Chapter 175:

-A few days later-

A few knocks could be heard upon the tenth division's office, which was followed by a feminine voice rather than the normal icy silent one. "Come in." Rangiku spoke with sigh.

Said strawberry-blond looking up from her captain's desk as she saw Rukia coming in with a small stake of papers. "Sorry for the intrusion Rangiku-san." the raven-haired girl said as she sat down on the sofa nearest of her fellow lieutenant.

"Sentaro and Kiyone got into another fight about Captain Ukitake and how amazing he was in his fight." Rukia continued as she placed the stack of papers on the desk before her and stretched her arms.

"It's okay Rukia-chan...we got lucky with just how quiet it is around here." Rangiku responded with a small smirk and wink as she glanced between Rukia and her own paperwork.

"I guess so." the purple-eyed girl muttered silently, her glancing to the window for a moment as a gentle breeze blew through.

"So, how do think it went?" the raven-haired girl continued with blinking and questioning eyes.

"My Captain has a way of explaining things to people, I'm sure that everything is fine." Rangiku responded with a small grin and wink toward Rukia as she placed her pen down and stretched her own arms.

"Maybe...maybe not." Yoruichi spoke up from the window to the side, her voice making it obvious she wasn't being very serious.

Though her words were brief, the tan-skinned woman had gained both of the lieutenants' attention as they turned to her. But after doing so, they watched Yoruichi swing herself into the room before sitting down on the side of Toshiro's desk. "There is every possibility things could go south and they'll end up as mortal enemies." the purple-haired shinigami continued with an overly dramatic tone as she was attempting to get a reaction out of the two.

But all this did was cause them to sweat drop a bit to her words, though it was Rangiku that spoke up first as she waved her hand in a dismissive way. "Oh please...Ishida Uryu already helped in the quincy's defeat. There is no way he could hate Captain enough to actually attack him...not that it would matter since he wouldn't be able to leave so much as a scratch." she claimed with a confident smirk.

"Exactly." Rukia added with a quick nod, but then she blinked and looked up at the ceiling for a moment; "But..."

After her after word, both Yoruichi and Rangiku turned to her with a raised brow in question, to which they listened to the raven-haired girl's next comment with their own blinking eyes. "...what if after finding out that Captain Hitsugaya is one of the reasons why his race is all gone...it'll suddenly spark his old hatred for shinigami and cause them to really become mortal enemies?!" she stated in her own overly dramatic tone as she brought up a finger to make it a point.

Yet soon after her words, all three of the women started to laugh lightly, to which it was Rangiku that spoke up in the midst of it as she waved her hand dismissively. "They're already pretty good friends...I doubt anything my Captain could say would change that. Plus now that things have gotten back to a normal pace, I can finally get that drink Captain owes me." Rangiku claimed with a grin as she glanced to the side, to which she blinked many times upon seeing Toshiro standing in the doorway.

"You realize that it was back during the Bount's invasion I promised that, right?" the white-haired captain said as he was soon joined by Yoruichi as she pushed herself off his desk.

Immediately following his words, the strawberry-blond quickly picked up her pen to pretend she was still working as she gave a sheepish smile. "Oh...Captain...I didn't know you had gotten back yet." she started with a clearing of her throat.

"I was just finishing the last of the paperwork." she said sheepishly, her gesturing to the still rather large stack of papers on her 'uncompleted' side.

This merely made Toshiro raise a brow to her in response before turning his gaze to Rukia as she was gathering her own paperwork. "You don't have to leave on my accord, you're welcome to continue working here." he said with a short nod and small smirk.

Though the raven-haired girl blinked to him for a moment, she eventually gave a returning nod in response. "Thank you Captain Hitsugaya." she said with a smirk of her own.

"Well...hopefully having you here...it might motivate my own lieutenant to work a bit more." Toshiro stated as he looked over to Rangiku as he knew she was probably working as slowly as possible to push the rest on him when he returned.

