[Night]
After going on a rampage and turning into a bull-headed Hollow out of extreme rage last night, Kurosaki Ichigo finally woke up after a full day of deep unconsciousness, his head splitting with pain.
"Where is this?"
Ichigo struggled to prop himself up on the bed, his vision still a little blurry, staring blankly at the unfamiliar surroundings.
It took quite a while before his broken memories rushed back like a tide. Only then did he barely recognize that this was the temporary base he and Shihoin Yoruichi had chosen when they first came to Soul Society.
"Did Yoruichi bring me back?"
Kurosaki Ichigo rubbed his swollen temples, his brows tightly furrowed.
After he put on that mask, he completely lost all awareness of what happened in the real world.
During that stretch of darkness, his consciousness was dragged into his inner world.
There, he saw that crazy version of himself again, the pure white embodiment of his Hollow power.
To fight for control of his body, they had launched a life-and-death battle inside his mental world.
According to that white guy's arrogant claim, as long as he defeated him, he would be able to fully control the power of the Hollow.
"The power of a Hollow… It's not as hard to control as I imagined."
Ichigo subconsciously clenched his fist, feeling the new power inside him. It was violent, but fuller than ever before. The huge weight hanging over his heart finally eased.
No matter how dangerous the process had been, no matter how big a mess he had caused yesterday, at least he survived.
And he survived in front of that man, Rosse.
He had no idea how he managed to escape in the end, but that alone was already a miracle, enough to encourage him right now.
"No, there's no point guessing here. I need to find out what happened after I Hollowfied yesterday, and how Inoue is doing. I have to go find Aizen-sensei."
Ichigo's eyes sharpened as that gentle and refined figure appeared in his mind.
The Hollow inside him that only knew how to fight would never tell him the answers. If he wanted the truth, the best way was to find the only person he could trust in Soul Society. Aizen.
Once he made up his mind, he acted. That had always been Kurosaki Ichigo's way.
He immediately flipped off the bed, straightened his Shihakusho, pushed the door open, and strode toward Seireitei.
It was already late at night, yet the streets of District One in Rukongai were still brightly lit and noisy.
Kurosaki Ichigo did not choose those remote alleys that would easily attract suspicion. Instead, he lowered his head and blended openly into the bustling crowd.
He was wearing a standard Shinigami uniform. In this area filled with patrol squads and off-duty Shinigami, he didn't look out of place at all.
According to what Aizen had explained before, after several rounds of expansion by Rosse, the Gotei 13 now had at least over a hundred thousand registered Shinigami.
Even within the same division, they might not recognize everyone, let alone between different divisions.
In such a huge system, disguising himself as an ordinary low-ranking Shinigami was often safer than sneaking around suspiciously.
Although on the surface he seemed to be wandering casually, in reality Kurosaki Ichigo had already opened up all his senses, sharply catching every conversation and movement around him.
Right now, he urgently needed to confirm how long he had been unconscious and how the situation had changed.
After walking only a few minutes, he had already picked up quite a few shocking pieces of news from the Shinigami drinking and chatting by the roadside.
"Last night was terrifying. I heard Seireitei was punched straight through. The West Gate was blown apart. Several captains were injured. Man, what kind of monster broke into Seireitei yesterday?"
Hearing this, Ichigo felt a little relieved. It seemed that the monster that tore through Seireitei was probably himself after Hollowfication.
"Hey, did you hear? The adopted daughter of the Kuchiki family, her execution's been moved up! It's in three days!"
'What? The execution is in three days?'
When that shocked discussion reached his ears, Kurosaki Ichigo's steps abruptly stopped, and his face instantly turned ugly.
He had never forgotten why he came to Soul Society in the first place.
To bring Inoue Orihime back, and to save Rukia.
Although he didn't know the exact details of yesterday's battle, since he woke up alone in a civilian house, it meant that the rescue of Inoue had most likely failed.
And now, bad news had come from Rukia's side too.
"What the hell is going on? I heard this execution was even proposed by a judge from the Shihoin family?", Kurosaki Ichigo's brows tightened more and more.
He never imagined this would somehow involve Shihoin Yoruichi's family.
Thinking about the ambiguous relationship between Yoruichi and Rosse at the Shiba house that day, he almost instinctively believed that Rukia's execution being moved up had to be a scheme orchestrated by Rosse behind the scenes.
It might even be a plot aimed at him.
But the next second, this conclusion was overturned by even more explosive news.
"The Shihoin family? Man, your info's way out of date! The Shihoin family was wiped out tonight!"
"Huh? The Shihoin family got wiped out? By who?"
"Who else? Captain Rosse and Captain Byakuya led the team themselves! Heard the reason was that the former Second Division captain, no, former former now, Shihoin Yoruichi, helped that human escape and injured Vice-Captain Shiba."
"Tsk! And to think Commander Rosse even stood up to support the Shihoin before. A whole family of ungrateful wolves."
"Heh! I think they're just a bunch of fence-sitters. Now that that old man woke up, they switched sides and betrayed Lord Rosse."
"Watch your mouth! He's still the Captain-Commander."
"Forget it. Drink! Drink!"
"…"
This flood of massive and contradictory information rushed in all at once. Kurosaki Ichigo scratched his head in confusion, completely stunned.
'The Shihoin family proposed Rukia's execution?'
'Shihoin Yoruichi saved Inoue?'
'Rosse wiped out the Shihoin family?'
'What is going on? This is insane!'
He had only been unconscious for a day, yet it felt like several centuries had passed outside. The plot was moving so fast he couldn't keep up at all.
'When did Soul Society become this efficient?'
"No, I have to see Aizen-sensei immediately."
Right now, compared to these roadside rumors that were hard to tell true from false, his chaotic mind desperately needed someone to help sort things out.
With that thought, he stopped hesitating and quickened his pace toward Seireitei.
He already had the access authorization Aizen had given him. On top of that, there was heavy traffic near the Seireitei gate at this hour. He passed through smoothly without even being questioned.
After entering Seireitei, to be safe, he still put on the concealment cloak Aizen had given him earlier, the one that could suppress spiritual pressure.
He didn't want his recklessness to bring unnecessary trouble to his teacher.
With the cloak's cover, he moved as if in an empty land, slipping smoothly into the Fifth Division barracks.
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