The backyard of the Ninth Division barracks.
Siwei Yan had just stepped through the courtyard gate, humming an off-key tune, when a startled cry burst from around the corridor corner.
"Fifth Seat Yan Si is back!"
A second later, a jumble of footsteps came rushing from every direction.
Wooden doors slid open, heads poked out from behind paper windows, and someone even jumped straight down from the second-floor corridor.
"Captain! He's back!"
"Lieutenant! Fifth Seat Yan Si really is back!"
In the darkness, the Ninth Division's members all crowded into the backyard.
They wore rumpled sleeping clothes, and some even stood barefoot on the stone paving.
But no one cared. Every eye fixed on Yan Si in the middle of the courtyard, and then everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
The tension that had gripped the air for nine days finally eased.
"Waaah!" A green blur hurtled toward him, moving fast enough to stir the wind.
Yan Si opened his arms to catch him almost instinctively.
"Little Future!" Kyunnan Shiro buried his face in Yan Si's chest, his voice muffled and thick with tears.
"Where on earth did you go?!"
He lifted his head, his eyes red, tears glistening in the moonlight.
"We couldn't reach you at all! Is that communicator broken?!"
Yan Si awkwardly felt at his waist.
Hanging there was the Ninth Division's internal communicator, specially made by Urahara, with a black casing half the size of his palm.
A green indicator light on its side was glowing quietly.
Over the past nine days, he really hadn't had time to check whether anyone was trying to contact him.
"Big brother!"
Another figure rushed over, this time hugging his left arm. Rangiku Matsumoto looked up, her long orange hair swaying gently in the night breeze, her bright eyes fixed