[He sits up a little straighter at that, startled into blinking as he looks down at Jyuushiko.]
Not me, Ukitake. I'm not good at setting an example - unless it's a bad one. And besides...
[There's a slight hesitation there, because he knows he's been caught - not quite in a lie, but at least an omission - and his tone is half-wary, half-resigned when he speaks again. It's not as if he ever expected that the question would arise, after all.]
... I guess I never did get around to having my name officially removed from the Kyouraku list of succession.
[He doesn't bother to elaborate on that - Jyuushiko knows that there's no chance that the noble houses of Seireitei would accept the head of a family as the leader of the Gotei Thirteen, nor anyone who had even a chance of succession. The fear of shinigami and their zanpakutou becoming used as a private army in a bid for power was too great.
The Central 46 had never dared to argue openly with Yama-jii ...and there's a stutter of grief there at the thought of his Sensei which Shunsui closes his eyes against... or question his ability to keep the affairs of the Yamamoto house separate from those of the Gotei. But even then there had been little faith to speak of, and Shunsui knows as well as anyone that there were times that thin thread of trust had been worn almost to breaking.]
no subject
Not me, Ukitake. I'm not good at setting an example - unless it's a bad one. And besides...
[There's a slight hesitation there, because he knows he's been caught - not quite in a lie, but at least an omission - and his tone is half-wary, half-resigned when he speaks again. It's not as if he ever expected that the question would arise, after all.]
... I guess I never did get around to having my name officially removed from the Kyouraku list of succession.
[He doesn't bother to elaborate on that - Jyuushiko knows that there's no chance that the noble houses of Seireitei would accept the head of a family as the leader of the Gotei Thirteen, nor anyone who had even a chance of succession. The fear of shinigami and their zanpakutou becoming used as a private army in a bid for power was too great.
The Central 46 had never dared to argue openly with Yama-jii ...and there's a stutter of grief there at the thought of his Sensei which Shunsui closes his eyes against... or question his ability to keep the affairs of the Yamamoto house separate from those of the Gotei. But even then there had been little faith to speak of, and Shunsui knows as well as anyone that there were times that thin thread of trust had been worn almost to breaking.]