Renji received the news of the second Raffle rather well.
"One date, and I don't have to do any work? Fine by me."
Matsumoto accepted the news more philosophically.
"Oh, so many men will be disappointed. It's a shame there's only one of me. If I wear something really bosomy for the next few weeks, can I get 50% of the extra ticket sales?"
/
Captain Unohana realized that she was muttering to herself as she finished up her afternoon paperwork. It was rare for her to be in a bad mood, but the truth was that she had been in the dumps for a while. It started when Kyoraku challenged her, but it was more than having to back down. It was this stupid raffle.
Her ticket sales were low. She knew she wasn't going to match Lieutenant Matsumoto ticket for ticket, but the whole process made her realize that there was a part of her life that she'd shut off. As well as she got along with her fellow captains, the members of her division, the members of the Women's Association, even her patients, she knew that there was a distance between her and others. That distance went hand-in-hand with the look.
She was the personification of death. She had accepted that a long time ago. She was Death God Captain Number Death. She'd been alive forever, as far as anyone but General Yamamoto knew. She carried an instrument of death on her belt, and was the herald of injury and disease in this world, the world of the dead. That was the source of her ability to intimidate.
And her ability to intimidate was important to her. They were the division of healers, but they were also the maintenance division, the bottom of the social ladder. They were humble, hard workers, and there was no reason that they should be looked upon as second-class. She was proud of them. She treated them all with respect, and did everything she could to make sure that other people did so too. So she cultivated her fierce maternal image, even while realizing that it prevented others from getting too close to her. If she'd lost out on that closeness, and her reputation for strength slipped away as well, what would it all have been for?
She shook the thought out of her mind. That she, at her age, would be in a funk about whether or not boys were interested in her...ridiculous.