We should not shed tears,
That is a surrender of the body to the heart.
It is only proof,
That we are beings that do not know,
What to do with our hearts
-----Bleach Volume 7, The Broken Coda
Well the three friends couldn't or rather, decided not to show up for work. Renji and Zaraki decided to skip out as well. Why you ask? Well, Tori, Mika, Renji, and Zaraki were traumatized by Elmo, Dora and Barney even though they knew it was set up. Rina could barely talk so work wasn't much of an option. Byakuya was still pissed but started to cool down—STARTED. So basically throughout the day, it was really, really quiet; with the exception of Mika and Tori sneaking around as ninja. Mainly to make sure they didn't run into a kid's TV show mascot.
"If you guys are gonna play ninja… go to 2nd Division." Rina advised in a soft quiet voice.
"Nah…this is more fun!" Mika said leaping onto the table.
"Yeah…besides I don't think Soifon would approve of us sneaking around." Tori added somersaulting across the floor.
"…Wonder how Byakuya is taking the fact that Renji decided to skip out…" Mika thought out loud.
Byakuya was steaming so he didn't care if anyone had shown up at all. He was doing the work by himself; his frustration had been clouded by the insults Rina had shouted at him. Renji was lucky for the time being, taking a day off was what he really needed. Byakuya hadn't really given him time off often saying that he needed to improve his brain to the level of his fighting skills. …So much for that…
Back at the 'Ninja Academy', Tori and Mika had left finding a much bigger space for them to 'train' in. Considering they didn't want to destroy their home. So they resorted to going to 6th Division to try and get a 'human reaction' out of Byakuya. They were lucky Byakuya had ignored them the whole time even though they were leaping around, kicking, punching, jumping, somersaulting, flipping and barrel rolling. They both scowled at him and started to tease him, constantly reminding of the argument and such over and over. He finally looked up at them with a piercing death glare.
"What?!" he snapped.
"Uh…" The girls answered somewhat.
"If you have nothing to say then leave!" he snapped at them.
"Ok…guess we'll tell Rina that you don't wanna visit her!" Mika said happily then left. Tori followed after her friend. Byakuya sighed during that whole time; they had been reminding him over and over of Rina.
---
Rina was on the couch writing stuff down; she wasn't fond of writing but decided to. It was quite peaceful to her. She heard knocking on the door,
"Come in!" she told whoever was at the door. Yes the door was unlocked 'cause they have a really, really good security system no matter how you doubt it. It was none other than Byakuya. She glanced at him then continued writing.
"Your friends asked me to come here" he said to her. She nodded and gave a glare at the window where her two friends ducked. He closed the door and sat at Rina's feet, at the end of the couch.
"Come on!! Say something!!" Mika urged quietly.
"Shhhh!!! They'll hear you!!" Tori shushed. It was way too obvious the two were spying on their friends.
"Hey watcha doin?" A voice asked from behind.
"EEEEEEEEPPPPPPP!!!" the two girls squealed in surprise.
"RENJI WHAT THE HELL"
"—shut up!!!" Byakuya and Rina looked at the window and shook their heads in disbelief; amazed by their stupidity.
"We're spying on Byaku and Rina to see if they can patch things up!" Mika whispered to Renji who was in on the plan.
"Oh…okay…" So now three people were watching intently at the two inside who knew of their presence. After 15 minutes of complete silence…
"GAH!!! WOULD YOU TWO TALK ALREADY—"
"TORI!!!" Tori yelled out in frustration who in turn got scolded by Mika.
Byakuya and Rina were wondering how long til they realized that they weren't going to talk at all if they were spying on them. There was only one way to get the three to leave…time to call in reinforcements!! Renji, Mika and Tori got a sudden chill down their spines as if someone was right behind them. They turned around and they saw their biggest nightmare. The Energizer Bunny.
"OH MY GOD!!!! IT'S A PINK BUNNY WITH SHADES AND A DRUM AND ITS PINK AND ITS FLUFFY AND, AND, AND, AND…" Tori trailed off screaming and running away. Renji and Mika did the same.
"I'm never playing Truth Or Dare ever again!!" the bunny yelled who turned out to be Ikkaku. Rina just shrugged and thanked him while he stomped off cursing. Well nothing interesting was happening between the two since they just pretty much ignored each other.
"YAMAMOTO!!!!" Mika, Renji and Tori yelled out in 1st Division. He looked up disgruntled.
"Seireitei's barrier and gate keepers are so failing!!" Mika stated.
"How so?" He asked unconvinced.
"Well for one, characters and mascots from kid's shows—mainly Yachiru's and the Energizer Bunny have been showing up randomly!!" Tori explained while Yamamoto didn't believe a word at all.
