Three of Hearts
Disclaimer: All characters and similarities with the original series are on loan from Tite Kubo. Don't sue me.
Summary: 9th Division has to be broken up and its members distributed. Shuuhei, aspiring captain, is assigned to the 2nd Division and finds himself in continuous tension with Soi Fon, his new captain. ShuuheiXSoi FonXByakuya. IchigoXRenjiX Byakuya and YachiruXRenji on the side.
Acknowledgement: Major thanks to Pollux who made this fic possible. Your ideas still rule the world.
Chapter I: Worst Case Scenario
Basically, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. Or rather, he refused to.
The bastard had to use shitty, thinly veiled euphemisms that went along the lines of, "this is not the end of the Ninth Division."
Not the end, exactly; it's in fact far worse than that.
"It's a new phase for each and every member and hence a wonderful opportunity to…"
What? Show off? Who the hell ever mentioned anything about wanting to break off from the team to show off?
The thing is, they're going to break up the squad in miserable pieces/individuals/helpless rascals to favor certain circumstances which he wouldn't even bother to find out. Let them do away with it for now and pay later. Let them be glad at the present and be sorry-assed later. But when is later? How long exactly or nearly approximately is later? The fact is, later shouldn't take more than two months; seven weeks, six days, twenty-three hours and fifty-nine seconds is the maximum. The fact is, their captain just went poof, because of which, everything had to be ruined. His life, for instance.
Maybe he should've blurted out in a less proud way the words:
"Fuck you, man."
Maybe he should've realized before his wheel shifted out of control that the person was someone of authority, remarkably more powerful than him in all aspects, all things fucking considered. Maybe he should've grasped it with more certainty, less temper. Maybe.
"So you're telling me that you're gonna distribute my members to every division and that I'm going to be captained by-"
That's when he stopped in his tracks. He had no idea what adjectival shit to bestow upon that girl-woman. "Midget" would fit her better but cheap insults were simply beneath him, even in this state.
"By the Second Division Captain, who also is the Commander of Onmitsukidou, Soi Fon." The name rolled from Commander Yamamoto's lips easily, as though he'd been hanging on to pronounce the name with grace for some time now.
Shuuhei nearly gasped, turning the words over his head rather reluctantly. In other words, the law-abiding, stickler for rules, bordering on boring captain girl…yeah, her name was Soi Fon, or at least the last time Shuuhei remembered, she went by that name.
"Please be informed that you are not assigned to your new teams randomly; a carefully selected panel was consulted on this and as all decisions met, they have to be operative right away. You, Hisagi Shuuhei…"
He became lost in thought, total space case. But he still managed to catch a few significant snatches like, he wouldn't retain his position as vice captain, much less be captain. In short, I'm being demoted. He walked away from the square; if they called him back, he obviously didn't hear it. He went on walking away and away, directionless like his life. And if there ever was a point in time when he was most vulnerable to giving up, it had to be now.
He didn't know how or when or even why, but here he was now standing tall among his new division mates. If anyone bothered to look past his blank eyes, they'd see a broken man and deeper still, his cracked dreams.
The morning meeting was way past commencing time but the captain was still nowhere to be seen. Punctuality was never really popular among division captains but Shuuhei could use a little non-irritating, non-patience-destroying twenty minutes worth of waiting time. He could be instead out finishing the coffee he left halfway finished to answer the early call for meeting.
Soi Fon arrived thirty-one minutes after assembly time. For someone whose severe observance of rules was particularly epic and who was invariably hostile to the idea of being opposed, she was being thick. And as if things couldn't get any sloppier, the closely five-footer captain didn't even bother to appear apologetic for running half an hour late for a meeting she called for herself. She immediately started her speech with evident grumpiness in her tone of voice when, Shuuhei thought, she could give them the favor of, at least, not acting as though they were the ones who caused her sullen behavior.
It turned out that the captain was not much of the smiling type. In fact, her display of smugness in the meeting happened to be her usual demeanor. Needless to even mention, this all the more downed Shuuhei who already thought he could use a little break from this rather impertinent nightmare.
"Okay, I'm going to skip the preliminaries. As I'm sure you're all very aware, the higher order has decided to split up the Ninth Division. In consequence, the members have been distributed and, may I add, distributed sensibly. Assigned to our team is Hisagi Shuuhei, formerly of the Ninth Division. I will expect that you, each and every one of the original members of the Second Division, will assist Mr. Hisagi in every way you can and in turn, Mr. Hisagi, I will expect you to adjust quickly. It's not like everyone has all the time they need nowadays." Soi Fon almost hissed the words, which didn't show half a sign of warm reception.
At length, the meeting was over, punctuated only by a number of questions, courtesy of her transparent members, which hardly had anything to do with Shuuhei's abrupt transfer. It was made clear, however, that his lost status as a vice captain would not be recovered any time soon.
