Minamoto had been right about the Hollows. They were practically swarming the city. He tried his best to be everywhere at once, cutting the Hollows down as they appeared. He was mostly successful at this until Pêche, Aiden, Kiano and Ling parted ways at around two in the afternoon. By a stroke of intense misfortune, Aiden lived in the suburban west of the island, and Ling's orphanage was all the way in the north-east. The other two were in the middle; Pêche was with her family at a hotel downtown, and Kiano was with his adoptive father in their downtown apartment.

The fukutaicho called in additional back-up to help the shinigami that were assigned to the four children and the shinigami that were always posted in the metropolis. Still, he had a lot of running around to do, and by the sixth day of the trip, Minamoto was thoroughly exhausted. Having just defeated another Hollow, one that his subordinates wouldn't have been able to handle, he continued his rounds. Next, he would stop by Pêche's hotel room to make sure she was still alive.

"Yo, Pêche," he called as he walked into the room. "I'm starving, what's fo-" He stopped cold as he realized neither the little girl or her parents were in the room. Damn it, where did she go?

Minamoto collapsed onto Pêche's bed, trying to clear his mind and focus on her reiatsu. After a moment of concentration, he found it. It was with Kiano's, to the south near the old port. Minamoto swore under his breath and dashed towards the two, foreboding dropping to the pit of his gut.


"Hm," Jeremy hummed, as he flipped through the channels, uninterested, "there's nothing good on TV…" Stephen sighed his agreement.

"Why don't we watch a movie," Jeremy suggested, looking towards the child in his friend's charge. "How would you like a movie, Pêche?"

The girl considered the proposition. "What kind of movie?"

"Romance," Jeremy proposed.

"Adventure," Stephen countered.

Jeremy, still smiling, looked over to where Kiano sat, away from the group. "What do you want to do, Kiano?"

The boy didn't hesitate. "I want to go stargazing." Jeremy smiled.

"As if I'm going to let you do that," the blond-haired man scolded teasingly. "You'd scare away all your new friends if you pull the same stuff here that you did in Chicago!" Kiano did not reply, blind eyes looking down at the newspaper he couldn't read.

"Come, let's go get a movie," Jeremy prompted, rising to his feet. "Don't you want to be a good host for little Pêche?" Kiano had learnt that even if it was phrased as a request, he really had no choice in the matter. He rose from his seat, and went to his room to get a sweater. Even though it was summer, it could get chilly outside.

"That's a good boy," Jeremy called after him, before turning to Stephen. "He's a great kid, really."

He put on his shoes as his friend glowered. "You're a terrible parent. Kiano won't be able to enjoy a movie." Jeremy's smile widened.

"I wouldn't say that," Jeremy said as the child returned from his room, ready to go. "If the production is good enough, he can picture what's happening from the sound-effects alone, right Kiano?" The child just nodded.

"Well," Stephen said, eyebrows raised, "that's impressive."

"We'll be back," Jeremy called with a wave. He looked over his shoulder to his friend. "Take good care of Pêche, okay?"

"Of course," Stephen replied levelly, a smile spreading across his face. As soon as the door was closed, he went to the kitchen, leaving Pêche to watch television. On the way, he turned on the video camera positioned carefully on the kitchen counter.

He opened the top cupboard, well out of reach for an eight-year-old, and extracted the familiar Fez Dispenser, handling it with a great degree of care. He remembered when Jeremy had first shown this to him. This rather innocent-looking object had sealed the deal for Stephen. He would never again doubt the existence of spirits. Now, after years of waiting, cultivating their knowledge of the world unseen, Jeremy and Stephen felt confident enough to explore this world a little more boldly.

The glove had sent him tumbling out of his body. He remembered how difficult it had been for him to move in that state, and how he had had to struggle to return to his body. If he hadn't been able to make it, he might have remained unconscious forever.

