All right, Chapter 3 is up! Again, the disclaimers are in Chapter 1.

There is swearing and some violence in this chapter so you have been warned. And a new, hyper character shall be introduced as well~~

Midori was initially surprised at how far she and Izuru had had to walk in order to reach the shopping district, but that feeling went away when she saw the shops. They were so different from the shops in the living world, which leaned over towards a Western-style design. Here, it felt like she was walking through feudal-era Japan.

Izuru noticed the wonder in her eyes and almost felt bad about having to interrupt her reverie when, to his astonishment, he heard someone call his name. He turned around and tried to find the owner of the voice, but suddenly staggered when something hit him hard between the shoulder blades.

Renji grinned menacingly as grabbed Izuru's head in an iron grip and proceeded to grind it under his palm. "Jeez, Izuru. How many times do I have to call your name for you to answer? Did you go deaf overnight or something?"

Izuru straightened up and smiled at his friend and fellow lieutenant. "Sumimasen, Renji. My mind was otherwise…occupied."

Renji looked confused for all of a half-second before he noticed Midori, who had gone over to an antique store's window and taken to staring at the items on display. His grin grew broader and his eyes gained a glint that Izuru had come to loathe with an undying passion. "Oh~~I get it now. Got yourself a girl now, huh?"

"Ah-I-I mean-it's not necessarily…official yet…" Izuru stuttered, red slowly dusting his cheeks. He cleared his throat pointedly and called to Midori. "Midori-chan, can I introduce you to someone?"

Midori tore her attention away from the ornate dragon book ends that had caught her eye and nodded before walking up to Izuru and Renji. She inclined her head towards Renji and introduced herself. "I'm Midori Otoribashi. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Otoribashi, huh? You must be Otoribashi-taicho's oldest kid, right?" Renji inquired, quirking a tattooed eyebrow at her and grinning all the while.

"Hai."

Renji pointed a thumb at his chest as he introduced himself. "The name's Renji Abarai. I'm the 6th Division's lieutenant."

Uncertainty crossed Midori's features as she asked, "That's, um…Byakuya Kuchiki-taicho's Division, correct?"

"Yup!" Renji ruffled her hair a little. "I'm surprised you remembered that, seeing how you were much younger the last time you visited the Seireitei."

Midori smacked his hand away forcefully and then tried to fix her hair with her hands. "Yeah, I was pretty young then, but don't treat me like a kid now. Capiche?"

Renji laughed whole-heartedly at her display of grit. "All right, all right. Anyway, I've got to make myself scarce and get back to work. I'll see you two lovebirds later." He ran off then and left a speechless Midori and Izuru in his wake.

Midori let out a nervous cough and crossed her arms over her chest, avoiding Izuru's gaze. "Is he…always like that?"

Izuru scratched the back of his head, also avoiding her gaze. "Yes, unfortunately."

A rueful chuckle escaped Midori's mouth, finally drawing Izuru's attention. "He's almost exactly like Akina."*

"Almost?"

"Akina's a teenage girl, Izuru-kun. You do the math."

"Oh…"

Midori took a deep breath and turned her attention to him, angelic smile in place. "Shall we get going then?"

Izuru nodded and proceeded to lead her down the street.

The next few hours were spent peacefully with Izuru giving Midori a tour of the Seireitei's shopping district, only stopping once to grab a bite to eat around lunch time and a few other times when Shinigami would recognize Midori and want to talk to her, or try to push work onto Izuru, who would kindly tell them that he was off-duty.

But if they had thought that their day would continue like that they were sadly mistaken.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Midori gazed around at the budding sakura trees that were located in the immediate vicinity of the shop Izuru had entered. She hummed a little tune to herself, Beethoven's Für Elise, as she wondered why Izuru had asked her to wait outside of the shop. Both her humming and her wondering were halted a second later when she heard a commotion. She scanned up and down the street and located the source: a small female Shinigami trapped against a wall by a burly Shinigami. She didn't think twice about walking over to them, also noticing that the woman was in no position to fend off her harasser because of the paperwork she was carrying in her arms.

"I said, I'm not interested already! Get away from me, you creep, or I'll report you!"

