So... Chapter 11. I hope you enjoy it.


It wasn't long before the other captains began filing in. They had heard the reports about the girl, so some flared their spiritual pressures to see if she would react. Oblivious to the antics of the captains, she stayed as she was. Some of them chatted companionably with Zaraki or each other as they waited for the Head Captain to show up. She tuned everyone out, hating that she knew so much about everyone there, but they knew nothing about her.

"Zaraki! Did you even run the scans properly? Give me the device now." Korusutchi demanded as soon as he walked in. Erin flinched at the sound of his voice and a couple of the captains noticed it.

Zaraki tossed the device to the painted man. "I did it exactly as you told me. You think you can do better, there she is."

"I think I will." Erin clenched her hands into fists against her legs. "You, girl! Stand up." Erin slowly stood up. He grumbled about her taking so long but he did exactly as she saw Zaraki do at her home. He shook the devise. "Did you break it, Zaraki? It's a delicate instrument, you know."

"I did not break it."

"I will need to take samples then." He grabbed Erin's wrist and was pulling out an empty syringe from his pocket. Erin twisted her wrist out of his grasp.

"Please do not touch me, Captain. I am not a research specimen for you to poke and prod."

He went to back hand her across the face, but Zaraki grabbed his wrist. "You heard her, Korusutchi. You can slap your subordinates all you like, but she is not your research project. You want samples, you need to go through the Head Captain or ask the girl herself."

He pulled his hand free from Zaraki's grasp and huffed as he turned and went to his spot. Erin went back to kneeling and Zaraki smirked. Looks like she does have some spirit in her yet. So she doesn't like Myorri. I wonder what happened between them in that other world.

The Head Captain arrived and called everyone to order. "Is this the girl, Captain Zaraki?" He asked.

"Yes, Head Captain. Her name is Erin Graves."

"And you did the scans Captain Korusutchi asked you to do?"

"Yes, Head Captain. He did not believe the results so did them himself when he arrived."

"What are the findings, Captain Korusutchi?"

"As far as I can tell, she's just an ordinary human with no spiritual pressure." He replied.

"Captain Zaraki, you reported that she traveled to other worlds and came to an alternate of our world and met all of us before." Some of the captains muttered amongst themselves. Yamamoto cracked his staff on the ground, silencing the room.

"Yes, I did, Head Captain."

"Erin Graves, do you have any proof of this?"

"I have my memories and I have.." She dug into a pouch, her arm disappearing as she rooted around in the pouch, causing many of the captains to gasp in shock. She pulled out a sketch pad. "…this. I was here for about two months last time so I had time to do sketches." She handed it to Captain Ukatake as he was the nearest to her. He flipped through it, noticing portraits of all of the captains and lieutenants bar the three traitors along with a few other seated officers. When he finished, he passed it on to Zaraki who hadn't seen any of these sketches. The sketchpad made it's way around to all of the captains with Myorri being the last to hold it. He didn't look at it, but just held it, not interested in the sketchpad's contents.

"She did not make these today. Erin, what do you know about each of us?" Komomora asked. She listed what she knew, holding back a little bit about what she knew of her Kenpachi and the gap was noted by several of the captains.

"Are you sure that's all you know?" Captain Feng asked, pointedly.

Erin blushed. "I would rather not go into detail about what I knew of the Captain Zaraki of that world if you don't mind."

Kyōraku gave Zaraki a knowing wink and he growled back.

"Did you have a relationship with that man?" She continued.

Erin pulled her necklace free of her shirt. "I did. He gave me this right before I was pulled into the next world to always take the 11th with me." She was still blushing and she very pointedly did not look at Zaraki. "Can you please stop asking me questions about him? I get it. It's probably not often you get to tease Captain Zaraki about things. But that man there," She pointed, "I have only met this morning and beyond anything general, I know nothing about him." She dropped her hand.

Yamamoto cleared his throat and the snickers and mutters died down. "Miss Graves, by your drawings and your general knowledge of us, I can't be certain that you weren't coached by one of the traitors. You could have been planted by Aizen as a means of getting someone here to get planning back to him or to sabotage us. Do you have any proof that you are not a spy?"

