And The Lieutenants Finally Meet! [Closed]

It was indeed a fine day.  Weather like this would become rarer and rarer as Soul Society transitioned into another season.  Today though it was great, and it would doubtless be a pleasent evening as well.  Exactly the kind of day suited for slacking off somewhere comfortable.

That's how one Joshua Jehanna saw it as he stared out the window of his office anyway.  He was slouched forward, head resting on a hand.  His desk had two piles of papers on it.  It only took him a few minutes before he got up and began gathering his things.  First he summoned a Hell Butterfly and gave it instructions to bring a messenger.  Then he grabbed his jacket, Mikadzuki, and his hat.  Without any further delay or thought, Joshua exited his office and walked out into the late-afternoon sun with a smile on his face.  If he had to say one thing about Seireitei and Soul Society, it was that nice weather stuck around longer than it did on Earth.  Some parts of the planet were already in deep autumn and heading into winter.  Yet here, it was still so nice.

He new exactly the place to spend such an afternoon's transition to evening.  There was a little area off to the side of one of the main roads that had a few trees and some grass.  Some would have called it a park, but it wasn't large enough to really count as one.  That said, it was a very relaxing area within Seireitei.  It was also one of the places that Joshua did not frequent often; the key to being good at slacking off and napping when you're not supposed to is not being obvious of predictable about where you are going to be.  Joshua has spent most of his undeserved breaktime napping in less predicable places; the tops of buildings, in closets, there was the one time when he was napping under a bridge.  He hardly ever napped somewhere like this park, which was so perfect and predictable for a nap.

Which was why it would work now.  Those that had found him in the past had never found him here.  In fact, they may have looked here and never found the vice captain asleep in this place.  Which would mean that they'd write this off; it was now the last place they'd look.  Which suited Joshua just fine.  He arrived to find the park empty.  With a smile he jumped up, up, up and landed on a large tree branch.  From this vantage point he could see much of Seireitei stretching out before him, the afternoon sun beginning its descent.  Perfect.  He reached up, moved his hat down over his eye, and promptly began his nap.

He'd been out for a little over an hour whe something at the edge of his senses began to make him stir.  Over the years Joshua had gotten real good at tunning out most things while he napped; he could nap through speeches and random conversations from passers-by.  However, this was different; it was soft.  It barely reached his senses as he sat there on the tree-trunk; humming.  Someone was humming nearby.  He opened an eye and looked down to a most peculiar sight.  First Division Vice-Captian Yua Ichinose, circling his tree and humming to herself.  She seemed most distracted.

It was strange because Joshua would not have guessed that the First Division Vice-Captian hummed at all.  In meetings she was always distant and somewhat cold.  It was one of the worst kept secrets in Soul Society about why too.  She had been..preoccupied with a certain individual, and his sudden disappearance had made her into something of an ice queen.  To think she was hiding any kind of musical prowess.  He looked away, out over Seireitei, and simply listened for a minute.

Ah, but it was not a nice thing to do; spying on your fellow Shinigami.  It was very obvious that there was something on the woman's mind at this moment as she circled the tree, humming to herself.  Joshua wasn't one to pry; some would have taken that and left her to her own devices, seeking another place to relax.  Joshua, though, was no such individual.
"You hum very well; I bet you have a great singing voice hidden away there." he called down, just loud enough for her to hear.  No need to attract all the attention in the world.  He was still slacking off, you see.

It took her only a few moments to pinpoint his location, which wasn't surprising.  You'd be surprised how often people failed to simply look up as they traversed the world of their everyday lives.  However, once someone did it was usually hard to remain hidden in any sense; people weren't supposed to be up in trees, and even if people had been made to hide in trees Joshua just wasn't.  His hair was a little too bright.  She fixed him with a glare as recognition seeped into her features, if only for a moment.  Then she vanished.

He had never seen her Shunpo before, though he knew somewhere in her head that she could.  All Vice-Captains could, even little Yachiru.  However, he had never heard her hum either.  She didn't seem pleased to discover someone had heard her doing so, even if it was by accident.  As such, he had no idea how to take the sudden movement, and in a display of surprising quickness and balance he had pulled a leg under him and steadied himself on the branch, as though anticipating some kind of attack.  Granted, he mostly expected she might just push him off the branch.

Instead, she landed on a nearby branch and sat there as she questioned him.
"That is one way of looking at it I suppose; the wrong way though," he responded with a small smirk.  However, before he could continue her attention was grabbed by something, and she looked out over Seireitei.  She was right; he was appropriately shocked when she made herself comfortable and looked out over Soul Society.  He let a comfortable silence fall between them for a few moments as she took in the view.
"Its not that I'm slacking off just because I can.  I don't do it because its something to do.  I do it to keep myself grounded, ya see?"

