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"Rukia" – Normal Speech

' Ichigo' – Thoughts

*Kaien-dono* - Zanpakutō speech/thoughts

" Bankai! " – Spiritual Technique

Chapter 29: A Broken Heart Bleeds Destruction

Later

Kurosaki Kirika's Room, Kurosaki Residence

"Ah…!"

In one of the rooms of the Kurosaki Household, a single sound finally managed to break the near-total silence that had pervaded the room for quite some time. That sound, a small, panicked gasp, came from the occupant of the room's lone bed as her jade eyes suddenly snapped open, finally breaking free of the nightmares that her unconscious mind had been inflicting upon her as she slept. Her right hand slowly rose and rubbed tiredly at her eyes a moment later.

"I've slept too much…" she grunted quietly. She'd obviously been out of it for at least eight hours, which was a bit too long for her personal tastes. Kurosaki Kirika personally preferred sleeping no more than six hours at a time, otherwise she would always wake up feeling groggy and sluggish and take forever to get herself into proper working order. Kind of like how she was feeling now.

Kirika froze as the memories of just why she had been sleeping for so long out of nowhere rushed back to her. Ban and Hō, their Dolls, the attack on her sisters, Yuzu nearly being drowned…her killing Ban. Her sensei knocking her out…

' Damnit all…I completely lost control of myself.' she silently berated herself as she let her arm flop back down onto the pillow that was resting next her head. If there was one thing that Kirika had always prided herself on, above and beyond her growing skill in the Zankensoki and her bond with Nejibana, it was the strength of her self-control. She wasn't like her hothead of a brother; she kept her cool no matter what happened around her and thought things through…for the most part at least.

She was well aware that she was keeping a LOT of darkness locked up within herself, so much so that she was quite certain that, were her soul that of an actual Human, she would immediately Hollowfy upon death. That kind of feral anger and despair, so raw and potent and destructive, had to be kept tightly leashed or her dark impulses would run rampant.

Last night, after being forced to watch as her precious baby sister was nearly drowned in their own home, something within Kirika had simply…snapped. She couldn't remember ever feeling anything quite like the fury that had flooded her veins in that moment, so hot and intense that it honestly felt like she was going to burn alive in her own skin. She suddenly had a new appreciation for what her brother likely felt whenever he saw her, Yuzu, or Karin being threatened in some way.

How could feeling that kind of anger all the time be normal?

The sound of two sets of soft, rhythmic breathing drew Kirika's attention and she rolled her head around to locate the source. Sitting on a chair pulled right up against the bed were her sisters. Karin and Yuzu looked so adorable whenever they were asleep, with the dour, snarky, serious Karin finally looking relaxed and not bothering with her usual tough-girl act, she looked particularly angelic.

The thought of those two little bastards laying so much as a finger on either of her sisters caused that same burning rage, now caged once more, to rise up and rattle against her control. Thankfully, with the threat removed, she was able to tamp it back down under control, throttling down the dark urges and then ruthlessly suppressing them with the ease of long practice.

'While I can't be sure that that won't change in the future, right now I'm still firmly in control, not you.' she mentally told off her dark half as she quashed it back into her chest. 'Once you finally turn into my Hollow side and start being useful for something, then we can have a nice, long talk.'

Kirika had no illusions about just what kind of Reiryoku Aizen had used when he was experimenting on her. Shiba Kaien's Reiryoku had been extracted from the remnants of an Artificial Hollow he'd created called Metastacia; it was almost inevitable that she would end up developing an Inner Hollow like the Visored had…and like Ichigo almost certainly had thanks to Urahara putting him through the Shattered Shaft.

As best she could figure out, although she likely already had, or was at least in the process of developing, an Inner Hollow, Nejibana's influence was acting as a 'plug' in order to keep it either dispersed or suppressed, depending on just how developed the Hollow Reiryoku was at the moment. The instant that Nejibana stopped being a factor, she would likely have to contend with the Hollow within herself.

However, unlike the vast majority of Soul Reapers, Kirika truly had no particularly negative feeling toward the vast majority of Hollows. At most, she pitied the majority of them for their feral nature and their futile attempts to reclaim some measure of their lost humanity; but she had only ever hated a few, and all of those were ones that had personally attacked her and her family. That was a slight advantage that she had over Ichigo, who had developed a deep fear and hatred towards Hollows as a whole after his encounter with Grand Fisher. When his Inner Hollow manifested itself, getting him to step back and be even slightly objective about it was going to be a major pain in the ass.

