Chapter Nine

The Rukongai

“What’s this? You seem pretty ambitious for having just shown up.”

Looking at the Arrancar man who had appeared abruptly, Ginjo was cautious even as he muttered lightly to himself, “Actually, there was talk that some Hollows came by during the Quincy war…since you mentioned Ichigo Kurosaki, you must be one of them, right?”

The person who confirmed his suspicion was Tsukishima, carrying the bookmark he had turned into his Fullbring, which was in the shape of a Japanese sword.

“You must be Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez. He was one of the mid-class Arrancar Espada in the ranks that served under Sosuke Aizen.”

“You know him… Wait, of course you wouldn’t.”

“Right, I’ve just seen him from inserting myself into Orihime Inoue’s past. Back then he was someone we could have easily defeated.”

Though he said that in a quiet voice, Tsukishima’s stance revealed no trace of carelessness. Observing that, Ginjo understood the Arrancar before his eyes was no ordinary opponent.

What a nuisance, especially when we’re in the middle of a fight with the Quincies.

If it ended up being a three-way fight, even if they were more powerful, they wouldn’t be able to predict which direction the fight would take.

In that case, would it be better for us to draw him to our side? No…he’d probably start something even if we took no action.

In any case, it seemed unlikely that the Quincies, who believed Hollows existed only to be destroyed, would suddenly team up with one of them. Judging that, Ginjo decided to simply observe for a while, but…

The Arrancar himself wasn’t looking down at the Quincies but at Tsukishima and the others as he said, “Hunh…? You over there, what’d you just say?”

“You mean me?”

“I’ve got no idea who you are. What was that you were saying about who you could have easily defeated?”

So he heard us?

“Ah well, you’ve got sharp ears.”

Ginjo sighed lightly and shrugged as he said in an intentionally friendly tone, “That right then was his idea of a joke. Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh was it? You know what I think about that?”

The Arrancar named Grimmjow snorted lightly.

“It ain’t funny.”

Just as they saw his eyes narrowing, he sped up in a single breath and appeared right where they were.

“Huh!”

He kicked at the reishi in the air like a wild animal and drew on his outstanding spiritual pressure’s trail to make his form disappear. In the next moment, the piercing sound of a collision echoed in the air around them as the reishi in the place turned into a harsh wind and stirred up.

“Stay out of my way.”

Before they knew it, Grimmjow had unsheathed his zanpaku-to. Ginjo used his own large sword to stop the blade, which appeared to be aimed at Tsukishima. Grimmjow asked him with annoyance, “Are you…a Soul Reaper?”

“Used to be. Now I’m just a wanderer.”

Amidst the sound of crossing swords, they exchanged these brief words.

He’s fast.

It wasn’t that Ginjo couldn’t follow the action with his own eyes, but he felt a slight sense that something was off. In terms of speed, he was at about the same level as a skilled Soul Reaper’s shunpo.

However, the Arrancar’s spiritual pressure seemed to waver momentarily, as though its moving essence were like a mirage or hologram, as though it were capturing him in an optical illusion.

Whether out of instinct or due to his collective experiences in battle, Ginjo ended up stopping the blade in the nick of time, still trying to address his immediate sense that something was wrong here. Though he’d assumed they would fight right away, Tsukishima had initiated the opening in a split second, and Grimmjow leapt far back from the two. After confirming his opponent had indeed distanced himself, Ginjo put his sense of something being “off” into words: “That guy has some strange moves.”

Tsukishima easily answered Ginjo’s suspicion. “It’s sonido. It’s a method of movement unique to Arrancars that allows them to slip past our and other Hollows’ spiritual pressure senses.”

“I see. Actually, they weren’t Arrancars, but…I think I might’ve seen some Hollows in the past that did something similar when they got stronger.”

There were many Soul Reapers and Quincies who had learned techniques to move quickly, called “shunpo” and “hirenkyaku” respectively. Shunpo was considered the standard, but when a hirenkyaku’s power consumption was efficient, there were subtle differences that could be perceived. Additionally, the high-speed movement possible through Fullbring could be described similarly.

“Hah…surprised you know that much. You’ve got a pretty annoying way of moving yourself.”

The high-speed movement possible through Fullbring enabled control over the reishi dormant in the ground and the power to increase the ability to move itself. Unlike shunpo, it would disturb the surrounding spiritual pressure to a minimal degree and could be said to be similar to sonido in that it was covert and allowed one to take an opponent by surprise.

Meanwhile, it didn’t seem Grimmjow’s attention had been captured entirely by the method of movement as he turned his eyes to a small amount of blood oozing on his wrist and smiled brutishly.

“Ah, looks like you tore through my Hierro. Not too shabby, Tsukishima.”

Tsukishima’s blade had apparently reached Grimmjow, and the scratch that he had given the Arrancar began to form a trickling red line.

“Huh?”

Grimmjow glanced at Tsukishima with the look of a beast of hunt that had decided the prey that had injured him was worth the fight. However, in the next moment there was a change in him.

“Tsukishima…”

When Grimmjow realized he’d uttered the name of a man he himself had only just met, he felt suspicious.

“Did you insert yourself?”

Ginjo merely shrugged as though they had saved themselves some hassle. Though it was faint, Tsukishima’s blade had made a small mark on the Arrancar.

To Ginjo and the others, that meant something even more significant than the fact that they could get through the Hierro and hurt him. Tsukishima’s ability, the Book of the End, could insert him in an opponent’s past even with a faint wound. Ginjo, who knew about power that was corrosive to the point of being fiendish, sighed in a show of disappointment, but…

“Well, in the end…”

A sword flashed next to him, and the dry sound of metal clanging echoed around them.