"Head Captain Yamamoto, I'm a human without spiritual pressure. As someone in Soul Society without spiritual pressure, I don't get hungry, but because I am a human or maybe because of the world hopping I went through, I still require food. You don't trust me, that's fine. Put me in a cell and don't feed me. I'll eventually starve to death, all the while feeling full and content. It won't be so bad. I just request my Ipod, a sunny window, and my solar battery charger. You want some proof I'm not a spy. I tell you now that I'm here because I choose to be. That, at least, is something I can give you proof of if you like."

"And how would you do that?" Sneered Kurosutchi.

She looked up to the head captain who nodded. "Choose an element; earth, air, fire or water."

"Earth." Yamamoto replied.

Erin had become stronger in the elements since she was in that other world and this version of Soul Society had a lot more magic to it as did her own world of the living. They were on a first story with no basement underneath. She closed her eyes and put her hands on the floor in front of her. There was a lot of metal underneath them. She mentally reached out to it, drawing it towards them. She looked up at the captains' faces around her and clenched her fist as spikes of metal shot up through the floor in front of each of them, slicing through pant legs on some of them.

"Did you need more proof that I am here because I choose to be?"

"Can you get rid of these spikes?" Ukataki asked.

Erin concentrated and put the metal back in the general areas she got it from.

Yamamoto cleared his throat. "Do you think that's why Aizen is after her, Head Captain?" Hitsuguya asked.

"It's a possibility." He replied. "At this point, we don't know if we need to protect her or be protected from her. Do you have anything to add, Captain Zaraki? You have at least seen her when she didn't know anyone was watching her."

Zaraki looked over to the kneeling woman who was still not looking at him and then down at the spike hole, and then back at her. "Erin, tell us how you came to be tortured." She looked up sharply at him, eyes wide.

Murmurs filled the room and Yamamoto banged his staff on the floor in front of him and the mutters stopped.

"Which time?" She asked.

"How many times?" He retorted.

"The simple answer is three times. The second time was actually a multiple of times over the course of 2 or 3 weeks. Time gets kind of lost when you don't see daylight."

"The first time. What did they want to know?" Zaraki asked.

"They wanted to know the defenses for a castle that I set up the defenses for."

"What did they do to you?"

"I knew the other Captain Zaraki well enough to share that with him, but he also never needed to ask me. I don't know anyone in this room well enough to talk about the specifics of my tortures. Why do you want to know?"

"If we can determine when, why, where, and how you were tortured, we can prove that Aizen didn't have anything to do with it." He replied.

"When was over eleven hundred years ago. Where was on worlds I am happy to be free of. Why is a different reason for each world. The second grouping of tortures was because I landed in a world in the middle of a witch hunt. I fell right in front of a witch hunter. They wanted me to confess to being a witch as they required a confession before a public execution. The third was because I landed similarly in the middle of an army encampment at night. They thought I was a spy and wanted to know what I knew. And how I was tortured is none of your damn business. Maybe if I get to know one of you a hell of a lot better, I'll feel comfortable enough to tell you, but my parents don't even know the specifics. Got it, Captain Zaraki?" She glared up at him.

Zaraki smirked. "It's nice to see you have some life in you, girl. I was beginning to think you were just some depressed mouse."

"Depressed?" Shunsui asked.

"Let's see any of you go through over twelve hundred years of almost constant battles and we'll see if you come out the same. The constant battles drove me insane once. Took a while to get it back."

"Psh. Sanity, can't say I've ever needed such a thing." Zaraki replied.

"And that's where you're wrong, Captain Zaraki. Even in the depths of your blood lust, you're still sane. I was attacking trees for looking at me funny. Trust me, I highly doubt you've ever gone that far down the rabbit hole."

"I believe she's telling the truth, Head Captain. I don't believe she is an Aizen plant."

"Will you take responsibility for her?"

"I will."

"This seems out of character for you, Zaraki." Unahana pointed out.

He held up the scimitars Erin had given him upon entering the captains' meeting. "Yeah, well she can fight too." He replied sheepishly, causing several of the captains to chuckle.

