Why do these things always happen to me? Ise Nanao wondered as she, along with the rest of the SWA, hung plastic decorations in the eighth division's mess hall. Yachiru had suggested the week before that the Shinigami Women's Association should throw a Halloween party for the Gotei 13. A costume party. The lieutenant of the eighth opted for a traditional kimono, but had the sneaking suspicion that Lieutenant Kusajishi was only in favor of the idea because Halloween revolved around free candy.
"Ise-fukutaichō, where should I hang this?" Kotetsu Isane, dressed as an anamorphic rabbit with a top hat, asked from the base of the ladder Nanao was hanging streamers from.
Nanao looked pensively between the plastic skeleton and Lieutenant Kotetsu. "Wherever you see fit, I suppose," she said dismissively.
Isane nodded and wandered off to someplace further down the mess hall. "I don't understand how this is scary; it's basic anatomy, though this one is highly inaccurate…" she mumbled in thought as she left.
Finished hanging the streamers, Nanao observed the room that was gradually filling with shinigami in costumes. Matsumoto had finally arrived, dressed as a nurse with a plunging uniform neckline. Nanao face-palmed. "Convenient that she shows up after we finished decorating," she thought. A disturbance below pulled Nanao from her thoughts.
"Yoruichi! You're not supposed to cross people's paths—especially on Halloween! It's bad luck," she heard her captain explain jovially from below.
One of the unseated officers of the eighth division sprinted the length of the hall to meet his captain. "Look, Kyōraku-taichō! I made brains!" he proclaimed, evidently very happy with his creation. Nanao rolled her eyes. Definitely fresh from the academy.
Kyōraku's face lit up as he peered into the bowl his subordinate offered up. "…Cool!" he exclaimed, tentatively sticking his hand into the bowl of the goopy Jell-O-like substance. "Ew… it's so slimy!" he said, sounding fascinated and disgusted simultaneously.
"I'm surrounded by children," Nanao muttered from her perch.
Even though there was no possible way her captain could have heard her, he looked up to the ceiling where Nanao had finished taping up streamers. "There's my Nanao-chan! Looking lovely as ever!"
What happened next was so fast, Nanao wouldn't be able to recount it later. Yoruichi darted through the room like a streak of black lightning, weaving through the unseated officer's legs as he tripped backwards; brains flew through the air and rained down on the unsuspecting shinigami. The unseated member of division eight fell against the base of Nanao's perch, which wobbled precariously in response.
The goo was deflected from Kyōraku's straw hat and he stepped forward to save his damsel in distress as she tumbled from her perilous height. Kyōraku Shunsui never grinned as wide as he did the moment his lieutenant landed in his arms, unintentionally clutching his shihakusho and covered in brain slime.
Shunsui reasoned that black cats must have been good luck on Halloween.