Ise Nanao knocked on the door of Byakuya's office, the sound echoing angrily down the hall, as she entered the open room where the captain and Kotetsu Isane where waiting with Renji, Matsumoto, and the three miscreants. She looked annoyed, which was hardly surprising given the message she had gotten from one of the three hell butterflies he had sent minutes before. More so then normal, he mentally corrected, thinking of how often he had seen the cool and reserved vice captain looking annoyed at some of her captain's antics. Not that he was any less annoyed. Since his assignment to the Sixth division, Ito Hideaki had given his captain more headaches than any single other recruit had ever managed, to the point where Byakuya had drawn up the papers for his transfer earlier in the week, ready to wash his hands of the man if he was caught violating division policies even one more time.

"You needed me for something, Kuchiki-teicho." Nanao asked, her voice remaining completely and utterly neutral as she announced herself.

"Yes, it appears there is an incident that involved one of your division members. Abarai-fuiteicho and Matsumoto-fuiteicho were the two who found the three of them. We were waiting until you arrived to hear the full story. Ito Hideaki, do you wish to begin by explaining your role in these events?"

"Yes, teicho. I was walking back to the division after going on an errand when I aw Fukui and Oshiro heading off in front of me. I was speaking with them, and when it was clear that Oshiro was planning on engaging in some sort of inappropriate behavior which I had hoped that she have outgrown after leaving the Academy, I criticized her, thinking that she might be able to see how badly it would reflect on her division if she was found out. Fukui took offense at my comments and started a fight with me, presumably because he was involved in whatever sort of plans Oshiro had for this evening."

Ito did not bother to hide the smirk on his face as he concluded, but the rest of his mannerisms smacked of deference to a superior officer. And yet there was something about the whole incident that told Byakuya that it was all patently false. Not that any of it would be a lie. No, Ito had far too much sense to lie to him about this, not only because he feared being caught lying to a captain, but he would also have to lie to the head of another noble house, one who could report the behavior to his father. Still, he was willing to bet that there was a good bit more to the story than what Ito had said. The slight frown that Isane wore and the line forming between Nanao's eyebrows gave him a confirmation of sorts that they were just as suspicious of Ito's report.

Isane turned and looked at her subordinate, who was sitting stock upright in his seat, looking more like an angry adolescent than a ranked officer, as he clearly fought to control his temper. "Fukui Kouki, is that true? Did you lose your temper and start a fight with Ito Hideaki?"

"Yes, fuiteicho. I started the fight."

"Was it, as Ito claims, because of his comments towards Oshiro Mei?"

"Well, yes, but not -"

Isane cut him off. "Fukui, I do not wish to hear excuses or any other such nonsense. Please, just answer the question. Why did you attack Ito Hideaki?"

Kouki hesitated for a second. "Do I have permission to speak freely then, fuiteicho?"

Isane looked momentarily confused and then let out a very exasperated sigh. "Of course you can, as long as it is relevant to the answer. Now, will you please explain?"

"I hit him because he was harassing Oshiro Mei, the same way that he has been for five years now because he cannot stand the idea that she might be able to refuse him. And I lost my temper, yes, because I was tired of watching my best friend dealing with this day in and day out. So, yes, Ito spoke the truth when he said I hit him because of what he said to Oshiro Mei. But they were most certainly criticisms for inappropriate behavior, unless walking with a friend to dinner has become such a thing."

Byakuya looked up slightly. "You have made your point, Fukui." He turned then, letting his eyes join the other six pairs that were already fixed on Oshiro Mei, staring at her. She looked like a statue, sitting perfectly still with her hands folded in her lap and her head bowed solemnly, waiting for the questions that she had to know would be coming. "Accusing a ranked officer of conduct inappropriate to their station is a serious offense, if it is in fact true. Oshiro Mei, what were you doing when Ito Hideaki found you?"

"I was walking to supper with Kouki when Ito caught up with us."

"I see. Then please tell us what led up to the fight tonight."

Oshiro looked up startled. "Kuchiki-teicho, excuse me, but I need to be clear on this. Do you only want the events of tonight or everything that lead up to that?"

The captain looked levelly in the girls' face. "I wish to hear whatever lead up to the fight between Ito Hideaki and Fukui Kouki this evening."

Oshiro began to speak, her gaze focused on her hands, still gathered in her lap. "I had gone for a walk to the Fourth division, hoping to speak with Kouki when he was off duty. He was heading out of his division when I saw him, and I had hoped that he would be free enough to have dinner with me so that we could talk. I had suggested this to him around the time that Ito saw us as he was heading through the gates of this division. I have had incidents with Ito in the past, at the Academy, and so I decided to continue walking after he addressed me rather than confront him. He followed us though, trying to continue the conversation. From there, I did not see what actually happened, but it resulted in the chain of my mother's necklace snapping. I was rather panicked over this, and when I saw that Ito had the necklace, I asked him to give it back. When he did not, Kouki pulled rank and asked for it back. He threw it at me, and I was bent over to pick it up when I noticed something odd about a foot in front of me. I looked up to see what it was and saw Kouki punch Ito."

