"Is everyone here?"
An aged voice echoed through the vast conference chamber of the First Division. "Good. Then I'll explain the purpose of this operation. Third Division Captain, Gin Ichimaru."
"What's going on?" Gin Ichimaru walked in at an unhurried pace, his usual smile plastered on his face. "Calling all of us together so suddenly feels a bit excessive… Surely the captains in charge of every district of Soul Society didn't gather just for my sake, right?"
Ten captains in haori stood lined up on either side of the chamber. At the very center, before the hanging scroll, sat a single chair occupied by an elderly man with snow-white hair and beard. A prominent cross-shaped scar marked his wrinkled, bald head, and his long beard reached all the way to his waist.
One leg was propped up on the chair, the other resting on the floor. His captain's haori hung loosely behind him, and a long sword was placed against the back of the chair.
First Division Captain, Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto.
Gin Ichimaru glanced to the right. "Looks like the Thirteenth Division's captain isn't here. What happened to him?"
Kaname Tōsen, the Ninth Division captain with dark skin, purple dreadlocks, an orange collar, and glasses, spoke calmly. "He's on sick leave."
"Still not better?" Gin Ichimaru's smile faded slightly. "Then he really ought to take care of himself."
"Enough," Kenpachi Zaraki growled, standing beside Kaname Tōsen. "We weren't summoned here to listen to your small talk. Answer me. Didn't you go off on your own to deal with the Ryoka earlier?"
As he tilted his head, the bells tied to the ends of Kenpachi's hair chimed softly. His tone was thick with irritation.
In simple terms: we were having a good time fighting together, so why did you sneak off alone without me? I'm going to make you regret it.
"You didn't even finish them off?" Kenpachi Zaraki sneered openly. "At your level, dealing with five or six Ryoka shouldn't have been a problem."
"Hm?" Gin Ichimaru looked genuinely puzzled. "They didn't die? I thought Jidanbō crushed them all."
"What?" Kenpachi Zaraki hadn't expected that response.
"Oh my," Gin Ichimaru scratched his head awkwardly. "I really thought they were done for. Guess my senses have gotten dull."
"Heh…"
The captain standing to Gin Ichimaru's left spoke up. His skin was deathly pale, yet his face was unsettlingly dark. "Stop joking around."
Even among the captains, each with their own eccentric appearance, this one stood out as particularly disturbing.
Where ears should have been were spiral-shaped golden devices. Similar mechanisms jutted out from his jaw. Yellow eyes, a white nose, and a blackened face, combined with an upturned purple collar, hunched shoulders, and a turtle-like neck, gave him an unmistakably grotesque presence. Being stared at by him alone was enough to make one uncomfortable.
Twelfth Division Captain, Head of the Research and Development Institute, Mayuri Kurotsuchi.
"How could captains like us not know whether someone's reiatsu has completely vanished?" Mayuri's voice was sticky and drawn out, ending with strange inflections. "Or was it that you were useless to begin with, so now you're claiming it was an oversight?"
"Oh, come on," Gin Ichimaru said lightly, his eyes narrowing. "You make it sound like I did it on purpose. I'm hardly the only one who made a mistake. Why single me out?"
"I think it was intentional," Mayuri Kurotsuchi snorted. "Anyone who makes a mistake like that does so on purpose. Don't you agree, Captain of the Fourth Division?"
Retsu Unohana lifted her gaze to Mayuri, her expression calm and unreadable.
"Shut it, Mayuri," Kenpachi Zaraki said impatiently. "I'm the one talking to him. Stay out of it." He paused, his grin turning savage. "Unless you're itching to fight me."
"I'm really sick of this…"
The silver-haired boy standing next to Mayuri let out an audible sigh. "Here we go again. Those old men are at it again."
Tenth Division Captain, Tōshirō Hitsugaya.
He was the youngest of all the captains, and also the shortest. Standing among them, he looked less like a teenager and more like a child.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi shot Kenpachi Zaraki a sideways glance. As someone devoted to technology, he despised brute force, especially when his own methods couldn't overpower it.
"Compared to childish squabbles like yours, whether a Gotei 13 captain is actually qualified matters far more," he said.
"Qualified?" Kenpachi Zaraki grinned fiercely. "You have to stay alive first."
"Techniques that leave someone neither dead nor alive…" Mayuri Kurotsuchi stared fixedly at Kenpachi Zaraki. "I happen to know quite a few."
