She awoke, ice cold, from a dream that may have been from when she was living. Strange yet familiar faces swam up from her memory, soothing words in calm voices, a soft female hand upon her face. She knew she was about to wake, and she resisted. It was far too cold to be conscious. Her fingers were numb and she shivered violently—and yet within her head and heart was a powerful heat, and she could feel the sweat running down through her hair and the dampness of her clothing. Yes, it would be better to sleep.

It might have been minutes or days later when she woke again, still damp but not cold this time. She was burning hot, her skin was on fire. Instinctively she knew that if something wasn't done that she would die, and she couldn't die before she had dealt revenge in full to... who was it again? She managed to open her eyes, and found a vaguely familiar boyish face floating above her, with concerned grey eyes and flyaway blonde hair. Gentle hands drew away blankets and covers from her body, and something cold pressed against her face. She slept again.

"Be still."

She knew that voice. Shinji was at her side, his hands holding her firmly in place on the futon. She made to kick him, but found moving too difficult and her vision too blurry. What the hell? Since when had Shinji been able to control her?

"Your fever just broke a while ago, Hiyori."

She knew that voice too, and turned her head sharply to find Kisuke sitting on her other side. His smooth face was creased this time with worry. His Captain's uniform was gone, replaced with plain knit pants and a sweatshirt. Kisuke wasn't a big man, but his broad, careful hands seemed to exaggerate how small her wrist was as he reached down to check her pulse.

Memory came rushing back to her—Aizen, the disappearances, Ichimaru Gin, the forest, Yoruichi, Tessai. Being chained down in a dark room, battling her inner demons in order to control her own mind. How many days ago had that been?

"I'm going to go check on the others." said Shinji. "I'll be back in a few." He stood and exited the room. Now that Hiyori looked at it, she realized it wasn't familiar at all. It was wide with paper walls, a desk on one wall, and the light coming through the windows made it airy and sunny.

"Where are we?" her voice sounded ragged to her ears.

"The real world. They exiled me, and they were going to kill all of you, remember?" oh, yes. She remembered. "You've been ill ever since the basement, but now your fever is down and I think you'll be alright in a few days. I'm sorry about all this."

Sorry people pissed Hiyori off. Kisuke really pissed Hiyori off. A sorry Kisuke was too much for Hiyori's feverish mind to cope with. Before she knew it the rage had consumed her, and she was off the bed and drop-kicking Kisuke in the head.

"Sorry?" she shouted, her head pounding with every syllable. "You think sorry is going to help anything?"

"It's my fault. I should have gone to investigate myself, and not left everything to you." His nose was bleeding. Clearly she wasn't as weakened as she'd thought upon waking.

"If you'd gone you'd have been turned into a Hollow, and then who'd have saved us, dickhead? Nobody, that's fucking who!" She lunged at him, but found herself caught up from behind by a pair of strong arms, and momentarily she was thrown over Shinji's shoulder and being carried away.

"Simmer down, bitch." he said, grinning that ridiculous grin of his. "Let's go put you in the bath, you smell like ass."

"What? Hell no, you're not helping me take a bath, you perv shithead!" struggling, however, was no use. Her momentary burst of strength had been wasted on pounding Kisuke.

"Don't be stupid, stupid. I'm not interested in seeing your underdeveloped girl parts anyway. You can't take a bath alone cuz you might fall and crack your head open." And before she could protest the "underdeveloped" crack, she found herself deposited into a cold porcelain tub. Shinji grabbed the back of her oversized shirt and pulled it up and over her head. To Hiyori's surprise, that was all she'd been wearing.

Shinji turned on the water. "I'll sit over here in the doorway. You scrub. Can't have your germs getting all over the place now that you're mobile, can we?"

"Asswipe."

"Skank." Shinji turned around to stand in the hallway, leaving the door open so she could see his back. He was dressed in a green silk shirt and slacks. Hiyori had seen the back of him plenty of times, but had never actually seen his back.

"Shinji! What happened to your hair?"