“…That was close. Hey, what’s going on here?”

“I’m sure I inserted myself.”

Just barely defending himself against Grimmjow’s attack as the Arrancar closed in on them again, Ginjo questioned Tsukishima. This time it was the other man’s turn to shrug.

“It’s not really that much of a mystery. Regardless of the past, someone who wants to kill me now will still want to kill me.”

In the past, when Tsukishima had inserted himself into Byakuya Kuchiki’s history as his “savior,” he had had the experience of the Soul Reaper not hesitating at all to cut him down. That was why he didn’t seem all that fazed by Grimmjow’s behavior.

“When I insert myself into wild animals’ pasts, much of the time their animal instincts guide their actions more than their memories of the past. Unlike with Byakuya Kuchiki, that’s probably the reason this didn’t work.”

“So human empathy won’t get through to Hollows then.”

Though Ginjo was cracking jokes, the effort he put into the clash of swords hadn’t been disturbed, and in that moment he started to pour spiritual pressure into his large sword.

“What’re you complaining about? We’re in the middle of a battle to the death!”

“I’m about to cut you down. Shut up and listen.”

When Grimmjow’s mouth warped fiendishly, reminiscent of a predator baring its fangs, Ginjo released the spiritual pressure he had stockpiled in his sword at high density.

He was using Getsuga Tensho at point-blank range.

“Huh?”

Grimmjow had likely been able to narrowly avoid it because the experience had been engraved into him during his battle with Ichigo Kurosaki. He felt a sense of déjà vu from the spiritual pressure that passed by his side, which he had retreated from reflexively as he questioned Ginjo with narrow eyes. “Your spiritual pressure… You part of the same tribe as Kurosaki? You don't look like you're related.”

“What, you know Kurosaki too? I don’t know if it’s a small world or if he just gets around.”

Meanwhile, the two Quincies were struggling with what to do next.

“What the heck are they doing? They go back and forth between losing interest and really getting into it.”

Candice and Meninas, who were watching the Arrancar that had made an abrupt appearance, were trying to figure out the exact nature of their opponent, but before they could ask the Arrancar himself what he was seeking, he had started his own fight with the Fullbringers. Casually observing the fight, Meninas mulled over how things had flowed until then and guessed out loud. “Hmm…I think he’s trying to use a power like Pepe’s.”

Candice recalled their former brother Pepe and his fiendish ability, “The Love,” which made those who were struck by it love him unconditionally. Even if it wasn’t exactly the same, they judged that the Fullbringer had attempted to use a similar psychological control mechanism and that it hadn’t worked on the Arrancar.

“So he must’ve messed up. Pathetic.”

Though Candice snorted, she suddenly felt suspicious and turned to Meninas. “Wait. That Mayuri scientist guy must know about that ability, right? Why didn’t he mention it before?”

“Who knows… I think Lil would’ve known though.”

“Yeah, Lil…I’m pretty sure she could have…”

In the Vandenreich, where they called each other brethren but were essentially striving to outmaneuver each other, Liltotto was one of the few people they could trust to have their backs. They imagined what the bitingly sarcastic but skilled info analyst would have said about this.

Candice murmured at the Liltotto she drew in her mind: “Don’t you think he probably put you up to it so he could see what happened?”

“…I could believe it.”

Though it wasn’t Liltotto herself speaking—it was nothing but an opinion originating in Candice’s own imagination, essentially her own thought—she really could see a man like Mayuri Kurotsuchi doing such a thing.

“Huh? Believe what?”

“Talking about it won’t change anything. More importantly, what do you want to do? We could find an opening and fry those guys, Arrancar and all, with my blitz.”

“Like I said, I don’t think you can burn them.”

Thus they spent another moment on an exchange they had gone over already any number of times…

A different voice broke into their conversation.

“That’s correct. You can’t do that, you two. You’ve got to have on your listening hats when someone tells you something.”

“Huh?!”

Candice and Meninas spun around to find a boy they had seen before their fight started. Though he had the appearance of a young boy, the girls knew that he wasn’t in fact the age he seemed.

“You’re one of that scientist’s minions…”

“What a terrible thing to say. Sure, I’ve resigned myself to being a minion, but you’re in the same boat, aren’t you? Not that it matters now.”

“What? Did you come here to light a fire under our asses or something?”

“Ah ha ha. No, nothing like that.”

That boy-shaped Arrancar, who was one of Mayuri's pawns, wore the grin of a mischievous kid. “I came here to tell you two to keep out of this.”

“Hunh?”

As the Quincies puzzled over what he was saying and whether this constituted a new instruction from Mayuri, the Arrancar—Luppi Antenor—grinned widely as he continued, “Oh, sooorry. Maybe that was too difficult for your wee brains? I’ll put it more simply.”

“Are you trying to pick a figh…”

Whenever Luppi seemed to be trying to provoke them, the blood rushed to Candice’s head.

“I’m the one who kills that leopard Grimmjow.”

“Huh…?”

Still wearing that joking smile, Luppi’s words were layered with dark murder. At the same time he had spoken, ominous Hollow spiritual pressure began to eddy around him. Then, with Candice and Meninas, who had unintentionally taken a step back, in front of him, the boy who had unsheathed his zanpaku-to at some point held it lightly as he spouted his incantation thick with bloodlust.

“Strangle—Trepadora!”

