tampered | Log; Complete

Log; Complete

When; October 6th, 2007, Evening? (Two hours after this)
Rating; G, most likely
Characters; Ukitake Jyuushirou [

floating_bamboo] & Hitsugaya Toushirou [

icepetals]
Summary; Hitsugaya meets up with Ukitake and they have a talk.
Log;

Jyuushirou sat outside the temple building, sipping some tea from a cup as he waited for Hitsugaya. It was rather strange - the young captain had just recently left, yet now he returned... but it wasn't the same person.
This Hitsugaya had been in the City before, and remembered it. He had also known this 'other' Ukitake, and that was bugging Jyuushirou a little. What on earth was going on? Freaky?

Putting down the tea cup next to the tea pot he had brought with him, he brushed some hair from his face, looking down the temple path with a thoughtful look. This world just didn't make sense to him. So much had happened in only two months, and it made him tired.

Perhaps he was too old for changes like these.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The City seemed to have barely changed since those few months that he had last seen it. Most of the faces and ill presences were still there as well as a couple of foreign ones that he would start to investigate the next day, overall, it wasn’t as unsettling an experience as it had been the first time he had entered.

He arrived a good five minutes before his arranged meeting of two hours later and promptly headed left towards where he found the familiar reiatsu. Toushirou felt almost hesitant to speak first, if this Ukitake acted anything like the former one he had met in the city, Toushirou was sure he would hit his head against the wall until he passed out.

Nevertheless, the words ‘restructure’ did make him curious, and he was no shy child. "Ukitake," he nodded to the other white haired man in greeting.

The thoughtful look is replaced by a bright smile as he feels Hitsugaya's reiatsu - soon followed by the young captain himself. Giving a happy wave, he looks over at the similarly white-haired captain. He does not stand, however, but pats the bench instead, inviting him to sit.

"How nice to see you, Hitsugaya-taichou." He says, even though it really wasn't long ago he saw the boy - or another 'version' of him. "Do you want some tea~?"

As he waits for the other captain to sit down, Jyuushirou sticks his hand in one sleeve, but to his disappointment, finds no candy.
Did I eat it all again? Damn it.

Toushirou seated himself comfortable on the offered bench and turned to face the older captain expectantly. Hinamori had, despite her initial reluctance to cook, made him a big meal and he was pretty sure his stomach wouldn’t expand any further. He declined the offer of tea with a pat on his belly and was a bit relieved to find no offers of candy.

"I’m glad to see you too. Now," always the one to get straight to the point, "what was it that couldn’t be said over the network?"

Looking at the other captain, Jyuushirou shook his head slightly. "Well, I guess it's no real secret, but I'd rather take it in person." He paused for a moment before continuing, brown gaze wandering from Hitsugaya to look out over the temple area while spoke.

"When I came here, things seemed rather grim. They told me of casualties, fighting - and worse." There was a serious expression on the old captain's face, mixed with the worry that seemed to have permanently etched itself into his features after coming to the City. "When Kyouraku showed up as well, just a few days after me, we decided to try and steer things up a bit - to try to protect our people and make sure that things like what had happened would not be repeated."

Jyuushirou looked over to Hitsugaya again, not sure how to explain this, really. "Then you - or at least... a version of you... showed up as well, so we assigned all the shinigami currently in the City to a captain, so that everyone had someone to turn to if things happened. We also gave a standing order regarding the arrancar."

Toushirou nodded along while Ukitake spoke. Things had been grim, his lieutenant in particular had been fond of getting herself killed in a number of reckless manners that left him speechless. Then again, death was only one of the ways that the shinigami had been involved with the arrancars, a few of them had led separate, consensual relations that ended up in bed which had blurred the lines between ally and enemy. What happened in the bedrooms of the shinigami was none of his business, after all. It was tricky business.

He didn’t want to ask whether those relationships still existed. He was also curious why Kyouraku wasn’t there as well, but since Ukitake had said it was no big secret, ...and the drunken voice comments connected the dots.

