Seijūrō gripped Baraggan's wrist, Reiatsu still pouring outward without pause.

The black cube of the Caja Negación shuddered violently under that pressure. Cracks spread across its surface, multiplying, densening, until the structure let out a groan of collapse and tore apart from the inside like a paper lantern.

Black fragments tumbled through the air. Hueco Mundo's eternal moonlight poured through the breach and flooded the battlefield.

Baraggan's colossal skeletal frame was blasted airborne by the raw force of it. He spun through the air several times, scepter slipping from his grasp, the golden compass tearing loose from his waist and spinning off to bury itself in a distant dune. Then his entire body crashed into the sand and gouged out a deep crater.

Dust surged skyward, swallowing the skeleton as it struggled to reform.

Seijūrō didn't look at him. He withdrew his hand and turned around.

Nel Tu stood beside a quartz pillar, her double-headed lance hanging limp at her side. Her antelope hind legs trembled, hooves punching uneven impressions into the sand. Her emerald eyes reflected the image back at her, a Shinigami with long hair hanging loose and a shattered mask.

He raised his hand and gave a casual flick.

A wave of Reiatsu hit her head-on. Too fast to react.

It struck her dead-on and her Resurrección collapsed entirely under the impact. The double-headed lance dissolved into spirit particles. Her antelope hind legs reverted to human form. Her emerald hair whipped back in the shockwave.

She was hurled off her feet, tumbled across the sand several times, and went still with her face buried in the dunes.

"Lady Nel!"

Dondochakka's round body lurched forward, eyes bulging nearly out of his head.

He opened his mouth to shout something at Seijūrō. A thin arm reached out from beside him and clamped down hard on his shoulder.

Pesche held him there. Those eyes that normally curved into ridiculous arcs held no amusement at all now.

He stared at Seijūrō for a long moment. Then he turned toward him and screamed at the top of his lungs: "You despicable Shinigami, don't think you can throw your weight around here!"

Then he spun around and shouted, "Lady Nel has been defeated! Take her and go, now!"

Dondochakka went still for an instant.

Then he looked at Seijūrō's eyes.

No hostility. No coldness. Only farewell.

Dondochakka said nothing more. He turned and followed Pesche toward where Nel Tu had fallen.

Pesche crouched down and lifted the unconscious Nel Tu onto his back. Red burns from Kidō still marked her chest and shoulders, but her breathing was steady, she'd been knocked out by the Reiatsu, nothing more.

Dondochakka followed behind, cradling her dangling arms. The two of them stumbled off into the depths of the dunes and never looked back.

"To travel ten thousand miles for a house call without even announcing yourself, Teacher."

The voice was gentle. Unhurried. Identical to the voice that had asked questions about Kidō theory in the Shin'ō Academy classroom all those years ago.

Seijūrō turned around.

Sōsuke Aizen stood in the air not far off, his white Arrancar uniform catching the moonlight in a soft gleam. His hands rested at his sides. The black-framed glasses were gone. His brown hair was swept back, and the face it revealed was the same face Seijūrō had looked at one last time on Sōkyoku Hill. Kaname Tōsen and Gin Ichimaru stood at his flanks.

"My, my. Teacher certainly made quite an entrance. Getting serious, are we?"

Gin Ichimaru tilted his head, his short silver-gray hair shifting lightly in the moonlight.

Kaname Tōsen said nothing. He kept his hand on the hilt of his blade.

Seijūrō didn't answer.

His gaze swept the surrounding area.

Several sharp cracks of Sonído split the air. Figures dropped into place one by one.

The first to land was a tall, heavily muscled Arrancar with thick lips and dark skin. He had golden eyes, skull-shaped earrings, and a thick bone necklace. The remnant of his Hollow mask ran as a ridge of bone spikes along the top of his skull, something like a mohawk.

Next came a female Arrancar. Dark skin, emerald eyes, golden hair bound into three braids. Her mask fragments formed a three-tiered crown around her head. She stood in the moonlight with her full height and stared straight at Seijūrō, her expression giving away nothing.

Another figure came down from a higher dune.

Short, choppy black hair. Skin the color of bone. Green eyes as hollow as empty sockets.

The dark green tear-track markings running from the corners of his eyes to his jaw were stark in the moonlight. The left half of his head wore a horned, helmet-like fragment of Hollow mask. He was slimmer than the other Espada, more slight, but the way he stood there had no gaps in it at all.

Szayelaporro Granz lingered slightly farther back in the shadow of a quartz pillar, his short pink hair combed neatly to one side, his expression calibrated to a precise point, nothing more than diligent attention. But something in the depths of his golden pupils glinted faintly.

