Pulling on her hair, Hotaru smacked her head against the wall. "Why. Am. I. So. Stupid?!"

Uh...you'll get why she's doing this once you read this chapter.


Leaning her head against the nearest wall, Hotaru decided to take a rest. Damn Akon...Damn reiatsu eating binds...Perhaps she was becoming a bit to predictable, or Akon was just being too overprotective.

A couple days ago, she felt the reiatsu's of Ichigo and captain Kenpachi going against each other. She tried to go help them, but somehow Akon knew she would, and so he bound her hands and feet with reiatsu eating bonds. After many attempts to escape her house arrest, she had practically given up hope of getting anywhere at the moment. "I must help them...but who's gonna help me...?" The red head wondered to herself.

"Heh, that'd be me!" Looking up, she found a golden, phoenix-like creature staring down at her.

"You...you're...." The majestic glow the bird held seemed to leave the girl dumbstruck. "...Keiroshainingu?"

Puffing up her feathers in pride, Keiroshainingu found a nice perch on one of the small cushions in the room. "Yep. I'm here to remind you that you're not alone here. You seem to be focusing so much on your own strength, and the strength of your friends, and you somehow forgot about my strength! Aren't we partners? Haven't I lent you my strength in battle before?"

Nodding from her awkward position on the floor, Hotaru agreed. "Yes you have. And I know I can rely on you...I just needed a little reminder..."

Picking off a stray feather with her beak, the sword spirit smiled. "Consider yourself reminded. Now, show me what we can truly do..." The sword spirit faded away and back into the weapon laying on the other side of the room.

"Right. Our power." Carefully maneuvering her hands so she had a good grip on the binds, she closed her eyes before muttering. "Number thirty-one, red fire burst." The heat burned her wrists slightly, but succeeded in destroying the binds on her wrist. "Thank you, Keiroshainingu!" She called, quickly undoing the binds on her ankles and grabbing her weapon. As she ran out of her home she made sure to mention, "I'm definitely gonna kill Akon-kun when I see him next..."

Surprisingly, she didn't have to go searching for very long before the buxom shinigami found some of the others. Though they were dressed in shinigami robes, it was quite obvious they weren't part of the squad. "Ishida-san! Inoue-san!" Hotaru called, beckoning them away from the trouble they were just about to walk into.

"Akimori-san! We found you!" Orihime smiled. "We got separated from everyone else when we all entered the Seireitei. Has anyone saved Rukia yet? Have you seen Kurosaki-kun? Or Sado-kun? Or even Yoruichi-san?"

"So many questions..." She replied, scratching the back of her head. "I did find Kurosaki-san and Ganju, they're being led by a fourth squad member, Yamada Hanatarō. I was separated from them several days ago, though I did feel Ichigo's reiatsu fighting against the eleventh squad taichō, Kenpachi Zaraki. Although, I'm afraid I haven't found Yasutora-san or Yoruichi-chan!"

Uryū pushed up his glasses. "I see. You know how to get to Kuchiki-san, correct?"

Looking around suspiciously, Hotaru nodded. "Yes, but we shouldn't stay around this division too long. We might get caught. Come with me now..." As they left the area, she still couldn't shake off the feeling that someone had heard them...Little did she know how right she actually was...


Shortly after traveling together, they were interrupted by a rather stupid looking shinigami. "Which division are you from? What are you doing here?" Judging by his disposition, he seemed to be a member of the eleventh division.

"We're from the eleventh division..." Uryū and Orihime answered together.

Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit...Hotaru placed her hand on her zanpakutō's hilt, preparing to knock him out if needed. Going on about how he too was from the eleventh division, he walked over to them and grabbed onto Orihime's shirt. "That's the symbol from the twelfth division...You're not from the eleventh division. It seems that...you don't even know this stuff..."

Stepping between the eleventh squad member and the two ryoka, Hotaru tried to find a peaceful solution. "Ne, excuse them please! They're new to my division, and still quite forgetful..."

He still didn't seem to buy it. "Who the hell are you?"

Before she could even grab her zanpakutō, the man fell onto the floor, unconscious. Blinking surprisedly, she found some of her squad members standing behind him. "Ah, Taru-chan! That was a close one, ne?" One of them asked, smiling down at her.

"It's good we got here when we did." Another one mentioned.

The first one grinned at Orihime and Uryū. "Th-thank you very much!" Orihime smiled.

"Ne...We're all from the twelfth division so we should help each other."

