#not even sure if kubo could bring himself to watch all of the bount arc but i bet this scene made him cry real tears for sure

[recurring-polynya]

The Bount Arc features many things and one of them is a rare glimpse of a place I had previously assumed didn't even exist: The Squad 11 Captain's Office.

As I said, I generally refuse to believe that Zaraki maintains any sort of "administrative space"--I think Yumichika does all the squad paperwork on a Formica, diner-style table that somehow died and got sent to Soul Society in the "officer's lounge", which has orange shag carpeting and smells mysteriously like Miller High Life (the Champagne of Beers).

Even so, this place is beyond my wildest imaginings. The pink walls? The elegant, arcing windows, spilling natural light into the room? It's hard to tell from this shot, but the chairs are purple:

The couches look oddly like the Squad 6 couches, but they are not--the Squad 6 couches are wingbacks and don't have that wooden frame along the back and sides, and they have legs so they are up off the floor. Also, Zaraki has a very similar mysterious paperwork tray-table to the one Ginrei had in the Zanpakutou Rebellion arc. Zaraki's seems taller. Also, why is there actual paperwork on it???

I can only come up with two possible explanations for this:

Squad 11 has a Captain's Office, but Zaraki never uses it, so he let Yachiru make all the decor decisions. This would explain the pink walls, and we know she likes Byakuya's house, so maybe she cribbed the rest from him. Possibly even stole the furniture out of the dumpster the last time Squad 6 redecorated (which I assume happens, like, twice yearly)

This isn't even their office. They're just squatting in Byakuya's digs while he's out running around in Rukongai.

Update!!: A few episodes later, they were still sitting here (over the same time period that Renji, Matsumoto and Hitsugaya ran from the Seireitei to Kusajishi, for the record) and it was identified as Squad 11, so I guess option 1 is the winner!