-Ichi
Nearly one-hundred and ten years had passed since Karin Kurosaki became my third seat, and the Tenth Division barracks hadn’t calmed down once since then.
“Did ya hear? Captain Ukitake is retiring upon Captain Morita’s suggestion and there’s going to be a new captain of the thirteenth.”
I looked up at the black haired woman. She had grown a lot in her human years. Her hair was longer, she was taller and curvier, and her face wasn’t as round. She hadn’t changed in terms of personality though. Still so much like her brother, still so stubborn and opinionated.
“I’m a Captain, of course I heard. I was at the captains’ meeting when Captain-Commander Kyoraku informed us of it,” I sighed and returned to my work.
“Do you know who it is?” Rangiku Matsumoto sat up from her position on the office couch.
“Why is it that you fall asleep when there’s work, but add gossip into the mix and your eyes are wide open?”
She pouted. “No need to get judgemental. Besides, I already knew this. Rukia told us at our vice-captains’ meeting.”
“So do you?” Karin asked.
“No. But there’s going to be a new captain for the Eighth Division too, and apparently, but you didn’t hear this from me, the two captains are related.”
“What?! But I heard the new vice-captain of the Eighth and the new Thirteenth captain were related! Not the two captains!” Matsumoto jumped up, putting her knees into the couch, her chest bouncing.
“Wait, where’d you hear that rumor, Toshiro?”
“Call me Captain!”
“She’s right! Who’s the gossiper now!?”
I turned on Matsumoto. “I’m not gossiping! It’s just something I heard going around. I don’t know if it’s true or not.”
“What if all three are related?”
Matsumoto and I looked at Karin.
~~~
It was almost a week later. I headed down--or rather up--towards the First Division barracks for the captains’ meeting, in which the two new captains were to be accepted into our ranks. Like usual, Ichigo Kurosaki was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs into the upper part of the barracks.
His hair had gotten a little longer again. It was down to the bottom of his ears. Black fingerless gloves adorned his hands. Black and white straps were wrapped around his arms and chest. His haori was sleeveless. He had left Zangetsu back in his room, apparently, as the large sword was absent from his back. The sash around his waist, outside of his haori, was orange, matching his hair. The story was that it was a gift from Karin as a joke. Matsumoto would always laugh and say that between his hair and the sash, the inside of his haori didn’t match; it was a pale purple.
“Why do you always wait for me here?”
“Because you’re the only one besides Byakuya and Jushiro that I really know. And well, Byakuya is still as cold as ever and Jushiro is kinda slow to get here. Just don’t tell him I said that, especially since he’s leaving.”
“So I tell you that I’m glad you were the next captain of the Eleventh Division and automatically we’re friends?”
“Colleagues then? It’s better than what we were before I became captain.”
“And what was that?”
“Nothing. Your words.”
I scoffed. “Let’s go,” I said as I started to climb the stairs.
Kurosaki came about his position when Kenpachi Zaraki was unexpectedly promoted to the Royal Guard, Zero Division. Of course, Yachiru went with him, and no one made any fuss about it. Apparently the Reio was confident enough in Zaraki that he’d even accept that the pink haired devil accompany him. Kyoraku proposed to the rest of us captains that Kurosaki become the next Eleventh captain since it was more likely that the Division would accept him as opposed to someone else. They knew he was strong and Kyoraku and the rest of us knew he was capable of the job. He declined at first, but later accepted when his sisters, Yuzu and Karin died in a car accident and arrived in Soul Society. Later Yuzu and Karin Kurosaki joined the Shino Academy and became Shinigami.
As we made it to the top we spotted Byakuya Kuchiki. “Oi! Byakuya!” Said nobleman captain turned around, then proceeded to continue on his way to the captains’ meeting quarters. “Hey! Wait up! We’re all going to the same place.”
“Must you always use my first name?” Captain Kuchiki stopped once again. He turned to me. “And Kurosaki tells me that you heard that the two captains are related.”
I glared at the carrot top. “You told him what? How did you find that out anyway?!”
He raised his hand in defense. “Hey, don’t bite my head off. Karin told me and I asked Byakuya if he knew anything.”
“Arrgh! I told her not to say anything!”
“I do know something,” Kuchiki put his hand to his chin. We looked at him.
“I thought you said you didn’t?” Kurosaki’s brows knitted in confusion.
“If I had told you, you would have ended up telling it to everyone.”
“Er... good point...”
“Besides, I really shouldn’t say anything.”
“The don’t. Let’s go before we’re late,” I walked off. Kuchiki followed behind me.
“Oi! Don’t leave me behind!”
“Then hurry it up!”
We ended up being three of the last ones to arrive. We all fell into place immediately; Kyoraku up front, Soi Fon, Kashinro Morita, Kuchiki, and me on the left and Rose Otoribashi, Shinji Hirako, Sajin Komamura, Kensei Muguruma, and Kurosaki on the right.
No one had changed much, save for the attire. Soi Fon had grew her hair out a little, having slender pikes down the sides of her face and the back of her hair clipped upwards with a yellow hair clip. Apparently, Yoruichi Shihoin suggested the hairstyle. She said she didn’t like it cause it made her look too girlish, but she was too damn in love with the woman to change her hair.
Rose had his hair pulled back into a ponytail with a musical note hair pin. Other than that, he didn’t look much different.
Hirako had a silver chain choker with a long piece in front. He said that Hiyori Sarugaki gave it to him, intending it to be a collar for her to choke him with whenever he pissed her off. His hair was a little longer and he had blue fingerless gloves on.
