Urahara Kisuke could not stop worrying about his lieutenant after all.
He was the one who had sent Hiyori to the site of the incident, a place teeming with danger. If anything happened to her, he would never be able to forgive himself.
Moreover, he would be failing the former captain, Hikifune Kirio, who had entrusted Hiyori to his care.
After tossing and turning, he finally made up his mind.
He had to go to the front lines to investigate.
With his abilities, even if he encountered an unknown enemy he couldn't defeat, his presence would at least provide an extra margin of safety.
He changed into his stealth gear and stepped out of the Squad 12 barracks, heading toward the scene.
This suit was a product of his research from earlier years. It could completely mask his Spiritual Pressure, preventing even a trace from leaking—a perfect stealth garment.
He had developed it in secret; even the members of Squad 12 had never seen it.
In fact, neither his childhood friend Shihoin Yoruichi nor Ren, with whom he shared a contract, knew of its existence.
Just as Urahara Kisuke left the Squad 12 compound, his mind heavy with anxiety as he weighed various possible outcomes, a low voice rang out ahead of him.
"I truly can't feel a hint of Spiritual Pressure. Lord Urahara, you really have manufactured something quite peculiar."
Startled, Urahara immediately looked toward the source of the voice.
Through the darkness, a tall figure slowly approached, revealing himself.
The man had removed his white haori and was dressed in the uniform of the Kido Corps. Wearing glasses, he looked directly at Urahara.
It was the Grand Kido Chief, Tessai Tsukabishi.
"Leaving your post in the middle of the night wearing such strange attire—especially during a crisis—is hardly a common occurrence, Lord Urahara."
Knowing he had been caught, Urahara pulled back his hood to reveal his face.
A strained smile tugged at his lips.
"This is quite a headache. You've found me out."
After a brief silence, Tessai's voice deepened. "You're going to save your lieutenant, aren't you?"
Seeing Urahara remain silent, he continued, "During the Captains' Meeting, you looked completely distracted. I had a feeling you would do this."
"As someone who has also received Lady Yoruichi's kindness, I believe I can understand the thoughts of those close to her—including you."
"I'm here not just to avoid trouble from Squad 1, but also to see the truth for myself."
"As expected of the Grand Kido Chief," Urahara remarked tonelessly, his eyes gleaming with sharp calculation.
"Then, are you here to stop me?"
Tessai shook his head. "Lord Urahara, I won't let you go alone."
Urahara froze for a second before the realization hit him. His eyes widened as he looked at Tessai in surprise.
"You aren't the only one who felt an indescribable dread tonight. I felt it too."
Tessai's expression turned solemn as he slowly reached out a hand toward Urahara.
"The situation is urgent. Let's move!"
"Let's go to the front lines, together. To their side."
Watching Tessai, Urahara's lips trembled slightly as he gave a firm nod.
The two wasted no more time. Avoiding the Soul Reaper patrols on the streets, they raced out of the Seireitei toward the incident site at top speed.
Not long after Urahara left, Kyōraku Shunsui arrived at the Squad 12 barracks under the moonlight.
'Old Man Yama is keeping an eye on Ren.'
'I checked the Tsunayashiro estate earlier; that annoying bastard was home, so it shouldn't be him.'
'When I went to Squad 5, their lieutenant was there too, so he's ruled out.'
Shunsui looked up at the gate of the Squad 12 barracks and pushed his way inside.
Since the end of the Captains' Meeting, he had been plagued by a nagging feeling.
He had used the gaps in his duties to check on his list of suspects, but all of them had been safely at home or in their barracks.
"Now, there's only one suspicious person left!"
He walked into Squad 12 and called for the members.
However, the only one available to handle division affairs at the moment was a child.
"Akon, right?"
Shunsui looked at the precocious child before him and the other Squad 12 members standing behind him.
"Could you take me to see your captain? I have some matters to discuss with him."
Akon rubbed his bleary eyes and nodded helplessly.
He had been sleeping soundly in the duty room when he was suddenly dragged out of bed.
If he weren't mindful of the fact that the person in front of him was a captain, he would have lost his temper long ago.
"The Captain should be in his office."
When he led Shunsui to the office, however, they found the room in a state of chaos, cluttered with various experimental apparatuses and official documents.
But Captain Urahara Kisuke was nowhere to be found!
"He's not here. Then he must be in the laboratory."
They checked the lab, but Urahara was missing from there as well.