"Speaking of techniques," Gin Ichimaru interjected casually, "the method used back then to track Muten Natsu came from the Research and Development Institute, didn't it? It didn't seem all that effective."
"Muten Natsu's Soul Essence Stealing ability allows him to absorb reishi," Mayuri Kurotsuchi said with a cold laugh. "With it, he can eliminate all surveillance bacteria and spirit-recording insects, while compressing his own spiritual energy to conceal his reiatsu. Most techniques and Shinigami can't determine his location. The difference is…" His grin widened. "Technology can always be improved. But if a Shinigami is useless, then he's truly useless, ne~"
"If you had a technique that could bring the dead back to life," Kenpachi Zaraki's grin grew even wilder, "I might acknowledge you as a useful piece of trash."
"Pah!"
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto spat openly, without the slightest concern for appearances.
"Enough! This is embarrassing to watch! Zaraki, Mayuri, both of you step back!"
The two captains returned to their original positions. Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto rubbed his temples, the imposing aura he'd shown earlier instantly fading, leaving him looking like a slightly muddled old man.
"Let me think… I already explained, more or less, why I called you here, didn't I?"
"This time, you acted on your own without receiving orders, and you let the target escape. For a captain, that's a serious lapse," Yamamoto said, his aged eyes opening slightly. "That's why I convened this captains' meeting. I want to hear your explanation. Well? Do you have anything to say, Ichimaru?"
"I…" Gin Ichimaru's smile didn't waver. "I have nothing to say."
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"No matter how many reasons I give, this was my failure," Gin Ichimaru said with an uncharacteristically frank smile. "I don't intend to defend myself. I'm willing to accept punishment. That's the responsibility a captain bears. Wouldn't you agree… Captain Unohana?"
"Tch." Tōshirō Hitsugaya snorted softly.
Even he, the youngest captain in the history of the Gotei 13, understood what Gin Ichimaru was implying.
As the Captain-Commander had said, acting without orders and allowing the target to escape was dereliction of duty for a captain.
Gin Ichimaru was indeed at fault. But before him, there was someone else who had committed the same failure.
The Fourth Division Captain, Retsu Unohana.
Retsu Unohana had struck down Muten Natsu, yet now Muten Natsu had returned.
Both had acted without orders. Both had let their target escape.
Dereliction of duty demanded punishment.
The same dereliction demanded the same punishment.
Even if there were many differences between the two incidents, once Gin Ichimaru said, "No matter how many reasons I give, this was my failure," those differences no longer mattered.
Gin Ichimaru was willing to accept punishment.
Which meant Retsu Unohana would have to accept the same.
"Unohana," Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto said, shifting his gaze, "do you have anything you want to say?"
Retsu Unohana's voice was calm and distant. "I—"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A series of loud impacts rang out, followed by a rushed announcement.
"Emergency alert! Emergency alert! Intruders have entered Seireitei! All squads, hold your positions! I repeat—"
Sōsuke Aizen frowned. "Could it be the Ryoka from before?"
"Hmph!" Kenpachi Zaraki's eyes lit up with savage excitement as he bolted out of the room.
"Hey! Wait!" Aizen called after him. "Kenpachi, the meeting isn't—"
Kenpachi Zaraki didn't bother listening. In just a few strides, he was out of the conference hall, sprinting along the wide corridor.
"Ken-chan!"
A small, pink-haired girl carrying a Zanpakutō with a pink scabbard leapt down from above and landed squarely on his shoulder.
"Yachiru!" Kenpachi Zaraki tilted slightly, catching her with practiced ease.
"An enemy?" Yachiru Kusajishi's bright eyes sparkled with the same excitement as Kenpachi's. "Are we going to kill him?"
"Yeah! It's the Ryoka!" Kenpachi Zaraki stuck out his tongue and licked the scar on his cheek. "Muten Natsu is one of them!"
"Mu-chan?" Yachiru Kusajishi's eyes lit up. "So he really didn't die!"
"How could he die…" Kenpachi Zaraki's gaze turned feral. "He might be about to, though!"
"I can feel it!" Yachiru Kusajishi waved her small hand. "Mu-chan is definitely this way!"
"Good!"
Kenpachi Zaraki leapt in the direction she pointed, smashing through three walls in succession as he landed.
Back in the conference hall, Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's brow twitched.
"There's no helping it. The captains' meeting will adjourn for now. As for punishment for dereliction of duty, I'll notify you later. All captains, return to your posts immediately and secure Seireitei!"