It took him a moment to notice the irony in his own statement, but not one to miss a golden opportunity he made a small gesture at himself.  Because sitting there in a tree some twenty feet up was certainly him being 'grounded' and all.  He chuckled a little, even if she didn't.
"But jokes aside; we make our living fighting monsters.  People talk about conflicts with other races and the Earth is freaking out because now they know we exist.  If you don't take the time to sit and watch the world pass, it will leave you in the dust.  Besides, everyone needs to relax every now and then.

How about you?  What is the stern and reserved Vice Captain of the First Division doing out here, shirking off her duties and sitting in a tree with a layabout?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at her.  Sure, he didn't know her.  This was the first time they had interacted with one another in any real sense.  That wasn't going to stop Joshua though.  He was a people person after all; ask anyone in his division with the possible exception of his Captain and they'd tell ya as much.  It was obvious that something had thrown this girl off.  Most likely she wouldn't tell him; she didn't know him after all.  This also wasn't going to stop Joshua from at least offering her an ear.  Sometimes all others needed was someone to listen and they'd work out what was bothering them and how to solve it.  Sometimes they needed more.  Sometimes they needed nothing.

At the end of the day Joshua and Yua were comrades of a sort; they both belonged to the Gotei, even if they did serve different divisions.  Joshua stuck by his comrades as long as he could.

"Alright, alright. You're not not shirking off your duties," Joshua said with a good natured chuckle. For the most part, it seemed that Ms. Ichinose was more interested in enjoying the view. Now that he thought about it this was probably the first time she had seen this view. You'd be surprised how many people didn't do these kinds of things. So he let the silence settle in once more.

It was Yua that broke said silence. He looked over at her, raising an eyebrow as she spoke. Normally he would have been appropriately surprised by how conversational this particular vice captain was being. However, a questioning look came over his features as she spoke. She continued on, mumbling about how people were surprising her in general today. He was about to question her, to inquire about just what she had heard about him. However, she seemed to zone out after her comments. Most likely she was thinking about whatever had upset her He seemed to get his confirmation when she clenched her fist. There was a tear there.

There are many ways to go about comforting someone. Sometimes people needed an ear. Sometimes they needed a hug. And sometimes they needed a laugh.
"Wait a sec....what have you heard about me? Who is spreading lies about me?" he asked, mocked indignity in his voice. He turned to fully face her, legs dangling off the tree branch.

The reaction that Joshua got was most certainly not what he expected.  He had been joking, but Yua didn't know him so she didn't know that.  Heck, she apparently had the wrong impression of him so she somehow didn't even know that joking was like 80% of what he did when he wasn't napping.  She started falling backward, and Joshua reached out a hand.  It was nowhere near her though; power welled up within him for a moment.  Then Yua showed that she exactly had this covered as she spun herself around the branch and landed back on it.  The power that had welled up in a moment vanished as quickly as it had appeared.  Joshua raised an eyebrow.  There was a moment of quiet as Yua checked the back of her pants.  Before she began talking, Joshua began laughing.

It was warm laughter, mixed with a small amount of surprise.  Sure, it was well known that Yua was one fast Shinigami.  Acrobatics though were not something he had heard about.  He held his laughter to only a few moments though.  Yua brought up the source of her information, and everything made more sense.  Joshua gave a roll of his eyes.
"Ah, that makes sense then," he said, turning back so he could lean back against the branch once more.
"I wouldn't say that I'm completely on his "bad side" per say.  I mean, if I was I doubt he'd have kept me as his Lieutenant as long as he has.  We just completely opposite methods of operating.  What he calls laziness I call appreciating the world.  You'd never see Captain Kuchiki sitting outside like this, enjoying a day like this.  He'd rather be doing paperwork.  Its just not how I operate.  In our line of work you never know when you're going to run into your last battle; I rather enjoy as much of my life until that time comes," he said.
"I didn't try to startle you.  I tried to get your to laugh.  You're so tense I don't even need to know you to tell that.  Its like your impersonating Captain Kuchiki.  Or Captain Hitsugaya."

Talk about a hard-case, eh?  Maybe it was some constant in the universe that constantly caused these things to happen to him; he was so laid back that the most uptight individuals were drawn towards him to even the area around him out.

