"You can't go."
"Why, old man? Do you think I can't take him?"
Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni opened his eyes, his glare carrying heavy pressure as he answered solemnly, "The mission is not suitable for you."
"Kyōraku Shunsui and Hitsugaya Toshiro-you two will go to Rukongai District 80. Investigate the situation."
"If it's a friend, good."
"If it's an enemy, remove them."
Kyōraku Shunsui gave his usual light smile. "Looks like my naptime's getting delayed."
Hitsugaya Toshiro stood with arms crossed, listening silently until that moment. He nodded once.
"The other captains will remain alert. Meeting adjourned."
After the meeting.
Ichimaru Gin followed behind AizenThey walked the polished wooden corridor of Squad One's building. The orange-red sunlight poured in across the floor, laying down sheets of warm gold across their steps.
Ichimaru hadn't stopped thinking since the meeting. The disturbance in Rukongai-it had to be tied to something bigger.
Was this all orchestrated by Aizen?
If so, why had he not been told?
Had Aizen begun to distrust him?
(T/N: does aizen ever trudt gin in the first place? I knew gin managed to trick aizen with his sword crack thingy but did aizen ever you know.. trust Gin?)
Anyone else and Gin would be confident they hadn't seen through him, but Aizen was not anyone else. He couldn't be judged by normal standards anymore. No, Gin wasn't sure he was human at all anymore. To treat him without caution was suicide.
Aizen stopped walking without warning. Gin's breath caught and stalled in his throat.
Aizen turned to face him. The fading sun flashed off his glasses, hiding his eyes completely.
"Gin... what happened today made me very happy."
"A genius appeared in the Rukongai."
Gin kept his head down, hair casting shadows across his eyes. "In front of Captain Sosuke... who could call themselves a genius?"
Sosuke adjusted his glasses with one finger and smiled. "I look forward to people with talent, Gin. Only they can bring change to this decaying Soul Society."
"That was true for you, and it will be true again."
...
West Rukongai District 80.
Yuta stood under the oppressive weight of his own spiritual pressure, which now surged stronger than ever after days of brutal training. Energy crackled around him as he ended the Sky-Swallowing technique and exhaled slowly.
His spiritual pressure had been increasing steadily but soon enough, it waned.
Every single increment began to demand hundreds or thousands of spirit beings for the same gain as before.
"The soul quality around me is too low."
Weak spiritual power filled every inch of the area now, unable to meet his current needs any longer. No matter how many spirits he devoured-it wouldn't help much anymore.
"This should be enough."
He released the technique and looked around. Nothing stood upright. The entire area had been crushed under the shockwaves of his power. Even the sky had been cleared above him as energy billowed upward into the atmosphere.
Violent spiritual pressure pulsed outward in waves as massive as earthquakes. Buildings trembled across the district.
Citizens spilled out from alleys and broken doorways, water in their bowls sloshing violently as they looked skyward.
"Was that a natural disaster?"
"That's too strong-it tore through everything..."
"That spiritual pressure felt like the earth itself was cracking..."
…
Yuta threw a punch into an empty space. It sounded off with a sonic boom, the compressed air ejected forward as though fired from a cannon and blew open part of a distant wall in the massive crater nearby.
"This level... it should be about captain-class now."
He'd improved leaps and bounds, but with only himself as reference, he couldn't confirm anything beyond that for certain.
Standing in the center of the crater, Yuta suddenly narrowed his eyes.
He sensed two approaching spiritual pressures and they were fast.
One felt standard, but the other one…
It was cold and felt like flowing ice. Completely different from anything else around them.
"Looks like they noticed me."
He grinned slightly.
"No matter. I was headed for Seireitei anyway, I'll meet them halfway."
Up above.
Kyōraku Shunsui and Hitsugaya Toshiro covered ground quickly using Shunpo. It didn't take them long to reach District 80 from above.
From their aerial position-they saw it clearly: something had torn open the earth below into a monstrous crater. Nothing under Level 90 Kido could've done this kind of sustained damage without collapsing from exhaustion afterward.
Spiritual particles in the atmosphere were nearly nonexistent. Some force had evacuated them on a battlefield-scale, creating something like a vacuum that made atmospheric particles swirl violently inward trying to compensate.
The result looked almost like the eye of a storm widening slowly over time.
"This power is... impressive," Kyōraku remarked as he dropped his usual lazy tone completely.
Hitsugaya stared down at the middle of the pit. He'd already locked onto the spiritual pressure within it-and it was monstrous.
Unlike his own cold edge, that energy was dense and vast… unfathomable like looking into space itself.
"Let's get closer."
Both captains vanished into thin air using Shunpo-and reappeared near ground level standing directly in front of Yuta.
Shunpo, the high-speed movement technique of Soul Reapers that allowed sudden shifts across combat distance without giving enemies time to react or aim.
Yuta watched them arrive silently-
"The ones who came are Kyōraku Shunsui and Hitsugaya Toshiro..."
Kyōraku, the Eighth Division Captain-and close companion of Ukitake Jushiro from Division Thirteen. They'd been comrades since their training days over two thousand years ago under Yamamoto Genryusai himself back when Genjutsu was first created.
In fact, both Kyōraku and Ukitake were among the first ever graduates of Spirit Academy and personally trained under Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni when he transitioned from war leader to official professor of Soul Society's military principle, and when he created the Gotei Thirteen as a legitimate institution rather than rogue force.
As for Hitsugaya...
He was one of Rukongai's rare child prodigies a boy born with spiritual pressure so strong and so cold that it had shaped his entire destiny from youth onward.
After Isshin Kurosaki departed Soul Society, Toshiro replaced him as Captain of Squad Ten.
Staring at both of them now-
Yuta smiled slightly and said plainly:
"What an honor-to meet two captains of the Gotei Thirteen at once."
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