Sixth and Nanao stared at the paper in front of them, then at each other, then down at the paper again. It lay across the desk, exuding the silent menace of a viper. The black letters looked like the tracks of some small, rabid beast.

"Does he know?" asked Sixth.

"Not yet."

"We have to tell him."

"Yes."

The two women looked at each other.

"Flip a coin?" asked Sixth hopefully.

Nanao sighed. Much as she would love to pull rank and foist it off on Sixth, she was the Vice-Captain, and with rank came responsibility… "I'll take care of it."

"You're a saint," said Sixth, edging for the door before Nanao could change her mind. "I've always said."

"You've never said," said Nanao, amused despite herself.

"Well, now I'll start."

Nanao picked up the papers, gritted her teeth, opened her senses to that particular flamboyant and slightly drunken aura, and went to go find her captain.

She found him up on the roof, stretched out full length in the sun along the edge, his hat pulled down over his eyes.

"Captain?"

He pushed the hat up, saw her standing on the lower roofline, and wiggled around so that he could drop his head over the side and peer at her upside-down, right at eye-level. "Nanao-chan! You're even more lovely inverted. Have you come to join me in a nap?"

Nanao felt her lips twitch, and fought it back, surprised at herself.

"HA!" Shunsui leveled a finger at her. "That was a smile, Nanao-chan, don't deny it."

"Sir?" She struggled to keep her face deadpan.

"My Nanao-chan has a lovely smile. It's a pity it has such a short half-life…" He sighed.

"Sir." She held up her stack of papers. "I suspect you will not be feeling like smiling shortly."

"Oh?"

"There has been an…incident…requiring your attention."

He frowned. "The way you say 'incident' fills me with dread…"

"Rightly so, sir. It appears that last night, several members of the Eighth were involved in an altercation at a local drinking establishment."

"Well, they do that…" He smiled lopsidedly. "Who was it with?"

"The Ninth and the Eleventh, sir." She consulted her papers. "Well, mostly the Ninth. There appears to have been only one member of the Eleventh, but he did a disproportionate amount of property damage."

"They're crazy like that." Shunsui grinned at her. "What was it about?"

Nanao sighed. "Reason given was protecting a lady's honor, sir."

"'At's my squad!" He beamed at the world in general and her in specific.

"Unfortunately, the lady in question was Vice-Captain Nemu. Sir."

Shunsui's face took on a sudden pinched expression. "Oh, no…"

"Oh, yes." Nanao pushed her glasses up. "Captain Mayuri arrived shortly afterwards."

Without taking his eyes off her face, Shunsui reached down, grabbed his sake bottle, and took a slug.

"All present then took exception to the way that he was addressing his subordinate…"

"Well, you can't blame them for that, Nanao-chan. I sometimes want to smack the man myself."

"Indeed, sir. Apparently your squad shared that desire, and took action upon it."

A faint whimper escaped Shunsui's lips, but was rapidly drowned under another belt of sake.

"Captain Mayuri apparently felt that the best way to handle the situation was to release his bankai and gas the entire building."

Shunsui put a hand over his eyes. "How many of ours in the hospital?" he asked wearily.

"Five released with minor injuries, three are still in, pending observation. You've got time to go and—damn!"

Before she'd finished speaking, Shunsui had rolled to his feet and vanished. Nanao cursed and gave chase. Her range with flash wasn't as good as his, so it took her a few minutes longer to arrive at the infirmary, by which time he'd charmed his way past the attendants. She exchanged a brief, wry glance with Captain Unohana and followed in his wake.

Nanao waited patiently while he checked on his three injured. He scolded them in an appropriately authoritarian manner for disrupting the peace, and then, just when Nanao was holding out a shred of hope for the dignity of her division, grinned and said "Good job, guys."

Nanao sighed. The three injured members of Eighth looked as proud as if they'd been hurt fighting Hollows.

Par for the course, I suppose…

"Well," Shunsui said, a few minutes later, flipping through the charts supplied by Fourth, "looks like no long-term harm done. Thanks for letting me know, Nanao-chan." He began to stroll away.

Nanao planted a hand in the middle of his chest, a little surprised at her own daring, and said icily "Sir."

He looked down at the hand, then back up at her face. "Nanao-chan?" There was an undertone to his voice that was not precisely suggestive, but could get there in a hurry.

"Sir, there is still the matter of Captain Mayuri."

He got a hunted look. "Err…can't my lovely and diplomatic Vice-Captain handle that…?"

