September again, huh? Ichigo thought despairingly as he absently held his pencil between his nose and pursed lips, dully tapping at his jaw with one finger as he stared unfocused at the wall against his desk.

Two more after this, and then...

Then they could get married, they'd decided. Waiting until he was completely finished school was going to be hard – harder than hard – but they'd both agreed that it was for the best. And besides, being married wouldn't be that different, right? It wasn't as if it would feel different; they'd be the same couple they were, just...married. He'd proposed as a promise to continue on together after he died, but until that happened, it was really just ceremony.

But then why was he so anxious? Why did he want it so badly? Why had his professor's entire lecture on whatever subject it had been fallen on deaf ears as he played the scene out over and over in his head? What was he, some kind of sap? Jeez!

The clack of the pencil hitting his desk made him jump.

After all, it wasn't as if being married meant greater access to her, simply being done school would take care of that, and he was sure they'd be spending far more time than one measly day a week in their meeting place in Rukongai. In nine months, only 39 nights spend together – 36 for each week in that time, plus extra visits on New Year's and each others' birthday. And though New Year's had been particularly spectacular, that wasn't nearly enough days! But apparently that was also for the best, she'd told him, just like waiting three more damn years was also the best.

Man, the best was pretty shitty, actually.

Well, at least it gave him something to look forward to each week, but for the five days in between, there weren't enough Hollows in all of Hueco Mundo to distract him from his...readiness. On top of that, there were barely enough Hollows at all since the war. He guessed that was a good thing, and he'd thought it had been because all of the Vasto Lorde, who were the leaders, had been killed...

But there were whispers in the Divisions of some "Queen" of Hollows who was still out there, and some that said maybe she was simply amassing forces and biding her time until...

Until I kick her ass, Ichigo thought. He wasn't very worried about her, and had more interesting things to think about: like the mysterious newbie Rukia had heard about – though never seen – who was apparently brought on to help in case the "Queen" made a move. Ichigo had never heard of the Gotei 13 using reservists like in Living World armies, but maybe since the war, things had changed over there. He didn't know why the new guy was supposed to be so special though, but apparently he had the potential to become really strong. A second Ichigo, some had said. That was embarrassing.

But they were all just rumours. Nobody seemed to know anything for sure, or if they did they'd been told to keep quiet about it. Ichigo sometimes got the feeling, whenever he ran into him during a weekend rendezvous, that Shinji knew something – but that clown's creepy-ass grin was suspicious to begin with, and he could just as easily be thinking about bunnies and rainbows as something secret and be just as clownish about it.

Dammit, bunnies reminded him of her now. Ugh! Sometimes he still hated being in love.

His birthday gift to her had been as unimpressive to him as it was absolutely magical to her: a second rabbit charm made specifically for the necklace he'd bought her. It was exactly the same as the first one save for being polished white instead of silver, and if you strung it next to and facing the first rabbit, they seemed to be leaping at each other and touching noses – rabbit-kissing, he guessed. He hadn't been sure she'd like something so small...

But afterward, whenever he felt the two charms bump the end of his nose as they swung wildly back and forth, he wondered why he'd ever doubted it.

No, stop it, dammit! Don't think about that!

But the Soul Candy was already in Ichigo's mouth by the time he finished that thought.

He let out a chuckle at Kon's expense when body and soul were separated, with the force of it sending his body out of the chair and into the desk, on which Kon smacked his face. His face. Wait, maybe it wasn't that funny...

"I'm going out. Don't do any homework, I don't want to fail again," Ichigo warned as he rose and made for the window. His body sprang up, clutching its nose and looking ticked.

"Hey! You said I could help! That's the thanks I get?!" Kon growled in his nasally tone.

"Tch. That was before you drew lewd things all over my assignment," Ichigo griped. At that, Kon took on a whimsical grin.

"I couldn't help it. The assignment made me think of Orihime-san..." he said, lost in memory. "Orihime-san..." he repeated in a quiet, longing whine to himself.

"Jeez, don't get all depressed," Ichigo said as a opened the window and stepped up onto the sill, "you'll make me look like a chump."

"Can I go out and buy something?" Kon suddenly asked with renewed cheer.

"Sure, whatever," Ichigo gave. "Just be back tonight by the time I get back," he ordered.

"When's that?" Kon asked.

"...Just be back tonight." With that, Ichigo leaped out the window.

To say that Byakuya's training style differed from Urahara-san's was to point out the difference between a kitten and a tiger – he was a true taskmaster, a consummate slave-driver. And to say he was a complete asshole was to say the sky was blue.

At first he'd merely seemed uninterested in Karin, and mildly resentful of having to go through the motions of training her against his will. But his indifference was quick to morph into outright annoyance, and it showed whenever she arrived after school to train with him in the courtyard of his vast estate, where he could bother with her unseen by the rest of his Division, who were likewise entirely unseen by her. She couldn't help but get the distinct feeling that he was embarrassed to be seen with her, and she felt like some puppy off the street who'd followed him home, and he was allergic to dogs – maybe one had chewed up his favourite white coat or something – because he really seemed to detest her as a concept.

Where Urahara-san was tough but encouraging and helpful, Byakuya was tough, but also mean and callous. He gave her no pointers past his initial instructions which had gone by far too quickly, and he refused to repeat them even once!

She remembered that Yoruichi-san had suggested learning what she called shunpo because Karin had strong legs, but as each day passed, she felt like she'd been grossly overestimated. She'd thought maybe shunpo made it so that if you were really good, you'd basically be a blur to your opponent. But Byakuya just flickered out of existence altogether and reappeared somewhere else, like he was teleporting. Karin couldn't do that. She tried and tried and tried, but she couldn't. And who could expect her to?

