The Squad 11's barracks are quiet, almost easygoing, at this part of the morning. If the Seireitei had days of the week as they do in the world of morals, this morning would qualify as a Sunday morning. There was no rush, no need to be elsewhere. It was peaceful and cool. Captain Kenpachi Zaraki could throw up on mornings like these. He doesn't mind the coolness of the environment; it's the quietness that gets to him.
This illusion of peace the Soul Society had to offer everyone was like spraying a turd with expensive perfume; underneath that brown lump, it's still a piece of shit. This wasn't peace. It's boredom by the shit buckets; no sense sugar-coating it. True peace connects to the soul of a man; it's deep, unshakable. Just as his soul experiences peace when he's engaged in a battle with a worthy opponent. Not many of those around here, and the ones Kenpachi would give his left arm to fight have no interest in fighting him, are not available, or they live in another world. No fun there.
The fucked-up thing about Soul Reapers is that they lived for so long that they became atrophied in their ways, fighting styles, and mannerisms. There's rarely any evolution among members of his society. Until another event happens, like what occurred two years ago with the Ryokas, Kenpachi doubts there will be any excitement to shake things up in the Seireitei.
Kenpachi's countermeasure for this is training. Extensive, muscle-ripping exercises that keep his blood running hot. He never misses a day to engage in his regime. Why waste time on mundane things like paperwork? Just get some idiot like Yumichika to do it; that's one of the reasons he's a rank officer in Squad 11. Of course, Yumichika would then give the work to some other bonehead lower in rank than him and threaten the bastard with the consequences if it wasn't done accurately, before skipping off to make himself look prettier or some shit like that. Kenpachi didn't give two shits as long as it got done, and he didn't have to go near a quill and ink pot.
No one in their right fucking mind enjoys getting sleeping-ass anyway.
Once a report is complete, his third seat, or Yachiru (in her unique way), will distill the information into salient points to keep him informed about the happenings of the Seireitei. The Captain of Squad 11 prefers to receive the bare essentials if it has nothing to do with his barracks or a potentially worthy opponent.
Kenpachi unsleeved from his robe before tying the empty sleeves around his waist; this way, nothing would get in his way while he moved. It's been two hours since his training regime began, and he was barely working up enough of a sweat to justify disrobing.
His towering, rangy frame is packed with muscle from years of honing the deadly dexterity that distinguished him as a warrior among the bureaucratic asslickers of the Seireitei.
Done with tying up loose ends, Kenpachi resumes his training with a swing of his sword just as something pink flashes a centimeter in front of the tip.
It darted up onto the jagged edge, balancing with only her wooden sandals as a barrier of protection (for all the worlds, as if she were on a tightrope and not on the teeth of his sword), known to slice entire buildings like tender meat with one razor swing and opponents with iron skin like Arrancars in two!
"Kenny!" Yachiru pushed off the fence of his weapon, launching herself into the air before somersaulting in mid-air, then landing on one of the training dummies half a bow shot away from where Kenpachi stood in the training courtyard, a resigned look plastered on his long face.
He'd sensed her coming, of course. Ten minutes ago, when she left from wherever she was coming from, Kenpachi sensed Yachiru's excited spiritual reiatsu turning in his direction. An instant later, he felt her bolting towards him like a little pink-haired bat out of hell to the barrack's training grounds.
Curious. Kenpachi thought.
Yachiru is his opposite in every respect. Many soul reapers who believed she was his biological daughter wonder (though not in his presence, of course; they didn't have a death wish, but a captain's hearing is long-reaching) what unfortunate woman was brave enough to open her legs to him. Kenpachi didn't bother to correct them because they weren't completely wrong. Yachiru is his adopted daughter and the only person who can be around him and his stifling spiritual pressure indefinitely.
"Kenny! Kenny!" Her squeaky voice echoed delightfully, breaking up the monotonous, stale silence of the morning. She waves an object held tightly in her fist like a white flag from her crouch atop the target dummy's head. The thing wobbled from left to right on its stilt as if trying to shake her off its head. Yachiru clung to it with invisible suction like a little pink frog. Kenpachi inwardly smiles at her antics. "Look, Kenny, look!" She hops down from the training dummy to the ground. In one step, Yachiru covers the distance between them.
