Chapter 26:

Hitsugaya smelled blood but it was stale and mixed with cleaning supplies. Someone had tried to clean up a massive bloodbath last night. With no one reported missing, he knew this could only mean Byakuya had gained a large number of followers last night. Judging from the scent and the activity around the Seireitei, it must have been the Stealth Force.

Just like his dream.

Hitsugaya turned away and went to his office.

"Did you make enough for the Squad and the Lieutenant's and Women's Association meetings?"

Hisagi looked exhausted. Last night, after a brief gallivant around the forest, Hitsugaya instructed Hisagi to make more food with garlic to help deter Byakuya from biting certain people. He was up until dawn cooking several dishes and spent his morning delivering most of them to different locations.

"Yes," he said with bags under his eyes. "I'll drop off the one for the women and bring the one for our meeting in the afternoon. The women have their meeting first and they're hours apart so no female Lieutenants will miss out on the later one."

"Good," said Hitsugaya. "With both meetings on the same day and food for both, Momo should get garlic into her system and be safe."

"And the other women," said Hisagi.

"Of course. And them, too." Hitsugaya looked at the container Hisagi had on the coffee table. "Their meeting's in less than an hour. Better deliver that."

Moaning, Hisagi picked up the container and moved towards the door.

He jumped when the door flew open and Rangiku entered ardently. "Good morning, Captain!"

The noise caused his hand to flinch and draw a line across the paper he was signing. His shoulders dropped and he looked up, annoyed. "Morning, Rangiku."

She looked at the container in Hisagi's hands. "What's this? Is it food?"

"Uh, yeah. For… For your meeting." Hisagi's cheeks were turning pink.

"Yummy! What is it? Something sweet or savory? Let me take a peek." She put her hands on the lip, brushing her hands against Hisagi's as she lifted it up. "Oh, these look good. Very basic, but still yummy. Why don't I just take that for you? I'm heading there now."

Bright red, Hisagi started stammering incoherently, so much so that Hitsugaya looked at him in concern. His hands trembled and it was clear that Hisagi's eyes could not focus on the woman in front of him. He tried to hand her the box but ended up fumbling and it started to tip to one side and when he tried to correct it, the box tipped to the other side. Finally, he ended up dropping the whole thing.

Rangiku bent down and picked up the box. "Good thing it didn't land upside-down, hm? Man, you are clumsy today, aren't you?"

Hisagi babbled nonsense, unable to control his tongue.

"Thanks for the food, Hisagi-sweetie." She winked at him and took the box outside. "See you later, Captain."

"Yeah, I'll bet."

Hisagi collapsed where he was and Hitsugaya stood up to peer over his desk at him.

"What was that about?" he asked.

Hisagi turned his head to the side but faced away from the Captain. "I don't know," laying on his chest, knees bent under his stomach. "I couldn't talk. She seems even more beautiful than normal. And did you hear that? She called me 'sweetie', didn't she?"

Hitsugaya raised his brow. "It's the same Rangiku I've always known."

"No, she's different. She's better. Way better. I can't even."

"Pull yourself together," said Hitsugaya, sitting back down. "No reason to collapse."

"I lost all feeling in my legs and I got lightheaded. I think all my blood rushed somewhere else." He chuckled lightly. "Good defense against Byakuya, right? If me bites my neck, he won't get a meal because there'll be nothing there."

"I'd rather not hear this," Hitsugaya said, disgusted. "Just collect yourself and be ready to deliver that food to your meeting this afternoon. You can keep it in here, now that we know your Captain can't be trusted alone with it if he finds out there's garlic in it."

Hisagi nodded into the floor, calming down.

"Useless. All of them." Soi Fon sat in her seat, arms folded. She was still fuming from the Stealth Force's report.

Their Women's Association meeting was about to begin in a vacant office but was delayed because of idle chatter. Nanao wished to get started as soon as possible but everyone else seemed to want to air their complaints about something.