That was why Jeremy and Stephen had decided not to experiment on Pêche at that point in time. They were waiting for this particular juncture, when there was a safety blanket that could intervene and return Pêche to her body in case she herself was unable to.

Both Pêche and Kiano were the ideal candidates for this experiment. Pêche's memory was the foggiest of all four children, and therefore she was the least likely to recognize the candy, and was also the least likely to withhold information. Also, she had a great deal of trust in Stephen, so if her soul was that of a death god, and she realized that she was being used, she would not be able to bring herself to strike him. This ensured Stephen's and Jeremy's safety.

As for Kiano, he was intensely distrustful of both Stephen and his adoptive father. To their knowledge, the only people he had ever trusted were his mother and elder sister, both dead now. He could, however, be controlled.

Stephen sat back down on the couch, bidding his time. Right about now, Jeremy must have been making his offer to his young adopted son. The youth was sure to accept. Despite the restrictions, Kiano would eagerly do anything to be able to again enact his justice upon the world. These weeks of being on a tight leash would make him all the more willing to cooperate.

Stephen placed the Fez dispenser conspicuously upon the coffee table. Pêche turned at the sound. "What is that?"

The brown-haired man smiled. "Its candy, do you want some?"

Pêche eyed the candy a moment, considering. "Does it belong to Kiano? I wouldn't want to eat his candy."

"Don't worry about it," Stephen brushed off the concern. "I was the one who bought that candy. You and Kiano can share." Stephen smiled as the girl took the Fez dispenser into her hands, examining it more closely.

"I like this bunny," she said, looking at it closely. "It's really cute." Shrugging off the feeling of familiarity, she popped a candy into her mouth. The reaction was instantaneous.

Stephen watched as the girl slumped to floor, unconscious. He waited a few moments, giving the girl the chance to adjust to the out-of-body sensation. Then, the experiment would begin.

Pêche opened her eyes and realized that she was sitting on her own lap. As if that wasn't disorienting enough, she saw herself begin to move. It was like a dream, she was looking at herself.

"Hello, my name is Chappy," she exclaimed as she jumped to her feet. "At your service, Hinamori-dono!" Stephen raised an eyebrow.

"Who might that be," Stephen asked the 'Chappy.' The Chappy turned towards him in confusion.

"This is Hinamori Momo," the Chappy said bluntly, pointing down towards the now-invisible girl sitting on the floor.

"No," Stephen contradicted. "That is Pêche Prunier." The Chappy didn't look fazed.

"Her soul signature is that of Hinamori Momo," the Chappy said definitively. "It is unmistakable." The Chappy turned back to the girl. She stared blankly, obviously waiting for orders. Pêche, unsure what else she could do, just stared back into her own eyes.

After a few minutes of silence, Mr. DuPont judged that Pêche should almost be ready to answer his questions. Because he wouldn't be able to hear her, he rose from his seat on the couch and went into Jeremy's bedroom to fetch the whiteboard that they had prepared for this occasion. As the man was shuffling through the dark room, the Chappy perked up in realization. "Ah, the Hollow." Pêche's eyes widened.

"A Hollow," she echoed. She remembered big towering monsters with bone-white masks. She remembered how she used to fight them, with her sword and her kidou. A sword she didn't have anymore. Powers she no longer possessed.

Pêche rose to her feet and began to run, the chain still connecting her to her body nearly tripping her. She knew that a Hollow in this area would without a doubt be after her, so she needed to get out of the building as quickly as possible. If the apartment complex were to collapse, there would be countless victims.

She sprinted through the back door and ran as fast as her legs could carry her down the fire exit. As she was going down the third flight of stairs, she sensed that unmistakable presence behind her. Frozen in her tracks, she saw it over her shoulder, the gigantic form of the Hollow. Its cold breath brushed down her neck. Eyes wide with fear, she was paralyzed by glowing red eyes.

