Author's note: I do not own Bleach or its characters. This is AU. I am not very familiar with the Bleach anime, and Katen Kyokotsu's personality is based on the manga and my own suppositions.

In the Dark of the Night

Nanao was beginning to think that she had truly lost her mind. Paranoia had definitely gotten the better of her. She should not be sitting in her own apartment with most of the lights and a cup of tea in one hand and a sword in the other. But that was exactly what she was doing. This was like a scene from a bad movie, but Nanao could not talk herself out of sitting here in the dark with the sword.

Every instinct that she had told her that there was someone or something outside the walls of her apartment and it was a threat to her. And Nanao trusted her instincts even if they were currently being ridiculous. There had been too many times when trusting her instincts had kept her out of serious trouble for Nanao to discount them now. But that knowledge didn't really help her mood any. She was pretty much a ball of tension at this point waiting for something, anything, to happen.

This was not exactly how she had planned on spending her birthday. Nanao's fingers absently ran up and down' the blade's sheath. The longer sword lay within reaching distance, but it was the short sword of the set that she clutched in her hands. There was something about having the sword in her hands that was a comfort for Nanao. That was another completely irrational thing she was doing tonight. If it weren't for the fact that Nanao knew this was happening, she would assume this was a scene in a bad supernatural romance novel.

She sighed and closed her eyes. What on earth was she doing? And then her window shattered. Nanao leapt to her feet, overturning her tea cup and drawing the short sword. The man who stood where her window had been was dressed all in white. His brown hair almost touched his shoulders, and he wore a smirk. In his hand was a gun. Nanao's grip on the sword tightened.

He smirked at her. "Give me the swords, little girl, and this can be over with."

Nanao bristled. She did not like being called a little girl. Logically, she knew that she should just give the man the swords. Giving him what he wanted was the safest thing to do in this situation. But she wasn't going to. Nanao found herself completely resistant to the idea of handing over the set of swords. Something in her was unwilling to give up the swords, and in defiance of everything logical, that was what Nanao was going with. Despite the fact that she really had no idea what she was doing.

Her double handed grip on the blade shifted, and Nanao hissed as she caught her skin slight on the blade. It wasn't any worse than a paper cut, but it had drawn blood. The man grimaced.

"Well, that makes things complicated."

Nanao's frown deepened. "What on Earth are you-"

Sweetheart, now is not the time for this.

A warm tenor voice resounded in her head. Nanao frantically looked around for another person.

The swords, dear. Katen Kyokotsu is my name. I'm a sword spirit. Now let me help you.

It almost felt like someone was standing behind her, showing her how to stand and how to grip the sword.

Help should be on the way. We just have to hold Stark off for a little longer. You're doing great, sweetheart.

Nanao wasn't entirely sure what exactly that meant, but she hoped he was right. Either that or that she had fallen asleep, and this was a dream. Nanao was rather hoping for the latter. Especially when two more men appeared in her window. One of them flashed her a smile.

"Do you really want to deal with the two of us tonight, Stark?" the white haired man asked.

Toss the longer sword to Shunsui. He's the dark haired one.

Nanao followed the sword's instructions, and Shunsui caught the longer sword of the set easily. He smirked at Stark.

"If we're going to do this, Stark, we really should take it out of the lady's home."

Stark just shrugged. "Maybe another time."

And the man just disappeared. Right into thin air. The two remaining men turned their attention to Nanao. Shunsui moved towards her.

"Are you all right?"

Nanao did something she never would have expected from herself. She fainted.