A/N: Shinji will make his appearance in this chapter (yes, I know that excites you, because it excites me too) and things will get a little more violent all around. Someone may get hurt…

Oh and before I forget, please let me know if you think the characters are a little OOC. I'm trying to work on mastering everyone in Bleach. ^_^

Paradox of Nihilism

Knight In Shining Armor

A year and a half. A year and a half after the war was over and they were still in Karakura. The Quincy and Ichigo's two other little friends couldn't fend off Hollows all by themselves. Hell, even when Ichigo was still here, they couldn't fend off all the Hollows of Karakura. The Visored became unofficial, silent protectors of the city and what remained of Ichigo's group. So far, there wasn't anything they couldn't easily handle by themselves, but the routine of their life here was beginning to bore him a bit.

Shinji almost – almost – wished for a little more excitement. Sadly, because he knew the sort of excitement that tended to follow him around, he held his tongue and his thoughts in check.

"Damn you, Hiyori." he muttered, rubbing his temples. The bitch's yelling was beginning to give him a gigantic headache. Not to mention the ringing in his ears and the sandal-shaped bruise on his forehead that always resulted from altercations with her. "If you an' Lisa wanted more shampoo, ya shoulda put it on the damn list insteada making me go back ta a store that I've already been ta taday."

He glanced up at the sky, where the sun was beginning to slant down toward the horizon, and continued his grumbling "Thirty blocks from the goddamn warehouse an' thirty fucking blocks b…"

Shinji's own complaints died off abruptly as his ears picked up something from several blocks to his left. It sounded like…howling. Like a wolf's howl. Except that there were no wolves in Karakura Town. And wolves didn't emit waves of fierce, hungry reiatsu.

Hissing with annoyance, Shinji threw the bag of shampoo into a nearby tree, where it hung forlornly from a branch halfway up by its white plastic handle. He'd come back for the damn thing later. He leapt onto roof next door and moved toward the sound, keenly listening for another howl – or, if worse came to worst, a scream.

The blond Visored saw the girl first.

She was actually managing to stay pretty far ahead of the Hollow and nothing in her expression indicated she was afraid – in fact, she seemed curiously unconcerned with her situation. Her familiar gray uniform skirt swung with the same rhythm as her sleek black hair, the skirt swaying off her thighs and the hair swaying off her shoulders. She had a small pair of…he hesitated to call them ponytails, because that implied a hairstyle that projected out from her skull. These were more like…ears. Small rabbit ears made of sleek hair that lay close to her head, only an inch thick. Her arms clutched a leather-bound journal to her chest.

When she came to the end of the street her head darted back and forth before she chose to take a right – just in time, too. The Hollow was just rounding the last corner she turned as she made her choice.

He'd never seen a Hollow with a more frightening expression on its mask. It was a wolf, with pointed ears and blood-red streaks running down its muzzle, and its razor-sharp teeth were arranged in a large, predatory grin.

But Hollows don't wear black Shinigami robes, even if they did have bone hands ending in massive claws.

She was being chased by a frenzied Visored.

Now he was torn between curiosity and duty. Which was a pity, because when both of those emotions were equally weighed in his mind, he always chose curiosity first. It was obviously his responsibility as a follow Visored to make sure the poor bastard in there didn't eat this girl, but he was kind of curious about how she was handling this.

Besides, it had been a while since he was this entertained.

He was also curious as to how this Visored came into existence. And why a fifteen-year-old girl had taken it upon herself to deal with it. Granted, she was a fifteen-year-old with a considerable amount of reiatsu, but still…

She continued running straight down the street, trying to flip through the heavy book in her arms as she did so, frowning in concentration. "Uh…let's see…" she muttered, flinging one hand behind her at the approaching Visored as she continued to run. Her voice was oddly low for someone her age and size. "Sprinkled on the bones of the beast! Sharp tower, red crystal, steel ring. Move and become the wind, stop and become the calm. The sound of warring spears fills the empty castle! Hado #63: Raikoho – Thunder Roar Sear!"

Even from this distance, he could feel that the Raikoho wasn't the strength it should be. It was smaller than the full spell intended. Even so, the spiral of light burst from her hand and struck the Visored squarely in the left shoulder, making him stagger backward as he was hit. She made a rather good shot. Ordinarily, that would not be so amazing. Except, judging from the look of mild surprise on her face, that was the first time she'd ever used it. Maybe the first time she'd ever used any Kido, if she needed a book to tell her the incantations.

Either that, or she was just extraordinarily terrible at it.

The smell of burnt, searing flesh filled the air.

Making another smart decision, rather than stopping and checking if her spell had worked, the girl simply kept running.

For nearly an hour, Shinji followed the pair of them as the girl led the enraged and out of control Visored in a zig-zag pattern through the town.

"You have to stop soon!" she called back to the wolf-faced man chasing her. "I'm getting tired."

You wouldn't know it, Shinji observed silently from his rooftop position. Despite this statement, she was still calmly choosing her direction and her breathing was quick, but even. Her gray-green eyes were curiously flat as she surveyed her situation, realizing that she had miscalculated and ran into a dead end. Even then, her expression didn't change.

He leaned forward, eager to see what kind of trick she would come up with this time.

The frenzied Visored swiped at her with one claw-fingered hand and she ducked under the blow, sliding past him to continue racing back the way she came.

If it weren't for the street lamps turning on, he may not have noticed.

Shinji watched a few strands of silky dark hair fall to the ground, accompanied by a single, tiny drop of blood. Eyes narrowed, he put a hand on the hilt of Sakanade.

Game's over, girlie. Time ta let the big boys play.

Leaping back down into the street, he flash-stepped behind the unknown Visored fast enough to see it back-slap the teenage girl into a cement wall. Luckily, she hit it with her back instead of her head. She scrambled to get up and retrieve her book of Kido spells, only to look up and see Shinji standing in front of her, zanpakuto drawn and ready.

Struggling to feet, she hoarsely called out to him. "Don't kill him. Please." The strangely toneless quality to her voice made it hard for him to realize that she was serious. But she wrapped her hand, unprotected, around Sakanade's naked blade. "I beg you, Shinigami-san. Don't kill him."

Apparently this kid had never seen a Shinigami – a real Shinigami – before, because he sure as hell didn't look like one. "What makes ya think I'm a Shinigami?" he asked, smiling crookedly.

She frowned. "Your zanpakuto…"

"Alright." He let her off on that point, deciding not to confuse her further with things like Visoreds, Arrancar, or Espada. "Why shouldn't I kill him?"

"Because he's my brother."