"Go!"

The training tatami of the 9th division was at its busiest. In the middle, two Shinigami fought each other with bokken, one wearing a white cloth over his shoulders. After the first attack on him, the second Shinigami quickly dodged to his left as another assailant lunged at him, with such a speed very few would have noticed who it really was, had it not been for his loud voice shouting orders.

"Good! Don't stop!"

"Yes Lieutenant!"

The exercised continued. Attack and retreat, attack and retreat. Hisagi would constantly change his attack pattern, always trying, often successfully, to get the attackers by surprise. After a few exchanges, the trainees would trade position or take a break and leave room for the next Shinigami.

"Excuse me... Hisagi-san!"

"Oh, Lieutenant Kotetsu."

Hisagi stopped his fast movements and jumped with shunpo out of training.

"Do you have a minute? We got a report from Seree you may want to take a look at."

"Sure. Mazaki!"

"Sir!" A shinigami answered, quickly jumping in front of the lieutenants with well executed shunpo.

"Take my place and continue the exercise."

"Yes sir!"

"What's going on? Special training?" Isane asked as they walked away.

"Yes. After yesterday's encounter with that hollow I realized there is something strange going on with them. It may just be coincidence, but these hollow had strange movements. I don't want my men to be caught by surprise a third time."

"I see.."

"Didn't you notice yesterday? Oh and.. thanks again, you were a big help, if it wasn't for you..."

"Ah, don't worry about it. But..." Isane looked up as she tried to remember the battle they had the previous day. "I can't say I noticed anything unusual, I was too busy healing people. It did seem like a very strong hollow though. Was it that hard when Seree was with you too?"

"Yes. The hollow yesterday was probably stronger, but that one caught us by surprise."

"Stronger..." Isane looked at Hisagi with a worried expression. "What does all this mean?"

Hisagi had a serious expression, but appeared fairly calm.

"It's to early to tell. Hopefully the 12th division will be able to tell us something with the sample we got for them. Ah, here we go, come in please."

They had been walking through the barracks and had arrived at the Captain's office. Hisagi sat at the desk with the ease of familiarity and started reading the papers Isane had given her. Soon, a Shinigami entered carrying two cups of tea. Isane thanked him, but Hisagi didn't even look up or notice.

"That girl... Did she really defeat one of these hollow by herself?"

"Yes. She is usually very accurate in her reporting, so I believe her. However..."

"Yeah, I know, there was something odd about it." Hisagi looked at Isane, and she nodded.

"That too, but what I was going to say is that what worries me the most is what she said about the Shinigami that attacked her."

"Shinigami?"

"Oh, sorry, I interrupted you. Please keep reading."

Hisagi turned to the report again, and slowly his serious expression took a more somber look.

"What's going on here..." He muttered.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud voice calling his name, and the loud rumble of someone running. The door to the office opened with a slam.

"Lieutenant Hisagi! Hollow have appeared!"

Another door opened, but this one did so at a leisurely pace. Seree entered the small apartment.

"Itou-san! Ito... Oh, good morning!"

Yaso looked at the girl with a bored expression. She swirled around, showing off her four colored hair; white, blonde, red, brown, all in orderly bunches flowed around her head. It was much shorter than it had been, barely reaching under her ears. Yaso had not had a chance to look at it like that until then.

"Good morning."

"Rangiku-san showed me to this amazing place this morning." She giggled. "They fixed my hair, and had all these amazing beauty products, Rangiku-san even had this mask on with slices of vegetables and..." She giggled again.

"And just yesterday you were in such a panic over losing your hair."

"Erm... Hehe, true but, you see..." She put both her hands on her hair without thinking, always trying to cover it. "I'm just amazed they fixed it so well."

"Yeah, yeah. Well don't worry too much, I'm sure it'll grow again in no time."

Seree opened her eyes with a surprised expression, and in her confusion didn't quite know how to respond to that. She noticed that Yaso was actually putting his shoes on, and she suddenly remembered.

"Oh, right! Itou-san, can you come with me? Urahara-san wants to talk with you."

"Sorry, can't go now, got an appointment."

"I... Erm... I see. Could you come later then?"

"I won't be back until the afternoon."

"That's okay. Oh, and please bring your sword too."

Yaso was about to leave, but with that he stopped suddenly and turned to Seree.

"My sword? What on earth for?"

"I... I don't know, Urahara-san didn't tell me."

Seree felt a bit uncomfortable under Yaso's instense gaze.

I wish he wouldn't look a me like that.

"And you didn't ask? I suppose being invited around and asked to bring a sword is perfectly normal to you."

"I... I didn't think of that, I... suppose it is."

Yaso sighed.

"I got it, sure, I'll go later today. See ya."

Yaso closed the door and Seree stood there looking at it for a few seconds. Her reverie was interrupted by the beeping of her cellphone.

"Hollow!"