-1Fipp: I hope that these two really meet in the manga.

Taichou

Upon one of the roofs of the Sereitei, the home of the Shinigami of Soul Society, sat the captain of Squad Four. She sighed, tucking a lock of green hair behind her ear.

It had been many years since the retirement of the original Captain of Squad Four, Unohana Retsu, had personally chosen Neliel Tu Oderschvank, the former Third Espada in Arrancar army of Aizen, to be her replacement.

She never really kept track of how many years have passed since the Winter War, though she guess it was at least one-hundred years, give or take a decade. She had come with Kurosaki Ichigo, along with the only two surviving Arrancar who at one point or another held the Espada rank, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, and Gantenbainne Mosqueda, along with her brothers Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Bilstin. Of course there was difficulty with them living in Soul Society, but with vouches from various people, Zaraki, Ukitake, Hitsugaya, Kuchiki, Unohana, and Kyoraku-taichou, they had been allowed to live here.

She had started off as the Third Seat of Squad Five, after Ichigo had become its captain, she could have become the fukutaichou, but she respected Hinamori too much to do that.

Plus, she guessed Hitsugaya would have been upset with her had she had challenged his 'Bedwetter Momo'. She did not wish to be frozen in a glacier.

Though she was under Ichigo's command, she would often spend time in the Fourth, be it volunteering in her free time, giving them her aid in large battles or when Ichigo would assign her their for short amounts of time. She had a feeling that he knew that she liked it there.

Nel had never liked fighting, the only times she had really done it was when she was an Espada, and helping during the Winter War, and various other times in Soul Society, and she was one of the most powerful people in Sereitei, she didn't like to fight. She preferred to heal, she had taken upon herself to learn healing Kido, after all it made sense for a Vaizard to learn Hallow abilities, so why not the other way around? She was very good at it, though it still was not as powerful as her, 'other' way. Though most people did not like getting thrown up on and she only used that if their wounds were dire.

When the four oldest captains retired, Ukitake, Kyoraku, Unohana and Yamamoto, they had chosen their replacements with care. Ukitake had chosen Grimmjow, the then Fourth Seat of Squad Eleven, he had never cared about rank, and due to his likeness to Ichigo, Ukitake knew that he would work well with Kuchiki-fukutaichou, and they did, kind of. Kyoraku had selected Renji, though he would not take the position unless he defeated Byakuya, and he did, barely and he still almost died. Yamamoto had selected Hitsugaya, who was now much older, wiser, and much taller, to lead the Gotei 13. Hitsugaya in turn had selected Matsumoto to be his replacement for she had acquired Bankai not long before. Though, she suspected that another reason was to unload piles of paperwork on the busty woman that she HAD to do.

She head a soft 'thud', a swishing and a series of jingles. She turned to see that the person she had been waiting for had arrived.

"You're late you know," Nel said.

"What, it's not my fault that they keep putting walls up where they weren't before," the visitor shrugged, Nel knew not to comment that she had probably gotten lost. She sat down and placed an item on her lap then reached into her sleeve and brought out a sake bottle and took a drink before passing it to Nel.

They did this when they could, get together and have a drink, though her friend would often drink most of the bottle.

"How long before you think it'll take Ikkaku to figure out that you have been sneaking into his sake Yachiru?" Nel asked.

"Don't know," the pink-haired woman shrugged. "His fault for not locking it up better."

Nel had met Yachiru in Hueco Mundo, and since then had become good friends, even after Inoue had healed her broken mask, stopping the leaking reiatsu, keeping her in her adult body, though she had wanted to keep the scar that Nnoitra had given her. Since then, Yachiru had grown from a annoying little girl into a annoying young women.

She still kept an innocence to her, though not the same as a girl, and still called people by nicknames, much to Byakushi's chagrin, and still had a sweet tooth. She had matured though, she could be very serious at time, and would often think about some things before acting. Overall, she had grown into a fine person.

"You did well you know," Nel said referring to the incident from several days ago, taking a small sip before handing the sake back to Yachiru.

"Thanks," Yachiru said, looking to the sunset. "Still don't know why Ikkaku didn't try for it, I mean he was more qualified then I could be."

"I think it's because he knew that it wasn't his to take, that only two people were right for the job."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, though you shouldn't have celebrated you first day with a massive drinking party at the Eleventh. We've been really busy at the Fourth due to all the drunken idiots who keep getting hurt," Nel said grimly. She really wasn't looking forward to getting back to work right now.

"Yeah, well sorry about that." Yachiru then gave a chuckle. "Yumichika did look funny when he fell down those stairs though." Yachiru took another drink before passing it back to Nel. She then wrapped her arms around her knees before resting down her head. A downed expression was now on her face.

