The storm continued to rage throughout the day. Abarai-taicho left immediately after his announcement, not saying where he was going. Kira-fukutaicho continued the division meetings and distributed assignments. As new recruits, Mitaro and I were sent to the living world to search out plus-souls and perform the konso. Sanosuke was sent to a different city that us to patrol for minor Hollow incursions.

"Ehhhhh," I sighed. "There's no one here Mitaro. We should just head back to Soul Society and relax. Maybe we'll hear more news about what's going on in Hueco Mundo."

"Sai-kun," Mitaro said, emphasizing the title. Even though we had been friends for three years, he still insisted on proper use of names and titles. I rolled my eyes at his reminder of this. He continued, "We were ordered to patrol here until our replacements come. We can't abandon this place. What if a Hollow were to come and attack someone?"

"Oh come on," I looked at him, exasperated. "You know that Hollows only attack people with high reiatsu or souls. If you ask me-."

"Which no one did," Mitaro interrupted with a grin.

I glared at him. "As I was saying, if you ask me we are putting this place into more danger by being here. There's no one here that the Hollows would be interested in except for us. If one does show up it'll be because we are here supposedly protecting this city from them."

"Sai-kun, we are here to do a job. We both know it's boring, but we can't do anything about it. If we do these jobs without complaint who knows, maybe we'll get to go Hollow hunting with Akage-san soon."

I sighed and looked out over the city we were stationed in. I closed my eyes and let my spiritual sense drift with the wind to see if I couldn't feel something out there. Suddenly I felt a sharp slap on my back. I opened my eyes and looked around. I saw Mitaro standing on a building across the street, grinning like an idiot.

"What's gotten into you?" I asked him.

"You said you were bored."

"So?"

"So, tag… you're It!" He laughed and darted away.

I stared after him for a moment and then smiled. Despite being duty bound, Mitaro knew how to make me laugh. I quickly took off after him. He had a good lead on me so it was tough going to catch up with him. I concentrated and focused my reiatsu. I flashed in and out of sight as I used shunpo to catch up to Mitaro. He looked behind me, still grinning. When he saw me using shunpo, his grin faded a little.

I stopped right in front of him. "Now you're It," I said as I reached out to tag him. Surprisingly, I missed him. He had contorted his body in mid-air and managed to dodge my hand by the barest of inches.

"Hahaha! Spoke to soon, didn't you Sai-kun," he grinned at me, his face nearly upside down. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to catch me."

I narrowed my eyes. "Oh, I'll get you," I told him as he started off again. I quickly caught him again and held out my hand. "Bakudo no Ichi, Sai!" Mitaro's lower body locked up as the kido caught hold.

Mitaro looked at me as I tagged him. "Hmmm, nice job… but isn't that spell supposed to paralyze the entire body?" he asked smugly. He closed his eyes and focused. He easily broke out of the weak spell. "Something more like this I believe. Bakudo no Ichi, SAI!" My arms and legs were suddenly held together by the power of his kido. "You seem to forget that kido was my best skill. You'll be stuck there for a few minutes, so I'll just tag you here," and he did so, "and then take a quick break."

Mitaro reclined in the air and watched me struggle to break his spell.

"Damn it, Mitaro. You win; now let me out of here!" I yelled at him. My skills in kido were pretty bad and I was having trouble breaking the spell.

"Nah, I'm having fun. I'll just let you-," he stopped mid-sentence and looked across the city. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" I asked.

"I could've sworn I heard a Hollow."

Then the air was split by the familiar roar of a Hollow.

"Ok, now I did hear it," I told him. "Let me go and we'll go find it."

He released me from the spell and we both took off into the night. If we didn't find the Hollow fast enough, it could cause huge amounts of damage and then retreat back to Hueco Mundo.

"Mitaro, can you figure out where it is?" I asked in a low voice.

"Hold on just a second," he replied. He suddenly looked into the air above me and yelled, "Watch out!" He yanked the front of my clothes and pulled me forward just into to dodge a gigantic claw. I looked up towards the source of the attack and saw an enormous Hollow. The Hollow was rust colored and in a scorpion like shape. It pulled back the claw it had tried to grab me with and launched its tail down toward us. We dodged to the side and managed to avoid being struck. The Hollow roared in anger and readied another attack.

