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.


In the smoking crater blasted in the side of the mountain Garuda and his Hollows stirred and sank out into the open. Their slow defeated march, weighed down by the heavy hunger that endlessly wracked them, was the consequence of their defeat. Only Vicente seemed to be in higher spirits for surviving an impossible scenario. He held his arms together at his chest and walked upright for once while Moon sulked over its heavy arms and Garuda dragged its wings along the ground as he walked.

"I can't believe this!" Moon hissed. "This is humiliating!"

"Chupra Loco is dead" Vicente said. "His pressure is obliterated."

"....as expected" Garuda said. The tone of his voice had fallen back to the ground, losing its booming resonance without losing its darkness and depth. "He was never a Hollow whose mind aided him in battle. His purpose was to store the souls we gathered until we could return...it is a shame that we could not gather a single one."

"It's more than a shame!" Moon roared in a breathy, toneless voice. "This is miserable! I can't believe this! RAAAAGH!!!!" Moon smashed the ground and ruptured huge chunks of land to spike up around its thick, wide forearms. Moon hissed angry breaths into the dust, stirring up short bursts of dirty wind at each furious heave. Vicente brought his hands to his hips and held his sides, seeming inordinately arrogant in his stance. Garuda let his feathers flutter into residual spirit pressure and folded the spiked bones up to his side once more.

"We have failed" Garuda said "to save this region. However, there are more places in this world for us to go." Moon looked up, staying on the ground. Vicente's gaze was already fixed on the sinking moon in the blue horizon. "We still have a purpose. As the leading Hollows of our nest, it is or obligation and our quest to find a place in this world for us to migrate to. We shall deal with these shinigami in due time, but until we can grow more powerful, our quest in this land is at an end. We must return at once and inform the nest of our failure in the hopes that we will remain in the highest regards of their admiration and respect."

"That's a bit too much to hope for, I think" Vicente said. "Call me a pessimist but we're looking at exile, if not abandonment. They were trusting us to gather a bunch of rich souls from this place specifically. Where 'the laughing clouds of death hang in the sky at all hours of the sunniest days'. I can't think of any other place like that but that manor in this world...."

"Then we will find another place" Garuda said "just as rich and dense in spiritual energy."

"Or" Moon said, standing up finally, "we could move to the Blood Plains and settle with the monstrous Hollows there."

"I won't allow us to reduce ourselves" Garuda demanded "that far into disgrace. No Hollow lives there for long. A stronger, larger, or more evolved one always comes along and devours the hordes of weaklings that get in their way. Who's to say that we are not such weaklings? There are more powerful Hollows than I and Adjuchas all around in Hueco Mundo, searching for their next important meal. Nowhere is truly safe, but at least our nest has allies..." Garuda turned away from all the debris of the hill and the trees and aimed his fanged mouth up into the air. As he opened it an air-shaking roar blasted over the rolling valley and across the hills and through all the woods, traveling through the darkness as an immaterial deluge of sound.

It permeated through the dimensions, and through Garuda's hollow roar a Garganta was opened. Moon stood up, anger still shaking its body and fists, and it moved over to stand on Garuda's long, slender leg. Garuda expanded his wings to their fullest and materialized his bone-white feathers, prepared for flight into the opened jaws in the sky to take him and his comrades back home. Vicente stood, his hands in his pockets and his posture slouched once more, and looked to the ground around him. Moon's gaze was fixed on the unpredictable future in store beyond that moaning maw into the darkness.

"Vicente" Garuda called, "will you not come with me?" Vicente stayed motionless. The deep dark holes in his head, slanted sadly over his human, skeletal grin. He shifted around slightly, indecisively, and finally turned his head with a tilt to the tall Hollow.

