Ichigo hurried away from the captain's meeting, Toshiro held under his arm in a rather undignified matter. The small boy was rather in shock, but eventually managed to choke out, "Put me down…"

"And have you go and throw a tantrum in front of the entire captain's council while you try to take out your former taicho due to the fact that you are mad at him, hell no," Ichigo stated, suddenly running through the forth division, his feet pounding on the floor as he ran to Toshiro's room. "I'm in enough trouble for letting you get lose like that."

"Since when do you care about soul societies rules and letting them tell you what to do!" Toshiro stated.

"Since I agree with the fact that it is in your best interest," Ichigo stated, flinging him onto the bed. "Look at yourself… half dressed like you are!"

At this, the small taicho glanced down at his clothing and turned a bit red. "I don't usually…"

"Yeah… you're one of the coolest kids I know Toshiro. You don't care about your appearance in the regard that you're narcissistic, but you do care about how you present yourself to others, even a bit scared of giving off the wrong impression."

"Did you just call me a kid… and Toshiro in the same sentence? It's Hitsugaya-taicho…" the boy grumbled. "And I am not scared of anything!"

"Can it. We know ever since the incident with Sojiro that you are a kid, with a very shrewd mind," Ichigo sat down next to where the small body was lying all amuck.

"Sojiro…" Toshiro paused and closed his eyes. "Did you know that he knew about Sojiro's death… even that I was friends with him… and the dual swords?"

"What?" Ichigo blinked a couple of times.

"When Sojiro died, I almost quit the academy, and went back to live with grandma…" the boy stated. "Isshin-san taicho… this was before I even knew he was a taicho, came and talked to me about it…"

"How did he know," came the question.

"How should I know! I hate him! I really hate him!" came the reply half way between a yell and a sob. Ichigo suddenly pinned the small boy to the bed. "Let go of me! Let go! I hate him, I really do!"

"I am not letting go until…" Ichigo started, only to see the look of fear in the small boy's eyes. "Has… someone hurt you before… like she did?"

"Matsumoto didn't mean too… and it wasn't her," Toshiro closed his eyes. "I don't…"

"… want to talk about it," Ichigo muttered. "But… I know I promised I wouldn't, but… I have to push on this one Toshiro. What happened? Who hurt you? Aizen, Gin, Tosen?"

"No…" Toshiro went completely limp. "You can't tell Hinamori."

"You're grandmother!" Ichigo's mind came to a sudden false conclusion.

"No… Hinamori just doesn't know… and I would rather she didn't. Granny knew… and she couldn't do anything about it, though she did try."

"Toshiro…"

"Scapegoat…" the boy stated firmly. "You know what that is, right?"

"You mean to tell me, that the people in your district treated you as the reason for all of their problems?" Ichigo stated, suddenly unable to get the boy to look him in the face. He let go of Toshiro's arms.

"Taicho and Matsumoto only know a small bit of it. When I first met Ran-chan, I was buying sweet natto in the market, and the guy refused to give me my change into my hand and just put it onto the counter," Toshiro let out a small shudder. "As she lectured him, I turned around and had…"

"Had what…" Ichigo shook his head.

"A face plant…" Toshiro scowled at this. "She knows that… thing she does upsets me, yet she still does it."

"Why haven't you reported it? I mean… you had a face plant into her chest?" Ichigo suddenly laughed.

"It isn't funny!" came the protest. "And as for why I never mentioned anything, it isn't that I am overly uncomfortable with it, but that it is completely embarrassing and… not proper…"

"Got it… and it is funny… you'll laugh at it when you're older," Ichigo chuckled.

"No I won't! Especially since if I ever start dating, she'll tell the girl all about that and all the other times too!" there was something else that he added. "I hope I never start liking girls either. I've seen the way most of the guys in this division treat females. Even taicho was considered a perv!"

"I know that… yet he really isn't… same with Urahara," Ichigo stated.

"I think they pretend to be to maintain a bit of their masculinity. But I find treating woman that way to be unhonorable. I don't want to be like captain Kuchiki either… he's… never mind,"

"You're being a little more open then usual," came a sigh. "You should try to let people to get to know you better."

"Shit… I said too much," suddenly, the strawberry soul reaper had an attempt on the small taicho's part of trying to escape the room.

"Nothing said here gets said to other people's ears unless I feel that I need to for your own good," Ichigo grabbed him around the waist.

"Is that why you didn't tell me that taicho was alive, when you knew full well that he was?" Toshiro asked, a bit miffed.

"What do you mean?"

"You said that he really isn't. Only someone who actually knows taicho would know that…" Toshiro stated.

"I was the one who told him about… the situation," Ichigo stated.

"And how am I to know now that nothing is going to leave this room Kurosaki?" the boy stated.

"He had the right to know, and he was the only person I could think of who might be able to help. Correct that I didn't exactly have my head on straight, but you're a mess right now, Toshiro," Ichigo sighed.

"I wish you hadn't…" The small boy glanced downwards, rather distraught.

"And why not?" Ichigo. "Oh, wait… you hate him, right?"

"No… because you basically may have signed his death warrant," Toshiro said weakly. He then glanced up. "Could you do me a favor and get me certain items from the desk drawer in the office?"

"And run the risk of you leaving?" Ichigo sighed.

"I promise…" Toshiro sighed, closing his eyes. "That I won't leave here… and it is actually a very specific item. If you know taicho at all… you'll probably know what it is when you see it. And don't tell anyone I have such an item, please!"

"All right, all right," Ichigo stated. "Get some rest."

To the small boy, it wasn't that much longer that Ichigo was shaking his shoulder roughly. Toshiro's eyes snapped open to see a wooden dragon whistle dangling in front of his face. "You fell asleep while I was gone. Was this what you wanted?"

"Hai," Toshiro stated, reaching out to grab the whistle.

"Any special meaning behind it?" Ichigo asked.

"He gave it to me when I was thinking about not going back to the academy and he had a talk to me about going back…" came the murmured reply. "Arigoto."

That was when Isane stormed into the room. "What exactly do you think you were doing!"

"What do you mean?"

"You were supposed to be watching him! I overheard that he took off on you, and I came back to check on him after I was told you brought him back, and you were gone," the lieutenant of the forth stated.

"He promised he would stay!" Ichigo protested.

"Doesn't cut it!"

"Isane… please. I asked him to get something important for me…" Toshiro muttered

"It had better not be paperwork. Show me Hitsugaya-taicho!"

"Oi!" Ichigo protested. "I can tell you it wasn't paperwork!"

"I still would like to know exactly what it is, so I don't know that he won't try a third escape attempt," she stated, going over and prying the small taicho's fingers apart. She then closed them back up. "I apologize… I didn't realize it was that kind of important thing, Hitsugaya-taicho. I won't say a word about it. Now get some rest, and no more escape attempts. It's late, and if you behave, Unohana-Taicho says that you can speak with Isshin-san tomorrow."