Toshiro and the TG Questionnaire

"Don't get too used to it. We're only here for the mission. Remember that."

"Fine...whatever you say, Captain Buzzkill."

And so continued the eternal altercation between Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya and his Vice-Captain, Rangiku Matsumoto. The two had recently been assigned to a reconnaissance mission in Karakura Town in response to the deaths of several foot soldiers and reports of sightings of a Vasto Lorde-class Arrancar. Obviously, these two occurrences were probably connected, and with an enemy of this level being within such a spiritually dense area, the Thirteen Court Guard Squads weren't willing to take any chances. So, they decided to send immediately deploy two of their highest ranking officers, two that also had the most experience within Karakura Town. Toshiro accepted the mission without so much as a second thought. Rangiku was a bit annoyed at having to be deployed into the World of the Living once again for a lowly Arrancar Hunt, but quickly grew excited at the prospect of meeting her human friends there.

At this point, however, the two officers were merely walking down the streets of Karakura Town inside their new temporary physical shells. The two gigais looked virtually identical to their respective actual forms, though outfitted with more contemporary Japanese fashion of their choice instead of their normal black robes. Toshiro wore a simple black shirt with a white collar and the logo of a popular clothing company, along with a pair of grey pants and brown loafers. Rangiku, on the other hand, touted a long-sleeved green blouse with a short-sleeved yellow cardigan over it, with a short black skirt and sneakers, all of which perfectly complimented her figure. Naturally, this look garnered more than a couple stares from passers by. Not that Rangiku minded or anything.

"You know, it's been awhile since we checked up on ole Orihime," she noted as they took yet another curve on the sidewalk. "I wonder how she and her sister's doing. We haven't exactly been able to see them since the Winter War."

"I'm sure they're fine," Toshiro responded with a simple shrug. "They seemed to be in good health when we left them."

"Yeah, especially Natsuko," Rangiku noted with a devious smirk down at her commanding officer. "You noticed her curves coming out last time we saw her, didn't you? Don't lie~!"

The Captain suddenly stopped dead in his tracks as his face began to turn a bit more reddish than usual before contorting into pure anger. "Rangiku..." He took a deep breath before simply continuing to walk along the path. "Say another word like that and I will ban the consumption of all alcohol within our squad. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir..." the woman grumbled back with a pout. Looking down at the boy, she couldn't help but wonder about the oddity of being bossed around by a little pipsqueak. Sure, she may have been the only reason Toshiro even became a Soul Reaper and she certainly respected him on a professional level, but...damn if it wasn't getting annoying being constantly scolded by a humorless kid that's barely even entered puberty! She wished he would just lighten up for just a moment. It appeared as if that moment would never come, however, so all Rangiku could do at the moment was hope the Inoue sisters' hospitality would soften the boy's disposition enough to let her have some quality time with her favorite human girls.

"This should be the place," Toshiro noted upon seeing Orihime's apartment number on the door. He was lucky he had it memorized from last time. Before he could even mutter another order, though, Rangiku immediately ran over to knock on the door, And before she could do so, it suddenly slammed open, revealing both sisters with their trademarked smiles and a small cake with some sort of green...sauce on it.

"WELCOME BACK!" they both cheered at the same time, leading the Vice-Captain to almost blush in modesty.

"Oh...you guys!" Rangiku said with a joyous smile before running up and hugging the two girls. "You didn't have to go ahead and make..." She looked over at the two's mysterious concoction, only to have her smile waver for a moment. "...that." She then went right back to joy mode. "We're just here on business, after all!"

"Eh, it's nothing you two can't handle, right?" Orihime asked with a small giggle as she allowed her guests inside. "Before you know it, you'll just have to go back home. Might as well enjoy the time you have remaining here, right?"

"I suppose you're right!" the woman cheered while walking into the apartment, followed by her significantly less cheerful captain. "Nice to see this place back in shape after that Arranc-" Rangiku immediately stopped herself mid-sentence upon seeing Natsuko's curious look up at her. Crap. It was getting harder and harder to keep the little girl in the dark about her older sister's more supernatural affairs. Rangiku had to think quick to save herself now!

