"Target located at a distance of 125 meters from our current location."
The youthful looking woman pocketed her cellphone and silently awaited orders from her much younger companion, who had dubbed themselves as the de facto leader of their current operation. Gulping down the last half of her milkshake, she tossed the empty cup accurately into a nearby trashcan and jumped atop the other person's shoulders.
"We gotta go slowly, 'kay Mu-chan?" Yachiru warned her partner helpfully, as if she wasn't already aware. The little girl demanded that they change their part of the game so that they would become spies on a secret mission. Such a decision didn't necessarily affect their mission; they were planning on using secret tactics regardless.
"Hai, Yachiru-taicho," Nemu affirmed calmly and focused her enhanced vision on their target. Unohana seemed to be rushing away from something at a brisk pace, almost as if she was being chased. No one in the area seemed to be giving off any malicious aura, so Nemu assumed that Unohana was attempting to gain distance over something that was not in the area.
To the average person, seeing a pink haired girl perched on another woman's shoulders seemed odd, but no one tried to ask any questions. Maintaining a brisk pace, they eventually see Retsu make a quick left around a corner.
"Hurry, hurry!" Yachiru exclaimed as she tugged on Nemu's braid, trying to spur her on.
"No, it appears that she has caught onto us." Nemu stated calmly as she deposited Yachiru on the ground. Retsu wasn't stupid, and Nemu knew that she'd eventually figure out that she was being followed. Each and every person in the World of the Living in a gigai gives off a special type of spiritual pressure that they cannot actively suppress. It does not attract hollows, but it lets other gigai users know who's on their side.
Yachiru furrowed her eyebrows and crossed her arms about her chest indignantly, "What are we supposed to do? Re-chan is gonna find us either way!"
"We could both attempt to formulate a plan of action," Nemu offered up calmly, hoping to actually have a set game-plan instead of going on a wild goose chase in a different world.
"I don't wanna! I'm tired and hungry and sweaty and sticky—"
"—I will purchase you an ice cream sundae, if you are willing to cooperate."
"Yay! Let's go!"
"—Are they supermodels?"
"Idiot, look at them! They are freakin' hot!"
Yoruichi sipped on her water impassively as she surveyed the busy food court. All of the women had agreed to rendezvous at the food court after a few hours of shopping, but Retsu, Nemu, and Yachiru had yet to arrive. Casting Rangiku and Isane a reproachful look, she spoke.
"So you have no idea where she is? You let her wander off?!" she asked again for the third time, refusing to believe that they lost a grown woman in the World of the Living. The thought of something like that was hilarious and frightening at the same time.
Isane withered in her seat and averted her eyes from Yoruichi's disappointed glare, "S-she snuck away from us, we had no idea!" she explained emotionally. Unlike Isane, Rangiku was calm and casual, "She probably planned to sneak away as soon as we got there," she sighed as she nibbled on a french fry. Retsu Unohana was not a stupid woman, she was probably cackling manically from her hiding spot.
"Nemu and Yachiru have yet to arrive," Nanao relayed quietly as she carefully closed her novel and stowed it into her bag. She caught Rangiku giving her a knowing look, but chose to ignore it.
The no-nonsense fukutaicho was well aware that she and Isane were in the lead of this stupid competition, especially since Nanao was able to get plenty of juicy photos of the captains in very awkward positions. Still, she mustn't underestimate the others. Yoruichi and Rangiku posed as the biggest threat for now, and since Yoruichi was the unofficial leader of this competition, she'd play the other women into her hand and knock them out one by one.
"Yachiru is probably slave driving Nemu into buying her sweets as we speak right now. I wouldn't be too worried about them," Rukia deadpanned as she flung her fork into her dish and rested her head in her hands. She was completely not in the mood for running around like an idiot in a different universe like this. There were more pressing matters to attend to; like if her Nii-sama was planning on marrying Unohana-taicho! If so, then the Seireitei would benefit greatly from the riches of the Four Noble Houses, plus Nii-sama could get a strong heir too…
She shook her head vigorously and scrunched her eyes together. No, Nii-sama would never betray her sister like that! Only Hisana-nee-sama deserved to mother his heir, even though she was long dead. Sighing deeply, she resigned herself to the fact that in the event of her brother's death before he produced an heir, she would become Kuchiki clan head by default.
Which was very, very, bad.
Yoruichi ignored the Shihoin elders' pleas with her to go and find a husband to produce an heir. She was too busy with living out her life and getting drunk every other night and motherhood never appealed to her in the least bit. They even had the idea of proposing marriage to Byakuya on her behalf, which turned out to be very ugly.
