With the Captains suffering casualties and heavy injuries on their side, all hope seemed to be lost... until Shinji Hirako appeared, along with the rest of the former Shinigami. Though the aid of the Vizards certainly helped to draw the battle in their favor, it seemed Aizen's power alone proved too much for them.
A regular day in which the student council had a meeting. Roy, the counselor was required to be there to oversee the decision on this years fall festival theme. A rather lengthy debate over such themes as trees and mythology, you know the usual themes. After about a few more hours they came to two themes in which Roy had the deciding vote. One was rather traditional about the leaves changing while the other was rather unorthodox involving unity through bread. Yeah, you read that right, bread.
He took his time with this, each side stating their respected views at the Middle aged teacher before he reached his decision. "I've made up my mind." With that and a few days later, Roy stood outside admiring Karakura High's first ever Breads of the World festival.
Booths were set up to show off different countries and their breads of choice. The french booth seemed to have just as much as the Japanese one. Either way Roy enjoyed the smell of the various breads, it reminded him of home.
Yue wandered around the festival admiring the different baking skills that others had. For some reason she wasn't allowed to bake in this festival. She didn't understand that her breads end up a blacken coal harder than steel oozing a purple sludge that some would call toxic. Such were the skills that Yue had put into her cooking skills. So instead of baking the bread, she was forced to act as one of the many 'bread girls' that would direct those to various booths or take up a group for a tour.
Right now, dressed as a tour guide with a melon bread on her hat, she pointed a family to the Europe section of the festival.
It was not every day that a Captain of the Gotei 13 visited the human world during peacetime. It was even rarer that the Captain of the Fourth Division journeyed across the dimensions and appeared in the world of the living.
But when one Suzuka Yukishiro learned about Karakura High School's Breads of the World Festival, she simply had to attend. It was a festival. About bread.
She just simply couldn't miss it.
So, she had placed Isane in charge of the Division while she was gone and set her paperwork aside for the day. She had been working hard, she rationalized, and overworking could lead to stress. Stress was responsible for high levels of hormones and, if left untreated, could lead to severe health problems.
Well, she definitely didn't want that.
Having acquired a gigai for the occasion, Suzuka brushed a strand of snow-white hair from her face as she approached the high school. Dressed in a turtleneck dress and tights, with sensible flats on her feet, the captain wandered among the numerous stalls, taking in the sweet, sweet smell of fresh bread that lingered in the air. She even managed to sample a few of the breads available (read as: she went to each stall and sampled everything).
"...hmm..."
Glancing at the Official Bread Pamphlet she held in her hands, Suzuka approached a young girl with a hat shaped like melonbread.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find the booth that's sampling the Vollkornbrot?"
Strange, she felt as if a sudden pressure hit her but only for a brief moment. Yue was somewhat surprised when she heard the sweet voice call behind her to ask a question.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know where I could find the booth that's sampling the Vollkornbrot?"
Yue turned to meet a rather stunning woman with a bit of a thin frame. Though thin, it seemed to fit her rather nicely and among that, her hair reminded Yue of winter. She had never seen this woman before, she wasn't a teacher or anyone she had seen in her travels to and from school. Probably a woman from the town, after all how would she know that this beauty of women was a Shinigami.
She brushed some of her long black hair that was not tied into the leather straps behind her ear. She looked down with her amber eyes at the map she was given to help direct patrons. "Let's see, Vollkornbrot. That's in the Germany section if I remember correctly." She motioned for Suzuka to follow her fingers from the map to the actual festival.
She pointed straight then back at the map. "If you were to go straight ahead and make a left at the french booth, you'll hit Germany." She directed giving Suzuka a small smile before a voice came in with an opinion of his own.
"Why not just give her the tour Miss Yue, I'm sure even a bread enthusiast would get lost in the wonders of France." Roy Dylandy came in while wearing his normal attire of dress clothes in a casual manner. Even Yue had to admit the young looking man was handsome in certain light, but he was Makana's guy.
"That is, if the young lady wouldn't mind a tour guide." This time looking at Suzuka with his smile and Irish green eyes.
Suzuka followed the melonbread girl, her eyes darting from booth to booth as they walked towards a section of the festival she hadn't been in before. To be perfectly honest, she was rather surprised just how much bread was gathered at one place...and from different countries, too! Her mind began to wonder on whether a festival such as this would be possible in Soul Society...
"If you were to go straight ahead and make a left at the french booth, you'll hit Germany."
A think white eyebrow raised, "France...you say?" And in true anime fashion, a baguette, a croissant and a rather large croquembouche popped into her mind, circling her thoughts...tempting her to try just one.
Or maybe fourteen. Of each flavour.
The white-haired woman turned towards the melonbread girl with a smile, and was about to thank her for the assistance, when another voice appeared from behind.
