"Captain? Captain? Wake up, Captain!"
"Tch, it's you, Rangiku-"
"Obviously. Who else would it be? Some innocent girl from Shin'ō Academy?"
"Try minding your manners once in a while, Rangiku. What kind of lieutenant talks to her captain like that? Bring me some ice. My head hurts."
"Here-did you have a nightmare, Captain Yato?"
"I wouldn't exactly call it a nightmare."
Uchiha Yato pressed the ice pack to his forehead and took the white haori Matsumoto Rangiku handed him. His voice was soft. "I dreamed of an ocean."
"Don't tell me you want to visit the World of the Living to see the ocean, Captain?"
Matsumoto Rangiku, who had grown into a stunning woman, propped her chin on her hand and chuckled mischievously. "Could you take me along? I heard girls in the World of the Living wear clothes with very little fabric at the beach. I'd like to try that too~"
Yato shook his head without committing himself, tossed the ice pack to Rangiku, and pushed open the door. "Watch the place. I'm going to 'attend to' a guest."
Sunlight fell on his Captain's Haori, tracing its edges with a faint golden glow. His subordinates' reverent greetings rose all around him, further underscoring his unquestioned authority in the Ninth Division.
Forty-five years had passed since Uchiha Yato became Captain of the Ninth Division.
He no longer looked like a boy.
Now, Yato was tall and straight-backed, his handsome features as finely drawn as a painting. Beneath his loose, pure-white haori lay a powerful, tightly muscled body. His eyes were dark as deep pools, and his black hair reached his waist.
From any angle, he was a very handsome young man.
On the Women's Soul Reaper Association's secretly compiled list of "Seireitei's most handsome unmarried male Soul Reapers," Uchiha Yato