First Division — Captains' Council.
"All right, that's the situation. I've said everything I needed to say." Soifon stood in the assembly line and signaled Chōjirō Sasakibe to bring over the box Sōsuke Aizen had left behind — the Hōgyoku and its accompanying docunts — and present it to the Captain-Commander.
The mont the Hōgyoku landed in the Captain-Commander's hands, it behaved very differently than it had in Soifon's. He could feel it constantly probing, attempting to resonate with his soul, coaxing him to absorb it into himself.
Boom —
He suppressed that pull — a temptation rooted in the very essence of his soul — and a tongue of fla kindled in his palm.
Before the assembled captains, the Captain-Commander pressed that fla onto the lid of the box containing the Hōgyoku. After a mont, a red fla-mark was seared into the ancient wood.
"The Hōgyoku is far too dangerous a thing. I have placed a seal upon it. Within the Three Worlds, none should be able to break it — save Captain Soifon, Ichigo Kurosaki, and the Zero Division."
With that done, the Captain-Commander pushed the scorching hot potato back.
"Are you truly certain you won't reconsider?" Soifon tilted her head slightly. "With Your Excellency's power, combined with the Hōgyoku — now that would truly be a dragon and tiger soaring above the heavens…"
Her words had barely faded when an earsplitting, perfectly enunciated "Get lost" rang out, shaking the First Division's hall to its foundations — three tis over.
Soifon, expression unchanged, tucked the scorching box back into her robes, as if she hadn't been the one just bellowed at.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi craned his neck out of the line, peering at Soifon: "Fusion?!"
"Does that an… there's a whole vast tract of Hell just waiting for us to develop?!"
"The gases alone, the infernal organisms…"
Mayuri rubbed his hands together, already imagining Hell laid out on his dissection table.
Soifon glanced at him and dispassionately shattered the fantasy: "According to the final ssage relayed by His Majesty the Soul King, the surviving organisms and warped wills within Hell have been… purified. Almost entirely — by His Majesty and myself."
Mayuri let out a click of his tongue and returned to the line in visible displeasure.
"Hah?!" Zaraki Kenpachi dug a finger in his ear, face falling flat. "Purified? You wiped them all out? That guy — that Fifth Great Noble or whatever — sounded like he'd actually be worth fighting!"
Diagonally across from him, Byakuya Kuchiki threw cold water without so much as raising an eyebrow: "That was a Soul King-level enemy, Zaraki. Are you in your right mind?"
Zaraki's brow instantly knotted, his ferocious Spiritual Pressure surging like a beast: "You… want to go?"
Byakuya Kuchiki didn't move a muscle. He didn't even blink.
"Both of you."
"Starting a brawl at a Captains' Council eting… that would be rather unseemly, wouldn't it?"
A gentle voice drifted lightly through the air.
Zaraki Kenpachi and Byakuya Kuchiki both fell silent. They turned their faces slightly away from each other, as though nothing had happened at all.
Soifon glanced at Unohana Retsu. Unohana happened to look over at the sa mont. The two exchanged a silent, knowing look.
— Still, only you can pull that off.
— You flatter .
Having heard Soifon's full briefing, Shunsui Kyōraku tilted the brim of his straw hat lower, obscuring most of his face — while his gaze drifted, seemingly without intention, to Jūshirō Ukitake standing across from him.
Ukitake seed to sense sothing. He raised his head and t his old friend's eyes.
Their gazes crossed for just a mont, then both looked away.
The Captain-Commander had taken all of this in. For the sake of his disciple's continued survival, he tapped the hilt of Ryūjin Jakka with one fingertip and asked: "Captain Soifon — if His Majesty the Soul King were to have perished in battle… the power left behind…"
Soifon shook her head, her tone certain: "The power His Majesty left behind will not disappear."
The implication was clear: [Lord Mimihagi], sealed within Ukitake's body, would not fade with the Soul King's death. He would continue to live on.
The eting adjourned.
Hōgyoku tucked securely inside her robes, Soifon had barely stepped through the First Division's front door when Chōjirō Sasakibe called out to stop her.
"Captain Soifon — have you forgotten what day it is today?"
Sasakibe held a thick stack of docunts in his arms as he said it.
Soifon paused where she stood and searched her mory for any significant keyword associated with today. Nothing ca up.
"Ah — today is the day of the Captain Promotion Examination. Everyone's been waiting for you at the Dangai, you know."