Yamamoto cleared his throat again, getting everyone's attention. "Miss Graves, you, for now, will be the guest of the 13 court guard. As Captain Zaraki is taking responsibility for you, you are to stay at his division and except for when you are sleeping or using the bathroom facilities, you are to be in his company until further notice." Noticing that Korusutchi still had her sketchpad, "Captain Korusutchi, make sure that sketchpad gets back to Miss Graves before you leave for your division. You are all dismissed."

Myorri walked over to the now standing Erin and went to hand her the sketchpad. As she was reaching for it, he went to stab her with a needle with his other hand. Erin saw the movement and exploded into action, grabbing the wrist of the hand holding the needle and using a pressure point to force him to drop the needle and then using her other hand to do an open-handed shove against his chest and releasing his wrist. She ended in a fighting stance with her eyes on the scientist. Zaraki went to put a hand on her shoulder and as soon as he did, she grabbed him by the wrist and flipped him over onto his back. Seeing who she had flipped, caused her to redden in embarrassment.

"I didn't…"

Zaraki laughed. "Oh, we'll have some fun for sure." He got up and retrieved the syringe and the sketchpad. The syringe was empty. "Thought you would go in for another attempt at getting a sample, Korusutchi?" He held the syringe up in front of his chest so it was visible to anyone still in the room.

"It must have slipped…"

"Yeah. See that it doesn't slip again. Come on Erin. Let's get you settled in." He waited for her to walk ahead of him and then left with her. "Here's your sketch pad." He handed it to her and she dropped it into her pouch. "I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing that." She nodded but continued on without speaking. Aren't girls supposed to be talkative? Hell, when she thought I was the other me she was so happy to see me, but now, it's like she wants nothing to do with me. I wonder why. And I wonder what happened between her and the other Korusutchi. I'll ask her when I get an opportunity.

They arrived at the 11th division compound and he took the lead. He was leading her to his captain's quarters but she seemed lost in thought as she continued toward the lieutenant's quarters.

"Hey, where are you going?"

"The lieutenant's quarters."

"I wouldn't ask you to stay with Yachiru." He replied, not understanding.

"But doesn't she stay with you?" She looked over to the lieutenant's courtyard and saw that it was kept and that the building wasn't on a lean either. "The grounds and building are kept up."

Zaraki moved over to stand near her. "You look shocked. Of course the lieutenant's quarters are kept up. She insists on doing it herself. Were they not in the other world?"

Erin shook her head. "No. The other Yachiru stayed with Kenpachi and the lieutenant's quarters had been kinda left to itself. The courtyard had a lot of weeds sticking up between the flagstones and the building was on a little lean. Has your Yachiru always stayed here?"

"No. She originally used this as a play house and eventually wanted to start sleeping here. She's been here full time for the last couple years. She'll still come over to sleep with me when she gets nightmares though. You, on the other hand, will be staying with me. I have a spare room from when she used to stay with me full time." They walked back over to his home. He showed her the room. "Sorry it's pink. It's Yachiru's favorite color. Do you….need any help?"

"The room is fine and I don't need any help. It's just odd seeing that there are changes between this Soul Society and that Soul Society. And it was a shock that I would be staying with you in your home."

He really didn't know how to reply to that, so just said, "Well, hurry and get set up. I want to get down to the training grounds." And left the room.

Erin pulled out her bed and hung her clothing up in the closet. She hadn't brought much else except for some alcohol. She intended on attempting to get drunk that night as the day had been very bizarre. She left the bag there, but changed into her usual workout clothing as she had often worked with her Kenpachi's men and wanted to be prepared to do the same if asked. She tucked the padded leather gloves in at her waistband. He hadn't given her back the scimitars and she decided that she wasn't going to ask for them either.

She headed out to the living area and he noticed the change in clothing. He turned and left the house, with Erin following after. He led her to the training grounds and she was surprised to see that the men were using wooden practice swords to train.

"Where are their swords?" She finally asked.

"They are nearby, but they practice with the practice swords. The only time they use their zampakuto outside of battle is when they are challenging for a higher seat. Why? How did he do it?"

"The men always practiced with their zampakuto. My Kenpachi fought against his subordinates semi frequently and made the decisions to raise or lower someone's status."

"I used to have them train with their swords, but Captain Unahana got tired of all the training accidents and said she wouldn't treat anyone else from the 11th with a training accident. She even brought over a cart load of the practice swords."

