Lost and Found... Hopefully? [Open]

Masaru's smile grew a little at Hisao's answer; another curry lover! It was great to meet more people that enjoyed curry, well...it was great to meet more people in general, but this was really nice as well!

"That's great, later we can meet up at the manor then?" He suggested.

"I'm fine for whenever, just need to finish up a few things at Fourth." Kaimu answered, glancing off to the side for a short moment. The conversation seemed so casual now, at least he could fake it. He felt awkward speaking like this so...easily with Shirakawa, but he was a master at hiding his emotions after centuries of doing so~

"Yeah, I can definitely do that. Do I need to talk to someone to keep from getting kicked out, Captain?" Hisao didn't regularly interact with the noble families outside of whatever his errands required him to do, but he did have a storied history of waking up randomly on private property and getting shooed away post-experimental kido. It could be said that Hisao was a master of getting flung out of places he mis-happed upon.

"Just bring your badge, I'll inform the guards ahead of time to permit you entrance." That would be the easiest way. "Just tell them you're meeting with myself and..."

He'd never actually...referred to Kaimu by name before while the man was right here... This was something Masaru hadn't realized until, well, just now...

"Fourth's Assistant, Kaimu." Kaimu interjected, smiling; on the inside he wanted to laugh, fuu~ Shirakawa froze up~

"Well, uh, good thing I've got this."

He held up the armband and began to tie it. He muttered a short incantation under his breath and the entirety of the armband glowed a soft, warm orange very briefly. Hisao gave the thumbs-up to the other two in his company, stopping to raise an eyebrow at the Shirakawa heir. He shrugged it off.

"Anyways, I guess I'll catch you two there. See you in a few."

And he flash-stepped away. Probably in the direction of the Shirakawa mansion rather than in the direction opposite of it, one would hope.

It was good, the lieutenant had his bad back now, and thanks to it he'd find it easy to access the Shirakawa grounds today for food! Masaru would be sure to inform the guards upon his return, he had things to get prepared!

"Right, right~ See you~!" Kaimu waved, glancing to Masaru before turning himself to head back to the Fourth.

Masaru had waved the lieutenant bye, and once the man had flash-stepped away and Kaimu had left he went about returning to the manor. He would get the kitchen prepared, and they would be all set!

Hisao wasn't sure why people didn't travel around by flash-step more often. It definitely was work, but it made getting from Point A to Point B nigh-trivial, and it had saved him many a day when he had overslept.

He had actually stopped at Ninth Division to pick up something from the garden he kept, and he began to make his way towards the Shirakawa residence (mansion?) with a melon and bag of kaki-pi in tow. The kaki-pi he offered to the guards and the arm-band he showed.

"So, I'm here for Captain Shirakawa? And Kaimu, of the Fourth Division."

Upon Hisao's arrival, the guards took in the appearance of the armband, as well as accepting the man's offer of the kaki-pi as he stated his business here. With a nod and bow he was allowed entry through the front gates.

Masaru had already let them know of his coming arrival.

The Shirakawa grounds were large, the manor appearing more traditional than modern, but it was to be expected of one the Great Noble Clan's of the Soul Society.

Hisao was met at the door by one of the servants, whom also gave a respectful bow before smiling; "I'll be leading you to the kitchen, Miyanagi-san; Miura-san has already arrived as well."

Saying that, once Hisao was ready he was lead through the halls of the building before he was brought to a rather large, well kept kitchen. The building itself was not modern, but Masaru kept up to date with cooking utensils, as cooking was one of the man's biggest hobbies despite that being something the head of a noble clan normally would't do.

Masaru seemed to be setting up a few things, while Kaimu stood somewhat near and watched.

"Ah, welcome; I'm sorry I couldn't greet you at the door personally." Masaru greeted; "I became a bit too caught up in the preparation. There's tea over there I've prepared if you'd like any."

Saying that, he gestured to the tray of tea that sat at one of the counters, one cup for Hisao sat while the other two sat a bit off due to having been taken and drunk from.

"Oh, yeah, thanks!"

Hisao waved goodbye to the servant who had facilitated him to the kitchen. If it weren't for the servant, then it was pretty likely that he would have just ended up lost and wandering around the complex for days. Like yeah, they were noble families and all, but goodness gracious, this was absolutely enormous.

"Hello again. Brought a melon for the visit. Can I put it down here?"

