"I was just taking a walk and I dropped by to tease you." — Gin Ichimaru.
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Junpei sighed for the umpteenth time in the last hour and ran a hand over his face in an exasperated show of his boredom. It was one of those rare days where he had absolutely nothing to do. No Shinigami duties, no Soi-Fon-saddled duties, no innocuous mission or orders from his Captain – it was a truly free day, one he had resolved to enjoy to the fullest.
A hot spring, a fancy restaurant, a stroll through the grassy fields — a good day to cleanse his poor overworked soul. He had earned it. Years of servitude and duties and the world had rewarded him with a day all to himself.
He should have known. It couldn't have been that simple.
First was his morning. After immediately departing the Captain's office and about to commence his relaxation, he came across two quarreling Shinigami. It was something trivial but it was heating up to becoming a huge argument so in his good mood he decided to intercede and help them settle it, and he did. And that had been the start of it.
One after another, small disruptive incidents started happening to him that gradually left him fed up. He forgot his badge. He forgot his wallet. He lost his wallet. He found his wallet. The restaurant was under renovation. He was dragged into a conversation he had no interest in. A Captain gave him a message to pass to his Captain. He was hounded for two hours by that pink demon who wanted to drag him along for their Division's humiliation ritual. And he lost his wallet again.
Slowly and surgically, every excitement he had for the day was sucked out of his body and left him a depressed husk.
So now here he was, sitting on an unnamed rock in… wherever he was at the moment, sulking and contemplating if he was just that unlucky.
He could train or meditate or do anything else but he didn't want to. Not today. He wanted to be lazy for just a single day. Was that too hard? It's been so long that he has forgotten how it felt like to just be aimlessly lazy.
"Haha, this is my life now." He laughed self-deprecatingly. It was a hollow and broken thing.
"I'm not even a hundred years old and I don't have a life outside my work. My life is done for, Shichishito." His head hung low as broken mumbles left his lips.
"Eh, that you Junpei?"
Junpei's head rose slowly to look at the person who called him and it was none other than Kuko, the Chief Priest.
"Something up with you, man? You look off."
"Fine." Junpei groused. A moment passed and he looked up at the clouds and looked completely defeated as he did so. A moment passed and then came the sigh of acceptance. Today was just not his day.
"What's up with you, Chief Priest? Classes?"
"No, not today. I checked out a few stores and I was even lucky to be invited by some Shinigami to check out some parts of their Division. It was the 7th and the 9th Division. Man, I can't wait to graduate."
Junpei chuckled at that. Chief Priest looked at him but he didn't elaborate. The boy's view was so similar and different that it was like looking at each other from both sides of a mirror.
"How are you guys preparing for your final exams?" He asked instead and caught a wince from the boy. "That bad?"
"Not for me, no. But for some of the others, maybe. It's like they know they can pass the exams but they don't want to." There was a frown on his face as he said that.
"Ah. Yeah, that makes sense." That he understood. He shrugged at the questioning look. "They're scared. Of fighting Hollows on their own. It happens every time, especially after the final assessment. It started happening a lot after he was put in charge of the final assessment."
"Ah. That makes a lot more sense."
"Yup."
"I mean, I can't really blame them, but when I found out it felt like I was lied to." Chief Priest Kuko shook his head and turned to face Junpei. "Say, if I were to join the 2nd Division, how far do you think I am from a Seated Officer?"
Junpei raised a brow at the question though the look in his eyes changed, becoming more piercing and cold.
He laughed. It came out low and shallow. "One of the Ten Seats? Nowhere close, I'm afraid."
That took the boy by surprise as evidenced by the look on his face. He knew they were stronger but surely he wasn't that far off from at least the Tenth Seat.
"Even if I had my Shikai?"
The smile on Junpei's face stretched. "Even if you were the strongest in your year."
