This chap is...well from Shunsui's point of view mostly.
But it also explains some stuff that may come up later in the story. It was a long chapter and I had to write and rewrite it like a million times.
I'm not joking. I have written and re written a bunch of variations for this chapter of Spiraling in the Dark and I feel so tired... So, please. Enjoy.
I'm going to eat something and crash.
Shunsui patiently listened to Rangiku give her report on why all communication with the American branch of Soul Reapers had been lost at such a crucial time. And honestly, the usually laid-back man was beginning to get pissed at what he was hearing.
It had only been a few short years since they had finally seen the end of the Thousand-year war, and since then, the Japanese branch of Soul Reapers had yet to completely recover from their massive losses. Not only that, but things had changed drastically for them too.
And it wasn't just because they had lost a quarter of a million people either.
Everything had changed.
For starters, the laws, regulations, and rules that those of them that had survived the war had always known and lived their lives by- were a part of the past. A vast majority of them had been rewritten in an effort to lessen their future mistakes and to prevent so much discontent amongst their remaining ranks.
Their science division had been given a serious overhaul and- Kurosutchi was no longer able to experiment on sentient beings and then just cast them aside and leave them for dead. Mostly because quite a few of their past enemies could be traced back to that.
Their medical division had been taught new and revolutionary techniques to heal their people and others.
The Thirteen Court Guard Squads was under new leadership and had been promoting many of their more competent Lieutenants to Captains, and former Seargent's to Lieutenants in an effort to fill any positions that needed to be filled.
The new Captain-Commander of the squads was Shunsui, who was the last remaining pupil of the late Genryusai Yamamoto.
And despite the fact that the laid-back man could often be found trying to sneak some sake to drink or play hooky because he got tired of all of the constant paperwork, and complaints- he tended to fill the position of Captain-Commander very well.
So, to say that Shunsui's anger at the present situation was completely understandable and utterly justified would be a gross understatement.
After all, everyone had been working so hard over the past few years just to heal and rebuild from the war. The last thing that any of them needed was another possible war to do more damage.
And to make things even more concerning, wasn't just the fact that their American comrades in arms seemed to have been attacked or disappeared. It was the fact that there was a massive influx of souls coming in from America all at once.
Hundreds of thousands of humans had been killed all at once and because they were being sent to them...they were being overwhelmed and weren't able to categorize them as easily as they would any other day.
The squad in charge of signing the new souls in and figuring out where they were supposed to go was so overwhelmed that they had been calling his office for more than a few hours now, freaking out because there were so many human souls passing through there.
Finally, Rangiku finished giving her report on her findings at the American branch HQ, and once she had finally stopped speaking, Shunsui heaved a great sigh because he knew that this was going to turn into an incident of some kind. And honestly, he was worried.
Especially since some of the new souls had told the ones signing them in that there was some sort of mass attacks/killings going on in the human world right then.
Not only that, but Ichigo Kurosaki's name kept coming up since the former Substitute Soul Reaper was presently located somewhere in America where she had decided to live after retiring from active duty.
It wasn't that any of them minded that she had retired.
Quite the contrary, they had insisted on it since they knew that human life was often brief enough as it was, and they hadn't wanted their favorite human to suffer even more grievously than she already had during the war.
Besides, the damned kid had fought alongside them, protected them all, and had even died for them on multiple occasions over the years while doing her duty as a Soul Reaper.
She deserved a nice cushy retirement and to live her life as normally as possible.
The day of her retirement had been a hectic one. They had thrown one of the biggest Seireitei wide party fathomable. Everyone had been there! The Soul Reapers, her friends, her family- well her dad's side of the family at least- nobles that she had saved the lives of, etc.
There had been a ceremony too where each Soul Reaper and everyone else present had heaped the girl with their praise and endless gifts of gratitude for everything that she had done for them.
The ceremony had been a nice one- Shunsui had asked Byakuya and several of the others that knew her to help him plan it. And since it was supposed to be a nice event- everyone was to dress in their best clothing, their weapons polished so that they gleamed even more than usual.
Ichigo herself had somehow been stuffed into a beautiful floral formal kimono.
Though Shunsui had heard some people report that she had been seen attempting to escape being put in it by running around the Kuchiki compound in her underwear, screaming at Rukia and the other women to leave her alone.
The scene was still something that Byakuya sometimes complained about. But he wasn't fooling Shunsui any.
The guy was so damned proud of his sister's little hoodlum friend that he had secretly filed some papers a while back to add Ichigo Kurosaki's name to his clan as another adopted family member.
He wasn't the only one either, Rangiku, Shinji Hirako, and Hanatarō Yamada, the healer that had become good friends with her after meeting her for the first time when she broke into the Seireitei to save Rukia, had as well.
And while that had definitely been an interesting turn of events, it hadn't been half as shocking to him as what he had found when he had begun going through Ukitake's things after his friend had finally died.
Jūshirō Ukitake had been his best friend and co-conspirator for a majority of their lives. Where one went, the other was usually quick to follow. It had simply been how there were.
Shunsui had known of the source of his friend's ill health, and the fact that his time was almost up.
It had been something that he simply hadn't been able to ignore considering how weak his friend continued to get the more that time passed.
Jushiro had been the eldest son of a low-class aristocratic family that had leaned heavily on him to restore them to their former glory. But because of his illness, he hadn't been able to do so since they had hoped that with his education and his good looks that hopefully he would catch the eye of another aristocratic family and marry into them.
Sadly, his illness prevented this from happening and Shunsui had to watch as his friend became distant.
The two of them had often spoken of marriage and family when they were younger. Shunsui had already had his heart set on having one when he got as old as Yamamoto.
