Bleach in its entirety is copyright to Tite Kubo / my characters belong to me (WhiteWolf 02/03 2014)

Heretic

The loud roar of the masked beast hummed in the air, scaring what wits were left of the surprised unseated officers that appeared to be dumbfounded at how large the beast was.

A thin cut, about a hair's width, came up from the top of the large face that looked like a boar's, ripping swiftly down to the chin diagonally, surprising the group clad in black.

"Really now, was all that noise so necessary?"

The hollow's body crumpled in half as it hit the ground, disintegrating into reishi particles that faded into the air; calmly sheathing her katana, the beast's murderer exhaled and turned her gaze to the unranked members of her squad.

Concentrated frown melting from her brow, her blue eyes turned empathetic, "is everyone all right?"

"T-third seat Akatsuki!" One of the group, a timid brunette that looked fresh from the Academy, piped up first, bowing ashamedly infront of the higher-ranked officer, "I believe I speak for the group when I apologize to you for forcing your hand to slay such a weak hollow!" He declared loudly, perking her ears.

"Please forgive us, Lady Akatsuki!" The remainder of the group echoed as they also bowed, earning a sweatdrop from her.

She scritched her right cheek sheepishly and chuckled, "seriously, it's no trouble! I don't have any beef with you lot, just with the noise that hollow was making." She smiled lightly. "Given that there are no more hollows within the area, your patrol shift is done; head back to the Sixth Division Headquarters, all of you." She announced.

"Thank you, Third seat Akatsuki!" The group barked their gratitude before leaving the small clearing and making their way back to their squad's barracks.

Smiling slightly after them, she glanced at the rising sun's rays of light that broke through the trees around her and huffed, shrugging the sheathed zanpakutō over her left shoulder and shun-po'ing after the rest of the party.

After being in the Sixth Division for the better half of a century, she still hated morning hollow slayings.

'It deprives you of beauty sleep!' So said her best friend –that inadvertently happened to be more endowed than she was, but that was an issue for another day and another round of sake.

Shaking her head softly, she was shaken from her thoughts when noting that the atmosphere in the barracks was slightly off-key; brow furrowing slightly, she sidestepped a lower-ranked member rushing past her to the gates of the headquarters that led to the rest of the Seireitei.

"What's going on…?" She muttered, perking up when almost having a head-on collision with another low-ranked member, said boy skidding to a halt short of crashing into her. "Oi, watch where you're going… Oh, it's you, Rikichi-kun; what's going on with everyone? They keep running out into the Seireitei… Don't tell me Renji told a bad joke or something like that." She half-joked, meeting the black-haired boy's brown eyes with a raised brow.

Their lieutenant's number-one-fan looked up from rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly, "Haven't you heard, Akatsuki-chan? The squads are on red alert because of an invasion; some ryoka have infiltrated the Soul Society and are somewhere within the Seireitei! Captain Kuchiki and Abarai-kun have sent most of the squads out to find and arrest the ryoka."

She frowned slightly but nodded anyway with a half-sigh, "right, I guess I'd better go find Kuchiki-Taichō. Is he out or is he still here?" She wondered of him.

Rikichi nodded back, "he's still here, I think; not as adept at sensing reiatsu, but I don't think I've seen him leave." He informed.

Smiling again, she turned away to go find her captain.

::::::::x-x::::::::

"Taichō?"

The black-haired nobleman with serious gray eyes looked at the door to his office from having been observing the rising sun and keeping his senses keened on the members of his division he'd sent out on the hunt, meeting her familiar blue eyes that often reminded him of clear skies.

Blank mask faltering minutely at feeling elated that she had returned safely from her early-morning slaying, Kuchiki Byakuya turned slightly to address his oldest friend. "Kita, I had wondered if you'd returned successful from your duty this morning; it went well, I suppose." He mused in that calm low voice of his, gray meeting blue.

Akatsuki Kita nodded and smiled slightly, hesitating to walk further into his office should he have her deployed to join the hunt. "Yeah, it went swimmingly. I heard on the wind that ryoka have invaded the Seireitei. Did you want I go as well? I can't sense Renji's reiatsu in the barracks, so I'm guessing he was sent out already." She asked with a slight tilt of her head, dark black strands shifting with her gesture.

"Ah, yes; that. Half of the squads have been ordered to find and arrest the invaders and Renji has joined them as of a few hours ago, given that he was dismissed early from a lieutenant's meeting last night." His business-like mask shifted into a slightly challenging smirk at his old friend, "I assume you didn't waste your energy slaying hollow, so I'm sending you out there as well. Think you can handle it?" He wondered.

She blinked before a small smirk formed on her lips, spreading when she scoffed quietly. "Low-leveled hollow are all the same, they're not worth wasting my shikai plus kidō skills on; so yes, I can handle it!" She answered confidently.

Byakuya nodded and flashed a tiny smile at hearing that confident tone in her voice he had hoped to hear, gray eyes strangely compassionate (as they often were when he looked on the woman he'd known since they were children). "Spoken like a true member of the Sixth Division. Search for the ryoka and arrest them, and only draw your zanpakutō if necessary. Understood?" He ordered.

"You got it!" Kita saluted him lazily, smirking before turning about to exit the office; she paused with a hand on the doorknob, "oi, and don't go hogging all the fun if you run into one of them too… Byakuya." She added with a wide smirk over her shoulder at him, meeting his gray eyes again; she winked and chuckled, slipping out of the office and leaving him to his thoughts.

Byakuya shook his head softly, hearing her footsteps recede and fade away as she had fled the corridor leading to his office, looking out at the dawn with a faint smile on his lips.

"Be careful out there, Kita."

A/N: yeah, i know, you lot must be getting tired of seeing me post revised/rewritten Bleach fics.. i'm hoping this fic kicks off better than the previous ones have. as a note, this one is also going along the manga plot, given that i have most of the volumes that cover arcs with Soul Society involved (actually, last i checked, it's almost thirty.. and i haven't even gotten the final arc volumes yet! 0: irony! lol). i kind of tweaked with my OCs and their abilities so they'd seem a bit more badass than in the past.

umm anyway, let me know what you think in a review; reviews make the world go 'round and give me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside = 3= lol anyway, next chap should be in soon.

'til then, ja ne! (':

*Heretic - Takahito Eguchi (Trinity Blood OST)