The last one to land was enormous, dark skin, black hair, four strangely shaped protrusions jutting from the top of his head, symmetrical red markings on both cheeks. His impact kicked up a wall of sand and dust. He looked around muttering, "How come there's only one guy?"

The Espada were not all present.

But it was already enough. What stood before him was a force that could tear through any division in the Gotei 13.

"Teacher."

Aizen spoke, the same easy tone he might use greeting an elder he hadn't seen in years. "Since you've personally taken the time to visit Las Noches, I imagine you've formed a favorable impression. So then, any interest in staying?"

Seijūrō looked at him. His eyes were still, deep as a lake with no current.

"You've changed quite a bit. But some things haven't. I suppose I really shouldn't have let you graduate so early."

Aizen didn't answer. Something shifted, faintly, in the depths of his eyes.

Seijūrō moved his gaze away from Aizen. It swept over the Espada standing in the moonlight, waiting for a word.

"Aizen. Do you know what I see here?"

His gaze passed over Tier Harribel, over Ulquiorra Cifer, over all of them.

"Everything you hated most about Soul Society — the arrogance of the nobility, the grinding of power against power, the contempt for the weak — you've reproduced every last piece of it here. You said you wanted to break the rules and build something new. But everything you've done in this place is just adding more bricks to the same structure you despised. The Espada. The Fracción. You said you'd replace the Soul King, yet you haven't truly changed a single thing about Las Noches beneath your feet. You're suppressing it. Flattening it with force. Putting out every voice that pushes back. You decided Soul Society's rules were rotten. But you're trapped inside the exact same system you swore to destroy. You aren't building a new world. You're running the old one on a loop. Just with yourself at the top this time."

He held Aizen's gaze. Not a flicker of evasion.

"You were bound by the nobility's rules in Soul Society. When you came here, you didn't break them, you inherited them. You took everything you hated most, moved it somewhere else, replaced the cast, and set it all back up exactly as it was."

"How dare you speak like that in front of Lord Aizen—"

Two Arrancar moved in the same instant. Harribel's Sonído detonated across the sand in a ring of golden ripples. Zommari's was faster and quieter, leaving almost nothing, only the faintest smear of spirit particles.

They closed on Seijūrō from entirely different angles, Zanpakutō clearing their sheaths in the same motion, blades driving straight at the target.

Then the golden light erupted.

A column of light like Negación dropped from the sky, its density spiking to the limit in a single instant, a colossal warhammer swung down from the heavens.

The moment Harribel's and Zommari's blades touched its surface, both were flung back.

Harribel spun through the air several times before she caught herself. Her boots hit the sand and carved two deep furrows before she stopped. One of her golden braids had come loose.

Zommari was thrown in the opposite direction. He slid along the ground on one hand and came to a halt a considerable distance away.

Aizen looked at the Negación. He raised a hand and covered his eyes with his fingers.

He couldn't hold it. A short laugh escaped him. He lowered his hand and looked back at Seijūrō, something unnameable moving through his expression.

"Teacher, you really are..."

Harribel rose from the sand. Her green eyes fixed on Seijūrō through the golden light, and her hand went back to the hilt of her Zanpakutō.

"Enough." Aizen's voice was quiet. Still gentle. But the word left no room for anything.

"But he said all of that right to your face. I—"

"Harribel."

A few beads of sweat broke out along Harribel's brow. She dropped to one knee. Her golden braid slipped from her shoulder.

"Yes."

Seijūrō rose slowly within the light of the Negación. Just as Aizen had once risen above Sōkyoku Hill.

Only the positions were reversed now. He looked down at Aizen. Aizen looked up at him. Their eyes met. There was nothing left to say.

"Captain Aizen," Gin Ichimaru said, his voice as breezy as ever, "what would have happened if we'd forced Teacher to stay just now?"

Aizen watched the last traces of the Negación's light fade from the sky.

"A mutually destructive clash would've handed the Old Man a massive opening. But this genuinely wasn't what I expected." A brief pause. "To think Teacher would personally infiltrate this deep."

He pulled his gaze down from the sky and turned toward Las Noches.

When the light cleared, Seijūrō was standing in an open-air research facility.

Standard Technological Development Bureau equipment surrounded him, rows of sealed spirit particle analyzers, a wide workbench buried under draft papers, several instruments humming away at something unspecified.

A familiar voice came from nearby. Arch. Gloating.

"Oh my~~~ Well? How was it, my invention?"

