former twelfth division captain. "Orders from the sotaicho," Hitsugaya answered, looking up at the man. "We came here to pick up our gigai."

As the three shinigami were about to step into the shop, Ichigo happened to walk by and see them. "Oy! Rukia! Renji! Toshiro!" he called, walking over to the group of people outside of the shop. Rukia turned around and gave Ichigo a warm smile. "Yo, Ichigo," she said, while Renji huffed, "Yo." Hitsugaya merely gave a nod, and slipped into the shop, now followed by Rukia, Renji and the strawberry. The four sat down around a table in one of the shop's rooms, white Urahara walked further back to retrieve the gigais needed for the three shinigami.

"Erm, thanks for taking care of the hollows at lunch," Ichigo said, scratching his head awkwardly. "I don't know why, but a lot of hollows seemed to be swarming around the school lately, and Chad, Inoue, Ishida and I can't really do much when we're in class."

Hitsugaya focused his piercing teal eyes on the teenager's chocolate brown eyes. "That's why we came," he explained in a low voice. "Yamamoto-sotaicho sent me, Kuchiki and Abarai here to investigate that, and also assist you with the hollow extermination."

Rukia and Renji both nodded, confirming the chibi taicho's words. "We still have to investigate," Rukia said. "And it'd be easier in a gigai, because if we were in shinigami form looking around the school, the humans would see it as doors randomly opening and closing and windows randomly sliding open as well. Renji and I will both be attending classes at Karakura High again, but Hitsugaya-taicho said that he'd investigate during the day, and if he needs a door opened or something, Renji or I will go help him."

Ichigo grinned and shot out a hand to ruffle the snowy captain's head, but Toshiro managed to dodge. "Didn't feel like being around all those tall humans again, huh, Toshiro?" the substitute shinigami asked teasingly.

"Shut up, Kurosaki," came the response. I'm already around a lot of people who are taller than me in Soul Society, the captain of the tenth thought darkly.

The wall slid open to reveal a grinning Urahara, holding all of the gigais like three strange (and rather limp) brides. How he managed to carry all three bodies at the same time was unimaginable, but no one asked. Instead, the owner of the store placed the bodies on the ground and let the three visiting shinigami step into them. Luckily, there were no problems, and they were in the bodies in an instant. Just then, a thought occurred to Ichigo, and he opened his mouth to speak.

"By the way, where are you guys staying?"

oOo

"Geez! Do you all seriously have to stay in my house where there's always an idiot dad and two little sisters prowling around?" Ichigo's annoyed voice rang throughout the (luckily) empty street.

"I'm not staying with Urahara-san," Renji said flatly. "You do understand, don't you?"

"And I'm not staying at Inoue's if Matsumoto isn't there to make her cooking a little less, erm, flavorful. If you know what I mean." Toshiro gave the strawberry a sideways glance as they continued to walk on.

Ichigo sighed and scratched the back of his head again. "Fine," he said. "But you shouldn't be in your gigai now, right? My family will see you…"

Rukia, Hitsugaya and Renji all gave Ichigo confused looks. "Is that a bad thing?"

~Later, at Ichigo's house~

"Ichigooooooo!" Kurosaki Isshin screamed at his son as he leapt through the air, planning to land a kick on his son's delinquent face. "You're home!"

Ichigo ducked, and the kick was placed on Renji, who had to be tackled once again by Rukia in order to not beat the crap out of the strawberry's father.

"Onii-chan, you brought guests?" Yuzu asked, her head poking out of the kitchen. "Eh? Toshiro? Kuchiki-san? And…"

"Oh, hi, Yuzu," Ichigo said. "This is Abarai Renji, another friend of mine. They might have to stay here for a while…"

Yuzu smiled. "Okay," she said, not seeming to be bothered by the sudden guests. "I'd better go tell Karin-chan that Toshiro is back, her soccer team's been doing badly recently…"
Rukia and Renji both looked, well, down at the small captain. "Hitsugaya-taicho, you play soccer…?" Rukia started, but his glare soon silenced her.

"You can go back and cook now," Ichigo said, shoving his dad away. "I'll go upstairs and talk to Karin and stuff. And could you keep this old man calm?" The carrot-topped teen pointed at his dad.

Yuzu nodded. "I'll do that."