"Hinamori had mentioned something about deferring to me instead, I assume it’s to do with this assignment." If the other two captains decided otherwise, Toushirou would have to insist. His friend was a fragile one and Aizen’s continued presence in the City would only aggravate it. On the arrancars, "that order was...?"

He was quiet for a moment, sorting out his memories - there were a lot, after all - until he remembered the correct words. "The order was 'Do not deal with the arrancar or other enemies alone. When it comes to arrancar, do not be needlessly provoked into fighting or lured out alone. Whenever possible, alert a captain or higher ranking officer and await instructions before engaging the enemy.'"

Jyuushirou paused again after that, reaching for his tea cup and taking a sip. "It has worked so-so. That 'you' suddenly disappeared, so we had to rearrange things again, and it seems difficult for some of us to not be provoked by the arrancar or their allies. It's understandable."

He smiled slightly, still holding on to the tea cup as he studied Hitsugaya. "Hinamori did ask me to be transferred to you, and I think that's best, for her. Would you mind taking over the responsibility of a few others as well?"

"Sounds sensible, as long as they follow it." Toushirou assumed those orders would apply to captains as well, even if they were supposedly the higher ranking officers here. "What about Kurosaki Ichigo," He waved back towards the temple to imply the other two, Gotei-external shinigami, "and them?" While they weren’t explicitly part of their team anymore, they weren’t exactly outsiders either.

"And, I wouldn’t mind taking a few others either," after all, he was used to dealing with a workload. Human-shaped ones wouldn’t waste ink anyways.

The mentioned of the other him made him curious, after all, Ukitake’s other self had left him gaping before, there was no telling what his other incarnation might have done during his short stay there. "This other me... didn’t do anything ridiculous, did he?"

"Kurosaki Ichigo... well, he doesn't seem interested in working with us, but Urahara and Yoruichi is keeping an eye on him now that his father has disappeared from the City." Jyuushirou said, sounding a bit concerned. "I do worry about the boy, though. But he's not the kind to work under orders."

He brightened up a bit when Hitsugaya agreed to take some more shinigami under his responsibility - it was not like Jyuushirou didn't like or care a lot about them, but the workload was a bit uneven. He was used to running a whole division, of course, but things were much more intense here, and the old captain had been feeling weakened ever since he came to this world.

Sipping on his tea again, he gave the other captain a somewhat confused look at the next question. "What? No, you... you acted like you always do. Nothing ridiculous at all." Jyuushirou frowned. "I guess the other me did, then? Since it was 'freaky', even."

Toushirou rolled his eyes, remembering Kurosaki’s insistence on calling him ‘Toushirou’ at every opportunity he got. Coupled with the fact that he even beat that Byakuya not too long ago, he hardly doubted that. "He’s big enough to watch out for himself and his friends, I guess. Especially since Nerielle thinks the world of him now."

He evaded the older captain’s gaze when the conversation returned to his former self. It wasn’t something to take with tea so Toushirou grabbed for a topic change, any topic change. "So, who else did you want me to look after?" As far as what he gathered from Nemu’s report, the majority of the shinigami were either from the thirteenth or fourth division and seeing how Ukitake was there, he guessed it was some of the others he would be connecting with. Though, speaking of reports, "Hey, Nemu also mentioned there was a conflict recently, with you and Kyouraku against the arrancars. How did that arise?"

"He is a strong young man..." Jyuushirou said thoughtfully, then raised a brow slightly at the mention of Nerielle. "Who is that...? Nel? The little arrancar?" Who was she and what relation did she have with the boy?

He didn't miss the evaded gaze and wondered again how bad it had been. What kind of reputation had he gotten in this City, really? What kind of person had this other Ukitake been? Not wanting to continue that topic either, feeling a bit uncomfortable, he was grateful as Hitsugaya changed topic. "Well, I'm currently in charge of all the people of my division, and Abarai-fukutaichou. Kyouraku has the 4th division people, as well as Nemu. So perhaps those two? To make it a bit even?"