"You know," Nel said, knowing what was going on in the girl's head. "Zaraki would be proud of you." This caused Yachiru to look up.

Many years ago, many members of Squad Eleven were sent on a mission to the Server World to get rid of a Hallow invasion. Kenpachi, Yachiru, Ikkaku and Yumichika, the squad's most powerful fighters, were the first in, and would be the last out, though they had to be rescued by the Fourth.

Kenpachi had gotten lost from the rest of his squad, and was wishing that Yachiru was there to give him directions, regardless to how much she sucked at it. He then had the misfortune of encountering something not seen since the Winter War: not one, but two Vaseto Lorde-class Hallows. Kenpachi, excited about this, ran into battle.

They could all feel it, the raw power being given off by the battle, and the three ran to see it, trying to ignore the faltering presence of their Captain. They had unfortunately gotten there too late to see something that would always leave the prime members of Squad Eleven scarred.

Zaraki Kenpachi had fallen in battle, slain by the powerful Hallows, though he had managed to take one down with him and severally wounding the other.

In outrage, Ikkaku and Yumichika had unleashed the full powers of their zanpaktou, Ikkaku not caring who sensed his Bankai, and Yumichika not caring that other members of his squad seeing his Kido-based sword. Yachiru on the other had, didn't release her sword, not morphing into the pair of death claws. In stunned silence, she had walked over to Kenpachi, and dropped to her knees, she touched his face, to make sure that if this was really her Ken-chan. She tried to tell herself different, that it was an illusion, like what Glasses-kun had pulled over the rest of the world. But no, this was real.

She screamed.

It had taken her a while for her, to get back to normal. Various people had consult her: Ikkaku, Yumichika, Nel herself, even Byakuya and Ichigo. Nel believed that these two had helped the most, seeing as they had both lost people who were special to them and could understand what she was going though the most.

She was able to heal, though she really wasn't much of the same person, she had lost much of her childishness, the gleam in her eyes wasn't the same. She had healed, but it left a large scar.

Squad Eleven received a new Captain after a while, though even Nel, who rarely cursed and tried not to speak ill of people, had to agree with many of the other captains when they said he was an asshole. The man came from a the seventh most noble house, and looked down on everyone who didn't come from where he lived or nicer, he even looked down on Byakuya, who married a woman from one of the poorer sections of Soul Society and took in her sister when she died. He also hated the people who weren't actual Shinigami, so people like her and Ichigo were at the top of his list.

He had done some, remodeling, of the Eleventh, and made Yachiru, Ikkaku and Yumichika unseated officers, while revamping the whole division with his own people. Hitsugaya was about to take action against this misuse of power and authority, when things got bad.

It turned out one of the 'replacements' was a very smart man, and had on several occasions snuck into the Twelfth and stolen chemicals. He then mixed them into a potion, that when drank, would throw the drinker into a irresistible urge to seek and destroy other people who had drank the potion, and he had spiked many captains and vice-captains. Nel herself had been pitied against Grimmjow.

During the whole catastrophe, Ikkaku and Yumichika had managed to defeat the new fukutaichou and third seat, while Yachiru took on the captain. In the end, she won, though it was obvious she had seen better days.

"You think so?" Yachiru asked. "I thought you didn't like people like him. You said that when Kenpachi beat that spoony Espada, what was his name?"

"Nnoitra," Nel said, passing the bottle back to Yachiru. "But Zaraki was different then him." The Squad Four Captain took a moment to think about it, though similar in many aspects, Zaraki at least cared about his subordinates, and didn't rely on underhanded tricks. "But regardless to what my opinion may, or may not be, I think Zaraki Kenpachi would be proud of how you turned out."

"Thanks," Yachiru said before finishing the rest of the sake. "Well, I better get going," the pink-haired woman said, jumping up. "The Eleventh is in a bit of a wreck right now, so I'd better get them straightened out." Yachiru took the item in her lap and unfolded it.

She whipped the white haori over her should and slipped her arms through the sleeves, then slipped her hair from underneath it, the bells attached to the ends of her hair jingling. She wore these bells as a tribute to Kenpachi, she tried the eye patch, but she kept bumping into things, so she took it off.

"Okay then," Nel said. "I'll see you later, Kusajishi-taichou."

Yachiru stood still, before realizing that was the first time that since she officially became a captain this morning, she had been addressed as such.

She liked that title.

"Later to you too Skull-oni-chan!" Yachiru smiled before vanishing.

Several moments after Yachiru left, Nel stood up in time to see a Hell Butterfly fly towards her. She held out a finger to allow a landing spot for the creature to give her a message.

She sighed when she found out that Hanatarou had gotten lost again and a search party was needed to look for him.

At least as an Espada she didn't have to worry about her subordinates getting lost on her.

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Mrfipp