#i spent like an hour today trying to name her zanpakutou and then gave up

[recurring-polynya]

Hirata Sasori - did Rukia ever invite her to tea as she resolved to do during her makeup training with Yumichika? How is the 11th enabling her love of sharp things? Does she have a collection of sharp things? Potentially funny/horrifying if it can be included: how much is Byakuya aware of her and what sorts of opinions does he have of her and/or her sharp things?

(for those who don’t obsessively read my fanfic, Hirata Sasori is one of my bit characters; she’s a noble friend of Rukia’s, whom Rukia “accidentally” helped join the Eleventh against her parents wishes. She tends to show up in crowds when I write Kuchiki party scenes. She’s built like a fridge, but is very femme and when she turns up, her hair/make-up/clothes game is 💯. I have never quite come out and said it, but she and Rukia definitely used to make out in the hedge maze when they were younger)

Hirata had a few scattered mentions throughout What We Do with Our Hearts, actually! She and Rukia socialize quite a bit, in part because they are friends, because it helps checks the box of Good Noble Daughter Who Has a Full Social Schedule and Maintains Relations with Other Houses, and I’m sure they found some time to hang out (I would also believe that Rukia took Hirata for coffee, because Hirata seems like a person who would enjoy coffee)

Life at the Eleventh has actually restricted the number of sharp objects Hirata usually has at her disposal. She comes from a branch of the Kasumiohji clan, the family from the Captain Amagai filler arc who produce high-quality (occasionally magical) weaponry. Prior to joining Squad 11, Hirata was a generalist who prided herself on being able to fight with every weapon her family produces. Although her father is kind of overbearing and limited her activities significantly, she did a lot of teaching and training other people, and giving her opinion on prototypes.

As (I imagine) sometimes happens with people who are already Fighting Professionals who join the Gotei mid-career, her zanpakutou spoke to her right away. It’s a naginata, a perfectly good Squad 11 melee-type, where her special attacks are like, “hit, but with knockback” or “hit, but with extra damage.” It’s honestly pretty disorienting for her to have to work on deep-diving with one specific weapon, but she’s doing a lot of personal growth, too, on the person she never got to be at home. She’s also very good at using her zanpakutou in its sealed, katana form, and switching up between sealed and shikai forms depending on whether she needs reach or mobility more. She also always has at least six knives of varying size on her person at any given time.

Being both highly educated, experienced at business, and good at teaching, she got promoted to Sixth Seat right away. Even though she and Renji are pretty different people, she somehow fills the weird ecological niche that he carved out in the Eleventh, the person who approaches training from an orderly, almost nerd-like perspective, who values taking care of their body so that they will be able in inflict increasingly horrifying amounts of damage to it, who takes a lot of joy in helping their subordinates reach their potential, and who is absolutely deadly with a tube of eye liner.

Byakuya knows her on sight and knows that she is friends with Rukia, but he’s never exchanged more than pleasantries with her. Now, if you were to ask one of the Kuchiki Aunts their opinion on Hirata, they would say, “oh, that girl is so improper! Caring about weapons! Uninterested in attracting men! A terrible influence on Our Rukia!” Byakuya is more like, “she has a good last name and dresses properly and could pass even a really hard etiquette quiz, 👍👍, A+++, good friend for Rukia.” Rukia even told him that she joined the Gotei (but not which squad), which raised his estimation of her even more. There was a bit at the very end of Hearts where Byakuya sees her chatting with his impressionable teen cousin at a party and thinks to himself “ah, yes, what a good influence, this is Good, Actually.”

Yeah.