A/N: Shiro's back…yep…much less views than last time…well no matter I'm starting the new arc! YEAH! Anyways please enjoy. And also review, review, review.

Disclaimer: Bleach doesn't belong to me… That is all.

Chapter 5: Politics

We have been weakened by the Winter Wars. That is an indisputable fact. The largest problem however came not from the enemy but from our own armies. We truly only had 28 people who from Soul Society who could fight. Three of them betrayed us, One was rendered almost an invalid by disease and we forced another to a desk job. I believe we all know who I am referring to. Therefore we need to make a stronger breed of shinigami. We cannot be weak! We have our duty and pride as soul reapers on the line and we cannot afford to back down!

Yamamoto Genryusai

25 years ago, explaining the reason why as his last act as Head Captain he was raising both graduation and seated officer requirements in front of the entire assembly of shinigami before instating Toshiro Hitsugaya as head captain.

Sigh… So he creates a new law, leaves, and I get the flak. Yah…Bite me.

Toshiro Hitsugaya

25 years ago, whispering sarcastically to his wife Momo before getting his promotion.

There we go again, old men and their stupid arguments. What a pain.

Toshiro Hitsugaya

50 years ago, complaining at a captain's meeting where they were deciding what to do with Gin Ichimaru for letting the Ryoka escape.

The Next Day

As the girls walked back to conference room 2 for the politics and strategy class, Yukiko reflected on how the previous day had gone. After setting up in the dorms, the group had gathered back in kitchen where Setsuna had proven himself a very good cook. Afterwards, exhausted by the day's events they quickly went to sleep. She was very pleased the facilities and was looking forward to her classes. The next day had been much of the same. They had gotten up, eaten breakfast, and had attended their first three classes. The group of girls entered into conference room and sat down next to the boys who had already arrived. Genryusai entered soon after and the class was called into session.

"Today I will be reviewing our political system, nobility, and how to deal with them and their implications. We have three political bodies the first is the Gotei 13 headed by Hitsugaya Soutaicho."

"So he's the captain in charge of the military branch." Asked Sousuke.

"That is correct. Now the only reason the Gotei 13 has so much power is because we are literally the most powerful. Due to the fact that we are the only group that is legally allowed to wield weapons and able to wield reiatsu properly, we are given power and a certain amount of leeway. Since we are the military, we make up the police force and hollow killing force. The Gotei 13 is made of 13 squads, each with a different function. The first deals with relationships between us and the Central 46. They are also in charge of the Gotei 13. The second deals with stealth missions and imprisonment and apart from the main brigade had a separate division known as the Oumitsukido which specializes in assassination and espionage. The third is in charge of communication. I remember many a time when Gin was asked to deliver a message he would stab the message onto Shinso and fire it at however he was delivering the message to. The 4th is in charge of both the medical brigade and sewer cleaning. The fifth is our version of the Kido Corps. They specialize in kido and although not as much as the Kido Corps. The sixth is the least mobile brigade most in charge of the hollow defense in the Seireitei and are the model Shinigami. They are also responsible for communication with the council of nobility. The seventh is the brigade in charge of hollow combat in the Rukongai. The eighth is the support brigade. They are in charge of helping wherever we fall short in terms of numbers. The ninth brigade is in charge of criminal justice. They hunt down and capture criminals or traitors."

"Wait." Sousuke interrupted, "I thought the second was in charge of that."

Setsuna answered him, "The only difference between the two is if you want your target dead or alive."

"Well that and the fact that the second act more like secret police while the ninth act more like normal police." Ayame added helpfully

"Both of you are correct. The ninth is also responsible for production of the newspaper for the Seireitei." Said Genryusai, trying to continue, "The tenth is in charge of public relations. They also act as the back-up for the 13th which are in charge of real world hollow elimination. The 11th is the combat brigade. They are the exact opposite of the 5th as they focus only on strengthening their swords and nothing else. The 12th is our research and development department. They run the Shinigami Research and Development Institution or the SRDI."

"Next political body is the Central 46 which is made of 36 sages and 10 judges. They act as the judges. They are experts of the law and if you get arrested, they will be your judge, jury and executioner."

