Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, or any of the characters used in this fic. They all belong to Tite Kubo. I only own any of my original characters that I choose to include, as well as any of my own original plot ideas.

Ch 37: Sleepless Nation

A/N: I really meant to update this over the weekend, but I had company for the holiday, and still have exams to study for. Chapter 38 is about halfway done, so I'll see what I can do with it this week. Oh, and in regards to the last chapter, I don't remember if I made it clear or not, but Yamamoto is the NPA director. Well, here's hoping you all had a nice Easter holiday. Best of luck to those of you who, like me, are wrapping up another year of classes.

"What the hell are you doing down here?"

The officer jumped, turning and knocking several instruments to the floor, scrambling to pick them up when he fell, leaving one of the doors of the storage containers open. His eyes were wide, face about as pale as the bodies he'd been peering at. Mayuri's first impression was that this jumpy new addition was another damned roadblock and a very clumsy idiot. And that was if he were putting it nicely.

Transferred out of another district within the past few days from an office position in Shibuya, or wherever the hell he'd come from. It really didn't matter to him. It was starting to seem that the director, who really should have called it quits by now, was adamant in showing that he favored awarding young prodigies positions of power and responsibility, rather than officers who knew what they were doing, which were really rather far and few between. Not that any number of adolescent geniuses would do anyone any good.

"I... I was just... Looking around..." the officer stammered, pulling himself up. He looked the part of a child too, just years older than the irritating twerp of a captain. "I didn't mean to... It's just... Tachibana was giving me a tour the other day, and we didn't have time to... I wanted to see what it all... looked... like..."

Oh, this one was just brilliant. Another perfect little errand boy to run back and forth to deliver notices to the captain and go on runs for damaging legal stimulants. It was all Hitsugaya's team was good for. Coffee runs and organizing old case files. They'd made no progress, even with a potentially intelligent captain at the head. Not that he'd expected them to. Before being dragged into the NPA to operate, there had always been that suspicion that someone would suddenly get wise to the act and turn him in as a suspect. But being trapped in this rat race as they ran in circles, though the single greatest irritant, had its perks. Everything went through him before being taken, applied to a case, and filed for further investigation.

The police were just as useless as the newspapers reported.

"Saotome, get back upstairs. You have things to do," the captain sighed, wandering into the room. He paused, waiting until the officer ran out and down the hall, shaking. "Well, the tabloids are having a damned field day with your little story."

A newspaper was thrown onto the counter.

"Is this part of the game? Am I supposed to know what you're talking about?"

Toshiro grimaced and stabbed the paper with a finger, not looking the least bit pleased. "What you said the other day. About the Yakusoku playing around on the pier in the middle of the night. What the hell did you tell them?"

"Nothing."

"Oh. You told them nothing..." Obvious disbelief.

It was one thing to fabricate evidence for the sake of more pressing matters, for a satisfied curiosity, but another to incriminate oneself of something like this. There was no reason for Mayuri to talk to reporters. If anything, they were worse than the police they were badmouthing. Like roaches, you could never really get rid of the little bastards.

"You think it's funny, don't you? Playing your little games with their secrets..." The boy's hand rested on the table, his eyes to the wall as though he could see the bodies. He followed it, the invisible line, crossing and yanking open one of the storage containers. "Messing with my investigation... Trying to save yourself..."

The team wasn't made up of the most brilliant veteran officers and Academy graduates, but this boy was like some damned drug-sniffing dog, digging through dirt to pick up on the scent of blood that was miles away. Discouraged for a time, but never put down, allowed to rest for no longer than was necessary.

Salvation was what he thought it was. That the reason behind a string of murders was so incredibly base and human, something that he could understand and bring down with certainty in a court of law.

But there was no salvation, no chance for redemption. Just one chance, spread across a period of a lifetime, to do something fulfilling, something worthwhile to at least one individual. When that was done with, there was nothing but a dead end. No afterlife, and no gods the way so many believed.

The people on the outside thought it was so simple. That this was brought about by someone who wanted fame, or notoriety, like men who destroyed famous faces because they could. But it was just the appeal and success, listening, making them wonder when and how they'd die, whether or not they would be one of the next victims. He sought out interesting people, solved their mysteries one at a time, and gave the city the question they'd never be able to answer with certainty.

"You don't think it's enough, do you, Toshiro?" He didn't look at the boy, just stared into the cold chamber that the new recruit had left open. "Somehow, you've come to the conclusion that your inside man isn't really from the inside. Yet, you have nothing to prove it with."

"Is that a confession?"

The boy wanted it to be him, needed someone to carry the guilt, the responsibility, of all these tormented souls. He needed the satisfaction of knowing that he'd accomplished something. That was the only similarity between them. Something to live for, to understand in its entirety. But Toshiro would never have it.

Mayuri ignored him.

"You think that, because you're a cop, you know the ugly side of life, is that it? That being in the line of duty these many months, you have a true sense of the evils corrupting the streets of your city?"

It was a blank face that stared back at him with a slackened jaw. There was no retort, nothing he could say or do, or even think, that would combat the truth. Toshiro Hitsugaya was a stupid, naïve little boy. The only experience he had, the only thing he'd every really done, was sitting behind an empty desk. He didn't know a damned thing.

The child jumped at the sound of the storage door slamming, the metallic sound echoing off the walls for a moment. He looked sick, as though he'd start running to find an appropriate place to relieve the pressure that had to have been building up.

