The next day, after attending Sasakibe's funeral, Momo met with Shinji in the practice yard of the 5th Division's barracks. If she hadn't just finished attending a Vice-Captain's meeting informing them about their new enemy, the Vandenreich, and their leader who the Captain-Commander had failed to killed over a thousand years ago, Momo would have thought it could have been the same as any other day since she and Shinji had begun her training. As she approached her Captain, yawning, Momo noticed the bags under his eyes were far more pronounced than usual, and wondered if the same applied to her. None of the Captains or Vice-Captains had slept much in the past twenty-four hours. Looking up from playing with his tie while sitting on the porch waiting for her, Shinji grinned for what Momo assumed was the first time today.

"Don't think that just because we're goin' ta war that ya get outta trainin' Momo." He said with what was obviously forced cheer. "If anythin' that should give ya more incentive ta improve." He unsheathed his Zanpakuto and pointed it at her. "Anythin' ya wanna say before we start?" Momo let out another yawn and shook her head. She drew her own blade, adopting the same stance as Shinji. Shinji scowled. "If I was tryin' ta kill ya I wouldn't let ya have a chance ta yawn. Take this seriously Momo or you'll wind up dead." Momo quickly rubbed the sleep from her eyes and bowed to her Captain. "Sorry Captain." She apologized, adorning her face with a more serious expression. Shinji's scowl reformed back into his trademark grin. "That's more like it," he said before rushing at her.

Momo knew her Captain was holding back substantially for her sake, but even still she had difficulty following Shinji's movements. His blade was no more than a blur to her, and she struggled to block and parry his strikes before he was upon her again, even more ferociously than before. Shinji had said she had come a long way since they first started these sessions, but it was hard to gauge your progress when your mentor was so far ahead of you. At one point, she failed to dodge completely, resulting in her receiving a shallow cut below her left eye. "Captain are you actually trying to hurt me!?" She yelled, receiving only that infuriating cheshire cat smile in response. After awhile, Momo seemed to get into the rhythm of things and Shinji began to bark advice at her between his attacks.

"Watch yer opponent's movements Momo, the moment ya see an opening, take it!" Shinji yelled, swinging his sealed blade at his Vice-Captain, who barely had time to block the blow before Shinji struck again. "If you don't follow what yer enemy is doin', yer gonna lose yer head!" She ducked to dodge Shinji's second attack and countered by stabbing at her Captain's throat. Shinji effortlessly dodged Momo's lunge. "Good! Get creative! Always keep 'em on their toes!" Momo uttered a cry as Shinji kicked her squarely in the stomach, sending her flying into a wall. She stepped out of the rubble and rubbed her head, wincing. "Taichou!" She whined, walking back to Shinji and dragging her Zanpakuto on the ground behind her. "I thought we were only sparring! You can't keep knocking me around like that, you know we have to pay for any damages we cause out of our own pockets right?!"

Shinji shrugged nonchalantly, leaning his still unsheathed sword on his shoulders. "Ya gotta learn how ta dodge anythin' that comes yer way. The only way ta do that is through practice. Readin' strategies in books ain't gonna do ya much good in an actual fight." Momo puffed out her cheeks. "Why won't you at least let me use Kido? I might be able to get a hit in that way!" Again, Shinji shrugged. "I already know that yer good with Kido. It's yer other skills that need work. I'm not trainin' ya fer ya to show off whatcha already know, I'm tryin' ta teach ya new ways ta fight. Rapidly firin' off Kido spells only works as well as a blade when yer a pro at it like Hacchi or Tessai-san."

Massaging her already sore muscles, Momo nodded at her Captain's words. She looked around the yard to find that most of the members of the 5th Division were watching them curiously, the sight of their Vice-Captain in action still a rare sight to them. Momo suddenly felt much more self-concious about how dirty she had become from Shinji's kick. This was embarrassing. Aizen never forced her to come out here and make a fool of herself in front of everyone, but then again, that might be the very reason Shinji had to be so hard on her. She had lost a lot of ground in the time that Aizen had served as her Captain. In fact, Momo had found herself thinking a lot about how horrible a Captain Aizen had really been to her, and not just by running her through several times. He had purposely limited her growth and had often indirectly stopped her from voicing her thoughts with his gentle chastising or soft, almost fragile demeanor. Shinji on the other hand, was callous, occasionally infuriating and encouraged her to speak her mind as often as he could. Realizing this, she felt herself begin to burn with renewed vigor. If her new Captain was working this hard to help her improve, the least she could do was try her very hardest too.