"I think I'll stay here for a while" Vicente said "and just walk around....." He and Garuda exchanged a lengthy stare. Vicente's eyes shined with a determined resolve and spun within his head in the motions of whirring, gear-powered thought. He was deep within his own mind, watching things transpire before they began, and he saw Garuda's feathers fill the air in his huff of retreat moments before it had actually happened. And so, Garuda and Margarita Moon returned to Hueco Mundo alive yet failed, two Hollows without any extraordinary tale to tell whatsoever but that their friend stayed to sigh and walk along the human's paths.

Vicente did indeed sigh, watching the Garganta slam shut and seal the only portal he had to return. Stricken with a sharp and swiftly alleviated sense of regret, Vicente turned himself to walk along the beaten dirt path away from the Unohana manor that laid across the foothill flats and within the dense forests. He lurched forward and walked with a pace he had never before tested, surprised at first that his bone-white feet could carry him so quickly.

"Haaaaa" he sighed. "This world has its share of interesting qualities, that's for sure. I can predict myself having a very...insightful stay here....." And thus, Vicente the Hollow began his walk.


Three days passed. The manor underwent its repairs and the dead were properly paid their tribute as their spiritual essence traveled through time and space and all indescribable dimension to live again somewhere else, as someone else in the World of the Living. The injured were given care and healed to the best of the abilities of the expert medics and kido specialists the Unohana manor kept, including Rei herself. And while many recovered and rested from their arduous days and nights of fighting and wear and tear, Shin and Hoji stayed just as energetic as ever, sparring every day at least three separate times. They would eat, spar, rest, eat, spar, rest until they were ready to retire. Suichi joined rarely just to stay within their loop of understanding each other, but ultimately stayed to himself to practice his kido in the special training facilities within the manor.

Jin, meanwhile, ignored the fighting and stayed in the garden for most of his time. Rei hadn't taken the time to approach him properly just yet, but after four days it had been long enough. She found him watching the lotus blossoms floating in the pond and walked the stone-cobbled path to meet him. She stepped slowly, smiling and savoring the joy of meeting him again after so long. With a long press of her eyelids she stopped and sat on the bench next to Jin.

"How are you doing, Ishin?" Rei asked.

"....." Jin did not reply. He just stared at the rippling water filled with floating lily pads holding the unbloomed blossoms.

"I'm sorry" Rei said. "It's been too long, hasn't it? What name do you go by now, might I ask?"

".....Jin" he replied. "I am Jin. Death said so." Rei smiled. She glanced across the garden to Shin and Hoji, who were sparring with a sash tying them together by their right ankles, bare fists wielded against each other.

"Come on!" Hoji growled. He rushed in and Shin retreated, reading his movement and calibrating his motion to match each swing and step with a fleeing counter. Hoji swung punches, straight and swift, until Shin stepped through them, right under the jabbing arms, and into Hoji's guard. Shin delivered a powerful straight right to Hoji's gut and followed with a rising, full-bodied uppercut to Hoji's chin. Hoji managed to deflect the uppercut and intercept it with his arm, saving face and retreating by leaning away. Shin was on the offensive now and swung quick jabs at Hoji's face. Then he threw for his throat which fell to short. Finally he connected with a punch to his chest.

"It's all about strategy" Shin said "and movement. You're moving too lateral." Shin suddenly changed his footing. His left foot went forward and to the side. Shin's right foot rose up from the ground and follwed until the sash binding him to his partner was tight. Then he stomped down and found himself at Hoji's totally exposed side. He ducked down with his back leaned far forward just as Hoji ducked with his knees to block. Shin's fake worked. He gripped Hoji in a clench, holding him with his arms around his block and his head, then slid his right foot to hit Hoji's. His leg was swept out from under him, his balance was lost, and his weight was thrown all over Shin's shoulder as he threw himself backwards, carrying Hoji's face into the ground under his arm.

Shin detached his grip, rolled forward and snatched away the sash as he returned with a calming breath to his feet, the sash over his shoulder. "There" he said to Hoji, whose face was half-buried in dirt. "You're defeated. Now you need to meditate on just what the hell happened." Hoji pressed his hands to the ground and pried himself out of the hole, falling down to his stomach with his arms crossed in front of his dirty mouth.

