Still don't own Bleach or TTGL. Happy Easter.
Also, thanks to everyone who has given me reviews over the years. I do appreciate it.
A growling stomach can be many things: a social faux pas, a stubborn front's fissure, a reason to smile, blush or point and laugh. They are mostly happy or silly happenings. Then again, most people usually only recognize other people's gurgling hunger pangs. Hearing a foreign being's bodily functions typically becomes an exercise in panic restraint. Even so, Ichigo dismayed in how much (for people who had come to grips with the fact that they were already dead) something remotely unfamiliar could still scare so many of the Soul Reapers in the Fifth Division. Strolling through the grounds towards the captain's office, the audibly hungry Takara was a pasty Moses parting a skittish sea of black-cloaked reeds.
"I've never heard such a powerful hunger!" Kamina chortled. "What'dya have a hole in your stomach?"
Takara wordlessly parted the lapels of his jacket. Seeing the street behind them framed through the hollow's chest, Kamina briefly reeled in horror.
"EYEAA-ah-hahaha…!" He coughed; nervous sweat licked his brow. "Neat."
"Let's just get inside," Ichigo said as he quickened his pace through the wary crowd clearing from their path.
A sliding door slammed. A few heavy sighs heaved into the air. Another gut growl shredded through them. The two Soul Reapers in the room turned to their unusual friend.
"Don't tell me you eat souls," Ichigo said; the image of Rukia's poor scrawlings on the basics of Hollow behavior briefly haunted his brain.
"You eat souls?" Kamina yelled in shock.
"I said he doesn't!" the captain shouted.
"You imply it!" his lieutenant shot back.
"I—!" Takara's voice rose and slashed the bickering to silence, "…'m not sure."
The room went quieter than a Barmitzvah after a bad Hitler joke. What kind of hunger grips one that doesn't actually know what they eat to survive? The arrancar spoke up again.
"It's a little scary. I haven't had hunger for a long time. I remember a time when I ate souls; other hollows… but I've forgotten the taste. I don't know what I need to eat."
There was a pause.
"Any guesses?" Kamina cut in.
"W-we have oyaku donburi, zosui, kinpira gobo, takoyaki, beef curry,onigiri, melon pan and several selections of sushi," a sturdy looking girl topped with a chef hat announced with wide, if not somewhat shaky, sweeps of her hands. To solve the new problem of "What do you feed an arrancar?" several of the Gotei 13's lieutenants and captains had been conscripted into listing off their favorite types of food followed by a debate among the top ten ranking soldiers in Fifth Division (aside from Ichigo and Kamina) as to who would actually bring the spread to its final destination. The Soul Reaper before the trio had been coaxed into its delivery with the promise of her very own culinary headwear—a bribe that she was starting to regret having accepted. She removed her hat and ran a hand through her short, brown hair in an attempt to regain composure in the audience of a captain, lieutenant and a chillingly well-behaved hollow, "T-they ordered me to make food deliveries to this place so if you need anything else, m-my name's Kin—eight seat of Division Five."
Ichigo struck Kamina before he ruined the buffet with excessive drooling, "So… anything here you might like?" he asked Takara.
The arrancar's eyes gorged themselves with colors, lines and shapes while his nose feasted on the whirling aromas of white steam blossoms. He prodded a few meals with his fingers, then utensils. Then after a moment of tense silence, he began sampling.
"HOT! WHAT IS THIS? BLEEEUHH… CAN'T CHEW. AAGH! MY TONGUE! LIKE SWORDS IN MY MOUTH! FUAAAH!"
Honestly, it was the liveliest that anyone in the room had seen him since… well, ever. Yet, in the end, Takara had rejected everything at the table—most directly from his mouth in the most violent manner possible.
Kin moaned, "I need a break." To ease the growing anxiety in the room over Takara's still unsolved hunger pangs, she put to her lips a ceramic jug that she had brought along with her.
"What is that?" the hollow pointed, still concerned with sating his unknown appetite.
Needless to say, the direct question from an elite enemy warrior took her aback. She seized up for a moment before muttering her answer.
"T-they told me it was sake."
Ichigo sputtered in near laughter.
"They told you? You ever drink that before?" he asked, unwilling to let on that he had never actually drank any either.
"A-a little!" Kin put up a proud façade. The truth was that Shusui had forced it on her before she left, probably as some sort of joke—or maybe because it really was one of his favorite "foods."
"Sneak a bit for yourself if you get the jitters," she remembered the flamboyant captain's grin and the somehow inappropriate look in his eye. Then there was some sort of invitation to an all-female drinking party before his lieutenant struck him in the temple and dragged him away.
Brushing thoughts aside, Kin downed a nip of the pale liquid. "Hey, that's actually not bad."
"May I have some?" Takara petitioned in monotone, holding out an inappropriately large cup.
