Chapter 9
11th Division
'Kenpachi!' Ookami yelled as she hopped over the 11th Division walls, into the field where they had assembled. 'Where do we start?' She asked enthusiastically.
She was the most violent of Juuyon-bantai so Yamamoto had her volunteer at Kenpachi's Division. The large man grinned at her arrival while his pink-haired lieutenant rushed down his head to the red-haired captain. 'Boobies! I want candy!' Yachiru yelled, throwing herself forward.
Several varieties of candy and chocolate were soon found in front of the little lieutenant. Ookami smiled genuinely. 'I'll give it all to you if you'll train with me today!' she bribed.
'Okay!' Yachiru agreed instantly, shoving the sweets into her mouth.
'Let's work our way up.' Kenpachi called out to her, gesturing for Yumichika and Madarame to fight the wolf captain while he himself went to give instruction to the other members of his division.
'Sure, but I doubt this will take long.' She drawled confidently, drawing her sword.
'Bring it on, Shizen-taichou!' Ikkaku yelled with a manic grin as Yumichika flew forward, his sword in its four bladed shikai state.
The 11th Division shook with the sound of a howl. Thank god, it was placed as far as possible from the other divisions…
12th Division
Meanwhile, Kazene Kitsune had been sent to her own volunteer division. Pulling on a white lab coat Akon offered her, she strolled into the 12th division laboratories. 'Nemu, pass me container A-1P.' Mayuri ordered, taking the container from her and setting it down beside his dangerously sinister apparatus. 'You've arrived, Kitsune fuku-taichou.'
'Yeah, I heard Hebi dropped off something for you called a 'marimo'? Is that it?' She asked, yawning as she strode up to the table. 'Good morning, Nemu.' She greeted.
'Good morning, Kitsune fuku-taichou.' She replied blankly with a small bow.
'Yes, this Marimo seems to have an amazingly slow growth rate yet it moves quite actively.' Mayuri spoke holding the container up to the light. Kitsune glanced at it and sweatdropped.
'Kurotsuchi-taichou, it's a freaking ball of moss.' She pointed out. Then… it floated. She raised her brow. It sank. She narrowed her eyes. It rolled to the left. 'What the shit?'
'If you will please desist your swearing, it's annoying.' Mayuri said calmly, shaking the container. The marimo didn't seem to like that at all as it began exuding an aura as well as a small yet detectable amount of reiatsu.
'What did you do to it? It doesn't normally do that.' The fox lieutenant said suspiciously.
Mayuri looked at her in surprise. 'You know of this creature?'
Nemu merely listened carefully as she kept her eyes on the experimented marimo. 'Of course, it's a kind of plant pet that lives in cold water. It rolls reproduces and lives for pretty much forever… But it's definitely not sentient, Mayuri.' Kitsune stated.
Mayuri frowned and put the marimo down. 'Don't call me Mayuri.'
'Only Nemu may call you that?' Kitsune shot back, snatching up the marimo container. Its deadly aura receded and it was now rolling in circles innocently.
'She's my daughter. If you insist on shifting the conversation to irrelevant things, I don't think I require your assistance today, Kitsune fuku-taichou.' The scary man said darkly. Nemu kept silent but her blue green eyes were alert to everything.
'Fine, but reverse what you did to the marimo. It's giving me a bad feeling.' Kitsune shrugged. Mayuri picked up the container and passed it to Nemu.
'Do what you want with it, Nemu.' He said half-heartedly. The beautiful fuku-taichou stared down at it and she swore something stared back.
10th Division
'Haineko is very similar to Senbonzakura, Rangiku-chan. You should talk to Byakuya about developing your zanpakuto.' Inu spoke as she corrected Matsumoto's stance. She had demonstrated to the other members of the 10th Division a short spar between herself and their captain. The whole division was amazed at their similarly cold personalities.