"You mean you're not staying?" the strawberry-blond whined out in a fake terror, her knowing that she would have to do the paperwork all by herself.

"No...though I will return later on, I hope you'll have half of that done by then." the icy captain said as he pointed to the unfinished stack.

Rangiku immediately gasped in fake shock as, in her opinion, there was too much for her to do, no matter how much time he gave her. Yet this suddenly changed when Toshiro let out a heavy breath and spoke up once more; "And if you do...I'll finally buy you that drink." he said silently in a near mutter.

Instantly after his words, the strawberry-blond had taken on a wide grin and started writing quickly on each of the pages. Her moving even faster that the white-haired captain himself as she had obviously received the correct motivation. This making Yoruichi giggle as she and her husband headed out of the office and eventually the tenth division itself.

"You're really quite the softie...aren't you?" the purple-haired woman said in a statement rather than a question.

Toshiro looked to her with a raised brow, yet he simply let out a heavy sigh and shrugged his shoulders. "Aren't you the one that encouraged that?" he asked as his gaze shifted to the side in an almost avoiding way.

This made Yoruichi chuckle for a moment before shrugging and taking on a small grin; "I don't know what you're talking about." was all she said at first as they continued walking through the streets of Seireitei.

"So how did he take the news?" the tan-skinned shinigami asked with a slightly tilt of her head as she looked from him to directly in front of them to watch where she was walking.

"Rather well." Toshiro started as he tilted his own head up to look at the clear blue sky.

"At first he seemed a bit indifferent toward what I was telling him, but after explaining what was happening back then, he understood. With the quincy in development of devices that could literally take away a shinigami's Bankai, the Head Captain and I had no choice but to destroy those inventions. It was just a miscalculation that we ended up also having to kill all of the quincy as well." he continued with a light sigh as he looked straight ahead before down at the ground.

"Well...being caught by a bunch of quincy just as you were leaving wasn't something that either of you were counting on, you had no choice but to kill them out of defense...especially with Yhwach." Yoruichi said as she unconsciously walked a bit closer to her husband.

"I know. I'm just glad that Ryuken had gotten away from that group before it was too late and that Masaki was never even apart of it." the white-haired captain said with a breath of relief, to which his wife nodded in agreement.

"Speaking of which...did he accept your offer?" the purple-haired woman question with blinking eyes as she looked to him.

"No...though he did consider it for a while, he feels that his place is in the World of the Living. So I decided to place Starrk as the leader of the Arrancar Division...which I'm surprised the Soul King allowed me to form as the price for letting me stay here in Seireitei." Toshiro said with a small smirk as though he was almost happy about how it turned out.

This making Yoruichi giggle lightly as she placed both hands to her hips; "Well...that's the Soul King for ya. If he can't get one person...he grants them the authority to create a separate division with the soul purpose to bridge the small alliance we've formed with hollows." she said with a small, yet amused grin as she and the icy captain finally stopped walking.

The pair being just outside of the First Division, to which Toshiro and Yoruichi shared a rather serious glance before they both opened the gate and went inside. Upon doing so, they were met by Chojiro, whom lead them into the office without any of them uttering a single word. But there were no words needed as Toshiro and Yoruichi saw the Head Captain appearing quite frail at his desk filling out his own paperwork.

"You know that I don't approve of anyone procrastinating on their responsibilities to come visit me." the elder man said, him speaking an almost decrepit voice.

Though the icy captain gave a short nod in response as he and Yoruichi stepped forward, he then spoke up in a silent tone. "I understand that...but I would like to still give you my answer before...your time comes."

After saying this, Yamamoto looked up from his work and toward the white-haired captain before him. "And what is it?" he asked in his usual demanding tone.

"Originally...I was just going to do it out of pity from you losing your shinigami powers to Yhwach's attack. As I understood it, Unohana wasn't able to do anything about your Saketsu or Hakusui and only gave you days to live in this afterlife from your sheer age." Toshiro began as he looked down at the floor.

