This is a really short chapter... Sorry... But I can't actually think out what happens next, and I have to go to bed soon because I have to go to the pool early tomorrow for swim class teaching lesson thingies... Ah well.

Anyways, if I owned Bleach, there would be some part, somewhere, where Byakuya has to go save somebody while they're drowning, and he jumps into the water, and then when he comes up, all of the water's dripping from his hair, and down his back, and his clothes are really wet so they cling to his body and... yeah. Well you can imagine how hot that'd be.

Mrs. Grant watched the three people in her classroom warily. "So you're something called 'Shinigami' who apparently manage the dead, and help them move on."

"Yes." Byakuya agreed, not turning around from the window.

"And the monsters are called Hollows, which are dead souls who prey on the souls of others."

"That's correct."

"And when you slice them open with your zanpa- sword thing, the original soul goes to the Soul Society."

"Uh huh," Kaili interjected.

"And I'm supposed to believe that?"

"Believe what you want," Byakuya replied from his station by the window. "If you can find any other plausible reason to explain what you just saw, by all means, use it."

"I can't believe what I saw! It's so… unbelievable."

"It's weird," Kaili agreed, "but you've got to have wondered what happens after you die, haven't you? Now you know."

"Is it a nice place? This Soul Society.

"Yes." Kaili said.

"No," Byakuya said at the exact same time.

Renji joined in the chorus with a definite, "sometimes."

"… Do you want a moment to get your stories straight?" Mrs. Grant asked, a small smile lighting up her features at the obvious disagreement between the three of them.

"It depends on where you live really," Renji explained. "Some of the districts are awful, and some of them aren't. It's like earth, except nobody ages, and people rarely get sick or die."

"Some of the districts look as though they should be good, but they really aren't," Byakuya added. He sounded sad, as though recalling some painful memory. "Everybody's jealous of the people living there, until they themselves see what it's like. Everybody there wants to go to any other district, even the slums, but they can't."

"The best districts are in the middle," Kaili explained. "Nobody's real rich there, but nobody's really poor either."

"The Seireitei's the best actually," Renji said. "But you have to meet certain requirements to get in, and if you don't, it's unlikely that you'll ever see anything except for the gates."

"It's likely that you'll end up in the Seireitei sometime after you die," Byakuya told her. "Since you have such high reiatsu, when you die it's likely that you'll end up having enough to get into the Seireitei."

"What's rei- reia- that thing?" Mrs. Grant asked.

"It's kinda like a measure of how powerful you're soul is. If it's powerful enough, you'll be able to have a zanpaku-to and become a Shinigami," Kaili replied.

"… That zanpaku-to thing is the sword, right?"

"Yeah. It's like embodiment of your soul. Each zanpaku-to has a name and a personality."

Renji had walked over to stand by Byakuya at the window. He had an arm hooked around his waist, and was speaking softly. Byakuya replied, just as quietly, and tilted his head back to rest it against Renji's shoulder.

"Renji's not really your brother, is he?" Mrs. Grant enquired.

"Nope. He's my daddy."

"And Byakuya?"

"He's my daddy too."

"Ah. But they pretended because that type of thing is unfortunately still frowned upon here?"

"Yeah. Or at least that's what Captain Yamamoto said."

"Captain Yamamoto?"

"The leader of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads- the groups that the Shinigami are split up into."

"Oh. What squad are you in?"

"Six. I'm third seat. Renji's vice captain, and Byakuya's the captain."

"That's why he was dressed differently?"

"That's what the white robe meant. The scarf and the hair thingies are supposed to represent his status as the head of one of the four great noble clans."

"Kuchiki?"

"Yep. He doesn't like them much. They don't like him either, since he's going against what he's supposed to. He's breaking the rules, and nobody has managed to stop him. He's really stubborn."

Mrs. Grant glanced over at Byakuya, thinking. He always stood the same way, she had noticed. His back perfectly straight, chin tilted up, both traits of a truly stubborn person. He even spoke in a way that suggested that nothing would ever make him back down. "I don't doubt that," she told Kaili. "He seems stubborn."

"The only person who can get him to listen is Unohana, and that's only because she scares him. And she scares everyone." Kaili kicked at the ground contemplatively. "But I think Byakuya's only scared of her because she can blackmail him whenever she wants to. And she can hold a grudge forever."

"She does sound scary."

"But she likes Byakuya, really," Kaili confided quietly. "He just doesn't know it."

Mrs. Grant laughed. "And you're not telling him?"

"Nope. If he knows that she likes him, he probably won't listen to her anymore. And since she's the only person he actually listens to…"

"That could be a problem."

"He listens to Renji too sometimes though," Kaili continued, frowning, "but usually Renji agrees with Byakuya, and when that happens…" she shuddered. "There's no point in arguing."

Yeah... Sorry again for the short chapter...

Thanks to reviewers XD You guys make my day!

-Stormy