so I have some more chapters in place, though still don't expect regular updates yet.
Shunsui was for once at his family's manor.
He was the head of the Kyoraku clan and had been so since the death of his older brother.
Those rough few years after his brother's death was when he had cut his teeth politically. Carefully navigating the minefield that was the politics of the lesser houses. It was where he turned his lackadaisical attitude toward most things into a weapon. One that both helped him in his responsibilities and made it so he wouldn't be given more.
Well. he had thought that.
Then the old man died.
At that point his means of avoiding more responsibility made him look like the best possible choice to replace his mentor and surrogate father to a Central 46 that sought to capitalize on the opportunity to install a competent doormat as head-captain.
The reaction once they found out what they had done had given him some slight amusement at the time.
They had installed someone who had a backbone about as strong as the old man, and the wit to run circles around them.
However, not all of the Central 46 were power-hungry individuals seeking to grow their own power. Some were actually competent and wished to actually do their job.
One such individual was Nayura Amakado, one of the sitting sages in the current Central 46, and whom he was supposed to meet with about his plans regarding how to deal with the manpower bottleneck they were currently facing.
"Head-Captain, thank you for inviting me," The smaller woman walked into the courtyard escorted by a contingent of shinigami bodyguards.
"Please, have a seat, feel at home," Shunsui motioned to the tea set he had set up prior to her arrival.
One of the bodyguards looked over the teapot before pouring himself a small amount into a third cup and tasing it. Once he was certain the drink was safe he then allowed things to proceed.
"I apologize for the precautions my bodyguards take. They are rather insistent," Nayura then sat down and allowed the head captain to pour them their tea.
"No need, I can understand where they're coming from," Shunsui replied with a smile on his face. He knew the bodyguards cared about her safety almost to a fault. It was always better to be safe than sorry.
"Good," The sage then looked over the garden in the courtyard as she stoically considered her surroundings before looking back at Shunsui. "You said you wished to speak about a pressing matter?"
"Yes," Shunsui's jovial demeanor deflated as he considered the reality of the situation. "Casualties among all combat organizations, not only the Gotei, were staggering," there were many units that were reporting that they were combat ineffective, and others still reported that in effect they only existed on paper. "I fear that the academy may not be enough to replenish our numbers at an acceptable pace."
Nayura hmmed that that. She was once the chief librarian of the great archive on the Central 46 grounds. She knew the average size of the graduating classes of the Shino Academy. Some quick mental math gave her a figure at least a few decades for total replenishment.
"Yes, I assume you have a proposal?" The head captain was rather cavalier in his approach in dealing with solving problems. His substitute proposal was met with stiff resistance from the judicial body, but she saw the prudence of it. Her proposal of the now-running pilot program as a compromise was received well by the judges.
"I may have shoe-horned in my idea into the pilot program I have Lieutenant Kuchiki running," the small woman looked at the one-eyed shinigami waiting for him to elaborate. "An apprentice program. Allow shinigami of sufficient experience to take on someone they feel has talent, have them train and teach them how to perform the duties required, and once done, have them take the aptitude test like graduates or privately trained nobles," that last bit was the key precedent for the program. Often nobles, especially those of the greater houses, aren't admitted to the Shino academy or have additional training and tutoring outside of the academy's curriculum. Extending that to anyone would be a boon in their efforts to rebuild militarily.
"You tend to play fast and loose with our rulings," Nayura took a sip of her tea. "While I am certain some would disapprove, I commend the foresight. We need to consider all aspects to our current problems, and all solutions available, even if we are to find none are acceptable," Nayura was a pragmatic individual and also sought a more holistic perspective on the issues the 46 were often called to rule on. It was due to this that she quickly came to lead the more progressive sages in the 46, and was the one who proposed the lifing of the travel restrictions to allow more manpower into the Seireitei to facilitate rebuilding.
"What can I say? I've learned just as much from the old man's failures as I have his successes," Kyoraku shrugged before sipping his own tea.
"If only the same could be said of my colleagues," many of her colleagues were not so flexible in their perspective, and as far as she saw it, it was that inflexibility that prevented a stronger Seireitei from existing, and them from being more able to resist the Wandenreich invasion.
