Chapter Two:
Arguing with the Monkey and Running into the Other Fukutaicho's
"Oi! Watch were you're going, you mutt!" Saita yelled at the redhead's back, with a harsh glare and a disgusted look on her normally placid face. He had really pissed her off, this time.
At hearing the word "mutt" being directed towards him, Renji abruptly stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned around to face the offending blonde haired woman. A murderous look upon his hard features as their glaring irises clashed. If there was one thing he truly hated, it was her insults. She had many insulting nicknames for him, but that one was the worst. That one caused his blood to boil and his temper to snap.
"What did you just call me?" Renji growled lowly, angrily at the scowling blonde haired woman, who had just insulted him.
"Oh, sorry I didn't know you were deaf mutt. Here let me tell you again…" Saita mocked with a dangerous smirk, before yelling at the top of her lungs, "Watch where you're going you stupid mutt!"
"Oh, if you weren't a female," Renji growled, his fists clenched in a white-knuckle grip around his Zanpakuto's hilt. Renji could feel the blade pulsing, almost pleading for him to unleash an attack at the girl. Forcing himself not to give in to the urge to kill the annoying woman, Renji reluctantly removed his iron-like grip from Zabimaru's hilt and began to turn away from the irritating woman. It would not be worth loosing his position, as much as he wanted to hurt her at that moment; it just was not worth it.
"Oh… I see now, that's why you won't fight me anymore." Saita muttered thoughtfully, before lazily mocking the sixth Division Fukutaicho, "You're afraid that I'll defeat you in front of your asshole of a Taicho and he'll think less of his new Fukutaicho. Isn't that right?"
Saita paused for a brief second before continuing on, but in a more spiteful, angry and disappointed tone, "But let me tell you one thing. That Taicho of yours doesn't even acknowledge your existence. After all, he's just a stuck up noble who thinks he's better than everyone else… and yet you still want him to acknowledge you, how pitiful; How disgustingly low of you to want his approval. When people like us are far better than he will ever be. I thought I knew you once mutt, but now I see you're just a stray dog, pining at a Noble's feet, begging for food and approval, but he'll never acknowledge that stray dog. I'm disappointed in you mutt. I thought you would never beg at anyone's feet, but I guess I didn't know you were such a coward. You're not even a man anymore, not when you beg at a Noble's feet or seek for their approval." She finished harshly, hoping that her words had cut him deeper than her blade ever could.
After, reprimanding the redheaded Fukutaicho, Saita just walked away. He was not worth her time anymore, not when he was pining for some bastard Noble's approval. Which the Monkey, had never needed, he had never needed anyone's approval, never not in all of the years Saita had known him. No, he was far better than all of the clans of Noble's in Seireitei were and yet, he never saw it. He only saw that he was an orphan from the 78th Rukongai District. She was an orphaned street rat too, only she came from the 79th District. That was only one of the two differences between them.
'What have you become, Abarai? What does that Noble have that you desire so much, as to pine for his approval and acknowledgement, so?' Saita wished that she knew the answers to her many questions. Renji was not a hard guy to understand, to her at least. Maybe it was their similar pasts, or maybe their time as rivals had caused them to understand one another better then they themselves ever could.
Renji just stared at where Saita had been; her words had struck a cord in him, but what he could not quite understand was why she had seemed so disappointed in him. It was like she had just been let down by a most trusted friend, when he wasn't even close to being even an acquaintance to her, he was just a rival to her so why?
'You've changed Saita. It's almost like… you care for my well being…' Quickly dismissing that absurd thought, the sixth Division Fukutaicho just grunted irritably, before he continued on his way towards the sixth Division barracks. Where his Taicho was waiting for him, they had a new assignment; or rather, he had a new assignment.
'Kami-sama, what I wouldn't give for some action! I'm so bored!' Saita mentally grumbled as she walked around Seireitei. It had been three hours since her run in with the mutt and already she was itching to do something, anything, to get her mind off the mutt. With whom she had been disappointed in, but why should she? Hell it was his life, let him pine at some Noble's feet; he was not her responsibility, so why did she care? By all rights, she should not even care if he fell off the face of the earth, let alone care if he was lowering himself to get a Noble's approval. Yet, she did care.
