A/N: I know that the First isn't exactly a he or a she...but I'm going to be referring to the First as a 'he' because of the body it is possessing.

LindseyXZ: Kenpachi ruins everything, haha. And yes, Buffy might definitely bolt ;o). All of the fight scenes in this fic will tend to be pretty dark and violent, only because of the tone of the fic, unfortunately. In fact, I'm probably going to have to rate it 'M' soon because of the violence, cursing, and the lemons that will come later.

Fanatic-FanGirl: Buffy definitely did not get any sleep during that time, haha. They had her patrolling and training non-stop. You're absolutely right though, Buffy will be causing mega-damage in her fights if she happens to accidentally succumb to the power within her. She'll need to be careful :o). Kensei definitely fits in to Buffy's habit of picking guys with a dark side to them ;oP. And I will explain more about the First in this chapter!


||Chapter 7: Never End ||


Hearing birds chirping from somewhere up above, Buffy opened her eyes to see that the sun was shining high in the sky, but water was raining down upon her with a vengeance in the form of a sun shower. Groaning painfully, Buffy attempted to move, but found that it was nearly impossible because her bones had yet to heal. Pushing herself up gingerly, Buffy let out a whimper of pain and sunk back into the earth below her. The events of the previous day plagued Buffy's mind and she could only help but wonder how many of her division members - and those of other divisions - had died. Snapping her head to the side, Buffy heard a rustling through the trees as she spotted a deer walking around before her. Closing her eyes, Buffy quickly made a painful turn of her body so that she was now lying on her back. Her limbs hung at awkward angles beside her, and she prayed that they would heal soon before she was forced to spend another night out here. Musing on her current situation, she was surprised that no vampires had tried to drain her during the night. She guessed that the First had forced them not to so that he could kill her himself. Rolling her eyes at the thought, Buffy attempted to lift herself off the ground once more, with no success. There was too much pain in the action, and even if she was somehow successful, she knew that trying to walk on her broken limbs would only make the healing process take longer.

Suddenly, Buffy had another idea. Lifting her zanpakuto from its resting place at her side, Buffy shakily thrusted it into the air, "Light up the sky, Sineya."

Watching as bolts of lightning flashed outwards from her sword and high into the sky, Buffy tried to hold them there are long as possible, attempting to use her shikai's ability as a flare of sorts. After Buffy's broken arm caved under the weight of her zanpakuto, she hissed in pain and attempted to wipe her soaked hair out of her eyes. Several minutes later, Buffy watched as a figure emerged into the clearing. Looking up, she saw Kensei make his way over to her. His robes were shredded to such an extent that only his pants were remaining on his body. His chest was also littered with cuts and bruises. Sighing up at her captain, she closed her eyes as she was suddenly lifted into a sitting position, against her captain's chest.

"He must have been pretty strong to cripple you so easily," Kensei murmured against her ear as he placed one hand firmly on her left, dislocated, shoulder and the other grasped her broken arm tightly, "I'm sorry, but this is going to hurt like hell," he confessed and then quickly shoved Buffy's shoulder back in place with a 'pop'. Buffy cried out in pain and threw her head against his chest as he repeated the process with her other shoulder.

"We need to get you to the fourth and take care of the other breaks," he said quietly.

"How many?" Buffy asked, ignoring his comment.

"How many what?" Kensei asked, even though he knew what she was referring to.

"How many are dead?" Buffy said in anguish as she looked up at him through heavy eyes.

"In our division, 10," Kensei replied and Buffy buried her face into his shoulder, "In the other divisions...more. We were one of the luckier ones," he replied bitterly.

"I failed," she whispered and felt Kensei rub soothing circles into her back.

"You didn't fail," he said as he kissed the back of her neck, "For starters, everyone had a role to play during this battle and we all did the best we could. Secondly, we were completely ambushed. We had no idea what to expect and - as a result - we were pretty unprepared for it despite our training efforts. Finally," he said as he brushed hair out of her face, "The enemy is just a lot stronger than we thought."

"A lot stronger," Buffy agreed and looked up at him again, "Kensei I've faced this thing before," she confessed.

"You have? What is he?" Kensei asked, looking down at her.

"Well...technically I defeated his subordinate before," Buffy corrected herself as she thought back to her battle against what she thought was the First.

"So our enemy was that guy's superior?"

"Yes," Buffy hissed through her teeth as she continued to feel the throbbing pain in her joints, "It's the First."

"The first what? The first of its kind?" Kensei asked, confused.

