With a Silent Step

Hitsugaya was walking away from the prison tower when a pang of guilt flashed through him. He'd arrested and imprisoned a friend, on nothing more solid than the paranoid orders of an aging soutaichou.

"I was wrongly imprisoned for being kidnapped..."

Ichigo's words flashed through his mind. What had he really done wrong? In fact, she'd seemed to be in more trouble than she could possibly cause. The soft, confused look in her eyes as she'd looked up at him after waking from a faint in the meeting had haunted him since it had happened. He recalled what she'd said upon entering Soul Society with them.

"Something's wrong!"

Something certainly was wrong. He abruptly spun on his heel, turning away from his division headquarters and towards the direction of the first squad. I'm going to talk to the soutaichou and find out what's going on.

Suddenly, the buildings around him began to dissolve into pure spiritual particles, and lower ranked Shinigami began to scream as their reiatsu was sucked straight out of their bodies. Hitsugaya began to run.

It only took him a few minutes to arrive. The doors gave him pause; they were open just a crack. One hand on his zanpakutou and the memories of Aizen's betrayal five years ago flashed through his mind as he pushed the doors open.

The world spun around him as he realized what had happened.

Yamamoto and his lieutenent lay in a pool of blood, the soutaichou's own zanpakutou thrust through his heart. Hitsugaya spent several long moments simply staring at the carnage before him. Somehow it was worse than coming upon the entire 46 slaughtered, because this was Yamamoto. The seemingly immortal soutaichou, who had been the soutaichou for longer than many of the current Shinigami had even been alive. The founder of the academny. The implications were starting to tug on his mind when the doors swung shut behind him, and a binding kido knocking him off his feet.

Standing before him, terrifyingly huge, was Kurotsuchi Mayuri.

"A little stray dog," he announced. "Sniffing around where he's not wanted."

-

Ishida gathered Ichigo's limp body into his arms, and vowed to get her back. Urahara reluctantly sheathed Benihime, as Shinji's zanpakutou disappeared back to wherever he kept it.

"This does not bode well," Urahara pronounced solemnly. Yoruichi appeared silently beside them as if from thin air.

"What happened? Where's Ichigo?" She watched Ishida rise, holding the Shinigami's body gently. "Was it Kurotsuchi again?" she asked, looking to Urahara for answers.

"Worse," Shinji said, spitting to one side. "Soul Society."

Ignoring them, the Quincy took his unconscious friend back to her bedroom, and lay down beside her, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath. As long as she was still breathing, there was hope.

-

Renji had caught just a brief glimpse of Hitsugaya and Komamura leading a prisoner towards the tower, and followed them out of curiousity. When he realized it was Ichigo they were jailing, his ire erupted. When Komamura turned back, the captain stopped him with a shout.

"Why is Kurosaki under arrest?" he demanded. Komamura eyed him silently from behind the ever-present mask.

"Disobeying a direct order from the soutaichou," he rumbled. "Causing immense damage to buildings. Being a spy for Kurotsuchi."

Renji erupted. "Ichigo, a spy!? What the hell is wrong with you people? It's a wonder he's even working for us at all. We should be grateful to have someone like Kurosaki on our side."

"He escaped into Hueco Mundo upon destroying the fifth division. It was determined he was delivering a report to Kurotsuchi, and Hitsugaya and I were sent to collect him. He will stand trial for his actions." The large captain dismissed him, and continued on his way.

"We'll just see about that," Renji snarled, and used shunpo to cross the distance to the first division.

He'd only taken one step when everything went to hell. He was barely halfway there, and buildings were beginning to collapse. People were screaming, running into the road and obscuring his path.

"What's happening to me? Taichou! Abarai-taichou, do you know what happened? My reiatsu... Something's wrong!" Voices from all over suddenly swamped him, the people coming to the only visible source of power for help. Renji jabbed his zanpakutou into the air.

"Everyone shut up!" he shouted, and into the surprised silence, he continued. "I'm going to the soutaichou now! I'll find out what's going on. For now, keep calm! Go find other people, find out if it's happening all over or just here. Keep everyone calm, this is not an emergency!"

Almost before the words were out of his mouth, the alarms started going off, startling several people. The rest were calmed by Renji's unflappability, and hurried away to find out what was going on with the rest of Seireitei.

Renji made his way to first division's headquarters, and kicked the door in.

"Yamamoto-soutaichou!" he shouted. It echoed off of empty walls, and he realized that something was wrong. There was a large pool of blood in the middle of the floor, and no one was present. He heard a muffled curse, and looked around for the source. Behind the door, a bound and gagged Hitsugaya glared at him. Kido had never been his forte, but brute strength had never been beyond him, and he used this to tear at the binding spell. When Hitsugaya had worked himself free, the smaller captain lunged for him. For a moment, Renji feared for his life; the look in the icy captain's eyes was murderous.

"Abarai! It was Kurotsuchi. He told me everything. He's killed Yamamoto, and stolen the haori. He's going to set himself up as the savior of Soul Society and proclaim himself the new soutaichou! But first we've got to get Ichigo out of here!"

