If someone asked Uchiha Yato what had struck him most about becoming captain of the Ninth Division and rising to the top of Seireitei, what would he say?
The young man would answer without hesitation: Busy!
The Ninth Division managed and guarded Soul Society's prisons while also handling communications and editing. The work was not especially exhausting, but there was plenty of it, and every task came with rules and procedures.
That was especially true now. The former captain and a large group of Seated Officers had all been lost, leaving a backlog of official business for the new captain to handle.
At first, Yato had thought it would be simple. He was a jailer. All he had to do was prevent escapes, release prisoners when their sentences ended, and put down any riots by force.
Once he took over, though, he learned it was not so easy.
Preventing escapes alone was enough to give him a headache.
Most of the prisoners under the Ninth Division's watch were wandering swordsmen from Rukongai. A smaller number were lower-ranking nobles or Soul Reapers. Every one of them had some trick up their sleeve, and not one was easy to manage.
Some could twist air into a semisolid tool for picking locks. Others could soften the ground. Still others could cloud a guard's mind and leave him disoriented—
Quite a collection of talents. Pleasant conversationalists, too.
They were not necessarily strong fighters, but put their little tricks and minor spells to use in an escape, and they became maddeningly hard to guard against.
Uchiha Yato's first task after taking office was to capture these prisoners one by one and uphold the Ninth Division's authority.
Byakuya Kuchiki was a tremendous help.
As heir to a great noble clan, he had a reliable intelligence network.