He pointed to unused kitchen space and just kind of set the melon down even as he spoke the question. If either of them objected to it, the melon would go elsewhere, probably. For now? He made his way over to the tea.

"But yeah, no worries. You're the host, so everything is really no problem."

"Welcome, and go ahead!" Masaru gave a nod, giving the okay for Hisao to set the melon he'd brought down before turning back to the food preparation. He had everything he needed, even enough for extra honestly...

Perhaps he'd enjoy a plate of curry rice once this was all done... It seemed like a good plan, they would have curry, and then he could also have his own favorite! There would certainly be enough to go around for at least...five people?

He wanted to make sure they had enough, after all~

Kaimu had given Hisao a glance before a smile appeared, that being his greeting; he had to focus... He was supposed to be learning...as awkward as it still felt to be being taught by...Shirakawa, but for Lak-tan he'd make exceptions... Mia also wanted them to spend more time together...

"Sure thing. What now, chef?"

He glanced over at Kaimu, who seemed absolutely riveted on what Captain Shirakawa was doing. Hisao decided he'd keep watch on Masaru's award-winning curry too. There was a certain kind of wizardry that went into good food that he couldn't help but appreciate. He didn't make any attempt to help out unprompted, at risk of fussing up the curry for good.

"For now, I think I have things handled; enjoy yourselves." Masaru answered, glancing over to Hisao before his attention returned to his curry preparation. He was supposed to be instructing Kaimu on how to prepare this curry so he could make it for Lakshmi.

It was a nice gesture, and the noble couldn't help but be a bit happy to be helping with this.

Kaimu listened, sipping his tea on occasion as Shirakawa explained what to do as he went about the process. He had good memory, and he'd been promised a written up recipe once they were all done as well.

"Oh, well, uh, yeah. I can do that." He could totally enjoy himself. Not really fully, since it was kind of awkward just standing there doing nothing. Hisao came in knowing that he was here to taste-test, and that was definitely a thing, but just standing around and sipping tea while someone was hard at work definitely made him a little antsy.

Still, it looked like Masaru was having hus fun, and Kaimu seemed to be digesting all of the information, so he did as was instructed, just trying to blend in with the wall mostly. He was kind of being a lame guest, but it seriously wouldn't be too good to divert either of their attentions, right?

There was a bit to be done, and Masaru kept up his work; he wished he was able to do more for his guests at the same time though, but cooking was a job to focus on so they'd have good results.

"Ah, Lieutenant Miyanagi would you mind handing me the onions? I've already prepared them they're close by you..."

He wasn't fond of asking favors of a guest, but they were closest to the man and he had to focus, plus it didn't seem like there was much conversation to be had since Kaimu was focusing and digesting the information on the recipe.

"Onions? Sure, I got them. Need me to prep 'em, Cap? Or will we be seeing firsthand the famous Shirakawa knife work?" All in jest of course, but the vice-captain had seen enough competitive cooking over the years that he would have been pleasantly surprised if such was the case. Either way, he made his way across the kitchen, and realized the bowl of onions were already cut.

It'd explain the tears.

"Oh, uh. Kidding…" He laughed awkwardly, as was tradition, and just set the bowl down. It was good that the Captain did all the prep work already. It'd sure save Kaimu some time for the actual cooking part.

"But yeah, here."

"Thank you." Masaru smiled, accepting the chopped onions as Hisao brought them over to him before he continued with the cooking. In a little while they'd have the food prepared and could enjoy it!

Glancing over, he noticed Kaimu's attention still on what he was doing, it seemed the man was digesting every bit of information he'd offered so far. He hoped he'd have luck making this for Lakshmi, he would get a recipe later, after all...

So it would hopefully not be too difficult...

"Ah, lieutenant; you managed to find your badge, but I went ahead and sent in a request for a new one too after our meeting... This way you'll have a spare." He had promised he would put in an order for the man, even if they had found his original one...

Well, this way he would have less worries.

"It should be delivered to your office in a week or so."

"Oh, whew. That's good to hear. I guess I don't need another, but it'd be really nice to have one just in case something comes up, I guess. At any rate, I'll keep my eyes peeled."

He laughed slightly as he wiped away the onion tears. It was kind of unfortunate that they were so chock-full of stuff like that, but hey, they worked great in curries, so there was that, at least.

"So is there a secret technique or ingredient going into this curry, or is it all skill?"

