The sun drenched the park trail eerie red as it set, and Byakuya's billion blades whirled serenely above them, as though this were a fest and not a slaughter. The female arrancar looked directly into his eyes with a defiant smirk, her greasy hair waving. "Step aside," Byakuya ordered. "I have no time to play your games."

"Step aside!?" she laughed, mirthlessly. "Do not talk dow to us like children, you shinigami dog! Do you who we are? I am Mila Rose, the worthiest fraccion of the greatest espada! Step back, girls--this one's mine!" Mila's fingers caressed the scabbard of her sword, and fearsome energy began to well up in her eyes. "Die!"

It was over before it began--Mila fell mangled beyond recognition at her comrades' feet, ground into dust by Senbonzakura before she could even register her own demise. Another of the fraccion gritted her teeth and, withdrawing a few paces, began to invoke her sword, but the blade came only halfway out of its sheath before the swarm of petals descended. The last girl, clearly outmatched, snapped her fingers and retreated through the rent air back to Hueco Mundo.

The nuisances thus dispatched, Byakuya resume chase, and shining bunches of sword swooped to follow. It occured to him that Yoruichi had never actually seen what his bankai looked like. Had the situation not been so dire, Byakuya might have smiled. How tremendously powerful was this woman, to have forced Shihouin Yoruichi to singe a distress signal in the clouds?

HELP

He'd not completed his mission of securing the perimeter, but in his mind a new mission had taken precedence--Kill Halibel, and Rescue Yoruichi. After all, she'd taught him the true meaning of "salvation" on that day so many years before... it was only prudent he return the favor.

--

"Kuchiki-dono, seven Hollows are headed your way."

"From which direction?"

"Can't tell--but they're all Huges. And there's a big dumb Gillian lumbering about thirty miles of forest back."

"Are you certain?" asked young Byakuya, gazing toward the fresh morning horizon with narrowed eyes.

The hooded sentry sniffed the air again. "Yep. Ain't no mind to that mass. Now, is this where you want me to leave?"

"I am in need of no further assistance, Genshi," Byakuya dismissed his retainer with a wave.

"Wanto to impress the judges, right? Well, don't let me stop you. See you later... I hope." With a deft flurry of hand signs, Genshi opened a pit-rift under his feet and melted into the swaying dew. He had gone back to the palace.

Byakuya's look of contempt lingered even after his Genshi's departure; he would die before showing the judges any such cowardly technique. For if he wanted to impress his invisible appraisers enough to rise immediately to captaincy, as he had dreamed since he was a boy, he knew he would have to pass the rest of the field demonstration alone. More, these Hollows he fought were no dummies, but rather intelligent, tortured souls bred by the twelfth division to lust after shinigami with high spiritual resonance--shinigami like him. Every applicant before him had lead loyal troops in combat against such deadly spirits, but Byakuya believed any undue help not only unnecessary but detrimental to his goal.

The first Hollow attacked alone, a formation of brothers probably lurking in the shade of the trees in case the target chanced running. This Huge was a flying, batlike beast with the ability to encase prey in an inpenetrable dome of spirit energy. The research corps must have spared no effort creating this monstrosity, Byakuya noted wryly--the net seemed to be able to keep from shattering under the pressure of his reiatsu by drawing power from his own zampakuto's inner world, thereby nearly incapacitating him. The perfect shinigami-proof barrier. But he could still see a way out. He idly tracked the Hollow's lurching movements in the air (a call to dinner, most likely) and waited patiently until its entire body had dipped just inside the surface of the force field before crying "Hakudo 53--Prismatic Spray!"

The surface of the Hollow's own sphere momentarily spiked, its consistency disturbed by a well-aimed binding spell, and the bat's mask quietly disintegrated. Its mates, having emerged to feed, met similar fates.

"Return, Senbonzakura." Five Huges down. Two to go.

Panting, Byakuya knelt and focused on the task at hand. Kill the Gillian or deal with the other two first? Assuming the Hollows would not foolishly charge at him, it was best if he remained alert in this clearing and waited for his reiatsu to replenish. To that end, Byakuya sat beside a great gnarled trunk and closed one eye, his hands clasped as in prayer. It was not long, however, before the sound of a rushing stream began to interfere with his meditation. Could it be? Had the examiners installed a river since last he inspected the training ground?

