Chapter Eight

Hueco Mundo

“…Grimmjow disappeared?”

They were in Las Noches, the place in Hueco Mundo that Aizen had once held as his base. Although their fights with the Soul Reapers, starting with Ichigo Kurosaki, had left the walls and spires caved in here and there, the Arrancars were still able to take up residence in the place and make it their base. In a corner of what had once been their royal castle, Tier Halibel questioned Rudobon emotionlessly as she listened to his report.

“Do you know where he was headed?”

“Yes. He was witnessed using a garganta, so I believe he must have been heading to the world of the living or to the Soul Society.”

Then another woman’s voice rang out from behind Halibel. “He couldn’t have gone out looking to fight Ichigo, right?”

The woman was Nelliel Tu Odelschwanck, who had come to discuss the future path of Hueco Mundo and the Arrancars.

“If Grimmjow rampages in the world of the living, we’ll have a disaster on our hands. We must stop him immediately, or else…”

“Most humbly, Lady Nelliel, may I propose that Lord Grimmjow is the type to wait prudently for his opportunity, despite how he may seem. If he were truly only wishing to enjoy a fight for pleasure, I believe he would likely have already visited Karakura Town in this last half-year.”

Nelliel seemed somewhat puzzled at Rudobon’s response.

“You think so…? He looks to me like he pretty much acts according to his mood.”

Halibel then voiced her own opinion of Grimmjow. “He must have his own conception of pride. He was defeated in a battle in which each side’s self-respect was on the line. He wouldn’t simply attack without just cause.”

“Either way, he seems to act on his feelings in the moment. Well, be that as it may, he really did back down without a fight when I told him to earlier, I suppose…”

When they had reunited with Ichigo in the Soul Society, Nelliel had been incredibly wary of Grimmjow starting a fight with Ichigo, but she recalled that in the end, they had been on the same side despite being enemies.

Normally, she would have thought she would need to use everything in her power to stop Grimmjow, but it was somewhat unexpected to Nelliel that Grimmjow would have laid down his arms before she needed to intervene.

“Grimmjow is a man with strong animalistic instincts. For him to leave Hueco Mundo, the territory he is supposed to protect, he must have had a good reason.”

When Halibel said that, Nelliel remembered something more. During the war between Quincies and Soul Reapers, when Grimmjow had sided with Ichigo, Ichigo had asked him, “Why are you on our side?” Back then, the simple reply Grimmjow let slip was, “If Hueco Mundo’s gone, where would I kill you?” From his words back then, Nelliel could conclude that his priority was to settle things in Hueco Mundo.

Is it because Hueco Mundo is more advantageous to Arrancars?

No, Grimmjow isn’t the type to consider that.

Or perhaps it is that he has strong feelings about it too.

Maybe he senses the Hollow factor with its roots still firmly set inside Ichigo.

That was exactly why Ichigo Kurosaki was able to demonstrate his maximum strength in Hueco Mundo, where the Hollow factor was dense. He likely thought that there was significance in defeating Ichigo while in that state. Or was it just for the simple reason that he wanted to be somewhere spacious where they could unleash their power to its fullest extent, without anything getting in their way? Nelliel tried to hypothesize what was going on in Grimmjow’s head from all vantage points, but she realized that no matter how she sought to find the answer, the man in question wasn’t around.

“So where has Grimmjow gone, and what’s he up to?”

“He either went to crush the surviving Quincies or went in pursuit of that odd Soul Reaper from before.”

“Then he has left his turf.”

“In other words, he probably has a ‘good reason.’ In truth, I also was concerned about that Soul Reaper child.”

Halibel remembered the Soul Reaper-like boy—or girl—who had cut in during their fight with the Quincy survivors and a faintly somber expression came over her face. She remarked, “More specifically, it was the zanpaku-to that Soul Reaper held that concerns me.”