"Tch" he scoffed. "I already know what I did wrong. I don't need to meditate for it!" Shin gave him a light kick with the side of his foot as he passed. Hoji watched him leave for the mansion again, grabbing his upper robes from the ledge of the porch where he had placed them.

"You never know" Shin called "when you'll need to kill someone with your bare hands. You need to learn these things, Hoji."

"Go preach to the trees, you damn lecturer" Hoji shouted as Shin left. He could see and hear the arrogant scoff and smirk on Shin's face as he walked away, pulling at the open crease of his robe to straighten in out. Hoji scoffed once more and pushed himself up onto his hands. He spun his legs around and sat with grunt in a meditative pose, pushing his knuckles together and closing his eyes. He began to think, envision the fight he just had, and evaluated twelve different counters to protect himself from Shin's side-step advance and overpowering over-shoulder throw. Hoji grinned as he thought and continued to think, planning out scenario after scenario for the next sparring match he would be in.

Rei and Jin watched their whole scene, Rei with her complacent and maidenly smile and Jin with sparkling eyes of admiration.

"Death is so strong" Jin said. "He's an amazing fighter, and his sword is so powerful too. I'm so lucky to have met him, don't you agree Miss Rei?" Rei was startled out of her smile and looked down at Jin with surprised eyes. She had thought, honestly, that he had forgotten about her. He looked over his defined shoulder to her with his childish eyes and wide, flat smile. Her eyes began to shake with proud, relieved tears and she blinked them away, smiling again.

"I do" she said. "Shin Kenpachi is indeed a strong, interesting man. If I hadn't met him, well...." She paused and sat perfectly still, her refined grin and solemn eyes shining out her thoughts. She placed her finger to her chin and started thinking, staring up at the sky for a moment. "Well, for all the trouble he's brought me, he's also done his fair share of help around here. I guess I can't be entirely displeased with him."

"You don't like Death?" Jin asked. "Why not?"

"He is too conflictual" Rei said, turning back down to Jin. He just blinked blankly and she laughed at his clueless face. Jin turned fully around and stood up, shading Rei with his enormous size. She looked at first in horror, then in shock, then drifted into a reserved sadness that she hid with a quick brush away of the tears with her thumb.

"What do you mean by that?" Jin asked. He crouched down at his knees and looked directly at Rei's face, hoping for a hint of emotion to speak to him. He had only known maniacal desire, anger, wrathful vindication and sheer malice to radiate from a person's face. He had never directly experienced sadness on the faces of those who had taken him away so long ago.

"Oh...." Rei sighed, covering her mouth and turning her tearing face away from Jin. She stood up and turned her back to him, leaving him puzzled and curious. Ishin....you poor boy....


Today was not a day of fighting for Suichi. But it was still a great day to train. He placed himself in a room in the mansion and sat, his blade tightly gripped in its release position on his lap, and a frightening chill all around him. His matted hairs struggled under the layers of unwashed, oily hair to stand on end in the cold, his skin was pale with chill and it seemed that his eyebrows had frosted over, but he didn't shiver and his breath was just as calm as it was plainly visible. Each breath long and measured, held in for minutes at a time before release. He was so utterly determined to act upon his want to become strong that he left his body to this wasting cold, all of which he had produced with kido in a kido-sanctioned section of the training barracks.

I'm doing quite well for myself Suichi thought. My internal organs are working well enough to compensate for my body's lack of movement. I feel warm inside and know that I'm cold outside. In truth the cold seems to have chilled my skin so much that it feels tighter all over my body. My Fuyugomori-Chinshi is coming along grandly. Now for the final step. Cooling my mind, silencing my thoughts, and entering total suspended animation. Here goes.... Suichi gave out one final conscious breath. Hours passed afterward. He didn't move and drew scant breaths. His mind had shut itself off and offered not movement or synapses of thought at all. Suichi was frozen in time, suspended animation was achieved.

