A/N: Whew, hope everybody enjoyed the Two New Captain's mini-arc. The reviews were very positive, thanks a lot. The next 2 chapter should be coming in less than a week, for both. Now, onto what I have to say for this part. I know it's loooong, but please read it. I don't write explanations for fun you know. Well, maybe I do.

There are four glaring inconsistencies in the Bleach storyline that I've noticed, amongst others. Sure, they can be explained away, but no proper explanation for them has as yet been given. As a storyteller, that annoys me. Things have to make sense in fiction, it's not like non-fiction when anything can happen (that was a joke, laugh dammit!) The four points are:

1: Rukia's power-level. She is definitely stronger later on than when we first meet her. How can someone on lieutenant level who kills an Espada be owned by a hollow like the one in episode one?

2: The Hougyoku. What the hell was it doing in Rukia in the first place, what made her so special? And why did it have to be in a living soul, couldn't Urahara have buried it in the ground?

3: Kenpachi's power level. If we're to believe that pre-Bankai Ichigo beat him, then at the moment they clashed Ichigo had the equivalent of both his Bankai's and his hollow masks power, since he needed those to beat Grimmjow and Kenpachi beat Nnoitra; who according to Espada rank was stronger.

4: Kenpachi's loyalty. In the Soul Society arc, Kenpachi switches sides after he recovers from his fight with Ichigo on the pretext of wanting a rematch. However, we learn that he is basically loyal to Soul Society in the later arcs, so that doesn't really fly. Unless, like he hinted, he had a deeper understanding of what was going on.

Now that I have thoroughly bored you, I'll tell you that the reason I've outlined all this is because I have come up with a (I believe) reasonable explanation for all of these points, which I will be incorporating into the next few chapters. So, read on dear reader, and don't forget to review. And if anybody feels the need to discuss the points, I always welcome factual, non-abusive debates.

New Arc name: To be a Captain

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The Heir Apparent
Chapter 9: The Responsibilities of Rank

Ichigo woke up with a headache. It wasn't a bad one, after his last experience with hangovers Renji had told him the one sure-fire method of prevention: to drink as much water as you could without vomiting before going to bed. Well, he hadn't had quite that much, he'd been sick of it after about five glasses, so that was probably why he was suffering.

He'd grown so used to waking in the Kuchiki manor that it was a surprise to open his eyes to the captains room in the thirteen division. A skinny shinigami with a thick mono-brow brought him his breakfast, he sent the unfortunate sod to the fourth division to pick up a headache remedy. He wondered idly how many decades (or centuries) younger he was than the other man. It was good to be in charge, and today was officially his first as captin of the thirteenth.

He was halfway through the days paperwork when Rukia literally stumbled through the doorway. She had heavy bags under her eyes and her skin was unhealthily pale. As soon as he saw her, he felt an uncomfortable lurch, remembering what they'd almost done before she'd passed out on his lap. He'd ended up carrying her back to her brothers house to sleep it off.

''Morning,' she said, standing straight with a visible effort.

'More noon than morning,' he corrected her.

'Shove it,' she said, annoyed but probably not feeling up to an argument.

A thought struck him. 'Ah, Rukia, do you remember anything about what happened last night?'

She shook her head. 'Not much, it's all fuzzy. I don't even remember going home, the servants told me that you carried me back.'

'I did,' he confirmed.

'Thanks. So what happened?'

He looked away. 'Nothing much, we both got drunk, you more than me. Rangiku was getting it on with Renji, Shunsei with Nanao and Urahara with Yoruichi.'

'I remembered the last,' she said, then her face paled drastically and she put a hand to her mouth. 'Excuse me,' she gasped, and rushed out.

Ichigo stared at the spot she'd been. So she didn't remember. It was probably for the best, things would have been very awkward between them otherwise. But why did he feel so disappointed? Did he…

'NO,' he said aloud, and went back to his paperwork. He wouldn't think about it any more. It was just one drunk moment, it hadn't changed anything between them.

