A warranted promotion (Private, Onyx)

Promotions in Ika's Gotei weren't as hard to come by as they were in his father's, but they were in his own opinion much more based on a person's merits. Shiori had been a Vice Captain for years, and a teacher for many more. She had risen through the ranks through hard work, she possessed no semblance of prodigious talent and yet through sheer force of will had gotten further than anyone could've predicted when she had entered the academy. In a weird way, Ika had always kept a cursory eye in her direction, curious to see where she might plateau or end up sticking as a combatant but she never really seemed to stop progressing. Her path was seemingly unending, and by this point in her career Ika saw fit to reward her with the greatest responsibility one could be given.

She was going to become a Captain of Ika's new and reimagined Gotei, more specifically she would be the Captain of squad 6, a group she had more or less been babysitting for the better part of 5 years. Her new Vice-Captain would be Ika's son Seiji, but that was secondary to the main event of this little interaction.

Nonetheless, the first part of this process was waiting for her to walk through the door. Here's to hoping she'd make her appearance sooner, rather than later.

Shiori remained at the door to the Captain Commander's door almost frozen in place as her hand hovered a few inches from it. One wasn't called to this office for no reason, or for small things for that matter. So regardless of the reason she'd been requested, she was still nervous. There were rumors doing the rounds, so she wasn't completely unprepared. She closed her eyes, taking a few deep breaths as she tried to calm her raging mind. This garnered mixed results, but it was better than before.

Finally gathering the nerve to enter the room, she pushed the doors open and stepped inside. Any sign of fried nerves were buried under her usual straight-laced demeanor. Her quiet steps carried her with a graceful glide as she made her way across the room, though her fingertips fiddled with the hem of her sleeves. She finally came to a stop, snapping to attention in the presence of the Captain Commander. "Shiori Ashina of the 6th Division, as requested, sir."

Shiori had always been a bit shy when compared to others of her rank and stature. It was almost sweet honestly, amongst a bunch of sadistic murderers sat a genuine soul lacking the baseline arrogance that was necessary to do the things a Shinigami was meant to do. As refreshing as it was traditionally, now was hardly the time for games of hide and go seek. He was about to speak up, seemingly ready to interject and interrupt her mediocre panic attack before she finally mustered the strength to enter the room. Ika, ever the socialite, would greet her with a smile and welcome her in with as much kindness as he could muster. Admittedly, his demeanor didn't lend itself to a lot of warm interactions but it would be clear to anyone involved that he was making his best effort presently.

"Welcome in Shiori, I would rather cut to the chase since keeping you here without doing so is really only going to cause you undue stress. You're probably aware I have championed you as a member of the Gotei for years, I have advocated for your promotion and kept my eyes on your progression through most of your career. Having recently become the Captain Commander, I've decided I need to make some much needed promotions to get this faction back to it's prior glory.."

As Ika said this, he would snap his fingers and immediately some Shinigami would appear behind Shiori with a fitted Haori and hat. "So.. I'm assuming you know what this means, I'd really hope I don't need to explain this much further.." Ika's smirk was evident, his eyes gleaming with quiety joy. "You're a captain now, provided of course you accept that promotion."

Words were not on Shiori's side at the moment as the Captain Commander spoke. It was hard not to notice how much faith he'd put in her since could remember, in spite of what she believed she deserved. With her long past history of being referred to as a wild animal by academy instructors, and even her standoffish mood with superiors when they didn't seem to be performing at what she saw as the Gotei standard, she didn't think anyone would want to put up with her anymore than they had to. Honestly, reaching vice captain was further than she'd ever expected to make it, but the way things were going here... "Yes, I... I appreciate the faith you've had in me all these years. I can't thank you eno-"

The sudden arrival of two others with clothing seemingly tailored just for her cut her off. During a slow double take, she looked back to Ika, pointing at the people behind her, before looking back at them. Her head turned slowly back towards him, eyes wide with what one could assume is surprise as word of her promotion knocked on her ear drums. "You want me to... Oh. Oh I see. Yes." Shiori's eyes darted around the room, not focusing on anything in particular as thoughts of how to improve the division bounced around her brain. She cleared her throat before continuing. "Well, if you've come to this decision, the. I can only assume you e put a lot of thought about this. I can only accept this offer, in hopes that your continued faith in me doesn't waver."

Ika chuckled to himself as he stepped forward, frankly this was probably the part of this job he had enjoyed the most since taking over. Being able to form the Gotei around good people, ensuring that it wasn't just a club full of old people with less to prove, being able to help promote the best equipped people for each position, people who would help see the Gotei into the future? That was the thing Ika had been taking the most pride in, and it was a real shame his father didn't have the foresight to do this before his inevitable passing. Ika snapped his fingers, his assistants appearing behind Shiori to slowly but surely place her arms through the respective holes to ensure that it fit her perfectly and, as he expected, it did.

"Well, I've gotta say it looks good on you. You look dignified, far more so than I ever could. Some of the snootier types might not take too kindly to this, clans like the Nanashi still believe you have to be some kind of royalty to wear that uniform but with me running the Gotei I don't care about any of that. My faith in you has been there since day one, and will continue long after I die of whatever goofy method has it's way. Do you have any questions for me.. Captain Ashina?"