To think that they had planned to discard the one who would eventually save them
"I wish to receive updates on the young Shiba's progress, perhaps even meet her," A living human could provide a unique perspective, one that could potentially be invaluable to the decisions that Central 46 makes.
"I'll see what I can do," Kyoraku nodded as he took another sip of his tea. "Also, speaking of young Shiba, I think there's something about Ichigo you may like to know."
Yoruichi was lecturing at the Shino Academy again. Today she was lecturing about how to guide oneself through the technique and thus control their exit point.
"Alright, how many of you can actually execute shunpo?" Yoruichi looked over the class and was actually quite happy that no one raised their hands.
"Good, nobody's formed any bad habits yet," she then walked to the chalkboard before asking the next question, "how does one guide themselves through shunpo and control their exit point?" Yoruichi waited for an answer. However no one was answering. However, she did hear a particularly problematic student quietly speaking about her.
Quickly she threw a stick of chalk at the boy's head, waiting until it was just about to impact his head before flash stepping to where it was to catch it.
The boy, she dare not call him a man, not yet, stared at her in cold shock as she stood in front of him, one knee on his desk, as she held the chalk a centimeter from his face.
"As much as I'm flattered that you think that I'm attractive, I'm not here to be window dressing," she gave the student a playful smirk. "Now, how do you think I precisely guided my shunpo to exit right here, and not anywhere else?"
"Uh… visually?" The boy stammered out.
Yoruichi sighed in disappointment before seemingly teleporting back to the front of the class.
She then wrote a letter on the chalkboard. It wasn't one any of the students have seen if they didn't take a foreign language elective or a higher physics elective.
That letter was c, the mathematical symbol for the speed of light.
"This humble letter represents the single greatest challenge anyone can face in pursuit of mastery over hoho," she then turned to the class again, "the speed of light," she then wrote out exactly how fast that was, "three hundred thousand meters per second, any faster and you are literally out running the very light your eyes need to see. In that single moment I spent between where I am now, and where I was, I was completely blind. So no, wrong answer, anyone else want to try to guess?"
A tense silence passed before Yoruichi let a small pulse of her reiatsu out, though significantly more than she would ever dare let out for an actual shunpo.
"That's how, you utilize your spirit sense. Your eyes may not be able to see, but you should never rely on them in battle anyway, they can be tricked, there are very few things that can trick your sense of reiatsu," she then looked over the students present, "and those few things that can, can already trick your sight."
The students were actually giving her their undivided attention for once. Probably because she just established a threat entirely by accident.
"That is the first mistake anyone makes when learning hoho, using their eyes to guide them when they really shouldn't, any questions?" The rest of the lecture passed by uneventfully. Though the students were far more attentive due to her response to having her looks commented on. She didn't mind being called attractive, but there was a time and a place, and that certainly wasn't it, not to mention the boy could very well have been a tenth her age. He needed to be reminded he was there to learn, not find women.
Yoruichi began her walk home after that as it was the final lecture of the day for her.
Despite her noble pedigree allowing her permanent residence in the Seireitei's noble district, Yoruichi elected to have a relatively modest home in the normal residential district. Of course, modest by her standards was a large two-story home with more rooms than she would ever need for herself, but then, old habits tended to die hard.
As she entered her home she noticed she had a guest.
"Yoruichi, how was the lecture?" The voice of her old friend Kukaku was a surprise, though not unwelcome.
"The kids actually paid attention this time," Yoruichi sat down across from her old friend.
"I want to see what you did to do that," Kukaku chuckled as she considered how she could have done that.
"It wasn't much, but I don't think you're here for small talk," Yoruichi could see how Kukaku was tense. There was something on her mind.
"It's about a suspicion I have," Kukaku took a draw of her pipe, then blew the smoke away as she let out a long sigh.
"Let me guess, it's about our dear friend Tokinada," Yoruichi spoke sarcastically. As much as she hated letting him live rent-free in her head, the man was dangerous and worthy of caution.
"Yes and no, more about the Tsunayashiro at large," Kukaku really didn't like where her brain was going. "Ginjo was complaining about Ukitake…"
"Again," Yoruichi was starting to get tired of it. Yeah, she didn't really like him either. Letting Kaien die kind of burned that bridge for her, but he would never do what Ginjo claimed.
