An Old Friend (Draylontis)

Shioshi sighed as he wandered through the streets of Seireitei, trying to find something to occupy his time. It had been a while since he'd seen any action. He was bored, tired, and ready to go out on a mission, but at the moment there was nothing at all to do. So he'd resorted to setting out on a walk, and to keep on walking until he found something interesting to do. That had brought him here, to the park where he'd resolved things with Draylon more than a year ago now. Since then, he hadn't seen him even once. Then Bishamon had gone and disappeared as well, and he'd been left with no friends and no idea what he should do about it. For now, though, he decided he would relax under the shade of a tree.

He'd mellowed out a bit over the past year, which had a bit to do with hours and hours of practice with his Zanpakutou and a bit with the fact that it had been about a year since he'd last really done anything.

He approached an old, thick tree and slumped down against it, resting his Zanpakutou upon his knees and then shutting his eyes, deciding he'd at least get a bit of rest. He'd pulled an all-nighter with his training once again the night before, so he was pretty tired. He tried to reach out to his Zanpakutou as he rested, but he only found that strange, calm resonance in it that he always did. Sighing, he set his weapon on the ground next to him. No thinking about training right now. He just wanted to relax. Staring at the small pond in the middle of the park, he drifted slowly to sleep.

The day as sunny, bright and warm with an occasional slight breeze, making it a good day to be out and about. How lucky i am that i have today off from any duties, there has been so much bad weather lately. As he was casually walking around relaxing wondering what he should do he walked by a familiar park where he relaxes and spotted a familiar sight, a shinigami who he had had an odd relation with, at first it was student and teacher then it went to himself being an object of hatred which had been resolved in this very park.

Draylon silently walked over to the man and smirking lightly kicked his leg and said, "You know it is highly frowned upon to sleep in public." He grinned at the man as he awoke.

Shioshi's eyes snapped open as, startled, his hand immediately fell to his Zanpakutou. He tried to stand, but he tripped on his own feet and fell back to the ground, cursing the whole time. He managed to recover, though, and come to his feet without falling, gripping his blade tightly. Then he took a second to actually see who it was, and every bit of tension in his body disappeared. It was replaced by a look of absolute shock on his face as he sheathed his Zanpakutou. It had been a while since he'd last seen him, but there was no doubt about it. He was looking at one of his two friends who had disappeared, Draylon.

"Draylon?" gasped Shioshi. Then the shock left him, replaced by a large grin, and he clapped his hand on Draylon's shoulder. "It's been forever! Where have you been?" he asked. He scratched at the back of his head as he waited for Draylon to reply. The last time he'd seen Dray was back when they'd resolved their differences in the very park they now stood in. The significance of that last bit of information that swam through his mind was not lost on Shioshi. He also wondered just how powerful Draylon had gotten since he'd last seen him.

Dray closed his eyes and sighed as the man made a fool of himself, for a second it even looked like he was going to attack dray but once the man realized who it was he sheathed his sword and and said, "Draylon?" and clapped a hand on Dray's shoulder. In all honesty dray was kind of surprised shioshi didn't respond to Dray's choice of words, they were almost verbatim of the words he had said the last time they met which had sent shioshi into a near inarticulate fury.

Shioshi asked him where he had been and Dray responded by saying, "They rotated me out to guard a town for a month and it kept getting extended until i was there for 10 months, it sucked." Dray glanced at the sides of shioshi's uniform for a seated patch but didn't find one, "You aren't seated yet? What HAVE you been doing?"

Shioshi sighed upon hearing Draylon's question. That was something he'd been asking himself quite a bit, lately. Part of it was most likely because he had never really had an opportunity to show the higher-ups what he could do. Other than that, though, he really wasn't sure why things hadn't been better for him in the area of advancement. Rubbing his neck, he gave his friend a bit of an exasperated smile. He himself was a bit aggravated that he hadn't been seated yet. It was a constant thorn in his side, especially since both Bishamon and apparently Dray had achieved that particular goal.

"What have I been doing? Well, since they never seem to have any missions for me, I haven't exactly had a chance to prove myself worthy of a higher ranking," he replied, attempting to batter his annoyance with the facts into the ground. Then he realized something. "Wait a second. What you said just a second ago sounds a whole lot like what you said the last time we talked here," chuckled Shioshi. He remembered the stupid reaction he'd had, too. He'd almost attacked Dray, as a matter of fact. That was partly because he'd been fairly immature at that time, though, and partly because his anger used to be an issue.

Dray watched Shioshi as he explained why he hadn't been ranked yet. "Really? they don't have missions for you? Every time I turn around it seems they have a new mission they are shoving into my arms." Dray sighed, it was true he had been so busy lately with files and missions and guiding others on missions. "You should volunteer for mission and put yourself out there, make them notice you, don't give them a choice in the matter.

Draylon folded his arms, "I would throw you a few missions but you aren't in my squad so.... that's not really an option, talk to your superiors about it." There really shouldn't be any reason to be having a hard time finding missions, he seemed to rarely have any time for himself nowdays. He looked around him at the people scurrying by the park, some carrying papers, some walking slow some running.