Thank you for the review. Also, this chapter has a bit of a lemon in it.


The next day found Jushiro in front of Myorri. "Why should I help you do this? I was banned from even being in the same room with her without someone else being there as well."

"Call it scientific curiosity then."

"I suppose I could collect the other Erin and experiment on her if she exists."

"That would be boring for you. The other Erin would only be a human without any spiritual pressure and nothing to distinguish her from any other human."

"So how would this benefit me then?"

Jushiro thought for a moment. "What if you do this for me and I'll see if I can get you a blood and maybe a tissue sample from her as payment?"

"I want guarantees, Ukitake, not maybe's."

He sighed. "I'll ask her then." There was nothing else he could offer the scientist, so sought out Erin and found her at the Division 11 training grounds.

Erin saw the kindly captain of the 13th squad and walked over to him. "Hello Captain Ukitake. What brings you here?"

He thought how to pose the question and finally decided to be blunt. "Shunsui and I were curious if it was possible that you might be from our world of the living. I asked Captain Kurosutchi if he would look into it for me, but he declined unless I can guarantee blood and tissue samples for him to study." Erin was about to answer and he held his hand up to stop her. "Before you respond, you should know that he is greedy. He will want several vials of blood and several tissue samples." He lowered his hand.

"What made you want to know this?"

Jushiro glanced at Zaraki who had his back to them and then lowered his voice. "I think you know. If you are from this world, there would be nothing holding you back."

"I have been to many alternate versions of my world. More than likely, your world of the living is just another alternate version of mine."

"What's the harm in checking?"

Erin eventually nodded and they left together. As they walked, Erin spoke up. "Captain Ukitake, I can't go into certain rooms anymore. Cells I can deal with, but rooms with tables and straps are just something I can't handle anymore. I found that out the hard way once. It just brings back too many bad memories and I don't have control of my fear responses which, in this case, make me want to kill anyone in the room."

"I understand. I'll have him use a different room than his lab. He won't be happy about it, but he'll do it."

When they arrived, Jushiro had Erin wait outside while he went in and made the arrangements. As she waited, Zaraki strode up.

"I saw you walk off with Ukitake and wondered where you were going. You didn't look happy to be going wherever it was. Are you ok?"

"Kurosutchi has a price to see if I'm from your world of the living. I'm here to pay it."

"What is his price?"

"Blood and tissue samples."

"You don't have to pay it."

"It would be nice to know. I've checked out other Earth worlds and every now and then I do find another me. Just as often there is a dog or a cat that belongs to that world's version of my parents that they have named Erin instead. Or they have a male child and they've named him the male version of Erin."

"If you've seen these other versions of your parents, then how come you said you don't remember what they look like?"

Erin smiled sadly. "Because they all look different. Each world has small differences. After a while I couldn't remember what my parents actually looked like because of all the versions of my parents I've seen. Sometimes it's hair color, sometimes it's nose shape, or weight, or even height."

Jushiro came back out of the building. "Oh, hi, Zaraki. Are you coming in too?"

"Might as well. He'll be less inclined to go too far with both of us there."

Jushiro led them to a small room with a concrete floor that had a drain in the middle. There was a cluttered desk and a couple steel chairs in the room as well as a small table with a few empty syringes, a scalpel, and a few specimen trays. Korusutchi was standing in the middle of the room tapping his foot impatiently.

"Brought your watch dog, did you?" Korusutchi sneered. Zaraki growled in response.

"You required blood and tissue samples?" Erin asked to break up the growing tension in the room.

"Yes. Took you long enough coming back here, Ukitake."

"Well, you know me, frail health and all" he replied disarmingly.

"Sit here, child." The scientist barked, pointing to an uncomfortable looking chair. Erin sat and waited for further instructions. He tied off an arm, found a vein, and stabbed into it. He filled 5 vials and when he was finished with that, happily grabbed up a scalpel and sample jar. He stabbed into her arm, hoping to get a response and was disappointed when he didn't even receive a gasp of pain. He took a few narrow chunks and steadily took larger. He also stopped to watch the wound heal itself and even took a video recording and a few other recordings of it. After 6 tissue samples, it was Jushiro who said it was enough. Zaraki had wanted to earlier, hating to watch someone cut into her with such ferocity. But with Erin not giving the clown the screams he clearly wanted, he wasn't going to be the one to shame her.

"Oh fine, though these will hardly do for samples."