"What is it?" Kenpachi asks, his voice flat.
With Yachiru, excitement came in many forms. A butterfly minding its own business, the discovery of a new flower on the side of the road, the weather changing suddenly—morsels of change in her eyes does it for her.
She held up the sheet of paper over her head in front of him as far as her small hands would reach. "It's about Ru-chan!" Yachiru exclaimed beamingly.
"Uh-huh," Kenpachi replied uninterestedly, moving his head from side to side, audibly popping the sinews in the column of his neck as he rolled it on his shoulders. Just a few moments of lapse, and his body was already stiffening up, his blood cooling. "Who the fuck is Ru-Chan, and why is she disturbing my training session?" Kenpachi asked his lieutenant, eyeing her over his shoulder as he turned back to what he was about to do before she flashed into his sword's path.
Yachiru pouted, "Don't you remember Ru-Chan, Kenny?" She lowers the paper slowly. "How come you don't remember Ru-Chan?"
A 'hmm' sounded from her pursed lips before Yachiru cocked her head to the side; Kenpachi recognized the gesture. That's what Yachiru does when a thought occurs to her. "But you remember Ichi, don't you?"
"Ichigo Kurosaki?!" Immediately, Kenpachi sent out his terrible spiritual intent over the barracks, stretching his reach for three miles in a hundred different directions. "Why the hell didn't you say that in the first place? Where is he?" Kenpachi asks, turning his head and sniffing the air like a predator scenting prey.
This will be so much fun! A thousand times better than his morning regiment. The last he heard, Ichigo had gotten stronger than what his level was when they last met in Hueco Mundo, and he was at a captain's level then.
Yachiru sighed gustily: "Ichi's not here."
"What?" Kenpachi nearly roared.
"I said this is about Ru-Chan, Kenny!" Yachiru expressed.
Kenpachi ran a palm over his spiky hair, making the bells on the ends chime from the movement. The weight of his palm momentarily brought them to yield, but as soon as he removed his hand, they sprang back to their usual place, the strands stiff from Zaraki leaving too much soap to dry in them, turning them erect. "Ru-Chan? Ichigo?" The ducks were lining up in his head. "Rukia Kuchiki? What about her?" He asked, deflated.
Kenpachi got so excited at the mention of Ichigo that he immediately thought of seeking him out wherever he was hiding in the Seireitei and engaging him in a fight to the death. The vision of their swords clashing again in battle and glory makes Kenpachi's blood sing. Yachiru got his hopes up for nothing.
Two years ago, when they first met, Ichigo came to the Soul Society to save Rukia Kuchiki from her fate. Kenpachi didn't give a fuck why he was there in the first place, only that he would be a worthy opponent for him. And he was.
Seven Hells! The bastard had him wishing to get stronger by the end of their battle. It was a glorious exchange of blood, steel, and spiritual reiatsu. Fuck! His cock hadn't been that stiff from adrenaline in decades! Sex didn't bring Kenpachi Zaraki pleasure. Battle did.
Yachiru was saying something to him. Prattling on about something he didn't care about. If Ichigo wasn't in the Seireitei and no one in this entire God-forsaken place would put up a decent fight, then what the hell is she going on about? Butterflies, again? Hells!
Someone stab me through the heart. Kenpachi thought, defeated, but he listened to his daughter anyway.
"...And Squad 13 had a nasty hollow infest yesterday, you know, Kenny?"
He knew that when Yachiru got into this mode of talking, it was only her voice in the conversation. So even if she asks a question, an answer is not required. Kenpachi listens and doesn't bother to correct her when she messes up words like 'incursion' with 'infest," because that's how Yachiru communicates. "People were talking about it, of course." His lieutenant went on, and Kenpachi was just able to get in a "Were they now?" into the prattle just before the next hundred words came matching out of her mouth at a jog.
Decades of these little talks between them taught him where the intervals were when his daughter took her next breath to speak.
