Thank you to all who are still reading this. I know it has been a long process, and I know I need to get on with the plot. I promise, this story is finally reaching its big plot moment-that moment when you realize that there is more going on than you thought and now you don't know if you want to finish or pretend like it never existed.

As always: enjoy!

The squad seven barracks were quiet at two in the morning, but captain Kyouraku never kept centuries posted that late. The records room was not off limits, and the squad seven captain was a very laid-back man. Kodochi had been going through records for over half an hour when she finally sat down next to a shelf and sighed.

"I can't even figure out the damn organization system in here." She ran her hands through her hair and closed her eyes. "I'll never find anything."

'Perhaps you should go to bed.'

'Thanks, Touga, really. I appreciate how much help you're offering.'

'What happens if you're caught going through these records with nobody here, Kodochi?'

"Maybe I can help you find something?"

Kodochi jumped up and turned to see captain Kyouraku standing in the doorway, smiling like always.

"Captain Kyouraku, I didn't think anyone was awake."

"May I ask why you're going through the records room at this hour?"

"I was just looking for something…" Kodochi stumbled and looked at the floor, "I should go. It doesn't really matter any way."

"Now, now, miss Nakamura. We wouldn't want to have to get captain Kuchiki involved, would we?"

Her head shot up at the mention of her captain. She had been doing so well with his training, and he had been trusting her to lead the occasional patrols, Kodochi didn't want to mess up with him.

"I would really appreciate it if we didn't."

"Then why don't you tell me what you're looking for?"

'You cannot tell him what you are.'

'I know.'

"Well, I was just looking for anything we had in the records about witches."

"Witches?" Shunsui's brows raised slightly. He had not been expecting that. "Why in the world would you want to know about witches?"

"I used to live in a small district, before I joined the academy, and there was this old woman who would tell us all stories about witches. I never really thought about it, but then I had this strange dream a few nights ago about green skinned old women casting love spells on all of the men in the seireitei and turning all the women into frogs." Kodochi told the lie as she thought it up, with a confused and slightly scared look on her face. "Tonight, I was thinking about the dream and realized that witches are enemies of the soul society and that they aren't allowed to be here, but there's no way that old woman could remember being alive, so I was just looking for any records on witches ever having been here."

Shunsui didn't fully believe her story, but it was a well-spun lie. He sighed. He would tell Byakuya the next morning to keep a close eye on the girl.

"There was a time when witches came to the seireitei."

"What happened?" Kodochi could hear in his tone that it wasn't good.

"Your direct, highest authority is captain Kuchiki. His highest authority is head captain Yamamoto; the old man answers directly to the central 46. When an order comes down from them, we have to act."

"Captain, why does it sound like you're making an excuse?"

He smiled sadly at her. "You're far smarter than your academy grades would ever lead someone to believe, miss Nakamura. The order to go to the world of the living came down about three hundred and fifty years ago. We were being sent there to kill off a particularly powerful group of witches."

"But we're soul reapers, captain. We don't kill living people."

Shunsui rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "That was the argument many of us tried to make, but others said we had to obey the orders of the central 46. If we were being told to go there, to kill these witches, then there had to be a good reason."

"What kind of reason could the 46 ever have for killing people?"

He could hear the anger in her voice, and see it in her eyes. "Kodochi, you're asking the same questions we did back then, believe me. None went on that mission with a light heart. Nobody who remembers it is without guilt, but we did as we were ordered. We were told that these witches had come together to revolt against the ordinary humans and destroy them. Witches' souls are bound for hell when they die. To maintain the balance between good and evil, we were dispatched."

Kodochi could feel her heart pounding and her breathing was harsh and shallow. "You exterminated a group of living people because you were told that they were too strong."

Shunsui nodded, though it wasn't a question. "After our attack, there were few left alive. They gathered what strength they had left and used their power to cross over into the soul society and attacked. Their magic was strong, and they killed many soul reapers, but they were stopped. After that, the order came down from high that any witch caught in the soul society would be executed immediately."

Kodochi schooled her expression to one of simple sadness, though she was feeling far more. "Thank you, captain Kyouraku, for telling me about that."

"Is your curiosity sated?"

"I…," she paused for a moment, "I have to ask, captain, are witches the only living beings that have been killed by soul reapers?"

"No." He answered honestly. "There is another group. The quincies."

Kodochi nodded. "I see. Thank you for being honest with me, captain."

Shunsui led Kodochi back out of the squad seven barracks and headed for his office. It was the one place he knew that Nanao had not found his sake because it was the one place she never expected him to be; after reliving the massacre of over one hundred witches and humans, he needed a drink.