Chapter 2
Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach.
Rukia was abruptly awaken by the Kuchiki servant reminding her of the captain's meeting that would be taking place in half an hour.
"Ugh, I feel like a brick just hit my head" she said as she rubbed the sore part of her head.
"It's because you decided to hug the floor while we were having breakfast, idiot. Seriously Rukia, one would think a Kuchiki would be a little more subtle when showing her affection for ths floor."
Rukia instantly turned towards the door to find the man who had just insulted her having a smirk. Rukia was about to retort when she remembered why exactly did she faint and pointed at him with as if he was a criminal.
"YOU! Since when you and Nii-sama became such good buddies! Nii-sama hated your guts and you never could tolerate his presence! What went down that I'm not aware of?!"
Ichigo's gaze instantly became hard as he answered "War changes people, Rukia. When you realize you just might die anytime makes you rethink your decisions in life. That's all I'll say."
"ichigo ..." Rukia can't help but feel the sting in her heart as she kept replaying what he had just told her. Rukia knew she had feelings for her saviour of countless times but never had the guts to declare her feelings towards him, afraid to lose this closeness they shared if he did not feel the same towards her. Her line of thoughts were interrupted when Ichigo informed her he is about leave for the meeting and expects her by the main entrance of the manor in 10 minutes and left Rukia to drown in her thoughts.
After both Rukia and Byakuya gathered at the front gate, they started their journey towards the 1st Squad barracks to attend the meeting. Rukia couldn't help but notice the Kuchiki clan head and the substitute shinigami having small conversations every now and then.
"Well I'm glad to see all the captains actually made it on time for this meeting!" Announced the flamboyant Captain Commander as he looked around the room.
"As you can see, we seem to have a few familiar faces here who aren't exactly captains nor Lieutenants. At least not yet!" explained Shunsui as he pointed towards a few people present in the meeting.
"So we the Gotei 13 have 13 squads and-"
"Can we get on with it already you fruity goat?" Exclaimed Zaraki Kenpachi, the captain of the 11th Squad interrupting Shunsui's speech.
"Yare~yare.. Impatient aren't we, Captain Zaraki? Well then, let me get down to it but I must say, fruity goat sounds rather creative for a prawn-sized brain of yours." Shunsui replied which earned a collective snickers from the attendants. Zaraki seemingly unfazed by the insult only grined like a monster that he is at the attendants who snickered at his expense leaving them feeling terrified of the repercussions later on.
"Anyway. I'm planning on promoting new captains for the 4th, 10th and 13th Squad and Lieutenants for 1st, 2nd and 9th Squad. We will elect the captains based on the votes from the remaining captains and the majority votes will win the poll. Any objections?" When he heard none, he continued with the election of the new captains first.
"Ichigo Kurosaki! Please come forth. You have personally been nominated by me, Captain Zaraki and Captain Byakuya to be elected to soul society. You must know that with your level of reiatsu and skills, you can't and won't be able to just be any of the squad member and no one here would want to have you as a lieutenant either." Stated Shunsui.
Ichigo couldn't help but scowl at this new information. He was expecting to join any of the squad as a normal member and just laze around all day and the only responsibility he would have is to petrol the perimeter and slay low level hollows. But now he knows he can just throw his hopes to chill for the rest of the eternity away into the recycle bin.
With a little bit of hope, Ichigo replied "I mean, there's no way no one here would not want to have me as their lieutenant right? There's gotta be someone?" He looked around with hopeful eyes only to see the captains avoiding eye contact with him. Not even Byakuya wanted him on his squad. The only one who made eye contact with him was Kenpachi and Shunsui took notice of this and immediately retorted "No Zaraki-kun. You can't have Ichigo-kun on your squad. Both of you will destroy the remaining of Sereitei on the name of sparring and I can't have that in my administration."
"Tch! Asshole." Zaraki muttered to himself.
Content with Zaraki's reaction, Shunsui continued with his speech "So, Now I hereby seek votes from the Gotei 13 Captains in the matter of Ichigo Kurosaki for captaincy. Please raise your hand if you agree."
The whole room was filled with raised hands and Yachiru Kusajishi, the lieutenant of 11th Squad went as far as raising both hands causing her to lose balance from Zaraki's shoulder and fell back with a small thump.
"That settles it then. Ichigo Kurosaki you are now being called forth for captaincy position for the 13th Squad. Do you accept this responsibility of a captain and promise to lead the Squad by example and abide the rules of Sereitei?"
"You ask as if I have a choice here, Shunsui." Ichigo retorted.
"Maa~ Ichigo-Kun, you do have a choice in this matter, it's either be a captain or a really powerful yet poor shinigami that lives off other's kindness. It's your choice after all." Shunsui smirked at the tick mark that appeared on Ichigo's head.
'That bastard.' Ichigo thought as he looked at Rukia to see if she wants him to take it. Rukia catches his glance and looked back with pride-filled eyes and nodded at him. Ichigo sighed as he turned around and asked "When do I start?"
Shunsui was happy with his ability to trap Ichigo into agreeing with the promotion and continued with a smug look on his face "The next will not be a vote based promotion but a re-election of a former captain. To be more specific, the re-election of Isshin Kurosaki or should I call you Isshin Shiba?"
"Kurosaki is fine. I mean if I changed back my name, my son's name will follow my last name too. And no one would want to date someone with the name like Ichigo Shiba. Doesn't that soun-"
Ichigo's fist landed square on Issin's face and threw him into the wall. Ichigo stood there with a reddened face and a deep scowl "DON'T YOU KNOW WHEN TO STOP HUMILIATING ME YOU OLD GOAT FACE?!"
"B-but my son, I was looking out for your best interest! Do you really want to be a Shiba that badly?!"
"This has nothing to do with the name dad! Shunsui, do you really want this idiot running a squad as a captain?"
"My son, how dare you belittle me when you came from this scortu-" Ichigo punched him again on the guts cutting off the sentence before he could finish it.
"GOD! Would you just stop?"
As amusing as this was, Shunsui knew he had to stop this little show or they won't be able to go through with this meeting and decided to butt in "EHEEMM!"
Both Isshin and Ichigo snapped out of their little show of tough love and realized they were in a meeting in front of other captains and decided not to continue on this humiliating display of drama and sunk back to their original position.
"Anyway as I was saying, Isshin Kurosaki will be re-instated to a captain but will be running a new squad instead of his old one. He will now be the captain of the 4th squad seeing how he was a doctor in the world of the living." Content with no captain opposing the idea and moved on the next squad needing a new captain. " So, for the next…"
"It's gonna be a long day isn't it." Muttered Ichigo seemingly to no one and heard a little hum from the 6th Squad captain indicating it is indeed going to be a long day.
To be continued..?
