CH 123: WOMEN OF DIVISION 0
"It's surprising. Are you really going down?"
A purple-haired woman with a heavy figure asked with a motherly smile.
The one she was addressing was a slender and very youthful woman with fair skin, and long black hair that was adorned at the back by a large golden ornament in the shape of a crescent moon with numerous small lines radiating outwards.
The two of them were clad in the standard attire of Captain of the Gotei 13 with the exception that there was no number on their back but rather, four flowers.
“Kirio, what brings you to my city? Yes, I plan to go down to the Seireitei. Unohana brought me some interesting information.”
The Royal Palace was divided into many sub palaces. Each of them was occupied by one of the five members of the Royal Guards. They regularly visited each other.
Kirio Hikifune laughed merrily as she eyed Senjumaru up and down.
“You know very well that I am here to verify your diet. If I didn’t, you guys would starve yourself to death.”
Senjumaru shuddered and took a few steps back.
“Enough with your food. We don't even need to eat. In fact, I believe that we have more chances of stuffing ourselves to death because of you.”
“Just because you don’t need to eat doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. Food is life. Life is power. You need to eat to become stronger and stay healthy, right?”
Senjumaru was speechless. If anyone said this, she would simply laugh it away. Souls could feel hunger and starve when they still had an above-average Reiryoku but as soon as they surpassed a certain level, food would once again become meaningless.
But this was different when said food was cooked by Kirio Hikifune–Former captain of the 12th division. Her food could literally heal and strengthen the people who ate it.
She called it <<Food Enhancement>> .
Using the same logic she used to invent Gikongan[1], Kirio would imbue the base ingredients of the food she created by infusing the materials from the onset of growth with her Reiatsu, fundamentally changing the nature and properties.
Through the use of these ingredients, she could augment any food she made which would then empower anyone who ate it beyond any level they could ever imagine.
If it wasn’t because the process was extremely demanding on her body and she could only produce a very limited amount every few years, she would have most likely tried to feed the whole Gotei 13.
Then again, it wasn’t as if anyone could eat her food without the risk of exploding because of the sudden increase in power.
Shaking her head, Senjumaru observed the different tissue rolls she had in her possession and decided to discard them.
She had been lacking inspiration lately. Her creations had been stagnant and unimaginative.
This was why, when Unohana said that she could help her get great designs, she jumped at the occasion.
Of course, she had no great expectations, but she was curious. It was something Ichibe understood and that was why he didn’t stop Senjumaru from going down.
If said in a graceful way, all the members of Division 0 were people who researched the truth and were full of curiosity.
In a cruder way though, they were super huge nerds who happened to have the power to destroy countries.
Loyal as they may be, but they were first and foremost researchers who affected the whole history of the Soul Society.
“I am coming with you, by the way.”
Senjumaru did not seem surprised and continued to search for her sewing needles.
“I promised I wouldn’t bully anyone.”
“I know. I know. But admit that your track record is pretty bad. For example, how many times did you sneak into Mayuri’s research center?”
Senjumaru smiled mischievously.
“My, my, sneaking in? What big words. I never sneaked into his laboratory. I simply placed my hand against the door and it opened so easily. I think Mayuri-kun should invest in better locks. Fufufu!”
“This is why I must follow you. Furthermore, I am really curious about that guy.”
“Heh. It seems like everyone was affected by him.”
Kirio smiled bitterly, “How could we not? His healing power and skills as a healer interest Tenjiro, the way he uses Reishi and Reitasu intrigues me, Oetsu is going mad because he doesn’t understand that boy’s Zanpakuto, and Ichibe is worried because of him. Now he is even making you interested in him.”
Senjumaru stayed still. Indeed. Satoru Gojo was an enigma for them. All his skills defied common senses and made the research they made seem like a joke.
It was even more so because they were aware of one truth —The fact that he only entered the Soul Society 10 years ago.
“Well. If you are curious, then I guess you will be able to satiate your curiosity soon.”
“Indeed. If you are ready, let’s go. Let’s use the Tenchuren[2]”
—
“Soooo~ What are we doing here again?”
Standing in a huge square, Gojo and Unohana could be seen discussing calmly.
“We are waiting. They should be down soon.”
Today was the day Senjumaru was supposed to come. Gojo had already managed to smooth his way through all the obstacles and the last one was the lack of Santa costumes.
Doing Christmas without a Santa costume was blasphemy.
On the side, Gojo had contacted some seamstresses, but it was simply impossible for them to produce such a large number of clothes in such a short amount of time. If Senjumaru was half as good as Unohana said, then it would be great.
“Soon?” Looking up, Gojo frowned, “Is it that thing that is coming down like a meteor?”
“It is.”
BOOM!!!
As soon as Unohana finished talking, a huge pillar fell from the sky and landed brutally on the ground, raising a cloud of dust in its wake.
Using his power, Gojo stopped the dust from reaching them and easily dispersed it.
“What’s that thing?”
Gojo was rather surprised. Try as he might, he could hardly see what was inside the pillar. The concentration of Reishi in that thing was so dense that nearly nothing could go through.
“It’s the Tenchuren. This thing is able to pierce through the dimension wall separating the Palace from the Seireitei. From what I have heard, it’s pretty comfy inside.”
When the pillar finally opened, it was accompanied by a great fanfare of music as a slender black haired woman stepped down. Behind her, six mechanical hands seemingly made out of gold were each holding an instrument as they played the music.
“Hello, Unohana! It has been a while!”
Coming from behind Senjumaru eccentric entrance, Kirio waved her hand at Unohana before giving a friendly smile to Gojo,
“Hello young man. You must be Gojo-san, right? Nice to meet you.”
‘Who is she?’
“Oh my. Excuse me. Where are my manners? My name is Kirio Hikifune. Second officer of Division 0 and Divine General of the South. Nice to meet you!”
“Heh, so this is the rumored Gojo? What a handsome lad. The name is Senjumaru Shutara, by the way. I am the fourth officer as well as the Divine General of the North. I hope your design will not disappoint me.”
Looking at the two women standing in front of him, Gojo could only give a stiff smile because of what he was seeing through the Six eyes.
‘Haha~What a bunch of monsters.’
He had tried to overestimate the Royal Guards as much as possible, but it seemed that he had still been quite short of the reality.
“Nice to meet you too. My name is Satoru Gojo. I hope we will have great cooperation.”
‘Well. It doesn’t matter how strong they are—since I am stronger.’
This was the first meeting between Gojo and the members of the royal guards.
[1]: Artificial Soul Pill. They house the Gikon (Artificial souls) that shinigami use when they are on earth during their mission and have to use Gigai (Artificial bodies)
[2]: Heavenly Pillar Palanquin
(AN: Honestly, Division 0 is broken in another way aside from power. It's their ability to incredibly boost anyone in a short period of time. I really don't understand why they never used their skills to boost all captains and vice-captains. Or perhaps they did and it was not mentioned?)