A/N: Ah, more fun.
Ichigo threw himself onto his back on the green grass, hands linking beneath his head. He stared up at the sky; the day was not sunny, just bright and slightly cloudy - perfect condition for exercises such as practice combat sessions today. His zanpakuto lied beside him.
He was currently at the center of an almost perfectly circular grass field about kilometer straight across. Dark forest of tall trees and small bushes encircled the field, and craning his head upwards, he could see the Soukyokou hill. The usual sense of uncomfortableness crept up to him, but he batted it away forcefully. He wasn't going to mope over that old event, not now. Hell no.
Yesterday afternoon, he indeed had tagged alongside Renji and half a dozen shinigami on a hollow disposal mission. It has been a long time since he'd been around his red-haired comrade, and it felt simply comforting. Renji was someone who had gone through much of what he'd gone through himself, large part of that being the huge emotional hit he took from the announcement of Ruika's execution.
No heartfelt words were exchanged, only a standard how-do-you-do and usual bouts of bickerings, but the silence of camaraderie between the two of them for the most while was all that was needed to drive worries out of Ichigo's mind. The other shinigamis on the team, all large men, said nothing more than necessary. They avoided eye contact with Ichigo, as if scared, but he was starting to get used to the treatment.
But when they got to the site of the hollow-sighting, they had run into a big and strange problem - the hollow reiatsu was in the air, exact coordinates showing up on the transportable monitor they carried, but there were no signs of the hollow itself anywhere. The eight of them scoured the area - a large, old forest full of small animals, birds and low-riding branches - for it for two hours straight and came up with nothing. Renji had told Ichigo that it was normal for hollows to be gone from the site by the time shinigami got there, but never there had been a time when the team of shinigami stood on the exact coordinate it was supposed to be on and didn't run into it.
The vice-captain had given the techie of the team a good angry yelling for being incompetent with the machine, but Ichigo thought otherwise. The problem was the hollow, not the machine, definitely not the poor shinigami who got scolded his head off. They had returned to Seireitei straight to the 12th division, but by the end of the day, they still had no idea what went down at the site.
Damn, Ichigo had thought. He was hoping that Zangetsu would feel more communicative if they were out fighting the hollows together.
Renji invited Ichigo along for dinner where he would meet up with few friends from his time at the shinigami academy. Ichigo had accepted, quite happy to get included to a part of Renji's past. The two of them had gone to a restaurant - a popular hangout for the shinigami -, met up with the said group of friends, and had a good time joking around and bantering all throughout the meal. Ichigo wasn't exactly charmed, but they were nice and fun enough.
Ichigo excused after the meal when the group of them got serious about drinking the night away. He told himself that he wasn't legal yet in the material world, but the actual reason behind it was that he had drunk once before and hated the giddy feeling that came with it. He didn't want to be out of control, not with the real monsters out there not only at night, but anytime, anywhere. He was a bit miffed about missing out what he guessed was the most fun part of the night. But nothing he could do about that now.
"AH! Gerroffofme!" Ichigo yelped, driving his head down onto the ground as much as he can. If he wasn't mistaken, he was half a foot from being suffocated by a pair of... GAH!
"Aww, Ichigo, not like I'm actually on you!" Rangiku, who had been crouching at his head looking at him upside-down with her enormous blobs of flesh(...breasts) threatening to fall out of her already-loose shihakusho, teased in a sing-song voice, complete with a girlish giggle at the end. She straightened up nevertheless, letting Ichigo hastily spring up to his feet to face her.
Damning the full scarlet state he knew his face was in, Ichigo snapped at still-giggling Rangiku, "Don't do that again!" he yelled as he bent down to pick up Zangetsu and heave it onto his back.
"But it's too fun!" Rangiku flashed him a coy smile, a wink and continued before Ichigo could protest, "How did you like my kiss, Ichigo-san?"
Ichigo blinked, horrified - wait, when the hell did she kiss him?
Then remembered with relief what she might actually be talking about, "So the note was from you?"
"Of course! I wrote the numbers, got sweet Kladias-chan to draw the strawberry for me, and most importantly, the kiss was mine!" She clasped her hands in front of her, pale blue eyes wide and expectant, "So did you like it?"
Sweet... Kladias-CHAN? The grumpy chick could be called many, many things, but sweet was NOT one of them. Just no. The only person Ichigo saw calling Kladias 'chan' was Yachiru(Dia-chan, to be specific), but she called everyone by weird nicknames.
