The small female shinigami mused over her brother's words as she walked to the tenth division. "I believe it does [constitute punishment]. I wish the man had never show up again, but recently we should have followed the clues." The one thing Rukia understood when her brother waved her away was the fact he didn't want to talk about the situation. Letting out a sigh she began to shake her head, only to stop short when she heard the laughter of a child coming from the tenth division.

"Stop! Not fair!"

Rukia blinked a couple of times as her hand came to the door wondering why the small taicho for once actually sounded like a child. It was to the point she had some problems believing that it was the small taicho speaking. "I'll start by telling him why I'm here." She opened the door letting out a deep sigh as she entered. "Hitsugaya Taicho? I was sent..." There came a pause as her mind recognized the man with Toshiro. "Oto-san?"

Isshin was on top of the small taicho doing something. Her entrance caused him to stop and look up at her. This in turn caused the small taicho to look at her as well, his eyes widening and his mouth twisting into a deep frown. There was also a blush on the child's face if she wasn't imaging things like she was. "Um... I'm a tad bit confused."

"Ah! Rukia-chan!"

Instead of answering in like response Rukia closed the door in front of her. She then turned her back to the door and leaned against it. "Ichigo's father is Hitsugaya Taicho's former taicho?"

The door suddenly slid open, causing her to fall in. A rather frantic looking Toshiro looked down at her. "It honestly doesn't look like..." The boy paused realizing his action of opening the door had caused her to fall into the room. He then glanced away so that his bright teal eyes wouldn't look her in the face. "It honestly doesn't look like what you think."

"You mean that man isn't Ichigo's father." Rukia watched as the boy's cheeks flushed up again.

"I have things to do. I'm going to go and make my morning rounds."

"Well... I guess he found something to do." Isshin went and sat at the desk and picked up the stack of paperwork.

Rukia pushed herself up from the floor before moving over to the desk. "I'm not exactly understanding the situation."

"Toshiro likely didn't want you to think anything was going on when I was tickling him. Thing is such comments may give people the wrong idea that I was doing something inappropriate to him. However, saying odd things is always normal for that child."

The female blinked a couple of times, completely taken off guard by how candid Isshin was speaking of Toshiro. "That's actually not what I was talking about. How can you speak so informally about Hitsugaya Taicho like that?"

"It likely comes from the fact I've known the babe since he was in the academy. Did you know it was Matsumoto who convinced him to academy? I'm sure you learned that though during the incident with his former classmate that Urahara told me about though. If he hadn't been found he would have killed his own granny, his reiatsu was so out of control. No clue where he would have been had we not stepped in."

"No. That information didn't come up. Actually, you paint a very different picture of him then what I and everybody else knows." Rukia took a deep breath then. "However, this picture of you is also very different and unexpected." She watched as Isshin looked up at her as if he was wondering what she was talking about. "I mean... you're Ichigo's goofball father, yet here you are being serious."

"I know how Soul Society works. Their mother didn't know as much as I did, but she knew enough. We didn't want the kids knowing what they didn't have too. Simple as that. Plus, ask Toshiro. That goofball attitude isn't fake."

"Yes..." Rukia let out a deep sigh. "Look, the reason I'm here is because Ukitake and my brother felt that since this situation is in the long run my fault that I could be assigned to help out until the situation with Rangiku is taken care of. I'm not sure why when the tenth division has two captain level shinigami working it."

"'cause Shiro-chan is still a child and is likely to do something..." A loud sound could be heard from outside. "...stupid." Isshin shook his head before standing up and popping his shoulder. "He's a child genius but in the long run still a child. His emotions can still get the better of him."

Rukia's eyes remained wide as she followed. Isshin walked out of the room and right over to where a couple of division members were arguing with the small captain. "Look, Captain Shiba is back. Why should we listen to you?"

The small female shinigami could see Toshiro tremble with anger. Her mind was focused though on what the man had called Isshin. "You need to listen to him because he is your captain. I'm only here to help."

"Yeah, but you never officially stopped being our captain."

"Well I don't like your lack of disrespect for him."

The two men grumbled their yes sirs before hurrying off. Toshiro turned to glare at the man. "Taicho... I know you're trying to be helpful but that was something I probably should have handled myself."

"I'm actually surprised to see that you're still having problems with the division members when it comes to listening to you."

"This is different. This doesn't have to do with me being some little kid that people can't even believe graduated from the academy." Toshiro spun on his heels and hurried off. "I have things to do."

A frown was upon Rukia's face. "Did they call you Captain Shiba?"

"Um... I don't know what you're talking about..."