Journal 7 - Entry 9


The Gotei is not in a good position. We arrived in the newly established Yōsai and I had to immediately begin figuring out assignments and begin reorganization of the Divisions.

Right now we aren't in a position to be picky about who is where and when it comes to specific assignments. I have decided the best course of action to help get the Divisions in order is to make one of the surviving Lieutenants a temporary Interim Captain for the Divisions that lost Captains. This will at least give every Division someone at the top to coordinate reorganization.

Above them we will have surviving Captains managing multiple Divisions and assisting the Lieutenants, who now have much more work then they are used to, so having a Captain be able to come assist when need be is critical. Then of course, I'm making sure they're all able to do what they need to.

Every day I wonder how Old Man Yama would approach the situation. I doubt he ever dealt with a situation as unprecedented as this, but he always was so stalwart in the face of adversity, so I'm trying to continue that in his place.

I don't know what I would do without Nanao-chan. She is taking care of most of the records, casualty reports, and organization, which allows me to assist the Captains and Lieutenants directly, which is necessary to keep morale up. Seeing the Head Captain walking among the troops is important, and I don't want to lose that connection to every man and woman putting their life on the line for the survival of everything.

So to recap our losses, we lost both Old Man Yama and Lieutenant Sasakibe from the 1st, Lieutenant Ōmaeda from the 2nd, both Captain Ōtoribashi and Lieutenant Kira from the 3rd, Captain Unohana from the 4th, Captain Hirako from the 5th

With everything that has been happening, and everything moving so fast, I just want to get my thoughts in order, so I feel like it is important to have everything recorded, at least for the sake of not forgetting the brave Captains and Lieutenants that we lost.

We lost Lieutenant Sasakibe first, on the day the Wandenreich first appeared to declare war. They used him as a message to Old Man Yama. Disgustingly brutal. We should have realized they wouldn't keep their word when they said they would invade in 5 days. Maybe our ability to deal with the recent conflicts made us arrogant and complacent.

When the invasion started in earnest, within seconds of their arrival, Lieutenant Kira's reiatsu disappeared. It caused chaos in the 3rd Division and is the primary reason the losses for them were the highest of all Divisions. Across both the first and second invasions.

Then, they started stealing our Bankais, and this led to the death of Captain Kuchiki. It's frankly a miracle that he was the only one we lost to stolen Bankais, but this is where we truly realized how bad this situation was. Within the first couple hours we had already taken more losses then we did in the entire Winter War.

But as bad as the loss of Captain Kuchiki was, both to our fighting strength and our morale, it was followed by the worst blow we could possibly have suffered, both for the Gotei 13 as a whole… and to me personally.

Old Man Yama was the symbol of the Gotei. He's been around longer than anyone. There was one other Shinigami that remembered a world where Old Man Yama was not the leader of the Gotei 13 (Captain Unohana). We likely would have been wiped out then and there if not for the arrival of Ichigo Kurosaki. He was the only person able to hold his own against Yhwach after Old Man Yama.

Frankly, it is embarrassing that this child, practically an infant compared to a lot of the Captains, could do such a thing, but we had already been made to accept that after his battle with Aizen. But I digress.

Our next loss was an unfortunate bout of circumstance. I had known this day would eventually come. Captain Unohana had told me. But in this situation it was a hard decision to make. We would be losing our most veteran fighter for what I viewed as a gamble on gaining someone even more powerful. However Captain Unohana was insistent, so I made the call to go through with it. Looking back now it was the correct call, no matter how unfortunate it was.

Then the Second Invasion began, and despite the fact we believed we were ready this time around, it ended up being far more disastrous than the first. The merging of the Seireitei with the Schatten Bereich was something we could never have predicted. We lost Lieutenant Ōmaeda not long after the invasion began. Luckily Captain Soifon was able to dispatch the enemy.

Then we lost Captain Komamura, who had gained a technique from his clan that allowed him to defeat his opponent but it ended up costing him his life.

We lost Captain Ōtoribashi shortly after, which was another brutal blow to the 3rd Division. We were very lucky that Lieutenant Abarai showed up, or we likely would have lost Captain Muguruma as well.

We never truly found out what happened in the Royal Palace before we made it up there. All we know is that when we arrived, the Zero Squad was dead, killed by Yhwach and his Schutzstaffel.

I had to go to Muken in order to meet with Aizen when the first group arrived in the Royal Palace. They found the Soul King was already dying, and Captain Ukitake had to sacrifice himself to try and stabilize the Soul King.

Around this time, Captain Kurotsuchi and his Lieutenant engaged with a member of the Schutzstaffel, and although they were able to kill the enemy, Lieutenant Kurotsuchi was killed.

Concurrently to Captain Kurotsuchi's battle, Urahara and Shihouin confronted another Schutzstaffel. Urahara was able to kill him with the help of the arrancar Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, but not before Yoruichi Shihouin was killed.

