The frightened new recruits were shuffled out of the room, and the top few burst out of the kitchen door. Ichimaru's eyes were invisible, the lanky man slamming fists into the nearest couch as he howled with laughter. Renji loomed over Ikkaku, or attempted to at least, in an imitation of the 'loyalty' speech. Yoruichi was rolling around on the ground, Ukitake chuckled merrily, and even Kurotsuchi sniggered. Urahara, on the other hand, was happily hefting a video camera.

"Cheers, Bya-kun!"

The man merely narrowed his eyes, his hand straying to a pocket. A pocket which held the gun he had just fired. "Yare, yare, Kuchiki-san. No need to get angry here." The lump of pink that was the overall in charge spoke up, a wide grin on his face.

"My apologies, sempai. I have work to do." With a short bow, he left the room abruptly.

"Damn… He's in a bad mood today?" Ichimaru put a finger to his lower lip, pausing thoughtfully as he peered around the doorframe, a slight frown on his face.

"Aah, he's always in a bad mood. It's in the job description, you know?" Renji grinned, striking a pose. "Prosecutor Kuchiki Byakuya! Here 'ta freeze the courtroom with my coldness! And while I'm at it, I'll throw a silent tantrum, but ya can't get me fer it cos it's silent! Hah!"

"Abarai. The corridor conducts sound quite well, would you not agree?" Sniggers in the room, as Renji's face paled. Apparently, he had not realised that.

"M-M-My many apologies, sir."

"There is a stack of paperwork on my desk with your name on it, Renji. I wonder why." Renji groaned audibly, slouching back into a chair, a hand on his forehead. "Damnit. Why's Iceman my in-charge again?"

No one bothered to answer his question, instead settling themselves down in the chairs. They went through a few basic happenings, commenting on the increasing threat, the increasing strictness of the system, the difficulties they encountered in the job.

"Maa, it's late, Kyouraku-san." Ichimaru stretched, yawning widely as he rubbed at his eyes, interrupting Mayuri halfway. "If there's nothin' else important than I'm goin' off now. I need ma beauty sleep to pull off the job well, ya? Call me if ya need anything." He pushed his chair aside, bowing to Kyouraku-san, before leaving the rooming, stretching as he went.

Mayuri spluttered indignantly, before noticing that half the room seemed to be in a state of exhaustion. Scowling, he nodded to the in-charge before closing his folder. "Time to call it a day, then…"

One by one, they filed out of the room. She frowned slightly, realizing that while the others had places to stay, simply because they had been in Japan since forever, she was new to the area, having been away for about seven years. As such, she did not have a house anymore. The room in France no longer belonged to her, after having sold it off for a nice price. The property market was doing rather well after all.

"Ano, Kyouraku-sempai, where will I be staying? I only returned from France this afternoon, and as a result, did not have sufficient time to prepare for any long-term accommodation."

"You'll be boarding with me!" A wide grin as Matsumoto leapt over, appearing at her side. "I've been dying for a roommate, and I think you're just perfect! She can, right, Kyouraku-san?"

He nodded, watching amusedly as bubbly Matsumoto steered Ise-san out the door.

Things were getting difficult; the situation with Aizen and Las Noches was getting dangerous. The foreign branch had been shut down and brought back because of this threat, because it was getting much too dangerous to operate so far away from home. They had tolerated Sousuke-kun leaving to form his own operation. They had even helped him out a little along the way. None of them had expected him to turn hostile. Not a single one of them.

Shunsui exchanged glances with the only remaining person in the room, his closest friend Jyuushiro. "What are we going to do, Jyuu?" He reached behind him and tugged out a bottle of sake, a cup already in his other hand. Pouring himself a serving, he took a sip, peering at Ukitake over the rim.

"We'll sit around and wait. If there's a need, we can always call upon Hirako and Kurosaki. The Ishidas and Shibas, maybe."

"Hm… But didn't Hirako go straight the other time? He packed up the deals, closed everything down, and went legal. And Kurosaki… Kurosaki's saddled down with kids. He might not want to come back to this. And Ishida? Forget it. That guy's 'import-export'. He doesn't do the same thing as we do. He's never liked us anyway. The Shibas, probably not as well. We've done enough damage involving them in things, if you remember. Kuukaku lost her right arm, or was it her left? Can't remember. All I do remember is the time when Kaien blew up in our faces. And he's already involved. Anyway, what makes you think they'll want to join us?"

The white haired man shrugged. "Sousuke-kun always had his eyes on the big things. Whatever it is that he is planning… It's us or him, really. There's no grounds for neutrality here. None of us are legal enough to side with the cops. Not even Hirako. Delve too deep, and they'll find out what he's done. He won't dare. The Ishidas, well, Aizen probably won't touch them. They are scary enough in their own right. Ever seen Ryuuken blow up?" They chuckled at the memory.

