Few similarities can be drawn between the Soul Society of today and of past. Over a century ago, Soul Society was in a constant state of turmoil. Various clans squabbled and quarreled and warred. Thieves and murderers ran rampant even in the higher districts. The most famous men were the assassins and the bloodthirsty combatants that roamed the Rukongai. Death was a daily reality to those who were already dead. The human world was kept safe only by pact that kept one of the five noble families on earth at any given time. The Guard Squads was new, consisting of only three squads, but it would soon transform Soul Society forever…

***105 years ago***

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "This has to be a joke. Since when do us shinigami care about anybody disappearing from the 82nd Rukongai district? These people are murderers and scoundrels; they have it coming!"

Fukui Kichirou, "We care when the hollows are killing them and they are not killing each other. Reports suggest significant hollow activity in this region and Master Yamamoto personally asked us to check it out! You know what this means? We're totally going to become ranked officers when we graduate this year. Think how amazing things are going to be. I'm gonna get to tell girls 'I'm the 18th seat of the Tsuchi Squad' and they'll all be like 'oh you're so strong and brave' and…"

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "Damn, are you still talking? We have a mission to complete."

Fukui Kichirou, "Sorry, I just got a little excited."

Just then, screams were heard in the distance. The two shinigami students ran through a panicking crowd and found a younger boy attempting to fight off 12 hollows with a stick.

"Move boy! Let us handle this!" shouted Fukui Kichirou before tripping on a large rock and falling face-first into the ground.

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "You're just useless Kichirou! I guess I have to do this on my own."

Tsuyoshi unsheathed his blade and beheaded the one of the hollows. Two of the remaining hollows surrounded him. After killing the first of them, the other was in full attack. Tsuyoshi would have died right then had it not been for the boy with the stick. The boy flash-stepped between him and the hollow and began beating it upside the head.

"Go away this is my fight" said the boy.

"That was a nice trick, but you are not going to kill hollows with a stick. Here," said Tsuyoshi before tossing his zanpakuto to the boy. Without communicating, the two created an effective strategy to kill the hollows; Tsuyoshi beat the hollows into submission and the boy removed their heads.

The boy, "That was awesome! I had never killed the hollows before! Usually I just hit them until they go away."

Fukui Kichirou, "Ugh…my head. Wait…did you just kill all of those hollows by yourself Tsuyoshi?"

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "Actually, I only killed one. He killed the rest."

Fukui Kichirou, "You're kidding me."

The boy, "Here's your sword back mister."

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "Thanks for the help kid. Now I just need to know where the hollows are coming from."

The boy, "Well, I kinda know where they came from."

Fukui Kichirou, "Really? This is amazing! It looks like we are going to complete our mission. Show us where the hollows came from."

The boy took them to a small apartment at the end of the district. Inside the apartment were the most peculiar sights. There were machines and devices in constant motion. Open books stacked in every corner and empty containers of food every place else.

The boy, "So which clan are you guys from?"

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "We're not from any clan. We're from the Academy."

The boy, "What's the Academy?"

Fukui Kichirou, "Captain Yamamoto Daichi built the Academy to train the shinigami that join the Guard Squads. After the Shiba Clan returns from Earth next year, the Guard Squads are going to start defending Soul Society and Earth from hollows."

The boy, "The Academy sounds pretty important then… Here's where the hollows are coming from."

The boy pointed to a large metal gate on the wall.

The boy, "I built this portal to Hueco Mundo about a month ago, but it is terribly unstable. At first, I figured it just didn't work, but hollows started randomly coming out of it a week and a half ago."

Fukui Kichirou, "You have a portal to Hueco Mundo? I thought only the Motou family had such technology."

The boy, "They have the only functioning portal to Hueco Mundo. This piece of junk only lets things out not in."

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "So this is your portal, and your apartment?"

The boy, "Yes."

Fukui Kichirou, "How did you do this? How could you afford to do this?"

The boy, "I work at the Great Spirit Library, where I pretty much read books all day. I found the schematics for the portal in the Motou Family Diary and decided to build one."

Fukui Kichirou, "Why?"

The boy, "So, I could study hollows up close. To my knowledge, no one has ever done that before and we could really benefit by doing so."

Fukui Kichirou, "Hollows do not need to be studied; they need to be destroyed."

Tsukuda Tsuyoshi, "We are going to have to confiscate this portal and place you before the judgment of Captain Commander Yamamoto. What you have done is a serious crime, but I will make sure he knows you tried to make amends by attempting to kill the hollows. Now tell me your name."

The boy, "My name is Haru Kaien."