Not to say that Yua was 'uptight' in the same way that most would take it.  She wasn't stifling, which was what Joshua thought most people meant when they used the word uptight.  Perhaps it would be better to say that some people were uptight without being stifling?  Captain Kuchiki was uptight and stifling; it was like an aura of order around him.  Anything that did not conform to that would receive a cold stare and words.  Yua, on the other hand, just seemed to be wound a bit too tight.  Was the First Division that strict a place?  Was the Captain Commander worst than Byakuya?  Joshua hadn't heard anything like that, but sometimes the proof was in the actions and not the words.

Her words got to be a little distressing, though some would simply have passed for normal.  She spoke about how she wasn't sure if she had ever had a truly close call in combat; though she didn't know it, that said a lot about her.  She was certainly confident in her capabilites it seemed.  Proud of them even.  Joshua had been confident in his abilities the day he had died; you never knew how the cards were going to fall.  However, she mentioned how she wasn't sure how to have fun.  He looked at her a moment.
“You do things that make you happy. Its not hard.  You let yourself focus on the things that make you happy and stop worrying about work.”
Ceratinly wound tight.  You know the problem with things that are wound too tight?  Either they get loosened up or they break.

“Years?” he asked, looking at her again.  He blinked a few times before he turned his head out towards Seireitei, quietly thinking for a few moments.  Then he nodded to himself.  “That's...kinda depressing.”  He paused for a moment before he asked probably the weightest question he could after that.  “Why?”

Yeah...it seemed that the Vice-Captain of the First Division had more than a few issues.  I mean it was sorta known she had a few, but this was a whole new level.  Nothing that made her happy?  Why go on living if that was the case?  Duty; that'd be the answer most likely if he asked her.  Something in his gut told him that.  She amended her statement, and things got even bleaker.
“Geez...” Joshua muttered, pulling his hat down slightly as though he planned to just doze off with her right there.  However, he moved his hat up and away from his eye-line as he turned to face her.

Any trace that had remained of the lazy vice-captain that most of the Gotei knew was gone; no one lazy ever had eyes as clever as Joshua did.  They peered at Yua in the ensuing silence, as though he was really looking at her.
“There is no person, alive or otherwise, that lacks the ability to have fun.  There is no one who is fully incapable of experiencing joy or sadness.  There is no one who can not find entertainment in this world.  You simply have not let yourself feel those things, because you are hiding from something.  There is a pain you do not want to feel, and maybe its tied to this person you discarded.  Maybe to a memory.  Maybe to something as simple as a wayward instinct.

“Does nothing make you curious?  Does nothing awe you?  There was a person you admired, looked up to, something.  He instilled in you emotion, so you cannot lack them.  You say you train and that is all that you do, all that you are.  Captain Zaraki enjoys fighting more than any man I've ever seen; I imagine its because it makes him feel alive.  If your question is how do I have fun, then the answer is you do things you enjoy.  If it is then what do I enjoy, you have to ask yourself what makes you feel alive.  If you don't know that, you have to find out; you'll only do that by trying things, things that might hurt or turn out bad or be embarrassing,”

As sudden as it had appeared that intense focus vanished, and Joshua leaned back against the tree; the entire time he had still be smiling.  He was still the same happy guy, he had simply given her his entire focus for the span of words he used.  He wasn't done talking though.
“I like to fight a little.  I like to take chances.  I like to take walks in the afternoon sun and evening moon.  When I'm on patrol I like to see how the world has changed, the way people act.  I like to drink, to gamble, to joke.  These things and a million others; I do things that make the pain bearable, the fear miniscule, the absurdity irrelevant.  More than anything else, I like to live...even if I am technically dead.  I can't imagine going through life and never smiling.  Or having my smile tied to a single person; that's a difference between us I suppose.  Not a bad thing; the world would be very boring if those differences didn't exist.

Before you met this person that is so central to you, who were you?  You had to be someone.  Were you always so quiet then?  So serious?”

Ms. Ichinose certainly had a strange way of looking at the world.  Like he has said before, nothing wrong with that; it takes all kinds to make the world go round.  He listened quietly as she spoke, filling in a few of the gaps that surrounded her in his mind.  She had the sort of issues you heard fairy tales made of.  She turned away, seeming to come to some kind of realization about herself.  He left the air between them empty for a few moments.
“From where I sit, seems that's where you should start then.  You have to find out who you are now that this person is gone.  You've got nothing but time after all.  Besides, I'd say you're more of a person than you think you are.”  He gestured at her.  “Everyone knows of you, for the most part.  Your division members seem to think pretty highly of you.  You must have favorite kinds of food, weather you like.  Hell, you at least seem to have had a type of person you liked.”

