It was weird being able to walk openly through the streets after spending days sneaking around ambushing the occasional Soul Reaper. It had been about a week since Aizen had betrayed the Gotei 13 and made his escape, and I was finally cleared to leave the hospital. After so long stuck inside I took advantage of my newfound freedom to walk around the Seireitei and explore a bit more slowly now that I wasn’t running to, or away from, a fight.

Members of various squads were roaming around and enjoying themselves. Which made sense I suppose. They did spend more than a week on high alert due to our invasion. With the alert removed, everyone was taking the chance to unwind and relax for a bit before getting back to work.

What was weirder was the complete lack of hostility from the Soul Reapers as I wandered around, although that might be simply because I didn’t stand out that much. Orihime had decided to join me for the walk and due to the loss of her clothes was still in a Soul Reaper uniform. Between that and me reforming my barrier jacket to look like the yukatas I was provided, we fit right in.

Of course that didn’t mean we did not draw attention. Two pretty girls walking around still drew looks from several men (and women, surprisingly) but for the most part it was pretty harmless.

“...and if you add maple syrup it gets even tastier!”

Orihime on the other hand, was slowly chipping away at my sanity with her weird food combinations.

Feeling slightly ill at some of her self professed ‘recipes’ I needed to raise a hand and stop her before this went further.

“Orihime, under no circumstances should marshmallow and maple syrup ever be put into a pasta dish. That just isn’t right.” I told the cheerful teenager.

“No, really. It’s super good! You have to come over and try it sometime!” She said waving her hands a little childishly.

“I think I’ll pass on that. But I can still come over and make something else for you!” I panicked when Orihime looked down by my refusal.

Seriously, the girl looks like a kicked puppy when she is sad. It's completely unfair. Luckily she cheered up again when I promised to come over at some point. And better yet, she didn’t even notice me reversing it so I would be the one cooking.

Orihime clapped her hands happily, “That sounds great! I can’t wait. Oh, hi Ishida!”

I turned to follow Orihime’s gaze and found Uryu walking up to us.

“Good morning Inoue-san, Cross-san.” He greeted us. “Are you free for a bit?”

Since neither one of us were really doing anything specific, we agreed to follow him. We had some meaningless small talk on the way. Uryu was still very interested in my skills since they had several similarities with Quincy abilities, and I wanted to know more about how Quincies made spiritual weapons. Of course Orihime managed to pull us down several off-topic tangents during the walk to wherever Uryu wanted to go, so we never really made it past the basics of either topic.

Neither one of us minded though since we were being pretty casual with both topics, and her cheerful attitude through the whole thing was infectious.

Our conversation ended when we arrived at the building we had been allowed to stay at while we recovered from our various injuries. Unsurprisingly, Chad was also in the main room. The large teen prefered to stay either with one of his friends or out of the way, so it was rare to see him in the Seireitei.

“Hi Sado! You’re here too?” Orihime greeted. It took me a second to remember that was Chad’s actual name since no one other than Orihime and Uryu used it.

Chad nodded to us in greeting but remained silent.

Uryu walked over to a basket and lifted the lid.

“Okay! I finally finished these last night and thought it would be good to hand them out.” Uryu said, passing Chad a piece of cloth, which turned out to be a sleeveless lavender shirt with a dark red cross on it.

It was shockingly professional looking actually, if a bit plain.

“I was able to borrow some tailoring equipment, so I made some clothes for you guys based on what I remembered you wearing.” he explained. “So what do you think, Sado-san?”

Chad just kinda stared at the shirt in his hands for a few seconds before turning back to Uryu, who was digging around for more clothes.

“...It’s different...” Chad said eventually.

“I redesigned them a bit based on my own personal style added in.” Uryu admitted, removing a few articles of clothing from the basket. “Inoue-san these are for you.”

I made my way to a free chair while the teenagers had a mini fashion show. Orihime ended up in black track pants with a white stripe down the side and a beautifully made pink shirt with a line of frills running down the right side and some floral accents on the left. Chad had changed into his provided shirt and a normal looking pair of pants. It was hilarious how much more effort Uryu seemed to put into making female clothing, especially since he revealed he had made a lovely pale blue dress for Rukia as well.

Uryu was a little sheepish that he didn’t have anything prepared for me, but considering my clothing could shift to anything I wanted I wasn’t broken up about it. Then Orihime decided she needed to show Rukia her new dress immediately and took off in search of her.

I offered to go with her but Uryu requested I stay behind, and Chad wandered off back towards his room.

Now alone with Uryu, I decided to tease him just a bit.

“So, did you have something for me after all? Something you don’t want anyone else to see me in?” I said slightly seductively, absently pulling on the collar of my yukata.

Uryu was suddenly blushing furiously after just that. I definitely saw why Yoruichi liked doing the same with Ichigo. The reactions were hilarious!

I would never go as far as her though.

“O-o-of course not!” Uryu denied fervently, adjusting his glasses and looking anywhere but at me. “I h-have a request I wanted to make of you.”

Oh? I wonder what he would want. I had spent some time getting to know everyone now that we had nothing better to do, I even hung out with some of the Soul Reapers that stopped by from time to time, but Uryu never gave the impression he wanted something from me.

“No harm in asking, I guess” I said with a shrug.

The Quincy visibly calmed himself down before turning to face me. With a very serious expression, he suddenly bowed at the waist. “Please, teach me to use mana. I beg you.”