Shunsui's expression hardened.
Clinging to a final shred of hope, he looked at Akon.
"Is Captain Urahara Kisuke... actually in the barracks?"
"Should we look again?"
Akon directed the other members to fan out and check every room in the division.
Moments later, Akon's face darkened.
That sloppy captain of theirs had actually skipped work?!
He was just a kid, and yet he was still here working diligently.
Meanwhile, Captain Urahara, a full-grown adult, had abandoned the division to go off and enjoy himself somewhere!
Dammit.
He was so jealous!
Akon grumbled internally, but by the time he stood before Shunsui, he had regained his serious demeanor.
"I'm sorry, Captain Kyōraku. It seems our captain isn't in the barracks."
Hearing this, Shunsui's brow furrowed.
He immediately thought back to the warnings Ren had quietly given Urahara at the end of the meeting, and his heart sank.
A terrible thought surfaced in his mind.
"Surely not... It couldn't be!"
Noticing the strange look on Shunsui's face, Akon looked puzzled.
"What 'couldn't be'? Captain Kyōraku, you look quite pale."
"Would you like to try a potion our Department of Research and Development just finished? It's very effective."
Shunsui's expression returned to normal as he quickly declined.
Confirming Urahara's disappearance, he hurried out of Squad 12 and headed straight for Squad 1.
He needed to tell Old Man Yama about his discovery and discuss how to handle the situation.
But when he arrived at the Squad 1 barracks, he found the entire compound brightly lit, with occasional shouts echoing from within.
Following the sound, Shunsui reached the tea room of Squad 1, only to witness a scene of total chaos.
The familiar room looked as though it had been through a battlefield. The elegant folding screens were smashed, the tea table had been flipped aside, and there were several large holes and bloodstains on the once-pristine floor.
Several people were standing in the room: Unohana, Ukitake, and Sasakibe were all present.
Yamamoto sat calmly in the seat of honor, his head wrapped in a layer of gauze that was stained with a hint of pink.
On the opposite side of Yamamoto sat Ren, cross-legged.
Beside Ren was a burly man brewing tea.
In front of Ren, Shihoin Yoruichi looked frantic, her mouth moving a mile a minute as she nagged him.
Senju Tobirama, whom Shunsui had seen earlier, was holding his forehead with a look of utter exasperation.
A man with a small mustache and no eyebrows was waving his sleeves, looking eager to jump into the fray.
"Boss, I'm telling you, why didn't you just have a real scrap with the Head Captain then and there?"
"I was so excited when I heard the news that I dropped everything to rush over, but it's just this?"
Faced with Hōzuki Gengetsu's ill-timed comment, Yoruichi whipped around, her eyes wide with fury.
"Shut up, Mustache! Do you think things aren't messy enough already?"
"M-M-Mustache?!"
Gengetsu's temper flared instantly. He clenched his fists, an aura of bloodlust faintly leaking out.
"Even if you are the Boss's wife, you can't talk to me like that!"
Senju Tobirama quickly stepped in to restrain him. "Enough, Gengetsu. Stop trying to stir up trouble."
Ren, however, let out a carefree chuckle. "I wanted to fight Yamamoto, but the old man chickened out. I can't very well fight someone who won't hit back."
As soon as he said this, the captains in the room turned to glare at him, their expressions unfriendly.
Yoruichi quickly blocked their line of sight and turned a sharp gaze on Ren.
"Ren, you better give me a damn good explanation. What exactly happened here?"
"How dare you raise a hand against the Head Captain? Where do you get the nerve? Do you have a death wish?!"
At first, when she heard reports that Ren was fighting Head Captain Yamamoto in the Squad 1 barracks, she hadn't believed it.
Not until she arrived and saw Yamamoto bleeding from the head while Ren was nonchalantly sipping tea.
When she asked, it turned out Ren really was the one who did it!
To actually attack the Head Captain—had Ren lost his mind?!
Yoruichi was stunned. Hadn't her father chosen Ren as her husband precisely because of his steady personality?
Looking at him now, how was someone who could do this 'steady'?
She had always prided herself on being audacious, and even with her Great Noble blood, she wouldn't dare be too disrespectful to Head Captain Yamamoto!
Yet her husband, when her back was turned, had done the one thing she wouldn't even dream of—
He had given Head Captain Yamamoto a beating right in the Squad 1 barracks!
