Old Rock Day

The tantous were seen giggling in the snow outside the Citadel.

"Hey hey, what should we do with these?" Akita asked excitedly.

"We can decorate them!" Midare suggested.

"Then what about it?" Atsushi asked with a bit of doubt.

"If we can find more of these, we can give it to everyone, just like how General gave us the camelid plushies," Yagen commented.

"Let's go hunting for more!" Hakata pumped his fist into the air.

""Ooh!""

"My brothers – Where are you?" Ichigo was shouting for his brothers when he realized they were not in the tantous' room.

"Sigh… where could they have gone to when our accessible area is so limited…"

Ichigo was about to return to his room when he heard footsteps from behind.

"Ichi-nii!"

Such a cute voice. Must be from Gokotai.

"Yes?" He turned to greet his brother. Gokotai's face was flushed from running.

"Um… er…"

Ichigo chuckled. His brothers were his precious little angels to him. "There's no need to be so formal around me, has Hirano rubbed off on you?"

Gokotai immediately shook his head. "N-No!" He recomposed himself. "Ehe… this gift is for you, Ichi-nii."

Gokotai took out a polished rock. "Please accept it."

"Wow," Ichigo received the rock from Gokotai and observed it. "You made it look just like me!"

"Hope you liked it… the colour took quite some time to remain there, so... do handle it with care."

"I will. Thank you, Gokotai."

"Uguisumaru-dono!"

Said sword recognized Hirano's voice. "You called?"

"Indeed, sir. I have a matter with you."

"Which is…?"

Hirano brought out a polished rock (which was designed for Uguisumaru) and presented it to him. "Please accept this gift from me!"

Uguisumaru took the rock. "Oh. Such craftsmanship," he smiled at Hirano. "Nicely done."

Hirano tried to maintain a poker face but he failed. He was not one to disclose his feelings to people besides his brothers, but…

…being complimented by one of the swords he admired had definitely sent him into Sakura Fubuki mode.

"Ishikirimaru-san!"

"Ah, hello Akita."

The tantou was hugging a rock almost as big as his armour. "This is for you!"

"Oh. Uh... is it because of my name? (Ishikiri = stone/rock cutter)"

"Not only that, we gave the other swords too! While my brothers and I were playing in the snow, we found these rocks, so we thought of giving it to everyone!"

Ishikirimaru smiled. He could understand why Ichigo viewed his brothers as little angels.

"Looking from the size of this... I assume I have the largest one?"

"Ehehe, yup!"

Akita bid farewell before running off. Ishikirimaru looked at the rock given to him. It was like a 'rock' version of him, except that it was a little too rough to be held for a few seconds.

Since when was Akita that strong to carry the rock to him?

I'm Not Gonna Take It Anymore Day with Tempura Day

Five swords were gathered around the kotatsu talking about Higekiri (who was away for a sortie).

"Is it just me, or is his memory always that poor?"

"How can one forget his brother's name? I mean, even if their names had been changed a lot of times, surely he could remember at least one of them right?"

"I know right, even Mikazuki remembers names better than him."

"Except that he's no good with directions."

Chuckles followed.

"I wonder if he does that on purpose?"

"Anyway, how does he call you guys? He calls me 'Metarumaru'. How annoying."

"It's better than being called 'Heshikirimaru'. It's like mixing our names into one!"

"You have nicer names than mine! There's no way to feel good when you're called 'Koshinukemaru' (koshinuke = coward), for god's sake!"

"Mine's more surprising, he called me 'Nurumayu', without any 'maru' behind!"

They chewed on the tempura CCP had served them. Crispy.

"Has any of you corrected him before?"

"Obviously we did! But he still kept calling us by the wrong names!"

"Come to think of it," Hotarumaru faced Uguisumaru. "How does Higekiri address you as?"

Before Uguisumaru could answer, Higekiri came into the room and saw his target.

"Spicemaru!"

Uguisumaru turned to his caller. "You called?" He got up and left the room with Higekiri, leaving the remaining four swords dumbfounded.

"Did he just...?"

"Yes."

"Yes he responded to that naming sense."

"...somehow I couldn't take this anymore..." Kogitsunemaru slammed on the kotatsu. "IT'S BEEN A WEEK SINCE HE KEPT CALLING ME A COWARD!"

"Woah chill," Hotarumaru shifted towards Ishikirimaru for extra defense.

Ishikirimaru sighed. "Let's just hope that things do get a bit better when we manage to find Hizamaru..."

Of course everyone was not gonna take it anymore when your name was being wrongly called for the past week, despite corrections given constantly.