"No, Kensei, the First evil," Buffy attempted to lift herself once more, but Kensei cradled her more closely to his chest, "The first evil to ever walk the earth...or kind of float around it," she reflected after a minute.

"Okay...so we're dealing with something really powerful then," Kensei confirmed as he tried to comprehend the situation.

"We're dealing with more than something incredibly powerful, Kensei," Buffy snapped as her gaze burned holes into his, "The First's 'subordinate' easily took out half of my girls back at home, and that was 'after' I gave them a huge chunk of my power. The only way we managed to win that battle was because Spike's amulet-thing blew apart and created a huge crater in the earth where Sunnydale once stood."

"Okay...so we just get another one of those amulets," he answered.

"We can't just do that Kensei, are you even understanding what I'm saying?" she snapped again and then calmed down at the surprised look he gave her.

"I'm sorry. It's just, even if we 'did' somehow get another amulet, which, I don't even know where we would find another one, someone would have to be wielding a lot of power and be willing to sacrifice their life for us to even use it. Plus, you know, the resulting explosion would completely wipe out soul society."

"So then how do we beat this thing? Especially if you're telling me that this guy is packing more power than his subordinate."

"I don't know," Buffy confessed sadly, "Kensei, he told me that this first attack was basically launched just so that he could instill a little bit of fear within soul society. He said that the attack had no real meaning behind it other than to knock off a few of the weaker shinigami and -" she paused and pressed her face back into his shoulder, "To make the rest of us, but namely me, feel like shit for letting the attack happen."

Kensei was silent as he comprehended her words. Buffy gazed back up at him questioningly before he ran a hand through her hair and remained silent for a few minutes.

"He also said," Buffy continued as she cleared her dry throat, "That the second attack he would launch is solely for the purpose of eliminating the more powerful shinigami of our divisions," she stated and Kensei didn't have to ask her to know that she was referring to the lieutenants and the captains.

"Did he say when the attack would occur?" Kensei asked, rubbing his nose against her hair.

"He said he would be kind to us and not 'kick a puppy while it was down'," Buffy said, using the words that were given to her the day before.

"What does that mean?" Kensei asked her in alarm.

"He said it meant he wasn't going to attack again until soul society restored itself and had a proper amount of time to grieve."

Kensei growled into her hair at that, "Asshole."

"He also said," Buffy paused, unsure of whether or not to tell him.

"What?" Kensei asked softly.

"He said that he wouldn't kill me until his third attack. He said that - by then - I would be the only one left and that he would kill me with his bare hands."

Kensei wrapped his arms tightly around her at that and Buffy felt her ribs explode with pain, "I won't let that happen."

"Kensei, what if you can't stop it from happening? The First said that the only reason he had Grimmjow kill me was because he knew I would be sent here and he wanted to kill me himself."

"He said that to you?" at her nod, Kensei stood up and gently placed Buffy over his shoulder, "That asshole isn't getting his hands on you," as he flash stepped away Buffy heard him whisper, "Even if I have to die to make sure that it doesn't happen."


Making their way into the 4th division, Kensei looked around for an empty hospital bed, but noticed that all of the beds were more or less occupied. Spotting an empty bed in the back of the room, Kensei carefully made his way around the busy attendants before placing Buffy on the bed.

"I'll be right back," he promised as he disappeared out of the hospital bay.

Buffy watched as the members of the fourth division ran around the room and attended to various shinigami. The room was in complete chaos after the events of the preceding day. Her eyes scanned the occupied hospital beds around her and guilt stabbed at her stomach as she spotted shinigami that were missing limbs, shinigami that had severe burns to various parts of their bodies, and shinigami that looked as if they were near death. Scanning the area once more, Buffy confirmed - with her eyes - that none of the people she knew were occupying any of the beds. Not that the shinigami surrounding her were any less important, she reminded herself and turned towards a blonde-haired 4th division member who was stupidly wearing a pair of sunglasses indoors.

"Is there any way you could do a quick healing kido on my broken bones?" Buffy asked him, remembering that bones were usually easier to fix with kido than severe wounds.

"That depends," the blonde shot her an icy glare, "Are you any more important than the hundreds of shinigami in here that are about to lose their lives?"

At that, Buffy immediately shut up as an anguished look passed over her features. The blonde had immediately gone back to work on the patient next to her and Buffy's eyes met with a small, frail-looking attendant as he made his way over to her and stood next to her bed.

"Actually, Yasochika-san, Captain Unohana specifically requested that we immediately begin healing Miss Summers' broken bones," the shy-looking shinigami said to the moody blonde who immediately stood up straight at that and turned towards Buffy.