Everyone hesitated for a moment. A drunk hollow. A drunk arrancar. What could happen? Could that happen? Ichigo and Kin were so occupied drowning in the monstrous tide of possibilities that they didn't see Kamina snatch the jug from the female Soul Reaper's hands and promptly top off the entirety of Takara's glass.
"Here ya go, buddy."
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"
The softest of sips smashed the action in the room. Everyone froze—Ichigo and Kin out of horror and Kamina more from child-like anticipation, still not quite fully aware of what sake was. Within ten seconds, Aizen's rogue soldier had gulped the entire cup in one go.
A long sigh popped out of Takara's mouth.
"More, "he held out the flagon in which he was just served his new favorite drink.
There was another pause. Ichigo broke this one.
"Well, if an arrancar likes it, it can't be that bad," he mused
"You've never had any either!" Kin instantly accused.
The captain slyly repossessed the container of sake from his subordinate—much to Kamina's chagrin—and poured himself a customarily smaller cup before giving the hollow his own refill. Unaware of the laws of the tactfully discreet Ichigo's world, no one in the room objected to a curious minor consuming alcohol.
"Hey! I was supposed to have it next!" the Gurren brigadier complained, grasping for the jug.
Soon everyone had their own full glass of sake. Then they were gone. Then there were more cups. And even more cups until the jug was exhausted and their faces red like roses. Well, everyone except Takara whose demeanor seemed rather unchanged despite having drank perhaps the most of anyone in the room. Best of all, his growling stomach had seemed to stop.
"Gehahah!" Kin laughed—the one most taken in by the sake's rude and beguiling gestures, "Ya know, this job ain't too bad after all!"
"What job?" Kamina hiccupped.
"Well, I mean, if I get to just come over here and drink sake with this guy every day, that's not a bad gig, right?" the Soul Reaper gestured to the hollow in the room.
"Me?" Takara asked.
"Right! I mean, I never even heard of arrancar before, but you seem pretty alright to me! I dunno what everyone else in the division was bugging about!"
Mouth softly parted; eyes wide like a child seeing something large and novel, Takara almost looked like he was smiling. Ichigo and Kamina said nothing to preserve the mood—or more likely they failed to feel out any words in their foggy minds to begin with. At that stumbling pace the day reached its end. The next afternoon went much the same way—with all parties aside from Takara taking it easier on the sake. The eighth seat Soul Reaper grew closer to her captain, lieutenant and their strange guest, and eventually, once more a day's events brought smiles to faces in the barracks despite their knowledge of a powerful hollow stashed within their ranks. It had not quite been a week.
"So here he is!" Kin entered the room more like would a stray bouncing ball than a person. Over the past few days she had come to very much look forward to her obligatory afternoon sake breaks. Today she had dragged along with her a guest: another female Soul Reaper.
"So you're the one who helped my little Kin out of her shell?" She was a rugged woman who claimed to be in the same class as Kin during their academy days—a soul sister who behaved like a surrogate mother.
"Oko, knock it off! Don't embarrass me!"
"You don't get to order the third seat around, kid!"Oko parried jovially. Yet not a blink later, she blazed up into Takara's face, staring him down with malice, "But kidding aside, I'll have you know that I still trust you about as far as I can throw you" which, given her stature, could arguably be pretty far, "and if you try anything that could hurt Kin, I won't hesitate to kill you."
The hollow sucked his thin lips back into his mouth below his surprised eyes.
"Now let's drink us some sake!" and with that Oko seemed back to her normal, jolly self.
Ichigo and Kamina were used to supervising Takara's alcoholic tea parties by now, but if new guests kept showing up, problems could arise. Wait. Would there be problems? Seeing as no one had had their soul sucked or nothing had been violently destroyed with ceros or the like, the rest of the barracks had calmed down substantially over the past five days. The thought never reached Kamina who was either too busy trying to get his sword to talk again, chatting with Takara or challenging random Soul Reapers to duels of strength and manliness.
However, the fact haunted Ichigo: almost no one aside from the captains and maybe a few lieutenants were aware of an arrancar's true power. What would happen if an alien's façade became everyone's truth? Takara was a chicken's egg holding a primed atomic bomb inside his shell. Yet seeing Takara remotely content after having been put through so much with his history and Yamamoto's trial, Ichigo was determined to make sure the egg never cracked.
"Yeah! We should totally get everyone together!" the Fifth Division captain was so lost in thought that he had missed the entire conversation in front of him. Kamina had been getting chummy with Oko who had hatched the idea of a full barracks sake party to get everyone used to having a hollow in their ranks. Ichigo nearly cracked and fell to pieces on the spot. WHAT? It'd be much easier just to keep the guy holed up and away from as many people as possible! He's only here to help us find and bring Aizen in any way! He's not here to make friends!