Soon the sunlight had trickled through the dense canopy down to the soil on which Byakuya stood. He wiped his brow and blinked furiously; Hours had passed, yet he could not feel any of his reiatsu return to him. Perhaps this mysterious river was the root of the problem? Byakuya dare not so much as approach the direction of the sound, lest a Hollow drag him to the bottom of the stream where Senbonzakura could not scatter. Byakuya's only option lay in spending the remainder of his spirit energy wisely. First, he needed to clarify the position of his enemies.

Still seated, Byakuya thrust his sword forward and imagined a blue void spreading from its tip, as though it were a dot of ink devouring the page. It was the most sophisticated detection spell he was willing to expend the reiatsu to use. Byakuya concentrated with all his might until two frightening masks began to cut themselves out of the uniform blue sheet that was the world. Their negativity was palpable, like nothingness he could feel with his fingers. The astral projection of Hollows. Just before he could pinpoint their location on the grid, the masks fizzled and a long red ribbon began to coil around him, choking his thoughts to that of one woman:

"Oi, Byakuya-bo, how's recess?"

"Shihouin Yoruichi!" he shouted, incensed. He cut the ribbon with a swipe of his sword and released the trance. "Leave this place immediately!"

"Is that anyway to greet a friend?" came her response.

"Scatter!" Byakuya broke Senbonzakura into three segments, each a floating mirror, and arranged the pieces in a ring around him, giving him perfect 360 degree vision. Then he directed the mirror shards to revolve violently in orbit, the speed of the frames revealing anyone cloaking herself with vibrational shunpo. Sure enough, there she was, sprawled among the high branches with a straw in her mouth and mischief in her eyes. Kuchiki squinted up through the leaves and scowled.

"Wow, I'm impressed, Byaky. Did you figure that trick out on your own?" she laughed.

"I have been set back by your invisibility tecnique too many times before. But I was just a child. Now things are serious." Senbonzakura's segments divinded into the fine petals that were Byakuya's signature attack.

"Oh, what is that, a threat? I was just trying to be friendly, yeesh. You want me to leave, make me, you stubborn... gah. I won't even go there." Yoruichi flash stepped to Byakuya's side in a split second.

"Don't move!"

"You know, if I were you I would be a bit more grateful. My job isn't always fun and games--in fact it rarely is. A captain's got to have a little enjoyment on the side to stay nice and sane. Besides, don't think I'd have come to visit you without a newly developed countermove of my own! Here, I'll give you a sample!"

"I-I've never seen anything like it," Byakuya stammered.

"Sparks are flying from me without the eensiest effort," she taunted. "I call it 'flashcry,' because it sounds cool. Apparently if I just bend my soul sleep around my joints like--oh never mind. You wouldn't understand. Well anyway, I just invented the ultimate defense against your sword. Aren't you thrilled? Now you get to train for another twenty years trying to surpass me!"

Turbulent and conflicting emotions began to overwhelm young Byakuya's composure. Battling with his pent-up rage was a deep and unnerving arousal. Her body quivered with dark energy like a trickster goddess, and though she stood at arm's length she would always be just outside his reach. Confusion wracked his brain; love of the enemy did not compute.

"GET OUT OF HERE!" he screamed. "STOP HUMILIATING ME IN FRONT OF THE JUDGES! YOU'RE RUINING MY CHANCES OF BECOMING CAPTAIN!"

Yoruichi terminated the lightshow and flicked the dust off her shoulder. "...Byakuya-bo, there are no judges. The only criteria for passing is killing every Hollow and getting out alive. The 'invisible judges' are a lie dreamt up by the Central 46 to ensure entrants were scrupulous with their subordinate's lives. But you're too good for those, aren't you?"

"For what?"

"Subordinates."

Byakuya slid his sword into the hilt and turned his back, stating merely "You're not wearing your captain's robes."

"So?"

"So you're not here in an official capacity."

"Got a problem with that?"

