Disclaimer: The ideas and concepts used in BLEACH belong to Tite Kubo, as well as any regular characters. Most of the characters in this story belong to me. Thank you.


The night left in its silent, dark march and gave way to the cloudy, misty morning that later broke into an orange-glowing rain across the land. The giving sun illuminated each drop of heavenly water as it made the effort to regrow the beaten ground that had been marred and scared by the Hollows and shinigami last night. Within the Unohana Manor, the vast and lordly estate of the mistress Rei, the guards all slept in heavy trances and dreamed of their victory and the terrors they fought. Rei, meanwhile, sacrificed her sleep temporarily to take her new guard to task over breakfast. She sat across a short, beautifully carved and constructed table from he, who leaned against his own weight with a friendly, sleep-deprived smile.

"Manzenryuu...?" Rei said, repeating an earlier part of their conversation. "Yes, I have heard of that. 'One who walks an aimless path'. I've already met such a practitioner."

"Have you now?" Carroll said enthusiastically. "I'd bet he was a wild man, to raise a sword to a skillful warrior like you."

"We never fought in contempt" Rei said as Carroll took a deep drink of his wide, deep sake cup. A drink so early was his way of combating the angst and tension he gathered right after the kill he made in battle. "Only once in good will. Shin Kenpachi is his name." Carroll spat and erupted his sake bowl all over his face, making it glisten with the pale wine coating his already pale skin.

"THE Shin Kenpachi!?" he exclaimed. Rei looked at him in passive surprise.

"You've heard of him?" she asked.

"That man's a bastard of a legend!" Carroll said with an eager grin on his face. He leaned down to the table and struck up an odd and suspicious cord with Rei. He had a strange mixture of excitement, like a boy fawning after the mention of his idol, and a villainous scowl for the mad contempt of hearing such a name. He looked happy to kill at that moment, but noticing Rei's discomfort he leaned back and sighed to straighten his face to a plain grin. "Among the wanderers like I, he's nothing short of an ultimatum. He's set a new standard for wandering and aimless campaigning. Why I heard he took down the entire Kyuuhiouto clan out of boredom! HAHAHAHA!!! If that isn't sheer aimlessness, a pure heart of the Manzenryuu warrior, I don't know what is!"

"He did say that" Rei said. Prompting Carroll to purse his lips in shock. He sipped more sake just to spit it out to the side in surprise, not wanting his emphasis to be wasted on mere facial expressions alone. Rei just stared at him and slowly ate her food with the womanly grace that so undeniably set the mood. The wind and calm, cooling rains seemed to sound peacefully as instruments to her graceful movements. Carroll, a pure warrior, could only observe her practice in careful eating as 'dainty' and ate fists full of food and mouths full of sake at a time.

"About my offer" he said upon completing his meal and feeling fully rejuvenated. Rei looked up at him, still a plate or so more of food to eat herself. "I am more than willing to take the nightly guard alone, if it would be no problem for you to have me here. I only ask for the bare minimum of supplies and lodging, nothing that I wouldn't be able to pay you back. And, as for Bucephalus, I would wish that you not study him without me being present. I said he was tame, but he really only trusts me to be around him."

Rei deliberated his sound and planned offer over the taste of her seasoned rice and garnished, freshly cooked fish. The rain settled down and gave way to the gentle breezes that rolled throughout the rolling forests and low, sloping hills, calming the world around the large estate and its gardens. She set down her chopsticks and folded her hands gently in her lap. With a calm smile she looked up and gave him a short, honorable bow. "I would be grateful if you would assist us."

"Great!" Carrol exclaimed. Rei rose her head to see that he had already hopped up and was now stridding out of the room. "If it's no trouble to you, I'd like to get some sleep to stay rested for the night. Could you send someone to escort me to my room, if I have one?"