He then let out a silent breath and shifted his gaze back to the old man, to which he gave a small smirk. "But after thinking about it...I feel that watching over Soul Society from the shadows as Kyoraku's adviser would be the best thing for me to do." he continued with a brief nod of his head.

"Though I'm still not sure about him being your successor, I think that out of all of us you could have picked...you chose the right one." the icy captain said, him shrugging lightly before giving a bow to Yamamoto.

"It's been an honor Head Captain." he finished, to which Yoruichi mirrored his actions as she simply said; "A true honor."

As the elder man looked between the pair for a moment, he actually allowed his lips to curl upward in a smirk. Though it was so slight that it was nearly unnoticeable, he bowing his head slightly in return as he spoke back. "The honor was mine, Hitsugaya Toshiro...Shihoin Yoruichi."

Immediately following his words, said pair had then made their way out of the office without another glance. But after they made it out of earshot of the office, Yoruichi sniffed lightly as a tear fell from her eye. "I'm gonna miss that stubborn old man." she whispered out as she whipped away her tear.

"As will I, Yoruichi." Toshiro muttered silently as they continued out of the division as they turned to one another and watched the sun starting to reach the horizon.

Yet while they stood there watching this, neither had said a word for a long while as they simply watched how the moon slowly replaced the sun in the sky. But the moment the moon and sun were on fully opposite sides of the sky, Yoruichi had spoken up in a quiet voice as she turned her gaze over to Toshiro.

"Doesn't this scene remind you of 'that'?" she asked with a small smile on her features.

Once the white-haired captain looked to his long time friend, he gave a small nod of his head. "Yeah...the first and last light combining together for the perfect combination of day and night." he said silently as he and Yoruichi clasped their hands together.

-The wedding day, six months ago-

Brilliant white decorations were hung in various places all over the Tenth Division, some of which were even made of pure ice. Long streamers were hung along tall pillars of ice, each one having various sizes of silver-colored bells that rang softly in the cool breeze. Which had been chilled greatly due to the light frost covering the grass all across the gardens, to which a light fog developed all across the area that only reached just under the seats designated to the guests. But the main ornaments were the ice-made altar and large white arch that stood over the former and allowed the pair to be married to stand directly under it.

Though while there weren't a great many people gathered in the gardens itself, there was a whole section of shinigami captains and lieutenants, all of whom had on their usual shinigami uniforms. Those that were in the garden were the members of the Zero Division, the bridesmaids, the groomsmen and what appeared to be a large carriage. This structure having specially designed drapes that allowed for the occupant within to see out, but not for anyone to see in. Despite this however, the overwhelming presence coming from the carriage made it clearly obvious the one inside was the Soul King himself.

It being the reason for any of the other guests to come any closer as they all had to stay no less than a hundred feet away from the ceremony itself. Though it made many of them somewhat annoyed, not one of them spoke up about it as they didn't want to offend the actual Soul King, even if Hiyori came quite close to doing so. Along with her, she was joined by all of her fellow visored, almost all of the captains and lieutenants of the Gotei Thirteen, plus a number of others in watching the wedding from afar.

Though many had to squint to see what was going on, they still got the full experience as some cried tears of joy, such as Rukia, Senna, Masaki and Momo, whom all shared a tissue box among themselves. Others remained perfectly calm, those including Ashido, Hachigen, Love, Rojuro, Izuru, Chojiro, Sajin, Tetsuzaemon, Shuhei, Nemu and Lisa. All of whom, save the last two, had their minds on the wedding itself as most had never been to a wedding before. Lisa however was merely wondering which manga she should read next when she got back to the World of the Living, while Nemu was contemplating on what kind of emotions she was feeling as she pictured herself being the one getting married.

But aside from them, another group had proud or simply happy smiles upon their features, such as Retsu, Isane, Isshin, Yumichika, Ran'Tao, Go Koga and Kaien. Each letting out a content sigh at one point or another as they either found the ceremony to be beautiful or the fact that the act of getting married had its own unique beauty that made them content. The last select few of the large group that appeared to have mirroring behavior were Renji, Kenpachi and Ikkaku, all of whom didn't seem to be very interested in the whole thing as they each yawned in boredom. Yet for the red-haired shinigami, he received an elbow to the side from Rukia each and every time her did this.