Seijūrō looked down at himself. The medicinal residue was already fading. The Hollow signature was gone, replaced entirely by Shinigami Reiatsu.

He straightened his collar and shook the last of the sand from his cuffs.

"You were a huge help, Mayuri."

➤ Next: Volume 5: Hōgyoku Arc - Chapter 75: Woman, Come with Me

Chapter 75 - Volume 5: Hōgyoku Arc - Chapter 75: Woman, Come with Me

[Volume 5: Hōgyoku Arc]

Chapter 75: Woman, Come with Me

Squad 1 Great Hall.

Seijūrō submitted his full report on the Hueco Mundo mission to Yamamoto, then stepped back to stand among the row of Captains lining both sides of the hall.

Shunsui Kyōraku stood beside him, straw hat pulled low, chin tucked into his collar, looking every bit like a man catching up on sleep.

Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto set Seijūrō's Espada intelligence summary on the low table before him, folded both hands over the head of his cane, and swept those eyes, clear and sharp as blade-cut stone, slowly across every Captain in the room.

"The Hōgyoku has not yet fully awakened. Based on the intelligence brought back by the Grand Kidō Chief, the Arrancar army is not entirely prepared. The next item on the agenda, whether to make a preemptive march into Hueco Mundo."

"Does that even need asking! We hit them right now!"

Kenpachi Zaraki's voice detonated inside the Squad 1 Great Hall.

"Muscle-brained fool." Mayuri Kurotsuchi was leaning against a pillar, his tone dripping condescension.

Kenpachi turned his head slowly. His single eye fixed on Mayuri from beneath the eyepatch. "Ah? Kurotsuchi, you bastard, looking to die?"

"I am merely stating facts. The enemy can traverse all three realms at will. Negación lets them deploy forces into the heart of Soul Society at any coordinate they choose. What if we march straight into Hueco Mundo and they lock us inside? Hueco Mundo is their home turf. When a sword-swinging idiot like you ends up trapped in the crevices of the Dangai, don't come crying and begging me to pull you out."

Mayuri snorted through his nose.

Before Kenpachi could erupt, Seijūrō stepped in at exactly the right moment. "Kurotsuchi, can we develop a countermeasure? Negación's underlying principle is a one-way anchor on a Reishi conduit. If we build a device that disrupts that anchor, we prevent being trapped in Hueco Mundo entirely. How much technical room do we have to work with?"

"Technically, it's feasible. Reverse-engineer the Reishi frequency of Negación, construct a phase disruptor, and you're done. But it's tedious, labor-intensive, and thankless work. Hollows hold very little remaining research value at this point. The Resurrección data on the Arrancar was largely collected during this operation already. Running the same labor again is a pure waste of the Technological Development Bureau's resources."

As he spoke, Mayuri drew a slender Reishi sampling needle from his sleeve and twirled it between his fingertips. His whole manner radiated a single message: don't bring low-level problems to me.

"I see. So it's fairly troublesome technology, then." Seijūrō rubbed his chin, dropping his voice just slightly, not quite to himself, but pitched so that everyone nearby could catch every word. "Urahara was swearing up and down that this kind of thing was child's play. Guess he was just talking."

Mayuri's Reishi sampling needle snapped clean in two.

His head jerked up. The gold tooth on that painted face caught the light. "Who did you say?"

"Oh, nothing. Just a passing remark." Seijūrō looked at the ceiling.

"It can be done! It isn't difficult! The only reason I haven't done it is because it's too trivial to bother with! I designed a prototype Negación disruptor back during my time in the Maggots' Nest! How could Kisuke Urahara's half-rate skills ever outpace mine! If it's needed, I'll build it myself. Seven days, no. Five. A working prototype in five days!"

Mayuri ground the words out through his teeth, glare locked onto Seijūrō.

Seijūrō went back to staring at the ceiling, expression perfectly blank.

Beside him, Shunsui pulled his straw hat down another inch. His shoulders trembled just slightly.

Jūshirō Ukitake raised a hand, covered his mouth, and gave a soft cough.

"Then the Negación disruption technology will be assigned to the Technological Development Bureau." Yamamoto tapped his cane once against the floor.

At that moment, the main doors of the hall swung open.

Yumichika Ayasegawa of Squad 11 strode in quickly and dropped to one knee.

His hair was as impeccably styled as ever. But his shihakushō still carried the marks of battle.

"Captain-Commander. Reporting on combat in the World of the Living."

