Natsuki, Third Seat

"I told you, I'm not interested in a Seated Officer position. Third Seat or 9th Seat, it makes no difference to me."

Faced with Akagi Ryosuke's concession and his offer to give up the Third Seat position, Natsuki felt no pride. His expression calm, he replied.

"Besides, this was just an ordinary spar. You don't need to give me your position as Third Seat!"

"Admittedly, I had a slight edge in our final Zanjutsu exchange, but that was only a contest of swordsmanship."

"For a Soul Reaper, Zanjutsu, Hakuda, and Kido are merely supplementary abilities. The true foundation is the Zanpakuto!"

"You didn't release your Zanpakuto, did you?"

Natsuki looked at Akagi Ryosuke, his expression serious.

Akagi Ryosuke was taken aback, but he had his own convictions. "Maybe you're right. But just as you have your own ideas, I have my own decisions. Even though I didn't use Shikai, did you release your Zanpakuto?"

Natsuki was momentarily at a loss for words.

Was he supposed to say that he was still just half a step away from truly mastering his Zanpakuto's release?

After thinking it over, he decided not to.

A Zanpakuto was a Soul Reaper's greatest reliance: a personal weapon born from the power that arose within their soul, with an Asauchi serving as its medium. Not every Soul Reaper was willing to reveal their secrets to outsiders.

As a result, the true power of some Soul Reapers' Zanpakuto remained unknown.

Natsuki had earned his Seated Officer position through abilities like Zanjutsu alone. To outsiders, that meant he must have the power of his Zanpakuto at his disposal, and the only reason he hadn't released it was that none of his past opponents had been worthy of it.

Natsuki wanted to say more.

He had come here today to spar with the squad members simply to hone his Zanjutsu. He had no intention of being promoted.

Just then, the atmosphere around them shifted subtly, growing tense.

Natsuki and Akagi Ryosuke noticed it too.

With a tacit understanding, they turned to look at the same time.

A figure wearing a white Captain Haori approached at an unhurried pace.

The moment they saw him, all the Soul Reapers of the 11th Division grew solemn.

Azashiro Kenpachi!

The current captain of the 11th Division—the man who had killed Kuruyashiki Kenpachi and inherited the title of Kenpachi.

Though they were both Kenpachi, the members of the 11th Division could never be as relaxed and at ease around Azashiro Kenpachi as they had been around Kuruyashiki Kenpachi. Perhaps it was because of Azashiro Kenpachi's coldness. In his presence, they felt an immense pressure that made it difficult to grow close to him. To many members of the 11th Division, this Kenpachi remained as mysterious and unfamiliar as ever.

Still, he was their Kenpachi.

So when he approached, the squad members addressed him respectfully.

"Azashiro Kenpachi!"

"Captain!"

Azashiro Kenpachi didn't nod or acknowledge their greetings. His gaze settled on Akagi Ryosuke and Natsuki. "I saw your fight earlier. Since you, Natsuki, 9th Seat, defeated Akagi, Third Seat, you'll be the new Third Seat starting today."

Azashiro Kenpachi hadn't been here earlier, yet he claimed to have seen the fight between Natsuki and Akagi Ryosuke. If they thought carefully about it, there was something odd about that statement.

But most Soul Reapers in the 11th Division didn't like using their brains. If they had, they would've joined the 12th Division next door instead of coming to the 11th.

They were more concerned with what Azashiro Kenpachi had said.

Before, the Third Seat position had only been something Akagi Ryosuke wanted to give to Natsuki.

Now that Azashiro Kenpachi had said it, Natsuki's new position as Third Seat had effectively become an appointment from higher up.

And so, after a single spar, Natsuki became the Third Seat of the 11th Division.

Starting with Akagi Ryosuke, all the Seated Officer positions below him shifted down by one. Fortunately, since Natsuki had already been the 9th Seat, those below him didn't have to worry about being pushed down any further and losing their positions as Seated Officers.

Natsuki had said before that, in his eyes, there was no difference between the 9th Seat and the Third Seat. Once he actually became Third Seat, he realized that wasn't true.

Perhaps there was no difference between the Fourth Seat and the 9th Seat, but the Third Seat was definitely an exception.

Just as a lieutenant assisted the captain and helped handle squad affairs, the Third Seat served as the lieutenant's aide.

And since Azashiro Kenpachi had only recently become the captain of the 11th Division and didn't seem interested in handling squad affairs, all that work fell to Gosu, the lieutenant.

Gosu was a middle-aged man with a rugged appearance but a rather meticulous mind.

He had served under Kuruyashiki Kenpachi for a long time. Because he was more thoughtful than the average member of the 11th Division, he had been appointed lieutenant. After Kuruyashiki's death, Azashiro Kenpachi had shown no intention of changing the 11th Division's structure, so Gosu remained lieutenant—and was even busier than he had been under Kuruyashiki Kenpachi.

Natsuki gradually began to understand why Akagi Ryosuke had been so eager to give up the Third Seat position.

With all the squad affairs piling up on Gosu, he had no choice but to delegate some of the work down the ranks. Naturally, that left the Third Seat much busier too.

For members of the 11th Division who loved to fight, handling documents and reports wasn't exactly a pleasant task.

Natsuki, on the other hand, didn't complain.

It was true that the work took time away from his training, but it also made him feel a little nostalgic. In his previous life, before he found out he was ill, he had worked as a low-level clerk. The tasks weren't exactly the same, but he had handled paperwork all the same, so he quickly got the hang of it.

"Third Seat Natsuki really is impressive. You've already finished organizing all these documents!"

Looking at the neatly arranged documents Natsuki had sorted through, Gosu couldn't help but marvel.

He didn't complain about Natsuki's predecessor, Akagi Ryosuke. That alone made him seem like a genuinely kind man.

Natsuki replied calmly, "I just handled similar things when I was alive."

Everyone living in the Soul Society was dead. They lived another life in this world as spirits, so Natsuki didn't need to be guarded about it. Many Soul Reapers spoke freely about such things, and some even used stories from their lives before death as conversation pieces.

Of course, these were all people who had died in the Human World and come to the Soul Society as spirits before becoming Soul Reapers.

Aside from them, some Soul Reapers were native to the Soul Society.

Just as humans could have children, spirits could marry and have children too. Other than living in a different world, they were much like humans.