Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

Chapter 5: Fight

Jushiro had been uneasy ever since he had visited the detention center the day before. Although he was pretty sure that they would merely incarcerate most of the thieves who had been captured considering how most of them had very little reitsau, they girl on the other hand was a different story. Several other captains had already noticed that she was different, that she was hiding some sort of power even though she wasn't releasing any reitsau, her zanpakuto was proof of that. The Gotei 13 Court Guard Squads didn't like not knowing about people with great power who lived in such close proximity to them. Jushiro was worried that they would consider the girl as a dangerous threat, one that needed to be eliminated.

"Jushiro, what has you so anxious?" Jushiro turned to see Shunsui approaching.

"What do you mean?" Jushiro asked. He thought he was doing a good job of hiding it.

"Well, for starters, you're tugging on your haori sleeve so hard, it looks like you're about to rip it off. Second of all, you're twenty minutes early for the captain's meeting. No one's ever that excited about hearing old man Yamamoto blab."

"Well, I just—wait a minute—what are you doing here so early? You're usually the last one to come in!"

"Oh, well you see, the girls decided that they wanted to 'give Daddy a makeover' while I was taking a nap on the couch. I woke up as they were about to start painting my nails and took off before they convinced me to let them." Shunsui lifted his arm up and rubbed his eyelid. "Did I get all the eye shadow off?"

"Yeah, I don't see any, but—are you wearing mascara?" Shunsui rubbed his eyelashes and pulled his hand away, a giant smudge of black on his fingers and under his eye.

"Drat," he huffed. He reached his hand back up to rub his eye and that's when Jushiro saw it. He reached for a blue ribbon sticking out from underneath Shunsui's hat and tugged.

"Shunsui, what's this?" he asked. His friend reached up and began tugging on the ribbon that his friend had pointed out. When it didn't come out, he took his straw hat off. Jushiro couldn't help but laugh as his friend ran his hand through his hair only to discover that it was filled with a ton of tiny brightly colored bows and bright yellow plastic animal shaped clips.

"Not again," he groaned. "I'll be back. I better go wash off the rest of the mascara and get these bows out of my hair. I'll see you when I get back."

Jushiro waved at his friend and when the meeting room doors opened ten minutes later, he went ahead and entered. Ichigo arrived shortly after he entered. He and Jushiro talked happily until Byakuya arrived. As soon as the noble stepped foot in the room Ichigo shut up. His eyebrows furrowed deeper than normal as he glared off into space. Byakuya chose to ignore Ichigo's presence too and merely stared harshly at the ground in front of him.

Byakuya and Ichigo hadn't been on the best of terms ever since Ichigo and Rukia had gotten married without his consent. At first, Ichigo had thought that Byakuya disapproved of him as a suitor for his sister because he was an unranked shinigami. After a couple of years of intense training, Ichigo was finally appointed as the captain of Squad Five. To his dismay however, Byakuya still disapproved of him. When it became apartment that the noble wasn't going to give his sister consent to marry anyone who wasn't a noble, Rukia and Ichigo ran away together. They were gone for a week and when they came back, they were married. Besides discussing matters that concerned their squads whenever the two of them had to work together, Ichigo and Byakuya didn't really speak to each other. The tension between them was tangible. Even being in the same room with the both of them was enough to make Jushiro uncomfortable.

The meeting room became even more uncomfortable when the next captain entered. Toshiro Hitsugaya quickly made his way to his spot and stood there with his arms crossed tightly across his chest. His face was pulled into an ever deeper scowl than Ichigo currently wore. The cold biting waves of reitsau that radiated from the young captain were a dead giveaway that he had just come back from the world of the living.

The young captain had had his share of despair and heartache in the years following the war. During an extended mission that he had in the world of the living, Toshiro had met and fallen in love with Karin Kurosaki, Ichigo's younger sister. Once his extended mission had ended, the young captain had continued to visit Karin whenever he went to the world of the living. Time passed and Karin continued to age while Toshiro physically remained the same age he had been when they first had met. Eventually, the age difference began effect their relationship.

Wishing to live a life with her rather than without her, Toshiro had decided to leave the Soul Society. Toshiro and Karin were supposed to meet up in the world of the living and run away together, but, the night that Toshiro was supposed to leave, he was stopped by the head captain and was incarcerated. After all, soul reaper captains were not allowed to just leave the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squads of their own accord. When Toshiro was finally released, he quickly went to the world of the living, but it was too late. Thinking that he no longer wanted her since he had not shown up the night they were supposed to run away together, Karin had moved on. When Toshiro had found her, she was walking hand in hand with another man and had the other hand pressed against a very large pregnant belly. Toshiro was heartbroken.