"I-! mean after that car ran through the apartment somehow!" That was the official cover up, right? Oh, she really hoped so...

"Uh...yeah..." Natsuko replied, not quite sure how to take the woman's sudden verbal backspace. She wasn't sure what was stranger: the story that a car ran into their apartment in the middle of the night and somehow managed not to wake her up or the fact that everyone who told her the story hardly seemed to believe it themselves. Almost as if nobody wanted to just sit down and tell her the truth about the otherworldly affairs she was more than aware of. But...whatever. Who was she to get into anybody else's business, especially if that business involved monsters and swords?

"So..." The small girl's eyes began to wander over to Toshiro, who seemed to only be looking around with his regular aloofness on full display. "Shiro! How have you been?"

"I've already told you not to call me that," was all he replied with before starting to walk out the door. "This place seems as reliable as ever. I hope you don't mind if I take a walk."

"I most certainly do!" Natsuko huffed with a pout that could kill a herd of gazelles through sheer adorableness alone. Luckily, Toshiro already had his back turned from the offended girl, so such charms went on blind eyes. The albino loner just shut the apartment door and left. "Well, he's as chipper as ever."

"Tell me about it..." Rangiku grumbled while rolling her eyes. "Then again, he hasn't exactly been having the best couple months. Lots of...stuff has been going on."

"We understand," Orihime sighs with a weak smile and an understanding nod, followed by the same gesture from Natsuko. Even if neither could truly measure the amount of hardship the boy was going through, they knew to respect his sorrow.

"W-Well, anyway..." Orihime clapped her hands together, immediately assuming joy mode once again. "While you're still here, we might as well cut the cake! C'mon!" The girl then happily strolled over to the kitchen counter she had placed said pastry. But just as she was reaching for the cake cutter she had nearby on the same table, fate intervened and directed her eyes toward a mysterious document just to the side.

"Oh?" she asked to herself before ultimately choosing to forego the knife and choosing to pick up the paper laid beside it. "What's this thing?" She then examined the document even further, which looked to be a page right out of one of her teenage trend magazines, complete with cute lettering and massive amounts of pink, eventually coming upon the header. "If I Was A Girl Questionnaire. What on earth is this doing here?"

"What even is that?" Rangiku asked curiously as she peeked over at the paper in the girl's hands. "Looks like some sort of form, like one Toshiro would force on me, only more colorful."

"I thought it was the other way around."

"It varies."

"Should we fill it out?" Natsuko suddenly asked, causing the other two to look back at her. "Not like we have anything better to do, right? How about we all do one together? It'll be fun!"

"But...we're already girls," Orihime pointed out observantly.

"But Toshiro isn't," Rangiku remarked, surprising even herself with her amusing idea. Both she and the Inoue sisters began to crack up at the prospect of concocting a female version of the grumpy little Captain, causing Natsuko to pick up a stray pen left on the coffee table as everyone else began to kneel down before it as well.

"So, are we doing this?" the girl asked while clicking the pen into position.

"Don't see why not!" Rangiku laughed before snatching the pen from Natsuko's grip and starting to fill out the name Toshiro Hitsugaya over line asking for the participant's name, much to the younger girl's annoyance.

As Toshiro casually walked down the streets of Karakura town with his arms in his jacket, he felt a sudden chill down his spine. He quickly whipped, searching behind himself in search of any sort of powerful malevolent sources that may have contributed to his sudden spike of awareness. Yet, when he turned around, there were no Hollows to be discovered. Well, duh, he most likely would have identified the sensation as Hollow in nature if it truly was just that, but in this case, it was not. Maybe it was just some sort of superstition of some sort. Maybe he just needed to calm down a bit...

Back at the apartment, the girls were just looking over the first true question on the agenda: Question 1: If you were a girl... would your handwriting be nice?

The three girls merely stared at the question with curious looks for awhile before Rangiku finally spoke up. "A bit of a weird question, but okay," she stated while shaking her head a bit. "The Captain's handwriting is dainty enough as a boy. Maybe if he was a girl, it wouldn't be as neat." With that in mind, she wrote in a little "No."

