Chapter One: At First Glance

Jūshirō liked to think that he had good judgement when it came to people. All it took was one good look at a person and he would have this immediate feeling as to what type of person they were, regardless whether their outward appearance gave any indication to their inner nature or not. It was an ability that came naturally to him, and so far, his instincts hadn't been wrong.

That was why he was on high alert when he saw Unohana walking down the street towards her Division. Nothing was different or offsetting about the captain herself, but the woman that she had with her was a completely different story. He didn't have to be good at reading people to know that there was something terribly wrong with her.

Splotches of dirt covered her face and clothes, marring skin that was far too pale to be considered healthy and making already ratty garments look worse. Her eyes never stayed on one thing for very long, constantly darting from one place to the next, with pupils blown so wide that he could barely tell what color her eyes were supposed to be. Every muscle in her body seemed to be taut, like she was ready to run at any moment; her hands were constantly shaking, and the shaking seemed to trail up her arms and into her upper body. Her hands were the worst, but the rest of the tremors that plagued her were still very noticeable.

He wasn't the only one that noticed her, either. Several Shinigami had stopped what they were doing to watch as Unohana led the black-haired woman away from the First Division. Some of their eyes were filled curiosity, but many more were filled with disgust, confusion, and even fear. There was something deeply unsettling about the woman, like some strange aura was radiating off of her frantic form and causing a general feeling of unease and apprehension in the people around her. Not even Jūshirō was immune to this feeling, and a wave of nausea bubbled in his throat as he kept his attention on the stranger.

Jūshirō was good at reading people, but he didn't have to be to know that something was wrong with the mysterious woman. At first glance, his gut feeling was that she was going to be nothing but trouble.

"Shinji, explain something to me, please."

As a light breeze passed by the pair, Shinji looked over his shoulder to see what his companion wanted. His fellow Visored was giving him a bored look that somehow managed to also be patronizing as she lounged in the sky behind him, lying on her side, body stretched out, and ankles crossed as she used her hand to prop up her head. A few of the raven locks that had come loose from her ponytail fell back against her face as the wind died down.

"What are we doing here?" she asked him, voice soft, but much like the expression on her face it had a condescending edge to it. It was obvious to the blond that she wasn't trying to be malicious, but he could definitely tell that their current task was beginning to irk her.

"We're scouting this kid out, Kokoro-chan," he told her, humoring her even though he knew damn well that she knew why they were out there.

"And why are we doing that, Shinji?" she asked, her tone sharpening as she cocked an eyebrow at her companion. If Shinji had to guess, he'd bet good money that she thought this whole ordeal was stupid.

"We hafta keep an eye him, Kokoro, especially if Urahara was right and he's like us," he reasoned.

"Fair point," she conceded, bringing up her free hand and using her thumb to twist the silver band that was around her middle finger. "However, if nothing happened while Kisuke was training him, I doubt his Hollow will come out now. At best, something might happen when he goes to Soul Society, but we can't exactly stalk him there, now can we?"

Shinji was silent for a moment, before finally responding with a quiet, "He's gonna go to Soul Society?"

"Shinji…Were you not listening when I told everyone that this morning?"

"Apparently not. How d'ya know that anyways?"

"That's the word around Kisuke's shop, and I'm gonna have to assume that that's a pretty accurate source of information when it comes to what's been happening with Ichigo."

"Sarcasm was always so unbecoming; of ya," Shinji commented.

"And you're floating upside down while stalking a teenager. Who's really in the wrong here, Shinji?" Kokoro quipped, the corner of her mouth tightening and drawing back slightly as her eyebrow raised even higher at the blond Visored. He just gave her an exasperated look that practically begged her to hurry up and make her point.

"We're wasting our time here, Shinji," she sighed, sitting up and crossing her legs in front of her. "He's just a kid. Maybe he's like us, maybe he isn't. Regardless, he's about to run into the flaming shitheap that is Soul Society, and his life will undoubtedly never be the same after that. Just let him have some normalcy while it lasts, without the feeling of someone watching him."

It was Shinji's turn to let out a deep sigh as he looked up at the sky.

