A Most Unwelcome Delivery [Seiji]

[Hanaya Hirashi]

SQUAD FIVE VICE CAPTAIN FLOWER OF THE SEIREITEI TAG Ishikawa Seiji OUTFIT Shihakusho WORDS 396 NOTES Opener

S

ince her promotion, Hanaya's life had consisted, to a degree with which she was less than enthused, of paperwork. The normal administrative duties of a Lieutenant of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads would be enough on top of training in order to remain in shape, and develop and learn new kido. But she was also burdened with the work that her lazy sod of a captain was too bone-idle to do, which had really begun to take its toll. It felt, sometimes, like the lack of seated officers beneath her at this current moment meant that she ended up doing a lot of the work which might ordinarily be delegated out to underlings.

One such menial task was ferrying use-case documentation and development notes on the new kido developed by the Gobantai over to the Kido Corps, who needed all the notation they could get their hands on in order to keep up with the casting of kido throughout the Seireitei. Indeed, Hanaya herself, many ages hence, had been responsible for sorting incoming new kido and developing training regimens for quickly learning the spells. As a result, she was fairly confident that she could probably teach any kido in the catalogue to another soul reaper, even if she couldn't cast them all in combat.

It was a pleasant day, the sun shone overhead and the air was cooled by a soft breeze which sent the branches of the trees waving and sent white blades of wind rippling across the grass. Hanaya made the journey over to the Kido Corps' compound without any particular hurry, simply enjoying being out in the sunshine. Any excuse for an afternoon off, indeed!

She took pause as she approached the compound of the kido corps. It wasn't often she came here nowadays, and each time she had to take stock of that fateful evening. She looked down sadly, thinking of Guro, and what he'd sacrificed to buy her her freedom. After a few moments in her reverie, Hanaya shook her head. She couldn't be sad now; now was the time to live her life fully in honour of his memory. She strode through the passages and covered walkways before she arrived at the office where she'd been told to drop the papers, and knocked on the door.

"Hullo! Anyone there? It's Hirashi Hanaya here, from the fifth division!" she called out.

ISHY of THQ & ADOXOGRAPHY

[Ishikawa Seiji]

This whole place was a mess. Not in a literal sense of course, even in the middle of or in the aftermath of any crisis, most members of the Kido Corps generally kept things clean and tidy. Not as much as he would prefer of course, but he had very little say in things. Or at least, he had assumed such was the case prior to everything being thrown at them from Hell and back, quite literally. Budget cuts, even fewer seated members then before and most of them unsure of what to be doing, well it wasn't looking great to put it simply. In turn, it left much of the work to those who joined and managed to avoid fighting or had jumped aboard recently after hearing exploits about how such Kido helped the Gotei 13 to keep pushing forward. They weren't wrong of course, he had seen such himself, but that had come at the cost of lives. People he'd spoken with barely even a week prior. Now they were nothing but distant memories spoken about by those few who knew them, even less still now that most had returned to their regular duties. That had been his plan as well, at least to begin with. Spend days resuming his training with far more intensity than before, despite gaining valuable experience, the emerald haired Shinigami knew he could do better. Be better. Even if it meant working himself to the bone or till he passed out, it would be worth it in the end. Right?

Wrong. There had been no such chance to improve, his time once spent reading, learning and improving was now consumed instead with piles upon piles of paperwork. Passed down to him, a mere unseated at that, from the higher ups. Simply because he was, as they oh so helpfully put it, 'good at this sort of thing, despite being from Rukongai'. Bastards the lot of them. Just because he could write in a way, scratchy though it was, that could actually be read by most unlike some here. He would have thought that for scholars of such magic, they'd learn how to document and let their words be legible on a page. Clearly he had been mistaken, thank the heavens for Shin and the academy both for teaching what they could. The occasional memory sprung forth of others teaching him, with well manicured hands and skin, a thought he quickly banished with a shake of his head and a glance out the window. Already, the early morning had turned almost into the afternoon. Great.

