Hey, look! I got around to writing another chapter despite my other ongoing fanfic! To the kind reviewer Naomi Shihoin, you are the only reason I didn't let this turn into another one of this dead one-chapter fics with potential! Assuming this has potential, anyway. I probably jinxed my progress by referring to this as such. Ah, well. On with the show!

-I am a line break, beginning the story-

Hachi is the first one to notice that they might not be out of the clear. The massive man supposes that it's fitting that he be the first one to see the stirrings of an inner monster, seeing as he's the most introspective of the group.

Already he's thinking of the transformed Shinigami as composing a group. If he was completely honest with himself, Hachi would say that he considers them a family. No, something that resembles a family, but isn't. A pack. Perhaps, the pink-haired Kido master thinks to himself, that too is a sign of the change. Before he would never have raised himself to the level of captains, but their shared secret binds the eight together and forges ties that he would be hard-pressed to explain.

The first inkling of trouble comes when Tessai's trusted lieutenant is overseeing the investigation into the strange phenomena of void-tears called Garganta. The Kido Corps are in charge of the senkaimon that bridge worlds, so it's only natural that they notice when energy starts registering from doors that do not go where they should be going. No one goes to Hueco Mundo, save for a unit that failed to return a few centuries back.

The handful of veiled Shinigami traipse through the wilderness of Rukongai, a carefully applied Bakudo muting their spirit power- and spirit sense, conversely- to some extent. The secretive Kido users don't like to advertise their presence when they must leave the equally secret citadel that houses Soul Society's knowledge of the demon arts, accumulated over millennia. Forbidden Kido, Bakudo, Hado, even that which falls under neither discipline, all lies with the Kido Corps.

Hachi doesn't struggle to keep up for once, leading the band deliberately and quietly through the underbrush. As the most senior officer on this assignment, he is responsible for the other Kido specialists and all that they do while under his command.

Soon enough- far too long, but soon enough- the unit arrives at the place where the dark reiatsu was detected. The pink-haired man blinks at the sudden influx of bright sunlight, shading his eyes and discovering through the rough texture that meets the side of his index finger that he missed a spot of blood above his eyebrow. The Kido Corps' lieutenant doesn't trouble himself over it, knowing that soap and water are the best remedy and there isn't really any here.

The unit members fan out around the area, already beginning the chanting and weaving of reiatsu that was Kido. Hachi watches them, examining their workings with his spirit sense and catching the mistakes each made in their incantations and execution of the spells. Finally one flash-steps over to him, looking winded already from the action despite the short distance. Brown eyes look at up at him from beneath the dove-grey veil, and from the short stature and feminine- though barely- figure he guesses that this is 13th Seat Kagurazaki Hisoka. A near-unexpressive girl, excellent at memorization but lacking the drive to master anything but Kido or the passion necessary to fuel stronger techniques.

Hachi blinks down at her. "Yes, Kagurazaki-san?" He asks, hoping for conclusive results. This is the third time this week that he has journeyed through Rukongai in search of Garganta, and it would be rather disappointing if this was another enigma.

Hisoka bows. "We have isolated some of the trace Hollow reiatsu and applied Kido to a few tubes to contain it for later analysis, Hachigen-fukutaicho. However, there appear to be a few points in which the rest of the trace reiatsu is collecting, similar to a vortex. It might be best if you were to further examine these." She glances up at him dully, clearly bored.

The bulky Hollow-Shinigami hybrid represses a sigh of irritation, knowing that it would not be productive to show it. He follows the tiny woman- but there are few people who aren't tiny to Hachi- over to a pear-shaped rock, where his subordinates are laying down a net of Kido that shows a purplish-black bundle of power, similarly colored strands trailing towards its center.

Hachi bends down to the extent that he can and frowns at it, already murmuring the words for a few techniques and stretching out his reiatsu tentatively, withdrawing as soon as he touches it. There is no question about this power that suggests bone-white sands and endless night. It is that of Hueco Mundo.

That is when he hears a slow hissing, unmistakably that of a living being and almost comically deep. But it is not quite comically deep, and that sends every hair on the Kido Corps' lieutenant's body standing on end.

"Home..." it whispers, the sensation like acid to his ears. "Home..."

Hachi starts. Could a Hollow have come through from its blood-soaked home?

"Be on guard, please." He orders. "That hissing could only have come from a Hollow, and it is unwise to be unprepared."

One of the men's eyebrows raise slightly in confusion. "I didn't hear anything." He replies.