Yachiru nodded enthusiastically now that a modicum of interest from her father had been dropped into the mix of chatter. "Ru-chan was awesome! This report says that she took down all the hollows by herself."
A bell living on the end of a lock chimed. "What?" The captain of Squad 11 asks, his interest piqued.
"Hmm! Hmm!" Yachiru confirms with chest-to-nape quick nods. "Ru-chan is super strong to take out all the maskees on her own!" She said it approvingly.
"How many hollows did she take on? What were the classifications?" Kenpachi asked, the sweat cooling on his skin from such a long pause to hear what Yachiru had to say.
His lieutenant squinted at the slightly crushed paper that survived the journey over here. Knowing how fast Yachiru likes to travel, Kenpachi is surprised the thing wasn't reduced to scraps.
"Uh-" she began, eyes scrunched together as if the words were written in another language. "A lot of them?" Then she piped up. "Two of them were Menos!"
"Give me that," Kenpachi said, holding out his hand. Yachiru promptly handed over the piece of paper to her captain cheerfully.
Kenpachi's eyes roam over the report from Squad 13. As he read, a gruesome grin stretched across his lips, and then he began to chuckle darkly.
That sneaky little bitch! He thought, feeling a surge of battle energy heating his blood.
For years after her life was saved by Ichigo, Rukia Kuchiki's name has been popping up here and there in reports. Nothing to catch Kenpachi's interest, mostly.
People with too much time on their hands said that she and Ichigo had a thing going on between them, but that's hardly something to talk about. Kenpachi didn't care about that. Who gave a shit if the two of them wanted to fuck? He didn't! What caught his interest was this progress with the younger Kuchiki sibling.
Not so atrophied after all.
The Kuchikis can be counted on for revelations in fighting styles and progress overall. Byakuya Kuchiki has the honor of being on Kenpachi's list of people he really wants to fight to the death. But the pompous asshole won't give him the time of day.
Now his little sister is making a name for herself.
"When the hell did she get so strong like her boy-toy, Ichigo, to kill a Menos Grande on her by herself plus a company of class 5-7 hollows and walk away with only a few scratches?" Kenpachi asked no one, done with reading the report.
Has Ichigo been giving her pointers? Or has she been getting stronger on her own?
He knew nothing about this Rukia chit outside of what's known among the captains of the Gotei 13.
From what Kenpachi understood, she's an ice user like that little brat, but she isn't as powerful as Hitsugaya. She has the most beautiful sword in the Seireitei, if he recalls the announcement made by the frilly perfume assholes that said that crap. Or it was something like that.
Seems like a thorny icicle or two has been growing around the edges of her sword.
"Maybe it's time I start paying a little more attention to Ms. Kuchiki."
Yachiru claps her hands and cheers at this announcement. "Yay! Kenny happy! Yay!"
Squad 10
Hitsugaya's brows arched higher and higher the more he read this report from Squad 13 following the Hollow Incursion yesterday on the outskirts of the Rukon District.
He and Rukia Kuchiki are not exactly friends. They've seen each other from time to time, and until a couple of years ago, Toshiro Hitsugaya only knew about Rukia Kuchiki because they are the only two Ice Zanpakuto wielders in the Soul Society.
Rather than friendship, it's more natural for them to seek solitude, as ice users feel more comfortable in their own company than in the company of others. Besides, he is a captain of the Gotei 13, and Rukia is an unseated officer. Though they both came from the outskirts of high society (Rukia was an orphan while Toshiro was raised by his granny in the boonies), their classism is not in the same category now.
Rukia became a noble, and Toshiro worked his way up into the higher circles of the Seireitei.
But that begs the question: How can an unseated offer engage in a battle with a score of hollows, all of high classifications, and let us not forget the two Menos Grande, and still be alive? What sort of trick did she use to pull that off?
Toshiro wasn't ready to chew over the part of the report that said that she killed a Menos Grande and fifteen varied classifications of hollows by herself. That is still hard to believe!
How can an unseated officer do that? White brows crashed into the center of his forehead in thought. This makes no sense.