With a groan, a concealed gaze refocused itself on the stack before him. Just because they held a higher rank, did that always mean he had to do their dirty work? Frankly, he was tempted to torch the lot with some Kido, see how they liked having to redo and write it all out themselves. Of course, he knew they weren't all doing it to be lazy per say, other things required more urgent attention. Rebuilding first, that was the priority. But damn if he didn't want to abandon this oppressive room filled with nothing but forms, even if he had done just that yesterday. For the entire afternoon, a slow trip across the whole Seiretei and a rather pleasing late afternoon nap had been quite the day. Probably why he'd been harshly reprimanded that morning before being put to work, it wasn't as if other unseated could help either. Most were on other errands, delivering messages and such, or outside training. Faint weaker explosions occasionally reaching his ears, signs of those that remained still working to gather their strength. All except him, it seemed.

Or at the very least it seemed that way until he heard footsteps beyond the doorway. Not uncommon but when he was aware that most of the Squad weren't due to back to be wandering about for at least a another hour or two, told him one thing. It had to be someone from another Squad, looking for one of the seated officers perhaps? Most likely. A slight furrow to his brow, brush set aside for now as he stood, stretching even as he heard a voice beyond the door. And just before that, two rather soft knocks, familiar even without the feminine vocal tones calling out. It was someone he knew, if only briefly in passing. He had still been ever so new when she had left, barely three months into joining the Kido Corps as a fully fledged Shinigami. Now he was having to fill out paperwork for the absent higher seated members, how fun it was to have to complete such work. Even dying hadn't meant he could just relax, oh no far from it.

"Ya coulda warned me ya were comin' Hana-chan." Words drifting, drawling, amused and showing far less respect for someone who was now a Lieutenant than he probably should. But that mattered little to him, even as he opened the door to see that same sight he recalled from months before, only closer now. A Cheshire like smile, as always, present as he greeted her and stepped aside to let the shorter Shinigami into the office. Not his really, he was just borrowing it for the time being. Well, more like told to get paperwork done and given nowhere to do so. Eh, details, who needed them? "Please tell me that paperwork yer holdin' ain' fer me, that yer just stoppin' by and yer'll take it elsewhere?" Anything but more of the stuff to drag down his day, he had enough to do before the evening as it was.

[Hanaya Hirashi]

SQUAD FIVE VICE CAPTAIN FLOWER OF THE SEIREITEI TAG Ishikawa Seiji OUTFIT Shihakusho WORDS 492 NOTES Blah

H

anaya was surprised to see a familiar face as the door before her opened. It took her several moments to place her old corpsmate, and a brief look of uncertainty flashed across her face, betraying her before the light of recognition came on behind her eyes. Her immediate instinct was to smile, a couple of seconds more passing before she fully registered what Seiji had said. Her smile at seeing him again vanished, and was replaced by a look of mock outrage. Her brow furrowed dangerously, her cheeks puffed out around pursed lips as she pushed past him into the office, placing the precarious pile of papers onto what looked like an already pretty cluttered desk.

"Uhm, exc-huuuse you, I think you'll find it's Hirashi-Fukutaicho to you now, Ishikawa-kun." Having been raised in the Seireitei, Hanaya was not so willing to dispense with formalities; all the times they'd been drilled into her head by her sister-in-law and father-in-law made it difficult for her. Though in reality, she wasn't nearly as put out as she was making out; what with her arms crossed; her foot tapping; her one eyebrow raised so dangerously high it had disappeared beneath her bangs; and her upturned nose. She could see Seiji's smile, and for a brief moment she relished the abject cruelty which she was about to unleash upon him, a grin spreading across her own face, before she took pause. No, she shouldn't feel good about this, it was too mean, even if, from what she little she knew of this guy, he himself was a wind-up merchant too. "And honestly, I had no idea you'd be here. Since when did they have guys like you set up doing paperwork anyway? Too good for seals and portals now? Or Soshuu and Lieutenant just offloading everything onto the little guys?" she asked casually, thumbing nosily through all the papers on the desk with an air of indifference, one hand absent-mindedly twirling one of her bangs around its index finger. "Goodness, your handwriting is messy. Then again you are a ma-" she looked him up and down, "a boy." she giggled.

As he asked her about the papers, she couldn't help but guiltily avert his gaze from him, biting her red lower lip in order to suppress a rueful laugh. She looked from the pile back up at him. Her hands were clasped before her now, like a naughty schoolgirl, which was a strange juxtaposition with the vice-captain's badge on display on her tricep. She rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet.

"I'm very sorry Ishikawa-kun, but it looks like you're square out of luck." she told him with barely supressed mirth. At least it wasn't her that was getting dumped on for once. Thanks Wycliff... "I was told to bring that here to get done. So if you're here doing paperwork, welp, it looks like you're my recipient!" she said sunnily.

