"Cousin." Hisoka planted his fists on his hips and glared up…
\n and up… at the other young man. "Impossible."<\/p>\n
The young man in question ran a harried hand through short, orange hair. "Not
\n like it was my idea, shrimp. And if you’re a shinigami," he added, as
\n Hisoka reminded himself he wasn’t allowed to kill humans whose time wasn’t
\n up, "why aren’t you in uniform?"<\/p>\n
\nHisoka blinked. "Uniform? What uniform?" He frowned at Tsuzuki. "Was
\nthere a memo about getting uniforms, and you lost it again?"<\/p>\n
\n"… younger sister… mother’s name… well, yeah, if his dad was a… huh?"
\nTsuzuki looked up from the pad of paper he was attempting to chart the Kurosaki
\ngeneology on. "Um. I don’t think so?" He smiled at Hisoka’s maybe-cousin.
\n"So you say you’re a part-timer? That’s unusual." He nibbled his lip.
\n"For the living, anyway."<\/p>\n
\nIchigo fished out a small badge and tossed it over, still looking skeptical and
\nout of temper.<\/p>\n
\nOk, maybe he was Hisoka’s cousin after all.<\/p>\n
"Oh!" Tsuzuki gave them both a bright, cheerful grin. "You’re \n"The other branch?" Hisoka and Ichigo chorused, and then glared at each \n"Different realms, under different rulers," Tsuzuki explained. "We "At least he doesn’t draw pictures," Ichigo muttered. He eyed them \nHisoka smiled for the first time that afternoon. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n End<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One Kurosaki meets another Kurosaki.
\n part of the other<\/em> branch!"<\/p>\n
\nother again.<\/p>\n
\ndo some of the same work, but recruitment is totally separate. We do cooperate
\nevery now and then, but there hasn’t been a joint operation for… a couple centuries,
\nI think. The Chief is probably the only one who remembers." He handed the
\nbadge back to Ichigo. <\/p>\n
\n dubiously, but finally shrugged. "Whatever. Hey." He looked Hisoka
\n up and down. "If you’re from an old family, are you any good with a
\n sword? They keep telling me I could use some extra practice…"<\/p>\n