"Did she tell you that? Or are you making it up, Hanataro?" the blonde snapped.

"Oh no, Yasochika-san, I'm not making it up!" Hanataro replied nervously as he ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes.

"Fine, then let's begin," Yasochika said as he and Hanataro began performing various kidos on Buffy.

Buffy felt her bones starting to snap back into place. As the duo finished performing their kidos, Hanataro handed Buffy a glass of water and some pain medication.

"Thanks," Buffy said smiling at Hanataro and ignoring Yasochika.

"You're quite welcome!" Hanataro chirped happily, "If you'll excuse me, Buffy, I need to attend to the other patients. You are free to go whenever you want."

Buffy watched as he left and her captain returned. Making his way over to her bed, Kensei paused as Buffy swung her legs over the side of the bed and popped two of the pills in the small bottle that was given to her into her mouth. Flushing the pills down with water, Buffy placed the water glass back on the table at her side before turning to the blonde that was glaring at her icily.

"Did you have something that you wanted to say?" Buffy asked politely.

"Don't take more than two of those every 4-6 hours," Yasochika said, "Also, get out of here so more patients can be taken care of."

Buffy frowned at his response before jumping off of the bed, "Rude," she whispered to Kensei.

"Hmmm, I think everyone is just really stressed out," Kensei said as the pair made their way out of the fourth division.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING? STOP IT!" Buffy heard a shrill feminine voice shriek as Kensei and Buffy approached the intersection between the second and third divisions.

Rushing over to the source of the noise, Kensei and Buffy watched as a petite raven-haired woman attempted to yank the zanpakutos of two of her subordinates out of their hands.

"What is going on here, Captain Soi-Fon?" Kensei questioned as he made his way closer to the trio.

"I can't stop them," Soi-Fon cried with tears in her eyes as she turned towards Kensei, "You have to help me stop them!"

"Stop them from doing what?" Kensei said in confusion and watched as Soi-Fon's subordinates unsheathed their zanpakutos and held them up to their own necks.

"Whoa, what the hell, what are you two doing?" Kensei demanded as he moved next to Soi-Fon and also attempted to yank their zanpakutos out of their hands.

"Stop it!" Buffy heard Soi-Fon shriek again and could only watch as Soi-Fon's subordinates easily knocked both Soi-Fon and Kensei to the ground. Resuming their earlier position, the duo held their blades to their necks. Buffy looked away, knowing what was about to come, and winced as she heard two bodies hit the floor.

"I don't understand why they would do this. Why would they do this?" Soi-Fon was shrieking at Kensei.

"I don't know...did any of their friends die in the battle?"

"No! They were just joking around with each other only five minutes ago!" Soi-Fon screeched again as she crouched over her subordinates and started howling in anger.

Buffy watched as two more of Soi-Fon's subordinates left their rooms from across the way. Eyeing them suspiciously, she watched as they walked down the stairs and stood in the center of the barracks. Buffy watched in horror as they, too, removed their zanpakutos and held them up to their own throats. Something definitely was not right here.

"NO! Stop it!" Buffy screamed and Kensei and Soi-Fon whirled around as they too immediately watched the same event about to occur for a second time.

"As your captain I order you to stop this immediately!" Soi-Fon screamed at her subordinates to no effect. It was like her division members were possessed.

"Wait! Stop!" Buffy agreed as she moved to stand in front of the duo and attempted to wrench their blades out of their hands alongside of Soi-Fon.

Knocking both Buffy and Soi-Fon to the ground, the two members of the second division held their zanpakutos up to their throats once again as they stared straight ahead, unseeingly, into the space before them.

"STOP IT!" Buffy screeched and stretched both of her hands out as if to stop them. As she did so, a white orb sky-rocketed from the palm of her hands and hit the duo directly in their chests. Buffy looked down at her hands in shock, and then over to where the division members were now picking themselves off of the floor, looking dazed and confused.

"What's going on?" one of them asked as they looked towards their captain, "Captain Soi-Fon? Is something wrong?"

"Oh my god! What happened to Kurishi-san?" the female next to the male that had asked the previous question shrieked as she looked over at her fallen comrade.

Soi-Fon, however, was no longer focusing on her subordinates. As she stood up, she eyed Buffy curiously and then moved towards her. Before she could get close, however, Kensei suddenly flash-stepped in between them and grabbed Buffy's wrist.

"Gotta go! Let me know immediately if this happens again," he said suddenly as he flash-stepped away, and pulled Buffy along with him.