≡

The Soul Society

Naturally, the spiritual pressure from the strong Arrancar that had appeared from the garganta did not go unnoticed by the Seireitei either, and several of the Soul Reapers in the vicinity of the east gate sensed the appearance of the Hollow. The seated classes in particular, which excelled at detecting spiritual pressure, recognized that the Hollow was clad in a spiritual pressure greater than a Menos Grande and immediately informed their superiors as they broke out in chills. In the end they were informed it was part of an experiment being conducted by the Twelfth Company; many Soul Reapers were relieved, though some portion of them were instead seized with a strong sense of anxiety upon finding out the Twelfth Company was involved. Someone in the captain class directly sensed that spiritual pressure.

“Hm? What’s that? I’m suddenly feeling a tremendous Hollow spiritual pressure.”

Shinji Hirako, captain of the Fifth Company, turned his eyes in the direction from which he had sensed the spiritual pressure with a repulsed look on his face.

“This spiritual pressure…I’ve experienced it in the past in Karakura Town as well.”

He mulled this over with Momo Hinamori by his side. She had gotten the particulars through communications with the observation room but seemed troubled and glowered as she said to Hirako, “Captain, I just made contact with the observation room of the Department of Research and Development, but their response was that it’s part of an experiment and not an issue…”

“Ah, of course. So it’s one of the Twelfth Company’s usual experiments then. I’m sure they’ve just called in an Arrancar for a tea party or something. Oh, the Department of Research and Development has it so easy now that they don’t have someone like Hiyori as their assistant captain and lab chief… There’s no freaking way that’s the case! Are they idiots?! A garganta opened and an Arrancar-level Hollow has made its way in! No problem, my ass!”

After this angry bout of sarcasm, he gave the flustered Hinamori her instructions. “Well, in any case, a normal soldier going up against an Arrancar is pretty much suicide. I’m going to the place in question myself, and I’ll leave reporting that to the Captain General to you, Momo.”

“Y-yes, sir! Captain Hirako, please be careful!”

“Well, frankly, I think facing the Twelfth Company would be much more dangerous than any Arrancar.”

≡

At the same moment that Hirako sighed with apprehension, a particular Arrancar wore delight on his face.

“He’s here…”

An Arrancar with the physical appearance of a young boy spoke up in a voice filled with childlike joy. “Oh…sorry, everybody. Looks like I’m going to meet my goal before anyone else.”

A sadistic smile came over Luppi’s face as he turned and spoke to the Arrancars behind him. Though his eyes glittered like those of an innocent child who has found some treasure, the spiritual pressure that oozed from him was intermingled with blatant, murderous rancor.

“That spiritual pressure…it couldn’t be Master Grimmjow’s?!”

In lieu of a reply to Dordoni, Luppi kicked at the ground forcefully.

“Hey! Hold it! If you act on your own, then he’ll do it again…!”

Although Cirucci tried to stop Luppi, anticipating an electric shock from Mayuri would be forthcoming, before they knew it Luppi had already leapt up and broken away to a distance where their voices would reach him. However, there wasn’t any sign of an electric current running through him or through Cirucci and the others. When the Arrancars turned toward Mayuri suspiciously, they saw he held his finger over the button as he smiled good-naturedly and said, “Hm… He’s out of line, but I’m interested to know why that Arrancar is here…as well as how the Fullbringers and Quincies will act when faced with multiple Arrancars.”

Then, muttering to himself as well as to the Arrancars behind him, he said, “If you’d like, I also wouldn’t mind if you all got involved in the fight.”

“Oh, it’s not as though we’re battle-crazy. Whether there’s a reason to fight is dependent upon whether there’s beauty in it… Grimmjow is a bit too crude to show beauty. Well, I suppose once you’re at my level, he might seem beautiful like a wild rose.”

Mayuri ignored Charlotte’s opinions as he watched Luppi leave. Then the scientist smirked and he turned his attention toward Grimmjow.