Byakuya, apparently; but then again, maybe not. She really couldn't tell if he pushed her so hard because he believed in her, or because he wanted her to just give up like he already had on her. Probably the second one.

If she did something wrong – which was everything, it seemed – he merely glowered at her and told her to do it better without offering new instruction, occasionally spicing it up with veiled jabs at her abilities and insulting double-meanings. She thought she hated that most of all.

No, it was everything about him, because he was like that through and through. He looked nice – well, not nice, but he looked handsome...like, really handsome. She hated to admit that he was the best-looking guy she'd ever seen, and he moved with such grace that she thought he could probably stride across water without disturbing it. But, that was just another double-meaning, because underneath he was the coldest guy she'd ever met, even worse than her brother had been the first couple of years after Rukia-san left. And that had been pretty cold.

But she had to work past that, because she wasn't there to make him proud, and that was impossible anyway. She was there for Yuzu, to protect her. Urahara-san had explained to her that Hollows would probably seek her out because of her powers, which meant that Yuzu might be around when they did. They shared a bedroom, after all.

And whenever she thought of a Hollow breaking into their bedroom, it came with drudged-up memories which clutched painfully at her chest, just as the first Hollow she'd ever encountered had done in her eleventh year. But those thoughts only lasted a short while, and were quickly replaced in a sickening wave by the memories of being crushed by a second Hollow later on, in the May of that year. Twice she'd been the collateral damage of her brother's own ability to attract Hollows, and twice she'd feared for her very life, sure she was going to die. Yuzu couldn't go through that – she wouldn't, and Karin would make sure of it.

It was just—shunpo wasn't working. So maybe swordplay would?

Hadn't Yamamoto said the girl had been trained already by Urahara? If so, why was she so awful?

Her swings were broad and clumsy, her footing weak and her defence riddled with holes. If this was what Urahara passed on to those he trained, Byakuya dared not think what it said about the man's own prowess, or the danger Soul Society had likely been in with him as a Captain.

Byakuya did not even have to unsheathe his sword, let alone raise it. He sidestepped her with ease, and of course, his forearm could take a graze from the flimsy zanpakuto without harm when he wanted, her reiatsu was so lacking. He was starting to believe that he had been outright lied to about this girl, because whomever she was, it wasn't who everyone seemed to think. What had made her so special in the eyes of those fools? Were they really so desperate to bolster their ranks after the war that they'd recruit random kids off the streets of the Living World the moment they accidentally stumbled onto some spiritual power?

And worse yet, they'd allow their Captains to waste their valuable time proving that the Commander had made an error in judgement. What was the Gotei 13 coming to?

Byakuya didn't have the time to think on that, not any he wanted to waste, anyway. So he unsheathed Senbonzakura, doing the zanpakuto a great disservice at the same time. Clashing with a weak, novice blade such as this girl's was about as degrading to his sword as being forced to train her was to Byakuya. But this needed to be over, because they were making even less headway in this area than in shunpo – and Byakuya was mildly surprised that such was possible. So he'd have Senbonzakura let her down for him, and hopefully she'd at least abandon the fool's quest of learning how to properly wield a sword.

If he was lucky, she'd give up altogether and return home; though having to spend the last forteen afternoons training her said little for his good fortune.

He didn't even swing Senbonzakura, just let him fall. And her sword went down with him to be pinned underneath, as easily as if he'd swatted a handkerchief from the air instead. But when he lifted his zanpakuto once more and the two blades scraped together for a breath, he noticed something.

Her eyes. He noticed her eyes as they looked longingly up at him, glinting sad and scared together.

And next he noticed her zanpakuto's tip, which had been brought centimetres from his face before he broke contact with those eyes. He hadn't even—

She held the sword to his face with all the confidence of someone gripping a venomous asp, as if terrified that the blade itself would lash out at her for deigning to raise it at Byakuya. Her eyebrows were knit together and her forehead creased in fear, and her small hands quivered.

Of course, the flaws in her style were not the surprising element of it all. Noticing them had become as natural to him as blinking. What rattled Byakuya – though not enough to show on his face, of course – was the fact that she'd somehow managed to get that far without him realizing. Not that he was in any danger even if she decided to follow through and plunge the sword at his face: the blade would break before his skin did at that point. But...

He couldn't be sure why, but he pushed her zanpakuto aside using Senbonzakura's blade rather than just his hand.

Clink.

And she was falling.

Hisana was falling.

Byakuya managed to catch her just before she hit the cobblestone, but the limpness of his wife's body in his hands terrified him so much that he nearly let her slip again. She was cold, too cold for a spring day, and her breathing was strangled. He wanted to grip her, hold her tighter and closer, thinking that maybe she'd snap out of it if she knew he was right there – but she felt so small, so frail, that he feared clutching to her might cause her to break and he'd lose her forever. His heavy, sickened breaths were all that reached his ears, and each inhale and exhale was like a tick in a countdown to him vomiting, because he felt so sick.

"Byakuya...

I'm here, it's okay. It's going to be o—

...sensei..."

Byakuya-sensei? Had he misheard?

A cool breeze danced across his cheek as Karin's wild eyes stared up into his, reminding him that it was not spring, but autumn, and the umpteenth September since that day...

That day when his wife fallen, and he hadn't managed to catch her.

Then Karin's eyes rolled back and were white, and Byakuya remembered himself. He quickly pulled in his cascading reiatsu, pulling a desperate gasp out of her along with it. She choked on the air she swallowed and coughed before gulping in more – she'd been suffocating.

When had he lost hold of his reiatsu?

Byakuya stood, bringing the unconscious girl up with him in his arms. Her forehead glistened with sweat which wasn't the result of swordfighting, and she shivered bodily. She was not well.

And that was going to be trouble from the Commander if something wasn't done.