"Last of the political bodies is Council of Nobility. The only requirement really is to be a landowner. Our system here is feudalism. You own land and the people living on that land serve you. In the Council of Nobility there are four levels. You have the lower court, middle court, high court, and the four great houses. The lower court is made mostly of retainers to the families of the upper court or four houses or private landowners. The families are Ukitake, Fon, Sasikibe, Yayoi, Kisaragi, Shishigami, Yamada, Kira, Iba, Madarame, Omoto, Hanazawa, Imai, Tsuyoshi, Kira, and Ayasegawa. The middle court is made of businessmen who own more land. Families include Nobunaga, Nero, Akiyama, Ishii, Sawada, Mukuro, Sakamoto, and Makoto. They are made up of either families directly related to the four great houses, founders of Soul Society or high end business man. They include the Hikifune, Kyoraku, Yamamoto, Unohana, Urahara, and the newly instated Kurosaki. The four great houses are the highest class of nobility there is in Soul Society. They are the Shiba, Shihōin, Kukichi, and Arisato. They met once every year for three days to discuss laws and fix problems. The actual legislation process works by everyone bring motions to the group and voting. Lower court representatives gets one vote, Middle court representatives gets two votes, Upper court representatives get three votes, and the house representatives get four votes. The school has their own version of this which you will be participating in if you are a member of nobility. It will be meeting in 3 months after our preliminaries for the interschool tournament."

Gin, Yukiko, Kaien, Rin, and Hikari nodded.

Genryusai continued, "Now that I've explained the political system to you, I want you to answer a few questions. Hmm…Okay tell me the importance of the marriage between Yumichika Ayasegawa and Soi Fon."

Kaien shrugged saying in an uninterested voice, "It's nothing more than gossip."

Jumping up immediately, Yukiko shouted, "NO! This is politics!"

"Care to explain your outburst, Kukichi-san." Said Genryusai, clearly amused.

"Uh..um." Yukiko collected herself and focused, "When the Fon-Sensei and Ayasegawa-Sensei married they formed something of a political alliance between the families. The Fons are the retainers to the Shihōin; this means that the Ayasegawas would be excepted to vote for Shihōin bills at legislature. They also lose their ability to vote independent."

"Wait can I ask a quick question?' Sousuke interrupted, "Is that really the reason they got together? Only for politics?"

"No no no. Ya got it all wrong." Jin replied, "Soi Fon and Yumichika both left their divisions for different reasons. Soi Fon left because she decided that Yoriuchi Shihōin would make a better captain while Yumichika left because he had a kido based Zanpakuto in a combat based divisions."

Most of the room was shaking their head at that comment. Everyone knew that the Eleventh division was famous for their anti-kido policy.

"They ran into each other and well…Yumichika is beauty obsessed and saw a buried gem in Soi Fon. He made her feel more like a woman and less like a cold-hearted assassin."

"Hmm…okay"

The class continued for a while longer with Genryusai drilling the class on political implications and alliances. At the end of class, Genryusai made announcements.

"In three months we will have preliminaries for the interschool tournament."

Sousuke interrupted, "What is this tournament anyways? I thought we were the only school that trained Shinigami."

"We may be the only school that trains shinigami but we don't train vizards, arrancar, or quincies." Yamamoto answered succulently, "The vizards and the espada formed a school together in the remains of Las Noches in Hueco Mundo while the quincies formed their own school in their independent zone in the Seireitei."

"Wha…"

Sousuke was cut off as Hikari answered him somewhat annoyed, "Arrancar, hollows who have shinigami powers. Vizards, shinigami who have hollow powers. Quincy, spiritually aware humans who manifested power to protect themselves."

Yamamoto continued his explanation, "We have interschool tournaments once a year as a way to determine our strength against the other two schools, ensure that nobody is too powerful, and encourage rivalry and good sportsmanship. There are also prizes for winning. The preliminaries eliminate all the weak people from the tournament and narrowing our numbers. The tournament isn't a given, it's a privilege."

Suddenly a small butterfly flew straight through the wall and landed on Genryusai's finger. After waiting for a few moments he nodded grimly. The students stared at him expectantly.

"Hollows have materialized on campus. We're under attack."

A/N: A shorter chapter, I know but please bear with me. I was actually going to make this as part of one chapter but the politics section went a little long. I think that shorter chapters might be better for digestibility. Please review.

A teaser:

"Ayame you're in charge. Gather students and fight off the invasion until help arrives."

"So this is shikai…fun"