“That Hollow seems to have been in league with Kisuke Urahara…He couldn’t possibly be pulling the strings behind the scenes, could he?”

≡

Urahara Shoten

“Come to think of it, Mr. Urahara, do you still have ties to those…Arrancars?”

Hisagi had suddenly thought of and posed this risky question to Urahara; it was about the alliance that Urahara had arbitrarily made with Arrancars themselves when he had gone to Hueco Mundo. In the worst-case scenario, it could have resulted in the Soul Society charging him with another crime. However, there was no question that in the huge battle that followed, the Arrancars had been a factor in the Quincies' defeat. Though he didn’t know about Central 46, Hisagi judged that Captain General Kyoraku wasn’t likely to reproach him about it, so Hisagi asked the question as a Soul Reaper.

“Well, in order to keep the peace, you need to keep a couple of channels of negotiation open. Unlike those nice Quincies who believe in total Hollow erasure, a Soul Reaper’s ultimate goal is supposed to be to keep the balance.”

“At the same time, they’re also the group responsible for slaughters here in the past. Are you convinced it was right to do that?”

“Hueco Mundo’s currently being run by moderates like Miss Halibel and Miss Nelliel. Mr. Grimmjow is certainly belligerent, but, well, he’s not the type who rampages for no reason.”

As a matter of fact, the activities of Yammy, an Arrancar who went on a massive murdering spree in Karakura Town, had ceased. It was said he fought Byakuya Kuchiki and Kenpachi Zaraki, so the probability that he would have survived such a battle was low. Hisagi felt slightly troubled accepting this in order to keep the conversation going.

“To be honest, I feel conflicted about that. Though I’ve certainly taken to heart the teachings that Hollows are not absolutely evil and are instead souls that Soul Reapers should purify…”

“The Arrancars that Sosuke Aizen had as his pawns are an exception?”

“I’m not that easily convinced. Whether they’re Hollows or humans or Soul Reapers…they were the ones who worked with Aizen in order to damage the world.”

The moment he said the words “Soul Reapers,” Hisagi thought of a specific person, but he kept it close to his chest. Urahara, seemingly not noticing Hisagi’s behavior, didn’t tease him and answered indifferently, “The strong Arrancars in Hueco Mundo are the aggregations of several tens of thousands—or hundreds of millions—of konpaku. Whether it’s the result of them all mixing together, or the result of one strong individual overtaking the will of the others, the resulting Arrancars have their own beliefs. That’s exactly why, if we can understand their way of thinking…even just a tiny fraction of it, if there’s a part of them that agrees with us, negotiations are possible.”

Hearing that, Hisagi recalled the Arrancars he had fought in the past. There were certainly some who were more humanlike, rather than like the Hollows who were thoughtless and had lost all sense of logic. And if they weren’t distinguishing between friend and foe he could at least have had a conversation with them, even if they rubbed him the wrong way. And above all, even the man he had thought was correct in his convictions had turned himself into an Arrancar in the end, hadn’t he?

At that point in Hisagi's thoughts, Urahara stated the conclusion that followed, “Of course, knowing that, when they become your enemy, you must cut them down without hesitation. That’s what the Thirteen Court Guard Companies teaches, isn’t it?”

“Yes…It is.”

Once again burdened by this reality, Hisagi drew a breath. It forced him to recall memories of the moment he had cut down a certain enemy. The memory revived itself vividly from within Hisagi—the feeling of thrusting his zanpaku-to into the head of his opponent to take him by surprise and simply reaping a life.

As though testing Hisagi, Urahara spoke out loud the name of that enemy: “You can’t possibly be having regrets, can you, about killing Mr. Tosen?”

Hisagi sensed that the tone of Urahara’s voice had changed. This question was not being posed by the owner of Urahara Shoten but by a former Thirteen Court Guard Companies member, and one who, though imperfect, had served in the past as a captain.

“No, I don’t have any of those.”