Kirika sighed as she got up…or tried to at least. Instead, she found herself being held in place by some kind of unseen force. Feeling outwards with her spiritual senses, she quickly recognized the energy that was keeping her bound in place.

'Tch…Bakudō #40, Nemutori no Kokuin (Way of Binding Number Forty, Seal of the Sleeping Bird).' the redhead clicked her tongue in annoyance as she recognized the Kidō that was restraining her before she set to work breaking it down with her own Reiryoku. This Bakudō was apparently one of Unohana Retsu's own creations, designed to deal with unruly or stubborn patients that refused to stay in bed; particularly the hard-headed battle-fanatics of Squad Eleven. It left a target completely unable to move their body starting from beneath their arms, as well as weakening the physical strength that was able to be used by the arms. Useful against idiots that couldn't understand anything more complex than swinging their swords around, but for Kirika, who prided herself on having a degree of skill in every aspect of the Zankensoki, it was nothing more than a momentary delay.

A few minutes later (and it was honestly a surprise that it took that long but the Bakudō had been particularly well-cast) and Kirika was free once more. Standing up, she gently transferred her sisters into her bed and tucked them in before quickly dressing and silently leaving through the door.

"You're up a bit earlier than I expected." a familiar voice offered as she softly closed the door behind her.

"I'm fine after getting six hours of sleep a night, Yoruichi-sensei." Kirika offered softly as she turned and faced her teacher. "Any longer and I'm left feeling groggy and unbalanced for hours after I wake up. As it is, it's going to take a bit for me to finish getting back on my feet. I take it the Nemutori was your doing?"

"Yup. Amazing what Retsu is willing to teach ya when you have a bunch of overeager try-hards for subordinates." the taller woman flashed her a smirk before a far more serious mien came over her. "Kirika-chan, we need to talk."

"About my disgraceful performance last night?" the redhead guessed with a sigh.

To her surprise, Yoruichi simply shook her head. "Nah. Capturing the twins might have made finding out where the Bount have hidden themselves a lot easier, but after what those two little creeps tried, going after a pair of non-combatants, and children at that, they got just what they deserved. Honestly, I can't really blame you for losing your temper like that; I know I wouldn't have been able to keep my cool in that kind of shit when I was as green as you."

"Oh…wait, so Hō ended up dying as well? How?" Kirika blinked in surprise.

"I caught the little shit and zapped him with a couple times with a drastically underpowered Byakurai to try and get him to stop being a dumbass and just give up. Apparently, his Doll sensed his weakness and turned on him when that happened." the Shihōin Princess offered with a shrug, utterly uncaring that a sentient being had suffered a horrible and permanent demise. "It's good that we now have confirmation that Dolls really can and will turn on their Bount masters and try and kill them if they smell weakness, I suppose."

"The idea that that's even possible is just…" Kirika shook her head, more than a bit disturbed that an existence so similar to a Zanpakutō could betray and kill its other half so arbitrarily. For a Soul Reaper, that kind of thing was utterly nightmarish.

"Yeah, not a pleasant idea to dwell on, so stop trying to distract me." the purple-haired werecat narrowed her eyes at Kirika, who innocently looked off to the side. "Kirika-chan, you literally lost complete control of yourself last night. That is so unlike you that it actually took me a minute to register it was actually happening."

The girl refused to speak.

"I'm guessing that Aizen handing you and Ichigo your asses on a platter has been bothering you more than you let on." Yoruichi speculated aloud, watching her Apprentice carefully. "You may have managed to injure him, but we both know that was only because he underestimated you so drastically; something that is not likely to happen again. And then, after dealing with your brother being his usual stubborn ass self and slowly readjusting to normal life again, the Bount show up and now your sisters are being threatened. That made everything you've been keeping locked down bubble up and utterly overwhelm you."

Kirika's hands clenched tightly at her sides, but she said nothing.

"Kid, that is, without a doubt, one of your biggest weaknesses." the Shunshin stated simply, eyes still not moving from her pseudo-daughter. "You bottle everything up in order to keep everyone from seeing you in pain or suffering, and when you don't have a proper release for those kinds of feelings, they will eventually bubble over like this. Something you picked up from your dumbass of a brother no doubt, he pulls the exact same kind of shit. Kirika, that is not a healthy way of handling these things; it will just end up burning you out from the inside sooner or later. But you already know that, don't you."