That was all shattered when a mysterious force descended from the ceiling on a thin wire. A man wrapped from head to toe in bandages, wearing tight-fitting garments bound to his legs and wrists by black wraps, came down from the ceiling, upside down and hanging on a wire so thin it was barely visible. In one hand he gripped the wire and slowly lowered himself down with slow, careful gliding releases of pressure. In his other, at the end of the length of string, was a blade with no edge, a weapon resembling a sewing needle.

His descent was silent and perfect. He stopped just as his head was a mere inch away from Suichi's hair and took his needle in a firm grip, holding his little and ring finger in the eye while gripping it hard with his remaining two fingers and thumb. It traveled silently and swiftly through the frozen air, past the hanging man's head and to Suichi's neck. He drew the needle away, ready to pierce through Suichi's cold skin with a single, deadly stab.

"Boo!" Suichi shouted. His eyes shot open and the frost from his brow was shaken off with the sudden excited twitch that he gave. He shot to his feet, headbutting his would-be assassin dead on the top center of his head, jarring him from his calm state of presence while Suichi fell forward and rolled away, landing back onto his feet and hands in a low, crawling guard with his sword held tightly to his face in his right hand. The man fell down from his string, caught the ground and somersaulted backwards. He grabbed the wire and jerked it down. It fell in a pile from the ceiling and ended finally in a small metal ball that he held tightly in his other hand.

"I see you can stay alert" the man said in a calming and charming voice "even in such a deep state of meditation. I was growing concerned that you might not be getting enough practice."

"An assassin of my caliber" Suichi began "technically needs no practice." He spun his blade with the flick of his wrist, slicing a visible figure eight in the icy dust of the air. He flash-stepped from view and reappeared, his blade hand switched, and made a reverse-grip slice for the man's bandage-guarded neck. The man dodged away by jumping, leaving his wire loose on the floor under Suichi. He held his weapon, Needle in one hand and Spool in the other, spreading his arms for the full length of their span.

"Stitch!" the mysterious man called, "Nuiito Tou!" His sword, already released, took the command to return itself to its proper starting stage. The wire coiled suddenly into a razor-thin opening in the ball he held and the string almost instantly caught Suichi's leg. The man let go of his needle-blade and it whipped along with the string, circling Suichi's foot, making a cutting whiz as it spun around his thin ankle. The thread tore and cut at Suichi's flesh all the way until the length of it had been returned. He was bleeding, very slowly for his blood was barely warm inside him. Suichi glowered at his foe and fell to his knee, taking his injury seriously and ending the fight.

"Ah" the man sighed. "I guess I went to far, did I?" He took his needle sword by the eye, the thread spooled all into the ball which had attached itself to the round, blunt end of the needle, and he flicked it with short cutting motions with his wrist. "I do apologize, Suichi. It wasn't my intent to kill or hurt you. I'll stitch that up for you posthaste if you like."

"Please" Suichi said, rolling his pantleg up to show the deep, bleeding gash the wire made.

"Kido Cancel" the man said, holding an open palm. He made brushing strokes through the air with it, parting the icy crystals that hung about as a dirty mist, until he had made the appropriate magical kido mark sealed inside a circle. Two long dashes crossed over each other as an X which extended from the circle bordered in each corner by small sealing kanji drawn with speedy fingers. They read, in a circle read counter-clockwise from the top: 'ki' 'do' 'ke' and '' "Useru, Oni Reiki!!" With but the wave of his hand the chill was gone, the air was clear, the temperature was regular and Suichi's body was cast over with a sudden swell of warmth.

The man made a swoop down with his needle held in hand, ready to draw away from the ball holding its spool of wire. He pierced through Suichi's torn ankle many times, threading his way around his held-up leg and sealing the cut from bleeding anymore. He pulled the thread through and through until the skin around the suture could be no tighter and clenched the spool in his fist to return the thread. A sealing power brought Suichi's skin back together but left the pain for him to deal with. The spiritual thread stayed in his leg and sewed it perfectly shut, then returned to the spool leaving Suichi's leg unscathed.


