while ghostly shadows creep slowly by
Arrowsbane
The floorboards beneath them creak ominously, and the small group of Academy Students try not to let their nervousness show. Above them, there is the sound of fabric swishing, and the flutter of feathers.
It's dark inside the large abandoned house that once belonged to the Shiba clan (before they were kicked out of the Seireitei), much too dark to be natural. Somewhere in the distance, an owl hoots softly.
"Ano…" Says the trembling voice of third year Takahashi Mito, "maybe this was a bad idea."
"Don't be a buzzkill Mito-chan," Her older brother Fumio, already well on his way to being a seated officer scolds, "This is supposed to be fun, right?"
"You said that last time," she points out, "right before a Hollow tried to eat you."
"That was one time," Fumio protests, ignoring his friends' snickers.
"It really wasn't."
"You're just jealous–" Something rushes past his shoulder, and he jumps a foot in the air. "What was that?"
The small group of five stops in their tracks, straining their sensitive ears only to hear silence. The rafters creak and sigh as a cold wind pressures the rotting rice paper that still clings to an old set of sliding doors. Leaves rustle, and a mouse squeaks as it runs for its nest.
"Boo." A voice whispers from just behind Mito's shoulder. She lets out an ear-piercing shriek and bolts in the direction of the front door. Fumio and his friends are right behind her.
Watching them run for the hills, Ichimaru Gin smiles. This is way more fun that he'd thought it would be.
It all began when Yachiru's secret stash of candy was accidentally destroyed when a fight in the eleventh division went a little bit too far. And by too far, one should take that as 'a building went crashing down in a cloud of dust and splinters'.
Those responsible are so thoroughly thrashed by the irate pint-sized warrior that they have to be dragged to the fourth for treatment. It's while they're there that one of the nurses absentmindedly mentions the concept of Halloween to the tiny Lieutenant.
Yachiru tilts her head to the side.
She can get candy… for looking cutely terrifying?
Awesome.
Captain Commander Yamamoto is not so enamored with the idea of Halloween, but Yachiru is determined, and her enthusiasm is catching. She uses her big purple eyes to get her way.
Captain Kyoraku is more than happy to dress his division's headquarters in black and orange. The little ghosts are adorable too – he outfits them in tiny shihakusho's of their own. Captain Ukitake is delighted to join him. The Fourth hangs up all of their anatomically correct skeletons, and the twelfth… well, the twelfth division is best not mentioned.
Suffice to say that Kurotsuchi puts the creepy in Halloween all by himself.
The third however… this is a holiday where the motto is 'trick or treat', how can they resist? It's like April Fools came early.
Ideas are submitted and shot down lightning fast in the division-wide meet, and it's not until a very sleep-deprived Hanataro, who had only shown up because he'd been promised food and a chance to take a nap, suggests a Haunted House.
Naturally, this idea goes down like, well, like a house on fire. They do love booby-traps after all.
So Hanabi volunteers the old Shiba estate, and her cousins Kukaku and Ganju are sneakily enlisted to help out, and pretty much everybody works around the clock to get it done in time. Hinges are checked for squeaky-ness, and floorboards are prodded into unevenness.
Somebody even uses Kido to make the gardens turn into a veritable paradise of man-eating plants… and, well, nobody is actually sure who did it, and honestly there's a lot of black fabric lying around looking a little bit worse for wear. Maybe they should check the rosters, yes?
It's not until the final touches are being artfully placed – a nice skeleton pilfered from the fourth with Hanataro's help, and dressed in a spare shihakusho; that they realize that somewhere in that mess, they've lost the Captain. Shit.
"Team Fujiwara, you take the southside! Team Saigo, you take the north!" Hanabi flails wildly, trying to organize the mass-chaos that is the panicking third division.
"Taro-chan!" She screeches over the din, "can you take the ducklings and check out the fourth?"
["What's happening," whispers Morishita Tenzo to his friends.
"Rule number two, remember," Sawada Nariko hisses back. "We lost the Captain."
"Oh," Morishita nods happily. Then he freezes. "Oh."]
Hanataro (still not completely lucid, but recovered enough to fake it) nods, and taps four of the newest recruits for what they like to call 'smile and wave duty' before leaping off over the rooftops, the ducklings in tow.
"Hana-chan…" Hanabi freezes at the sound of her mothers' voice.
"Mom," she says, turning around and trying not to cringe. "Hi. Mom. Hi."
Rangiku raises an eyebrow, taking in the panicked expressions on the frozen Shinigami in front of her.
"I don't want to know, do I?"
