The Promise (Bleach: Gin x Rangiku)

Part Twenty Two

Rangiku

I smiled as I breathed in the fresh air of the seireitei, as I laid myself in the backyard of Isshin's garden. I was surrounded by all sorts of flowers, the grass tickling my arms as I stared up at the clear blue sky.

It had been five months now since the hollow incident, since I was sent back to Squad 10. Nothing strange has happened in the thirteen court guard squads ever since.

Captain Kurotsuchi had told me that someone had spiked the water I was drinking. He was even more angry of that fact because someone had used one of his inventions on me.

And that was one of his few inventions, he told me, that he did not make a cure to.

In fact, he especially made that so no cure could ever be found for it. That's why this is a dangerous drug that he kept hidden. But he threw a fit when telling me someone had found it.

Lieutenant Kurotsuchi had to drag him our before he destroyed anything in his tantrum.

Aside from that, here I am now, almost completely healed. The only times I ever left the Squad when there was a call for lieutenants meetings, and when I had to go visit Captain Unohana to make sure my left lung was fully stable. But that was a while ago.

But other than that, Isshin refused to let me go anywhere outside of the Squad. He made me stay and do paperwork, his paperwork too, while he was the one that went out and handled issues outside of the Squad. Most of the time he would go out to Rukon District and investigate stuff there.

It was suffocating, it was like I was locked up. Of course, I couldn't disobey the orders of Isshin.

But what was more alarming was that I didn't see Naomi once. I even asked Shichiro where she was, but he just gave me a fake smile, saying she was taking a long break from her duties a while.

And to add to that, she disappeared around the same time my memory did.

Gin came by to visit for what felt like would be the last time in a while a week ago. He said he was very busy, and of course as a Captain that is to be expected, and that he would come to see me when he could.

So I was left here to tend to myself. I practiced kidō on occasion and trained my zanpakuto harder. But of course, that was when I had little paperwork to do.

"Lieutenant Rangiku!" A shinigami called out.

"Yes?"

"Captain Isshin has returned and requests your presence!"

"Why can't he come and get me himself?"

"Rangiku!" His voice boomed.

I sat up in an instant, turning to him.

"Yea, Captain?" I asked as sweetly as possible.

"You didn't do my paperwork!"

"That's your job, not mine!" I snapped.

"I ordered you to!"

"You've been ordering me these past few months and I am sick of it! Do your own crap for once!" I yelled, standing up and approaching him.

"Fine. If you won't do it, I have a mission for you."

My eyes widened.