It was morning in the Seireitei, Torin, Rida, and Aurora had prepared for their mission overnight and were not at the edge of the Seireitei making their final preparations before leaving

"Alright, is everybody ready?" Torin asked "we're gonna be gone for a while so if anyone needs anything now is the time to go get it."

Rida shrugged "yeah yeah, we know the drill, drop the formalities already, its just us, this mission will be real awkward if you keep acting so uptight the whole time" he said

"Whatever, just don't complain if you run out of food, I'm not giving you mine." Torin replied

Aurora sighed and shook her head "don't start you two, let's just get going already!" she said, then she began to run down the street into the Rukongai.

Rida and Torin were silent for a moment, then Rida shook his head and called after Aurora "hey! Wait up! I'm the navigator remember? You'll get lost without me!" as he ran to try and catch up

Torin sighed "a mission with just the three of us stuck together for at least a week, this is gonna be one heck of an assignment, I wish I knew if that was a good or a bad thing..." he muttered, then he ran to catch up with his friends

-8 days later-

Torin was in a foul mood as they arrived at the section of the Rukongai that they had been traveling towards. "Rida, you are never, EVER, being the navigator again" he growled "we should have been here 5 days ago!"

Rida scowled back at Torin "Well I didn't see either of YOU guys coming up with any ideas!" he retorted

"I assumed you knew where we were going and by the time I realized how stupid that was we were ALL lost!" Torin hissed

Aurora sighed "knock it off, both of you, we got here, lets just get the mission done." she said "and Rida?" she began

"yes?" Rida replied

"I'll be navigating on the way back ok?" Aurora said

"but!" Rida protested

"I SAID, I'll be navigating on the way back. OK?" Aurora said as she gave Rida a smile and closed her eyes, her voice as sweet as ever but all the more frightening because of it.

"uh...yes... of course... sorry" Rida said, his face pale

"Good! Now Torin, since you're the leader here, what do we do next?" Aurora asked

Torin shook himself a bit, he hadn't realized Aurora could be that intimidating, he would have to remember not to annoy her. "Ahem... our mission is to investigate the enemy forces here, and if at all possible, we are to destroy or cripple said forces." he said "so our first step is going to be split up and find their camp, that'll give us an idea of their numbers, then we can decide how to go about destroying them, or we can retreat and report back if there are too many to fight."

Rida nodded "sounds like a piece of cake! Let's get searching then!" he said as he began to leave

"hold on you idiot! I'm not done yet!" Torin snapped as he handed Aurora and Rida earpieces, then he put one in his own ear. "Use these to keep in contact with us, we meet here in two hours whether we found something or not. And above all, do not engage the enemy alone, understand Rida?" he said

Rida yawned "all I heard was blah blah boring proceedure blah blah stupid reminder blah, seriously Torin relax. I can be serious when it counts, I won't do anything stupid." he said as he put in the earpiece. "Later" he said, then he was gone

Torin sighed "he says that, but I still don't think he's being serious..."

Aurora put in her earpiece "it's ok Torin, he's strong just like you are, he'll be fine, don't worry about him, or me for that matter, just focus on doing your job" she said, then she left

"she knows me too well..." Torin muttered, then he left as well

-1 hour later-

Aurora made her way through the woods, she had picked up the trail of several hollows and was tracking them to their camp.

"The stench has gotten worse, I must be close" she said as she pushed aside a branch. Before her stood a huge cave with what looked like a campfire's light shinign from within. Smaller caves dotted the cliff in front of her, and in some of them Aurora could see hollows sleeping.

Aurora activated her earpiece as she let the branch cover up her view. "Aurora here, i've found the enemy camp, over." she whispered

"Roger that, what's your status? Have you been discovered?" Torin replied

"I don't think so..." Aurora began

"What do we have here? A shinigami runt who thinks she's being stealthy" a voice said from behind Aurora.

"What!?" Aurora gasped as she began to turn towards the voice, but then she felt a hard chop to the back of her neck and everything went black. She crumpled to the ground and the earpiece fell out of her ear. She vaugely felt herself being picked up and carried somewhere before losing all consciousness

"Aurora! what's wrong? Aurora! answer me!" Torin said through the earpiece, he got no response, then the line went dead as Aurora's earpiece was crushed by someone or something.

"Rida!" Torin said through the other line "get back to the meeting place NOW!"

"Woah woah woah calm down man! What's goin on?" Rida replied

"Aurora's in trouble" Torin said "We gotta..."

"Say no more, I'll be there in a minute" Rida interjected

-10 minutes later-

"So what happened?" Rida panted as he ran towards Torin

"I'm not sure, she said she found the camp, then I heard someone speak, Aurora gasped and then it sounded like she got knocked out or something, then static." Torin replied

"Do you know where she was?" Rida asked

"Yes, but I couldn't go alone, otherwise I'd get caught too and that wouldn't help Aurora at all, now that you're here let's go" Torin said as he turned to leave, but Rida caught his arm.

"We can't just charge in, getting killed doesn't help Aurora either" he said

"And what would you suggest?" Torin said through gritted teeth "sit here and wait for them to kill her and deliver the body back to the Seireitei?"

"Of course not! But let's be smart about this Torin. Here, put this on" Rida said as he tossed something to Torin

Torin caught the object and looked down at it "you... you're kidding... right? THIS is your plan?" he said incredulously

Rida shrugged "you got a better idea?" he asked

Torin was silent

"That's what I thought, now put it on!" Rida said smugly

"We're so screwed" Torin muttered as he did as he was told