Worry and confusion surges in the giant man immediately, squashed down immediately with a calm expression. "Ah, it must have been the wind. Or perhaps an old man's ears deceiving him." Hachi attempts to make a joke, and despite the lack of laughter it does loosen them up. He isn't an old man by Shinigami standards, and the suggestion that he is is one of the oldest jokes in Soul Society's collective book. Only Yamamoto and Unohana are genuinely old, and only the bearded man shows it.

After that, they return at a faster pace. Hachi needs to speak with Urahara, and wasted time is not something that he is sure if he can afford. The pink-haired man leaves the Kido analysis and subsequent distillation of the samples to his subordinates, seeking out the resident mad scientist. Of course, Kurotsuchi Mayuri may well overtake him in the 'mad' aspect of the title. The man is what can only be described as a freakshow, and a rather amoral one at that.

When Hachi enters, ducking to avoid scraping his head on the doorframe, Urahara is there overseeing his squad members- affectionately referred to as minions- and mixing a concoction of his own. The wide smile on his face broadens and dims simultaneously as he spots the rarely-seen man.

"Ah, Hachigen-san!" He cries. "Tessai told me that you might be arriving to discuss the Garganta problems. Please, follow me." The blond leads him through the headquarters and into his office, where Hiyori stands picking at her bitten nails.

"Sarugaki-san, I thought you were helping out Third Seat Kurotsuchi with the filing of notes from his most recent experiment." Urahara says mildly, receiving a jump-kick for his troubles.

"It's boring!" She barks. "I'm not doin' some stupid little chore like that, good-for-nothing!"

The Twelfth Squad's captain pinches his nose, fumbling for a tissue box on his desk before simply settling for his sleeve. "Sorry, sorry, I thought you didn't want to work with chemicals." He apologizes. God only knows if it's genuine or not.

"I don't! Let me go fight someone! It's borin' in this stuffy little lab!" She snaps, pointing at Hachi. "What's he doin' here?"

Hachi bows to her. "Nice to see you again, Lieutenant Sarugaki. I needed to speak with Captain Urahara and he thought it better to conduct the conversation here."

The pigtailed girl snorts. "Don't see what you'd need with this baldy, but go ahead."

Tessai's lieutenant nods and turns to Urahara. "If you don't mind, Captain Urahara, anything that you could to do to limit the travel of sound beyond these walls would be excellent."

The goofy man smiles. "Quiet is my middle name. Urahara Quiet Kisuke. Or Kisuke Quiet Urahara, if you prefer." He taps away at a small tablet on his desk, looking back up when he finishes.

"All set, Hachigen-san. Fire away." The blond leans back against his desk.

"It concerns the events of the cross-division mission recently." Hachi replies hesitantly. "I was investigating a Garganta detection and heard what sounded like hissing when I attempted to examine trace power left behind. A voice, as well, though not Hoi Tsukene. I believe it was saying something like 'Home, home.' My subordinates noticed nothing." Now he permits a frown to cross his face, away from public sight.

A frown crosses Urahara's face as well. "Interesting. I...believe I might have the explanation, if not the solution." He fidgets with the edge of his left sleeve. "Lieutenant Aizen's experiment was not fully reversible, but for a time your Shinigami self was buried in your soul world and you were indeed a Hollow, with a different personality and set of abilities. Those didn't leave you when I used the Hogyoku, but simply traded places with you. The reestablishment of your natural persona and sudden awakening left it very weak. If my predictions are correct, there is a Hollow with strength equal to or greater than your own inside your soul. The voice you heard may have been its voice stirring."

The gigantic man blinks, letting the information roll through his mind and a response roll out of his mouth. "I see. I do not suppose there is a way to silence it, Captain?"

Urahara releases a sigh. "I can't say without personally undergoing Hollowfication, but I do not think so. Attempting to communicate with it through your thoughts may be somewhat effective. Um, Sarugaki-san, have you experienced anything like this?" He asks, eyes flicking down to her face.

"Course not, idiot. I woulda said somethin' otherwise." She scoffs. "Voices, huh? Kubikiri Orochi's annoying enough. I don't really want to deal with anybody else in here." The violent lieutenant says, tapping her head.

They finish up the conversation with a few pleasantries, though the pleasant aspect of it is mostly fulfilled by Urahara and Hachi. The latter Shinigami leaves with a few seeds of trouble beginning to grow in his heart.

As Hachi re-enters the Kido Corps' headquarters, he has the feeling that these next few months will be very unpleasant for the new hybrids.

Very unpleasant indeed.

-I am a line break, ending the story-

So, that was my attempt at writing from Hachigen Ushoda's perspective. Did I capture him adequately? I don't know, since he's hardly a major player in canon. His Zanpakuto's name, according to my meager and perhaps inaccurate sources, means "encircling roots."