"I bet you could get it done yourself, Soi Fon," said Rangiku, loading up her arms with a variety of foods. "With your speed and tenacity."

"It'd be more efficient at this point but I can't. As a Captain, I have responsibilities. This is their job. I can't do their job and my own."

"Why not?" Rangiku asked, about to take a bite out of a cookie. "It's your job, too."

"A Captain's job is to lead," said Nanao to defuse any tension. "A Captain may be in charge, but there's a reason why we have additional members. No Captain could do it all on their own. They lead and they delegate. They have their job to do and she has hers."

"Exactly," said Soi Fon. "How am I supposed to do everything? If I had to do their job, I wouldn't be able to attend this meeting. I also have to oversee training, do security sweeps, any missions we're assigned and-"

Yachiru dropped a rice ball with a bite taken out of it into Soi Fon's lap. "Yucky. You can have it."

Soi Fon clenched her teeth, eye twitching.

Rangiku pointed out the cookies to the little girl and she happily crammed them into her mouth.

"As I was saying…"

Rukia took a bite out of a rice ball, too, and her lips puckered. "Yeah, these are a bit strange. Were these seasoned with garlic? It's all I can taste."

Rangiku ate one, too. "You're right. You'd think Hisagi'd know to season them with salt or rice wine vinegar. I'll still eat it, though." Rangiku went back for seconds.

Nanao adjusted her glasses. "Can we please get back to the meeting? I'd like to start."

Momo frowned at her rice ball. "It's so strong in this. Maybe Hisagi messed up the recipe?"

"It's a very straightforward dish."

"This is good, though." Momo ate the other food Hisagi prepared for their meeting, the medley of flavors helping mask the pungent garlic. The simple rice balls made their flavor stand out too much in comparison. Even the spring rolls tasted strongly of garlic.

Other than the one dish, the women tried to avoid the other food Hisagi made in favor of the sandwiches Rukia brought and the cookies Rangiku generously provided.

"There's so much, I couldn't eat them all. Aren't you lucky I shared with you?"

"Maybe you wouldn't have so much if you didn't buy so many," criticized Nanao.

"I didn't buy any of these. That food Hisagi generously provided for us and the cookies were gifts from several different people."

"What's the occasion?"

"I don't know." Rangiku giggled and flipped her hair back. "I guess it's a reward for all the hard work I put in."

No one even pretended to laugh.

Although, Rangiku was getting more attention than usual. Rukia and Momo both noticed. Rangiku, whether she noticed it or not, didn't see it as a problem and basked in it. If such a thing were to happen in front of either Nanao or Soi Fon, they would have given Rangiku dirty looks and might have even spoken up about it.

Nemu looked from Rangiku to Nano, seeing the look the speckled woman was giving her but said nothing.

"Can we please begin the meeting?"

"But not everyone's here, are they?"

Isane, sitting at the table with no food in front of her, timidly looked up. "Actually, Captain Unohana's very busy and asked for me to attended the meeting for her."

"You're always here anyway."

"No, what I mean is…"

"She means we can start without Unohana because she's not coming and Isane can fill her in later," said Nanao impatiently. "Now can we please begin?"

Everyone took their seats. Isane sighed quietly. She may have been the tallest one there, but she was so soft-spoken, she felt no one really paid that much attention to her.

"First item," began Nanao. "The blood supply in the sickbay. Anything to report, Isane? That is your department."

"Oh, um, yes." Isane looked up. "We're pleased to report that no more blood packs have gone missing. Thanks to the increase in security and Captain Soi Fon's help."

"All I did was provide the guard."

"Yes, but thanks to everything, no more transfusion bags have been taken. So thank you."

Soi Fon scoffed lightly. "At least someone's doing their job."

"According to my records, the current guard was a replacement," said Nano, looking at her clipboard. "Is that correct?"

"Yes. The first one I put on the job failed. Allowed the culprit to sneak in and take several blood packs. I replaced him and no more have been stolen."

"Again, thank you," said Isane.

