• The Beginning, and the End
    written by the soul reaper who lived to tell the tale

    Soul Society
    8:52 a.m.
    Tuesday

    All the Captains and their Lieutenants were gathered for an important meeting. I stood beside the Squad Ten Captain, Toshirou Hitsugaya. I glanced at him, his teal eyes turned toward the Head Captain and his mess of silver hair especially disheveled today. I was glad that I had not been given the task of going to the World of the Living while there was a flood of Hollow, Menos, and Arrancar alike. I was sure Hitsugaya was cursing the string of bad luck that seemed to have befallen him. Last week, he had been the one called to the scene of another flood, though there were only Hollow then.
    My lieutenant nudged my arm so I would look forward. The Head Captain was now beginning to speak. First, he announced that we should be grateful to Hitsugaya, for his job in the Living World. I chuckled, despite myself, and earned a glare from the silver haired boy. The Head Captain then went on to describe the threat that the floods posed, though we all already knew.This was only the beginning of the threat, and we needed to keep it from going any farther. Again, we already knew this.
    The Head Captain then asked if anyone had any suggestions as to what we should do. I stepped forward, having had a plan sense the first flood eight weeks ago. All eyes turned to me, and I stood silent, loving the fact that I could make them wait as long as I wanted. But I soon sensed them getting impatient and did not want any arguing to errupt.
    "The problem might be found in the Menos Forest. I suggest that we send a team or two to investigate. We might be surprised at what we find."
    The whole room seemed to errupt into noise. Some were calling me "Mad" and "Crazy". Others said that I would be killing members of the team, and that we needed every Soul Reaper we had to stop the floods. And still others agreed with me. They knew that the Hollow, Menos, and Arrancar all knew Bakudo 81: Danku, so they believed that there must be a reason that more than the usual amount of the inhabitants of the Forest wished to go to the World of the Living.
    The Head Captain raised his hands for silence, and the others complied. I stepped back into my place between Toshirou and my Lieutenant.