It wouldn't be stunning for a member of the Gotei 13 to read that he'd pull something like this off on his own. As the most potent ice user in the Seireitei, and a Captain, it's not difficult to envision someone of his rank and station punching through an incursion like two Menos Grande and a few class seven hollows. But Rukia's Zanpakuto is one of aesthetics. It doesn't have much of a power base of its own, so how could she have pulled this off?
And with a few scratches? Does Captain Ukitake expect anyone with a brain between their ears to believe this report? Something else is afoot here.
While his mind engaged in this puzzle, a thread of memory brushed past his colliding thoughts, making the Captain of Squad 10 recall a report back during the Aizen incident.
"But wait, wasn't Rukia also involved in the battle of Hueco Mundo?
Toshiro flew up from his desk from his wooden office chair, striding purposefully towards the dusty cabinets his lazy lieutenant was supposed to get someone to clean months ago. Captain Hitsugaya closes his eyes and breathes in a gulp of air, his teeth gnashing together in irritation.
"Rangiku Matsumoto, you! You!" His chest heaved with heated breaths before he let out an audible sigh, deciding to focus on the present rather than the antics of his second in command.
Rifling through the dated reports, surprisingly neatly arranged, Toshiro's turquoise eyes landed on what he was searching for.
The characters on the cover page of the report read: 'Battle of Hueco Mundo, Squad 13's Report. Accounts heard and verified by Captain Jushiro Ukitake'.
If a captain's squad member is not involved, however remotely, in an emergency, then the captain of that squad has no reason to verify a report. In the battle of Hueco Mundo, no other member of Squad 13 was present other than "Rukia Kuchiki was actively involved."
Her name is the first thing to greet Toshiro as he opens the report, bound together with a simple cord at the spine. Standing in place, he read the dusty pages silently. His eyes took in all they had to say to him again. It's the duty of any captain to read through all paperwork, ensuring that they are fully informed at all times.
Again, "This makes no sense!" he said to his empty office, frustration creeping into him like oil through a dry cloth.
How can this be?
Why would an unseated officer with her level of experience remain unseated? This report alone should have skyrocketed Rukia Kuchiki's career path to lieutenant status, if not at least to third seat.
According to the report, Rukia Kuchiki engaged Espada number 9, Aaroniero Arruruerie, and sustained grave injuries during the battle. There was a medical report detailing the extent of her wounds.
This account was signed by Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu and seventh-seat Hanataro Yamada, who treated Ms. Kuchiki's injuries while on campaign there.
An Espada?!
Toshiro remembers just how tough one of them was to defeat from his battle with Espada number 3 Tier Harribel, and he couldn't defeat her on his own. In the end, Aizen betrayed her.
I didn't even beat Harribel. Yet Rukia managed to kill Espada number 9 in one-on-one combat. Impressive. Toshiro thought with growing respect for the unseated officer. He continues to read the report.
Rukia not only defeated an Espada in her first battle in Hueco Mundo, but she also went on to assist the substitute soul reaper, Ichigo Kurosaki, and Lieutenant Renji Abrai from Squad Six, engaging in another battle with the 61st Arrancar, Rudbornn Chelute, and his many clones. Calaveras, as they are referred to in the report.
In another report, this one while he was a part of a joint strike force in the World of the Living, a buffet against the early attacks from Aizen's armies in the area of Karakura Town, Rukia, newly restored to her Soul Reaper powers, engaged and single-handedly defeated Di Roy Rinker, the number 16 Arrancar at the time.
So why is she not already a lieutenant?
It's no secret how desperately Captain Ukitake wants a lieutenant for his squad.
Toshiro's lieutenant engaged three arrancars and was nearly killed during the battle over fake Karakura Town, and Matsumoto has more decades of experience than Rukia.
"Is it because she's a woman?"
Regardless, Rukia Kuchiki, from only a few reports, has more experience than most seated officers can speak to, and she's just one hundred and fifty years old.
"Damn impressive!"
Toshiro didn't bother to link Rukia to any aspect of the Kuchiki Clan outside of her name. Since the near execution on Sōkyoku Hill two years ago, no one in the Gotei 13 or anywhere else in the Seireitei believes that Rukia has any sway by a thumbnail in that family. Not with the way they embarrassed her. And how did her brother and the captain of Squad Six handle the situation?