'Maybe I need to sleep some more? Yeah, that's it Ikkaku bastard didn't let me sleep enough, that's why I'm acting so strange. All I need is two more hours of sleep and I'll be fine.' While she was lost in her thoughts, Saita did not notice that she was just about to be tackled from behind, by her Fukutaicho, Yachiru Kusajishi. However, just seconds before the pink haired Fukutaicho went to grab a hold her, Saita did a swift back flip and Yachiru just narrowly missed the blonde haired woman's back and almost stumbled into a wall.
"Hey Sai-Sai-chan!" Yachiru waved happily when she looked up at the scowling blonde haired woman, who had her arms crossed, with her eyes narrowed into small slits. Yachiru did not even take notice, but she knew better than to try to piggyback, now. Saita had made it very clear the first time they had met that she hated it when Yachiru had tried to do so. Yet, she did not stop trying, though she only tried when the blonde haired woman was unaware of her presence.
Saita just grunted and rudely asked, "What do you want, Yachiru-Fukutaicho?"
"Oh, I was just wondering if you have seen Ken-chan lately. I haven't been able to find him since this morning." Yachiru smiled happily, but her eyes told Saita that the small Fukutaicho was missing her Taicho, a lot. The little girl seemed to truly love that blood lusting lunatic of a man.
"I haven't seen him since two maybe three hours ago… he's probably lost, go find him." Saita told her small Fukutaicho, before walking around the pink haired girl and continuing her no-destination walk. She was just walking, not really having any particular destination in mind; she would go wherever her feet took her.
'Kami-sama, who am I going to run into next… the dick-less blonde Lieutenant or Lieutenant balloon-boobs?' Saita snickered quietly, smirked and rolled her eyes at the ridiculous thought. Her luck could not possibly be that bad. After all what were the chances of running into more than two Lieutenants in one day, unless there was an emergency.
"Ohayo, Saita-chan, what are you doing here?" The soft voice of Momo Hinamori the Fukutaicho of the fifth Division asked politely, making Saita stop dead in her tracks and swear quietly. Her luck was bad today.
Looking to her left, where the voice came from Saita saw that a few of the Fukutaicho's were there, excluding the Mutt, Yachiru, Chojiro Sasakibe, the Fukutaicho of the first Division, and Nemu Kurotsuchi Fukutaicho of the twelfth Division. The eighth Division Lieutenant, Nanao Ise; the seventh Division Lieutenant, Tetsuzaemon Iba; the fourth Division Lieutenant, Isane Kotetsu and the second Division Lieutenant, Marechiyo Ōmaeda were also absent.
'Damn! What did I do to deserve this?' Saita grumbled miserably. Saita was not the "buddy-buddy" type of girl and even though she did not mind hanging around a few of the Lieutenants, most of them she would prefer to avoid, for her own personal reasons.
"Heh, I was just walking around, what are all of you doing here?" Saita grunted, but spoke in a mildly polite tone. After all, the young Fukutaicho had always been nothing but nice to her, so why should she be a rude bitch in return? The fifth Division Lieutenant was a rather naïve girl, but she was one of the kindest people that Saita had ever met.
"Oh, we were just visiting. You just missed Renji-san." Momo, told Saita with a sweet smile.
"Actually, I didn't. We had a run-in about two hours ago." Saita told the young Fukutaicho with a small scowl at the memory of the earlier encounter, between her and the redheaded monkey.
"Oh… did you two fight?" Momo asked rather sadly, which had always made Saita's insides churn. She did not like the fact that Momo Hinamori was always trying to patch things up between her and the mutt, but she did not tell the young girl that because she did not want to hurt her feelings. The young Lieutenant vaguely resembled a younger sibling, in Saita's mind.
"No. We just more or less fought this battle with words instead of our Zanpakuto." Saita grumbled, walking a little closer to the group and leaning against the wall; safely distancing herself from the small group of Lieutenants.
"Why don't you take a seat Saita-chan? We have room." Rangiku Matsumoto, Fukutaicho of the tenth Division spoke up after a moment of silence. The top-heavy, wavy blonde-orange haired woman was a little more than lazy at times or rather all of the time, but Saita was a complete mystery to the whole of Seireitei and everyone, including herself wanted to know about the always-vague young woman.
"No thanks, I've gotta be somewhere." Saita replied in a semi-cold tone, before shoving herself off the wall and started walking away.
"B-but you never sit with us, Saita-chan." Momo muttered sadly, but Saita heard her and sighed irritably before sucking in a deep, calming breath before she turned around and walked back to the crowded table and sat down in-between Shuhei Hisagi and Momo Hinamori, without saying a word.
