A/N: Thanks for the reviews!

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ZWANZIG

TIMELINE X + N

When the scientific expedition to Mitakihara failed to make a third status report in a row by noon on Thursday, Akon grew uneasy. If it was a communications malfunction, Rin was experienced enough to know to withdraw immediately. Akon tried remotely activating the emergency tracking beacons in the soul phones of all three mission participants, but was unable to connect to any of them. That was monumentally worrying. He tried sending Hell Butterflies. Nothing. None of the options were pretty; something had gone wrong.

After reporting to his captain, being raked across the coals for loss of equipment and manpower, and receiving an order to "clean up his own mess," Akon chain-smoked three cigarettes to get up the nerve to face Captain Ukitake and confirm that yes, he had apparently thrown the man's subordinates to the lions.

Akon was waiting in the Thirteenth Division offices when Captain Ukitake and Lieutenant Kuchiki returned from mid-afternoon training of their subordinates. Ukitake took one look at Akon and his face went grim. He gestured for the scientist to follow him. The three ensconced themselves in the captain's office, Kuchiki standing next to her seated captain, Ukitake setting his elbows on the table and peering at Akon over his laced fingers.

"Report."

Akon straightened. "Sir. The expedition led by Department Head Tsubokura has failed to complete three consecutive check-ins. Not only do they not answer when hailed, the tracking system cannot even locate their Soul Phones. Any of them. Attempts to reach them with Hell Butterflies similarly failed. The entire team is tentatively declared missing."

Captain Ukitake frowned. "Your brief indicated that your only concern was potential low-level Hollows due to low spiritual density of the area, a task suited for unseated soldiers." The Was that a lie? went unspoken but understood.

Akon pursed his lips. "The mission was to verify the spiritual density readings, as it had been brought to our attention that there is a discrepancy between the population growth of the area and its spiritual density. Based on speculative calculations done since, it is possible that our recorded figures were erroneous." Implying that the area could be more dangerous than thought.

Ukitake's eyes narrowed. "To what degree?"

Akon stared the captain in the eye. "Figures on record indicate Level Two density, but population statistics imply the density should be closer to Level Six. The initial readings Tsubokura reported corroborate Level Two, but there were higher unexplained anomalies in the area." He was so screwed.

There was silence for an excruciating two minutes while the captain just stared at Akon until he wanted to crawl into a cave and hide with a pack of smokes. Akon was pretty sure the captain was deliberately drawing out the silence to make him squirm.

"You should have requested seated officers for this, Third Seat Akon," Ukitake said evenly. "Possibly a full protective detail."

Honestly, people who could stay calm when infuriated were terrifying.

Akon swallowed thickly. "In retrospect, I do not deny such, sir."

Elbows still on the table, Ukitake tapped his thumbs together in thought. "I presume your captain has been informed and authority to resolve the issue has been delegated to you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Your plans?"

Akon's already grim face became more so. "As the oversight was mine, I will personally investigate the movements of the missing party myself rather than risk other subordinates. I am here to formally notify you of the situation and offer to be subordinate to whatever search party you may deem appropriate. Sir."

Ukitake arched one eyebrow, glanced at his lieutenant thoughtfully, then looked back to Akon. "As the danger of the situation is unknown—" Akon winced internally at the jab— "my lieutenant and myself shall accompany you. I officially request a detailed dossier on the original mission so as to better understand the situation."

"Yes, sir," Akon replied. He held out two file folders while bowing. "I took the liberty of procuring copies for yourself and your lieutenant."

Ukitake glanced at Rukia and gestured toward the folders with his chin. Kuchiki silently retrieved the files, face professionally cold.

"How long do you need to gather supplies and delegate your duties?" asked the captain.

Akon blew out a heavy breath. "I delegated before I came here. An hour should do."

Ukitake nodded. "We will meet you at the gate in an hour, then."

Akon bowed deeply with a sharp, "Yes, sir!" and beat a rapid retreat.

So screwed.

§ x § x §

When the three girls returned to the Kurosaki Clinic for the evening, they were surprised to find Ichigo lounging on the couch with a textbook in his hands and a capped highlighter bouncing in one corner of his mouth.

