A faintly singed scent lingered in the hallway. Morbidly curious, Rukia followed it. It seemed to be the same direction as breakfast, anyway.
Sneak on tiptoe. Peek through a strategic hole in a screen. Byakuya looking politely formal, check. Renji, disgruntled, but bright red hair neatly pulled back, sunglasses tucked up his sleeve, and mouth set in that way that said he was on his best behavior, check. Breakfast, check – a lot more hearty and a bit less elegant than normal, her brother must have put out extra in a hurry, which argued for more guests than Renji who were also important enough not to worry about the formalities of a Kuchiki clan meal. Captain’s white haori, singed at the edges- “Ukitake-taichou?”
Byakuya raised an eyebrow.
Flushing slightly, Rukia opened the screen and entered the room properly. “Good morning, Brother. Taichou-”
“One might say,” her brother murmured thoughtfully, “that fugitives are not entitled to formalities.”
Rukia froze.
“Great job, Kuchiki-taichou,” Renji growled, crossing the room in a sweep of long legs to haul her in toward the food. “S’okay, Rukia. Ukitake-taichou’s just kinda lying low here a few hours, ’til Yamamoto-Genryuusai cools down.”
“Literally,” her brother said dryly.
Rukia forced shaking fingers to close around a teacup, and swallowed a subtle gulp of fortifying heat. “What happened?”
Brushing a bit more ash off his sleeves, Ukitake gave her a rueful smile. “I obtained information from a-” he hesitated, obviously picking his words, “-knowledgeable source in Karakura, that the qualities we have seen demonstrated by Aizen’s shikai make it likely he is a Vaizard. The Commander-General was… less than pleased.”
“‘Least he picked part of town that was already wrecked to barbeque,” Renji quipped.
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
The Commander-General continues to the embodiment of cool, collected leadership I see.
And why do I keep feeling the urge to tell very old characters in various series to please, for the love of the spirits, grow up. I don’t care if you are X number of years older than me. Adults are not supposed to routinely react to not getting their way or being told something they don’t like by having a temper tantum. And the ones who do despite being an adult only deserve the same level of responsibility given to the average five year old.
It’s shame that we can’t put the old man in time out.
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“The Commander-General continues to the embodiment of cool, collected leadership I see.”
*snickers madly*
You’d think after several millennia, (and repeated exposure to Captains Ukitake and Kyoraku) he’d have developed some sort of restraint…
Why do I suspect he is the leading cause of local forest fires? 😉
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Some might argue being exposed to those two would tend to make someone more likely to lose their temper, not less. 😉
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OTOH, some places need to be burned down. Too bad he won’t aim for 12th division….
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One might argue that he’s getting flanderized pretty heavily here and in the actual series never stoops as low as temper tantrum levels. Granted he isn’t the most reasonable authority figure about a lot of things but he doesn’t just throw a fit every time something went not according to plan (at least not to his).
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No he doesn’t.
I think I was exaggerating in my comments because I keep running into hidebound characters who will not listen or are other being unreasonable authority figures and they really, really annoy me and the bunnies. And unfortunately for him, Yamamoto being kinda of prime example of such a character received my ire for all of them. Unfair – I’ll try to restrain myself.
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…He called his two oldest captains “brats” for opposing an execution, and then apparently tried to roast them alive, without caring whether or not they’d gotten to the edge of town before they started the fight. I’d call that temper tantrum behavior, myself….
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I’d call that temper tantrum behavior, myself….
Good point.
And he doesn’t do much with his screen time to improve this image.
Okay, previous statement about wishing I could put him in time out reinstated.
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He also isn’t always careful about his spiritual pressure around other people.
He almost crushed Nanao with it in that incident.
Didn’t even attempt to stop Soi Fon from summarily executing Ukitake’s third seats (and given how easily he got to that spot, he could have easily ordered that they be taken into custody unharmed).
Either the laws in the Soul Society are even more messed up than we thought (considering the only judging over the Gotei 13 also apparently makes their laws . . . and they have no right to appeal any of their decisions . . .) – meaning they have no obligation to take prisoners unharmed. Or even give them a trial.
Or Yamamoto obeys them when they are convenient to him and ignores them when they aren’t.
Or it is part of their ‘war time exceptions’ to not give quarter to anyone labeled an “enemy.”
Or something.
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Who knows? I think the world setup stopped making sense at a certain point…
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The Soul King lives in an invisible palace above the skies of Soul Society. He doesn’t move, and hasn’t been seen to talk to anyone but the senior man of the Zero division, the monk who hands out names. It is said that the organization of soul society’s government is according to the Soul King’s directions. As relayed through the Zero division.
Yamamoto is the indiscriminate force of destruction they recruited, back in the early days, to kill anyone who would stand in the way of their plans. (Unohana was recruited by Yamamoto for the same reason. In hindsight, it makes sense that Kyoraku would send her to her death. Long term, he probably couldn’t keep her on a leash the way Yamamoto could.) We mostly see Yamamoto in circumstances that are just on the edge of maybe being appropriate for him to revert to his past behavior.
Ukitake and Kyoraku are too young to have that baggage.
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…Knew I didn’t like the canon background past a certain point.
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Well, the Yamamoto backstory is introduced shortly before his death, flashing back to when the young Kyoraku and Ukitake are asking him what the phoenix painting is on this screen they found. It represents him, but he tells them that it is a horrible monster that is gone.
Likewise, Unohana and Zaraki’s shared backstory is revealed when they are sent to resolve their unfinished business.
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…Introduce his backstory right before he’s killed off? Gah. Talk about designed to frustrate your readers.
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Speaking as someone who has definitely thrown her controller at a wall when Yunalesca killed her for the 14th time…I can understand the impulse. OTOH, if you want to break something, you go do it in _private._ Is it still restraint when you just confine it to your own space?
Or you could always be productive and slaughter a few training dummies/punching bags, I guess.
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Or Hollows…. 😉
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