Hello, I just wanted to say how sorry I am for not posting sooner. A dear family member is very ill and between making arrangements for her and school, I haven't felt like writing, but I'm still around I promise. I will probably be posting once every two weeks but Like I said before, I can't promise anything. Thank you or sticking with me.

Names you may not recognize:

Name: Shishou

Meaning: Master

Name: Monai-Ningyo

Meaning: Lifeless Doll

Name: Zankoku

Meaning: Wild Man (loosely translated)

Name: Haji and Yuwaka Fukusei

Meaning: Shame and Seduction respectively/ Last name: Duplicate

Name: Hatsuteki

Meaning: Explosion (loosely translated)

Name: Sakujo

Meaning: Delete

Name: Hitsume

Meaning: None.

Long list. My apologies.

Children:

Ichigo remembered his godsister as an aggressive but friendly little girl. She didn't really get along with other children. However, if they knew Ichigo her entire countenance would change and she'd suddenly treat them like friends. She didn't seem to have much care for manners and decorum. At first, he wasn't sure whether or not it was because she was a kid or she just didn't care and seeing her after eight years, he'd decided on the latter. She'd got louder and stranger. He clearly remembered her seeing spirits but fighting Hollows? Never. Her knowing Ishida was easier to believe than her striking down Hollows.

Due to the initial rush of adrenaline, Ichigo and Renji hadn't really thought ahead and were forced to leave their respective bodies at Ishida's place. One can imagine that Uryuu wasn't too happy about that. Takeru wasn't shocked by any of this. In fact, she didn't even seem to care.

She urged the bickering group of boys out of the apartment. Renji listened immediately. Looking a at the sky, she assessed the situation whilst Ichigo and Renji felt no problem just diving in. As if on cue, Takeru grabbed them both with one hand was to Uryuu's surprise was able to hold them in place. "Hang on." She demanded. She pointed up at the sky where Hollow after Hollow passed over the overcast afternoon sky. "None of them have attacked yet, don't give us away."

"They're all headed..." Uryuu swallowed with mild but contained horror. "To the park." The day may have been cold and rainy but that never kept people or spirits from going there everyday especially in the afternoon. Takeru nodded.

"Let's go." Ichigo and Renji used Shunpo without thinking. Ishida used Hirenkyaku as expected but Ichigo was surprised yet again by Takeru who kept up easily. She noticed Ichigo staring.

"It's called Dhvana." She stated simply. "I know you want answers but now's not the time. Focus." He didn't remember Takeru eyes ever looking so hard and commanding. Her voice had never given him chills until now. She could give Unohana a run for her money if she really tried. He shuddered at the thought.

Arriving at the park, they found that there were, thankfully, very few people. Most of them were already vacating because of the harsh "winds" approaching. Looking back up at the sky, the sight itself was rather daunting. There had to be hundreds of Hollows racing toward the very spot they were standing. Uryuu couldn't help but think that this all looked vaguely familiar. Ichigo landed a glare back to the Quincy's head recalling the battle they had the day they met.

"Ishida! Ichigo! Abarai-kun!" It was by pure chance that Chad and Orihime had been in the same convenience store when the Hollows appeared. They didn't even notice Takeru until she spoke. Orihime and Chad came running in from the direction Ichigo indicated. Orihime had to catch her breath for a minute. Chad didn't.

"They haven't attacked yet?" Chad asked looking at the cloud of approaching hollows. Waiting was the worst part at least during battle you had some kind of objective.

"No, but they're coming at us as an alarming rate." Uryuu replied.

"Do you guys have any idea of what they could be looking for?" Takeru asked Orihime and Chad. They hadn't even noticed she was there. "Oh sorry, I'm Takeru...uh I mean Morishitta Takeru." The roar of the hollows came closer. "And we just ran out of time for conversation." The five got into and impromptu battle formation with their healer Inoue in the center. The Hollows landed en masse around them. One of them made himself known, his pale, faceless mask ripping a mouth hole into existence.

"MOVE!" He didn't sound like your average hollow, but before Uryuu could think about saying anything in response, Renji and Ichigo dove right in. Idiots.

"Howl, Zabimaru!" At least they were low level Hollows. They barely even got a chance to fight back.

"Getsuga Tensho!" Ichigo dashed forward just cutting everything in his path. This was starting to get increasingly familiar though he doubted that Uryuu would appreciate the nostalgia as much as he did.