Further blushing and remembering what could have been a knowing smirk on that Nakade shinigami, Ichigo started, "No," Rangiku's face fell, "and you got my name wrong."
Confused, Rangiku's voice rose in pitch, "Huhhh? But you're Ichigo, Ichigo-san! Ichigo, Ichigo! I got it right!" she cocked her head to the side, still saying 'Ichigo' under her breath as if to make sure.
Ichigo snapped, "It's Kurosaki Ichigo, not Ichigo Ichigo." Okay, that was lame, but whatever! He didn't like being compared to a damn strawberry!
Rangiku stared at Ichigo with an incredulous look in her eyes, and burst out laughing. To Ichigo's surprise - and annoyance-, her laughter was joined by someone else's.
Fuming, Ichigo took a look around. His eyes fell upon Hisagi, who was standing behind slightly right to Rangiku-san, as the source of the second laughter. There were other people around also; the small, dark-haired female vice-captain of the 5th division, who was silently laughing behind with her hands covering her mouth, stood on the other side of Rangiku. Beside her, stood a quite slight blond shinigami - Ichigo remembered with a jolt as Ichimaru's former vice-captain - had his eyebrows raised, mirth in his icy blue eyes.
Ichigo glared at all four of them, and they straightened up their faces. Somewhat. They were still smiling.
"Oh, Ichigo, did you know that you're so cute when you blush like that!" Rangiku chirped. Ichigo felt his blush intensify and readied a retort, but Hisagi spoke up first, amused,
"Don't let her get to you like that, Kurosaki. She'll never stop." Ichigo looked over at Hisagi's semi-serious face. Rangiku giggled again. The two squealy girls from the day before yesterday came to Ichigo's mind and he wondered if it was Rangiku who set the example for them. Probably.
He decided to let her go.
A cheery greet came from his left, and he looked over, "My name is Hinamori Momo, vice-captain of the 5th squad. Nice to finally be able to meet you officially, Kurosaki Ichigo-san!" She gave a slight bow.
Ah, so that was her name. Now Ichigo actually had bumped into her yesterday while he was looking for Shinji in his division, but he had left without a word right after getting "He's not here, working in field" out of her. He wondered if he'd been rude at the time.
He just nodded back at her.
The blond one spoke up flatly and Ichigo switched over his gaze, "Kira Izuru, vice-captain of the 3rd division." He followed that up with a curt nod, no sign of the previous laughter anywhere on his face. Ichigo nodded back at him too.
Rangiku positively glowed, unclasped her hands and clapped them back again, "Now we all know each other! Superb!"
Hisagi turned his head side-to-side and spoke, "Where are the others? It's few minutes to the designated meeting time."
Right on the cue, Ikkaku appeared out of nowhere fifty feet from them, his haughty sidekick from the same division on one side and a man(who looked suspiciously like a member of the yakuza) wearing black sunglasses on the other. Ichigo couldn't recall the latter from anywhere.
Rangiku squealed, "There's Ikkaku, Yumichika and Tetsuzaemon! Come on, let's go say hi!"
With that, she unceremoniously grabbed Ichigo by the bicep and dragged him over to the trio.
Few minutes later, Ichigo was standing in a loose circle with a bunch of shinigamis who were plainly chatting among themselves.
The haughty one(with peacock feather on his eyelashes?) was Ayasegawa Yumichika, 5th seat of the 11th division, the yakuza-looking one Iba Tetsuzaemon, vice-captain of the 7th division. Two women had arrived after and introduced themselves to Ichigo as Kotetsu Isane(holy shit she was tall for a woman), vice-captain of the 4th division, and Ise Nanao, same of the 8th division. His head was spinning with all those new names to finally put on familiar faces.
Renji and Rukia appeared thirty feet away from the cluster of people and started walking over. Renji stumbled before righting himself back up, Rukia had her eyes closed with a resigned look on her face.
Opening her eyes and seeing Ichigo, a small but bright smile lit up Rukia's face,
"Hey, Ichigo."
He smiled back at her, "Hey, Rukia." he opened his mouth to say something else, but sight of Renji caught his eyes - uh-oh. Dark circles haunted underneath the redhead's eyes, skin had a pale pallor to it and he seemed to have trouble keeping himself upright.
When the couple of them got closer, Ichigo arched his eyebrows and truthfully commented, "You look like shit."
Renji let out a short, guttural groan and clutched his head with both his hands. He then muttered almost inaudibly, "I feel like shit."
"Fool, that's what you get for drinking the night away as if you are still in the academy!" Rukia scolded.
