I woke up.

A genuinely surprising turn of events, all things considered.

The first thing I noticed was the scent of sandlewood, followed closely by the aroma of clean linens.

The room I was in was… nice. Embroidered drapes pulled over the window, a comfortable writing desk tucked in the corner, and a portable space heater angled up at my bed kicking off visible ripples of heat. The walls were shellacked in a glossy cream that matched the carpet as well as the mound of quilts layered on top of me. The smell came from a merrily burning candle on the stand next to me.

I pushed those off of me into a disorganized heap on the floor and gathered my will for a few minutes before I swung my feet off the bed to the floor. I was immediately struck by a jolt of agony from my extremities. I told myself that was a good thing, it meant they were healing, and managed to not make myself not feel better in the slightest.

Giving myself a onceover, I found a layer of bandages wrapped my torso as well as a splint connected to a few of my fingers, not to mention the layer of gauze holding my feet together. I wasn't surprised by any of that, I was more concerned with where my clothes had gone. Instead of my kimono and haori, I was wearing a pair of drawstring shorts and a simple white shirt large enough to be used as an impromptu sail if need be.

Feeling adventurous and thirsty, I limped over to the pushed it open slightly, peeking through the crack. Nothing looked terribly dangerous, so I pushed it open and sauntered out. To my left I heard voices, so that's the way I went.

I stepped into a living room, the source of the noise proving to be a large television mounted on the far wall displaying some show or another. Not five feet away from it a child was planted firmly on the ground, his eyes fixated on the flickering images, a giant bowl of cereal in his lap.

I took a better look at the kid. A Westerner by the looks of it, with sandy blonde hair and fair skin. He didn't look up as I walked up behind him, but he did chime out a friendly "Hello" in English.

"Ungh." Was all I could muster in response, my brain not quite up the task of remembering a different language yet. On the screen a yellow brick accosted a fat starfish.

"I'm Sam, what's your name?" He asked, his eyes still on the television.

I rubbed my eye for a moment before muttering "Kaiaki."

"Kayakee?" He said, horribly butchering my name in the process.

"No, no, Kaiaki. Kee-ah-kee. Kaiaki." I grumbled, suddenly annoyed.

"That's hard to say. You should get a better one."

"Yeah well, it's my name dammit. I don't care if it's hard to pronounce."

"Okay."

I sighed. "Great. Is your Mom around, maybe your Dad. Anyone I could talk to really?"

"Mom's out, Dad's gone."

I blinked. "They left you here, all by yourself?"

"No."

"Then who's here?"

"You are."

"No, I mean besides me."

"Roy's here too."

"Then where is he?" a note of impatience entering my voice.

"The barn."

"Will you go get him for me?"

"Can't"

"Why?"

"Roy's not allowed inside the house when Mom's not home."

I processed that for a moment before asking "Is Roy a dog?"

"Nope, he's a goat."

"Right, of course. A goat, why didn't I guess that one?" I wrote the boy off and wandered around the house a bit more, hoping to find something useful. I managed to root around the kitchen for something I could choke down when the front door slammed open.

"Oy thar Sammie, `ow the `ell areya!" A booming voice that I could almost feel in my bones tore through the house, making me almost jump out of my skin.

"Hi Mac." Replied the boy most congenially while I poked my head around the corner to see what the devil was going on.

There was a giant in the living room, no other way to put it. Hair the color of soot and eyes the color of elderberries, Mac was taller than me by a handspan and at least half again as broad. He wore a thick cotton wifebeater that showed outrageously muscled arms, banishing all thoughts that the man's bulk was from fat.

As I watched he knelt down to muss Sam's hair with a hand the size of a skillet. Sam giggled and fell down, bolting back up a second later to try and wrestle the man's hand away from him in some sort of game they shared.

They played at eachother just long enough for me to feel like I was intruding before he turned up to me. His smile flickered a bit when he saw me and rumbled out "Oy, seems tha` ar guess has finally retarned tah the lan` o` the livin`."

It took me a second to figure out exactly what the man had said. I had never heard an Irish brogue that thick before. What I have written above for him doesn't even come close to doing it justice.

While I stood dumbfounded he just smiled a bit wider and said "Ah, yah nah be speakin` English then, areya?"

I shook my head "No, I be- can speak English just fine."

"Wonerfool. Oy Sammie, get runnin` along outside an` tell yer ma our guest be on his own tuh` faet. G'on then." He gave the kid a gentle nudge on the back and he scampered off. He pointed a meaty finger at me. "An' as fer you, sit your arse down 'n wait. We's got some questions fer ya."

Mac shouldered past me and into the kitchen, sliding a chair out from under the table and settling down into it with a groan of protest. He nodded at the seat opposite him and I warily set myself down into it.

"Yah loik thah shirt I be loanin` tah yeh?"

I fingered the enormous garment for a moment before I shrugged and said "Beats the alternative."

He snorted "Tain't that thah truth." He leaned forward, voice switching to a low rumble as opposed to a boisterous one "You be listening good tah me now, ya`ear? I been `parin fer this whatsince you fell outta the sky jus` a few days ago, `n I got questions what need answers. Now I`been putting` you up in me own home and hearth whul yah been on th`mend, so I'll be able to tell if'n yah go about slingin` lies 'n whatnot. So's I be expectin' truth from ya. Sounder?"

