Episode 2: A moment's respite... peaceful, beautiful days.

Elle frowned. "We don't really know. Alexi explained it to us once, but it was really complicated, with lots of big words, so I didn't really understand. We've always been we."

"So you know Alexi?" Phoenix asked. "How is it that you met him?"

Jin was brought out of her musings as she saw a woman trotting towards her and offering to heal her wounds.

"Uh... Sure..." she answered cautiously, even though at the rate that her thigh had healed, she imagined that the nicks would be gone soon, even without any first aid. This was easier than having to explain how she suddenly got better without any help anyway.

"Do... I know you?" Jin asked as she raised her bleeding arm for the newcomer's inspection and wracked her brain for the identity of the woman who approached her do casually.

Grinning still, Kohaku chuckled. "Doubt it. I don't recognize you from my class, and I don't know anyone outside of that." She raised her other hand as well, and they began to glow with the faint light of Healing kido. Kohaku was fairly confidant in her kido abilities, so while her Healing wasn't as good as her Hado, it wouldn't take long to heal the extent that she could. The other woman didn't seemed to be more than nicked and bruised; the Neo-Reaper was fairly sure she could do a simple first-aid patch job like this.

Her smile fell as a thought occurred to her. She looked back at Jin, slightly startled and appologetic. "That's right! I don't know you! Where are my manners? My name's Kohaku."

"Ummm.... we don't know if we should answer that...."

"This is the defective model, right?" A seated officer of squad twelve asked. Elle was completely shackled, her hands a feet bound, and blindfolded as they dragged her through the woods outside the gates of the seireitei.

"Yup... Kurotsuchi-taichou got carried away and fried its mind. It was never very strong anyway. He says he wants it disposed of, so that's what we're gonna do." One of his colleagues replied. There were seven squad members wreathed about her as they forced her along the path to her execution. She felt like she was suffocating, like so many thoughts wanted to escape her mind, but none would free themselves.

"Am I... going to die?" She finally permitted herself to think in a passive voice that was immediately shrouded by a much more powerful thought. "No, you're going to kill."

This was the way she had been for the past several days, ever since the last time that crazy doctor had given her drugs that affected her soul... she was constantly bombarded with contradicting thoughts... she wasn't even sure who she was, anymore.

"Out here isn't like the lab... You're strong here." The powerful voice in her head said. "Kill them all, and set yourself free."

"b-but" Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of her executioners drawing their swords.

"the matter isn't open to discussion. I'm not going to die for your weakness, and I want to protect you. We're the same, after all. Now come on... kill them."

"K-kill them" Her meeker self thought, not realizing that she had mouthed the words softly. One of the squad members barely heard her.

"If you have final words, I suggest you give them now." He said sternly, raising his sword to deliver a decapitating blow."

"...kill..." A surge of reiatsu suddenly poured from her body, breaking the straps that restrained her immediately and letting her leap to her feet. She grabbed the throat of the man who had spoken to her and strangled him to death before her consciousness faded into darkness.

***

"These are... squad twelve uniforms, if I'm not mistaken. None of these could have been strong enough to create that unique energy I felt even from so far away..."

Elle's mind was only beginning to recover from the fog that it had sank into... she was now surrounded by corpses and bathed in blood. Standing behind her was a man dressed in a meticulously fitted black suit, with slicked hair, and a monocle that seemed made of bone.

He took notice of her the same time she saw him.

"Now I see... it was you. He furrowed his brow at the sight of her. Your soul has been splintered into so many fragments... it must be hard to even feel a sense of self right now. You have my pity."

"K-kill..." She repeated, and lunged at him, but he caught her hands and stared her squarely in the eyes.

"Are you completely feral, my dear? Have you lost all ability to reason?" He asked in a gentle tone. She shook, trying to break his grasp.

"but that can't be, can it? Look at your face... it's soaked with tears."

The fog was lifting a little further... the dominant voice in her head had begun to subside with her nonstop chant for blood, and the realization of what she had done finally sank in. She crumpled to the ground, openly sobbing. The man took a knee before her, and patted her head reassuringly.

"There, now. if you're feeling calm, I think I can help you. My name is Alexi." He reached into his coat pocket, removing a small rectangle. "would you like some gum?"


****





"Alexi met us when we were at our worst, and helped us become ourselves again. He's a nice man." She repeated, her eyes shadowed by the memories that had returned.

Phoenix's eyes shadowed as well, thinking of Alexi offering her gum, and wondered, not for the first time, if she should go to him for help. She opened her mouth to ask, but thought better of it. There was still too many people around. "Our superiors believe Alexi is a threat," she said, trying to keep her voice neutral. "If he shows up we will have to fight him."

"Ah, Jin," the neo-shinigami introduced herself as she moved her right arm to shake Kohaku's hand before realizing it was being healed. She gave a soft chuckle, raising the left arm, when she again realized that Kohaku had both hands occupied with the kido anyway.

