Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. Set after the Soul Society Arc.

Captain Sajin Komamura closed his eyes against the building headache. In one week, six members of his division had transferred. To get away from him.

"Captain Komamura." And here was the seventh. He was a young man whose name Sajin could not currently remember. He stood formally in the doorway, waiting to be dismissed. He would be joining Squad 10.

"Why is it that you so badly want a transfer?" Sajin asked. He thought he at least had a right to know why so many of the division members were leaving. He had the sinking feeling it had something to do with his appearance.

"The recent defection of the three captains brought up the issue of trust," the young man said. "I simply feel it is too difficult to trust someone who would hide behind a mask as you have for so long. It is the same thing as directly lying. Sir," he added as an afterthought.

Sajin felt a jolt of shock and anger go through him. "Did you not join this division knowing I wore that mask?"

The young man nodded. "I did, sir. But no one ever imagined you were hiding something like this. It may even be worse that you did not trust us enough to reveal your appearance. That is the problem: I cannot bring myself to trust you now just as you could not bring yourself to trust your subordinates."

Sajin felt as if he had been slapped. "Very well," he said. "You may go now."

The man simply turned and left. Lieutenant Iba walked in a moment later. He started gathering up forms from the backed-up pile of forms from the inbox.

Sajin watched in silence. Finally he said, "Tetzuzaemon, do you believe that not telling someone something is the same thing as lying?"

"In some contexts, sir," the lieutenant replied. "In your case I would say no."

"How is that? I was hiding my appearance. In a way I did lie."

"You never lied, sir. Most of us always knew what was under the helmet."

Sajin's eyes widened. "What?" he said incredulously.

Lieutenant Iba looked at him and said simply, "We always knew that under the mask was our captain."

AN: Just a short little fic I wrote in 15 minutes.