"Why not just give her the tour Miss Yue, I'm sure even a bread enthusiast would get lost in the wonders of France."
Another eyebrow rose slightly, yet the small smile on Suzuka's face never left. While it was certain that the man in front of her was rather handsome, that she had to admit, but she was never was that interested in romance.
Well, not anymore, of course.
"That is, if the young lady wouldn't mind a tour guide."
Young lady? How long had it been since someone had called her "young lady"? To be fair, he probably didn't know she had recently hit her third century.
Suzuka turned to the melonbread girl, closing her eyes with a gentle smile, "Yue-san, was it? If you aren't too busy, I wouldn't mind a tour of the festival. I'm not familiar with the school grounds." She then turned to the man, "Perhaps you could join us, sir?"
Yue was about to just leave but then that Irish man had to enter. Why must he come in and add work to her load? Although she wasn't really doing anything important, it would have been a nice opportunity to sneak in and bake one of her famous melon curry bread specials. Her brother enjoys them, calling them a work like no other. The truth being to harsh for her would most likely incur the wrath he did not want to invoke.
Roy's smile never left his face, as the host of the festival he would have loved to show such a lovely young lady around. It was a shame that he had his rounds to do before he could enjoy the festival himself. "It would have been a pleasure but unfortunately my attention is needed else where." But then a face of sudden realizations escaped and he reached in his pocket.
He presented Suzuka with a raffle ticket, with a series of four numbers (8472). "Here, a raffle will be happening toward the end of the festival. Maybe you'll get lucky and win a prize." Clasping the ticket into her hand with both of his won, Roy gently shook it and left for his duties.
Yue let out a small sigh as her teacher left. It would have been an interesting adventure if Makana found out he was hanging out with a woman of this caliber. That might have been worth it to see him get in a few well placed chalk hits and fall to the ground, but she could always dream. "I don't mind showing you around miss, after all I'm dressed for the part." Another thing she had to admit was that this tour guide outfit was actually her type of cosplay. She would have added a demonic feel to it, maybe turn herself into the tour guide of the underworld for her show later that week.
She put that thought on her back burner for the moment. It was tour guide time and she had an eager tourist all to herself. "I believe we shall start our tour today with a Euro trip. Shall we begin?" She started to get into the act though her dowdy face did not change. Don't blame her though, she's always had that sort of face on when she wasn't in character.
Suzuka simply blinked as the man explained that he would be unable to join the tour. Unfortunate, but it was not something to worry about. After all, she assumed, he was a faculty member, and one that was probably supervising the event. She would not keep him away from his duties.
"Here, a raffle will be happening toward the end of the festival. Maybe you'll get lucky and win a prize."
She looked down at her hand, seeing a small ticket within it. Holding it up, she tilted her head slightly before smiling slightly and putting it into the sleeve of her sweater (don't ask how she did that, it's a top-secret Captain ability). "Thank you. This should be rather interesting."
Brushing a strand of hair behind her ears, Suzuka turned towards the younger girl, her supposed tourguide with the melonbread hat.
"I don't mind showing you around miss, after all I'm dressed for the part."
"Thank you, Yue-san. I hope I wouldn't be too much of a bothersome tourist. But alas, they don't have these festivals where I come from, and I'm rather interested." she said with a small bow of her head.
"I believe we shall start our tour today with a Euro trip. Shall we begin?"
Yue led her eager tourist along the path that was the Europe part of the festival. The air was filled with the smell of fresh bread. "On our right you will see that Great Britain's famous break fest breads which include English muffins and various types of scones." With a short stop, Yue addressed Shuzuka of the many booths that the UK booths had to offer.
Though that the most enthusiastic tour guide, she spoke with fluidity and had excellent poise. Her hands moved softly as she waved to each booth that showed off their baking skills. Their seemed to be more scones then people at the booths, each a different flavor.
Yue felt a bit jealous of those able to participate in the baking, you can tell in her eyes.
Elsewhere, somewhere near the South American section of the festival, a very rowdy man was enjoying some Pao de Queijo. "This is fantastic! And it's a cheese bread, that is clever." Kamina, the Segunda Espada had gotten drunk the night before and fell asleep outside the school in the bushes. Granted he had a gigai on and luckily was not found by anyone to disrupt his hangover.
He had awoken to the smell of fresh bread and decided that it was time to eat. He hadn't even realized that humans came up with so many different types of breads, but he didn't care all that much. All that matter was he was enjoying what these humans called 'free samples' much to onlookers disgust.
Back to Yue and Shuzuka. "Next stop on our tour is France, probably the most famous European country when it comes to bread. From baguettes to beheadigs, France as a rich history when it comes to this culinary delight."