The only difference was Inu was much more calm. 'Huh? Haineko and Senbonzakura?' Rangiku wondered, looking down at the shorter shinigami.
'He uses sakura petals and you use ashes. That's the only difference I can see. If you could get along better with Haineko, she will be able to follow your thinking more easily and move more fluidly.' Inu explained as she drew her own sword and touched Yukizuri to Haineko.
Startled, Matsumoto stepped back. Inu straightened but didn't turn even as she felt Toshiro staring from behind. 'W-what?' The big chested woman stuttered.
'You can feel that, right? Clash Haineko with Senbonzakura. See if they get along. Zanpakuto have as much connection with each other through battles as we do through speaking. But it's not quite the same as a touch of swords.' Inu explained, moving to sheathe Yukizuri.
A pale hand touched her wrist, stopping her movement. She looked into the steel eyes of a captain as cold as she was. 'I'd like to try that if you'll allow it.' He interrupted her action. Nodding her head, she held out Yukizuri and let Toshiro draw Hyourinmaru.
When the two swords touched a deep howl and a low roar echoed within their masters. Inu ripped away with a high whine, landing on the ground and scrambling back. In the next moment she clamped her hand over her mouth, mortified that she had made such a sound and moved in such an uncontrollable manner. Toshiro was just as mortified, his cheeks colouring as he apologized hastily.
'What? What happened?' Matsumoto asked curiously as Toshiro helped Inu to her feet.
'Nothing.' Inu said sharply, snapping her head towards the child captain. 'Shiro we should train the other shinigami as well.'
9th Division
Hisagi was busy. He was more than busy. He was so piled up with Division work and magazine work, he didn't even realize Nezumi had already arrived in the 9th Division barracks until he heard the greetings of his fellow division members cascade through the halls. He rushed out, cursing his work schedule.
'Nezumi-chan!'
'You're back, Tabiki-senpai!'
'Nezumi…!' Hisagi started, stopping when he saw what she was wearing. It was a jersey. She wore it over her shihakusho and it was large enough to cover a majority of her uniform and smack center of it was the same 69 symbol that was tattooed on his face.
'Shuuhei-kun! I'm here and ready to help!' She beamed enthusiastically. The usually calm man thanked the higher ups for such an eager and pumped up volunteer.
'I'm sorry. I forgot to call. I won't be able to train them today anyway so I was going to ask you to come another day.' He apologized, inciting several disappointed groans all around.
She wasn't angry at all. Not even upset actually. She merely tilted her head at him. 'Why not?' She asked curiously.
'I have to get some editing done for the…' He began, scratching his head as he spoke in a regretful tone. Nezumi was a joy to work with.
'No problem!' She cut him off, her voice jovial. 'I'll handle stuff there for you! Go ahead and train these guys!' She sang in the friendliest tone known to mankind.
'…Oh, thanks!' He called as she started to run out of the division barracks. She turned back to him and waved, smiling a close eyed smile.
'That's what friends do, Shuuhei-kun!' She giggled, hopping away again as she called back. 'Don't worry, I'll make sure Rangiku-chan knows what a hard-working guy you are!' Hisagi Shuuhei blushed but considered himself blessed.
Mizume Neko
'Kira-kun~!' Neko meowed, twirling into his room. 'I'm here to help!' She said readily.
The emo lieutenant looked up from the several stacks of sinister paperwork in slight surprise. 'Oh, welcome, Neko-chan. Sorry, there's a lot of paperwork today so I'll only be able to join training late.' He apologized with a small smile.
She frowned as she sashayed to his side, peering at his work. There was a lot of it and it didn't seem fair for him to take up all this work. 'Where's your third seat?'
'Riku-kun? He's trying to help me handle the other members but they're a bit unmotivated…' He trailed off as he started writing again.
'A fuku-taichou shouldn't take on all a taichou's work.' She scolded him sternly, making him look up. When he did, she smiled widely. 'So I'll help you and then we'll go kick everyone's ass till they feel up to training!'