Erin was given a damp cloth to clean up with and Korusutchi lead them to one of his large computers. He began typing into it and eventually asked her for a middle name to help narrow the search. She gave it and he continued to type. It wasn't long before a driver's license appeared on the screen. The picture was as Erin had looked right before she stepped through that first portal.

"Yes, that picture is similar to the one I still have in my pouch. Different shirt, but the picture is the same."

He hacked into satellite cameras and cameras around the area. They eventually found her and had to admit that this was an alternate world from the world Erin came from.

"Thank you Captain. It was worth knowing for certain." Erin said to the painted up captain who was already clearing the computer of the search results.

"It's what you paid for. Nothing more." He replied dismissively.

Erin, Ukitake and Zaraki left the building and Ukitake left them to head back to his own division. As they walked back to the 11th, Zaraki asked, "So why did you do it?"

"Captain Ukitake asked me."

"That's all? Just because he asked you?"

"I was curious and the price wasn't too high to discourage me."

"It's too bad. I was hoping this was your world."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I don't come across too many people that can give me a decent fight." He now won more fights they he lost when they sparred, though Erin suspected that it had more to do with him getting to know her fighting style than anything else. She had been contemplating switching weapons on him.

Erin let it drop. She didn't want to either encourage or discourage him. Why didn't I just tell her the real reason? Kenpachi silently berated himself for a short time before finally asking, "Why didn't you make him stop taking skin samples? It had to hurt, but you didn't even gasp."

"And let him win? Remember when we fought he said he was going to make me scream. He got the samples he said he was going to take from me, and that sucked, but there was no way in hell I was going to let him hear me make even the slightest noise of discomfort."

He pulled her in a quick side hug as they walked. "Definitely Division 11 material. Too bad you don't have an ounce of spiritual pressure."

She playfully shoved him away. "Psh! Like I need it! Besides, it sounds like this spiritual pressure crap is just more annoying than it's worth."

"You just wish you had my spiritual pressure." He crowed.

"I have yet to see any evidence of this spiritual pressure you keep on going on about."

"Sure you have. Remember that ambush we were in when we first met? I saw you watching the tail end of my fight. Remember when that last guy was striking at me and he couldn't cut me?"

"His blade was just dull."

"No, Erin. My spiritual pressure is so high that his blade may as well have been a stick. You would never be able to survive our fights if you had a normal level of spiritual pressure."

"Are you sure?"

He laughed. "Do you remember when Captain Feng had you tied to the tree and I took off my eye patch?"

"Yeah. I had thought you were missing an eye and was surprised that you had a working eye under it."

"And do you remember all of Feng's men who passed out when that happened?"

"Yeah…."

"That's a pretty normal reaction when a Captain releases all of their spiritual pressure like we had both done." Erin fell silent as they reached his office, lost in thought. Kenpachi handed her a stack of papers for her to go through. He had fallen behind on the paperwork again and was happy that Erin was willing to continue to help him with it.

His fingers keep on brushing mine. Is he doing it on purpose? Come on, Erin! Get a grip on yourself! You can't keep him! You can't fall for him! You just can't, Erin. Why did they have to tell me he likes me? She mentally shook herself and decided to pretend she was completely oblivious.

They had finished for the day and Kenpachi turned to Erin. "How's the arm Korusutchi took all the samples from?"

"Back to normal. I'm not sure why he took one of the scars, but the skin healed clear." She showed him the arm in question. He ran a finger over the area where the scar used to be and she shivered. "It's a little more sensitive then I'm used to it being."

"That one took longer to heal then the others."

"It was also the last and largest of the samples he took."

"Come eat with me and Yachiru tonight. Otherwise you'll only eat some small meal. You've gotten skinnier since you first got here which means you aren't eating enough."

"Yeah, I've noticed."

"Don't make me put you on the Yachiru diet of all candy."

Erin made a face that made Zaraki chuckle. "I was never a huge fan of sweets like that. Bread and pastas, yes, sweets, not so much."

"What about a sweet bun?"

"Yeah, I enjoyed cinnamon buns and honey buns."

"I'll see what I can find. Did you like deserts?"

"Yeah. The cheese cakes and the lemon cakes and you can never go wrong with key lime pie."

"I don't think I've ever heard of any of those. Sounds like you liked your sweet with citrus."

"Yeah. It's just the right combination for me."

"Good to know." He smirked and Erin caught it.