"Most certainly" Rei said. She flagged down one of the waiting women who sat along the wall and had her escort the tall and muscular Cane to the room that Shin had left empty and mostly unused. The only thing that would need to be replaced was the bed, as Carroll seemed a bit too tall to use the same one the infamous Kenpachi did. Rei finished her meal and sipped of her soothing tea as her waiting women cleared the table away promptly after she stood from it and left for the hallway. Telly toed close to her side.

"My Lady" Telly began, "don't you think his behavior was a bit...rude?"

"It's fine" Rei said, continuing her walk. Telly stopped in the hall and just thought.

Even if he was a lot scarier than this guy Telly mused Shin and Hoji at least had the manners to thank us for the meal before running out and fighting in the garden. And Suichi always had impeccable manners. Just because this guy is a Manzenryuu doesn't mean he gets to abuse Lady Unohana's hospitality with his rudeness! I should confront him about this at once, so our fair lady isn't embarrassed any further! With her mind so sternly made up Telly made a dash to follow after Cane, who was already being settled into his room with an extra-wide mattress and blanket at his disposal.

"Excuse me" Telly said, interrupting the girls who were working to get his bed neatly in place. Carroll turned around and let himself get confronted. Telly looked up at him. He wasn't too menacing in this morning light, but the sharp and handsome features of his face surely shone through with a good bit more strength. Telly blushed and became speechless for a moment, then shook off the feeling and reinitiated her challenge. "I would appreciate it if you would show a some restrain when eating with Lady Unohana, and you should be more polite to her now that she's agreed to take you in."

"Ah, is that so?" Carroll asked with a light, breathy voice. He moved forward and leaned down with the bending of his knees to confront Telly, face to handsome, rugged, manly face. "I'm sorry about that, young miss. I'll make sure that I correct my behavior by tomorrow morning." Telly just stuttered until he left her space, then sighed and giggled.

"Th-thank you!" she said with a wave. "Um...good bye. Don't hesitate to call me if you need anything either!" Carroll waved to her over his shoulder and then turned back around to the center of his own room. Telly skipped away with her hands on her cheeks to block her blushing. Ooohhh! He...he's amazing! I can't believe he was so kind to me!As Carroll slept the manor went about its regular, daily business. Food was prepared for the tenants and orphans, the guards kept calm about their new, less dangerous routine and the caretakers of the garden celebrated the succession of days where their work was all in lack due to the absence of Shin and Hoji to tear up their precious yard. Now Rei was the only proper shinigami sitting in the heavenly Eden while the gardeners all worked with the delicate precision to cut leaves from branches and level the hedges and bushes of the more robustly grown garden. The grass was all perfectly leveled off in the ascending pattern that they artistically preferred and the garden was back within its delicate equilibrium between plain, flat grass and the most artistically intrinsic and beauteous topiary that could be carved from their swords.


"Lady Unohana" a gardener said, interrupting Rei from her flower viewing on the stone bench under the shade of her willow tree. She looked up from the small pond of budding lotus flowers floating on lily pads with a grin at the bowing man. "We have completed our jobs and will report back inside to take our breaks."

"Very well" she said to dismiss him. The rest of the gardeners went back inside with skips in their steps. It seemed, that while some suffered, many were glad to be rid of Shin's presence here. Rei stayed on the bordering balance of either side. The Hollows were attracted to the absence of his Death pressure but the guards were upset that he had left without them knowing it would happen. The staff was less fearful to move about now that he wasn't stalking the halls, but to his defense he never intended to scare or startle anyone when he went about his business. He never even cared about the seemingly terrified impressions he left in people that passed by him during the days he was there.

Rei observed one lotus blossom spreading out suddenly in the noon sunlight, radiating a pure white with petals fading into an earthly brown at the tips. Rei closed her eyes and took in the feeling of beauty the flower gave her, then took a deep breath to smell the air around her. It resonated and saturated her senses with life, the blooming life of her garden that attracted so many people in the past. She began to drift off to the century previous when she was but the daughter of a profound woman, existing in her shadow, and the body she found grown over with vines and flowers in the garden, a still breathing woman equipped with some destructive weapons on her arms.

