On a cold winter's night, under the light of a full moon, a fiery old hawk waited silently in one of the forested patches of Eastern Rukongai. Though he was alone, he gazed expectantly into the trees, focusing all his senses to find his comrades. Feeling the slight familiar brush of reiatsu, he turned his attention to the place where the sensation came from. He was not disappointed; from a gap in the trees came a man, long black cloak billowing out behind him as he walked. The hawk raised his head and intoned, "Zangetsu."

He nodded curtly. "More of us will come soon. Suzumebachi may be late, though. She and Soi Fon have a Menos to deal with."

"I see."

Zangetsu nodded once more, and then flash-stepped into the higher branches of an old willow. True to his prediction, more spirits soon made their way into the clearing. Zabimaru quietly dropped onto a branch beside Zangetsu, pale Shiroyuki stepped gracefully between the trees, Ashisogi Jizo crawled slimily over a patch of rocks. Each was followed by many other spirits, flowing into the small clearing like a sentient river. Under the moonlight, the zanpakuto spirits slowly gathered into a loose mob, the same way as they always did. Wolves pushed aside snakes, a worried-looking parrot snuck through the crowd, pursued by a giant grey cat, and a naked blue humanoid stalked over to its preferred spot in the shadows underneath the fringe of the forest.

Zangetsu and Zabimaru watched over them from their high perch, silent for a moment before Zabimaru spoke.

"So," the snake head said, "it seems my partner and yours have some sort of- oh, what's the word…"

"Arrangement," suggested Zangetsu, after a moment's thought.

"Mmm."

Awkward silence reigned for a moment, before Zabimaru said, "Let's not follow suit."

"Indeed."

They turned their attention back to the gathering of spirits. All were in attendance now, even those who were notorious for their lateness, and so they milled about with a great deal of noise. Soon, smaller alliances, groups within the group, sprang into being; the wolf Kazeshini padded softly towards Zangetsu's clump of trees, followed by Urahara's red princess and a gigantic ice dragon; the parrot (who had by now managed to escape the ash cat) flew to the side of a black boar, and a proud, though beautiful, peacock strutted towards the red dragon Hozukimaru. Not all was well, though; a penitent rook cawed loneliness beside a three-armed dryad girl, who in turn leaned on the gargantuan Tenken for support. And those three were not alone in their sorrow, Zangetsu noted; Haineko also sat in silence, although she was apart from the others. She seemed to be waiting, her head tilted to the sky, waiting for a friend who would not come.

As Zangetsu gazed at her, he felt a familiar creeping presence at his back, just before someone hissed in his ear, "Somebody ought to tell the poor thing that he ain't gonna show up."

It took all of Zangetsu's willpower to stop himself from shivering at her voice. He took a deep breath, then said calmly, "And why not you, princess?"

"Heh heh heh…"

The red snake-woman slithered around in front of him, chuckling gently. "Ah, Zangetsu, silly boy. Don't you know that hope, even false hope, is the greatest treasure of them all?" As she spoke, her forked, snakelike tongue flicked about the edges of her mouth, wetting her dry crimson lips. Zangetsu opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, another spirit did.

"Funny, I thought you said it was love just last night."

Benihime turned around with an exasperated sigh. "Aaaa, kid, where's your sense of fun?"

Perched precariously on a branch, an ice dragon replied, "I don't believe I've ever had one. And what does memory have to do with fun anyway?"

"You're missing the point –"

The princess slithered around to his bough, leaving the other two alone once more. Zabimaru sighed and turned to Zangetsu.

"Do you think we should go and tell Haineko that her friend isn't coming back?"

"No."

"What? Why not?"

"Because Hyorinmaru already did, and he got a scratched face for his trouble."

"Oh, right…"

Below them, the dragon and the princess had brought their argument to a close, and were now scrutinizing something underneath them. The dragon said something to Benihime, who nodded and moved back up to them. "Look," she hissed, pointing to the space beneath their tree, "We have a newcomer." And sure enough, in the shade of the branches, a black sheep lapped at a bowl of sake.

"I wonder who she is? I'm told the academy isn't bringing in the new lot of students until next month, so perhaps she's another like you…"

Zangetsu responded, "I doubt it. After that business with Rukia Kuchiki, nobody would dare."

Zabimaru shrugged. "Maybe she just didn't realize that we had these meetings until now?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

"I'll go ask her."

Benihime slithered down the trunk of the tree and over to the ewe's side. "So who are you? I haven't seen you here before…"

The sheep slurped some more sake, before saying, "'Course you haven't seen me, I couldn't be bothered coming here before."

"Right, so who are you? What's your name?"

"Can't tell you that."

"Please? Pretty please?"

"No."

"And why not?"

"Look – if I won't tell my wielder what my name is, why should I tell it to you?"

"In that case, who's your partner?"

She snorted loudly, in that way that only sheep can. "He's hardly a partner, woman. Asshole shuns me for centuries, then asks me my name? Ha! Yeah, not gonna happen."

Zangetsu frowned a moment, thinking to himself, before the answer dawned on him. His eyes widened with surprise, which was not a common occurrence. Surely not…?

"Huh. Speak of the devil, here comes the bastard himself," said the ewe. With a final lap of sake, she faded out of vision, just as the telltale tmp-tmp of footsteps drifted through the gloomy park.

Instantly, the spirits' chatter came to a halt. Eyes of all colours focused on the man who walked through their meeting, scattering the spirits in his wake with the sheer weight of his reiatsu. The bells woven into his spiked hair jingled softly as they brushed against the lowest leaves of the trees, the noise resonating through the stunned silence of the gathered spirits. Those with less courage were loath to remain in his shadow, scuttling away for the safety of the tree branches, and even the strong and brave shuddered as he stepped past and through them. And suddenly, he stopped at the edge of the trees and looked back upon where he had trod moments before.

Kenpachi Zaraki frowned and wondered absently why he felt as though he was being watched.

He shrugged. Maybe he was a little drunk after all. He turned back around and made for his quarters, slowly disappearing from Zangetsu's view.

The black sheep faded back into view, this time puffing on a long black pipe (how? Zangetsu wondered, sheep are not renowned for their opposable thumbs). She met the questioning gazes with her own stubborn one. Lazily, she snorted smoke from both nostrils.

"So now ya know," she said, adding after a short pause, "By the way, th' name's Kurohitsuji. Happy now?"

So one day, I was monkeying around on the Bleach Wild Mass Guess page on TV Tropes, and I noticed that, aside from the ever-popular "OMG U GAIZ, YACHIRU IZ TOTALLY KEN-CHAN'S ZANPAKUTO!!1" and the natural response, "NO WAI, KEN-CHAN IZ YACHIRU'S ZANPAKUTO!!", there weren't actually all that many theories on what Ken-chan's zanpaku-to spirit is. So, naturally, I decided to come up with my own theory on his/her form. My original thought was for it to be some kinda dragon, but I figured that was a bit tacky, my thoughts went on a wiki walk and before I knew it, my brain had presented me with the idea of it being a large, female, black sheep. Don't ask me why.

…Oh, and if you can correctly guess who every unnamed spirit is, I'll write you a drabble. :) (The blue humanoid doesn't count, since s/he is an OC belonging to my lovely sister.)

Also, as you may or may not know, Kurohitsuji is Japanese for 'black sheep'. Please don't confuse it with Kuroshitsuji, which I believe is 'black butler'. Butlers are polite, clean-shaven and are able to talk. Sheep are fluffy and go baa. Mmmkay?