Ikkaku and Yumichika, upon seeing their captain arrive with the woman they had been watching in the world of the living, strode over to find out what was going on. Yumichika introduced Ikkaku and himself and explained that they had been in charge of watching her for the last two weeks. Zaraki briefly explained about Erin and the Head Captain's decision.

"Hey Erin," called Ikkaku. "I've seen you practice before and I've been dying to spar with you. What do you say?" Erin looked over to Zaraki and he gave a brief nod.

"Sure, but I'm not used to using a practice sword."

"You get used to it. Here, catch!" He tossed her one and she caught it easily. She tucked it under her arm as she put her padded leather gloves on.

"What's with the gloves?" Ikkaku asked.

"I heal very quickly. That means that I can't acquire any calluses. And even though I heal quickly, tears to my palms still hurt and I'd rather avoid the unnecessary slippery grip from the blood." She swung around the blade and hated how light it was in comparison to her normal swords. "Definitely feels weird."

Ikkaku chuckled and led her to an open space. They tested each other out and Erin adjusted the skill, strength and ferocity of her attacks to be at a level near his but still above it.

"Quit toying with him, Erin."

"I am not toying with him. I am training him. How is he to become a better swordsman if I simply do this?" She made a few quick movements and had her sword at his throat. Zaraki chuckled. "Which would you prefer, 3rd seat Madarame?"

"Go a little tougher then you were, but you don't need to make me feel like a raw recruit." Erin nodded and they began again. She worked with him for the next hour or so until Zaraki called a break for dinner. Sometime during Erin's and Ikkaku's sparring match, Yachiru came back from her woman's meeting and Zaraki quietly got her up to date on what was going on.

Erin followed Zaraki back to his home while Yachiru rode on his shoulder.

"What are you makin' tonight, Kenny?"

"Hmmm, how about a ramen?"

"That sounds good. With chicken?"

"Sure, we can do a chicken ramen." He replied.

It was odd seeing a Yachiru that didn't need everything she ate smothered in sugar. Erin just shook her head in amusement as she followed the pair to the house. Yachiru hopped off his shoulder and sat at the table. Erin wasn't quite sure what to do, so when he went to chop up meat, she went over and asked him if she could help with the prep work. He directed her to cut up the vegetables. When the cutting was all done, she went to her room, grabbed her shower supplies and took a shower while Zaraki continued cooking. The food was done by the time she was done with her shower. She came back out in clean clothes and did what she could to stuff down some food.

"You didn't eat much, girl."

"Eating isn't very easy for me to do here, Captain Zaraki."

"Just Zaraki, Erin. And what do you mean?"

"What I said in the captain's meeting is true. I don't get hungry here, but I still need to eat. It's like always feeling full. So, I force down what I can, but it's never much." She smiled sardonically. "Don't worry about it." She got up and grabbed the empty plates. "Come on, I'll help wash up." For Erin it was odd washing dishes with Zaraki again. There was no playfulness, and he didn't try to stop her from doing the dishes.

Sometime after dinner, Zaraki walked Yachiru over to her quarters and got her into bed. While he was gone, Erin grabbed her pouch and brought it out with her. She sat down and leaned against one of the porch posts and pulled out a bottle of whiskey and lazily drank from the bottle. Zaraki was gone for about a half hour and Erin had drank about a quarter of the bottle by the time he came back. He sat down and leaned against the other porch post.

After a while he reached over for the bottle and Erin passed it over to him companionably. He took a swig and said, "I didn't take you for much of a drinker." He took another long pull and handed the bottle back.

Erin took the bottle and drank deeply. "I'm not, but after such an odd day, attempting to get drunk sounded nice." She drank again and passed the bottle back over.

The bottle was now three quarters gone. "Attempt?" He asked, taking a long drink.

"If you are anything like your counterpart, you don't get drunk very easily. I'm like that too. I heal too quickly and I have a high tolerance for alcohol. So, yeah – attempt is the right word." She finished off the bottle and pulled out another. "More whiskey or should we go to vodka, tequila or sake?"

"I'd prefer sake." She handed him the bottle to start it off. They continued like this, passing a bottle back and forth while they talked.

