006. Hours

A/N: I don't want to spoil my own story . . . I'll explain after you've read it.

Review replies: TrulyWished: Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you're enjoying these stories of mine.

windlily: The lack of Ichimaru & Kenpachi interaction is the reason for these stories of mine. When rereading the Bleach scanlations I noticed how well Zaraki seemed to know Gin. Not to mention how Ichimaru handled Kenpachi 0o (thinking of the two confronting Kuchiki Byakuya!)

Jerkess: It did seem odd to me at first that they would be friends. Then I reread the manga, knowing a bit more about each character, and I saw how these two could relate to each other. About Kira's part in "Middles": Gin, knowing Zaraki is a death god of his word, got Kenpachi to agree to not take off the blindfold until he said it was okay.

hollowheart3: laughs I was going to write in my review reply to shinigami-girl-666 (003 Ends): I hope you continue to enjoy the madness that is Ginpachi! until I remembered that name-melding implies a pairing. O-O is right! I could get bricked! I don't see them that way. But stranger pairings are out there . . .

Also, I've had to resort to using the main title as a break line since I can't figure out a decent symbol based one that doesn't disappear when I upload it to fanfiction. L

THELIONANDTHEFOX

They'd been wandering around the Mortal world for hours and Kenpachi was quickly becoming bored. He glared down at the silver-haired shinigami by his side.

Ichimaru winced away from the sharply increased reiatsu. "Something wrong, Zaraki?"

"What were you thinking, volunteering us to try out Kurotsuchi's crazy new contraptions?!" Kenpachi stopped and dangled the shiny palm-sized rectangular device in front of Gin's face.

"Ah, Kenpachi is so hard to please!" Gin crossed his arms over his chest and turned away. The big shinigami blinked, confused.

"Eh? What are you talking about?"

"You said you were bored. I thought this would be perfect. A change of pace. If you didn't wanna come, you should've said so before we left."

"You said we were gonna get to slice up some hollows!"

"The device is supposed to tell us when and where the Hollows appear. Is it my fault it hasn't indicated anything yet?"

"Worthless piece of junk!" Kenpachi crumpled the offending object in his hand.

"Ano, that wasn't very nice. Mayuri-taichou worked hard on that. He was especially excited that you would be testing it . . ." Gin looked over his shoulder at his companion. Zaraki, knowing he was being baited, chose to remain silent.

"He thought," Gin continued. "That it would be particularly useful to those weaker shinigami that can't sense reiatsu . . ."

"Why, you!" Kenpachi pounced at Ichimaru, who evaded him easily.

THELIONANDTHEFOX

Hisagi Shuuhei, fukutaichou of the ninth division, was sure he didn't know the reason the eleventh division captain was chasing the third division captain across a golf course. He was also sure that he didn't want to know the reason either. His taichou, Tousen Kaname, was of the opinion that both were insane. Hisagi was inclined to agree. Still, insane or not, he figured he should warn them before continuing on his mission.

THELIONANDTHEFOX

"Hah! It does work!" Ichimaru raised the beeping device over his head. He and Zaraki stopped to look at the lighted screen.

"Is it a hollow? Finally."

"No. It's a message from Hisagi-fukutaichou. It says 'Sprinkler system.'"

Kenpachi looked at Gin. "What's that?"

Gin shrugged. "Who knows?"

Both shinigami's eyes flicked over to the small metal object that popped up out of the grass a few feet from where they stood.

THELIONANDTHEFOX

Hisagi paused and shook his head as the surprised cries of the two taichou's reached his ears.

"Certifiable."

A/N: This whole scenario was inspired when I narrowly escaped a neighbour's sprinkler. It was pretty obvious though. I thought of this "hidden sprinkler system on a timer" as a scene in an original story with text messaging of "sprklr systm" to the unsuspecting dousees but it ended up an Ichimaru & Kenpachi adventure instead. grins I figured Hisagi would know a bit more about the practical stuff involving the mortal world and he'd feel obligated to warn them.