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*Drum roll* after a three month absence, I have returned!!!

A thousand pardons for my absence, but I was away on medical leave.

Then I had about 2 months and a half of work to catch up. If you want to know what happened, I have it all on my profile, along with the reason why I hate the hospital!

Anyways, I can forget about finishing this story by the end of May, but I will try for June!

Chapter 26: A Change for the Better

Hisana leaned against the wall as she waited outside the fukutaicho's meeting room. It was a habit of hers to report to Byakuya after she was done wandering the streets of the Rukongai. Today she had to cut her search time short because there were other soul reapers in the Rukongai. She really couldn't tell them that she was waiting her time searching for her sister. That would be against the law since it had nothing to do with her work.

Damn it. She thought as she stood up straight. He is taking forever.

"Aw, what's the matter Hisana?" Ryu said as he appeared around her neck. "Does Hisana miss her beloved Byakuya?" he grinned as he laughed through his teeth.

"Keep it up lizard and I will skin you alive and use you as an obi!" she said as she glared at him. She knew that giving Byakuya that kiss was a lousy idea. Now Ryu would never let her live it down. He even came up with that stupid nickname for Byakuya just to piss her off. And the worst part of it was that it was working.

"I don't know why you're getting mad at me. It's not my fault that you chose to wait for your beloved Byakuya. You just can't wait to see his face so you wait out here like a lovesick puppy." Ryu grin widened. That is when Hisana grabbed him by the throat. "Cant breath!" he shouted as he tried to escape Hisana's death grip.

"GOOD YOU LITTLE SMART ASS!" she tightened her grip. "Now let me repeat myself!" she squeezed him tighter. "I DO NOT LOVE BYAKUYA!"

Suddenly the doors opened. Hisana quickly jumped behind a nearby pillar as the fukutaicho's walked out. As she peaked to the side, she could see Byakuya and Kaien talking. Curiously got the best of her and quietly she sneaked out from behind the pillar. Slowly she crept behind the two.

"So what do say, Byakuya?" Kaien said as the two stopped.

"I will consider it." Suddenly Kaien turned around and for a moment their eyes met for a second. Hisana quickly bowed down, hiding her face.

"Greetings Shiba fukutaicho and Byakuya." She said nervously, hoping that neither of them caught it. Kaien just smiled and greeted her as he said farewell to Byakuya. As soon as he was out of sight, Hisana got up and stared at Byakuya. But before she could ask him anything, he continued walking. She quickly followed him.

"How was your mission today?" Byakuya asked as Hisana finally caught up.

"There is nothing new to report." Hisana said solemnly.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe tomorrow will be different."

"So what were you and Kaien talking about?" Hisana asked.

"Now why would I tell you about my conversation with a fellow fukutaicho?" Byakuya said.

"Because I will just keep bugging you until you tell me. So why not save yourself that irritation and just tell me."

"If you must know, we were discussing transferring a soul reaper from our squad to his squad as the new 10th seat."

"10th seat!" Hisana interpreted him. This was her chance. She could finally be rid of Byakuya and become a higher rank officer. "And do you have anyone in mind?" she asked as calm as possible.

"There is No one in particular."

"And what about me?" she said, making Byakuya stop.

"You want to transfer into squad 13?"

"Of course I do! It will give me the chance to…" she suddenly held her tongue. She couldn't tell him the real reason she was so eager for the transfer was because she couldn't stand him. Quickly, she tried to come up with a reason. "It will give me the chance to finally be in the same squad as Kaien Shiba."

"Kaien Shiba?" he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, everyone knows that Kaien is the best. He is nice, funny, optimistic, and alright guy in general." She forced a smile on her lips. "It would be a dream come true to be on the same squad as him."

"And what makes you think I will give a transfer just for Kaien Shiba." Byakuya shot back at her. Did she detect a hint of jealously in his voice?

Byakuya, jealous? Hisana thought. Ha! Yeah right!

"Because you don't like me and would do anything not to see my face in squad six." Byakuya stood silent for a couple of seconds, in deep thought.

"Fine, I will consider it." Byakuya said as he left.

"Hisana, you know that you could give a damn if Kaien was in that squad or not!" Ryu shouted.

"I know that! But I couldn't tell him that he is the reason I want to leave, now can I?" she grinned. But why did she feel a little uneasy that Byakuya might actually transfer her?

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Byakuya stared down at the paper that sat on his desk. All he had to do was to fill this paper and Tsumura would be out of his hair for good. And she looked so thrilled to the idea of joining Squad 13. That should be more than enough reason to approve the transfer. So why couldn't he?

