When the sun rose the next morning, Keiko woke up a few minutes after it, a smile coming to her lips, where it stayed while she showered, changed and left her room. The bulk of the Squad had taken her words to heart and drank the night away, and because of it, most of them were sprawled out on the floor of the 9th Squad house, snoring loudly. Keiko chuckled quietly, making her way cautiously through the ocean of sleeping bodies. Once outside, she sighed, hands slipping into opposite sleeves as she stared up at the sky. She had been worried that the previous night might have gone in a different direction, but she was lucky, and happy, that the transition went as smoothly as it did for her new Squad. The one thing that had played over and over in her mind was how Soifon-oneesan had felt and acted when Yoruichi-sama left, and Keiko was almost certain it was pretty much the same for Squad Nine when Tosen left, if not worse.
The sound of a door sliding open behind her pulled Keiko from her thoughts, and she craned her head to watch as her lieutenant slipped outside and shut the door behind him. "You're up early," she commented, turning to look back up at the sky.
Hisagi-fukutaichou shrugged, although Keiko couldn't see it. He made his way beside her and leaned against one of the roof's support beams, his gaze also drawn up to the sky before them. "Kinda' used to it."
Having to act as Captain and suddenly take on all the responsibilities of one, she should have realized he'd force himself to get up early every morning to make sure things got done. "I know it wasn't any fault of my own, but I feel terrible for what happened to you and this Squad, as I feel bad for the other Squads it hapened to. But I want to make things right for everyone. You included."
Glancing at his Captain from the corner of his eye, Hisagi-fukutaichou smiled. "I won't lie. I'll be pretty glad to give up some of the responsibilities," he chuckled quietly, returning his gaze to the sky.
"I am not, however, touching the paper. That's still all yours."
He quickly turned to find her grinning up at him and he frowned.
"Hey, you've been doing it for a while, you're good at it, why interrupt that?" she continued to grin.
"You just don't want anything to do with it."
"Bingo!"
Rolling his eyes, he shook his head before turning away from her. "What ever happened to you, anyway?" he changed the subject. "One day you literally disappeared."
"Onmitsukido," Keiko nodded. "After one of the exams, they scooped me up and trained me. The whole thing was fairly hush-hush." When she saw him looking at her with a confused look on his face, she shrugged. "Think of it this way, aside from Soifon-taichou, you don't know -who- is in the Covert Ops, do you?" After a moment, Hisagi-fukutaichou shook his head. "It's just how they operate. No one knew who we really were. They knew what we did, what areas we specialized in, but no one ever knew our -names-. In a way, it sucked, because aside from the other members, you didn't have any friends, or know anyone else. But at the same time, it was pretty exciting." At that, she couldn't help but grin.
"So how did -you- wind up being our Captain?" he smirked, poking fun at her.
She rolled her eyes at him before responding: "Soifon-taichou recommended me. I was part of the first division, the Keigun. Long story short, I made my way through ranks and wound up Gundancho, leader of that division, though still under direct command of Soifon-soushireikan." There was, in all honesty, a lot more than that to her story, but there were things she had been sworn to keep secret, mostly for her own protection. And when her lieutenant didn't push it any further, she changed subjects. "Who are 'Matsumoto' and 'Kira,' by the way? You mentioned them yesterday."
Hisagi-fukutaichou raised an eyebrow. "They're Squad 10 and 3 lieutenants, respectively. I figured you knew of them."
Keiko shook her head. "No. I -just- learned the names of the Captains yesterday. The Onmitsukido operates completely seperate from the Gotei 13, so aside from critical information about Soul Society, I didn't know about anyone, Captains, lieutenants and Shinigami all included."
After a brief silence, Hisagi-fukutaichoi commented: "You've changed."
She snorted. "Like you haven't?"
"I'm serious. You've grown up. You're stronger, more mature. Nothing like that bungling child that I remember who couldn't perform kidou properly."
"Child? As I recall, I'm the older one," she stuck her tongue out at him, like old times, and the two shared a laugh. "Besides. Think about what you just said. It's exactly the same for you, kid."
Hisagi-fukutaichou shrugged, but knew it was true.
"Anyway," she turned to face him fully. "I wasn't planning on having the Squad train today. I need to learn where everything is, and who people are, so, they'll get the day off while I do my own homework. Would my lieutenant be so kind as to be my escort for the day?"
With a light laugh, he nodded and pushed away from the wooden beam. "Of course. Let's go."
He could always just confront her and just demand she fought him. But that wouldn't be fun.
Kenpachi could count on one hand the number of fights he had had that had truely excited him. The two with Ikkaku, the one with Ichigo, and the one with that Dark One. In each instance, his opponent -wanted- to fight him (or, in Ichigo's case -had- to fight him), and -that- made them so exciting, so worthwhile. So he couldn't simply walk up to the new Captain and demand she fight him. If she didn't want to, then, where would the fun be? And having quickly run out of ideas, Kenpachi had confronted his Third Seat, the only man who also understood Kenpachi's need to fight, who understood the excitement, the adrenaline rush.
"You could just -ask-," Ikkaku spoke up from his spot on the floor. The bald headed man was lying on the Squad floor reading a magazine (one of the souvenirs he had brought back with him from the real world).
"Most women will not simply agree to a fight. It wouldn't be beautiful," came Yumichika's non surprising reply. The Fifth Seat was sitting behind a table, reading over some paperwork.
"Not all women care about -beauty-," Ikkaku snorted, sarcastically lingering on the last word. "Besides, the aura the Captain felt off this chick isn't exactly... feminine."
