After the ceremony, a banquet was held, a reservation was made at Renji's favourite bar and eatery,'Daruma Bar', not far from the Kuchiki clan's ceremonial shrine.

Based on reflection of what had happened last time, this time it was Renji who decided to conduct the arrangements for the restaurant, but complaints arose from Rangiku immediately, "if only you had left it up to Kuchiki, we might have been able to drink at a high class ryotei restaurant again~!"

"High class restaurant? what do you mean, lieutenant!?"

When the 13th division's third seat, Kotsubaki Sentaro pressed Rukia for a reply, he received a shoulder tackle from Kiyone who interrupted the conversation.

"Get away! Snot nosed gorilla woman!"

"But I also went~! Both the alcohol and the food were delicious at that place~!"

"Why were you invited and I wasn't!?"

"Because it was a gathering of the marriage announcement for close friends! Where close friends gather, get it!?"

"Lieutenant…could it be you really…dislike me…!?"

"She surely dislikes your gross bearded headband wearing self!"

"It's not like that at all, I do not dislike you! The only reason I didn't invite Kotsubaki dono is because of the fact that I had already informed him of the news at the squad barracks! It was an unforeseen set of events that the place turned out to be a high-end restaurant!…!"

Orihime clicked the camera shutter looking at Rukia who appeared flustered as she acted as a mediator between the other two.

"Flustered Kuchiki san, you don't see that too often…! Hee-hee…I just took a cute picture…!"

"You only took a picture of Kuchiki just now?…you can take a picture of me too you know?"

"Really!? I want to! I want to take a picture of you!"

She wanted to show off her newly tailored Kimono, unable to help herself, Rangiku posed before Orihime. Rangiku's golden locks of hair suited well with her light violet coloured Kimono that was adorned with large peony flowers.

"Alright! Let's take a picture with all the girls surrounding Kuchiki!"

"Waa! Good idea~!"

At Isane's approval, all the female shinigami that were sitting about the place gathered around Rukia.

"Captain~! Please could you press the camera shutter for us~!"

"Why me…!?"

Whilst complaining, Hitsuguya received the camera from Orihime, and snapped several photos as instructed.

When the band of girls brought their faces together to check the photographs on the Camera's LCD screen, Kyōraku Shunsui came in saying "Pardon me for disturbing you".

"Captain commander! You came!?"

Rising off his seat, Renji greeted Kyōraku.

"Oh my, isn't this splendid sight~"

Kyōraku's line of sight skipped over Renji and focused on the group of female troops dressed in Kimonos. Rukia walked out from the middle of that circle of girls and bowed, "thank you very much for coming, captain commander."

"Aah Rukia chan! I've come to talk to you"

"With me?" Rukia tilted her head. Kyōraku nods and indicates to the entrance of the restaurant.

"Let's step outside for just a moment. Abarai kun, could I borrow your bride just a little?"

"Eh? Ah, yes! Go ahead!"

Renji watched their backs until they were out of sight whilst wondering what they had to talk about.

In front of'Daruma Bar'there is a large pond, and placed by the bank of that pond there are several benches for sobering up on. Rukia sat down on one of those benches as instructed by Kyōraku.

"Here, for you"

Kyōraku sat down next to her and handed her a sizeable package wrapped in a furoshiki cloth. It contained something soft inside it.

"What's this…?"

"Please, open it"

With a nod she untied the knot.

"This….is…!"

The characters for "13" jumped right into her vision.

"…to you, from Ukitake"

It was squad 13's captain Haori.

"From…captain Ukitake…?"

"Before Ukitake used 'Kamikake', he handed this over to me and said, "appoint Kuchiki Rukia as the next captain in my place"…I hit back telling him not to say such ill-omened things, but he laughed and pressed on saying "I must ask you to keep this a secret from Kuchiki. Since I may still be bearing this Haori again right"

"Aah,'again'it is", Kyōraku thought.

Again, a person has entrusted me with something of great importance and passed away.—-

"Something like…me being the likes of captain…the sort of capacity required for that…"

Rukia places her hand over the '13' and bites her lip.'To take on this responsibility myself…'the mere thought of that made her body tremble to the point where her back teeth were chattering. Despite this, the fact that Ukitake had personally left this behind for her, made her heart burn passionately with gratitude.

"…This haori was originally tailored for Kaien kun"

"Eh…?"

Rukia's eyes widened at the sudden mention of that name.

"Though I think you'll know this better than me…Ukitake had a very high opinion of kaien kun…he was planning to retire and hand over the position of captain to Kaien"

Ukitake had visited the 8th division's barracks with tea cakes where he confided in Kyōraku about those plans.

"I have such confidence in my knowledge of medical treatment techniques, so how about I become a consultant at the the coordinated relief station?"

They appeared to have fun at the talk of Ukitake's future course after retirement, four days later— Shiba Kaien would battle a hollow and lose his life before Ukitake's eyes.

"…I didn't know he had gone as far as ordering a captain's Haori"

That day, Kyōraku had only taken Ukitake's talk of retirement half seriously. It simply seemed like an extension of their usual chats over tea.

(You were serious huh…)

After Kaien's death, he couldn't bear to part with it for decades, so the haori lay idle in a corner of the captain's office. When he decided to re-tailor it to fit Rukia, Ukitake was most certainly smiling and laughing again like that day.

"I didn't give this to you till today, because I was waiting for your heart to grow"

"My heart…?"

Kyōraku nodded a yes.

"You are strong. If we look at your abilities alone, it is at the sufficient level required for captaincy…however, your heart was not catching up. Being able to rise to the responsibility of taking leadership over a squad…that sort of heart"

"…I see…"

"…Nevertheless!"