Hisagi didn’t hesitate for a moment to speak those words as an actively serving assistant captain.

“If I regretted it, then I would have already put down my zanpaku-to.”

Though there was no doubt in those words, Hisagi hadn’t been able to come to terms with the way things were to the extent that he could abandon all his feelings either.

With his eyes turned slightly down, Hisagi reproached himself about his own incompetence.

“It’s just…I still think about how I could have persuaded him to see reason, even now. I don’t regret anything, but I don’t want the same thing to happen ever again. I don’t want to say this, but if someone other than me had…”

“Let’s stop right there. Thinking about other possible paths does connect us to the hereafter. But seeking that from others is pointless.”

Urahara cut off the conversation and bluntly admonished Hisagi, “That ‘someone other than you’ wasn’t there at the time. The people who had the right to change something were only the ones who were there. You stuck with your own principles. Don’t you think that’s enough?”

“…”

“Well, Mr. Kurosaki, Miss Inoue, and the others could certainly have different principles than those of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies, but I think that itself is a strength of theirs that’s different from ours. Protecting the thing you want to protect in the end is what we deem satisfactory.”

So what I want to protect, huh?

In response to Urahara’s words, Hisagi once again considered what he had protected.

What I wanted to protect was not Captain Tosen. It was his teachings…

It was what he had taught me as part of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies about how a Soul Reaper should be.

The Court Guards—they were the ones who protected the Seireitei.

The Seireitei—so named, the court was where things were governed and judgements were given. It truly managed the world expansively—in other words, it represented justice. It was the conviction of the Soul Reapers that protected the fairness of the world.

In the end, that was why he had ended up killing Tosen. He had believed that stopping Tosen was the legacy of the teachings he had received from him as a Soul Reaper.

The issue wasn’t whether he had been right or not, and as he had declared to Urahara, he had no regrets about the killing of Tosen itself. That was because he realized that to give in to regret would be a slight to the Soul Reapers he fought alongside as well as to Tosen himself.

However, despite that, the fact that Hisagi had been the one to cut Tosen down was engraved on Hisagi’s soul and was slowly working its way into him, giving him a continuous, vague sense of dread.

Since he had killed the very person who had guided his life, he felt like he himself might end up changing. Or that he might already have changed without even knowing it.

Hisagi could not deny the chill that had coiled around his spine, and he steadied his breath. “No, what’s different is my weakness. That’s exactly why I have to apologize to Kurosaki and the others…”

He realized at that moment that something was amiss. At some point, Urahara had come to be holding the sword cane that was his zanpaku-to, and he seemed tense as he stared off in an entirely different direction.

“Huh? Mr. Urahara?”

“I’m sorry to interrupt, Mr. Hisagi.”

He apologized lightly, but his gaze, which seemed to be directed far into the distance, was filled with caution.

“Have you prepared for Gentei Kaijo?”

“Huh?”

When Soul Reapers with powers above the assistant captain level headed into the living world, they were required by law to seal away part of their powers. That was a measure to prevent their strong spiritual pressure from having an ill influence on spirits in the living world, and Hisagi, who hadn’t intended to battle, had that measure put into place already. As a result, Hisagi’s spiritual pressure had dropped to 20 percent of its usual strength. He immediately realized that Urahara was asking whether he could release that seal, and the string of tension wound its way around his mind.

“Is it…an enemy? If we’re up against a dangerous opponent, I’ll request a Gentei Kaijo immediately.”

“I’m still not quite sure whether they harbor any ill will, but…it seems we’re surrounded.”

“You mean they’re surrounding the shop?”

Though he could feel the disruption of an eerie spiritual pressure when he searched for it, he couldn’t find specific Reiraku. However, though the storefront was small, if they were surrounding it, then there would be just that many presences. The memory of when he had been surrounded by huge Hollows revived itself in Hisagi’s mind. He recalled the pain and fearsome time when he had lost his friend Kanisawa. However, Urahara’s reply caused his memories to fade instantly.

