Chapter 35: Squad 12's Captain

"I'm here, Captain. I heard you had a mission for...me?" Yukiko had been in the middle of a training session with the non-seated members of her squad when she received a summons from her Captain. In the message, he'd expressed that she needed to hurry to his office for a mission. So of course she was confused when she entered her captain's office only to find him not there. "Where'd he go now?"

"Captain Hirako and Lieutenant Aizen were summoned to squad 1," a small voice explained to her in amusement.

Yukiko glanced down and to her left to see that the 7th seat had come in with her. "Hi, Gin." It'd been almost half a year since she first met the small silver haired boy, and for more than half of it he was the 7th seat of her squad. Just as she expected, he was extremely powerful for his age and for only being at the academy for a year, but she also found he was entertaining to be around. In fact, in the last couple months he'd become one of her favorite people to hang out with in her squad. "Any idea why they were summoned so suddenly?"

"I heard it had something to do a new captain," he answered, his eternal smile in place.

"I see...so they found someone for squad 10 then?" she asked pleased to know a new captain was coming in. After all, the last captain of squad 10 had died in the line of duty awhile ago. It was about time.

"I don't know," Gin answered though it was clear he had information of some sort. His grin widened as he turned toward her and handed over what looked like a mission folder. "Captain Hirako wanted you to complete this while he was gone."

Yukiko sighed and took the folder before looking through it. Despite her best efforts, her mind began to wander as she thought about the new promotion of a captain; wondering who was taking the position.

"So...he wants me to head to squad 12," she murmured out loud in order to force her mind back to her new task. "To deliver a gift to the captain? What could he possibly have for Captain Hikifune? What's the occasion? Is it her birthday or something?"

"Is that really important since this is an order?" Gin murmured mischievously. "Or are ya gonna ignore it until ya get an answer? I bet he'd love to know yer reasoning."

Yukiko flinched at his words and groaned. He had a point. Her Captain did get upset when his orders weren't followed...unless there was a legitimate reason behind it that is. Too bad she didn't have one. "Alright," she muttered sliding the mission info into her shihakusho. "Did he tell you where the gift was?"

She looked over at the small 7th seat to see that he was already holding out a small package with his grin widening. "I'm surprised ya didn' notice...I was holding it the whole time," he teased. "And ta think, yer usually more observant that this."

Yukiko blushed slightly in embarrassment before taking the package and heading for the exit. "A-alright. I'm going now," she muttered, stumbling over her words in an effort to get her embarrassment hidden. "Just do me a favor and make sure the Captain doesn't get upset at me for not being back until tomorrow. Considering what time it is I'll probably have to spend the night there."

She glanced back and saw Gin's smile turn slightly reassuring. "Sure thing," he seemed to laugh. "I'll tell him just that."

With that Yukiko thanked him once more, before leaving through the door with the small packaged gift in hand. As she dashed toward the squad 12 barracks, her mind went over her earlier questions; what gift is she bringing for Captain Hikifune? What's the purpose? Could her captain possibly have a thing for the baking captain? At this thought her cheeks started turning red and she shook her head to clear it, there was no way after all. Still, she couldn't wait to see what was up, so she tightened her hold of the package and sped up to reach squad 12 all the faster.

By the time she reached squad 12 it was well after dark even with all the short cuts she took to get there. She pushed herself almost to the limit to arrive before it got too late and walked into the captain's office just after 10 PM. "C-Captain Hikifune...Captain Hirako wanted me to give you this...gift," she panted and then looked around the office.

Unfortunately, there was no one in the office and all the personal items that had been there before were missing. Now that she thought about it, she couldn't feel Captain Hikifune's reiatsu anywhere. Nor Hiyori's for that matter. Did that mean they were also summoned to Squad 1? It would make sense if it was for the induction of a new captain. So why did her captain send her here knowing there was a good chance she wouldn't be here anyway?

"Uh, can I help you with something?"

The warm voice startled Yukiko who nearly fell over thanks to her leaning heavily against the door frame in exhaustion. Once she steadied herself she glanced around to see a tall young man with light brown hair that gently curled atop his head, framing his soft face. "Uh, yeah. I'm looking for Captain Hikifune. I have something for her," she explained slowly.

"Oh, well Captain Hikifune isn't here so..." the man began scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Oh...in that case, is there somewhere I can stay for the night?" she asked with a tired smile. "I would return to my squad tonight, but in my current state I don't think I can make it."

