Tia Harribel was not a typical hollow. She was female for one, and she did not actively seek to consume her kind.

For the most part, she was at peace with her life style. She had those that were most important to her and they were mostly safe from the more rowdy male hollow. She was always wary of those the others that lived in the castle. She was the only female and she was well endowed. This alone meant that she was harassed. Her power kept the weaker new at bay, but the likes of Nnoitra and Barragan were always near by.

The arrival of the wolf had upset her peace and she wasn't sure what to make of that. On one hand, its presence kept her unpleasant colleagues away and it had given them a night sky to view, something she had not expected. On the other, with the appearance of the night sky it reminded her of the emptiness that she had been keeping at bay.

She was the first to feel the warmth and also the first to see the light.

A great ball of light had appeared in the sky, brightening the land.

Most of the time this was an indicator of a powerful fight but she did not feel anything aside from the warmth. It reminded her of the time when she was alive, just a little. It felt safe and calming and warm, quite a contrast to what Hueco Mundo usually felt. There were thousands of light orbs flowing up into the sky.

She called her fraccion to her, they were to investigate the lights.

They were in awe when they saw the source.

It was a giant tree with glistening flowers with a familiar wolf sitting at the base. The wolf was looking at the tree with great satisfaction and she seemed to be drawing power from the light. They could see small wisps of light coming from the body.

"Lady wolf. Please explain what is going on." Requested Harribel.

The wolf didn't answer. It only got up and walked away from the tree. When the wolf had walked a sufficient distance she turned toward them and sat once more.

It was at this time the four arrancar noticed the sky changing. It was turning from black to purple to red and then to gold as the sun began to rise from the horizon. It was terrifying and it was beautiful. Nobody who saw it could look away.

It wasn't their first sunrise. They had seen it before when they had gone to the world of the living. But the world of the living was full of buildings, pollution, and lights which dulled the effect. Hueco Mundo had none of these things so the light shone with out any interference. The light also felt different from that of the world of the living. It felt safe, and warm, and it made them feel whole.

The wolf gestured that they should go to it. Step into the light. When they hesitated, the wolf simply smiled at them. -That man will not find you. You will be safe-

They were still apprehensive, but in the end, Harribel went first. Thousands of orbs of praise left her body as she walked but still she kept walking. Her subordinates followed shortly afterwards, unwilling to be left behind.

Out of all the hollows that found peace and fulfillment that day, none gave as much praise as those women.

It had been a long and rather painful day. Soi Fon made her way back to her office. As much as she wanted to go home and sleep, she still had a great deal of paperwork left to do courtesy her lieutenant's lack of organization skills. Her first priority was the report on that puppeteer bount. She would forget a lot of details by tomorrow and his ability was dangerous. She shuffled to her office and began her report.

She could vaguely describe him as a psychopathic drug addict. His behavior matched that of someone who had an addiction and allowed it to consume every aspect of his life. His doll was a flower with a fox head at the base. It could probably pass for a children's toy or an exotic flower if not for its unpleasantly shrill voice.

Soi Fon would have kept writing if she hadn't noticed something sniffling at that moment. Something was in her office. She slowly put her pen down and tried to sense any foreign reiatsu. She felt something, but it was very weak, likely coming from a civilian. Oddly enough she couldn't actually trace it to its origin, leaving her physically scour the room.

She waited a few moments until she heard the a hiccup. It was coming from her file cabinet, a used one no less. Who ever was hiding must be very small.

She slowly opened the cabinet and was immediately greeted with a shriek and a punch to the face. The punch didn't hurt in the least, the screaming on the other hand, was very painful, and loud. It took her a moment to recover from the shock and get a good look at what was in her file cabinet.

It was a little girl, younger then Lieutenant Kusajishi. She was rather ratty looking, covered in dirt, likely from somewhere in Rukongai. She had dark hair and light hazel eyes. She also had tear stains on her face and judging by the smudged papers underneath, she had likely been in there for a while. Interesting. The girl looked at her for a few moments and started crying again.