Surely it couldn't be because he would miss her having her in his squad. He wouldn't miss the way she talked back to him. He wouldn't miss her stupid antics. Especially little stunt she pulled on his birthday. It was odd, though, that it didn't disgust him as he thought it would. he slightly touched his cheek, he swore that he could still fell her warm lips pressing down on his cheek.

Then was the matter that it was obvious that Kaien Shiba was the only reason that Hisana was so eager to transfer. The way her sparkled as she talked about him, it practically made him sick. How he would love to break it to her that Kaien was already married.

"Daydreaming are we, Byakuya." Said Senbonzakura as she materialized in front of him. Quickly Byakuya lowered his hand.

"Do not be foolish. I was merely in deep thought." Her attention suddenly turned to the paper on his desk. Before Byakuya could hide the paper, Senbonzakura suddenly grabbed it.

"Why would you give so much thought into this?" suddenly Byakuya grabbed the paper from her.

"Do not take papers from my desk!" he snapped as he placed the paper back on his desk. He glanced at Senbonzakura, who had a confused look on her face. "Why are you giving me such a look?"

"Sorry, but I just assume that you do not need to give much thought in getting rid of that pest?" Senbonzakura glared deep into his eyes. "Unless you do not want her to leave." She waited for a suddenly outburst from him, but Byakuya just turned his head away.

"Byakuya, do not tell that you care about this girl." Senbonzakura said in shock. Never would she have imagined that her wieldier would start to care about a commoner from the Rukongai.

"How dare you say such stupid accusations!" he practically screamed as he jumped up from his seat. "How could you even think that I, the 28th head of the Kuchiki clan, could care about a nothing like her?" He gained his composer as he sat down again. "Now leave me alone. I have much work to do. And I do not need someone like you to distract me." Senbonzakura just gave a slight nod as she disappeared. But even with Senbonzakura gone, he still couldn't concentrate. What he had told her. It felt that he was trying to convince himself, not her, that he didn't care about Hisana.

"I don't." he said to himself as he picked up his brush and began to write. "I don't care about her."

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It was early morning and Byakuya was already at work. He glanced at the paper that he had filled out the night before. He knew that she would be here any moment to see if she got the transfer. Suddenly the door slid open.

"Good morning Byakuya!" Byakuya glanced up from his papers to see Hisana standing at the door.

"Eight in the morning and you're awake. What a surprise." He said as he continued working.

"It's good to see you too, Byakuya." She said sarcastically as she made her way to his desk. "So did you give any thought to that transfer?"

"As a matter of fact, I did." Byakuya picked the paper up and handed it to her. Byakuya couldn't help but to smile as her grin dropped by every word she read.

"What the hell!" she shouted as she crushed the paper in her hand. "I thought that you were going to transfer me. Instead you wrote that I am a sorry excuse for a soul reaper and that they are better off assigning a monkey as their tenth seat than me!" she crushed the paper into a ball and threw it at him.

"I never said that I would transfer you. I merely said I would consider it. And much thought, I came to the conclusion that you are not ready to become a higher seated officer."

"And why the hell not?"

"Because there are far more dangerous than those of lower ranked officers." His face softened. "And I would hate to see you get hurt or even killed on one of those missions."

"So you are actually worried about me."

"Of course not!" he snapped back. "If you fail on your first mission, which will probably happen, it will reflect on the sixth division. I cannot and will not have this division's image tarnished by the likes of you." But even as he spoke, Hisana could not see any anger or even irritation in his eyes. It was as if he was happy that she was staying.

"I guess you have a point." She said as she smiled at him. "And besides, I doubt that Kaien Shiba is as good hearted as you."

"Good hearted?" Byakuya reapeated.

"Of course. Only someone as good hearted and kind as you would give me the opportunity to search for my sister." Byakuya's cheeks began to redden as he lowered his head.

"You may go now." He said, trying hard to hide his face.

"Yes, Byakuya fukutaicho." Hisana bowed and quickly left his office.

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Damn!" Ryu said. "I can't believe that we're still stuck in squad six!" but Hisana wasn't listening to his complaints. She was trying to figure out when was it that he began to change.

In the beginning, Byakuya was self centered, cruel, stuck-up and a total ass. Before it would give him great joy to see get hurt or to fail. But somewhere along the way, without her noticing, he had changed. He was now considerate of her feelings, concerned with her actions. If she didn't know him better, she could swear that he might actually like her.

"Looks like you still stuck with Byakuya." Ryu said, bring her attention back to him. But that really didn't bother her.

"Oh well." Hisana said as she just smiled.

Well, there you have it. Sorry if there is any mistakes, still not feeling too well.

Expect the next chapter by next week!

Oh, and a special thanks to Murcielago Princess for looking after my site while I was away.