"Sorry," she said, squeezing her eyes tight in a show of embarrassment, and inwardly, she again wondered why her expressions and emotions seemed so open and unguarded today. Thankfully, the woman who was slowly working through her injuries seemed nice and innocuous enough, unlike Arina who was much more experienced and was correspondingly very suspicious. She had to remain cautious of other people, of course, what with that healing artifact and all, but it may not be bad to make more friends.

"Anyway, I just graduated... I hope you don't think i was just being reckless back there... Well, I guess I was, but I achieved shikai on my last mission and I needed to learn how to use my weapon so...," Jin explained with a shrug. "I did pick up a few things, but it looks like I'll need to meditate to get more training in today."

"Hey, you're pretty good at kido," Jin nodded towards Kohaku after a moment. "I think I might have missed this... but which class did you belong to?"

"Well, Alexi IS a threat, we guess." Elle said with a giggle. "Shinigamis and Arrancars exist to kill each other, that's what Ms. Anastasia says, but Alexi doesn't like coming to this place, so we don't think you'll have to fight him."

She paused to think for a moment.

"You should really refrain from getting into a serious fight with your eyes like that." She said, sympathetically. "It's scary to lose yourself. we know it well."

"With my eyes like what?" Phoenix asked, guardedly. She was almost sure that Elle was referring to her inner hollow, but she wanted to be sure. If she was right, then that meant Elle could not only tell just by looking, but that she shared Phoenix's plight.

Higgins turned to Phoenix and said quietly, "I think we should talk alone, sometime soon." Higgins decided that Phoenix and himself might be in the same predicament, so he hoped that she would agree. 'I wonder why Elle didn't say anything about me, not that I mind.'

"With eyes that look at an ally or an enemy alike, and see nothing but a body to kill." She said, quietly.

Phoenix looked down, frowning. I wonder if anyone else picked up on that, she thought. Is Higgins having the same issues? She raised an eyebrow at Higgins and then turned back to Elle. "How do you...keep yourself from having that look?" she asked, carefully choosing her words.

Kohaku grinned again, shrugging her shoulders at Jin's attempts to shake her hand. "Ah, I'm in the group 3-12. We take our graduation exam soon! I don't know when, exactly. Our lead instructor sort of got really ill last week, so the exam date is TBA. But it'll be in the next few days! He guaranteed that. Oh, and it's nice to meet you, Jin-san."

Suddenly, she frowned slightly in curiosity, tilting her head and staring at the space in front of Jin. The flow of her reiatsu shifted, after which the shinigami resumed her conversation and warm smile. "I hope I'm good at kido. I'm hopeless with a sword," she added, chuckling slightly. "My teacher describes it as 'clumsy' all the time. I prefer just punching people in the face." Kohaku added as an afterthought, fairly bluntly, and with a casual air.

She tilted her head again, adjusting her reiatsu flow once again, before stopping it moments after. "Aaaand... that should be it. Thanks for putting up with this. Most people rush right off to the 4th, so I don't get to practice much." Kohaku smiled warmly at the other woman. It was good to see her looking better. It was always good to see anyone looking better. Humor entered her voice as the smile quirked into a teasing grin. "Let me know if you go picking more fights with seated officers, eh, Shikai-san?"

"We don't know... There are so many of us, that it's hard for one to stay in control very long. Alexi helped us decide how we wanted to be, but he said we had to want it from the bottom of our heart to stay the way we are."

Jin thought of how useful it was going to be to have someone to run to for minor healing when she didn't want too much attention on herself or even when she just couldn't be arsed to head to the Fourth and decided that Kohaku would be good to have around indeed.

"Well, if it's practice you want, I should be here around the same time tomorrow," Jin told her companion tentatively. "I didn't pick the fight this time... It's more like responding to a challenge, but I'm quite sure that Third Seat Madarame will kick my ass again."

"That's... uh... if you really meant what you said about needing practice and letting you know about more fights with seated officers..." she said more hurriedly before trailing off.

Phoenix frowned thoughtfully. "That does make a certain sort of sense," she said. "I'm pretty sure I know what I want," she said. "Will that make it easier to deal with?'

"'Course! Why would I say something if I didn't mean it?" Jin's nervous statement earned a small laugh from the dark-blond woman. Kohaku locked her fingers behind her neck, letting them rest there. "With my test's date tentative, I'll welcome any study I can get. If my zanjutsu isn't going to get better, I'll happy work on my kido. Hakuda isn't good for hollows, you know?"

Her smile faltered, turning into a slightly embarrassed frown as she looked around at the near identical architecture of the Seireitei. "But uh," she swallowed, looking back to Jin with a nervous laugh. "...where's here...?"

"Hahaha. Well, first of all, hakuda can be good for hollows too, but I suppose you have to be really good or have some sort of close range weapon to make it count. I'm not much of a zanjustsu fighter either. As you can see, my unreleased zanpakutou makes it difficult to handle swords, whether as an opponent's weapon, or my own," Jin responded pleasantly, pointing to the kansashi stuck haphazardly in her hair. "I'm quite happy that my shikai allows me to fight at a longer range now, though the kansashi has obvious uses as well."

