Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, its characters or its settings

T minus 16 days and counting

I was looking out over the hill where I'd fought Byakuya, and Aizen. I'd called my first meeting.

They arrived almost at the same time, in groups of three or four. Only Zaraki came alone.

They stood in the two lines I remembered from the captains meetings I'd stood in on.

"They expect us to fail you know." I was still looking over the cliff at that point. "They practically want us to."

I turned to face them. This was invitation only, and I freely admit I don't know a lot of shinigami. There are probably people here who shouldn't have been and people who should have been here who weren't.

There was no one from second or third; their vice captains had fallen during the war. Isane, Lemura and Momo came from fourth and fifth, then Renji, Iba and Nanao. On the other side were Hisagi from ninth, Rangiku from tenth, Zaraki, Nemu, Rukia and the two third seats from thirteenth. Beyond them and looking pissed was Ikkaku.

Yachiru was nowhere to be seen; some days she's a lot less childish than others.

"It's not malicious," I continued. "They just don't think we're ready for this. God, would you listen to me? I sound like an old man."

I straightened up a little. I'd had the odd dream (mostly nightmares) of replacing the old man; this was nothing like them. I'd always seen it as a battle, the old man falls and I step up to take his place. In the battle. In the aftermath it was supposed to be someone else. Solemn handshake with Ukitake then back to high school.

"They're the ones who are wrong though. Not about us, but about themselves. All your captains think they can still be there for you, run your divisions off the corners of their desks. That's not going to work."

I took a step towards the group of them.

"Every decision that comes out of central 46 is going to be reached by committee. There will be no individual decisions, meaning there are no more captains. That's what they don't understand, they have no more private preserves."

I straightened a little, tucked my thumbs into my sash.

"Nobody likes change, certainly not someone like me taking over from Yama-ji. He's held his post for two thousand years now. In contrast I'm seventeen, by far the youngest person within sound of my voice. That said, no one here has any choice in the matter. It's been decided. Presumably wiser heads have prevailed."

I left the next bit unsaid, but everyone knew what I meant. All the captains were stepping off the line just to neutralize the old man, that was thepoint. And they were the people who dealt with him on a day to day basis – they thought this was worth it. I suspect there was a very private, very unanimous vote held somewhere. Zaraki obviously was in on it, but you'd never get an answer out of him.

"We are getting a change, and that said, I think it's time for a change. Yama-ji is a hell of a warrior, no one is debating that. But he doesn't understand the modern world. People-" meaning some of the people assembled - "complained about the way he handled the war. As I said, he's a hell of a warrior."

But draw your own conclusions about how he did as a general.

"Zaraki and myself aside no one here has a white haori. Please, no snide comments about mine, fact of the matter is I have it. I suspect your captains have may few if any succession plans with you, beyond keep the lights on and the paperwork neat." I waited long enough to give them a change to glance at each other. I was broaching a subject a lot of people had been avoiding.

"That's not enough. In about two weeks those captains are going to leave."

"About that haori. Notice mine. It was given to me, and it's official. Zaraki won his by right of combat, which makes his official too. None of you have them yet and by the laws of the Seireitei I can't hand them out. No one has told me anything about given them to you either."

"I expect central 46 will try to interfere in my decisions. They have the right. By the laws of the Seireitei I don't have the ability to promote captains on my own, unless you're willing to take on your current superiors in combat."

"When I'm ready I intend to break those laws. As far as I'm concerned the inner workings of the thirteen squads are our business, not central 46s. They can give the directives, I'm giving the orders. You are the best in the thirteen squads, some of you will be my twelve captains. Unfortunately, not all of you, but it's probably fair to say everyone here is going to have a better title tomorrow then they have today. Expect that to be unpleasant; being a captain is onerous. I know this because I'm standing before you now, looking at you and knowing I'm responsible for your safety and the safety of the mortal world. Trust me, it's onerous."

I had to grin. "I once said I wanted to protect people. Guess I got my wish, huh?"

I took a couple of steps forward and crossed my arms. "My thirteen squads will be different from the outgoing captain commanders. We're behind the times. I lived in the mortal world all my life, so I know. There's too much paperwork here, not enough computers. Nemu, I'm going to need you to change that. We can't afford the luxury of having our top people as burdened as they are by requisition forms. I also want to address the seat system. Not to change it, just to see that everyone feels it's performing to its maximum. We still have a lot of empty seats and the war didn't end yesterday. I welcome any intelligent ideas, I'll even listen to the dumb ones. I'm going to be blunt here; the Seireitei has never before been in such awful shape. Morale will plummet unless we're seen to be doing something about it. It's our job to make sure that doesn't happen. Now does anyone have any questions?"

Somebody laughed.

"Captain Zaraki, do you have a question you'd like to share with the class?"

"He's right you know," said Zaraki. "This isn't supposed to work. It's a political maneuver aimed at taking the old man out of play. Your existing captains think they'll still be running this place, but ever decision will come through a committee. That's one vote from the captain you trust, a few from those you respect and a bunch more from captains you don't even know. Then add about thirty five more votes from clerks and paper pushers who've never even seen a hollow. Government can't run a fighting force!" Zaraki smashed his fist into his palm. "They way I see it we put ourselves behind our new captain commander or we give up and go home. The coats are heavy, kids, but there's no one else to wear them!"

He glowered around. "We're not doing it their way. Central 46 is just another way of saying your head is stuck up your ass. Let them have their meetings, let them discuss things. Hell, they can even have consensus if they want. Here we fight hollows."

I was a little surprised, I know the guy likes a good fight but I hadn't expected an idealist who studied political science on the side. A man of many layers, our Zaraki.

"Captain Zaraki is right. It's our job to kick hollow ass into next week, that's what we do. We have a purpose, we have a mission and we're damn well going to succeed. The alternative is we fail, and that's not an option. Now excuse me if that's not the speech people wanted to hear, but we're a hundred years behind the times and we've only succeeded up until now because those we've faced have also been behind the mortal world. There are ten thousand shinigami out there who're looking to us to make this work. The old man, the old order is gone. It's just us now."

I gave that a few moments to sink in.

"A lot of you are now squadron commanders. Talk to your captains. Get their advice. Then immediately take charge of your divisions. There's no point waiting. If they don't like it tell them to talk to me, I've got a fist for the nose of anyone other than Retsu-san who disagrees. Tomorrow we go live with day one of the new order. Dismissed!"

They all shunpoed off except Zaraki, who walked over and did something that rather surprised me. He reached into his haori and pulled out two pairs of sunglasses, gave me one and put the other on himself. Then he said "It's a hundred and six miles to Chicago, we've got a full talk of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses."

And I said, "HIT IT!"

The Blues Brothers; it's a classic.