"My, my," the Hollow said in a booming voice. "What do we have here?" He swiped his giant hand towards the girl, and she just barely managed to dodge it, throwing herself down another flight of stairs. She heard laughter and the sound of metal tearing as her attacker's claws cut through the fire escape stairs. "A fast one, aren't we," the Hollow praised mockingly.

Pêche shook away the pain in her head, and tried to force her reluctant body to move. That was when she noticed something truly terrifying. The chain that had connected her to her physical body was severed. This was bad, this was very bad. She had just died.

But there was no time to think anymore. She had to run. The Hollow was approaching. Pêche looked down and judged that she wouldn't survive a jump from this height. Not uninjured at least. She climbed lithely over the metal barrier and started climbing down, heart pounding in her ears.

"Now, that isn't very smart," the Hollow mocked, his weight shaking the broken fire exit dangerously. But Pêche continued to climb down to ground level as quickly as she could. The Hollow reached around, but right before he could capture Pêche in his grip, she let herself fall the rest of the way to the ground. "Hun?"

Instinct took over, and Pêche was able to land in a way that absorbed most of the shock. Although she had probably sprained her right ankle, she hadn't broken any of her fragile human bones. She ran into the night, the Hollow hot on her tail.

"Oh, little girl," the Hollow called out teasingly, obviously enjoying himself. "Just what are you? No human has such sweet reiatsu."

The girl could only run. Without her zanpakuto or her kidou, she was powerless against this Hollow. She couldn't run forever. She was going to die tonight. Die in an even worse way than she already had.

Her parents were going to be devastated. She was their life, how could she do this to them?

And Shiro-chan, she'd never get to see him again, never get to make up for all the pain she caused him.

She was dead. Where Aizen failed, this lowly Hollow would succeed. She didn't want to die, not now that she had this second chance.

Pêche's blood was pumping painfully fast through her veins, her body hot and tense and her breath quick with the labour of her pace. She heard the Hollow behind her, taunting her, but she could no longer register his words. The regret was building in her chest already, and she could only repeat one thing again over and over in her mind: "I don't want to die."

"You don't want to die, do you," a loud voice questioned, an echo to her thoughts. She swung her head around, drawn by the power of the voice. Her quick eyes could not find its source. When she almost tripped in her distraction, she focused again on running. She closed her eyes and forced herself to move just a little bit farther, to live just a little longer...

"Don't you know an offer when you hear one," the loud voice demanded, impatient. "Or would you rather let us both die here?"

Pêche reeled in shock. "Who are you," she shouted into the darkness.

"Who else," the voice mocked, its unseen presence forcing the girl's legs to a stop. The Hollow stopped as well, disappointed that the chase was over. "I'm you."

She raised her hand in a small motion, just barely shifting the air, and immediately, the Hollow was cut in two. With an incredulous, angry shriek, it disintegrated before Pêche's unbelieving eyes.

"What… was that?" The girl looked around her at the almost tangible darkness. "Who are you?" She felt the presence smirking.

"Now, don't be making me repeat myself."

Pêche couldn't understand. "How could you be me? I was a shinigami… How could something like..." Pêche tried to put what she was experiencing into words and failed, "you… exist?"

"I can show you it all, Pêche," the Dark said. "I can show you my origin, the origin of the shinigami. It is a power I can give to you."

"But, why," Pêche demanded. The Dark smiled.

"Because, darling, something like you doesn't come around every day."


"What do you mean she's unconscious," Claire shrieked into her cell phone and the whole vicinity fell into silence. Jean nearly knocked down his chair as he rose from it, his face a deathly white. Gambling chips lay forgotten on the floor. "Wait, where is she now?"

"We're waiting for an ambulance," Stephen got out in a rush. "I don't know what happened. She was just watching TV when she collapsed."

"We're on our way," Claire breathed, already running out the front entrance of the casino, her husband at her side. "I'm driving," she told him, and Jean was too smart to contradict her.