As they arrived at their destination, the 5th division barracks, Kensei banged loudly on Shinji's office door and waited until he heard a muffled, "Come in," from within the office. Dragging Buffy in behind him, Kensei made his way into the middle of the office and looked around to see Shinji sitting behind his desk with a frown on his face and his lieutenant sitting in the corner, staring at her captain patiently.

"What's up?" Shinji asked disinterestedly as he looked up at the duo.

"That's what I'd like to know," Buffy demanded as she pulled her arm from Kensei's grasp and gave him a glare. Kensei ignored her as he raised his eye brow at Shinji and nodded his head slightly in the direction of Shinji's lieutenant.

"Hinamori, would you mind giving us a few minutes?" Shinji called to his lieutenant, "I'll call you once we're done."

"Of course, captain!" Hinamori said with a smile and then eyed the duo from the 9th division curiously before she left.

"Alright, seriously, what's up?" Shinji asked again as he leaned over his desk and glanced at the two curiously.

"This one," Kensei said as he hooked his thumb in Buffy's direction, "Keeps shooting off random powers every day."

"This one has a name," Buffy snapped at him.

"What kind of random powers? Well other than the demonic ones," Shinji added and Buffy shot her captain a withering glare.

"You told him?" She demanded and punched him lightly in the chest, "What the hell, Kensei?"

"I was worried about you!" Kensei defended while he rubbed his chest, "Besides, it's not like he would tell the captain commander or anything."

"Idiot," Buffy snapped as Shinji watched the exchange with interest.

"Alright, is someone going to tell me what happened before the second war at least?"

Buffy quickly recounted the events with the First in the forest, and as soon as she was done, Kensei added to the story by telling Shinji about the events at Soi-Fon's division. After they finished their story, Shinji sat back in his chair and twiddled his thumbs on his desk before his mouth set in a firm line and he gazed out of the window of his office. After a few minutes of painstaking silence, Kensei slammed a fist down on top of Shinji's desk and immediately drew everyone's gaze towards him.

"Are you going to say something or are you just gonna sit there and stare out the window like a lazy asshole all day?"

"Geeeeeez, someone's a little testy today," Shinji replied as he raised his eyebrows at Kensei.

"I think that Buffy should attempt to make contact with the Powers that Be. They're supplying her with all kinds of ammo, but not with any answers."

Buffy looked thoughtful for a moment at his suggestion, "The only problem is...I don't really know how to contact the Powers that Be. They usually contact me."

"Would Yama-jii know how to contact them? He is, after all, the one that basically hired you," Shinji mused.

"He's insanely busy right now, Shinji, I doubt he would break from his schedule to help with a little side project," Kensei said as he snatched one of the pencils off of Shinji's desk and began tapping it against his chair.

"Knock it off," Shinji warned as the tapping noise filled his ears, "I think he would see Buffy if he knew that she could help. After all, it's something that's pretty urgent."

"That's not necessary," a voice said from across the room.

Turning around, the trio watched as Whistler came out from the shadows of Shinji's room and dragged one of his chairs around and placed it in a position where he could easily see and address the other occupants of the room.

"How long have you been standing there?" Buffy asked as she rolled her eyes at his presence.

"Long enough, kid. Long enough," Whistler replied as he regarded her.

"Alright, Whistler, what the hell is going on with my power? And no cryptic," she added as she watched him open his mouth.

"We've known about the First for a while now," Whistler began and Buffy growled.

"You knew about this and didn't warn me? What the hell?"

"We didn't think the 'real' First would attempt something like this," Whistler said honestly.

"Oh really? You didn't think that the first original evil to ever plague the earth would plot a war of mass destruction?"

"Well..." Whistler trailed off, "That's not really important. What 'is' important is stopping him...it...whatever," Whistler said in confusion before waving the First's gender issue away with his hand.

"Noooo...really? Man, after all this time I thought we would let the war continue and become best friends with the First."

"Alright Sarcastic Summers, so we fucked up," Whistler shrugged and Buffy lunged at him.

Kensei quickly restrained his third seat as Shinji snorted in amusement, "You did more than just fuck up, Whistler. You cost a lot of people here their lives!" she shouted at him before forcing herself to calm down. Sitting back down, she folded her arms across her chest angrily.

"Yeahhhh, about that. We're sending you guys more shinigami soon. Your captain-commander requested it," he added at Shinji and Kensei's surprised looks.

"That doesn't fix the fact that so many of them died," Buffy snapped.

"No, but it does give you guys some extra backup."

"Are you packing them with extra power too? Cause if not, they're pretty much just extra bodies for the enemy."

