Chapter 1

I poked Catherine with my foot-- she was unconscious, on the ground. It happened suddenly, we were just on another mission in Rukon, and she randomly collapsed on the ground. I had to run back, and call the others back as well.

Poke. Poke. Still nothing. Claire has suggested using Ashling's Quincy powers to try to wake her up, but I guess it hadn't registered to her that a bow and arrow made of Soul Energy all around wasn't a toy—or that its user didn't know how to use it yet. None of those really helped much.

"Hey," I called. "Wake up." she finally opened her eyes and looked around. I put my hands on my hips. "Well, it/'s about time!"

"Huh?" she slurred.

"You just collapsed...Not enough sleep last night?" The sound of the blond Quincy firing arrows around filled the background. The sudden sound of something breaking, falling, crashing, then a cat meowing loudly as, what seemed like trashcans, fell. I chose not to turn around and see that mess...

"Where are we?" Catherine sat up. Now Ashling was shouting "sorry!" to the cat below the roof-top we were standing on. Then the sound of Claire shouting "you idiot!!" and the sound of skin slapping skin. Well, that's a great sign...

I turned around halfway. "Would you two keep it down?" I called. "Can/'t you see O'm trying to ask something, which you just made me forget?" the blond was rubbing her arm; the brunette cracking her knuckles. I rolled my eyes and urned back around. Catherine wasn't there. She better not be using her zanpaku-to on me...

The others were looking, too.

Catherine always had a bad habit of doing that; even after graduating from Soul Academy, she still used her shikai's power to make herself invisible. We had made it into Squad 12, or as I like to call it: "the-Nerd-Force-with-the-Creepy-Ass-Captain." I personally would have preferred being in Squad 11...or 6...but the fact that having a captain of nobility didn't sound so inviting... (unless he was giving away free money, but what are the odds of that?) I guess it isn't too late to transfer.

"Where are we?" Catherine asked, snapping me out of my plot to blow up our squad...I mean transfer.

"Rukon," I replied glancing at where her voice came from' then to the street below.

"Oh..." she stood next to me—I could hear her footsteps.

"Yup. We were walking around and you fell asleep, I guess..."

"You mean," I could see her now. "We were hibernating!?"

"What!? No!" I turned on my heels to face her. "Where'd that come from?" She shrugged.

We heard Ashling firing more arrows---without hitting anything this time.

I was weird: How did Catherine forget what we were doing? Maybe she hit her head too hard when she collapsed? Catherine wasn't the kind of person to forget these kinds of things...even IF her head was hit hard enough... Something crashed, and I guessed Ashling shot something again. Then we heard carriages crashing into each other.

"Time to go!"

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"Uh, Kathy?"

"Yeah?"

"why are they all giving us the evil eye?"

I shuddered. "I don't know, Catherine..."

That was strange...when we returned to Seireitei after our mission, most of the captains and lieutenants were giving us the "evil eye". Whatever was going on' mustn't bee too good... I shuddered again after ramming the door to the Squad 12 barracks shut.

It was just weird; We were gone all say. What could we have possibly missed? Maybe it was the whole "two-Soul-Reapers-being-buddy-buddy-with-a-Quincy" again. Soul Reapers and Quincies weren't supposed to get along (supposedly), but we thought everyone was okay with it by now, after so many years. But this was something completely different-- something much worse. Either that or everyone woke up on the wrong side of the Hollow.

Captains Aizen, Ichimaru, Tousen, and Kurotsuchi were the only ones absent from the "hate-us" stares. Knowing our dear Captain, he was most likely cutting something up, but the other three seem to disappear often lately. Captain Ukitake wasn't present either, but he's probably ill again.

"That was creepy!" I half-shouted, leaning against the door.

"I know!" Catherine slumped on a chair.

"What could've happened in ONE day!?" I slid down the door and sat on the cold, wooden floor.

"You never know--"

"ONE DAY!!"

She sighed and walked to the door. "NO!!" I shouted. "Don't open it!!" Catherine rolled her eyes and opened the door just a crack. She shut it again when several small, sharp objects were thrown at her. "Told ya not to open it..."

"What did we do!?"

I shrugged-- I really didn't know.

We could always ask the Captain about it, but he wouldn't know...or care. Aizen seemed to be in-the-know, so I'll ask him later...As soon as everyone leaves from our barracks!

We heard a thud of feet against the wood paneling outside, then we heard someone say, "What's going on here?"

"Shouldn't you be something something else other than trying to kill these innocent Soul Reapers, hm?"

Catherine and I looked at each other. We opened the door to see the backs of Aizen and Gin. The pale-haired man turned his head to us.

"The poor dears are terrified," he said, wearing his infamous smile. He turned back around. "It isn't fair that you'd blame them for such a small crime, now is it?"

Crime? What crime? It couldn't have been that small if everyone was giving us those looks! What was it anyway? And why are Aizen and Gin defending us? I looked at Catherine again; she shrugged.

"Go on now," Aizen announced. "We'll take care of the problem." he smiles warmly at us as everyone began to walk away. "It's alright now." he put a hand on Catherine's head, crouching down infront of her. "They won't bother you anymore."

He stood up and walked away, Gin following behind, waving his hand to us.

It was silent for awhile until I blinked. "What just happened...?"

"THAT WAS INSANE!!" Catherine shouted, not noticing how close she was to me and my ears... "WHY DID THEY DO THAT ANYWAY!? IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SCENCE!!"

"Well, first of all," I put a hand on my chin thoughtfully. "...what did we do?"

"I don't know!"

I glanced at where the two captains left. "You know what else doesn't make scence?" she looked at me intently. I paused for a moment then looked at her sadly. "Renji was giving me the look..." she obviously thought it was something serious because she fell backwards either shock.

She slapped her forehead. "Kathy..."

I smiled bashfully. "Aww, well you, you know."

"No...I don't..."

I rolled my eyes and stop up, going back inside. "C'mon, it's getting dark." She stared off at where Aizen and Gin left. "Cath!"

"I'm coming." she stood up and walked inside.

PHHHHHEEEEEEEEEW!!! This was actually supposed to be the prologue but after it got SO DAMN LONG I made it a chapter :D ;; born from a weird dream my best-buddy Cath had and told me about xDD. The way it sounded started good so I took it (which is pretty much most of those chappie...) but yea. Hope you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it Suggestions are welcomed. Reviews are appreciated! FLAMES are unaccepted )