Hisao was asking partially for Kaimu's benefit; really, it seemed like he wasn't saying too much right now, which—given how he acted earlier and what he had heard about Kaimu personally when his nose wasn't in a book?—it might have been something of a rarity to see him take the backseat in things like this.

Masaru gave a nod in response to Hisao's statement; "When I was a lieutenant working under my father I kept a spare, it was best for me to do so since I was often called out on dangerous missions."

He'd never really lost his badge back when he was younger, but there was always the chance he could have, and keeping a spare seemed like an ideal thing to do. He was...quite relieved though he'd never lost the thing...

Hearing Hisao's next question, Kaimu looked over to the man for a moment before looking back to Shirakawa and the curry just as Masaru spoke up to answer.

"I've just had a lot of practice, it's one of my favorite dishes so I've been learning how to cook it since I was small... Perhaps I've done a few tweaks to the recipe though...hmm..."

It'd been decades, and decades... The recipe for his curry had been stuck to his memory at this point, as for any tweaks he'd made they came naturally to him at this point...

"Oh, yeah, I suppose that would happen, being a favorite and all." Well, I mean, he guessed that was a little something for Kaimu's benefit, he guessed. At the very least, it sounded like it was on the more practice-based side of things, and that there was still room for Kaimu to make his own contributions to the Shirakawa legacy.

"Oh, yeah. I've been wondering for a bit, now." He blinked, as a question popped into his head. "How is this a family matter, anyways?"

"Mhm." Masaru answered happily as he kept his focus on the cooking; it was certainly thanks to practice and being his favorite that he'd further perfected the recipe... Ahh, he hoped the two would enjoy this when it was done.

Kaimu seemed to be focused too, good...

Hn? How was it a family matter?

"Well, I suppose you could call Assistant Miura here my...father in law?"

Kaimu almost choked at that, there was a visible expression of surprise, though...while Kaimu opened his mouth as if to retort...could not say anything.

Masaru was focused on the cooking, just focus on the cooking. He'd let that smidgen of confidence show and now he must just let it sit...

"He wants to learn how to make this for Captain Lakshmi, since curry is one of her favorites as well. So I'm teaching him."

"Oh, an in-law? Yeah, I get—father-in-law?" Well, okay, so Hisao thought that they were brothers-in-law, but... Yeah, he guessed that he couldn't chalk everything up to apparent age. He caught his mouth hanging slack-jaw open and closed his mouth, clearing his throat nervously.

"Sorry, uh, I didn't realize. I wouldn't have thought that, just glancing at the two of you. Not that it means anything. Just, uh..." If anything, I would have thought it was the other way around. Hisao decided not to voice that particular thought. Oh, man, was Hisao sweating? He was totally sweating.

His laugh came out high-strung in all senses of the term: it was nervous and a full octave higher than it normally was. "Er... well. Forget I said anything. I said nothing! Complements to Captain Lakshmi for her wonderful taste in cuisine. Curry sure is great, isn't it, Assistant?"

Yeah!! They could totally get through this without awkward dead air. Just mentally block out half of what was going on, and it would be just fantastic.

"Aha, sort of, yes..." Masaru answered, giving a small nod as he kept his eyes on the cooking, completely ignoring Kaimu's shocked reaction. This distance between the two of them was hurting Mia...and with these cooking lessons it was starting to annoying him as well, especially knowing it was hurting Mia...

He was trying, but Kaimu was still a bit frustrating when it came to interaction.

So...Masaru was starting to get a little irked, and well...pointing out the future familial relationship would be an obvious thing that would get to the red head.

"His daughter, Mia, and I are in a relationship." He explained further, glancing back to Hisao with a small smile. "It's alright, by the way, no need to apologize."

Kaimu felt his eye twitch, though he was trying to force his attention on the cooking as well despite Shirakawa's statements.

At Hisao's question, he gave a nod; the typical smile of his somewhat returning to his face; "Mmhm~ Curry is definitely delicious!"

Yes! Okay! Good! Kaimu was smiling now, and that meant that he could handle this social interaction! There was nothing to read in that eye-twitch of his at all! Just one of those little tics, nothing more.

Hisao's keen instinct for fight-or-flight towards awkwardness was beginning to settle down.

"Captain, how long do you usually let the curry go for? I don't think I've seen a curry looked like this ever?" Really, he had only ever used the little roux-bricks and really liked the home-y feel to it. But it seemed that the famous Shirakawa was a formidable from-scratch ordeal.

