The living world was a surprising place. Hitsugaya found that, actually, he rather liked it. Sure, it was a bit...surreal, perhaps, to think that he had once lived here, that death had brought him to Soul Society (unlike that lucky bastard, Ichigo, who had the best of both worlds), but he'd learned quickly to deal with feelings like that.

Hitsugaya just ignored it. What did it matter now?

One of the things that intoxicated the boy captain about the living world was the technology that seemed to spring up from every corner of the globe (not that globes had corners, of course). Hitsugaya was close to two centuries old, but he had never even dreamed of something like the videogames Ichigo had shown him (to get Hitsugaya away from him; he didn't see what was so annoying about himself, but Ichigo was annoyed by everybody...honestly, he'd only meant to help by pointing out the flaws in the young shinigami's swordsmanship).

After only a day or two, he was addicted.

Seriously, what self-respecting young man could actually pass up a way to kill and maim and shoot and kick and choke and blow up as many people as you wanted without getting arrested or being bothered by stupid, troublesome emotions? It was like a dream!

Sure, Matsumoto called him immature, and Karin was starting to kick him on a regular basis because he wouldn't give up the TV, but who cared?

They just didn't understand.

Videogames weren't a childish pastime.

They were a catharsis, a way to keep him from strangling Madarame Ikkaku.

And nobody wanted any Ikkaku-strangling going on.

He was doing them a service!

But oh, no, they just didn't get it. They berated him, telling him he was wasting his time, that there were any number of things he should be doing like, oh, maybe...going after Hollows or making those weekly reports Yamamoto-soutaichou had asked for or doing his laundry.

One day, he snapped, and they never made him turn off the PlayStation again.

It took a week for Ikkaku's face to thaw completely.

Not to mention the bruises on his neck.

Hey...he'd warned them.

For those of you hoping for some semblance of continuity in this series, I'm sorry. I just write these as they come to me, so each chapter is meant to stand alone as its own little story. As to this chapter itself...I have no clue how old Hitsu-taichou really is, but I assume he's a lot older than he seems...after all, Ukitake-taichou and Kyouraku-taichou are at least two thousand, aren't they? So...yeah. Two centuries sounded good. If I'm wrong...oops.

And by the way...in the last chapter, I have no clue what it was Gin was doing in his office...he might have been drawing on his legs, but...who knows with him?