"Uh, yeah," the guy answered gesturing awkwardly at his side. "This way."

Yukiko followed the squad 12 member through the barracks to a small room that housed on a single twin bed and a small bathroom. The guest room wasn't much to look at in her opinion, but as tired as she was Yukiko was just glad to have a bed to sleep on. As she stepped into the room, she wearily thanked the man before closing the door and making her way to the lone bed. As she went, she pulled the small package from her shihakusho and placed it gently on the floor next to the bed before collapsing on the mattress and drifting off to sleep.

She awoke hours later with the rise of the sun only to jump out of bed when she heard a loud crash. Wondering what was going on, she quickly grabbed her things, straightened her hair and hurried toward the source of the sound. Not surprising, when she reached the spot, she found Hiyori seething over a soul reaper that was lying in the center of a dust cloud.

"H-hey, Hiyori," she greeted curious as to what was going on. "Some lackey piss you off again?"

"W-what are you doing here?" the short lieutenant demanded.

Before Yukiko could explain, the downed soul reaper popped up and smiled at her. "Ah, Yukiko, I didn't expect to see you here. How's your training progressing?"

Yukiko blinked in surprise seeing the blonde haired 3rd seat from squad 2 addressing her. What surprised her even more was the captain's Haori he wore on his back. "K-Kisuke, why are you...are you a captain now? When did...?"

"Oh yes, this probably is a very confusing situation right now," he surmised rubbing his head in a rather sheepish manner. "But as you can see, I am now the captain of squad 12, since Captain Hikifune was promoted anyway."

"Captain Hikifune was promoted?" Yukiko exclaimed. Why couldn't her captain tell her that before she left? It was kind of important information after all. "Since when? Promoted to what?"

"Since last week," Urahara explained easily. " She was actually promoted to squad 0, the Royal Guard."

"Royal Guard," Yukiko repeated in awe. The royal guard after all was a group of soul reapers dedicated to protecting the soul king. It was a mystery to most how exactly one became part of the royal guard, until now anyway. Who'd have thought it possible to be promoted beyond a captain?

"By the way, Yukiko, is there a reason you've come here today?"

Yukiko was going to brush aside his question when she remembered the odd request given to her by her captain. To give the gift to the captain of squad 12, with no specification of a name. He was always good about giving names when it was something important...unless he wanted to surprise her on who it was. He did it to her again.

"I'm actually supposed to give this to the captain of squad 12," she explained pulling out the package from her shihakusho. "Considering Captain Hirako said it was a gift...I'm guessing he meant for the new captain of squad 12. So...here you go."

Urahara accepted the package with a warm smile. "Thank you," he expressed lightly, before tucking the package out of sight. Then he prepared to say something else before getting cut off by a fist in his face that threw him back several feet.

"You don't deserve any sort of welcome or congratulations!" Hiyori shouted angrily, her entire body shaking as she yelled.

"Uh, Hiyori, don't you think that was a bit much?" Yukiko asked sweating a little. The small lieutenant just glared at her in response before taking off.

"I guess that's my answer," the young 5th seat thought as she moved over to Urahara's side. "She always was really close to Captain Hikifune. It makes sense that she'd be upset, but taking it out on Kisuke's not the way to deal with it."

"Sorry you had to see that, Yukiko," Urahara expressed as he took her offered hand and returned to his feet. "I was honestly hoping to have that settled before you came to visit."

"You don't have to apologize, Kisuke," she replied easily. "I know Hiyori's upset, and honestly I kind of am too. Not because you became the captain or anything. It's just, even though I wasn't a part of squad 12, I would have liked to say goodbye to Captain Hikifune. I'm just sad I didn't get the chance. I have to wonder whether or not she was able to."

Urahara ran a hand through his hair in thought before allowing his normal smile to grace his features. "Well, thank you for the gift and for the assistance. You should probably head back now though, you never know when Captain Hirako will have something else for you."

"Yeah, I know." Yukiko made sure she had everything she came with, minus the gift, before giving Urahara a heart felt hug. "Good luck being a captain, Kisuke," she murmured softly. "Maybe I'll come by every once in awhile. Just to spar for a bit."

"I think I'd enjoy that." Urahara waved merrily and Yukiko returned the gesture before running off. She still had a few hours of travel before returning to her own squad after all.

