Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, its characters or its settings.
"Student Shinigami," said Captain Commander Ukitake, "Soul Society is under threat like never before. The Arrancar War is a conflict the likes of which we have never seen before."
He was repeating himself, but he was tired.
The new Captain Commander addressed a small sea of faces, just over two hundred students from the Seireitei academy. These were the best of the students in each year, the students with true potential, the students who had already surpassed the lowest level shinigami in the thirteen squads.
"We are at war and we need soldiers. Some of you may have memories of your mortal lives, may remember being soldiers yourselves. Forget them. This war has no mortal equivalent."
"It's a battle of champions. I don't like that word, but it will serve. Our rank-and-file warriors will battle their rank-and-file warriors as a mater of necessity, but a single powerful individual on either side can annihilate legions until he or she is balanced off or even overwhelmed by a champion of the other side. A single run of bad luck can kill thousands. If one of our tenth seats and three hundred shinigami encountered a single Espada, we would lose three hundred and one. But a single one of our captains could defeat a hundred Gillians, given time."
Did they know about Gillians? They were still part of the curriculum, weren't they? Ukitake wondered again if he was doing the right thing. This was Shunsui's plan.
His head felt woolly from lack of sleep.
"Today is your first day out of your regular classes. You're no longer students at the academy, you are acting shinigami. This is a privilege, not a right, and you're expected to act like shinigami."
"As I said, this is a battle of champions. The only problem is that none of you are champions." Ukitake gestured behind him, to his former third seats. "I've had my aides draft up documents on recent history, documents that would normally only be available to seated officers of the Gotei 13. You will treat the contents as confidential. The documents will bring you up to speed, you'll have one day to familiarize yourselves with them. At this time tomorrow you will reassemble in this room where you will be issued full shinigami uniforms with special insignia. You will them be assigned squadrons. The squadrons will be assigned to certain of our up and coming shinigami. If you're careful reading your documentation you may even recognize their names."
That covered all the practical details Ukitake could remember. He was so tired.
Wait, wasn't there something else? Oh yeah...
"I'll be blunt. This is an experiment. If it doesn't work you'll die. If it does – I won't make any comments about carving places for yourselves in shinigami legend – I won't insult your intelligence. I do know you wouldn't like having Aizen as your god. Read your documentation. Be up to speed with what's happening. Dismissed."
The Captain Commander turned and stalked out, leaving the other two shinigami to distribute the piles of paper he'd brought.
The war was still young and already going badly. Yama-ji had miscalculated twice to devastating consequence, losing his own life the second time and leaving Ukitake to pick up the pieces.
Shunsui transformed over night, taking on Ukitake's old place as heir apparent and second-in-command. The pink coat was gone, replaced by a black and white one that meant a new level of terror for the Arrancar. The old straw hat had been replaced by a bone white one. Shunsui was a ferocious warrior, more than a match for Zaraki, Ukitake himself, probably even Ichigo.
They were in trouble, that was the only reason Ukitake had agreed to this insane plan. Shunsui and Ichigo had come to him, Ichigo probably at Shunsui's insistence. On the surface it made sense, a plan that Yama-ji never would have allowed. But Yama-ji had proven himself a superb warrior and a lousy general. He should have gone to front himself, loosed his bankai. A few thousand hollows and low level Arrancar would have been the work of seconds for the Captain Commander of the Gotei 13.
It truly was a war of champions. A single above average warrior was worth ten average shinigami, a shinigami would could battle and defeat ten hollows at once was worth a hundred shinigami who could only match a single hollow. The old man had lost track of that, taken two thousand shinigami with him when he died on Aizen's sword.
They were in trouble. This certainly wouldn't save them by itself, but if it were enough to tip the balance...