Nanao lowered her clipboard, looking at Soi Fon. "Do you suppose it's possible the first guard was involved with the thief which was why they were able to get in so easily?"

Everyone looked at Soi Fon.

"Hardly," she answered, angry at the notion. "My men aren't like that. They have no reason, first, of all. Second of all, they know what'd happen to them if I found out and I always find out."

"But it is strange that the first guard failed and the second one…" Momo trailed off.

"The first one obviously didn't take his job seriously. Fell asleep."

"Ok…"

Isane spoke up again. "The blood drive we started has been successful in replenishing the stolen blood packs. We're not to the original number yet, but it's progress."

"Ok," said Nanao. "On that note, we should probably increase awareness and help out Squad 4. We need donors. Let's open up the floor to ideas."

"Cookies!" cheered Yachiru, waving a half-eaten one in the air.

"We can provide free cookies to anyone who donates," said Isane. "But… we do that anyway…"

"How about a party?" asked Rangiku. "We'll have sake and everything."

"That's an awful idea," said Nanao.

Isane looked aghast. "The consumption of alcohol before any medical treatment…"

"You trying to get people killed?" Nanao finished, glaring at Rangiku.

"What?" Rangiku didn't know why they were so upset. "It doesn't have to be before. It can be after they've donated blood."

"That's just as bad!"

"That's worse!"

Rangiku folded her arms. "Fine. Then you brainstorm."

The Lieutenant's meeting that afternoon didn't go any better in terms of ideas for a blood drive. Rangiku gave the same suggestion and was shouted down by the other Lieutenants.

Hisagi had fallen asleep on the floor of Hitsugaya's office which did little to rejuvenate him. However, his tired state did little to hinder his observation skills. It must have been the wolf in him because he doubted even his Soul Reaper half would have noticed the amount of detail he spotted during the meeting.

Little things, mostly. Like everyone's scent and what people were saying under their breath. But he also noticed something important. Renji and Kira avoided any food brought into the meeting. Even the food he made, which the two normally would have attacked, was being ignored. They avoided it before Ida complained that his spring roll was too garlicy. That only deterred them more, if that was possible.

What got Hisagi worried was Iba calling him out on it in front of everyone. "Yo, Hisagi, learn to season, huh? What's wrong with you? You're usually a better cook than this."

He felt Renji and Kira's eyes on him and tried his best to remain calm. "Sorry. I couldn't sleep last night, so I did some cooking until I got tired. Must not have been thinking."

Iba looked at Hisagi's tired eyes and believed him. "Well, take care of yourself. Don't need you collapsin' on us."

"Right. Sorry." He could still feel Renji and Kira's eyes upon him and worried they were suspicious of him. Either that or wanted to take advantage of his sleep-deprived state and lure him to Byakuya, seeing him as easy prey.

"People, blood drive. Let's go. Ideas."

Momo spoke up. "Why not just put signs up telling everyone Unohana needs donors?"

"We need incentive," said Iba.

"Isn't that enough?"

"A lot of people won't donate blood without a reason," said Iba.

"There is a reason."

Iba sighed. "Not everyone's gonna do it. Heartless bastards. And people will make excuses. They'll also assume we got enough volunteers, which we don't. That's why we need something to get their attention."

"I can make a big sign and put it up," said Momo. "I'm not sure what else I can do…"

"Your part's covered. I'm talkin' about the other guys. How do we get butts in the chairs?" Iba paused, waiting for someone to throw out an idea. "Come on, people, am I talkin' to myself?"

Rangiku waved her hand it the air. "Oh, I've got-"

"No," Iba cut her off.

"You didn't even hear what I was gonna say," she whined.

"I heard you the first time and we're not doing that. I wanna hear from the rest."

Yachiru stood in the middle of the room. "The Women's Association's gonna be handing out free cookies to anyone who donates."

"Uh-huh. And?"

"We're decorating them!"

"Uh-huh. But how do we get people to donate so they'll get the cookies?"