Unseen by the distracted Kirika, the door behind her had slip open a crack and two attentive ears were listening in.

"And yet you keep it up for two reasons. The first is that you have an immense amount of survivor's guilt over being the only one of Aizen's test subjects to survive and escape. This is your own way of punishing yourself where everyone else you knew died." Yoruichi continued relentlessly. "Secondly…you simply don't care about the long-term consequences of your coping methods, because you don't honestly believe that you have a future. You're almost certain that you are going to die before this comes to an end, aren't you?"

At this, Kirika finally broke her silent to let out a soft, bitter little laugh. It was a sound so alien to the red-haired young woman that Yoruichi was briefly stopped short by it. "Aizen is intelligent and devious enough that his very involvement turns Urahara into an utter paranoiac, he is every bit as capable a Kidō Master as Tessai-sensei, and his ability in physical combat is at a level where even you're not sure you'd be able to defeat him one-on-one, sensei. Then there is that absolutely insane 'absolute hypnotism' trick of his Zanpakutō. Throw in the aid of Tōsen Kaname and Ichimaru Gin, as well as what might be an army of Arrancars born from at least Gillian-class Hollows, and perhaps you can understand why I'm more than a bit fatalistic about my own chances of survival after very clearly making myself his enemy."

Crossing her arms, Yoruichi merely inclined her head, inviting the girl to continue speaking.

"Aniki is the key to whatever plan Urahara has cooked up. I don't know how or why, but somehow Ichigo is the damned silver bullet that Hat'n'Clogs is planning to stop Aizen with. I still don't know any details of just what his plans are, and I honestly don't need to. To Urahara, I have been and always will be an unplanned for and unnecessary variable in his big master plan. He has never and will never fully trust me." Kirika stated bitterly, the words rushing out of her, years of frustration finally forcing themselves out of her. "And while you're right that I am fatalistic about my chances; its not just that. I want to kill Aizen; not send him to a millennia-long time-out in the Muken (Mugen Jigoku/Infinite Hell). I want to murder that bastard in the most painful, excruciating way possible for all the pain and sorrow that he's inflicted onto so many souls over the centuries! I want to see his very soul extinguished for what he did to me! I am ready and willing to do just about anything in order to see that goal accomplished, up to and including sacrificing my own life for the process."

Snorting, the redhead turned and stared at the wall opposite her blankly, too lost in her own turmoil to hear the gasps of horror that came through the door at her words. "But even then…even with all I'm willing to give up, I still will not be able to kill him. I know that, deep down in my gut. At best, I'll be able to slow or minorly inconvenience him, maybe even delay or at least set back his plans a bit, but I won't be able to stop him and then thing will all go according to whatever master plan Urahara's been cooking up for decades, and everything I've done will be nothing but a footnote. I'm not like Aniki, who's had Reiryoku on par with a Captain since he was thirteen. I'm not a Kidō prodigy, some once-in-lifetime talent with Zanjutsu, a master of Hakuda, or ever a genius with Hohō. I am just a single New Soul that was experimented on, and managed to be exceptionally lucky and survive it. I'm struggling to just tread water and keep up with the everything that's happening, and then those fucking Bount attacked my sisters. Those two insignificant little absolute nothings in the grand scheme of things almost managed to drown one of my little sisters while I was in the other room! In our own home where they should be safest because Ichigo and I are here most of the time! I can't protect my brother because he's already far more powerful than I could ever hope to get; I can't protect my sisters because I can't stand guard over them 24/7, and I can't even kill the one bastard I hate most in the world because I'm too damn weak, dumb, slow, and impotent to even stand a chance against him! What fucking use am I if I can't do anything to accomplish ANY of my goals!?"

Kirika didn't even seem to notice that tears were flowing down her cheeks in a steady stream until after she finished speaking.

'Damn it, it's even worse than I thought.' Yoruichi thought gravely, her eyes still on her apprentice. She had suspected that Kirika had been hiding some form of self-destructive, or even possibly suicidal, urges since the confrontation with Aizen, but nothing nearly as bad as this. 'Unlike Ichigo, who's dense and bullheaded enough to ignore the facts in front of him, Kirika knows exactly what is going within the Soul Society thanks to the memories that she inherited from Shiba Kaien. She's also far more realistic and grounded in the reality about the kind of situation they're facing. She knows just how far Aizen is willing to go to achieve whatever goal he is after, and she's smart enough to have noticed how big a part her brother plays in Kisuke's plans to stop him. Unfortunately, that very intelligence is also the main reason that she is suffering like this.'