“No… If they’d come that close, I would have noticed them a while ago.”

“Huh?”

“It isn’t the store they’ve got surrounded.”

Urahara stood up slowly and quietly opened the sliding door.

“Something is surrounding all of Karakura Town.”

≡

A Certain Place in the Seireitei

“Now what could this be? Who would have thought an Espada would leap right into the palm of my hand?”

A man with a mirthful smile on his face was encircled by many monitors in a dark room. At first glance, the place seemed to be the Twelfth Company’s observation room, but the equipment in the room seemed more out of place than it would have been in the Department of Research and Development.

Tokinada Tsunayashiro, who was the one and only person with absolute control over that place, looked at the reishi signals on the monitors with interest as he said to himself, “That’s an Arrancar that came during the Quincy attack. I’m not sure whether to call this a coincidence or an unexpected inevitability.”

When Tokinada quietly stood up, he held his hand over the flame of a candle nearby. Then he spoke to something on the other end of the candlestick, which appeared to be a communications device.

“Hikone.”

He spoke plainly, and the candlestick’s flame flickered immediately.

“Yes, Lord Tokinada!”

A voice whose innocent tone didn’t seem to fit the place’s atmosphere reverberated from the candlestick.

“Did you call me?! Mr. Yamada was kind enough to heal me completely! I think that I will be able to fulfill your expectations this time, Lord Tokinada!”

“Don’t be foolish. You haven’t betrayed my expectations. If I expect you to fail, then you will fail perfectly.”

“Lord Tokinada?”

“Your earlier defeat only served to fuel you and Ikomikidomoe.” Though you may become almighty, you are not omnipotent. In order to avoid a fatal blow due to self-conceit, you must experience defeat at least once. Your fight in Hueco Mundo a while ago was only that.”

Snickering, Tokinada asked Hikone, “Do you resent me because I expected you to lose, Hikone?”

“No! I’m not very smart, so I don’t really understand, but if you say so, Lord Tokinada, then I am very happy! I’ll make sure to live up to your expectations from here on out too, Lord Tokinada!”

“I see. I wouldn’t have minded whether you scorned me or not. After all, you are the future king. Seeing, hearing the name of, or being aware of the presence of a worthless aristocrat like me will likely become annoying to you. Remaining in your memory, if only because of spite, is preferable to that.”

“What are you saying?! I would never forget you, Lord Tokinada! Especially since I never would have been born if it hadn’t been for you, Lord Tokinada! And you were the one who said we should be equals earlier, Lord Tokinada!”

Tokinada sensed not only denial in Hikone’s words but also a plea, and his smile twisted all the more sadistically. “I see. Thank you, Hikone. I’m glad to hear from you that you would like us to be equals as well.”

“Yes, Lord Tokina—"

However, at that moment, as though to cut off Hikone’s joy-filled voice, an entirely new voice came over the communications device from the other side, butting in.

“Don’t make me laugh.”

It was a voice of bleak and dour scorn.

“If you think you are equal to this brat, you haven’t put even a shred of thought into it.”

Far different from Hikone’s brilliant, cheery voice, the speaker’s tone was filled with suspicion and malice.

“Stop that, Ikomikidomoe! How could you say that to Lord Tokinada?”

Following that were some moments filled with the sounds of a conflict, and just as those sounds eventually settled down, Hikone’s voice came across the communications device.

“I apologize, Lord Tokinada! I finally got him to be quiet!”

“It’s fine, Hikone. Ikomikidomoe was never an Asauchi you yourself set free into a zanpaku-to, after all. Just like my Kuten Kyokoku—Heaven Mirror Valley—and the Ise family’s Hakkyokenn—Eight Mirror Sword—it’s something you inherited from others. I think it will likely take a bit more time for the blade to understand you.”

