The news could not be suppressed.
In fact, Yamamoto had already notified every corner of the Seireitei. The Central 46's confirmation only proved once again that it was true.
Copies of the official notice spread at an unstoppable pace to every Gotei 13 division barracks, Shin'ō Academy, the great noble houses, and Onmitsukidō headquarters.
Twelfth Division Captain Kirio Hikifune, in recognition of her outstanding achievement in developing the principles of artificial souls, is hereby promoted to the Royal Guard, Zero Division, by decree of the Soul King.
The divisions reacted differently when the notice arrived, but they all had one thing in common: everyone realized this was nothing like the captain promotions of the past.
Twelfth Division
The Seated Officers stared at the seal, unable to believe it. They turned the notice over and read it several times.
Word soon spread through the barracks.
In the research wing's corridors, the archives, and the equipment stores, people spoke in hushed voices.
Someone straightened up from an experiment table and silently stared at the reagent bottle in his hand. Someone else crouched behind an equipment rack, sorting Reishi conduits, and stopped moving for a long time after hearing the news. Another sat before a filing cabinet, pulled out sealed records bearing Gikon-related numbers one by one, then shut them again, lost in thought.
"Captain Hikifune..."
"Gikon... Wasn't that stuff already sealed away?"
"No idea."
"Gikon is a separate matter, isn't it?"
"Was it even Gikon that got sealed away...?"
No one cheered, and no one complained. The Twelfth Division's Squad Members were long accustomed to miracles coming out of the Shinigami Research and Development Institute. This one had simply come too fast for them to take in.
Shin'ō Academy
Several Seated Officers assigned from the Twelfth Division