Rukia was absent for most of the day, so he only had Kiyone and Sentaro helping him. After the days papers, which he was getting used to doing by now, he started on his other duties. The ones he hadn't touched on before his actual promotion, he would have to work on the remainder of the backlog tomorrow or the next day.

Although paperwork comprised a large portion of the captains duties, there were others. And as a new captain there were some extra ones, like getting to know his sixteen other seated officers. They had all lined up in the barracks, from fifth down to twentieth. At his third seat Sentaro's order, they stated their name and rank, as well as the name of their Zanpakutou. Some also mentioned how long they'd been in Gotei-thirteen, generally if it was seventy years or more. Ichigo didn't even remember the first one, there were just too many to memorise that much information.

His officers didn't look like anything more than a normal bunch of people in Shinigami clothes with katanas. Most had dark hair and pale to tanned skin, except his seventeenth seat who was clearly of African decent and his eighth who had a platinum blond Mohawk. He had heard that most new captains would have a short sparring session with a selected few of their officers to get an idea of their general power level, but neglected to do that. His own reitsu sensing abilities, being untrained, were notoriously low. For those so much below his level that they would barely be able to scratch him, he doubted he would notice any difference between the fifth and the twentieth.

Kiyone then told him the various departments that each seated officer was in charge of. Ichigo took careful note that his eleventh seat, a skinny stern-looking woman almost as tall as him, was in charge of the catering; but didn't remember any of the others past the explanation of the next. As a result, the only other he could recall at the end was the twentieth seats responsibility, which was to do with the care and sending out of hell butterflies.

'In addition to that,' said Kiyone, 'each officer has…'

'HEY, I was going to say that,' Sentaro interrupted.

'I already started, so shut up.'

'No way. I respect Kurosaki-taicho far more than you, I should be the one to tell him.'

'I'm the one who respects him more. I'm even thinking of dying my hair orange!'

'I've been practising holding my scowl for hours!'

Okay, it had been amusing to begin with, but now this was getting seriously weird. 'Cut it out, you two,' he said in an offhanded tone. 'Sentaro, just tell me whatever you were meaning to.'

'Of course, captain,' said the bearded man, snapping to attention and beaming. 'Each seated officer, from third seat down, is also responsible for a portion of the divisions earthly jurisdiction; and all the unseated Shinigami in that area.'

Ichigo had to think about that one a bit to put it into context of what he already knew about Gotei thirteen. 'Earthly jurisdiction? You mean that there's a portion of the world that the thirteenth looks after?'

'Hai.'

'Where?'

'Korea, Mongolia, Japan, and most of Northern China.'

'How many people live in that area?' said Ichigo, aghast to realise that he was responsible for the safety of all their souls.

'Approximately six hundred million.'

'WHAT!' he felt faint. Maybe he should go and lie down. 'And how many are in our, my division?'

'At the last count, just short of two thousand eight hundred. We lost many in the war.' It was Kiyone that answered.

'And two thousand of them are in the material world at all times,' said a familiar voice. 'They stay there for a decade, then have a few years rest before going back.'

Ichigo turned to see Rukia return, looking a better than she had earlier, but still not her usual colour.

She gave him a brief smile of greeting. 'That's one for every three hundred thousand,' she informed him.

'Can one shinigami watch over that many?' he said, thinking about the size of Karakura town. That had been Rukia's, and later that afro shinigami's domain. There must have been less there than that. Perhaps it had needed extra protection, being the spiritual centre and all it might have attracted more hollows.

'They can, but it is a bit of a push.' she admitted. 'Before the standard was one to every hundred to hundred and fifty thousand, but with the human population explosion in the last two hundred years we simply couldn't keep up.'

Who would have though that Seireitei would have been affected by that. 'So all the divisions guard a part of the real world?'

'Most. All except the second. The fourth has a very small, and safe zone. They defend Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding islands.'

'That's not small, that's frikkin' huge!' he exclaimed.

'Maybe in size, but the population they're protecting is by comparison tiny. But then they are also responsible for providing medical backup for every shinigami, and taking the dead ones back to Soul Society.'

'So what does the second division do then?'