The remaining captains departed one after another. As one of them passed by Gin Ichimaru, Sōsuke Aizen lowered his voice.
"Looks like your plan failed."
"Failed?" Gin Ichimaru smiled faintly. "It feels like it's only just begun~"
"Whatever you're planning," Sōsuke Aizen said, a cold glint flashing across his glasses, "as long as I'm here, you won't succeed."
Nearby, Tōshirō Hitsugaya watched the two whispering to each other, completely unable to make sense of what these old men were plotting.
...
Yasutora Sado, Ichigo Kurosaki, Uryū Ishida, Ganju, and the black cat Yoruichi entered the cannon barrel together. Four people and one cat placed their hands on an object resembling a crystal sphere.
This was the Reishukaku. By pouring spiritual power into it, it would envelop them all, forming a reishi projectile capable of piercing straight through Seireitei's protective barrier.
"Far away! Copper-colored greed desires the domination of thirty-six degrees!! Seventy-two pairs of illusions, thirteen pairs of horns. The right hand of the monkey grabs the star!! Embraced by the twenty-five wheels of the sun, the cradle of sand bleeds."
Kūkaku Shiba chanted at the top of her lungs. Her left hand, blazing with fire, slammed down violently.
"Flower Crane Archery 2nd Style—Kagizaki!"
A deafening roar shook the air. Thick white smoke surged outward as the Reishi cannon shell rose together with the morning sun, blasting straight into the sky.
At its highest point, it paused for the briefest moment before suddenly shooting toward Seireitei, crossing an immense distance and crashing heavily into the protective barrier above the city.
The Reishi projectile pierced through the barrier, but under its corrosive influence, it lost its original stability.
The Reishi vortex left behind after the Dragon Seal swept everyone together.
"Careful! Don't scatter!" Yoruichi, in her black cat form, called out sharply. "The vortex will disappear soon. If we get separated, we'll—"
Yasutora Sado reacted instantly, grabbing Uryū Ishida and hoisting him onto his shoulder.
Ichigo Kurosaki and Ganju seized each other by the collar at the same time.
Yasutora Sado and Ichigo Kurosaki reached out toward one another, their fingertips just about to touch, but the vortex vanished first. The violent Reishi current hurled the two groups in opposite directions. Along with the black cat Yoruichi, they turned into three streaks of light cutting across the sky above Seireitei, falling toward different destinations.
"Interesting…" Mayuri Kurotsuchi stared up at the sky. "It collided with the Shakonmaku and didn't dissipate. That means it was an extremely high-density Reishi construct. A specialized hardened Reishi wall generation device? Judging by the collision angle, there were clearly two stages of acceleration. Which means someone handled the second acceleration and axis correction… Someone from the Shiba Clan?"
His long black fingernails tapped against his forehead as he muttered excitedly.
"Fallen nobility… such a marvelous research subject. If they're mixed in with the Ryoka, it doesn't matter how far I go, ne… But where exactly is Muten Natsu? Or should I focus on Muten Natsu instead…" Hm?"
Mayuri Kurotsuchi suddenly snapped his head toward the Research and Development Institute. A tiny insect forced its way out from beneath his skin. Its fingernail-sized head bore a human face, now screaming at the top of its lungs.
"It's been stolen!"
"Damn it!" Mayuri Kurotsuchi crushed the insect, veins bulging on his forehead. "So he infiltrated us long ago… Damn Muten Natsu! The chaos in the sky was just a distraction! That damned brat…"
…
"Even with the blueprints, I can't just use this directly…" Muten Natsu examined it briefly and quickly lost any sense of clarity. "There's always a gap between design and reality, and so much time has passed."
"So it's useless?" Ririn looked disappointed. The device was enormous. She'd really thought Muten Natsu would become ridiculously powerful once he used it.
"Not being able to use it doesn't mean it's useless. What matters is how you use it." Muten Natsu bit off his little finger and placed the bloodied finger into a concealed spot beneath the golden lotus pedestal. "I'll leave it here, just in case."
"Muten!" Orihime Inoue bit her lower lip and activated Sōten Kisshun to heal him. In only a moment, his finger returned to normal, as if it had never been damaged.
Muten Natsu gently patted her head. "Thanks, Orihime."
Orihime Inoue caught his hand and softly squeezed his little finger. "I healed this for you, so… this belongs to me."