The Vacant Lieutenant Position

Happy times were always fleeting.

Even though Natsuki wanted to bring the Eleventh Division back to the way it used to be, he couldn't hold drinking parties all the time.

Fighting was the Eleventh Division's main duty.

In the preceding months, thanks to Kuruyashiki's predecessor's reckless mismanagement, the Eleventh Division had not quite descended into chaos, but things had certainly been bad. The worst part was that the former captain had even tried to swallow up the compensation paid to fallen members. That was something Natsuki could not tolerate.

Now that Natsuki was captain, he had to clean up the mess left by his predecessor. And when a combat mission called for the captain to step in, he didn't hesitate to do so.

But this brought a whole new problem.

After every battle, he returned to the division and had to take care of administrative duties.

He was busy—far too busy.

He didn't have any time to train!

Although the Eleventh Division had fewer administrative duties than the other divisions, they still took up a lot of Natsuki's time.

Natsuki knew why.

The main reason was that the Eleventh Division didn't have a lieutenant at the moment.

When Azashiro Kenpachi had taken over, Gosuke had been lieutenant.

When Gosuke succeeded him, Natsuki had become lieutenant.

When Kuruyashiki's predecessor took over, Natsuki had remained lieutenant.

But now that Natsuki had taken over, the lieutenant's position had been left vacant.

It might seem like only one person was missing, but a lieutenant played a vital role in a division. They weren't simply the division's second-strongest fighter after the captain; they were also the captain's right-hand person. In many divisions, the captain only took part in decisions about major events, while the lieutenant handled the division's day-to-day affairs.

The most notable examples were the Eighth and Thirteenth Divisions.

The Eighth Division's captain, Shunsui Kyōraku, was a laid-back man who liked to slack off whenever he had the chance, so his lieutenant handled most of the division's affairs. As for the Thirteenth Division's captain, Jūshirō Ukitake was conscientious and responsible, but his health wasn't good, and he couldn't handle administrative work for long. His lieutenant shouldered a lot of the workload for him.

"So, Ryōsuke, would you be interested in becoming lieutenant?"

Natsuki looked at Akagi Ryōsuke standing before him and asked.

After Gosuke became Kenpachi and Natsuki was promoted to lieutenant, Akagi Ryōsuke had returned to his position as the third seat. But he hadn't come away unchanged. There were a few more scars on his face, and those were only the ones people could see. Beneath his shihakushō, he had plenty more. There had simply been too many battles over the years. Even Gosuke, the former Kenpachi, had once been so badly injured that he'd needed time to recover. As the third seat, Ryōsuke had charged into battle behind him and suffered severe injuries of his own.

Fortunately, he hadn't been left disabled.

Not every Soul Reaper was like Captain-Commander Yamamoto in the original story, able to lose an arm in the battle against Aizen and still fight just as effectively. For other Soul Reapers, any disability caused by an injury would affect their combat ability, leaving them with no choice but to retire.

For some Soul Reapers, being able to retire was a good thing.

But for the battle-loving Soul Reapers of the Eleventh Division, that was hard to accept. They would rather die in battle than be left disabled.

"Lieutenant? Me?"

Akagi Ryōsuke paused. "I think I'll pass. Captain, you know what I'm like. I'm no good at dealing with paperwork and things like that. Honestly, if I had the choice, I wouldn't even want to be the third seat."

Natsuki knew Akagi Ryōsuke well.

The third seat was an assistant officer. Just as the lieutenant helped the captain handle the division's affairs, the third seat helped the lieutenant.

Some divisions had so much administrative work that the captain, lieutenant, and third seat would all sit together in the captain's office to handle paperwork.

The Eleventh Division hadn't reached that point, and Natsuki had rarely asked Akagi Ryōsuke to help him with the work.

It wasn't that he liked doing everything himself.

It was just that Akagi Ryōsuke really wasn't suited to that kind of work.

"I suppose that's true. Looks like I'll have to find someone else."

Natsuki didn't press Akagi Ryōsuke to become lieutenant; he'd only asked on a whim.

If Akagi Ryōsuke wasn't suitable, he'd just look for someone else.

The lieutenant didn't necessarily have to be an outstanding fighter.

As long as they had the strength of a seated officer, that would be enough.

The main thing Natsuki wanted from a lieutenant was someone who could share some of his workload.

He asked quite a few seated officers in the Eleventh Division if they were interested.

Some were indeed interested in the lieutenant's position. But when Natsuki brought out the tests he'd prepared, it became clear that these guys didn't even know the most basic things. He couldn't trust them to handle the division's affairs, so he had to give up on them.

The busy but fulfilling days gradually went by.

Although Natsuki had defeated Kuruyashiki's predecessor and risen to the top of the Gotei 13,

he didn't let himself relax.

Whenever Natsuki thought of the powerful people in the original story, he felt that he still had a long way to go. He needed to become even stronger.

Besides, the position of Kenpachi was dangerous in itself.

The unique ritual for succeeding as captain meant he was bound to face challenges from all sorts of powerful opponents.

Nobody could say when someone like Azashiro Kenpachi might suddenly show up, challenge him, and cut him down.

It wasn't that Natsuki feared death when it came for him. But if you could stay alive, who would want to die? Besides, he didn't have some cheat that let him come back to life stronger after dying.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

Inside the training ground hidden within the mountain, two figures flashed back and forth. Their fists and feet collided, sending out powerful waves of spiritual pressure.

A Soul Reaper's Hakuda wasn't simply hand-to-hand combat.

In battle, they also had to gather spiritual power in their bodies so that every movement carried enough force. Otherwise, it would just be ordinary brawling—something anyone could do—and there would be no need for it to develop into its own distinct fighting style.

Spiritual power allowed Soul Reapers to do many things ordinary people couldn't.

Released outward, it could be used to perform Kidō.

Simply applying it to the body, meanwhile, granted powerful defense and striking strength.

Another punch shot forward.

Their fists collided in midair, and an invisible shock wave burst out between them. The two figures immediately sprang apart, then stopped and came into view. They were Natsuki and Yoruichi.

"You sure do work hard!"

Yoruichi shook out her fist. She wasn't naturally superhumanly strong, and she was at a disadvantage against Natsuki, who was a man. For one thing, her fist had hurt a little when it collided with his.

"You're already Kenpachi, after all."

"It's exactly because I've become captain that I can't afford to slack off. I have to keep getting stronger if I want to live up to the title," Natsuki replied.