"Ichi-nii! You're home two days early?!" exclaimed Karin.

That made Homura wary.

"Yuuuup," Ichigo drawled, highlighter impeding his speech. "'Ad a test 'stead o' lecture, no lab t'morruh, Thaturday's review, figgerred I'd just c'mere." He stopped, removed the highlighter from his mouth, and carefully used it to mark a line of print, then used the pen as a bookmark as he looked up at the girls. "Hope you don't mind."

"Not at all, Onii-chan!" Yuzu gushed.

"Great," Ichigo said. He looked past his sisters. "Hey, Homura. You hanging in there?"

Homura nodded silently. What else did he expect her to do? Say no?

Ichigo smiled slightly then glanced between all three girls and looked smug. "I talked the old man into taking us all out to dinner. Requests?"

The sisters squealed. "Pho! Pho!"

Ichigo grinned. "How did I know you'd say that?" He looked at his sisters' friend. "You like pho, Homura?"

Homura tilted her head. "What is... fuh?"

The twins gasped and looked scandalized.

"Sacrilege!"

"Heresy!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. "It's Vietnamese food. Noodles, meat, broth. Pretty basic stuff. Some greens and sauces on the side. You game to try it?"

"Oh." Homura blinked at the twins, who were looking at her eagerly. "Yes, that will be fine."

The sisters cheered and did a double high-five.

Once Isshin had closed the clinic, the family set out for a pho place they liked with Homura trailing along uncertainly. The entire evening was much wilder than Homura was used to for a trip to a restaurant from the time they closed the door of the house through the walks either way and the meal. She was swept along in the family's loud banter and raucous laughter, even finding herself smiling a bit when all three Kurosaki siblings played that Ichigo was the adult in the party and Isshin good-naturedly played up his role as a petulant man-child. It was an evening full of giggles and melodramatic cries of, "We can't take you anywhere!" and trying new food. When they went home, everyone gathered around the dining table to share desserts and giggle through homework.

When Homura settled down for bed that night, she actually felt comfortable. Warm inside. The Kurosaki family wasn't her family, of course, but they were the closest thing she had had to one in many years. It was uncertain whether she could get as close to them in the next timeline, so Homura carefully ran through her memories of the evening. She savored them and permanently inscribed them upon her mind. Such pleasant, comforting experiences had become a precious rarity in her bizarrely looping life and she'd be damned if anything tore the memories from her.

§ x § x §

"The team's final communication originated here on Wednesday at zero-eight-hundred hours," Akon explained to the commanding officers of Thirteenth Division as they stood in the sky over a long-abandoned pier in Shinchi. He dodged around a screeching seagull. "Department Head Tsubokura reported that they had spent the night here after examining the site and finding no currently extant anomalies. He notified me that their plan for the day was to complete a westerly sweep through Shinchi, veering north into western Mitakihara."

Captain Ukitake frowned at the seaside city, its buildings in silhouette against the sunset as the ocean darkened behind them. "Do you know how much of Shinchi they intended to cover?"

"No, sir. It was subject to whether the Department Head found anything worth investigating."

Captain Ukitake hummed. "We will follow their proposed path, starting with a wide sweep of Shinchi. Rukia and I will use our senses looking for our subordinates while you use your equipment to look for anomalies. If we don't find anything by zero-two-hundred hours, we will set a camp and sleep in one-hour shifts, then resume our search, moving north into Mitakihara. Understood?"

Kuchiki and Akon both barked, "Yes, sir."

Captain Ukitake stared into the twinkling early evening lights, face determined. Akon knew that if his subordinates were still out there, he would find them.

§ x § x §

Come Friday morning, Ichigo accompanied all the girls to the gate of the middle school. It was obvious to him that all three were trying to figure out why, but he kept his mouth shut. Ichigo shooed his sisters into the school gate and beckoned for Homura to follow him. He pretended he didn't notice the wary look she exchanged with Karin and Yuzu before they parted. Anxiety made his heart flutter in time with the quiet steps behind him. He knew he would soon be walking a very fine line with her and he couldn't afford to screw up.

