Another long week, and another unofficial gathering of the Vice-Captains called to meet and discuss the current affairs of the Seiretei from the perspectives of the unsung lieutenants to those great and mighty Captains. Seiji was already at their usual bar, a little hole-in-the wall off the beaten path where they would meet to quietly grumble and complain about their bosses. The Vice-Captain sighed as he sipped his drink, it was good stuff (part of why he'd advocated for this place as a choice) but it was kind of grating that HE was the one who got here first.

Being fashionably late was sort of his thing, so here he sat waiting for everyone else. Between coming back later and starting to eat and drink first, Seiji chose to start snacking. He'd had the chance to put forward the first phase of his "Training Camp From Hell: Let's All Suffer Together!" today and the rest of the division was suitably wrung out. It just sucked that he had to actualy DO things while the Captain was away.

Well, if this wasn’t a perfect opportunity to get to know the other Vice Captains better, she didn’t know what was. Junko had been relatively busy filling in while the Captain was away, so what little time she did have went toward mischief. Today was going to be the perfect day to just relax and work on team building bonds! Well, she hoped that things would go that way. As Vice Captains, they all needed to lean on each other for support and understand how each squad worked together.. or something like that. It would be nice to know she wasn’t the only one with Captain problems though. In any case, she would make her way to the little hole in the wall place that was annotated on the invitation.

By the time Junko arrived, she had noticed that someone beat her to the meeting place. Well, she didn’t mind not being the first. Being first was always so boring and she didn’t dare sit here on her lonesome without a soul to entertain her. Junko would immediately make her way to the bar and take a seat next to her much taller comrade. ”Are you always so punctual or were you just excited to get here?” Junko would quip cheerfully as she also decided it was snack time. ”Think anyone else will show?”

Hayate wandered in sometime following Junko, but before the rest decided to join in. He’d been having a bit of a think as of late. Recent events were going to change the direction of his career drastically or end them all together. He ordered a cup of his usual poison and joined the other two, downing the entire thing before deigning a greeting. “Not late, am I?” Hayate lazily ordered a second drink with a wave to the bartender.

He leaned back in his chair, earning a groan from the sturdy but aged construction. Hayate wasn’t certain if news had travelled just yet, though that would depend on if his opponent had been warned or not. Not that it mattered. Once a second cup was placed on the counter, he leant further back to skilfully balance on the stools back legs to get just enough reach to grab his drink to return safely to the ground just in time.

Now wasn’t the time for idle gossip though. It was for complaining. Hayate hadn’t asked if he should keep the next steps of Ika’s master plan a secret or not, but he could vaguely allude to it instead. “I think I might have just been given the dumbest job ever cooked up.” No point wasting time on the actual main event of this meeting after all.

Sumoki wasn't exactly new to these get togethers, but the cast around him had shifted as far as position and priority since the last time they'd met. Indeed, it seemed that Seiji was moving up in the world and Junko was as well. The transfer Hayate had made from squad 2 to 11 was.. Curious to say the least, but no one had really heard anything concrete regarding the reasoning on that particular venture. If the noise back at barracks was to be believed, Seiji was probably a favored promotion for Ika and that made all the sense in the world given where things stood currently. Sumoki had worked under Ika briefly, and it was..

Complicated, that's the word for it.

Sumoki took a seat, reaching for a flask on his belt to uncork as he immediately began to down some sake as the meeting seemed to be nearing it's start. "Am I the last one or are we expecting more of us to attend?"

Whatever the answer was didn't really matter, Sumoki would simply nod and return to the much more pressing issue of getting as intoxicated as he possibly could before people started talking. As he threw back another swig of the sake, his mind drifted to his Zan Spirit.. "Only you... Can-"

"Yeah yeah I fucking know..."