I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgivings last week and survived Black Friday~~~ I was visiting relatives last week so I couldn't update then. And apologies for those of you who are also reading "His Queen'"; Chapter 3 is in progress ^^

Megumi opened the side door of the warehouse slightly, checking up and down the hall for any signs of life. When she didn't see any, she slid in and closed the door without a sound before making her way down to another door which she opened to find a familiar sight.

Mashiro was laying on her stomach on the cement floor, kicking her legs back and forth slowly in the air as her eyes remained glued to whatever cartoon was playing. Hacchi was sitting behind the only sofa present in the room and, at a glance, looked as though he was sleeping; upon further inspection though, Megumi could tell that he was merely meditating. She could see the top of a certain smartass Vizard's head resting on the couch arm nearest her while his feet were propped on the other end of the couch, indicating that he was probably asleep.

His nap was ruined the next second, however, when a door on one of the higher floors slammed open and a harpie-like voice screeched, "SHINJIIII!"

Said blonde bolted upright and stayed like that for a split second before laying back down, lazily calling back, "Whattaya want, Hiyori?"

"What time is Megumi supposed to get here?" Hiyori yelled even as she jumped down to ground level, landing with hardly a whisper of air.

"Sometime after she gets outta school." Megumi crossed the room until she stood a little bit behind Hiyori.

"Well, call her or somethin' and tell her to haul ass over here. I'm bored," Hiyori snapped.

"Well, you can be bored for a little while longer. I ain't about to call her and get her in trouble," Shinji answered back. Megumi could just picture him sticking his tongue out at the enraged ex-fukutaicho.

Hiyori raised a fist in the air and shook it furiously. "Goddammit, baldy! If Love hadn't destroyed my sandals, I would be smacking you so hard, your great-grandchildren would feel it!"

Megumi reached into her bag of gifts, making the plastic rustle and draw the attention of the other Vizards in the room. She said, "Well, I've got a new pair of sandals for you if you promise not to hit anyone with them until tomorrow afternoon."

The looks on the other four's faces made Megumi wish she had a camera, Hiyori, Shinji, and Hacchi all showing mild disbelief and surprise while Mashiro's eyes widening to the size of saucers and her mouth forming a huge '0'.

That same green-haired woman was the first to react, jumping into the air and, with the biggest smile on her face, yelling, "Gumi-chaaaaan!"

Megumi staggered slightly at the impact of Mashiro's tackle-hug but accepted it all the same. She handed a still-stunned Hiyori her new sandals before delving into her bag of goodies again and pulling out Mashiro's bag of candy.

Mashiro's already-wide eyes glistened as she yanked the bag out of Megumi's hands and twirled around the room with it pressed tightly to her chest. She leapt to the third floor and yanked a door open, calling down, "Arigatou, Gumi-chan!"

As the door slammed shut, Shinji smirked and commented, "I say thirty seconds before Kensei blows up."

Hiyori snorted as she slipped her new sandals on, savoring the smooth feeling on the bottoms of her aching feet. "I say fifteen."

"Ten," Hacchi put in calmly, already used to this routine.

"Winner gets to fight whoever they choose," Megumi added, rocking back and forth on her heels as she held up a hand to emphasize her countdown, "and I say three, two, one…"

"WHO THE HELL GAVE MASHIRO CANDY?"

Shinji and Hacchi shrugged their shoulders while Hiyori glared daggers at Megumi, who shrugged with her hands palm up at shoulder level. "Se la vie."

The door that Mashiro had left through was kicked open and a fuming Kensei stood there. "What the hell possessed you to give Mashiro a whole fucking bag of goddamn candy, Megumi Tsumugiya?"

Megumi sent a level, almost bored glare up at him and put her hands on her hips. "Oooo, my full name. I'm so scared, Kensei-baka." She turned to Hacchi then and offered the two insulated bags with groceries in them to him. "Hacchin, can you go downstairs and put all this away? I'm making dinner tonight."

"I'd be glad to," the large man answered jovially, taking the straps for both bags in one hand and patting her head with the other. "It's good to see you again."

"Same here," Megumi returned as the slab of concrete opened upward, revealing the stairs that led down to the underground training ground and the kitchen. As Hacchi started walking down them, Megumi returned her gaze up to Kensei and gave him the same look she did before. "What're you staring at, Kensei-baka?"

"Quit calling me that!" Kensei yelled, jabbing a finger at her. "Kami, when did you get to be such a goddamn bitch?"

