A/N: Another one is up. I'm still a little out of it lately, but I didn't think this one turned out too badly. The plot is definitely on a roll now. Good, not good? Let me know. -KG

Chapter Ten: Giving In

Shunsui swept himself from the room in less than the time it took to take a breath. As soon as he heard her, he had darted off. He would know that voice anywhere, even if it was strained in a panicked way. He greatly hoped that she was alright. He didn't think he would be able to live with himself otherwise.

In a matter of seconds, he appeared in front of the door she had opened, having locked on to her energy. Expecting the worse, he saw her kneeling down next to a body. There were muffled noises, revealing that the body was indeed alive, only gagged and bound.

Nanao was frantically trying to untie the squirming person. Upon further inspection, Shunsui realized that it was his missing sixth seat. Helping out Nanao, he kneeled down next to her, helping her untie their officer.

Working quickly, they freed her shaking frame. A few tears had escaped her eyes, probably joyful for being found and fearful for what happened. He scooped her up, and they flashed to the Fourth Division.

At once Unohana had knocked her out, being too stressed out for proper treatment. It wasn't any use questioning her at this point, and they all doubted she would even be able to answer anything they asked.

On the healer's inspection, the officer was revealed to have various cuts and bruises, as well as a few minor burns. It was frightening to think that one of their officers may have been intentionally kidnapped and interrogated.

The First and Second Divisions were alerted immediately, a little disappointed that questioning couldn't be carried out right away. One mystery was solved, but others still remained. There was still one more missing officer.

Now that the sixth seat had shown up, they had further evidence to convince them that a similar thing had happened to the ninth seat. They were put on high alert, and squads were on constant patrol.

Besides the fact that the whole thing was unnerving, Nanao also felt slightly disturbed by the way the sixth seat had looked at her. When she first opened the door, it was like a wave of relief had come over her, despite her situation. She almost looked surprised to see her standing there, like she shouldn't have been.

Her captain noticed this too, and when he commented on it, neither one of them came up with a good reason for it. Perhaps she was just surprised she was rescued.

With the sixth seat finally sleeping peacefully over the next few days, the two superiors returned to the office. The feeling presented was a bit of relief alongside worry. Nanao couldn't help a feeling of dread come over her, if this was indeed what happened to the ninth seat too. Maybe this had something to do with that note.

Her wondering was answered two days after their first officer's appearance by the finding of the ninth seat.

The second officer's appearance was more mysterious than the first. It had been a normal day, as normal as any could've been, and Nanao was working while Shunsui was napping. All had been peaceful until a terrible glass-shattering shriek was heard echoing throughout the Eighth.

It sounded almost hollow-like, just like the ones they had heard on the battlefield earlier in the week. Hearing the noise made Nanao's blood run cold.

Both of them had shot upward, the sound coming from the gate at the end of the surrounding courtyard. Flashing there in an instant, they were shocked for another time. There lay the ninth seat, battered and bruised about as bad as the other. He was not bound, but the blank look on his face showed that he wouldn't have put up much of a fight at all.

They had brought him to the Fourth Division too. He did not need to be sedated, but Unohana feared that he had been mentally scarred by something great because he was so unresponsive.

The sixth seat was also awake and able to function now, and the Second came in soon after. They found they got nowhere with questions, only one response uttered from them the whole time. Nanao and her captain had thought to try, getting the okay from Unohana. Nanao didn't hide her shock when she found out what there response was.

"...Lieutenant Ise..."

This was the only thing both of them had said. Moreover, they had both looked tortured when the two commanders were allowed to see them. To Nanao, this sounded too much like the scene painted into her mind by the seventh seat, a haunting echo of torment.

No one had a viable reason for any of this. It appeared that there wasn't anything wrong with them, save for the minor injuries. Expert medics that they all were, they still couldn't stop either of them waking up in the night and screaming.

Shunsui had been present with his Nanao-chan for one of these events, the sound chilling the very air. Nanao had looked a grand deal paler after hearing her name again. After that, he had expressed very deeply that he didn't want her going there anymore, even if she thought it her duty to check up on them. He stated that he would do it instead.

As it was, the two could not do anymore for their inferior officers. With the promise of the Fourth taking good care of them, they were sent back to tend to the division.

XoXoXoX

Paperwork, it seemed, was one thing that didn't stop even if there were other urgent matters to attend to. A few days later, things were a bit back to normal once again.

The two hospitalized officers were doing a little better according to a report that made it to Nanao's desk, but they could not remember how they had gotten into that state in the first place. Perhaps some things are best forgotten.

Unohana's report said that they might be able to return to their own division some time later this week, brightening up the both of them a bit. It may have also been to the prospect of hosting a welcome back party, but Nanao was glad to see her captain in better spirits. Lately he had be worried about the whole deal, even though it was hard to tell.

He had surprised her with his work ethic lately. Despite her earlier assumptions that his idea of lessening her work load had been just a day thing, he had kept up with it, taking up some of it for himself to do. It wasn't too much, but in her opinion, any was much more than expected.

She found it particularly helpful on days when it seemed to flood the room in a sea of white. Those were the days that ended up being very late. Like today. It was another one of those days, and even with Captain Kyouraku's help it was still going to be a late night.