"What's that supposed to mean? Are you plotting something?"

"Me? Plot? Do I look like some noble?"

The mental image of him as some proper nobleman made her laugh loudly. She wanted to go back to her quarters and work on a new set of leather armor for herself so he left her for the afternoon until it was time for dinner. He had been able to find some sweet buns and he admonished Yachiru to not eat them all. He went over to collect Erin for dinner and found her shaping leather. She had used her old set as a pattern and was now getting it to stiffen and hold a form.

"I always meant to ask you. Don't most people who use armor use metal?"

"Metal becomes too heavy and causes my movements to be restricted and slowed. Leather is just enough protection and allows me full movement."

"With the amount of weapons you have on you when you wear your armor, you're concerned with a little more weight?"

"The amount of weapons also act like metal armor so why have more metal?" She shot back at him.

"Just thinking that maybe that Bount wouldn't have been able to stab you if you had been wearing a metal armor."

"Still worrying about that? Metal armor has joints and she would have just found one of those to stab me through and I might not have been able to survive those hits more than likely."

"Dinner's ready. Come on." He held out a hand for her to use to pull herself up. She took it and he pulled her up quickly, causing her to stumble into him. She pushed herself away with a little bit of red staining her cheeks and quickly turned and walked towards his home.

When they got to his house, the food was already on the table and Yachiru already had one of the sweet buns stuffed in her mouth. They ate and Kenpachi was happy to note that Erin ate more than she usually did. When they finished, Erin grabbed up the empty plates to wash them.

"What are you doing?"

"You cooked, so I'm helping to clean up. It's only fair."

He went to pull the plates from her hands but she maneuvered so that he couldn't. He finally caught up to her, grabbing her around the waist so she couldn't get away. "Stop. I wouldn't invite you to have dinner and then let you clean up."

"You do a lot of the cooking and you are making me feel like a free loader. I don't even have to pay for groceries. Let me do this." He continued to hold on to her waist, his hands warm on her hips. "Please just let me do my part to pay my way."

"You fight me every morning. Believe me, that's payment enough." He drew her in closer to take the plates from her hands but with his hands off her hips, she made a spring for the kitchen sink.

"Gotta be faster than that, Zaraki!" She ran the water and started working on the plates. She grabbed a towel and put it over her shoulder only to have Kenpachi pull it off of her.

"I'll dry then."

"I suppose I'll let you dry." She smirked. He spun the towel in his hands to twist it up and then flicked an end out at her butt, making her squawk in surprise.

"You suppose?" She smiled and then gave him a faux glare. He spun the towel again so she quickly hip checked him. They finished cleaning the plates and as she was drying her hands he very quickly spun her to face him, grabbed her by the hips and lifted her onto a nearby counter. He held her head and leaned in, kissing her firmly. She was a deer in headlights and it took a little bit to finally push him away.

"We can't."

"Why not?"

"I won't be here forever."

"I'm ok with that." He brushed some strands of her hair off of her forehead. "I decided that for whatever amount of time I can have you, that I will have you."

He leaned in for another kiss but she turned to look for Yachiru so he got her ear which he began kissing and sucking. Yachiru had left, knowing that Kenpachi was going to finally make his move on Erin that night. He had been talking about her a lot since the Bount incident.

"Your daughter?" She was trying to keep in control but the feel of his lips on her ear and then on her neck was making her logic center fail miserably.

"She's taking a walk." He pulled her face back towards his so that he could kiss her again. He lifted her off the counter and carried her out the door and over to her quarters. He had her straddling his hips as he carried her so she could feel his arousal against her pubic bone.

"It's been awhile, Zaraki." She confessed.

"Kenpachi. Call me Kenpachi, Erin." He leaned her up against the frame of the door as he kissed her again and opened her door. He continued to carry her into the house and shut the door behind him with a foot. "Why have you waited so long then?" He asked in response to her confession.

"It's the leaving that's hard and then dealing with the aftermath of my emotions. It's just too hard. It's so much easier to just keep my distance."

They had arrived at her bedroom and he had set her down on the bed. "I'm not going to let you keep your distance from me anymore." He untucked the tank top she was wearing and lifted the shirt off of her, revealing a black sports bra. His hands traveled along her sides, stomach and back and he could feel the triangular burns everywhere the skin would have been tender; her sides, her stomach, the undersides of her arms and even her armpits. He could feel the multitude of crisscrossing scars on her back that he knew came from being whipped.