"Ichigo told me that Kuchiki-taicho escaped from the rest of their group nearly an hour ago," Orihime stuttered in worry as she spread her bean paste onto the empty half of her bacon sandwich. She had only just recently been informed of the SWA's motives by mistake (Yachiru's fault, which was ironic since she was supposed to prevent others from finding out) and pleaded with Yoruichi to let her join in on the game. The cat woman relented, what was the worse that she could do? The girl was ditzy and oblivious and could stand a foot away from Byakuya and Retsu as they got into a dance battle of the ages and still wouldn't notice.
Averting her glare back to Isane, she grinned. And that was a sign that things were going to get complicated. Very complicated.
"I want you go now and find Byakuya-bo and tag along with him until we go to the hotel. You know, like a date." she ordered with a mischievous grin on her visage. "And try to make conversation, you know what I mean, right? Talk about hobbies, passions, positions," she finished seductively, lacing her last word with innuendo. Glancing down at her watch, she saw that it was nearly noon and they were planning to leave at around five in the afternoon.
Isane had to spend nearly five hours with coldest, meanest, most callous man on the planet.
She nearly burst out laughing when she saw Isane's reaction; the poor girl look like she was about to vomit from shock. The tall woman sputtered lamely for a few moments before plucking Rangiku's beer from her hand and taking a long draught of it.
Rangiku scowled as she snatched back her precious alcohol and stared at Yoruichi, "You are sending her on a suicide mission!" she exclaimed dramatically, hoping to convince the others that she was just as surprised as they were. She knew what Yoruichi was planning, and to say that it was ingenious would be an understatement.
Rukia nodded vigorously and gestured to her person, "It would be a lot easier if I do this, right Yoruichi-san? I'm his sister and it would be so—" Rukia's voice trailed off weakly as Yoruichi raised a finger to shush her. "This is Isane-chan's punishment," she said sternly with a grin. "I'll deal with Rangiku later," she finished, and waited for the women to look away from her to look at Isane before winking mischievously at the busty strawberry blonde.
Isane was still deathly pale and trembled slightly as Nanao put a comforting hand on top of her shoulder. She knew she should have kept tabs on Unohana-taicho, and now she was being sent on the worst mission imaginable because of her foolishness, while Rangiku got off scot-free, for now.
"I-If there's no other way, then I guess I'll do it," Isane said firmly, her dark gray eyes glinting fiercely with determination, much to the surprise of the other women.
"That's the spirit! Atta girl!" Yoruichi whooped cheerfully as the other women offered Isane their condolences. Boy, were they in for a rude awakening.
Her hurried strides were eventually reduced to a moderate glide as her heart finally stopped trying to escape from her chest cavity, and after she escaped the pursuit of Nemu and Yachiru. She could not believe what she had gotten herself into, those two girls probably wanted to catch up to her and accompany her, and she decided to run away and look completely suspicious.
'Now that you've finally completed your wild goose chase, can you please purchase a dress, Retsu? You've wasted two and a half hours already!' Minazuki asked with exasperation and annoyance as she shook her head fretfully at what her mistress had now been reduced to. A mindless little girl, letting emotions take precedence over logic.
Retsu scowled visibly as she continued her brisk walk where the mall had quieted down quite a bit, only a few people milled about and there were mostly adults present. The stores around here were very posh and expensive looking, this was probably were the rich people of Karakura Town shopped.
"After something like that, how the hell could you expect me to do anything else?" she retorted uncharacteristically, but if one knew Retsu personally, this is exactly how she was. Wanting anything to clear her mind further, she veered into a random store and stalked around, blindly looking at outfits.
'It took a while, but you finally did it,' Minazuki exclaimed with genuine elation for her mistress. 'You've admitted your love for Byakuya-san! I'm so proud of you!'
Retsu winced at Minazuki's last sentence, not wanting to be compared to a teenage girl whose mother had just found out about her daughter's first love. She was certainly not in love with Byakuya; it was merely just a fleeting twinge of attraction that would surely wear off in time. Not mentioning it to anyone was steadily eating away at her so might as well tell him and be over with it.
'I know what you're thinking,' Minazuki tutted jokingly with an invisible wink, 'you don't think you love him, do you? You think you have a little puppy love crush that will just wear off!' She knew she was enjoying this too much, her mistress would not be amused once she got her emotions under control.
"I am not in love with Byakuya Kuchiki!" Retsu snapped back aloud, bringing a few curious eyes over to where she was standing. Blushing in embarrassment, she quickly stalked over to another part of the store, more hidden and most of all, silent. "It's not healthy to keep such negative emotions to myself, so I told him how I felt. And now we can both move on with our lives." She finished curtly, satisfied with her response. That ought to shut her Zanpakuto up.
