54 New Position

Everything was peaceful for the next few days. Soul Society functioned like normal and nothing was out of place. Orihime would frequently visit the twelfth division, tactfully turn down being experimented on, and try to figure out the progress on analyzing BG8. Apparently, the technology used in creating him was completely unheard of. This took up a lot of Mayuri's time and he was already utilizing his discoveries to enhance himself. Other than that, Orihime would visit Yachiru, Rukia, Rangiku, and Soi Fon.

On New Year's Day, Kenpachi got extremely frustrated and beat-up half of his division. Then he began to go around to each division challenging everyone to a mass brawl. He was either sent away by the captain, or beat up all of the weaker members. Unfortunately for Orihime, the fifth division barracks was the third on his path.

Orihime was at the barracks at the time overlooking some training, and as soon as the Kenpachi-Yachiru duo arrived she had a bad premonition. She released her Reiatsu and began to form a three-layer barrier around the training grounds between Kenpachi and her. The barriers were all transparent, so she included one visible barrier as a warning not to approach.

"What did you need Kenpachi?"

"You promised me another fight with Ichigo, but it has already been so long!"

"Er… that's actually a fair point. Well, since you are already here, and I've set up a barrier, how about we exchange some blows? Feel free to go all out, the barriers are the strongest I've developed. It can even rival the Sekkiseki rock around the Soul Society."

Kenpachi didn't even respond and simply laughed. He ripped off his eye patch and charged at Orihime. She was already prepared for his attack and began dual-casting Kido. Everything she threw at him was at least as powerful as a #90 Kido and she did it all chantless. When he charged forward, she created a field of dark purple energy which increased the gravity for Kenpachi by a hundred times. However, this only seemed to ignite his battle potential as his speed and strength didn't wane even a little bit.

Orihime created space between them using Shunpo and released a lightning dragon from her open palm. Kenpachi sliced the dragon in two, causing the Kido to bifurcate and slam into the barrier. Instead of shattering, it shredded the dragon into spirit particles which were later absorbed by the second layer, strengthening the first and third layer. Orihime was proud of her design which she dubbed Soul Warding Barrier.

While continuing to dodge, she noticed that Kenpachi was getting faster and stronger. His strikes were pushing the barrier to its limits in absorbing and converting spirit particles. She released a new and improved Makanko which used the fiery beam as its base but introduced lightning to coil around the beam, improving its speed and penetration.

However, when she released it, Kenpachi didn't dodge or block. He simply took the beam head on, as it blasted a hole in his shoulder. Not having enough time to react, Kenpachi was already mid-swing against her. She seemed to have built up his bloodlust through this one-sided beating so far, so he just went all out against her. The sword seemed to give her an illusion of death for a split second, but she instinctively activated her full-powered mode.

Reiatsu shot out from her arms and back, as a spirit particle cloak formed around her. She used the power of rotation to attempt to deflect or redirect the sword, but it only weakened it slightly. Orihime had no choice but to reach out and attempt to grab his sword. All of this was happening within half a second, but Orihime had recently gained the ability to enter a heightened state of perception.

While in this state, everything around her slowed to a stop, giving her plenty of time to think. This was one of the perks of the Quincy strengthening she received. What scared her was even during this state, Kenpachi's sword still moved. This showed just how much power was behind his swing to cause it to accelerate so quickly. She reached out and gripped the point of the blade which should contain the least amount of force.

To everyone else's perception, this all happened in a second. The members of squad eleven and five were outside of the barrier watching the fight rooting for their captains. This particular clash left everyone silent. Reiatsu exploded from the collision causing the arena to become obscure. Even sensing wasn't possible since the dense Reiatsu was creating a jamming effect.

Once the Reiatsu dissipated, Kenpachi was standing with a wide smile looking down at Orihime as she held onto his blade. Her hand was bleeding profusely, but Kenpachi seemed to be unable to move. She had used the opportunity of the clash to release her strongest attack against his sword arm, crippling it. In fact, the sword would have cut right through her hand and arm if she hadn't disabled him at the moment she did.

Eventually, his arm went limp and his sword fell on the ground. However, to Orihime's chagrin, he simply picked up the sword with his other hand and prepared to continue. Orihime let out an exasperated sigh and dropped her Shunko. She summoned a storm of multi-colored flower petals to surround Kenpachi. His body healed at a rapid pace while she slipped out of the barrier.

"Sorry Captain Kenpachi, I have an appointment with Captain-Commander Yamamoto. Please feel free to utilize the barriers as punching bags to let out your excess energy. They are extremely durable."

Orihime wasn't lying, she really did have an appointment. It was yesterday when she received the letter. At first, she thought it was about her recent investigation, but the letter seemed extremely formal and unrelated to the events outside of Soul Society. She was extremely nervous about what this would be about and asked some of the other captains. From what she could gather, none of the other captains were invited.

As she calmed herself down from that fight with tea and made sure she was healed up without any blood stains, the barriers were destroyed. Orihime was surprised since it had only taken a little over the time it takes to make tea. Her eyes twitched at how brutally overpowered Kenpachi was. After finishing her tea, she made her way to the first division meeting room.

On the way she became more and more nervous. There were several guards she had never seen before with large helmets that covered their faces. They stood at every crossroads and along the path to where she was going. Considering none of them stopped her, they must already be expecting her. When she reached the door leading to the actual meeting room, she saw two special guards holding banners with the symbol for 'Royal Special Task Force' on them.

Orihime immediately realized what was going on. They opened the door for her and she walked in. The anteroom was silent, and there seemed to be no one else in this building. Typically, there would be various lower-level Soul Reapers around to manage the day-to-day things. However, it seemed they were all sent away. This was either for secrecy, safety, or some other reason. The existence of squad zero was locked down for most ever Soul Society member, even the captains.

"Captain of the Fifth Division, Orihime Inoue, here as requested." She called out.

"Enter."

When Orihime entered, she saw three people seated. In the higher positions was a fair skinned black haired woman with a golden headdress. She wore a typical Soul Reaper uniform with a second white Haori fastened around her torso. The other was a dark-skinned man with an afro mohawk, sunglasses and various jewelry. He's donned with a black and green shihakusho instead of black and white. The sides of his shaven head were also dyed green.

As soon as Orihime enters, several banners fall out from the roof with words like 'congratulations' and 'welcome.' Additionally, the Royal Guards symbol is hanging behind the two, and the fair-skinned woman had several golden artificial arms behind her playing instruments to commemorate the meeting.

"Yo, yo yo, I'm Oetsu Nimaiya, Third Officer of the Royal Guards. Welcome Orihime Inoue, fifth officer of the royal guard's candidate." His words were extremely up beat and his hands were very animated while speaking. Orihime naturally already knew him but still politely nodded.

"Hello Orihime, I am Senjumaru Shutara, the Fourth Officer of the Royal Guards. It's my pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now that we've met, let us be off."

Before Orihime could ask any questions or make any complaints, she was picked up by Senjumaru's artificial hands while Oetsu opened a portal to the Soul King's Palace. The suddenness of it all made Orihime completely speechless.

When she arrived, she saw many of the purple and black dressed soldiers that were outside of the meeting room welcome them. They arrived on a floating panel which had a long path that went toward the Soul King Palace. The structure was huge with several layers and buildings. The panel floated upwards and connected a path to one of the middle layers and she was carried all the way across.

Eventually, she was dumped in front of a man with a long pompadour and tapered sideburns. He had an annoyed look as he stared at Orihime.

"What, are you just going to lie there all day? Get up!"