Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 167 - An Unexpected Emergency

Wayne was already at the Senkaimon when the hour came. According to what he'd gathered, the gate would open in about an hour, after that, all the students would be coming back from the exam. With nothing to do, he settled into a nearby pavilion to wait.

"Tsukishiro." While Wayne waited, a flash of lake-blue hair appeared from nowhere. He turned toward the voice, and through his dark glasses, he saw Mizusue heading over with the clear intention of enjoying a show, a bouquet of flowers in her hands, from who knew where.

"Heh. Knew you wouldn't bring flowers." She tossed the bouquet at him. Wayne caught it on instinct, then looked down at it with open distaste.

"I just came to watch. Was all this really necessary?"

"She's a girl. Girls like this kind of thing, flowers, pretty things." Mizusue had the expression of someone who had come specifically to see a scene unfold, and looked like she wanted it as dramatic as possible.

"Giving you a bouquet to present is the bare minimum to keep you from embarrassing yourself. You'd better put on a good show when the time comes, understand?" She gave Wayne an exaggerated clap on the shoulder.

"...What a hassle." Wayne scratched the back of his head. No matter how he looked at her, Mizusue reminded him of a matchmaker trying to push someone into a blind date.

Still, he owed her. He didn't say anything more and walked straight toward the Senkaimon.

By now, a sizable crowd had already gathered in front of it.

Beyond the students of common birth, the noble children had all brought servants or family members to wait at the gate, much like parents from a previous life waiting to pick up their children after exams. For everyone standing here, successfully walking back through the Senkaimon meant officially becoming a Soul Reaper. Those who didn't come back at all were, in most cases, never coming back.

Watching the crowd grow thicker, Wayne eased back a step or two. He was waiting, yes, but also thinking, turning over how he was going to explain the situation with his Zanpakuto to Yagami China when she came through. After mulling it over, though, it didn't seem like such a big deal. Going to the Cave of Trials didn't guarantee an awakening, after all. And it wasn't as if a student who hadn't gone through the trial could never awaken a Zanpakuto either.

He was still turning it over when the time came and the Senkaimon opened.

Everyone's eyes snapped toward the gate. Waiting for their family heads, their younger members, to step through from the other side.

One minute. Two minutes. Ten minutes.

Time kept moving. The Senkaimon stayed silent. Not a sound from inside, as though they had opened a door to nothing.

"What happened? Why isn't anyone coming out?"

"Did they connect to the wrong site? Did the gate fail to link up?"

The servants and family heads murmured among themselves. Those with connections already knew the exam site this year was Hueco Mundo. They also knew the difficulty had been set far above anything in previous years.

The unease was spreading. Had something gone wrong?

While the crowd was still muttering, a lone figure stepped through from the other side. He moved slowly, each step a small sway, head hung low, face hidden. Only when he had fully cleared the gate did the crowd get a look at him. A student. One of the ones who had gone in.

"Otsuka! That's Otsuka Oyaetsu — from the Otsuka clan!"

Several noble children recognized him at once. Wayne knew him too. The same Otsuka Oyaetsu who had lost to both Kitagawa Sawa and Yagami China in the tournament.

But even through his dark glasses, Wayne could see immediately that something was wrong. And then it was confirmed. Otsuka's legs buckled beneath him, and he went down hard with a heavy thud. Only now could everyone see the full picture.

He was covered in wounds from head to toe. His right arm was gone entirely. The flesh along his waist and thigh had been torn away in ragged, shredded strips, as though something had bitten it clean off. His Reiatsu flickered thin and unstable. His breathing was barely there. He looked like he could stop at any moment.

"Move back! Everyone move back! Medical unit!" The Soul Reaper guards stationed on either side of the Senkaimon shouted outward. Wayne was already moving, Shunpo carrying him forward in an instant. He shoved the bouquet into the arms of the nearest guard and dropped to his knees beside Otsuka, examining the wounds.

That torn flesh. Bitten off. Clearly the work of a Hollow.

What the hell had happened out there?

"Out of the way! 4th Division, 7th Seat Mizusue!" Mizusue came sprinting over at the sound of the commotion. She saw Wayne crouched over the motionless Otsuka. Saw those wounds. Her expression shifted in an instant. "Bloom, Kanzaki-hime!"

Waves of milky-white light radiated from her Zanpakuto, washing over Otsuka and enveloping him completely.

"How did this happen." She worked as she spoke. "What on earth went on out there."