"You yanked some of it out in the basement, so it wasn't even anymore. I cut it off." He didn't turn to face her. Hiyori couldn't remember a thing that had happened in the basement except that she'd been in there, but she felt guilty nevertheless. But before she could open her mouth to apologize for what would have been the first time ever, Shinji spoke. "Don't worry about it. You're here, you've got control of yourself. It will grow back. Now scrub."

Sighing, Hiyori turned off the water and found a washcloth and soap on the rim of the tub. The water felt good on her fevered, aching muscles. She scrubbed as hard as she could, until her skin was raw and pink. !-- page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --She felt that she'd always be dirty now, tainted by the Hollow within her. No amount of soap could clean it away. "Did Kisuke patch me up?" she asked, untangling her pigtails.

"He did. We owe him a lot, so stop attacking him. We'd be dead, or Hollows, without his intervention." Shinji's ability to speak three whole sentences without antagonizing Hiyori told her that he was in a foul mood indeed.

"I know." she said, turning more serious herself. "It's just, none of this is very fair. How could Room 46 just decide to abandon us like that?"

"I suppose it's understandable. After all, they had no way of knowing we wouldn't be permanent Hollows."

"They could have tried. They could have listened to Kisuke." Hiyori had thought it would taste bitter to defend her captain, but she was surprised that it seemed natural in spite of her resentment. After all, he had saved them. Perhaps he wasn't such a douche after all.

"All the evidence pointed to him. And that's my fault, for not paying more attention to Aizen."

"You couldn't have known what he was up to." Hiyori rinsed the soap from her hair and pulled the plug, feeling oddly subdued. Defeated. "If he hadn't planted a decoy of himself he'd have found another way. I always knew he was a snake." She focused on the water draining away, a tiny, soapy whirlpool. It may as well have been her former life draining away.

"Maybe not. We'll never know though. In any case, our only option is to move forward." Shinji threw a towel over her and got a grip on her arm. For some reason, being handled so didn't faze her, and she allowed him to maneuver her carefully out of the tub and sit her down on a towel in the floor so she could dry off without the danger of falling. He left her to dry and returned a second later with pajamas and a hair brush, then returned to the doorway.

"So, what are we going to do? Have you guys formed a plan while I was out?" she asked his back. She couldn't get over the fact that she could see it, that it wasn't covered by that curtain of long, unnaturally straight blonde hair.

"Well, now that we're in our right minds for the most part, we're hiding out here in the real world until Urahara and Tessai can think of something. We've all pooled our money together and rented this building to stay in. It's not going to be an extravagant life, but we've got food and clothes and soap. I imagine some of us can get jobs to keep ourselves busy. Kisuke's got Yoruichi sneaking stuff out of his lab and bringing it here so he can get to work."

"Hmm." Hiyori wobbled up beside him, brushing her wet hair out. He put a hand at the back of her neck to steady her and they walked down the hall together, back toward her sick room where Kisuke had changed her bedding and set out a bowl of broth with some crackers for her.

Kisuke himself seemed to be talking to a black cat that was sitting on the window sil. Lisa was standing next to them, dressed in pajamas like Hiyori's, taking notes on a clipboard. She looked well enough, all things considered.

"I suppose they'll be looking to replace all the captains and lieutenants they've lost?" he asked it. The cat nodded.

Wait, no it didn't. Cats didn't nod.

"Well, if Aizen's been put in Shinji's place as Captain, at least it'll be easier to keep an eye on him. It's easier to track the movements of someone in a high rank than someone who can disappear without being noticed. I wonder if it's really him, though, or if it's his double. Can't be sure, I don't know the fellow that well."

Shinji spoke up: "I imagine it's him. With all the chaos that's probably going on, he can't afford to have any mistakes made or overlook any details." Lisa scribbled on her clipboard.

"Probably." said the cat. "I've got my people watching him, in any case."

Hiyori decided she'd eat later. Moving forward or not, it was clearly time to go back to sleep.