"As for where we are...," she paused, looking around. "Clearly, this is the Eleventh. Perhaps the better question would be where are you going."

"Oh, probably the 4th or the market places of the Rukongai. Haven't really decided yet. I want to be prepared for my exam. Healing kido isn't the answer to everything, you know?" Being in the 11th made sense. If Jin-san was going to be here tomorrow, it wouldn't be hard to miss Officer Madarame's reiatsu, she supposed.

Hmm. Wait a minute. Kohaku pivoted on her heel, turning her attention from their location back to Jin. She leaned forward a bit, looking closely at the kansashi. "That's your zanpakuto? Really?" She grinning, patting her dark red katana with one hand. "It makes mine look pretty standard, then."

"Mhmm," Jin hummed thoughtfully. "The unreleased zanpakutou can take on unique forms too, though not as varied as the shikai forms. I know a number of people in my class have something other than a katana."

Jin realized that her companion was lost, and knew that she could probably help her find her way, but she had to debate with her less sociable side before she could offer her help. Finally, gratitude for the healing today and the offered treatment for the next day convinced her that her new acquaintance deserved a hand. "I don't really get how going to the Rukongai market places will help with your exam," she teased lightly, "but I am heading somewhere in the outskirts of the Seireitei to meditate. It should be easier for you to navigate from there, if you want to walk with me."

Kohaku grinned easily through the tease, interjecting with "Hey, herbs and medicines gotta come from somewhere." She nodded when Jin was done speaking, glad at the guidance.

"I'd like that. Less time wasted guessing my way." The Neo-Reaper shrugged lightly. "Who knows? I might get some hoho practice or more kido, too." Practice was the best insurance at this time for passing. Practice, practice, practice. Hmm, but still...

"You're a graduate, right?" She asked as she began walking. Kohaku tilted her head some, taking on a bit more serious face. "What was your exam like? I mean, not to be nosy on how you did or anything..."

Elle patted Phoenix's shoulder comfortingly. "We're sure you'll make it through just fine." Part of her felt guilty for not being able to offer any real advice to someone who was clearly seeking it, but she had only lived for one year, and seven months of that were blurred memories of painful torment in a lab. It would take someone far wiser than she to help someone overcome their own inner shadow.

Asashi stood in the background, seemingly uncaring, but in reality, not a single word got by. 'Dammit. As much as I wanna stay and hear more, I've really gotta go. I have to find out what the hell happened after I passed out' he thought.

He tapped Phoenix on the shoulder "Hey, I've gotta go. It was really nice meeting you, though. But... be careful, okay? You seem kinda confused and a little distraught. If you ever need to let off some steam just come find me and I'll spar with ya till I pass out. I need the practice anyways" he said, concerned. He then turned towards Elle "It was nice meeting you, too. And uh... good luck!" he told her before taking off for Squad 13.



-Squad 13 Barracks-

'Jeez, they better be here' Asashi thought, knocking on the door of the Squad 13 Barracks 'Come to think of it I haven't seen my comrades around. Ah, well. I'll find them after this' he thought as the door opened...

Serenity made her way back to the grounds where they had all been sparing, and came across Anix as she did. She bent, carefully picking up the slender black cat as she continued on her way. She rounded the corner and saw that there was no sparring really happening, but isntead Pheonix was talking to someone new, and Higgins. The boy in the trenchcoat was walking away, and Pheonix seemed to be in a state of perplexion.

Serenity looked at Anix, who had taken up space on her shoulder, and rejoined the group. "Looks like Colin will be fine. Same with Alice." Serenity stood with all of her weight on her left side, gently patting Anix. She could almost cut the tension in the air, it was so thick. She smiled slightly, shoving her layered dark hair behind her ears.

((I have Internet!! Hopefully be home by this Wednesday and get online again! still missing you all!))

Alice was breathing calmly in her state of sleep as she delved more into her dream. Everything around her seemed to be white and 2 shadowed figures stood in front of her. "Who are you?" Alice yelled at the figures but there was no answer. Alice frowned and hummed lightly while she slept then rolled over onto her right side, curling into a ball and wrapping her right arm behind her head.

Collin didn't seem to be much better. He wasn't resting ince he was still troubling himself to try and breath again. Glancing around the room after Serenity left, he still tried for breath when his eyes fell upon Alice. "At least... You can.... Breathe!" He yelled at Alice in her state of exhaustion. Collin shakily got up when Alice rolled over and walked up to her. "Now... What are... You thinking about..." Collin gently stroked Alice's hair. He walked over to the chair in the far corner of the room, dragged it to Alice and sat down. Exhausted, Collin grabbed Alice's left hand and held it tightly. Resting his head on their joined hands, he began to breathe more calmly and began drifting off to sleep.