The building shook as the reiatsu holding it together began to drift away.

"What's wrong with Ichigo?" Renji asked, already hurrying out the door. Hitsugaya was talking as he ran.

"That bracelet, the one we found plans for. It was meant to take Kurosaki out of the equation. Kurotsuchi knows damn well Ichigo is a figurehead for us, and he knew that taking him out would weaken the Seireitei. It's also meant to destroy Soul Society. It's going to absorb all of the reiatsu so there's no one left to oppose him."

"How do you know all this?" demanded the redhead. Hitsugaya glowered at him, but Renji was unfazed.

"He told me everything," the short captain explained, and then used shunpo to cover the last of the distance. Renji was two steps behind him, and when he arrived, Hitsugaya was threatening the guards with his zanpakutou.

"Open this door!" they shouted in unison, and Hitsugaya looked back, surprised to see Renji waving his sword around menacingly. The guards, finally cowed by two irate captains, unlocked the door and scurried away, unwilling to be part of whatever these two madmen were going to do.

Ichigo lay in a crumpled heap in the middle of the floor, face whiter than the yukata she wore. The ceiling had completely eroded away, and the walls were dissolving at an alarming rate. Everything swirled down into the unprepossessing leather bracelet around the fifth captain's wrist.

Such a little thing to cause so much damage, Renji thought, and dropped to his knees beside her, shaking her. "Oi, Kurosaki. Wake the hell up."

"You idiot, that's not going to work!" Hitsugaya snarled. Renji glared for a moment, then looked down at the unconscious girl.

"You gotta wake up, cause I ain't told ya who I like yet."

"Hey, Ichigo. You gotta crush on anyone here?" Renji asked, more than a month after the winter war had ended in Aizen's death.

Ichigo had looked at him flatly. "No," he said. "Do you?"

Renji looked at him oddly, making Ichigo feel a little nervous. "Ya know, I do." he said quietly.

"Who is it?"

Renji's face turned as red as his hair. "Well, look at the time! Got stuff to do, people to see, Later Ichigo!" He positively ran, leaving Ichigo staring after him.

Hitsugaya took in Renji's soft expression, and the tenderness with which he pushed Ichigo's hair out of her face, and put a few things together. It wasn't surprising; Ichigo was magnetic, attractive. If he'd ever let himself think about it, Hitsugaya wasn't immune to the unconscious charm the boy-turned-girl exuded.

"I know," Ichigo said weakly. Renji paled, then blushed.

"Ya do?" he asked. Ichigo nodded, opening her eyes.

"It's so obvious. You... totally have a thing for the soutaichou." She coughed, and tried to sit up. Renji roared with laughter in spite of himself, and even given the seriousness of the situation they found themselves in, even Hitsugaya couldn't stop the faint grin on his face.

"How're ya feeling?" Renji asked, and Ichigo scrunched up her face.

"Like I got hit by a bus." Her face sobered as she took in their expressions. "What's happened?"

"Soul Society is falling apart. Yamamoto has been killed, and Kurotsuchi is planning to take over," Hitsugaya explained. Ichigo's already white face turned ashen.

"He killed the soutaichou?"

"Ichigo." Hitsugaya's tone was earnest. "Ichigo, forgive me."

"For what?" Renji asked cluelessly. Ichigo stared at the captain, reading his apology in his eyes. Forgive me for dragging you back to this place. Forgive me for not listening to you. Forgive me for forcing this chaos on you.

"It's alright," Ichigo said. Renji scratched his head, confused.

"What's goin' on?" he asked, when an explosion outside caught everyone's attention.

"Abarai," Hitsugaya shouted, and Renji was already on his feet and out the door. "We have to get this thing off of you," Hitsugaya murmured, looking down at the unimposing strip of leather.

"No," Ichigo said, suddenly terrified. "No, something bad'll happen."

Hitsugaya withdrew a short, sharp blade from his shihakusho, and sliced through the leather in one cut. Ichigo's eyes flashed yellow, and then Hitsugaya was gone, taking the bracelet to the only place he knew it'd be safe. Out of Soul Society, to the one person who could do anything about it.

Urahara Kisuke.

-

Ishida jerked awake. It had been less than an hour since he'd fallen asleep beside Ichigo's unconscious body, and for a moment, he couldn't figure out what was happening. He checked automatically on Ichigo, and felt the blood drain out of his face.

Ichigo wasn't breathing any more. He placed two fingers against her throat, feeling for a heartbeat, and there was just stillness.

"KISUKE!" he shouted hysterically. "GET IN HERE IT'S ICHIGO!"

Everyone in the house piled into the room a moment later. Urahara's face was sheet-white as he bent down to listen for signs of life. After a few moments, he rose slowly, and shook his head.

"She's gone."

-[TBC]-

DUN, DUN. DUUU~UUUN..
Cliffie! Is Ichigo really dead? Is she stuck forever in Soul Society? What happened?
WHO KNOWS.