Mitaro and I both drew our swords and took the fight to it. Despite its huge size, the Hollow was still amazingly quick and blocked our attacks with its claws while countering with its tail. We backed off a little in order to regroup and catch our breath.

"This isn't working. I'm going to distract it a little. You get behind it and kill it quickly," I instructed him.

"Sai," he was breathing heavily. "I'm nowhere near as fast as your are, you should get behind it to take it by surprise. I'll hit it with kido to keep it occupied."

"I may be faster, but you're better with your sword. I don't know if I'll be able to take him down."

Suddenly the Hollow was on us again. We were both fighting for our lives as the monster attacked us with claw and tail, roaring all the while.

"Go Mitaro!" I shouted.

He looked at me for a split second as if he was going to object again. He thought better of it and hardened his face. He continued fighting for another few seconds then disappeared. With only one target now, the Hollow turned its full attention on me. I blocked its attacks when I could and used my speed to dodge when I couldn't. I could feel myself being worn down. It was only a matter of time before I couldn't keep up and would fall.

Hurry Mitaro, I thought. I'm almost done here.

Suddenly the Hollow roared in pain. It backed off and started thrashing about. I could see Mitaro standing on its back. He had slashed from above and struck the Hollow just behind the mask. He jumped off right as the tail came swinging at him. He landed beside me looking as exhausted as I was.

"I couldn't do it. I couldn't get through his skin," he panted.

"Then what are we gonna do?" I asked him between breaths.

"I have one more trick, but it's going to drain me. If it doesn't work, I'm as good as dead, but I have to try. Soul Society won't get here in time."

"What do you need me to do?" I asked.

"Just stand back. Contact Soul Society and inform them we have a Huge class Hollow. If this doesn't work at least they'll know. Then just try to stay alive until reinforcements come."

I nodded and backed off. I sent off a Hell Butterfly with our location and the information and watched as Mitaro began his work. The Hollow was still thrashing in pain, but was begging to recover. Mitaro held his sword at his side, the flat of it resting on his sheath. As the Hollow fully recovered, Mitaro quickly pulled his to in front of him, the length of the blade scraping against his sheath.

"Scorch, Mugenjin!" he shouted defiantly. A small inferno burst around his sword. Almost instantly it was gone and Mitaro's sword had changed. His sword was still a katana, and it didn't look very different. Though from where I stood I could feel that there was a subtle variation in the way his reiatsu flowed through it.

So that's his Zanpakuto's release, I thought in wonder. Immediately after that I thought, When did he learn his Zanpakuto's name?

The Hollow charged Mitaro, roaring in pain and rage. Mitaro calmly stared at the incoming beast. At the last second, he leapt out the way. He slashed the hollow along the back and cut deeply into it. A strangled cry erupted from the Hollow as it turned to face Mitaro again. Mitaro only grinned. The Hollow, having abandoned all forms of strategy in its pain, flew headlong at Mitaro. Mitaro met the Hollow with a downward slash. Just before they collided, I could feel a spike in the reiatsu from Mitaro. He cried out, "Homura Dama!" and his sword burst into flames. His Zanpakuto cleaved through the Hollow's claws and deep into its mask. It shuddered to a stop and disappeared. Mitaro sighed and fainted.

"Mitaro!" I called and shunpo-ed below him. I caught him before he fell too far. "Mitaro, you idiot. Nice job," I whispered to his unconscious form.

I let him rest on a rooftop and waited until reinforcements from our squad came. Izuru-fukutaicho came to stand in front of me.

"Where is the Hollow?" he asked me looking around.

I smiled weakly and gestured to the prostrate form of Mitaro on the ground. "This guy here took it out. We weren't sure it was going to work, so he had me call for you just in case. Of course, it took too much out of him and he fainted as soon as the fight was over."

"This guy…?" Kira-fukutaicho said, stunned. "A new recruit, nearly fresh from the academy, took out a Huge class Hollow…"

"We'll give you a full report later, Fukutaicho, but Mitaro-kun needs to get back and rest," I said, hoping that my friend would be okay.

"Of course," he told me. He gestured to one of the shinigami that had come with him. "You take over for these two, and let me know immediately if something else happens."

"Yes sir!" the shinigami responded.

Kira-fukutaicho and the other shinigami helped me up and carried Mitaro back through the gate. I looked over at my friend's body and wondered when he became so strong.