Renji stayed silent, and Rukia turned to Ichigo, "I had to literally drag him out of his quarters, this irresponsible idiot." she turned back to Renji, "You knew you had a rough day coming, what were you thinking?"
Kira and Hinamori walked up to joined their little circle; at seeing the state Renji was in, Kira's eyes widened and Hinamori gave a small yelp of horror. She commented with her hands clutched in front of her mouth, "Abarai-kun looks like he should stay in bed for the rest of the day, maybe even tomorrow. Why did you have to drag him out, Kuchiki-san?"
Renji grumbled something under his breath but it was Rukia who gave an audible answer, "It is because he was the one who proposed to the Central 46 the practice combat sessions. His presence is required for the event to commence."
From Renji's quiet grumbles, Ichigo only caught "shouldn't have" and "stupid protocols". Which made him smirk slightly.
All of a sudden, there were scattered greetings in various forms of "Good afternoon, sir". Ichigo turned his head around and saw Shinji, complete with his new captain's haori and slanted blond bangs, walking towards the bunch of them, greeting back nonchalantly. His face was grim.
"Yo, Ichigo, long time no see." Ah, there it was, the freaky piano-toothed smile he sort of missed. Emphasis on 'sort of'.
Ichigo grinned back, "Same, Shinji. So the captains are coming too?" Whoa, things could get interesting if so.
"No - I'm on babysitting duty. Lucky me." Shinji's face turned back into a grimace.
Ichigo snorted and looked around, and saw what now was a quite large gathering of people.
"Isn't it kind of dangerous to have half the top-seat forces off duty all at once?" Ichigo asked at no one in particular.
"It is. But Commander General more or less forced the higher seats to attend the session. Think of it as a test to the lower seats too - they need to practice how to handle the division without their superiors present." It was Shinji who replied; he continued in an annoyed snap, "Wake up, vice-captain Abarai! What's wrong with him, Hinamori?"
Hinamori squeaked out, "He's hungover, sir."
Renji, who had flinched up from his half-slumber as his name was called, saw Shinji staring at him disapprovingly and sank in to a slight bow, wincing, "My most sincere apologies, sir." he muttered out, voice quiet but still the loudest so far today. Ichigo felt slightly sorry for him - he seriously looked like he could use some time off. By himself. Lying face down. Onto a toilet.
Shinji scoffed and waved him away. He sing-songed, "Ahhh, fine - can't be helped." then he whipped his head around to the others, who were now standing at a semi-circle around him and yelled out, "Alright. Who's missing?"
Hisagi spoke up from the right, "Vice-captain Sasakibe has refused to participate; vice-captain Omaeda mentioned yesterday that he had family business to attend to."
Ichigo had no idea who those two were..
"And the 12th division's vice-captain is most likely being surgically experimented or something, who knows," Shinji mused, and Ichigo silently agreed. He continued, "seems like you two," he glanced over at Ikkaku and Yumichika, "are the only non vice-captains signed up to show up. So that's twelve of you, nice even number." a second's rest, and then he added on, "Or not. Anyone know where our newest shining star had gone to?"
Ichigo blinked at Shinji in puzzlement; hearing the rest of the group silent, he supposed that other eleven pairs of eyes were doing more or less the same.
Scoffing once more, Shinji continued, "Oh, come on. Our brand new Colonel - I heard that she's already got her shikai with her recent personal training leave."
Her? Kladias never brought up her zanpakuto when she talked to Ichigo. In fact, he had never even gotten a glance at it. So she had gotten her shikai..
"From who, sir?" Hisagi spoke up one of many questions Ichigo had, on his face, surprise.
Shinji raised his eyebrows - one disappearing beneath his lopsided bangs -, "Captain Zaraki mentioned in passing that she spontaneously 'grew claws'. I asked if he meant that she's gotten her shikai, got an affirmative out of him. She's your 3rd seat - she hasn't told you yet, Hisagi-kun?"
Hisagi grimaced and answered, "No, sir."
Shinji cocked his head, "Oh? Well, I was hoping that she would put on a show for us and liven up the day. It's been a while since anyone's zanpakuto had gone through a drastic change."
"Negative, sir," Hisagi answered again, glancing over to Renji, who appeared to be swaying on the spot with Rukia poking him awake, "vice-captain Abarai might not be the only one hungover today."
"So she was drunk yesterday?" Ichigo blurted out.
Hisagi shrugged, "That was Captain Muguruma's hypothesis and I think he is correct - the entire squad heard her trying to heave her guts out last evening."