≡

“Oh dear, we can't have that. I’m surprised he’d show his hostility so openly. Youth can be so lovely, but at times it fails to be beautiful…”

“Actually, that Luppi seemed in pretty high spirits when he ran in…”

Behind Mayuri and the Twelfth Company that was still observing, the corpse unit that had been left behind whispered to each other as they also felt Luppi’s spiritual pressure.

“Does he even have a chance? I heard that Grimmjow didn't even lift a finger and still beat him.”

This was spoken by Cirucci, who was blind to the fact that she was fixated on the Quincy Ishida who had beaten her. Dordoni harrumphed as he stroked his beard and answered, “Indeed. However, I did not witness it myself. I heard that though it was like a surprise attack, after his chest had been pierced from the front, his upper body was burned away by a Cero.”

“If that’s what happened, I’m impressed he survived without super-fast regeneration.”

“He died. That’s why he ended up in the same position as us. Though I do not know what treatment was undertaken by Lord Szayelaporro after his corpse was recovered… If he wasn’t changed from before, then the result would likely be the same. However…”

Dordoni attempted to connect what was being said to his own training and education—

“Stop saying such idiotic things. A single sample is more than enough if you’re going to just regenerate something,” Mayuri butted into their conversation without a second thought, not even looking at them as he concentrated on his observations. “Though it seems that so-called scientist Espada did some fiddling around of his own.”

With a suspicious smile lingering on his lips, Mayuri told the somewhat obvious experimental subjects the truth. “Though it was a joke, I still operate you under the Kurotsuchi Corpse Unit name. Of course I’ve modded you to be much higher performance.”

≡

A Hollow’s spiritual pressure?

Did someone follow me?

The moment Grimmjow felt the rising spiritual pressure behind him, he was slightly shaken. He had sensed that spiritual pressure before. But there was nothing in his memory that immediately connected to it. That was because Grimmjow, for whom “survival of the fittest” was a foundational belief, had no use for remembering the spiritual pressures of enemies he had eradicated in the past.

That ain’t Nelliel or the others. —Yet, this spiritual pressure…
—I remember it from somewhere.     —No…
—I’m sure I killed him.

However, it was true that because this was someone who had disgraced him, there were faint remnants of the other Arrancar in the corner of his mind. That resulted in him feeling slightly baffled, and Grimmjow’s movements were slowed by a moment.

The Fullbringers he was involved with had also noticed the abrupt appearance of strong spiritual pressure and turned their gazes in its direction as they muttered, “Another one?”

Grimmjow distanced himself from Ginjo and the others temporarily as he tried to look that way, but…

He realized that the spiritual pressure was exhibiting a peculiar movement.

A Cero…

No! This guy’s about to…

It was likely the bestial instincts that dwelled inside of him that made him do it. He momentarily ignored Ginjo and the others as he turned his back and unleashed a Cero with all his strength.

Revealing his weak point to an enemy might have been perceived as reckless at first glance, but in the end, Ginjo and the others didn’t attempt to pursue him. That was because when Ginjo and the others saw what was closing in on them, they dedicated all their efforts to avoiding it as well.

There was light.

It was a warped torrent of power—a hollowed spiritual pressure within a bright stream of light. Though it likely shared the same roots as the Cero Grimmjow unleashed, the volume of reishi and its density was much greater than any common Cero and it was strong enough to warp the existence of the space itself as it cut through the Soul Society’s sky.

The wake of that light wriggled black like a heat shimmer, whether due to heat or the reishi themselves being disrupted. Though the Cero he himself had unleashed had been obliterated, his slight sway at the recoil allowed Grimmjow to narrowly evade that.

It was at this moment that he recognized the spiritual pressure of the enemy Hollow that had appeared behind him, and his confusion cleared away as he looked for the source of the trail of light.

“So it’s you… I was wondering who it was.”

Grimmjow's look was a mix of exasperation and annoyance as he addressed the Arrancar boy who had appeared from the settling dust. The boy smiled with murder and wild joy on his face and he said, “Oh, sooorry. I was concerned that the king of the beasts might’ve forgotten all about me, so I thought I’d need to introduce myself.”

The Arrancar’s form was humanoid, but warped. Though his base body hadn’t changed, there was a revolving dish on his back that looked like a fusion between a mechanical gear and a creature, with eight, long feeler-like organs wriggling from it. The feelers were as big as large logs and each one of them writhed powerfully like large white snakes with wills of their own.

“I’m so happy you remember me, Grimmjow.”

The Arrancar, who had gone into his Resurrección state, was clad in even denser spiritual pressure than when Grimmjow had known him in the past. Although his bearing was similar, his appearance had changed so much that if Grimmjow hadn’t seen him straight on he might not have recognized him.

“Yeah, but just in case, maybe I’ll tell you my name again. I think you’d forget it anyway in about three steps.” The Arrancar didn’t hide his animosity at all, yelling his name as though to provoke Grimmjow: “It’s Luppi Antenor. Don’t go and accidentally call me the ‘ex’-sexta, all right?”

“Who cares? What use is it now to bring up your name?”

Grimmjow sneered as he spat out his response, and Luppi’s smile disappeared for just a moment as he gritted his teeth until they ground together. Then he smiled once again.

“You should be quiet and just try to remember—you’ve got to at least remember the name of the one who kills you.”

“Who’s that? That just now wasn’t a normal Cero…”

The moment the Arrancar who had appeared after Grimmjow had unleashed “that,” Ginjo felt his internal alarm bells going off based on his experience during his Deputy Soul Reaper days. That was exactly why Ginjo had been able to dodge it and had enough time to see the way Tsukishima had dodged it as well.

“What the heck was that, Tsukishima? The way you just dodged it…it was like you knew something about it.”