With his arms in his pocket, the albino Soul Reaper was unable to see what transpired immediately afterwards. His hands seemed to shrink slightly, yet his fingers elongated to dainty perfection, complete with elongated nails. Again, he was unable to see such a small yet noticeable change, so his obliviousness to the moment could be justified.

“Okay, Question Two: If you were a girl...would you like pink?” Natsuko read aloud, leading the others to ponder the subject.

“Don’t see why not,” Orihime stated with her finger on her chin. “It’s a bit of a stereotypical question to answer, but sure! Who wouldn’t want to enjoy the wonders of pink?”

“Very well then,” Rangiku chuckled before filling in a “Yes.”

On the other side of town, Toshiro was just walking across the lake, only to come across what looked like a pack of bubblegum just laying on the concrete. Normally, he would not be the one to pick up random objects off of the ground, but something about the attractive pink packaging made him a bit curious. With that said, he lifted the gum off of the ground and, after discovering how it wasn’t as stale as he managed, decided to pop a strip in his mouth. Perhaps chewing gum could be relaxing at the moment.

“Question Three!” Orihime cheerfully announced as she took control of the pen. “If you were a girl, would your hair be straight or curly? Hm…” She began tapping the pen against her face in deep thought.

“As much as I like the notion of Toshiro with curly hair, I’d bet he’d look better keeping it straight,” Rangiku commented. “Besides, have you seen a girl with spiky hair like his?”

“U-Uh...yes...actually…” Orihime responded with a slightly nervous smile, reminded of a Miss Menoly Mallia. She quickly shook her head and returned her attention back to the paper. “Okay! Straight it is then!” And so, she wrote just that.

Back at the lake, the Captain was just walking along, chewing on his bubblegum, when a sudden gust of wind came by. Toshiro thought nothing of it, so the fact of his spiky white hair seeming to invert into short, straight hair didn’t exactly register. Nor did the fact that his single bang seemed slightly longer than before. He just went along, chewing his gum.

And so, the pencil was back in Rangiku’s hand, ready to tackle the next question on the agenda: If you were a girl,what would be your favorite color?

“You know, he does seem fond of the color black in terms of clothing...” Rangiku muttered in her thoughts. “Yeah, I think he’d look cute in black.” So, she responded with the color black. However, she almost immediately started to reconsider her answer. Was his new shirt black or dark blue? Honestly, it was a little hard to tell. Should she keep the answer blue or not? Did it matter any?

“Are you going to pass the pen any time soon?” Natsuko asked impatiently.

“W-Wait!” The Lieutenant hurriedly added “and dark blue” to her answer before passing the pen back. “Sorry about that. Got a little distracted, y’know?”

The same could be said of Toshiro, who found himself simply watching cars go by as he sat at a bench by the street. As he was left deep in thought, considering Arrancar’s next move, he left himself completely oblivious as his shirt lost its corporate logo, replacing it with sheer blackness, and his pants turned from black to dark blue. This may not seem like a major change at the moment, but the rest is all in due time.

“Okay!” Natsuko clapped her hands together as everyone looks down at the next question. “What color would Toshiro’s hair be?”

“How about pink?” Orihime suddenly suggested with a giggle. “You don’t see enough girls with pink hair anymore.”

“That’s because nobody wanted to after Yachiru,” Rangiku laughed herself. “And as fun as that would be, I don’t think Toshiro could ever pull it off, even as a girl. Besides, I’ve never seen an albino girl before. I’d just keep it white.”

“So...white?” Natsuko asked for confirmation.

“White.”

“Right!”

White.

“Here ya go.” Natsuko handed the pen back over to her sister.

“Thank you,” her sister nodded before happily accepting the writing instrument. Looking down at the paper, she saw the next item on the agenda: eye color.

“Weird that it’d ask about eye color…” Orihime noted with a curious look. “But if we’re keeping the hair, might as well keep the color. Green!” And so, the answer was written in stone.

Elsewhere, Toshiro felt a sudden sting in his eye, leading him to rub it. Once he let go of his hand, not much had changed, though his eyes were just a bit wider and a hint more slanted than before. Of course, as per the paradox of the eyes, Toshiro could not see this and was just slightly annoyed. With his train of thought interrupted once more, he decided to get up and just head back over to the Inoue residence. He’s already wandered off too far, anyway.