Soi Fon didn't know what to say, You didn't find small children hiding in your office very often. How in the name of the spirit king did she get in here anyway!? Whats more, she had absolutely no experience with children other then Kenpachi's hellion, whom which she would humor then pass off to someone else. Not to mention, Yachiru didn't cry very often and when she did candy would put an end to it. She was the youngest in her family and the age gaps were never that large between he and her siblings.

The trouble was, she didn't have any candy in her office. It was how she kept the pinkette away. Maybe some fruit would work.

She walked back to her desk and pulled out a bunch of grapes and offered them to the girl. The child refused them and screeched something about fattening up to be eaten.

"Pardon?"

"Y- YOU'RE JUST G-GONNA EAT ME" The girl wailed.

"What!?"

Now it was getting out of hand. There was obviously a problem with security if a girl could sneak into her office and camp out in her paper work, possessed officers be dammed. She couldn't get any worthwhile information if the child was blubbering about getting eaten or what ever. Actually, she was beginning to doubt if she could get any worthwhile information from the brat altogether. Thankfully she still had one resource.

"OMAEDA!" she called. Her lieutenant was grating beyond belief, but he was the eldest sibling in his family and he did have experience dealing with small children. She would rather put up with him then Kenpachi. He should be back in the barracks right about now. She didn't like to admit it but she would have to take cues from him for this situation.

...

...

She was about to take another deep breath when he came barreling in through her door. She shut down his attempts at conversation by quickly pointing out the girl, who had once again taken residence inside her file cabinet. To her amusement, he was also punched when he pried the drawer open. She wasn't crying this time though which made the situation easier on her ears.

"Whats your name?" He asked in a low voice. "I'm Marechiyo. That woman that you punched earlier was my Captain, Soi Fon"

"I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." Came the reply.

"Well, what am I supposed to call you?" He asked "I can't just call you girl. That's rude and vague. Plus my captain would have my head on a platter. She's very scary you see."

He ignored the twitch on his captains face when he said that.

"Oh... You can call me Kei- I mean Nakenashi. That's what Enji- nii calls me. " She said after a bit of thought.

"How did you get in here anyway?"

"The window was open."

Both soul reapers groaned internally at the answer.

"No really, how did you get in here with out anyone noticing?"

"The window was open and I fell in" She chirped with a completely straight face.

"Ok then." Began Omaeda. "Why won't you come out of the file cabinet?" This question would likely give them the answers they were looking for, and hopefully give an indication as to what they should do with her.

"The scary guy will get me if I do" she promptly replied. Then, as if a dam in side of her broke, she started crying and panicking. "HE'S GONNA EAT ME. HE'S GONNA EAT ME! KEEP HIM AWAY!"

The two officers looked at each other. A scary person that threatened to eat her. That meant either a vasto lorde or a stray bount. Since a hollow of that power would have been detected lost instantly it had to be the latter. Was that bount still in the squad two barracks?

"Ah. Don't worry er... Nakenashi. Just tell us what he looks like so we can be sure. My captain can scare him away." said Omaeda as he gestured to Soi Fon.

"Lieutenant! Do not slander me in presence of this child." She barked. "Or anywhere for that matter"

Omaeda gave the girl a look that said 'See what I mean'

She stopped crying and smiled a little. "You promise? Both of you? "

Both of them nodded and waited for her to speak.

"Well, he had crazy eyes. He was bigger then me. He wore these really weird clothes with weirdly heavy shoes. There was this thing that had this really annoying voice that followed him around." Described the girl.

Soi Fon was the first to respond to the unhelpful description. If anything, that description could apply to a great deal of people. "... That was very very descriptive. Be more specific. How were his clothes weird?"

The girl thought to herself for a few seconds trying to not think of what happened earlier. "Grey with a big bug on the chest."

"What kind of bug?" Asked her lieutenant. And thus began another round of vague and unhelpful descriptions of a bug, at least until Omaeda gave her a some paper and a pen to draw it. The bug she had attempted to describe had turned out to be a homonka.