Megumi cupped her hand to her ear and snidely responded, "Sorry, old man. I didn't quite catch that."

Shinji and Hiyori chortled openly as Kensei jumped down to ground level and moved so that he was looming over Megumi. He sneered down at her. "I believe I just called you a bitch, old hag."

Megumi smirked. "Oh, really? It seems as though you're presuming that my age will keep me from pounding your ass to next Saturday."

Kensei's sneer widened. "How could you possibly beat me if you don't have this." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the very thing that she had been searching for the past week.

It was a silver snake about a foot and half long and almost as wide as a choker. A single scaly wing, hardly bigger than a quarter, protruded from its back a few inches from the base of its head. Megumi looked shocked for all of two seconds before she smirked again, using her mind to brush against the dormant conscience of the object.

'Bite him, Buraido Dokuja.'

The once silver and seemingly empty eye sockets flared to life with a luminescent blue energy as Buraido Dokuja arched its back and lightly sank its fangs into the knuckle of the thumb that was holding it. Kensei yelped and let go of the snake's tail, but instead of falling to the ground in a heap, the serpent slithered through the air as easily as it would have on the ground until it reached Megumi, where it wrapped itself once around her neck and twisted its tail once around the base of its head to secure itself while the wing pointed downward towards the center of her breasts. The result was a necklace-like image.

'Are you angry with me, Doka-chan?' Megumi asked mentally, maintaining her contact with the Zanpaktou spirit's conscience.

She could practically feel the spirit shrug before a smooth alto voice responded, 'I was at first, Megumi-sama, but right now, I am just relieved to be free of that brute and his restless companion. However, please tell him that the next time he grips my tail like that, I will make it so he will not be able to feel that arm for a whole week.'

'Will do.' She cut the link then, allowing Buraido Dokuja to get some much-needed rest while she addressed Kensei with the sweetest smile and voice she could muster without breaking down into hysterics. "Doka-chan advises against gripping her tail so hard if you value the feeling in your arm."

Kensei looked slightly worried as he regarded the serpent around Megumi's neck with contempt. "Well, sure she can talk like that when she's in that form. But as a Zanpaktou, she can't do shit."

That comment made the snake flare back to life and hiss at the Vizard. Megumi chuckled and rubbed the underside of its chin fondly. "She begs to differ."

Kensei sneered at her once again. "Then how about we see if her opinion is worth anything after lunch?"

"Sure thing, but first…" She delved into her goody bag yet again, pulled out the pair of fingerless gloves, and smiled "…here's a present!"

As Megumi placed the gloves in his hands, it suddenly sank in what he had done in the midst of his rage. "You…baited me so that you could fight me?"

"Yup," was Megumi's reply as she made the victory sign with her fingers whilst beaming at him.

There were probably three seconds of silence before Hiyori was busting a rib laughing. Shinji chuckled a bit before he commented, "Wow, she played you like a well-tuned fiddle."

Kensei turned a deep shade of red, stuttering, "Sh-shut up!" He tromped over to a crate on the other side of the room and plopped down on it, mumbling to himself as he tried the new gloves on.

Megumi looked at Shinji then and asked, "May I sit down?"

Shinji didn't even look at her as he shrugged and responded, "That depends. Where do ya wanna sit, how long do ya want to sit there…?"

Megumi rolled her eyes, a bemused smile coming to her lips. "I want to sit next to you and I'll sit there for however long I damn well please."

"In that case…" Shinji sat up and moved to the end of the couch closest to Megumi. He patted the cushion next to him. "Watcha waitin' for?"

Megumi rolled her eyes again as she took the offered seat and snuggled closer to Shinji, tucking her legs to the side as he wrapped an arm around her waist. He tapped the top of her head a few times when she was situated and she looked up in time to meet his lips with hers. It was just a whisper of a kiss, no more than skin brushing on skin for a second, but Megumi could feel the hunger and want emanating from Shinji in just that one second. He pulled away and asked, "Don't I get a present, Megumi-chan?"

Megumi looked at him intently and muttered, "Recall a certain text you sent me."

Shinji cocked an eyebrow, the corners of his mouth curling slightly. "The one where I teased ya about the dream I had?"

"The one and same," Megumi replied coyly.

Shinji's fingers traced the soft skin of her thigh and up under her skirt. "When?"

Megumi's breath hitched slightly as the sensation of Shinji's slightly calloused fingers tracing over the smooth skin of her thigh left goose bumps along that leg from the knee to the hip. "After dessert tonight."