Sasakibe shook his head and gestured in the direction of the training grounds.
Well — if it was this important, why hadn't he reminded her during the eting?!
Doubling back to the First Division's training grounds, Soifon found the candidates for this round of captain promotions, along with the handful of captains who had been waiting there to accompany her to the Dangai.
Rukia Kuchiki, Momo Hinamori, Rangiku Matsumoto, Shūhei Hisagi, Renji Abarai.
"I was starting to wonder… whether Captain Soifon had so urgent matter to attend to. Turns out she simply forgot today was promotion day." "The great hero of the Three Worlds, and yet such a forgetful soul…"
Unohana Retsu smiled sweetly and delivered that with impeccable passive-aggression.
"Let's move. Ti to start the examination."
The Captain-Commander opened the Senkaimon and waved Soifon in first. "No telling whether the Kōtotsu has revived today — do the favor of going in ahead to scout. If there's a Kōtotsu in there, clean it up."
"…"
Soifon rolled her eyes and stepped into the Dangai.
Boom —
Whether it was the Captain-Commander's doing or simply Soifon's rotten luck, the mont she entered the Dangai, the freshly revived Kōtotsu spawned right in her face.
An instant later, golden Spiritual Pressure flared across her body and collided with the black mass of the Kōtotsu.
The dust settled. The unrivaled, unstoppable Kōtotsu — toppled again.
She waved the grit off her hands and called back through the Senkaimon: "Clear. The Kōtotsu's gone. You can co in."
In the open expanse of the Dangai, Captain-Commander Yamamoto finished reading out the examination rules and the vacant positions, then swept his gaze over the five candidates.
Of the three won — Rukia Kuchiki, Momo Hinamori, and Rangiku Matsumoto — each wore an expression of varying degrees of dead-inside despair. Renji Abarai and Shūhei Hisagi, by contrast, were practically radiating enthusiasm.
Once the five had completed their Bankai demonstrations, the Captain-Commander stroked his long beard and let his gaze linger for a mont on the three female candidates who were conspicuously lacking in eagerness — then turned to Soifon:
"Captain Soifon."
Soifon snapped to attention: "Sir!"
"In this old man's view, both Renji Abarai and Shūhei Hisagi possess ample ability and enthusiasm for the captain's role. Their promotions should et with no objection."
He paused after that.
"But the remaining captaincy… who would you choose?"
And just like that, the ball was kicked right back to Soifon.
Before she could open her mouth, Unohana Retsu beside her narrowed her eyes and said: "Rangiku Matsumoto has served as vice-captain for several decades now — she is experienced and well-seasoned. In my view, she is more than capable of taking on the role of captain."
Soifon blinked and played along: "What Captain Unohana says… does have so rit."
One way or another, one of the three of you has to go — and the only card left to play is seniority.
Rangiku Matsumoto's eyes went instantly wide as saucers, her whole body going rigid as if struck by lightning.
[— Captain Unohana, you've stabbed in the back!]
Captain-Commander Yamamoto gave a small nod, and it was settled: "Then — the Third Division captaincy shall pass to Renji Abarai. The Fifth Division to Rangiku Matsumoto. The Ninth Division to Shūhei Hisagi."
"Effective imdiately."
"Sir!"
Renji Abarai and Shūhei Hisagi stood ramrod straight, voices ringing out loud and clear.
Rangiku Matsumoto answered after a beat, all the air knocked out of her: "…Sir."
Rukia and Momo worked hard to hold their expressions steady, keeping the smiles tugging at the corners of their mouths firmly in check.
They left the Dangai and returned to the open ground in front of the First Division hall.
The Captain-Commander departed with the three newly appointed captains, no doubt to brief them on the particulars of taking office.
The mont his figure disappeared around the corner, Momo Hinamori and Rukia practically leapt into the air at the sa ti, high-fiving in jubilation, their faces splitting into grins they could no longer contain.
"Yes!!!"
"We're NOT the ones becoming captains!"
"Thank goodness — we can keep slacking off— ahem, keep dedicating ourselves to training in the Second Division!"
Soifon's brow gave a small twitch at the sight.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught the Captain-Commander — not yet far off — pause mid-step, the hand gripping Ryūjin Jakka clenching suddenly tight…
Crackle —
A single spark leapt from the hilt.
And not far behind them, Rangiku Matsumoto — who hadn't made it far either — balled up her fist, grinding her teeth as she turned to glare back toward the training grounds.
[These two little—!]