Stop yer worryin', King, the Hollow sneered. It's you. Even if you do fuck up it'll somehow be the right way to fuck up.

Ass, Ichigo thought at him on reflex. He felt the Hollow curl its lip in disgust; however, that was still pretty damn encouraging from him, so he added, Thanks.

Positive reinforcement, they called it. Right?

The Hollow scoffed and retreated.

Ichigo took Homura to a café, bought them both some fancy coffee, and led her outside again. They stood drinking for a minute; Ichigo only realized he was staring at the girl while he tried to figure out his approach when her neutral expression pinched into a frown somewhere between wariness and annoyance.

He was going to make this a disaster if he thought about it any more. So Ichigo drew a deep breath and said, "Come on. Let's go somewhere more private. I want to talk to you about... what's going on." He tilted his chin to urge her to follow him and turned and walked away.

Homura stood still for a moment, uneasy, then cautiously followed him. When she caught up to him, he pretended to have not noticed her hesitation. They walked in silence, eventually ending up by a lonely bench on a river embankment. Ichigo sat and once again remained neutral in the face of Homura's hesitation and choice to sit as far from him as possible. They sat quietly for a long while. He hoped she would say something, give him an opening, but she was stonily silent and gave him nothing to react to. It was all on him.

At length, Ichigo said, "I'm not really very good about being all nuanced when I talk. Subtle just isn't my thing. So if I get blunt or whatever, I don't mean anything negative by it. Call me out on it if I make you too uncomfortable with what I'm saying, okay? I won't be angry."

Homura eyed him suspiciously. "...All right."

"Okay." Ichigo took a deep breath. He tried to choose his words carefully. "I've been texting the old man to see how you and the girls have been doing this week. He says you keep switching between opening up and withdrawing. While he doesn't understand what happened to you, he raised three kids and is good at reading people. He is very convinced that you feel guilty somehow." Ichigo turned and looked directly at Homura. Seriously, he asked, "Do you blame yourself for what happened to your friends?"

Homura flinched and looked away before she could stop herself. And it was obvious that she tried to stop herself.

Ichigo sighed softly. That was all the answer he needed. "It's not your fault," he said quietly.

"Yes, it is," Homura said dully. Her face was tired and her eyes looked far away. She was seeing something in her mind's eye and it wasn't anything good.

What happened to you?! Tell me! he wanted to shout.

"What makes you think that?" Ichigo asked neutrally. He waited out her long silence, calmly watching the river and sipping his coffee as Homura fidgeted with her cup. His goal was to nudge her into talking without putting pressure on her. It was less direct than he usually addressed things, so he hoped he didn't suck at it.

Homura pursed her lips and looked at the ground. It was plainly a subject she usually tried to avoid thinking about, much less talking about. Like his mother's death had been for him.

Was it difficult to express in words? Was she trying to be careful of keeping her story straight? Really, in her place, Ichigo could see himself refuse to speak of... whatever the problem was. He knew the feeling all too well. So he tried his best to channel Yuzu: to be inviting, non-judgmental, and sympathetic. Tried to draw her in. Desperately hoped Homura actually found herself wanting to talk to him. Otherwise, they had nothing to go on. Nothing.

Homura eventually settled on a vague, "They died because of my actions and inaction."

"Oh?" He would not cheer in relief that she actually answered. Would. Not. After taking a drink, he casually asked, "Did you make the monsters kill them?"

Homura sat up straight and looked at him with wide eyes. "No!"

"So, what, you think they were in danger because of you?"

Homura frowned.

"Not quite, huh?" Ichigo turned his face skyward and thought. He reflected upon himself throughout the years. "Then do you feel like you weren't strong enough to help them and they would have lived if you were stronger, faster, smarter, whatever? That if you had just been the perfect fighter, you could have saved them?"

Homura cringed hard. It said everything, really.

Ichigo sighed and leaned back. "I see."

"It's true, though," Homura blurted. Words rushed through her lips with increasing speed and pressure. "If I had done everything right, they wouldn't have been in danger, wouldn't have needed to fight—"

"But is that a realistic thing to expect of yourself?" Ichigo interrupted.

