The nine captains of the Gotei 13 waited for Head Captain Yamamoto to speak. They had all been called to an impromptu meeting in the First Division Assembly Hall and no one really knew what was going on.

Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni opened his eyes fractionally, leaning forwards on his staff, 'The meeting will now commence,'

As there was another short silence, one which none of the waiting captains wanted to try and fill, as far as they knew, the happenings of this meeting were going to be a complete surprise - pleasant or unpleasant.

'I will ask you all to listen to what I have to say,' the Head Captain finally continued, 'A new captain has been appointed after careful consideration,' a few pairs of eyes widened at his statement, then the old man continued, 'As of today, she will be joining the shinigami in this hall as the Captain of the Third Division,'

She? Soifon, Captain of the Second Division and Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukido, thought in light surprise, That'll be new.

At present, there were only two female captains, herself, and Captain Unohana Retsu of the Fourth Division.

'Enter!' Yamamoto banged down on the ground with his staff.

All of the waiting captains turned to look at the door.

The bright light coming in from outside made the captain's eyes go fuzzy for a moment but they could see what everyone else was seeing.

As the new captain of the Third Division, walked through the doors to stand a few metres into the room, there was a pause.

The young woman would have been a good few inches taller than the 10th captain but she looked like an 16 or maybe 15 year old human girl. Coal black eyes were complimented with slightly tanned skin and mahogany brown hair tied behind her in a single short ponytail with long bangs hanging against her face; one bang also had a braid of green beads and feathers in it . Her uniform was similar to Soifon's: a punishment squad sleeveless and backless uniform (she some how also had a white holster pouch on her right leg and a pair of black fingerless gloves on her black nail painted hands) under her sleeveless haori, with the 3rd division colour of mint green inside, and blue obi ; a green hilt of her zanpakuto at her waist side. She wasn't wearing the traditional waraji either or the traditional tabi but a pair of wooden wedged heeled sandals with long white ribbon tied at her ankles.

she bowed, 'My name is Kotori Asakura, a pleasure to meet you all or again for some'

Yamamoto nodded, 'The meeting is dismissed,'

"This should be interesting" Unohana Thought to herself looking at the other senior captains who were sharing similar thought

...this was before kotori was tackle hugged by soi fon who was squealing, in a out of character high pitch, tori which really confused some of the other captains...even byakuya needed a little lie down.

_later_

new captain?' Kira Izuru, Lieutenant of the Third Division, listened to the conversations of the gathered squad members worriedly. He was usually pessimistic by nature so thinking the worst about how the squad would receive the new captain wasn't exactly surprising for him.

When he'd woken up, someone had arrived to say that a new captain would be joining everyone at midday and to gather together all of the Division. So he'd done that and now it was midday and everyone was tired of waiting.

The soft tapping of footsteps on wooden floor made Izuru turn.

When the blonde man saw the woman walking towards them, he was glad that his hairstyle hid one of his eyes. She was wearing a captain's haori so there really wasn't any doubt that this was the Third Division's new captain.

'Are you Lieutenant Kira?' when she spoke, she even sounded like a bubbly teenager from the world of the living, it was kinda . . . Strange to have someone so young looking.

'Y-yes,' he held out his hand nervously and tried to smile, 'That's me,'

She took it and then turned to the dumbstruck shinigami watching them, 'You must be the members of the Third Division,'

'Who the hell are you?' the rude words made Izuru flinch but the captain just gazed at the speaker impassively, 'You can't be our captain,'

'I am Kotori Asakura , newly appointed Captain of the Third Division,' there was some seriousness in her voice which dissolved into a calm manner when she added, 'It's nice to meet you all,'

The man who'd spoken was slightly taken aback but no one really expected this shinigami as their captain; there had never been a female 3rd division captain before. To make matters worse, the majority of the Third Division was currently male and, from the looks on their faces, they weren't too happy about the way things had turned out.

'I understand that it will take more than a day for you to start accepting me, the squad has been through a lot and I understand that change isn't going to be the easiest thing. Trust me though, time heals and I only hope that you at least let me help you guys heal. Gin was a old friend of mine too. ' Kotori turned away, 'But, as long as I'm your captain, I will protect you no matter what, that's what a captain does. Don't think that cause I'm a girl that I'm some light weight either. Anyone who has a problem with me you know where my office is ' she paused, 'Kira,'

The Lieutenant hurried after her, shooting one last look at the frozen Division members; they were kinda stunned and also impressed: the girl had balls; the idea of a female captain didn't actually seem so bad