"Natsumi, you can't fight this. You can't fight Aizen." The quiet memory entered Natsumi's dreams like an autumn wind.

"Kensei, Rose, Lisa, Love, Hiyori, Mashiro, Hachi....." The cold, hard stone didn't bother her. It was as if she had gone numb whilst lying there. The names of the friends she couldn't save kept running through her mind. Her entire soul was screaming in the pain of having lost them.....Lost them because she wasn't strong enough to save them, because she failed. Because of this, every time she closed her crying eyes she saw them, smiling, laughing, living under the sun..... But most of her heart was crying for a different reason, It was crying for the two people whom she loved most in this world, crying for the two captains who had broken through her walls, those two who had so gently dug out something she had long forgotten that she had.

Shinji Hirako and Sosuke Aizen Found her heart.

Then they broke it.

"Natsumi!" Kisuke Urahara shouted after the honey-blonde girl. "If Aizen feels your Reiatsu, you know what will happen. You, of all people, know the sacrifices you've made....." His voice trailed off at the look on her face. A mixture of amusement, hatred and sadness was sprawled over her features. "Nat....su....mi?"

"He already knows." She smiled bittersweetly, walking slowly backwards and observing the look of pity and not-quite-understandment cross his face.

"He.......Knows.... Oh, Natsumi." Kisuke sadly affixed his striped hat to his head, and as the two turned to their separate ways, as the cold evening wind blew the silver clouds to block all light, they could both only think of the past, and the sacrifices that were made for peace. Could only think of what had happened over a century ago.......

108 Years Ago........

"Natsumi Takanayo, huh? Wasn't there a captain named Takanayo, Shunsui?" Jushiro Ukitake asked his foster brother while crossing to the meeting of the Captains.

"Yes, Captain of, Oh...... Fifth Division, around, Oh, half a century ago?"Shunsui Kyoraku for once abandoned his permanent smile and sighed."He was a good man, that one."

"Who?" Hiyori Sarugaki suddenly popped up, her uneven teeth showing slightly."And what's this fuss about some Ryoka, becoming a Shinigami?"

"Sa...Ru....Gak...I....San....Huff, Huff" Puffed Kisuke, his Captain's Haori puffing around him."Please, huff, don't Aurghhhhh!" A well aimed stab in the back from Yoruichi Shihoin, Captain of Second Division, sent him flying through a paper door, causing Yoruichi's Lieutenant Captain, Rei Tsubame, no end of trouble, mainly, because as Kisuke was crashing into Rei, Rei was crashing into Sosuke Aizen, who crashed into his Captain,[Of Fifth Division], Shinji Hirako, who crashed, full circle, into Hiyori. Scary.

"Why, you.....Shinji, you BALDY! Whaddaya think yer doin' crashing me like that? Huh?!? Huh, Punk?" Hiyori thus started a fight...[Don't follow her example, kids.] As Shinji aimed a punch at Hiyori's nose, Hiyori landed a slap in the side using her sandal.

"Huuuuungh. Yoruichi-Taichou, pleeeeeaaasse make sure there's no one behind or in front of him when you do that....Please?" Rei requested of her stubborn captain, whilst pulling herself from the tangled mess of Captains and Lieutenants.

"Um, my.....C-Captain, Capt-" Aizen was cut of by a sudden banging sound. It was a few desperate Shinigami who, after Aizen opened the door leading out to the Rukongai, collapsed onto the floor. None were mortally so, but all six were wounded painfully, and all were gasping about being taken by surprise by at least seventeen Huge Hollows. Or, at least, they were until they noticed the Captains and Lieutenants.

All looked at each other for a few seconds. After all, they were all a very odd sight, the Shinigami subordinates torn and fiercely battered, the Captains and Lieutenants in a tangled mess, or standing over it. The silence continued until a short tan-haired girl, who also happened to be the least wounded stood up and began to pull her friends up off the ground while saying

"Are we interrupting something? Cuz, um, we could always come back to tell you about the weird girl with a zanpakuto in a sleeping yukata, who saved us from those Huge Hollows and is still fighting them. So, if you want us to leave and tell you later, we sooo can!" The girl's eyes were sarcastic and plucky, while her mouth was grinning in a fiercely bemused way.

"My name is Temari Heisho, Ninth Division Seventh Seat."

" Hang on a flippin' minute!" Hiyori unearthed herself."If you're a Seated Officer, you should have been able to at least kill a few!"

"Heyyy!" A Boy with short blonde hair protested."Those Huge Hollows kept hitting her before she could release her zanpakuto!"

"Quit it, Fujin. They won't believe me anyway. But, no matter what happens, I'm helping that girl." Temari did a few verrryyy fast Shunpo toward the hollows, emitting just enough Reiatsu for them to find her.

"Temari-Senpai! Wait!" Fujin sped off after her, leaving the captains with an odd predicament.

"Well, we can't just let a few kids and a 'weird girl with a Zanpakuto' to deal with all of those Hollows." Ukitake suggested wisely. Shinji was trembling on the edge of agreeing, until Hiyori made an odd face.

"What is it Sarugaki-San?" Urahara asked her.

"Well, the reason all of us are meeting is because the Captain Commander has asked a Ryoka to become a Shinigami. Apparently she has very strong skills, carries a Zanpakuto, and disappeared from the Fourth Company Infirmary this morning." Hiyori was tense.

" So, you think that-" Shinji left the sentence hanging.

"Yes, I do."

"Dammit!" Shinji was mad. After doing a few hundred Shunpo, They arrived at the site of Fujin's spiritual pressure only to find him mortally wounded by a Huge Hollow that had wandered away from the rest. After healing him as best they could they left Urahara and Rei to watch over him. Both Shinji and Aizen were now missing a chunk of Reiatsu that could have helped them save Temari and the others.

"Holy Shi....." The broken foliage formed a clearing. Inside the clearing were fifteen dissolving Huge Hollows, an unconcious Temari, and a girl.

She was wearing a cleanly cut, snow white, sleeping yukata that had barely any damage. Her long hair reached down to her knees in a long, messy, braid and was the color of pale sunshine. As she turned, her silver eyes darkened to a clear sky smiled oddly, her mouth twisted up more to the left than the right.

"More Shinigami? Well, it has taken you a while, you made me do extra work, Captain-Sans."

She raised her hand up to her pale face and brushed a lock of hair away from her eyes, and smiled sadly. She then turned her back on them, swinging her sword up onto and behind her shoulder sighing:

"Shinigami..... You always take forever, don't you?"

Kyoraku took off his hat to further inspect the hollow's corpses.

"Hirako-San." Shinji walked over."These wounds, The Hollows are, split cleanly in half. And it seems with only one stroke."

MWA HA HA AAAA! I'm Eviiilll! Not sure If this counts as a cliffhanger, but......?

Natsu-Tan