Chapter Six: Mother

"Have you achieved bankai?" He was reluctant to ask. If she had, he would have to reevaluate some of his plans. Would he tell anyone? Would she tell anyone? She didn't seem like the bragging type and probably only used her bankai if completely necessary. Mikan didn't answer him; she simply smiled. Shuuhei understood it as a yes and sat back, absorbing that. "How long have you been training?"

"Since I was old enough to hold a sword. Even a dummy wooden sword. I guess I was about six when mom told me all about my latent shinigami powers. That makes sixteen years, then. I'm still not perfect though..." Shuuhei took this cryptic remark to mean that her bankai was incomplete. A small, unawkward silence passed between them and Mikan finally got up to throw away their empty Ramune bottles. Returning, she clicked the Soul Society monitor off and flopped back on the couch next to Shuuhei. "So. Whatcha wanna do now? I've got a set of books upstairs that you might like. They go into great detail about the first through fourth wars with the Menos. You might find something useful in them about the current war with the Arrancar." Shuuhei perked to attention when she mentioned this.

"Would you mind if I took those back to Soul Society with me today? I'd like to show them to Yamamoto if at all possible. He's better at the whole strategy deal and he's in a higher position than I am. I'm sure they'd be of use, though."

"Sure. Anything to help save the world, I always say," she remarked with a grin. "It may take a few days to pore through them, though. There are eighteen volumes."

"No big deal. It's not like a few days will matter in the long run. The Arrancar haven't mobilized into a direct assault on Soul Society yet. The ten strongest are still biding their time away in Hueco Mundo. I'm pretty certain Kurosaki Ichigo and his companions are there now on personal business with Aizen. He kidnapped one of their friends, you see, and Kurosaki tends to act on impulse so he, Ishida Uryuu, and Yasutora Sado have headed off in that direction to save one Inoue Orihime. I have a feeling that Abarai Renji and Kuchiki Rukia will soon follow. Both have hinted leaving, with or without Yamamoto's permission. To each his own, I suppose. I know Inoue and Kurosaki were close, but I'm not sure why the Arrancar may have wanted to kidnap her. Something about a special time magic, I believe. No one's really explained it very well to me, so I can't make much of a comment. All I have to say is that it must've been something spectacular or Aizen wouldn't waste his time." Shuuhei sat back, having provoked himself into thought. Mikan leaned back as well, uncrossing and crossing her legs.

"I don't know about any of that... I catch very little of what's going on in Soul Society now because of my job and the increased number of hollows in my area. It's so hard to find time to do much else these days." She sighed and unconsciously leaned into Shuuhei, propping her head on his shoulder. He looked at her with an eyebrow quirked and then dismissed it. Proof, he thought, that she did have some measure of interest in him. Suddenly, she sat bolt upright in her seat, wide-eyed and pink-cheeked. Shuuhei tried his hardest not to laugh, but the look on her face was so priceless. Apparently she hadn't realized what she'd just done until after she'd done it. It was nothing much to be embarrassed about, he thought, but apparently she felt differently.

"Oh, c'mere." He shook his head and put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him. She smiled sheepishly and returned to leaning on him. She could've fallen asleep like that. It had been a long time since she'd gotten close to anyone like this and it was nice to have a boyfriend feeling again, even if she and Shuuhei weren't official or anything like that. She was impressed, really, because of how lifelike the gigai was. It was kinda creepy, really. Her musings were suddenly interrupted, however, by a massive spiritual pressure. Her eyes snapped wide open and she looked up at Shuuhei to see if he'd noticed it. She didn't really need to look at him because she could feel the new tenseness of his muscles as reaction enough. The door knob jiggled briefly and then the door opened and closed with a bit of a slam. Mikan sat up slowly and reached down for her zanpakutou and then remembered she'd left it in the kitchen. Suddenly, a red high-heeled pump clattered through the kitchen and landed under the dining room table. Mikan breathed a sigh of relief and stood up. The second shoe followed and landed about three feet away from the other one. An attractive woman in her late forties walked forward and into the living room. Mikan stared at her with a bitter look in her eyes and leaned forward to grab a marble paperweight from the coffee table.