However, all of the others present were able to fit into their own 'categories', Hiyori was hitting Shinji with her shoe after his comment of her never getting married from her violent personality. Kensei was sweat dropping heavily, him having to keep pushing Mashiro away, whom was claiming that she should have a wedding too and that he had to 'take responsibility'. Just to the side of much of this was Nanao hitting Shunsui over the head with a book, him making a comment that she found very inappropriate. Which had lead to the brown-haired captain to pout lightly and cover his head from the seemingly never-ending barrage of smacks. Yet while Jushiro had handed snack after snack over to Yachiru, said girl sitting in Retsu's lap, he occasionally glanced over to his two third seats as they continued to argue about who should sit closest to him.

Though the very last to stand alone in their own place among the group was Gin, his only difference being that he had his signature grin upon his features. Him also having his chair placed farthest away, but due to him being the only one to bring a set of binoculars, he would be the single person of the large gathering to see everything without having to be right in the middle of it.

But at the actual wedding itself, the Zero Division were all looking at the pair about to be wedded with various expressions of their own. Ichibei, Oetsu and Kirio all glanced to one another with wide smirks of agreement as they each seemed have known this ceremony would have happened eventually. Though Tenjiro didn't appear upset, his expression was one similar as he seemed a bit frustrated from the fact that he was the one that disagreed with the other three. All the while, Senjumaru had her head tilted down for a while before she brought it up and revealed her rather jealous expression that she couldn't have been the one to be getting married.

Though to the sides of the altar itself, there stood the three bridesmaids and the three groomsmen on opposite sides. The former group having Rangiku with her own jealous expression, yet hers was of wanting to be the one to marry her captain rather than simply getting married. But to her side was Kukaku with a slightly similar expression, her hiding it far better however and was even tapping the strawberry-blond's shoulder to calm her. Yet the last one among them was an exceedingly happy Soifon, whom was looking at the pair being wed with absolute excitement as if it was the greatest scene in history.

On the other side for the groomsmen was a widely grinning Kisuke, him having a similar expression as Ichibei, Oetsu and Kirio as he seemed to know that the wedding was inevitable. Next to him with a fully calm Byakuya, whom even had his eyes closed as if he didn't even need to watch in order to know the result, yet an occasional smirk could be seen tugging at the corners of his lips. Lastly was Tessai as he used tissue after tissue to wipe away the tears that escaped his sunglasses, which seemed a little too often as he stood there trying not to make too much sound.

All the while, the Head Captain was at the front of the altar with the smallest hints of a smile curling his lips, but never seemed to become visible as he continued on with the ceremony. Despite him being the one to be marrying the couple, he still spoke in his usual tone no matter what it was that he was saying, which lead to many wondering if he had ever done this before. Yet the pair before him didn't bother to question this as they simply stared at one another as they simply waited for Yamamoto to finish.

While Toshiro had his normal uniform, save for his dual zanpakuto, Yoruichi was wearing a golden kimono that had purple colored flowers all across it and the symbol of her clan on the back. Though not long after a soft and brief jingling of the bells around them, the Head Captain finally turned to the white-haired captain with the question that the pair were waiting for. "...for as long as you both shall live?"

A few seconds after these words, Toshiro had given a small smile as he took in a shallow breath in order to say the two words that he never realized he would be saying no less than three more times. Yet they would be the mark for the happiest days of his entire afterlife.

"I do."

This is the end my wonderful readers. I thank you all so very much for joining me on this quest and I hope to continue entertaining everyone with my future works. I would also like to give Tuli-chan an extra thank you for all of her hard work in helping me out so much in this story, without her...I never would have made it this far, so thank you Tuli-chan...I truly cherish your friendship. ^^ And to all of you...see you all in the next story. ;) Ja Ne.