He couldn't keep the question from his lips as his finger traced one of the whip lashes. "How many times?"

"I was told they lost count after 157. I had lost consciousness several times and I was throwing insults at them which made them lash me more times than they probably would normally."

"Why did they do it?"

"You remember how I arrived in this world?" She felt him nod. "I did that in the middle of an army encampment at night. They thought I was a spy or an assassin and wanted to know what I knew. Considering that I didn't know anything at that point, all I could do was be a smartass. I was going to be whipped either way."

He rubbed a finger against one of the triangular scars. "And these?"

"I dropped into a world that was in the middle of a witch hunt and I dropped in too close to a witch hunter. All three of the tortures happened in my first 75 years of travel. I had become proficient with a sword but still only really knew how to use a bow and a quarterstaff with any real ability. So it's not like I am now. He had me at musket point the moment I landed. I was dressed differently than they had ever seen and I had arrived out of a hole in the sky. What else could I be but a witch? But their laws demanded a confession before a public killing. That was how they tried to make me confess. It lasted weeks. The last thing they did was use that spiked device on my hand. And then they threatened to do it to my other hand or even my feet and legs.

"When they were finally convinced that I wouldn't break, and I wanted to, many times, they threw me into a cell to rot. Gave me food sporadically, so I ate raw rats to stay alive. Drank their blood for something to stop the burning thirst in my throat."

He tugged off her gloves. "Don't wear these around me anymore unless you need to protect your palms." He tossed them away. He kissed the places where the fingers were missing. "How were the fingers removed?"

"The hand was crippled afterward. In the world right before the army encampment, there were all kinds of different beings. They had explored other planets and there were beings of many different worlds there. The technology was very advanced and a doctor there repaired my hand. He said that the bones in the hand had fused together in strange ways and there were other areas that were like puzzle pieces for him to put together. There was a lot of nerve, bone, and tendon damage to the whole hand. The tendons for the now missing fingers had snapped apart and there was no way to reconnect them. It was just as well because the nerve and bone damage was so severe, he felt that the best thing to do was to remove the fingers. It took a long time before I could use my hand the way I used to be able to, but he was also a very good doctor." She fell silent with her face tucked in to the hollow of his neck.

He was now just hugging her close to his chest. He had never asked her about what he had seen in the sketchpad, but he wanted to know everything he could about her. "What kept you going?"

"Back then I could still remember the faces of my family and I couldn't bear to leave them without even a body to mourn. To never know what happened to me. Back then I still had hope that I would see them again."

"You've lost hope?"

"It comes and goes. Lately it's been mostly gone. I get a spike of hope when a new portal opens and then it leaves when I realize I'm not home."

He kissed her again deeply, trying to convey his want and the comfort he could offer her here in this world. She kissed him back hesitantly, holding herself back from her feelings. As much as she wanted this, she also didn't want it. She knew the companionship he was offering would feel great while she was there, but would leave her desolate in the next world.

"Quit holding back, Erin. I'm not looking for love right now, just let me pleasure you as you pleasure me. Let go of your fears and enjoy the moment." He had worked her sports bra off and had shrugged out of his captain's jacket and uniform top. She gasped against his lips as his hands explored her breasts. They had not been spared from the heated iron. He went to rub a finger against her nipples but found instead another triangular scar that obliterated any sign of her nipples. The undersides and sides of her breasts had received similar treatment. "Tell me if you don't like something."

She began touching his exposed chest, tracing the planes of his muscles and grazing his nipples with her fingertips as she explored other areas of his torso. He leaned her back as he kissed her neck and brought his hands to the waist band of her pants. He pulled them down as his mouth traveled lower, sucking on her breasts and paying equal attention to the areas with scars as those without. He sucked where her nipples should have been and he felt her writhe against him.

He caught a glance at her panties and smiled. "Boy shorts?" He kissed and nibbled on her stomach.

"They don't ride up in a fight." She whispered huskily. She was biting her lip and soft low moans of pleasure were escaping her lips.

He slipped his hands down the sides of her panties, pulling them free of her as well. Her inner thighs hadn't been spared either. The sight made him want to kill the man who had taken such pleasure in her screams.

