"Byakuya? Anata? Do you remember me?" Hisana smiles at the shocked 6th Division Captain.

"Kami-sama… It's really you! Hisana!" The Captain runs towards his beloved wife and tried to hold her in his arms that in the real world he never did.

But he ran through her and almost fell. Hisana turns back with a weak smile and looked up into the sky.

"Byakuya, forgive me. And thank you for taking in Rukia. I owe you so much. I'm so sorry I could not give you the happiness you want. But I wish for your happiness. Please, accept the one who wants to spend your life with. Accept him."

Tears from the fading woman fell onto the floor as she smiled upon her husband.

"HISANA!"

Byakuya woke up in cold sweat. He noticed it was past breakfast time. "Hisana" Byakuya muttered.

The captain sighed and hastily took a quick bath and wore his shinigami clothes. This had been the first time Hisana; his deceased wife had ever appeared in his dreams. He took his zanpakuto and walked out of his room.

From a noble family, he walked out as if nothing happened and didn't notice that a black haired girl knocked into him.

"Nii-sama? I'm so sorry! Renji asked me to wake you up for some meeting. But it seems you're awake now! I have to go back to Ukitake-taicho. He's quite sickly." Rukia, his sister, smiled and ran back towards the direction she came from.

Byakuya, slightly surprised on Rukia's appearance, started to smile. It had been over 3 weeks after Ichigo had left Soul Society.

Soul Society had been badly damaged and was now on renovation.

Byakuya walked along the corridor and noticed not much Shinigami was around anymore. Usually, a bunch of them would be hanging around the corridors either cleaning or waiting for their taicho or fukutaicho.

Byakuya brushed pass a few Shinigami which all bowed or greeted him with Kuchiki Taicho. He remembered that this meeting was with 3 taichos and 3 fukutaicho. Alas he reached his destination. It was a small meeting house. Usually where most Shinigamis had their important discussions in.

"Kuchiki Taicho! Everyone's waiting for you!" Byakuya's red haired lieutenant shouted.

Byakuya sighed. He knew this meeting was gonna be long. He actually planned on paying some respects to Hisana but he knew after this meeting, everyone would have been too tired to do anything.

The 2nd, 8th and 11th division taicho and fukutaicho was there.

Kenpachi almost slashed his zanpakto to the 6th division captain but was stopped by Soi Fong and Shunsui.

"TEME! MUST WE WAIT FOR YOU! YOU THINK YOU ARE SO GREAT HUH! KUCHIKI! DON'T THINK WE MUST WAIT FOR YOU OK?" Kenpachi roared.

"Silence! Come on, Kenpachi, we are discussing important issues here! Not fighting! We can always fight another day!" Soi Fong barked.

The 4 lieutenants there kept quiet and were asked to listen to what Soi Fong wanted to say.

"Alright, Everyone, I have terrible news. There are stronger hollows out there in the real world. And worse thing is, a fukutaicho had been badly injured. I have a bad feeling; Aizen is the mastermind of all these nonsense. What do you think Shunsui?" Soi Fong announced.

Clearly, life in the real world was drastic. Those who could see hollows were afraid to go out. Ichigo and friends had a hard time even defending their homes or school.

Renji requested for his leave in needing a toilet and quickly went to the loo. Renji punched onto the walls of the toilet. He knew his Taicho was upset today. He knows his taicho's face too well.

He remembered his past. He had always admired Byakuya's strength. But these few days, he felt something different for his taicho. Something he never felt before. He washed his face with water and race back to the meeting. By the time he went there, everyone was already leaving.

"eh? What did I missed?" Renji scratched his head. Nanao kindly explained to him about the meeting contents and hurriedly ran to her taicho.

Renji then ran near Byakuya's side and asked him for more details. Byakuya swiftly explained and noticed that Renji had a slight redness in his face. Byakuya blinked and ignored it.

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Most of the Shinigami had been exhausted due to the recent hollows attacks and the fixing of soul society.

The hollows attacks dropped and so usually taichos sent one or two shinigamis to protect the real world.

"Renji? Oh my, you look so tired? I just heard about the attacks in the human world. Is everything alright?" Rukia questioned the exhausted Renji.

Renji had been going in and out of both worlds and couldn't even lift his hand anymore. He nodded and fell asleep on the floor where he was sitting.

Rukia had been in the 4th division to get her powers back and so had no chance to leave Soul Society. She shook her head and walked back to 4th division.

A wind blew pass the sleeping red head. Renji sneezed and continue to go into his sweet slumber.

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Renji woke up and noticed he had a blanket on him. "Was it from Rukia?" he thought. "Can't be. I don't remember her coming back."

He folded the blanket and noticed a small note nearby. It read, "Abarai-san, there's a lieutenant meeting at 5 pm later. Please be punctual, signed, Hanatarou"

"Oh, must be that squirt from the 4th division. Guess I better change and be there. And…"

Renji stared at the paper. He knew about a meeting. But…

WHERE!

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