And to top it off, the Head Captain hadn't fought back once, letting Ren pummel him!
'This... this is simply beyond belief!'
Yoruichi glanced at the seated Yamamoto, then back at her husband.
Though she looked furious on the surface, she was secretly giving Ren a huge thumbs up.
The man had guts!
After entering the room, Kyōraku Shunsui first surveyed the situation, maintaining his usual calm exterior.
"What's going on here?"
"Old Man Yama is injured? Did an enemy attack? This is the Squad 1 compound, after all."
Seeing Shunsui arrive, Yamamoto didn't offer an explanation. He simply kept his eyes closed, resting.
Ukitake sighed at the sight.
He didn't know the details either; he had just rushed over after hearing that his teacher was hurt.
When he arrived, Unohana Retsu was already treating Yamamoto.
Seeing Shunsui's confusion, Sasakibe spoke up with a look of resentment, recounting what had happened in the tea room.
Although he hadn't been inside, he had been standing guard outside and heard everything clearly.
After finishing his low-voiced summary of the events, Sasakibe shot an indignant glare toward Ren.
Hearing the whole story, Kyōraku Shunsui actually didn't find himself very angry.
He adjusted his straw hat and shook his head slightly.
"I figured it would be something like this."
During the meeting, Old Man Yama had repeatedly shot down Ren's proposals, which had clearly rankled the latter.
Forcing him to stay behind afterward had only fanned the flames of his anger.
Moreover, Old Man Yama wasn't exactly known for being flexible. He was as stubborn as they come and didn't know how to compromise.
When he ran into someone as young and brash as Ren, a clash was inevitable.
Fortunately, the Old Man knew he was in the wrong and had the restraint not to fight back, preventing a massive conflict between the two sides.
"For now, the only result is that Old Man Yama sustained some minor injuries. Avoiding a full-blown confrontation between our two organizations during a time like this is the greatest blessing we could hope for."
Shunsui sighed with emotion, and Ukitake tugged at his sleeve.
"Shunsui, Teacher Yamamoto is still right here."
Though Ukitake said that, his own view was more or less the same as Shunsui's.
In such a critical crisis, any internal strife would be a reckless disregard for the Seireitei's safety.
Sasakibe was still struggling to accept it. "Our Head Captain was beaten for no reason at all! Furthermore, that man threatened to abolish the Gotei 13!"
"Setting the abolition aside for a moment, the beating Old Man Yama took wasn't exactly 'for no reason'."
Shunsui looked at Yamamoto, his eyes sharp.
The Gotei 13 was deeply rooted with vast connections; it wasn't something that could be abolished with a single order.
Even Ren himself likely only said it out of anger.
If he actually tried to push for it, the first people Ren would have to face wouldn't be the captains, but the opposition from within the Shihoin family's own sphere of influence!
Even the Central 46, no matter how over-the-top they were, would never agree to such an absurd idea.
It was far too idealistic, with absolutely no possibility of being implemented.
Shunsui treated it as nothing more than empty talk.
Not just him—Unohana Retsu, Ukitake, and the others all felt the same.
It was only Yamamoto who, facing that situation with a heart full of worry and clouded by concern, had lost his composure.
And as for this beating...
"Honestly, Old Man Yama, you brought this on yourself. For once, I'm not going to take your side."
Looking at the silent Yamamoto, Shunsui felt for a moment that his words might be a bit too harsh.
After all, Yamamoto was his teacher as well as his superior.
After a brief pause, he spoke again. "Well, at least you endured it and managed to settle the situation... Old Man, you're physically alright, right?"
"Brat, who do you think I am?"
Yamamoto snapped his eyes open, his presence as powerful as ever.
This sudden movement startled Shunsui.
He let out a breath and relaxed completely.
"Old Man, it's good that you're okay."
"Hmph. Such a small wound heals in an instant. Why fret over it?"
Yamamoto looked at Shunsui, noticing a trace of gloom beneath his carefree facade.
He knew his student well; Shunsui wouldn't act like this under normal circumstances.
The old man's expression turned stern. "What has happened?"
Shunsui glanced at the Shihoin couple, his brow knitting slightly.
Then he looked at Yamamoto and the others, lowering his voice.
"Old Man, this isn't the place to talk."
What he had to say next wasn't suitable for the ears of the husband and wife from the Shihoin family.
Taking the hint, Yamamoto and the others followed Shunsui outside.
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