“Life is all made up of experiences.  Joys and sorrows are just some of them.  Certainly there was a time when you were happy while that person was around.  It may be hard to see now, hard to recall it, but its there.  The sorrow is here now.  The annoyance will be here later.  And a thousand other emotions to go along with it.  You have a loose grasp on your emotions, on what makes you go.  I don't think you're as lost as you think you are.  I just think you've forgotten how to read the map, if you get what I mean.”
He went back to being quiet, his expression suddenly pensive.  He seemed to think for a few moments, phrasing the question that had come to mind to get her to think about it.
“If the Gotei were to vanish, but the monsters remained, would you still draw your sword?  No duty, no responsibility, nothing like that.  If you were free of all those things, would you still draw your blade?  Why?”

Joshua wasn't entire sure he believed the other Lieutenant when she spoke up about not having favorite weather or food.  It wasn't that he believed she was lying to him, per-say.  It was more that Joshua thought that maybe she just didn't realize what those things were when they weren't happening.  Maybe it was just a coping method for Joshua; a person who held no joy in life was a foreign concept to him.  Even the most twisted, sadistic people he had ever met had enjoyed something. True apathy towards all things didn't seem a viable life strategy you could see; what would give you the motivation to get up in the morning if you valued nothing?  He didn't bother to voice most of these concerns though.  She seemed to digest his last question.  He raised an eyebrow when she spoke up.
“Think nothin' of it.  My pleasure to have spent a late afternoon in such company I'd say,” he said, flashing her a small smile in return.

“Okay...” he responded before she launched into her questions.  “Three things, got it,” he said; he didn't even seem to register the dull glare that followed.  He rolled some things around in his head for a few moments.
“Welp, that's hard to say actually.  I haven't exactly seen what you're capable of as far as combat goes and that's a lot of what flies around here.  I've heard you're pretty fast, marvelously skilled, and deadly focused.  Some say you're heart has been turned to stone by a terrible scorn you've suffered while others think you've just retreated.  I think, speaking frankly, you've got a few issues in you're head and heart you have to work through, and that you go to pretty far lengths to hide them for the most part.

“All that said, you seem like a good person.  I think everyone has their issues in this world, and in most others for that matter.  I've heard it said that every person has a question that lies at the heart of their being, and that all the trials they put themselves through is simply an attempt to find that question and answer it.  I think you're lost in some senses and that you're the only one who can lead your way back to yourself.  I also think you're probably one of the most grounded and practical people around; you carry yourself well, you keep things close.”  When Joshua wanted to be (which was pretty often to be fair) he could be pointedly honest.  He let all of that settle in for a few moments.
“Above all else, I think you're hurting and afraid to get hurt again.  But I believe, from what I've seen of you now, that you'll come out of it just fine given time.”

He reached up and pulled the hat off his head, his crimson hair hanging straight.  He held the hat in his hand for a few moments, looking at it before he looked her way again, giving her a small grin.
“The hat is cool, and I like it,” he said, and for a few moments it seemed like that was all he was going to say about it.  His eyes seemed to focus on something farther away.
“Unlike a lot of people here in the Soul Society it seems, I still have memories from what I was alive ya see.  Maybe it had something to do with the fact that, I think, I could use spiritual energy when I was alive.  I had a hat like this when I was alive, and I came to Soul Society with it.  So you could say its part habit, and part memento.  It reminds me of where I came from, and a lot of what I've gone through.  It also helps me feel different from the rest of the people around here.  Everyone walks around wearing exactly the same thing as everyone else, as is our uniform.  It just doesn't fit me though, and I don't feel as though I can really fight well when dressed in the normal uniform.  So I modified my own.  And kept my hat.”  He looked back over at her.
“Why?”

“For a while, I just sorta wandered around,” Joshua said, replacing his hat on top of his head.  He smiled as he thought back to those first months in Rukongai.
“Really, I did nothing one could call productive.  At first I was confused; I wasn't native to Japan.  The dress, the customs, the people; all of it was strange and foreign.  After I got around that though I started making sense of this strange and dirty place I had found myself.  I ended up in one of the outer districts of Rukongai for a few months.  I half-settled into a 'life' out there, but I came to the same conclussion there that I did when I was alive; that this life was only what you made of it.  That people were the same alive as they were dead, and that given the right circumstances anyone can turn bad.  When Shinigami purify a soul, the bad eggs are supposed to head off to hell.  However, some of those eggs don't spoil till they end up here I think.”