Homura whipped her head around to look at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Did my sisters tell you I fought in a shinigami war?"

Homura became more confused. "Yes? They said you beat the leader of... the enemy?"

Ichigo hummed. "I did, but I didn't do it alone. I don't think I could have pulled it off on my own. I had help every step of the way."

Homura frowned. "But Karin and Yuzu said you're very powerful and a very good fighter."

"I am, I guess; or maybe just stubborn and lucky," Ichigo said while scratching the back of his neck. "But I got that strong with the support of my friends and allies. There were several times when friends saved my ass when I was defeated. There were a lot of skills I was taught that I wouldn't have known if I was on my own. Power is useless if you don't know how to apply it properly. Even if you do know how to use your power perfectly, you may still fall short of your goals. They called me the strongest shinigami. But did you know I didn't strike the final blow on Aizen?"

Homura blinked and looked lost. "You didn't?"

"No," Ichigo said wryly. "But I was strong enough to weaken him to the point that Urahara was able to trap him." He looked at Homura. "I was at the peak of my strength, in perfect harmony with my zanpakutō, matching my opponent blow for blow, and I still needed help from a friend. Now that I'm a bit older, I find that applies to most challenges in life. When you and your friends rely on each other, you all face challenges knowing someone has your back. That's priceless. When you try to fight on your own, it's much easier for something to sneak up on you. It may be an enemy, it may be exhaustion, but whatever it is, you set yourself up to be blindsided later."

"But—" Homura faltered.

"There's only so much one person can do. You can't be everywhere at once. My point is this: You can't expect to be able to solve everyone else's problems— to protect everyone else— all by yourself. That was a hard lesson for me to learn myself. I still have trouble with it. You did the best you could with the knowledge and experience you have. It's not your fault that it wasn't enough. It won't bring those girls back, but from now on you have allies. Wherever you go from this point in your life, you can call on us to support you when you face a problem that you struggle to handle yourself. If this mess is anyone's fault, it's whatever is behind these monster attacks. Second place would probably be the shinigami— I think they really dropped the ball, here."

Homura stared at him for a long time. "But— but the w-monsters. I was there. They died because I— I—"

Ichigo hummed contemplatively. "Did you summon them?"

"What?"

"Did you summon the monsters yourself?"

Homura furrowed her brow. "No."

"You have no control over whether dangerous spirits show up to prey on people and how other people react to them," Ichigo reasoned.

"But—" Homura pursed her lips and looked down unhappily.

Ichigo considered his next words carefully. It was something he didn't like to talk about, but if it could help the girl... "I do know how you feel, though," he said quietly.

Homura looked up at him with blatant offended disbelief and suspicion. She thought he was being trite.

Ichigo took a deep breath and looked at the river. "For a long time, I blamed myself for my mother's death."

Homura's eyes widened and she inhaled sharply.

"I was nine. She was walking me home from karate practice in the rain. I saw a girl on the bridge by a broken rail and ran to her. I didn't know it was a spirit. I blacked out and woke up with my mom lying on me, dead. A few years ago I found out she died protecting me from a Hollow that used a lure that could look like a person." He turned his empty cup around in his hands. "I also found out my elevated reiatsu attracts Hollows. Put one and one together... I thought it was obviously my fault." He shrugged.

Homura's mouth opened and closed a few times before she settled on a wavering frown.

"But it wasn't." Ichigo turned to look her straight in the eye. "My father tried to convince me of that for a long time, but I didn't get it. Not until I got older and learned more of how the spirit world works. I had no control over whether a Hollow showed up. I was untrained, unaware of my power, and young. If there was any failure, it was on the part of the shinigami, who had known of that Hollow for decades and failed at taking it out. I should have been able to rely on their protection. In their absence, there was no way a nine-year-old human could realistically expect to defend against a decades-old Hollow."

"But— but I know how to fight the— monsters—" Homura objected.

"Sure. But it sounds like there are so many monsters up there that a single middle school girl can't reasonably be expected to defend against them all. Probably not even a lot of middle school girls, working together or not. None of you should have had to fight. The failure isn't on your part, but on the force behind the attacks and the organization that should have found the problem and protected you."