“If you were a girl...would you be sporty?” Rangiku read out loud before simply shrugging. “Wouldn’t be able to do our job if he couldn’t.” And so “Yes” was chosen.

As the Soul Reaper began to walk over to the apartment, he began to feel...energetic. Energetic in a way he hadn’t felt in a long time. For whatever reason beyond his own comprehension, he began to jog over to his temporary abode and actually enjoyed doing so! The more he ran, the more slim and streamlined his legs seem to get. Now, Toshiro always preferred a good Flash Step rather than running, but he had to admit, this was rather fun!

“Would you shave? Yeah, what girl wouldn’t?”

Toshiro just kept on jogging as an almost uncharismatic smile crept upon his face. As his legs kept on moving along and his arms along with them, the tiny bits of white hair that had somehow managed to grow along his body disappeared into the current of the wind.

“Oooooh~!” Rangiku laughed as she saw the question Orihime now had to answer: Question 9: If you were a girl, would you be into guys? The orange-haired girl seemed understandably embarrassed by being put in the spotlight with such a question.

“Well…?” Natsuko asked while impatiently tapping her toes at her older sister. “Are you going to answer it?”

“I’m...thinking!” Orihime stated as her face became a similar pigment to her hair. “Wh-What do you think, Rangiku? You’ve known him the longest!”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen him actually attracted to anyone...ever,” the boy’s partner replied. “I guess he does get a little protective towards Momo, but they’re basically just siblings, so...I don’t know, honestly.”

“YES!” Orihime suddenly cried out before writing her answer and passing the baton back over to Rangiku, her face blushing to an almost comical extreme. “Yes, he would be attracted to boys. There!”

“O…...K…”

As Toshiro continued to jog, he happened to pass by a couple of teenage boys Orihime’s age just talking about...well, something he couldn’t really hear do to jogging right past them. What they were saying was irrelevant, however, as the point of matter was the sudden flutter the Captain had experienced just looking at the two. Having never felt this sensation before, he wasn’t quite sure how to interpret it. Instead of thinking that it may have been something from deep within, Toshiro reasoned that he was just hungry, which was understandable considering the exercise he was exerting on this Gigai of his.

His curiosity was immediately diverted as well as his exercise upon sensing a familiar presence. It wasn’t unique or belonged to anyone he personally knew, but Hitsugaya knew the spiritual pressure all too well: Arrancar.

“You know, I can sense you up there,” he stated calmly to the onlooking force watching him.

“So...now that that awkwardness is over…” Rangiku scribbled on the paper in order to get the ink running again. “What’s next?” The woman’s blue eyes suddenly sparkled with glee as she looked down. “Oooh~! What would his cup size be?”

“Ooooooooh!” Natsuko giggled as if she had just heard a dirty joke. “I bet they’d be as big as yours! Or Orihime’s!”

“M-Mine aren’t that big,” Orihime yelled out while unconsciously wrapping her arms around her chest. “Rangiku, please don’t make them that big.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, dear,” the woman laughed. “Besides, we wouldn’t want any new competition now, would we? Let’s keep it at a C.”

And so, a fair set of breasts appeared along Toshiro’s chest and against his shirt in a manner and into a black bra within it. That normally would have looked ridiculous out of context, yet nobody seemed to find the sight of a barely teenaged boy with rather sizable jugs remotely out of place, even Toshiro himself! Instead, he just looked up at the Arrancar standing on top of a skyscraper, looking down at him.

“Why would they ask about underwear?!” Orihime suddenly exclaimed as she looked down at the document’s undergarment inquiry. “What kind of pervert designed this test?!”

“Just answer the question, dear,” Rangiku persisted as she tried calming her friend down.

“No, you do it!” Orihime immediately responded as she shoved the paper into her friend’s face as she looked away from it with cheeks of crimson.

“O...K…” Rangiku accepted the page and the pen as she went with the answer she already had in mind.

Question 12: If you were a girl, what sort of underwear would you wear? No.