There are few things worse in the world for someone than being just smart enough to realize how utterly out of their depth and helpless they are in a given situation. To know how bad things are and not have any way of resolving it; knowing that they are entirely dependent on the whims and merciful indulgences of others if they hope to just survive.

Kirika had been unfairly hard on herself when she'd described her own abilities. The truth was that Kirika was talented in all four aspects of the Zankensoki, even if she wasn't a genius like Ichimaru or Hitsugaya were. She was intelligent, self-aware, and entirely realistic about how she stacked up in comparison to the other big players in this mess. Compared to the likes of Aizen, she wasn't even a minor threat to him now that he was well aware of her existence and she knew it. Even if she managed to gain Nejibana's Bankai, even if she learned Shunkō, even if she could master dozens of powerful, Forbidden Kidō; there was nothing that she could do that would be enough to make her a serious threat to Aizen himself.

That self-awareness was truly a curse for her and had likely been driving her half-mad with impotent fury for some time now, and yet she had managed to keep it all bottled up and hidden with the ease of long practice.

Still, that driving, vengeful need to avenge herself, to avenge everything that she had lost, to avenge everyone who had suffered and died because of Aizen's machinations, had kept spurring her on. Kirika had ended up deciding that her life was a price she willing to pay in order to stop Aizen. Given the rant that she had just been forced to listen to, Yoruichi was willing to bet that Kirika had already decided that, even if she gave up her own life, she likely wouldn't be able to do anything more than inconvenience Aizen.

As someone who had spent a good part of her existence as an assassin, as the former leader of the Onmitsukidō, Yoruichi could applaud the mental fortitude and decisiveness that it took to come to such a decision. Such qualities, once upon a time, would have made her mark the girl in front of her as an exceptionally capable and trusted subordinate for missions. Now, as someone who had acknowledged that she saw the crying girl in front of her as less than a subordinate or disciple and more as a daughter, she was heartfully torn by what to do.

'Dammit Kisuke. Why are you so goddamned paranoid about her in particular!?' the werecat mentally cursed her old friend. If they had been able to just sit Kirika down and explain the entire plan to her, or at least as much as Urahara let even her and Tessai know about it, before this, they could have at the very least delayed or mitigated this. As it was, Kisuke absolutely refused to let Kirika be brought in any further on the grand plan other than what she'd already figured out, and he was definitely going to be far less than pleased that the young Soul had somehow managed to figure out Ichigo's place in the plan.

"Kiri-nee!" two voice suddenly shouted and Kirika whirled around in shock just as her two younger sisters threw open the door before launching themselves at her, knocking her down onto her ass.

"I…Yuzu? Karin? Weren't you asleep?!" the older girl could only goggle at the two crying girls on top of her. Yuzu was on thing, but Karin crying was very much uncharted territory.

"Kiri-nee…!" Yuzu sniffled as she hugged onto her sister desperately. "You can't…you can't die!"

"Ah…you guys overhead that, huh?" Kirika realized sadly before giving her teacher the side-eye. "You did something that would wake them up as soon as I left the room, didn't you sensei?"

"Maybe, maybe not." Yoruichi responded with a smirk at her apprentice. "Right now, I think you have far more important matters to attend to."

Sending a flat glower up at her sensei for a brief moment, Kirika nevertheless quickly returned her attention to her sisters, hugging them and offering what comfort she could.

"Kiri-nee…do you really want to die?" Karin finally voiced a question after a few minutes of quiet, her voice muffled from where her face was still pressed into her elder sister's chest.

"I don't, not really." Kirika replied softly with a sigh. "Maybe if I hadn't been adopted as a Kurosaki, if all I'd ever had was my revenge to chase after, maybe then I would have actually wanted to die. I don't want to die, Karin, but I'm…resigned to the fact that it will likely happen. The person that I hate the most, the person that has been my enemy for as long as I can remember, he is not just monstrously powerful, but smart, smart enough that it absolutely terrifies me. He make one of the men I have been training with, another very scarily smart man, afraid to the point of paranoia. He has every possible advantage in the fight to come, and as strong as I have managed to become, he is so far beyond me that all that I have accomplished might as well be nothing more than a child's first steps."