"From the wounds, it looks like something tore or bit through him with tremendous force." Wayne pointed to the injuries. "Multiple fractures across the body, but no slash wounds. Markings like these, something powerful overwhelmed him. A Hollow."

"That's impossible!" Mizusue's brow creased hard. If a Hollow with this kind of raw power had appeared, the 12th Division should have flagged it long before now. How could there have been no response at all?

"..." Wayne didn't argue. He kept his eyes on Otsuka and layered his own Kaido alongside Mizusue's Kanzaki-hime, treating him in tandem.

Under the combined effort of two skilled Kaido users, Otsuka Oyaetsu regained consciousness.

"Ngh..." A pained groan.

"Otsuka. Wake up. It's me." Wayne patted his face, trying to bring him around.

"Hina... Hinamori?" Otsuka's gaze sharpened slightly. "I'm... still alive?"

"Tell me what happened."

"Right... save... save them. We were... attacked. Hollows. Swarms of them. Around... a hundred... All the teachers... leading the group... dead. All of them. Many students... all at the same time... hit by Hollow... poison. Their bodies suddenly started... leaking Hollow Reiatsu. Like they were... parasitized. Their faces... starting to... grow... Hollow... Masks... Hurry... save them, "

His voice cut off. He went under again, sinking into deep unconsciousness.

"This is bad." Mizusue had been tracking every broken word, and now the full picture settled over her. The 12th Division hadn't detected the assault. The supervising teachers hadn't sent back any distress signal. The casualties had to be catastrophic.

"You two." She turned immediately to the guards on either side of the gate. "Clear everyone without authorization out of this area. Lock down the entire vicinity of the Senkaimon. No one comes through except Soul Reapers. Not a single person."

"Yes!" Both guards answered at once. Whatever was happening here was already far outside anything they were equipped to handle.

"Tsukishiro, keep treating him. I need to send word." Mizusue drove Kanzaki-hime into the ground beside her and rolled up her sleeves, baring two pale, slender arms. She bit her finger and traced winding lines of blood across her forearms. Both palms extended forward. A faint blue rectangular frame materialized in the air before her.

"Net of black and white, bridge of the twenty-second, sash of the sixty-sixth. Footprint, distant thunder, pointed peak, return to earth, night-crouching, sea of clouds, ranks of azure. Paint the grand circle full and shoot straight into the heavens, Bakudō #77, Tenteikūra!"

HUMMM!

Mizusue swept her arms wide. Dark red threads laced through with her Reiatsu radiated outward from the central frame in every direction. When the final syllable left her lips, the entire network blazed bright all at once, and in that instant, every captain-level and lieutenant-level officer across all of Seireitei felt it.

"Link... established." Mizusue's face had gone pale. Connecting to more than twenty people in a single breath had cost an enormous amount of her Reiatsu. She was only a 7th Seat.

"All captains, lieutenants, and acting officers of the Gotei 13. This is Yui Mizusue, 7th Seat of the 4th Division. The situation is urgent, and I have no choice but to transmit this emergency message. Three minutes ago, Tsukishiro Hinamori of Shin'ō Academy and I discovered sixth-year exam student Otsuka Oyaetsu at the Senkaimon, critically injured. From his account, the sixth-year graduation exam has gone catastrophically wrong. Over a hundred Hollows attacked the exam group. All supervising teachers are dead. The students have been inflicted with a severe poison, their bodies appear to have been invaded and mutated by Hollow Reiatsu. I formally request that the captains convene an emergency meeting to address this matter at once."

Across Seireitei, every captain and lieutenant who received the message left their division barracks and flash-stepped toward the Captain-Commander's meeting hall.

Within moments, all captains had assembled and stood in formation.

Old Man Yamamoto stood before them.

"4th Division Captain, Retsu Unohana." His expression didn't shift. He was confirming facts, nothing more. "Is the information transmitted by your 7th Seat, Yui Mizusue, accurate?"

"That child did go to the Senkaimon early this morning, saying she wanted to watch some romantic drama play out." Retsu Unohana considered it. "If this message came from the gate at this hour, I believe it is accurate. That child's character is not one given to lying about something like this."

"12th Division Captain, Mayuri Kurotsuchi. What of the monitoring for the Hueco Mundo exam?"

"Everything was normal." Kurotsuchi's eyes narrowed slightly. "But that was ten minutes ago."

"Oh?" The deliberate pause landed. "Explain."