Byakuya closed his eyes and scowled. "I will show you I can pass this exam without your help. I have studied every corner of this forest, every vein and every fungus, since I was eight. Then when it finally comes time to take the exam I hear a river that was not there before. And ou ask me to believe there are no judges? You are a fool for attempting to obstruct my progress so dishonorably. You do not desire a rival house to come to power."

"You're hearing what you want to hear, Byakuya! Tell me, when did you start to hear this river?"

"After I'd dispatched those four Hollows. It was a distant sort of rushing at first, but then the sound of the stream became more and more pronounced."

"You know, for someone so intelligent you're awfully dumb. Those Hollows were bait. As soon as they died, they released an ultrasonic frequency that made your intrasensory perception go haywire, leading you falsely to believe you're not regaining spirit energy. That way, not only are your attacks that much less powerful and easier to defend against, the more reiatsu you'll unknowingly have when they feast. The only reason you're hearing a 'river' is because of your heightened attunement training--normal shinigami can't hear it at all. If you'd brought anybody you would realized all this much sooner! The two remaining Huges are Alphas, man, and they've effectively lured you into a war of attrition when this could have been an effortless massacre for you."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I want to help. It's what friends do."

"You, help me? When it has been your unsubtle objective to overshadow the noble Kuchiki? Trying to 'teach' me, all the while constantly kicking me down. Your tutelage was nothing more than another form of competition, a veiled avenue for your own promotion. You impugn my pride."

"See, that's what's wrong with you, Byaky. You think everyone's out to get you. And it's true, we're all soldiers competing with each other for promotion. But competition is camaraderie! It grows us, not only as shinigami, but as people. You'd have never gotten to this level of skill, Kuchiki or not, without my help, (besides the fact that you're still woefully lacking in the 'people' part). Admit it: this revulsion you feel for me is nothing more than petty jealousy. Oh, and, uh, while you were casting that detection spell and your brain was bare and I wrapped my arms around your neck, did I whiff a hint of desire?"

"You are mistaken. I have never needed you. That strength came from within my own soul." Byakuya stabbed the ground beside him. "Here, I stake my pride. I shall destroy those Hollows without even my sword, and with my arms tied behind my back. I will teach you the power of my will alone!"

"Fine!" said Yoruichi, now genuinely angry. "Prance off on your own like a damned solipsist! I won't follow you. But don't come back whining to me when you fail."

"Don't worry," he sneered. "I won't. Now be gone!"

Yoruichi stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared.

"Hardly proper comportment for a captain..." Byakuya muttered, wrenching Senbonzakura out of the soil and sheathing her once again. Though her manner was truly beastly and intrusive, he could not help but feel guilty for having demanded his former sempai to leave. And was it true? Did deeper feelings of attachment for her lie buried beneath his conscious thoughts of protocol and order? These were questions he concluded could not be answered, and should thus make no attempt to. He knew one thing absolutely--he was not as selfish as she made him out to be. Everthing he did was for the greater good, a concept above that which he could alter with his own hands. He could only serve it by doing what he thought was best.

Alpha Huges, however, were Hollows bloated by overweening egotism. He remembered a passage from a field manual he'd once read:

Alpha Hollows tower over subordinate spirits, remotely directing their every attack formation with uncommon shrewdness. They lurk in the blurry boundaries between realms and catch their meals through a combination of surprise, tactics, and overwhelming numbers. They therefore believe themselves to be the true elite amongst hollows, pure devils devoid of the impurities and mutations of their stupid mongrel brethren, and so fat and powerful as to laugh at any attempt to stop or destroy them. Alpha Huge Hollows are especially dangerous, reaching heights that can rival mountains. Seldom do Alphas perch near the barriers of Soul society, but when they do, beware!"

Sounds like a job for a captain, Byakuya thought. He would tear those defiant giants back down to reality of his own power. It was payback time. But how to lure such vain Hollows to their shameful doom? This the field manual had not addressed, but Byakuya believed he knew a clever solution. He would rise above the forest canopy and lie prone in plain sight, an irresistible snack. The Alphas would then be forced by their own gluttony to reveal themselves! Byakuya pooled some reiatsu beneath his feet and stood up so much closer to the clouds. The aerial view of the forest proved Yoruichi's point; there was no river. She had been trying to help. His heart began to beat faster, but he knew not why.