"I wasn't very fair to you in the captain's meeting, Zaraki."

"Oh?"

"Your counterpart didn't need to ask me about the tortures because, in a way, he already knew what happened. You see, I had given him my pouches for safe keeping while I was in the Division 2 holding cells. While the captains discussed what to do with me, I told him he could go through the pouches as he wanted and use anything he found in there to prove or disprove that I was a threat." Erin looked down, not really wanting to go on, but knowing he deserved to know. He looked over to her, waiting for her to continue. "After they happened, I was pretty messed up in the head. It's a lot to be almost taken to your breaking point over and over again even if it did occur over a 75 year period and at that time, over 800 years ago. That second one really did break me. I was almost a wild animal by the time I was rescued.

"I attempted some self-therapy because there wasn't anyone I could talk to about it. I thought that if I could get everything I felt on paper, maybe it would stop tearing me up inside. So I drew. I filled a whole sketchpad with drawings depicting everything. My hope was to one day be able to look through the pictures and not feel the same way I did back then. It never worked. I would look at them and all the horror would come crashing back on me and I would throw the book away from me.

"That was the sketchpad he found and when the captains finished looking through it, I begged Captain Soi Feng to destroy it because I never wanted to see it again. I understand that Captain Kuchiki did it for me."

Zaraki stayed quiet for a while after she finished. "Can I see your hand?" He finally asked. She nodded and scooted over to him and held out her right hand for him to examine. He noticed that she didn't tremble at his touch and attributed it to the alcohol relaxing her. "Is there any stiffness?" He asked as he moved her fingers, testing the dexterity. She shook her head. "I've never seen round scars like these before. They look like they went all the way through at each joint and then again at the middle of each bone in the hand." He saw that her eyes had begun to fill as she nodded. "What happened to the missing fingers?"

"The hand was crippled afterwards. The tendons in those fingers had snapped and retreated all the way up to my elbow and they couldn't get reconnected. They had shrunk too much over time and restretching them would have been almost impossible and very painful. The fingers themselves were so badly damaged that the doctor felt it was better to remove them, rather than to repair them and just have dead fingers on the hand getting in the way considering that there was extensive nerve damage to the whole hand as well. Over the years, the nerves have healed, but I would have never been able to move those fingers again." He looked like he was going to ask a question about how the round scars were made so she beat him to the punch. "It looked like a book but instead of pages, the covers were lined with spikes, and that's all I really want to say about it." A tear leaked from her right eye and she looked away as she reclaimed her hand and scooted back to where she had been sitting. She wiped at her eye and continued to drink.

"Thank you." She nodded and they stayed quiet, passing a bottle back and forth. After the fourth bottle had been drained, she said good night and went back inside with a good buzz and a very full bladder. She took care of the bladder and then got ready for bed. She heard Zaraki enter the home a little while later.

The next morning, Zaraki woke up and went to check on his charge. He was surprised to find that she wasn't in her bed. He checked the rest of the house but didn't find her. He began to wonder if she had left while he was asleep and decided to do a quick look around before reporting her missing. He had decided to set up a search party and when he left the house, he saw her practicing her hand to hand fighting skills. He watched her and noticed she was listening to her ipod as she trained. He could tell she had been at it for a while because she had a sheen of sweat on her exposed skin. He walked over to her and put a hand to her shoulder. The response was immediate as she pulled him over her shoulder in a flip.

She pulled the earbuds from her ears and said, "I'm so sorry! I didn't hear you!"

He laughed. "I see you're feisty today. Go get your scimitars from my room. We'll have some fun."

"But how will I be able to help you heal quicker without the ointment?"

"Don't worry about it. We'll go after. Now go get your scimitars, girl." He commanded.

She did as he asked and after he took off his captain's jacket and shirt, they sparred for several hours, each taking and giving injury. She eventually called an end to the sparring, gave him her sword belt, and did her best to bandage him up. When she was as finished as she could be, he put his shirt and jacket back on, took her swords back to his room, and grabbed the jar she had given him back in the world of the living. They traveled to the fourth division.