"Fine," he huffed. "We'll do it yer way, Captain Ono, and leave 'im alone for now."

"Great!" Kokoro chirped, clapping her hands in front of her and letting a grin spread across her face. "Now, let's go back to the warehouse and see what kind of trouble the rest of the band is causing, eh?"

"Knowin' those hellions, our home could be razed by now," Shinji muttered, his mind wandering to the rather violent antics of some of his fellow Visored, namely Hiyori.

"Guess we should probably feed them, huh?" Kokoro suggested, and when Shinji only hummed in reply, obviously lost in thought, she quickly added, "How nice of you to offer to pay for it Shinji! I'm sure everyone will really appreciate it!"

"Yeah, yeah, sounds goo-Wait, what? Hey, I didn't say shit about-!" But it was too late; the Visored known as Kokoro Ono was already long gone, probably cackling at him as she went to gather food for her comrades. He was already mourning the state his wallet would be in once she was done.

"Well, the building does not appear to be on fire," Kokoro mused.

"That's a start," Shinji huffed, joining her to look thoughtfully at the warehouse that currently contained the rest of the Visored. They couldn't hear screaming or anything breaking from where they were standing, but that wasn't always a guarantee that chaos wasn't reigning inside.

Once the pair walked inside, they saw that chaos was indeed having its way with their home. Kensei and Hiyori were apparently in the middle of a 'tempered' disagreement as everyone else chose to do the smart thing and not get involved.

"And just what would these two be arguing about?" Kokoro muttered to herself, looking on as Hiyori vigorously waved her sword at Kensei. Thankfully, the weapon was sheathed.

"At least it's not me," Shinji commented, handing the bags of food he'd been carrying off to Rose and Love.

"You just jinxed yourself, you know," Kokoro told him, not taking her eyes off of the pair of fighting Visored.

"Definitely," Lisa agreed.

"What the hell do you me-" Poor Shinji couldn't even finish his sentence.

"Oi, Baldy!" the youngest Visored yelled, cutting Shinji off and causing a small bead of sweat to roll down the side of his face as his eyes widened at the realization that he had indeed jinxed himself.

"Told you so," Kokoro hummed with pursed lips, walking past her petrified friend to hand her bags of food off to Mashiro. As the bags left her grasp, she rubbed her gloved hands together to try to get rid of the indents that the plastic handles had left behind.

"Tell your damn friend to get his head out of his ass!" Hiyori yelled, so loud that the Visored were sure that the entire warehouse shook.

"What're my chances of escape?" Shinji muttered, already inching his way back towards the building's entrance.

"Slim to none I imagine. Although, if they're hungry enough, we might be able to distract them with that," Kokoro pointed out.

"Ya think?"

"Maybe that's why they were angry to begin with," Love mused, expression thoughtful as he opened up his own portion of the food and began to eat, not even bothering with the notion of waiting for Kensei and Hiyori.

"Hunger does work wonders on people," Rose hummed in agreement.

"Well, if you think it-" Shinji began to wonder if it was everyone's knew favorite hobby to cut him off.

"Kensei-baka!" Mashiro practically screeched. "Stop fighting and eat, dummy!"

"What did you just-!"

"What she was trying to say, Kensei, was maybe you two should put this on hold for a bit and come eat," Kokoro interjected, and for a split second, Shinji felt some odd sense of kinship with Kensei. At least he wasn't the only one who could hardly get a word in edgewise that day.

Silence rang throughout the warehouse, but there was still a heated glaring contest going down between the two. It always amazed Kokoro how easily Kensei's temper could be sparked. Mashiro was a consummate professional at making that happen, and Hiyori definitely seemed to be on her way to becoming one, as well. Of course, if he didn't care about the two of them in at least some capacity, he wouldn't have snapped so easily. Kensei wasn't one to waste too much of his time arguing with people that meant nothing to him, and honestly, with tensions being so high as they lived in exile, Kokoro was surprised that there hadn't been more fights between all of the Visored. They may have seemed uncouth at the best of times, but the fact that they hadn't maimed each other in the last century spoke volumes for just how mature and patient the majority of them were. There were, of course, two main exceptions to that, one being extremely childish and the other being temperamental, but even those two still had their moments (even if they seemed rare).

