Think I was done? Ha! Fat chance of that. Can't go ending it that soon. No fun that way, is it? So...on with the show.
"...Why are you grinning at me like that?"
Isshin giggled boyishly. "Hmmm...? Oh, it's nothing. Nothing at all." He kept a straight face for an admirable four seconds before ruining any sense of validity in his statement by letting out a loud snicker.
Hitsugaya scowled.
Matsumoto had gone out to find the bathroom, and had been gone for a while, too long for it to be completely legitimate, which led her captain to believe that she was elongating the torture solely because she could.
Hitsugaya was alone with the Kurosakis.
The twitch of his left eyebrow, which was enough to send the seated members of his division off on suddenly pressing business and to send the unseated members running for cover with no pretense as to the reason at all, was all but a permanent feature on his face now.
Of course, the threat behind that twitch did nothing to halt Isshin's idiotically immature antics. He and Yuzu both kept making strange hand gestures and huddling together as they whispered, giggled, and glanced at him every few seconds.
Hitsugaya sighed and let his head fall back against the chair. He should have figured on this...
He wondered if Matsumoto had known they were watching.
She probably had.
When we get back to Soul Society, I'm going to make sure you remember that I am your commanding officer. If it teaches you something, so much the better. If it doesn't...well, I'll have fun...
He chuckled.
Patience, he told himself. Just a few more days, and he would be in power again. A few more days, and he would have control. A few more days...
"Hiiiiitsu-chaaaaan!"
...Of violently excitable pink-haired vice-captains clinging to his head?
Eyes opening in pure, unabashed disbelieve, he was greeted by the grinning, pink-cheeked, pink-headed, cherubic face of the one and only Kusajishi Yachiru.
"Y-Y...Ya...?"
"Oi!" another, decidedly less enthusiastic, thundering voice echoed. "Yachiru! The hell are you?!"
"I found him, Ken-chan! Found them all! Lookie, lookie!"
Zaraki Kenpachi's titanic form, barely fitting into the black slacks and white button-down shirt he wore, came into the campsite like a beast, his hair actually out of its usual bell-tipped spikes, hanging in clumps about his shoulders.
"Z-Zaraki! What are you two doing here?!" Hitsugaya demanded.
"You know these people, Hitsugaya-niichan?" Yuzu asked.
"Oh, crap," Ichigo muttered. "Lemme guess, Kenpachi...you want another rematch."
"Ichi!" Yachiru cried happily.
"Uh...yeah. Hi."
"You too, Ichi-nii?" Karin wondered, clearly intimidated by the huge Eleventh Division captain.
"Ain't here for a fight," Zaraki said dismissively. "Least not wi' you. Oi, Hitusgaya."
"What is it?"
"Yer vice-captain. Where's she at?"
"Uh...d'uh...Rangiku went to the bathroom. Why?"
Zaraki's mouth twisted in an odd expression at Hitsugaya's use of the name "Rangiku." Then he shrugged it off as unimportant.
Yachiru jumped down onto Hitsugaya's lap and giggled excitedly. "Hide and seek! Hide and seek!" She turned around. "Ken-chan, let's go! We're it! Got to go seeking! Let's go find—"
"Yachiru."
The tone of Zaraki's voice instantly quieted the petite shinigami, and Hitsugaya couldn't help but be nervous. The look on the gargantuan captain's face was dead cold serious, with none of its usual hot-blooded sadism.
"Why?" Hitsugaya asked, almost demanded.
"Call from home," Zaraki growled. "Yachiru wanted t' help. I came t' make sure she don't get her fool ass killed. Ain't no fuckin' game this time..."
"Killed...? What...what's going...?"
Zaraki's single visible eye narrowed. "Somebody else's here...an' he ain't lookin' t' share yer campfire..."
In truth, Matsumoto hadn't stayed in the bathroom to purposefully extend her captain's torment. The white-haired boy's admission earlier had put her in a very good mood, and thus she was feeling particularly giving.
Couldn't leave her new boyfriend all alone against the destructive forces of Isshin and Yuzu, could she?
Of course, she knew it was a little early to be thinking along those lines...but hey, things were heading in that direction now, weren't they?
She laughed happily.
This trip was so much fun.
Little did she know...that was about to change.
The delighted grin that had been on her face for the past twenty minutes dropped almost instantly. Her face went pale, her eyes going wide. She stumbled backward, struggling to find her voice as she stuttered incoherently.
Unlike her captain, her tongue wasn't tied by embarrassment.
"...Aw...nice seein' you, too..."
She couldn't breathe.
"Always did like nature, didn'tcha? Bet yer havin' fun, huh...Rangiku-chan?"