It took a little while and lots of second thoughts for him to decide to approach the captain. At that time, he was not wholly conscious of the thoughts he was nursing, nor of the steps that he was about to take. Soi Fon was behind the partition where certain important files were allegedly stored. She was busily rummaging through papers, half crouched beside a stoop drawer when Shuuhei came in sight.
He cleared his throat, loud enough to attract her attention. She cast him a dark look and stretched up, her full height not even reaching past his chest. It was always a wonder why someone this tiny could command such obedience over her subjugates.
"I need a word…with you." Shuuhei said.
"Regarding?"
"Regarding me," Shuuhei hesitated. Regarding the immediate situation I caught myself in before I even had time to accept it.
Seeing that Soi Fon's expression barely shifted, or else she was too uninterested in the topic that she was on the verge of going back to the files, Shuuhei went on.
"I understand your loyalty to your team mates and I understand that you know little about me or about what I'm capable of." He took a deep breath. "But I was once a respectable vice captain of the Ninth Division and when the captain had gone, he might as well have left me in charge. And I can safely say right now that I didn't do bad, as a substitute, that is. "
Soi Fon's look was unreadable; it was either she knew where this was going or she didn't care. At any rate, no emotion boiled to the surface, except maybe that of mild disgust of Shuuhei's one-track mind. As she spoke, her heedless words all the more crystallized the indifference contained in her face,
"And do you have a dazzling proposal to make to make me submit to your will, whatever it may be?" Soi Fon replied.
If he wasn't so used to unpleasant surprises, he would've found this utterly outlandish.
"In all seriousness, captain," Shuuhei declared, with obvious emphasis on 'captain'. "I'm not in a position to strike any bargain with you. I'm saying, perhaps it's too much to ask, but I can't think of a way to put it—I'm saying that, the least you could do is to retain my position. To make me vice captain, still; I think it's only fair."
"The least I can do? Why do you have to sound like you're doing us any favor? You're the one who had no one go to; we took you in when we could've refused. The least you could do is to thank me." Her voice grew from irritated to hurt-pride anger now.
Shuuhei remained silent, careful not to look down lest she got a clearer view of his confused face. He could've said that his additional presence to the squad could mean a lot, hands down and everything, most especially that the present vice captain of the Second Division wasn't especially a talent, unlike him who could work magic for the squad if he'd desire to. It was at the tip of his tongue when he realized, a second short of being too late, that there was no room for impudence at the present time, that arguing so could only produce a larger shock and cause him to sink further from where he was.
He took a deep breath for the millionth time that day. "I have reason to believe that if you're going to use my abilities to the team's advantage, you'd have no regrets. If you'd only give me a chance, I swear…" Saying this, Shuuhei knew that he was grasping at his last chance to become a captain, one of these days.
A bitter smile crossed Soi Fon's face as her eyes narrowed, revealing some slight features of a feline. "If I'm right in thinking, you're just trying to usurp my vice captain because you think he's inadequate."
Shuuhei looked at her square in the face. "By default, if that's the word you prefer, yes; I am more adequate than he is. But I'd rather term myself overqualified for being merely a member of the Second Division." Shuuhei said; down deeper, his insides were doing cartwheels. He couldn't remember the last time he waxed this insolent.
Soi Fon didn't speak. Her eyes were sizing Shuuhei up, as if to weigh what limited options she had. When their eyes linked, she held her gaze directly at his, refusing to speak.
"I believe it is in your power to choose your officers." Shuuhei offered, now less certain of himself.
"It is. But it's not a matter of whether or not I have the power to change things or to grant what you want; it's a matter of decisions, mine in particular."
"And?"
"Ceteris paribus, I will go on doing what I see fit." She said sternly. "And you should, too, because you can rest assured that nothing will change from hereon out."
"Captain, I don't want this to be the reason behind our disagreement--"
"Well then, that makes two of us--"
"I am simply asking you to give me a chance. The chance I need."
"And to strip my vice captain of his position? Is that your idea of impartiality? I hate to be the person to say this to you, but you sure need to be cut down to size."
That shut Shuuhei up. He knew he just gave the last ditch, fought against the odds the best he could, and lost. It hadn't hitherto occurred to him for a moment to think about what the second division's vice captain would think or do had things gone his way. He simply was thinking of himself, only, with conscience unbridled, something he had been accusing his new captain of all the while. On the other end, Soi Fon stared at him with sadistic satisfaction, wordless but lucid, visibly victorious in her sly attempt to humiliate him. In his much reduced pride, he knew that there was no use, or hope.
"I know your heart's breaking, bleeding all over the place. I know what's going on inside that thick skull of yours and it has to be said, I don't like every bit of it. You have lots of issues going on there. Next time you decide to waste my time, don't give me any of that anymore; I have more important things to do than pick up the pieces of a broken man."
TBC