Kira watched in amazement as she picked up a heavy stack and grabbed an extra brush, sitting adjacent to him. 'The people here, they're still upset over Ichimaru-taichou's betrayal… We're a division of despair.'
'I know.' She spoke and Kira was shocked by the calm yet steady voice of the normally frivolous, fun 5th seat. 'I belong to a division of suffering. We're a lot alike. You feel sorrow and I… feel pain. It follows you wherever you go doesn't it?' She asked, filling the form under her hands.
'…Yes. I suppose it does.' Kira agreed.
'You know, each member of Juuyon-bantai has brought suffering from our human lives. We carry that immense suffering always and it adds up every moment we live, just like despair.' Neko smiled, looking up at him as she passed him the single sheet she had completed. 'But for the sake of living and those who need us, we smile! And suffer on their behalf too.' Neko meowed cheerily.
'Neko-chan…' Kira murmured, amazed by the cat shinigami's honest confession.
'I'll help you guys. I can see the suffering of the 3rd Division. Especially yours. I'll take it all~!' She grinned widely, eagerly filling up more paperwork. 'This is what I do~'
Kira smiled and filled up his own paperwork, his shoulders no longer as heavy. 'Thank you, Neko-chan.'
'Don't worry about Gin. Ookami will bring him back.' She assured him confidently. 'Dead or alive.'
5th Division
'Momo-chan?' Hebi called as she peeped her head into the young girl's room to see her furiously filing paperwork, forms and reports.
'Hebi-chan, you're here! I'm sorry to start you on work right away but I'm busy with all this paperwork.' She sighed tiredly. Hebi kinda felt pity for her but not enough to help. She freaked out when she heard that this little runt hugged her Aizen, frankly, she had wanted to use Mangetsu on Hinamori but Ookami-taichou forbade it.
'It's fine, what do you need me to do?' Hebi asked, at ease. She knew this place inside and out. She spent so much time with Sousuke and his division, they knew her as well as she knew them.
'Thank you, Hebi-chan.' She breathed in relief, smiling nervously at the snake shinigami. She knew very well hoe possessive Hebi was of her former captain. 'Will you start training them please? I haven't been able to do it as often because of all this other work.'
Hebi smiled mischievously, revealing her sharp canines, which now resembled more like fangs. 'I'll get right on it!' With that she flash stepped out of the lieutenants room and into the training ground where the division members, once noticing her presence, straightened up and got into line. 'Alright, Momo-chan's busy so I'll be training you talented people!'
'You seem really happy about that.' A few shinigami laughed lightly. Some of them knew her as the kid that stormed in and wrote 'Fuck you' of Sousuke's wall and some knew her as the young teen that trained alongside them as an inspiration.
'Yup! I admit, I'm freakishly jealous of her since she hugged Sousuke-kun but he tried to kill her so I'm totally fine with that now!' Hebi rambled, drawing her sword and pointing it to the right. 'Now split! Kido team and physical fight team, get ready for battle!' She cheered.
Everyone hesitated. 'Uh, Hebi-chan, are you really okay? About Aizen?'
'Nope. Not at all.' She laughed freely, making the people around her stare. 'I'm really pissed that he did something so stupid and I'm really pissed he didn't wait for me to come home like he promised he would. And I'm really, really pissed because he probably knew that Jii-san was gonna make me kill him.'
Silence ensued. Hebi said every single word with a smile, not a hint of actual anger in her voice but everyone could feel the pain she was in. 'Why didn't you go when you found out?' One of them asked.
Hebi's started to laugh. 'Go to Hueco Mundo and live with Sousuke as his Queen? That's so shit. I love being Juuyon-bantai's rokuseki too much. Don't worry about me and don't worry about him but thanks for asking anyway. You guys are really sweet.' She beamed at them. 'Now if you don't follow my last instructions within 3 seconds, I'm gonna release bankai on all your asses.'