"You guys need more sleep" he said then had them leave.
"I can't believe he didn't believe us!!!" Renji complained.
"I know!!!" Mika agreed.
"Well he's old; he probably doesn't know what we were talking about!!" Tori thought out.
"Yeah, maybe…"
"Well, I'm gonna go see Hinamori-chan now!! Later!!" Tori waved then ran to the direction of 5th Division.
---
"…Just threaten him with needles—he's been deathly afraid of them ever since we were kids!" Hinamori advised to Tori who was taking notes. Tori was asking Hinamori to get Hitsugaya to do more activities but he never listened. Hinamori knew more about him so it was the best place to find his weaknesses and such. "Oh, and Ukitake uses this one a lot! Force sweets and candies on him, he'll surrender and do whatever you want!" Hinamori added. "I usually do this with Ukitake!"
"…You're such a good friend you know that?" Tori commented sarcastically.
"I know! That's why Shiro-chan listens to me!" She replied with a smile.
"OH…"
Mika and Renji decided to do work for once, thinking of the huge piles of work they had waiting for them since they skipped out on work for nearly 2 weeks.
"Guh…I think its safe to say that it is possible to die from working!" Mika stated finishing one of the 10 piles of work she had assigned to her.
At the same moment Renji was thinking the same thing. Both hated work but were forced to do it as it was part of their job. It was 20 days to Rukia's execution and they both dreaded and plotted a counterattack—secretly of course.
Rina had fallen asleep on the couch; Byakuya took a look at what she was writing. They were quotes, as well as many pictures in her sketchbook.
'Because we are amorphous, we hold that in reverence' (A/N: I have no idea what that means)--BLEACH Volume 1
'People are able to hold onto hope, since death is that which cannot be seen' --BLEACH Volume 2
'If I were the rain, could I connect with someone's heart, as the rain can unite the eternally separated earth and sky?'--BLEACH Volume 3
'We come together, like drops of water, like astral bodies. We oppose each other like magnets, like the colors of skin'--BLEACH Volume 4
There were many more but he skipped ahead to the pictures as the quotes were quite dark and true. The pictures were mainly landscape scenes, animals, shinigami and such. There was one picture that stood out though. It was as if all the captains of the Gotei 13 had come in for a picture under a sakura tree. It looked really peaceful and serene—if only life could be like that. Unfortunately it could not, living in a world full of hatred, chaos, fights and death—that was what it was like. All of the drawings in the sketchbook were full of peaceful thoughts. He sighed closed his eyes and leaned back rethinking his decision to save Rukia or not. He looked at Rina and sighed once more going into deep thought.
---
"If I do work again, I'll die!" Mika said to Renji tiredly.
Renji who was walking tiredly beside her nodded in agreement. After 10 piles of work which took them about 3 hours to do had worn them out. They walked to 7th Division—why? Well usually every night during Friday, they and many other shinigami would go out for sake. Sake was what they needed to relieve their stress and tiredness. Since there were no rules for such events, they could do as they please.
"Yeah sake time!!" Rangiku exclaimed happily with a bottle of sake in her hand.
Yachiru, Mika, Ikkaku, Iba, Renji, Kyouraku and others cheered. In 10 minutes they were drunk. None of them had passed out but started to say random things, throw miscellaneous objects around—luckily none of them had their zanpakutou. Anybody that wasn't drunk would consider the area to be a war zone.
Hitsugaya had made sure that Rangiku did not return to the division drunken at all. He locked the doors shut, if Rangiku still had her common sense to use her key, that meant that she wasn't drunk—or at least not VERY drunk. But he accidentally locked himself OUT of his own division, and he didn't have his spare key.
"Oh shit…" he grumbled slapping his head from his carelessness.
"Looking for something?" A key dangled down from in front of his face. He grabbed the key but was unsuccessful as it was pulled away fast. "Nuh-uh!!! You're not getting it that easily!!" Tori said to him wagging her finger then dashing off to an unknown direction. Hitsugaya really wanted to get back to his division to avoid Rangiku so he had no choice but to follow Tori.
"HAND IT OVER GODDAMMIT!!" He roared behind her, she just giggled and leapt off into another direction—it was like a maze.
He turned at the corner but lost sight of her. He tried to sense her reiatsu but she had hidden it perfectly, he was getting frustrated—it was 10PM and all he wanted to do was get some rest in his warm bed, not the cold outdoors. Tori was perched up on a tree right ABOVE Hitsugaya. She was smiling down at him; she finally got him into a game of Hide and Seek. But she had underestimated him; a person of his caliber had to be a challenge. She blinked and he had disappeared. She leaned forward on the branch scanning the area for a white-headed kid.
"Looking for someone?" he asked her just like she had done so before.