Seven hells! Captain Kuchiki practically served his sister on a silver platter to be executed.
Did he want to be rid of the girl so much that he couldn't spare a drop of influence to sway her punishment to something less soul-destructive?
Toshiro shook his head. He might not have been there on Sōkyoku Hill when the events happened, but he heard later—when his mind was ready to receive anything not related to Aizen and Momo—that Captain Kuchiki had the gall to play the hero (rescuing his sister at the last minute from being impaled by the traitor Gin Ichimaru) after it was discovered that Rukia was innocent all along.
The elaborate execution and the subsequent chaos leading up to the spectacle were a plot cooked up by Sosuke Aizen to kill the girl solely so that he could get to the Hōgyoku- an orb with reality-bending capabilities created by Kisuke Urahara. It was implanted into a Gigai that Rukia had unknowingly worn while she was on assignment in the World of the Living.
Alright, she was (mostly) innocent. She did give her powers to a human trying to save his family and himself, which broke the law of the Soul Society. Ichigo Kurosaki, in turn, came to the Soul Society to rescue her. And against all the odds, succeed.
If the scales were to measure the events of her life during that period, then Rukia would be the victim in that situation, hands down.
"I doubted if he even apologized to Rukia for allowing her to go through all that she had when he could have used his considerable influence and power to mitigate the situation." Captain Hitsugaya hesitated before allowing, "Maybe not even as much as that, considering that Aizen was pulling the strings behind the scenes, but I know the man. If Captain Kuchiki had not just folded his arms and bowed down to the law as I didn't, he might have discovered the plot long before I got wind that something was out of place."
Squad 13
Shunsui Kyōraku lazed on the rear verandah at the office of his best friend and fellow captain, Jūshirō Ukitake. This is not his usual haunt; preferring the ambiance of a bar, but sometimes it's good to change things up a little. Breaking up the monotony with a detour and keeping things fresh and interesting is how a soul reaper of Shunsui's advanced age maintains his sanity. That's the Captain of Squad Eight's perspective anyway.
"Sorry to keep you waiting," Captain Ukitake said as he parted the screen door that led to the rear verandah of his office.
Each captain is at liberty to design his or her office to fit their individualism. Jūshirō's office resembles a relaxing lounge with cushions instead of that ass-numbing wooden chair some of the more uptight captains' offices have like a badge of honor. Shunsui doesn't have his standard-issued ass numb-er and has no idea where he threw it.
Somewhere grass doesn't grow, more than likely.
"Oh! I wasn't waiting long," Shunsui replied, waving his hand in front of his face carelessly. Captain Kyōraku had arrived at his friend's empty office for over an hour now on a whim. He sent no hell butterflies to announce his coming. He knew Jūshirō wouldn't mind him being here. They've known each other for centuries, climbing to a millennium.
The Captain of Squad 13 sat beside him on a comfortable-looking cushion, while Kyōraku had a straw between his teeth, his large bushie hat concealed the top half of his face down to the tip of his nose.
"You always have an uncanny knack for showing up at the best times," Ukitake said after a long, comfortable stretch of silence passed between them. They were staring at the clear pond a few paces from the verandah. Lush lotus blooms on the surface of the water; green algae bordered the circumference, leaving the middle a deep, clear mirror free to reflect the skies above.
"One of my many talents," Shunsui said easily, yet he could feel the tension rolling off his friend, though the white-haired Captain tried to hide it from him by concealing as much of his spiritual pressure as possible.
Shunsui tips his bushie further down his face to hide his smile. Covered with the straw hat, he said, "So, Rukia-chan went and got herself popular, eh, Jūshirō?
His fellow captain sighed a heavy breath before picking up the bottle from the tray he brought in with him. Jūshirō wouldn't have tea prepared knowing Shunsui prefers sake and any steamed buns that went well with sake. So that's what he had the barrack's cook get started on as soon as Shunsui's presence turned its intent in the direction of his barrack half an hour before he arrived. It didn't take Shunsui that long to flash step to Squad 13's barracks; he can get here in one and a quarter steps from anywhere in the Seireitei. He turned his intent in Jūshirō's direction long before he tensed to perform a flash-step.