Of course, even with how temperamental she was, Hiyori still could have turned out much worse. She was already 'bratty' (as Shinji had so lovingly described it) before their exile, but when considering everything that had happened to her at such a young age, she had actually calmed down quite a bit during their time in the World of the Living. Sure, Shinji still took a beating nearly every day, but with her past, Hiyori could have easily turned into some mass-murdering machine hellbent on revenge. She still wanted her revenge, as they all did, but the young Visored had restrained herself from taking out her anger on anyone that wasn't one of her comrades. And being as close as they all were, they were more than willing to do whatever it took to help her cope with everything.

"Food's getting cold," Kokoro called out, trying to give them extra incentive to quit their bickering. It seemed to work, and with equally annoyed huffs from the both of them, they joined everyone else and started eating. Kokoro still hadn't gotten an answer as to why they were fighting this particular instance, but she felt it would be better to let it go at this point. If it was important, then it would surely come up again later.

"So," Kokoro began, breaking the silence that had befallen the warehouse, "Was Shinji the only on that didn't hear me this morning when I said that Ichigo was going to Soul Society?"

All eyes turned to the man in question. Not a word was spoken by any of them, but there was no shortage of incredulous and exasperated stares.

"…Just throw me under a bus there, won't ya, Kokoro?" Shinji mumbled, his eyes falling to the exposed midriff of the woman that had just called him out, unable to look at her face because he knew a condescending, victorious smirk would be waiting for him.

"Were you…distracted?" Rose asked him, finally beginning to chew his food again.

"Apparently," Love quipped, not even giving Shinji a chance to speak up for himself.

"Mind wandering to some pretty girl?" Lisa suggested.

"Baka," Mashiro added.

"Dumbass," Hiyori muttered, obviously agreeing with Mashiro, but not being nearly as nice when voicing her opinion on the matter.

Kensei had no words to properly convey just how disappointed he was at his friend at that moment. Hachi…may or may not have been paying attention at that point; he seemed to be off in his own little world, probably thinking about something important while the rest of his companions were focused on teasing Shinji. Probably.

"That's just…not fair." Shinji understandably looked indignant about the whole ordeal, but a loud howl of laughter pierced through their hideout, making everyone turn towards a grinning Kokoro, who slapped Shinji on the back and nearly sent him face-first into his food.

"No harm, no foul, Shinji," she chuckled. "We just gotta try to keep you on your toes. You really must have been distracted, though. You usually don't zone out like that."

"I was just thinkin', that's all. This whole situation with Ichigo and the execution just seems fishy to me," he explained.

"I was thinking the same thing," Kensei agreed. "The girl they're executing is a noble, right?"

"Ah, a Kuchiki, no less. It's only by adoption, but you'd think she'd still get a little extra leeway. Kisuke also seems to be hiding something," Kokoro told him.

"It hardly seems like a crime punishable by death," Love mused. "Lose her position as a Shinigami? Maybe. Death? Can't say I remember an execution happening for something like that."

"I think we were the last ones that were supposed to be executed," Rose added.

"And we all know whose fault that was," Lisa pointed out.

"So, it seems fishy," Shinji concluded.

"It's not like we can do anything about it," Hiyori scoffed, looking offended at the fact that Aizen may have been up to something while they couldn't do a thing to stop him.

"Nope, but there's a good chance it has nothing to do with him. I don't exactly remember the Kuchiki taking kindly to any slights against them, even from one of their own." Kokoro leaned back on her elbows and stretched her legs out as she finished her meal, looking up towards the ceiling as she blew a few strands of hair out of her face. "Besides, Kisuke would let us know if something was really up, right?"

"Didn't you say he was hiding something?" Mashiro asked her. Kokoro hummed in agreement.

"I'm sure you could pry it out of him," Lisa suggested.

"Not many people have the balls to lie straight to the face of a former Kenpachi," Shinji pointed out, drawing everyone's eyes over to Kokoro as they waited to see what her reply would be.