Chad didn't know who the new girl was but found himself back to back with her. Which was weird...had he ever met a girl this tall...at his age? Was this the "relative" Ichigo talked about yesterday? If it weren't for the battle, he'd find himself staring slack jawed. This girl was a force to be reckoned with. Sure he'd been breaking hollow masks with his fists for four years now, seeing a girl do it was incredible. Ichigo's godsister had grace that only a female soldier could be capable of when shattering a solid objects with the back of her heel.

No matter how attractive she was, there was a bigger issue at hand. Why were there so many Hollows? What were they looking for? Of course, as these things go, there was no little to no room to ask questions but that didn't keep any of them from wondering.

Many of these hollows were weak enough for Orihime to cut with Tsubaki's attack and she did what she could to help. She thought the shaking in the ground was from the combined reiatsu ripping around the park. The girl she assumed was Ichigo's relative was certainly overwhelming. She wasn't aware that the ground below her was actually breaking and giving way beneath her feet. She heard everyone shout for her before she felt herself falling.

Whilst everyone was fighting, the ground had crumbled beneath her feet. Eight black insect-like arms exploded from the ground scraping at the it, grabbing and sucking in anything it could get it's hands on. A large ring of razor sharp blades surrounded her swirling clockwise as to trap her and destroy the remaining ground to pull her in.

Those weren't blades...they were teeth.

"Orihime!" Uryuu was quite protective of Inoue. They all were but that was the first and probably the only time he had ever crossed the line and called her by her first name until now. He didn't notice and no one cared as he, Chad and Ichigo nearly dived into the massive hole just before she fell. Chad's hands was the last to reach her. He failed. They may have lost her for good if it weren't for Takeru who threaded her fingers together. Her aura, made of silver reiatsu, suddenly became visible. She choose three weak but large hollows.

"By decree of Grand Judge Morishitta I sentence you three to a work order!" A large black "X" appeared across each their masks. Their slouching forms went completely rigid. "Retrieve that girl now!" With the same speed and voracity they used in their attacks against them, they dove in after Orihime. Ichigo bolted over to Takeru, reaching after her.

"Takeru, what're you...?"

"Don't touch her!" Renji shouted on reflex. "She needs to concentrate!" Ichigo whipped around to Renji but never got a chance to ask anything. Only one of the hollows returned. Luckily this one just happened to be holding a now unconscious Orihime. Figuring the spell was only temporary, Uryuu had the foresight to destroy the hollow the minute before they retrieved Orihime from the thing's arms. The girl was covered in Hollow Blood and had a nasty gash on the side of her head but she was otherwise unharmed.

The nameless beast let out a shrieking roar and planted it legs into the ground. With a loud, groaning cry, it lifted its bloated, horrendous body out of it hole. It rampaged through the park, consuming Hollows. They couldn't move Inoue too suddenly because of her head wound but they were more than equipped to defend themselves.

Or so they thought.

Ichigo's Getsuga Tensho gave the giant thing little more than a papercut. Chad's El Directo was a bit more effective only because of the brute force behind it. Gritting her teeth, Takeru's hand raced up her sleeve but before she could do anything else, Renji stopped her.

"Not here."

Summoning Ginrei Kojaku, Uryuu launched a full salvo of arrows from a high vantage point but he didn't see Renji until he was airborne and didn't have enough time to rush to his aid."Abarai! Look out!" Penned in by debris, Renji couldn't move fast enough regardless of whether or not he used Shunpo. It would be impossible for him to completely defend himself even if he was able to achieve bankai. He was trapped.

That couldn't have been a coincidence.

Kurosaki Clinic

A few minutes after the kids left, Senshi stepped outside claiming that it would be rude to smoke inside someone else's house no matter how many times Isshin insisted that she just use the ash tray. It wasn't until he saw her gazing off in the direction of Karakura Park, it occurred to the former Shinigami that what was actually out to there to keep tabs on her daughter's reiatsu. He left Karin and Yuzu to their tv shows and casually strode outside to join her.

We failed her, Masaki...Isshin thought despairingly taking in the sight of his old friend with a sad frown. Her hair, though tightly braided, was quickly going gray. He had said that her eyes were such a piercing green that she could burn holes in you just by staring. That piercing green he'd come to grow so fond of had been faded by tears, nicotine and copious amounts of alcohol. Not even a woman unaffected by time could avoid death.

"I'm not going to lie..." Isshin said with a sigh. "It hurts to see you smoke again." Senshi just sighed. That was to be expected. He wasn't sure what he'd do if she started crying or something.

"Yeah. At least I'm sober." Senshi said with no real spite or motivation.

"You're not coping well." Isshin replied.

"You think?" Senshi replied in a snippy tone.

"How is Takeru?" Isshin continued asking. Senshi just shook her head.

