CH1: Hellos from the Past

Alya Maréne yawned, stretched her arms behind her head and then put her hands on the back of her head, humming quietly and looking at the ceiling. Such a peaceful looking day, yet out there was a chaos. Lately there had been a lot of car accidents in the outskirts of Tokyo, and all of them seemed really strange. The drivers simply had lost the control of their vehicles, driving off from the road or colliding with other cars, getting themselves killed. Maréne and her team, specialized in reconstructing the so-called accidental cars, had found no errors in the cars' systems, such as ABS-breaks. There were no reasons for the accidents, yet they still occured. And then there were the autopsys. Maréne frowned at the ceiling. No heart attacks, no signs of epilepsy or any other disease that could have affected the drivers. They were not under the influence of any drug or alcohol.

They had just lost the control of their vehicles.

There was a knock on the door.

"Come in", Maréne cooed.

The door opened silently, and one guy from her team peeked in. "Miss, there's someone who wishes to see you. Now." The guy was wearing his helmet, but Maréne recognized him to be one of the Gaslery twins, Érec.

"Oh, Érec, the hell are you wearing that helmet for? Is there a new case in?" They had worn their helmets for so long that it was almost impossible to not to wear them, but when dealing with outsiders they were able to put them aside. When the real work started again, they covered their faces again with the familiar mask. No one questioned that. Maréne had not worn hers for the last seven years, but her uniform was always underneath her casual clothes. They all left their weapons at the Garage whenever they had to go outside. Usually it was Maréne, the boss, who went out: the rest of the team was only glad to stay inside.

Érec ignored her question about the helmet. "No, miss; but there's a young man who wishes to see you, asap."

Maréne felt how her stomach twisted nastily. "A young man?" she repeated, trying to think who that could be. Then Érec described him to her, and Maréne went first all pale, then all red from her face. "Tell him I'm terribly busy and awfully sorry that I can't see him now", she said hastily. Érec's silence was beyond curiousity. Suddenly her cellphone started to ring. They stared at each other for a moment that seemed like an eternity, but finally Érec nodded, retreated and closed the door. Sighing with relief, Maréne answered the phone without even looking at who was calling her. "Alya Maréne of the Garage, how can I help you?" she said in a happy tone that revealed her unhappiness. Soon her smile faded as she recognized the voice of the caller. "You", she said, sounding rather cold. "How did you find me..? What? You've been watching me? You little-! What? No, I don't have time for this now, you-"

"Aah, but Maréne-san, you're in a little debt, now aren't you?"

Maréne stared out of the window. Is one of them somewhere there, right now? Watching me? Listening to me? The sun was setting, its last rays beautifully orange and red, reflected by the roofs of the industrial area. "..I guess so. But it's been years, why now?"

"Ahaha, that's true, very true. Go to Soul Society and meet Ukitake-san and Kyoraku-san to know more."

"Wait! Urahara, you're not in Soul Society now?"

"..Haven't been for years, actually. Hehehe... Anyway, Maréne-san, hurry!"

"Urahara-! Oh, damn him to Hell." Maréne threw the phone back on the table and considered her options. She could forget about her debt and leave the Shinigami to deal with their own affairs. Or she could go and see two Captains Urahara had mentioned, and then reconsider the situation after hearing what they had to say. And what if she didn't go? Gotei 13 could be a great ally - or an enemy. And Maréne was not in the condition to fight them all. Suddenly a thought occured to her mind: what if these strange car accidents were due to something that was happening up there? Or was it just a coincidence? She stood up, placing her palms on the table. It could be a coincidence, or...

"Boss?" It was now Beliánra Vusel', one of the few females in the team. She sounded worried. "The young man is getting impatient, saying that he must see you. That you remind him of someone he used to know."

Maréne made up her mind. Surely whatever Soul Society was facing couldn't be as bad as facing someone who was supposed to think you were dead. She snapped her fingers, disappeared from her office and reappeared in the Garage's part where their own cars were held. The black Hummer was waiting for her, its motor already purring and lights flickering. GOOD DAY, DRIVER, it greeted her. "Yes, yes, shall we go? To Soul Society." She climbed to the driver's seat, and the door closed by itself. The car drove itself backwards as the door with a movement detector opened, drove to the road and turned around. Maréne quickly placed her left hand on the wheel, and her right on the gears. "I'll drive by myself, thank you very much", she told the car. AS YOU WISH, DRIVER. Looking guiltily at the front door, she pushed the gas and drove off, heading to the motorway.

Inside the building in which the Garage was held, Érec and his brother Dére were holding back a young man with black, short hair and green-blue eyes: he was trying to enter Maréne's office by force, but failed - the twins were both tall and muscular, and he was short (compared to the twins) and thin. "Let me in, I know she's there, I gotta see her-" he growled.

But Beliánra turned around and said: "She's not there!"

Silence. The men stopped fighting. "What?" Érec said. "But I just came from there, and she was-"

The three of the team exchanged looks, and Dére crossed his arms around his wide chest. "I see", he said. His brother repeated his words, and both were nodding their heads. The young visitor looked angrier and angrier by the moment, and finally he yelled: "What is it? Where is she?" But they refused to give him any answer, and finally he left, cursing in some weird language as he marched out.

Beliánra looked worried. "Did you hear him?"

"What?" the twins said together, both scratching their heads.

"He just cursed.. with the same words Miss Maréne sometimes does.."

The twins laughed. "You must've misheard him, dear", they said together. But Beliánra was not so sure about that. Wonder where the boss went...