He leaned in to the side of her neck, his breath tickling her skin as he whispered, "For all I care, you could be my dessert."

He nipped gently on the tender flesh of her neck, making her shudder as Hiyori, who had just recovered from her bout of laughing her ass off, covered her eyes and screamed, "Getta room, ya goddamn sickos!"

From the far back of the room, a calm, male voice commented, "Megumi must be here if Hiyori's yelling for some certain 'sickos' to get a room."

Megumi craned her neck to look at the source of the voice, who was currently walking into the warehouse along with Love and Lisa. Her eyes glistened the same way Mashiro's had before she vaulted over the back of the couch and dashed to the blonde-haired man, who opened his arms to her. "Rojuro-nii!"

Rose met the young woman's embrace with eagerness and affection that matched her nickname for him. "It's good to see you, too, Megumi-chan."

Love and Lisa muttered simple hellos before going and handing bento lunches to everyone in the room, Hacchi having returned from downstairs and a surprisingly calm Mashiro coming out from…well, wherever it was she hid her candy stash. Rose asked, "Everything go okay yesterday?"

Megumi thought hard for a second. "Yes and no. 'Yes' because I got my project done yesterday…"

"The one from the sadistic English teacher, right?"

"Yup. And 'no' because it turns out that while I was busting my ass over that project, people were trying to contact me and tell me that the due date for the project was moved to Wednesday," Megumi sighed before perking right back up. "So Sensei took pity on me and let me take the day off."

"Well, that's good," Rose commented, ruffling Megumi's hair slightly. Megumi pouted childishly and swatted his hand away as she began to rake her fingers through her hair in an attempt to straighten it back out. As Rose chuckled at her endeavor, she walked back around the couch, grabbing the bag with the three remaining presents as she went along. She sat down with it and tossed the Jump magazine to Love and the swimsuit magazine to Lisa as Rose sat to her right on the last spot on the couch. She handed him the guitar pamphlet right before Hacchi handed him his bento lunch.

"Ah, thank you, Megumi-chan. I was running out of pieces to play." Rose set the pamphlet aside and opened his lunch.

Megumi eyed the contents before inquiring, "Whose idea was it to get the sesame chicken set?"

Lisa raised her hand, giving Megumi all the explanation she needed. Shinji suddenly stopped, a piece of sesame chicken held between his chopsticks hovering inches from his lips and asked, "Have ya had lunch yet, Megumi-chan?"

Megumi shook her head. "Nope, but I think I can hold off until din…"

And then her stomach roared.

Everyone looked up from their meals, and their magazines in Love and Lisa's cases, and openly stared at her. She chuckled nervously under the feeling of the eight stares boring into her. Shinji rolled his eyes, took the cover of his lunch, and placed a piece of sesame chicken, a bit of rice, and a piece of fruit on it. He handed it to Hiyori, who did the same thing he did before handing the tray to Lisa. It continued around the room in that manner until Rose handed the impromptu bento lunch to Megumi.

Unsure of what else to say, Megumi muttered, "Arigatou, minasan. Shinji, can you get my set of spare chopsticks from the front of my backpack?"

"Sure thing," Shinji answered, putting his own chopsticks between his teeth as he pulled her backpack from beside the couch. As he rummaged through the front pocket, his fingers brushed against her phone, which then buzzed. He pulled it out and tossed it to her. "Ya got a message."

Megumi caught the phone in one hand while the other held onto her tray. She opened the phone and read the message to herself.

'Chad gave me the message. You got lucky. It was track day for gym class and Konotsu-sensei gave us a pop quiz on quadratic equations and statistics.'

Megumi laughed out loud as she typed her reply. 'Well STBY :D I've already managed to anger one of my brothers by giving one of my sisters some candy. We're settling our differences after lunch so I gotta stop texting.
Enjoy lunch break and good luck with the History test. See you tomorrow.'

She shut her phone on her lap and set it on her lap as she accepted her chopsticks from Shinji. She plopped a piece of chicken and a bit of rice in her mouth as Shinji asked, "Someone from school?"

Megumi swallowed before answering, "Yeah. They're just bitching about how hard the Gym and Math classes were."

Love guffawed just then, drawing everyone's attention. Upon noticing their gazes, he apologized, "Sorry. There was a particularly funny punch line in Jump."