'The Onmitsukido provides back-up for shinigami faced with an adversary they cannot handle. They generally work in small teams to take down unusually strong hollows. That's their Patrol corps job. Their fourth squadron, the Auxiliary unit, covers the KIAS post until their division can send a replacement. They will generally cover for the badly injured too.'

'KIAS?'

'Killed in action shinigami.'

It turned out that there was a lot more to the hierarchy and organisation of Seireitei than he had ever realised. He'd always known that the captain and lieutenant headed the squad, with third seat down a progressively lower rank, but he'd never realised that they'd all had unique responsibilities. Each division watched different regions, with the eleventh stationed at war zones where hollows were far more likely to gather. Their jurisdiction was the most flexible one as a result. For the last few decades the majority of their work had been in Africa.

'Is that how you knew about South Africa?' he said, thinking back to her cover story in class.

Rukia nodded. 'Renji was in charge of that region when he was the sixth seat of the eleventh. It was a real hot-spot back then, I remember him telling me.'

'Then shouldn't we, the soul reapers, take steps to stop conflicts?' he reasoned. After all, if conflict gathered hollows then surely if there weren't any there wouldn't be any problems. And he knew for a fact that people dying in violence were far more likely to become earth-bound spirits, and later hollows.

'Fool,' snorted Rukia, 'that would never work. There's always fighting going on somewhere, sorting out a few troubles would just deflect the hollows onto those other areas. And shinigami don't interfere with human affairs. We just protect their souls without making our presence felt. That's the most basic principle of what we do.'

He was about to ask if that had to do with the Shinigami code, he still had to find out what that entailed; when captain Kyoraku entered. He was followed by his lieutenant, a tired-looking Nanao. Kyoraku though looked none the worse for wear.

'Hello Rukia-chan, Ichigo-kun,' he said happily, raising his hand and waving.

'Captain Kurosaki, lieutenant Kuchiki,' said Nanao, proper as ever. It was hard to believe that was the same woman he'd seen being felt up by her captain and kissing him just last night.

'Shunsui, lieutentant Ise,' said Ichigo, as Rukia copied his greeting. 'What are you doing here.'

'Ichigo!' Rukia hissed in his ear.

'What?' he hissed back.

'Don't speak like that, you're a captain now. Show some manners.'

'Annoying mid… ok, what should I have said?'

'How about: "To what do I owe this pleasure".'

'Fine, I'll do it next time.'

'Ichigo-kun, I've come to pick you up for your lesson,' said Kyoraku over their mutterings. 'Are you ready to go?'

'You're teaching him Kido?' said Rukia.

'Not today, first we're going to teach him to seal his sword.'

Ichigo turned to Kiyone and Sentaro. 'Have we finished everything?'

They practically tripped over each other.

'Yes, taicho.'

'Absolutely, taicho.'

'There's just the…'

Kiyone clapped her hand over Sentaro's mouth. Ichigo stared at them suspiciously.

'It's nothing, taicho,' Kiyone laughed, airily and not very convincingly. 'You go right ahead and we'll finish up here.' she stopped, the added quickly, 'Not that there is anything to finish.'

'Right,' he said, not believing her for one instant. But since they were prepared to do whatever there was left, he wouldn't investigate too deeply. He turned to Rukia, 'Keep an eye on things, lieutenant.'

It was amusing to see the conflict that played across her face. On one hand, she was very pleased to be referred to as a lieutenant, the novelty hadn't worn off yet. On the other, she hated taking orders from him.

'Of course, captain,' she said, her eyebrow twitching slightly and making him think of Renji. But she hadn't been doing any work the whole of today, he deserved a bit of a break. Even if it was for training.

Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu and fitted it on his back with practised skill. 'Let's go,' he said, and headed out.

x

It was late afternoon when Renji reached the thirteenth division's headquarters. He wasn't feeling great, he'd really overdone it last night, but as always his remedy had pulled through; he didn't have a hangover. Which probably broke some cardinal rule somewhere, considering how much he'd drunk.