Which simply wasn't realistic at all of him. But it was what he had wanted back then. While Joshiro had merely smiled sadly and refused to speak of the fact that he was beginning to give up on life because he had nothing more than their friendship to cling too.
Shunshui had done his best over the years to do what he could to cheer his friend up. But things never really seemed to work out like he wanted.
Joshiro's family eventually died, and his friend seemed to fall into despair because he was alone and without any kin anymore. And without a significant other or an heir, he would likely never have those things again.
Then the incident with Rukia had happened and it had done everything for Joshiro that Shunsui hadn't been able to do. It had breathed new life into him. And for some unfathomable reason, it had seemed to make him stronger, and more energetic.
It hadn't been just the fact that Rukia was his lieutenant at the time and needed his help after being condemned to die- no, that was only a small part of what had saved Joshiro.
In fact, it was Ichigo Kurosaki that had lit a fire within his friend that Shunsui hadn't seen in many, many hundreds of years. And that fire in his friend had burned brighter than anything that Shunsui had ever seen before in years.
Then about seven years ago, Shunsui had gone to visit his friend one evening during New Year because Joshiro hadn't been present for any of the festivities being held. And his friend had confessed to him after sitting with him and drinking for a while, that he had secretly adopted a child.
He had asked where the kid was- wondering why his friend hadn't introduced him to his little niece or nephew but Joshiro had merely said that they already knew each other and nothing more.
Which was why the day that he went to look though Joshiro's things after his death he had been so shocked and utterly amused to find out that the man had adopted Ichigo Kurosaki as his heir.
Shunsui had nearly started laughing hysterically as he stared at his friend's family registry and even found the letter that Joshiro had addressed to him on why he had done it.
It was a well-known fact, to him at least, that his friend had adored Ichigo from the moment that he had laid eyes on her despite her ryoka/enemy status at the time.
Shunshui was very aware of that since within an hour of meeting her- Joshiro had showed up in his office, telling him everything in a rush of excitement that had left him incredibly amused.
But it wasn't her looks that had drawn his friend's attention- no, it had been her reason for breaking into the Seireitei that had practically knocked Joshiro on his butt.
The guy had always been fond of children before. Usually the well-behaved ones, but on occasion the man had seemed to enjoy the challenge that being present with a spirited child tended to present.
And then there was her.
The fact that an outsider- a fragile human child- had come to the Soul Society to wage war on them for someone that she had barely known Despite the fact that so many of them would have liked to see them dead...simply sealed the deal for the man.
She was young, female, fierce, loyal, and she was completely off her rocker to take them on with such a low amount of reiki.
Shunsui wasn't ashamed to say that he had seen Joshiro acting as if he had won a lottery and had gotten the greatest prize in the whole entire world once they knew that she was going to be allowed to live and continue working as a Substitute Soul Reaper.
And Shunsui wasn't really sure that he could blame his friend any for acting that way especially since it meant that they would be maintaining close contact with the girl for an undisclosed amount of time.
Since meeting Ichigo he'd seen his friend do some super weird things after that. Some things had been...well, weirder than usual for Joshiro. But not completely out of character for the man since he had been put in charge of the girl and he was nothing but a caring Captain to his squad members.
He hadn't questioned some of the things that Joshiro had done- like cleaning up his home and making up a guest room for when the girl needed someplace to rest after a particularly long or grueling mission.
Nor had it seemed totally out of character for his friend to get the girl gifts.
Especially since the man never got her anything too big or flashy since Ichigo hadn't seemed to like such things.
But she had liked the small things like the occasional bolt of lovely floral silk and cotton for clothing. Or the occasional book that he had given to her. And had even enjoyed being invited over to Joshiro's home for tea and treats so that they could talk for a while about how things were going back in the human world since he was nosey and wanted to know how she was doing academically.
She seemed to like those things more than anything else that Joshiro wanted to give her.
Despite the fact that the man would have happily given her the world if she had just asked. And Shunsui probably would have helped him with giving it to her if it would have made both his friend and the girl happy.
So, when he found Joshiro's letter hidden in one of the secret hiding places that the man kept just in case another person like Aizen was skulking about, telling him everything. So many things that he hadn't understood before finally clicked into place for him right along with one last request from his friend.
When I'm gone, please look after my daughter of the heart.
And with that, Shunsui had taken up the mantle of the girl's uncle in earnest. After all, how could he not?
She had given his friend more happiness and joy than he'd had in many, many years since falling ill. Not to mention all of the rest of her other achievements leading up until after the war.
"Uh...sir?" He heard someone said in an alarmed tone from somewhere nearby. Blinking his brown eye, he was suddenly back in the present. Ah, right. We were in a meeting. Shunsui thought to himself as he glanced at Rangiku.
The woman looked like she was about to start going into hysterics at any moment as she asked him, "Are you okay? You've had this weird smile on your face for about thirty minutes now."
He blinked again and then let out a chuckle since he now understood why the blond woman looked so frazzled that it bordered on creeped out.
"Ah, I'm fine. I was just thinking that it's been a while since any of us have seen Ichigo..." There was a strange charge that seemed to circulate within the room as he uttered the girl's name. Everyone was looking at him, some were able to hide their surprise while others looked downright gleeful as he slowly tacked on, "Since we have to go to America anyway to check out the damage to our sister branch and figure out what happened to them all. What do you say that we drop in on our favorite hero and maybe see if she knows anything that we don't."
That strange charge warmed up the room by like a million degrees as everyone literally shouted and started running for the door, beyond eager to prepare for their trip before he could even give them any orders.
There was pushing and shoving and a little bit of cursing and yowls from some people as they all hurried to get outside while he stood there with a bemused look on his face as he thought, Joshiro, do you see how loved your daughter is? Everyone here would claw their way through hell for her.
And for a second, he could swear that he heard his friend's voice saying happily, I know.