"Aa, it's almost done, actually... It'll just take a bit more." Masaru explained, glancing over to Hisao before his attention returned to his cooking. "I learned to make it from scratch... It takes a bit longer because of that, but the result is definitely worth it I'd say."

Curry was one of the first things he'd learned to make when he was able to, and after decades and decades of practice he had the recipe memorized exactly.

Though...he had to be careful not to make it too much, it was his favorite, but he enjoyed lots of other foods too, plus he wanted Mia and Nozomi to have their favorites as well!

Kaimu was getting used to the preparation, it was much quicker than Lakshmi's cooking...but her cooking was adorable with how careful she was. With Shirakawa's he just preferred to focus on the smell, though now he had to pay attention to what the guy was actually doing since he was trying to learn for Lakshmi's sake.

"Lak-tan's cuter when she cooks..." He hadn't exactly been intending to mutter it, but it seemed the voice of his heard had reared it's head...

"It's my duty to teach you, not be cute for you -- you wouldn't exactly like that at all though, would you, Papa." That earned another choke from Kaimu, but Masaru had the urge to make these remarks... having taken them and Kaimu's outright silence in previous cooking sessions, and again...he had Mia's happiness to think about as well.

"Aha..." Kaimu glanced away from Shirkawa, replacing the frown on his face with another one of his smiles as he looked to the lieutenant. "It's definitely good curry, Lak-tan can vouch for that~! She requests it from the guy a lot."

Well, it was definitely good curry, but he wasn't giving Shirakawa another edge to make a comment in regards to himself. What happened to the Shirakawa that was...a loser!? This was...definitely another side to the man that he wasn't sure existed before now... Weh. "So, Miyanagi how's Ninth these days, just the day to day work...?"

He knew the training was still strict, Norma-tan was the captain after all...plus they'd spoken briefly of Ninth earlier.

"Oh, yeah... I mean there are mixes and stuff, but you can't ever beat the real article with just that, right?"

Hisao wasn't exactly the world's best chef, but hey, it was still a science, of a sort, and while their food tech was fairly good, it never struck Hisao as a kind of thing that the Twelfth was really caught up on right now. More reasonably, they were probably more focused on more practical projects—or at least, the bulk of their output was probably from something not entirely recreational.

After all, grant proposals really were a hassle, especially when you were the one writing them up...

He didn't exactly tune out Kaimu's off-beat comment, but he was just fine leaving the Shirakawa head-of-household to banter with his former squad-mate. He offered them a slight, uncomfortable smile. It was almost sweet that they were trying to connect light that, but he kind of felt like this would be a good time for him to fade out of the room.

Geez, it was feeling kind of third-wheely over here...

...Was business going as usual, the question was?

"Ack. I mean... Yeah! Yeah. I'm doing my own thing off to the side, but Captain Higgins really knows how to work people to the bone."

"Mhmm, right!" Masaru agreed, his attention away from Kaimu now as he continued cooking, as well as respond to the lieutenant. Definitely right, he'd tried mixes before, but...he definitely preferred it from scratch.

Almost done, soon they'd be able to enjoy some; he couldn't help but be happy, it was his favorite after all!

"Uwaa, you're a hard worker. If you there's things that interest you though it's good to use your spare time for it." Kaimu stated, returning Hisao's smile with another one of his own.

Kaimu didn't know what other things Hisao was working on, but so long as the man was happy with what he was doing.

Business seemed to be going fine in Ninth too, which was good to hear. It wasn't like he especially missed working there, but it was good to hear updates from time to time on the division's progress.

He'd pretty much just worked and that was it, other than his family he'd never really focused on much else. The whole reason he'd become a shinigami in the first place was to help provide for his family... So he'd just worked on what needed working on, trained, and trained others when necessary or asked.

A laugh was given at the mention of Norma, "True, she really does; that's Norma-tan for you, aha~!"

He hadn't ever been a lieutenant, but even as just a seated officer Norma kept her subordinates in strict check.

"Aand...It's done!" Masaru announced after a few more moments, his smile pleased as he went about gathering dishes for them to use to eat.

He prepared Hisao's first, and handed it off to the lieutenant, "Hopefully you enjoy, sorry for the wait."

Cooking took time, sometimes too much, but the wait was worth it!

Next, Kaimu's was prepared, and the red head accepted the dish quietly from Shirakawa to begin eating. It was definitely good, even if praising the boy wasn't something he really did.