Dictionary(new words)
-Fukutaichou: vice-captain
- Sou-taichou: captain commander
-Gotei 13: The 13 protection squads (if my translation is right)
Chapter 2:
- Reunion!
It was a pretty normal Tuesday at squad 6's barracks; Abarai Renji was sitting by his desk, digging his way through the huge file of documents that he had sneaked away from doing the other days. To make sure that the red-head actually did them, Kuchiki Byakuya was sitting on the couch, drinking tea while reviewing reports.
Renji groaned and looked shortly at the picture standing on his desk. It was a picture of him when he had just left the Shinigami school. He was standing and hugging a brown haired girl on his own age, both of them were smiling. It had been over 90 years since he had seen her. Not since she suddenly declared one night that she was leaving.
"Renji, you are not doing your job," Byakuya said, with a raised brow and Renji hurried back to work.
It kept going like that until he heard a voice.
"Reeeeenjiiiii!" the female voice called and shortly after, a brunette stood in the doorway, holding one hand on her hip while smiling happily.
"You're... Ayame?" Renji gasped, getting up from his chair and scattering his work in the process of hurrying to hug her, just to check if she was really there. And also because he hadn't been able to hug his childhood friend since the day that picture on his desk was taken.
"Missed me?" The brown haired girl asked, looking at him with her dark blue eyes.
"Are you kidding me? Of course I have!" Renji exclaimed and hugged the girl again.
All the while, Byakuya was sitting, tapping his fingers at his knee in annoyance. Not only had Renji once again gotten away from his job, but he didn't know who that girl was and from the look of her clothes, she was a human. The girl, Ayame, was dressed in a light blue summer dress with a light green ribbon around her waist. Her long hair was in a ponytail and she wore a necklace with orange beads in it.
"Renji... you can let go now..." Ayame gasped and Renji did as told.
"Sorry, but I haven't seen you for over 90 years! Where've you been?" The red head asked and Ayame just smiled.
"Oh you know, here and there," she said and started gathering Renji's work from the floor, "Get to work, now."
Renji almost cried; he had totally forgotten that fact about Ayame.
"H-haai, Ayame-chan," Renji sniffed and dumped down on his chair and started on his work.
Byakuya couldn't help but smile, a tiny smile though, at his Fukutaichou's reaction to the girl's instructions.
"I'm so very sorry, sir. My name is Urahara Ayame and I just returned to Soul society after 90 years, but I promise I won't be in the way," Ayame said and bowed deeply for Byakuya.
At that point Byakuya thought to himself that she might be not be so bad to have around. She could handle Renji after all.
"But Ayame, I haven't seen you for so long!" Renji said, once again abandoning his work; men can't to two things at once, or at least Renji couldn't.
"We'll talk when you finish," Ayame said and smiled, "Besides, I have to go and tell Yamamoto Ossan that I'm back,"
"Alright! I'll hurry!" Renji exclaimed and was suddenly very focused on his work.
Ayame giggled and walked out from the room after bowing for Byakuya.
"So I take it he wasn't angry at you?" Kori asked from where he was leaning against the wall outside of the barracks.
"Nope," Ayame said and smiled as they started walking towards the building belonging to the Sou-taichou of the gotei 13, Yamamoto Genryuusai.
"Do you think we'll be in trouble?" Kori asked his master, following her close behind as they walked up the stairs.
"Nah. He'll probably be angry at first, but then he'll soften up again," The young woman said and knocked on the door, waiting for Yamamoto's fukutaichou, Sasakibe Choujiro, to open up.
The door had hardly opened before Ayame walked in, not scared in the slightest.
'I'll never figure her out,' Kori thought to himself as he followed her in.
"Urahara Ayame," Yamamoto said from his seat behind his desk, "You have finally returned from hiding in the real world."
"Yes, I kinda missed this place," Ayame said, still smiling.
"I would like to ask you where Urahara Kisuke is hiding, but I doubt you will answer that," Yamamoto said, opening one of his eyes, looking directly at Ayame.
"Nope, I wouldn't," The young woman answered, still happy for some reason.
"Why have you come, Urahara-san?" Choujiro asked.
"Weeeell, I reeeaaaaaally want to join a squad… pleeeeeaaaaase, Yamamoto Ossan!" Ayame begged, almost looking like a puppy begging for food.
"There is a Choosing session next month. If you show up, maybe someone will pick you to join their squad," Yamamoto said, closing his eye again. A choosing session was basically where new or low ranked Shinigami could show off their abilities in hopes of a Taichou picking them to join their squad.
"Thanks, Yamamoto Ossan! We'll go say hello to everyone else. Come Kori!" Ayame exclaimed and hurried out from the building.
"I apologize on behalf of my master's behavior," Kori said and bowed. Then he hurried after his master.
"Genryuusai-dono, did you feel it?" Choujiro asked as the door closed behind the woman and her zanpakuto.
"Yes, I did feel it. That ominous aura lurking in the back of her zanpakuto's mind," Yamamoto folded his hands and looked out of the big window, watching the sky.
"Should we-?" Choujiro started but Yamamoto shook his head.
"Let's see how it goes," The old man said.