With that answer put in place, Toshiro Hitsugaya ceased to be male. She no longer had any of the exclusive internal or external qualities of the male gender. There was no longer any male known as Toshiro Hitsugaya, not in Soul Society, not in the World of the Living, not anywhere. Such a boy never existed.

However, there was a girl by the same name. And she wasn’t wearing any underwear at the moment.

And before this girl stood another, an Arrancar with long black hair, a pair of extended pigtails, and, among other things, a remnant of her Hollow mask along her left eye. Toshiro could swear she saw the face before or maybe just the incredibly skimpy clothes before in some sort of document. Had the two met before? Because she seemed incredibly incensed at Toshiro right now.

“Do I...know you?”

“No, but I know of you,” the Arrancar girl stated with a death glare as she already looked ready to summon her weapon. Her opponent did not even flinch. “Captain Hitsugaya, right?”

“Yes, I am,” the Captain nodded, as stoic and unmoving as ever. “Toshiro Hitsugaya. May I ask your name?”

“Loly Avirrne,” she responded with a snarl. “Luckily for you, my little expedition doesn’t involve you. All I want to do is get back at that orange-haired bimbo abomination Orihime.”

“I see.” Toshiro’s expression changed little, even as she reached into the pocket of her jeans, which were now considerably tighter around her body. However, just as she was taking out her Gikongan, the tiny Soul Candy was suddenly evaporated within her two-finger hold by a blast of spiritual pressure. A Bala, most likely.

“Looking to shed that stupid artificial body of yours?” Loly asked with a haughty smirk as she blew on her smoking index finger. “I’m not going to let some Soul Reaper slut get in my way. And as long as you stay in that fleshy human body, there’s no way you could stop me. You’re not even worth the effort to fight anymore.”

‘This could be a problem,’ Toshiro thought to herself as she pondered of a way to retaliate without access to the majority of her Soul Reaper abilities. Gigais were still compatible with Kido...right?

Meanwhile, the other girls were none the wiser towards the clash, looking down at the final questions of the questionnaire.

“If you were a girl...describe your personality in three words,” Natsuko recited as she grew a large grin at her fellow company. “How about we each name a trait?”

“That could work,” Rangiku chuckled as she flipped her hair back. “You know what? No offense to him, but I am sick and tired of constantly being berated for every single little thing. If I could do it, I’d make him as laid-back as possible.”

“Okay...laid-back…” Natsuko muttered as she inscribed the first answer below the question. “There! Orihime?”

“Well…” Orihime thought for a bit before suddenly pointing her finger up to the sky. “Oh, I know! Toshiro’s always so serious and by the books, right? I think it’d be fun if he could just, you know...loosen up a bit! Maybe become a little bit more...free-spirited, I guess? Is that a good word to use?”

“Sounds good enough to me,” her little sister giggled as she wrote down the second trait. “As for me, I’d really like him to just loosen up and stop being such a stick in the mud. He could stand to just, I don’t know, enjoy life a little! Not sure what word I would use, though.”

“Hm...lively?” Orihime suggested after some brief brainstorming.

“Yeah! That’ll work!” And so, the three traits were forever inscribed onto the magical document, setting Toshiro’s fate in stone.

The following changes ended up being more than just mental. Reality had shifted once again and the new laid-back, carefree, lively, and Toshiro would have never worn such boyish clothing as she previously had on. Instead, her gigai was decorated in a tube top along with denim low-rise shorts several inches below the normal waistline, complete with a metallic belt to keep them up. This new girl was obvious not of the modest sort despite her petite physique (impressive breasts notwithstanding), her clothes now working only to accentuating her lithe, feminine figure. The belly button piercing certainly didn’t hurt either.

And so stood Toshiro, no longer hiding her worry with a stoic resolve, but smirking at her opponent as her new canvas sneakers spread out into a proper, confident fighting stance. So what if this wasn’t the most ideal of combat situations? It wasn’t like this Arrancar chick could afford to destroy her Gigai, freeing her Soul Reaper form by much more manual means.