It's rather depressing how the woman can cut to the heart of the matter, because no, she probably doesn't want to know. And they most certainly don't want to tell anybody. Because honestly, who wants to admit that they lost their Captain?
Ichimaru Gin is many things. Annoying, dangerous, sly, off-the-charts-intelligent; possibly a bit off in the personality department, but nobody has ever been able to prove it… and he has the curiosity of two dozen cats crammed into one person. But he can never be considered uninteresting.
So when his division scurries off like a legion of ants to build a Haunted House, the first thing he does is laugh himself sick (where nobody can hear him and sound the-sky-is-falling alarm). The second thing he does is investigate. Because Gin wouldn't be Gin if he didn't stick his nose in.
The old Shiba state is actually quite creepy in all honesty. It's going to be even creepier once darkness falls and his kids finish up. He's so proud, nobody can do pranks like his kids can. It's fabulous and he loves every single one of them.
It doesn't stop him from double-checking their work though, because he'd hate for one of their pranks to fail. No, seriously, the first rule of pranking is don't get caught, and there's no way in hell any of his kids are allowed to get caught.
Oooh… tripwires. Very nice. Very well done.
And is that slime? It is. Gin stifles an excited giggle. Excellent.
The sun sinks past the horizon, and slowly the visitors begin to trickle through in small groups – twos and threes and fours, with the occasional larger batch. Gin takes pride in sending every single person into both a trap, and another step closer to a nervous breakdown.
["It's like the house is out to get us," One fifth year hisses, being shushed by his friends and their accusations of paranoia. Hmm, Gin muses, maybe he should pull some strings. At least one of them has a healthy dose of common sense.]
Another little push here, a pull on some strings here… spook a stray cat.
Oh look, there goes another group of first years.
Maybe he should do this every year?
It's November second, and it's been three days since the Captain of the third went suspiciously missing. The third isn't overly worried about his health because, seriously, this is Ichimaru Gin here. This is the king of crazy, and overlord of chaos. Hollows flee at the sight of him, and he can reduce Shinigami centuries older than him to tears with a few well-placed comments and some awkward moments.
No, the third is more worried about the trouble he can cause and the paperwork they may end up with because how can they cause trouble if they're bogged down with their worst enemy. Really, they'd rather face down a Menos or three than handle cleaning up Gin's mess.
A report comes in politely asking them why their contribution to the Seireitei's Halloween Project is still up and running, because apparently half a dozen first years are now in need of some serious counselling after having been dared to go up to the Shiba estate by an upperclassmen.
Ah crap.
Like it wasn't enough that they had to worry about their Captain going on walkabouts.
So of course, Hanabi puts down the paperwork, dumps Hanataro despite his protests ("Really Hana-chan, I can't stay long, I have to report in for an assignment in three hours,") in charge of 'Operation: Find the Captain before he destroys the Seireitei or worse gets caught' and drags Izuru out the door, ducklings following in a neat little line.
Even in the daylight, her old Clan Estate still looks creepy as fuck. Seriously, the garden may need to be exorcised or something.
Three hours, six tripwires, a seriously dusty room and several patches of slime later, Hanabi is very much done with the whole ordeal. She does not get paid enough for this. Where the fucking hell is he?
(Somewhere along the line, two of the ducklings have gone missing. But they'll turn up eventually, right?)
There's a creak of a floorboard, and a shadow-y figure-y thing in the next room. Two of the three highest ranking members of the third share a look, nod, and move silently into position.
Hanabi goes high, Izuru goes low. There's a bang as they tackle something (someone?) to the floor. In seconds, they have the offending object trussed up, good and proper. It's only then that they look down at their captive.
"Oh," Gin says cheerily, tilting his head to the side, "Hi kids."
Hanabi scowls, and Kira facepalms as his Captain blatantly ignores that fact that he's wrapped shoulder to ankle in kido-reinforced rope.
"Are you freaking kidding me?" Hanabi rages, hand on the Hoshiyo's hilt.
Yeah, the third division can't even do Halloween like normal people…
Meanwhile…
"Marco!" Shouts a very bored voice.
"Polo," Another answers happily.
"Marco!" The first voice calls again, slipping closer to the second.
"Polo!" A door slams suddenly, and there's the quick patter of footsteps as duckling number two hurls themselves at number three.
"What was that?" A shadow flits overhead, and the ducklings scream, before bolting for home. Hey, look – they finally figured out Shunpo.
"Mrw?" Back at the house, a very confused black cat washes itself on the old porch. Silly Shinigami. How can a house be haunted in the afterlife?