"Come and get me!" he bellowed. Now it was do or die. He made a show of tossing his sword away and using its sash to tie his hands behind him, just as he'd told Yoruichi. Come on, he thought--take the bait!

Two holes in the atmosphere flaked away like sores, and the Alphas reared enormous and ugly, mandibles clicking with naked lust. A Hollow's mask was meant to hide their cravings, but that atavistic defense was terrifyingly absent in these nightmares' twisted bone face-cages. Byakuya, bound as he was, could not release his blade or cast kidou, but he had a trick up his sleeves. As the crash of trees collapsing and the chittering of drooling pincers rushed closer and closer, Byakuya distracted himself with thoughts of Yoruichi. Her strength, her intelligence... her beauty... anything rather than contemplating what would happen to him if this didn't work!

The first Alpha lunged, almost comically, for the tasty bound shinigami, each tooth roughly the size of a house, and darkness eclipsed Byakuya's world. Its hideous maw drew mere seconds away from closing in on him totally before he enacted his attack.

"Flashcry!" he yelled, hoping to live long enough to hear her praise.

Lightning crackled through the roof of the monster's mouth and shot down its spine, arching to the other, identical Alpha and trapping it too in a contained circuit. It didn't matter how huge they were; the spark of Flashcry traveled down their boiling bones and little by little fried every stinking inch of their flesh in a glorious symphony of electrocution. Soon they toppled from the reaches of heaven and fell calamitously to the ground, shrieking as they burst in patches and particles. After the last of their lipids vaporized into cool nothingness, the choking pall of darkness that had swallowed Byakuya receded, but by then it was too late. Byakuya plummeted through the dense canopy, conscious enough only to note how slick his blood painted the sky as it trailed him. He had given it his all, poured every bit of energy in him, and then more, into this final attack, but he would not see himself rewarded. No cushion would break his fall. The only consolation that soothed his mind before its organ thudded against the hard ground at a greay many miles per hour was how he might have impressed her.

When Byakuya woke, it was already too late. The dumb, lumbering Gillian had finally reached him. The sole of its foot loomed comically huge as it rose to squash him, its pointed toe shaking the tips of the shorter trees. Had he not even enough strength left to be a worthy morsel to a mindless giant? He could not stand it. Here the rising star of Seireitei lay, prone, paralyzed, as a mere foot soldier quite literally looked down on him.

He could still escape. Since he was touching the ground, he could exhaust the very dregs of his energy well and use Genshi's portal technique to retreat, defeated, humiliated, but safe.

But he wouldn't.

No instinct or force on earth could make him budge. He had staked his pride on this ground. He would stare defiantly into death (in this case manifested as a Menos's rapidly descending shoe) until the very last second, and let Fate decide for herself would the outcome should be. "Will I be chastised for my hubris?" he asked idly, "or vaunted for my courage?"

"Oh, you'll be getting something alright."

"Shiho... Shi... Yoruichi..." he stammered, afraid to believe.

She knelt down and took in her arms. "Are you okay? Can you breathe?"

"Y-yes."

"Good, 'cause you're gonna have to brace yourself for this one!" Yoruichi swiftly pointed both palms up at the Gillian's leg and shouted "Binding Spell 81: Thunder Cannon!"

The massive beam left not a scrap of Menos in its ionic wake.

"So much for that."

Byakuya had been upstaged, outshined, overshadowed. He gaped dumbstruck at her raw power. Her appearance, her saving him, had proven firsthand that he was not yet ready to be captain. He had only one thing to say:

"Thank you."

Yoruichi's face glistened and her lips curved into a smile as the light of dawn charged triumphantly through the leaves once again."Hey, what are friends for?"

--

HELP

The creeping dusk merely accentuated the letters in the clouds, the only such alarm Byakuya had ever known Yoruichi to signal. Now it was she who needed his help.