Everyone either rolled their eyes, sighed, or both before returning to their own lunches. Megumi finished first unsurprisingly and placed her chopsticks on her tray then set it on the floor. She ran her index finger along her lips to pick up any extra food or sauce as she commented to Shinji, "The next time you decide to visit me in the middle of the night, at least make sure Uru-chan doesn't see you."

Shinji put his own chopsticks and empty bento box on the armrest of the couch. "Hey, that was an accident."

"Whatever," Megumi dead-panned, standing up and putting her phone back into her backpack while pulling out a blue rubber band. She skipped over to the top of the staircase, smiling over her shoulder at Kensei. "Hurry up, Kensei-baka. I want our fight to be over with by 3:30 so I can make dinner early."

"QUIT CALLING ME THAT, DAMMIT!" Kensei yelled at her as she giggled and started jumping down the stairs four or five at a time. Before long she set foot on the ground of the training area, taking a few seconds to take in the semi-reality of the sky above her and the barren, rocky ground beneath her feet.

She put the rubber band between her teeth as she used her hands to pull her hair into a high ponytail. She secured it in place, allowing a few strands of hair to frame her face, and sat down Indian-style on a nearby boulder. She closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply, thinking of the rhythm as she practiced it. "In…Out…In…Out…In…"

She didn't notice the scene around her warping and changing, transforming from a fabricated rocky terrain with shades of reds and browns with a fake blue sky and white clouds into a rocky cave the color of obsidian black and an opening that revealed a deep blue sky and billowing white clouds. It was the sound of the surf outside, crashing onto the reef before receding off the rocks only to repeat the process, that drew her deep blue eyes open.

Surprise crossed her features for all of a half-second before she stood up and removed her ballet flats in the cave, shivering at the feeling of the cold rock beneath her feet. She left the flats in the cave as she stepped out into the warmer air and savored the feeling of salty mist against her skin as the surf once again crashed into the reef. She began walking at a leisurely pace along the rocky path to the left of the cave mouth, alternating gazing out to the endless expanse of ocean to her right to the black mountainside occasionally dotted with shrubs or other such hardy mountain plants on her left. Eventually, the path she was traversing eroded to tan grains of sand that felt like soft cloth to her aching feet; and before long, Megumi rounded the final bend of the mountain and came into view of a small forest of palm trees. Through the cluster of trees she could see the back of a familiar woman. The woman was standing with her toes just within the surf's reach, the train of her kimono-dress stretching out behind her. Megumi's footsteps were barely whispers on the sand as she wove her way through the trees and onto the bleached grains of the only beach on this island.

Megumi was barely a foot away from the edge of the train when the smooth alto voice of that woman reached her ears. "It is good to see you, Megumi-sama."

The Vizard smiled gently as she walked up beside the woman. "It's good to see you, too, Doka-chan."

Buraido Dokuja laughed merrily. "I see you still do not like using my full name. If I may be so bold as to inquire why?"

Megumi rolled her eyes. This was a conversation they had had multiple times before but one that she didn't mind repeating. "I've told you before, Doka-chan. You're more like a friend to me than anything else. I want there to be as small a gap as possible between us so I started with what I wanted to call you and it just stuck."

"But, of course, you will have your secrets and I will have mine. Am I right, Megumi-sama?" Buraido Dokuja asked sincerely, with no trace of malice or resentment in her voice.

"Hai."

Megumi turned her head and took a good look at the woman who was the spirit of her Zanpaktou. A traditional bamboo hat rested over silver hair that reached the middle of her back. That hat had a veil that hung from its edges except for a small portion that had two silver chains with white and silver tags hanging on the end of them. The veil was tucked into the gray obi of the spirit's silvery blue kimono dress, which had slender sleeves that fell a foot past her fingertips and a front which opened up just a little above her knees to reveal slender, porcelain-white legs and feet. And, as the first part of her name implied, she was blind, the entirety of her visible eye being a smooth milky white, but could see everything around her, even color, by reading the energies of the objects around her.

"Megumi-sama, the ocean is blue, correct?" Buraido Dokuja asked, all humor gone.

Megumi nodded unsurely.

"And yet, whenever disturbed, parts of it turn white and others black. But what disturbs the water is not always immediately visible. It can lurk just within your field of vision or just outside of it. You simply have to keep your eyes trained to find it," Buraido Dokuja finished with a deep exhale.

Megumi nodded again as she recalled what really set her Buraido Dokuja aside from other spirits: her predictions. Normally, she was a bright and cheerful spirit, and no one would expect such accurate predictions to come from her lips. But they always came true, so Megumi always took them to heart.