“I don’t mind even if it doesn’t understand me! But I would be so sad for you to be misunderstood, Lord Tokinada!”

“I see. You’re so kindhearted, Hikone. However, I am not the one who will use Ikomikidomoe. Actually, I cannot use it.”

Though Tokinada spoke as if he were soothing a child, his eyes shone with the glint of a sadist preparing to torment a small animal. The voice-only communications device couldn’t convey that and continued to deliver Tokinada’s casual voice to Hikone in the child’s distant location.

“I think the only ones able to handle that zanpaku-to would likely be someone like you or Ichigo Kurosaki, or…well, actually…” His next words were deliberate. “Perhaps Kugo Ginjo might also be able to use it.”

“Mr. Ginjo? I’ve heard his name before! Is he strong?”

“In that case, why don’t you check for yourself? Actually, that’s another reason I contacted you.”

Tokinada checked on the observations he had from a part of the Rukongai—where an eddy of spiritual pressure had been jumbling together for some time—and urged Hikone to take voluntary action.

“At this moment, an Arrancar man you previously fought against has arrived. In addition, Ginjo and the others are there.”

“What?!”

“This is your opportunity to demonstrate to them you are the king. You should fly to their location and show them this time that you are capable of being king.”

Hiding the rapacious smile behind his words, Tokinada gently persuaded Hikone.

“I expect you to win this time, Hikone.”

“Please leave it to me, Lord Tokinada!”

After directing Hikone to the aforementioned location, Tokinada extinguished the flame of the candlestick that had been acting as a communications device, and the room echoed with words he spoke to himself. “Ikomikidomoe…what is most important is that it seems your ‘nurturing’ is going well.”

Recalling the vehement voice that had come through earlier, Tokinada looked over the many measurement devices and smiled—sneered—savored.

Then, as he looked at another set of equipment observing a place that was entirely separate from the Rukongai, where Hikone had headed, Tokinada’s eyes narrowed faintly as he said, “So they’ve made their move in Karakura Town. I see. What a prudent decision.”

He was looking over the vast amounts of data pouring in through the Visual Department’s equipment about Karakura Town, an important sacred ground in the living world.

Analyzing the flow of reishi from the entire town, Tokinada again muttered to himself, “There is likely no other opportunity to seize that Jureichi other than this.

“This is the only opportunity—when Ichigo Kurosaki is out of town.”

≡

The Soul Society
Thirteen Court Guard Companies,
First Company Barracks

“Thank you for the report. We will launch an investigation from our side as well, so please wait for word from Captain Hirako in a station nearby, Momo.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

After watching Hinamori bow in a flurry and run off, Shunsui Kyoraku, the Captain General of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies, exhaled quietly and muttered to himself, “Seems like this really has become an ordeal, hasn’t it?”

Having uttered his favorite phrase, assistant captain Nanao Ise picked up the documents and reported, “There certainly was an advance petition from the Twelfth Company to use Quincy and Arrancar corpses for an experiment. I believe that is likely the usual ‘Kurotsuchi Corpse Unit’ though…

“Oh…that. I’m dubious about how humane it is. Well, it’s not like pretty words will serve all our needs, though. It was enough that he cured Captain Hitsugaya and the others from zombie-ism.”

“But, according to the information from Assistant Captain Hinamori just now…”

“Yeah, it’s likely that Arrancar is separate from the ones that the Twelfth Company is keeping. Though I can’t sense the spiritual pressure myself from here to confirm it. Well then, I wonder who has come here and with what purpose,” Kyoraku said anxiously, then gave instructions to Okikiba, his other assistant captain.

“Anyway, Okikiba, if you could please get word out to the Second Company immediately and have them dispatch the Survey Company. If the Twelfth Company complains, I don’t mind you bringing up my name and pushing this through by telling them it’s an order from the Captain General.”

“As you wish.”