“Are you...really gonna try and fight me?” Loly asked in complete disbelief of the Captain’s downright stupidity. “You...You are aware that I could easily-”

“Kill me and release my soul?” Toshiro immediately interrupted with a small chuckle and a cocky smirk. “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll do wonders for you.” As if the girl couldn’t get any more coy, she tapped her finger around her mouth and snickered. “Ya know, I think your face is finally starting to ring a bell. Weren’t you that Aizen fangirl that got killed and had to be brought back by Orihime?”

And it was at that moment that something within Loly just snapped. Any sense of superiority upon the Arrancar’s visage quickly dissolved into a righteous fury. As soon as Toshiro saw her opponent draw out her dagger, she was already certain that she had won. Hopefully she wouldn’t dirty up this handy new gigai, though. Urahara worked hard getting the exact clothes she asked for and she didn’t wish to sully his hard work.

“WOOPS!” The Soul Reaper’s hair was suddenly trimmed by a couple threads as she narrowly dodged the edge of Loly’s blade. Okay, maybe she would have paid a bit more attention there. The time for worrying about clothes was over. Now was fighting time.

Luckily, if there was one thing that Toshiro had learned in her many years of fighting temperamental Hollow brats like this was that, regardless of age, gender, or sentience, they were always willing to charge headfirst without even a first thought. Hollows like the girl before her become dependent purely on instinct if you rile them up enough, which makes the weaker and generally less experienced ones all the easier to dodge and manipulate, even within a significantly weakened vessel.

“DIE, YOU STUPID, DUMB...BITCH!” Loly yelled out before taking yet another easily dodged charge, this one missing Toshiro’s head entirely.

“Nice to see your quips are as sharp as your profile stated,” the Captain mocked as she continually dodged the Hollow’s constant swipes. Under a more lucid mind, these swipes might have been dangerous, especially within a Gigai, but under the influence of an ever increasing rage, they were just what Toshiro needed to control the fight. Just needed to endure the monotony of it all just a little longer…

Question 14: If you were a girl, what would your age be?

The question stared back at Rangiku for quite some time. It’s not so much that she was unsure of what she wanted. There was just the matter of explaining the difference of aging with Soul Reapers without blowing her cover around Natsuko, unaware of the girl’s true awareness of the world of spirits.

Either way, Rangiku wasn’t quite sure how to truly respond. On one hand, if she answered “18,” that would imply that Toshiro would be a little kid which, although an amusing thought, was somewhat off of her original vision and...why was she overthinking this?!

Truth be told, it wasn’t truly Rangiku’s fault that she had become so wrapped up in what was supposed to be a silly little questionnaire. The document had a way with warping minds and impulses just enough to keep whoever’s “little game” going until the questionnaire was fully answered. It was not going to allow Rangiku to succumb to compromise just because it was “a fun little time-waster.” No, she had to answer as she wanted now, just as the paper wanted. All she needed was a way around her words…

“Ah ha!” the Lieutenant suddenly cheered as she wrote down her hopefully unsuspicious response: 18 years old (physical human age).

Of course, Natsuko was quite aware of what the woman was trying to hide and could quite easily see through her pathetic attempt at hiding it. Still, she went ahead and played the dummy and acted like nothing was suspicious at all of such an auspiciously suspicious response.

Auspicious or not, the results of the answer were immediate. The swings became slightly more difficult for Toshiro avoid with her new long, shapely legs and wide, shapely hips. The girl had obviously grown into her body quite beautifully, her choice of clothing now fully justified with her mature form of 180 years.

“C’mon, don’t they teach you how to do more than just wave your pointy little sticks around in Hollow School?” the Captain teased, her once childish insults now elevated into adult putdowns by the sheer sultriness of her voice.

“SHUT UP!” was Loly’s only response. Her anger seemed even more accentuated than before, no doubt thanks to her opponent's newly acquired assets, leading to increasingly more intense swings as she grit her teeth and started implying more and more spiritual pressure with each stroke.

“My god, you’re pathetic!” Toshiro laughed before somersaulting over the Arrancar and managing to muster up the power for a single kido. “Bakudō #21: Sekienton!” And so, a blaze of red smoke that completely enveloped her opponent like a smoke bomb. Of course, under normal circumstances, this attack would be used to make a clean getaway. In this circumstance, it was just to piss off Loly even more.