Gripping her sword in both hands, she charged at Shinji without warning, catching him off-guard and forcing him to shout in surprise before he barely got his own weapon off his shoulders in time to block. "That's more like it!" He yelled happily, and this time Momo saw the kick coming before it made contact. She dodged out of the way and responded with a strike at Shinji's neck, which caused him to laugh aloud. "That's way more like it! What happened Momo, ya find out ya still got some fight left in ya?" Momo smiled fiercely at her Captain, striking at his raised blade while responding. "I've been sparring with you for over a year now Captain, but I just realized that I still have yet to actually hit you." Before Shinji could respond, she took her left hand off her Zanpakuto's hilt and punched the man as hard as she could in the side. In the split-second that Shinji flinched and recoiled, she swung her sword as hard as she could at his face, and to her surprise a small, thin red line appeared.

Before she had time to celebrate however, her Captain, noticing the small spurt of red that had followed Momo's strike, grabbed Momo's arm and, with a snap of the wrist, disarmed her of her weapon. In the time it took for Momo's still-sealed blade to fall to the ground, Shinji had pointed his own at her throat. His deadly expression quickly turned to one of delight. "That wasn't too bad Momo. A couple more years and ya might even be able ta give me a work-out." Momo slapped herself inwardly for her surprise. Shinji was a Captain, and one that came with all the added strength that his partial-Hollow blood bestowed upon him. There was no way she, determined or not, could ever hope to seriously pose a threat to him. Still, she took pride in giving Shinji a cut to match her own, and pushed the tip of his sword away nervously. "Th-thanks Captain. but I think I've had enough. Can we call it a day?"

Shinji yawned and sheathed his sword. "Yeah, yeah I guess that'll do for today." He turned towards his quarters and began to walk away. "Go get some sleep. But clean yerself up first." Momo looked down at her black robes, now spackled with brown dirt from being kicked into the wall and red blood from her cut which, despite being minor, she just noticed had been bleeding profusely the entire time. Watching her Captain's back, she wondered if there had been a reason he had turned from her so quickly. Smiling smugly, she walked into the baths while the rest of the Division out in the yard that had been watching she and Shinji fight returned to their duties.

Lowering her body slowly into the hot water, Momo experienced the feeling of her tense muscles finally relaxing, and allowed her mind to wander as she enjoyed the bath, her eyes closed. Despite her anxiety about the upcoming war and the sadness of Sasakibe's death, she couldn't help but feel as though her life had improved substantially over the past year. After her initial hesistance about it had worn off, she had grown to love the new hairstyle Shinji had picked out for her, and apparently either he had gotten lucky or his claims of being 'the most fashionable' Shinigami in Soul Society hadn't been much of a stretch as she had first thought, as she had garnered quite a bit of attention after going out in public with it. It had taken Toshiro almost two months to stop stammering every time he spoke to her, Shunsui always seemed to have some flirty comment to say as he walked by her, and even her fellow Shinigami Women's Association members had complimented her on it. She hadn't changed just physically though. She had begun to notice that much of her original discomfort in battle had dissipated since Shinji had begun training her, and Tobiume was much lighter than it had been before, signifying her strengthening bond with the blade.

The sounds of screaming outside her private bath caused Momo to open her eyes quickly, and she rose from the water in an attempt to grab her towl to figure out the source when Shinji barged into the room, panting heavily. "CAPTAIN WHAT ARE YOU DOING HE-" Shinji threw a towel at her and averted his gaze, somehow mantaining his composure, unlike Momo who was burning scarlet. "Hurry up idiot. Get dressed. We're under attack." Momo gasped and moved to pull on her clothes, Shinji tapping his foot and fingering the hilt of his sword. Momo began to put on her clothes hurriedly. "I don't understand, I thought we had five days until they arrived." Shinji attempted to look at Momo to respond, but, as she had yet to completely pull on her shirt, received a face-full of towel instead. "So di-UNF." He pulled the towel off his face, the corners of his mouth twitching. "So did I, but I guess they lied. The enemy has been known ta do that from time to time." Momo quickly finished dressing and followed her Captain out through the women's bathhouse, which was completely empty. "Captain, weren't those screams from the other girls as you ran through here?" Shinji grimaced. "Nah, this place was deserted aside from you. Ya heard that comin' from over there."