Though his instructions to the older Okikiba were casual in tone, Kyoraku’s eyes reflected his determination to protect the Seireitei as the Captain General. It wasn’t simply the sparkle of optimism—his look also included the conviction to sacrifice something in order to protect everything else. He looked ready to endure whatever came his way.

“Good grief. It’s been half a year since the war, but it’s something I still haven’t gotten used to.”

Since becoming Captain General, Kyoraku had come to learn more and more about the world.

He came to know realities that were wide-ranging, from understanding the Seireitei’s dark side to purposefully sacrificing a part of the Rukongai in order to protect the world’s balance. And in this way he continuously encountered an infinite menagerie of things he had more or less expected and things that were entirely outside of his imagination.

So old man Yama was the intermediary between us and the world and under this pressure for a thousand years.

How must he have felt when giving the order to execute Rukia Kuchiki?

How must he have felt when he decided to treat Inoue as a traitor after she had gone to Hueco Mundo?

How had it felt when he had sacrificed his own arm?

How had he felt when he turned his zanpaku-to on Kyoraku and Ukitake while shouldering the Soul Society’s laws?

These were things he couldn't know now that he had arrived here in the present, and old man Yama loomed too large in his mind for him to imagine it. There was no need for him to walk the same path as Genryusai Yamamoto. However, as long as he was the Captain General, it was assured that the time to make a choice would come. There would likely be many occasions when he wouldn’t have enough time to prepare himself. Just as in the past, when he had thrust the possibility that resided in Ichigo Kurosaki’s future at the children who were the boy’s school friends.

How much would he forsake in order to protect the Seireitei or the world?

Old man Yama was way too serious, after all. He might have been prepared every day of his life for what was to come.

Beneath what had seemed to be callous decisions there had likely been hundreds or thousands of other choices. Kyoraku, who had come to represent the very thing those choices had protected, smiled painfully as his reverence for his mentor continued to grow even deeper.

“Now that I’m in the same position, just when I thought I’d arrived at where he was, it feels like he’s so far away. You really were such a strict teacher to your pupils, old man Yama.”

≡

The World of the Living,
Urahara Shoten

“Kurosaki’s not here?!”

Hisagi, whose distress was obvious in his voice, was met with an indifferent confirmation from Urahara. “Yeah, did I not mention that? Mr. Kurosaki has been on a trip with family and friends since yesterday.”

“On a trip?! That’s why he’s not here?!”

When the town was first being confined by a mystery presence, before Hisagi had requested more detailed information, he had proposed, “First we should get word out to the Soul Reapers in charge of this sector. I don’t want to involve them if we’re the ones being targeted, but since we don’t know what they’re after, let’s at least get in contact with Kurosaki and the others.” However, when he then came to learn that Ichigo Kurosaki was absent, his spirits were dampened right away.

“Actually, I’m surprised that you didn’t know, Mr. Hisagi. Miss Kuchiki, Mr. Abarai and the others are supposed to be traveling with him.”

“Now that you mention it, I feel like I haven’t seen Abarai and the others for the last few days…”

“It’s a Jureichi in western Japan. It’s not as important as Karakura Town, but it’s probably the third most likely place in Japan for spirits to gather. Mr. Kurosaki and his younger sisters ended up going there…” He seemed to be distracted by his preparation to deal with whoever was surrounding the town—Urahara directed only his voice at Hisagi in explanation as he fumbled around briskly with some sort of apparatus. “Apparently there was some trouble going down over there. It wasn’t much of an emergency, but when Mr. Isshin heard that his daughters were in danger, he tied up Mr. Kurosaki and ran over. Well, if Mr. Kurosaki had heard what happened first, he would have headed there on his own accord anyway.”

“You mean Isshin, the former captain…?”

Hisagi had broken into a cold sweat when he heard about the overly aggressive response of the former captain of the Tenth Company, but Urahara cackled as he responded, “Well, that guy was adaptable enough to break out of the Soul Society after all.”