"If you had something important to do then we won't keep you." The young Fukutaicho muttered sheepishly. She had not meant to keep Saita from whatever she was going to do. Nevertheless, the elder woman had always avoided hanging around with her and her friends, even when she was invited.
"Nah, I can do it later. So can I have a drink?" Saita asked the scared Lieutenant, with a raised eyebrow and a blank look.
"Sure." Shuhei said while handing Saita his second cup of Sake, which Saita immediately chugged down in one gulp, which caused everyone at the table raise his or her eyebrows at the young blonde haired woman. No one had known that she could gulp down alcohol that quickly and not get dizzy or drunk.
"Heh, you must have been rather thirsty." Shuhei muttered with a soft snigger, before sipping his own cup of Sake, in a slow, polite mannerism.
"Yeah, I was." Saita muttered as she reached over, grabbed the half-full jug of Sake, and poured herself half a cup, sipping this one instead of chugging it. She had a rather high tolerance for alcohol, but she was not going to take chances today, especially with her crazy Taicho searching for her. If he caught her drunk or buzzed, she was in trouble. So it was better to be safe, than sorry.
"Yes, running from your Taicho must be quite tiring." Shuhei spoke up deliberately loud enough so that everyone at the table could hear their discussion.
Saita immediately stopped sipping her Sake and sent the older man a glare before swallowing what she had in her mouth and speaking in a dangerously dark and low tone, "Yes, it is. However, I was not in the mood to fight Kenpachi-Taicho this morning, so instead I ran. But when I find that Ikkaku bastard, I'm gonna rip him a new one."
"Oh, why is that?" Rangiku asked with a teasing smirk and a quirked eyebrow. Rangiku rarely had the chance to talk to, let alone tease the younger woman.
"Because, he was too much of a coward to fight me himself," Saita growled quietly, trying to calm her temper, while gripping her cup tightly, making it crack under the pressure and causing Sake to start leaking from the cracks. The big-busted woman had hit a nerve and Saita was restraining herself from lashing out at the Lieutenant.
Everyone looked at Saita with both eyebrows raised, then to the broken cup and back to the scowling blonde-haired woman, who just vaguely apologized before excusing herself and walking off without a word good-bye. Apparently, the big-busted Lieutenant had angered the younger woman quite a bit.
"Did I say something wrong?" Rangiku asked perplexed at Saita's sudden leave. The big-busted blonde haired woman, looked at everyone at the table and then to Saita's retreating form. She had not meant to upset the younger girl that much. All she had meant to do was tease and pick at the humorless young woman a little bit. It was only supposed to be some harmless teasing.
"I don't know." Momo muttered quietly as she sadly watched Saita disappear into the crowded street. Momo had always thought that Saita was lonely and wanted companionship, yet something was always holding her back. Momo had once seen Saita completely unguarded and the heartbreaking look in her eyes was one that made the young Lieutenant no longer fear the older woman. The rumors that she had heard about the blonde haired woman being heartless were nothing but lies. Saita was not heartless; she just guarded her heart with her very life.
"No, you didn't do anything wrong Rangiku-san. Saita-san is just angry about this morning." Shuhei told the wavy haired orange-blonde woman reassuringly, before refilling his cup of Sake. Shuhei was probably one of the very few people who just took Saita's temperamental outbursts and constant disrespect in stride. Nothing she did ever fazed him, as it did to almost everyone else. Saita was complicated, very complicated that much was evident. Nevertheless, the scarred Lieutenant could not help but remember a time, not so long ago, when he saw such a different side of her personality. It really did make him wonder if her current persona was all just an act to distance herself from people, or if he had only seen her as he wanted to. He very much doubted it was the latter, but that only caused him to worry even more, instead of feeling relief.
"Kira-san, why have you been so quiet, is something wrong?" Momo Hinamori asked her blonde-haired male friend, who had been deathly quiet and still since Saita had been there. He was acting like a scared rabbit, hiding in the bushes waiting for the fox to pass him by.
"No, nothings wrong Hinamori-san, I was just thinking." Izuru told his friend with a faux reassuring smile, which convinced the young girl, but not Shuhei and Rangiku, for they knew better, Izuru Kira was not fine and they knew why. It was almost as obvious as the faux smile that he now wore on his thin face. Some emotions were not easy to hide from knowing and experienced eyes.
