geez, this took way too long to get out! a trillion apologies to everyone who's been waiting! i've been wiped out with work for weeks, and then last week i had the wonderful opportunity to take a vacation and attend Anthrocon, which was just this weekend. i also had the honor of being published in the conbook, an original short story of mine made it in. seeing that, and having a random person at the con tap me on the shoulder and tell me he's a fan of my writing, lit a fire under me to get working again (not to mention all your wonderful reviews, which make me so happy and keep me from ever considering abandoning this story!). i typed this on the ride back from the con (9 hours, what else was there to do?) and i'll probably update my other story next, which is on a different site. so i'll do my best to return to a once-a-week schedule, but the best i can do is say the next chapter will come out faster. i feel like a writer again!

It only took about twenty minutes of wandering rooftops aimlessly before a screeching roar was heard in the distance. Yoruichi's head snapped around and she was off instantly, a testament to her alertness and agility as a former captain. Soi followed slightly behind her, apprehensive but determined to do the object of her affection proud.

The girls landed in a clearing nearly a mile from where they had started. It was a park of sorts, with a few benches and more open grass than was usual for Karakura to have. Soi's hand flew to the hilt of Suzumebachi as she gazed up at the hollow. It was a pretty standard fare; humanoid in appearance with a big white mask wrapped around its head. The hollow roared out its challenge.

"Looks like you lucked out and got an easy one, Little Bee," Yoruichi taunted, grinning and folding her arms across her chest. "Hurry up and kick its ass so we can head back, I want to start training your shikai today too." The taller girl made a show of checking an imaginary wristwatch, giggling a little. Soi frowned some but focused in on the hollow, drawing her zanpakuto out and bringing it forward into a loose guard.

Soifon never told anyone, but her battle strategy was a very simple one – she calmed herself, focused, and imagined she was her Yoruichi-sama. 'After all, no one in Soul Society can catch her once she begins to fight,' Soi reminded herself, 'not even Yamamoto-soutaichou could hit her. You can't beat what you can't hit.' Soi evened her breathing out and pictured herself as Yoruichi. A small confident grin came unbidden to her face and her tense shoulders relaxed just a little as she fell into her element.

Yoruichi's grin widened as she saw Soi fall into her battle stance. 'It's funny how tense she gets, but she relaxes right before the battle begins,' the girl mused. 'I can't figure out why that is, but I love to watch her fight. She almost fights like me, it makes me so proud of her…'

Soi suddenly vanished, her shunpo carrying her right in front of the hollow's face. Its glowing red eyes widened in surprise, but it had no time to counter as Soi focused all her thoughts on the first and last attack.

"Suzumebachi!"

The blade came down… and cleaved the mask in half, obliterating the hollow in a single swing. Soi flipped easily to the ground and landed in a crouch, sheathing her blade on her back before standing back up. She came out of her battle headspace to the sound of lazy clapping and turned to her mentor, who was leaning against a bench and smiling proudly.

"Ten points for style, Little Bee! I couldn't have done better myself," she praised, making Soi blush lightly as her heart raced a little. "However," the former captain continued, her smile turning into a smug grin, "no shikai, so no goal!" Soi sputtered a little and stomped her foot indignantly.

"B-But Yoruichi, I did everything right! What if this is her shikai form?!"

"Oh, you'll know when it happens, the first time is pretty spectacular."

"Can I.."

'NO!!'

Soi sighed and hung her head a little, resigned to the fact that it would be a very long day. She felt a hand on her shoulder and turned to see a pair of compassionate yellow eyes.

"Hey, don't sweat it Soi-kun," Yoruichi said gently, squeezing her shoulder and making the younger girl's heart flutter a little. "You're gonna get it, and I'll bet you'll get it today too, we'll just keep at it. And if you don't, we'll drag a bed outside and sleep on the porch together, deal?" Soi could only smile and nod; the soft and kind look on the other girl's face had currently robbed her of breath.

Suddenly it didn't seem like too big a deal if she never found her shikai.

"If that's the case then at least someone's first time might still be today, and as for 'getting it'…"

'Stop ruining the moment you damn pervert bug!'

A couple hours later and the pair was still having no luck in unlocking Soi's shikai, or even in finding a hollow. Yoruichi had begun pulling pranks on passing humans, tossing small pebbles at their heads from the rooftops and then giggling when no one could figure out just what was happening. Soi rolled her eyes and pretended to not be impressed, but she was reasonably certain that the older girl had seen the corners of her mouth tugging up a little, even though she tried to hide it.

'You're so immature sometimes, Yoru-kun, but I love it..'

'You're such a stick in the mud sometimes, my silly Little Bee, but I love making you smile through it just the same…'

A nearly deafening roar broke the girls from their thoughts, and they both bolted off toward the sound, Soi keeping pace with Yoruichi this time. She could feel her mentor's urgency, which the older girl voiced partway there.