He returned to the soul society where he resumed his duties as captain of Squad Ten. But even now, it was a well known fact that anytime Toshiro traveled to the world of the living, he would make the two hour trip from Karakura Town into the country and sit on a hill overlooking a small cottage where an old woman would sit on the front porch softly singing to herself for hours. Even though she had moved on, he had never stopped loving her.

Jushiro cursed himself for being so early when he saw who entered the room next. Captain Soi Fon was practically fuming as she stomped into the room. Captain Zaraki trailed close behind her, a white bandage wrapped around his head and his right arm in a sling. Zaraki took his place besides Jushiro. Jushiro shot his fellow captain a sympathetic glance.

"Dude, whatever you do, do not get married," Zaraki muttered to Jushiro under his breath. A growl came from across the room and Jushiro and Zaraki looked over to see where it had come from. Soi Fon was shooting daggers out of her eyes at Zaraki.

The remaining captains arrived soon afterwards and took their position in line. Shunsui was the last to arrive, squeaking past the guard just seconds before he closed the meeting room door. The door at the back of the meeting hall creaked loudly as the head captain emerged from behind it. He was closely followed by his lieutenant who stood next to the him when he took his seat at a large desk at the head of the two lines of soul reaper captains. The old man glanced at the captains making sure that they were all there before banging the end of his wooden cane against the floor.

"I now call this meeting of the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squad Captains to order." Jushiro was beginning to feel nervous again. "Now, as you have all been made aware, those who were responsible for the robberies that have been taking place at night in the western woods have been caught. We are currently holding all fifteen night bandits including their leader in the Fifth and Twelve Division Detention Center. Although we are absolutely sure that they are all guilty of the crimes that they have been charged with, we are going to allow the leader of the group to speak on their behalf before any sentencing is done. Guard!" With that, the guard at the back of the room opened the door and in walked the girl with black eyes. She was sandwiched between two shinigami who held onto her roughly by the arms. They walked past Jushiro and stopped when they reached the center of the two lines of shinigami captains.

There was a loud crash at the front of the room and Jushiro looked up in time to see Head Captain Yamamoto, eyes wide in surprise as he stared at the girl that had just entered the room. He recovered quickly as his lieutenant retrieved his cane from where he had dropped it on the floor. Jushiro couldn't believe what he had just seen. In all the years that he had known the head captain, never had he seen him lose his composure and show any emotion besides anger. What had caused him to do so now?

"What is your name miss?" he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

"Miya. Miya Tanaka," replied the girl, voice hard. The head captain's hand began to visibly tremble as he gripped the rounded top of his cane. He quickly picked his cane up and laid it flat across the table in front of him. Jushiro looked around the room to see all of the captains exchanging questioning glances at one another. The Head Captain cleared his throat before speaking again.

"Miss, you have been accused of leading a group of thieves that have been stealing food and supplies from several of the noble families here in the Soul Society. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

"Yes, I am responsible for that which I am being accused," responded the girl.

"Do you have any remorse? Any regrets for your actions?"

"Of course not." That clearly was not the response the head captain had expected to hear. When he spoke again, his voice was laced with anger.

"Would you care to explain why not?"

"Why should I feel bad for taking something that should have been given to us in the first place?"

"What do you mean by that?" The head captain's eyes narrowed as he glared at the girl in front of him.

"What I stole was merely food. It's not as if any noble family I have ever seen has been starving. I merely took from those who had enough, I took what they could spare or easily replace. As I'm sure some of you know, food is pretty scarce in Rukongai. And, although most of the people in Rukongai don't have as much spiritual pressure as a shinigami living in the Seireitei, hunger is still hunger. Souls can starve as well." Jushiro was taken aback for a minute. He didn't know that the girl and the night theieves were turning right back around and giving what they had stolen to the people living in Rukongai.

"But it wasn't just food that you took now was it." The head captain picked up a piece of paper that had been sitting on his desk. He read over it before continuing. "The other things you stole—matches, cloth, candlesticks, what reason do you have for taking them?"

"It gets cold in the winter sir," was her simple response. The head captain placed the piece of paper back on his desk and then glared at the girl with half closed eyes.

"Unfortunately for you and your friends, theft is not a crime that we look upon lightly in the Soul Society. I believe that everyone here will agree with me that an period of imprisonment will be enough to remind you all what happens when you take something that is not yours."

"Imprisonment? For how long?" asked the girl.

