Rangiku kept a very tight grip on Toshiro's wrist. She wished she could have strapped him to her back like she used to, but that was Kinta's place now. It amazed her how much more complicated a second child made everything. She was just fortunate Toshiro was so helpful. He was carrying a pack full of diapers and extra clothes and snacks as well as both of their lunches, and a picnic blanket that it looked very unlikely there was any possibility they were going to be able to use.
The crowd was nearly overwhelming. A constant flood of black garbed shinigami was pushing forward, moving in a steady current toward the Academy. A huge event was promised for the day. As a celebration of its one thousandth year, the Academy was hosting a display such as the Gotei had never seen before. There would be everything from kendo matches for prize money to kido masters displaying some of their most complicated bakudo and hado. Most exciting of all, in the evening, several captains were promised to display their bankai, including General Yamamoto and Captain Aizen.
Gin was not going to be showing his; in his own words, 'it didn't look like much', but he was still expected to join all the other captains in presiding over the events. So Rangiku was on her own with the boys.
Even Toshiro couldn't quite completely contain his excitement and kept dragging his mother forward. He was desperate not to miss anything though it was only barely dawn, and another hour before the festival officially commenced.
Rangiku had to give him credit, though. Somehow, by the time they reached the Academy itself, they had made their way to the leading edge of the crowd. They worked their way into the temporary arena and began climbing the stairs down to the lowest level where it looked like there might still be a few open seats.
They were shuffling their way past some recent graduates who looked like they must have slept outside the gates just to get their perfect seats, when someone called their names. "Lieutenant Ichimaru, Shiro-chan!"
They both turned to see their once neighbor, Kira Izuru, waving them down to a pair of free seats on the very first row.
Toshiro yanked his arm out of his mother's grip and hopped the two rows to land gracefully in front of Kira. A couple of people looked a little annoyed that he had vaulted over their heads, but, after a second consideration, Rangiku decided he had the best plan and hopped after him.
Someone started to complain, but one raised eyebrow from Lieutenant Ichimaru shut him up.
"Lieutenant Ichimaru, Shiro-chan, it's good to see you again," Kira told them, bowing as well as he could in the cramped space.
"It's Toshiro," Toshiro told him, just as his mother pushed past him to hug Kira.
"It is so good to see you!" Rangiku exclaimed. "Look at you! All grown up! It makes me feel so old! You have to call me Rangiku or I'm going to feel ancient! How is Rumiko-ba-chan? Are these friends of yours?"
Kira blinked at the rapid flow of her words."Grandma is always good. I think she'll be here somewhere today with my aunt, but I doubt we'll see her in this crowd," he answered. He glanced back at a very small brunette girl and a redhead with impressive tattoos and tried to smile. "This is Abarai Renji and Hinamori Momo. We went to the Academy together and all joined Division Five. Hinamori-san is still there but Renji's in Eleven now and I'm in Four."
"Four! Just like your grandma!" Rangiku grinned hugely and turned to the others. "Hello, I'm Rangiku! Please call me Rangiku and not Ichimaru-san or Lieutenant Ichimaru-it always makes me feel old when I don't just forget and think you're talking to my husband, and that gets really confusing. These two are Shiro-chan and Kin-chan-we were Kira-kun's neighbors for years, and it's so good to see him again, and to meet you too. It's really nice to meet you!"
Both of the younger shinigami bowed and agreed it was nice to meet her. Then Renji couldn't help adding, "You said your husband?"
"Oh?" Rangiku turned toward a raised platform at the opposite end of the playing field where several of the current twelve captains were already sitting. "Gin's the one who's sleeping," she told Renji.
Gin was laying his head on his arms, folded on the tabletop. He did appear to be sleeping. Captain Soifon looked as annoyed as she usually did to be stuck next to him. It really was unfortunate that he had to be captain of the Third Division, not that there were a lot of captains he could have sat next to without irritating. Rangiku thought they all should just be grateful he was there on time. That had taken a lot of effort on her part.
"You-you're Captain Ichimaru's wife?" Renji said, and Hinamori shared his shocked expression.
Rangiku's smile only grew. "That's me," she agreed.
Toshiro, next to her, was looking very embarrassed. His parents definitely left something to be desired. Both Kira and Renji were obviously having trouble not looking at his mother's chest. He'd started to noticed that recently. His mother seemed to mesmerize men, especially the younger ones. At first it had annoyed him that people stared, but then he realized she seemed to enjoy it and that just annoyed him so much more. People's reactions to his father were even worse. Amazement at the fact that his father was a captain was followed by a sort of horrified realization of which captain his father was and then finally there was pity. He wanted to protest and tell them his dad wasn't as bad as they thought, but he was pretty sure that would be lying. His dad was probably worse than they imagined.
Hinamori smiled down at him like she could guess what he was thinking. "I bet you must be pretty amazing too, huh, Shiro-chan, if your father's a captain and your mother's a lieutenant?" she asked.
He shrugged. "They say I'm not old enough to go to the Academy."
"You will be pretty soon," she told him. "And when you graduate you can join Division Five with me. Captain Aizen takes all the top students."
"I've worked with Captain Aizen lots," Toshiro answered. "Because my dad was his lieutenant."
