Before Arata could fully regain his senses, he suddenly heard someone cursing roughly near his ear.
"Hey, you, punk over there!" A rough voice approached with the sound of wooden geta sandals. "Where the hell did you come from? Don't you know this is Lord Saita's territory?!"
Arata struggled to get up, only to realize that his shinigami uniform had been torn to rags by the black hole, and now he looked like an ordinary homeless man from Rukongai.
He looked up and saw two shinigami in standard uniforms cautiously sizing him up, with their Zanpakutō already drawn.
"I… kh, kh…" Arata was just about to explain, but was suddenly seized by a violent coughing fit. The passage through the black hole had completely disrupted his spiritual pressure, making even speech difficult.
"Tsk, looks like he's lost." One bearded shinigami sheathed his Zanpakutō and winked at his comrade.
"Take him to Lord Saita. Rukongai's been in chaos lately. Even here in the Western Third District, we're constantly clashing with the enemy. What if he's a Quincy spy…"
The other, tall and skinny shinigami, nodded and roughly grabbed Arata's arm. "You're lucky you ran into the good-natured Lord Saita. If patrolmen from any other unit had caught you, you'd already be rotting in the Worm's Nest!"
Arata let himself be dragged along, secretly trying to stabilize the chaotic spiritual pressure within his body.
From their conversation, he understood at least one thing: he was still in Rukongai.
But what was strange… why didn't they recognize him?
And who was this "Lord Saito"?
Why was there suddenly so much unrest in Rukongai? Why were there Quincy spies?
Moreover, this was the Western Third District, which should've been a fairly developed and lively part of Rukongai. How could it have turned into such a desolate wasteland?
Arata's mind was swarming with questions. After passing through several dusty alleys with the two bulky men, an old house in traditional Japanese style suddenly appeared before them.
Though it was nowhere near the splendor of the noble mansions in Seireitei, it still clearly stood out among the dilapidated houses in Rukongai.
"Wait here!" The bearded shinigami pounded loudly on the large brass knocker on the door.
After a short time, the door creaked open.
A voluptuous woman with round glasses peeked her head out. Her long black hair was tied high in a ponytail with a red ribbon, and her proud curves were clearly visible beneath her tight-fitting clothes.
"Lord Kadori!" The two patrol shinigami immediately knelt on one knee. "We've spotted a suspicious vagrant in the Western Third District of Rukongai. We request your judgment on what to do with him."
"Thank you for your effort. Leave him to me, you two return to your patrol."
"Yes, Lord Kadori!"
The two patrolmen bowed respectfully and then discreetly withdrew, closing the door behind them.
The woman named Yakumo Kadori adjusted her glasses, and behind the lenses, her sharp gaze sparkled.
She sized Arata up from head to toe, dressed in rags, then narrowed her eyes, and her soft, gentle voice somehow crept under Arata's skin.
"Your spiritual pressure is abnormally disrupted, yet you carry that distinctive shinigami wavelength. Who are you?"
"I…" Arata's heart clenched, and just as he was about to speak, a clear sound of wooden geta echoed from deeper within the courtyard.
"Yakumo Kadori, I smell a stranger." Along with that cold voice, a petite figure leapt out from behind a pillar.
Purple twin tails bounced with every movement, a white sleeveless haori hung loosely over her body, and a black eyepatch covered her left eye. The whole person radiated a wild, sharp arrogance.
Arata watched the purple-haired loli with twin tails jump in front of him, and his pupils suddenly contracted; all his previous clues and suspicions finally became clear.
Once you enter a black hole, something unexpected is almost certain to happen—unless, of course, nothing unexpected happens.
That recognizable eyepatch and the cold aura that liked no one were identical to the adult version from his past-life memories and family records, Captain of the 6th Division, Saito Fumi.
And the voluptuous woman with glasses beside her, whom the patrolmen addressed as Lord Kadori, was undoubtedly the first captain of the 8th Division, Yakumo Kadori.