Homura stared. Like she was reasoning out what he had said. Still, she looked at him doubtfully.

Ichigo sighed lightly. "I know I probably can't convince you of all that right away, but I think you'll get it someday. Until then, know that no one blames you and the girls and I will be there for you when you need us, yeah? Our old man, too. Okay?"

Homura's cheeks pinked and she looked down again. "Okay."

Ichigo grinned sympathetically and ruffled her hair like he did with his sisters. "I think it's almost time for the girls to get out. Let's pick them up and go to lunch, yeah?"

"Mm."

Well, she hadn't said much, but it hadn't been a complete disaster. He'd take what he could get.

§ x § x §

Mid-afternoon found Akon, Lieutenant Kuchiki, and Captain Ukitake finishing up a brief stop to eat. They were perched on an apartment building from which they could look three blocks down the street and see the media vans that were camped out in front of the Kaname residence.

"Vultures," Lieutenant Kuchiki muttered.

Her captain gave a solemn hum of disapproving agreement, then sighed. "Let's get moving."

The three shinigami put their supplies away and slung the small packs over their shoulders. They spread out so they were just in sight of one another and continued their search. They veered east through the suburbs until they encountered the train station, then followed the tracks northwest until they had doubled back to a park. From there, they crossed the tracks and combed through the more densely populated residential condo towers. They were considering sweeping east again when Akon suddenly drew to a halt, staring at the sensor in his hand. The leaders of Thirteenth Division were soon at his side.

"Akon?" asked Captain Ukitake.

Akon furrowed his brow and waved the sensor back and forth. "There's some kind of... weakness in the spiritual structure of the World of the Living nearby." Distracted, he used shunpo to go in a few random directions with the sensor before settling on a direction to move. He stopped himself and looked up at the captain. "Your orders, sir?"

Captain Ukitake frowned. "Proceed with caution. Retreat if you encounter anything dangerous. Lieutenant, prepare for battle. We may flush something out."

"Yes, sir!"

Lieutenant Kuchiki drew her blade, as did her captain. The three descended, bouncing along the maze-like corridors between residential towers until they emerged into a clearing that contained a park. All three looked around cautiously before Akon landed on the ground and cast about. His sensor led the three of them to a currently unoccupied concert shell.

"Whatever it is is up on the stage, I think," Akon said quietly.

Captain Ukitake narrowed his eyes. "Something does feel... off." He glanced at his lieutenant. The two of them quietly jumped up by the stage's floor lamps. Akon followed them warily when nothing ambushed them. He pointed to where the sensor detected the anomaly.

"I think I see it," Lieutenant Kuchiki said quietly.

They all stared. There was a telltale ripple in the air at center stage. It looked like heat haze despite a lack of heat. At certain angles, a wave of pink light faintly wove through it in an indistinct pattern.

"What is this, Akon?" asked Captain Ukitake.

"I... I don't know, sir."

"It feels like," Lieutenant Kuchiki started, then hesitated. "Both like there's something there and nothing there. If that makes sense."

Captain Ukitake hummed. "Well, fortune favors the bold," he said. Then he stabbed at the anomaly with his zanpakutō before Akon could even brace himself.

The anomaly suddenly flared, a pink sigil snapping into focus. It was taller than the captain and looked like a translucent drawing of a winged skull over a wreath or laurel of four-petaled flowers. The three shinigami stared.

"Whyyy does that feel like a Garganta?" Lieutenant Kuchiki asked slowly. "Only... not really a Garganta?"

The Thirteenth Division shinigami turned to Akon. Akon was fascinated but confused and held his hands up in a gesture of being at a loss.

Captain Ukitake looked to the sigil once more. "It does feel like a doorway between worlds." He tilted his head and thought. "Akon, if the investigation party went through a doorway like this and ended up in... Hueco Mundo or somewhere else, would that explain why you can't locate their phones?"

Akon rolled his shoulders, face tight with concentration. "Yes, actually. I only broadcast the emergency signal to the World of the Living. That wouldn't get any results if they weren't in that dimension."

The captain frowned. "Can you tell anything about what is on the other side of this... doorway?"

