Title: Bankai Pains.
Characters: Byakuya, Renji and a pissed off Zabimaru.
Rating: PG
Summary: Achieving bankai is hard; training with your bankai is even harder. Renji learns that the harsh way.

Being captain didn't always mean being bossy and having fun while doing it; it also meant dealing with a lot of paperwork. Mind-numbing, pointless, boring… fortunately for him, the paperwork part of his job was actually therapeutic. It didn't require much concentration or reiatsu expenditure, or anything that would take him away from gazing at the clouds while enjoying the finest of teas on a beautiful day.

Because he had enough of that as of late, so it seems.

So far, it had been nice and quiet and today's batch of paperwork was tolerable. No one had bothered him yet with anything urgent, so his mind was at ease. That is until the sound of heavy scuffing of feet on the floor shattered his Zen state of mind and at the doorway, stood his vice-captain battered and scarred.

His shinigami outfit was in shreds and his red, loosened hair fell wildly over his shoulders in a ridiculously sexy sort of way. The captain's lips frowned a little at the annoyance, careful to keep any facial expressions at minimum.

Because he had been enjoying his day so far, he wanted to keep it that way. And whatever problem this was would just blow over soon enough, bringing him back to his peace again. "Don't tell me…"

Renji let out a tired sigh while attempting to piece together his sleeve. "Yeah."

The captain squeezed the bridge of his nose with elegant fingers. "Renji…not again."

His vice-captain nodded slowly. "Ne taichou, why does it do that?"

The captain shook his head, slowly. "I don't know."

"Did yours ever…"

"No. Thankfully, it doesn't have teeth."

Renji nodded slowly again, mouthing "Oh, yeah… right."

His captain nodded slowly again, and Renji blinked dumbly.

"So uh…what should I do?"

Now it was the captain's turn to sigh. He straightened himself up to a perfect posture and put his quill down slowly. "Listen carefully."

Renji made sure he was.

"Find a quiet place, clear your mind, sit there for a very long time and try to connect with it somehow. You know, converse with it, see what it is that's bothering it so." said the captain wisely and Renji nodded to every word. He began to turn away until his was stopped again.

"Oh and Renji?"

"Hai!"

"Get cleaned up first; the sight of you like this is an eye sore."

"Hai…"

Sometime later as he had heard no word from his vice-captain for quite some time, Byakuya tapped his quill against the desk in thought, then settled it down and rose out of his seat, thinking that he should maybe go check on his subordinate.

Not that he was worried or anything. Renji could very well take care of himself.

So he followed Renji's reiatsu, found where he was currently trying to 'communicate' with his bankai and watched him from afar.

The captain's expression turned solemn and could see where the other man goes wrong, and as Renji practically argued out loud while waving his zanpaktou towards the heavens like a hooligan, the creature summoned itself, coiled around its master then swallowed him whole.

Byakuya sighed quietly to himself again, his chin dipping further down into his scarf.

And as his subordinate's screams were heard in the background followed by a loud "TAICHOUUU!" the sixth division captain just walked away, deciding to get back to his tea and peaceful paperwork.