“So anyway, the fledgling spiritual power I had when I was alive seemed to have vanished when I died.  Turned out I was wrong, and given about nine months and a small fight over a certain hand of cards it came back.  By then I knew about Shinigami and all.  A couple days after that I started to get hungry, and there was only one place to really get food.  So I sauntered on over the the Shinigami Academy and had a conversation with some of them.  Only took a little persuasion before I managed to get in.  The rest, as they say, is history,” he said with little flourish.  Speaking of food, he'd have to get something to eat soon.  At the very least he did enjoy the Japanese style of food that was so prevalent here.

“I passed the Academy by in a handful of years, moved around a couple of divisions, and ended up tucked away in the 10th for a good long time.  Then things got messy, and I got transferred and bumped up.  Eventually, ended up Vice-Captain.  Just how things panned out.  Could be much worse, all things considered.”  He looked out over the surrounding buildings of Seireitei and smiled.
“Ah, it begins.” he said, and shot a glance at her.  Gestured out towards the sprawl.  A few moments later the sun began to fade as it set; torches and lights suddenly flickered into life as the sprawl lit up in the early evening.
“Lot of people like the look of Seireitei at night.  I hear even your captain does; how about you?”

Joshua didn't miss the small smile that managed to show through on the First-Division Lieutenant's face; this prompted another from himself before he looked back out at the lights of Seireitei. Maybe he had been more right than he had thought; she knew how to smile, even if she didn't. For a little bit, they sat in silence.

“When was the last time you were on a mission?” Joshua's face took on a slightly perplexed look; both because of the abrupt direction change and because he had to think back.
“Last time I was actually sent out on a mission was a while back. I get sent out on patrol pretty regularly though; I sorta request as much to keep me out of the Captain's sight. We seem to work better apart, ya see.”
Yua started talking after that, and he looked over at her. He managed to hold a straight face; she probably didn't get the innuendo in her statement before she clarified, and there was only so much he felt like explaining. Besides, talk about your awkward gear changes.

The rest of her explanation made sense.
“You're welcome to come along if I'm given a mission; maybe I'll even learn a thing or two. Otherwise, you're welcome to tag along the next time I get sent out on patrol I suppose; nothing much really happens then though,” he said, thinking back. That wasn't exactly true he supposed; last time he had been on patrol he'd had that strange encounter with the human girl and those two weird Hollows. He hadn't heard anything yet about his report on that; he'd left out the details about the human as much as possible (mainly because the rules on interacting with humans was still somewhat murky and it was easier to just avoid bringing it up) but the behavior of the Hollows had bugged him slightly. He was decently sure it was a standalone incident, but his gut was saying otherwise.

“Then I'll let ya know when I get booted out for a mission next,” he said, dragging himself from his thoughts.  Silences came to rest between them again, though Joshua was used to such silences.  The lights of Seireitei twinkled in the growing twilight.  Then the silence was broken as Yua's stomach let out a growl much larger than her light frame would have suggested it capable of.  It was actually a strange thing.  Of course it was obvious that Yua would get hungry.  She was a shinigami and all.  However, it just never really struck him that she would.  Sorta like how you never realize that Captain Zarkai has to actually manage that crazy hair style.  Or that Captain Kuchiki didn't actually sleep in his unform and thus there was a time when he didn't look like Captain Kuchiki...theoretically anyway.  Joshua wouldn't have been that surprised if his captain didn't need to sleep, and was instead powered by his own cussedness to uphold the place of the Shinigami or some such detail.

For a few moments he considered her invitation.  Really he could eat something now rather than in a few hours and be fine.  He waited a little too long before he ate anyway.  However, he had some other business he needed to take care of.  Yes, even the lazy vice-captain of the Sixth Division had things he actually did take care of.  “I'll leave ya too it then.  I should head out of here before I fall asleep again and spend the whole night in a tree.  Wouldn't that just make my captain's day tomorrow when he got that kind of report,” he said, rolling his eye for effect.  He was still smiling though, of course.  He stood up and hoped down as well, with more grace than you might have expected from him.  He gave a small wave as he started off into Seireitei.
“Till next time, Vice-Captain Ichinose,” he said, going with the formal type of goodbye that everyone around here always seemed more comfortable with.

He knew more than a few places that would be empty this time of night; he could get a little bit of work done on some Kidō he wanted to test, and some swordsmanship.  He could also check up on a few members of his Division who had been having some trouble.  Everyone liked a helping hand...normally.  These were the thoughts of the red-haired vice-captain as he made his way away from what had certainly been an interesting encounter.  Not unpleasant, but certainly interesting.  You never could judge a book by what everyone else said about it he guessed.