In the middle of a wide, walled-in courtyard, Chad is facing Kyoraku Shunsui from roughly 15 feet away. The captain stands in front of a high doorway under a narrow balcony. Flower petals flutter down around them.

"Captain... of the 8th..." Chad watches him wearily.

"...Fufufu... Yup^_^ Nice to meet you," Shunsui chuckles as flower petals billow around him. "Mmfufufufufufufu...fufu...fu...?"

The petals billow around a bit too much and start obscuring his vision. :P

Shunsui peers up at the balcony and calls out, "He~y, Nanao-cha~~n! Enough with the flower petals already!!"

Up there, Nanao is holding an overloaded basket, tossing out hunks of petals over the balcony with the pissed and impatient expression of someone who would rather be elsewhere getting a root canal than put up with this.

"...say, uh... huh? Hey, Nanao-chan, can’t you hear me!?" Shunsui can’t seem to take a hint - he keeps yelling, "HE~~Y!! I said enough with the petals already~!! Nanao-cha~n!! Cute, Cute Nanao-chuwa~n^_^"

Shunsui begins to chant, "L – O – V – E – LY"

Nanao calmly utilizes a new method...

"LOVELY NANA..."

...by dumping the whole basket on him at once!

"OOWAAHHH~~~~"

Chad looks down at the man mercilessly buried under petals. He interrupts hesitatingly, "...Sorry, but... I don’t have time to stay for comedy skits... I’m going to pass through."

Shunsui digs himself out of the pile of petals with a disappointed look, "Oh, c’mon, couldn’t you stick around a little longer? Everybody is being so cold..."

"I'm in a hurry. Please move away from there," Chad warns him, since the Captain is blocking the exit. "You don’t seem like a villain. I don’t want to fight you if I don’t have to..."

"I admit, I don’t wish to fight either," Shunsui seems to mean it. "However, it would mean trouble if I let you pass. I don’t suppose you could back down?"

Chad meets his gaze, "...I can’t do that."

"...I see," Shunsui closes his eyes regretfully. "Then we have no choice."

Shunsui whips out a bottle of sake and plops down cross-legged with 2 empty saucers in one hand and a joyful smile, "Let’s drink to harmony!"*

"..." Whatever Chad expected, it wasn’t this. "...huh?"**

"No, no," Shunsui explains. "Since you won’t back down, I figure that the least you could do is stop here; just for a short while. Right now, the other Captains are on the move. Soon, this fight will be over," he pours sake into one of the saucers. "Have some fun with me for a little while until then..."

"...other Captains...?" Chad asks. "Ichigo... and the rest of the group... are being targeted by the Captains...?"

"...Uh-oh," Shunsui pulls an unconvincing frown. "That was a slip of the tongue."

"...the situation has changed..." Chad says. "Kyoraku-san... please move aside right now..."

Shunsui looks over the brim of his saucer as he takes a sip, "...and if I were to say no?"

"I won’t let you!!!" Chad lets loose a burst of energy from his arm, aiming at the drinking man sitting peacefully in front of him.

Shunsui doesn’t even bother to look up from his drink – he simply waves his free arm to the side and sends the blast of energy off-course. Chad watches this in shock.

"...Oh, well..." the Captain of the 8th sighs. There is a huge, smoking gouge in the earth that starts at Chad’s feet but only reaches a third of the way to Shunsui before leading off to the side.

He looks up at Chad, "...It seems that things have turned troublesome."

(Intro page – Kyoraku Shunsui’s laying on his side with his arm bent to prop up his head. He appears to be asleep with his straw hat tilted to the side. The design on the top of his hat looks pretty cool from this angle, actually.)

The labyrinth of alleyways in Soul Society echo with the sound of continuous explosions, each boom is accompanied by a voice calling out "You mi~ssed."

Chad is breathing heavily and breaks into a sweat.*** He lets another power punch fly, but Shunsui easily dodges out of the way with a turn of his head.

"You missed again," he reminds Chad. Shunsui is starting to get bored.

Chad catches his breath and wonders why Shunsui can dodge his attacks. The captain had repelled a blast single-handedly and after that he dodged every strike. This isn’t the sort of fight that can be settled with one punch. The ponytail dude he easily defeated before claimed he was a lieutenant deputy. The captain level should only be 2 steps higher in skills and strength...

Chad realizes that the gap between skill level is incredibly wide and the Captains are much stronger than he had assumed.

"...enough already. You understand now," Shunsui crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe. "Your technique is certainly amazing. Such tough, fast, and explosive power is quite something for a human. However, you can’t hit me. That is everything. If you continue like this it’ll be no different. How about giving up and going home now?"

"...thanks for the advice," Chad smiles. "...but, I can’t back down."

Chad’s arm flares up with energy. Shunsui frowns, "...I told you to quit it."

Chad strikes and Shunsui dodges, continuing to talk, "You should know that there are 2 types of techniques: those which completely give out when it surpasses the limits of exhaustion and those which, even after surpassing those limits, can keep going as it chips the user’s life away."

Shunsui turns up behind Chad and puts two fingers on his back, "Your technique is clearly the latter." The force is enough to send Chad flying across the ground. "And you’re now surpassing the limits of exhaustion already. I won’t speak badly, so go home. If you do any more, you really will die."

Chad pushes himself back up. The captain sighs in disappointment and asks, "Why is it necessary to keep fighting? What is your purpose? For what reason did come here to Soul Society?"

"...My purpose is to save Kuchiki Rukia..." Chad stands.

"Rukia-chan?" he asks. "She went missing over there just last spring. That’s a short time. It’s a thin friendship. I can’t think that it’s worth risking your life.”

"Actually... I don’t know anything about her... it might not be enough reason to risk my life," Chad admits. "However, Ichigo wants to save her. Ichigo is putting his life on the line. That’s enough," He recalls the Ichigo he knew from middle school. "Although I risk my life, it's unnecessary for me to have any other reason."

Tipping his hat at Chad, Shunsui admits that trying to persuade him to go home at this point would be rude. So he has no choice – he goes for his swords.

Shunsui has 2 wakizashi (short swords) at his side, which he draws out as he stands ready to fight. Chad charges at him. Before he strikes, he thinks again of Ichigo as a middle-schooler with his head tilted towards the sky...****


*Tsk, tsk – Isn’t he aware that Chad is 5 years under the age limit!? ...hm, probably not...
**Chad’s bewildered expression is SO CUTE! XD
***Hey, nikr, keep your mind out of the gutter! ^_~
****The reason why I assume Chad's picturing "middle-school Ichigo" specifically is due to the black uniform jacket he’s wearing.

Extra Notes:
-Uh-oh! The secret to CLAMP’s flower petal technique has been revealed!! *gasp* Kubo-sensei better watch his back, or else those Shoujo Manga-ka are going to hunt him down and skin his hide! >_<

-Nanao totally 0wnz – but I think everybody knows that by now. ;)

-I know Shunsui's a major-powerful captain, but isn't it a bit rude for Chad to try and hit a guy while he sits there having a drink?

-I think Shunsui is the first person in the history of Bleach to refer to her as "Rukia-chan" @_@

- Ichigo X Chad!! Wow, last week it was Ganju and this week it’s Chad. For someone who acts so tough and anti-social, everyone sure likes Ichigo a lot! ^^

-I'm still experimenting with how to write out the summaries. This time it was mostly in prose form - donno if it works tho. ^_^;;

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