"My lady" Natsumo said, snapping Rei back to reality. She saw Natsumo's bunned black hair as she took a knee to greet her esteemed benefactor and then rose up to her feet. Natsumo stood up as well, keeping from eye contact out of respect but keeping her nervous expression apparent. "I have heard the news. You employed that man with the spear to take up the night guard alone. Are you certain that it is a wise choice to leave the defense of the entire manor up to a single man?" Rei let a calm wind blow between them, then answered her.

"He is a strong man" she said. "I believe that he will prove himself in battle." Natsumo, while staying respectful, answered back with a scowl of defiance.

"Forgive me for disagreeing" she began "but strength alone won't protect the manor, especially not from a single man who can be easily overwhelmed or taken down in a major battle! We simply can't risk the night to a single man while there are so many defenseless and injured already inside!"

"I have already agreed" Rei said simply. She saw Natsumo getting infuriated and shaking her knotted fist at her side. However, it was rage that couldn't be subsided by gentle words or calm speeches alone. "It is not a decision for you to be involved in. Whatever the case, I have already finalized the plan. You will be taken off the night guard like everyone else." Natsumo looked up to try and respond at the gentle, stern words of her lady but saw her eyes had been closed and her head cast to the side. She understood that the decision was not one she had taken lightly. Natsumo felt ashamed and cast her head down.

"I am sorry, my lady" she apologized. "I rose my voice to you in anger."

"It's alright, Natsumo" Rei said. "We must simply have faith." While Natsumo stayed in her bow, furrowing her brow, Rei moved past her against the cool spring wind.

Faith... Natsumo thought. I abandoned faith a long time ago, my lady... Rei left Natsumo to sulk in the garden and be whisked away by its natural beauty. When she opened her eyes and discovered that she was alone she immediately turned her glare to the pond where a lotus blossom was shutting itself as if carelessly floated by on the softly rippling water. The sight of so many shut flowers did nothing to warm or lift her heart. The sorrow of seeing such lonely things trapped yet freely wandering along the waves only reminded her of the life that she had left her faith in.

Now, in this new life of hers, she found no faith in other warriors. Only empty promises and false hopes. On top of all that, however, there was the suspicion that she felt, the unbridled hostility that she seemed to harbor for that man, Carroll Cane. His very presence made her uneasy, and even knowing that he slept somewhere in the same place that she did made it hard to concentrate. Rei had already left and the day was still dragging on, so she decided to take her concerns to someone who would undoubtedly listen.


"Don't tell me" Natsumo began with a flat face and a twitching brow "you've already fallen for him, Telly?" Telly looked up with her mouth full of trailing noodles wet with broth and blinked. She slurped them up quickly and gulped them down before she started laughing and waving her hand.

"Ahahaha!" she laughed. "Don't be silly, Natsumo-dear! You're just being paranoid! You always get hot over strangers. You're like a watch dog!" Telly went back to slurping while Natsumo turned around and muttered, under her breath,

"Better than being a plain bitch like you."

"WHAT!?" Telly roared, slamming her bowl to the table she sat at. "You wanna repeat that, flatsie!?" Flatsie. A clever insulting name to prod at Natsumo's insecurity over her small breasts. She was flush faced now and her nostrils flared open with anger. She snapped around and confronted the seething Telly with forehead against forehead.

"Take out your sword" Natsumo growled, stepping up onto the table. Telly rolled up her left sleeve and stomped up onto the table as well. "I'll obliterate you!"

"Huhuhu..." a girl giggled away from the confronting couple. "Glad to see the Hoodlum Spirit is still lingering around!" Natsumo and Telly grinded their heads together as they simultaneously turned to face the girl's giggling notion.

"Hoodlum spirit?" Natsumo asked.

"Those guys, Shin and Hoji" another girl began "are always fighting across the table."

"Most of the time it devolves into a fight" another girl added "and they go straight outside with their swords."

