Momo shuffled into the 5th Divison barracks, doing her best to avoid drawing attention to herself. She wasn't sure whether or not she had liked what her Captain had told the Kuchiki family's barber to do with her hair, but it was too late now, she was stuck with it. She had done the best she could to accept it, but even with Shinji's hairpin adorning one side of her head, she was unsure of what to think of it. A familiar voice caught her ear, and she turned her head in horror to see Toshiro leaving Shinji's office. Thankfully, he seemed to have not recognized her with her new hairstyle and walked right past her without issue. Which was why Momo kicked herself when her relieved sigh caused him to turn around and examine her more closely. He blinked in surprise and took a moment to recover before speaking, a note of disbelief in his voice. "Momo?"
She felt her face growing unbearably hot and tried to cover it while stammering her response. "Sh-shiro-chan I d-didn't see you t-there sorry I-I would love to c-chat but I have a l-lot of work to d-do." She turned on her heel to retreat to her Captain's office and give him a piece of her mind before almost falling over herself at her childhood friend's next statement. "Your... hair looks good." She quickly whipped her head back around to say something, her face somehow even hotter, but saw Toshiro had already left the barracks in embarrassment. She sighed, he never was very good at expressing himself, even when they were kids. Feeling slightly less self-conscious, she strode into Shinji's office. He looked up at the sound of her entering and grinned his usual toothy grin. "Hell, that's not too bad Momo. Ya almost look cute, might get yerself a boyfriend now."
A light blush forming on her face as she just remembered one particular boy who had just complimented her before she had walked in, Momo broke eye contact with her Captain, somewhat flustered. Shinji grinned even more broadly and laughed. "Ya don't mean ta tell me yer already gettin' some attention from yer new 'do are ya Momo?" Momo only shuffled her feet in response. "Well that's ta be expected I guess. After all, ya had the most fashionable man in Soul Society improve yer look." He laughed even harder when Momo finally looked up to meet his face with a glare, her face still pink. "Alright, enough chit-chat. Here's some work I need ya to take care of." He looked up from his desk to see her still staring at him, looking as though she was having trouble saying something. "What? Ya got somethin' ta s-"
"Why did you buy me this?" She blurted out, cutting Shinji off and gesturing to the solid gold hair ornament. "This is probably worth more than I make in a month." Shinji's grinned vanished, replaced by a much more agitated expression. It was his turn to look away bashfully. "I told ya not ta mention it girl." He said, wrapping his tie around his finger absent-mindedly. "I said I owed ya, and I don't like owin' people alright?" When Momo opened her mouth to protest, Shinji turned back to her and fixed her with a scowl. "Captains make more, okay? Drop it. Just enjoy it." She was still confused, but decided pursuing the subject would do no good and bowed deeply before exiting his office with the paperwork Shinji had lain out for her. As she walked out the doorway she wore a small smile that she couldn't seem to repress. Shinji really was an interesting person.
The weeks went by quickly, and before Shinji had known it the weeks had turned to months, and the months to over a year. He had become used to Soul Society again after spending over a century in the World of the Living, and had become friends with the Captains and Vice-Captains that had risen through the ranks in his absence. Even Momo, who he had inwardly worried about for several weeks after putting on the Captain haori, had become much more emotionally stable and talkative around him. Though he did his best to put up an uncaring front whenever she was around, he was secretly thankful that she was doing so well, as he had had his doubts at first. He was even treated to a nice surprise one morning, when Kisuke had shown up out of the blue begging for each Captain's reiatsu to help restore Ichigo's powers. That was something Shinji had gladly agreed to, as even if he hadn't owed Kisuke enough already, Ichigo was someone he was always willing to help.
He had also begun training Momo after seeing how little confidence the Winter War had left her with in her abilities. Doing his best to limit his power, he sparred with her almost daily and worked with her to better synchronize with her Zanpakuto. It was exhausting work, but rewarding, as Momo was a quick learner and a willing student. Shinji had been impressed by how far she had come in only a year, but even though he made sure to off-handedly compliment her on her progress now and again, he still wondered how she'd do if she ever had to face an opponent like Aizen's Arrancar again.
Momo briefly escaped his mind however when, during one his weekly Captain's meetings, an orange-haired youth had rudely barged into the meeting room and demanded the body of Ginjou Kuugo so he could give it a proper burial. So it was that Shinji found himself later that same day at the Kuchiki manor, accompanied by Kensei and Rose, looking to speak with Ichigo at length. He found the boy in the garden, accompanied by Kuchiki Rukia and her brother, speaking to the two of them animatedly. Ichigo broke off his conversation with his friends at the sight Shinji and the two other Visored Captains strolling casually toward him.
"Hirako, Kensei, Rose!" Ichigo yelled happily. "I didn't know if you guys would come to see me!" Shinji grinned at Ichigo, who despite being in his peak growing years, had changed very little aside from height. "Yeah. Figured you'd wanna chat fer a bit now that I don't gotta be formal around the old man." Byakuya wordlessly motioned for his sister to leave, and nodded at Shinji before following her into a nearby room. Shinji turned back to Ichigo and saw him bowing to the three former Visored. "Thank you guys... thank you for helping me restore my powers." he said, rising from his bow and smiling. Shinji waved his hand and continued to grin. "Why the hell are ya gettin' all mushy on us Ichigo? Ya woulda done the same if any one of us had been in the yer position. Well, maybe not Kensei but none of us would blame ya since he's just an ass." Kensei grunted at Shinji and cracked his knuckles.
