Chapter 2

Lisa

She was given a few days to reacquaintance herself with everything before she started working, and she enjoyed the time. She met a few Shinigami she had known before, and spend time getting to know the new lieutenants. Nanao showed her how the report and filing system had changed, so she could work with it easily again.

She learned that Ukitake still had no lieutenant after his last was killed, and that he refused to comment on that with a smile.
She learned that Ukitake, Kyouraku and Nanao met once a week for dinner when Kyouraku dragged her there, and both captains basically ordered her to come regularly. Not that she was complaining, it had been fun.
She decided afterwards that she wanted to have similar regular meetings with the other visored, it felt strange to suddenly not see them as often.
Then she learned of the existence of the Shinigami women's association, and of course insisted to be a part of it, since it looked like an interesting and fun idea.

She was surprised that Nanao had a high position in it, since the first meeting she attended was filled to a large part with gossip and silliness, which collided with Nanao's usual seriousness. But after watching the little girl called Yachiru, the president, for a while, she decided that Nanao probably spend most of her energy canceling out the crazy pink energy ball as much as she could. It was fun to watch.

It was on the way back from her second meeting, when she walked back to division eight with Nanao, that a question arose in her mind. After listening to gossip for about an hour…

'Say, Nanao-chan. Are Kyouraku and Ukitake still not together?'

The younger woman looked surprised for a moment, then she shook her head and pushed up her glasses. 'No, not as far as I know anyways.' Lisa noted that she looked a little embarrassed, but decided to ignore it.

'Hmm. After I left I decided that I would intervene if they still were being stupid when I came back. Looks like that's the case.' she thought aloud.

'What do you mean, intervene? And I don't think you should just call them stupid, they might have their reasons.' Nanao protested.
Lisa shrugged. 'Sure. I need supporters first of all, then we can make plans together. By intervene, I mean that we will perform a series of actions that will result in those two becoming lovers. Are you in?'

.

Nanao

'I don't think you should bother them. What if you do something to make it worse?' Nanao protested.
'That's why I need other Shinigami. We will think together, and work out a great plan.' Lisa answered easily.

'That could still go wrong. Trust me, I have watched countless attempts by Rangiku at matchmaking, and it does not always end well.'
She had a feeling she wasn't getting through.
'Rangiku? That's the large woman from the tenth, right? I will ask her for her ideas then.'

No, definitely not getting through.

'Listen Lisa, you are planning to mess with their private lives. That's really not something you should do.' she tried again.

'Don't worry Nanao-chan. It'll be fine. I wonder if we should talk to all the Shinigami-women's-association directly? Do you think they will agree?'

Nanao didn't answer. She had to fight the reflex to hit Lisa with her book, as she always did when her captain wasn't listening. The only reason she didn't was that she was currently carrying the finance book from the Shinigami women's association, and it was not a hard cover book. She didn't want to damage it.

She couldn't even pretend to be surprised. Lisa had always had a tendency not to respect boundaries when she had decided something, and had an endless curiosity.

'So, are you in, Nanao-chan?' she was asked again.

No, definitely not! she thought.
But someone should keep an eye on this madness, and she could try to veto out the most rude ideas. Besides, Lisa was looking at her with a sincere expectancy, that somehow made it hard to say no.

'Fine.' she said, pushing up her glasses to have a reason to look away.

.

Lisa

As planned, she went to talk to Rangiku first. Lisa had spoke with her during meetings before, and had discovered that the other woman knew everything about everyone. She would be a good start. She had given Nanao the task of watching Ukitake and Kyouraku, to find out more about their habits.

'That's a great idea.'Rangiku said, grinning widely after Lisa had finished her explanation. 'I've wanted to do something about them since forever, it's just that, you know, they are captains. It's a little intimidating, but I think you will have a lot of support for this.'

'Since when do you care who's a captain?' a voice asked from behind them.

Damn, caught us. Maybe having this conversation in their office wasn't the best idea.

The small white haired captain she had fought beside during the battle came in, like he owned the room, which he did. He gave her a nod as a greeting, and then turned back to glare at Rangiku.

'Captain! I… I meant that's why no one has suggested this before. I don't care that they are captains, you know me.
The glare intensified.

That might not have been the wisest thing to say.

'So, if I, as your captain, were to order you not to mess with their lives, would you do as ordered?' he asked, staring at Rangiku.

Lisa signed. It was sad how her great plan was coming to an end before she had even done anything.

To her surprise, Rangiku smiled. 'Of course I would, captain.' she said.

What? Strategic retreat?

'Good.' the young captain said, and his Reiatsu lowered. 'In that case, you have my full support. What's the plan?'

Lisa did not stare. It was undignified to stare because one was surprised. Still, she couldn't answer, since her mind was busy reforming all her assumptions.

The small captain looked at her for a moment, then he shrugged and went to sit beside Rangiku.

'I happen to agree with you insofar as they should be together. It is rather obvious that they are attracted to each other, and this inaction can be seen as a disgrace to all captains, and thus all of soul society.' he stated, expression completely serious.
'Captain doesn't mean that, he just wants his dear adoptive fathers to be happy.' Rangiku said, smiling widely. Hitsugaya glared at her again, but he didn't say anything to refute her.

Lisa spoke: 'Well, Nanao-chan has already agreed to go along, and I wanted to ask the rest of you first.' 'The rest of us? So you want to make a plan with all of Seireitei? You realize that will be chaos?' he asked.
Lisa shrugged.

Hitsugaya thought for a moment, then he nodded. 'My suggestion would be to find as many supporters as you can first, but only tell them you plan to do something. Tell them to give you the suggestions, but to not do anything themselves. We can't have a horde of Shinigami all running around them, and we can't have people doing the same thing several times. Make sure they understand that. Then the four of us, or another group of a few people you choose, can go through the ideas, sort out what won't work, and enact the ones that do. I would suggest sorting the good ideas from less intrusive to more intrusive, maybe we only have to try one thing, and then it is not worth starting with something that will get us in trouble if they find out later.'

Now Lisa really was staring.
'Should I write that down?' Rangiku cheerfully asked.

.

They had agreed that Hitsugaya would talk to the other captains he thought might help them, minus the visored, who were Lisa's responsibility, and Rangiku would talk to the other lieutenants. They decided the lower ranking Shinigami probably wouldn't be much help, since they didn't know Ukitake and Kyouraku that well, and would only be asked if they had a plan that needed them. Except for division thirteen and eight of course. Rangiku said she would talk to Rukia, who apparently was something like an acting lieutenant for the thirteenth, and ask her to talk to her subordinates. Lisa would ask Nanao to talk to the eighth, since they knew her better. They would ask everyone to give them their ideas until ten days from now, which should be enough time.

Lisa had a slight feeling they were going overboard with this. It could not be that hard to make two people who loved each other admit their affection, could it?
Not when one was extremely friendly and social by nature, meaning he should have been able to read the situation on his own, and the other had no shame with doing whatever he wanted to, usually.

Maybe she shouldn't have talked to anyone, maybe she should have just grabbed them and ordered them to confess, with a threat of violence if they didn't for good measure. But that seemed like one of the strategies Nanao would protest against, and Lisa knew that even a hundred years ago, that girl had had a strong tendency to be right.

Besides, they had manages to not get together for centuries. That did suggest a certain stubbornness.