Unsurprisingly, the Soul Reaper’s plan worked out completely, as the Arrancar girl was now practically blasting spiritual pressure out of her body, no longer even considering concealing her power for the sake of stealth. Screw stealth, she was going to kill this bitch and devour her whole! So, blinded by rage and high on power, the girl simply blasted herself over to Toshiro in a rush of energy, only to be narrowly avoided by her target. To the untrained observer, it would appear that the wall of the local electronics store had spontaneously combusted.

Such a brilliant burst of power was one of the few things capable of directing the three girls away from the spellbinding questionnaire. Rangiku looked over at Orihime, who nodded in understanding. Orihime then looked over at Natsuko worriedly, who only sighed in response.

“I’m going to make some popcorn,” the young girl stated simply as she got up and started walking towards the kitchen.

“A-Awesome!” Rangiku stated with a visibly nervous smile as she got up as well. “I have to use the bathroom in the meanwhile. I’ll be back...soon!” And so, the woman sprinted off to the latrine, fingering the Soul Candy in her pocket as she did so.

Meanwhile, Orihime just stayed on the floor, nervously whistling a little ditty as she mentally prepared herself to defend her home at all costs. It wasn’t long before she saw her friend outside in her Soul Reaper garb, heading towards the source of the energy spike. She just sat there with her hands in her lap before glancing back down at the questionnaire.

There was only one question left and it was her turn. Would it be right to answer the last question without them…? Normally, Orihime would just answer no, but the paper compelled, if not begged her to consider otherwise. I-It was just a stupid questionnaire...right? And it was her turn. Why would her friends be so concerned over a silly little question, anyway?

The question in question: Question 15: If you were a girl, what would your name be?

Luckily, Orihime already had her answer thought over for quite some time, just as soon as she realized the choice would be up to her. Toshiro could control ice, right? So she was thinking something along the lines of Miyuki Hitsugaya.

That was the name that was officially inscribed into both the questionnaire and reality itself. The name Toshiro Hitsugaya was erased from the records of time itself, replaced with that of a Captain Miyuki Hitsugaya. Just as all trace of anyone named otherwise had disappeared from the collective consciousness of the universe, as did the questionnaire that inspired the new woman’s creation.

Orihime just stared down at the completely clean coffee table, wondering what she was so worried about in the first place. Oh, the Hollow, duh! Ugh, she could be such a ditz sometimes. She just hoped Miyuki and Rangiku were okay…

Well, admittedly, Miyuki has had better days, but she’s had plenty worse before. Shame about that electronic store, though. She saw a cute pair of headphones in the display that she really-

“WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!”

Oh shit, there was somebody still in the store! Oh shit, Resurrección!

There Loly stood, her mask now covering both of her cheeks, her body now adorned in even more scantily clad armor, and her arms now two giant centipedes. Poisonous, acidic centipedes if the Captain remembered correctly (which she did). And now there was a bystander in all of this.

“...poo.” Okay, there was no need to panic. Those centipede arms are like whips, so they’ll take longer to reach her than a normal dagger. That was good. Good things should happen now. At least, that was what Miyuki hoped. Maybe she should have just bantered with the girl before Rangiku came to check on her instead of angering her beyond any rational thought.

Oh well, she made her decision and that led to her suddenly grabbing the young cashier (who she had to admit was quite a cute young man, but that was just a mental footnote) and making a break for it. It was obviously going to be difficult to outrun giant centipede arms while in an approximation of a human body and carrying another human body, but she currently had no other choice. Though, it may have been easier if the guy wasn’t banging on her, yelling at her to let him down, completely unaware of the invisible Hollow threat.

“Let me down right now, PLEASE!” the man yelled out in a polite, yet forceful tone before suddenly recoiling at a nearby, narrowly avoided explosion behind him.

“I’m telling you, that is not a viable option right now,” Miyuki responded dryly as she just continued to run. “But if you insist…”

“N-No, no. Keep going, please. S-Sorry to disturb you, ma’am.”