Kyōraku stood up, with a smile on his face he looked down at Rukia.

"I was thinking, looking at the young people of the 13th division who were in attendance at today's ceremony. Within themselves, they feel your heart has already grown…that as a captain, you have a heart that will hold up the squad."

"Everyone thinks…I'm….?"

"I wonder whether it was because Ukitake was the captain all that time…there were many amongst the young people of the 13th who were ready to lend their support…"

"Yes….that's right, really…they're always helping"

Since Rukia had become the acting captain of her squad, she was of the opinion that her work would probably increase to correspond with that, but despite the fact that Kiyone had even transferred to the 4th division, Rukia's workload had barely changed. Kotsubaki had informed her that from long ago, at squad 13, the troops had devised ways to decrease the captain's workload in order to lighten the burden on Ukitake's shoulders.

"That way, everyone can give their support…and it seems that everyone wants to give their support, even if it may be on the captain's terms…"

Rukia fixed her eyes on the haori.

To give support, and be supported — I wonder if I could also become that kind of captain myself.

"It's okay you don't have to do this right now. I'll wait for your decision…but I think at this point in time, you are capable enough for captaincy. Just don't forget about it alright?"

"…Understood! Thank you very much….!"

Rukia stood up whilst tightly clutching the haori, she bowed deeply to Kyōraku.

"Oops, I almost forgot…here, congratulations on your marriage!"

Kyōraku takes out an envelope from his sleeve before handing it over to Rukia. The envelope was thick enough to feel the weight of the heavy banknotes inside.

"I…I cannot accept something like this!"

"Now now, please accept it thinking that is from both me and Ukitake!"

At Kyōraku's words, her hands ceased its shaking.

"Ah, captain commander…!"

Rukia extended her arm to return the envelope, but as soon as she did, Kyōraku had disappeared using shunpo. With a huff, she carefully tucked the captain's haori back into the wrapping cloth.

"Captain Ukitake…please give me a little more time. At any rate, I won't fail…!"

In the not so distant future, I'll surely be ready.

Rukia made a vow at the haori and then returned to the restaurant in a half run.

Four hours have passed since the start of the banquet, when the people who were drunk began to leave, Uryuu stood up and said "I have to go soon…Abarai, Kuchiki san, thank you for today. May you be forever happy."

He came close to the couple and gave a slight bow.

"Also…I wasn't sure when was appropriate to give a celebratory gift since the reception was not held at a ceremonial hall but…is it still okay now?"

Uryuu spoke, lowering his voice, he then held out a special envelope, containing his monetary gift, to Renji. Sado who was watching them said "me too…" before taking out his gift, in a chain reaction, Ichigo and Orihime also gathered their own gifts in hand.

"Every single one of you brought something!? We don't need all of this you know! Because, just the fact that you went to the trouble of coming here from the Human World for us, that is more than enough!"

"Well you have no choice! You have allowed us to eat and drink like this…inside you'll find Human World money, so the next time you happen to go there, please buy clothes or something for your gigai with this"

Uryuu forcibly pushes his gift into Renji's hands.

"Because I feel that way too! Here!"

Imitating Uryuu, Orihime also slips her gift into Rukia's hands.

"It would be discourteous if I had to take this back home…please quietly accept this"

"This one's from me, and this one's from my old man"

Sado's, Ichigo's and Isshin's gifts were piled into Renji's hands.

"Even Isshin dono…!?"

At a surprised Rukia Ichigo then says -

"That guy…when Kaien died, he really wanted to cheer you up. He regretted it so much at the time. So he says he wants you to be the most happiest a person could be"

Isshin is Shiba Kaien's uncle.

Isshin was the captain of squad 10 around the time of Kaien's death. That his proud nephew had passed away, it was naturally a shock, he had heard from Ukitake about the details and circumstances leading to his death, Isshin thought that Rukia needed a helping hand the most, he visited squad 13 many times. However, when her saw her much too pained face from the side, he found it impossible to call out to her no matter what.

"…I see…"

Rukia thinks about herself back in those days. From the day she ended Kaien's life with her own hands, when she was closing her heart up into a deep, dark place, she wanted to tell herself,"you are cared for by many people, and are kept in their many thoughts."

"It's not good to have you open the senkaimon so many times for us, I think we'll also be leaving then?"

At Ichigo's suggestion, Sado nods in agreement.

"Eeeh~! Going home alreadyyy~? It's okay if you stay with us right, Orihimeee~?" Rangiku said looking somewhat intoxicated. Next to her, Hisagi and Izuru were completely passed out drunk.

"Thank you, Rangiku San! But, since I have to work tomorrow morning…"

"Well, I guess that can't be helped…how about you Ichigo? Stay with us?"

Rangiku narrowed her eyes and smiled devilishly, "th…there's no way I'm staying!" Ichigo replied in a hurry.

"What! Suuuch a pityyy!"

Rangiku giggled whilst waving her hand next to her face a little, "well then, see you again next time huh~"

"I've just called someone and asked them to open the 6th division's senkaimon now!" Renji said returning his denreishinki* to his pocket.(*Soul reaper mobile device)

"Rukia, hold on just a minute, I'll escort these guys up to the gate. You should remain here with all of our other friends!"

"Alright…everyone, thanks for today. I received such a wonderful veil, and yet, you even went as far as giving us celebratory gifts…thank you"

She gave them a quick bow.

"I'll see you again in the Human World!" Rukia said with a smiling face, she then turned back, heading inside the restaurant.