Soifon: "…"
She drew a slow, deep breath.
The next instant, she was already standing behind the two of them.
"Thwap!"
"Thwap!"
Without the slightest hesitation, she raised her hand and delivered each of her two disgracefully gleeful students a firm knuckle-knock squarely on the head — not hard enough to injure, not light enough to ignore.
"Owww—!"
"That hurt—!"
Both clutched their heads and turned around with wronged, pitiful expressions, eting Soifon's utterly blank gaze:
"You're still in the First Division's grounds. You two are a little too brazen, don't you think?"
"Save the celebrating for when you're outside. And in front of everyone else, you'd better look like proper failures — understood?!"
"I know it's hard. But that is an order. When the results are announced, you don't let a single smile show in front of your division soldiers!"
Beside them, Unohana Retsu — quite happily eating her popcorn — strolled over with a delightfully wicked smile:
"I only put Rangiku forward because she's served as vice-captain so long — a well-aning nudge up the ladder. And yet, sohow, both of Soifon's students seem awfully reluctant to beco captains…"
"That simply won't do. If you've already mastered your Shikai, you ought to take on the responsibilities that co with it."
"How about this — what if Soifon and I step down and hand our captaincies to the two of you?"
The color drained from Rukia's and Momo's faces in an instant.
With her hair down, Captain Unohana was like an entirely different person — the full shadow side of her personality on glorious display.
They both shuffled back three steps in unison, shaking their heads frantically: "N-no, no — we actually do want to beco captains, Captain Unohana, please don't—"
Wait — that didn't sound right either. Rukia hurried to add: "What we an is… we're still too inexperienced."
Watching the two of them stamr and stumble in a panic, Unohana Retsu covered her mouth and laughed softly.
Ever since Soifon had cured her of her cleaving addiction, her personality had been drifting in a distinctly chaotic-gremlin direction.
Soifon gave her a helpless look. "Captain Unohana, stop scaring them."
Unohana walked on ahead a few steps, then turned to look back at the three of them:
"All right, jokes aside. Business: I reserved a table at the Ōmaeda family's yakiniku restaurant. Originally I'd planned it as a celebration for Rangiku."
"The reservation's already made and the ingredients are all prepared — it'd be a sha to waste them. Might as well treat it as a celebration for Rukia and Momo, too — for their… [safe and sound failure to be promoted]?"
Rukia and Momo: "..."
The wording was bizarre no matter how they heard it, but they didn't dare argue.
At the yakiniku restaurant.
When Soifon and her group arrived at the reserved private room, Isane Kotetsu was already waiting inside.
"Captain Soifon, Captain Unohana — you're here."
Her voice was as soft as ever. As her gaze swept past Soifon, a faint flush crept across her face.
Isane Kotetsu moved naturally to Soifon's side and sat down to her right.
Unohana Retsu followed with a cheerful smile and settled into the seat on Soifon's left — flanking her neatly on both sides.
Rukia and Momo, who had both been eyeing those exact two spots, watched helplessly as both seats were claid right before their eyes. They retreated to the opposite side of the table and sat down side by side in defeat.
Not that they'd arrived first, to be fair.
Isane seed entirely oblivious to the reproachful looks coming from the two across the table. She picked up the tongs with practiced ease, laid raw slices of at across the sizzling grill, and soon the mouthwatering sizzle of yakiniku and the irresistible aroma of grilled at were filling the private room.
"So, how did the examination go today?" Isane asked, turning the at as she spoke. "And where's Rangiku? How co she's not with you?"
Rukia replied: "Senior Rangiku… she was chosen as captain."
Momo nodded to add: "She's probably sitting through her captain's inauguration lecture right about now."
The mood had a faint sorrowful solidarity to it — the fox grieves for the rabbit.
The yakiniku sizzled on the iron grate, fat droplets hissing into the coals, and wisps of savory smoke curled with the scent of at through the private room.
Watching the mountain of at piled into Soifon's bowl, Rukia and Momo began to have their doubts.
Was this celebratory yakiniku originally booked for the two of them — or had it actually been arranged to honor Teacher Soifon all along?
Senior Isane, Captain Unohana — you two are truly shaless right now.
"Eat up, Captain Soifon — there's plenty more."
Isane Kotetsu said as she picked up another slice of grilled beef tongue and set it in Soifon's bowl.
The white rice was already soaked through with the juices of the yakiniku, gleaming with an inviting richness.
"Now, now, Isane — that won't do."