"No. We aren't." Whistler replied before continuing, "We can't give that much power to that many people, Buffy, which is why we're setting our sights on you."

"Fine...but at least tell me how to use my damn power! I feel like I'm playing a game of supernatural Clue."

Whistler laughed, "Who will you kill next Buffy? Will it be the sixth division captain in the mess hall with the red orb of random energy?"

"I'm not laughing, Whistler," Buffy stated flatly.

"Right, sorry. Well for starters, that white orb you shot at the second division's members was a purifying spell."

"A purifying spell? Like for possessions?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, and also for cuts, scrapes, bruises, and other assorted items," at her look, Whistler cleared his throat nervously, "Alright, basically it's just for possessions."

"Why would I need to purify people?" Buffy asked with a slight tinge of fear in her voice.

"Were you not there at the second division earlier? Or were you having another out-of-body experience?"

Kensei was suddenly forced to restrain Buffy again as she made another attempt to lunge at Whistler.

"Phew, that was a close one. Thanks buddy," Whistler nodded at Kensei and Kensei was tempted to release Buffy after all.

"I don't understand why people are getting possessed," Buffy said in alarm.

"The First is just trying to fuck with your mind. It's what he does."

"What do you mean, fuck with my mind?"

"The First will attempt to possess people that you are close to or random people in general, just to mess with you."

"What?" Buffy shouted and suddenly clutched Kensei's wrist tightly.

"You've experienced something similar before, with his subordinate," Whistler stated slowly, "Just, this time, instead of the First appearing to you as different dead people that you knew, he can actually possess people to mess with you."

"How am I supposed to know who is possessed and who isn't?" Buffy said, the hair standing up on the back of her neck, "If it weren't for the hugely bizarre display of mass suicide earlier, I would have never known that something was off with those division members."

"You just have to look for signs, kid. I can't promise it will be easy, but eventually - one way or another - you'll realize that the people you know are acting out of character."

"This is so beyond any level of messed up I've ever encountered before," Buffy whined.

"Yeah, well, I can't help you there. As for your other powers," Whistler stated as he looked around the room for any possible signs of snooping, "You won't have any control over Taka-Rahn," Whistler finished.

"Sake-Fawn?" Buffy questioned and Whistler rolled his eyes.

"Tah-kah-rahn," he repeated, "It's who you experienced when you were fighting Kenpachi the other day."

"Who is Taka-Rahn and why the hell is he or she invading my body?" Buffy demanded as she balled her hand into a fist.

"Taka-Rahn is the most powerful entity in all of the celestial skies and I will not have you cursing about her!" Whistler shouted in mock solidarity.

"Just tell me who the hell she is," Buffy demanded.

"I just did," Whistler commented flippantly, "Taka-Rahn is literally the most powerful entity in all of the celestial skies," at Buffy's blank stare he huffed, "She's the most powerful force on the side of light that we have."

Buffy finally nodded in understanding, "Okay...why can't I control her?"

"Well right now you can't, anyway, because your soul hasn't been purified," Whistler stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Do you 'want' me to beat you to a bloody pulp?" Buffy demanded.

"Buffy, you still have the demon of the slayer inside of you. In order for Taka-Rahn to take up residence in you, that demon has to go."

"I don't know whether to be really confused or really pissed," Buffy stated while weighing both options on her hands.

"Taka-Rahn 'will' take up residence in you, if that helps clear up your confusion," Whistler stated.

"Okay, so the demon inside of me has to come out. What do I do to make that happen? Do I just use this purifying thingy majig?"

"No. You can't use the purification spell on yourself. And once Taka-Rahn takes up residence within you, you won't even need that purification spell. You will literally be the holiest of holies, so anyone that comes in contact with you - possessed or not - will be singing about sunshine, rainbows, and ponies."

"Okay first of all, can we stop with the whole 'taking up residence' thing? That thought alone is creepy enough without you continuing to repeat it," she stated and watched as he rolled his eyes again, "Secondly, I'm not exactly the most spiritual person on the planet," Buffy commented and heard Kensei snort at that.

"It doesn't matter," Whistler retorted, "Everyone knows that you aren't a perfect angel..."

"Hey!" Buffy defended and heard Kensei laugh even louder. Slapping him lightly, Buffy turned back towards Whistler, "So how do I get this demon out of me, then?"

Whistler's mouth set in a grim line at that, "A lover must destroy their soul mate's darkness before their soul mate can be born anew."

"What the? Whistler, I said not to make with the cryptic!" Buffy warned, and watched as Whistler disappeared from the room.