"Yeah! We'll have a party that'll make even that pervert captain with the pink kimono jealous!" Oko roared.
"So he invited you to one of those too?" Kin asked flatly.
The rugged third seat sighed to confirm suspicions.
Takara said nothing but it was clear that he had no real objections.
Ichigo agreed to the proposal—if nothing just to save face for the hollow and prevent himself from looking like a paranoid ass. Yet anxiety lingered in his every step towards assembling his soldiers in front of an arrancar.
Once the word got out, light itself would have been impressed by the speed at which roughly the entire barracks agreed to a sake party on their day off from duty. It was the next day and everyone had gathered in a sweeping courtyard filled with low tables, cups and jugs of pallid harmony. Ichigo and Kamina sat at their own table atop an elevated stage with Takara, Kin and Oko. The captain slowly rose to make a speech and opened his mouth.
"Alright, you Soul Reapers!"Kamina's voice flooded the space and Ichigo recoiled in surprise. "Listen up! This here is my bro, Takara! He's an a-a…arrn… car I guess, but that doesn't make him any different than you and me!"
Ichigo was about to punch the impromptu orator out when he noticed how intently the crowds listened to his outspoken lieutenant.
"And he doesn't eat people! Check this out!" Then Kamina rammed the side of his arm into a flustered Takara's mouth. "EAT ME! EAT ME~!"
Ichigo clobbered Kamina over the head with the blunt side of his sword and tried to subdue the Gurren brigadier with grappling. There were some horrified looks and understandable amount of concerned crowd murmuring before Kamina wrestled his way back into a hunched-over position of power with Ichigo's arm flexed upwards, aiming to pull off a one-handed choke hold on his subordinate.
"Look, what I'm saying is that this guy drinks just like we do." Kamina tilted his head towards Takara. "A couple people told me that you may not trust this guy because of where he came from, but I know he's here to help… so do you guys think we could at least share a drink with him?"
There was a long silence broken only by the soft clattering of ceramic vessels kissing. Kin poured Takara a glass of sake, then filled her own cup and stood up. She held her arm straight out towards the hollow, almost in hopes that he would join her. Nearby, Oko served herself and stood up too. Not long after, a black cloak off in the crowd got to its feet with a full cup extended towards the captain's table. Then another. A dark tide of Soul Reapers rose with glasses high, filled with sake that glistened in the sunlight.
"Kanpai!" Kin cheered.
"KANPAI!" the crowd roared merrily and downed the first gulps of the first ever Fifth Division Barracks-wide Drinking Party.
It was like a ridiculous plot device in a story. Ichigo could never have imagined it being so easy. Everyone just standing up and cheering? What was it? Someone bumped his arm.
"Here, man," Kamina offered his captain a shimmering glass. "Join in!"
Drinking? He looked at Takara enjoying his own glass of sake while Oko paid Kin for a bet they made on how much the hollow could drink without going under. Everyone seemed happy. The rest of the Soul Reapers were all jostling about and shooting the breeze; arms and smiles stretched across tables, taking care not to tip anything over.
"You'd think there'd be a complaint," Ichigo said to himself and took the glass offered him.
"Why?" Kamina asked. "We're alive and our mouths are busy. What else do we need?"
As the sake ran dry, the stumbling masses of Soul Reaper shuffled back to their rooms to sleep off a night of merriment. The following day, everything returned to normal with the exceptions of a forest of headaches that had sprung up overnight and an extra pair of footsteps about the grounds: those of a surprised Takara being led by Kin to meet the rest of the soldiers on her newest hollow-sitting assignment. People with spare time complimented his drinking prowess or even asked him a few questions about Hueco Mundo. Even without really having done too much, with their leaders' word, faith, a sake party and the lack of wanton destruction, the soldiers under Ichigo and Kamina's command had come to trust Takara (at least to the point where they felt that he wouldn't go on an unprovoked rampage) and sort of wore it as a badge of honor knowing that they lived among a hollow without (excessive) fear.
So, strange as it was, Takara was making friends as Kin tugged him along by the hand through Division Five.
Outside the barracks at the grounds entrance, an inconsequential Soul Reaper heard an unnatural warbling coming from behind one of the right angle turns that ran among Division Five and through the rest of the Seireitei. Eventually, a gangly looking pale man dressed in a white robe rambled out from behind the wall with an off-kilter step. His garish red hair wrestled with the wind. An ornately decorated skull hung over half of his face. The Soul Reaper lit up.
"Hey, you look like that other fellow at the drinking party!" he said. "Are you another friend of the captains?"
"I am," his voice was strong but distant, like a man possessed—like someone in a remote location was typing in commands for him to speak, "Arrancar… úmero once: Libre…" his voice trailed off.
A flash of eyes and the Soul Reaper's head rolled across the ground accompanied by shuffling steps that bled off into the division's grounds.