Fifth Division Captain's Office

Shinji made a grimace. “That’s the understatement of the year,” he growled. He looked down at Hinamori with the cat. “The Ise warrior is still with him, too, even if he all but ignores her. I don’t know how long that will last.”

The cat nodded its head slowly. "Like any woman in love with a man. She will stay with him until the end. Not to mention." the cat leap to the Captain's head and sat down, lowering its face into his face.

"She is his loyal lieutenant. She will go nowhere without his orders and then that might be a fight as well if he tells her to go away."

Shinji's eyes rolled.  "If only the fights that came from it would result in him snapping out of it." He looked up to the cat.  "Would things be better if Ukitake remained and we were still in the prison?  Or would we still be stuck in some sort of quagmire due to your brother-in-law?"  He winced as the cat bat at his nose.  "Hey, it's better than being the captain that should have drowned him from the start." 

Shinji shook his head. “After the display of Matsumoto’s death, even a pessimist like me thinks that Ukitake could be alive, and with Kita and Yumiko there, as well as your man, someone is there to take care of his illness…. if they care.”

He looked back outside. “That first rescue mission went so well. Even with Shunsui being unresponsive, I imagine we would need daredevils for each member…” he paused and kicked a book to the ground as he sat up. “And ones that aren’t captains. Baby captain and his lieutenant will start complaining if they have to take care of more than three divisions, though I hear Soi Fong woke up.” He looked to Yoruichi for confirmation.

Shinji’s eyes glittered strangely. “You know that answer, Queen Cat. With our death, if we let it,” the Visored replied. He followed his lieutenant’s path as she stepped in front of a curious healer, taking her hands and raising them to the correct position for the kido spell. “Then again, some say people in death have nothing better to do than haunt those they care for - sometimes becoming monsters themselves.”

Squinting eyes at her, Shinji waved her hand off his shoulder. “Yeah, yeah, I get that, but I’m not one for big speeches or hope stuff. That’s Juu-” He fell silent, and his eyes hardened. Flinging a kido at a vase nearby, shattering it, he leaned against the windowsill again. “I just hate waiting and actually having something to protect, that kind of shit, you know.  I'm more the action and get-things-done kind of guy."  

He looked to his division below and sighed.  "Really, why in the hell did that old firecracker make me a captain?  He knew I think people are supposed to take care of themselves and I hate being caught looking after them." 

He sighed again, scratching the bridge of his nose.  "Times like this are the dumps." 

Shinji growled and bared his shark smile.  "I'll show you slow, cocky Queen Cat, if you dare do that-"

He halted as she swiped at his nose.  And made a face.  Folding his arms, he turned away, vanished and appeared right in front of her, upside down on the ceiling.  "Save that energy for our enemies and go back to what you're good for, Kitty Cat, or I really will waste my energy playing with you~" 

"Dawning Days" continued:

There was something missing. With the cleanup in his courtyard. Something important. Shinji’s eyes narrowed and he vaulted off the bench he had been lounging on. Eyes narrowed flashes of amber in his irritation, he searched out a fitting victim.

And seized the back of someone’s jersey. It ripped as he brought that person to eye level.

“Shinji!” Hiyori growled. She flung her fist at him, but she was still one of the shortest people he knew. It was easy to dodge her. Or swing her in another direction. “Fuck you! Hentai! Oni! Let me go!”

“What’s missing?” he asked.

“Wha- What the fuck do you mean?!”

He shook her, eyes turning a bit wild. “What IS missing here, Saragaki?” She froze at that look and the mention of her surname. “I need to know.”

Hiyori folded her arms. “Let me down and I’ll look around,” she muttered.

Her cousin did and turned away from her. Folding his arms across his chest, he glared at the surroundings, fingers tapping along his haori.

That was never a good sign.

HIyori huffed, blowing her bangs out of her face, and focused on the task at hand.

She paused.

“Well?” he snapped.

“Your trees are gone,” she muttered, her mood failing. “Your damn peach-”

She staggered as Shinji swung on her. “Hey, you-”

Shinji’s hunched shoulders shook as his second fist slammed into the wall next to her, splitting his knuckles. “Fucking not enough time,” he hissed.

Fade

Suzume waited for the partners to switch positions and resume the drills below before speaking up. Setting a cup that had fallen in his rage back on the desk, she jabbed a finger at the reports on his desk. “If you’re going to be a bull-headed clown of a captain, we won’t have a full report ready for the commander in time,” she growled back. She pointed to the window. “Officers’ games or not. We need Momo’s notes – especially since you have never gotten off your lazy bum and made a record yourself.”

“I don’t need them. It’s all in my head.” Shinji leaned forwards and glared into the dark, stubborn gaze before him. “If you can’t remember enough, and don’t have it ready, Officer Shizuka, then you’re not qualified to be wearing that badge, now are you?” he seethed.

Suzume huffed. She was not backing down from the position, not after Urahara had asked her to do honor to her best friend by taking over the position of lieutenant. Even with present Demon captain setting her up to fail day after day, week after week, she wasn’t going to quit. He was not an Ayakashi and this was her home. She would get him to see sense.

“Cat got your tongue?” he sneered.

Suzume sat on the edge of the desk. “Sorry, sir,” she retorted. “I wasn’t paying attention to your complaint. I was too busy looking for the point of infection in the angry dog before me. Do you think he’s rabid?” she continued, making an inquiry.

"Should he visit 12th division for treatment?"