She had expected the pauses. The first time a man saw the amount of damage she had taken always made them stare. Sometimes that ended any possibility of sex and other times they would continue but the guy would avoid touching any of the scars. It surprised her when he didn't. How could he not be repulsed by them? Hell, she was repulsed by them. Seeing that her skin had healed back without that one burn scar after the scientist took a sample had her seriously wondering if it was worth it to have him remove all of her scars like that.

Kenpachi didn't hesitate long. His fingers trailed up her thighs as he knelt between them, softly caressing the skin regardless of the texture. He leaned forward to kiss her and while they kissed, she took the opportunity to untie the white sash at his waist and slide his pants and underwear down. He removed them the rest of the way. She could feel his length pressed against her leg and the anticipation was making her eager as she began kissing him back with as much passion as he was kissing her. One of his hands trailed down her side and made its way between her legs.

He touched her lightly, causing her to quiver with want. He slowly rubbed the outer edges of her entrance, making her inhale sharply. His fingers traced her opening and then around her clit teasingly. He continued until she finally whispered, "Please stop teasing me." He obliged her by slowly inserting a pair of fingers into her causing her to gasp in pleasure and press into him. He thrust into her a few more times tantalizingly slowly with his fingers to see what she would do. While he was teasing her, he had not been kissing her. He had been watching her reactions. She brought a hand up to his face and pulled it closer to her while she leaned up, her lips catching his.

He shifted and removed his hand making her groan with want. He pressed himself to her entrance and slid in, causing her to arch her back, pressing her chest to his and gasp against his lips. They began slowly, her enjoying the movement of him on top of her and him enjoying the play of her inner muscles against his penis.

As they began moving against each other more urgently, she wrapped her legs around his waist allowing him a slightly deeper entry and a slightly different angle. Her breathing changed as she came, but he noticed that she didn't make much sound as she came. The squeezing of her orgasm as she pressed into him helped him find his own release. He rolled onto his side to watch her and run his hands along her side and sighed in pleasure as she did the same.

Probably the only way she got any kind of privacy was to be quiet during sex. If she's been in campaign after campaign, then she's probably lived in a tent more often than living under a roof like this.

His hand roamed down her back and rear and he felt even more of the triangular burns on the underside of her ass. He frowned as he encountered it and when she saw the face, lifted a corner of her mouth. He pulled her in close. "I didn't mean…"

"I know. Don't worry about it. It's a lot to take in all at once even when you know what to expect. At least you weren't turned completely off by it all."

He hugged her a little tighter. "You've had guys walk away because of it?"

"Yeah. The scarring is pretty gross. I don't blame them. You didn't have to kiss and suck on them like you did."

"There's nothing wrong with the scarring. Any guy who has a problem with it isn't worth your time. So stop apologizing for something that's not your fault."

"Thanks Kenpachi. I needed to hear that." She felt him stirring against her stomach. She adjusted herself so that she could kiss him and wrapped her free leg over his hip. He took the hint and slid back into her.

He pulled away briefly from their kiss to tell her that he wanted to hear her this time. She moaned and gasped a little bit more, but the sound level didn't really increase. He was ok with that and made it his mission to see how much he could make her give even the low sounds she did. As she came, she gripped his ass and bit into his shoulder, not hard enough to draw blood, but enough to make him grunt louder than before as he came. They didn't stop with the orgasm, but continued to buck against each other. Zaraki rolled her back onto her back so he could thrust a little more urgently. Her breathing sharpened again as she came again and again, her gasping getting a little louder which excited Kenpachi further.

"How many is that?" He whispered into her ear as he latched onto her neck with his lips, nibbling and sucking.

"I don't know anymore. They're blending into each other." She moaned huskily.

"Good." He responded as he thrust into her again, cumming. He slowed his thrusts, enjoying her continued orgasm. This was how he liked to leave a session, with his partner unable to stop cumming until he stopped thrusting. She continued to buck against him slowly as her orgasm came to an end, shuddering with the post orgasm quivers. When she finally quieted he gave her a small grin. "Feeling satisfied?"

She closed her eyes in pleasure, her arms still around his waist. "Very much so."

He gave her another kiss, this one light. "Good." He rolled off of her and sat up. "I hate to leave you, but Yachiru has never spent the night alone at home, and I would hate to surprise her with that."

"No worries. I don't rest for very long anyway and I'd probably wake you up."

"I'll see you in the morning then." She nodded and when he finished dressing, came back for a quick kiss goodbye and then left.

With Kenpachi gone, she grabbed a shower, updated her journal, and then went to bed still surprised at the turn of events that day.