"How many favors do you have? Think you could call some of them in? This is going to be big, and I'm sure you know it. It's probably an all out war."

"That's about it. Hang on, Shunsui. Do you think… Genryuusai-sensei? And maybe some of the old gang. I did help Komamura-kun the other time, so that means that Tetsuzaemon would be with us as well. Yoruichi probably has a fair few contacts too."

"Yama-jii wouldn't agree. You know the old pacifist. I tell you, Jyuu, if he knew that half his kendo class turned out the way we did, he'd throw a huge fit. Something about 'going against the justice of the world' or something like that. He and his obsession with siding with the police. Now, if only there was a way to keep the damn police out of this. Stupid nosy assholes, sticking their noses where they don't need to. We always repair the damage anyway. It's not as like they could just close us down if they got us. We more or less control the economy."

"We could get Bya-kun to bribe them or something. He's got connections all over the place. Or we could fix it up quickly. Do everything nicely, quickly, such that no one notices. Sousuke knows that he needs the police on his side to win, because Las Noches isn't big enough. And at the same time, he's more illegal than we are. He's more dangerous than we are. He's biding his time right now, but I don't know what he's planning."

"Sousuke-kun is not too much of a threat to us now, simply because we really don't know what he can do. He's venturing into dangerous ground there, trying to juggle all those things at once. Drugs, that's very understandable. All the rookies want to deal in that. It's the guns that I don't understand. It is very possible to profit from the simpler things, import-export like us. And besides, our purpose is to ultimately benefit the people. Guns… I don't see how he's helping anyone. Why he wants to go hang a noose around his own neck I don't know."

"Where is he getting the funding from anyway? For us, it's obvious. It's Kuchiki. He goes, the money goes. Luckily for us, he doesn't seem inclined to leave anytime soon. But for Aizen? I don't get it. Ever since he shut himself off that time, we don't know anything. Ichimaru says that no one knows. He's asked around."

"You know, Shun, I have a feeling that we're missing something. Something very important."

"Me too."

"We're here!" A happy exclamation as they stopped outside a very similar door, a hastily written 'Matsumoto' on a small plaque hung from it. "Ah, we'll have to change that soon." She grinned, unhooking it from the door, placing it on top of one of Nanao's luggage bags that she was currently pulling.

The card was swiped, a finger placed on the identification pad for scanning as she waited. "Never hurts to be slightly paranoid, that's Kurotsuchi's motto, and really, the guy would have installed an eyeball scanner if he thought he could get away with it. Personally, I think that if anyone got into the compound, they'd have beaten more sophisticated things than fingerprints. But whatever… That guy's just weird. Aha!"

She beamed as the light flashed green, and there was a slight click. Turning the doorknob, she entered, holding the door open for Nanao and her luggage. Surprisingly, the corridor into the room was wide, not narrow as most would expect. The bathroom was not the first room they met, and the bed was not visible from the doorway. This was no ordinary dorm room then.

"C'mon! This way! You need to unpack your stuff. I'll give you a little tour later." Matsumoto's voice echoed happily from further down the corridor. Nanao on the other hand, was stunned by the view. The curtains had been drawn back, and from the tenth floor, the view was amazing. The entire wall was glass, only a frame where there was a window was visible.

The night sky was brilliant. And it felt so good to be home again. France had seemed so foreign, she had never truly immersed herself in the culture there, had only stuck to the same few comrades, to the same cuisines. Being home felt great. Matsumoto grinned a knowing smile, letting her stare out the window. "Nice view, eh? It's always good to be back in Japan."

Nanao turned to her curiously. "You were stationed elsewhere previously?" She had assumed that France was the only outpost to be pulled back, probably since they had not had any major achievements in the three years she had been there. She voiced that aloud.

Matsumoto grinned and nodded. "I studied Business Management in the US, and was intending on setting up a small business there, when Gin called saying that there was a job opening back home. Japan's always been my home, so I grabbed at the chance and came back, only to be posted back to the US to coordinate efforts there. Didn't last long though. What with the Aizen thing and all. The US branch was the first to be shut down. I returned last year."

"Oh." For her, the four years before her entrance to the world of yakuza had been her university years, spent in Accountancy. She did not really regret taking up the lucrative job offer, as she had not really done much anyway. Sitting around, sorting things, organizing things, the money had been easy.

"Let's get you settled down, eh? It's going to be a long week. The whole of Europe's due to be in by Friday. That's Kaien from Germany, Nemu from the UK and Sentarou from Spain. You met Hisagi-san already, right?"