Akon knelt and rummaged in his pack for some cord. "It's unconventional, but this should work." He tied the cord to the main rod of his dowsing snail and used a silent Shō spell to propel it into the portal. After a tense few minutes, he hauled it out. The sensor was thankfully intact. Akon fiddled around with it. "Whatever is in there, it's crawling with Hollow-like reiatsu. Much stronger than the residual traces Tsubokura reported on Monday. It should be habitable, though."

They stared at the anomaly for another minute or so while the captain thought. He nodded decisively. "Right. We're going to go in. Report our status to Twelfth before we go, Akon. Request that the Captain Commander be notified of everything should we fail to report within two hours. Upon my authority."

"Yes, sir!"

§ x § x §

After lunch, Ichigo gave each of the girls some money and told them to get a treat or see a movie or something.

"Where are you going?" Yuzu asked.

Ichigo shrugged. "I have some things to check up on. Make sure Ms. Ikumi hasn't worked her new assistant to death, maybe stop by some friends. And I want to see if I need to light a fire under Sandal-Hat's ass to get him to figure things out faster. I don't think you really need to be there for that."

All three girls squinted at him suspiciously.

"You mean you don't want us there," Karin corrected him.

Ichigo shrugged. "What of it?"

Karin scowled. "Why shouldn't we be th—?!"

"Drop it, Karin," Yuzu ordered. Karin's mouth snapped closed with a click and she looked at her sister in surprise. Yuzu gave her brother an even stare. "You're trying to protect Homura, aren't you? You don't want her upset by results or buried in questions."

Ichigo sighed. "You are terrifyingly perceptive, Yuzu."

Yuzu smiled sunnily. "You're just easy to read, Onii-chan!"

"D'aww, Ichi-nii's a big softie," crowed Karin.

Ichigo barked out a laugh and mussed her hair. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Go have fun."

Ichigo stood and watched them walk away for a few minutes, noting Yuzu's gushing declaration that they should show Homura Naruki City (across the entire town from Urahara Shop) and how his sisters flocked on either side of Homura (like bodyguards).

Ichigo rolled his eyes fondly. Yeeeah, suuure, he was totally the only softie protecting the girl. Uh-huh. Riiiight.

§ x § x §

The three shinigami cautiously stepped through the portal. While they had thought themselves prepared for anything and half expected to end up in Hueco Mundo, they were surprised by the bizarre world they found themselves in. They were at one end of a steep stadium whose seats were filled with stuffed animals. The wall and seats behind them looked like they had been recently broken and put back together again, cracks studded with pieces of duct tape like stitches. The stuffed animals in the reconstructed portion of the arena each had several bandages on them. Akon spotted the heavily-damaged reiatsu analysis sensor, but was wary of approaching it. Rukia nudged her captain after looking a distance away from the sensor. She pointed to a stretch of repaired wall with dried streaks of blood, a large patch of charred grass, and the bloodied remains of Shino's distinctive lily-pad-like hair ornament. The survey party had most likely met a violent end.

On their other side was a wide field filled with a marching band made of dolls. The grass between the shinigami and the band was pockmarked; the Thirteenth Division officers narrowed their eyes, recognizing the remnants of a tactic they taught their subordinates for defense against multiple threats. So the band was dangerous rather than decorative. At the far end of the stadium, a gigantic human skeleton in a pink band conductor's uniform tapped a baton, directing the rattling sound of snare drums keeping time from somewhere within the band.

"Akon?" Captain Ukitake asked tensely.

"Nooo clue," Akon replied, looking around in confused fascination.

"Sir?" said Rukia. When her captain looked at her expectantly, she continued. "This feels like a combination of Hueco Mundo and that weird... dollhouse-world I was pulled into by the Fullbringer Riruka Dokugamine."

Captain Ukitake raised an eyebrow in interest and looked to Akon.

Akon shrugged. "We didn't receive sufficient data to do any kind of evaluation or comparison of the abilities of the Fullbringers."

Fweeeeeeee fweet! Fweet! Fweet! Fweet!

