Again, thanks to Totoromo, and remember to check out their stories.

It was maybe 20 minutes before Renji came back after Hikari had come back from lunch herself. She had taken a stack of papers off his desk to work on, and smiled up at Renji. He saw her, stopped in his tracks, and turned around to walk out. She assumed he had something else to do.

She had finished all the papers she could by herself by the time she usually left, which was still quite early, maybe 4 or so. She liked to be engaged, even if it was something as menial and tedious as paperwork. She collected herself and headed out. She didn't bother saying goodbye to anybody else; she didn't quite enjoy bothering others in her division. While leaving, she heard Nanao Ise in her Captain's office, yelling about how she didn't want to be a test subject for some 'libido enhancing' serum Mayuri was creating.

She headed out into the neatly kept gardens of the 1st Division. Every Division had four grounds that were common in each one; the main offices, barracks, training grounds, and the gardens. Now, not all Divisions took care of their gardens, especially the 11th Division. But, the 6th, 1st, and 3rd took theirs seriously and even had members designated as groundskeepers of sorts. Hikari spent a lot of time in the 1st Divisions gardens since they had a large variety of species, and the fact it was massive.

She greeted each of the low ranking members as she passed them, being polite. Reaching the spot that was as close to the middle of the maze-like of the gardens as she liked, she sat down on the ornate bench placed there. Admiring the flora, she smiled before reaching into her robes to take out a velvet bag full of bird seed. She spread some on the ground, waiting for the birds to come. She did this when she had nothing better to do, which was quite frequent.

Shinigami not a part of the stealth force wore uniforms that were typically loose. She kept her inner shitagi on tight, but let her hakama and kosode stay loose on her frame. As she rolled up her sleeve, she put some of the seed on her arm and hand, holding it out. She couldn't do bird calls, but she had done this enough that the birds took that as a symbol meaning she wanted a bird to come closer.

She sighed when they all looked at her, but left suddenly. She didn't know why, but she stayed in that position, expecting them to just be playing a game. You're kinda stupid, Hikari, kid. They probably felt a spiritual pressure or something else that scared them. They ain't coming back. She snickered at her rude zanpakuto, who chirped up when birds or a thunderstorm were near. 'I don't feel a spiritual pressure-' She was cut off by her own subconscious. Frankly, you suck at paying attention to your surroundings. You're lucky you have me; otherwise you would've never graduated. She frowned; Raichou was partially correct.

Bickering with her zanpakuto was futile, as it was her own subconscious that she was letting go uncontrolled, so she gave up and remained quiet for a while. A few moments later she heard a loud and fierce call of sorts. She looked up and, for some reason, down, behind her, and everywhere else until she got up and, with her bag of bird seed falling out and spilling its contents, a large stellar eagle swooped onto her arm. It drove its beak into her arm, attempting to fly off. Its beak was caught in her arm where the bird seed was earlier, and adding in the flailing panicked movements of Hikari, was struggling to get off. It finally tore its beak out, blood spilling out as Hikari lay on the ground.

The time it took being stuck in Hikari's arm, before the realization and subsequently pain arose, allowed her to recognize the keer she heard and the eagle embedded into her arm was a red-tailed hawk… so not an eagle at all.

Gasping for air, as it was knocked out of her when she fell to the ground, she tried to stand; nothing was comprehensible beyond that point. She couldn't make out any thoughts, and couldn't understand what her zanpakuto was saying, or rather, screaming. She stood up after she shook her head to clear it.

Her frown remained when she examined her arm. It wasn't too bad, but pieces of flesh were hanging out and she could see it was pretty deep. She knew she should've started wearing those arm guards everybody else wore.

She sighed for the umpteenth time that day, picked up her velvet bag, and packed it back into her shitagi. She headed towards the 4th Division. All the groundskeepers, err, low-ranked shinigami, gaped at the wound on her arm. She didn't really have any feeling, so she couldn't say she was wincing in pain. She was trying to apologize to them about the fact she was tracking blood everywhere, but she stopped when she saw Renji, Captain Yamamoto, and another Lieutenant that Hikari couldn't recognize in front of the main office building.

Heading over there, it garnered attention first from Captain Yamamoto. Shaking his head, he said nothing, but the two other lieutenants turned to see what exactly was more interesting than their exploits. "What the hell happened to you?" The unidentifiable lieutenant asked; she assumed he was hanging around Renji because they both wore sunglasses. She just shrugged, causing some of the blood to squirt out with the movement of her muscles. She resisted the urge to laugh, the little noise and small squirt of blood just fueled her underdeveloped sense of humor. "I think a hawk attacked me. It happened fast, so I'm not certain. I'm heading to get medical treatment right now, so don't worry." She nodded along with herself, beginning on her journey to the 4th Division.