Rose chuckled and nodded at Ichigo. "He's right Ichigo. Like Shinji said over a year ago, you're kin to us. It would have been poor repayment if we didn't assist one of our brothers, especially since he helped seal Aizen, our worst enemy." Ichigo scratched the back of his head, slightly embarrassed. The three Visored Captains and Ichigo spent some time catching up, the Captains asking how the other Visored were doing back in Karakura Town without them, and Ichigo asking how much had changed since he had last been in Soul Society. Hours later, Ichigo, far more cheerful than he had been when he had barged into the Captain meeting this morning, stepped through the Senkaimon back to Karakura Town, Shinji looking on in equally high spirits.
He should have known that that feeling wouldn't last long. In the hundreds of years that Shinji had lived, he had always noticed that whenever he was in a good mood, it wasn't long before something came along and ruined it completely, and the better mood he was in, the bigger the 'something' was that ruined it. So he was surprised very little when he was awoken by the voice of Yamamoto ringing throughout Seireitei in the middle of the night, alarms blaring alongside the sound of the old man's shouting. "ALL CAPTAINS ARE HEREBY CALLED TO AN EMERGENCY MEETING. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. VICE-CAPTAINS ARE TO REMAIN IN THEIR DIVISION'S BARRACKS UNTIL OTHERWISE NOTIFIED. I REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL."
Shinji sighed deeply as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and pulled on his haori. Stepping out into the grounds of his barracks, he saw Momo looking at him worriedly from among the faces of the men and women of the 5th Division. He waved at them as he passed, doing his best to assure them that he was sure Yamamoto was overreacting as always. He refrained from telling them all that the last time he had heard those sirens, he had been escaping Soul Society while trying to stop himself from completely hollowfying. Taking one last opportunity to grin at them all, he shunpo'd to the base of the 1st Division headquarters.
He paused briefly on his way upstairs. The balcony leading into Yamamoto's office was completely gone, burned to ash. Taking that as a sign of even worse things to come, he leaped across the gap and continued up the stairway. As he entered the meeting room for the second time that same day, he nodded at Komamura and Rose while taking his place between them. After a moment, all the Captains had arrived and a hush fell over the room, the closing doors blocking out the outside alarms. Yamamoto cleared his throat, his eyes, to Shinji's surprise, somewhat unfocused. The old man slammed his cane onto the ground, needlessly quieting the already deadly silent room.
"Sasakibe is dead. We are at war."
This statement took some time to sink in. The first person to react was Unohana, who seemed to look as though Yamamoto had just told her what the weather was like outside. Shinji shuddered, this woman really could be frightening when she wanted to be. "Who are we at war with Captain-Commander?" Yamamoto grunted and looked at Mayuri, who stared back stubbornly. "We don't know all the details yet. Kurotsuchi-taichou needs time to analyze some data, and claims he will have all the information we need following Sasakibe's funeral. For now, all we know is that the enemy we face are Quincy, and..." the Captain-Commander's eyes glazed over momentarily. "They can steal Bankai."
Mumbling broke out among the Captains momentarily before Yamamoto was forced to slam his cane on the ground again to signal for them to quiet. "As of right now Soul Society is on lockdown. Only those with permission from the Research and Development Bureau are permitted to enter and leave. Prepare yourselves for battle, we have five days until the enemy strikes. But be aware, if we find out where their headquarters are before then, we will strike before they do. You are all dismissed until tomorrow." Shinji nodded along with the rest of the Captains and filed out behind Byakuya, his head spinning.
Momo was busy speaking with several of the 5th Division's seated officers when she heard a member call out to tell her Hirako-taichou had just returned and was already walking into his quarters. Running out of the barracks and over to Shinji's home, she neglected to knock and simply barged in, and was greeted by the sight of Shinji sitting on his couch massaging his temples and listening to a mellow jazz record. "Captain! What's going on?" She yelled, eliciting a wince from Shinji, who looked at her wearily before responding. "Not so loud ya stupid girl, can't ya tell I have a headache?" He got up and flipped shut the record player. "We're at war Momo. Yamamoto's Vice-Captain is dead, he got killed by some Quincy. Apparently he had Bankai and one of 'em stole it to beat him with."
Momo covered her mouth and felt tears welling in her eyes. "Sasakibe-san is... dead?" She breathed. "And... and they can steal Bankai? C-Captain, how can we beat something like that?" Shinji looked at her for a short time before doing his best to adopt a comforting smile, but failed miserably. "I don't really know Momo. But I don't think ya should get so upset. It can't be any worse than Aizen. And we still have the Captain-Commander ta back all of us up." Momo felt like Shinji wasn't entirely sure he himself believed what he was telling her, but pretended to take heart from his words and sat down on Shinji's couch next to him. "Hirako-taichou... if they killed Sasakibe-san, and he was even stronger than me, how do I stand a chance? How does any non-Captain stand a chance?" Shinji grimaced.
"I... I don't know Momo." Something seemed to come over Shinji, and he tightened his fists. "But, I promise. If I can help it, none of us are going ta die." Looking at her Captain's determined expression, she felt herself calm down measurably. "I believe you Captain. You're lazy, a pervert and rude, but you're a good person at heart." Shinji looked at Momo blankly for a few seconds before turning around quickly to hide his face. "You idiot." he muttered. "Stop saying stupid things. Go to bed. We've both had a long night." Momo bowed to her Captain's back and walked out of his quarters. She wondered what kind of enemies they'd be facing in a couple days, if she'd survive, if her friends would survive, but then remembered Shinji's words, and a small flame seemed to light in her stomach. "If I'm going to die, I want to die fighting!" she yelled into the night air. "That's the spirit Momo!" she heard her Captain call from his window, and she was thankful the darkness hid her red face from him.