"What the hell!" she shouted at the empty chair.

"Well that was helpful," Shinji commented, speaking for the first time since Whistler left, "All we got out of him was that any one of us can be possessed at any time and that Buffy has no control over Taka-whatever's power unless she gets rid of the demon inside of her, and - surprise - he told us nothing helpful that would resolve that issue."

"What did he mean by 'a lover must destroy their soul mate's darkness before their soul mate can be born anew'?" Kensei questioned as he looked at the two other occupants of the room.

"I don't know," Buffy responded, "For all I know, he could have been quoting Shakespeare."

"Well, this turned out to be an informative day," Shinji mused as he went back to frowning and staring out the window.

"Alright, let's not give up hope yet. Maybe we can find a way to magic this demon out of me," Buffy replied as the door to the office suddenly thudded open and a small blonde girl with pig tails stormed her way into the room.

"Hey! Shinji! Why the hell didn't you tell Love and I about the attack?" the girl demanded as she flung a book from Shinji's bookcase at his head.

As the book made impact, Shinji groaned in pain, rubbing his temple furiously, "Hiyori, I didn't exactly have time to make phone calls as my division was being slaughtered!"

"You should have told us, we could have come and helped!" Hiyori snapped back at him.

"I'll remember that next time we're in a life-threatening situation," Shinji muttered and Hiyori growled at him.

"Don't think you're off the hook either, Kensei, you're just lucky that I hate Shinji more than you," she declared as she eyed Kensei.

"Hey!" Shinji protested from behind his desk.

"Communications were nearly impossible yesterday, Hiyori, we were lucky that hell butterflies were even reaching certain divisions," Kensei replied at the fuming girl.

"And you!" Hiyori pointed towards Buffy who looked at the girl she was just meeting now in shock, "Actually, I don't know who you are, so it doesn't matter."

"Quit getting so worked up, ya idiot, the battle's over now, there's nothing more we can do about it," Shinji admonished as Hiyori frowned.

"So who is this?" she asked as she glanced at Buffy once more.

"Buffy Summers," Buffy greeted and offered a hand that was awkwardly retracted as Hiyori blankly stared at it.

"Hiyori Sarugaki," she answered as she glanced back at Shinji, "So are you just going to sit there? Let's go eat," she demanded.

"I can't, I have a ton of paperwork to do," Shinji replied.

"Kensei?" Hiyori questioned, turning towards him.

"I'm in the same boat. I actually should be getting back now."

"Buffy?" Hiyori grit through her teeth as her nostrils flared.

"I...um..." looking around for help, Buffy was suddenly yanked out of her chair by Hiyori and was dragged out the door.

"Kensei, I'm going to kill you," she declared as Hiyori slammed the door behind them and walked with Buffy towards the dining hall.

"So which one of them are you dating?" Hiyori demanded abruptly.

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I'm guessing it's not Shinji, since he's not acting like a love-sick puppy, so it must be Kensei," Hiyori answered and then jammed an elbow into Buffy's still-sore ribs, "I'm right, aren't I?"

"I, uh, don't really know if we're dating," Buffy answered honestly.

"But you're making out at least, which is always the first step," Hiyori commented as she entered the dining hall and scanned the room.

Seeing a hand wave at them from across the room, Buffy looked over to see a woman with black hair - settled into a braid - waving at them furiously. Seated across from the woman was a man with a rather crazy-looking afro who was reading a magazine intently. Next to him was a huge man with pink hair, who looked nervous as he spotted Hiyori enter the room. Buffy also noticed that Mashiro was seated at the table as well. After Hiyori and Buffy loaded their trays with food, they made their way over to the group and sat down.

"Buffy this is Lisa, Love, Hachi, and Mashiro," Hiyori stated as she pointed at each respective person.

"We've already met," Mashiro announced and Hiyori's head whipped around to glance at her, "Well not formally anyway. It's nice to meet you Buffy."

"Ditto," Buffy replied as she nervously took a sip of her drink.

"So Buffy, Hiyori tells me that you're dating Kensei," Lisa stated flatly and Buffy felt herself flush in embarrassment.

"They're not dating 'yet' Lisa...and I only predicted that, not told you about it," Hiyori snapped as she bit into her apple.

"Hmm, so you were wrong about them dating," Lisa announced as she studied Buffy's reddened cheeks, "But by the way you're blushing, I'm guessing some action is going on."

"Leave her alone," Hachi pleaded from across the table, "It's bad enough that we can barely make friends as it is without you two having to antagonize the only person willing to sit at our table outside of our company."