Nanao exhaled. "Your lovely and diplomatic Vice-Captain has, in fact, handled most of it, sir. I have managed to persuade Captain Mayuri that the Eighth is not available to test something called "ulceration gas." However—" she folded her arms and stared at him over the top of her glasses, "—he requires an apology. In person. From you."

"It's a trap!" said Shunsui, clutching the edges of his hat. "He'll use me for unspeakable experiments, and not the fun kind!"

"Sir."

"You have to protect me, Nanao-chan! The man's mad! Deranged!"

There's a lot of that going around… "Sir, need I remind you that you could annihilate both me and Captain Mayuri without breaking a sweat, if you chose?"

"I'd never do anything like that." Shunsui looked hurt. "Really, Nanao-chan, you start annihilating people and it never ends. I'm surprised at you."

"Sorry, sir. Regardless, you have just enough time to go see Captain Mayuri and apologize before your next general staff meeting."

"Is it an important staff meeting?"

"I believe Sixth noted it in your calendar as "Don't blow this one off!" in red ink, and put little arrows pointing to it, sir."

"Oh, that staff meeting…"

"Sir." She folded her arms.

"You'll come with me, Nanao-chan?" he asked, giving her his best puppy-dog expression. "In case he's in one of those..you know…probe…moods?"

Nanao took her glasses off and cleaned them, which was just about enough time for her finely trained mind to excise that particular mental image. "As you wish, sir."


Twelth Division was always darker than the rest of the divisions for some odd reason. All the lighting was from video monitors and things glowing in the background, and Mayuri had been conducting some kind of experiment involving human tolerance of theramin music for the last twenty years, which gave the place a certain ambiance. Unspeakable things crawled in the corners, some of them on the payroll.

Nanao led the way briskly, forcing her Captain to keep up with her or be abandoned to the mercy of the theramins.

They found Captain Mayuri and the silent Nemu in one of the test chambers. Mayuri was glaring at a monitor and growling something into the intercom about acceptable test parameters. Nemu sat with inhuman stillness in one corner, only blinking occasionally, very slowly, like a lizard.

"Captain Mayuri," said Nanao, bowing politely.

"Hmm? Oh, it's you." Mayuri turned away from the monitors and fixed his white-eyed stare on Shunsui. "Well?"

Shunsui was staring through the one-way mirror on the far wall with a faintly sick expression. "Are those kittens?"

"Not anymore," said Mayuri, with definite satisfaction. He flipped a switch and the mirror went opaque. "Now, then…"

There was a lengthy silence. Nanao nudged Shunsui in the ribs with her elbow, which wasn't precisely regulation, but you did what you had to do. "Sir."

"Oh. Um. Right." Shunsui cleared his throat. "Uh. Terribly sorry, Mayuri, bit of a mess, you know how it is…"

"I do not know how it is," said Mayuri icily. "If any of my squad causes a public spectacle, I harvest their organs. Discipline, Captain Kyouraku. Your squad is sorely lacking in it."

"Oh, well…" Shunsui tried his puppy-dog look on Mayuri and Nanao had to look away. "I am sorry. Err…I assume Vice-Captain Nemu's okay…?"

Mayuri waved off the question. "Acceptable." He paused, eyes traveling over Nanao. "Your new Vice-Captain. We met earlier, didn't we?"

"My lovely Nanao-chan, yes…"

Nanao inclined her head.

"Hmm. She seems civilized enough, for one of yours. Have you considered having her cloned?"

Shunsui paused, mouth open. "Uh…"

Oh, lord… Nanao stifled a sigh.

"I'd introduce some upgrades. I've been doing some amazing work with metal bone-lacing lately."

"I don't think my Nanao-chan needs metal bones…" said Shunsui weakly.

"Eye lasers? Limited metamorphic capacity?"

"Err…" He gave Nanao a frantic sidelong look.

Nanao took pity on him, not least because if she didn't, he might agree to something unfortunate. I suspect eye lasers and glasses would not go well together… "Your staff meeting, sir."

"Right! Absolutely! Must go, Mayuri, you know how it is, duty calls and all that…" He shuffled her out the door with unseemly haste. She had to stretch her legs to keep up with him as he bolted from Twelfth, haori flapping behind him. "Urrggh. That man gives me the heebiest of jeebies."

"Not an uncommon reaction, sir." Nanao had an urge to pat him on the shoulder, but restrained herself.

"Well…I suppose I should get to that staff meeting…" He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "What a waste of a beautiful afternoon…"

"I will escort you there, sir."

