"Put me down!"

"Shut up already! Just be glad that I haven't yet!"

"I don't care! I'll just stick the landing!"

It had been hours since Ichigo had picked up this brat and, quite frankly, he was thinking about complying to her requests of dropping her the two hundred feet they had risen, but if he did, he would have the Head Captain to answer to. He would just have to endure it until everyone else showed up. But what if they never did? They never agreed on a meeting time or place. There wasn't even a way to signal them. Only Rukia could agree to splitting up to find this kid without giving everyone something like a flare gun if they found her. She didn't even think to specify a meeting point as a backup plan. That's when he remembered that he didn't add anything when they were all still together, so he was just as guilty as her. Stupid him. Stupid, dead-tired him.

"There she is! Thank goodness we found you!"

"Huh?"

That was Hanatarou, the seventh seat of squad four who had been previously acquainted with Ichigo under unusual circumstances. Being small in stature, meek and panicked if properly provoked, made the black-haired boy and easy target to poke some fun at. So why was he all the way out here? Moreover, why was he all the way out here with a gruff red-haired gu- oh. That was the lieutenant of squad six, Renji, an old friend of Rukia who worked under her older brother, Captain Kuchiki. He kept his hair spiked like Ichigo's and held back in a ponytail so you could easily see that his forehead had been heavily tattooed with black, symmetrical patterns. They must have been the kid's escorts. The other Soul Reapers were always pushing jobs on squad four members so it made some sense that Hanatarou would be here. Maybe they added Renji in just to balance everything out the difference in strength, but that wasn't giving Hanatarou very much credit. He was very skilled in the healing arts, that's why he was on squad four in the first place, no one there was ever thoroughly trained in combat.

"I was never here," the girl sharply whispered, trying to duck behind Ichigo and out of sight of the other two.

"Don't be ridiculous. I can see you wanting to hide from Renji, but Hanatarou? You have to understand that we're not here to hurt you, we're here to help you."

"He's right," Hanatarou agreed. "We just want to help make sense of all the confusion that's been going on lately."

"I don't want your help and I don't want to live there!"

"Live there?" Ichigo blankly repeated. "Geez, we're just trying to help. You can go home after introductions and come visit us just about any time."

"This guy was new to this entire thing once," Renji butted in. "He and few of his friends are going to walk you right through everything."

Ichigo didn't exactly know what word he should be using to describe the little girl's expression, but it looked to him like she was really embarrassed about her little protests based on her half-pout. It looked to him like he had hit the source of her dramatic annoyance with him and his friends right on the target. So the real problem was that she didn't want to leave her home. Well, now that that was taken care o-

ROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

"Oh crud," he said aloud. "Ummm. . . what was your name?"

"Sheep-dog."

He tried to hold back a little giggle that threatened to explode on him. Even if the name did make some sense with hair smothering her face, what sort of parent would have put that on a birth certificate, for reasons other than a fit of humor? "I'm Ichigo. Hanatarou, you take Sheep-dog back to Soul Society. Me and Renji'll stay here and take care of whatever it is."

"Who put you in charge?" Renji asked.

Ichigo turned around to answer back, but instead, he gasped inwardly at the Menos Grande that were staring at him eye-level with expressionless faces fixed in place. He could only imagine what these towering hollows were thinking under their masks.

*Dramatic Music* Chapter 5!

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