Time was the cheapest thing in Soul Society.
After that battle which had nearly plowed the Northern Frontier wasteland into scorched earth, Seireitei outwardly restored the order it had known since antiquity.
Yet some things, once shattered in this war, could never be mended again.
In the Eleventh Division, the Blood Trial reopened.
The scale of the second Blood Trial was much smaller than the last.
During the previous Blood Trial, although the Eleventh Division had just experienced the turmoil of Minamoto Yishou's dismissal and Sōya Azashiro's disenrollment, it still had at least several hundred Squad Members, a complete Seated Officer hierarchy, and that young man bearing the moniker of the Third Kenpachi who had slaughtered through twelve opponents in the dojo before ascending to the top.
This time, however, the captain had fallen in action, the lieutenant was severely injured and yet unheaved, casualties among the Squad Members exceeded sixty percent, and the currently combat-ready personnel numbered less than thirty percent of the roster. Out of all the people who could step onto the ring in the entire dojo, fewer than fifty could be scraped together.
Central 46's attitude toward this round of trials was also markedly cold.
Last time, Yachiru Unohana had personally attended to oversee the proceedings, the First Division had dispatched special forces to maintain order, and the Second Division's Punishment Force had backed the line throughout. This time, however, merely three days had passed from preparation to execution, and even the supervisory roster had been submitted by the Second Division itself.
In the end, only a single Punishment Force squad leader from the Second Division was present to supervise, and not even a Captain-Class officer attended.
That squad leader stood on the high platform at the edge of the dojo with his arms crossed,