Meanwhile, back in the apartment, Jeremy and Kiano had returned from Blockbusters, Kiano's arms in a rather strange position.

"What the hell's going on," Jeremy demanded, noting the unconscious girl and his friend's worried face. This combined with Kiano's odd behaviour had tipped him off that something had gone horribly, horribly wrong. "Didn't you use the candy? Shouldn't there be that Chappy thing bouncing around?!"

"I just called the ambulance," Stephen said coolly. "Something very strange is happening here. There was this awful tearing noise, and the candy popped back out of Pêche's mouth and she fell unconscious. I thought that if the problem were to last more than a few hours, we would be better off acting as if we had nothing to do with it."

He spoke almost as if… "Is she still breathing," Kiano asked, shocking the two adults.

"Of course she's still breathing," Stephen snapped at the child. "Do you think I'd be able to keep my composure if she wasn't?"

Kiano raised an unseen eyebrow. "How odd. She should be dead."

"Why," Jeremy asked, his usual smile tugging on the sides of his mouth. There was more going on here.

"Her chain of fate has been severed," Kiano noted. "This always results in death." He handed the unconscious Plus soul he had found on the street to Minamoto, who seemed about ready to put in two assassination requests. Kiano kneeled beside Pêche's unconscious human shell, and noted with shock that she was, in fact, still breathing.

After a moment of indecision, he calmly rose to his feet again. He spoke to Minamoto, not to the adults in the room. "We must go call upon the Commander. Perhaps he might know if her soul can be reattached to her body. If not, he should know what sort of strange event is occurring here."

After a moment of his own indecision, Minamoto followed the order of the traitorous Captain. "Yes, sir." He lied the unconscious Plus down on the couch and departed immediately. Kiano, still ignoring the adults, examined the reiatsu patterns of the room closely. When he turned his attention out the window, he noticed the wrecked fire escape. He stepped out onto it.

"Hey," Jeremy called. "Where are you… wow, what the hell happened here?"

"A Hollow," Kiano said simply. "This is certainly the reiatsu of a Hollow."

"A Hollow was here," Stephen voiced. "Then that means that Pêche…"

"That's right," Kiano interrupted, brow furrowed and scowling in disgust. "While you were here with the Chappy, Pêche was fleeing for her life." He turned his attention towards the unconscious Plus. "Although her soul was not devoured, her life as a human is over. If Aiden can confirm this, the death god can perform Soul Burial and send her to Soul Society. Because of your twisted conniving plans this poor child is dead." Stephen had turned pale.

Sirens were heard approaching the apartment.


It was a full four days before the former Captains were able to assemble at the Jewish General Hospital, where Pêche was still unconscious. Aiden had been unable to offer his aid in person that first night, but had instructed Minamoto to simply return Pêche's soul to her body as if she were still alive. This, however, yielded no change in her condition.

Ling looked upon the unconscious girl with a frown on her face. "She should have died." The Sister from her orphanage knew that it was pointless scolding her for saying such things.

Kiano nodded. "It is the fault of the humans for meddling in the affairs of shinigami."

"This is grounds for execution," Ling noted. She turned towards Minamoto, sitting quietly in a corner. "You are aware of that, aren't you?"

"Yes, Ling," the fukutaicho grounded out. "I have been considering it. There is no telling what else these humans will do next. I knew all along that they were trouble." He returned his eyes to the unconscious Pêche. "But I'm not sure that it's in her benefit to expose her identity to Soul Society."

"What I don't understand," Kiano raised his voice, "is that she is still showing excessive cervical activity."

"That is to be expected," Aiden replied sagely. His mother patted his head, secretly happy that her husband had decided not to come. He wouldn't have liked this conversation one bit.

"Why," Ling asked, wondering what else the former Commander had been holding out on. Aiden rose from his seat and walked to the girl's bedside, his aura of authority unbefitting of his small build. He looked into her closed eyes intensely, as if expecting to see something there.

