I'm so sorry I didn't update yesterday! But I had a six hour swimming course, and then my aunt, my cousins, my other aunt and uncle, and my grandparents came over and the only time I got to myself was fifteen minutes before bed, which I spent finishing my book because it's really addictive. I totally didn't expect the ending though... The murderer definitely wasn't who I thought it would be.

Anyways, if I owned Bleach people wouldn't talk as much through the fight scenes. I means seriously, they can't go five minutes without giving a long winded speech about how they're better than their oponent. It gets a bit old.

"Tell me again," Renji said, for the fourth time that evening. Byakuya sighed, and tilted his head back.

"You know what happened," he replied wearily.

"Just because I know doesn't mean I believe." Renji told him.

"Would I lie?"

"… No."

"There you go."

"So I'm just supposed to believe that there's some random, powerful, invisible monster running around and eating people?" Renji exclaimed softly, glancing over at Kaili, who had nestled herself against Byakuya's side.

"You believed that before. Why not now? Besides, there's no proof that it's eaten them. Just kidnapped."

"I believed that there was a powerful hollow- maybe an arrancar, with the power to reflect light away from it. I definitely said nothing about monsters and eating people. And what else would it have done?"

"… Do you really want to know?"

"Yes. If you have a theory on whatever else it would do with a fully grown woman and a little girl, please do tell me."

Byakuya told him. Renji ran to the washroom and threw up everything that was left in his stomach. Byakuya joined him at the sink with a glass of water, which he offered silently.

"Your mind works in horrible and gruesome ways," Renji grumbled, drinking the water gratefully. "Any other ideas that aren't awful?"

"Other ideas? Yes. But they're all awful."

"I don't want to hear it."

"I did warn you."

"Well yes, but if I had known it would have been that bad, I wouldn't have asked." Renji leaned against the doorframe and rested his cheek against the cool porcelain tiles that lined the wall. Byakuya tugged him away from the wall, and out of the washroom.

"Come on," he said gently, pushing him onto the bed and then sitting beside him. Renji rested his head on Byakuya's shoulder, silently breathing his scent. It had a sort of calming effect, and, slowly, he relaxed. Byakuya stroked his hair soothingly, but he was tense. No doubt, he was being haunted by horrid images as well.

"Is there any chance that we can save them?" Renji asked.

"Maybe."

"How long would do we have, in the best case scenario?"

"A few days."

"Let's go now."

Renji looked down at Kaili, who was rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"I don't like her, but I don't want her to be eaten," Kaili explained. She frowned, puzzled. "But why would it wait a few days before eating them?"

Renji and Byakuya shared a relieved look.

"Never mind about that," Byakuya told her. After giving him a slightly irritated look, Kaili bounced off of the bed. She was tense too, and her tiny face was drawn into a frown.

"Let's go."

*****Six Hours Earlier*****

Kaili was outside for recess when she felt the horrid thrum of the odd reiatsu, except much, much closer this time. She looked up towards the sky automatically, but she couldn't see anything. Quickly she ducked out of sight and removed the wristband, looking around for the disturbance, one hand resting on her zanpaku-to. She could feel the reiatsu, but she couldn't see it. She couldn't even see a disturbance in the air. Byakuya had said that it was completely invisible, but there should still be something!

A deep, dark voice echoed around the playground, but nobody seemed to notice it except for her. She swallowed hard, pulling out her zanpaku-to, and holding it ready.

"Ah, another little play-thing. Will you be as fun as the other one? He was very amusing… can you be amusing?"

Kaili grimaced, her ears ringing. There was a swish of air near her ear, and remembering what Byakuya had told her, just in time, she dove out of the way. Clumps of dirt flew from the ground as deep claws dug into it, and then ripped out. Still, nobody noticed. She lunged at the air in front of her, but her blade met no resistance.