“Well…but it’s my first time seeing him actually release it.”

Tsukishima, who knew more about Arrancars and Espadas after inserting himself into Grimmjow’s past, squinted his eyes as he gave a name to “that” phenomenon.

“It’s a Gran Rey Cero.”

Though Tsukishima retained his usual faint smile, beneath that he was scowling slightly and continued as though to urge Ginjo to be cautious. “It’s a special Cero that only Espada can use. Do I even need to mention the kind of power it’s capable of?”

Shrugging, Tsukishima turned his gaze to a midsized hill some distance away. When Ginjo saw that it had been cleanly gouged in part by the light ahead of him, he also shrugged as though to match Tsukishima and smiled boldly.

“I see. Apparently even the Hollows have evolved since the time I knew them.”

While the Fullbringer men who had many similarities with Hollows were talking on the side, a pronounced amount of spiritual pressure screeched between Grimmjow and Luppi.

“Still, I’m impressed you dodged that just now. I guess savage meat-eaters have sharp intuition, if nothing else…”

“You sure have got a lot to say. You spooked or something?”

“I’ve always been the one to talk. Perhaps you’re the one who’s scared, since you don’t know why I’m here.”

Grimmjow and Luppi provoked each other. However, they were keenly attentive as each probed the other’s spiritual pressure. The two, who were accustomed to battles, knew with a single glance that the power of the other was different from what it had been in the past. At that point Luppi started to talk about their past interactions as though to muster up his own hatred. “Did you think I was dead? Well, I suppose I was. It would be only normal to die after having something like that happen, wouldn’t it?”

It wasn't intentional but entirely coincidental when Luppi narrowed his eyes and said the same thing that Grimmjow had once said to Ichigo Kurosaki. Unlike Grimmjow, who had spoken with glee to Ichigo, Luppi said it with gloomy, pent-up hatred in his voice:

“Like I would die before killing you, Grimmjow…”

“Hunh…stop spouting words you’re not fit to say.” Grimmjow accepted the acrimony straight on as his mouth once again contorted to say, “I haven’t got a clue why you’re alive and can’t say I’m interested in knowing.”

Then he condensed his own spiritual pressure in his right hand and instantly let loose a Cero.

“But who could’ve guessed you’d come looking to get killed by me again! What a friggin’ celebration!”

“What was that? Are you underestimating me?”

Rather than a Gran Rey Cero like the one Luppi had just shown off, Grimmjow had unleashed a regular Cero. Luppi had judged that Grimmjow was underestimating Luppi’s Resurrección form and immediately tried to inform the other Arrancar of his error by sweeping away that Cero with a tentacle, but—

“Huh!”

Just as his sight was obscured by the scattering Cero, Grimmjow had disappeared.

“Like I’d let you!”

He had used sonido, which was made for slipping by an opponent’s spiritual senses to launch a surprise attack. What resurrected itself in Luppi’s brain was a memory of the time when Grimmjow had used that method to quickly draw near him and pierce his chest. He caused his tentacles to spin and created a protective sphere around himself. However, it occurred to him within an instant that this was a stupid plan.

“No, I’ve…”

He realized that putting all eight appendages into defense had created a lethal opening, and he also knew that his mind had reacted instinctively after recalling the moment he had been killed. As the fear rose up in Luppi, he cursed himself and Grimmjow.

“Grimmjow!”

Grimmjow had in fact exploited that momentary opening to its fullest extent. He poured blood from the wound Tsukishima had cut earlier into the palm of his hand, where he would launch his Cero. Then, in the next moment, a flash even greater than the one that had been released earlier swallowed the tentacles rotating around Luppi…as well as Luppi himself.

It was a Gran Ray Cero.

In the aftermath of Grimmjow’s attack, which had been strengthened by the blood mixed into it, the space surrounding them once again began to warp.

“Oh ho, he’s getting all flashy… Gauging its power, I’m guessing it’d put up a good fight against my Getsuga!”

At Ginjo’s words, Giriko, whose body and clothes had at some point reverted to their normal state, responded, “Hm. The volume of spiritual pressure itself may have been greater, but taking into consideration speed and the number of moves, I think even you would have been able to cope with it quite well enough.”

“You think so?”

Bewildered by Giriko, who had finally regained his tone and enthusiasm, Ginjo once again analyzed the situation. “So, what do we do? Should we make ourselves scarce and retreat from this mess for now? That is, if there isn’t anyone waiting to ambush us…”

The two women who seemed to be Quincies were distracted by the Gran Rey Cero. This was a natural response, since getting hit by any stray attacks likely would have meant death for them, but Ginjo had discerned that there was something else behind the women, something that was calmly observing them. It felt similar to the time when Soul Reapers had been assigned to keep a lookout on him through the Deputy Soul Reaper badge.

Though Ginjo had in fact systematically probed the surrounding spiritual pressure and found what seemed to be several “observers,” he didn’t sense any of them going on the move just yet. Instead, he realized that the situation had now changed.

“A Soul Reaper is heading over here. And also someone else…” Ginjo suddenly scowled. “What? This spiritual pressure is…”

As though he had seen something mystifying, he turned his attention to the spiritual pressure that was still distant. However, he immediately rejected the conjecture he had arrived at as a result.

“Ichigo…? No, it couldn’t be.”

“What? Looks like you got a little sturdier.”

After the light and dust had cleared, Luppi was visible, with several tentacles burned to a crisp by Grimmjow’s Gran Rey Cero.

In the past, that would have obliterated him.