Kuchiki had changed his kenseikan again, having two near his right temple and three in the back. He put his silk scarf back on, only this time it fell around his neck loosely, like a priest’s adornment. He still had the collar only instead of gold trim he had violet trim.
Komamura had only changed his forearm and shoulder guards to look like human samurai armor. But he also wore some sort of large chain around his neck that we called a collar (because we couldn’t figure out what it was supposed to be).
Muguruma had cut his hair again and changed his gloves. That was about it.
Kyoraku still had the eyepatch and his hair pulled back. He had a new kimono though. It was lavender with pink cherry blossoms and red trim.
And I had grew my hair out some again. I put the back into a small ponytail and the front fell over my left eye and down the side, although it started to spike upwards and back again, much like a lion’s mane. I replaced the teal scarf with a royal blue one. Kurosaki suggested that I tie it around my neck and let the ends trail down my back to make it look like an “aviator’s” scarf, so I did that. A few years back, Karin had bought me matching blue gloves that reached up to my elbows. I didn’t care for them at first but Matsumoto forced me to wear them and they grew on me. The teal scarf I had now had a double chain with it and wrapped around Hyorinmaru’s sheath and down my chest, holding it to my back.
“Well, now that everyone’s here, I’ll start,” Kyoraku clapped his hands together. “Today we’ll be welcoming our two new captains too our little circle. Now, they’re pretty special. They’re from the same clan and their clan is, well you’ll know once I introduce them. First, I’d like to welcome the new captain of Division Eight: Suisenro Koriyama.”
“Koriyama,” I whispered to Kuchiki. “Isn’t that...?”
“Yes. One of the Four Noble Clans,” he said back. “That’s why I wasn’t supposed to say anything. Their Head of Clan told us of this at the last meeting.”
The doors opened and in stepped a tall young man with long black hair tied high up in a ponytail with a blue tassel and ribbon and a silver hair clip piece pinned around the ponytail base that was adorned with sapphires. His fringe fell neatly around his face, only a few parts falling in front of deep, royal blue eyes. His haori had sleeves and fell only slightly loosely around his lean body. His sash and inner kimono was icy blue. A medium width, silver chain with a sapphire jewel near the clasp was wounded around his sash and fell down near his hip. On his right ear was a sort of silvery-white ear piece. One part attached to the rim of his ear, then a silver chain ran from the rim to a crystal earring on his lobe. It looked like something similar to Kuchiki’s kenseikan in the sense that it looked traditional and represented nobility. He wore silver wristbands. Instead of the normal Shinigami foot attire, he wore black flats like Soi Fon’s and white cloth wrappings around his shins like Yoruichi Shihoin. At his left hip was his zanpakuto; long and straight, instead of curved like a katana, with a lavender hilt and a deep blue sheath. He was very handsome... and very young.
He bowed slightly, smiling. “Good morning my comrades. I am honored to be accepted within your ranks.”
“He doesn’t seem like some stuck-up noble. No offense,” I told Kuchiki.
“Do not be deceived. He is a Koriyama prince.”
“Then he’s the heir to the Clan?”
“No.”
“And next,” Kyoraku said, “is our new Thirteenth Division captain. Welcome Suigetsu Koriyama.”
That name. I don’t know why, but it shot through my heart like an icy spear. No, like a burning, white-hot spear. It was painful to hear that name. But not that last name. The first name. I couldn’t even think it. It hurt too much.
Why did I know it was a female captain before she even walked in?
“She is the new head of the Koriyama Clan. Suisenro is her younger brother.”
She looked dangerous, sassy and, well, there were plenty of words. Over all, she was just plain scary looking. Not, however, in a Mayuri Kurotsuchi kind of way. More like in a Matsumoto-Shihoin hybrid kind of way.
She was busty but only slightly shorter than me. Her haori was sleeveless. Her hair was the strangest thing I had ever seen. It was all white and short, save for her long fringe which was black. Two parts fell along the sides of her round face and the front part was pulled and pinned back with a silver and sapphires ornamental clip, the ends of the front sticking up in makeshift cowlicks from the crown of her head. A few strands from the front fell over her forehead. Her eyes were cobalt and gray; a smoky, deep ocean color. They were big yet piercing. And her attire was... lacking... literally.
She wore a black kimono with a white one underneath, just like the standard shihakusho. However, she wasn’t wearing the hakama. Unlike Nemu Kurotsuchi’s, her kimomo was shorter and almost showed her behind. Only a tight fitting pair of training shorts and a long front and back cloth piece held around her waist by a silver chain concealed her privates, leaving her legs bare. She had the same earpiece as her brother on her left ear. Around her neck was a silver necklace with a crescent moon shape surrounding an aquamarine stone.
Strapped to her thighs were two dragon daggers, and to her shins were two kunai knives. Her zanpakuto was strapped to the outside of her haori at her right side. It was a strange looking thing as well. It looked like a ninja’s sword. It was straight and maybe an inch and a half wide across with no hilt or guard. Instead, it had a thick, gray string wounded around the end several times and a round ring at the butt with a silver tassel. The front of her kimono was open at the collar slightly, though not like Matsumoto. She had the same flats as her brother, only she didn’t have the wrappings. The flats were more like boots, ending at her upper shins. Her skin was a pale peach tint. She had a stoic look on her face. She revealed nothing. She was... cold as ice.
Am I looking in a magic mirror?
“Beware of her. She is never what she seems,” Kuchiki warned.
She isn’t what she seems...
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Yes, first Arc is in Toshiro Hitsugaya's point of view.