ISHY of THQ & ADOXOGRAPHY

[Ishikawa Seiji]

For a moment, just a split second, it seemed as if she had forgotten. Not him, he was never truly that important, nor had they spoken much during her time here, but more precisely why she'd come here in the first place. Confusion, just the barest flicker of it, then a slow dawn of understanding. Like sunshine peeking through the clouds when she at last registered just who he was, who had addressed her. He had not changed that much in a handful of months had he? Seiji did not believe it so, perhaps his reiatsu signature had shifted a little, more settled and stronger now. A shorter blade now resting upon part of the desk he'd sat at rather than the katana many in the Corps had gotten used to him walking around with, the only part that remained uncluttered and tidy. Gently set down hours before, within his reach in a split second if he needed it, he doubted it. But the risk of leaving it in his chambers and the distress that would come with it, was far too much to content with. So, he had brought his Zanpakuto with him, needed or not, the mere existence of a weapon at his side was a comfort. Frankly, he wasn't sure what that said about him but Seiji would not question his own instincts now.

Though he did the polite thing and stepped aside to let her into the room, as he expected, she moved with intention and if he hadn't he suspected she might have tried to forcefully budge past him. A flicker of a smile almost neutral with his back to her, only as he shut the door, before it returned to it's proper place. Not happy but affixed there as others and even he expected it to be. Papers placed to that same desk, next to a stack already done, great now he would have to resort everything into a proper placement now. Even more work. "Sure publicly it is Hana-chan, but we ain' in public right now are we?" An amused tone, despite knowing she was most jesting then holding any truthful upset behind the correction. Of course, around others he would be as respectful as he needed to be, but here? Well it wasn't really important. Not to him, not when there were better things he could be doing with his time then remembering someone's title.

Such a tone was one he'd heard from her before, simplistic attempts to mislead and tease and typically it would simply wash over him with a smile, followed by his own perhaps slightly harsher retort. Or at least, that was how things had usually gone between them, but something else stopped him. A smile remained, but his body straightened. Like being caught and strung around a wire just ready to snap, instead he exhaled slowly. Knowing she would likely not notice, too focused on the papers strewn about the desk. Forms he'd had to go and grab from their respective places of work, each individual office, or at used what they used to be. For a moment as she finished, Seiji paused to mull over the right words. Never had he been any good at this. "Soshuu-san an' Akabe-Fukutaichou are, well they ain' makin' me do all o' this. I offered ta help a lil' bit. They, neither of 'em survived the invasion." He said with a shrug, he had never been massively close to either of them. But with the uppermost leadership of the Kido Corps now deceased, it had been difficult to adjust, for everyone. Maybe it was better to just get it out, better than beating around the bush and pretending they were still living.

"Ya can say what'ver ya like 'bout me Hana-chan. Unlike ya, I didn' grown up all prim an' proper so 'cuse me fer not havin' been taught fer years." If she saw him as a man or simply a foolish boy wasn't important as far as Seiji was concerned. He wasn't here, doing any of these to please anyone, he'd graduated the academy to here for himself. For a memory, not for anyone living. His upbringing evidenced enough by his tone, the slang to most words that he still hadn't quite gotten rid of. He could certainly try if he wanted to, there was simply no incentive to. Plus, it really annoyed any nobility that wandered about while he patrolled and that was a win in his book. Try as he might to lighten the mood, speaking of death always soured it, though such memories of being told did not stop a slight huff breaking from between smiling lips at her confirmation. All this darn paperwork was likely for him. Oh great.

With nothing more said, he approached her and that desk he'd been all but chained to. Steps even as he reached the well worn wood and slightly faded chair, not to sit but to begin scanning through the stack she'd dropped off to sort. Onto a smaller desk in the leftmost corner of the room. Most were to go to others, thankfully and so after a few minutes only a small pile remained that he personally would have to see to. If nothing else, unsettling as some may find him, he was an organized man. Always had been, or so Shin had told him. "Ya need it by the end o' today?" Conversational, brief even by his standards as he meandered from one part of the room to another. Settling things on the desk as he preferred them, to begin the horrors of paperwork once more. Ugh.

[Jeff Franklin]

I count 18 paragraphs awarding both participants 90 TP!