'Who said that love was a negative emotion? Denial is a negative emotion, Retsu.'
Retsu sighed and blatantly disconnected the mental connection she shared with her Zanpakuto. It was on a temporary basis though; Minazuki gets moody when she cannot yap in someone's ear. She was so busy with thinking about Byakuya that she didn't even notice that she was standing in front of a glass display case. In it, was a mannequin that was wearing the most beautiful dress that she had ever cast her eyes upon.
The dress was bright cream and had a small strap that held the dress up, but it was sleeveless with strange little slits in the back that were quite exposing. The dress had the most marvelous gems on it that lined the slit in very pretty patterns. On the edges of the slits themselves were golden ribbons on which gems were placed on top of. There was also a very high rising slit that came up near to the top of the thigh, but she didn't care. She had to put it on!
"Would you like to try on this dress, miss?" a saleswoman asked kindly after she watched Retsu gaze at the dress for a few moments. That was an expected response, this dress was a masterpiece. "If you give me your size, I will look for it."
Retsu's eyes were glazed and it took her a few moments to get her bearings back. That dress was completely mesmerizing; its style was out of her comfort zone, but something was telling her to take the plunge and try it on. "I-I don't know my size," she admitted to the saleswoman bashfully.
The saleswoman nodded with a smile, she wasn't surprised. This woman looked like a foreigner so she wouldn't know how sizing worked here in Japan. She could easily estimate her size anyways, and she had nice hair and skin, so she kept very good care of herself. "It's fine; I'll bring out one that I think will fit just right."
Retsu nodded gratefully at the saleswoman and sat down in a nearby chair. She tried to keep her mind preoccupied with trivial things, but her thoughts always came back to Byakuya. This man was in her thoughts much more than usual now and it was quite unsettling. And she was in his thoughts as well. Her face began to heat up and she sighed in embarrassment. After this celebration, things will go back to normal.
For the sake of her sanity, they had to be.
Those few gulps of alcohol were able to calm her nerves just enough since she was able to trek confidently throughout the mall. Isane had run into the missing duo not too long after leaving the food court to find Byakuya and Nemu gave Isane this tracker that could trace Byakuya's spiritual pressure.
She didn't bother ask why Nemu had such a thing and wanted to ask her to track Unohana, but she knew that being on opposite teams meant that she wouldn't help her out. About a half an hour after embarking on her search for the stoic man, Nemu's spirit phone started to vibrate rapidly; a sign that the stoic man was nearby.
He was seated on the edge of a water fountain, his head turned to the side as he stared into the water in deep concentration. For once, a serious look wasn't plastered on his face; instead he had a blank look that was borderline despair. He looked as though he was currently going through a tremendous emotional trial and Isane was seriously thinking of running away and hiding in the trunk of the bus.
Taking a deep breath, she strode up to him and forced a smile onto her face. "Good afternoon, Kuchiki-taicho! How are you today?" she asked sweetly as she twiddled her fingers nervously behind her back.
The man looked up at her slowly and his look of helplessness was quickly replaced with a contemplative stare. "Retsu's fukutaicho," he thought to himself as he stood up. "What do you want, Kotetsu-fukutaicho?" he asked darkly, his eyes once again cold and steely. Isane was not a part of the army of his admirers, so she wouldn't be here to flirt. What could she possibly want?
Unable to mask her wince, she giggled nervously and spoke, "I-You looked lonely… and I sort of…thought you wanted a bit of company…" she stuttered out as she forced herself to make eye contact with him. Since she didn't melt into a puddle of goo by meeting eyes with him, she thought she was safe, at least for now.
He was about to open his mouth to tell her to hit the road, but then she remembered some vital information that Nanao gave to her secretly as she left to start her mission. "He's a sucker for calligraphy," Nanao's warning rang soundly inside of her mind and Isane was able to get her words out before he could.
"My calligraphy is—in a way—lacking. I was hoping t-that you c-could assist me so that I can be b-better, taicho. Spending some time with y-you would help me tremendously. Alone." She blurted out the last word and immediately snapped her mouth shut, preparing for the onslaught.
The girl had attended a few of his calligraphy classes in the past, and to say that her skills were subpar would be an understatement. Comparing the girl's calligraphy to her captain's would be comparing Van Gogh's art to a five-year old's crude drawing of a barnyard. He had been taking a break on his search for the men since he had no idea where they were, he stormed out without even checking to see where he was. And the girl could lead him back to the bus so that they could get out of this trash-heap of a world as soon as possible.
