A silence descended on all three as they each lost themselves to memories of the young man that had such a prolific impact on their lives in the last few years. They sat there for several more minutes before Yoruichi broke the silence.
"Oi, Isshin."
"…Yeah?"
"You suck."
Hirako Shinji was not in a good mood. The reason being? The mountain of paperwork that laid unfinished on his desk. The damn things bred like rabbits and no matter how fast he finished them and moved on to the next pile, there would be all the more to take care of.
'Even locked up an' sealed that bastard Aizen still givin me a headache.'
Aizen's treason, along with him leaving his lieutenant mentally unstable, left Squad 5 terribly disorganized and backtracked. Naturally, it fell to him to sort out all the problems as he had been stupid enough to reclaim his mantle as captain…what the hell was he thinking?
"Oi! Hinamori-chan! Got somethin' here for ya," he called loudly.
When no answer came, he looked up and around. Now where did his lieutenant end up? She was normally such a well behaved girl and practically waited on him hand and foot.
Getting up from his desk and maneuvering around the stacks of paper, Shinji muttered out, "Kids these days, I tell ya."
Sliding the doors to his office open, he hollered out to the rest of his division. "Any of you dunces seen Hinamori-chan!?"
One of his subordinates cried back from somewhere. "She's at the fukutaicho meeting, captain!"
"She is?" He said to himself.
Then, a female officer called out to him. 'Hmm…that's my fifth seat…right?'
"Shouldn't you be at your meeting, Captain Hirako?" she asked pointedly.
He absently scratched his cheek.
"That was today?" He mumbled.
Sighing to himself, Shinji decided he better get going. Soul King knows that he doesn't need another lecture from the old man. He'd only just gotten an earful from the Captain-Commander just the other day after he failed to hand in the necessary budget reports for his squad. He sighed to himself as he folded his hands within his captain's haori. 'What was I smokin' when I decided to come back to this crap job?'
Disappearing in whirl of shunpo, Shinji arrived at Squad One's barracks in a manner of minutes. Hunching over and letting out another sigh, he trudged himself over to the meeting hall. As he opened the door, he looked at the faces of all his fellow captains.
'Damn. Ya know you're late when Kenpachi arrives before ya.'
"You are late, Hirako-taicho." The stern voice of the Captain-Commander vibrates through the air. Shinji subdued a shudder as the old man stared at him with steel. He knew that look. It meant he's in for another reprimand once the meeting was over.
Shinji waved him off dismissively. "Sorry, sorry. Took time to dig myself outta that pile of paperwork. On that note, since when is it protocol to file a report for a backed up toilet in your squad's barracks?"
That earned him a few snickers as well as a few glares.
"Enough! Take your place!" The oldest shinigami barked.
"Yeah, yeah," he said as he strode over to stand opposite of the Kuchiki kid. Now that was a captain who seriously had a major stick up his ass. The kid was a few centuries too young to be acting like the way he did. 'Don't know what went wrong with him. Used be a lively brat that chased Yoruichi all round.'
As the minutes ticked on, the captains discussed various things from resources to fighting between the squads and even the occasional need to redesign the uniforms. Most of it, Shinji yawned through. Although, he threw in his two cents every now and then.
An hour into the meeting, it was interrupted by the sound of loud 'beeping.' All heads turned towards the very end of the captain's line and looked at the twelfth squad captain. Kurotsuchi was a creepy fuck all around. And the worst part was that the son of a bitch knew it too. So when he reached into his robes and began to pull out something, it was with good reason the adjacent captains edged away from him.
Shinji watched with minor interest as he pulled out some sort of electronic pad and began scrolling through and punching away commands.
"Kurotsuchi-taichou! I have warned you against using your devices during meetings before! Now put it away!"
Sometimes, Shinji felt bad for the old man. It must feel like taking care of children at a daycare for him.
"Hmm?" The mad scientist hummed. "Oh yes. My apologies but it appears that an interesting development has taken place."
"Interesting?" Ukitake asked from across Kurotsuchi.
"Yes," Squad twelve's captain said while he continued to poke away at the…thing. "It seems Kurosaki Ichigo has gone missing."
That turned a few heads.
"Missing?" Rose said while immediately trading looks with his fellow Visored.
"What are you saying Kurotsuchi-taicho!?" The Captain-Commander demanded.
"As of thirty-seven minutes ago, all traces of Kurosaki Ichigo vanished from the Living World. Initial scans show that he isn't in Soul Society or Hueco Mundo either."
"Ya dumbass," Shinji dropped his forehead into his hand. "What've ya gone and done now?"
"So where the hell is he?" Kensei growled out.
Craning his neck back at an unnatural angle, Kurotsuchi tapped his chin a few times with one of his elongated nails. "Well, it maybe that the former substitute shinigami is being hidden by a third party but considering he's of no value to anyone without his powers, I doubt that."