Pouring the saki into a cup and another for his friend, Ukitake put the cup of sweet liquid to his lips, swallowing everything in one mouthful.
Shunsui tips up the brim of his bushie with his forefinger and thumb to study his friend. "You don't seem too happy about it." he said, his gray eyes never leaving Ukitake's face. "Could it be because her brother might be popping up here any day now?"
Ukitake sighed again before pouring another cup for himself. Shunsui lifted his cup in a toss to his friend's health before drinking the contents.
"He might be the reason Rukia was in such a mental state yesterday," he laments, a pained look on his face.
"Bad news for the hollows that she was," Shunsui said casually.
"You didn't feel her spiritual pressure, Shunsui," Jūshirō said, his voice sounding like it's still from yesterday's happenings. "I just got word about the hollow incursion when I felt her coming towards the barracks." Ukitake put his sake cup down on the platter. "It felt twisted and burning with icy rage. My soul trembled when I reached out my spiritual perception onto her path. I doubt she noticed I was with her for about half a mile before she reached my barracks."
Captain Kyōraku let out a whistle: "I'll be! With that description, I wonder what she was like during the battle."
"Graceful, the way she moves just precisely and with alacrity," Ukitake related, his voice having a touch of awe in it. "Terrifying yet beautiful to behold was the way she dispatched one hollow after the other. When I arrived on the battlefield ahead of my squad, I had to stop halfway into my flash-step."
"What? Why?" Shunsui prompted, his lips cocked in a half grin as the story entertained him more than anything else has in the last month or so.
"Because I saw a vision of the future Captain of Squad 13 freezing a Menos Grande solid with the ice of her zanpakuto." Brown eyes turned to hold Shunsui's gray ones. "Mid-cero, Shunsui."
"You are joking!" Shunsui exclaimed, jumping up from his position on the flooring of the verandah. He hadn't moved since he got here from his lying-down position, using his elbow to prop his head. Now he sat upright with the cushion under him.
Ukitake shook his head. "No. By the time the ice cracked and the first Menos crumbled, the energy from the frozen cero beam got unleashed, I had to use my Shikai and redirect it to the other Menos Grande, killing it on impact."
Another bout of silence permeated the garden as both men drank sake, contemplating all that had been said.
"You're going to give her a promotion," Shunsui fished after a minute passed without either of them saying anything.
"If it were up to me, Rukia would already be my lieutenant." Ukitake said, and his friend could detect the frustration in his voice. "Despite her young age, she has more experience than most senior soul reapers, both on the battlefield and off."
Not many could tell when Jūshirō's mood switched. Most see him as the fatherly captain, kind-hearted, and considerate of everyone. Shunsui knew the man to a deeper degree than most will ever know.
"What's stopping you? Aren't you the captain?" Shunsui asks, knowing full well it would tick Jūshirō off, especially when he's had more than two cups of sake in his system. Shunsui was surprised his friend brought both of them sake this early in the day.
"You know damn well what's stopping me, Shunsui!" Ukitake stated, exasperated.
"Byakuya-Kun," Shunsui stated. "His behavior almost puzzles me," the captain of Squad Eight said, pouring another round of sake for both of them.
"He's driving me insane!" Ukitake fumed, grabbing his cup and gulping down the warm liquid. "When Rukia got placed in my squad, he wanted her to be in a ranked position right off the bat. I strongly refused, and so did Kaien. Those in my squad earned their positions; they don't receive them on a plinth of gold silk on the first day."
"Naturally," the Captain of Squad Eight agrees.
"Then Rukia started proving her worth over and over again. She began earning her stripes. I've sent recommendation letter after recommendation letter for her to be promoted to a ranked officer's position."
"And Byakuya uses his status and his considerable wealth to block these advancements for his sister?"
"That's exactly what he's been doing," Ukitake confirmed.
"You don't think he's blocking the promotion to protect Rukia-Chan, do you?" Shunsui threw the question out in the open, and immediately Ukitake snapped it up.