Saying that aloud actually hurt more than she liked to admit.

"T-Then why do you have to keep fighting!?" Yuzu asked tearfully. "If you can't win-!"

"Because then I would lose something very important to me, Yuzu." The older girl interrupted her gently. "I'm sure that sensei, and possibly Aniki, already told you about my story; that I lost my pseudo-family because of the man that I hate. It is worse than they could describe; I was forced to watch it happen, utterly helpless to do a thing. And then I was left alone, bereft of anyone or anything. Had that evil man simply taken me in at that point, I'd likely have clung to him out of desperation for something, anything, to cling to at that point and became a terrible person myself. Instead, he simply threw me away like trash. That was what he called me, a 'piece of expendable refuse.'"

Karin hissed in outrage against her sister's chest at someone calling her kind, brave, and loving elder sister something like that. Even Yuzu grumbled in protest.

"But the point is that I have every reason to stand and fight him." Kirika continued calmly. "That man is a monster in every meaning of the word, and there is no knowing exactly what his final goal is. But whatever it is, I refuse to allow him to achieve it after all the innocents he has trampled on to gain it. He's already shown an unusual amount of interest in Aniki, and now that he knows I somehow managed to survive, he will come after me to reclaim or simply dispose of 'his property' if nothing else. Whether or not I want to fight him is irrelevant, he will come for me eventually. And I'd rather face him with everything that I can bring to bear rather than allow myself to be dragged away and used by him again. If I didn't…I don't think I would still be me."

The twins seemed to be quite confused by that particular choice of words, but Yoruichi at least understood the truth behind her apprentice's words. If she gave up, if she refused to fight, then Kirika's pride would cease to exist. The core of the person that had become Kurosaki Kirika was divided evenly in two parts. The first was the avenging warrior that despised Aizen with every fibre of her being, while the other was the proud warrior who fought with courage and skill against even those that far outmatched her in skill and power. If Kirika gave up on her revenge, if she just stopped fighting against the unstoppable tide, what would there be left of her? Yes, she loved and cared deeply for her siblings, but if those two primary driving forces of her life were discarded, then the very foundation of her being would be gone, leaving behind nothing but a hollow shell.

"Is this person…is he really bad?" Yuzu asked.

"Worse than I am willing to speak with you of, Zu-chan." Kirika tightened her hold on her sisters slightly. "The thought of him, of Aizen Sōsuke, being anywhere near either of you absolutely terrifies me to the point that I feel physically ill. He gladly takes and destroys the lives of others simply to make the path to his own goal that much more clear; he would think no more of slaughtering entire families than others would think of stepping on an ant. So many people, good and bad and in-between, have suffered because of him, that the portion that I know of is likely less than a single drop of blood that he has sacrificed onto the altar of whatever ambition and desire he chases. He's someone that has to be fought, regardless of what it will cost to stop him in the end. Out of everyone else who has known him, only Urahara Kisuke, Yoruichi-sensei, and Tessai-sensei know and understand that fact as well as I do."

Stroking the hair of her sisters gently, the redheaded girl decided that she needed to wrap this up. So much emotional baggage so early was only going to leave them all far too exhausted to face the rest of the day. "I know you both are worried about me now, but I will make you both a solemn promise, and you know how I am about my promises right?" she offered gently. "I promise that I will do everything that I can to not die or get killed unless it is absolutely necessary to stop Aizen from accomplishing his goals or I am simply unable to stop it."

"Kiri-nee!" Yuzu protested.

"Yuzu, this guy almost killed Aniki." Kirika responded firmly. "He is responsible for the deaths of no less than half-a-million souls, and that is just the smallest of evils on his tally. He has done so many vile things that I don't even want you to know about. I hate him, more than I can possibly put into words to describe. I will not throw my life away meaninglessly, that is what I can promise you both, but this is something that I must do and there will be times when I might have to risk my life. If I believe those risks will stop Aizen from being able to reach the two of you, I will take them without a moment's hesitation."

Yuzu, the gentle soul that she was, was obviously having trouble truly understanding her words, Kirika could tell that much, but Karin just gave a slight nod. Karin might also be an innocent, but she was a bit rougher around the edges than her sister and understood that simply letting people hurt others to maintain peace was not an option, especially when those being hurt were people you cared for.