"Ten minutes ago, the Reiatsu readings from the exam students were all within normal range. But within this past ten minutes — for reasons I cannot yet explain — Hollow Reiatsu signatures in that area surged from roughly twenty to over two hundred within the span of five minutes. The students' Reiatsu readings simultaneously dropped by more than half. As for why, I have no explanation at present. My current hypothesis is that a Hollow capable of masking the presence of others appeared on that side, rendering our instruments ineffective."

"5th Division Captain, Sōsuke Aizen." Yamamoto's gaze moved to the side. Aizen stood listening with careful attention. "Decades ago, you reported an encounter with a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow possessing dual characteristics, spatial manipulation and concealment. Is that correct?"

"Yes, Commander-General." Aizen stepped forward. "His name is Ace Wayne. He possesses the power of a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow and carries extensive combat experience. Captain Tōsen, my lieutenant Gin Ichimaru, and I engaged him simultaneously. We sustained serious injuries, but managed to drive him back, though we were unable to finish him."

"In your assessment, could this incident — Hollows appearing without warning, evading our detection — also be his work?" Yamamoto looked at him steadily.

In truth, after Aizen had returned from that engagement with heavy wounds and filed his report, the Gotei 13 had dispatched a large contingent to the battlefield. Through the 12th Division's analysis, spatial distortion in the Reiatsu of that area had been confirmed. That confirmation was what had led the Commander-General to accept Aizen's account.

As for why he had accepted it so readily, on one hand, Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu had already buried every piece of evidence that could have been used against him. On the other, the name Ace Wayne was not new. It had surfaced over a hundred years ago, reported to the Commander-General by the 5th Division captain of that era, a man named Shinji Hirako.

A pity Hirako hadn't told the full truth. If he had, the one facing execution now would have been Aizen.

"In my assessment, it is highly likely. However, to confirm it with certainty, I would wish to conduct a personal investigation on-site." Aizen lowered his head and buried the ambition burning inside him without a trace.

"Very well." Old Man Yamamoto had made his decision. "The 5th Division and 10th Division captains will lead their members to the exam site to investigate and carry out rescue operations. The 11th Division captain will lead his members to eliminate all Hollows within a hundred leagues of the exam site. The 4th Division captain will lead her members to establish a medical unit and render aid, depart immediately. The 12th Division will maintain continuous surveillance. If a Vasto Lorde-class Hollow is detected, report it at once."

"Yes!"

On the other side, the Tenteikūra network collapsed. Mizusue was drenched in sweat, her face white, and she dropped to the ground, the Bakudō having bled her nearly dry. When it was done, she forced herself back to her feet, walked to Wayne's side, and resumed directing Kanzaki-hime to treat Otsuka.

"A Bakudō in the seventies, Mizusue. Don't push yourself too hard. Rest." Wayne didn't turn around. He simply increased the flow of his own treatment.

"You're the one who shouldn't push too hard." She was still catching her breath. "You're worried, aren't you? About China."

"Hm?" Wayne turned to look at her. Even through the dark glasses, Mizusue seemed to feel the weight of that gaze.

"Tch. You're blind, why are you turning those unfocused eyes on me like that?" She wiped the sweat sliding down her cheek. "Don't tell me you're not worried at all. Even a stone would feel something warm after spending time with a girl as genuine and easy to talk to as Yagami China."

"Mizusue." Wayne dropped his gaze back to Otsuka. "Now isn't really the time for this. We need to bring Otsuka back around. He's the only one who can tell us more."

"You know, you really—"

WHOOSH!

Mizusue was about to say something more when she felt it, a wave of Reiatsu pressing in from behind. She turned.

10th Division Captain Isshin Shiba. Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto. 5th Division Captain Sōsuke Aizen. Lieutenant Gin Ichimaru. An entire contingent of division members. All of them arriving at once.

"Captain Shiba. Captain Aizen." Mizusue greeted them.

"Yeah." Isshin Shiba responded, glancing sidelong at Wayne, still crouched over Otsuka, still working, and at Otsuka himself, collapsed and unmoving. "Current situation?"

"Condition stabilized. Still unconscious." Mizusue reported.

"Good work, both of you. We've got it from here." Isshin Shiba patted her on the shoulder, and at the same time quietly channeled a gentle current of Reiatsu her way. Almost immediately, some of the pallor faded from her face.

"Captain Shiba, Captain Aizen, are you heading into Hueco Mundo?" Mizusue drew a steadier breath.

"Yeah. Those kids need to be brought back." Aizen nodded.

"Then take him with you." Mizusue pointed toward Wayne. "He should be able to help."

"Isn't he..."

➤ Next: Hollow Attack — The Turning Point