Well there was only one answer I can give such an earnest request.

“No,” I refused immediately. “Also, why? I thought you were super proud of your Quincy heritage, so I can’t imagine you giving it up just because I use something new.”

Uryu’s face twisted into a bitter expression.

“I haven’t mentioned it to the others yet, but during our fight I used an ultimate technique of the Quincy. As a result my powers were burned out, I am no longer a Quincy.”

Ah, I forgot that happened. Still it’s not like it changed my answer.

“I still can’t help you. Even if you were able to use mana, it’s something that would take years, maybe decades, before you got beyond the basics. I don’t have the time to dedicate to a student.”

“I understand.” Uryu said sourly. “Forgive me for being selfish.”

“If you are so concerned about losing your powers, maybe talk to your father? I heard he is actually fairly talented as a Quincy. He should be able to help.” I pointed out.

Uryu again had a complex expression on his face. “I will consider it.”

I blinked at the reluctant response. But I guess going to his dad for help ran against his pride, or something like that. Meh, he will deal with it eventually.

-o-

I left soon after that.

While Uryu was quick to reassure me that there were no hard feelings for rejecting him as a student, it was still awkward to be in the same room.

So I was wandering the Seireitei again. Alone this time, unfortunately, since Orihime had run off somewhere and the rest of our group was unavailable for one reason or another.

I considered hunting down Yoruichi since I hadn’t seen her in a bit. But she was busy working out an agreement of an alliance between the Gotei 13 and the Urahara group. While it was a given that both would work together, there was still stacks of paperwork for the approval of materials, pardons for the one hundred years as an exile, and other such things that needed to be worked out so no one complained later.

Of course I escaped that initially because I was injured, but now that I was out of the hospital Yoruichi would happily duck out of the responsibility if she knew I had nothing to do.

I was still debating if dealing with paperwork was worth Yoruichi’s company when I heard someone calling my name. Turning to look I saw two Soul Reapers making their way towards me.

One was Natsumi, and the other was a girl in glasses with long black hair that she kept pinned back and with her bangs parted to the right side of her face. Based on the serious look on her face and the badge she wore on her left arm, it looked like I was going to be introduced to another Lieutenant.

“Hi Natsumi,” I greeted when they were close enough. “I see you’re out of the hospital too.”

“Miss Cross,” Natsumi replied with a nod. “Also please don’t use my name so casually.”

I shrugged and by the way her eyebrows furrowed, Natsumi realized I was going to ignore her request. “So what’s up?”

Natsumi sighed in resignation before turning to present her companion, “This is Squad Eight Lieutenant Nanao Ise. She wanted to talk to you about the information you provided last week.”

Said Lieutenant took a step forward while adjusting her glasses, “Good afternoon Miss Cross, congratulations on your recovery.” she said politely.

“Thanks, but you can just call me Alex.”

“Of course,” Nanao said nodding once. “I apologise for this but I have a request I wanted to make. I am the one handling the report made by the scouting group that went to the World of the Living to investigate the possible location of Akihiro Kanou and I asked Hanakage to introduce us.”

I see, I guess they didn’t find anything and wanted to see if I knew anything else that might lead them to my ‘creator’.

“Further upriver from the point that you described we found a Hollow nest that had managed to escape detection for quite some time. After clearing the nest and investigating, we found signs that someone was using the nest as a disposal area for several souls that showed heavy signs of...modification.”

...or I could be completly fucking wrong.

“And I suppose you think Akihiro Kanou is behind it?” I asked weakly.

Nanao nodded, “From what the team found, there were several similarities between what was at the site and the records we found of Kanou’s work. It could be a successor, but we still will need to investigate.”

“Okay, but why tell me?” Wait, Nanao said she had a request. “Unless you wanted me to check out the site when I head back to the World of the Living?” I asked.

“No, Squad 13 is responsible for cleaning up that area and will take care of it.” Nanao disagreed. “The Gotei 13 was hoping that you would agree to accompany the team investigating the Senkaimon they found there.”

“Again, why? I’m not really sure what I could do for an investigation.”

It looked like Nanao was having a hard time answering so eventually Natsumi stepped in. “We want you as a combatant since the Gotei 13 can’t spend the manpower at the moment.”

Huh?

I looked between the two trying to figure out what Natsumi meant by that. She just looked resigned while Nanao looked embarrassed and avoided looking at the two of us.

“Right now all Captains and Lieutenants are doing damage control after Aizen’s betrayal.” Natsumi explained, seeing my look. “In addition most seated officers are filling in to handle the normal work piling up because this was unexpected. We simply can’t spare anyone strong enough in case this turns out to be a major incident without affecting our preparations for dealing with Aizen.”

Makes sense I guess. And I had no real reason to refuse especially if it delayed my trip back through the Dangai.

Anything to avoid the creepy murder hallway.

“I don’t mind helping out.” I said. “So, is it just me or…?”

Nanao shook her head. “Even short staffed, we can’t send you to investigate alone. 3rd Seat Hanakage will be accompanying you.”

My eyes lit up as I threw an arm over Natsumi’s shoulders.

“This means I get to spend more time with my favorite sparring buddy! Why didn’t you say that first!” I cheered, ignoring the elbow grinding into my ribs.

“Please get off of me…” Natsumi said through gritted teeth.

I ignored her too…