Lisa muttered a quick apology to Buffy as Hiyori just shrugged nonchalantly. Looking up from his magazine, Love dropped the item on the table and Buffy noticed - with mild disgust - that it was a Playboy magazine. How he was willing to read 'that' kind of thing in public was beyond her. As Love glanced around the table, he seemed to notice Buffy for the first time.

"Hello. Who are you?" he asked loudly.

"We just did introductions a minute ago you dumbass!" Hiyori snapped at him, "This is Buffy. She's in Kensei's division."

Love chose to ignore the tiny blonde's insult, "You're in Kensei's division? How's his temper holding up?" he questioned seriously and heard Lisa laugh from across the table.

"It's, uh, been pretty active," Buffy reflected as she thought about all of the explosions that her captain had produced over the past few months.

"He doesn't handle a lot of stress well, but I'm sure you've noticed that," Love said seriously.

"Actually...in the most stressful situations he's pretty calm," Buffy revealed, "It's the little stuff that he freaks out about."

"Sounds like Kensei," Lisa commented as she shoved a chip into her mouth.

"So you guys all lived together for a while?" Buffy questioned as she looked around the table.

"Yeah. We were pretty much forced to, what with the whole hollowfication incident and everything," Lisa replied.

"Hollowfication incident?" Buffy questioned, confused.

"He didn't tell you?" Lisa questioned her and then suddenly decided that her food was extremely interesting, "Um, never mind, it's not a big deal."

"No please. Enlighten me," Buffy said seriously, suddenly feeling very irritated. What had Kensei been hiding from her? Was this the 'something' that he always glossed over every time they talked about his past together?

"Well..." Lisa started reluctantly, "I'm sure he's told you about Aizen, right?"

Buffy nodded. Kensei had told her all about the traitorous captain that had gone rogue and had caused mass destruction to soul society's army before Ichigo had stepped in and taken him out.

"Well...once upon a time, Aizen was Shinji's lieutenant," Lisa revealed and Buffy felt her eyes widen.

"He failed to mention that," she commented.

"Yeah, well, he doesn't really like to talk about," Lisa defended as she continued her story.

"Way back then we were all ranked officers in soul society's army. Kensei, Shinji, and Rose all held the same positions back then as they do now. I used to be the 8th division's lieutenant. Hiyori was the 12th division's lieutenant under Urahara Kisuke, Mashiro was Kensei's lieutenant, Love was the captain of the 7th and Hachi," she paused gesturing towards him, "Was the lieutenant to the kido corps."

Buffy took all of this in with little surprise. She had known that Kensei and his friends had been ranked officers within soul society at one time, but out of courtesy for the person she had recently met, Buffy listened as Lisa repeated all of this information without interrupting.

"Anyway...a lot of the division members started to disappear around soul society, leaving behind their shinigami robes as the only trace that they had gone missing. The 9th division was sent out to investigate the matter, but they never returned," Lisa said mysteriously and Buffy found herself leaning over the table so that she could hear the other woman more clearly.

"Don't be so dramatic," Love commented as he continued to munch on his food.

Rolling her eyes at him, Lisa continued, "During that time, Urahara Kisuke sent out Hiyori on some stupid mission," at Hiyori's shout of 'It wasn't stupid!' Lisa rolled her eyes again, "And Hiyori encountered something strange."

"Meanwhile," Lisa continued and left Buffy hanging as to what Hiyori's discovery was.

"Well that was an abrupt transition," Hachi commented as Lisa dropped her fork on her plate loudly.

"Let me tell the damn story, Hachi."

"Sorry."

"Meanwhile," Lisa continued and dared anyone at the table to interrupt her, "Yama-jii decided to send out another investigation team on a search and rescue mission for the members of the 9th division. Initially Yama-jii's choice was my captain, Kyoraku, but naturally my captain knew that I was the perfect choice for the mission and everyone in the captains' meeting quickly agreed, seeing as how I was so smart and beautiful and athletically fit."

"That's not what happened at all," Love snorted and dodged the olive that Lisa flicked at his face.

"Anyway," Lisa continued once more, "Our team consisted of Love, Shinji, Hachi, Rose, and myself. Along the way to the area where the 9th division disappeared, we ran into Hiyori and a rather...interesting version of Kensei."

"Again with the dramatics," Love commented and Lisa slapped him on the arm.

"The Kensei that we encountered was not the one that we had known all along. Instead, Kensei was wearing some kind of hollow's mask and was erupting with massive spiritual pressure."

