Disclaimer: I do not own bleach. I made the oc stuff though.

Within the village of Aizen...

Brown and black eyes followed the form of a frail looking young man, curious as to how one such as he had joined the Rukongai provincial militia. What could those who patrol the Bad Lands for any sign of Hollow activity want with their humble abode now? As fate would have it, their guest was indeed interested in the small slice of land they called home, but only for the tragedy so recently inflicted on them. For the militia of the 'Bad Lands', and the village of Aizen in particular, a hollow rampage was never far away from their minds. Out in the rural areas of the Rukongai, disappearances were a common occurrence everyone had to constantly be on guard from. All officers of the militia near the 'Bad Lands' were aware of this state of affairs for the villagers.

Sosuke himself had committed it to memory.

Gradually coming to a stop in the middle of the slowly healing village of Aizen, he glanced around at the curious villagers hoping to gleam some idea of the whereabouts of his objective. It seemed that Kirito, alongside the rest of the gang, had waited to tell him after he had recovered enough that the villagers had wished to send their thanks for what he did, and that some elderly matriarch was interested in seeing him. It seemed that the villagers had gotten an eyeful of his charge against the beast and had appreciated the sentiment, even though he had been laughably swatted aside. After being rendered unconscious, it seemed the villagers had swarmed to his teammates for questions or trying to take care of him before the shinigami commander arrived on the scene.

As vague as the message was, he'd decided to march out there once again after being deemed fit enough to be discharged. And now, he was simply the source of much attention, bumbling about without any real direction, so he did what he did best; contacting Hogyoku, whose advice was at times not much better than common sense, yet comforting all the same.

"Hey!" It spoke up in indignation.

"Any ideas up there? I don't see the old lady coming any time soon," said Sosuke, ignoring its outburst and questioning it for an idea on how he should approach this situation.

The Hogyoku hummed around in his mind, thinking up a response before leaving him with a simple solution, "You may as well speak with the villagers; they seem awfully interested in you."

Sosuke turned to look at the villagers who gave him occasional glances or smiles in his direction. It seemed that he had indeed managed to earn their good will.

He thought to himself how he could easily work with this.

"Alright then," Sosuke replied, walking once again, except this time he sought out the closest villager to himself.

He decided to speak to the solidly-built, black haired man standing near what looked more shelter or shack than house.

"Hello," Sosuke said, catching his attention. The villager was about a head taller than him, dressed in mud stained clothes and had a friendly, although slightly questioning expression.

He held his hand out, giving himself a warm and inviting vibe before replying, "Ya that crazy guy from before right, the one who charged the blood beast?"

Slightly uneasy on what had most likely become the general description of him spreading through the gossip-mill, Sosuke chuckled and nodded in agreement, "Yes, that's me. Never could step away from danger. I'm mostly alright now though," he flexed and rotated his arm, hoping to show off his recovery, "I came by to see how things were going around here."

The villager nodded at Sosuke with a smile and patted him on the shoulder, "Good, good. We thought ya were a goner back there. Ya commanda told us ya'd probably make it though, so I, no, we wanted to show some appreciation for what ya did for us when ya got back on your feet."

Heturned to some of the others who had been listening in on the conversation and waved them over, inviting them to come in closer to both he and Sosuke.

"To be honest, we've had attacks in the past, but ya the only ones that ever went this far before," He said, putting his arm down after a few dozen had brought themselves over.

Sosuke did not like we're this was going, "Because it's far from the Rukongai right, the village?"

"Yeah, they usually take their time getting here; those hollows always take a few of us out right before the militia gets here. Thank Kami it's only been happening for a few years."

A few murmurs, nods, and grunts spread throughout the crowd some of the new faces.

He had nothing to say to this. It was…deplorable, but probably had more to do with bureaucratic morass than anything sinister. Still, he thought it was best to avoid answering this and strengthening the discontent present amongst the villagers.

He made sure to nod and smile at the man he had been speaking with and relieved some of the tension that had suddenly sprung up, "I'm happy my team got here before things got any worse."

"Yeah, yeah, ya did didn't ya?" he smiled out, cheer once again reaching his face, offsetting the displeasure the others felt too, "Anyway we just wanted to let ya know we were thankful for what ya did, and if there's anything we can do to help ya out in the future, just stop by some time and let us know," he smiled a little broader now and grabbed Sosuke right hand before holding it up in his.

The young man nodded at the heart warming gesture and looked on at the others who also seemed to be smiling at him. As he ended the handshake, he felt the friendly pats on the back as his hand came down back to his sides.

"Ah, he's here, let me see, let me see," said the voice of an elderly woman.

Sosuke looked into the left of the crowd surrounding him and saw it parting to make way for someone most likely important in this village.

He thought to himself that this was the matriarch Kirito had spoken of.

He walked out to meet the person halfway into crowd before stopping. Standing still in confusion, he noted there was no one for him to meet face-to –face. What had they just parted f-

Wack!

"Ow! Shit!" yelped Sosuke, his hand came up to his forehead, rubbing his throbbing head.

The Hogyoku quietly snickered in his mind, enjoying the discomfort of its host.

Looking out before himself once again, an old wooden staff stood in place directly before him, not totally out of place in the village.

Looking down, his eyes focused on an elderly woman, and a tiny one at that. She was dressed in a toga-like garb, fully encompassing the figure of the wise old crone. Making sure to come off as respectful as possible, Sosuke spoke to the woman as politely as he could.

"Hello mam, I was told to come out to the village to meet the leader. I'm S-"

She cut you off abruptly, "I know who ya are young man, ya friends told me as much."

He quickly caught on that this woman was definitely the no nonsense type and he'd just have to change his approach.

"Come follow me. We gonna have ya stay with us for a meal. I don't like the look of ya skinny self. Besides we take care of our own."

"Oh, Uh, thank you," he said, hoping to make her at ease.

"No need, just hurry up now," She wacked him in the head once more.

Sosuke grunted once more, "Ow!"

"And watch ya mouth, we have some young folks here," she told him, confidently walking back the way she entered, knowing he wouldn't refuse her command.

Still rubbing his forehead, he looked back at the villagers who smiled a knowing smile. Others looked back in shared sympathy, most likely victims of her staff too.

Shrugging it off, he followed the matriarch back , wondering if his head would meet upon any more punishment before dinner came.

He hoped to get more out of this than he expected, especially with the appearance of a notification.

['Love Of The Plebes' activated]

The support of the populace within your current location may yield some unexpected benefits.

At the time, Sosuke did not know that neither this woman, nor this village would become a valuable ally for him in the near future. But with the matriarch being as subtle as she is, he was lucky to have been taken in as he was and welcomed so warmly.

And it was all thanks to the leader of the Aizen village.

His grandmother.

Author's Note:

Hey guys sorry for the dry spell, but I'll have another update within the week. As always, reviews are welcome.