"Oh. That one. I killed it earlier." Said Soi Fon. Realizing that the puppeteer Bount had likely come across the girl when she herself had been making her way to the barracks. Then cast her aside once he saw her in the courtyard.

"I don't believe you. Wheres the body?" Asked the girl, her eyes narrowing at them.

"Why won't you believe us?"

"Enji- Nii said that nothing is dead unless you see the body with a stick through it." came the response. "Or else it's fake"

"Nakenashi. The scary person's body turned into sad when he died." Said Omaeda gently. "We have his clothes if you want to see them."

The girl nodded and Soi Fon sent for them to be brought here. But the minute she saw them she shouted "You're Lying! THE BUG ISN'T ON HERE! LIAR" She continued repeating it even as Soi Fon and Omaeda tried to explain that it had been there but it disappeared, without revealing how Suzumebachi actually worked. Then she shut herself in the file cabinet and refused to come out for the rest of the day, biting their hands if they tried to pry her out by force.

The captain looked at her lieutenant. He shook his head in response.

She sighed and resumed her paperwork. But not before setting out a glass of water and an apple for her when she decided to come back out. Hopefully it would be before she actually needed to access what was inside the file cabinet. At least her ears could recover from the screaming in the mean time.

Kids were more trouble then they were worth. If Nakenashi ever developed spiritual powers she wouldn't mind having her in her division. The brat was pretty observant and obviously had a degree of common sense to not tell her name to people she didn't trust, even if she almost did. The punch wasn't too bad either, and it felt like it was something that had been practiced, even if it wasn't very effective or strong.

Soi Fon had half a mind to slug Omaeda when he started poking fun at her. But she figured that since it did get the runt to stop crying and talk, she may as well let it go. His family had taken it upon them selves to be as annoying as possible around her. His father became like that shortly after she became his superior. Then his son took up the mantle when he retired. It was embarrassing, even if the incompetence was faked in public it still made her look bad. Some of his stunts were down right revolting. Like when ever he ate those damned rice crackers and left crumbs everywhere, even on her head!

All in all, today was not her day. She had had her subordinates taken from her, gotten stabbed and poisoned, nearly died, nearly lost her hearing, there was a brat making a mess of her records, and her lieutenant had made her into a joke, again. It seemed that she wold be spending another night in her office cleaning everything up.

Author's note- I've always wondered how Soi Fon would deal with a kid on a regular basis. She herself is kind of childish if you think about it what with her mood swings and what not. Yachiru does not count because she spends her time with Kenpachi. Anyways, Keiko is based off of one of my cousins. The whole interaction came from a time when she got scared of a spider and refused to come out from the closet. The reason she doesn't just force it out of the girl is because she's channeling her experience with Yachiru, who as you know, is a scary destructive and cute little bugger.

Nakenashi means something that is in such small amounts that it may as well be nothing. I thought it was fitting since she was hiding in a file cabinet. I was originally going to have her hide inside Soi Fon's desk but that stretched even my imagination.

I do not believe that Omaeda is as jerkish as he seems. So in this universe, Omaeda is definitely faking his idiocy. I mean, He has younger siblings of his own so it would make sense that he would know how to deal with small children. Since snobbishness is rampant in Seireitei I figure he would be the type to entertain his younger siblings by poking fun at other people. He is lieutenant for a reason.

Though in this world, he and Soi Fon have a somewhat passive aggressive relationship and them embarrass each other on purpose. Why? Because i think its funny.

As for the Hueco Mundo segment. Amaterasu's sunlight is purifying the hollows that look directly at it. They are releasing praise when they get purified so she gets more power from it. Arrancars and other menos grande give off way more praise then other hollows because they are made up of tons of hollows. I originally planned for Starrk and Lillynette to get purified too but I couldn't figure out a way to make it work.

As for the blooming crystal tree? Well, it looks like a tree and i like how crystals look so i figured why not. Amaterasu does have the power to bloom things that are not actual flowers, so why not?

Thanks for the support!

Comments and criticism are always welcome and they help motivate me to making the next chapter.

Edit: Added a description of Keiko. I Didn't realize that i hadn't written one yet.