| [Oct. 1st, 2015|02:41 am] |
Ryouma's teammates were still bickering behind him when he slid the door of the conference room shut. Genma sat at the table, studying his stack of papers, with his bad leg stretched out straight and his good one folded up beneath him. The pickle dish was empty; he'd moved on to snacking on senbei. He crunched one between his teeth and looked up with a quick smile. "Have a seat, Tousaki."
Ryouma settled down cross-legged on the embroidered floor cushion at the head of the table, where he could see Genma's face. "Should've figured you for a pickles and rice cracker guy. You ever eat tempura, lieutenant?"
"Of course." Genma's brows tilted, puzzled. "Why wouldn't I?"
"Just a theory." Ryouma waved it away. He braced his hands on both knees and straightened his spine. "I'm ready. Lay it on me."
"Relax, Tousaki. This isn't T&I." Genma pushed his senbei plate away and handed Ryouma a set of paper-clipped carbon copy pages off the top of his stack. "I know you'll need me to read this for you, but protocol says I show you what I'm reading from. The title at the top says, 'ANBU Periodic Performance Review Form'."
If Ryouma squinted, the bold black characters on the white page almost held still. He touched the first set gently. "I know those characters. If it's periodic, how often does this review happen?"
"The first one comes after the first thirty days. After that it's roughly quarterly, unless there's a problem that needs addressing."
"On top of mission reports and everything else." Ryouma whistled softly and passed the pages back. "Good luck, lieutenant. Guess you can always go in for PT if you get hand-cramp. Injury on the job."
"And fill out an injury report for it." Genma smiled wryly, then sipped at his tea and refocused. "Do you want me to read it to you section by section, or go through the whole thing and then discuss it afterward?"
If they had to stop and talk after every section, it'd be sunset before they finished, and he'd still be sitting braced for bad news. Ryouma shook his head. "One shot. Let's do it."
"Okay. Let me know if you need me to repeat something." Genma squared the papers off in front of him, cleared his throat, and began to read. |
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