"EEEEP!!!" she squealed, he had suddenly appeared right behind her. He put her on Bakudou so she would give him the key. "AWWWW……." She groaned and admitted defeat. She handed the key over with a scowl. Hitsugaya sighed and said that he would play games with her the next day which lit her face up. Hitsugaya rushed back to his division so he could get rest.
Tori returned back to the apartment, satisfied with the deal she had struck with Hitsugaya. When she got in, Rina was not on the couch anymore, Byakuya was gone—all that was left there was her sketchbook.
"He better have not done anything to her!!!" She mumbled and started searching in the oddest places for her friend. The commotion caused Rina to get out of her room to investigate.
"What are you doing?" She asked suddenly which caused to Tori to jump about 6 feet into the air. Unfortunately for her, she was under the table so the table hit the ceiling.
"Don't do that!!" she told her friend quite shocked.
"Ok…but what are you doing?" she asked once more.
"I was looking for you!!"
"…You thought I would be: under the couch, under the sink, in the oven, under the table, wedged between the wall and couch…" She trailed off; each place had gotten weirder and weirder. All Tori did was nod as the locations were listed. "You're weird you know that?"
"YUP! AND I'M PROUD OF IT!!" she said giving the thumbs up.
"…don't do that…" she mumbled.
"HE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO YOU DID HE?!" She suddenly asked with flames in her eyes.
"…No…"
"PHEW!!" She sighed in relief.
"…at least I don't think so…" Rina pondered.
"WHAT?!!! BYAKUYA COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS CUZ I'M COMING!!!" Tori exclaimed then ran out of her apartment straight to the Kuchiki household. Rina knew that Tori was going to do something extremely stupid. "OWWW!!!" Tori yelled out. She had just tripped on a pebble…yes a pebble. Rina sighed then looked at the mess her roommate had created; her sketchbook caught her attention, it was open to the picture with the Gotei Juu-San Captains under the sakura tree. She had remembered closing up the book before dozing off, had Byakuya looked through it?
At about…oh let's say…3AM, Mika returned coming out of her drunkeness. She immediately collapsed on the couch from exhaustion. She had a lot of sake, if it wasn't for the sake drinking competition someone started up; she probably would've returned a lot sooner. She could hear Tori mumbling about puppies in her sleep. She smiled at that and dozed off, on the couch.
"Is there ever a day where you won't fall asleep on the couch?" Mika heard someone ask her this; she raised her eyelids and saw Rina smiling down on her.
"…Uh…ya…once…at…February…31st…"
"In other words—never."
"YUP!"
"Well I'm gonna be at the office, feel free to drop in any time you want, and wake Tori up too…she's talking about hitting Mayuri in the head with a moose…"
"She better not be talking about my moosies!!" Mika dashed off to Tori's room and woke her up ever so kindly. She smacked her in the head with a 'WAKE UP!!!' which did wake her up, but not in a good way. Tori immediately got a pillow and whacked her roommate on the head causing her to topple over.
Awaiting at 13th Division were mountains of papers ready to be filed away, signed or sent to other divisions. Rina sighed at the view, she had expected a lot of work for her due to her absence, but the amount was just ridiculous. She got started, after 10 minutes or so, Ukitake came in to see…well just white. He scratched his head at the sight but shrugged it off.
"Tsukiyomi, nice to see that you're back!" he welcomed his 4th seat back.
"Yeah…sure…whatever…" She answered half-heartedly, Ukitake looked heartbroken.
"By the way, Byakuya said that you had a talent in the arts." He mentioned walking over to the window.
"What?" She looked up at him.
"Yes, he said that your artistic skills were amazing."
"Well tell him to look at Mika's; hers are a lot better than mine!" She protested. He chuckled at the remark, and said to her that her doodles were indeed magnificent however she didn't draw landscape sceneries.
"True…but…Mika and landscape…that doesn't really mix ya know…" Rina told him.
"Don't let Mika hear you say that!" He laughed.
"Yeah, yeah whatever…" she mumbled getting up from her seat heading for the door.
"Where are you going?" he asked.
"Gonna go tell Byakuya not to snoop" she answered shutting the door behind her.
"You weren't talking about my moosies when you were talking about hitting Mayuri in the head…were you?" Mika asked her friend after their 'Around the Apartment in 5 Seconds'.
"No…" She answered. They had a long moment of silence
"I'm gonna play Twister with Shiro-chan now!" Tori declared then stood up.
"Shiro-chan and Twister? I'm so there!!" Mika joined in both girls left their apartment and headed straight for 10th Division.
---
"THERE IS NO WAY I AM GOING TO PLAY SUCH CHILDISH GAMES WITH YOU!!" Hitsugaya growled at the two. Rangiku looked interested in watching her captain play Twister.