"She's barely looked me in the eye since. We barely even talk." She said rubbing her brow with a touch of anxiety.

"Was she the one who killed him?" Senshi shook her her head.

"But she defeated him and she dragged him, kicking and screaming to the Executioner's Block." Isshin winced trying to imagine such a thing. A girl his son's age dragging someone she knew as a beloved sibling to the gallows not only to have him killed but wiped from existence. "They destroyed everything, his bed, his pictures...his body. We didn't even get to bury him." Senshi burned through the cigarette with a vengeance. "They used her. They knew he'd listen to her. They knew she would have to be the one to take him. She knew the whole time, she knew how cruel he was..."

"What happened?" Isshin asked placing a hand on her shoulder. Senshi sighed and took out another cigarette.

"For lack of better word, he caused civil war." She replied. "I always told him how smart he was. He was a cold boy but I didn't want to believe that he could be capable of so much...cruelty...all in the name of so called science." Isshin shuddered thinking how eerily similar those words were to Kurotsuchi's.

"If I had the words, I would say something, anything to make you feel better." Isshin muttered in a soft, almost pleading voice. "But..." Senshi looked back and smiled a little. She nudged him.

"It's the thought that counts." She said quietly. She scooted a little closer to him and laid her head on his shoulder like a little sister to her older brother. Isshin wrapped an arm around her shoulders. If there was anything he could do for her, he would without hesitation. They both suddenly tensed at the unusual spike in reiatsu.

"I haven't felt that in ages..." Isshin muttered, his hair standing on end. Senshi lifted her head.

"That's a Disruption." She sounded shocked, which only served to puzzle Isshin further.

"Isn't that why you came?" He asked.

"No...no I just came to..." She was cut off by the feeling of Renji's reiatsu plummet. "Something's not right." No sooner than she'd spoken those words, she was proven exactly right. Isshin vaguely began to worry about the mental health of anyone who could see ghosts around town as a spectacular blast of what appeared to be lightning exploded above the trees.

"Senshi, was that...?" He didn't get a chance to ask, she was already half way down the street.

Karakura Park

"What was that? What did you just do?" Ichigo knew that this wasn't the best time for an interrogation but he asked before he could stop himself. The worm wasn't just dead, it was fried. Hollow guts poured from the holes that were burnt into it. It wasn't dissolving like a Hollow. This thing was not made of reishi.

"It's called a Death Sentence weren't you listening?" Takeru said having collapsed to her knees after unleashing such an attack. She had screamed that attack, it just sounded like a last resort. She wasn't to tired to snip at him at least.

They were all badly damaged. Chad was the most fit of them all being fortunate enough to avoid an internal organs. Still that stab wound in his back had to be dealt with before it became a problem. Orihime was still unconscious. After a brief assessment Uryuu had come to the conclusion that his arm was now broken in two different places. Ichigo was bleeding from everywhere as usual, he vaguely wondered if it even bothered him anymore. Their main concern was Renji, who had all been torn to shreds. Chad removed his shirt and pressed it to Renji's largest wound in order to stem the worst of the bleeding. With Inoue unconscious, there was no way to keep him out of immediate danger of bleeding out.

"That didn't just happen." Takeru said more to herself than anyone else.

"That thing came here with a strategy. It separated us and went for the Shinigami first." Uryuu said cradling his broken arm. He bent down to Renji who was still conscious.

"Do you know what that was?" Ichigo asked Takeru though he never took his eyes from the way Renji grabbed Uryuu hand to cope with the pain.

"We call it a Disruption but...I've never seen one Eat hollows and they sure as hell aren't that smart." Takeru said shaking her head she went for her phone to call her mother for assistance but found that she had come to her with Uncle Isshin trailing behind, probably more out of obligation that anything else.

"What happened?" Senshi pressed both Ichigo and Takeru as she gazed up at the massive carcass of the worm. She didn't seem at all surprised that Ichigo wore a shihakusho. While Takeru explained everything, Ichigo cast another concerned glance down at Renji. For Uryuu to express so much concern, his wounds must've been severe. He bent down and lifted Orihime into his arms, bridal style.

"We need to get them to Urahara's." Ichigo said, not caring it he was interrupting. Bo-chan just turned away and began talking on her phone.

"Bad idea." Takeru said quickly shutting him down. Ichigo sputtered and Takeru stopped him so she could explain herself. "If you know what Renji is, you should also know that everytime one of his shinigami are injured on your watch, you're going to get punished for it or at the very least scolded. We need to take him to the Sereitei for your sake."