The spirit suddenly perked up and smiled at Megumi. "I think Kensei-dono is ready to fight you."

Megumi chuckled and agreed. "He's probably yelling at me to get out of jinken."

"Indeed, he is," Buraido Dokuja answered, offering a sleeve-covered hand to her wielder. "Shall we fight together?

Megumi didn't hesitate to take her Zanpaktou's hand and squeeze it affectionately. "Yes, we shall."

Both women closed their eyes and exhaled deeply, the sound of the surf gradually fading away. With a jolt, Megumi returned to reality, finding she was still sitting cross-legged on a boulder, her ballet flats were still on, and…

"It's about damn time!" Kensei yelled from right in front of her. Her ears began ringing as he continued, "You're down here for all of ten minutes and you slip into jinken!"

"Well, pardon me for wanting to talk with Doka-chan before fighting with you," Megumi muttered sarcastically, standing up and dusting her butt off. She looked at Shinji, who was perched on his own boulder a few feet behind Kensei, and inquired, "How long was I in jinken?"

"'Bout an hour, give or take a few minutes," he replied with a shrug.

"And what time is it now?" Megumi asked in general, noticing the other 6 Vizards sitting either on boulders or on the ground around the immediate area.

Rose took a look at the watch on his wrist. "Almost a quarter after one."

"Tell me when it's two-thirty. I want to get cleaned up before I make dinner." Megumi brushed her fingers against her snake choker, awakening it. The silver serpent slithered down her arm and stopped in her upturned hand as she asked Kensei, "With or without masks?"

Kensei smirked as he pulled Tachikaze out of his pocket, twirled it on his finger, and then caught the hilt with practiced ease as his free hand went up to his face. "With."

As he materialized his hockey face guard-like mask, Megumi lifted the snake to her lips and breathed, "Shōtai o arawasu, Buraido Dokuja."

The snake stiffened then straightened in her hand, its tail pointing outwards at Kensei. The tail began to elongate and widen while the area from the head to the base of the wing widening just enough for her hand to wrap around it and the wing expanded and elongated to created a hand cover. A small snake emerged from the forming sword and wrapped around the area between the hilt and the blade several times, creating the hand guard.

When the snake was done transforming, Buraido Dokuja was a cutlass with a silver blade so pure that it was almost white, a pearl white hand cover and guard, and a hilt wrapped in bluish gray cloth that tied off at the end and trailed off in two separate ribbons, each about six inches long before they ended in silver hoops.

Megumi's other hand raised to her face, moving in a circular motion and materializing her mask as she moved her hand. The mask fit the frame of her face perfectly and was covered from top to bottom in pearly white scales akin to snake scales, with miniscule openings under the scales near her nose and mouth that allowed her to breathe and talk. Through the eyeholes in her mask, everyone could see that her eyes had turned completely green like the grass in a meadow and her pupils completely vanished; but they all knew better than to think she was blind.

Megumi fell into a comfortable stance, her arm bent at a 90-degree angle. Her sword was parallel to the ground as she pointed it at Kensei, who was bouncing back and forth on the balls of his feet while his arms were in a relaxed guard. "En guard, Kensei-baka!"

"Stop calling me that!" The two disappeared in perfectly executed shunpos, appearing several dozen yards away in the air. A thrust from Tachikaze was easily deflected with a side swipe of Buraido Dokuja and Megumi thrust her open palm to Kensei's chest.

"Hado One: Sho!" Kensei was sent plummeting down to the ground and into a boulder by the force of the spell. Megumi rolled her eyes and pulled her mask to the side and upward off her face, maintaining her Hollowfictation despite that. "Jeez, Kensei-baka! You let that get in too easily! What's wrong with you, ya old geezer?"

"Tell me something I don't know! I was just testing you to see if your skills had gotten rusty!" Kensei yelled back, picking himself up from the rubble of the half-destroyed boulder.

"Whatever. Just go all out from here on or else you forfeit!"

"And the loser…" Kensei began to quote the condition they always gave whenever they got the chance to fight.

Megumi grinned maniacally as she placed her mask back over her face. "Does the dishes!" And with that they charged at each other again.

And there you have it ^^ The members of Megumi's 'family' are the Vizards.

Translations:

1) Buraido Dokuja: Blind Poisonous Serpent

2) Shōtai o arawasu: Reveal yourself

Oh, and just a warning: M-Rated material in the next chapter. You have been warned~~~ Anyway, R&R por favor.