His voice was clear and steady. "While the Grand Kidō Chief was confronting Aizen in Hueco Mundo, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez — one of the dismissed Espada — led several Fracción on a surprise raid into the World of the Living and clashed head-on with Captain Hitsugaya's advance vanguard. All members of the vanguard sustained injuries of varying severity, but there were no casualties. All Fracción under Grimmjow's command have been eliminated. Grimmjow himself was taken back to Hueco Mundo by Kaname Tōsen, who arrived shortly after. Additionally, to treat the injuries of Rukia Kuchiki and the others, Orihime Inoue has returned with the squad to Soul Society and is currently in Squad 4, conferring with Lieutenant Kotetsu."

"No casualties. Hitsugaya did well." Yamamoto nodded slowly.

The words had barely settled when another messenger stumbled into the hall, clutching a freshly received emergency dispatch. His voice shook. "Report! Garganta fluctuations detected again in the World of the Living! 4 Arrancar are heading there now, coordinates: Karakura Town! Preliminary assessment puts them at Espada level!"

"So Aizen really is getting desperate."

Yamamoto rose to his feet. His cane struck the floor. "Notify Hitsugaya and the others in the World of the Living, mobilize immediately. All squads of the Gotei 13 are to enter emergency combat readiness and stand by to reinforce at any moment."

The meeting ended. Seijūrō walked out of the Squad 1 Great Hall and onto the stone-paved path, the sleeves of his shihakushō swaying lightly in the breeze.

He moved with his head down. Brow furrowed.

Why send people to the World of the Living this often? By the intelligence, this was already the 3rd time.

The first, Ulquiorra Cifer and Yammy Llargo going to probe the situation, testing Ichigo Kurosaki's strength. That made sense.

The second, Grimmjow's raid with his Fracción. Ferocious, but disorganized. Not Aizen's style at all.

And now a third time. Aizen wasn't that kind of person. Everything he did had a purpose behind it, every move that looked independent was just another piece in a sequence laid down long ago.

"Teacher."

A voice came from behind.

Byakuya Kuchiki stepped out from the side door of the Squad 1 Great Hall, the Kenseikan catching the afternoon light in silver.

He fell into step beside Seijūrō. "You've only just returned from Hueco Mundo. You should rest. The World of the Living doesn't need you worrying over it."

Seijūrō looked up, but said nothing in response.

He stared directly at Byakuya's face, that still, deep gaze, unblinking, brow drawing in slightly, fingers drifting without thought to brush the hair back from his forehead.

Byakuya shifted under the scrutiny and looked down at himself. His shihakushō was clean. The Kenseikan sat straight. The Ginpaku Kazahana no Saisho was tied properly.

"Teacher. Have I done something wrong?"

Seijūrō didn't answer.

Byakuya, Kuchiki, Rukia, Orihime, who had been treating Rukia's injuries, healing.

The last time Aizen targeted Rukia, it was because the Hōgyoku had been hidden inside her body.

What was he targeting this time?

Orihime's ability.

Her Sōten Kisshun could restore damaged things to the state they had been in before the damage occurred.

All those deployments into the World of the Living, they were just manufacturing a situation where Soul Society had no choice but to split its forces. Then, at the moment of maximum vulnerability, the real target would be taken.

"The girl from the World of the Living — where is Orihime Inoue right now?"

"When word reached her that fighting had broken out in the World of the Living, she wanted to return and help. Captain Ukitake has already dispatched 2 Shinigami to escort her back through the Dangai. By the timing, they should be on their way now," Byakuya answered.

Seijūrō said nothing.

He extended his right hand. The Denreishinki slid from his sleeve into his palm.

His fingertips moved fast across the metal surface. The message he entered was a single line.

Then he tucked the Denreishinki back into his sleeve and didn't say another word.

---

The Dangai.

2 Shinigami escorted Orihime Inoue along the Reishi rail, one on each side, one ahead and one behind.

The walls of the Dangai flowed slowly on either side like liquid curtains of light. The rail beneath their feet stretched away toward the hazy glow in the distance.

The Kōtotsu's cleaning cycle was coming. The passage was thick with the Dangai's faint, thin Reishi and the faint bite of corrosion that was always present here.

"Miss Inoue, we need to pick up the pace. By the timing, the Kōtotsu that sweeps this stretch should be arriving soon."

The Shinigami escort in front glanced back, urgency edging into his voice.

"Why are there only two of you?"

The voice was calm. Indifferent. Like something seeping out of the void at the Dangai's core.

The escort up front drew his blade instantly.

A Garganta opened ahead of them without a sound.