“I think you’re pretty quick to adapt too, Mr. Urahara.”

“Regardless of that, when Miss Inoue and the others heard the news, it seems they headed to the Jureichi after them. So I think they won’t return for a few more days. Well, I’m sure they’ll come back once they realize we’re in a state of emergency, but without spiritual tools or equipment it’s a heck of a distance to travel to get back.”

“Then that means…”

When he considered this new information in light of their current situation, Hisagi’s instincts as a Soul Reaper and a journalist brought him to a single suspicion. Before he could even say it out loud, Urahara gave voice to the same conjecture. “It seems almost as though it were arranged this way, doesn’t it?”

“How can you so easily…”

“Though it is a spiritual spot to begin with, it’s not as though many Hollows would show up on that territory. If that weren’t the case, Mr. Isshin never would have given his permission for them to go on the trip. Although there’s also the possibility that the trouble there really did come up coincidentally and that they chose to rush in and make their move intentionally when Mr. Kurosaki left town. Though I think the chances of that are low.”

“For sure. It’s common sense to conclude that the situation over there was caused by the people who are attacking here.”

Though it wasn't as if there was no chance that the attackers had come completely by coincidence during the time that Ichigo wasn’t in town, Hisagi didn’t think there was much point in following that possibility and decided to put it aside for the time being.

“But you didn’t head over there?”

“No. I promised to be interviewed by you today, after all.”

“Huh?”

Hisagi suddenly felt an inexpressible guilt budding inside of him, believing that had Hisagi not planned the interview that day, Urahara would have accompanied the others on the journey and they might have already solved whatever the superficial trouble was by now. However, seemingly unable to countenance Hisagi’s clear distress, Urahara quickly revealed this to be a joke.

“That’s not entirely true. To be accurate, I thought it was suspicious, so I purposefully decided to stay behind. It just felt like there was the distinct air of an intentional ruse to lure Mr. Kurosaki and the others out of town, so I thought it would be better if at least I stayed in town.”

“Then did you know that something might happen today?”

“Things would have been better if I had been off the mark, though. It’s in my nature that I can’t help being unable to ignore a possibility once it’s occurred to me.”

At that point, Urahara straightened his hat and once again directed his eyes outside.

“Well, in the end, it looks like I was right again.”

At the same time he stepped out onto the porch, something that looked almost exactly like the static on a TV screen coursed through the sky above the yard, and a boy’s voice, which sounded as though it were coming through a machine, echoed across that disordered space.

“Been a while, Kisuke Urahara.”

“Oh my, quite a shock to find out it’s you.”

“Don’t lie. One such as yourself must have guessed it was me a long time ago based on the manner of the town’s confinement.”

In response to the boy’s exasperated voice, Urahara flipped his fan open and replied, “Yes, of course I had figured it out some time ago! You feel like giving me any more praise?”

“You really are good at annoying people, aren’t you…?”

In response to this voice, which exhibited faint traces of both annoyance and awe, Urahara’s eyes narrowed below his hat, and he poured salt on the wound.

“Now that I’ve got you all annoyed, if you’d be so kind as to spill the beans about what’s going on, it would save us so much effort…”

Hisagi had his doubts as to whether the kid would talk after being antagonized in this way, but he was sure that this was some sort of an Urahara-style negotiation tactic, so he forced himself to be still.

However, there was no way the kid was going to go along with such provocation, and instead of explaining the situation, he revealed himself through a projection on a rectangular screen that appeared in midair.

“Sorry, but I’ve got my reasons.”

Hisagi didn’t recognize the face and asked Urahara, “Mr. Urahara, do you know this kid?”

“Yeah. I think you’ll know his name as well. Especially since you did all kinds of research into Fullbringers yourself, in your own way.”

Staring into the face projected in the air, Urahara once again queried the boy.

“So, you’ll give us an explanation then…President Yukio Hans Vorarlberna?”