After being defeated by Ichigo Kurosaki, Grimmjow had continued to challenge, defeat, and eat hostile Menos Grande and Arrancars in order to exact his revenge. Since he could boast that his spiritual pressure had grown since then, he turned cautious eyes at Luppi, who withstood an attack that held his power.

I see. Something in his body must have been tweaked.

Seeing the stitch marks that ran down Luppi’s face, Grimmjow was convinced of that.

Those straight, parallel scars weren’t the type that would be made during a battle. Though there was the possibility they were the result of torture, they seemed too neatly stitched back up for that to be the case.

Actually, that Urahara guy did something similar to himself.

Grimmjow concluded that Szayelaporro must have carried out a unique procedure on Luppi while that Arrancar scientist was still alive—if it wasn’t Kisuke Urahara or someone else—and smiled boldly as he continued to provoke Luppi. “I was hoping I’d obliterate you down to your toes this time so you couldn’t come back to life.”

Glaring at Grimmjow’s jeering remark, Luppi's face transformed from a sour expression to an unbelievable grin, and he opened his arms with newfound excitement.

“Ha ha ha! You really are so irritating, Grimmjow!” His voice danced with a joy that belied the hostility of his words. “I’m glad you’re your usual self… I finally feel like I’ve actually been ‘reborn.’”

≡

A Certain Place in the Seireitei

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. That idiot Mayuri is trying to pass this off as ‘just an experiment’ right after such a flashy rampage? That’s like a slapstick joke! What am I supposed to do if my zanpaku-to reads the air too accurately and ends up transforming itself into a comedy prop?”

Using shunpo to travel quickly, Hirako headed to the closest Seireitei gate and winced at the spiritual pressure that had already started to accumulate in the air.

“That’s not just any normal Cero I feel. Are they trying to destroy the sun or something? Well, if they’re the same as when I met them last time, it should be fine as long as I put on my mask…”

Though he spoke lightly, Hirako was already calmly calculating whether he could hold them back based on the spiritual pressure he could feel all the way from there.

“Hm?”

At that moment, Hirako noticed something. Though it was quite far away, there was spiritual pressure that seemed to be heading to the place where the Arrancars were rampaging, just like he was.

“Is it the Second Company moving under Captain General Kyoraku’s orders? Nah…that ain’t it.”

Though he had predicted that the Second Company would be on the move as a result of Hinamori’s report, Hirako was dubious it was them; that would’ve been too strange. The nature of that spiritual pressure he sensed just seemed odd.

“Well, for starters, it doesn’t feel the same as a Soul Reaper’s.”

At its base, it had the same nature as a Soul Reaper’s spiritual pressure. In the living world, where he would have been able to visualize its Reiraku, he thought it likely would have been red in color, but if he were to be exact, the red would be interwoven with more complex colors.

“Are they the same as the Visoreds…? No, that’s not it either. It’s something completely different.”

Hirako almost stopped, but he couldn’t just abandon his path toward the Arrancars, so he kept heading in that direction as he tried to cross paths with the other presence that was coming through.

After adjusting his speed in order to slip into the path of the mystery spiritual pressure, Hirako could see it clearly.

“Huh? Who the heck are you?” Hirako muttered unintentionally, still moving at high speed.

A lone child wearing clothing similar to a shihakusho had made an appearance. That Soul Reaper, who could easily be perceived as either a boy or a girl, noticed Hirako running beside them and put on a happy smile, remarking, “Whoa. You’re not from the Thirteen Court Guard Companies, are you?! It’s nice to meet you. My name is Hikone Ubuginu!”

The child’s shunpo didn’t miss a beat as they politely greeted Hirako. Though he was taken aback for a moment, when Hirako realized the person he had come across was someone he could at least communicate with, he felt relief—and, simultaneously, a strong sense of caution in his chest.

What is with this kid? That’s some spiritual pressure.

Sensing the volume of spiritual pressure coming from the child’s small physique, Hirako guessed that Hikone was in fact something else in the form of a child.

Of course, I couldn’t claim this kid is on the same level as Aizen or Ichigo, but… I am at least sure the kid’s dangerous.

This was an enigmatic Soul Reaper who possessed a spiritual pressure that was anything but ordinary. If this was what the child was like when not fully developed, what would they be like as an adult? Pondering this, Hirako decided that for the time being he would try to converse with the kid in order to tease out more information.

“Well, I was wondering about your name, but there’s something else I wanted to ask you about. Those clothes look very similar to a soldier’s garb, but they’re not from the Thirteen Court Guard Companies, are they? In fact, you don’t have a company number.”

“You’re right! I am Lord Tokinada Tsunayashiro’s retainer!”

“A re—what now?”

Though he poked fun at the child’s old-fashioned word, Hirako’s caution had immediately heightened when he comprehended the name he’d just heard.

Tsunayashiro! So this kid is related to the Four Great Noble Clans!

Though Hirako had spent some time slipping away to the living world, he was a veteran in the current Thirteen Court Guard Companies. Because of that, he was one of the people who fully understood the Four Great Noble Clan’s absolute power; he knew they weren’t all openhearted like Yoruichi Shihoin or unfailingly loyal like Byakuya Kuchiki. And among them, the Tsunayashiro family was like all the negative aspects of the Seireitei aristocracy rolled into one.

He decided he wanted to avoid getting involved if at all possible, particularly after briefly recalling that he’d heard the Tsunayashiro family had distanced themselves from the Thirteen Court Guard Companies because of an incident from several hundred years ago involving a slaughtered colleague.

I’m pretty sure that was the incident involving Tosen.

This won’t do. All I can sense is trouble.

