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This article, Back to Normality?, is the opening chapter of the Rising arc, which is part of Bleach: Cataclysm. It starts off the third arc featuring Garrett Sheppard and his friends as the primary characters, and takes place a month following on from the events of the Second Battle of Grat, which comprised the second arc to feature Garrett and friends.
The sun was high in the sky, the wind was calm, and there was barely a cloud in the sky; truly a cracking day. Most where taking advantage of the fact it was Saturday: families who had just gotten off the weekly grind where letting their hair down and enjoying themselves in the good weather.
Not Garrett though.
He was brushing and mopping floors in the currently unoccupied hallways of Grat university. He'd landed the job on a part-time basis thanks to Anko's pull but on days like today what he truly longed for was hanging out with his friends and chilling with Tiffany. Only she wasn't around, he had to remind himself quickly. She was still in the Soul Society trying to get answers about what happened over Grat a month ago.
"She's been gone only three weeks. I didn't think I'd miss her this badly."
Still, there wasn't a big lot he could do at the moment. So he put his mind on the immediate problem at hand and started mopping the final floor of the day. Even when he sensed a Hollow close by he refused to budge...
Tiffany had only ever been in Nishiendo once in her entire life and that had been when Kusaka, Shinrei and Tadashi helped her flee the Central 46. Now she found herself back and looking at a very different landscape. The buildings where damaged, the people looked dejected, and a feeling of hopelessness permeated the air.
"The Collapse did this much damage? Grat got it light in comparison."
"Grat had my brother defending it."
The man who said this was none other than Kentaro Hiroshi. Since "The Collapse", as everyone had taken to calling the destructive merging of the primary spiritual realms, he had stepped into the leadership role vacated by his father. He looked ragged however; like he hadn't slept in the month since the incident.
"I wasn't aware you had a brother in Grat. Which one?"
He arched an eyebrow at the question. He then waved it away and whispered his father's name in an angry tone of voice.
"Of course you didn't see him! That'd been too bloody simple for Kenji bloody Hiroshi. My old man likely sent him there in disguise, Spirit King only knows why. But it was Shinrei: the man with whom you share -- or should I say shared -- a Zanpakutō."
"Shared? He's dead isn't he?"
Kentaro shrugged his shoulders.
"Him and many others. You can stay and help me rebuild the Reikai if you want; I could definitely use you. But if not then I suggest you head back to Grat. This realm is about to get very bloody very soon, and as far as I can see me and mine are the only ones standing between order and chaos."
Tiffany did not follow him. Instead she looked around for a time. "I could help, couldn't I?" She was about to follow when a sudden thought struck her. "My God! Ries Nohr couldn't actually be- No, stop being silly, Tiffany. Their spiritual energy is nothing alike."
Only she had no idea how right her thought was...
Elsewhere, in the outskirts of Grat.
"This is a bad idea." Lloyd said for perhaps the tenth time.
"So you said before!" Randy roared back.
"Then maybe you should listen to me. Garrett told us he was done running around fighting Hollow; that he had to provide for his family, especially after his uncle was killed when the guy's house collapsed. I believe his exact words was that fighting Hollow wasn't profitable."
"There's one person who can convince him."
"Oh, yeah? And she happens to live in the old derelict business district, does she? She must be a real classy chick, this one."
"You bet you're life I am!"
Before Lloyd could even turn around to face this new speaker he found a blade pressed to his throat! The holder of this weapon was short compared to Randy and Lloyd, had pale white hair, and dangerous-looking hazel eyes.
"Risa, it's been too long." Randy said, grinning.
"The hell are you here for?"
"We're hoping you'll kick Garrett in the ass for us. Without Tiffany around and with May still out of it, you're about the only one he'll listen to. So what do you say?"
"... That I can do."
Tadashi and Shin where legends in their own right. Their highly rumoured death following The Collapse was taken as a great blow by those who knew them and a great coup by their enemies. Thankfully they where just that: rumours. Tadashi and Shin lived though they where hardly in any condition to be returning to the world-stage just yet.
Shin was, after all, a mass of burned skin across most of his body. Tadashi, meanwhile, was missing his left eye and recovering slowly from a leg broken in multiple places. The duo where safely obscured by their reiatsu-concealing and stealth-providing pale-blue kimono.
"Are you sure you don't want to see her?"
Shin normally knew Tadashi's mind, but the man was grief-stricken right now and the normal rules of thumb just weren't applying at the moment. The pair stood on a hill overlooking the newly created Reikai, specifically the damaged Nishiendo. They saw Tiffany speak with Kentaro and then walk away from him as if she had just struck onto a good idea.
"... She isn't ready to learn about her family yet." Tadashi decided.
"Would it be so bad for her to learn that she has an uncle?" Shin asked. "You don't have to tell her about her father or anything, just tell her about Rei."
"As I said it'll keep. Besides, if I talked to her right now, there's no guarantee that Kentaro won't find out we survived and that news would spread like wildfire."
"And we'd lose the element of surprise should Averian appear. I hate it when you're right."