The man chuckled menacingly and stroked her cheek. "And I'll repeat myself: my family's too influential for me to be affected by such trivial things. Now, if you know what's good for you, sweetheart, you'll…"

"Hey, Gorilla-san," Midori cut in, drawing a pissed glare from the man and a look of complete relief from the woman. "Don't they teach manners at the Soul Reaper Academy? It's obvious that woman's busy so maybe you should let her go about her business."

'Gorilla-san' stalked over to Midori and loomed over her. "Fuck off, little girl. This is no place for someone who doesn't have a Zanpaktou."

Midori looked to the left and the right, almost like she was expecting someone else to have walked up next to her. "Oh, were you referring to me, Gorilla-san? I'm sorry but I don't understand what you're talking about."

"I see no Zanpaktou anywhere on you! Therefore, you obviously don't have one!" the gorilla of a man spat, spittle flying onto Midori's face.

Using the left sleeve of her jacket to wipe her face off, Midori reached into her shoulder bag with her right hand and pulled out her flute's carrying case out. She slid her flute out and displayed it for the two confused Shinigami, a confident smirk on her lips. "It appears as though I do have my Zanpaktou. You are as stupid as you are ugly, Go-rill-a-san."

The Shinigami was now seething with rage. "You think that is a Zanpaktou? Insolent bitch! You'll learn not to disrespect the ways of the Shinigami and not to disrespect me!"

As his hand flew for his Zanpaktou, Midori muttered, "Shizuka ni kuresshendo ni noru, Yōsei no Ongaku."

The flute's transformation was so quick that by the time the Shinigami had his Zanpaktou halfway out of its scabbard, it had transformed into a kodachi with a hand guard that was the shape and hue of the petal of an orange Asiatic lily and a slender hilt that curved like the wider end of a bass clef and was the color of rosewood. The tip of the enraged Shinigami's Zanpaktou was still inside the scabbard when Midori pointed the tip of Yōsei no Ongaku at his chest. The Shinigami froze for a second before letting out a primal roar and swatting her Zanpaktou out of her hands as easily as someone would swat a fly out of the air.

"While you have a Zanpaktou, it's obvious that you don't know how to use it!" Gorilla roared again, swinging his sword down in a wide arc.

Midori clenched her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable…

Which never came.

Instead she heard the sound of her attacker's sword hitting another metallic object. She dared to peek out of one of her eyes and saw before her a scene that would be forever ingrained into her memory.

Izuru was standing between her and her attacker, his Zanpaktou unsheathed and blocking her attacker's Zanpaktou. The anger in the gorilla-Shinigami's face slowly melted into pure and utter terror at the realization of just who had blocked his swing. Izuru's face was impassive as he swatted the Zanpaktou that Wabisuke had blocked to the side. His hand shot out and grabbed the Shinigami's uniform, twisting the hem of the fabric to locate the Shinigami's Division insignia. "7th Division, huh? Your captain will be hearing about how you attacked the daughter of the 3rd Division's captain."

The man's face blanched at this revelation before Midori added, "And for sexual harassment, too. He was harassing that woman when I came over here to help her." She gestured at said woman, who had remained glued to the spot since before any zanpaktous had been drawn.

All color drained from the accused man's face and he took off at a dead run. The woman offered a sincere thank you to Midori and Izuru before she walked off to deliver the paperowrk in her arms. After the woman had left, Izuru watched as Midori walked over to her zanpaktou and picked it up, a forlorn look on her face.

She then spoke directly to the zanpaktou in a hushed and concerned tone. "I'm sorry for that, Sei-chan. I know it's been a while since I last used you, but I promise I'll use you more regularly from now on."

The zanpaktou merely shimmered and transformed back into a flute. Midori gently slid it back into its carrying case and put that in her shoulder while Izuru sheathed Wabisuke.

Izuru approached her and rested a hand on her shoulder, drawing her attention. "Are you all right, Midori-chan?"

The young woman smiled sadly at him and gently gripped the hand on her shoulder. "I'm fine. I just feel guilty about not having summoned Yōsei no Ongaku in so long but expecting her to come when I called her just now…"

Izuru smiled knowingly and gave her shoulder an affectionate squeeze. "She must understand your situation in the material world and be dedicated to you in spite of that."

'He's right, y'know~~!' a voice that carried the same melody of a wind chime chirped for both Midori and Izuru to hear.

