You may start to see a patter witht the point of view emerging. ;)

Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach or its characters. I only get the random OCs.

Renji had spent the day questioning members of the Ninth Division, walking through the grounds to find Soul Reapers to talk to. He was now in one of the common rooms, surrounded by books and empty tables, with the exception of the one he was at. The young man sitting in front of Renji had dark hair and a particularly proud expression on his face. His name was Keitaro Nakane, an unseated member of the Ninth Division.

"It's a good thing you came to me. I know just about everything there is to know in this division. After all, I'm going to be a seated officer soon. I have to know, as part of the job," he greeted.

Typical Nakane, Renji thought, boasting at every chance he gets. Renji still needed to gather more information, primarily on Kagami, before he could return to his division. Nakane seemed as good a person to ask as any other he'd previously spoken to, though he would have rather spoken to someone else.

"What's your division's Third Seat like?" Renji asked casually, seeming as though he didn't know Kagami very well. "I heard she was a firecracker."

"Former Third Seat," Nakane corrected. Renji's lips quirked, wondering if the pompous Soul Reaper thought he'd be taking that position. "Okasawa was hurt pretty bad a couple days ago. Rumor has it she lost a limb."

"But what's she like?"

"She's tough, but not extraordinarily. Now that she's gone, I'll probably get to Third Seat myself." Renji cocked an eyebrow at Nakane's boast.

"Think so?"

"Sure? What's to stop me? I'm better than every other unseated Soul Reaper in our division."

"Have you figured out your Shikai?"

"Of course I have. What kind of rookie do you take me for? My zanpakuto is lightning-based and it kicks ass."

Renji now shifted slightly in his seat. This kid was getting on his nerves, boasting his abilities in such a way. He wasn't a seated officer, yet he believed he could easily take Kagami's position? Renji wondered how good her fighting was, if Nakane believed he was so much better. Now wasn't the time for that, though. He needed to know how she was when put in a difficult situation. The last one he'd seen had been when they were in the academy, and things had changed since then.

"Has Okasawa ever been badly injured before?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the table. Hopefully he'd get some real answers from this kid.

"Not that I've seen, but she likes to act tough, so she might have been without letting us find out," Nakane answered, a slight scowl on his lips. Was he jealous of Kagami's endurance? Either way, that didn't help Renji figure out how she would currently react to such a shock.

"So, you think she'd be able to keep up a façade if she was hurt?"

"Probably. I don't know. I don't talk to her." Nakane rolled his eyes, leaning back in the chair. He didn't appear to like talking about Kagami nearly as much as he liked talking about himself.

"Was there anyone she fought alongside more often than others?"

"I haven't been on any missions with her, so I don't know if it's true, but I heard she always worked with Lieutenant Hisagi." Renji nodded, figuring that sounded about right. Kagami had said she and Hisagi were working together when they'd been attacked.

"Was anything off about her?"

"Not unless you count how bad she kicked everyone's ass," Nakane answered with a shrug and a roll of the eyes. He was beginning to wear on Renji's last nerve.

"Alright. Have there been any more rumors floating around about her?" Renji asked, propping his elbow on the table. He knew rumors weren't always a good source of information, but it was something to work with. Hell, he knew that some rumors had a grain of truth in them sometimes. Maybe he'd find a good one. Nakane dropped the chair onto all four legs, suddenly appearing interested in the topic.

"Some people say she was screwing Lieutenant Hisagi to get her place as Third Seat and keep it," the young man answered. Renji's elbow slipped off the edge of the table and he caught himself before his head could hit the hard wood. The nerve of this punk! Who the hell would send that flying around? Renji may not have spoken to Kagami in years, but he knew she wasn't the type to act that way, nor was Hisagi. Renji grabbed Nakane by the collar of his kosode, bringing him to eye-level.

"What the fuck kind of joke is that?!" he demanded. The color drained from Nakane's face as he stared into the enraged brown eyes of Renji Abarai. "Your lieutenant was killed and your Third Seat was nearly put in the same place, and you're spouting shit like that!"

"W-What the hell?!"

"You're a real high-and-mighty little bastard, aren't you?" Renji released Nakane, shoving him back to the ground across the table. The young man put his arms over his head to protect himself, but Renji merely scowled and stormed past him. That interview was a bust, he realized as he resisted the urge to punch the wall as he left.

As Renji walked back to the Sixth Division barracks, he struggled to make sense of all he'd heard. Kagami's story had seemed accurate enough, with the exception of Tousen, and there was no one else from that mission to take a report from. Everyone from the Ninth Division that he'd interviewed, a good few dozen, seemed to think she was a perfectly capable fighter. Nothing they said led him to believe she wasn't of stable mind. Did that mean she was merely traumatized, or could she have lost her mind in the short time between the attack and his visit? Or, could she be right, as unlikely as that was? None of it seemed to make sense anymore.

"How was the mission?" Imagawa asked as Renji entered the barracks. The lieutenant chuckled wryly, leaning against the wall to his right.

"It hasn't even started and it sucks," he answered.

"An assignment with that much paperwork won't stay boring for long."

"Maybe not. I'll be going to the Rukon District tomorrow morning to investigate this further."

"Have fun with that, Sir. Who knows, you might find something interesting," Imagawa suggested with a laugh before walking past Renji.

The red-haired lieutenant walked to his room in the barracks, dropping his novel-thick paperwork onto a small table near the door. The day had been too long for his liking. Between the stressful visit with Kagami and the seemingly endless string of interviews with the Soul Reapers of the Ninth Division, he was mentally exhausted. No one seemed to know more about Kagami than her exterior appearance. Very few rumors had been spoken of her, and all of them sounded unrealistic. Renji tried not to think of what Nakane had said about his old friend. He scowled as he realized that Kagami was just too introverted for him to gather any information on her from third-person accounts.

She'd had as much contact with Kira, Hinamori and Rukia as she'd had with him: close to none. It was odd, considering how close they'd all been in the academy Kira suggested that she simply may have been busy, though that didn't really make sense. Renji had spoken to them as well, but still found nothing to help him. It seemed like the only one who knew the real Kagami was dead. She always liked to show how strong she was, physically or emotionally. It made sense that Kagami wouldn't let many people see how she was behind that tough pretense. Renji sighed heavily as he sat on the edge of his mattress.

"Damn, Hisagi. You made my job a lot harder just by dying," he muttered.

Gotta love implied stuff. XD