4

By the time Ren woke up, he was already outside of his inner world and felt sore all over. He looked outside and saw that it was already morning.

"Wow. I did not expect to sleep that long. Been here for 3 days and still no word of when the old man will send more officers to replace the old ones. I'll go out and practice for a bit."

Ren went to the empty training hall and decided to practice his Zankensoki forms. Even though he remembered everything that Ren did, he still thought it was better to experiment with them himself.

The Zankensoki forms were the 4 ways that shinigami engaged enemies in combat. All 4 were taught in the academy but few had truly learned them well.

The was Zan was for Zanjutsu, Ken was for Hakuda, So was for Hoho, and Ki was for Kido. Although it seemed like characters attacked however they wanted in the show, that was just because Ichigo was the main character and never had formal training.

Zanjutsu was the fighting style of using one's zanpakuto for combat. There were 3 levels to divide users of it. The common shinigami did not even qualify under these 3 levels. Those who had reached rank 1 in this were mostly officers. The 3 ranks were Swordsman, Expert Swordsmen, and Master Swordsmen.

Hakuda was hand to hand combat. This was rare among most shinigami but essential for anyone who worked in the Onmitsukido. Those individuals used their bodies almost exclusively due to the environment in which they had to work. The ranks of Hakuda were practitioners, combatants, expert combatants, and master combatants.

Hoho were footwork techniques that were very advanced. Most shinigami were unable to even use them. There was also a divide between users. Even for those who were at the top rank, there was still a large difference in skill between them. It was also the skill that had the second-fewest number of captains had reached the highest rank historically just due to the difficulty. The ranks for Hoho were practitioners, experts, and masters.

Lastly was kido. These were spells that were used for offense, defense, sealing, or healing. The spells were divided into two main categories: Bakudo and Hado as well as a few minor categories which were kaido, barriers, and seals.

The best kido users were usually in the kido corps and not the Gotei 13 but there were exceptions. The ranks of kido were practitioners, experts, and masters. This had the fewest masters of all the fighting styles.

Ren was not ranked zanjutsu but was a practitioner in all 3 of the other skills which made his skills equal to or above many officer ranked shinigami. No one else knew this however since Ren wanted to keep some trump cards.

'It seems like my predecessor was wary about the Gotei 13 but I can understand why. From the show and the way these guys act, it is less like the military and more like murim from those Korean stories.

You got 3 high-level people who betray the entire military, 1 who purposefully holds back to have more fun fighting, and then that mad scientist who turned his own subordinates into bombs.

Even though I am not sure about the current generation, I'm pretty sure I should try to make sure I do not stand out too much.'

He began to train his Zankensoki in the lonely training field. For the next few weeks, that is all he did. Train, eat, sleep, and enjoy time in his inner world.

After a few weeks, Yamamoto had dispatched more shinigami to replace the dead officers. After they had all arrived, Ren was finally trained for the duties of shinigami as well as being sent on missions or given tasks.

This continued for the next 100 years of a constant repeating and boring life. Boring if he did not count the few occasions he had to hunt down hollows.

--- 100 years later---

A man with purple-blue hair stood with his hands clasped behind his back with his zanpakuto hanging on his back as if he was just on a leisurely stroll. The sword seemed like any other zanpakuto in its sealed form with a hilt that appeared to look like a star.

Behind Ren were 6 shinigami who had their swords drawn with fearful looks on their faces. This was because in front of them and Ren were 20 hollows.

The group was just sent out to check out a disturbance that the Central 46 had detected. Everyone thought it would be 1 maybe 2 hollows at most. No one was prepared for 20 hollows.

It took groups of 3-4 shinigami to take out most ordinary shinigami while officers could take them on solo. This was why Ren led the 6 others on the subjucation mission. But when they saw that they would face over 20 hollows, the rest of the shinigami had looks of fear in their eyes.

"This is a bit more than we were expecting. You all can retreat and go get back up. I will hold them off here until you return."

One of the shinigami immediately replied

"Ren-sa..."

But he saw Ren turn around and shake his head. Ever since he was given the position of 20th seat, he had made all those in the division call him...

"Lord 20th. We can't just abandon you."