A/N: Thank you all for being so patient this past year. Sorry it took me so long to return to this story. I was going to wait to post this chapter, since I just updated a story three days ago, but it's been nearly a year since this was updated. I think you guys have waited long enough.

Also, it may have taken a little longer to write this one because I had to stop and do research on things… and then I got hooked on playing a flash Koi-Koi game online… And then I started watching Fullmetal Alchemist with the hubby (we finished that and the movie, and now we're halfway through Brotherhood).

Also, I've finally decided on a timeline for this story within the Bleach universe. I'm sure you'll figure out when it's taking place by the end of the chapter. Check the end for some random author notes about this story and this chapter.

As the sky bled into swathes of gold and pale blue, Shunsui collected the hanafuda cards they'd been playing with and tucked them back into his top. "You don't play fair," he chuckled while Lucy's hair fluttered in the soft breeze brushing by them.

"Erza was a big fan of Koi-Koi," she said. "She loved teaching me how to play when we were supposed to be studying."

"Did you beat her as badly as you just beat me?" Lucy laughed and shook her head, turning to watch the rising sun. He could still see the flush on her cheeks from the sake they'd had earlier. After Ishiko had left, they'd talked for hours. She'd listened to his stories of his own time in the Academy, and what it was like being in a class with Jushiro. "I've never seen someone wrack up that many yaku in a single hand."

"You're the one who kept trying to go all in," she said softly. "It's all about moderation, Shunsui-kun."

"Says the one who put away half that bottle of sake," he teased. She didn't say anything more, but then he saw just what she was looking at. The small sliver of orange light peeking over the horizon. He wondered for the briefest of moments how long it had been since she'd been able to watch a sunrise like this. Maybe it was something she'd never had the chance to do before.

Then again, after hearing some of the antics she and her friends had gotten into, maybe this made her think back to that happier time in her life. It left him wondering just what Lucy thought about when she became quiet like this. How often did she remember those few happy memories she had?

"It's beautiful," she whispered. Lucy brought her knees to her chest and draped her arms across them. Her gaze never left the rising sun, but she when she smiled Shunsui was left thinking that she was absolutely right.

The way early morning sunlight drifted across her rosy cheeks and highlighted her flowing golden hair where it danced over his haori that she was still wearing, was breathtaking. Her eyes seemed so full of life, so ready to take on the world. It was something he'd seen in any number of shinigami through the years, but this was the first time Lucy had ever looked like this.

Slowly, he moved across the roof and sat behind her with his legs spread around her smaller body. Lucy leaned back into him and brought a hand up to toy with the ends of his ponytail while his cheek rested on the top of her head. He knew she had to be cold still. He felt it in the way she shivered as his arms wrapped around her. But this was nice. Being able to do something so simple, to enjoy this with someone - when he hadn't seen a sunrise and been happy about it in a very long time - was a welcome distraction from the work that was still waiting for him on his desk.

By the time the sun had risen halfway past the horizon, he felt her relaxing further into his embrace. With a raised brow, Shunsui looked down to see her nodding off. "Lucy-chan, are you tired?"

She hummed and wriggled in his arms. "Comfy," she sighed. "Just a few more minutes."

He couldn't stop himself from laughing at that. Never in his life had he heard someone beg for just a few more minutes of staying awake. Quite the opposite was true for himself nearly every morning, in fact. But he knew there was no way he'd be able to get her to walk back to the estate with him. And considering he did still have work to get done before his lieutenant showed up, it was probably for the best if he just took Lucy to the captain's quarters that were adjacent to his office. That way, she could sleep in and he could finish what he needed to. If he worked quickly enough, maybe he could crawl into the bed and get some sleep before Nanao came to torment him with more paperwork.

"You're coming with me," he finally said. Shunsui didn't wait for a response while he lifted her into his arms, gathered the basket and her geta, and jumped down from the roof. It seemed she was tired enough not to argue either, since Lucy simply rested her head on his chest while he walked back inside to his office.

It was nearly nine in the morning when Nanao returned to the Eighth Division. She'd had an early Women's Association meeting that had descended into anarchy when Yachiru said they should plan another beach party like the last one they'd held the year prior. Nanao had, of course, tried to bring it all to order again, and she'd failed.

A small smile touched her lips as she recalled Yachiru's wide, giddy smile when Captain Unohana had made the final decision that they would, in fact, plan another beach trip for the beginning of the summer. It gave them a few short months to get things situated, both in their own divisions and in the world of the living. By her understanding, the humans who had been in attendance the last time wouldn't be there. Ichigo Kurosaki was still powerless. It stood to reason that his friends wouldn't make an appearance if he wouldn't be there as well.

By the time she reached Captain Kyouraku's office, Nanao remembered just what she'd done the night before. He'd been slacking off at work ever since Captain Ukitake had gotten back on his feet. She'd talked with Rukia after the last lieutenant meeting about his amazing turnaround, and it was a pleasure to see how relieved she was over his illness seemingly having gone into remission. But while Captain Ukitake had made a full recovery and jumped right into his work to make up for lost time, her own captain had started becoming lazier than usual.

He took extended time off for some reason she didn't know about; all she'd been told was that it had been approved by the Captain-Commander, and that Captain Kyouraku shouldn't be bothered until he returned.

It seemed he slept in later than usual as of late, and the times she'd dragged him out of his bed by force, that young blonde woman had been sleeping beside him. Thankfully, they were always both fully clothed. It really was inappropriate - and probably damaging for her eyes and psyche - to have seen so much of her captain's naked body. Especially since he was her uncle, but most people either didn't know about that or simply didn't mention it.

And even when he was at work, sitting in his office and filling out requisition orders from the division, handling the accounting as part of their division's assigned task within the Gotei 13, or overseeing training for new members, Captain Kyouraku was distracted. More distracted than usual. He never said just what was on his mind, but she was sure it had something to do with that blonde woman who'd appeared out of nowhere. And the one time Nanao had tried to ask him just who that girl was, and why she was suddenly around him all the time - no other women he'd brought to his bed in the past had lasted more than a night before - he'd just smiled at her and waved her concerns away.

But Nanao could only cover his ass so many times where work was concerned. Didn't he realize that whatever was going on with this woman was affecting his effectiveness as a captain of the Gotei 13? Didn't he care that they needed to maintain order, that the shinigami under him looked to him for direction?

He'd mentioned that he wanted to take this Lucy woman on a picnic the day before, but Nanao had other plans. There was work he needed to catch up on - those quarterly financial reports for the divisions wouldn't double-check themselves - and it couldn't be put off any longer. Things needing his signature and no one else's needed to be completed. It was different for Squad 13, since Captain Ukitake's health issues were well-known, and the Captain-Commander accepted Rukia's signature in place of the captain's while he was incapacitated.

But Captain Kyouraku wasn't incapacitated. He wasn't sick. He was just being lazy, worse than ever before. The only good thing Nanao had seen coming from this new distraction was that he didn't drink nearly as much during the day, and his perverse comments had died down quite a bit.

She could only wonder while opening the door to his office whether he'd actually done what she'd told him to do - whether he'd stayed and finished his work for a change. Nanao hadn't cared if it took him all night. It was much more important than some frivolous picnic, that was for sure.

Of course, he wasn't in his office, and she was left rolling her eyes. Still, she walked in and went over to the desk to see that there was only one stack of papers left - no more than five end-of-week reports from the division. That meant he'd already gotten through the quarterly reports. She looked to the other side of the desk, and her brows lifted well above her glasses when she saw the organized stacks of completed documents. And when Nanao picked up one stack and rifled through it, she found that his signature was in all the right places, and that he'd even written notes on some things.

She really did dislike that habit of his. Sometimes they were just little quips that she was sure were supposed to be funny or cute. She mostly ignored those. Other times, though, the notes were actually important, and she had to write them down elsewhere to make sure they were dealt with accordingly. It meant that she was forced to sit down and read through every page, every comment, just to make sure nothing was missed.

Then again, Nanao also knew that he'd done this with his last lieutenant to make sure she was actually working. Things were so different now. His relationship with Lisa Yadomaru had been the polar opposite of what Nanao had with him. Lisa had been an unabashed flirt, and Captain Kyouraku had turned her down constantly. Nanao, on the other hand, was always by the book, and he teased her relentlessly in a way that most people thought was him flirting with her. That just made it creepy when someone brought it up, because she knew for a fact that her uncle had no romantic interest in her whatsoever. He spoke with her the same way he had the few times she'd seen him during her childhood.

But he'd told her when she became his lieutenant that Lisa liked to slack off, so he'd started writing weird little notes on paperwork to see if she caught it. He'd continued doing it with Nanao because, as he'd told her, "You're so cute when you get angry at my jokes, my little Nanao-chan."

She was sure that it was just an ingrained habit for him to write things in margins by that point, and there was no stopping him.

With a soft sigh, she set about getting the finished paperwork transferred over to her own desk. He'd most likely gone home the night before when he just couldn't stand working any longer. But that meant that she would need to leave soon to get him to actually wake up and come back to work that morning. Hopefully, he hadn't gone home to drink sake all night.

It was while she was carrying the last stack of paperwork over to her desk that Nanao stumbled on something, nearly dropping all the papers while she tried to regain her balance. Her eye twitched while setting the papers down, and she turned a heavy glare toward the perpetrator of her nearly disastrous mishap.

The last thing she'd expected to see was a wooden sandal sitting so innocuously on the floor. It definitely didn't belong there. No one would have worn shoes like this inside the office in the first place, and she couldn't imagine Captain Kyouraku bringing any woman he may have picked up in some bar down to the Division. And yet, there this one sandal was. On the floor. With no other sandal anywhere near it.

At least it wasn't a koma-geta, the little three-legged sandal that marked a high-ranking prostitute.

"I don't know what I'd do if I found out he's paying oirans for a good time," she muttered while picking up the offending shoe with her thumb and forefinger. This sandal had only two wooden legs extending from the flat base at a moderate height. It was completely normal. But it was also far too small for Captain Kyouraku to have been the one wearing it. And Nanao knew for a fact that he didn't like wearing them to begin with. Something about not having the equilibrium for it while he was drunk, and how he didn't want to break his ankle.

She couldn't see any woman in their right mind having somehow left their shoe behind though. And then her gaze slid over to the door on the far side of the room that led to the Captain's quarters. Every once in a while, Captain Kyouraku would sleep off the worst of his hangover in his room at the division - usually when he was just too drunk to bother going home. Maybe he'd decided to sleep there instead. That would make her life easier. Nanao made her way across the office and pushed the door open, instantly honing in on her unconscious captain sprawled across the bed on his back, on top of the blanket. His shihakusho and haori had shifted to the side while he slept, leaving him a disheveled mess with one hairy nipple hanging out of his clothes. He'd let his hair down, the soft brown strands waved haphazardly across the pillow.

Before she could take a single step, she saw something else that had her brows lifting in surprise. That blonde woman, Lucy, was fast asleep beneath the blanket that was pulled up to her shoulders. At least they weren't sleeping beneath the covers together again. The barest twitch of movement drew her attention to Lucy's pale, slender fingers where they barely gripped Captain Kyouraku's sleeve.

Just what in the three world's he was thinking, allowing this woman to sleep here with him, Nanao hadn't a single clue. It was bad enough that she was constantly sleeping in the same bed with him back at his estate. And Nanao was sure that his clan elders really weren't too thrilled about his general lack of enthusiasm when it came to finding a wife and producing an heir. There really was no guarantee that he hadn't already gotten some woman pregnant with how much he slept around. Except here this woman was, in his sleeping quarters at the division of all places. Didn't he realize just how inappropriate this was?

And with how young she looked, Nanao seriously wondered just why she was even spending time with him to begin with. Was this just some ploy to get closer to him because of his family and his title as a captain? Captain Kyouraku wasn't exactly the most picky of men. All he cared about was a pretty face from what she'd seen over the centuries. There was no denying that Lucy was pretty, but she was far too young for him to be chasing.

Nanao knew he would only get hurt in the process, if he kept her around. If Lucy stayed in the picture, that would only mean that her uncle had finally allowed a woman to get closer to his heart. Nanao was sure that she wasn't the kind of woman he really needed though. No, her uncle, her captain, needed a woman who could get him to control himself from time to time. Someone who loved him for the sweet (albeit perverted), gentle, funny man that he was, not his name or his titles.

She walked toward the bed, ready to drag Captain Kyouraku from it, and then Lucy shifted again. Nanao watched in silence as a small, pained pinch appeared between Lucy's thin brows. She grasped his sleeve tighter than before, and her legs moved restlessly beneath the blanket.

Nanao wasn't entirely sure what to do as Lucy rolled over in her sleep and a soft, muted whimper slipped past her lips. She was at even more of a loss on her next course of action when Captain Kyouraku mumbled and rolled toward Lucy. He curled around her, held her close to him with one arm at her waist and his nose nestled in her golden hair.

"Mm, s'okay," he mumbled, tightening his hold on Lucy when she wriggled slightly. Nanao's jaw dropped when she saw a sleepy smile barely lift his lips, and that he wasn't wearing his haori but it was instead wrapped around the woman in his arms. Was he even still sleeping? Why was she wearing his haori? What had even happened the night before? "No bad dreams… m'here…"

And she relaxed. Lucy stopped moving, stopped fighting against whatever her dream had been forcing upon her.

Nanao had never seen him so relaxed before. Even with Lucy's hair in his mouth as he started quietly snoring, he didn't seem to have a care in the world. She'd seen him passed out from drinking too heavily on many occasions, but he never slept this deeply. He never spoke in his sleep either. And being unconscious from drinking too much looked nothing like this; those times, he was dead to the world and unable to hear the entirety of the division running drills in the courtyard right outside his office. This was different. He was responsive to Lucy's subtle movements. His hand slid across the bed until it found Lucy's, and their fingers laced together while he held her tighter once more, almost as though she was his own personal teddy bear.

With nothing else to do, Nanao chanced a glance around the room, hoping to find some clue as to what she'd clearly missed in the wee hours of the morning. What she found, however, had her smiling just a little. A large picnic basket sat on the floor just a few feet from the bed, and next to it was Lucy's other sandal. Maybe he'd been carrying her and it had fallen off. That had to be the case. With the basket being there, though, it could only mean that Lucy had brought a picnic to him.

He had sounded rather excited about taking her on that picnic. Maybe she'd felt the same way about it. And it was a rather nice gesture on Lucy's part if that was really the case. If she hadn't cared about whether they got to spend time together, then Nanao was sure she would have simply left Captain Kyouraku be while he was working late.

But if she'd brought the picnic to him, then that had to mean she cared at least a little about him. Nanao was sure that no other woman he'd gone after before had done something like this for him. They always expected him to wine and dine them, to impress them with his wealth. And yet, here Lucy was… taking care of him.

Nanao looked back to the bed, focusing on the way her captain's legs had curled up so he was completely flush against Lucy, even with the blanket between them. Maybe he'd worked hard enough the night before.

She supposed he could have the smallest break that day. At the very least, that morning. So instead of waking him up and dragging him back to his desk, Nanao simply set down the sandal in her hand next to its twin on the floor and quietly crept out of his quarters. Later on, she could talk to him about bringing women to the division so late at night. But right then, she decided to cut him a little slack.

He did get most of his work finished, after all.

Lucy smiled when Ishiko walked into Shunsui's quarters at his division, and stood from where she'd been sitting on the bed. "Good afternoon, Ishiko," she said, picking up her geta on the way to the door.

"Good afternoon, Lucy-sama," Ishiko replied, sending her a soft, demure smile. "I hope you had fun on your picnic."

"I did," she laughed. Lucy paused to look back at the room, then frowned when she saw that the picnic basket was missing.

"Shunsui-sama sent the basket back earlier," Ishiko said, placing a guiding hand on Lucy's back. "Along with a note that I should come and escort you back home."

Lucy nodded and followed her attendant's lead through the empty office and out of the division building. They paused to put their geta back on - she'd never realized that Ishiko wore the same shoes as her before then - and started on their way back to the Kyouraku estate. "It would've been nice to tell him good morning," she sighed.

"Well, I'm sure he was very busy today," Ishiko replied. She glanced at Lucy's downcast profile out of the corner of her eye. "But it seemed he was enjoying himself last night while you two were on the roof." The last thing she'd expected was for Lucy's cheeks to flush a bright red and her head to duck down lower. Had something more happened after she'd left? Or maybe Lucy had had too much to drink, and she didn't remember the night before all that well.

The conversation Ishiko had with her brother that morning came back to her in glaring clarity.

"When you're an attendant, you have to communicate," he'd said. "This goes both ways, Ishiko. Eventually, you'll be able to anticipate her needs, but for now the two of you need to talk. And if this is something that really bothers you, then just be honest with her."

Iwao was right, she knew. He'd been their clan leader's attendant for so long already. He and Shunsui had been through a great many ordeals in the past and it brought them closer together. And now, it was almost as though her twin could read Shunsui's mind at times, because of the bond they shared.

"Lucy," Ishiko said as they finally reached the estate, pausing in her step. Lucy paused as well and looked up at her. "There's something I want to talk to you about."

"Sure," she said, smiling kindly.

Ishiko wasn't comfortable with this in the slightest, but she still forced herself to smile just a little while leading Lucy inside and toward her room. "I know you and Shunsui-sama were drinking last night," she began.

"Yeah," Lucy laughed, and by the way she winced, Ishiko could swear she was feeling just as awkward over the turn to their conversation. "It was just one bottle of sake, though."

Ishiko nodded and led her to the bathroom, slowly helping her undress so she could get a proper bath. Once Lucy was bare and sitting on a wooden stool, Ishiko went about preparing the warm water and soaps. "I want you to know that I only have your best interests in mind," she said. "But maybe we should talk about it?"

"Did I do something wrong?" Lucy asked, wincing as Ishiko carefully wet her hair and started to lather shampoo in it. "I mean, aside from sneaking out the way I did."

"You did give me quite the scare," Ishiko chuckled.

"I just didn't want to bother you, Ishiko. I figured I could let you get some sleep."

"That's very kind of you," she replied, rinsing the shampoo out of her golden tresses. She picked up a washcloth and scrubbed at Lucy's shoulders and back. "But as your attendant, I'm supposed to know where you are. And you shouldn't go running off in the night like that without an escort at all."

"I'm sorry."

Lucy sounded so contrite then, Ishiko really did smile while patting her shoulder. "I won't mind missing out on sleep every once in a while," she whispered. "You can take me with you on these little excursions of yours."

"Won't you get in trouble?"

"If this was the Kuchiki clan, most likely," Ishiko laughed. "But in our clan, what's most important is keeping the ones we're attending safe. I can't do that if I'm not with you."

Lucy nodded, but stayed completely still otherwise while Ishiko continued washing her.

"Aside from that, what I saw last night wasn't the most appropriate behavior." This would be the telling moment for her. She needed to know whether Lucy remembered what she'd been doing with the clan leader. Part of her wondered if there was anything else they'd done that pushed the boundaries of what was and wasn't appropriate after she'd left to cry in her brother's arms.

"Would it be wrong of me to blame the sake?" Lucy asked, wincing as Ishiko came to kneel in front of her and started gently washing her chest and stomach. "I mean, we were having fun and joking around, but that's all it was to me… And I'm sure he feels the same way about it."

Still, Ishiko smiled. That was just a bit of a relief, truth be told. Just joking around with one another. Lucy wasn't trying to steal him away from her, as she'd feared. Maybe this woman was unaware of what it had looked like though. Maybe she was just too innocent to see it from an outsider's perspective.

"While that may be the case," Ishiko said carefully while looking into her eyes, "The two of you were in a very provocative position. Someone else might not have seen it as two people joking around, but something else entirely."

"S-Something… else?"

Ah, Lucy was definitely innocent. Against her better judgment, Ishiko actually found that just a little charming. So, she swallowed the bitterness rising in her throat and nodded while holding onto Lucy's hands. "It could have come across that you and he are lovers, Lucy," she said.

"B-But we're not!" And suddenly, Lucy's cheeks were a brilliant red and her eyes were wide and horrified. "I'm his ward! I mean… I know it's not… I w-would never try to…"

Lucy ripped her hands from Ishiko's grasp and covered her beet red face, causing the attendant to finally let out a wide smile while she laughed. Of course, it only embarrassed Lucy further. But at least Ishiko knew, one hundred percent, there was no competition. Neither of them were in positions to try and claim the Kyouraku clan leader - with Ishiko as a member of a lower subfamily, and Lucy as his ward - but it seemed Lucy wasn't even interested in him that way to begin with. She really was just enjoying herself with him, as friends. Only as friends.

"Lucy, it's alright," Ishiko laughed. Slowly, she pulled the blonde's hands from her face, giving her a patient smile. "I know you wouldn't." Well, she knew that now. That was what mattered. "And it's good to know that you're aware of how this works with you being his ward."

"Of course I do," Lucy replied. "Ishiko, did it really look that way?"

"A little bit," she said with a teasing gleam in her eyes. Ishiko finished washing and rinsing Lucy, and led her toward the bath that was already full of warm water. "But, just remember that I'm here to help you. That's why I wanted to bring it up now, so you can be aware of how others might see the way you were acting."

"I never really thought of it like that." Lucy settled into the bath and let out a soft sigh of contentment, and Ishiko took a seat on a small bench at her side so they could continue their conversation. "That was the first time I'd ever had sake."

"Really?"

Lucy nodded, closing her eyes and leaning her head back while she soaked. "From the stories I've heard, I expected this morning to be a horrible experience. Or that I wouldn't remember what I did last night. I do remember Shunsui carrying me down to his office though. I got pretty tired."

"That'll happen," Ishiko said with a good-natured smile. "At least you didn't throw up."

"I would've been too ashamed to ever let Shunsui see my face again if I had."

And once again, Ishiko found herself laughing, and Lucy joined in after a moment. "If it makes you feel any better, I've seen Iwao come back to his room with the front of his clothes covered in vomit. Even our clan leader isn't immune to that when he's had too much."

"That really does make me feel better," Lucy laughed.

"Even still, he drinks high quality sake. And he's been doing it for hundreds of years now, so he's really built up a tolerance to it." Ishiko watched as Lucy's cheeks flushed once again and she sunk down into the water just a bit more. "With the two of you splitting a bottle, he probably wasn't completely hammered. If anything, it was most likely just a little buzz, unless he'd already been drinking while he was working."

"I don't think he'd been drinking already," Lucy muttered.

"Well, if it had been anyone else, I would have been more worried about your wellbeing," Ishiko said softly, gaining Lucy's attention. "He may be an insufferable flirt, but he's still a gentleman."

"I know that," Lucy sighed. "I trust him. With Shunsui having taken care of me so much since he got me out of prison, I know he's not like other men." When she paused, Ishiko was stricken by the soft, loving smile that turned up the corners of her plump lips. "Besides, he's my big brother's best friend. I know that Onii-chan wouldn't spend time with him if he wasn't a good man."

That was one thing they could both agree on. Shunsui was a good man. Now all Ishiko needed to do was make sure Lucy knew how her actions could appear to others. It would take a little time, and she was sure that it could end up being a matter of trial and error at times, but that was alright.

Iwao had been right, after all. Lucy meant Ishiko no ill will. She wasn't trying to steal Shunsui away, and she wasn't plotting anything. Lucy was simply enjoying her time with one of the few people she had regular contact with. There was nothing to worry about at all, just as soon as she gave the blonde a few key pointers.

With a devious grin, Ishiko stood and grabbed a towel to help Lucy dry off while the water drained from her bath. "Lucy, I have a great idea."

"Oh?"

"How about I teach you to drink sake the right way?"

Lucy frowned and turned toward her attendant, holding the towel over her chest. "There's a right way to drink sake?" she asked.

Ishiko nodded. "Manners and how to hold the saucer aside, there's a way to drink without getting too drunk. And I think that would be a good thing for you to learn, if you plan on drinking with Shunsui-sama on a regular basis."

"O-Oh, well… I don't think it'll happen that often."

"Well, he does tend to throw parties once every two months or so," Ishiko said. "He'll probably want you to join him at least once. So, I feel that it falls to me to teach you the right way to do this."

Lucy bit her lip as they walked to her bedroom. "Are you sure, though?"

"Definitely," Ishiko laughed. "There will be no dishonoring the name of the Kyouraku clan while you're with me."

Finally, Lucy smiled, catching the teasing tone in her voice. "If you say so, Ishiko," she giggled.

"I do. Now…" She opened the closet and pulled out two yukata, one in a pale blue and one in a sunset orange. "What color would you like to wear today?"

For anyone who didn't catch the reference for the timeline, this story takes place after Aizen's defeat (obviously) but before the Fullbringer Arc. I recently rewatched the anime, and figured that would be an interesting time/place to set this. Considering I already wrote in a previous chapter that Aizen's, Gin's, and Tousen's squads didn't have captains, that really is the only time in Bleach that this would fit. I just hadn't realized it until I watched the show again heh.

For anyone interested in Koi-Koi, or wondering just what it is, it's a Japanese card game played with Hanafuda cards (48 cards, with four cards for every month of the year). The object of the game is to create card combinations (yaku) to get more points. When a player gets a yaku, they can choose to stop that hand and collect their points or keep going; if they choose to keep playing, they say "koi-koi," which means "come on."

As a fun fact for my Naruto fans: one of the yaku in Koi-Koi is called Inoshikacho. By combining the deer, boar, and butterfly cards, you get this yaku that's worth five points. I never knew there was more to the team name in that show before now… Even Shikamaru having all those deer around the Nara property, and Choji turning into a beautiful butterfly when the situation calls for it. The more you know!

Also, I checked high and low, and there was no information on what the Eighth Division's specialty was… so I made them accountants for the Gotei 13. Because… Picture Shunsui as the head accountant. Hilarious.