His stomach though wasn't the organ that felt the most sick. Sometime last night, Ichigo had disappeared with Rukia. He didn't know where they'd gone, only that they'd gone together. Rukia had barely let the skinny strawberry go the entire night, despite his best efforts. Thinking back, he guessed that he must have looked a bit desperate, trying to get her away from him like that.

The worst part was that he actually liked Ichigo, well maybe liked was too strong a word but there was certainly a grudging respect there. He'd totally eclipsed him, Renji wasn't even in his league any more. Ichigo's rise was fast enough to make even Hitsugaya seem slow, he doubted that there had been anybody in Soul Societies history who'd got as strong as he had that quickly. And Ichigo was Rukia's special person, and she was his, even if they were too stubborn to admit it.

Before, he could have hated Ichigo for taking her from him. They could still be friends, but it would never be anything more than that with Ichigo in the picture. The sad fact was that Ichigo deserved her far more than he did. Now with them spending so much time together, as captain and lieutenant, he'd probably be "Uncle Renji" before long.

He paused before knocking. His heart felt like it had a hole in it, one that would surely rip him in two if he saw them together again. He took a moment to collect himself, then rapped twice.

'Come in,' said a female voice, it wasn't Rukia's.

He opened the door to find Rukia and the two third seats (he'd never bothered to learn their names) up to their noses in paperwork.

'Can I help you, captain Abarai?' said the short boyish woman.

'Rukia,' Renji called, ignoring her.

She looked up from her document. 'Renji,' she said, smiling tiredly. 'What brings you to our humble headquarters?'

He looked around quickly. 'Is Ichigo here?'

'No, he went with captain Kyoraku for some training. Why, did you want to see him?'

Renji shrugged. 'Just make sure he gets this, and your whole division knows,' he said, and handed her a scroll.

Rukia unwound it and read aloud, 'Please be informed, the crowning ceremony for the new spirit king will take place thirty-eight days from today, at 12:00 noon. At this time, central 46 will be officially reinstated. Attendance is compulsory.' She looked up from it and said, 'I don't see why we couldn't just have got a hell butterfly.'

'It would have been more simple,' Renji agreed, 'But every division lost seated officers in the war, so those left were promoted up and the new ones took the lower places.'

'What's your point?'

'There's new people in charge of the hell butterflies. The captain-commander wanted to be absolutely sure that everybody got this message, so he sent his lieutenant to all the divisions; and me and Iba since we were close at the time.'

'Odd that we're waiting so long,' said Rukia thoughtfully.

'That's what I said,' said Renji. 'Yamamoto said something about some ceremony that Ichigo's father had to attend before coming here. I ask you, what could be so important?'

'What's the date in the material world today?' said Rukia.

'Dunno,' said Renji, dumfounded. What difference did the date make?

Rukia dug up some kind of apparatus from under a stack of papers, and looked at it quickly. 'May the 20th,' she said, as though it answered everything. Renji didn't bother to ask, she'd stayed at Ichigo's house for a good few months and likely knew their special events. Probably Ichigo's sisters birthday, or something like that.

'Before I forget,' he said, 'Urahara wants to meet with you when you've finished with your duties.'

'Why?'

'I dunno, ask him. He said he'd be at the research and development institute.'

'Oh, thanks. Is that all?'

Renji shifted on his feet, wanting to talk to her more, but not in the third seats presence. 'I guess that's it.' he said.

'I'll walk you out,' she said, getting up.

'You don't have to,' he protested.

She smiled. 'It's a good excuse to stretch my legs,' she said. 'So, what happened with you and Rangiku?'

Nothing had, she'd passed out and he'd filled himself with water before doing the same. Rukia seemed to like the idea of him dating the big -ahem- hearted lieutenant, which cut him deep. Renji grappled with his fears as they walked and talked. What had happened between her and Ichigo at the party? Should he ask, shouldn't he ask. He was terrified to know the answer, but terrified not to at the same time. In the end, he stalled too long, and before he knew it she was saying goodbye and closing the door in his face. He stared at it for a full minute before turning tail and walking off.

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