“Apology accepted.” She gave a deep sigh before suddenly brightening up at the appearance of a much friendlier presence. “Ah, finally!”

To explain how the rest of the fight went down would be a practical waste of time and energy. Loly was not skilled enough to even be considered a member of the Espada, a level of which Rangiku had more than enough experience with, coupled with the usual advantage of being a fully powered Lieutenant. The battle was short and almost tragically one-sided. With Loly repeatedly charging in blindly in her righteous anger, it wasn’t long before both of her centipedes were sliced clean off by mere gusts of wind from Rangiku’s sword.

“You know, you’re not much of an immediate threat,” the woman noted as the Arrancar continued to writhe in pain at her loss of both arms, not to mention the various other cuts she had endured thanks to Haineko's many blades. “To me, this seems like little more than a jealous temper tantrum. I’ll give you this moment to leave, but if you try making one more attack-”

“Yeah, yeah, I gotcha…” Loly muttered as she exited Resurrección in order to allow her arms to slowly grow back. By now, all of her collected fury had been burnt out into sheer frustration. In fact, she felt as if her greatest enemy right now was a massive headache. Either way, the girl simply summoned a Garganta and limped into it before closing without uttering a single word. Yeah, Menoly was right; this little excursion was just a bust…

All that remained was the cleanup. Miyuki obviously had to drop off the admittedly cute boy she had saved from death by invisible acidic centipede and was about ready to do the routine memory replacement. However, there was one matter of private business she had to take care of first…

“I...I really can’t thank you enough for...for saving from...whatever that was,” the boy gratified as he nervously surveyed his store’s wreckage. “If there’s...any way I can repay you, any way at all…”

“It’s nothing, really!” Miyuki smiled back as she started rummaging through the wreckage of the front window as well, eventually coming upon exactly what she was looking for. “Although...I certainly wouldn’t mind these cute little headphones, of course. How much do they cost?”

“N-Nothing for you! They’re...on the house! The least I can do for the woman that saved my life, of course.”

“Really? Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, mister~!” And so the girl leaned over and gave the boy a quick peck on the lips before activating her Kikanshinki, knocking the boy out and modifying his account of the night. The teenage captain then just skipped out of the gaping hole in the building while swinging her new headphones in her hands.

“Now, was the kiss completely necessary?” Rangiku laughed as she and her Captain began walking away side by side. Despite being a few decades apart, the two were probably the closest Captain-Lieutenant team in all of Soul Society. The two practically defied the usual odd couple dynamic that seemed like a requirement for every division. Quite frankly, you would be hard pressed to find a more tight-knit pair anywhere.

“Eh, I figured I’d give him one moment of levity before knocking him out,” Miyuki responded with a giggle as she put on her new headphones. “HOW DO I LOOK?!”

“Probably like an insane high school student asking the air around her for fashion advice,” the Lieutenant laughed back before yanking the headphones off of her superior’s ears. Miyuki was barely even annoyed, only giggling as she fought to reobtain her precious headgear. “Actually that reminds me: why did you never leave your gigai?”

“Because that Arrancar chick freakin’ disintegrated my Soul Candy!”

“Then why didn’t you just let her beat the Soul Reaper out of you?”

“Because why would I want to ruin this beautiful, fashionable body of mine?” Miyuki asked while rubbing her hands down her curvaceous body, even making a sizzling sounds upon reaching her rear. “I mean, this is the only time we’re really allowed to dress up, you know? All of those sticklers back in Soul Society keep on trying to keep everything all Edo-y, leaving fashionable young people like me starving for proper culture.”

“So that’s why you signed us up for a weekend-long stakeout here?” Rangiku asked not out of annoyance, but of legitimate gratitude.

“But of course~! I figured we both might as well enjoy some much needed culture, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Oh, is that what they’re calling boys nowadays?”

“Oh, shut up!”

The Captain lightly punched her subordinate as the two simply laughed their problems away into the sunset. Such was the eternal rapport between Captain Miyuki Hitsugaya and her Vice-Captain Rangiku Matsumoto as the two prepared to invest the rest of their reconnaissance mission for some much needed rest and relaxation.