Now he looked doubtful. "The strongest Division is the 11th, right? I've met their Tenth Seat and while I'll say he's stronger, I don't feel like the gap was that high. Tōshirō might even be on that level, probably stronger in my opinion. Are you trying to say Tōshirō wouldn't be good enough for the Tenth Seat in the 2nd?"
Junpei laughed humorously. "Right, right, the 11th is the strongest like they say, but… you know what, just forget about it. You think too much, Chief Priest."
Junpei jumped off the rock that had been his brooding companion for the last hour. He was clearly in a better mood than he had been as he kept snickering as he walked off.
"See you next week, Kuko. And tell the others to expect a test."
Kuko's face turned ashen. "Crap, a surprise test. Well, at least he's in a better mood than before."
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Junpei walked back to the 2nd Division and went straight towards the Captain's office where one could sense only a single Reiatsu from.
"Huh? No one told me there was a meeting."
He arrived at the door and knocked twice before entering.
"I did not receive a message." He gave the only excuse he had. No one in the Division was brave enough to miss a meeting, especially one called by the Captain, not even the ever willful Snake. Junpei had zero desires to be the first.
So when he saw the five figures in the room, he immediately said the only thing he could.
"There was no meeting. We arrived at the same time is all." Soi Fon easily supplied. "Enjoy your day off?"
He wanted to roll his eyes at her but he was smart enough not to. Years of knowing her made it abundantly clear that she did not tolerate any sort of sassiness from anyone. And he wasn't particularly in the mood for being stung.
There were six people in the room, including him, and of those six three were at the level of a Captain in every measurable facet.
The first being the Captain himself.
Now, who was the second? For anyone who was part of the Division before the Captain took the role, the answer was simple; Soi Fon.
And it wasn't because she just happened to possess Bankai, no. She had a mastery of every core aspect of a Shinigami that she could fight a Captain-level opponent without her Zanpakutō.
So yeah, no prissy attitude around the literal queen bee.
Now who was the third you'd wonder? Well it was obviously not Junpei, as much as he would have loved it to be him.
If every old member of the Division knew that Soi Fon was at the Captain level, then Junpei was sure that no more than 4 people knew who the third Captain-level Shinigami in the room was.
He wouldn't have known either if the Captain hadn't told him.
That sly bastard of a snake, Snake, was the third Captain-level in the room. He never spoke in anyone's presence except the Captain's, never took a message except directly from the Captain, rarely ever fought, even during the few times they sparred.
Three Captains in one room, and then there was Yoruichi Shihōin, the fourth Captain in the 2nd Division. In Junpei's opinion, she was frankly the most terrifying of them directly after the Captain. For the simple reason that she had never once carried a Zanpakutō.
"Not really. It was uneventful for the most part."
He remembered the boy's words of the 11th Division being the strongest and chuckled under his breath.
Junpei wasn't one to brag or chase after vapid sensations, but one thing he had pride in was in his teacher's work.
Singlehandedly, Itachi Uchiha brought the 2nd Division from being slightly better than average to a Division that housed four Captain-level Shinigami. The Division's average level Shinigami with the bar of other Divisions. They were undisputedly the strongest Division and it wasn't even close.
This was Junpei's pride.
"I have a question. How do you guys enjoy your free time?" He asked.
"Hobby." His Captain replied from where he and Soi Fon were calmly sipping their tea.
Junpei frowned. He did a few things to have fun, like the ones he'd planned to do today, but none of them were what he'd call a hobby.
"Like what?" He just couldn't picture it for most of them present to have an enjoyable pastime.
"Calligraphy." The Captain replied. He could see that.
"Calligraphy and painting." Soi Fon said, and he just couldn't see it. The words 'painting' and 'Soi Fon' did not match. But that wasn't the end.
"Fishing." The Tiger replied. With a mask like that, Junpei will never believe it.
"Knitting." For the Fox he could see that, if he squinted just right from the right distance.
"Reading, and sometimes baking." The Snake said.
Junpei gave him a deadpan from across the room. "Liar."
The Snake nodded. "That too."
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