Mei opened her eyes and found herself realizing that this was a place she had been before, where she met that woman.
Empty monochrome space with a walkable cold as ice liquid surface and a dark sun, Mei looked around to find the other woman but she couldn't see them. She curiously walked forward towards the black sun when immediately a voice reached her ears, a light breathing sound and a not-so-tight grip on her hand. "You're awake...."
"Yes.... I think so...." Mei replied to the other woman but she was startled by the clarity of her words. Unlike last time, she could see Acheron more clearly and her arms were no longer a mist but arms of flesh and blood. "I can speak and see clearly now."
"I'm glad for you." Acheron released Mei as soon as she saw that she was no longer moving towards the giant black sun but still held her hand and pulled her back to the other side, away from that black sun. Like walking in a water park (?) Acheron curiously asked Mei. "We met again but not in a critical situation... Perhaps you have many hidden questions to ask."
"Did my expression give away my thoughts?" Mei muttered under her breath and raised her hand to touch her face to see what expression she had made Acheron chuckled slightly at this silly side of Mei, it reminded her of someone who often asked silly questions in important situations.
"Not really.... Perhaps you've forgotten that we share one mind and one body."
"Oh.... Yeah, I forgot about that...." Mei was with Acheron, she was silent for a long time thinking about what she wanted to ask. "The memory where you ate with someone, why did you show it to me? And why did you stop me from killing Byakuya?"
"I was eating with someone.... That person is 'Tiernan'.... Someone quite 'special'. The fact that you can see that memory is probably because we still share the same memory, at the same time is that perhaps inside our heart we are looking for support from each other in this lonely place." Acheron thought for a moment and slowly responded to Mei as she realized the space was empty, dull and without any purpose or vitality at all. She continued speaking with her usual solemn expression.
"As the watcher of the Acheron, I'm guarding the path to the abyss of the Nihility, guiding every soul reluctant to become one with it... back to this side.... As well as stopping them from doing things that they don't know that they will regret it later, unless they have the desire to do it." Acheron paused for a long moment and then smiled, continuing to explain to Mei, who was still bewildered when she saw Acheron smiling. "Part of it is you, you hesitate to kill him because you still appreciate what you have now.... The little joys that both of us enjoy."
"Is that so.... I didn't realize that...." Mei looked at Acheron and thought. It was true that she had to mentally struggle with which one to choose, her body had decided not to kill Byakuya in the first place, but she still swung her sword because of the anger welling up inside her. The fact that Acheron smiled was when she knew that Mei was able to tell that she still had some emotions as a human, but she just didn't realize it.
"It seems like, you're about to wake up." Acheron looked into the distance for a long time because she saw a bit of red light. She looked reluctant, part of her want to talk to Mei but also wanted to push Mei away because here the Border of Nihility solely affects its observers so she didn't want to Mei stay a little longer. But Acheron decided to release Mei's hand and gently nudged her to quickly walk towards that red light. "We'll meet another time.... Take care of yourself, Mei."
Mei woke up to a loud noise and suddenly realized that she was in a prison cell. Luckily she still kept her clothes and just took away her coat with her sword. She looked down at her left arm that was injured from blocking Shunsui's attack and these Soul Reapers were kind enough to bandage it for her. In addition, she was shackled with three to four handcuffs and her ankles were cuff too, perhaps to block her spiritual energy?
"You are.... Zaraki Kenpachi!! 11th Division Captain!" Ganju's loud voice from the opposite prison chamber attracted Mei's attention. She tilted her head to look and saw Ganju, Ishida and Chad all being held in the same cage with a captain carrying two people on his back. It was Orihime with a girl who seemed to be Kenpachi's lieutenant, then three other people walked up to stand next to him. "You're that hentai wig narcissist!"
"Who might you be?" The Shinigami with strange eyebrows and hair raised his sword to threaten Ganju when he attacked his beautiful hair. "Sorry, but I'm unable to remember ugly faces."
"People are saying that I became more attractive after I have this gauze wrapped around my face!" Ganju spoke aggressively with pride as he considered himself handsome indirectly, pointing straight at the other person and mocking him. "Wait, you can't even tell what I look like with all this gauze wrapped around me!"
"Inoue!?" Ishida noticed a familiar head with a familiar voice as Orihime was trying to raise her body to look at them, she turned around and looked and everyone was there including Mei.
"Miss Acheron! Ishida! Sado! Ganju! You're all right! I'm so glad!" Then Orihime was suddenly grabbed and pulled down by the girl with pink hair, causing Orihime to scream. "Yachiru, stop it!"
"Fall fall!"
Kenpachi, his subordinates, and the Ryoka arrive at an empty pavilion on top of a building, to their considerable confusion. "Well.... Being a navigator is just about luck so...."
"It's common to end up at a dead end 10 or 20 times!" said Orihime.
"I told you. That's why I didn't want Lieutenant to be the navigator." While others tried to understate it, Ikkaku bluntly stated causing Yachiru to become angry and leaps onto Ikkaku and begins biting his head, to his shock. "Oh, hey!!! Ouch!! Captain!! You're biting into my skull!!"
"Captain...." Suddenly, Yumichika senses something and alerts Kenpachi, who acknowledges this and admonishes those hiding nearby for doing so.
"Yeah.... So pitiful for you all to be so sneaky." Kenpachi said with disdain and annoyance as he could feel that there were two Captains secretly hiding in this place. "Come out. Concealing Spiritual Pressure and hiding is not something that a captain class would do."
