Chapter 4

Hanatarou: Brave and caring soul albeit a bit too harsh at times.

Kenpachi: With a little work someone I'll be threatening Hisagi in order to get her in my division.

Yumichika: Hn, rather pretty fighting. Definitely interesting.

Yachiru: Spikey!!!!!

Hisagi: *retract former definition and will hold out until later*

He backed up slowly and felt himself bump into a wall – why did they have so many routes that led to dead ends in seretei and why did he always end up there when faced by drunken and bored squad elevens? - He was scared as hell, 'why can't Unohana taichou take a walk in this direction.' He thought as struggled to find an escape route from the group of very drunk eleven-division shinigami that staggered towards him, each reeking of alcohol to an unheard of level.

Tatsuki ran into another dead end, grabbing her hair in frustration she yelled, "Who designed this place? A fucking nostalgic lab rat?!"

She heard a muffled sound.

Tatsuki looked up and saw a dark haired boy dangling upside down, his mouth taped shut and his arms taped to his side. The girl was speechless; never would she have even imagined such a scenario. "Stop squirming;" Tatsuki sighed as she leapt onto the building roof, "it'll only tighten the ropes." The boy obediently stopped moving around.

Hanatarou was glad to be untied and on the ground – most of al he was glad to be the right way up. "T-thank you." He stuttered. Tatsuki furrowed her brows,

"How did you end up there?" she asked, Hanatarou fidgeted uneasily

"I was, um…" he looked at the ground and shuffled his feet uneasily "err…" Tatsuki sighed,

"It's ok." She snapped Hanatarou relaxed visibly

"Thank you." He said again.

"Yeah, sure." Tatsuki replied as she continued running to her destination.

Perhaps she could have been a bit nicer to him she thought as she ran towards the training area, but she was still pretty sour about being suspended, plus what was she going to do with all that spare time?

Apparently saving Hanatarou.

Tatsuki was marginally annoyed when she found Hanatarou, the next day, in the sewer with the ladder ripped away – he just stuttered his way out of it when she asked what happened.

She was more annoyed when she found him, the day after that, covered in feathers and hanging from a building, again, he stutter-dodged her question.

She was angry when she found him in three different situations in one day; her anger only grew when he was unable to say more than 'um…'

Her next two weeks were spent untying, helping out, loosening, setting free, de-feathering and basically saving the fourth squad member. She was furious but hid it well; under that calm exterior Tatsuki, who could not stand bullying, was ready to punch something or someone.

She walked aimlessly through the maze she had grown rather accustomed to, "What should we do today?" she heard a hoarse voice say, ignoring it she turned round a corner but took a few steps back when she heard another voice say,

"Seems like someone has been letting this little sewer rat out."

She followed the voice as silently as she could, she could feel Hanatarou spirit energy pulsing like mad, as well as four other larger spirit energies. "Baka." She muttered as she quickened her pace.

"What the hell is going on?!" Tatsuki demanded to the back of the shinigami who had cornered Hanatarou, they ignored her

"Are you too dense to answer a simple question?!" she yelled, weeks worth of anger was surfacing. The men turned to her; all of them were larger than she was by far and wore menacing scowls but Tatsuki stood her ground.

"Are you the idiots who have been causing me so much trouble this week?"

She asked, she was fuming, "do you know how much of my time has been spent getting Hanatarou out of those childish and stupid situations you put him in?!"

Tatsuki yelled, "I mean come on! Feathers?!" she lowered her head so her eyes were hidden,

"Now leave Hanatarou alone and if I see you so much as scowling at him I'll kick your asses so hard you'll be pulling your asses out of your ribcage!"

The men burst out laughing, "The sewer rat got himself a little girlfriend!" Hanatarou blushed violently; Tatsuki didn't even look up; balling her hand into fists she said in a low and menacing tone

"You are entitled to be as un-evolved and dense as you wish, just don't pick or anyone." She looked up at them, her eyes shining with anger and determination,

"Or I swear I'll beat you up… every single one of you."

The men continued laughing, "Ha! A little girlie like you beat us up? You're not even a seated officer!"

Tatsuki smirked, "I know, but me being an unseated officer does not change the fact that you are weak, pathetic half-wits – leaving how you became seated officers a mystery."

The men were angry.

They cracked their knuckles and glared at her threateningly "weak huh?" they asked.

Tatsuki folded her arms and nodded, "yes, weak, and don't forget stupid."

"Take out your zanpaktou." One man commanded in a hoarse voice, "We're going to fight fair – like real squad elevens."

Tatsuki rolled her eyes "Yes, bullying hanatarou is the definition of fair." She said sarcastically. Then added, "Plus, there's no reason for me to bother my zanpaktou with such a useless battle."

Two captains, a vice-captain, a third seat and a fifth seat both watched the small framed girl beat up four seated squad elevens with only hand-to-hand combat,

"She fights beautifully." The fifth seat said as he watched in fascination, "her hand to hand combat is like an art." One of the captains grinned through out the rather short battle – if it could be called a battle, considering the girl was not hit once

"Ken-chan is smiling!" the pink haired vice-captain grinned, "Ken-chan would be happy if he fought her!"

The other captain frowned. Before the battle was over he rose to his feet and shunpoed away.

"Oi, where did Hisagi go?" Ikkaku asked.

Yumichika shrugged.

The captain of the sixth division stood silently on a hill on the outskirts of seretei. "Was I really wrong?"

He looked up to the sky. The sun was setting and thus the sky was now a brilliant canvas of orange, yellow and red.

Arisawa was really something else. She had enviable ideals and was generally an enigma.

He let out a deep breath; he knew what he would do.

Starting tomorrow he was going to take a page from her book and give her the benefit of the doubt – or at least he was going to try.

Damn Ukitake and his stupid guilt trips.

A/N: Finally got it up. Final exams are hell. =-_-=