"But Kladias-chan doesn't drink!" Rangiku piped up from the opposite of the semi-circle, "No matter how many times I tried to get her to, she slapped them away. Last time I tossed her a bottle, she threw it at my head!" she patted the top of her wavy blond hair with an uncharacteristic scowl on her face, as if relieving a painful memory.
Ikkaku stepped up from the middle, his zanpakuto draped across his shoulders, "Then maybe the chick's dying off. Half a day fighting streak with our captain? Thought it was strange she was even breathing properly after." he directed a hard gaze at Shinji, "Can we get this thing started? I'm getting bored. Kurozachs chick is drunk, hungover, dying, I don't give a sh-"
Something moved in Ichigo's peripheral vision-
Next thing he knew, Ikkaku was flying face-first into the center of the semi-circle, where he crumpled into a heap, swearing up a shitstorm. Yumichika let out an unmanly yelp and rushed to his aid. Where Ikkaku was standing seconds before now stood Kladias, one leg still raised in an arc, frozen in the middle of a karate-kick. Both of her hands were tucked into the pockets of her hamaka. She looked and was acting absolutely fine, if anyone asked Ichigo.
She slowly lowered her leg and straightened up with her feet wider than shoulder width apart, upper part of her body slightly slouching. She had a menacing aura around her.
Yup, she looked absolutely normal.
Then she growled, whipping her head around at the eleven still-shocked faces, "I wasn't drunk, I'm not hungover, and I fucking sure am not dying! Quit making stupid assumptions!"
Hisagi visibly slumped and spoke with a defeated note in his voice, "Good afternoon to you too, Kurozachs. If you're telling the truth, why didn't you report to duty this morning?"
Kladias growled, further frowning, "I did, just not to you. And I was working, believe it." she pointed an accusatory finger at Hisagi's '69' face tattoo, "And cover that thing up!"
Looking officially pissed, Hisagi started, "What - NO, and address me by my title when you're-"
Kladias interrupted, "I have a reasonable urge to beat the shit out of those couple numbers, which I'd be glad to give into any moment now." a little smirk appeared on her face and she lowered her voice to a quiet purr, "You don't have anything to cover it up with? Go crouch behind Rangiku then; I bet you'll find that pre-tty agreeable, vice-captain Hisagi."
Ichigo watched in amazement as the said vice-captain's face, which had gradually been darkening ever since Kladias had interrupted him, exploded into a deep shade of magenta. He slapped a hand over his now-flaming forehead, face scrunched up, audibly groaning. Kira, who had been standing beside Hisagi, covered his mouth with his hand and doubled over. The rest of the people in the semi-circle had various expressions on their faces, which Ichigo generally interpreted to 'Yup, they're idiots.'
Awkward silence.
Ichigo spotted Rangiku blinking innocently at everyone with a sweet smile on her face.
Shinji's voice swooped in to save the moment, "Ey, ey, cut that out, you two. Stop teasing your poor vice-captain, Kladias-chan."
"For now." Kladias retorted, a grin on her face. A set of sharper-than-normal canines glinted. Her bad mood from before seemed to have evaporated.
"Uhh.." Shinji looked around and Ichigo followed the suit. Ikkaku and Yumichika were still at the center of the semi-circle, the latter trying to persuade the former to stand up - unsuccessfully. Hisagi's face seemed to be returning to its original color, but Kira had sank down to the ground with his head buried between his knees, shoulders shaking. Everyone else appeared a bit weirded out by the entire situation.
Shinji whipped his head around to Kladias, his hair briefly fanning around his face, "Gee, do you have to wreck destruction where ever you show your pretty face? Everything was fine before you came by!"
Kladias's grin widened to reveal what seemed like all of her teeth , "If you say so."
"Captain Hirako, could we now proceed onto the actual combat session? We are running quite late on time." The petite woman wearing glasses who had been silent throughout pretty much everything - Ise, of the 8th division, was it? - , spoke up.
Shinji clapped his hands together, "Oh, yes, thank you for the reminder, Nanao-chan," the Ise woman grimaced at hearing the pet name.
The captain turned to face the entire semi-circle of people, "All right then, let's just suddenly plunge into the session. Here are the activities suggested by the Central 46," he pulled out a piece of paper from inside of his shihakusho, "I'll read them out, tell me what sounds fun to you bunch of bored people."
Bored? With the craziness of the situation they all were in, Ichigo doubted that any of them were actually bored at the moment.
Yup, more fun, not much more happening. *smacks self*