Regardless, it wasn’t as though he could wave goodbye to Hikone here and now, so he continued to speak in a friendly manner to draw out more information. “Well, sure. So what business does a distinguished retainer of the Tsunayashiro have in the Rukongai? There are some fearsome ghosties rampaging around there right now, you know?”

“Yes, sir! I know those ghosts! Just before this they almost killed me!”

“What?”

Hikone had answered without missing a beat, and Hirako gaped in exasperation. He had started to feel somewhat frightened about Hikone’s potential. Though Hirako was moving at nearly his top speed, the child was not only keeping up with him but didn’t seem even the slightest bit out of breath.

“What is going on here? The observation room staff are practically stealing their salaries if they haven’t noticed everyone coming in willy-nilly like this.”

“No, I went to Hueco Mundo on my own! I went to become the king of Hueco Mundo, but the Arrancars got mad at me and beat me up!”

Hearing Hikone saying such preposterous things, Hirako could barely keep himself from reflexively blurting out, “This must be a joke.”

It’d be great if it were just a joke, but I think this kid is being serious.

“Why would you become the king of Hueco Mundo? Aren’t you a Soul Reaper?”

“Yes! I’m going to become king of the Soul Reapers…I’m going to be the Reio!”

“What now?”

“That’s why Lord Tokinada said I have to be respectful to the Zero Company and Thirteen Court Guard Companies that will protect me in the future! That’s why I honor everyone in the Court Guard! Oh, and I’ll become king of the humans too! Lord Tokinada said he would let me! I’m so happy!”

Hikone had the expression of a young child anticipating a present from Santa Claus, and Hirako narrowed his eyes, feeling a chill.

Nope, nope, nope. This isn’t any ordinary trouble—this is the eye of a hurricane.

If some random kid had said such things, this all would have seemed like a silly joke. But the unnatural vacillations of the spiritual pressure from the Soul Reaper keeping pace with him made Hirako’s instincts scream that the child spoke the truth.

In that case…it makes no difference whether I retreat or keep on going. If I’m actually in the eye of the storm, then I might even be able to change something.

I’ve seriously drawn the short straw here. I keep doing that, don’t I?

Hirako composed himself and let out a short sigh. “Hey now, are you sure you should let the cat out of the bag regarding such important matters? Won’t you get in trouble with Lord Tokinada?”

“No, it’s fine! I was really worried before, when I spoke about it without thinking, but Lord Tokinada said, ‘I don’t mind if you speak candidly about it, since everyone will soon know.’ And he gave me permission!”

“Everyone will know about it?”

“Yes! Lord Tokinada ordered me that if anyone laughs or puts up a fuss, I must use force to convince them! But…you’re not going to laugh about me saying I’ll become king?”

Hikone asked him in such a nervous tone, Hirako felt an instinctive unease as he answered honestly, “Laughing about that would be idiotic. But it’s also not something to be angry about.”

Hikone’s face sparkled happily. The child looked at Hirako in a way that made him feel empty somehow and said, “That’s good! You seem like a good person, so I didn’t really want to use my sword on you!”

Hikone glanced at the zanpaku-to hanging at their hip. Although Hirako felt a sinister air from the unusual zanpaku-to, he decided now wasn’t the right time to ask about it and inquired about something else instead. “Oh, sure… So are you a boy or a girl? I can’t tell from how you look.”

Hirako had asked straightforwardly; Hikone continued to smile and replied, “Yes. Lord Tokinada said, ‘You are the beginning and the end, so you need no reproductive function, or gender, or development. That is the way you were made’! So I don’t really know!”

“I see. Well, the inner workings of living things are complex, after all. I’m sure that must be a factor.”

Several disturbing pieces of information embedded in the words Hikone had just uttered caused Hirako’s distrust of the man named Tokinada Tsunayashiro to skyrocket.

Though it seems this kid isn’t actually a bad apple.

At the same time, there was no reason for Hirako to let down his guard when it came to the kid in front of his eyes.

With someone like this, the fact that they don’t have bad intentions is actually worse.

Hirako didn’t relax the speed of his shunpo as he felt the presence of the Arrancars he was steadily approaching and scowled as he said to himself, “How am I supposed to deal with this situation once I get there…?”

≡

The Rukongai

Grimmjow had once completely stopped Luppi Antenor’s enterprises as an Arrancar. Grimmjow’s arm had been restored by Orihime Inoue, who had been forcibly summoned by Aizen. The skin on his back and the No.6 carved there was restored right on the spot. That occasion had made Luppi and Grimmjow both sexta Espada simultaneously, but the redundancy was put to rest just a few seconds later. Feeling perplexed and irritated, when Luppi had tried to ask what Grimmjow’s intent was in restoring the number on his back, he had ended up stabbed through the chest in an unambiguous response.

“Just this. Bye bye, ex number six.”

Grimmjow’s words and an enormous spiritual pressure that rose from inside his chest: those were Luppi’s final memories as an Espada.

I had a thirst.

When he had been brought back to consciousness by Mayuri Kurotsuchi, he seemed somewhat removed, but Luppi hadn’t forgotten that hatred from his previous lifetime. He hadn’t forgiven anyone who had looked down on him or embarrassed him in the past—not a single one of them. He schemed and planned in secret, waiting for his chance to take revenge.

I had a thirst.

That was how he thought he had felt, at least.

When he was deployed to an actual battle as part of the Kurotsuchi Corpse Unit, he ended up doubting himself.

Toshiro Hitsugaya.

In a past battle in Karakura Town, that was the name of the first opponent who brought Luppi down. Luppi had learned the Soul Reaper’s name after being resurrected. He remembered well the words he had yelled when he had withdrawn from Hitsugaya.