At the fourth division, Unahana's third seat met them shortly after arriving. "Captain Zaraki, are you ok, sir?" She asked timidly after seeing the bandages on his chest that were bleeding through.

"I'm fine. Where is your captain?"

"I believe she is in her office, captain." He grunted and chose a random direction and started walking. Erin tugged on his sleeve and took the lead.

"Where is Yachiru? The other her liked to watch my fights with the other you."

She popped up over Zaraki's shoulder. "Here I am!" She waved at Erin.

"Where did you come from?" Yachiru giggled in response.

"She hopped on as we started for the 4th division. You were walking next to me and kept your eyes straight ahead to avoid looking at me." He smirked.

"Yeah, well, you're wearing the face and form of the man I still love. It's not easy to look at you and keep my distance, to not want to react as I would normally."

"You love Kenny?"

"Not your Captain Zaraki, Yachiru. I don't know the man you are riding. But I did know a man that looked and acted much like him. Didn't you bring her up to date, Zaraki?"

"I left out a few things."

"Like what, Kenny?"

"None of your business, squirt."

"Did she kiss you?" Erin and Zaraki both colored. "She did! Did you like it?"

"Of course I liked it, Yachiru. But it wasn't meant for me. Now leave it alone."

"Why don't you like my Kenny, Erry?"

"Because I don't know him, Yachiru. I've missed being called Erry by your counterpart, Lieutenant."

"Would you like him if you got to know him?"

Zaraki looked over to her and saw that tears had begun rolling down her cheek. "Yachiru, leave her alone."

"But Kenny!"

"Not now, Yachiru. We're here anyway." He opened the door to find the captain of the 4th division looking over a report. He cleared his throat and she looked up.

"Captain Zaraki, I see you are injured. I told you about training with bare blades."

"I'm not here for that, Unahana." He pulled a jar from a pocked with a residue in it. "Can you look at this and see if you can create something similar?"

She took the jar from his outstretched hand. "What was it?"

"Erin." He made a gesture to indicate she should explain.

"It's a healing salve, Captain Unahana. I can make it if I have the right materials, but one of the ingredients is only found on a handful of worlds. We were hoping you might be able to create something to replicate it."

"What's the missing ingredient?"

"It was called the bleeding warrior in one of the worlds I was in. If you have some paper I can draw it." She nodded and handed her paper and something to draw with. As she was finishing the drawing, Zaraki spoke up.

"Are the petals pink with blood red spots near the center?"

Erin looked up at him in surprise. "How did you know?"

"I've seen it before."

"Where?"

"The place I found Yachiru. I went back there years later and they had bloomed there."

"The other Zaraki said when he found Yachiru, it was after a big fight. A bunch of bandits hacking apart people or something like that. Was it the same for you?" He nodded. "That makes sense then. The seeds require blood to be spilled on them before they will begin growing. They can lay dormant for decades. What is the flower called here?" She asked Captain Unahana.

"We called it the bleeding lady because it's pink and the blood colored spots." Zaraki supplied.

"Can you take me there?"

"Is this ointment really so useful? We can use healing kido." Unahana interjected.

"It's only good on cuts to the skin. It won't repair anything deeper, but it cuts healing time in half. I like to train with bare blades and so does Captain Zaraki. It will make it so I don't have to stich him up every morning. Besides, what do you do when you have a trainee that can't use healing kido or a healer that becomes too weak to use it? What would you use on me if I became injured to the point I couldn't heal myself? I was told kido doesn't work on me at all. I don't know if that holds true in this world too."

"I would like to verify that." Unahana replied.

"As you wish." Unahana tried a restraining kido and watched as it slid around her. She tried something more high level and that slid around her as well.

"I've never seen that before. May I examine you?"

"What does that entail?"

"Nothing that I can't observe. Listen to your heart and lungs, take a few scans. Nothing evasive." She replied.

"Ok. I'll allow it."

"Come with me. I have an exam room we can use." She directed them to a nearby room complete with an examining table. "Please take a seat." She directed Erin to sit on the table. She did as she said she would. She tried a few more kidos, warning her when it was one that could cause damage. She also checked her heart, lung function, reflexes, and took a few scans. When she was done, she thanked Erin and said, "For all I can tell, you're a normal human with all I can observe normally. Even the scans show you as normal except for that immunity to spiritual pressure and kido among your other abilities." She turned to Zaraki. "Captain Zaraki, I'd like to talk with you." He nodded and they headed outside as Erin put in a pair of ear buds.