Horrendously pathetic. The brats his age didn't know half of what they should have. Too much time rotting their empty heads with games, running around with their senseless boasts and perverted little inside jokes. They wouldn't last long.

And there it was again as Mayuri laid a hand on the boy's trembling shoulder, the same look of shock and uncertainty that had stunned the rest of those laid in graves and on tables. A moment wasted in wondering just what the hell was going on that could possibly destroy their perfect little worlds. That fear that had spurred on the entirety of this endeavor. The spark of light that, once extinguished, could give all those secrets a voice and a form.

"It's best if you understand now, Toshiro," he sneered. "You have nothing to threaten me with. And no one will believe you..."

# - # - # - #

His coat was slung over his shoulder as he stood at the bus stop, the same thought echoing through his head. What an idiot he'd been, wandering around in places he had no right being. What had compelled him to think that disrespecting people that way, people whose families were grieving, was permissible? Naoki felt positively dreadful and stupid, tempted to force himself to hoof it rather than take part in the subtle comforts of the city bus.

Tachibana had told him to keep his nose out of affairs that weren't his own, that he ought to stick to the duties he was assigned if he ever wanted to be taken seriously. Rookie, the other officer had called him. Such a derogatory term, given his sensitivity, but it fit all the same. He was still a newbie, much like the captain, but nowhere near as good a man. He should have given it his all back in school, should have spent much less time skipping class and trying to figure out how to sneak drinks before a legal age. He didn't think that the captain had done anything like that during his school days. If he had, then no one would have given him a second thought.

But perhaps he was being too hard on himself. After all, the newspapers seemed to thrive off of stories of the young officer, off of people and their demands that the director remove him from the position of captain. Though he'd only been present a few days, Naoki was damn certain that Captain Hitsugaya was one that the city could trust. He wasn't a corrupt officer, a man who did his duty for the sake of personal benefits. He put others first. A quality that was sorely lacking in many people these days.

Motivation usually filled him when he considered being as great a leader as the captain, but it only served to bring him down tonight. He would walk the route home, and try to do better the next day.

"You're going to miss the bus if you go that way, Saotome. The driver doesn't wait long for stragglers."

He turned back around with a short nod, coming to stand beside the senior officer, eyes averted. Tachibana had that affect on him, as he had a much stronger personality than Naoki's own.

Perhaps, were he to attempt a real, casual conversation with the man, he wouldn't feel quite so intimidated.

"Y-You take the bus, too?" he inquired, fingers tightening around his coat. Naoki chanced a glance at the stern-looking man and swallowed, trying to sound casual. "I... didn't see you this morning."

Tachibana nodded, short hair bouncing a bit as he did. "It's my wife," he replied nonchalantly. "She found a better job further into the city, so she's using the car. I got a ride with her this morning. I wouldn't want her riding this scrap heap anyway."

To ask why would make him look like a fool. There were few people who could be trusted now, and with fear walking behind every man, and hiding in every heart, sincere trust was hard to find. Naoki assumed that perhaps this was why Tachibana had been so hard on him. A new officer, while from another district, could turn out to be an enemy. That was the life they'd all chosen to live as police. To trust no one fully, to see foes around every corner.

A gasp escaped him as the bus slowed to a stop, the doors opening with a hiss. Even living in the city for years, there was no denying the omnipresent anxieties that plagued him. Too many crime shows as a child, perhaps.

Naoki stepped quietly into the bus, one of the lights flickering on and off as he moved down the aisle after Tachibana. He waited until the senior officer took his seat, and settled himself into the next one. If he found himself in a place where he knew someone, if only by name, Naoki would do his best to stick with them for as long as possible. Usually until they insisted he quit following them.

"Why did you join the Force, Saotome?"

The answer was almost immediate, the first thought in his head: To work under Captain Hitsugaya. But, giving it more thought, that notion had only come about after passing through the Academy. The captain was a few years younger than himself, and had only recently brought into NPA. He sighed, ignoring his coat as it flopped to the floor of the bus. Really, he didn't like to think about what a letdown he must have been all this time. About how it had taken him far too long to realize who he was and what he wanted to do with himself.

"To prove a point," he whispered. "But they aren't watching, anyway..."

Shunned, neglected, hated. It was a matter of pride that had driven him away. Pride on their end. If he wouldn't conform to what they wanted, to the things they expected him to do and to become, they would push him away. So he'd distanced himself from them, the people who were supposed to love him regardless of his decisions. His father, a hard man, had scoffed at the idea that his son had wanted to be a police officer. He'd said that they were useless, corrupt, that the profession itself was little more than laughable. Self-service, he'd called it.

Naoki's initial motivation had been to prove his father wrong, to do something that would get back to the man, and encourage him to pay attention. He'd sent letters, newspaper clippings, even photocopied a couple of reports without permission. Over the course of his Academy training, all had been sent back home, and there had been no replies.

"Isn't this your stop?"

The younger man lifted his eyes, his wallet and ID in Tachibana's hand. The wallet must have fallen out of his coat when it dropped to the floor. Reclaiming his possessions, Naoki nodded and stepped off the bus, the cool night air brushing past his face. While the season was cooler, it felt like summer back home.

With all these heavy thoughts on his mind, it would surely be another long, sleepless night.