Being in this "training ground" was definitely going to become one of their favorite memories. They began swapping stories, telling favorite jokes, and coming up with their own explanations to this place. They were just trying to make sense of why their escorts needed butterflies with them when a voice behind them said "I can see that someone's feeling better" and made Sheep-dog let a startled squeak loose.

The boy in the sweat-shirt, who was laying on his back next to her, looked up at the voice's origin. "I remember you. You guys were in the crowd when we first came here, right?"

"Glad you remembered. I'm Ichigo and this is Rukia, Orihime, and Chad," the three took turns identifying themselves when their names were called with a nod or short wave. "We've been asked to help you get a better understanding of who we are."

She put on her best cover not to look to relieved, "So, the almighty hero returns. How was your fight? Bring back a head to hang in your cave?"

She would have continued, but Ichigo was furiously signaling her to stop talking. Too late.

"What do you mean 'how was your fight'?" It was the lady with the gung-ho attitude interrogating her.

"Is something going on?" the small boy nervously asked.

"It's nothing," Rukia tried to soothe their fears. "We just had to take care of a common Soul Reaper responsibility, which makes a good place for us to start. There are two kinds of souls in this world. . ."

No, it wasn't nothing. There was something very wrong. Something was different.

Gathering in the room usually reserved for the captains, all captains and lieutenants had appointed other seated officers to handle things while they were gone. Whatever news had been brought back from the world of the living was of the utmost priority.

"How exactly have they changed, Lieutenant Abarai?"

"They have raised their levels of attack and defense dramatically, Sir."

"But they are still defeatable?"

"Only with several strong Soul Reapers compared with the one that it used to take."

If the Head Captain was in any way astonished, he was able to conceal it exceptionally well. "And there is nothing to identify these new menos from the others?"

"Not that we noticed, Sir."

The twelfth squad captain took the opportunity to butt in. "What about samples? Did you take any samples?"

He was unaware of it, but the Lieutenant had a vein threatening to pop in the back of his head. He faked a smile through gritted teeth as every word threatened to betray the sound of grinding molars. "No, that wasn't on our list of things to do exactly, Captain."

"Tch, how disappointing. Why did I ever even entertain the idea of leaving things to you barbarians? Nemu."

"Yes, Master Mayuri?"

"Examine them."

"Yes, Master Mayuri."

Before they could do anything about it, she had collected their swords and had successfully located a small stain of blood on Sode no Shirayuki. It was a thin layer and had already dried so it was bound to be of little use. The captain still insisted on storing it in a test tube for "further analysis as a means of data collection and for verification of future alleged samples", whatever that meant.

Captain Kyoraku halfheartedly raised his hand and, before he received any acknowledgment, began speaking, "If I could get you to draw your attention back to the matter at hand, Captain Kurotsuchi, would you mind lending us that brain of yours to figure this out?"

"If I had answers to everything, then I would have told you already."

Ichigo had a feeling that if even if he had any idea, he would taunt them, calling them all inferior to his "intellectual might", long before he relinquished anything. Lo and behold, he went into a rant that would be most likely paraphrased as, "You're all idiots. I can't believe I work with you. I'd rather have the menos, because at least they can obey orders. This suggests that the menos are being controlled." Of course, this is without collegiate dictionary terms.

By the end of Rukia's lecture, names had been passed around as a note between friends during class would. The small boy with the baseball cap looked at his left knee when Ichigo asked for his name and mumbled something like, "Danio". The lady with the placid face was called Jaylin and "No, that is not a nickname". The guy with the filthy sweat-shirt, Fujita, explained that he spent most of his time outside and preferred not to hide the grass stains with dark cloth like he was ashamed. The "Mary-Sue" prefered "Suzette". The twins, Lyn and AJ, looked like they were prepared to switch names to confuse them. They might have been able to get away with it before, but Lyn had eyeliner.

"And this is Claire," Fujita jumped in. He noticed that the girl with the sack wasn't really participating in intro's, so he felt that Ichigo might as well have something to call her by if anything. It was the exact wrong thing to say.

Ichigo could feel his eyebrows getting closer together. With whatever willpower he had left, he kept his voice calm enough to strain the words, "Well, Claire, that's a nice name. Welcome to Soul Society," from a profusion of alternate phrases. 'I guess this means she's still uncomfortable with the whole thing'.

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

I'm SO late with this!

It's not even all that good. . .

In other news, I have completed my first one-shot "Hunt of the Salamander", which is Fairy Tail related.

The problem is, my little brother doesn't think that it should be a one-shot while I like it the way that it is.

We eventually agreed to let you all decide for us.

If ten people add "Hunt of the Salamander" to their "alert list", and at least one person leaves a review for the story saying that they think I should, then I will.

The deadline is March 31

Enjoy and please review ^_^