At the Senkaimon in the southeastern corner of the Seireitei, Seijūrō ran through his equipment one last time.

The reishi converter was already docked above the gate frame, humming low and steady. Kidō runes drifted slowly across the stone arch.

He tucked the portable reishi analyzer into his sleeve, confirmed that the Reiatsu shielding device had been calibrated for Hueco Mundo's high-density environment, and fastened the Asauchi forged by Mayuri Kurotsuchi to his hip. Emiri Tsunayashiro stood before him. For once, his folding fan wasn't open, he held it closed with both hands, the handle resting in front of him, his handsome peach-blossom eyes blinking quietly in the morning light.

"While I'm gone, you have full authority over the Kidō Corps' daily operations. Approve the barrier inspection reports on time. Don't let the Senkaimon dispatch reviews pile up. Contact Squad 1 directly if anything comes up that you're not sure about. And — don't slack off."

"Rest easy." Emiri bowed slightly, fan still closed. "I'll handle it. I'll review the paperwork myself — no backlogs. When you return, the desk will be clear."

Seijūrō said nothing more. He nodded to him.

Byakuya Kuchiki walked over from behind Emiri.

He'd brought no attendants. The kenseikan sat neatly in his hair, the silver-white ginpaku kazahana no uzuginu hung at the side of his neck, and the white haori of the Squad 6 Captain drifted lightly in the morning breeze. He stopped in front of Seijūrō. His voice was the same as always, measured, stripped of excess, but each word had the weight of something turned over many times before it was spoken.

"Teacher. I can come with you."

"No. You have somewhere more important to be."

"Rukia just went through what happened with Kaien. She needs someone with enough standing beside her. Not to act for her — just so she knows she isn't alone. You're her elder brother, the head of the Kuchiki Clan, and the Captain of Squad 6. You can't leave."

Byakuya was quiet for a moment. His fingers curled slightly inside his sleeve. His face didn't change. After a long pause, he spoke: "The kindness you've shown the Kuchiki Clan is something I've never forgotten. Please return safely."

Then he turned to face Soi Fon, who was standing in front of the Senkaimon. She wasn't wearing the white haori of the Squad 2 Captain today. She'd changed into the same black attire she'd worn back at the Onmitsukidō training grounds.

"Captain Soi Fon." Byakuya's voice was even. "I'm entrusting Teacher's safety to you. In return, the criticism directed at you from within the Shihōin Clan: once you return, the Kuchiki Clan will silence it in the name of the foremost noble house. That is the Kuchiki Clan's promise."

"I don't need a reward." Soi Fon didn't look at him. "I'll bring him back without a hair out of place. That's my mission."

Byakuya said nothing further. He gave Soi Fon a slight nod, then stepped back to stand beside Emiri Tsunayashiro, a short distance from the gate. Seijūrō turned and walked toward the Senkaimon. The deep blue curtain of light spread open before him, the towering stone arch dense with Kidō runes that pulsed faintly with the low-frequency vibration of the reishi converter. Soi Fon followed behind him.

Just as he was about to step through, she reached out. Her fingers caught lightly at the corner of his sleeve.

"Wait."

"What is it?"

"Once we're in Hueco Mundo — don't call me Soi Fon."

"Why?"

"Safety. Hollows in Hueco Mundo have all kinds of abilities. Some can disguise themselves as companions. If we use our real names, they might pick up on our identities."

"Then what do I call you?"

She was quiet for a moment. She let go of his sleeve. Her fingers curled slightly at her side.

"Shaoling Fon."

Seijūrō repeated the name silently.

"Alright. Shaoling Fon." He paused. "Then what's my codename?"

"You don't need one."

"Didn't you just say we should use codenames?"

Soi Fon turned her head away.

"...Just leave it."

Seijūrō looked at her turned profile and didn't press.

He faced forward and stepped through. This Senkaimon ran thicker and deeper than the one leading to Inuzuri. When the curtain of light swallowed him whole, the surge of reishi that kicked up in its wake stirred the short fringe of Soi Fon's straight-cut bangs.

She stood there and watched the depths of the light. Waited. Then she tucked her cheeks, still not entirely rid of their color, into the upturned collar of her black attire.

Shaoling Fon. A name that had long since ceased to belong to the Gotei 13, spoken aloud again today, by her own mouth.

The title of Soi Fon was a shackle the Fon family had passed down through every generation. Every person who took over the family's leadership and accepted command of the Squad 2 Onmitsukidō had to put that name on and press their own name down beneath the stinger of the black hornet. Shaoling Fon could not be Soi Fon. Soi Fon had to be the Squad 2 Captain. Had to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Onmitsukidō. Had to stand in front of every person who doubted her and prove she was worthy of the title.

But she had left that title behind in the Seireitei.

The person stepping into Hueco Mundo was Shaoling Fon. Not Soi Fon.

Not the successor barely breathing under the weight of her family's expectations. Not the guard member who had spent years chasing Yoruichi's back and never once closed the distance. Not the Squad 2 Captain who had wrung herself dry just to prove something to a room full of old nobles.

Just Shaoling Fon.

She told herself: her only mission on this trip was to bring that stubborn, close-mouthed idiot back alive, the one who always tried to carry everything alone. And then, once the dust settled, maybe she wouldn't need to cover for missing request forms at the Central 46 tribunal anymore. Maybe she could find a different reason to explain herself instead of "I am the Squad 2 Captain."

She took a slow breath in front of the light curtain. Then she stepped through. The Senkaimon closed behind her, the deep blue light narrowing to a single line before vanishing into the center of the stone arch.

The gate sealed shut. The light bled away into a line and finally dissolved beneath the eternal night sky of Hueco Mundo.

Seijūrō found his footing. He let himself adjust to the reishi density, then moved forward, boots crunching quietly over familiar quartz sand. The white desert stretched out in every direction beneath the cold moon. The bare quartz trees threw twisted shadows across the ground. The air smelled of dry reishi.

Soi Fon didn't pause. Almost the same moment she finished scanning their surroundings, she dropped low and swept forward across the quartz sand, quick and nearly silent, scouting ahead for a considerable distance. As she moved, she snapped off a quick series of tactical hand signs in the air, the kind only she could read: take the left flank's perception range, keep each other in sight. The most basic echelon formation of the Onmitsukidō.

"Move out." She dropped her hand and took the lead into the desert. "While it's still 'light,' let's cover ground. Where's that abandoned cave you mentioned?"

"Northwest. Half a day on foot." Seijūrō fell into step beside her. "There are a few sheltered spots to rest along the way. I've already mapped the Gillian patrol routes."

The two of them left a pair of shallow tracks in the quartz sand behind them. The wind erased them quickly.

High on a stone cliff deep in Hueco Mundo, far enough that distance alone made them almost invisible, two figures stood at the top of a towering quartz pillar. From up there, looking out toward where Seijūrō and Soi Fon were moving, they were nothing but two tiny black specks drifting slowly across an endless white expanse.

The man had dark brown hair, loosely curled, stirred by the cold wind at that height. His gray-blue eyes had narrowed to thin slits. Sparse stubble along his jaw gave his whole face a worn, unhurried look. His hands were tucked casually inside his cloak.

The girl beside him barely reached his chest. Her light green hair was cut unevenly, and the left half of her face was covered by a nearly complete white mask. She was up on her tiptoes at the edge of the pillar, neck stretched as far as it would go, trying to see into the distance. Her cloak billowed around her.

"He's back. That guy." The man's voice was low and lazy, like he was thinking out loud.

The girl blinked. "What guy?"

"Didn't I mention him? I've been picking up on an outsider coming and going through the outer layers for a while now. Always alone, slips into the outer ring, stays a few days, then pulls back through a Garganta. Never makes a sound coming in. He finds what he's looking for and leaves, like he's trying not to wake anyone up."

He tilted his chin toward the two distant specks. "That's him. He's not alone this time. There's a slightly weaker Reiatsu with him. Light footwork. Wider perception range than his. Scouting right now."

The girl stood on tiptoe and peered hard for a long moment. The mask caught the light as she moved. Then she grabbed a fistful of the man's cloak and started pulling. "You can really see all that from here? I can't make out anything! Is his Reiatsu actually that strong? He's been coming and going by himself all this time and hasn't been eaten once, that means his Reiatsu is really stable, right? Could he handle being around us?"

"Yes."

The man resettled the cloak on his shoulder, same unhurried tone as before. "I watched him from a distance a few times when he came through. That guy is steady, deep down. Anyone else spending a few days in this reishi density would've broken. He didn't. He's moving fine. For someone I've actually seen, his Reiatsu is genuinely good."

"Then we can be friends!"

She yanked on his sleeve. "Think about it, the moment a Vasto Lorde-class gets close, ordinary Hollows get flattened. Even low-level Shinigami don't last long. Every time we try to find someone to talk to, they either bolt or they just, crumble. But this person can handle our Reiatsu! He's actually qualified to be our friend! Let's go right now,"

"Stay."

He caught her from behind, pulling her leaning upper body back onto the platform. Then he resettled his cloak and stood at the pillar's edge again, his gray-blue eyes holding on those two almost-swallowed-by-night specks for a moment longer.

"They're heading deeper into the inner circle. Toward the abandoned ruins. That short one's footwork is seasoned, not a rookie. If you go charging over there, they'll read it as hostile."

The girl slumped against the pillar edge, the eye visible below the half-mask still tracking those two specks as they crept toward the edge of the quartz forest and disappeared. She muttered under her breath: "Just trying to make a friend... why can't I go. Are we at least going to follow them, Starrk?"

Starrk pulled his cloak back around him. He crossed his arms and leaned against the pillar. His gray-blue eyes didn't move from the two faint points of light far out in the dark.

His voice came out low and slow.

"Let's follow and see."

➤ Next: 123

Chapter 123 - 123

The Soul King. Male. His true name is Adonai — drawn from the title of God revered in Christianity, "adhonay," meaning "Lord." He is a character in the Japanese manga Bleach and its spin-off works, first appearing in Chapter 519. [1-3]

In the world of Bleach, the Soul King is the first entity of power to ever exist. He is the progenitor of all supernatural ability, Quincy power, Shinigami power, Fullbring, all of it traces back to him. He is the supreme ruler shared across every realm: Hueco Mundo, Soul Society, the World of the Living, Hell, the Dangai. He is considered the linchpin and foundation upon which all worlds exist.

His right arm governs "stillness." It is known as Mimihagi, and it holds the powers of prophecy and substitution. His left arm governs "progress." That arm is Pernida Parnkgjas, who would later join the Sternritter. The Soul King himself is protected by Squad Zero and resides deep within the Greater Palace at the heart of the Soul King Palace.

He was born at the dawn of primordial chaos, called into existence to resolve three crises that had emerged from a world gone wrong: the Hollows devouring everything in their path, the unchecked expansion of Hell, and a world collapsing into dead silence. He used his power of eradication to destroy the Hollows and restart the world's cycle. But the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Families refused to let that world stand. Their motives were different from one another, yet those motives converged, inexplicably, on a single goal: the separation of the three realms. To accomplish it, they needed his power.

So they took it.

When the Shiba ancestor moved to persuade the Soul King, the Tsunayashiro ancestor struck first, sealing him inside crystal. The Soul King had already seen certain futures. He chose to let it happen.

The five ancestors used his almighty power as a linchpin to tear the chaotic world apart and give it shape. The world of Reishi. The world of Kishi. And the desert expanse that the Hollows, born from both worlds, eventually reached. Three realms. The ones that exist today.

But the Tsunayashiro ancestor was still afraid. Even sealed, even motionless, even offering no resistance, the Soul King terrified them. What if he broke free on his own? What if he destroyed them all?

So they did not let him live. They did not kill him either. They threw him into something worse: a contradictory spiral of existing alive and dead at the same time.

They severed his arms, the ones that governed "progress" and "stillness." And still, it wasn't enough.

Over countless ages, the ancestors led by Tsunayashiro came back to him, again and again. They gouged out his heart. They cleaved away both legs. They cut open his internal organs and pulled them free from his body, stripping the power from each one before casting them down to the realms below. Piece by piece, they hollowed him out, all to manufacture a "king" that would never defy them. A king shaped entirely for their convenience.

Then, in the Thousand-Year Blood War, Yhwach put the final piece into motion. He orchestrated events so that Ichigo Kurosaki — a soul carrying multiple powers at once — would be the one to strike the Soul King down. After the Soul King died, Yhwach absorbed what remained of him, and the worlds held together. Yhwach himself was later killed by Ichigo and Aizen working in concert. His corpse was sealed, given the name "Soul King," and set in place as the new linchpin of the three realms. [1-3]

Even reduced to a limbless torso. Even carved hollow over millennia. Even sealed inside crystal in a palace above the sky,

The Soul King never stopped guiding the flow of events across shifting time.

Ichigo Kurosaki's arrival at the Soul King Palace was not coincidence. It was the Soul King's will.