"They're never angry afterwords, though" another girl remarked in a curious voice. "I guess guys can just fight all their problems out..."

"What's wrong with that...?" Natsumo asked. Telly turned her head, and Natsumo's by relation, back to eye her down.

"They're saying we look like Shin and Hoji" she said with upturned lips.

"So?" Natsumo asked. Telly retreated and sat back down, leaving Natsumo half-standing on the table alone until she shot back down to her seat as well.

"Psh" Telly scoffed. "I don't wanna be compared to those guys! They're evil and weird. And scary." Natsumo was chuckling to herself, covering her laughter with her hand. Telly turned to her and cocked an eyebrow at her suspicious laughter.

"You're definitely becoming Hoji" Natsumo said between the thin parting of her fingers. Telly fumed up and huffed out a hot sigh of defiance.

"Psh" she scoffed again. "No I'm-" That second scoff was caught and forced Natsumo's laughter to escalated into a full guffaw that forced her to buckle forward and clutch her stomach. Telly just huffed and glared away, venting her rage in a glower at the corner of the ceiling. Natsumo finished laughing, slicked her hair back and neatened her round bun with light, even pats. Perfectly serious, she re-confronted Telly.

"Tell me" she began in a completely neutral voice, "do you really trust Carroll Cane with your life?"

"Not again!" Telly exclaimed, defending her maiden's honor with waving arms and puffs of steam. "I told you I haven't fallen for him! It's in your head! It's all in your head, you unlovable-"

"Telly!" Natsumo sternly shouted. Telly sank back, realizing she was being completely serious now, and saw the distrust and anxiety in her face from simply addressing the subject. "I have a terrible feeling from him. Whenever I first saw him I felt nothing but dread. It's a distrustful aching that rings far more powerfully than what sensations I get from sensing Shin Kenpachi. Shin is a frightening man that I can trust. This Cane...is not." Telly absorbed her serious demeanor and nodded.

She, too, felt what she felt. She had only just realized it now, but something about this Cane seemed to be amiss...


The night fell like a weight from the sky. Instead of clouds there were bright and sparkling stars to bridge the heavens. The moon was only partially full but shone down nonetheless with a world-illuminating glow. The pale reflection of dated silver painted the land in a demure shade of shadowy brightness. It was the eve of yet another Hollow attack, Rei knew. The pressure fields were scattered and greatly varied in size. The attack was much larger compared to the ones the manor had thus far faced. Although her trust in the defense was faithfully placed on the broad shoulders of Carroll Cane, who waited on his Hollow horseback at the open gate, a sense of curiosity forced her to watch from the window of a central watch tower.

Carroll was confident so much that he kept his sword still sheathed in its sleek leather strap across his back. His Hollow mate, Bucephalus, stomped the ground and kicked up the shattered rocks in bits of gravel. It snorted out smoke with ember glows coming from the nose-holes of its mask. Carroll grinned his wide grin across his sharp, pale face and gazed out into the forest before the gates.

"There's a lot of them" he said to his horse. "Bucephalus, you'll feast greatly tonight!" The Hollow bucked up and gave an air-shaking whinny, deep and hollow and ghastly that echoed out into the clear sky and over the mountains. It stomped back down and snorted out a billow more of smoke that drifted off to the side. Carroll was ecstatic and began slowly reaching up to his blade. The Hollows galloped faster through the woods, running on all fours some and others gliding across the ground in long, quick hops. Carroll palmed his blade and wrapped each finger, one by one, around the thick handle. Rei watched his motions with the utmost care and analysis. She wanted to see his method, witness first hand his skill from a pure disadvantage, so that she may determine his true worth as a warrior.

The first enemies came charging, running on all fours with their animistic maws of sharp teeth and wide foreheads growling and guiding their sleek, sinewy bodies. Cane kicked at his mount and charged forward. He drew his sword out as his steed gained speed and started spinning it, twirling it between his fingers.

