Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 60 - Have You Considered Taking the Position of Captain-Commander

"...Of course." Mayuri Kurotsuchi's grin stretched wide. "Why would I do something like that?"

"Better not."

In truth, from the very moment Mayuri appeared, countless strange spirit particles, invisible to the naked eye and undetectable even by Uryu Ishida's Quincy spiritual senses, had been drifting steadily toward Ichigo.

The instant they drew close, his spiritual pressure ground them to dust. Not a trace remained. Completely ineffective.

Tch... as expected, no good...

Near-perfect concealment came at a price: it couldn't withstand spiritual pressure this overwhelming. That was the greatest flaw in Mayuri Kurotsuchi's creations.

As Captain of Squad 12 and second-generation Director of the Research and Development Department, Mayuri privately regarded every existence other than itself as a potential threat to Seireitei, the other Captains included. So, habitually, Mayuri had been planting various technological creations on the Captains' persons through all manner of methods.

Years of trial and error had made one thing clear: First-Class Spiritual Rank Captains couldn't be tampered with while maintaining concealment at the same time. The probe on Ichigo had been nothing more than a field test of the latest creation, and one final, stubborn gamble.

...Someone reckless had once asked Mayuri Kurotsuchi whether tampering with the Captains was truly for the protection of Seireitei, or merely to satisfy certain private desires.

The answer was naturally the latt, the former. Mayuri stated that, as a Captain, one was naturally devoted wholeheartedly to Seireitei.

"I'm heading over now, Uryu."

Ichigo patted Uryu on the shoulder before leaving, used a pulse of spiritual pressure to erase a few strange objects in the process, then followed Mayuri Kurotsuchi out of the training hall.

Along the way, plenty of people greeted Mayuri, yet not one of them lingered. First, because Mayuri's mad-scientist reputation was thoroughly ingrained. Soul Reapers didn't dare get too close, terrified they'd wake up one day inexplicably inside some secret room in Squad 12.

Rumor had it that a considerable number of Soul Reapers claimed to have seen Mayuri's malicious grin while half-asleep, only to wake up still in their own rooms with nothing wrong with their bodies. This collective dreaming incident had earned a spot among the Gotei 13's top ten paranormal (?) events of the past century.

The second reason was a string of recent affairs demanding attention, including but not limited to the handover of Captain duties, the Central 46 aftermath, the riots in Rukongai, the stirrings among the noble families, and more...

The walk passed in silence. The distance between squads wasn't particularly great, and before long Ichigo had followed Mayuri Kurotsuchi into the First Division barracks.

"Hey! Renji!" In the old-fashioned corridor, Ichigo spotted a somewhat familiar figure. "How's the recovery coming along?"

"Pretty much healed up." Renji Abarai answered. "You here for the Captains' meeting too, Ichigo?"

It was a little strange. Their first encounter had been nothing but hostility, one had even crushed the other's Zanpakuto. But after Ichigo rescued Renji the day before, and the two fought side by side (?) yesterday, their relationship had warmed up fast.

Ichigo especially. After the battle, he'd casually thrown an arm around Renji's shoulders and called him "red-haired monkey" over and over, declaring that Renji was his right-hand man from now on. Once they made it big, one would oversee Soul Society and the other the World of the Living, a two-headed operation.

"Yeah, not sure what it's about." Ichigo shrugged. "We already said everything that needed saying yesterday."

After the battle, without dragging things out, Ichigo had gone through everything he knew, primarily the Quincy side of things.

Because Sosuke Aizen had been involved before, those in the World of the Living hadn't been able to share that information with Soul Society. Even if they had, chances were no one would have believed them anyway, and it would have exposed their own location on top of that. Nothing but trouble.

As for tracking down the quincy, Kisuke Urahara had been working on it without any results. After the Auswählen six years ago, the only quincy remaining were Ryuken Ishida's family and Masaki Kurosaki, and neither had had any contact with other pure-blood quincy.

"There must be something else." Renji urged. "We're just waiting on you two—Captain Zaraki's already here."

"Oh, right!"

The two of them headed into the Captains' meeting room. Just as Renji had said, every Captain except for the three defectors was already present.

Worth noting: all the Captains were in peak condition. After the unified front following yesterday's battle, Orihime Inoue had treated the assembled Captains, healing the injuries of several in one go. That terrifying ability had drawn even Captain-Commander Yamamoto's eye.

"You're late! Mayuri!"

Sui-Feng of the Second Division snapped the rebuke. Ichigo looked over and found no hostility directed at himself, this was simply Sui-Feng's personality, and not a particularly endearing one.

Ichigo said nothing. Mayuri Kurotsuchi, long accustomed to Sui-Feng's attitude, walked to the assigned position without comment.

"Everyone's here. Let's begin."

And so the Gotei 13 convened its first post-battle Captains' meeting. Captain-Commander Yamamoto at the head, the other Captains arranged in two rows on either side, and Ichigo positioned at the very far end of the center, facing Yamamoto from across the full length of the room.

"...Then the arrangements for post-battle matters will be as stated." Captain-Commander Yamamoto concluded. "Mayuri, liaise extensively with Kisuke Urahara on research going forward. The spatial lockdown can be set aside for now—locating the quincy takes priority."

"Tch..." A displeased click of the tongue. "Fine."

"Set aside your prejudices and make sure results are achieved!" Yamamoto emphasized again. "Yhwach, the progenitor of the quincy, is an extremely powerful enemy, even I nearly came to ruin against him back then."

"After that war, word came from some unknown source claiming that Yhwach's true power was far beyond what had been shown, sealed away for reasons unknown. Most likely that was just the quincy talking tough and refusing to accept defeat, but the possibility that Yhwach is also a Transcendent must be taken into account."

"Understood."

"Now then. Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Ah—huh?"

Ichigo jolted at suddenly being called by name. He hadn't followed much of what Yamamoto had been saying just now. Internal Seireitei matters.

If he could have followed along, he might have paid attention. But this was the kind of thing he couldn't understand at all and had no desire to understand, so right up until this moment, he'd been completely zoning out.

"Given that the prime culprit of this incident was Sosuke Aizen, that we were all deceived by him, and that you yourself showed considerable restraint in your battles with the Captains," Yamamoto said slowly, "the matter of you and your companions entering Soul Society and Seireitei without authorization, as well as injuring the Captains, will not be pursued."

"Isn't that only natural?"

"So..." The unhurried pace continued. Captain-Commander Yamamoto's eyes, clouded with age yet burning with sharp light, came to rest on him.

"Have you considered taking the position of Captain-Commander?"

➤ Next: A Few Odds and Ends After the Battle