The next question put him in a bit of a fix and he sighed. "Inoue-san was kidnapped by arrancar. We started to plan a rescue mission but Kurosaki-san ran off on his own. It ruined our plan, so we had to do something else, and quickly. Seeing that we were two captains here, and a former captain, we set off to try and rescue her, but we were ambushed."

"The one and only, though not so small anymore." Toushirou scowled at the memory, Nerielle had practically showered him with the ‘shorty’ comments. Even though it was far beneath him to think such thoughts, he still felt ripped that the tiny arrancar had become so big it was almost like seeing a second Matsumoto. And what was with the name change anyways?

Take in Renji and Nemu? "That sounds fine to me." It was always a pleasure to work with Nemu (the immaculate notes!) and Renji was dependable when he didn’t involve himself in silly situations; the two would balance out nicely.

While he knew how kindhearted Ukitake was, rescuing Orihime from the arrancar after Kurosaki had left was a little weird. "Arrancars don’t play nice here, they also like hitting at your weaknesses again and again... so what happened? Why did Kurosaki Ichigo ruin the plan? And I see you’re all right now..."

The old captain was quiet for a moment again, before he spoke. "He didn't mean to, of course. Our plan was to get Inoue-san out without a fight, but since he attacked, it became impossible." Jyuushirou paused, brushing some hair from his face once more.

"...we couldn't release bankai due to the massive amount of energy that would create, because the arrancar brought Inoue-san with them when they ambushed us. It put us at a disadvantage. We were injured and forced to retreat."

He did not mention his attempt to release bankai anyway, when the battle had turned ugly - and the fact that his body gave up on him when he tried. It was still gnawing on his pride, to nearly be killed by an arrancar who wasn't even Espada, while his comrades stood their ground. He should have known better then to push it, but he had been so worried about the girl...

"I see..." Toushirou said quietly, already painting a mental image of what may have transpired. The reserved tone the other captain spoke in almost implied that someone had been seriously injured, though no name was offered.

"Well, I’m here now, again apparently, so that’s another able body around." He turned to talk to Ukitake properly, "I might not be as experienced as you geezers are, but I’m here and will most likely be here for a long while so... look up?" He had never been particularly good with words or with being reassuring, but Toushirou hope his message got through anyways.

Jyuushirou laughed slightly at that, and he gave the young captain a bright smile, some of the worried thoughts banished for now. "Yare, yare, we're not that old~!" He said, a bit amused by the other captain's words, but also touched by his attempt to cheer him up.

He put down the now empty teacup and nodded softly. "I'm really glad you are here, Hitsugaya-taichou. You are a good person and a good captain, and we truly need your strength in this place." There was another smile on the 13th division's captain's face, though more mellow then the first.

"Is there anything else you need to know?"

"Old enough," Toushirou grumbled. He had meant to the lift the older captain’s spirits, not fish for compliments of his own. Toushirou ended up looking down to hide a slight flush from embarrassment, though he was pleased with the words. It meant a lot to him when it came from Ukitake.

There wasn’t anything else he had to ask that he didn’t already know about or could easily guess from his surrounding and what was posted on the Network so he shook his head. "I think I’m completely up to date, if there’s anything I know where to find you now."

Toushirou stood up and patted straight his uniform, "So I guess it’s time I take my leave. I’m glad we had this talk, Captain Ukitake."

Too old, sometimes.

"That's good. If there's anything you need to know, just ask." Jyuushirou stood as well, though a little slowly, still looking a bit thoughtful. He shook the thoughts away again and then listened as the boy spoke.

"Saaa... so formal." He said, smiling at him. "But I'm glad we spoke as well, Hitsugaya-taichou. Please, take care, and do come and join me for tea some day."

That time, he'd have candy for him - he made a mental vow of that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Log; Complete

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject