Disclaimer: Bleach, its characters and its settings aren't mine
Nagisa closed the door to her little room and leaned against it, shaking. Her nerves were destroyed.
Seconds later there was a knock on the door behind her.
"Nagisa-chan? Are you all right? Open the door."
Yumi, her best friend.
Nagisa opened the door, quickly shut it behind the other girl. Yumi was just a few years out of the academy, and like Nagisa herself looked about sixteen mortal years old.
"Are you all right 'Gisa-chan? I heard you had a bad encounter with Nargo. He's been looking for you all afternoon."
Nargo! She had to go explain to the fifteenth seat!
"I- ohhhhhh!" Nagisa put her head in her hands. "How am I going to explain this to Nargo?" He might have waited all afternoon but it was early evening now! He'd be livid!
"He'll kill me Yumi-san, he'll absolutely kill me." Nagisa found a spot on the floor, sat and put her head in her hands.
"Nagisa what happened? You're beginning to frighten me." Yumi came over, sat opposite her.
"I got a summons, an official one," wailed Nagisa. "I thought it'd be from Nargo, so I went to see him without reading it. It wasn't from him!"
"Who was it from?"
"The Vice Captain!"
"Vice Captain Ise summoned you?"
"I put in for a new assignment! Somehow my file made it to her desk!"
"Settle down, 'Gisa-chan. There's no need to cry. What have you been reassigned to?" Then, concerned, Yumi said, "not to another squad surely?"
"No-" the tears were flowing freely now. "I'm to be a messenger and maid to-"
"To who?"
"To him! She sent me into a room and then he glared at me and-" Nagisa couldn't go on.
"Nagisa, you're making no sense at all! Tell me what happened! Who's he?"
"Kurosaki Ichigo-sama!"
Yumi put her hands to her lips.
"Oh dear." She was stunned, it was all she could say.
Nagisa remembered the battlefield that day she'd earned her second commendation. For someone so young to charge into the fray, standing over a fallen comrade, sword high against the monster.
Then it slew the last of the shinigami fighting it, the monster that was the Espada. It destroyed three tenth seats without drawing its Zanpakuto, came towards her, its spirit pressure knocking Nagisa to her knees.
And then another came, he arrived before the monster reached her, Kurosaki Ichigo, with his red lined coat flapping in the wind. She remembered his eyes, the blaze of his spirit pressure turning them white. Every Shinigami knew the Substitute by sight and by the monstrous force that radiated off him, other Shinigami could feel his pressure for miles.
"Leave," he commanded. "You're not ready for Espada."
And she'd fled, she'd violated orders and fled. The Substitute had no official standing in the Thirteen Court Squads, he couldn't order her off the front line.
She'd felt the explosion of power as he engaged the Espada, it actually pushed at her - if she'd been near it would have killed her and the fifth squad warrior she was carrying. She rode the might of Kurosaki Ichigo's power back to the Fourth Squad way station.
"Where's your unit?" Someone had shouted.
"Destroyed!" She'd shouted back-
"Nagisa-san!"
Nagisa flashed back to the present. "Yumi-san, what am I going to do?"
"First, pay attention when I'm talking." Yumi had a strange gleam in her eyes. "Do you have any idea how important this is going to make you?"
Nagisa laughed bitterly. "To who? I'm a glorified clerk and he already hates me."
"Nah nah na, you're not using your head. If nothing else the Women's Association will want photos, you're the best positioned to get them."
"Photos? Are you out of your mind? So I can make him even angrier?"
"Nagisa-san, use your head. You'll probably meet other Vice Captains, Captains too! Contacts, people that can help you get ahead!"
"Yumi-san, you don't understand. He spent the first hour dictating a shopping list because he doesn't like writing with a brush, then he sent me to call Vice Captain Abarai an obscene name, then Captain Zaraki came by to set up an appointment for a fight of all things! Then some woman from Thirteenth came in, as far as I can tell she isn't even a seated officer and she screamed at him for ten minutes, at that point he figured out he didn't know my name- That was only the morning! It just got worse and worse! I'm ruined!"
"You can only hope," replied Yumi sagely. "He's a good looking boy."
"Boy? That's the Captain Commander to you!"
"Oh ease up Nagisa-san. I'm just trying to cheer you up. It's only a month, I'm sure you'll be fine."
Nagisa wasn't so sure.
"Nargo will already be gone for the evening," said Yumi. "Come on, we'll get something to eat and do some celebrating. People will want to know about your new boss. You've just become very popular. Lots of people are going to want to hear about this-
"You can't tell anybody-"
But Yumi was already out into the hall, knocking on the doors of their friends.
"It's ladies night," announced Yumi. "Nagisa-chan has something to celebrate."
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Nargo came hunting the following morning, found Nagisa as she was hurrying back from breakfast. She wasn't due to start work for nearly an hour, but Nargo was in a temper.
"I gave you an order," he snarled. "Why didn't you obey it?"
"Nargo-sama, I-"
"No excuses, shinigami!"
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Some distance away Yumi was watching Nargo screaming at her friend. She loathed Nargo, most people did. He was an ass kisser and a bully at the same time, but high enough above them that he could get away with both. There were rumors that his family had bought his position.
But none of that mattered now, because coming up the path with a face like a thunder cloud was Kurosaki Ichigo.
Yumi smiled. Nargo was in for the surprise of his life.