Kenpachi Zaraki engaged what I believe to be the most powerful member of the Schutzstaffel, Gerard Valkyrie, and needed to unlock his Bankai in order to defeat him. I'm not sure exactly how Zaraki was able to kill such a man, if Captain Hitsugaya's report about his abilities are accurate, but despite his victory, Captain Zaraki was left completely incapacitated.

Before he could be retrieved he was killed. It was instant. An execution. No one saw where it came from, his head just disappeared. He was attacked from across the Royal Palace by the Schutzstaffel I was attempting to find. I was too slow and it is entirely my fault. I was able to find him and with Nanao-chans help, kill him, but it was still too late, and I will never be able to forgive myself for my failure that day.

At the same time Ichigo Kurosaki was confronting Yhwach, where he was able to heavily wound him, but was unable to save him due to the interference of the Sternritter Grandmaster, who was somehow able to stabilize him. Ichigo was spent, unable to keep fighting, and Yhwach was in a limbo state, having fused with the Soul King, but he had been essentially reset into the state he was before he regained his powers via what was said in the prophecy, meaning we had another 9 years before he was able to achieve his final goal. At the same time, the Wandenreich reinforcements arrived, so the only option was retreat.

It was during the retreat that we took the final loss of a Captain. The pursuit was too close and we were unable to move fast enough to outrun them. Captain Hirako volunteered to stay behind and stall them. Considering the nature of his Bankai, it was the logical option. But logical does not mean easy. I was hesitant, so much loss already, to lose another Captain was just another brutal blow, but I put myself in Old Man Yama's shoes. He wouldn't have hesitated. So I did what I needed to and approved the plan. Shortly after the pursuit ceased, and that was the last time we saw Captain Hirako.

It was a long march to make it to Yōsai, but now that we are here the reorganization must begin.

Myself and Nanao-chan maintain our position in the 1st

Captain Soifon maintains her position in the 2nd.

Lieutenant Matsumoto has been temporarily moved from the 10th and assigned Interim Captain of the 3rd.

Captain Kotetsu maintains her position in the 4th.

Lieutenant Hinamori has been assigned Interim Captain of the 5th.

Lieutenant Abarai has been assigned Interim Captain of the 6th.

Lieutenant Iba has been assigned Interim Captain of the 7th.

Lieutenant Hisagi has been temporarily moved from the 9th and assigned Interim Captain of the 8th.

Captain Muguruma maintains his position in the 9th.

Captain Hitsugaya maintains his position in the 10th.

Lieutenant Madarame has been assigned Interim Captain of the 11th.

Captain Kurotsuchi maintains his position in the 12th.

Lieutenant Kuchiki has been assigned Interim Captain of the 13th.

It will likely take time to fully reestablish a permanent solution to Captaincy and return the Gotei 13 to the point that all Divisions have Captains and Lieutenants, but we will continue to push forward.

Ah, I would be remiss to not mention the others that joined us, but are Captain strength, and are bolstering our fighting power. Ichigo Kurosaki, and his friend Orihime Inoue are extremely valuable for obvious reasons. The former espada Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez and Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck have decided to stick with us, which is something we are all very grateful for. The former Substitute Shinigami Kūgo Ginjō and his partner Shūkurō Tsukishima, have stayed as well, and though I don't trust them nearly as much, we aren't in a position to be picky about our allies.

And of course when speaking about being picky about our allies, there is the elephant in the room. Sōsuke Aizen. He has also come with us, and much to my chagrin, he is someone I would rather keep nearby, because if he does go rogue, the only ones capable of stopping him would be Ichigo Kurosaki and Kisuke Urahara. For how little I trust him, he seems to have made his intentions clear. He's willing to assist us against Yhwach, but his goal is plain as day. He wants to get to the Royal Palace. I couldn't begin to guess what he would do there, but considering our current position, letting him just go out on his own would be far more dangerous.

He seems content staying with us too, if only because he gets as much of some kind of sick amusement out of watching us struggle and die as he does toying with and killing Quincy.

We have a meeting with the Captains and Interim Captains soon to evaluate progress and I can already hear Nanao-chan busting down my door, so it's time to head over. Hopefully we'll be able to turn things around soon.

.

Head Captain Shunsui Kyoraku

1st Division

October 10, 2003


Author's Notes:

Without a doubt my longest chapter so far. Also probably the most informative. Hopefully this finally paints a clear picture of the start of the war that has been alluded to across the first 10 chapters (There's still a couple details, like what was going on with our Quincy defectors that may show up later *hint, hint*). So we've officially got the beginning out of the easy, so things will get even more interesting from here.

Probably won't be a chapter tomorrow, got family stuff for 4th of July, but will be back Wednesday.

Hope you have a great day!