Through a mixture of promises, chiding, and sisterly affection, Kirika managed to get the twins to head for their bed, as they needed some proper sleep to face the next day. Thankfully, the house had already been cleared of all the water that had been brought in by Guhl and Günther and all of the water damage had (somehow) been repaired as well, so once Isshin returned he wouldn't know anything had even happened.

"Sensei, can Tessai-sensei place some defences around the house? I don't want anything like this to happen again." Kirika asked bluntly as she closed the door on the twins' room.

"Tessai has already agreed to it and is preparing a proper formation as we speak." the werecat responded with a nod. "Anyway, there is still one more conversation that you need to attend to."

"… nope. I have already had one extremely emotionally draining conversation this morning. Aniki is just going to have to wait for this afternoon." Kirika stated firmly, looking utterly exhausted at the mere thought of being forced to play chicken with Ichigo's ridiculously dense skull.

"Good things that I've made arrangements for you to be excused for the next two days, then." Yoruichi stated with a smirk. "You see yourself as weak and slow? Then my apprentice, you could have just asked for more training."

"Sensei?" the girl blinked in shock.

"I have been…reluctant to try and teach anyone else Shunkō." the purple-haired woman admitted. "It is powerful but extremely dangerous, and even I haven't been able to gain full control over it. Then my Little Bee spent the century since we parted creating her own version of it. It's only a matter of time before you stumble on a way to do the same thing; so I may as well help you learn it so that you don't end up blowing yourself up or electrocuting yourself a half-dozen times like I managed to while first developing it."

"Should I go pack my bags and leave a note explaining things to Aniki and the twins?" Kirika asked excitedly. Although she was smart enough to recognize that she was effectively being benched for the next two days so she could have time de-stress after her breakdown, it was still an opportunity to learn one of the signature techniques of the Shunshin and her star pupil. There was no way that she was letting this chance slip through her fingers!

"Yup, I'll take care of leaving one for your old man to find, so go and get to it." Yoruichi confirmed, watching with a faintly bemused chuckle as Kirika almost ran to her room in excitement. Then she sobered dramatically. This would only be a stopgap measure; the darkness that was buried in Kirika, her helplessness, self-hatred, despair, and fury, were all doubtless feeding the nascent Inner Hollow developing within her. And unlike Ichigo's, Kirika's particular monster had been fermenting within her soul since she was five, so just how powerful would it end up becoming when it eventually manifested?

'Kirika-chan isn't going to like it, but once her Inner Hollow starts to act up, we're gonna have to talk to the Visored to get some help.' the exiled Captain thought unhappily. Kirika had made her rather negative opinion of the Visored quite clear in the past, and working with them is something she knew the young soul would rather avoid. 'Eh, she'll get over it. And hell, watching her kick the shit out of that uppity little Sarugaki brat will be amusing if nothing else.'

Without putting on her Mask, Sarugaki Hiyori would be hopelessly outclassed by Kirika in terms of speed, technique, and raw utility. With it on, she would gain an advantage in raw power, but would still be outclassed in technique and speed. And Kirika knew how to fight opponents who were more powerful than she was. It would be greatly amusing to see the super-tomboy get her ass handed to her.

Elsewhere, Sarugaki Hiyori suddenly developed a pulsing tick on her forehead as she sensed someone was out there talking shit about her behind her back.

"OI! Shinji, ya damned baldie! Are you talking shit about me again!?" she yelled in fury.

"He isn't here, Hiyori; he's still over in Karakura." Love blandly informed her as he rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. "Now stop throwin' temper tantrums and get your stuff together. We were supposed to be done with this yesterday!"

"FINE! I'm gonna kick Shinji's ass when we get back though!" Hiyori snorted in annoyance before stomping off.

"Kensei, you damned well owe me one for this." the former Captain muttered tiredly. He'd had to make sure that the surly, unruly and aggravating tomboy didn't smack undeserving people around back in the Seireitei, and he was mildly annoyed at how frequently he had to keep up that duty even in the Human World.

That was what Shinji was for!

Grumbling a bit under his breath, Love headed to his old room in the now-abandoned hideout. Judging by just how agitated Shinji had sounded over the phone, things were starting to really heat up back in Karakura. They needed to get there stat and see what was making the normally unflappable ex-Captain so damned twitchy.

'It ain't going to be anything good, that's for sure.' the male Visored predicted. Nothing that made Hirako Shinju nervous ever meant anything good for them. Experience had taught all the Visored that much.

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Next Chapter: Shunkō: Himoto

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