Yachiru put a finger to her chin. "Um…" She stood there for a long time, her big eyes staring at the ceiling. "Tell 'em Kenny'll beat them up if they don't go."

"Well, that's one idea."

"It's not a bad one."

Iba made a note of it on the chart they pinned to the wall behind his chair. So far, the only ideas were having Kenpachi scare people into donating and getting a day off work for anyone who donated.

"We need more than this." Iba looked across the room. "Renji. You're awfully quiet. You got anything?"

Renji had been paying attention but getting donors was no longer a concern for him now that Byakuya had so many followers. His master seemed to prefer the warm gush of blood to a transfusion bag, but obtaining those bags had become a kind of game to him. He was even planning on returning to the sickbay to have some fun with the new guard. Not because he had to but because he wanted to. Soi Fon had such trust and praise for this man that the temptation to use his powers on the guard were too strong.

In that regard, perhaps finding more donors was a concern for them. More for Byakuya to swipe. The one guarding the blood wasn't under Byakuya's spell yet, so he looked forward to seeing what he could do to the man without biting him.

Renji shrugged, unable to come up with anything. "Maybe a free dinner for anyone who donates?"

"That's not bad." Iba added it to the list.

"I love it," said Rangiku, clapping her hands together. "A certificate to the best restaurant is a surefire way to draw a crowd."

"And who's payin' for that?" Iba threw over his shoulder, in the middle of writing down Renji's suggestion. "These certificates are comin' out of our pockets, you know."

"Omaeda could provide them," she said pointing.

The large man paused, his hand on a spring roll. "If anything, I'd afford some decent catering. Seriously, Hisagi, all I taste is garlic in these things."

"I said sorry."

"There you go," said Rangaku, misinterpreting Omaeda's comment. "He's willing to pay for it. He can afford it."

"Hey, I didn't say that."

"Please?" Rangiku was looking at Iba. "At least add it to the list. We can discuss it later."

"No. Other ideas?"

"It's the best idea I've had today."

"And it wasn't even yours."

"Yes, it was!"

Iba ignored her. "Other ideas? We seriously can't come up with more than three in one hour? Think, people."

Rangiku was out of her seat and trying to take the pen from Iba's hand. "I'll put it on there myself."

"Sit down, woman." He leaned away from her, pen behind his back.

"Please?" she whined. "Just add it to the list. Please?"

Face turning slightly red, Iba turned around and wrote it on the list. Rangiku bounced up and down happily and Iba sighed, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses.

Meanwhile, Yachiru had taken the pen from Iba and was currently scribbling pictures on the chart to make it prettier.

"Anything else?" Rukia asked. She was hoping the Lieutenant's meeting would be more substantial but little was getting done, leading her to wonder if all meetings were like this. Not that her expectations were that high, but after climbing to the rank of Lieutenant, she was looking forward to seeing what their meetings would be like, having been curious for some time.

It was odd, though. In past meetings, Renji was a lot more talkative than this and wasn't so stiff in her chair. He listened but didn't contribute unless told to open his mouth, which reminded her of what a spy might do. Kira was no better. The two of them sat next to each other but hardly spoke, eyeing everyone as if it were their first meeting, dragged here by a friend.

She recognized those looks, having had such a look on her face when attending school with Ichigo, as well as other Soul Reapers there on business.

It was as if the relationship had changed and these two were now indifferent to the ones they once called friends and their home. It was as if the Seireitei's welfare only mattered for another reason. That it was only important because it affected someone they were close to and that was it. The people within it didn't matter to them anymore.

Even sitting here, Rukia could tell there was a distance between them, and not just because Renji's chair had been dragged away from her to be closer to Kira and away from everyone else. Normally, Renji liked talking to her and wanted to sit close to her. This seemed like something someone would do after they had a fight but she knew that hadn't happened. Besides, Renji never really got mad at her and if he ever did, he showed it in a different way.

Something was going on. Like Renji and Kira shared a secret.