"Mutilate!" he called, "NEGROARPOAR!!!" With an explosion of dark energy his sword was transformed and continued to spin. A black blur of motion in his hand the thick handle had extended and broadened even further into a long, black shaft. The tip of the spear itself was barbed with random, gruesome spikes sticking out. His deadly weapon stopped over his head as he brought both hands to the end of its shaft.

The battle started with three dead Hollows and one with a crushed mask. With a single powerful swing of his weapon he smashed through the heads of three Hollows and slammed one far off to the side where it hit off a tree and dissolved before reaching the ground. Carroll chuckled maniacally while spinning his spear around at his side. Bucephalus kept charging autonomously forward toward the rest of the rushing Hollows. Carroll stopped spinning just as his mount veered to the side and stabbed his spear into the face of a Hollow. With a hole in its face the Hollow was defeated but Carroll still used it by picking its body up and throwing it forward. Bucephalus leaped onto the head of a Hollow, bursting the fragile mask and killing the small Hollow, while Carroll spun his spear over his head and switched hands with a quick downward swipe that smashed in yet another Hollow's head.

"Come on!" Carroll called. "Try if you dare! I'll obliterate you!!!" A roaring Hollow, taller than both Carroll and Bucephalus he rode on, came charging in with trunk-thick hooves and stretched out, muscular arms. Carroll stood up on his horse's back and grasped his spear with both hands. He began spinning the shaft around with quick whips of his wrists. The jagged spikes at its tip became gray blurs in the motion. His grin was the only solid object remaining on his constantly moving body. His eyes stunned the Hollow with evil and he stabbed a giant hole through its dark-green body. Bucephalus jumped through the hole as it began bleeding profusely on them both. Carroll stabbed up through the Hollow's head, his spear still spinning, and blew its mask into shrapnel.

"RYAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!" he roared. This whole bloody spectacle, and the gory display that followed was all watched by a horrified Rei. Her breath had been forced out of her within the moment of his release. The cloud of energy that formed that despicable weapon was so black that her pupils flashed when she saw it the first time.

This energy she thought. I've never seen anything so dark. It's an aura of Darkness!The battle continued with Carroll making the Hollows look like timid, defenseless slaughter fodder. He ripped and tore and mutilated his way through the rank after rank of charging monsters, all the while displaying a menacing grin on his face...


And while Carroll Cane slaughtered the Hollows at the Unohana manor, Shin and his crew had taken to a cave for the night behind a waterfall to rest and count their new marks of battle. Compared to the situation at their 'home base', things were very calm for them.

"Gaaaghaghhghghaahghghugherglgl..."

"What the hell was that?" Hoji asked as he brought himself up from the ground. Jin was soaking his head in the cascading water while trying to talk, and the result was a loud, wet gurgling.

"GLLGLGLGLGLGLGG!!!" he shouted, waving his strong arms.

"He's drowning" Shin noted passively. He and Hoji both hopped up and pulled Jin away just in time for his to gasp and cough out some water. His red bangs were plastered onto his face and after catching his breath he stared at the water that continued to fall.

"That felt good" Jin said. Shin and Hoji let go of his arms and let him sit on the wet ground for a moment longer. "I...saw a fish!" He said with a childish tone and grin. He then laughed and crawled back under the waterfall while Shin and Hoji fought to pull him away in vain. Suichi held his sheathed sword at his chest and curled up in the corner.

"Why?" he lamented. "Why did we go the scenic route?"

"It's fun!" Shin defended with a strain of combat to pull Jin away.

"More combat opportunities!" Hoji added. Jin's head was recovered just long enough for him to add to the conversation.

"A fish hit my head!" he called. He then started laughing and lurching back forward, screaming through the water in a gurgling voice to call for more fish while Shin tried to use his sword to cut the water away from Jin's head. Hoji was kicking Jin in the chest, though in vain, to tempt him away. Suichi just curled up tighter to his sword.

"...why...?" Such questions, unfortunately, could not be answered.