"Very well," he said briskly as he turned on one heel. He remembered where that art store was previously and he wasn't too far of a walk there. "There is an art store not too far from here, follow me."
Isane's feet felt like lead as she stared after the captain in complete shock. Did that actually work? Did she just ask Byakuya Kuchiki on a date?
"Do you plan on accompanying me? Or shall I find something else partially entertaining to do?"
Snapping of out of her reverie, she tightened her grip on her bags and hurried after the captain.
"That man is sexy. Even you, the most asexual woman on the planet, have to agree with me on this."
"Pshh, he's alright. Nothing to drool about like what you are doing right now. He looks weird, probably a foreigner. And his friend has all white hair! He looks like a ghost!"
"You're kidding me, right? He's got freakin' long, luscious brown hair and you're calling him weird? Even his friend is hot! White hair or not, those two are fine as hell and I'm just about to head over there right now!"
The white haired man observed his companion for a few moments and shook his head in embarrassment as he blew a kiss and winked at the arguing women. It was enough to make one of them faint and the other blush profusely as she dragged her friend away. The two men were standing in a department store as one of them was casually looking around for some cologne.
"We're supposed to be keeping a low profile, Shunsui." Ukitake commented pointedly as he made Kyoraku look directly at him. The members of the SMA (most of them) were attractive, they were well aware of that. There was even a mob outside of a store where Jushiro and Shunsui were in, and they barely made it out in one piece. Even poor Hitsugaya was getting attacked by grown women and girls alike. He was able to avoid it by keeping an ear open for the slightest word, especially 'Kawai~!'
"I can't help it if these women have good taste! That's a small price to pay, especially since the women in the Soul Society are worse than this!" Kyoraku retorted jokingly as he handed the cashier a wad of money.
"That's not the point, we've already attracted plenty of attention here, and this celebration is going to be bringing plenty of skeletons out of the closet," Ukitake commented in a low voice. He could feel the tension in the Seireitei after the war and it was only a matter of time before some unwanted secrets get out.
"Ahh yes," Kyoraku yawned nonchalantly as he stretched his muscled arms behind his back, sitting down on a bench outside of the department store. "Like Byakuya-san and Unohana-senpai's little affair going on, eh?" he jabbed his best friend with his elbow, unaware that Ukitake was drinking water.
Water spurted out of Jushiro's nose and he spluttered and coughed for a few moments as Shunsui tossed him a handkerchief. Casting his friend a shocked and reproachful look, he shook his head adamantly, pretending to have not been aware of this. "What?! That's probably just a rumor, right? Plenty of false statements have been heard since the war ended!" he exclaimed in surprise. He wasn't particularly close with Byakuya and Retsu, but he has known the two long and well enough for him to be positive that they weren't in a relationship. Byakuya was just too…cold. Even though his marriage to Rukia's sister was based on love (one-sided love, probably), he just didn't seem like the type of person to actively be in a relationship.
And Retsu-senpai was the type of woman who would put duty over dick, a crude way of saying things, but true nonetheless. She had been with a man nearly four hundred years ago and was engaged for a short period of time, but she never showed any emotion to her fiancé in the least bit. The man wasn't a Shinigami, but a noble. He was respectable enough and agreeable, but the engagement soon fell through.
Being a powerful and beautiful captain of the Gotei 13 meant that it was inevitable that she'd receive numerous marriage proposals. Aside from that brief engagement, she was neither seen nor heard of in a relationship.
"Stop acting stupid, Jushiro-kun. The rest of the captains know about this already, we're captains for a reason. Hirako-kun has been actively investigating this, and Kurotsuchi with his hidden cameras probably found out before any of us," he said seriously before smiling widely, "we see things that others don't see. Just pray that the happy couple lives out the rest of their lives with love and comfort, maybe even a few kids to boot."
Jushiro sniffed in displeasure and shook his head, "This is all based on speculation, Shunsui. Don't say another word of this to anyone else, the last thing we need is war within the Seireitei." Ukitake would be lying to himself if he said that he had never harbored any feelings to Retsu, but this was back in his Academy days and such feelings had long since passed. Shunsui, however, has been pursuing Retsu for half a millennium and hadn't shown any signs of quitting until just after the war. His courting wasn't serious, Shunsui himself wasn't serious.
