𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 | 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 [MINOR EDITING]

²⁵ ʜᴇᴀᴅ ᴄᴀᴘᴛᴀɪɴ, ᴍʏ ᴄᴀᴘᴛᴀɪɴ

The first of the month – the day I'm to return to the First Division – comes quickly. Supposedly, on this day, the Head Captain is hosting a tea ceremony; as I'd heard, he does this on the first of every month, but it's usually for him and his own Squad.

"I'm... a little nervous," I find myself confiding to Shōri the morning of. She glances up at me from her porridge dish and raises her eyebrows.

"I can't understand why," she says to me. "It's only a tea party."

"Yes, but with the Head Captain," I remind her. I lean back, my shoulders shrugged, and sigh. "The fact our mother was Kayanara, one of his students... I bet he expects so much out of me for that."

"He's a patient man," Shōri says to me, and I send her a look, which she catches at the last second. "What's the matter?"

"How would you know that about the Head Captain?" I ask.

"... It's just a feeling I have," she tells me. "He seems like the type of leader to keep his head on straight in regards to his subordinates. If I'm wrong, then it's a shame, and I wish you luck, sister."

-

Once more, Chōjirō Sasakibe, the Lieutenant of the First Division, greets me at the entrance gate.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice, Miss Abaron," he says, gesturing for me to follow him. "The ceremony has already begun, but we have prepared you a place at the head table for you."

"Oh, thank you, Lieutenant Sasakibe," I say. "I'll be honest with you, I never would have expected an invitation to one of your Squad's tea ceremonies—I was under the impression they were just for squad members?"

"Traditionally, yes, but Head Captain Yamamoto wished to discuss your training before you begun. Today is his "day off", as it were."

Chōjirō leads me to the end of the long corridor, to a tall and wide pair of open doors with the First Division's symbol painted on them in black. In the room beyond them, I see row upon row of short wooden tables, lined with the members of the First Division, all of them smiling and laughing with one another.

"How festive," I muse.

"These events usually are," Chōjirō agrees. "This way."

Instead of a long table alike the ones placed for the squad members, Head Captain Yamamoto sits in the middle of two short tables, one on either side of him, and on top of each of them are stone teapot sets and fine porcelain teacups. He sits on a dark purple cushion, with two more empty beside each table.