As Rukia passed by, she noticed that an angry crowd was beginning to gather outside the general relief station. She took one look at the livid faces of the shinagami and pushed her way to the front of the mob, forward to put her ear to the door.

"Ah-chee!"

Was that supposed to be a sneeze? She knocked.

"I'b… I'b cubbin'…." Whoever it was, she was clearly very congested. "Han' on… one binute…." There was a sound like a dying elephant. The door slid open. Captain Unohana clung to the door frame, looking half-dead herself. She had dark circles under her eyes, her hair was springing out of her braid, and when she pulled the tissue she was clutching away from her nose, Rukia saw it was bright red.

"Captain Unohana! Are you all right?"

"I'b fine…I ha' da flu…" She slapped the tissue to her nose again and sneezed. The dying-elephant sound repeated itself.

"Captain Unohana…"

"Wait… one binute please…" She turned around and spoke into the clinic. "It's Kuchiki. No, the girl. Don' ge' up, you'll—"

WHUMP.

"—fall. Oh by." She turned back to Rukia. "We all ha' da flu."

Rukia nodded and turned to the mob behind her. "They're all sick."

Everyone started shouting.

"What?"

"NO!"

"But… my laundry!" Hitsugaya muttered, dumbstruck. How was he going to get the stain off his coat now?

A girl with red-streaked brown hair held aloft an empty bottle. "Captain Ukitake's out of cough syrup!"

"My arm's falling off!"
"I need a band-aid!" A member of the research department waved his finger in the air, continuing: "Just look at this paper cut!"

"I have another hangover." Shunsui added.

"That, Captain, is your own stupid fault."

"How can such harsh words fall from such swee—"

WHACK.

"This is going to be a disaster," Rukia muttered.

From the back of the mob, there was a slight commotion. Yumichika shoved his way to the front and opened his mouth, presumably to add another complaint to the crowds'. Rukia watched his expression turn to horror as he saw the state of Captain Unohana, once one of the most beautiful women in the Seireitei. He turned around and threw up noisily.

…………………….