"Byakuya-san is a lucky man. He's got himself a powerful, strong woman who will undoubtedly produce the strongest Kuchiki heir in history!" Shunsui laughed out in disbelief, running a hand through his hair, "I can see it now, the 28th Kuchiki head and the First Kenp—"
"Shh!" Ukitake whispered out hastily while looking around to make sure that the area was clear of their fellow Shinigami, "We took an oath to never speak of this again, so hold your tongue or don't speak at all!" he stammered nervously, turning a hearty shade of red.
"Aw, Jushi-kun is mean! You hurt my feelings!"
Sui-feng was in a terrible mood. Not only was she coerced into participating in this foolish competition by Yoruichi-sama, she was paired up with the most incompetent woman in the Seireitei. The girl was the younger sister of Unohana's fukutaicho and Sui-feng hoped (for a few moments) that they would have an advantage.
They clearly didn't.
The sisters loved each other very much, but it was painfully obvious that it would be impossible to salvage any source of information from Kotetsu-fukutaicho because her sister didn't possess the skills to effectively act like a normal person. The girl had decided to run off with Kuchiki-fukutaicho on some wild adventure to find Ukitake-taicho some lemon flavored candies with the red haired human girl, leaving Sui-feng alone to get things done. She preferred to work alone, but she hated it when people got credit for things they did not do.
Scowling at Kiyone's retreating figure, she cast a desperate look at Yoruichi-sama, who shooed her away, saying that getting out in the world was good for her and that she should appreciate Kiyone's uselessness.
Under normal circumstances, she would have her assassins track Unohana and give her regular status updates. The problem was that 1) Her assassins had no idea how to disguise themselves in the World of the Living and 2) Yoruichi-sama would immediately catch on and have her own personal guard to the same. All in all, she was on her own.
After an hour of wandering around and occasionally making a young child cry, Sui-feng ran into Kiyone again, who was clutching a large brown bag that would making rattling noises every time she moved.
"When the hell do you plan on helping me?! Your sister is the fukutaicho to Unohana and we haven't done anything to get ahead in this damned competition and I swear…." Sui-feng shouted loudly and would have continued to do so unless Kiyone interrupted her.
"Nee-chan is Unohana-taicho's fukutaicho but that doesn't mean she'll help us," Kiyone reprimanded in a mocking sing-song voice, effectively silencing Sui-feng into a blustering, stuttering mess. "And I gotta plan that'll help us too!"
Sui-feng sneered mockingly and she stared boldly into the taller (not by much, Kiyone was quite the shrimp) woman's eyes. "Like what? Shall we find Kuchiki and offer him an ice cream cone, or a lollipop? How about we offer him a piggy back ride and some cotton candy in exchange for ravishing Unohana on the floor?" she questioned in a mocking tone.
Kiyone pouted and turned her back to the little bee and spoke, "Well, if you were a lot less cranky I'd tell you that Nee-chan and Kuchiki-taicho are in that art store right over there!" She turned around and pointed and Sui-feng saw the tall woman carrying around a bunch of calligraphy supplies and Kuchiki was standing a small distance away, watching her.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get the hell in there and figure out what's going on!" Sui-feng snapped at her incredulously as she pushed Kiyone in the direction of the art store.
"B-but I can't just barge in there! I'll look suspicious!" Kiyone retorted indignantly.
Sui-feng had to fight the urge of throttling this impudent 3rd Seat with all of her strength, but she had a backup plan to use in case the girl wouldn't cooperate.
"Ukitake will be quite proud of you if you manage to win this competition, why, he may even promote you to be Super Ultra Fukutaicho!" Sui-feng exclaimed with forced enthusiasm. She knew that the girl's weak spot was Ukitake, and that her crush on him was borderline obsessive.
"B-But… Rukia-chan is fukutaicho! Ukitake-taicho can't just—"
"Super Ultra Fukutaicho is a prestigious position that is about the regular fukutaicho and that is rare to achieve, yet winning such a lopsided competition shall make you worth of it."
Sui-feng could feel the determination in waves that was coming off of Kiyone and barely had enough time to move out of the way before the girl ran directly into the art store. Frowning visibly, her inner assassin told her to find a spot where she could easily keep watch and not get caught by anyone else.
"Good luck, kid. You're going to need it," she said with a sigh.
This is the first chapter of the summer! Originally, I was planning on ending this story after the celebration was over, but I decided to expanded even further; so there may be at least 20+ chapters, I'm not sure yet. Plus, there is going to be a few spoilers here and there, but nothing too severe. C'mon people, I have nearly 10,000 views on this story but nearly no reviews! Your reviews help me write better! Tell your friends, families, pets and baby mamas/daddies about my story! Thanks for reading and REVIEW GODDAMMIT.