"Yes, well, I was thinking, what if it wasn't the thirteenth that killed those fulbringers," the gears started turning in Yoruichi's head, and her investigative experience from her time before leading the Onmitsukido kicked in.
"You're implying someone else killed them while wearing shihakusho with squad thirteen markings," Yoruichi had already concluded where this went, and she really didn't like where this was going.
"Yup, and there aren't many people who can just do that," Kukaku then just the unsaid question stew.
Whoever did this would need to be able to procure a large number of squad thirteen shihakuso, either legitimately or illegitimately, Yoruichi bet on the latter, have near unfettered access to the living world, and able to hide all of this from any prospective investigation by either the ninth division or the Onmitsukido. That only left one suspect.
"You think the Tsunayashiro did it via the Visuals Department," another skeleton in the clan's closet was discovered. Though there was a lack of corroborating evidence. This was all guesswork.
"That's my guess. It smells like their wetwork," Kukaku's statement wasn't wrong. The Tsunayashiro were the most politically influential of the five houses, and their willingness to play dirty was why. Blackmail, bribery, coercion, and assassination were just as much tools to them as negotiation and diplomacy were. Yoruichi had tried to uproot many such acts in the past, but every time she was thwarted by the Tsunayashiro's vast network of catspaws, liaisons, and go-betweens, all covered with a thick smattering of plausible deniability. It was honestly frustrating how the family had created such a large and dense network beneath the nose of the Onmitsukido.
"You're probably right, though you need something more concrete first," Yoruichi's response caused Kukaku to sigh. This was always the last layer of defense between the Tsunayashiro and any attempt to stick something to them. There was never any hard evidence. Only speculation and deduction. It was honestly insane.
"I know, I just hate how this has always been a pattern with them," Kukaku was drained. The political landscape of the Seireitei was rife with such seedy dealings. It was why Yoruichi was more than happy to cast off her responsibilities for a century-long sabbatical.
"I'll see what I can do, I'm not sure if I can find anything, but I'll try," the Visuals Department was airtight. It would take a master of infiltration to even think about doing this, but she would try.
Karin considered herself lucky that today was a slow day.
She had been shadowing Shino all day during her patrol, slowly learning how to do the job of a shinigami. Thankfully there haven't been any hollows today, and most of what they were doing was performing konso and flagging the locations of bound spirits like the one they have just checked in on.
"Is there anything we can do for them?" Karin asked Shino, her voice colored with concern.
"Sadly no, since they're bound to the world around them we need for those bonds to break first," Shino's answer left out how that happened, but Karin filled in the blanks.
"So wait for them to become a hollow, or to be eaten by one… shit," Karin really didn't like that answer.
"Not always, but most of the time yeah, that's what happens," Shino sighed. Living world patrols were not easy affairs.
"So, is it normal for there to just be no hollows some days?" Karin was curious. The telltale howl had yet to be heard.
"Yeah, hollows aren't rare, but they're not the norm," the past year has been relatively quiet. A hollow here and there, but nothing like the deluge of activity that marked the lieutenant's last deployment here, nor Shino's first.
"Ah. That's good I guess," Karin was only slightly disappointed at that news. She had wanted to get her first hollow kill as a way to settle her nerves on the matter, and to put away the traumatic memories of her close encounters.
Shino sighed.
"I get how you feel, but hollow hunting is not our primary objective," Shino looked back at her charge, only to see her staring off into the distance.
"I know," Karin's reply seemed distant.
"You have a score to settle?" Shino asked. It would make sense to her. Often hollows hunted spiritually aware humans due to their rich souls.
Karin seemed to silently contemplate the question.
"Not against any particular hollow," no. That hollow was long dead, and her mother's soul was long at rest.
Suddenly before Shino could respond, a reverberating roar could be heard echoing over the calm skies of Karakura.
"Well, I just had to jinx us didn't I?" Shino sighed as she flipped open her soul phone to receive the tracking information command that was about to shunt her way. With an authoritative beep, the map screen showed her exactly where the hollow was relative to her position. "Alright, stick with me, and try not to die," Shino and Karin vanished in the flash of shunpo.
I hope you enjoyed, and feedback is welcome.