They tramped back to the office in a somewhat depressed silence. The sun was out now, shining intermittently through the remaining clouds. Hinamori crossed their path, but stuck her nose up and pretended not to see them. It was just as well, because Toshiro didn't have the patience for her mockery right at this moment. They arrived at the office mid-afternoon. More paperwork had arrived. Training was over with. The tea had gone sour, just like Toshiro's mood.

"I'm sure you already know, but he's testing you."

Well, fucking duh.

"Of course he is." Toshiro poured out the tea, hoping that he appeared normal and calm. "There's no way that all the other Captains are too occupied to cover it."

"So what are you going to do?" Matsumoto was looking at him, but he was careful not to meet her eye. They were somewhat low on tea bags, he'd have to order some.

"Well, he said to go ahead and send out a recon team. Why don't you pick out three men who you think would be suited for the job? You know them better than I do, after all." Toshiro studied the orders that the Commander had given them. "Send them out armed, better safe than sorry. They're looking for suspicious cult-related activity in the woodlands near the border between the 47th and 48th Districts. Possibly with trained ex-shinigami involved."

"Very well sir." Matsumoto picked up a clipboard that hung by the door which contained a roster of all the soldiers in the 10th Division. It wasn't official paperwork, but something of her own devising that she'd shown him the day before: a rolling list of the whereabouts of every single soldier under her command. Who was on vacation, who was on medical leave, who was Hollow-hunting in the Real World, who was on assignment in another district or working on a special squad outside the 10th—anyone who wasn't expected to be in the Division's territory for most of his or her work day was clearly marked and labeled. The name of any man who was unaccounted for could be checked against her roster and either be located or reported missing at a moment's notice. She flipped through the papers for a handful of seconds and then checked off three names. "Shall I have them spend the night?"

Toshiro wavered here. Night in the Rukongai was dangerous even mid-way out, and he had no intention of being responsible for any casualties during his first week. On second thought, though, who in their right mind would be carrying on with cult-related activities out in broad daylight? There would likely not be anything to be found until sundown. And they'd be armed, after all.

"Yes, tell them to stay if they find a reason to stay, but let it be on their judgement. And if they do decide to stay, have them send word by nightfall. I'll be here doing some practice on my own until well after dusk."

While Matsumoto walked down to the soldiers' lounge to find and brief the men she had chosen, Toshiro took a deep breath and fretted.

All the other Captains are busy, my ass.

It was amusing that the Commander had thought that he would buy that. Still, this wasn't a big deal. There would be untold thousands of other assignments to complete at the Commander's bidding, and although the first one felt shiny and new, it was nothing to get worked up over. He felt like something of a slacker for having Matsumoto choose the recon party, but then it would have been foolish for him to have picked three men at random himself while not knowing any of them or their skills or how they worked together. He'd make up for it by being here to deal with either their return by nightfall or their report on what they'd found and why they were staying. He really had planned on staying late into the night to meditate and go through a kidou practice. Matsumoto probably thought he'd made that up so he could stay and micromanage them due to nerves. Oh, well.

"Okay, they're off, sir." Matsumoto returned, apparently chipper, and laid the orders back on his desk. "I've signed off on the orders, so when they've turned in their report it only needs to be filed."

"Good." Well, that was that then. Toshiro went back and forth for a minute over whether to make more tea, and then decided against it. The day was nearly over, and soon he'd be the only one around the office to drink it.

The third seat came by to drop off some paperwork, which Matsumoto set about filing away at a leisurely pace while humming lightly to herself. Toshiro was again perplexed by her behavior. On the one hand, her uniform deviated from the standard guidelines. Her cleavage was exposed and her hair was just—all over the place. She took orders well but didn't seem shy about questioning him—which was just as well, really. Toshiro probably had less confidence in his ability to lead the division than she did. He didn't want one of those robotic lieutenants that just followed orders and agreed with everything he said. On the other hand, she had run the division single-handed for so many years and the place was still intact. And the crew was obviously unfailingly obedient to her.

She was an enigma.

But then, Toshiro thought, she probably thought the same thing about him. Some random kid from the Rukongai with weird hair and a serious inability to control his spiritual pressure suddenly gets placed in command of a division that's been without a Captain for half a century? And not a handsome, charismatic new graduate of the Academy, either, but a kid, half her height and weight. How long would she tolerate his aloof nature before she started to lose patience? How long before she went to the Commander and asked to be reassigned? He wouldn't be surprised. It had always been only Granny and Hinamori who'd stuck by him, and that wasn't about to change. Plus, Toshiro had no intention of being one of those Captains whose Lieutenant would take the proverbial bullet for them—yes, there was plenty to be said for loyalty and dedication, but there was no need to put the Captains up on a pedestal like that. They weren't exactly normal everyday folk, but neither were they heroes or Gods.