"Ten or Twenty. Years. For you and each of your little thieving friends." The girl was clearly upset by what the head captain had just said attempted to move forward only to be restrained by the two shinigami that held her by the arms.

"You can't do that!" she exclaimed, desperation in her voice.

"I'm the Head Captain, I can do whatever I want." The head captain lifted his cane off of the table and was about to bang it against the floor signaling the end of the meeting. Jushiro was about to object but the girl beat him to it.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. The head captain stopped and looked at the girl, his cane an inch above the ground.

"Please," she said, her voice low and pleading, "Please, let them go. I'll stay."

"Of course you'll be staying here. You have a prison sentence to fulfill."

"That's not what I meant," replied the girl.

"Oh, what do you mean then?"

"I'll stay for the duration of everyone's sentence."

"Everyone's sentence? If we gave each one the minimum amount of prison time, that would mean you would be here at least 150 years."

"I know," the girl replied as she cast her eyes down to the ground.

"And what makes you think that we would be willing to allow you to remain and carry out everyone's sentence while letting the others go?"

"Because, I have something that you might want."

"What could you possibly have that the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squads would ever want?" asked Captain Hisagi.

"The power of my zanpakuto. It's rather unique. I think that you would find having a zanpakuto like mine on your side rather advantageous." The head captain paused and cocked his head to the side as if he were considering what she had just said.

"Head Captain, this is ridiculous." Jushiro turned to see Captain Kurotsuchi addressing the head captain. "She's probably bluffing. We did find the girl with a zanpakuto, that much is true. But considering how she is releasing no reitsau, her zanpakuto might just be for show and she might possess little to no reitsau at all. I ask that you allow me to experiment on her and determine if she is in fact interesting." So typical of Kurotsuchi, thought Jushiro. He's always looking for an excuse to experiment on people.

At that moment there was a fierce spike of reitsau in the room. It roared and boiled for a moment before subsiding. Although it hadn't been as strong as it had been in the woods, the reitsau that the girl let out momentarily before she hid it again was amazing. The other captains began exchange surprised looks.

"Are there anymore question about whether or not I might be of use here?" the girl asked, her hard tone back.

"Miss, possessing great spiritual pressure doesn't necessarily mean that your zanpakuto is particularly special," commented Captain Amagai.

"I can assure you that it most certainly is." All the captains turned to face Jushiro. "Head Captain, I have personally seen the girl use her zanpakuto and I can honestly say, it is unlike anything I have ever seen before in all my years as a shinigami." The head captain thought it over for a moment.

"Very well then," he said finally. "In order to settle this matter, we will allow the girl to demonstrate the abilities of her zanpakuto. We will allow a fight between this girl and one of our Gotei 13 Court Guard Squad captains." The head captain looked down at the girl. "If you win, we will honor your request and let your friends go while you stay here in the Seireitei and work for the Gotei 13 Court Guard Squads until you fulfill your sentence as well as that of each of your friends. If you lose—"

"I won't." If he hadn't known better, Jushiro could have sworn that he saw the ghost of a smile cross the old man's lips.

"Now, which one of you captains will be the one to challenge the girl and see if in fact she is as unique and powerful as she says she is?" Jushiro was about to step forward before Zaraki had a chance to. They were both stunned, however, when Byakuya beat them to it and stepped out first. He turned and walked up to the head captain's desk.

"With your permission Head Captain, I would like the opportunity to challenge the girl," said Byakuya in his cold emotionless voice. The calmness of his voice wasn't fooling Jushiro. Byakuya would never have volunteer for such a thing if he didn't have a personal investment in the matter. The head captain looked him over for a moment before answering.

"Very well then," replied the old man. "We will set up the fight for tomorrow. We can have it at the Division One training grounds."

"I would rather get it done with now," replied the girl.

"No, the field is currently being used and we sure can't have you two battle in here. I don't want the meeting room to be destroyed again."

"If anyone makes a mess it'll be him," replied the girl as she nodded her head towards Byakuya. The head captain thought it over for a moment before answering.

"Fine. Guard! Bring the girl's zanpakuto." The guard opened the front door and ran outside only to reappear a few moments later with the red handled zanpakuto that Jushiro recognized as belonging to the girl.

"This is foolish," said Captain Komamura. "How do we know that she won't just use her powers to escape right now?" The girl turned her head and glared at the furry captain.

"I don't know what kind of person you are," she said, her tone critical, "but I sure as hell am not the kind to runaway and leave my friends behind." The canine captain looked down at the floor.

"Please go to the back of the room Captain Kuchiki. Miss, you can remain at the front." Following the head captain's orders, the guards released the girl from their grip and handed her her zanpakuto. Byakuya made his way towards the back of the room but stopped when he was standing right next to the girl. Although he was speaking in a low voice, Jushiro could still hear what he was saying.