"This is a big one, Soi! Huge class at least, and there's something off about it, can you feel it?!"

"H-Hai, Yoruichi, it feels… darker, somehow!"

"Stay on your feet for this one Little Bee. You can beat it, but be careful!" Hearing the emotion in Yoruichi's voice made Soi's heart warm a little, and she steeled herself and nodded, determined to do the other girl proud.

"Hai Yoruichi-sama, I promise I won't let you down!"

The pair landed in an eerily empty plaza with a small fountain at its center. They stood back to back, surveying the area where they had felt the foreign reiatsu last. It was deathly silent.

"I have a bad feeling about this, Yoruichi…"

"You're not the only one, Soi…"

A sudden gaping tear in the fabric of reality ripped in front of them and as the girls turned to face it they got a momentary glimpse of a white sand desert and a jet black sky. An instant later it was all blocked out by a massive form shambling out into the living world. It rested on six legs that were segmented like crab legs, except the final segments were thin and wickedly pointed blades. Its body was a fifty foot tall oval, bleached white like a hollow mask. It was covered in eyes of all sizes and shapes and colors, which blinked and rolled and glared madly, all independent of each other. Pockmarks adorned the body as well, which went deep into the body, and networks of strange throbbing veins snaked across it, as colorless as the body and only visible because they were slightly raised. It had at least five mouths which shrieked as one in challenge, the multi-tonal noise making Soi's bones rattle in her body. She nearly retched in horror at its appearance.

"What in all of creation is this thing?!"

"Soi, it's just a hollow, like any other!" Yoruichi coached over the din of its roar. "You've got to focus now! Get into your battle mode, like you did before!" Soi tried to calm her racing heart and breathe, but she felt her blade shaking in her hand. Was fear part of this hollow's power?

Before she could react though, the hollow's reiatsu flared, making her gasp and nearly choke as the air was ripped from her lungs. For a fraction of a second it felt as though she were being crushed under the ocean, and she stared as the hollow opened its mouth and croaked out a single word in a deep, guttural voice.

"Bala."

Soi felt a flare and saw a small speeding object launch from one of the pockmarks in the hollow, heading straight for her chest. Her eyes widened as she froze, she couldn't move to block, couldn't dodge it in time…

And suddenly Yoruichi was in front of her, and she heard a cry and saw the spray of blood as she was blasted backwards right into Soi. The girls crumpled to the ground together, Yoruichi coughing up more blood. Soi screamed and dropped her zanpakuto, pulling the older girl carefully into her arms. Yoruichi coughed more and cracked open her yellow eyes, which were glazed over in pain.

"S-Shit, t-that hurts," she got out, a little blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Soi absently wiped the tears out of her eyes, breathing hard and staring down at the girl in her arms wordlessly. She reached a shaking hand down and brushed it along Yoruichi's cheek, as if to make sure the girl was still warm, still alive. Soi tucked a stray lock of purple hair behind the other girl's ear, then mechanically slid out from under her and laid her head gently down. Soi grabbed Suzumebachi off the ground with a dull scrape; it was now the only sound aside from her heavy breathing. As she slowly stepped away from Yoruichi, a light breeze began to blow around the girl, which quickly turned into a tiny gale strong enough to send her braids whipping behind her like two angry snakes. Soi's hand tightened on her sword until her knuckles turned white, and without warning she screamed with such raw fury that her reiatsu nearly exploded from her, engulfing her in yellow flames. The cobblestone beneath her cracked and shattered, the dust swirling into the shape of a monstrous demon head before dissolving into what looked like a swarm of hornets. Her eyes glowed a feral yellow and she held her sword straight out to the side, her voice just barely above a whisper but so strong and terrible that had Kenpachi Zaraki (who was currently wandering Rukongai with a little pink haired bundle of energy) heard it, even he would have thought twice about drawing his sword.

"Sting all enemies to death, Suzumebachi."

The ensuing explosion looked like a solar flare to Yoruichi, who had to close her eyes and look away from the other girl. When she could see again, Soi was standing motionless, a detailed sleeve on her right forearm with a wicked stinger attached to her middle finger by a thin chain. Suddenly the hollow screamed; Yoruichi had to blink because Soi had moved so fast that for a moment there appeared to be two of her. The stinger impaled the monster's largest eye, sending blood and fluid spraying. A black butterfly began to form, but had barely blossomed before Soi drew back and struck again, causing the hollow to seize up and jerk hard before shrieking and exploding in a shower of dust. Yoruichi gasped as the dust took the form of dozens of little bees and butterflies, which danced around Soifon as they drifted to the ground, leaving little trails of crystalline dust behind them.

"Beautiful," she whispered, before the pain became too much and she slipped into darkness.