The morning meeting was supposed to be short and simple. But the events that took place in the world of the living made their way to the soul society rather quickly. But, only the high ranked officers were informed on the matter. Toshiro called Akane and Rangiku into his office to inform them on what happened.

"Are you serious, Captain?!" Rangiku exclaimed.

Toshiro nodded his head slowly "I'm afraid so, what we've feared has happened. Hollows bent solely on killing as many as possible are starting to reappear, and nobody knows why."

Akane butted in "So, what do we do?"

"Well… that's what I called you all in here for… Head Captain Yamamoto wants a few of us to go to the world of the living as a precaution. These things are dangerous and must be dealt with."

Then, there was a knock at the door, it was a message from the higher ups. There had been 3 more attacks similar in nature since the first one involving Chad, Uryu, and Orihime in the past eight hours.

"My god…" said Rangiku in awe.

The Captain wants us to move out as soon as possible.

"Wait, you're going Captain?" Questioned Akane.

"Yes, and so are you and Rangiku." Said Toshiro

"What about the squad? I understand you two going because you guys know the world of the living, but me?"

"You've had first-hand experience in dealing with this type of hollow. You're coming" Rangiku said flaly.

Afterwards, Toshiro left to place an order for the 3 Gigais. Akane was about to leave too when Rangiku pulled him aside.

"Hey, this is a good opportunity! The world of the living is full of things to do. The Captain can be a bit of a grouch on these missions, but perhaps it's a perfect opportunity to, you know!" Rangiku winked at Akane and smiled.

Akane blushed and was upset "Rangiku! Come on, seriously?"

"What?" Rangiku played innocently; she knew he was embarrassed, so she decided to toy with him a bit. "You know you want to!" Then, she stuck one of her fingers into an O shape she made with her other fingers, simulating sex.

With that, Akane got flustered and left Rangiku behind, she walked out smiling and giggling to herself. Yeah, she thought the whole thing was adorable.

They arrived at 9:05 AM and promptly went to Kisuke Urahara's shop, Orihime, and Chad were there, but Uryu was nowhere to be found. Urahara greeted them and welcomed them inside. There he explained the events that had been happening in greater detail, better than what the report had said.

"Oh, I almost forgot, who's this guy with you?"

"Yeah, I was wondering that myself." Said Chad, Orihime nodding in agreement

Akane looked around confused before he realized they were talking about him.

"Oh! Me, well, I'm the new Third Seat of squad 10. I was the one who fought the first appearance of the odd hollow in the soul society"

Urahara nodded.

"Well, we're going to need all the help we can get to try to figure out just what the hell is going on here anyway." Sighed Kisuke. "Might as well get into your Gigais now, nothing's really going to happen during the day. Time for you to go figure out your living situations."

Akane looked confused, he knew that Urahara had plenty of room for them, wasn't he going to offer for them to stay here?

Before Akane could ask, Orihime offered to let them stay with her, especially since Toshiro and Rangiku had stayed with her when the Arrancars were attacking souls in Karakura town. She was sure she could make up enough room for Akane too, especially since there's no giant monitor in the middle of her apartment.

After everybody got into their gigias they walked over to Orihime's apartment. Rangiku was wearing a pink lacey shirt with a black camisole and white denim jeans, Toshiro was wearing a dark green polo shirt and blue denim jeans., while Akane wore a light brown colored T-shirt and black denim jeans.

As Orihime and Rangiku caught up, Akane chatted and was somewhat bewildered by what the world of the living looked like, when Toshiro interrupted.

"Hey, Orihime, can you not tell Kurosaki that we're here?"

Orihime looked sad, she really wanted to be the one to tell him that they were visiting, but then she understood. It wasn't really fair to him, to tell him why they're here, to let him know that something's happened that put his friends in harm's way, and there's nothing he can do about it. She simply nodded, understanding and got back to catching up with Rangiku.

As they rounded the corner they saw Ichigo walking towards them in the distance. Toshiro was the first to notice, so he grabbed Rangiku and Akane by the backs of their shirts and pulled them into an alley way.

"Remember, don't tell him anything, just get him away from us."

Orihime nodded awkwardly as Ichigo walked up to her. They said hello and Ichigo asked what she was doing downtown. She kinda blushed, nervous and awkwardly as she so often does.

"Uh, Orihime, why are you acting so weird?"

She smiled nervously and played it off, asking what he was doing. He said he was meeting his sisters later because they wanted to go shopping. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Toshiro motioning for her to hurry up. She nervously said goodbye and waitied for him to be out of sight before she told them it was all clear. They finally reached her apartment and Orihime set up the beds. One next to the window, one in front of her TV and one near the front door. Of course, Rangiku called the one by the TV, and Toshiro chose the one by the window, leaving the one by the door to Akane.

Toshiro started scanning for hollows on his Denreishinki, Rangiku asked for permission to take Akane out and show him around. Toshiro was a bit annoyed, having just got here, they were supposed to be on duty, but he reluctantly agreed.

She grabbed Akane and practically dragged him out the door.

On the way to the shopping district, they took the opportunity to get to know each other a bit better. She asked him about his sword, citing that one of the reports said it had to ability of fire. Akane nodded, reluctantly, not wanting to let on exactly what it was capable of. Then she made a joke, mentioning Toshiro's ability over ice.

"Well, fire and ice! I guess opposites do attract after all!" She started laughing like a madwoman. Akane got annoyed and blushed, elbowing her in her left shoulder.

They made it to one of the clothing stores downtown, while Rangiku went crazy find things to buy, Akane only browsed. Then, he found a shirt that he loved. A crimson colored button down dress shirt, he tried it on and loved it.

"Oh that looks great on you! I'm buying it."

Akane tried to say she didn't have to, but she insisted. Saying that it made him look great, and that he needed to look great, especially if he wanted Toshiro's attention. Akane was about fed up with her jokes, but he knew she meant well, just trying to make light of the situation.

They both kind of laughed a little, then, Rangiku looked startled, Akane followed her line of sight and saw Ichigo across the store walking in with his sisters.

"Shit, out of all the stores in this damn down he picked this one…" muttered Rangiku, with that she ran into one of the dressing rooms. Akane didn't know what to do, but then he realized. Ichigo has never even met him before. So he just continued browsing while Rangiku cowered in the dressing room. He spotted a red and black bathing suit and smiled, remembering what Rangiku has said about trying to look good. He didn't really know how he was going to do it. But he knew, he was going to get closer to Toshiro while they were here.