"Thank you" Suichi said, bringing his foot down to the floor. The man walked forward, disengaged his shikai and sheathed his blade back in its scabbard before sitting.

"You've at least mastered control of your kido" the man congratulated. "Even unconscious I could tell the room was being carefully maintained with the precise control of a kido master."

"I'm far from a kido master in general" Suichi said, sheathing his own sword. "I'm a master of my element, but ice isn't the end-all element. I'd say Death or life, if it exists, would be the ultimate powers shinigami can wield."

"I'd agree" the man said. "So, with my power to heal through my sword, would you say I have an ultimate gift?"

"Your aura is too thin for me to tell" Suichi said. "Then again, I'm not the same genius that Lady Unohana seems to be at seeing people's auras."

"Hmm" he hummed in agreement. "It seems not..." They sat for an extended silence, two men so frightful in skill that the awkward silence brought upon them only made them wary of the other's next move. Suichi moved first. He got up, bowed politely and left the training room. As soon as he exited he felt an immense rush of power kick up in him. The kido-sealing room, made with wood magically reinforced to intensify the pressure given off by kido and make it nigh-impossible for the untrained to execute spells from inside, had dulled his perception to the unsealed outside. Suichi looked at his hand and lazily formed a ball of solid frost from his own kido-enhanced aura. He canceled his pressure and it disappeared in the warm, real air.

"Where are you off to now, may I ask?" the polite bandage-clad assassin asked. Suichi turned to him and yawned.

"I think I need more hibernation, to be honest" Suichi said with a chuckle. "It's a bit early, but I'm going to take a rest in my quarters. I hope I'm trusted enough to treat myself to some rice later if I wake up after supper."

"Don't be foolish" the man said, grabbing Suichi's hand. "I'll save you plenty of food from dinner in case you get hungry and bring it to your room." Suichi's face had drooped in a look of strange disgust. He hadn't planned on letting his hand be held by this man at this or any other point, and the joviality he sensed behind those bandages only drove the discomforting point further into his mind. Suddenly the man's hand left Suichi's and went into his robes where he pulled out a small device resembling a nut shell split in half.

"I am here" he said, holding it up to his ear and turned away from Suichi. He paused to listen to the other end. "I have him here, as a matter of fact." Suichi stood at attention before him. He offered him the shell and Suichi held it to his ear.

"Suichi" Rei Unohana began, "I'd like to have a word with you and Shin as soon as possible....it regards Jin."

"Of course, Lady Unohana" Suichi agreed. "Has Shin been made aware of this yet?"

"No. I'm afraid I haven't been able to ask him yet" she said with a tone of regret. "If you could, would you bring this to his attention?"

"I will" Suichi said. "Where shall we meet?"

"In my quarters" she said. "Come as soon as you are able with Shin. Thank you very much." The walnut was silent. Suichi held it away and looked it over. He saw no earthly pattern in the swirls and caving hollowness of the tiny object. It was man-made, he could tell, and at the very least it carried its own feint kido-based aura to work. Suichi only pondered over it for a moment before handing it back to the man.

"Thank you" he said, stowing it again. "I trust all is well between you and the gracious Lady?"

"It should be" Suichi said. "Excuse me. I have to find Shin."

"I will assist you" the man said "and steer him in the direction of Lady Unohana's quarters."

"Yes, thank you" Suichi said. He turned and flash-stepped through the hall. The man sighed and flash-stepped away completely. Rei Unohana waited in her room, hands folded over her lap and tears on her solemn face...


Fuyugomori-Chinshi: Hibernation Meditation.
Nuiito Tou: Sewing/Suture Sword
Useru, Oni Reiki: Vanish, Demon Aura