White desert and a crescent moon hung eternal beyond the rift. Bone-cold Reiatsu from Hueco Mundo poured into the Dangai passage.

"To think Soul Society could be this incompetent. Did not even one person stop to realize, the most dangerous moment is when you're moving?"

Ulquiorra Cifer stepped through the Garganta. His pale complexion was nearly translucent in the Dangai's dim light. His green eyes were as deep and empty as holes.

Orihime recognized that face. One of the 2 Arrancar from the first invasion, the one whose mere presence in the air above her had made it hard to breathe.

"An Arrancar?"

The Shinigami escort leveled his Zanpakutō at Ulquiorra.

It won't work. The gap is too wide. He'll die.

Orihime's pupils shrank. She had already seen Ulquiorra begin to withdraw his left hand from his pocket.

"Wait! Don't you have something to say to me!" Her voice rang through the Dangai.

Blood sprayed.

The arm holding the blade, along with half the shoulder attached to it, was sheared cleanly away by an invisible cut. The Shinigami's body tilted soundlessly and crumpled onto the Reishi rail. Blood soaked rapidly into the dimensional wall beneath him.

"Correct, woman. I do have something to say to you." Ulquiorra slid his left hand back into his pocket and stood where he was, unmoving.

Orihime didn't answer.

Her fingers were shaking. She reached for the hairpin in her hair anyway.

"Sōten Kisshun!"

A warm golden light bloomed from the hairpin and formed a translucent oval shield around the wounded Shinigami.

The half-shoulder sheared away was slowly, unmistakably growing back inside that light. Bone extended from the severed edge. Blood vessels reconnected under the weave of Reishi. Muscle tissue laid itself down in layers over the rest.

She turned to the other escort.

"Run! Get away from here, now!" Orihime's voice was sharp and certain.

The second Shinigami flinched at what he was seeing, then gripped his hilt tighter. "No, I can't do that!"

He stepped toward Ulquiorra.

A Bala.

The dark-red sphere of condensed Reiatsu punched through the Shinigami's left arm and left chest like a bullet. Flesh and bone scattered in the Dangai's dim light.

He looked down at the hole in his chest. His mouth opened and closed without sound. Then he fell backward.

Orihime bit down on her lip. She spun toward her hairpin. "Ayame!"

The range of Sōten Kisshun expanded at her call, golden light stretching to cover both critically wounded Shinigami at once.

Her eyes stayed locked on their wounds. She watched the bleeding slow under the restorative light. Watched tissue reconnect piece by piece under the Reishi's weave.

"Oh. Even damage this severe can be restored? Quite a remarkable ability, woman."

Ulquiorra walked toward her, step by step. Not a flicker in those green eyes.

"Come with me, woman."

"Ah—" Orihime barely opened her mouth before Ulquiorra raised a hand.

"Don't speak. The only word you are permitted to say is 'yes.' Any other answer, and I act, not on you, naturally, but on your companions."

His tone was as flat as if he were reading a fact off a page. Unalterable. Already true.

Images flashed through Orihime's mind.

Ichigo. Rukia. Everyone back in the World of the Living. Everyone in Soul Society. And that Shinigami who had crouched down in front of her and said, "Nothing will go wrong."

"Ask nothing. Say nothing. You have no rights here. What you're holding in your hands is the cord to the guillotine around your companions' necks. Nothing more."

Ulquiorra stopped in front of her. Green eyes looked down from above. "Understand this, woman. This is not a negotiation. It is an order. Lord Aizen requires your ability. My mission is to bring you back without a scratch. I'll say it one more time, come with me, woman."

Orihime's head dropped.

"My, my, my — being that forceful is no way to win a lady's heart~"

A light, easy voice drifted from deep in the Dangai passage. Warm. Teasing.

Ulquiorra looked toward it.

Orihime turned.

"Mr. Emiri!"

The name left her before she could stop it.

Emiri Tsunayashiro strolled out from the shadows of the passage, folding fan swaying idly in hand. The hem of his white robe rippled in the Dangai's current. He moved as though he were arriving fashionably late to a tea party he'd agreed to weeks ago.

He snapped the fan shut with a clean, sharp sound and leveled it straight at Ulquiorra.

Those peach-blossom eyes still held their easy smile. But his fingers had closed tight along the fan's ribs, and the Reiatsu coiled beneath the patterned surface was anything but idle, poised, compressed, waiting.

"If you need a doctor, go stand in line at a hospital like everyone else. Don't go dragging away our lovely lady physician, all right?"

➤ Next: Enclose, Murciélago — Steel and Blood