Lisa paused for dramatic effect, which Love promptly rolled his eyes at, and gauged Buffy's reaction - which was a mix of shock and curiosity - before continuing, "A battle began after that that nearly cost us our lives. Hachi's kido would not bind Kensei and we were suddenly under attack by another opponent as Mashiro appeared out of nowhere, also donning a hollow's mask."

"Things only got worse as Hiyori collapsed mid-battle. Just as we were about to help her, she appeared before us, also wearing a hollow's mask. We didn't know what the hell was going on. After battling the trio for a while, the rest of us were suddenly slashed by an invisible sword. A strange white substance erupted from our mouths and we faded into blackness. Well all of us except for Shinji. Shinji held out for a bit longer."

As Lisa continued her story, Buffy noticed that everyone's focus was now on Lisa as well, "What Shinji discovered during that time ended up affecting us all the way until the war against Aizen. Emerging from the shadows, Gin Ichimaru, a member of the third division, Kaname Tosen, a member - and high ranking seat - from Kensei's division, and Aizen revealed themselves."

Pausing, Lisa took a long drink of her water, "It turned out, Aizen was performing experiments on shinigami to determine if he could turn them into hollows. His first attempts - against lower-ranking division members - had failed and had only ended up killing them. Because of this, Aizen set his sights higher and decided to experiment on ranked officers instead. Namely, us," Lisa revealed and Buffy couldn't help the tiny gasp that escaped her lips.

"He was successful," Lisa confirmed, "But only half-successful," she added at Buffy's confused look, "He couldn't turn us into complete hollows, but he was able to create a hollow within us. And an espada-level hollow at that."

Buffy suddenly felt herself becoming angry at Lisa's revelation, "Urahara Kisuke, Shihoin Yoruichi - the captain of the second division at that time - and Tessai Tsukabishi - the head of the kido corps at that time - eventually rescued us and brought us to the world of the living where Urahara built an underground training facility that we used to suppress our hollows."

As Lisa prepared to finish her story, Buffy restrained the urge to flash-step all the way to Kensei's office and kick his ass, "All of us managed to suppress our hollows, and now we can use our hollow's powers whenever we need them...well for a limited time," she added as an afterthought, "Sometimes if we use our hollow masks for too long, they can break and we have to wait a while before we can use them again - Hey! Buffy! Where are you going?" Lisa demanded as Buffy disappeared from the dining hall in a blur of motion.

"Must have been the food," Love commented as he shrugged.


"Get out!" Buffy demanded as she stormed into Kensei's office and looked over at Hisagi, who was in mid-conversation with Kensei

"Buffy, he's my lieutenant...he's allowed to be in here. What's bothering you?"

"I don't know Kensei. A lot of shit has been bothering me lately, and for the most part I've been coming to you to help me deal with it, because I thought I had someone I could trust in you. Especially considering how close we've become in the last couple of months, but clearly I was wrong."

"Buffy you 'can' trust me. What gave you any idea that you couldn't?"

"Oh I don't know, Kensei. Maybe it's the fact that you never once told me that you were hiding a fucking espada within you, though I guess I should have seen it coming considering I could sense that your spiritual pressure was always slightly darker than most shinigami's."

Before Kensei could speak in his defense, Buffy continued, "I mean really, what the hell Kensei? I confided 'everything' about my murderer to you and you couldn't have once brought up the fact that you were of the same kind?"

"Buffy I'm not a murder I -"

"And yet I've been following you around like a dumbass, listening to your every command and training with you all the while not knowing that you had this neat little mask that - once you put it on - allowed you to turn into a vicious, cold, murderer."

"Buffy that's not who I am, let me explain -"

"I bet you even knew exactly who I was talking about when I described my murderer. All along you probably knew that it was Grimmjow and you didn't even tell me."

At Kensei's silence, Buffy snorted before throwing her hands up in the air, "So you did. Fantastic. Anything else you want to 'not' tell me while I'm here?"

"Hisagi...can you give us a minute please?" Kensei requested as he turned towards his lieutenant.

As Hisagi made to stand, Buffy held her hand out towards him, "Don't bother. I'm out of here," she announced as she made her way over to the gaping hole where Kensei's office door once hung.

"Buffy wait -" Kensei called and stood to go after her, but before he could do anything, she was gone.

Plopping back into the chair behind his desk, Kensei held his head in his hands, "FUCK," he shouted and Hisagi couldn't help but agree.


A/N:Draaaaaaaaamaaaaaaaaaaa! O.O"

PS: I will probably have to change the rating to 'M' in the next couple of chapters because I think it's fairly unavoidable at this point, haha.