"What? Really?" He grinned wolfishly down at her. "Nanao-chan, I'm touched! Finding excuses to spend time with me…"

"I am under orders from Captain Jyuushiro to make sure you arrive in a timely fashion, sir."

He sagged. "I am getting foiled at every turn today…" he muttered.

"I believe it is good for the soul. Sir."


Nanao stood at the top of a flight of stone steps and considered. She had handed Shunsui off to Captain Ukitate with the air of a warden transferring an inmate to a colleague, and now, astonishingly enough, she had several hours free.

Well, she was near the library. Perhaps she could go find a little recreational reading. She hadn't been over that way all week, and it was generally one of her favorite retreats.

Captain Mayuri hurried past her, arms full of papers and a jar full of something murky. Nanao nodded politely, and was somewhat relieved that he ignored her. Metal bones. Feh.

She had to roll her eyes remembering the incident earlier in the day. Defending a lady's honor. How sweet, and how utterly idiotic, all at the same time. That was the problem with chivalry, and most of its practitioners. It was touching, right up until you wanted to brain someone with a rock. Shunsui was a prime example. The line between charming and patronizing was a fine one, and he seemed to wander back and forth depending on her mood and his sake intake.

Oh, well…one of these days… (She had no clear idea what would happen one of these days, but it was a comforting phrase nonetheless.) She walked briskly through the streets, and up the steps of the library.

Once inside, it was as if a tension she hadn't known she was feeling fell away. Books, glorious books. Nanao knew where she stood with books. She wandered through the stacks, fingers running over the bindings.

She hadn't had a home in quite awhile—being dead put a damper on such things—but the library filled her with a definite sense of homecoming.

"Ise-san!" said a warm voice behind her. Nanao found herself smiling again as she turned, and made only a token effort to hide it.

"Captain Aizen." She bowed, and meant it.

The Captain of the Fifth smiled. Nanao had run into him any number of times in the library, and generally enjoyed the experience. He was as avid a reader as she, painstakingly courteous, and willing to discuss books at great length, which was a rare thing in a captain. Ise had considered transferring to Fifth when she fled Third, and only the fact that there were no officer openings in his squad had given her pause. "You've been scarce lately, Ise-san. You have not been ill, I hope?"

"No, sir. Merely busy. And you, sir?"

"Very well. Actually, since you're here—" he pushed at his glasses, "—perhaps you could assist me a moment?" He gestured at a nearby table, which was covered in books and papers. "I hate to ask, but I need to deliver these before the staff meeting—to your division, as it happens—and I cannot make it in one trip. If you would be so kind…?"

"It would be my pleasure, sir." She gathered an armload of papers up, as he did the same.

"You are too kind, Ise-san. Follow me, then."

She followed him out of the library, got a bead on his reiatsu, and followed his rapid flash steps across the rooftops. He was a good bit faster than she was, but politely slowed down so that she could keep pace, if only barely.

Nanao was so intent on keeping up that she didn't actually realize the direction they were going until after they'd arrived.

She blinked at the door to the office, seized with a vague feeling that something was off, the angles were wrong, Shunsui's office was never that clean—

Oh my god, I'm in Third.

Her heart clenched like a fist inside her chest.

Oh my god, I've disobeyed orders, and now I'm in Third.

Captain Aizen must not know I've transferred—he must have forgotten, or the announcement slipped under the radar—he thinks this is still my division—and of course he doesn't know—how could he know?—

"We'll just leave these for your captain—he must be at the meeting already." Aizen entered the office and set the papers down on the desk. Nanao followed him numbly.

It's okay. It'll be okay. It's not like Captain Aizen's going to let Gin throttle you in front of him, as long as he's here, you should be perfectly safe—

"Thank you, Ise-san," said Aizen, smiling warmly. "I appreciate it greatly." He stepped out of the door and vanished.

"Wait--!" Nanao lifted a hand to stop him, too late.

Crap.

She exhaled. Well, at least Gin wasn't here. She'd explain to Shunsui what had happened, he'd shudder with her over the close call, that was all.

No harm done. Just leave. Leave now.

Nanao turned and made a quick, involuntary sweep of the room with her eyes, reassuring herself that it was indeed empty, that no pale-haired vipers curled in the corners. It was. The files were neatly organized across the desk, and the wood gleamed. Kira had probably been polishing it again. Possibly with his tongue.

She started to turn.

The door closed behind her with a soft, final click.

"Well, well, well…" purred Gin behind her. "Look what the cat dragged in…"