"Kisuke doesn't exactly lie," she finally breathed out. "He just…conveniently withholds information until he deems it relevant to share it. I'll ask him when I get the chance, though."

"That's all we can ask of you," Rose told her.

"Or, you know, any of y'all could ask him, too. Intimidation is hardly needed in this," Kokoro retorted, admonishment clear in her tone. They didn't even have the decency to look ashamed of themselves.

"Ah, but you've already agreed to it now, Kokoro-chan," Shinji practically sang, and Kokoro had never felt such a strong urge to slap him.

"Oi, Kokoro," Kensei called, getting her attention and probably saving his friend from getting an extra beating that day.

"Hm?"

"Let's spar in a bit. It's been way too long since our last match," he suggested.

'Spar or let you work out your aggression from earlier?' Kokoro thought to herself, remembering that it had only been a few days since their last sparring match. She wouldn't question it if that was what he needed, though.

"Sure. Let me digest for a bit and then we'll get to it," she agreed.

"Looks like you get to practice some barriers today, Hachi," Love chuckled. "I think we'd all like to keep a roof over our heads tonight."

Hachi looked a little miffed by that but given the strength of the two Visored in question and the fact that he did indeed want to keep a roof over his head that night, it looked like his skills were in for some extra practice that day.

By the time that she was able to finally get to her room, Kokoro was exhausted down to her very bones. Kensei had obviously been a little more frustrated than she'd thought, and it really showed while he was throwing damn near explosive punches at her. He held nothing back, and as he vented his anger Kokoro had to use muscles that she'd forgotten she'd even had just to make it out of the 'friendly' match still standing. Every one of her muscles was on fire, and she wanted to do nothing more than just plop down on her bed and sleep through the next day.

In all honesty, she was surprised that she'd been able to bend all the way down to her ankles to unzip and pull her boots off. It was a trial, but once she got those off and subsequently threw them across the room, a streak of black denim trailed by suspenders and a flash of grey soon followed as she yanked her shorts and shirt off, as well. She was too tired to even bother with night clothes (or to take her socks off, for that matter) and she barely glanced at herself in the mirror, only catching a glance of tired blue eyes before she refocused her vision on the glorious bed that awaited her.

A breathy sigh left Kokoro's lips as her body was engulfed by her plush blankets, and for a moment she basked in the tranquility that her room had afforded her. Silence was never her friend for very long, though, and without the boisterousness and chatter of her fellow Visored to distract her, her mind began to plague her with erratic thoughts and memories that should have long been forgotten. Memories of shaking hands, of a chest so tight with fear that she couldn't breathe, of paranoid thoughts that ran far too deep to be rational; flashbacks to a much darker time in her life swirled around in her head, and they brought nothing but despair with them. There was only one light that had been able to make all of that pain go away, and it was a light that had left her side a century ago.

With shaky hands, she pulled off her gloves, exposing the deep and jagged scars that she always tried to keep hidden, as well as the tattoo that adorned her wrist; the black ink formed the image of a pair of twin fish connected by their tails, their bodies stretched around her arm as they swam around it to come face-to-face with each other once again at the inner side of her wrist. It was another memento of a lover that would never be hers again, something that she had gotten to signify that she had let go of her past and had begun to look forward towards a happier future with the man that she considered to be the other half of her soul.

The other memento that she kept of him hung around her neck on a thin silver chain, an engagement ring that looked so small and insignificant but seemed to hold the weight of the world as she twirled it between her fingers. Holding it helped her to focus and turn her mind away from her dark memories, but they were still replaced by another pain, one that ran much deeper, a pain that stayed with her as a constant ache even on her happiest days.

Even with her chaotic thoughts pushed aside, she knew that no peace awaited her in her dreams. Only nightmares would greet her in the recesses of her mind, nightmares that a mere tattoo or trinket wouldn't be able to chase away. Only one person had been able to chase her nightmares away, and he was far away, carrying on with his life in Soul Society, unaware and unconcerned with her plight.

"Why didn't you come after me, Jūshirō?"