“Don't forget my face. Next time we meet, I’ll twist your little head off and smash it!”

He hadn’t just been bluffing—his words were loaded with heartfelt hatred. Though he had been careless, Luppi himself recognized that his opponent had been strong. However, even with that understanding, he decided it was something he must do—that, in order to remain himself, he needed to tear that captain in a child’s body into shreds.

An incurable thirst.

Their opportunity for a reunion had come even sooner than he could have imagined. As part of the Kurotsuchi Corpse Unit, he had been thrust onto the battlefield with Dordoni and the others fighting against Toshiro Hitsugaya, who had unexpectedly appeared before them as one of the Quincy’s pawns. As a result of the Quincy’s abilities, the Soul Reapers had been turned into zombies and made a stand as peerless, atrocious enemies. However the moment he had seen that, Luppi realized the urge to destroy in his heart was cooling.

What?

Why are you already broken?

You were supposed to be my plaything. I was supposed to break you!

The Soul Reaper who had appeared after that was another he remembered fighting—Rangiku Matsumoto. In the past, when he had confronted her in Karakura Town, he had commented that she had a “killer body” and tried to skewer her with an untold number of needles. Luppi’s taste in bodies hadn’t changed since then, but since she had been turned into a moving corpse, her mind was of course completely broken. Although he had fought under Mayuri’s orders, the excitement and urge to destroy that he’d experienced in the past were gone, and he didn’t even experience the glee of crushing someone weaker than him.

An unfulfillable thirst.

The husk company, huh?

After the war with the Quincies was over, and even after he had heard that Hitsugaya, Rangiku, and others had been returned to their previous states, he hadn’t been driven by the will to go kill them again.

That might be right for the way I am now.

It’s like I don’t actually feel like I’m living…

He spent his days working behind the scenes to capture newly born Hollows with unique abilities and doing odd jobs for the Department of Research and Development.

Lately, he hadn’t been put under restraints except while working, but that was probably just because the surveillance system that Mayuri Kurotsuchi made had become foolproof. Based on Mayuri’s personality, Luppi understood that it wouldn’t have been odd for Mayuri to have inserted a self-detonating bomb inside the Arrancar. However, even without that, had Mayuri, for example, ordered him to fight Toshiro Hitsugaya, he doubted his heart would have leapt.

The thirst.

It spread.

While obeying the instructions he was given, his days were filled with insatiable thirst. But there was nothing to thirst for. There was nothing he wanted to fill the hole that had opened in him as a Hollow. What had withered away might have been his desire itself—the one fundamental nature of a Hollow.

Though doubt floated into his mind, Luppi didn’t care. If things kept up like this, he would just end up being used as a tool by the Soul Reapers until they were done with him, and both his mind and body would shrivel up and vanish. All he felt was resignation.

Yeah, I thought I would dry out and shrivel up, hollowly withering away, and that I’d have the sorry fate of turning into the sands of Hueco Mundo in the end.

On this day, just when he had been wondering what meaning there was in continuing to live out the dry days like this—when he had sunk into a negativity his previous self could never have conceived of…

Grimmjow appeared in front of his eyes, and all of the thirst disappeared.

There was dread of the one who had killed him.

There was hatred for the one who looked down upon him.

There was joy in finding the thing he needed to destroy.

The emotions that seemed to have run dry burst forth from inside of him. It was almost as though the piece of himself he had lost—his hole—was overflowing from a well deep within.

The Gran Rey Cero that Grimmjow had released severely damaged several of his tentacles. Though Luppi’s main body was bleeding, he didn’t flinch. Rather, as though his anger about the injury had amplified his spiritual pressure, the speed of his feelers increased. Grimmjow spoke even more boldly and provokingly despite being outnumbered and continuing to receive blows. The slashed feelers spurted blood that spattered on Grimmjow’s cheek.

Luppi instantly transformed each of his eight tentacles into bristling expanses of needles and sharp blades, rotating them rapidly like helicopter blades in order to strike Grimmjow.

“Cut it out with those weak attacks!”

For his part, Grimmjow purposefully leapt around in the intervals between the attacks. Swiftly kicking Luppi away, he tried to follow up by releasing another Gran Rey Cero, but—

“Huh!”

As Luppi collapsed, the tips of his eight tentacles released a stream of Ceros, one after another. Of course, the singular rays alone didn’t have the power of a Gran Rey Cero, but as if he had learned from Grimmjow’s technique of increasing their spiritual pressure by mixing his blood into them, he was able to produce flashes that were denser than a common Cero and assaulted the enemy Arrancar with the force of a Bala bullet.

“Like I said, that’s weak!”

Grimmjow stopped repelling the attacks, and with no thought of getting injured, he unleashed his words.

“Grind, Pantera!”

≡

Hueco Mundo

“Are you really going to go too, Halibel? Do you really think it’s okay to leave Hueco Mundo alone?”

“I’m just going to gauge the Soul Society’s intentions. I’ll leave it to you to get Grimmjow back.”

As she was replying to Nelliel, Halibel had opened a garganta under Las Noches’s canopy.

Their continued investigation confirmed that the trail of Grimmjow’s spiritual pressure led to the Soul Society. Though they needed to bring him back before it became a bigger problem, it was likely that all of them moving at once would be seen as a hostile act by the Soul Society.

Halibel, who understood that there was no point in creating a meaningless dispute with their current forces, had decided that the minimum number of people—that is, just herself—would head out to “negotiate” with the Soul Society. Her Fracciónes—Apache, Rose and Sun-Sun—were persistent in attempting to accompany her, but in the end they stayed behind once convinced that they were needed to defend the place in Halibel’s absence.

