How is this hate so deep...
Characters: Renji and Shoehay
When: Sunday, 29Mar, late morning
Where: Ninth Division Admin Building, Shuuhei's office
Rating: Eh, beware of potty mouth.
Summary: Renji was hoping to have learned more about what was going on before making any statements, but with Hitsugaya incarcerated and no sign of things getting better, he decides it's time to have a pow-wow with his old senpai.
Renji had been back in the office for a few days now; since the fever (and the mask) had broken, he'd been steadily recovering at an almost alarming rate, considering how incapacitated the virus had left him. All that remained of the misery he'd suffered for the past week was a trace of a dry cough and the remnants of a residual headache that would probably be gone entirely after a good night's sleep (not that he ever got those anymore...). After hearing what happened to Hitsugaya, however, Renji was now convinced that this wasn't an isolated incident. He'd been iffy before, since he'd been injured badly by an Espada along with having the virus, and Kensei's case might have been unusual since he was a Vaizard, and nobody really quite knew what made the inner Hollow of a Vaizard tick...
But if Hitsugaya had manifested a mask as well, that was evidence enough for Renji to be worried. Very worried. This needed to be handled, and it needed to be handled now. Even if Renji didn't know Hitsugaya well (and was still pretty sure Hitsugaya was convinced he was a bit of an idiot), in chatting with him regarding Hinamori, he had found a like thread ran between them despite their obvious differences. Pride, honor, power, and strength meant nothing without friends, and anyone willing to stand by Renji's friends...was a friend of Renji's.
Skidding out of shunpo by the engawa outside the Ninth Division Admin Building, Renji took the stairs three at a time and brushed through the main door with little more than a wave at the clerk as he made his way down the hall toward Shuuhei's office. He rapped on the door twice with the back of his knuckle, crisp and loud.
"Hisagi, it's me," he called, noting only after he'd said it that he'd dropped the honorific again. Maybe Kira was rubbing off on him. Shuuhei had always been a comrade and something of a role model, a trusted senpai with more experience and wisdom than he, but as he had matched him in rank as a lieutenant, and then again as captain, the suffix had started to feel superfluous. Maybe it was time Renji started seeing himself as equal; after all, his first few months as a captain had been...eventful enough. Maybe he was better at this than he was giving himself credit.