The group then trudged upstairs, leaving Yuzu behind with her 'crazy' father.

The moment Kurosaki Karin spotted Toshiro in her house, a smile was plastered on her face. "Toshiro!" she said, dashing over to pat his forehead. "You came at a good time! Our soccer team-"

"Your sister already told us about your team," Hitsugaya said placidly. "And I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play soccer with you this time. This is a mission that must be completed quickly."

For a while, the black-haired girl seemed mad, but then she sighed and looked away. "Fine," she said grumpily. "But stay safe, okay?"

Karin then patted the young taicho's forehead again, and then disappeared in what appeared to be her room.

Ichigo was staring down at Hitsugaya in bewilderment. Was Toshiro always this friendly with Karin? He thought, scratching his head. Whatever.

"Rukia, are you still going to sleep in the closet?" he asked the petit shinigami, walking into his room. The others followed.

Rukia nodded. "It may seem strange to your family, but I think it would be best to," she said.

Renji snorted. "And I guess I'll have to sleep on the floor," he said.

Ichigo nodded, and Renji looked down at the floor, then up to Hitsugaya. "And Hitsugaya-taicho…?"

"I'll find a way," came the reply, just as Yuzu's voiced sounded from below. "It's dinner time!"

oOo

A few hours later, Ichigo collapsed onto his bed, suddenly exhausted. His father and sisters had bombarded the visiting shinigami with questions while they ate dinner. Most were questions that sent Isshin flying across the room, either having been kicked by Rukia, punched by Renji or cast away by Hitsugaya's glare. And now he could finally escape all the action through sleep. Rukia had already closed up the closet, and Renji was snoring away on the floor. Hitsugaya had just decided to sit against the wall. However, the young prodigy wasn't sleeping. Teal eyes stared at the foot of Ichigo's bed, blinking every once in a while. Ichigo, who was not yet asleep, looked over at the captain, eyes full of admiration. How could a kid like that become a captain? Sighing, the strawberry's mind drifted back to his want to learn kido. If only someone could teach me… Suddenly, his substitute shinigami badge started blinking wildly, signaling the arrival of more hollows in the town. Ichigo quickly glanced over at Renji, who was still asleep, and also noticed that the door to his closed was still tightly shut.

"I'll go," Hitsugaya said from the other side of the room, staring up and looking into the teen's eyes, popping a soul candy in his mouth. His shinigami form quickly materialized in front of his gigai, and the gigai sat back down, closing its eyes in an attempt for sleep. "You don't have to come."

"Nah, I'll go with you, Toshiro," Ichigo said, yawining and pressing the badge to his chest, his shinigami form also popping out. "Who knows what kind of hollows these are?"

The small taicho muttered something inaudible and quickly opened the window and leapt out into the night, leaving the strawberry blonde boy to follow.

oOo

By the time Ichigo had caught up to the young captain, most of the hollows had already been killed. There was only one left, and Hitsugaya easily defeated it with a low level kido spell, with Ichigo staring in awe. Kido is amazing, the teen thought as he watched the battle. When the hollow was confirmed to have been exterminated, the white-haired boy shunpo-ed back to the substitute shinigami's side.

"See?" he growled, staring at the taller boy. "You didn't have to come…"

But Ichigo was too caught up in the kido, playing the scene of Hitsugaya firing a ball of energy at the hollow over and over again in his head.

"Toshiro…" he muttered unselfconsciously. "Can you teach me kido?"

:O Cliff hanger sort of thing D OK, that wasn't really how I expected this story to turn out, but whatever. And if you think this is the end, YOU'RE WRONG! I originally thought this should be a oneshot, but I like the sound of a twoshot better now. Anyways… It's getting kind of late and I kinda want to sleep. *Yawns* Oh, and new HunterxHunter, Bakuman and Fairy Tail episodes came out! HunterxHunter was still kind of meh because I really want Killua to show up already DX. Bakuman was still good, though, and Fairy Tail was funny as usual. NEW BLEACH EPISODE TOMORROW. I know I put off the omake for my story, 'Protected by Ice' for about a week [π.π I AM SO SORRY], but I will start writing it as soon as I can tomorrow morning, I promise!

See you next time, either in the next chapter of this or in the omake of my story~