Neji chuckled in response to the story that Shunsui had just told of how a former Lieutenant in another division would steal koi fish one Captain's garden and take them over to another Captain's garden pond to cheer up the later mentioned Captain.

"She was never caught?"

"Oh even if she was—Byakuya's a bit more complex than people realize. He has a tough exterior but when situations call for it quite gentle and even rebellious," Chiaki answered as she finished her water.

She reached for the water pitcher but Neji grabbed it first, pouring some into her glass for her, he then did the same for Suzume and Tetsuya.

Shunsui smiled at the interaction between his daughter and Neji and confirmed, "that's true. Being born into one of the four great noble families in Soul Society, he was expected to marry someone of similar social standing but he defied those rules and married a Rukongai woman instead."

"Hisana—Rukia's sister—I'm sad to say I don't remember much of her," Chiaki admitted with her eyes downcast, she added, "but what I do remember—she was always so kind and polite, a gentle woman who would lend her help to anyone in need of it."

Neji smiled as he offered, "then you remember the important things about her."

"Your boyfriend is right," Shunsui agreed as he drank back more sake. Chiaki and Neji exchanged glances before she reminded him, "Shun—everything that happened between us happened when he was alive. He probably doesn't remember a lot of it."

"That is true. I don't have complete recall of events," Neji agreed.

"Yet you obviously do care about her," Genshiro pointed out. Well, Neji couldn't argue with that. She made him happy just by being near her or thinking of her. He glanced at her, and she smiled before grasping his hand and placing it over her modestly expanding stomach. He smiled as he gently rubbed the slightly formed bump and asked, "how far along are you now?"

"It's November eighth so, nineteen weeks. One more week to go and I'm half way there," Chiaki replied. He gasped as he realized, "my birthday. This happened on my birthday."

She nodded and confirmed, "yes. Quite the 18th birthday present, huh?"

He laughed at the remark and nodded in agreement. "We're anticipating the baby will be born around late march, perhaps early April," Nanao added.

"The date we were given is March 27th, give or take two weeks," Shunsui contributed.

"March 27th? That's Hanabi's birthday," Neji informed them.

Chiaki blinked as she inquired, "You remember that?"

Neji nodded as he recalled, "Hinata's birthday is December 27th, mine is July 3rd, my father's was January 8th."

Shunsui blinked at Neji as he clarified, "you recall your past life that clearly?"

Neji gave a sigh as he elaborated, "the bits and pieces I do remember I have no confusion over. Perhaps that and Chiaki's condition are linked. At least that would be my guess."

"Told you he's intelligent," Chiaki added as she sipped some water down. They were soon joined in the room by someone whom Neji considered the oddest person he'd met yet. Upon seeing this new person, Suzume immediately climbed into Neji's lap, burying her face into his chest and trembling, he could see why. The man had a skeletal visage, his face was painted largely black and white with serraded-like fringes on either side. He had golden cones over his ears, and wore a wide headdress that looked like a pair of horizontal insect antennae with large petal like pieces containing black dots at the center. His eyes and teeth were golden, and if he was being honest the look of the guy made Neji wish he could run away from him, but he held his ground and wrapped his arms around the trembling child as he gently shushed her.

"Pfft, what a weak little excuse of a thing," the new comer scoffed.

In response to this remark Chiaki snapped her fingers repeatedly causing a large blue cube of kido energy to appear around the man's left arm as she warned him, "behave yourself, Mayuri. It's no trouble at all for me to complete this spell's intended use-"

She gained a nearly sinister smirk as she concluded, "—but it would pose quite an imposition for you, wouldn't it? There's a few small words you owe to Suzume. In the future, do try to remember your manners."

Mayuri began to sweat a little as he stammered out an apology to the girl for his remark, she nodded against Neji's chest and Chiaki removed the cube of kido energy from Mayuri with a wave of her hand, leaving him unharmed.

He glared at Shunsui almost as if he was seeking some kind of punishment for Chiaki's actions. Shunsui smiled as he clarified, "Suzume is an orphan that Neji adopted. As such, Chiaki feels quite protective towards the girl. I'd regard her with as much care as you do Tetsuya. After all Mayuri—the Kido Corps Commander isn't someone to be toyed with and it isn't like you can't regenerate your arm—it's just annoying. Much like a parent's annoyance at their child being mistreated by an adult."

Mayuri almost scoffed again as he complied, "very well, Captain-Commander."

He looked at Suzume and said, "I'm sorry I was rude, little girl."

He then returned his attention to Shunsui and added, "I wanted to inform you personally of my findings regarding the young man's blood."

This gained the attention of everyone in the room.

"Go ahead then," Neji coaxed as he gently stroked Suzume's hair to soothe her. Between the combined gestures of Chiaki's protection, and Neji's calmness in conjunction with hearing his heart beating within his chest, she stopped trembling, but still refused to look at Mayuri.

"Any amature would deem this boy to be human going by the humanoid appearance, even though no real human has eyes like his! The answer was hidden deep within his DNA at least several generations back and it looks like an awful lot of inbreeding as well. However upon careful inspection of his genetics this is unlikely to occur again so long as no one else ever mates with another of his clan. The reason for your daughter's predicament is clear: The fetus' father is a human hybrid. He has a percentage of DNA that is found only in Species 5687873 Echo. From what I've been able to conclude this is one of only four possible hybrids that could impregnate a soul even if the soul were inhabiting a gigai at the time of the mating," Mayuri informed them.

Neji looked as if someone had smacked him with a cooked noodle, he wasn't completely human? How far back in his genealogy had that occurred?

"I see—so his Kekkei Genkei, the Byakugan-" Chiaki began

"Is passed down from the latent DNA of his Celestial Being ancestor," Mayuri announced before concluding, "this also explains why he's been getting flashes of his past life. His Celestial Being DNA means that he will likely have complete recall of his former life in approximately four years, if not sooner."

Nanao considered the information before posing the question, "Why would that happen? Usually the Konso removes any former memory from a spirit."

Mayuri's answer was without hesitation or thought, "These Celestial Beings are able to manipulate their own spirit integrity, which grants them when they are comprised entirely of Celestial DNA an abnormal longevity as they can impose their spirit on a compatable 'vessel' and with enough time manifest their former body with the vessel as a sort of canvass. As a result a konso would not cause a permanent erase of their former memories but rather a type of amnesia."

Chiaki blinked as she buried her face in her hands, 'what have I done?'