"She's been drafted," Aiden said carefully. He trusted Ling and Akai, but Kiano was another matter. He'd have a fine line to walk here.

"Drafted," Kiano wondered.

Aiden nodded slowly. "I haven't seen it in a very long time. When I had first become a shinigami, it was a prerequisite for all Captains, the way that bankai is a prerequisite now." Ling's eyes widened. What was this thing?

Aiden didn't take his eyes off the girl. "It is a practice that has fallen by the wayside since that time. I was the first Captain to have reached that position without it. I redefined what it meant to be a shinigami." This, everyone knew well.

"Everything changes, everything evolves," Aiden mused. "It was an outdated practice. Too difficult to control, and as the human population began growing, the Gotei 13 needed a more practical way to cut a large amount of Hollows and perform many Soul Burials. A small group of incredibly strong individuals would no longer be able to protect all humans."

"That was why," Aiden declared, "I transformed the primal power that had been used for hundreds of thousands of years into something that could be used by anyone with spiritual ability. I put the power into the form of a sword, the zanpakuto. That was the dawn of the modern shinigami."

"So then what is happening to Pêche," Ling asked. "If this power was so uncontrollable, how could she grasp it with only the strength of a fukutaicho?"

Aiden's face carried a look of contemplation. "Because it wants to be grasped."

The group looked startled. Aiden gazed at them, just a hint of amusement in their eyes. "Have you already forgotten how much your zanpakuto wanted to be grasped?"

His eyes turned to the girl again. "But it is something beyond a zanpakuto spirit. It is not just a part of her soul, but a part of everyone's soul," Aiden explained. "And even the number of its human practitioners has dwindled over the years. It must be very lonely."

Ling's eyebrows shot up. "Human practitioners?"

"Yes," Aiden said levelly. "There are even some in this city."

Kiano couldn't believe it. "Humans that possess a power similar to the shinigami's? How is this possible?"

"Hundreds of thousands of years ago," Aiden explained, "when humans were just coming to consciousness, and shinigami were just coming into existence, there was a very fine line between the living and the dead. Nothing like how we live today. There exist some people, however, who carry the torch."

The group was silent, watching Pêche's even breath. Minamoto raised his voice. "So what is going to happen to Pêche?" Aiden didn't say a word. Instead, he moved his hands to hover over the girl's torso, and closed his eyes.

"This is called Soul Retrieval," Aiden clarified, still able to concentrate on what he was doing. The girl's eyes shot open. Aiden removed his hands from the girl, allowing her to sit up. They all noticed right away that the soul in the body was not Pêche's.

The girl frowned. "I was busy, you know," the spirit said.

"For how much longer," Aiden demanded. "Her parents are losing their minds." The girl's frown twisted into a smile.

"Why don't you tell them what she's up to, then," the spirit suggested. "They're going to find out what she's become eventually, anyway."

"They will disapprove," Aiden dismissed with a frown. "How many more days until she's complete?"

The spirit smiled with pride. "Two or three more days," she proclaimed. "And don't worry, I'm wiping clean her memory of her past life."

Ling frowned. "That isn't necessary. As long as she can keep quiet, there is no danger in allowing her to keep her memories."

The spirit shrugged. "I want her to start off from scratch," she commented. "It wouldn't be good if she did all this only to reach her Shiro-chan. The girl's carrying me now, after all. It isn't going to be all rainbows and sunshine."

"Will you be hard on her," Aiden asked.

"As hard as I am on everyone else," the spirit laughed. "You know it's the only way. Besides, the girl can take it."

Aiden closed his eyes, and the spirit smiled. "It was nice seeing you, Commander-dono," she teased before leaving the body. It slumped backwards, empty, onto the hospital bed.

Aiden heaved a sigh, and turned back to the group. The Sister looked terrified, obviously sensing something diabolic in the girl's body. His mother just looked shocked. "I expect you not to say a word of this to anyone."