Walking outside, he pointed toward a nearby pillar of blue fire erupting from the ground. Momo covered her mouth, horrified at the sight of dead bodies already littering the ground. Shinji cringed and wore a grim smile. "Yep. And ta make things worse, the last girl I'll probably ever get ta see naked didn't have much of a figure at all. Life sure never seems ta work ta my advantage. Ya shoulda invited Matsumoto ta bathe with ya girl." Despite the severity of the situation, Momo still smacked her Captain upside the head. "Captain people are dying! And there's more of those pillars everywhere you look! Get your mind out of the gutter, we have to do something!" Shinji frowned, rubbing the spot where Momo had slapped him. He looked up. "Looks like some of the others have already beat us to the punch."

Off in the distance, a massive samurai had materialized in the direction of the 7th Division barracks, while the locations of the 2nd, 6th and 10th Division's barracks radiated reaitsu that Momo pegged as belonging to Soi Fon, Byakuya and Toshiro all releasing their respective Bankais. An annoyed sound escaped Shinji's throat. "Tch. I'm always late to the party." Out of thin air, the voice of Rangiku rang out around Momo. "CAPTAINS THIS IS AN ORDER FROM THE 10TH DIVISION CAPTAIN HITSUGAYA TOSHIRO, DO NOT USE BANKAI. THE ENEMY WILL STEAL IT! I REPEAT, WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT RELEASE YOUR BANKAI!" And sure enough, even before her Captain had finished his statement, Momo saw the massive samurai belonging to Komamura begin to dissolve. Looking up at the last of the giant disappearing, Shinji clenched his fists and began to run, motioning for Momo to follow him. "What the hell are those idiots thinking!?" He growled between clenched teeth.

Overhead, a Shinigami clad in the garb of the Onmitsukidō suddenly leapt past them, leaving a transmittor in his wake. A voice crackled to life. "ALL VICE-CAPTAINS, CAPTAINS AND SHINIGAMI IN SEIREITEI PLEASE LISTEN! KUROSAKI ICHIGO IS ON HIS WAY TO SOUL SOCIETY! HIS BANKAI CANNOT BE STOLEN, THE TECHNOLOGY DIVISION JUST CONFIRMED THIS. I REPEAT! KUROSAKI ICHIGO IS ON HIS WAY AND HIS BANKAI IS INCAPABLE OF BEING STOLEN!" Shinji came to a screeching halt, a look of immense relief evident upon his features. "Ichigo!" he breathed, and flashed Momo a grin. "See Momo? I told you, nobody is going to die, not if Ichigo is h-" Shinji's eyes widened in shock, and he forgot to finish his sentence. Momo could plainly see why. Byakuya Kuchiki and Abarai Renji's reiatsus had just completely disappeared.

"Captain... Kuchiki-taichou... Renji... they..." Momo trailed off, disbelief overtaking her. "I know Momo." Shinji said quietly. It seemed he too was having difficulty believing what he was plainly sensing. "But who...?" Blood-curdling screams erupted from a nearby street. The Captain and Vice-Captain snapped out of their shock and quickly shunpo'd over to see what was causing the commotion. Dozens of Shinigami soldiers were lying on the ground, some bleeding, some weeping, some clawing at themselves madly, but all of them, every single last one of them, was screaming as loudly as they could. Momo turned to ask Shinji what could be causing them to act this way, when she suddenly came face-to-face with what looked like several large thorns, hovering almost harmlessly in front of her. Instinctively, she reached forward and touched one, wondering what exactly it was. She heard her Captain roar out from behind her. "Momo you idiot! Don't touch tha-" but the rest of whatever he had said had somehow been muted, along with all the screaming from the Shinigami only a few yards from her. She felt a chill run through her body, and the sky began to darken rapidly until it was pitch-black.

Momo.

That single word rang out in her mind, filling up her entire being, but even though she was almost positive she had only heard it in her own head, she had to be sure. She whipped her head around to find Shinji, just to confirm her suspicions. Shinji wasn't there. In fact, nobody was there. She was all alone. Except for one person. Where Shinji had stood merely moments before, his usual smirk adorning his face and wearing the same haori Momo had seen him wear for the many, many years he had been her Captain, was Aizen Sosuke.

She screamed.