"How are we going to do that?" Uryuu asked urgency growing in his voice. Senshi didn't reply she merely held up a hand whilst she finished talking on her phone. Seconds later, a Senkaimon appeared before them opening to reveal one Kuchiki Byakuya holding a lantern with a Hell Butterfly flying above his head.

"Get him inside Fourth Squad is already waiting."

Elsewhere...

Sakujo fell to her hands and knees in supplication. All of the apologies in the world could not keep up this mess. Behind her was a large screen fit to cover the entire wall, displaying the battle that had just taken place. The hollow eating Disruptions weren't ready to be sent outside of the lab. They were genetically engineered to be stronger and smarter than the originals...that was until Sakujo had sent one into the Living World after being told specifically not to touch anything.

"Please, forgive me. I was only trying to rectify a simple mistake!" Her loud, crazed apologies drowned out the devious giggling of the two who had conspired against her. They stood in the back of the room, only lit by the large screen, and watched hoping to get a taste of Sakujo's impending punishment. They burst into full-blown laughter when Sakujo's fervent apologies were met with a foot to the face, then the side then her stomach followed up by a few to various other parts of her body.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" The second in command, Zankoku, screamed in rage.

"Zankoku-san, there's no need to punish her without the..." A soft voice slurred by alcohol consumption

"What?" The wild man Zankoku stopped in mid-kick. "You gonna take the blame for your little fuck-buddy? Do you want to face Shishou all by yourself?" Hatsuteki shrank back muttering some half-hearted retort. All but Sakujo and one other laughed in the shadow of the man's dismay. The other, Hitsume, stood in the back of the room silent not wishing to take part in humiliating the horribly inept woman and her cowardly, drunken male companion. She leaned against the wall resigning herself to spectating. She sighed lethargically as the doors were thrown open. Everyone but her immediately snapped into attention as Shishou drifted into the room as if she could float.

"Zankoku, I wish you would wait for me before you begin administering punishment." Shishou didn't so much as speak as make her voice fill the entire room. Even her sighs seemed to create a breeze. Zankoku stood back from bloody Sakujo as Shishou's hard, clicking footsteps echoed through the room. The tall, lithe woman wearing nothing more than a simple, modest black dress with a pair of matching heels, strode up to Sakujo followed by a cloaked figured who she called her "doll" Monai-Ningyo. Not a day went by that Zankoku didn't seethe with jealousy every minute he saw that creature with his Shishou. The savage man bowed to her.

"Forgive me, Shishou-sama." The master held out her hand and kissed it over and over showering her with affection until she pulled her hand away and caressed his cheek lovingly.

"But thank you for showing initiative, dearest." Her body filled with quiet rage as she gazed down at Sakujo who was no more than a woman bereft of her dignity nearly pissing her herself and sobbing apologies. When Shishou let her fervent kowtowing finish, Sakujo looked up hopeful for forgiveness. Her hopes were effectively dashed with a hard, unforgiving smack to the face. Shishou nodded to Monai-Ningyo. The remotely male creature reached out his clawed hand and grabbed a fistful of Sakujo's hair dragging her out of the room screaming once more. No amount of apology could make up for this grievous oversight. "Hatsuteki." Shishou called without turning to bestow her icy blue gaze on the man, "Why don't you run off to Sakujo's room? Surely, she'd need some comfort after her punishment is administered." In a flash, Hatsuteki was gone.

"What now?" The twins asked still giggling amongst themselves.

"We have no choice but to advance to stage two of our plan and change targets." Hitsume tensed but said nothing.

"Already?" The male twin, Haji, bleated. Shishou smirked and nodded.

"With the Hollow-Eaters exposed, we can't give the Sereitei time to amass a defense, especially after one of their own has been injured. We've stored enough reishi, to create just enough Hollow-Eaters to destroy the Gotei 13 or at the very least cripple them." She raised a hand towards the wall-wide screen and the image changed to view the damage done to Karakura Park. "Ishida Ryuuken is no longer our target. I've found a far more...accessible one." The image zoomed in to the face of Ishida Uryuu insisting on helping Abarai even with his broken arm. Hitsume struggled to stifle a gasp. No...not the Quincy boy...Everyone else in the room gazed at the boy in wonderment and confusion.

"Shishou-sama...he looks so much like you..." The female twin, Yuwaka, said in total awe. This boy was looked just like their Shishou, he was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. Shishou stared at the screen a long smirk splitting her face. With any luck, all of her old "friends" still thought she killed herself. This boy didn't even know she was alive. Imagine, the child she didn't even want could finally make himself useful.

"I know." She said lightly. "He's my son."

Please review as always, I will post within the next few weeks, but no promises. Thank for reading.

With love,

East