Unahana looked at Erin oddly when she did that so Zaraki explained. "She has very strong hearing and she is trying to be polite as you didn't want to talk to me in front of her."

"Oh. That was nice of her. Zaraki, I think you should take her to pick up those flowers."

"Why? She's safer here than out there."

"Two reasons. The first is that I agree that this ointment will be very useful. The second is that maybe she'll open up more to you if you're alone and traveling like that. She loved the other version of you, maybe she'll come to love you too."

"I don't need some woman." He growled

"Yes you do, Kenny." Yachiru giggled.

"Think about it. Do you really think the other Zaraki was looking for a mate? Besides – she can fight and is willing to fight you every day. What more can you want?"

He looked up towards the door and then back down to the woman in front of him. "Someone that doesn't avoid looking at me because I remind her of someone else." He sighed. "Fine, I'll take her, but Yachiru, you need to stay here." She pouted at the news. They returned to the exam room and they saw that Erin had her eyes closed and was singing lowly to herself. Zaraki chuckled and then cleared his throat loudly, making her jump and pull out the ear buds. He chuckled again. Yachiru smacked him on the ear and he just took it making Erin smile at the familiar antics.

"Erin, can you write down the recipe for the ointment for me? I'd like to be able to make it too when you and Zaraki come back from getting that flower."

Erin smiled and nodded. "Sure. It's a long process, but I don't mind writing it all down for you." Retsu handed her a pen and paper and Erin began writing out the complicated instructions for making the ointment. When she was done, she handed it to the captain and she looked it over.

"I have most of these herbs or can get them easily. Be on the lookout for the last three ingredients on this list while you're out. I don't know if I'll be able to get them."

"I have everything at my house other than this flower." Erin supplied.

"Erin, it's dangerous for you in the world of the living right now. We can't risk you going there even with Zaraki for protection."

Erin's face fell. "I didn't pack for traveling."

"We'll pick up anything we need at the market." Zaraki replied. "Come on, let's go."

Erin followed him to the market and he bought food that would travel well and then took her to a clothing rack. "Find your size." When Erin looked confused he replied, "You'll stick out like a sore thumb. Find your size and grab 3 sets of clothing and a pair of sandals." Erin took a few items and tried them on in one of the booths the seller had. They left with 3 yukata and a pair of sandals. "Do you need anything else?"

"I can hunt fresh meat for us, but I'll need a bow, arrows, and a skinning knife."

He liked the sound of fresh meat on the road so brought her to a stall with the necessary items. She checked several of the bows and tested the pull before settling on one. She gave the arrows a thorough examination, but only needed to test the edge of the skinning knife. They brought everything back to his house and they packed everything they were going to need in her pouch. Unahana had given her a bag for the herbs she was going to collect and had requested that a few of the flowers were brought back whole so that they could try to cultivate them. When everything was set, they went up to his office so he could sign off on a few things.

"Where's the rest of the paperwork?" She asked him.

"Rest?"

"There's usually a good stack… Isn't there?"

"He took care of all of his paperwork?" He asked. She nodded. "I hate paperwork, so each of my seated officers is responsible for doing paperwork 1 day out of the month. They can authorize up to a certain level and they leave anything they can't sign off on for me. I come up once a week and spend about 10 minutes signing off or rejecting anything they couldn't do."

"Aren't you worried about someone trying to…. I don't know…. Make the division pay for a large bar tab or something."

He laughed darkly, "They know that if I ever found out, I would kill them on the spot."

"Seems like a better system."

"Yup. And I get out of doing paperwork." He smirked. "Yachiru thought of it." He scrawled his name across a small handful of documents and left them in the out tray for someone to take care of later. As he had said, he was only there for about 10 minutes before directing Erin out to the training grounds to meet up with Yachiru who had run ahead. The training went as normal and Erin trained with a few of the men. They halted for the day and back at Zaraki's house, they had a meal and went over the items that were packed. He added her sword belt to the pouch. They showered and went to bed.