Ninth Division

The **Ninth Division** (*Romaji*: **Kyūbantai**; *Kanji*: **九番隊**) is one of the 13 divisions of the Gotei 13.

It's responsible for providing battlefield reinforcement and miscellaneous support to all of the other divisions of the Gotei 13. In addition, alongside the 12th Division, it's one of the 2 divisions responsible for combating hollows and recruiting pluses in Tōkaidō.

Its captain is Ōe Toshimi, while its lieutenant is Furuta Daizō.

## ***Duties***

The duty of the 9th Division is to assist and support the other 12 divisions of the Gotei 13; as such, the 9th Divisions does not exhibit any specific duty of its own and lacks any sort of specialization.

For the most part, the 9th Division focuses on completing most of the paperwork that is done in the Gotei 13 and ensuring that the other 12 divisions get their paperwork done and turned into them. In addition; they archive the paperwork to serve as records of activities, expenditures, and events. And they organize their archive in order to make the archive easy to access and reference. But at the same time, at the behest of Central 46 or Division 1, they are just as like to keep something from being filed in their archive or even removed something from their archive!

In addition to doing the paperwork, the 9th Division also takes care of a lot of the chores that nobody else has any time for. Many of them can be found cleaning objects and rooms, delivering messages and objects, fixing doors and windows, keeping the lamps alit, mending breaks in the floor and walls, picking up trash, sweeping the roads, taking care of the hell butterflies, washing clothes, and a **LOT** more. As such, even though the 9th Division lacks any duty or specialization of their own, the 9th Division is the busiest division of the Gotei 13 because there is always something that needs to be done yet doesn't have someone to do it.

Lastly, the 9th Division is expected to always be ready to reinforce and support any of the other 12 divisions. As such, for this reason, the 9th Division exhibits a universal jurisdiction with naught but minimum limitations on what they are allowed to do and where they are allowed to be. So they can often be found just about anywhere and doing just about anything.

## ***Structure***

The Ninth Division prefers to maintain a standing army of, at **minimum**, 870 shinigami. Traditionally; it's composed of naught but its Captain, its Lieutenant, its 18 Seats, and its 850 rank-and-file shinigami. In addition, the position of Lieutenant and the 18 Seats are **never** allowed to have more than one holder at a time. And every seat from 4th to 20th are each given command of a company of 50 rank-and-file shinigami.

The Ninth Division exhibits one of the strictest hierarchies in the Gotei 13, and its chain-of-command is both absolute and rigid. The Captain has command over every unit in the division, the Lieutenant has command over every unit other than the Captain, the 3rd Seats has command over every unit other than the Captain and the Lieutenant, and each of the Seats has command over all 50 of the rank-and-file shinigami in their company.

It should also be noted that the Ninth Division is **extremely** nepotistic. With the sole exception of the 3rd Seat, all of the highest Seats are held by a noble. In addition, most of the lower Seats are held by a noble as well! Even worse, an officer's seat is not determined by the officer's ability. But rather, it's determined by the officer's status. So even the most competent non-Lieutenant and non-3rd Seat officer is likely to hold a Seat of 15 to 20 rather than any of the higher seats. Consequently, it's difficult — if not impossible — to determine a 9th Division officer's worth by their Seat. Fortunately, because all of the 4th to 20th Seats are equals in the 9th Division, this nepotism does not really cause a lot of discontent or problems.

## ***Member List***

* Ōe Toshimi - Captain
* Furuta Daizō - Lieutenant
* Hiken - 3rd Seat
* Kuchiki Ōnomi - 4th Seat