Byakuya and Nanao both gave Oshiro an odd sort of measuring look in response to her reply. There was none of the deception that had been in Ito's report, only an odd detail that had caught the captain's attention as she was giving the report.

"Are you sure that is everything that lead up to the fight?"

"Yes, Kuchiki-teicho. The block I did to aniki happened after the fight had ended."

Byakuya passed a hand over his forehead and shoved his confusion at the last comment to the back of his mind. That could be dealt with later. For now, he needed to focus on the matter at hand. "You said that you had had encounters with Ito in the past that lead up to this. Can you explain these encounters?"

Oshiro sat quietly for a second, plainly reluctant to answer the question. Byakuya was about to repeat his request when the girl started to talk.

"I had been in the Academy for a few months, when Ito decided to date me. Ordinarily, I might have dealt better with it, or even accepted his offer. But I was still in mourning for my father and great-grandmother, and under the circumstances, I refused. When he decided to push the issue," Oshiro Mei shrugged. "As I said, maybe I should have reacted better, but I am my father's daughter. And he no longer forced the issue after I blackened his eye for him. However, since it was after the hand-to-hand training session had ended for the day, Mowe-sensei needed to address the issue in his office."

Nanao looked up sharply, the light reflecting off her glasses creating an unnerving glare as she moved, facing where Byakuya where he was sitting behind the desk, before turning back to her subordinate. "Oshiro, are you sure about that? There was no report of any such an incident in your records when you were transferred into the Eighth division."

"I do not know what was actually written, but I know that Mowe-sensei told me that if I ever did such a thing again, that I would be written up for lying as well as for starting a fight. I got off with a warning as it was. I do not remember what Ito's punishment was."

Nanao took off her glasses and turned until she was facing Ito with her hands on her hips. Without her glasses on, it was clear that her expression was no trick of the light, but that she was truly glaring at Ito. Byakuya knew that the unranked shinigami did not have a chance against Nanao's glare, not when he had seen Kurotsuchi Mayuri withered by the same expression. "It appears you are the only other witness to this, since Mowe was removed from his office last month. Were you at the meeting that Oshiro Mei just mentioned?"

This time the deference was utterly complete, tinged with a sort of abject terror of the petite vice-captain. "Y-y-yes, I-Ise-fuiteicho. H-He told her that she had to b-b-be lying because I w-would not d-d-do t-t-that to a l-lady, in spite of how l-l-lowborn h-her m-mother w-w-was."

Nanao polished her glasses and replaced them. The answer fit what everyone in Soul Society had learned this past month after Mowe had been caught using experimental kidou to seduce a student. This would hardly be the first time since that had come out that they had heard of incident reports being altered or omitted from the student records. Especially if he had believed that there was a chance that he could use that as leverage to coerce the student into his bed the next time they were in trouble. She took a second and looked at Oshiro Mei who was sitting perfectly still, as if she could avoid the truth being spoken by simply not moving, not breathing and and Byakuya realized that Nanao was trying to see her as a man would. Maybe it should have been hard to see the tomboy as an attractive woman, or it would have been if she had not seen her captain flirting with so many women. Not the sort of teasing he did with her and had done to Lisa before her, but truly flirting for the intention of bedding the girl. And even shaken, with the white under robe showing between the tattered black of her kimono, it was clear that she was handsome enough for a good many men to try to talk her into bed with them. In fact, looking at the dark blue eyes and black curling hair framing her face just enough to soften it into a pleasant heart shaped frame, he found that he was slightly surprised, regardless of the fact she was part of his division, that Kyoraku had not made even slightest overture or flirtation towards the girl, and then felt guilty about his assumption. The captain had never been anything less than a gentleman to Rukia or many of the other young women in Soul Society. Still, the girl was very pretty and Byakuya could imagine just what sort of rumors that Ito had conjured up to hurt Oshiro Mei, especially if Mowe had helped him with their creation. He wished right then that he did not need to ask and hurt the girl further. However, he needed to hear her say it if any action was to be taken in this matter.

"Oshiro Mei, what was the nature of the rumors that Ito Hideaki was spreading about you?"

Her voice was completely calm, almost emotionless as she spoke. "He said that I would sleep with anyone, whether they paid or not, because I was Minami Chika's daughter. And since there were many people who believed my mother to be a whore, well, how could I be less?" She sounded so level, so completely uncaring, that anyone who was not looking at her might have thought the rumors meant nothing to her, or they would until they saw the way her hands were shaking or the tears that were streaming down her face as she spoke.

"And the incidents stopped after that?"