“Leave it to me to protect the place. Lord Halibel, please try not to overextend yourself…”

The anxiety that wavered in Sun-Sun’s seemingly composed voice was likely rooted in an incident in her past when she had been captured by Yhwach. Knowing that, Halibel felt bad about her own feeling of inadequacy and attempted to assuage Sun-Sun and the others.

“Sorry. In order to make sure that never happens again, I need to do this now.”

Speaking directly to the Fracciónes, she brought up a speculation that had been building in her mind. “It’s possible that Soul Reaper child…could become an enemy like Yhwach if we don’t do anything.”

As Halibel and Nelliel disappeared into the garganta, a girl who was observing the flow of their spiritual pressures from a distance quietly muttered, “Looks like they’ve made a move…”

In response to Liltotto Lamperd—the girl with the serious tone of voice—Giselle Gewelle, who was fooling around with the zombified Bambietta Basterbine behind Lil, blurted out in a lighthearted way, “What? Did they, seriously?”

“Wuh…Candy…Minnie…where?”

Bambietta had spoken unclearly, as though she were sleep-talking, and Liltotto brought up a conjecture in response to the delirious comment: “Are they headed to the living world or to the Soul Society? If this is related to that weird Soul Reaper, then it’s probably the latter. In that case, this might be our chance to get back together with Candy and Minnie.”

“So, what are we doing? Are we just going to go?”

“Yeah, but we’ll wait a while before we get really rowdy. First we need to figure out where Candy and Minnie are, while those Hollows are distracting the Soul Reapers.”

And then the survivor Quincies were also on the move.

They were unaware that those they had gone to aid, Candice and Meninas, were in fact in the midst of a battle with “those Hollows.”

≡

The Soul Society,
First Company Barracks

“I’m going to head out for a bit too. Could you keep an eye on things here, Nanao, my dear?”

With Kyoraku in front of her, putting on his woven hat, Nanao asked curiously, “What? Where are you heading to? I didn’t think you had plans for anything like that today…”

“To Central 46. I’m making a quick stop at the Gilded Seal Aristocrat Assembly.”

“What?!”

When Nanao realized the significance of where he was going, she looked at Kyoraku nervously.

“Don’t look so scared. It’s not like I’m heading to my death or anything.”

“That is true…but I thought you still needed more time to prepare?”

“Yeah, I wanted to dig around a little more, to be honest. But after hearing that report from Momo, I felt a little uneasy.”

Kyoraku quietly turned his eyes down and smiled as though to comfort Nanao.

“Well, Ukitake might get mad at me about it.”

“You mean…Captain Ukitake?”

In response to Nanao’s words, a pained smile came over Kyoraku’s face. “Since he was such a people person. Well, I think that’s the good part of Ukitake that I myself was lacking.”

Reminiscing about the deceased, Kyoraku turned to memories further in the past.

“This is from back in the day, but Ukitake, that Tokinada, and I were classmates at Reijutsuin. Tokinada didn’t stand out and was neither praised nor scolded by old man Yama. He just went through life like a shadow… Ukitake would talk to him like he was normal. I think Ukitake might have thought they were friends. Even after we graduated—until that thing happened…no, maybe even after that too.”

By “that thing,” he was likely referring to the incident in which Tokinada had slaughtered his wife and colleague. Nanao, who had inferred that, didn’t inquire about it and quietly waited for Kyoraku to continue.

“Just because we were graduates of the same class, Ukitake gave the benefit of the doubt to Tokinada. Ukitake thought if Tokinada just had a change of scenery, if he just got some sort of opportunity, he could definitely be reformed. He said he was sure Tokinada would confront in his heart the crime he had committed.”

“Well…”

“I wasn’t able to believe that. But I also hadn’t been able to kill Tokinada back then. The time has come for me to take responsibility for not making a decision. That’s all there is to it.”

Though she felt disquieted when he said the words “back then,” Nanao felt that Kyoraku’s resolve was held in that short phrase, and she didn’t question his intentions.

“Not only did I push work on him he would rather not have done, I’m starting to wonder if it might just have ended up a fool’s errand. I might have done an injustice to Hisagi.”

As he was saying that, Okikiba, who had finished giving instructions to the Second Company, had come back.

“Hey there, Okikiba. I’m heading out for a…what happened?”

Kyoraku noticed Okikiba’s grave expression, and the second assistant captain seemed tense as he gave his report. “It seems that Shuhei Hisagi, who headed to Karakura Town, has applied for a Gentei Kaijo.”

“…A Gentei Kaijo? Things can’t be going smoothly.”

“Apparently it’s because an unidentified enemy force has appeared…but according to the observation room, the communication was interrupted when they were about to give him permission. Furthermore, all of the observation equipment for Karakura Town has been shut off, and Karakura Town is currently in isolation as a result…”

Faced with a report that was even worse than he had imagined, Kyoraku appeared somber. He kept his composure as he replied, “What happened to private Yuki Ryunosuke and Shino Madarame, whom we dispatched to Karakura Town?”

“Yes, communication with them has also been cut off.”

“Please get in contact with the Soul Reapers in the surrounding towns and instruct them to report on the current situation… Nanao, I’m sorry, but since our problems on both fronts have intensified, would you go too?”

“Yes, sir!”

Nodding intently, Nanao and Okikiba left the room to prepare. After he saw them off, Kyoraku wore a more serious expression than usual as he muttered, “Looks like things have taken a turn for the worse…

“Tokinada might have already got the jump on us.”