"Yeah," another one spoke up, "these guys from the eleventh division bully us all the time, damn them."

Hotaru finally noticed the reiatsu's coming up on them. Shit! Uryū seemed to figure out how wrong this whole thing was also. He sprinted forward and grabbed Orihime's shoulder. "Inoue-san! Get away from them!" That's when the first explosion went off.

Pulling out her zanpakutō to defend them from some of the blasts, she surprisingly didn't feel anything. As more exploded, she still didn't feel anything. "Wha..." Once the smoke cleared, the red head could see that there was a barrier protecting the three of them. "Inoue-sans power..."

"That is a very interesting technique!" Mayuri grinned maliciously. "Did that girl behind you do that?"

Stepping forward, Keiroshainingu glowing with reiatsu, Hotaru's hair covered her eyes. "Mayuri...throwing away the lives of your subordinates...abusing your powers...you are a despicable, disgusting excuse for a shinigami...YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE CALLED TAICHŌ!!!" She shouted, flaring her reiatsu to lengths she didn't quite know possible. "Forget respecting the captain, you aren't worthy of being a captain!! I will kill you!!!"

Glaring down at her as if she were nothing more than dirt, Mayuri ignored her threats. "So you're still alive? Cockroaches are always so hard to kill..."

Before she could attack, Uryū stopped her. "I will take this fight. Take Inoue-san and run...Save Kuchiki-san..."

Her emotions were taking her over, making it extremely hard to think of anything but beating the twelfth division captain's head in with a blunt instrument. But Uryū's words seemed to bring her common sense back into the picture. "Alright..." She mumbled, sheathing her sword. She turned back, picking up Orihime and the eleventh squad member and running off at top speed. She had only seen Uryū fight once before, and he definitely didn't seem skilled enough to take on Mayuri. But hopefully training had helped...and that was all she could do...hope...

"Akimori-san! Please, let me go!!" Orihime cried, struggling in her grips. "We've gotta help Ishida-san!!!"

"I'm sorry." Hotaru mumbled, blocking out the human girl's protests.

She was soon stopped by someone she didn't quite expect.


"I know how Nemu-chan feels...but I do hope Mayuri dies at the hands of the Quincy..." Hotaru muttered, glaring at the ground.

Don't we all...


"So you did fight against Kurosaki-san..." Hotaru said to herself, watching from the side as the eleventh division captain, vice captain, third seat, and fifth seat questioned Orihime.

Yachiru jumped over to her shoulder. "Yup! And Ken-chan had a lot of fun! They're definitely gonna fight together again!"

Smiling sweetly at the vice captain, she nodded. "I'm sure Kurosaki-san looks forward to it...As long as he doesn't try anymore stupid stunts like going after Rukia-chan while he's still barely able to move..." Snorting at the thought of Ichigo continuing to fight even with missing limbs, (which was quite a funny mind picture also), Hotaru crossed her arms in front of her large chest. "Humph, with the way that moron fights no matter what state he's in, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he had already gotten himself killed!"

"He's definitely alive. I can feel it!" The large captain spoke up for the first time in a while. "That guy is alive! And he's getting stronger!"

"So, will you help us, Kenpachi-taichō?" The former, (or at least, she assumed that after pointing her weapon at her captain like that, she would be), twelfth squad member asked, walking up to the chair Orihime was in and placing her hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.

Kenpachi grinned widely. "Yeah, I'll help you two. 'Cause if I go with you two...I'll definitely meet up with Ichigo again..."


She tried not to stick to the stereotypes of the divisions. Like the fourth division being weak, the twelfth division being freaks, the third division being weird and creepy, (that was all Ichimaru Gin's fault people thought that anyway), or the eleventh division being idiots. But when they planned to break their friends out of prison, most would assume that they would sneak in and save their friends without anyone noticing. Apparently none of the eleventh division members knew about the word "subtle".

And yet, somehow, they had just broken through the wall of the prison, to "save" their friends. "Wouldn't causing all this ruckus only attract attention the the entire ryoka situation?" Hotaru asked Kenpachi as they stood in the midst of the rubble.

"That'd take too long. The direct approach works best." He grinned down at her.

Watching the fourth division members scurrying around, calling for help, she shook her head. "Whatever you guys say..."


"Ah! Her execution's so close! And I just disobeyed everything Kisuke had taught me about taichō!" Hotaru paced around, apparently trying to remove all of her hair from her head.

Eh, Mayuri deserves it...