Oshiro began shaking her head, and the calm strength that had been holding her together broke, forcing the words out of her mouth in a frantic sort of jumble. "No. I thought it would stop. I hoped it had when nothing happened for the next few months. But then it started again, and it was worse, because this time, it was not just Ito, but Mowe-sensei who was trying as well. And I could have fought with Ito and not given a damn, but I couldn't fight Mowe-sensei, not with just how much I stood to lose from even trying. So I said nothing, not until the last seven months there when it started to get bad again. I tried not to, but she found me in the hall right after I had come out of his office, and she would not let me lie to her. So I told her, but then everything went wrong and she never got a chance to report it. And afterwards, there was no chance of anyone coming that I could report it to."

Everyone sat in stunned silence for a moment; the sound of Oshiro's sobs the only noise in the room. There was nothing that they could say to her, nothing that they could do to make her words untrue. She was right. There had been no one who she could report to, no one who could have done anything. Not even the woman she had reported it to, the same woman who had spent so much of her time since then healing in the Fourth division, because Byakuya was sure even without looking at the records just who it was who had tried to comfort Oshiro in the hall that day, who had been the last shinagami to go to the Academy with a message before Rukia's arrest.

Hinamori Momo, vice-captain of the Fifth division.

There was a strangled sound from behind Byakuya's chair a second before his vice captain spoke. "Goddammit to hell, Mei-chan, what the fuck made you let it go so long before you took it to anyone?"

"Aniki, I know you wanted to protect me, but you there are some things you can't do. You couldn't protect me from my father's death, and you couldn't protect me from this."

"Fine. I'll even admit that makes sense in a way, but you could have told someone and the rumors would have stopped. The Eleventh division pretty much watched you grow up. Do you think Ikkaku or Yumichika would have believed it? Hell, do you think Yachiru wouldn't have made sure every last being in Soul Society from the Captain Commander down knew just what was being said."

"The only reason they would have defended me is because I am Oshiro Donan's daughter. Of course they would defend the daughter of their old seventh seat, especially anyone who had been around after the Hollow attack that killed my father. You should know that, ani - Abarai-fuiteicho." The sobbing was gone, and her voice was once again steady, beginning to gain strength from her anger as she argued with Renji.

Matsumoto interrupted. "If you believe that, then why not take it to me? Or to your captain and vice-captain? No one in the Tenth believes those rumors. And do you really think that you would not have known if they had gone through the Eighth? It is not your fault that this happened. Not your fault that it was Hinamori-fuiteicho who you told. But next time, say something."

Byakuya held up his hand. "Let us get back to the issue at hand. In light of what has just been said, I cannot decide just who is to blame for the fight tonight. However, Ito Hideaki, you were warned of what would happen the next time you instigated an event. The papers are already in place for your transfer out of the Sixth division. Please return to your quarters and gather your belongings so that you will be ready to leave in the morning."

He turned and looked at Fukui Kouki. "While by your own admission, you started the fight, it appears that it was a provoked attack. I will leave your punishment to your vice-captain and captain. Now, unless you saw the incident between Abarai-fuiteicho and Oshiro Mei, please return to your own division.

"I saw the incident, Kuchiki-teicho."

Isane nodded and moved to the door, "Then, I will be returning to my division. Unless you need anything, Kuchiki-teicho?"

Byakuya shook his head. "No, that is fine, Kotetsu-fuiteicho. I am sure that you will be of more use to Unohana-teicho than you would be sitting and listening to what Fukui witnessed."

The silver haired woman nodded again and left, heading back to her division and the wounded that were waiting for her there.

"All right. Now, Abarai-fuiteicho, do you care to explain what Oshiro Mei did after the fight?"

Renji shook his head. "I'll be damned if I know, teicho, and that is the truth. She wasn't using kidou or her zanpakuto, so the closest I can come is fucking weird shit with that."

Byakuya gave his vice-captain an odd look. "What precisely do you mean by that, Abarai?"

"I mean that she put up her arm to block, thinking I was trying to attack her and managed to grab a hold of my fucking rieatsu. That is not possible. So, yeah, I meant what I said. Fucking weird shit."

Byakuya looked at Fukui and Matsumoto. "Did both of you see this as well?"

Matsumoto answered "Yes, Kuchiki-teicho" completely matter of factly and Fukui nodded, a sudden jingling catching his attention.

"Oh, I nearly forgot! Your locket, Mei."

He held out his hand, and Nanao stopped him. "There is a strong kidou on this necklace which is fading very quickly. Kuchiki-teicho, is there any workroom in your division that I can use to see what sort of spell it was that bound this locket?"

"Yes, I will show you where it is."

Nanao looked at where Oshiro Mei was still sitting. "Oshiro, please return to your quarters. I will deal with any punishment you receive once I am finished with this."

Oshiro bowed and walked out the door, heading back as Fukui parted and went the other way, back to his own barracks, while both vice-captains flash stepped behind her, one to her own division, and one to deliver the delayed message to the Thirteenth division.