As she traveled she couldn't help but smile at the idea of Kisuke Urahara being a captain of his own squad. As weird and random as he seemed, she couldn't see him taking responsibility for an entire squad. Then again, he was a third seat in charge of the prison at squad 2. Maybe he'd surprise everyone and end up being the best captain ever. At the very least it'd be interesting to find out how he planned on dealing with a pissed off Hiyori. Who knew, this change could be really good for her.

A few days later, Yukiko finally managed to find a bit of time to herself. Time she wasn't expected to be on a mission, or visiting someone for whatever reason, or secret training with Youruichi. It was just her out behind the barracks relaxing on the grass next to the stream. Unfortunately her thoughts wouldn't allow her to fully relax. They kept going back to the fact she'd been kept in the dark about Captain Hikifune's promotion.

It hurt to know that her captain had kept something from her. Granted the information wasn't that important and didn't really have anything to do with her since she wasn't apart of the same squad, but considering how much she'd seen of the female captain she would have liked at least a little heads up.

Anyway, that wasn't completely what was bothering her. Rather she was concerned to know if anything else was being hidden from her.

As she lay there, staring up at the passing clouds, her view of the sky was suddenly obstructed by a curious face. "Oh, hey Gin," she greeted smiling up at the silver haired child. "Do you have the day off too?"

"Naw, jus passin' through," he answered gleefully. "Should ya really be jus hangin' around?"

"I have the day off," she explained easily.

"It ain't safe bein' alone ya know," he pointed out.

"Yeah, I know," she sighed. "I still can't believe there are no leads. I mean how can our third seat be killed in our area and no one have seen anything? It's kind of disconcerting."

"That's jus' cus squad 9 screwed up, ne?" Gin guessed teasingly.

"I didn't think lazing around was a normal part of your days off," another voice chuckled. "Don't you usually spend your time training or at least visiting the other squads?"

Yukiko quickly sat up, forgetting about Gin's last comment, and stared at the new comer before plopping back down in an attempt to relax. "Aizen. Today's an off day," she replied staring at the clouds again.

"I see. You have somewhere to be, right, Gin?" Aizen murmured calmly. The silver haired boy nodded before disappearing around the barracks. Once the boy was out of sight the lieutenant sat down on the grass next to the female soul reaper. "I can see that something has your mind occupied. Why don't you tell me what it is?"

Yukiko continued to stare at the sky, but she did crack a smile. "Yeah, you could say that," she agreed. "I heard Captain Hikifune moved on. I was just wondering why I didn't get the chance to say goodbye before she took off."

"I see. You miss her?" he asked curiously.

"Well, yeah. She was pretty good to me, despite me not being a part of her squad," she answered moving to a seated position and leaning over her knees.

"I understand," Aizen murmured gently. "She really did play a rather large roll in your continued presence here after all."

"Yeah, she was really..." Yukiko paused part way through her reply when she realized exactly what he'd said. "What do you mean? It's not like I had any plans to go anywhere."

She noticed the surprised expression on his face which he quickly tried to hide while the slightest tinge of pink appeared on his cheeks. "I apologize. I've spoken out of turn," he said, quickly moving to his feet.

"Woah, woah. You can't just cut it off there," Yukiko protested jumping to her feet as well. "What exactly were you talking about?"

"It's really not my place to say if it hasn't already been relayed to you," he tried to reason. She glared at him, showing that she had no intention of letting him leave until he'd explained himself and he sighed. "You are right to be concerned about things being hidden from you. This was one of them. But I'd rather not mention it, as it might change your opinion of the captains you serve with."

Yukiko felt her stomach drop at his statement but she couldn't ignore it. So, despite her sword telling her she didn't need to know, she clenched her fists and took a deep breath. "Aizen, please tell me."

Shippoman: Oops, looks like Aizen's about to let the cat out of the bag. What will Yukiko do if she finds out about where she nearly ended up? Or will it really make any difference at all. Stay tuned to find out.

Note: I just wanted to apologize for taking so long with this one, especially since it wasn't any longer than my other chapters. I've been having horrible writer's block on this story lately but I still plan on trying to go back to a chapter every week. We'll see how it goes next week. I hope Gin's speech didn't bother anyone, and I can't remember if I had him talking like this when she ran into him at the academy, but I did remember that he had a different dialect as a child that he grew out of so I wanted to make sure that was represented. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and the last few will be coming soon.