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Dawn had come and gone in a symphony of cheery chirps in the forest of Mt. Koifushi and the suffocating clouds had finally relented ever so slightly to let a few rays of light shine down onto the afterlife. Still, the forest's dense foliage did a pretty good job at keeping the sun at bay so it wasn't until a sparrow had started pecking at things it shouldn't have been pecking that a painful yelp interrupted local wildlife's routine and forced them to seek shelter.

"

A young man had sat up in a hurry, buck naked and clutching his rear. He looked around, golden eyes scanning the area for any danger while his assaulter took flight in a flutter of feathers. Twigs and leaves were poking out of his jet black hair. His hair wasn't exactly long, but bedhair and the tree branches' rough surface and abnormal shape kept the twigs and leaves in place even as he frantically turned his head left and right to find his bearings. Ow, ow, ow, god dammit! What's going on?"

Where the bloody hell was he? Where were his clothes? More importantly, where the heck was his zanpakuto? Finally, the young man got to his feet, groaning as what appeared to be one hell of a hangover washed over him. "This is the last time I will go out to drink with my senpais," he grumbled, pushing aside the bushes blocking his path and scanning his surroundings for any signs of his zanpakuto.

A scream had the young boy immediately whirl around into a defensive crouch, hands instinctively going for his waist only to be sorely reminded of his trusted weapon's absence when his hands closed around empty space. That would be when his eyes landed on a woman, the person that had released such a startling scream, and he remembered that he was wearing nothing but his birthday suit. And that his other sword was in plain view. "Eaaargh!" he shrieked, voice climbing far higher than humanely possible and hands coming up in front of his crotch to better shield himself from view. In a flash, he was gone, having leaped behind a nearby tree. Who knew that his first successful Shunpo would be in such circumstances.

"What the heck! This isn't funny, senpai!" The young man had started pulling at nearby bushes and branches in an attempt to cover himself and protect his modesty while practically wailed from behind his tree, distraught and miserable with a blooming headache. When his senpais had promised him that they would help him with his inability to speak to women, this wasn't what he had expected at all. When he had finally deemed himself not too exposed after almost burying himself in a pile of leaves, the young Shinigami finally dared to peek out from behind his tree and address the woman he had inadvertently flashed. "Uh-erm...I'm sorry, butIdon'tknowwheremyclothesareorwhereweare. HaveyouseensomerowdyguysfromDivisionEleveninthearea?" His words were a jumbled mess, but it was still more than he had ever said to any women other then his mother. Somehow, not being able to see the women helped him overcome his awkwardness. The fact that he couldn't embarrass himself any further also helped. A tiny bit. For now.

"Eh, um wait." A drop of panic and indignation slipped into the young man's voice and allowed him to shirk any remains of his timidity as he finally stepped out from behind his tree, holding a makeshift kilt of branch and leaves. "Don't get me wrong. I'm from division eleven as well. My senpais brought me out for a drink. I don't really remember what happened afterwards…" He had trailed off with an awkward laugh as flashes of the night prior popped up in his mind, but continued with renewed vigor before he could remember anything else. Something was telling him that he did not want to remember what had happened last night and his instincts had never led him astray. Mostly. "But Senpais would never do anything bad! They are awesome with swords and so strong! They're the coolest, most badass Shinigami in the world."

One could practically see the stars sparkle in the young Shinigami's golden eyes as he spoke of his elders. Then, as soon as the outburst had come, he seemed to remember that he wasn't alone and he promptly accepted the spare uniform with a grateful bow. "Uhm, what about you? What are you doing here? Are you a forest ranger?" he asked while disappearing behind the very same tree again. She appeared quite prepared for everything and completely at home in the wild. Heck, she even had secret stashes of spare clothes around. Maybe she was a hermit, but her neat clothes and flawless nails sort of went against the raggedy image the boy had of hermits.

"Wait, was that your zanpakuto?" A head and a bare arm poked out from behind the tree to point at what she had used to drop down from her perch. "Awesome! You must be a seated officer already."

The young man had to pat himself on the back for having only cringed and let out a very manly 'eek' when the woman raised a hand, almost nonchalantly, to toss her weapon into the tree he was starting to see as a physical in addition to a visual obstacle.

"So, you are a hermit!" That seemed to be the only thing that had gotten into that thick skull of his. That and the fact that he would need to walk 30 miles to get back to human civilization. How the bloody hell did he get here while inebriated anyway? Last he checked, alcohol did not help one's Hoho performance.

"But you know, sleeping out here is bad for your back! I don't really understand what's going on with your eye, but I'm sure people wouldn't mind a bit of cool weather in the summer." Optimism had always been the young man's strong point and since he had few others, he was determined to cling onto it.

"I mean, some of our barracks don't even have air conditioning," he moaned, fanning himself all the while keeping the majority of his body behind his tree. If the weather was that humid in the forest, he didn't want to think how awful the barracks back in division eleven was at the moment. "Why don't you come back with me and spar with some of my friends?"

He was being awfully chatty for someone that would practically have a heart attack when speaking to women, but, for some reason or another, his mind had stopped connecting the one standing in front of him with the frivolous shopaholics that spent more time fretting over their appearances than training, an image to which he had come to associate the female gender. Instead, he was seeing her as another 'badass senpai' that that could effortlessly decimate seas of Hollows all with a single strike of her awesome zanpakuto while calmly delivering a deep and meaningful line. Once again, stars had started appearing in his golden eyes as his imagination took over.

Well, he would soon get to witness his new senpai at work because barely a few seconds after his mind had started wandering in places where logic and rationality were irrelevant, a loud roar echoed through the forest floor. It came from the lower regions of Mt. Koifushi and could be associated to a pre-Gillian Hollow if one was capable of sensing spiritual presences.