Soon the rousing battle came into view. They were fighting beside a dingy old Shinto shrine at the center of Karakura, two titans of spiritual power locked in heated combat beside a monument to false gods. Yoruichi seemed to be holding her own against Halibel, swipe for swipe, jab for jab, but it was easy to see why she'd signalled for help--the remnants of her zampakuto were strewn in pieces on the ground, and without it this was a boxing match she had no hope of enduring for very long. Kidou was out of the question, for were she ever given enough time to cast, Halibel could just release her sword and swat the bolt away. Her only tactic now was to keep from doing or saying anything to provoke her further as she waited for help. So when she caught Byakuya out of the corner of her eye, she betrayed her relief immediately.

He had never seen her face so bruised before, but smiling she was just as beautiful as ever. "Byaky! It's about time--"

Halibel's fist landed squarely under her jaw, knocking her straight through the side of the temple twenty feet away.

"You should have paid attention," the arrancar sneered, drawing her broadsword from its scabbard with apparent relish, like a tribal warrior about to carve some choice kill.

"It is clear: Your kind are cur enough to release your blade only when your adversary is down," Byakuya said, directing his petals to encircle her in a whirling dome. "I shall not let you shameless half-breeds blacken the noble name of us shinigami with your dirty Hollow jaws. Scavenge elsewhere for your meal or pay the price."

"No, don't try it!" Yoruichi panted, it had taken her too much effort just getting back on her knees after that savage blow. "Her skin is too damned tough, even my Flashcry just glanced off her!"

Senbonzakura condensed into a shredding tornado, trapping Halibel in a razor wind that could have shaved clean through solid rock, but when the smoke cleared she stood unscathed. And grinning.

"Devouring your delicious dead while you're down is exactly how I became this strong. We Hollows don't have it as easy as you; while you train and make friends we eat and eat and eat and eat and eat, forever hungry, forever afraid. Can you understand the terror of knowing that if even a single hair of your head is taken by another, you will regress and lose your mind? That is why I resolved to ingest only your toughest defenders--to grow as you grow even as I grew as we grow. Never did I opt to drink from the cup of human souls within my reach, even near the brink of oblivion. I always took the hard way! And here is my reward!" She pulled her collar aside and revealed the number branded across her lips--

"I am espada numero uno!" she cackled.

"Now I see," Byakuya intoned, "how different you and I truly are. I believed there could be a way to rehabilitate half-Hollows such as you, but it seems the stench of ignoble birth is totally impossible to shake. Today I bear sad witness to the depths of depravity encoded in your very souls. As such the only mercy I can grant you is death."

"Mercy!" Halibel scoffed. "I never needed yours, Aizen's, or anybody's mercy! I clawed my way to the top through my own strength alone! I'll gladly discard my human form to teach you how large the gap between us really is, and once I'm done I'll be picking the flesh off your bones! Caw, Buitre!"

Byakuya caught a glimpse of her swallowing her blade before her metamorphic light stunned him.

"Yoruichi!" he called. It was all he could do to hide his eyes behind his sleeve and hope she could shunpo in her condition.

"I'm right here," she winced, back on her feet beside him. "I'm right here."

"Take cover!" Byakuya directed his petals to form a protective globe around them.

Halibel hatched from her cocoon dread wings beating and eyes alive with evil. Every flap of her wings wafted a noxious smog, through which only her vision could penetrate. Her dagger had reshaped itself like alloy into a ceremonial beak, and a sharp row of feathers crowned her head like a chieftain's headdress. Immediately she spotted her prey through Senbonzakura's veil and mocked, "Nothing can escape the sight of Death Herself!"

"What is she? A siren?"

"No," said Yoruichi. "More like a vulture."

"She speaks like a reaper. Do you impugn our solemn duty still?"

"It is you who make light of Death. It is not granted, shinigami. It is summoned! As far as paragons are concerned, however, I am far from unkind. Before you perish you shall bith taste the richest of meals, milk from very bosom. Behold your undoing! Ceros cuadruple!"

Balls of light bubbled in four points at her beak, heart-hole, and each wing, each converging into a single, utterly unavoidable discharge. Yoruichi acted without thinking; she thre herself into the searing beam and channeled every bit of will into redirecting it with her hands. She ended up absorbing the brunt of the attack through her forearms and diverting thre rest into the air. Yoruichi collapsed from the strain, and Halibel swooped in to caress her tenderly with her talons.