They passed the rest of the afternoon in a neutral silence. There wasn't anything to discuss and the troops were quite self-sufficient. Matsumoto left with a polite "good evening" at four o'clock. He noted with mild disdain that there was a small stack of papers on her desk, but decided that he'd done enough work today and did not investigate them. Probably paperwork that she'd put off for later, had been unable to complete today due to... well, due to something. Toshiro sat in the office and meditated quietly for over an hour after that. He gave up before six, having decided that there was no amount of deep breathing that could ease the tension that had settled in his neck and shoulders.

His kidou practice in the dojo went smoothly. He reached the end of his 200-level book and could produce most of the spells without an incantation, which was impressive even for captain-class shinigami. He'd have to pick up the next book on the weekend and get started with it on Monday. He ran through a calming vinyasa yoga series twice, then put his sandals back on and headed down the corridor to the offices.

The team had not returned, nor had they sent in a report or even a short message explaining the lack of a report.

Wonderful.

Toshiro sat at the desk and practiced more deep breathing. It wasn't quite dark out yet. Surely he'd be seeing a Hell Butterfly flit nonchalantly through the window any minute now.

Yep, any minute.

Any.

Minute.

Pink and orange faded to gray and finally to deepest blue. Mars came into view. With the lamps out in the office Toshiro could see for miles from his perch on the windowsill. The Big Dipper appeared, and the outlines of the trees and buildings on the far horizon faded to blackness. When Toshiro could see the North Star in the inky sky he pressed his fingers to the cold glass and said a little prayer. The windows would be frosted by morning. A frost this early in the season meant they were in for a harsh winter.

Good.

Finally the darkness was so complete that he could no longer see the buildings across the way, nor the training equipment stacked neatly in the corner of the courtyard below. Toshiro climbed down. He pulled off his haori and laid it across the back of the chair at his desk. He didn't like leaving it because the white made him look a little larger and more formidable than the plain black robes, but the fact was that it also made him stick out in a crowd. He lit a single lamp and wrote out a note instructing the division to continue with their regularly scheduled activities in his absence, and to inform a superior of where he'd gone if he wasn't back by mid-morning. He snuffed out the lamp, gathered his sword and a copy of the assignment, and he shut the office door behind him.

He pinned the note to the front of the office door where it would be found immediately in the morning, whether by Matsumoto or one of the seated officers. The corridor was pitch black too, but Toshiro had very good hearing and managed to not run into any walls or fall down the step on his way out. He liked the darkness, and he didn't want to disturb anyone with the light. Although surely by now everyone should be back in their rooms—it was well past ten. He stepped out onto the porch in the moonlight. There was definitely a biting chill in the air that would bother anyone else but him. A slight wind, too, but at least the clouds had cleared off leaving a perfect blanket of diamonds overhead.

"Going after them?"

Toshiro jumped half a foot in spite of the softness of the voice. He turned to see a dark figure leaned against the wall adjacent to the door, deep in the shadows. The shape of it and a glint of gold at the throat told him it was Matsumoto, clearly waiting on him. How long had she been out here? Was she spying on him? Had she perhaps intercepted the team's communication and waited to see what he would do when he didn't get it, in some kind of test of her own? Toshiro wasn't a fool, he knew that she was evaluating him as much as the Commander was. She had been from the beginning.

"They haven't reported in or sent any kind of message." Toshiro said, turning away from her as if unconcerned. "If those were the men you thought best suited for the job and they've been captured, it would be foolish to send anyone else out after them. And in the case of possible cult activity, it would also be foolish to wait until morning to go and check on the situation."

"Very wise, sir. But you've forgotten your haori, haven't you?"

"I'm not well known enough yet as a Captain to be identified as such without it. This way I could be just any new recruit, and it's always safer to be underestimated."

"I see." Toshiro looked back to see that she had stepped out of the shadows, and from her silhouette it was clear that she was already armed. Her voice was still soft, but contained something more stern now, as it did when she addressed the troops. "I suppose we'd best be off then, if we're to return by morning."

"Oh? You're not required to come with me." Toshiro was on the bottom step, looking up at her against the backdrop of the night sky. Her hair blew free in the sharp breeze, encircling her almost like a golden halo in the moonlight.

"The third seat can handle it for a day, sir." She followed him down the steps and they set off through the pristine white streets in search of city walls, beyond which began the dirt roads that signaled the beginning of the Rukongai. "They've been my men for a lot longer than they've been yours."

A/N: Sorry for the delay, I've had final exams but the new semester starts this week. This will be the longest fic I've ever done when I'm finished, and I feel like quality is more important than speed so please be patient. Also don't be surprised if you happen to go back and see revisions in the first few chapters. No major plot points will change, of course.