A whistle and booming drums drew the shinigami's attention to the band, which began to march toward them. The Thirteenth Division officers immediately performed the same tactic their subordinates must have, but with much greater effect. Rukia cast Shō in a wide arc in front of them. Captain Ukitake then curtly spoke the shortened incantation for Hyapporankan and impaled the first dozen rows of dolls with lances of blue light, pinning them to the ground.

Determined to wipe out the small army before him, the captain then snapped, "Fifty-Seventh Way of Destruction: Daichi Tenyō!"

Three quarters of the field shattered and levitated, throwing the marching dolls into disarray. Captain Ukitake used the spell to launch the broken debris at the big skeleton at the end of the field. The skeleton shrieked, streams of glowing pink musical staves rapidly flowing from its mouth to weave a barrier in front of it. The pieces of earth and the dolls caught up with them broke against the shield. Still shrieking, the skeleton stood and made a sharp upward gesture with its conductor's baton. Discarded instruments from the field levitated and flowed toward the skeleton on more pink musical staves which then bound them to the skeleton. The mass glowed with a bright pink light that formed a heart before breaking into sparkles, leaving a smaller skeleton dressed in red perched in a glowing crevice in the bizarre, heart-shaped machine's center. It hovered on pink thrusters and broadcast the sound of an orchestra warming up at a gradually increasing volume from a bank of giant speakers.

Akon, standing guard over Rin's abandoned sensor, blurted, "Oh, shit, I think that's an LRAD!"

"An el-what?!" shouted Rukia.

"SOUND CANN—!"

Akon's answer was completely drowned out by a blast of music so loud it further shattered the ground and ruptured their eardrums before they could react. The three shinigami grimaced and blocked their faces with their arms but managed to keep their footing by bracing themselves with their reiatsu, which was much stronger than the first team's. Each of the three managed to get an Enkōsen kidō shield up moments later to decrease the onslaught, but the damage had already been done. They stood resolute while the glowing pink musical notes, inert dolls, and field debris blew into and around their shields. The blast ceased after what felt like an eternity.

Captain Ukitake tried to speak to his team, but saw their ears just as bloody as his own probably were. He pantomimed to Akon to protect the sensor. Akon looked confused, then brightened in realization and nodded. Next, the captain glanced at his lieutenant and made standard hand signal orders to her, watching for her reply. She nodded, then glanced over his shoulder with wide eyes. Captain Ukitake looked back at the massive sound cannon. A turret full of giant recorders had unfurled from its base and began to spin. He had no idea what they were for until the recorders all burst forward, propelled by pink, rocket-like energy.

Though he could no longer hear his own voice, Captain Ukitake roared, "Eighty-First Way of Binding: Dankū!" The huge pane of translucent reishi materialized just in time to block the missiles, which exploded against it spectacularly. The captain then met his lieutenant's eyes with a hard glare, nodding at her to begin their attack. It was time to end this.

The two officers leapt in opposite directions and rushed along the top of the wall between the stands and the field, each rapidly muttering a different high-level kidō incantation. The strange creature hesitated, unsure of which shinigami it should target. When the two officers were not quite parallel with the monster, they shouted the final words of their spells.

"Seventy-Third Way of Destruction: Sōren Sōkatsui!" Rukia screamed. A double bolt of blue light blasted from her hands.

"Eighty-Eighth Way of Destruction: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!" Captain Ukitake bellowed. A massive electrical construct burst toward the monster.

Hit from two sides by an overwhelming amount of power, the monster screeched and blew to smithereens. Its pieces disintegrated into pink sparkles in mid-flight. Moments later, the nightmare world wavered around them and faded. Akon dove toward Rin's sensor, wrapping his arms around it as the pocket dimension collapsed completely.

The three shinigami found themselves back on the stage of the concert shell in the park, spread out in a wide triangle. As they panted, a silver spindle containing a black jewel floated down to the ground between them. All three stared at it, then each other.

Captain Ukitake and Rukia didn't need their ears to understand Akon's enthusiastically mouthed What the hell?! and heartily agree.

§ x § x §

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§ x § x §

This chapter was replaced with an edited version on November 1, 2019. Reviews with timestamps before that date refer to a slightly different version of the chapter.