Requested by Nadie- thank you
The Captains
Anyone
Colour meant something, it always did. It said something about the people wearing them: some people even said that it had meaning in itself. But meaningful or meaningless, the colour of the Captain's haori lining had changed over the many, many years.
Originally, when the Gotei had been formed, the thirteen Captains had each chosen the symbol of their division, and a corresponding colour to match. The Captain-Commander wore a purple the same as the chrysanthemums that grew outside his office window: the first thing that had shown its colourful heads in the new building.
Unohana, so much older and more worn than her face would suggest, had chosen bellflowers not dissimilar to the ones that she distributed around her rows of dying shinigami, but her lining was the greying pink hue that they took when they started to die. She thought that was apt.
Shinji had never known why the first Captain of his division had chosen that particular shade of green, but had worn it with the half-hearted pride of tradition that most people have when they don't think too much about it. After him, Aizen wore it because it was expected that he would, and that was the time when he was keeping up his wonderful disguise. The ripples had been caused by Ichimaru, who had abandoned the original colour of his division and wore Aizen's, as a show of loyalty. Had anyone been paying more attention, they might have drawn the link between them sooner, stronger.
Many Captains kept the colours out of a traditionalist sense of purpose: perhaps, out of a misguided sense of righteousness. Byakuya had liked the elegance of the blue lining, and Komamura had respected the sobriety and dignity of the colour brown. Tousen had kept the tan colour not because he had thought about disguise, but because he had no concept of colour, and so had never considered the importance of it. Kyouraku, on the other hand, had changed his own to a dark pink after a while to match his latest clothing acquisition; Ukitake had changed his to red once it became obvious that the blood that daubed his previously white lining- where he was forced to dab his mouth if he was caught without anything else- would stain.
Kurotsuchi darkened the green of his own: not too noticeably, but because the olive reminded him too much of Urahara. Hitsugaya's had changed only because Matusmoto had not thought he suited the previous colour, and he simply had not noticed yet.
Soi Fon had kept the orange of her former Captain, but she did that because she wore the same haori. It had been a great many years since she could even pretend to smell Yoruichi on it, but it was a comfort still. People knew, people noticed: people didn't question. That was the Captain of the Second Division. Zaraki too wore the haori of his predecessor, but because he had taken it from the fallen body of his predecessor as a show of his newly won position, as a badge of his victory in the fight.
After all, anyone could wear the colour.
That didn't make the Captain.