"No," the voice continued mournfully. "You're not amusing at all. I think it's time to up the stakes, yes?" There was another woosh of air, and once again Kaili dodged. This time the claws caught on her robes and ripped down the sleeve. Again, the claws came, and again she barely dodged them. Byakuya had needed Bankai to defeat this thing. She hadn't reached Bankai yet, but her Shikai should be enough to hold the thing back long enough for somebody to come help her.

"Strike," she hissed, holding out her zanpaku-to, "Arashi." (Arashi means 'storm' in Japanese. I've been wanting to use this as a zanpaku-to name for a while now)

Byakuya jumped up the instant that he felt the strange reiatsu emerge again. With a shock of horror, he realized that it was by Kaili's school, and he instantly started shunpo-ing in the direction of the school. There was no way in hell that he was going to allow Kaili to be injured. Never, ever.

Renji started a bit in his seat when he felt the sudden, oppressing dampness of the weird reiatsu. He stared down at the test in front of him, trying to think up a way out of the classroom. The teacher he had now was very strict, and it was doubtful that he would let him out while he was doing a test. He wasn't nearly as kind or perceptive as the other teacher, and wouldn't notice if Renji looked sick. Even if Renji said something, he would still have to finish the test before leaving the classroom. And if he just ran out, the teacher would chase him down, and would notice if Renji suddenly just disappeared. Fidgeting in his seat, Renji glared down at the test, wishing it were multiple choice. If it were, he could have just circled random answers, and gotten out of class easily. Unfortunately, it was all short answer. Quickly, Renji scribbled half answers on the lines, struggling to go as fast as possible while his mind filled with different horrid images, some very real, and others made up.

As soon as he had scrawled his last incomplete answer on the lines, he ran up to the front and shoved it at the teacher hurriedly.

"Could I go to the washroom? Please?" he asked. The teacher gave him an odd look, and nodded, and Renji ran out of the classroom. Once again, he forgot his backpack.

Tara picked the backpack up at the end of class, and shared a look with Gwen, Bren and Jess.

"Seriously!" she exclaimed. "How hard is it to remember a damn backpack?"

"Extremely, if Renji is anything to go by." Bren replied dryly, rolling her eyes.

"He's going to be in so much trouble when he gets back. Skipping out on the rest of class," Gwen said as the four of them wandered out of the classroom to meet up with the rest of their friends.

"And he didn't even write complete answers on his test," Bren and Tara chorused. This statement earned them odd looks from the other two.

"What?" they both asked. "I was done early and I was bored!"

"Why didn't you just chat through your mind connection?" Mel asked, joining them in the hall. Grace was beside her.

"We don't have a mind connection," they replied, together again.

"Yeah you do," Grace said huffily, tilting her chin up. She noticed the backpack in Tara's hand. "Again?" she asked. "What is with him?"

"Did he just dash out again?" Mel asked.

"Yeah." Jess replied. "According to the twins over there, he didn't even finish his test properly."

"We're not twins!" Bren and Tara exclaimed. Everybody ignored them.

"That's the seventh time since he's gotten here! What's going on? He doesn't seem like a skipper."

"Well what else?"

"He could be off hunting monsters," Bren said contemplatively.

"Yeah," Tara agreed. "He was that one day, remember? We saw him and that other man."

"The hot black haired one?"

"That's the one. They were dressed weird, like they were from Harry Potter or something. And the black haired man had hair curlers in."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Gwen said. "Fighting monsters? You're kidding, right."

"Of course," Tara said scornfully.

"No, we watched Renji fight a huge-ass monster in the middle of St. Albert," Bren said sarcastically. "Seriously." She paused. "We did see them in the outfit though."

"Who dresses like that?" Ash asked, plopping down at her assigned seat.

"Cosplayers?" Jess suggested.

"What are they cosplaying?" Gwen wanted to know. "Harry Potter characters in pyjamas?"

Tara and Bren exchanged a look, not wanting to tell the others what they really had seen. Renji and some hot guy fighting a humongous monster while standing about two stories up. Their friends already thought they were crazy enough as is.

Tell me what you think XD

-Stormy