"Three of the caravans that you robbed from belonged to my family," he said in an icy voice as he glared at her from the corners of his eyes. The girl turned her head to look at him. "I hate it when people disrespect my family."

"Does that mean then that you hate me?" she challenged.

"It simply means that I will not be holding back." With that, he continued to walk towards the back of the room. The girl walked towards the front of the room and stopped just feet away from the head captain's desk. She turned to face Byakuya.

"What do I have to do in order to win?" she asked the head captain over her right shoulder.

"You must either disarm him or kill him," he responded. "Take your positions." Byakuya and the girl both removed their zanpakutos from their sheaths and held them out in front of them. Jushiro saw the girl glance in his direction and their eyes meeting for a fraction of a second before her eyes narrowed at Byakuya.

"This should be interesting," commented Zaraki under his breath to Jushiro. Jushiro merely nodded slightly and desperately fought the urge to tug on the sleeve of his captain's haori.

"You may begin on the count of three. One, two, three—" There was a sudden burst of wind and Jushiro quickly raised his arm up to shield his eyes. When he lowered his arm, he was shocked by the sight he saw before him. Byakuya hadn't been able to move an inch. He still stood at the back of the room, his body poised ready for battle. His eyes which normally showed no form of emotion were wide in shock. The girl stood right next to him. In her left hand she held Senbonzakura at the front of Byakuya's throat and in her right she held her own zanpakuto at the back of his neck. He couldn't move an inch without having one or the other zanpakuto cut into his flesh. There were gasps from several of the captains in the room and a low murmur of voiced began to penetrate the tense quite. The girl stood there with both zanpakutos held to Byakuya's throat for a few moments before letting them drop. She sheathed her zanpakuto before she flipped Byakuyas' in her hand and held it out for him to take. He slowly took it and placed it back in his sheath. Although he tried to hide his anger, low waves of furious reitsau still managed to radiate from him.

The girl slowly made her way up the aisle and stopped in front of the head captain's desk.

"I win."

"So you did," replied the head captain in a tone that suggested that he hadn't expected her to win any more than Byakuya had. "Captain Kurotsuchi, please see to it that all of the prisoners being held in the Fifth and Twelfth Division Detention Center are released and escorted out of the Seireitei." The captain nodded. "And Captain Kurosaki," Ichigo looked at the head captain. "Please make sure that all of the prisoners make it out safely." Ichigo smiled and nodded. Captain Kurotsuchi huffed and angrily crossed his arms across his chest.

"Captain Ukitake," Jushiro looked up at the head captain. "Would you have any objections to Miss Tanaka staying with your squad until we are able to find a permanent spot for her?"

"Of course not captain. I would be glad to have her in my squad." Jushiro saw Shunsui glance at him. He gave Jushiro a devious smile.

"It's settled then. Have Kiyone help her get settled into Squad Thirteen. Meeting adjourned." The head captain banged the end of his cane on the ground and then quickly got up and left.

"Kuchiki!" the girl called. Byakuya was about to exit the room but paused in the doorway and turned around. The rest of the captains, Jushiro included turned to look at them. The girl began to walk towards the back of the room. She stopped twenty feet away from Byakuya and reached into the front pocket of her black kimono. "Here, you might want this back." She tossed a silver object at him that he caught. When he looked at the object, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped. His hand quickly went to his hair. No one had even noticed until that moment that the girl had removed the silver kenseikan on the right side of his head at some point during the fight.

An eruption of laughter caused everyone's head to turn to the back of the room. Ichigo stood laughing hysterically and pointing at Byakuya.

"Oh, man!" exclaimed Ichigo between laughs, "Byakuya, I've never seen you look so confused!" Ichigo couldn't seem to stop laughing. Eventually he had to lean over and place his hands on his knees to steady himself. Byakuya was fuming and quickly turned on his heel and left the room.

"Kiyone!" Jushiro called to his third seat who had been waiting outside the meeting room for him. The girl quickly ran to his side.

"Yes captain?"

"Miss Tanaka will be staying with Squad Thirteen for the time being. Would you please see to it that she gets settled in?" Jushiro saw surprise flicker across his third seat's face for a moment. She quickly nodded her head. "Yes, captain, right away." Kiyone walked over and introduced herself to the girl. Jushiro watched as they both made their way out of the meeting hall and down the long outer hallway.

Hoped you liked this chapter! I'll have the next one up as soon as I finnish it. Please review and let me know what you think :)