"You speak so profoundly. Do you have any idea what you're doing?" A voice rang out as the Reiatsu concealment was removed, a total of four Shinigami appeared on the far end of the pavilion's rooftop, shocking those present other than Kenpachi and Mei with their combined Reiatsu.
"Where are you running to with the Ryokas?" The Shinigami wearing a pair of goggles that looked like a blind man spoke up, his words a mixture of anger and mockery of Kenpachi when he lost to Ichigo. "Did you lose your pride too after defeat?"
"Captain Komamura.... Captain Tosen.... Lieutenant Iba.... Lieutenant Hisagi..." Aramaki stood next to Mei trembling so much that he hid behind her as he confirmed the identities of each Shinigami standing in their way.
"Don't fret, Aramaki! We still are greater in number!" Yumichika assures him.
"The number isn't the problem! Like this, we'll...."
"Stop yelping... Who said I'm letting you all fight?" Kenpachi interrupts. "4 on 1. Not enough for a tameshigiri!"
"4 on 1.... you say?" Appearing in front of Kenpachi alongside Tōsen, Iba, and Hisagi with Shunpo. "You're saying that you' ll fight all 4 of us? I know you're strong. But that is saying a little too much, Zaraki Kenpachi."
"Stop babbling. Hurry up and bring it on! You all should come at once. Maybe one of you will be able to cut me." Kenpachi draws his Zanpakutō and points it at the four Shinigami while encouraging them to attack him from all sides at once, since he believes that this is the only way any of them will be able to cut him.
"Captain Zaraki.... What shall we do?" Aramaki asked stammeringly, Kenpachi brandished his sword and told them to leave in a rude but matter-of-fact way.
"You're useless. Go away!"
"You don't need to be that harsh...." Aramaki dejected over his harsh words.
"No, Whiskers." said Yachiru. "Kenny's so happy right now, you can't mess with that."
"Kenny! We'll just continue our search of Ichy! Come soon, Kenny!!" Yachiru excitedly spoke loudly to Kenpachi even though they were not far apart.
"Yeah, I'll be right there."
"Alright, let's go!" Yachiru then called out the nicknames she gave each person in turn starting with Ganju, Orihime, Chad, Ishida and finally Mei. "Muscles, Jiggles, Monkey, Pencil and Dollface."
"Dollface?" Mei was standing there dumbfounded when Yachiru called her "Dollface" and what did it mean, she almost got left behind if Ishida didn't drag her along.
After a while of running after Orihime's group, Mei somehow miraculously returned to the original place where they and Kenpachi were blocked by two other Captains. She had just stepped closer to Kenpachi when the Captain with a head like a fox and a giant body drew his Zanpakutō and released his Shikai, Tenken, before slashing at Kenpachi, creating a wave of force that gouges through the ground towards Kenpachi and destroys part of the building below.
"Take two steps back, Komamura. He still may attack." As the dust settles, Komamura takes two steps back at the request of Tōsen, who appears in the air above and asserts that he will break all of Kenpachi's limbs while performing Suzumushi Nishiki: Benihikō, creating hundreds of thin blades in the arc of his sword swing that proceed to rain down on Kenpachi's location and further damage the building below.
".... Oh woah, this is dusty...." Mei coughed up piles of dust from the attack Tōsen performed, causing the other two to freeze when they saw the second person had been standing there at some point. Komamura looked down at the ground where the Ryoka woman had just appeared when he realized that she had deflected both his own attack and Tōsen's attack.
"Why don't you run with the others, you weird woman!?" Kenpachi shouted and grabbed Mei's collar making her blink in surprise as he also realized that Mei stood in front of him and blocked the other two's attacks with a still sheathed sword. He paused as he stared at Mei, he could guarantee that she was DEFINITELY STRONGER than Ichigo.
"Long story.... Uh I....got lost...." Mei hesitantly replied as she searched for a reasonable reason to say it when she saw Komamura and Tōsen simultaneously attack her and Kenpachi, in a split second the two of them also blocked the attack at the same time, surprising both Komamura and Tōsen. "Oh my.... Attacking a dead corner...?"
"Hah! It turns out that you are also a person who knows how to hold a sword, I like that!" Kenpachi said cocky and satisfied that he had found another opponent similar to him like Ichigo. He then smirked when he saw the surprised looks on Komamura and Tōsen's faces. "Don't get so freaked out ever such a petty thing."
Kenpachi kicks Tōsen in the chest, sending him crashing into the wall on the other side of the pavilion.
"Tosen." Komamura turns around to look for Tōsen, for a moment he was caught off guard and forgot that he was facing two enemies of pure strength here.
"Don't look around, you idiot." Kenpachi grabs Komamura's wrist and flips him over, creating a sizable explosion of force on impact causing Mei to wince and whine "Yikes..." at the same time, closing her eyes at Kenpachi's violence. "So ridiculous. How dare you call yourself as captains with so little strength!"
"Bastards, get up, I don't think you're dead yet." Kenpachi demanded that the other two Captains stand up. "If you're going to die, at least release the Bankai before you die."
"Don't be so arrogant. To defeat a traitor and a Ryoka like you guys don't need to release the Bankai." Komamura angrily retorted.
"Wait, Komamura." Tōsen said while coming up from behind, he Zanpakutō as it began to glow. "Let me."
"There are three ways to become a captain of Gotei 13." As he begins spinning his Zanpakutō around on his finger by the ring on its hilt, Tōsen begins recounting the three methods of becoming a captain of the Gotei 13.