She nodded. "He was pulled back from Italy, Izuru from Portugal, Isane and Kiyone from Russia. We don't have any contacts in South America, the Middle East, or Africa. Asia's due in next week. That'll be Soi Fong from China, Omaeda from Korea, Hanatarou from Singapore and Tatsufusa from Thailand."

Nanao blinked, slightly stunned. She had not expected the pull back to be so large such that nearly everyone was returning. And secondly, she had not known that the organization had been so large. China? Portugal? Spain? So many countries? "Ise-san, do you intend to stand there all night?" There was a teasing note in Matsumoto's voice.

"My apologies, Matsumoto-san."

"Rangiku." Seeing the confused look on Nanao's face, she grinned. "Call me Rangiku, Nanao. There's no need to be so formal. We're going to be dorm mates after all, right?" Not waiting for Nanao to respond, her grin broadened. "Let's get you unpacked!"

Happily, she lugged Nanao's luggage into the corridor. There were two rooms along the corridor, well, four if one wanted to be particular, including the living room and the kitchen, but there were two bedrooms, the doors facing one another. One had a similarly scrawled 'Rangiku' on the door, and looked particularly messy, while the other was clean, and completely free of any clutter. Whistling a tune, Rangiku placed Nanao's luggage on the floor, unzipping it and hanging up her clothes in the wardrobe.

"M-Rangiku-san, what's the organization like?" She shifted the table lamp slightly, looking at the strawberry blonde sitting cross-legged on the floor, happily sorting through her stuff.

"We're more mercenary than anything, really. We deal mostly in fraud, blackmail, and a little political stuff. Of course, there's the smuggling as well, but that's really minimal. We mostly do stuff that we're paid to do. Most of the time its really little things. Get papers passed and approved a little faster than usual, with a small fee, of course. Then there's the larger ones, the bigger clients who get us to get stuff for them. All requests are sorted through the main office before work is delegated. Kyouraku-san and the higher-ups decide what passes through and what doesn't. And of course, occasionally we go out and do stuff on our own." She grinned wickedly.

"Nothing too bad though. It's all quite harmless. We don't normally go around beating stuff up. It's the heists that we're famous for. The last time, that was just pure brilliance. I'm sure you heard of it? That one with the huge distraction courtesy of Zaraki and his men while we got into the trade secrets? Very thrilling." A wink.

"As for how we're organized, well, there's the few groups that you were introduced to, earlier on in the afternoon. Those, and two more offices. Liaison, headed by one Kuchiki Byakuya, and Main, directly under Kyouraku-san.

Main, as the name implies, is Headquarters. Everything goes through Main. You're probably in Main, because as far as I know, the job of a General Secretary is in Main." She grinned. "I heard that Kyouraku-san's fun to work with."

"Investigations is under Yoruichi-san. They do all the scouting, all the basic jobs to prepare for the bigger jobs, they clean up the messes we might leave behind, they get rid of the people that we need killed.

Publicity, or well, that's what Gin likes to call it, it's more like Information and Propaganda, really. Those guys over there, well, they gather information, they spread information, the information we want the world to know.. No one knows who's really in it except Gin." She shrugged. "But it's not really of our concern, and it's probably better that way."

"Welfare is just a nice name for healthcare, for the doctors. We can't send our people to the hospitals out there, so that's what Unohana and her crew are for. They get the largest budget after Kuchiki to purchase all the equipment they need.

Liaison is the true publicity. Kuchiki goes out there, gains contacts, spreads messages amongst the high-class, gains support for his firm. His firm supports the organization. His firm is the backbone of the organization, really. It's just a nice cover for us. He processes all the legal work, does all the records, makes sure that the money we have can be kept. Liaison does all the legal processing."

"Events Management is really Planning. Toshiro and I, what we do is that we come up with the rough structure for things. We do the basic planning and organizing for everything, before it goes to Main. We help set down the framework, help think up of stuff. We're really just a subset of Main, the ideas department."

"Recruitment is the most straightforward. Contrary to popular belief, we don't have an army large enough to rival that of the Japanese Army. We just have a small, tight-knit group. Zaraki provides all the firepower, all the punch that we need when we need it. We're mostly a thinking plotting group, this whole organization, so there isn't such a focus on fighting."

"Research and Development is the most 'legal' portion of our enterprises. They spend the whole day locked up in the labs, thinking of ways to improve things, to improve products so that we can sell them at a much higher price than we bought them for. They also improve the weapons, and think of ways to outsmart the cops so that we're not caught. They're the Prevention, and Liaison is the Cure, to get us out of trouble when we do get caught, if we get caught."

"And we're not really the bad guys that we may seem. We do have a few programs to help out those who no one else helps."

She hung up the last set of trousers. "There. All done." Grinning, her face took on a serious look as she peered out the window, staring silently at the bright lights of the cityscape.

"You might want to get some sleep, Nanao. The next few days are going to be interesting."