'How the hell do you not know if a hawk attacked you or not?!' the same thought went through the three man's heads.

"Lieutenant Abarai, accompany this awfully clumsy youngster. Lieutenant Iba, we can discuss matters further, inside. Follow," Yamamoto ordered, going inside the office. Hikari didn't stop walking; Yamamoto used every opportunity to make things awkward for her. He had 'assigned' many different people to stay with her, as he knew she wasn't a socialable person. She wasn't clumsy either, just… unlucky. No, you're clumsy. Also a bit unlucky. I heard it's common for people with blue eyes.

The trip to the 4th Division seemed exceedingly longer than it really was; Renji kept trying to start a conversation, but Hikari didn't know that. Her answers, if she answered at all, were a bit off-putting. He quickly derailed in terms of topics; it started with apologies for his actions earlier as he was not a 'morning person'.

"You know, I can never seem to find the cute shinigami, 'cause everybody says they're locked up in the first division doin' paperwork. But, from what I've seen, all you have are creepy old men and ugly girls." Renji stuck his nose up in disgust, and Hikari just shrugged. Although he was likely just looking for some sort of reaction, Hikari just gave a small, obviously forced smile.

"Does your arm hurt?" Renji kept trying to talk; Hikari nodded silently.

"It feels like it's kinda numb." Hikari held up her arm closer to her face, "And it also smells like Harlan's Hawk." Her eyes narrowed, and then she quickly swiped her arm down to her side, splattering blood on the ground as her pace increased. She had a fierce look upon her face. Renji had a confused one.

Renji was not shy of blood, nor was Hikari, but the way she treated it once they were in the 4th Division was…. well, he had no words for it. The 4th Division officer attending to Hikari did, however. "That's creepy. Really, you shouldn't be doing that…" the man was trying to convince Hikari, but she kept on painting pictures with her blood.

At first, Renji found the stick figure she drew to be a bit funny, and when she must have drawn inspiration from his desk carvings earlier by drawing a hollow, he found it also funny.

But by the time half of the captains and lieutenants in the Seireitei were drawn against an epic amount of hollows, his face drained. As did Hikari's, but for a different reason.

She merely shook her head, finding the suggestion to stop to be foolish.

Eventually she did quit her crude depictions of total war, facing her temporary lieutenant as the officer finished bandaging her arm. He grabbed for a rag, but Hikari took it instead. "Allow me to clean up the mess, it's fine." Not even bothering to see the officer throw his hands up and leave- as Hikari was difficult when she needn't be, and there were much more important shinigami to attend to than her.

"Lieutenant Abarai, you can go. I'll report to Captain Yamamoto later today. You don't have to stick around here." Hikari smudged away the depicted war, and was surprised to not hear him get up.

"No, the Captain told me to accompany you, and I will accompany you back." Renji didn't mince his words, and Hikari simply shrugged. She enjoyed the silent company.

The walk back to the 1st Division was a quiet one for Hikari- she walked briskly while Renji walked casually, saying hi to the familiar faces that passed by him. Hikari stopped and Renji slowly walked up to stand beside her; she was about at his shoulders. Her head hung down.

After a second, she looked back up, shivering. Renji didn't let this go unnoticed, and he looked down at her. "Hm? Is everything alright, 3rd Seat?" He asked her, and she didn't immediately answer his inquiry.

A large, almost wicked, smile spread across her face, and she stared up, looking at the clouds gathering into the horizon. "Lieutenant Abarai, excuse me, it's just that we haven't had too many thunderstorms lately and the one coming now looks promising."

Her walk began again, this time at a quicker pace- she was excited and lively. Renji shrugged and kept up with her- it was just a storm to him.

"Oh, and Lieutenant Abarai, thanks for taking me to the 4th Division. Hey, do you want to go pull a prank on 11th Division? If you tear up one of Yachiru's uniforms and leave them in a trail towards the 12th, Captain Zaraki will go crazy and wreck the place!" Hikari was excited; she hadn't done that since last year's Lieutenant Switch Week when she became good friends with Yachiru.

Renji grinned.

Oh yay, it's finally finished. Now your life is complete, correct?

Oh, it isn't…?

Anyways, thank you for reading and I hope you continue to do so! Also- this chapter has been revised to better fit into the Bleach canon.