Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.

A strong wind blew through the playground in which several residents of Karakura Town were indulging their screaming brats. Children played Hide-and-Seek in one corner of the park, while the other was occupied by infants, busy designing the sky-scrapers of the future in the sandpit. Occasionally, Godzilla would invade their territory in the form of middle-schoolers who kicked these monuments down with a monstrous football.

It was an ordinary, peaceful evening in the Real World, undisturbed by the unnatural reiatsu of powerful beings from worlds beyond.

Alas, this halcyon state was only due to the self control of the darkly scowling Shinigami who stood in one corner of the park, scanning it with his black eyes. His indignation at being forced into a gigai which wore the abysmal human fashion of sagging jeans was matched only by the resentment he felt at having being bundled away on a trifling mission that suited an unseated officer far more than a Captain of the illustrious force known as the Thirteen Court Guard Squads.

But he had hidden his anger well, holding it in as he had been for the past decades, channeling it within himself as he always did. He had merely bowed impassively and immediately departed for the most tiresome mission he had faced in the past few years, barring the nightmarish one in which he was sent to arrest Hisana's sister.

The mission itself was simple enough: To perform a few soul burials and slay any Hollows that interfered. The same standard tasks, which every Shinigami, regardless of rank, had been fulfilling since the beginning of time. He faced the rather tedious job of going to the Real World every few decades or as often as his turn came. Lower ranked officers usually spent a lot more time doing this kind of thing but even the great Byakuya Kuchiki's turn arrived sooner or later. He just wished that it had arrived much, much later.

To his dismay, he had been assigned the location of Karakura Town. Which was a fairly good thing since the city was one which had faced some of the heaviest Hollow traffic in the world in the past. However, thanks to Kurosaki's zeal in 'cleaning up' his hometown there were no soul burials left to be performed by him. So all that he could do for the time being was wait patiently for someone to die and hope that his lieutenant didn't turn the Sixth Squad's barracks into a sake house in his absence.

He had hoped for some Hollows to distract him but unfortunately, they too recoiled from the Substitute Shingami's uncontrolled reiatsu. It had hurt them enough times for them to grow sufficiently wary and few Hollows now dared pass through the territory it surrounded.

Byakuya leaned back against a tree, missing the kenseikan that usually held his hair back as another burst of wind blew a few strands out of his neat ponytail. The kenseikan reminded him of who he was, of his family and of the thousands of responsibilities that went with his honours. He had worn it ever since his grandfather died, only removing it on Hisana's request. Then again, there was little he would not have done for her when she looked at him with big, pleading violet eyes. Her 'Rabbit Eyes' as she'd called them, claiming that she had learnt them from reading far too many discarded comic books featuring Chappy the Rabbit to while away the little leisure time she'd had in the Rukongai.

"Hisana!"

He whipped around in rapid flash-step, far too fast for any human. The sound of her name … Was he going insane?

"Hisana, you can do it!"

This time he followed the sound waves and detected their source. A boy was standing in the middle of a tennis court on the other side of the park, shaking his head and laughing as he watched a slender girl attempt to hit a tennis ball. She missed by a woefully large margin and ball bounced away, reducing yet another Taj Mahal of the sandpit to dust. Byakuya noted that the girl's build was remarkably similar to his wife's but beyond that, they shared no apparent physical similarities since the girl's hair was a light shade of brown. She called back to the boy, "I will manage to hit that ball someday! You can stop laughing now, hyena!"

She turned around to pick up another ball from a small box behind her and her hair obscured her face as she said, "If you don't stop chuckling right now, I won't play with you any more!"

"You call that playing?" the boy retorted derisively.

She picked up the ball and readied herself for a serve saying, "En guarde!"

The boy gave a mock salute with this own racket and focused on the ball. Byakuya was about to turn away, bored with his unnecessary observation of the couple but he thought he saw a familiar shade of violet glinting in his peripheral vision. Mystified, he walked towards the tennis court and properly looked at the players.

The boy was tall and lanky, obviously an athlete if his toned body was anything to go by. His sandy hair was cropped short and black eyes narrowed in concentration as the girl served. He moved fluidly, with a certain grace attached to his every action. A girl standing nearby sighed when he slammed the ball back into Hisana's court. Byakuya looked at her with disgust and then turned to examine Hisana.

His gaze met big, pleading violet eyes. His wife's eyes.

A jolt of recognition flared within him. In that instant, he knew with absolute certainty that he beheld Hisana's reincarnation.

But before he could so much as say her name again, his world blacked out and he was aware of a throbbing in his forehead. A girl's voice screamed for an ambulance while an ironic, wayward thought flitted through his head. It appeared as though this time, Hisana would be the one rescuing him.

AN: This is my version of a Hisana-reincarnation fic. This was originally supposed to be just chapter one but I never got around to finishing this baby. Maybe later?