"Hey, what are you staring at!" Saito Fumi put her hands on her hips and shouted at Arata with displeasure. "Haven't you ever seen a pretty girl before?"
Arata felt like an entire mountain had collapsed on his chest and stolen his breath. He realized that the black hole had most likely spat him out into the Soul Society a thousand years in the past…
No wonder the frontline districts of Rukongai were in such ruin.
This period was the early era of the Gotei 13, also the time when the great war between shinigami and Quincy erupted.
The current Gotei 13 was nothing more than a group of killers, without any concept of civilian protection, economic development, or normal life.
"Sorry, I just…" Arata lowered his head, quickly aligned his breathing, and tried to calm the chaos in his mind caused by the journey through time and space. "I'm just a lost ordinary resident who accidentally wandered here."
Yakumo Kadori pushed her glasses again, and the lenses caught a dangerous glint, completely at odds with her gentle, lovely appearance. "Ordinary people don't have such clean spiritual pressure."
Saito Fumi casually approached with a skipping step, got so close that her little nose almost touched Arata's torso, and sniffed him deeply. "Hmm~ and you've got a weird smell on you, kid…"
"Did you just cut someone down?" The two-tailed loli's eyes became extremely dangerous, and a smile slowly crept into the corner of her mouth, as if someone had flipped a switch in her body.
Arata's heart skipped a beat, but he remained calm on the surface. Now he had to be careful with every word and movement, the slightest mistake could alter the course of history.
"Lord Saito is truly perceptive, I am indeed not an ordinary resident." He decided to stroke Lord Saito's ego a bit first before retreating.
"I'm… a wandering shinigami from the far western regions of Rukongai. I got separated from my squad during a Quincy attack."
Based on the earlier conversation between the two patrolmen, Arata crafted the identity of a separated shinigami who got lost from the main group.
"Oh?" Yakumo Kadori narrowed her eyes and looked more closely at the tall, bronze-skinned man before her. "Which division are you from?"
"From the 10th Division." Arata said it with utmost confidence, not a hint of doubt in his voice.
At this time, the Gotei 13 had just been founded and the organizational system was not yet solidified. Captains barely even knew their own men, let alone members of other squads.
However, as soon as she heard "10th Division," Saito Fumi simply burst out laughing: "Hahaha, you're a funny kid…"
"There are only nine people in the 10th Division right now, and unfortunately for you, I know them all!"
Yakumo Kadori, standing off to the side, finished the matter even more precisely with a gentle smile: "What's more, the captain of the 10th Division is known for his character, he would never accept someone stronger than himself."
"I don't know who you are, but judging by this kind of lie, it looks like luck isn't on your side…"
Arata silently cursed; he didn't expect such a hastily made-up lie to immediately bite him back.
What the hell did "wouldn't accept someone stronger than himself" even mean?!
Seeing that Saito Fumi's hand was already on the hilt of her Zanpakutō, and that Yakumo Kadori's glasses gleamed with a cold light, Arata quickly activated the spiritual pressure that had only just slightly recovered, preparing for a desperate battle.
He absolutely couldn't allow himself to be captured here. If he became a prisoner right after arriving in this era, he might never get the chance to return to his original time and space.
That was something Arata could not accept under any circumstance!
"Looks like we've got a naughty little boy~" Saito Fumi tilted her head, her purple twin tails swaying with the movement.
Her face was that of a sweet girl, but in her eyes gleamed pure bloodlust.
"Then I'll—"
However, before she could finish her sentence, a powerful explosion suddenly rang out from outside the villa, followed by a piercing scream.
"Enemy attack! Quincy!"
"Quick, inform the captain! The defense line of the Western Third District has been breached!"
Yakumo Kadori's expression suddenly darkened, and in an instant she flash-stepped to the window.
The sky in the distance was lit up by countless spiritual arrows, and several shinigami lay in pools of blood on the street.
"This is bad!"