Everyone looked forward when Rangiku made another suggestion and wanted someone to agree with her.

"What do you think, Renji? Sound good?"

He shrugged. "Whatever."

"See? He agrees with me."

"That was noncommittal and you know it."

"It could have been either or."

"Rangiku, forget it," said Iba. "No sake, no catering and no free spa for the blood drive."

"But it's perfect," she argued. "Everyone will enjoy the spa until their number is called and they donate and come back to enjoy a nice relaxing…"

"A hot soak is dangerous after giving blood. Forget it. It ain't happening."

"But people will come. It's perfect."

"And pass out. People already faint in the hot springs when they got all their blood in 'em. Pullin' the blood outta 'em will just make it worse. No way."

"Come on!" Rangiku looked around for supporters. "Renji, agree with me."

Renji gave her an annoyed look and said nothing.

"Rukia, Momo, back me up."

Both girls looked at the ground. "Um, actually… He kind of has a point…"

Rangiku looked at someone who wouldn't disappoint her. "Hisagi, you agree with me, don't you?"

"Uh…"

"Please?" she whined and bent over to show off her ample bosom. "You think it's a good idea, right?"

Hisagi's eyes widened at the chest wiggling inches from his face. She used her upper arms to push them up and his face started to turn bright red.

"Say it's a good idea, Hisagi. You like it, don't you?"

"Uh… Uh…" He clamped his hand over his nose as it started to bleed. "Yeah, whatever you want. Sure," he said, his voice muffled by his hand.

Just then, another sensation brought his other hand behind his back to grasp the wagging tail that just appeared. Unlike a Captain, he didn't have a jacket to hide it under, making it difficult to conceal the wiggling appendage.

Before anyone could see it, Hisagi stood up and began to walk backwards out the door, one hand holding his nosebleed and the other trying to keep the wriggling tail still behind his back. He apologized for his swift departure as he fumbled for the door and let himself out.

"Oh?" Rangiku said with puckered lips. "What was that about?"

"Seriously," Rukia said, thinking it was obvious.

Momo looked at the closed door with concern. "I hope he's ok."

"He'll be fine. If Rangiku would learn to keep those weapons of hers covered up, we wouldn't get this sort of thing."

She straightened up and gave Iba a look. "Huh? What do you mean?" she looked cross. "I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, yeah. Can we get back to business? Hisagi ain't comin' back anytime soon. We should thank our lucky stars he didn't faint like last time."

Outside, Hisagi didn't last two steps before shifting into his wolf form and took off down the hall. He couldn't help it. His body was bursting with energy and he knew he couldn't calm down enough to conceal his tail, so the next best thing was to become a wolf and leave the building.

His run burned off a lot of the energy and was about to calm down. He sat under a tree, panting.

Rangiku always had a way of driving him wild when she wanted something but this was something else. Her flirting lacked subtlety, unlike her usual methods. On New Year's she caused him to pass out after getting a nosebleed at the sight of her chest as she bent over, but no one could prove she had done it on purpose. This was so obvious it was blatant. Everyone in the room knew what she was doing in a second, including Rangiku.

Hisagi felt something hit his head and looked up into the tree where another small object bounced off his snout.

Yumichika was sitting in the branches above his head admiring the birds and cooing back to them when they chirped. The small birds seemed fond of Yumichika, perching on his shoulders and knees.

He glanced down, unfazed by the wolf looking up at him. "Hey, there. If you're looking for a meal, look elsewhere, wolfie."

Hisagi huffed and looked away.

"Better get moving before someone spots you," Yumichika advised. "Can't say what they'll do to you if they find a wolf in the Seireitei. Not that they should be all that surprised, considering we got a whole forest in here."

Hisagi stood up, knowing Yumichika was right. "Nice to see you looking up from a mirror long enough to notice me…" Hisagi trotted away.

Yumichika's eyes followed him until he was out of sight. He raised his brow. "Did that wolf just talk?"

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