I cocked an eyebrow. "You're a little blunt, aren't you?"

His grin came back, reaching all the way up to his eyes. "I'll take thah one as an affirmative. Now smile pretty fer yer savior." He gesture behind me with one hand and I twisted in my seat.

The very first thing that came to my mind was how very short this woman was, being least a foot and a half shorter than me, but I would not describe her as petite. Rather she was possessed of graceful curves and a full figure backed by the traces of hard muscle. Chestnut hair lashed back in a bun, barely slanted eyes and a lightly lined face all marked her as Japanese, like me, but with a vague undercurrent of some other ethnicity I couldn't quite place.

As I turned to her she shrugged out of a jacket and draped it over a couch, speaking in an oddly deep voice "So our coma patient has woken up then?"

"Aye." replied Mac, leaning back in his chair.

"Good" she strode over to the table and Mac kicked a chair out for her. She spun it once and sat with her arms folded on the back of it, chin tucked in the crook of one elbow. Only then did she look at me with an oddly penetrating glare that made me fidget slightly in discomfort. After a moment of that she lightly nodded and said "Do you have a name?"

"Kaiaki Yushago." I replied as crisply as I could, being sure to remove my title from the name.

"I'm Aimi Watanabe. You've already met Mac I take it." She gestured at the giant.

I shrugged "Not officially."

He grinned and declared "Me name's Fergus mac Roich, but ev`rybody is callin' me Mac. Tis' a pleasure tah be meetin' yah Mr. Yushago." He gave a polite bow of his head.

"Likewise Mac."

Aimi chimed in "I looked you over when you first showed up; bleeding sores on your feet, contusions to your arms, chest, legs, and back, two broken ribs, a cracked shoulder joint, a mild concussion, acute exhaustion, severe dehydration, and one of the worst cases of Reishi Poisoning I've ever even heard of. For the first few days, I was sure you were going to die."

"Wait, first few days? How long have I been here? Where is here anyway?" I asked with no small amount of worry.

"Ah, yah be in me house on ta western coast of beautiful Ireland, n' yah bin makin' with the sleepin' beauty routine for no less'n six days now, seven if'n yah count today."

I leaned back in my chair, flabbergasted. Seven days on top of who knows how long I takes to wander half a world away through Middlespace. The war with Aizen could already be over and I might have slept through it.

I stood up. "Where's my sword? I need my things, I have to go." I numbly stepped away, furtively looking around for my Zanpakutou.

"Kaiaki!" Aimi stepped over to me "You're still hurt. I wasn't expecting you to wake up for at least another week. You need rest!"

"No time. No time at all. People need me and I can't waste my time here."

She cocked an eyebrow. "Time spent healing isn't wasted time."

I met her gaze for a second and said "You don't understand."

"Aye, yeh should be lissenin' ta the lady. She's the one what bin takin' care'a yah all this time. Show 'er some respect!"

"I mean no insult, but there's a war going on, one that if I don't get back to people could die. I have to leave!"

There was a sound like a thunderclap that shook the cabinets and vibrated the floor as Mac slammed his palm down on his table. His grin had evaporated into a stern mask of anger as he shouted "Now you lissen tah me yah damn idiot! Yah ain't leavin' this house 'n that is that, yah know why? Because you owe us! Twas Aimi what dragged yer sorry self in offa rock in the middle o' nowhere and put ya tah mendin' an' it was I who saw fit to put a bed under yer carcass 'n see to it yah got the food 'n medicine yah were needin'! It wouldn't have been any skin off either our noses to leave yah to rot out there 'n we're not gonna let our time 'n effort be wasted by some fool who's gonna die 'o exhaustion twenty feet offa the porch! Now lie down, drink some tea, and be cared for or I'll thump yah around til yah do!"

I rocked back on my heels from the sheer vehemence of his tirade, letting the pause hang in the air for a few seconds. From the living room Sam's cartoon continued unabated.

I weakly muttered "I'm going to go lie down." And started to trudge off to my room, not bothering to look back at them.

Once I reached my room, I opened to door and closed it, not bothering to go through. I padded my way back down the hall to within earshot of the kitchen.

"That was a bit much, don't you think?" Said Aimi skeptically.

"Nah, I don't think so. Worked dinnit?"

"I suppose. I'm worried he thinks one or both of us are maniacs now though."

"Feh, it donna matter. We just need tah be keepin' him around a wee bit longer. Dah yah think he's the real deal?"

"Oh yes. That Haori is legit. He's a Captain alright."

"Bah, I still don't believe it. Did yah feel the Enoch on 'im. Boy's weaker'n Sam by a shade."

"That's probably just the leftover Reishi Poisoning, and simple power of Reiatsu does not a Captain make Mac. I carried that sword of his, I've never felt such viciousness."

"I'll take yer word onnit, fer now Aimi. The sooner he's gone though, the better."

"I agree, I'll make the call tomorrow."

"See thah yah do." And at that I heard Mac's chair squeak as he slid back.

I opted for the side of prudence and crept back to my room, a whirlwind of thoughts dancing in my head until I finally fell back asleep.