The sky had been dark for a good two hours before they finally finished. It was calm and free of clouds for once. The stars twinkled alongside the moon. Nanao had paused for a minute to watch them.

She lightly coughed and pushed out her chair, straightening her last stack of papers as she did. She glanced at her captain out of the corner of her eye when she saw him get up with a stretch and a yawn. It was a little cute, she would confess.

"Yare, Nanao-chan, let's call it a night." His shoulder cracked, and he turned to face her.

She nodded. "I'll just take these to the main office tonight, then I'll be heading home."

She picked up her neat stack, and Shunsui followed her out the door, stopping to wait for her to close it. She turned towards him.

"Good night, Captain." She bowed slightly before turning and heading in the opposite direction he was going.

"Good night, my lovely, lovely Nanao-chan!"

He waved, although she was already walking away. It was a good thing she was back to her usual self. Why today she had even smacked him with her fan after he commented on how delicate her skin felt. Granted he probably shouldn't have tried to hold her hand, but it was well worth his skin grazing hers.

Smiling to himself with a dreamy look on his face, he headed toward his own dwelling.

XoXoXoX

Nanao had hurried to deposit her load of papers, just wanting to get home quickly. She was tired, and she wanted to soak in a relaxing bath before going to bed. Approaching her home, she felt a sense of ease. Soon she would be asleep, hoping that she was too tried to dream.

She had not told Shunsui, but she had been having that terrible nightmare for a few nights now. It was always the same. The copy-Nanao had always stabbed her captain before her eyes, and she could always do nothing to stop it. The fire still danced in a wild rage, and the malicious grin never left the other's face. She shook her head clear of it, not wanting to think on it.

Sighing, she stepped into her home, releasing the aura of reiatsu she had around it.

At once she stopped dead in her tracks. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled, and she felt extremely uneasy. She was sure of it, someone had been here.

She moved around very cautiously, in case somebody was still here. She was fairly sure there wasn't, being excellent at detecting other reiatsu even if hidden, but she was going to make absolutely sure. If someone got past the barrier she put up, then they could very well be beyond her sensing abilities.

Her right hand trailed towards the fold of her robe where her zanpakuto sat, left burning a small flame to see by. She wasn't going to risk turning on a light.

She found it odd that there were traces of energy everywhere. It was foreign to her, someone she didn't recognize in the slightest. She grew more uneasy when the traces seemed to trace a path towards her room. Edging the door open with her toe, she peered inside warily.

She gaped at the scene before her. Along one side of the wall she had a mirror on top of a dresser. When she looked over at it, her eyes immediately found themselves on an open book, something Nanao never did. Looking closer, she recognized it as the one she was missing.

That wasn't the shocker though. Written on her mirror in a red substance was a message:

I'll be seeing you.

She edged a little closer to get a better look at it. While doing so, she noticed that the book was open on one of her hand-written pages. Ironically, it was one of the romantic poems her captain had tried to recite to her, the same one that crossed her mind the other day.

You are the moon, and I am the sun,
Complete is the day we're together as one.

This was too much. These things had not been there this morning, and from the looks of it, the message writer hadn't been gone that long. The writing liquid looked partly wet still.

Slightly panicking, she made for the front door. She was not safe here.

XoXoXoX

She had gone to the first person she thought of, her best friend, Rangiku. When she got there, late as it was, Ran welcomed her in like it was the middle of the day. Seeing her frightened state, she demanded an explanation.

After Nanao had finished relaying what had transpired, Rangiku scolded her with a tone a worrying mother would use. The idea that Nanao should have gone to Shunsui first was spoken many times. Despite Nanao's protests that it was late and he didn't need to be involved, Rangiku thought otherwise.

This was the reason why she was now marching towards her captain's dwelling at this late hour, Rangiku urging her on.

Stopping in front of his door, Nanao thought for a moment and realized that as soon as Rangiku was involved she didn't stand a chance save giving in to her. It was amazing what the strawberry blonde could do once she was determined.

Nanao reached up and knocked respectably. Part of her hoped that he wouldn't hear and they could just go back to Ran's, but Nanao didn't doubt that Rangiku would wake him with force if need be.

The air was still, and Nanao was going to turn around and attempt to leave when a shuffling could be heard from inside. Rangiku made to stop her, and the door slid open revealing a very surprised Shunsui.

He was about to comment on why his Nanao-chan was up and about so late, when he noticed her downcast expression and that Rangiku's hands on her shoulders were keeping her in place. She was looking at the floor, the opposite of her usual proud stance. Immediately, he switched to a face of concern.

"What happened, Nanao?"

He knew she wouldn't be here unless it was something serious, especially if Rangiku had forced her here.

She stayed turned towards the ground, finding the dark floorboards much more interesting than his questioning eyes. She made no move to speak, still partially stunned from the event and partially from the embarrassment of having to go to someone else for help.

"Nanao?"

Rangiku gave her a slight nudge with one of her hands, encouraging her to spit it out.

"Captain Kyouraku, someone...someone has broken into my apartment.."

Shaking only slightly, probably because Rangiku was still tightly holding onto her, she looked up, violet meeting with chocolate.

-End of part ten