'Who are you?' Wabisuke asked brusquely. Through the physical contact of Izuru's hand on her shoulder, Midori heard him, and she jumped slightly at the harsh tone of the unexpected voice.

'I'm Yōsei no Ongaku~~Just call me Sei-chan, 'kay~~?' Yōsei no Ongaku practically sang. 'Who're you~~?'

'…Wabisuke.'

'As in 'penitent one', ne~~? Can I visit you in your world so we can talk some more~~?'

There was a pregnant pause before Wabisuke answered her. 'Sure, I guess. It should be easy to travel here since our wielders are so in-tune with each other.'

The conversation ceased there, leaving both Izuru and Midori standing there for a while in confusion as to what had just transpired between their zanpaktou spirits. Midori giggled after a little bit, easing the tense atmosphere, before commenting, "I guess there are still things about zanpaktou that still have to be learned."

"Indeed," Izuru responded, nodding his head in agreement.

The next second, they heard someone calling, "Kira-fukutaicho! Kira-fukutaicho!"

They turned to find an employee of the store Izuru had visited running up to them, a gift bag in one of her hands. She hastily handed the bag to him and explained, "You left this on the counter."

Izuru gratefully accepted it, murmuring, "Arigatou gozaimasu."

The employee gave a slight bow before running back to the store. Midori couldn't help but stare at the bag. Before she could stop herself, she wondered aloud, "What's in the bag?"

Izuru smirked and held it out of her reach. "Something for you. But I want to go somewhere else before I give it to you." Midori nodded vigorously, her eyes never leaving the bag, as he asked, "Would you mind if I carried you there?"

"Ah…no, not really-!" Midori let out a startled squeak as she was picked up bridal style and whisked away with a series of shunpos. She caught glimpses of the different buildings in the Seireitei whenever Izuru would exit a shunpo right before going into another. After the fourth or fifth glimpse, Izuru exited a final shunpo and set her on her feet.

They were on a forest path that allowed a wonderful view of the sky to intermingle with the musky, earthy scent of the forest around them. Midori took in her surroundings for a little while, then looked at Izuru and noticed the look of anticipation he was giving her. She was about to ask him what was wrong when he muttered a three-word command.

"Close your eyes."

Placing her trust in him, she squeezed her eyes shut, vaguely hearing Izuru reach into the bag, opening something, and then a slight rustling of paper. She felt his slightly callused hand cup one of her slender hands and then something cold, possibly metallic, was placed in her hand. Then, from right next to her ear, she heard Izuru breath another command, this one only two words.

"Open them."

She opened them to find Izuru standing right in front of her and then looked down to find something absolutely breath-taking. It was a metallic comb that had a sunset's-golden-orange marigold welded to the handle of the comb. She looked from the comb to Izuru and back again as tears of happiness welled in her eyes.

With a shuddering sigh, she smiled and wrapped her fingers around the comb, breathing, "It's so beautiful, Izuru-kun…arigatou…"

Izuru used his thumb to wipe her tears away. "I'm glad you like it." He suddenly became very serious and stated, "But before we go any further down this path, I need to know your answer."

Already mentally prepared for this moment, Midori didn't hesitate to say, "I like you a lot, too, Izuru-kun. I would love to be in a relationship with you, if you'd still have me."

All Izuru did at her words was smile and kiss her forehead before pulling her into an embrace, muttering, "Of course I'll still have you. I'm so relieved that you would have me." He laced his fingers into her free hand and began to lead her down the path. "Now, there're some people I'd like you to meet."

Midori's eyebrows rose in confusion as she took up pace with him. "Who?"

Izuru smiled back at her. "My parents."

I hope Midori's response wasn't too lack-luster, but I honestly didn't know how else to put it ^^" Anyway...

* As for this comment, I decided that I'd hint at a future pairing: Renji x Akina XDD I hope ya'll look forward to it.

Translations:

1) Shizuka ni kuresshendo ni noru, Yōsei no Ongaku - Calmly ride the crescendo, Fairy of Music

And for those of you who are wondering, I'm considering doing a one-shot of Sei-chan visiting Wabisuke. How soon I get it done will depend on the feedback I have for those two... The next chapter will be the last for this story~~