"Protect?" Ukitake raised his dark eyebrows at his friend. "Are we talking about the same Byakuya Kuchiki here?"
"I know what you're thinking." Shunsui said, his palms up in front of him in a gesture that says, 'I come in peace,' "but hear me out."
"I'm listening," Ukitake said calmly.
"What if Byakuya regrets how he handled the situation two years ago?" Ukitake opened his mouth to argue, but Shinsui cut him off. "I'm not done. What if Rukia's coming so close to a true death awakened Byakuya's protective side as her brother? And the idea of his sister on the front lines of battle, as all rank officers are mandated to do, is not acceptable to him."
"He's been doing this for years, Shunsui," Captain Ukitake objected. "Even if he regrets treating Rukia as he did two years ago, this is one strange way to atone for his actions or lack thereof during the time leading up to her execution. Rukia is still not over that period of her life. Physically, she looks fine, but psychologically, she still struggles. It's evident to me more so than most because it is my job as her captain to constantly be aware of my subordinates' conditioning. That near-death experience is like a fracture in Rukia's mind, thus her spiritual composition. I doubt that she'll ever fully heal from it. Byakuya allowed his sister to endure that, but it's not enough for him; he has to go after her career, too?"
"Nobles are weird," Shunsui commented calmly. "In the case of Byakuya, you have to remember that he's always been an only child with the responsibility of an entire clan dropped onto his shoulders from the moment Sojun died. Plus, the unique (for lack of a better term) upbringing that Ginrei-Sama had him under from the time he was just a lad." The scruffy-bearded man trailed off, blowing out a breath. "I thought the poor boy was training to be a monk."
"I remember," Jūshirō said, shaking his head. "I recall how you tried to help him back in those early days."
Shunsui chuckled. "The kid drew his wooden sword out at me for suggesting that we go out and talk to some girls. Not even chase them."
"What did he call you?"
"I don't recall, but it was eloquently insulting, I'll tell you that."
"And then Yoruichi got involved." Ukitake reminisced fondly.
"Oh, hells!" Shunsui scoffed, "The three great houses coming together—that's never a good thing.
"What did she do to Byakuya again?" Ukitake asked, chuckling under his breath. "I remembered he was furious with her after that for years for something."
"Yoruichi did the same thing she always does to any male who doesn't know her secret. Poor little Byakuya wasn't aware at the time."
"He used to love cats at the time, if I recall correctly," Jūshirō said.
"He wouldn't go near them after Yoruichi transformed right as he was holding her up under her front legs. Naked and steamy." Shunsui said dreamily, "She's still the sexiest woman I've ever seen." Jūshirō didn't comment, but Shunsui didn't expect him to. "I got a nosebleed instantly, and Byakuya fainted on the spot."
"That's why he called her a cat monster all these years?"
Shunsui nodded, and both men laughed at the crazy times they both shared.
After the laughter died down, Shunsui broke the silence: "You're just upset because, from the outside, it seems like Byakuya is professionally maiming your subordinate, cutting down her growth as a Shinigami. As I've said, nobles are weird." Shinsui repeats.
He let a few moments of silence hang in the air between them as he studied Ukitake's face while he took another drink of sake. Just at that moment, Shunsui broke the silence. "The idea of having his new fiancée out on the front lines of battle might be worrisome to Byakuya-Kun."
Jūshirō spat sake out of his mouth in a spray in front of him, coughing and knocking his chest.
"Easy. Easy there," Shunsui encouraged, slapping his friend gently on the back.
"What?!" Ukitake asked when he got his breath back.
"It's just some gossip I heard conveniently while I had my ears open at the right time. Just a little rumor." Shunsui demurred.
"Rumors start from somewhere close to the truth," Ukitake pressed.
"You're not going to let this go, are you?" Shunsui said, a smirk riding on his lips.
"You expect me to?" Ukitake shot back. "If you didn't want me to know anything about it, you wouldn't have mentioned it so casually in passing."
Shunsui pretended exasperation before giving his long-time friend an easy half grin. "I think we're going to need more sake," he said, holding up the empty bottle.