"But you said you would!!" Tori whined, Mika brought out a needle from who knows where.
The color was drained from Hitsugaya's face as he saw the sharp pointy object that would inject a fluid into his body. Even though the nurses' said it wouldn't hurt, he knew they were lying. He gave in to the two, fearing that Mika would inject the needle anyway; he grabbed it and tossed it out the window. He didn't stop there though; he unleashed Hyourinmaru and completely obliterated the small defenseless object.
"…Wait, we can't play with just 4 people!!!!" Mika realized, just Rangiku, Toshiro, Tori and herself didn't seem like much fun.
"Hold on!!! I'll get people!!" Rangiku told them then rushed off. Hitsugaya looked as if he were going to die. About 10 minutes later…guess who Rangiku got? Renji, Momo, Izuru, Shuuhei, Yachiru…those were the lieutenant. Rangiku did manage to get some captains out for the game, who would expect these guys? Gin, Soifon, Shunsui, Juushirou, Kenpachi, Sosuke, and Retsu.
"We're gonna need a big mat" Hitsugaya grumbled looking at the welcome wagon. In 3 minutes the game was started, they got Ikkaku to spin the spinner which everybody thought was fixed as they all ended up in a ball on the same circles as others. It was very, very uncomfortable. It got worse when Ikkaku forgot about the spinner as he went to get sake…
"Shiro-chan!! Your hair is stabbing my eye!!" Hinamori complained.
"Well sooo-rry, I can't do anything about it!!" He retorted.
"Hey, Ichimaru!! Get your ass away from my face!!" Zaraki growled.
"Whoopsie!" he said and moved slightly.
"Yachiru!!! Don't bite my arm!!!" Renji yelped.
"Aww…" she whined then let go, pouting.
"When is Ikkaku-san going to come back?" Juushirou asked, he was under Shunsui and over Soi Fon; it was actually the most comfortable positions compared to others.
"Whenever he wakes up…" Shunsui said which ended up with people wide-eyed and just wanted to kill him. Yumichika walked by to find his superiors when he stumbled upon the tangled mess called the Gotei 13...or at least half of it.
"Um…" he started quite surprised. "Hey!! Start spinning the stupid spinner in Ikkaku's place or else you're going to do all of our work!!" Zaraki snarled. Yumichika decided to help out, not because of the work but he just wanted the group to go into a more 'prettier' position.
"Why did I decide to do this?" Soifon asked herself.
"I don't even know why I came here in the first place!" Aizen said back to her.
"Gah!!! Unohana-taichou!! I think your division's gonna be busy…" Izuru strained to say.
"Oh? How so?" She asked.
"Well…we're gonna be sore for a long time and I think I fractured my wrist when I moved just now." He replied, pained.
"Hiya Bya-chan!!" Rina said happily to him when she entered his office. He looked up at her as if she were an alien or something.
"Who are you and what have you done with Rina?" He asked.
"Haha very funny…anyway..." She hit him hard on the head. "WHO TOLD YOU YOU COULD GO THROUGH MY SKETCHBOOK YOU BRAINLESS MORON??!!!" She roared all the sudden. He looked up at her rubbing his head; he hadn't expected something like that from her.
"Do you know where my lieutenant is?" He asked quickly changing the subject.
"Don't change the subject on me mister!!" She wound him back to the subject that he had narrowly avoided. He sighed admitting defeat which he done often with her.
"Fine, I admit, I was curious and wanted to know what you were doing…I was out of place…" He muttered. "Happy?" He asked.
"Yeah…Well that's all I can expect from you…" She mumbled.
"…Back to my question, where's my lieutenant?" He asked again.
"Probably playing Twister or DDR with Mika or something" He smirked at the thought while Rina had a look of horror/disturbance on her face.
"Why are we doing this?" Hisagi asked straining to keep himself from collapsing.
"Cuz I said so!" Rangiku answered slightly angered at the complaint. No one had fallen yet, so they were in a tangled mess.
"Hey you know what I just thought?" Yumichika asked them quite happily.
"WHAT?!!" All of them cocked their heads to his direction and shot that single word with poison attached. An ominous cloud of negativity hovered above the division.
"Uh…if Renji's hand was moved over to the left, you guys would look like a pretty butterfly!!" He exclaimed.
Zaraki grabbed his freakishly long zanpakutou with his hand while maintaining his body weight on the other and threw it like a javelin, aiming directly at Yumichika's head. Yumichika didn't notice because he was having a 'moment' thinking of the structure made of people.
"Oof!!" He fell to the ground with an oversized stick to the head.
"WHO'S PRETTY NOW?!" Zaraki asked him as his 5th seater panicked looking for something to hide is ugliness which would be his whole face.