Yumichika visibly shuddered and promptly took his leave of the conversation; women who were not interested in beauty did not interest the Fifth Seat. With that, he poured all of his attention into the paperwork before him.
Kenpachi scowled. No matter how he looked at it, he could not think of a viable -reason- to fight the woman. Sure, he generally didn't need a reason to do anything, but again, it brought him right back to the problem: if he were, in any way, to start a fight with her, there was no guarantee the woman would use the full extent of her powers.
With a shrug, Ikkaku rolled onto his back, raising the magazine into the air above him. "Either she's just a cold-hearted bitch and had some traumatic event to cause her to train and end up as a Captain, or she's as battle hungry as you. I still say you just ask."
Kenpachi snorted and finished off a round of sake before slamming the cup onto the ground. "No."
Lowering the magazine and peering over at his Captain, Ikkaku bit his lip before speaking up: "There's always Yachiru."
"What?" Kenpachi raised an eyebrow.
Ikkaku tossed the magazine onto the floor beside him and sat up. "She's small, she's innocent. Any woman I know has a soft spot for her. Send her at the new Captain and Yachiru can probably get her to do anything for her. Or at least ask her so many questions, Yachiru might find out something useful about her."
Truth be told, Kenpachi didn't exactly like -using- Yachiru in such a fashion, but... it might just work. Grinning in anticipation, he stood up and immediately went on a search for his lieutenant.
"Two birds with one stone," Ikkaku grinned before flopping back down onto the floor.
Yumichika looked up with a raised eyebrow.
"Not only will that -probably- help the Captain out, but it will keep Yachiru away from us for a while."
Yumichika opened his mouth to say something, but promptly closed it and nodded. He, like anyone else in the Squad, always felt a little less stressed when they knew Yachiru wouldn't be around to "play" with them.
"I think my head's going to explode..." Keiko muttered, rubbing her forehead. She and Hisagi-fukutaichou had just exited Squad Ten, where she had been formerly introduced to both Captain and lieutenant. Starting from Squad Three, the two Shinigami made their way throughout Seireitei, Hisagi-fukutaichou pointing out which Squad was located where, along with other points of interest. Feeling that she should try to be a bit sociable, she insisted they enter each Squad so that she could meet the Captains and lieutenants. She hadn't, however, expected to get such a headache from trying to remember everyone's name, as a few of the Captains or lieutenants also pointed out a few of their high rank Seated Shinigami.
"In the Onmitsukido, you were only introduced to people in your own division. There aren't exactly that many in each, so it's easy to remember everyone's name, even if you had very little contact with them," she explained to her lieutenant, rubbing her eyes before shaking her head.
"You sure that's why your head hurts? I think it might have been from staring at Matsumoto's chest for so long," Hisagi-fukutaichou laughed.
Stopping in her tracks, Keiko stared at him before moving her hands out and motioning to her own chest. "But.. they're... huge! How could I -not- stare! I don't know how you -didn't-!" she exclaimed. "Besides, I don't understand how her back doesn't kill her."
Hisagi-fukutaichou merely shook his head and continued to laugh. "Come on, we still have three more Squads to visit."
Muttering something about how Matsumoto-fukutaichou's chest went against nature, Keiko followed Hisagi-fukutaichou and turned a corner to make their way towards Squad 11, but, for the second time, stopped in her tracks. She tilted her head to the side and stared down at the small pink headed girl who was standing in front of her and Shuuhei-fukutaichou.
"Are you the new Captain?" Yachiru asked, staring up at Keiko, her pointer finger touching her lips.
Keiko felt her heart immediately warm to the child. She was just... too cute. "Yes, I am," she replied, crouching down so that she was closer to the girl's height. Taking note of the lieutenant insignia at the girl's arm, she reached out and offered her hand: "My name's Akuuno Keiko. What's yours?"
With a winningly cute grin, Yachiru-fukutaichou grabbed Keiko's hand and shook it. "Kusajishi Yachiru!"
"Well, Yachiru-fukutaichou, it's nice to meet you. You're the 11th Squad lieutenant?" Keiko asked, motioning to the insignia.
Yachiru-fukutaichou continued to grin and nodded.
A young child, too cute to boot, was the lieutenant of Squad 11, the Squad, from what she heard, was the most ruthless and wild. The Squad run by the man Soifon-oneesan had warned her about, Zaraki Kenpachi. Keiko found it increasingly strange that this girl was a lieutenant, and not just a lieutenant, but of the most notorious Squad in Seireitei. She had learned early in life not to judge a book by it's cover, and keeping that in mind, she warned herself from letting Yachiru-fukutaichou's adoring disposition throw her off guard.
"Well, would you mind introducing me to your Captain? I'd like to meet him."
Reaching out, Yachiru-fukutaichou grabbed Keiko's hand and began pulling. "Of course! Ken-chan wants to meet you too!"
Eyebrow raised, Keiko glanced at Hisagi-fukutaichou who only shrugged and followed the two girls.
keigun - first division of the Onmitsukido; "executive millitia"
Gundancho - leader of each division of the Onmitsukido; "corps commander"
soushireikan - title given to the leader of Onmitsukido; "commander-in-chief", "Lieutenant General"
kidou - sorcery used by Shinigami; "way of the demon"
Edit: Apparently, I'm still getting used to editing documents in because multiple grammar and spelling mistakes (which I could have SWORN I fixed) were not really fixed. But now they are. Sorry about that.
Actual BLEACH-verse and characters (c) to all the respective people.
Akuuno Keiko (c) me, General Junos.