"That's right," Hinamori agreed, smiling. "He was. I bet when you get to the Academy you're going to be so far ahead they'll let you skip a couple years."
"I think his father will be disappointed if he takes more than a year to get through," Rangiku said, feeling a little annoyed at the patronizing tone the girl was taking with her son. He might be a child, but he didn't need some cute little girl patting him on the head and telling him how clever he was. He was probably a good deal smarter than Hinamori.
"A year?" Renji said in shock.
Rangiku smiled. "That's how long Gin took-Captain Aizen says he's a genius and so is Toshiro."
They all three looked properly impressed. Toshiro just rolled his eyes. He could stand up for himself. He didn't need her to tell people he was a genius; he could prove it any time he wanted to.
The events began soon after and Toshiro managed to to sit between Kira and Hinamori which he considered a major win, and later he convinced his mother to leave him with Kira while she and Kinta went and ate lunch with Gin.
Toshiro talked with Hinamori and Kira during the kido display about the theory behind each presentation, and Rangiku found herself exchanging lost expressions with Renji. She appreciated that she could depend on the Squad Eleven member to be even more useless than she was with kido theory.
She really wasn't half bad with kido these days. She'd made an extra effort after Shiro-chan was born, and she realized Isshin wasn't going to let her fight anymore. Kido could still be useful in a backup capacity. But the theory behind it-as she listened to her son talk to Hinamori and Kira, she found herself wondering how many books he must have read on the subject.
"Any idea what they're talking about?" she finally asked Renji.
He shook his head. "Only thing I can do with kido is blow myself up."
Rangiku grinned. "Sounds about right for Eleven, but if you want to move up the ranks you should try to get a few Hado down well enough to use without a chant. You could ask Yu-chan to help you train; he's actually very good with kido, and pretty much the only one in Eleven who is."
"Yu-chan?" Renji repeated, looking a little doubtful. "You mean Fifth Seat Ayasegawa-san?"
Rangiku grinned at that. It had been a terribly long time since she'd had to use last names and titles for senior officers. She'd almost forgotten what it felt like to be at the bottom of the pecking order. "Yumichika will be happy to help you, I'm sure," she told Renji, although she was pretty sure Yumichika was more likely to be annoyed and sarcastic, but he would help Renji out if he asked and that was the whole point.
Renji frowned. "Shouldn't I leave the senior staff alone? I'm only fifteenth seat. In Division Five you had to be invited to get individual training. Hinamori and Kira both got to train with Captain Aizen. I got transferred."
"Every division's different," Rangiku answered. "Aizen picks the best. One and two are both status based and good places to be if you're nobility. Ten tries to get everyone up to a sort of middle ground, and if possible find one area where each member can excel. I'm afraid Gin's method is pretty much to force everyone to work as hard as they can by humiliating anyone who dares to slack off. It's not pretty-but in Eleven it's all about wanting to get stronger. You want it, they'll help you get there; they might kill you in the process so don't ask for something you can't handle, but you ask for training, they don't care who you are, they'll give you all you can take. Yu-chan, Ikkaku, and even Kenpachi will work with you if you've got the reiatsu to make a mark on him. I wouldn't recommend it though, not unless you're in a hurry to die for some reason."
Renji nodded, a very determined look appearing on his face. "Maybe I'll ask-"
He was interrupted by an enormous explosion that rocked the entire stadium despite the barriers that had been placed by multiple kido masters to contain it. Kinta, sitting on Rangiku's lap, burst out laughing while the rest of the audience clapped.
"What was that?" Rangiku demanded, wrapping one arm around Kinta's waist to stop the baby as he lunged toward the fading flames. She'd stopped paying attention when the barriers started going up. They were taking such a long time.
"Hado 88," Toshiro answered. "Maybe you should be paying attention. You are a lieutenant."
"I became a lieutenant so I wouldn't have to pay attention anymore," she told Toshiro. "I've delegated paying attention to the Fifth and Sixth Seats. As soon as I can find someone to assign to cover for me at lieutenants meetings my only job will be napping in the captain's office. I'll practically be a captain."
"I think Dad's the only captain who just naps in his office," Toshiro answered.
"Shows what you know," Rangiku answered, then remembering her audience of young, impressionable shinigami, she said, "I'm joking, of course. All the lieutenants and captains are always working very hard, aren't we, Shiro-chan?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Maybe when you're not napping," he granted.
"You know Daddy works overnight three or four nights a week so maybe napping isn't really the right word for it."
Toshiro wanted to tell her he knew for a fact that his father was only scheduled to work two nights every other week and he had yet to figure out where Gin was going the rest of the time. But he knew better than to mention that in front of strangers, and he was pretty sure he wasn't ever going to tell her at all, because he really liked how much less depressed she'd been recently and knowing his father was lying to her would probably make her miserable all over again. So he rolled his eyes and muttered, "Whatever," and left Kira and his friends to wonder at the odd relationship between Toshiro and his parents.
The rest of the day was fantastic, one of the best in Toshiro's short life. Captain Aizen's water-type bankai was startlingly beautiful and no one could be unimpressed by the General's overwhelming flames. Both strengthened Toshiro's resolve to master his own bankai, a decision he hadn't mentioned to his father. He was going to do it on his own, to prove he could stand on his own, and it wasn't because of his father that he made it so far. He was strong all on his own.