Her gasp echoed in the small house. The entire hut was painted red with the young man's blood. The mangled corpse lay in several different parts of the hut, torn apart by god-knows-what. She felt a gag rise out of her throat and for a moment thought she really was going to be sick. She plugged her nose, praying her dinner didn't make a surprise appearance. She killed for a living, but this just seemed…evil. Brutal. Unnecessary.

Zaraki stood beside her, completely unfazed by the gore. He spared her a glance at her gag, then strode farther in the room. He reached out, unconcerned with the blood, and ran his finger down the claw marks on the wall.

"That looks like hollow markings. But why would a hollow be in the Rukon. Especially without our knowing?" she questioned, still holding her nose to quell the churning in her stomach and to try to hold off the awful smell of blood and bowels.

"Yes ma'am," a young Shinigami answered. "But we received no signal from the 12th division. A neighbor reportedly said they smelt it and when investigating found the body. She said she never heard a thing."

"So your saying that an unnoticed hollow snuck into Soul Society, targeted this one young man, ripped him to shreds with absolutely no sound? Such as, oh, screams of pain?" she said, looking incredulously at the scene before her.

"Did he have Reishi?" The captain asked.

"Wh-what?" The young Shinigami was obviously surprised that the captain had even spoken, let alone to him. Zaraki turned around to glare at the young man who then seemed to find his voice. "I… I don't know, sir,"

"Well then could you find out?" she asked exasperatedly after a few minutes of silence, while the two just stared at each other.

"Of course," he answered, rushing out of the room. After a moment, she walked over to him.

"I think you mad the poor man nervous," she commented casually as they both continued to look at the red stained wall. He merely grunted. "What do you think happened here?"

"I don' know. But your gonna find out."

"How are you…? ME?!" she practically squeaked out the last part. He nodded, turning to stride out of the hut. "Whoa, wait a minute," she said, rushing to follow him, grateful to be outside the noxious house. "You expect me to solve this mess?"

"Your third seat, I expect you to be able to do more than paperwork."

"But I've never… I mean, I can't even figure out a stupid mystery novel and you expect me to be able to solve a case like this." She finally caught up with him just to see him give her an exasperated look.

"I suggest you start by asking that bastard why he didn't tell us there was a hollow in our section,"

"Do you mean Captain Kurotsuchi?" At his look, she nodded her head. "Right," she said, flash stepping away from him towards the twelfth division.

"Enter," he answered the knock. She walked into the captain's office, bright and early the next morning. She walked over to the chair in front of his desk with a sigh of exhaustion.

"Captain Kurotshuchi said there was never any disruptions over the past week. No hollow signatures, no Reishi, no nothing. He also said it wasn't possible that they wouldn't have detected a hollow signature, so he assumes it's a Shinigami. He's taken it upon himself to have Lieutenant Kurotshuchi investigate the scene and help me."

"You were there all night?" She nodded.

"Captain Kurotsuchi can be… difficult to work with," she responded tiredly. He merely nodded his head.

"Get some sleep. I've got a feelin' this isn't the last time." With that ominous message, he went back to his work and she walked out, wearily finding her room and ready to sleep for forever. It seemed like weeks ago that she had kissed her Captain.

"Ayame? Where have you been? I've been so worried." Fuyu said, rushing over to hug her. Ayame patted the brunettes back.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to worry you. I was doing some work outside the Seireitei. But I can't really tell you what, it's kinda classified."

"I don't care if you can't tell me, I'm just happy you're okay. I was worried something had happened to you," she said, pulling back and taking a look at the pale-haired woman. "You look exhausted." She commented.

"I am. I was dealing with the captain of the twelfth division,"

"You met him? What was he like?" she asked excitedly. Ayame sighed making her way to her bed.

"Crazy." Ayame responded. Fuyu laughed until she realized Ayame wasn't kidding. The taller woman flopped on her bed, face buried in her pillow.

"I'm going to training. I'm assuming you're not going," Fuyu asked, to which she got a muffled agreement.

She could hear screams of terror through the night. She jerked awake, only to find herself in a mysterious house. She turned around and jumped when she found captain Zaraki watching her. He smiled his predatory smile and blood began seeping from his mouth and the walls, pooling on the floor around her. She tried to jerk to a stand, but couldn't. She looked down to find bloody, clawed stumps where her legs use to be. She screamed, looking around for her captain, but instead found a creature.

It looked like a human, its clawed hands gripping a dull, rusted sword, but it had a mask of pure white and stared at Ayame with soulless, evil eyes. She felt like she was drowning in its eyes, but found it was the blood that had yet to stop pouring that was drowning her. It was up to her mouth. She looked up, trying to scream and seen the creature was on a leash, being held by Captain Kurotshuchi as he smiled down at her. He opened his mouth to speak, but she couldn't hear him, the blood was in her ears.

She thrashed, trying to get away, reaching for the door to open it and drain the blood, but she couldn't get away. It was everywhere, in her nose, her ears, blinding her eyes. She opened her mouth to scream, but if filled her mouth, choking her. The door opened suddenly, a light shining through, and a man with golden hair and a crooked smile stood there. He reached out, grabbing her wrist and pulling. She tried to scream, to pull away, but he kept pulling until he had her in his arms.

"Found you," he whispered…

Ayame woke with a blood curdling scream, although quickly cut off. She was soaked in sweat, her heart was racing, and she was panting. She couldn't stop her shaking, nor could she stop thinking about the dream. She'd had nightmares before, but this one… she couldn't even describe the feelings coursing through her right now. She was actually afraid. Of a dream.

Ayame let out a breathy laugh, thinking herself silly. It was just a dream. An extremely realistic, frightening dream, but a dream all the same.

She decided to shove it off as a lack of sleep. She shoved back the covers, going to the bathroom. She walked past the mirror, then stopped, turning to look at her reflection. Lavender eyes with black circles stared back at her. For a minute, she had thought she'd seen red. Blood red.

She let out another shaky laugh, grabbing her bathing stuff. She figured a bath would do her some good, maybe relax her and help her forgot her horrible dream. She left her room, avoiding everyone. Especially her captain. She was so shaken up, she really didn't want him to see her like this. Hell, she didn't want anyone seeing her like this.

When she finally made it to the bathhouse, she was a little disappointed to find some people in it. There was only a few woman in it, but it was around dinner time, so she was expecting it to be empty. She went to the dressing rooms, stripping down and wrapping a towel around herself. Holding her bathing supplies, she walked into the hot spring, finding her own little isolated corner of her own.

There, she washed her hair and herself, the rhythm of her routine calming her down a little. She sighed, sinking down in the water, trying to will her body into completely relaxing. That dream had really gotten to her. The worst part was that she couldn't even tell which part had been the most disturbing.

A shrill scream cut through the air and Ayame whirled around, heart in her throat, for a moment expecting to see the creature from her dreams.

"Ca-captain?" She stuttered out as she saw her captain standing in the entrance. The other woman rushed out of the bath area, blushes covering their cheeks. His eyes didn't stray from Ayame. His eyes dipped down to where her towel had fallen, eyes lingering on her small, but perky breast. She gasped, jerking her towel up to cover her, even though he'd already seen her topless.

"There's been another murder."