Chapter Two
Most people would be honored to be accepted into the sixth division immediately after graduating the Spiritual Arts Academy. The idea of becoming a seated officer at the same time was almost unbelievable. For most people. Unfortunately, Kadenokōji Seren had gotten used to a certain lifestyle. Since no one in her family cared if she went back to sleep after breakfast, her day generally started sometime after noon.
In the sixth squad barracks, Abarai Renji had been standing in the meeting room, alone, for the better part of an hour. As his anger grew, he started tapping his foot with greater and greater fervor. Then after a final look at the clock, telling him it was already well after ten in the morning, he let out a low growl. And that was all he could take before storming out of the room and straight to the sleeping quarters.
He stopped in front of a two-person room for seated officers. But since Seren was the only female seated officer at that time, the only name on the door was hers. He folded his arms to hold back his rage, and briefly contemplated knocking. In the end, though, he decided he would pay back unpleasantness with more unpleasantness. So he kicked the door in.
The noblewoman made an odd noise and fell out of bed. From the floor, with one leg still hanging from the bed, she dazedly got up on her elbows to look up at him. Not that he could tell exactly where she was looking; the loose dark locks from the previous day were a complete tangle at the moment, covering most of her head. She was wearing a lounge kimono, a vulgar thing covered in crimson lotus flowers, but it was barely doing the job of covering up her important bits. Renji could have cared less.
He stalked inside, barely managing not to just start shouting, and reached down to pick her up by that tangle of hair.
"Ow ow ow ow! Fukutaichō! I'll go bald!" she cried, grabbing onto his hand to support herself. She looked a bit surprised as he easily held all her weight with one hand.
"What time were you instructed to report for duty today?" he hissed at her.
"Uh…" She thought for a time. "You know, you'll probably laugh when I tell you this. When Kuchiki Taichō said 'daily briefing at 9 a.m.', I sort of assumed that was optional. You know, like homeroom. Funny, right?"
He was about to shout when he paused at something strange she said. "Homeroom isn't optional."
"Isn't it?"
"GET INTO UNIFORM!"
"Uh…ah…right."
She reluctantly got up and straightened her hair. When it was tolerably smooth again, she picked up her kanzashi from the bedside table to hold back her bangs. She then pulled out a fresh shihakusho from her closet. She laid it on the bed and was about to untie her obi when she turned and frowned at her lieutenant. She glanced skyward for a moment in thought.
"Um…not that I mind, but are you going to stand there while I change?"
Renji's face lit up with a blush. He'd been so angry he wasn't even thinking about the fact that she had girl parts under that kimono. He struggled for words for a moment, then hurriedly went outside and slammed the door behind him.
"Just…hurry it up!" he shouted from beyond the door. His flush also deepened as a couple of other female division members passed by him and giggled.
A few minutes later, Kadenokōji Seren emerged from her room, fully dressed. She smiled at him and rested her wrist on her sword hilt casually. "Sorry for the wait, Fukutaichō. What can I do for you?"
He snarled. "An hour ago, you could have joined the other new recruits for an introductory meeting and tour of the barracks. Now, you're already late for training. Come on!" he said, grabbing her by the head again and pushing her along.
"Ow ow, I got it, I surrender," she grumbled.
When they arrived at the dojo, the sixth division's third seat, Murayama Takeshi, had already started kendo drills. Being the next highest in strength to Renji and someone approved-of by Kuchiki Byakuya, this man was not a fan of rule-breakers. After Renji shoved her inside, he immediately closed the door behind him. He stayed there long enough to hear both her lame excuse for her lateness, and the punishment she received for it. A thousand joge-buri.
Renji smirked a little at that, expecting her to be floored with exhaustion by mid-afternoon, and went about his business. However, at a little after two, he happened to walk past a group of new recruits chatting under the shade of a tree during their break. Among them, a certain noblewoman.
Seren was laughing with her friends and rubbing her arm muscles. "Ah, man, I thought my arms were going to fall off!"
"Ha ha, that's what you get for being late!" said one of her friends.
"When I saw Murayama-san's expression, I thought he was going to have you whipped or something!"
"I might have preferred that," she joked, and set them laughing again.
Shaking with rage, Renji walked up behind her, causing her classmates to freeze with fear, even as she was still laughing.
"Hm? What's wrong with you guys?" she asked when she noticed their expressions. Then a heavy hand fell on her shoulder.
"Kadenokōji. What exactly are you doing?" asked Renji.
She turned and blinked at him. "Oh, Abarai Fukutaichō. Well, as you can see I'm taking a break with my comrades-"
"I seem to recall hearing something about a thousand joge-buri before you could do anything else. What happened to that?" he growled.
"Yes, I finished that a few minutes ago."
"You…finished?"
She looked him up and down for a moment. "Was I…not supposed to?"
"You did a thousand joge-buri?" he repeated, genuinely surprised now. "And you're still standing?"
She considered for a moment, resting one hand on her sword again. "In my father's house, I started every morning with a hundred. It was a stretch, I won't lie, but once you get used to it, you know, it's like anything else."
Renji's face flushed again with shame as he thought of the fifty he did every morning.
Fortunately, before his mood could get any worse, Seren picked up on it and quickly made a plan. She smiled. "But actually, I did have a favor to ask you, Fukutaichō."
"Me?" he muttered in surprise.
"Well, I don't really know any other seniors yet. I'm sure you're busy, but I don't want to get behind on my training, and I'm afraid I spent the larger part of today doing nothing but swinging my bokutō up and down. Would you mind sparring with me a little, maybe this evening?"
He blinked at her. "You want…to spar with me?"
She looked between his eyes with a curious frown. "Oops. Was that rude to ask of my lieutenant?"
At that moment, a dark voice interrupted their conversation. "The idea of a Kadenokōji woman being unsure of social rules is ludicrous."
Renji whirled around to see Byakuya standing behind him, looking as if he had been doing so for some time, though of course with his shunpo he could have been anywhere seconds before. The captain stepped forward to stand beside his lieutenant, opposite Kadenokōji. He gave Renji the smallest of glances before turning his attention back to the recruit.
"Renji has other duties to attend to," Byakuya said in his emotionless baritone. Renji might have been imagining it, but he thought he saw Seren's posture change, her shoulders hunching slightly, her gaze lowering. The result was that it was suddenly as if it was a different person altogether standing there, though none of the changes were obvious. "If you require anything that your instructors cannot provide, you should come to me after working hours. Is that clear?"
Renji stared at his captain. What did he just say? Was Kuchiki Byakuya giving a lowly new recruit special attention? Had hell frozen over?
"Yes, Taichō."
"As long as you understand," Byakuya said simply, then turned and was gone with a flick of his scarf.
Renji stood in utter bewilderment, watching the space where his captain had just been standing. Slowly, he turned back to Seren. Another surprise awaited him when he did.
Her normally ironic gaze was now lifeless and lowered. Her normal carefree smile replaced with utter nothingness, a face devoid of emotion. At some point, she had clasped her hands in front of her and put her feet together. Suddenly, saying she was a daughter of the Kadenokōji didn't seem so surprising. But Renji had hardly seen a sight more disheartening than this.
A moment or two of silence passed, then suddenly she lifted her head and let out a big, unladylike sigh. She grinned at him. "Well, there you have it. Can't be disobeying my hubby, now can I?"
The words had come out so naturally that it was not until long after she had left that their meaning reached Renji's brain. Several minutes later, since he had been standing frozen there all by himself since she said that, his eyes widened.
"Your what?!"