"You are tough, and fought hard, but now it is the moment you must accept your fate," she purred. "Prepare to die!"

"I could say exactly the same to you," Byakuya told the arrancar. His finger was pointed at the base of her spine, where any decent level kidou would paralyze her. "Yoruichi, have you ever seen my bankai before?"

"N-no."

Byakuya smiled. "We are in it."

Halibel did a double take at her surroundings, or lack thereof. "What did you do? Everything's black!"

"How keenly can you see now that all there is to view are the instruments of your demise?"

"Swords..." Yoruichi breathed.

"Hundreds, encircling you, trapping you. From Senbonzakura Kageyoshi, there can be no escape. In its realm you are the prey and I the predator."

"No matter, I shall kill you and be done with your pathetic trick. My skin is absolutely impervious!"

"Level 99 Binding Spell: White Shadow Snare!"

The spell slid off her like water. Halibel laughed at the triumph of her apparent invincibility and took the air with her mighty wings. "I bet you're out of reiatsu now, shinigami! Well don't worry, there's plenty more where my first ceros came from! Ceros Cuadruple!"

Energy flared in four points once more, but this time a flying sword siped through each flare. Each new attempt at firing a cero would be likewise extinguished.

"But how! My ceros..."

"Every ounce of power you poured into the first cero is housed in the swords which surround you. When Yoruichi deflected the beam skyward, I had already summoned my bankai. The spirit particles had no where to go but to be absorbed by Senbonzakura. That is why I have not run out of reiatsu, and that is why my swords can pierce through your attacks--as well as your skin."

"You're bluffing! Then why try that binding me with that useless kidou!"

"My swords can only cut through you with enough velocity, and it would be too taxing for me to launch them at you all at once. Fortunately, there is another way. While White Shadow Snare may have failed in its intended purpose, having had no effect on your flesh, it nonetheless subtly altered the fundamental composition of your skeletal structure."

"What? How!?"

"Now you're a living, breathing magnet."

"Well, not for long, anyway" snickered Yoruichi. "I'm catching your drift, Byakuya-bo, and I must tell you I like where this is going!"

"You're up."

"Yeah, well, I guess cats really do have nine lives." Yoruichi's knees buckled for a moment. "So are we gonna do this or are you just going to wait till I faint?"

Byakuya gazed up at the banshee above and narrowed his eyes with infinite contempt. "Halibel, you look confused. Allow me to educate you. A magnet does not attract just other magnets. It attracts anything with electrical charge."

"And guess who here's a walking sparkplug?" said Yoruichi.

Comprehension mingled with mortal fear in Halibel's expression. "Oh no..."

"Oh yes! It's Flashcry time! Now come here you big evil bird you!" Yoruichi appeared in flash behind her and grabbed her in an aerial bearhug. Then she flooded the rink with lightning, magnetizing each and every spirit blade hovering around them.

As a hundred and nineteen blades sank uniformly into Halibel's body, her executioners savored the spectacle from the sidelines until the final shriek echoed into mere memory.

Yoruichi elbowed Byakuya in the ribs. "That was fun. We should do this again sometime."

"Fun?"

"Sure, we work great as a team."

Byakuya said nothing.

"Hey, let's sit here, my legs are killing me." Yoruichi scooched over on the bench to make room. "Ow. Really my whole body's killing me."

Byakuya had never sat out in the open before. "Is this how humans usually converse?"

"Keep talking like that and you'll make us sound old and unhip."

"But I am old. Too old, I think. Too old to go on like this."

"Nonsense. If anything today proved we've still got it."

"But what happens when I don't have a plan?"

"It's then that you start to live."

"But without a plan we'd be dead today."

"Ah, you think too much. I'm talking big picture here." She bunched her scarf up against the cold and leaned against Byakuya's shoulder. "Don't think, man. Just do! Like, right now, do the first thing that pops into your head!

It took him by surprise how quickly he complied, like the message had bided in his brain until it sensed an opportunity to break from its bottle out into the wild outside. Byakuya pointed at the dusky clouds and began to burn the message unconsciously.

I LOVE YOU

Nodding off on his shoulder, Yoruichi read it sleepily four or five times before her jaw dropped.