"You need to eat your vegetables alongside the at. That's what makes a balanced al."
"And eating vegetables before at aids digestion, you know…"
Unohana radiated the composed ease of a mature adult as she, unhurriedly, placed a piece of broccoli right on top of the mountain of at in Soifon's bowl.
Sound logic, that — but were you really going to lecture the woman who punched her way through Hell yesterday on healthy eating habits?
No rebuttal ca. Between Isane Kotetsu and Unohana Retsu, Soifon was, marginally, more wary of the post-liberation Unohana.
She picked up the broccoli from the top of the pile — glazed with yakiniku juices — and swallowed it in one bite.
Unohana, one point!
Just then —
"Bang!"
The private room door was flung wide open.
A figure in a white captain's haori strode in with purpose, long orange hair swaying behind her, that striking face a picture of "I am furious."
She swept the private room with a single glance, locked her eyes onto Soifon — chopsticks still raised mid-air — and in the next instant, crossed the distance in three quick strides and threw both arms around Soifon from behind.
"Oh, REALLY—!"
Her arms looped around Soifon's neck, her full weight pressing against Soifon's back, voice dripping with accusation:
"I'm sitting there getting lectured by the Captain-Commander, and you're all back here feasting without ?!"
Soifon's head tipped back slightly under the pressure of the hold, chopsticks still hovering in midair, the broccoli — now with a slice of beef tongue beneath it — barely an inch from her mouth: "Mmph…"
"And you!"
"Soifon! You're just as guilty! You threw to the wolves back there!"
"You know how much I hate being a captain! You know how much I hate dealing with division paperwork! My slacking-off lifestyle! My afternoon naps! You've ruined everything—!"
Rangiku freed one hand and planted it on top of Soifon's head, mussing her hair energetically in every direction.
Soifon swayed with the onslaught but kept her expression perfectly composed.
She finally managed to get the beef tongue into her mouth, chewed, swallowed — then tilted her head back to et the eyes of the puffed-up Rangiku Matsumoto looming over the back of her chair:
"I fail to see just how much Rangiku despises being a captain."
"You're already calling by my first na, just like that — sounds like you're quite comfortable with the title already."
Rangiku Matsumoto faltered, caught flat-footed, and the arms wrapped around Soifon loosened instinctively: "That's because…"
She didn't get to finish, because Soifon had already picked up a new piece of yakiniku and pressed it into Rangiku Matsumoto's mouth.
"Enough complaining for now, Cap-tain Mat-su-mo-to."
"Get to your seat and eat your yakiniku."
Soifon patted the empty spot beside her and slid her own bowl — piled impressively high — over to that seat.
Rangiku Matsumoto stood there for two seconds, then relented, circled around to the other side, and dropped into the seat, the number "five" on her captain's haori catching the light.
"Nom!"
She picked up her chopsticks, snatched up a perfectly grilled slice of at, and shoved it into her mouth with barely restrained ferocity — as though it were Soifon herself she was eating.
Isane Kotetsu quietly pushed a fresh plate of at in front of Rangiku, murmuring: "Rangiku… congratulations."
Beside them, Unohana Retsu dropped in a remark out of nowhere: "Although — isn't the number five a bit unlucky for a division?"
"— Kff— cough cough cough?!"
Rangiku stopped mid-chew, glanced at Isane and gave a grateful nod — then imdiately choked on the next bite from the remark beside her.
The previous captain of the Fifth Division had left rather too large a shadow, after all.
"Senior Rangiku probably isn't quite that formidable, though…"
On reflex, Momo Hinamori started to defend her dear friend — then realized the sentence might be a little wounding.
"So hurt…"
Rangiku Matsumoto raised her bowl and hid her expression behind the mountain of at. "Forced into being a captain, and now Momo's mocking on top of it… hah…"
"Speaking of which, Teacher Soifon…"
Rukia picked up a slice of at, trying to break the awkward atmosphere. "Now that Senior Rangiku's made captain too — and the Hell situation's been resolved — the Three Worlds are finally at peace for once…"
She trailed off, gaze drifting to the night sky above Seireitei through the window, voice carrying a wistful note:
"Last ti we went to Karakura Town on assignnt, we were in such a rush we barely got to look around. I've heard the seaside in the World of the Living is absolutely beautiful…"
"What if we… celebrate everything finally settling down? And celebrate Senior Rangiku, Renji, and Senior Hisagi taking on their captaincies?"
____
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