"Hello, dear!" the woman said brightly, adjusting her jacket. Mikan pulled her arm back and threw the paperweight as hard as she could at the strange woman. Shuuhei looked on, dumbfounded. The woman caught it easily and began to pass it between her hands. "Come now, darling, is that any way to greet your mother?" Mikan's mother had the same mischievous grin that Mikan often wore painted on her face as she chucked the paperweight right back at Mikan's face.

"You scared the shit out of us just now!" Mikan screamed, putting up a hand to catch the paperweight. "You could've called, or at least knocked! Why weren't you masking your reiatsu? I thought you were a Hollow!"

"Oh come on! You don't recognize my reiatsu next to a Hollow's? I'm hurt. Right here. My heart hurts when you say that," Mikan's mother said, patting her chest. She noticed Shuuhei and that same grin returned to her lips. "Oh, I see what was going on here. Am I disturbing something? You want me to leave?"

This broke Mikan's calm and she threw the paperweight so hard that her mother couldn't have caught it if she wanted to. However, it exploded into many tiny pieces just before it hit her in the face. "So I can't make friends with males anymore without it automatically being frowned upon by the likes of you? Just go. Leave. I don't want you here."

"So you were doing something."

"No, we weren't." Shuuhei stood, walking over to the woman and bowing politely before her. "I'm Hisagi Shuuhei, captain of the Ninth Company of the Gotei Thirteen in Soul Society. It's a pleasure to make--" He was cut off by Mikan's mother's purse smacking him hard in the face.

"MOTHER!"

"You, sir, should not be down here chatting it up with my unworthy daughter here. You should be in Soul Society, contributing to the effort against the Arrancar. You should be protecting the afterlife as we know it."

Mikan lunged forward and punched her mother in the face. "If you'd give him half a second to explain why he's here and not in Soul Society, you'd shut your big mouth about protecting shit. Jumping to conclusions as usual, I see. You are too true to your character. Just because you think you could do a better job up in Soul Society doesn't mean they aren't trying their best. Now sit down on the couch and listen to what we're about to tell you because you might just find it interesting. And if you call me unworthy one more time, I swear to god I'll hit you so hard you don't remember it." Mikan's mother looked genuinely scared after this outburst and she crept meekly over to the couch as Mikan helped Shuuhei up.

"Damn," he said, shaking his head. "You got rocks in there or something?"

"Yes, I do, actually. Dead useful." Mikan's mother sat, trying her best to retain a shred of dignity as she had just gotten schooled left and right by her daughter, of all people. "Now make me change my mind."

"All right. As you probably know, my former captain Tousen Kaname turned traitor on us to join Aizen in Hueco Mundo with the Arrancar. Now, upon promotion, I left a vice captain seat vacant. Still haven't found a proper replacement yet. However, I was in the neighborhood the other day and I met your daughter. I watched her slay a notoriously powerful Hollow with relative ease and began to consider her heavily in my list of candidates for vice captain of the Ninth Company. Today, we met again to discuss the proposal. She has agreed and I'll be giving her the vice captain test personally sometime this or next week. I believe she will be highly useful to us in the war against the Arrancar. You've trained her well," he added, smarming up to her just enough so that she'd like him.

Rubbing her sore cheek where Mikan had slugged her, Minako stared at Shuuhei appraisingly. "All right. I apologize for my earlier actions. And I'm flattered that you think my daughter is worthy of such a position. I think you're wrong"--Mikan glared hard at her, clenching her fists menacingly--"but I'm still flattered. Is there anything I can do to make it up to you, or perhaps help out?"

Mikan rolled her eyes, snorting. "I can't believe the things you say sometimes, 'Kaasan."

"It's okay, Mikan. She didn't know earlier."

"Still. She's so eager to change her mind now and 'make it up' to you. It's pitiful."

"Mikan, I'm sorry. What more do you want me to say?" Minako's eyes showed truth.

Mikan stood still for a second, mulling things over in her head. "You can start by picking up your shoes and putting them in the mud room where they belong. And then you can go home and dig up anything you think might be useful to Shuuhei and me."