"Eat up."

A weak, starving girl with shoulder-length blonde hair rolls her head to the side and stares blankly at the dried tomato held in front of her eyes.

"Being hungry enough to collapse must mean you've got it too, right?" says the boy offering her some of his scraps of food. He is standing over where she is lying on the ground, near the charred remains of what seems to be a house. "Y'know, spiritual power."

"...You... too...?" she looks up at the light-haired boy.

"Yup. Me too," he smiles down at her, "Ichimaru Gin. Nice to meet'cha."(1)

"Gin..." the girl echoes. "What a weird name."

Matsumoto Rangiku, the buxom blonde vice captain of the 10th, awakens with a sudden jolt.

"You awake, huh, Matsumoto."

Rangiku sits up on the couch she had fallen asleep on. She looks over in surprise to see a young man sitting at a large desk, doing paperwork. "...Captain..." she asks, "What are you doing in my room?"

10th Captain Hitsugaya Toushirou spares her an annoyed look, "You idiot. The office isn't your room. If you're awake, then hurry up and take over for me. I'm tired already."

"That is because you've shouldered all of the work for the 5th Division, isn't it," Rangiku gets off the couch and walks over to his desk, tying up her sleeves so they won't get in the way of her work.

"Be quiet," Hitsugaya hands her a sheaf of documents. "Hurry up and take this over to your own desk."

Rangiku's gaze skim over the thin bundle of papers in her hand. She looks over at her captain in bafflement, "...This is all that's left!? But there had been so much..."

"I said be quiet," Hitsugaya says impatiently as he reaches for a cup of tea. "Now go do it!"

Rangiku turns away and pauses thoughtfully for a long moment, "...I... slept for quite a while, didn't I..."

Hitsugaya sets down his tea and looks away, "...Doesn't matter. For your peer and underclassman to get into such trouble must be tough on you too, in your own way."

"...my peer... huh..." Rangiku mutters to herself while staring out the window.

"Say, Captain..." she finally asks, "do you really think... that Captain Ichimaru..."

"P... pardon me!" someone calls from outside the office doors. "This is 10th Division, 7th Rank, Takezoe Koukichirou!! Is Captain Hitsugaya and Vice Captain Matsumoto present!?"

Hitsugaya jumps up from his desk, "What is it! Open up!!"

"Huff!" the soldier, Takezoe, immediately slides the door open to address his superiors. "Pardon my intrusion!! I regret to inform you of this! We received emergency reports a short while ago from each of the prison guards - Vice Captain Abarai, Vice Captain Hinamori, and Vice Captain Kira have all disappeared from their cells."

(Intro- Hinamori's turn! It's about time! ^_^ She is just smiling towards the readers with her arms out and her back turned slightly. Kawaii~~!)

A thick blade slams into the ground, broken off at the end. It landed several feet away from where Ichigo skids backward with the remains of the hilt still in his hands.

On the cliff near the battleground, Yoruichi crouches down and observes the fight carefully as things start to heat up, ...It's gotten so that the pace doesn't even get disrupted when a sword is broken...

Zangetsu stands below, facing Ichigo, "...That's the 51st one..."

With a swift jerk of his arm, Ichigo discards the broken blade and yanks out a new one embedded in a nearby bolder. "Next!!" He charges at Zangetsu with his latest sword.

Zangetsu swings wide and Ichigo blocks him, but his sword tilts under the strength of Zangetsu's blade. Ichigo lets it tilt sideways, forcing the opposing blade to slide across its edge and nearly lop off his head in the process - if he did not have the foresight to duck so swiftly. As soon as Zangetsu's blade slides across, completing its wide arc, there is a brief moment where Zangetsu is left wide open for an attack. Ichigo uses this moment to thrust straight at his chest.

Unfortunately, Zangetsu is more than fast enough to leap overhead to dodge the attack. Ichigo looks up just as Zangetsu hurls his blade down at him - destroying the blade in Ichigo's hand.

Before Ichigo has time to get over his surprise, Zangetsu appears in front of him and strikes him with his fist. Ichigo skids back and collides into a bolder.

"...Don't lose sight of your enemy," Zangetsu warns him. "...That's the 52nd one."

"Shit..." Ichigo climbs out of the crater he made from impacting the bolder and looks up with a slight grin. "Even though I was so close to making it..."

Yoruichi watches them intensely while replaying Ichigo's latest attack in her mind, At the moment of contact, he met the speed of his opponent's sword, diverted the blade, and parried the attack...! Then, in an instant, he twisted it into a counterattack that way without killing the pace..!! The fighting style he had until now, wherein his power depended on Zangetsu's strength... it's developing into something different...

He's... assimilating it, huh... terribly fast and at a terribly high level...! she thinks as she sees him draw an intact blade from another bolder. Urahara... you're right... He really is...

~*~*~

The crescent moon has risen high by now, as can be seen though the bars of the prison window. In the hallway outside of the empty cell, a shinigami prostrates himself in front of his superiors.

"P... please accept my humblest apologies..." the prison guard says. "When Vice Captain Hinamori called to me and I was about to turn around, everything went white in front of my eyes... when I came to my senses, everything was in this state... There is nothing to justify my actions..."

"It's the 'Hakufuku'(2)..." Captain Hitsugaya tells Rangiku with his arms crossed.

The guard looks up in surprise, "Hah!?"

"Hinamori is, by nature, a master of the demon arts,"(3) Hitsugaya explains. "If we really wanted to confine her, we would've had to seal away her spiritual energy. However, we did not do that..." while he speaks, Rangiku looks over at the huge gaping hole that had cleanly blasted through the wall and the prison bars, "because none of us thought she would go this far to break out of jail."

Rangiku stares at the incredible damage, "It wasn't even like she was going to be executed, so why..."

"...For such a thing..." Hitsugaya answers, "There’s only one reason." He reaches for the hilt of the long sword strapped to his back. "Matsumoto... go on and head back." His expression turns fierce, "I'm going to go rescue Hinamori."

~*~*~

Elsewhere, Hinamori Momo sprints down the dark corridors of Seireitei, lighted by the bright moon. As she runs, she clutches Captain Aizen's letter to her chest.

...When I first read the letter, I couldn't believe my eyes... I couldn't believe it all along... But... it's true, isn't it, Captain Aizen... Momo speaks aloud to herself, "The one who killed Captain Aizen... it really is that person."(4)


(1)So, we get to see cute, innocent Gin? o_0 Wow... he's so adorable... KT is an evil genius, I swear. Does he want readers to believe Gin killed Aizen or not? If not, then who? Who!?
(2)"White Fall" from the kanji for 'white' added to the word for "fuseru," which means "to drop down, prostrate." Apparently, a label for a demon arts spell.
(3)As proven in the -17 chapter. ^_^ I find it sooo damn cool that she kicks ass in the demon arts!
(4)Back to my first question: WHO!?

Notes:
-"Etude of an Extremely Clever Technique opus.1" Hehe... I had to look up 'etude' in a dictionary - it means 'study' in French. ^^; So yeah... not the best translation of one of KT's rare Japanese chapter titles... would anyone else like to give it a better shot? Onegai? ^_^

-So the plot thickens! XD While Ichigo is finally learning the finesse of fighting with a sword (against his own sword, too!), now we get to see things really heat up in Seireitei! XD Who must Hitsugaya protect Momo against? Where is Momo heading? What are Gin's plans for Izuru? Where the hell did Renji run off to? What's going on here!? @_@

-Did you hear!?!? X IS BACK!!!! ^_^ ME SO HAPPY!! She's back!!XD

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