Chapter 1

By: OriSODEhime & Raine Shiba

She was fine the way she was. Lying in her bedroom against the wall, knees curled up to her chest with her head in her arms. She was fine. But all the same, her life was a wreck. She just sat there in the corner, thinking over and over again about the one man in the world who meant anything- no, everything to her. She hadn't seen him in ten years now, and the pain of being alone was beginning to take its toll on her.

"Anyone here?" She raised her head up, peaking through the short, cropped layers of copper-to-topaz hair that clung to her tear-stained face. She got to her knees, wiping her eyes on the backs of her hands, staggering up onto her feet. Through swollen, shut eyes, she couldn't realize how easily she was tripping over the black haori over her shoulders, decorated with dark red blood splatters and butterflies at the ends of the tail and sleeves. She made no haste to run out of the room in her crimson sandals and black socks, approaching the door to her office, silently sliding it open. She was twenty-six now, and had to show some class.

Without the slightest sound of her own footsteps, she was sitting on her desk in a gust of wind, arms crossed, eyes hidden as she stared at the good man standing before her in his elegantly silky, emerald kimono. His sleek black hair had been frayed at the ends, just a slight bit longer than she had remembered. The stubbles on his chin were shaved, but his olive-toned skin shone brightly beneath the sunlight that streamed through the open window.

"Greetings, Shiba." She made to part her hair away from her eyes, each one glistening a beautiful diamond-to-gray luminescent shade of colorless smoke. The barest smile crossed her lips as she remained silent, glimpsing to the documents clutched in his left hand. In response to her "cool, laid back nature," Raine Shiba, Lieutenant of the Ninth Division, couldn't help but smile sympathetically, taking note of the bloodshot eyes and narrowed eyebrows.

"'Tis been a while," he broke the ice, "what, with so many missions lately." A simple nod of the head gave him all the courtesy he expected from her, as she gazed down to the floor, lapsing into her thoughts. Such a good friend... I find it hard to believe he doesn't really know how I feel about him yet-

"Hisana?" Hisana Kurosaki, Captain of Alternate Squad Zero, snapped out of her momentary train of perplexity, meeting his turquoise gaze with a nervous, flushed face. "I've been keeping an eye out on Maruyama." That dreaded last name caught her breath to halt with dilated eyes as she firmed her posture and made direct, serious eye contact to one of her best friends.

"But he still seems to have a sort of emptiness about him." Without another word after, he simply laid the documents down on the desk Hisana sat upon. She seemed tense, clammy, cold, upon remembering that familiar face.

"What do you mean, 'emptiness?'" she demanded, a bit shaky in her voice.

"His inability to see us has taken a large toll on him. I think he misses us." A pang of guilt rose up in her chest, clutching a hand to her heart as she tried to remember that last day, when she'd faded to nothing before his very eyes. "I assume he misses you more so than anyone else. After all, it's been a decade since he's last seen us."

Whatever Hisana did next, she made sure not to make eye contact with Raine. "Oh yeah... And we haven't even bothered to pay him a visit."

"He's been more depressed than usual now. He doesn't make much of himself and he's been attempting street business that he shouldn't be getting involved in.

"Regardless, he wouldn't even be able to see us." Raine placed a finger to his chin thoughtfully, eyes narrowed in deep concentration. "Ever since that day, I have been wondering if there is any way to give him his powers back." Ever since he first gained them, he thought, he's been barraged by heavy attacks. And with his final stretch to defeat Hollow Ichigo, despite our assistance, his own inner Hollow deprived him of everything, leaving him with...well, nothing-

"Shiba!" Hisana exclaimed almost immediately, staring wide-eyed at the sticker on the documents he had arrived to give her. Authorization Papers, they read, as she quickly unraveled the tied ribbon and unfurled the manuscript. Her gaze hurried back and forth across the page, soaking in every word of it. And for a moment, her eyes seemed to sparkle with wonder, filling that last little empty void deep in her heart. "Do you even have any idea what these documents were for?"

"Judging by the sticker on the front, I assumed not to open it-" He cut himself off wit an oof! when the document was promptly smacked in his face. Even with eyeballs pressed to paper, despite the stinging sensation in his corneas, he beared the same expression Hisana did.

"Grab your zanpakuto, and follow me." Raine pulled the papers away from his face, watching as she flared out a long black sleeve. And from that wide sleeve emerged a Hell Butterfly, the number one source of transportation between the Soul Society and the World of the Living. "It's time we pay an old friend a visit."

"But Hisana-"

"And fill me in on this 'street business' on the way."