Interlude
Caro sat in the office of the Head Captain, enjoying the moment.
Unfortunately the First Division Captain wasn't there or Caro would have enjoyed it a lot more, but one had to take misfortune along with good fortune. The first battle had gone well, very well, and the reinforcements of Shinigami had given him a force to be reckoned with.
And he had real captains now, not simply "captain-level" castoffs who had stumbled into his snares. Real captains with connections in Seireitei would be far harder for their fellows to fight then Shinigami who had been out of the picture for half a century.
It was all coming together nicely.
Of course, he controlled less then half of Seireitei, but his Muerte troops were settling down to bolster his new Shinigami forces. They would start with patrolling the areas he had claimed while his new Shinigami were initiated, and then together they could begin invading the Divisions that still stood against him. One Division at a time, overwhelming the opposition.
With each fallen Division, Seireitei's Shinigami would grow weaker, and Caro's forces would grow stronger. Now that Caro had his foothold... it all seemed too easy.
"Of course," he told the Second Division officers he had assigned as personal guards, "there are still the enemy captains to think about. There will be nothing easy about defeating them, especially now that those Twelfth Division people have figured out part of my power." That still stung. He had staged that huge, chaotic battle so that he could ensnare the new forces secretly, without it being obvious what he was doing. He didn't like it when his secrets got out. How exactly he would punish Twelfth Division for their sneaky prying was still under debate, but he was leaning towards putting Kurotsuchi Mayuri back in charge. There was a beautifully cruel justice to it, and he knew Kurotsuchi would appreciate the gesture.
"The Stealth Force is tracking down the resisting captains now, sir," said one of them, and Caro hmmed to himself in dissatisfaction.
"Stealth Force is the Seireitei name," he mused. "You are now members of Dioses Muerte, and our stealth-based forces are known as the Muerte Silenciosa. You, Iga-san?, go speak with General Kurotsuchi and ask him if the communication network up and running yet. If so, I want all former members of the Stealth Force to report to Under-General Valero. We need to be a properly unified force, and having all these different names for the same force is not efficient."
"Yes, sir!"
Caro leaned against the desk, lacing his fingers together. He would have to figure out how best to use the Silenciosa, especially now that their numbers had more then doubled with the invasion of the Second Division. There had never before been that many members of Dioses Muerte who were good at restraining themselves, let alone sneak around unseen.
Perhaps there might be the opportunity for some... assassinations in the future. Caro smiled, the idea pleasing.
He didn't need all the Shinigami to follow him, only a majority. And if the Twelfth Division was figuring out how to counter his Eyes, they had to be stopped as swiftly as possible.
"I love it when things come together like this," he told his other bodyguard fondly.