BANG!
With a deafening crash, the reinforced heavy door of the core research lab in the Technology Development Bureau was violently smashed open as if it were made of paper.
Amid rising dust, a figure charged in, wrapped in a surge of violent spiritual pressure.
"Hikifune Kirio! Hold on! I'm here to save you! No matter what those bastards did to you—"
Kirinji Tenjiro's signature pompadour(hairstyle) now looked like a missile ready to launch at any moment.
His eyes were wide open, his Zanpakuto already half-drawn, killing intent surging as he shouted without even seeing what was going on inside.
In his mind, Hikifune Kirio being completely out of contact for the past few days meant she had definitely fallen victim to that scheming bastard Rosse.
He had even already imagined a hundred horrific scenarios, Hikifune being imprisoned, brainwashed, or even dissected for experiments.
However, when the dust settled and he saw the scene clearly, his loud roar stopped abruptly, like a duck being choked.
The entire laboratory fell into an eerie silence.
There were no bloody torture racks, no horrifying experiment tables, only countless data panels glowing with pale blue light, floating in the air like a vast galaxy, slowly flowing.
And at the center of that massive stream of data, the once large, mountain-like Hikifune Kirio had undergone a drastic change in appearance.
All the fat that once piled on her body had completely vanished, replaced by a tall, full-figured woman with striking curves.
Her purple hair was casually tied behind her head, giving her a capable and intellectual look.
Only, her eyes, once always smiling, were now bloodshot, filled with an extreme, almost feverish focus.
Her spiritual pressure was pushed to its limit, not for battle, but to process an overwhelming flow of information at a staggering speed.
"Huh?"
Kirinji blinked, wondering if he had walked into the wrong scene.
Hearing the disturbance, the now-slender Hikifune Kirio finally raised her head from the data with extreme impatience. Her gaze was so cold it felt like it could freeze the air, staring straight at Kirinji as if he were a gorilla that had barged into a precision instrument room.
"Kirinji?"
Hikifune Kirio's voice was slightly hoarse, clearly from not drinking water for days and nights.
"What kind of pose are you striking there? This is the Technology Development Bureau, not your healing dojo. Are you here to play some kind of clown?"
"A… clown?"
Kirinji almost spat out a mouthful of blood. He pointed at Hikifune Kirio, then at himself.
"I came to save you! You vanished for days and nights, I thought you'd been—"
Before he could finish, his gaze suddenly sharpened. He looked past Hikifune Kirio toward a corner of the lab.
There, Rosse still wore his composed captain's haori, sitting in front of an old Go board.
And sitting across from him was none other than the Fifth Division captain, Aizen Sosuke.
The two of them held black and white stones, looking utterly at peace, as if they hadn't even noticed the earth-shaking crash just now.
"Playing Go?"
Kirinji's expression darkened. There was no way he would believe that these two, who had turned the Soul Society upside down, had been hiding here for days just to play a game.
"Hmph! Putting on an act."
He snorted coldly, gripping his Zanpakuto tighter.
"Hey, Rosse, drop the act. I can see everything here. You think putting on a calm front can fool me?"
"Idiot!"
Hikifune Kirio rubbed her temples, clearly annoyed.
As a pure researcher, what she hated most was being interrupted at the critical moment when inspiration surged and she was about to touch the edge of truth. Especially by baseless speculation like this.
"That's enough, Kirinji."
Hikifune Kirio waved her hand, dispersing the data flow in front of her, her tone full of impatience.
"No one's putting on a show for you. As you can see, I'm fine. More than fine actually. If you don't have anything else to say, leave immediately. Stop interfering with my research progress."
"Research? You call this research?"
Kirinji stared at her in disbelief, his sharp eyes locked onto her.
"Hikifune, something's wrong with you. Very wrong. When have you ever cared this much about something like this? And you're even telling me to leave? Did that guy Rosse drug you or control you somehow?"
The more he thought about it, the more unsettled he became.
Hikifune Kirio was a member of the Zero Division, with an incredibly strong will. How could she be turned in just a few days?
Something was seriously wrong.
"Captain Kirinji seems to be misunderstanding something."
At that moment, Rosse stood up with a smile, still holding a white Go stone in his hand.
He didn't even look over, speaking casually.
"Captain Hikifune, since our guest has doubts, why not take him outside and talk it through? This is, after all, a laboratory. If something valuable gets damaged, Captain Kurotsuchi would be quite distressed."
"Tch! What a hassle."
Hikifune Kirio clicked her tongue. Though clearly annoyed, she understood Rosse's intent. He didn't want Kirinji to start a fight here, nor turn this place into a battlefield.
And if she didn't deal with this stubborn guy, there was no way she could continue her research.
"Come with me."
She tossed out those words and turned toward the door.
Kirinji frowned, his gaze sweeping over Rosse and Aizen before he finally sheathed his Zanpakuto and followed her silently.
But the unease in his heart only grew with each step.
———
The two of them arrived at an open area outside the Twelfth Division.
It was quiet all around, with only the rustling of leaves in the wind.
"We'll talk here."
Hikifune Kirio crossed her arms and leaned casually against a tree, not even bothering to set up a soundproof barrier.
"The entire Seireitei is under the surveillance of the Gotei Thirteen anyway. And you know Captain-Commander Rosse's strength. It's all the same wherever we talk."
That indifferent attitude only made the sense of dissonance in Kirinji's heart grow stronger.
"Hikifune, you've changed."
Kirinji spoke in a low voice, "You haven't forgotten why we came down here this time, have you? We're here to stop Rosse, to dismantle his rule over the Gotei Thirteen, for the sake of the Soul King… But the way you are now, it's like you're…"
"Like I've defected, right?"
Hikifune Kirio cut him off, a self-mocking smile curling at her lips.
"At least you're not completely stupid," Kirinji said coldly, "What exactly happened? What kind of nonsense did that man feed you?"
"What else could it be?"
Hikifune Kirio shrugged and looked up at the sky, her tone casual.
"Because the world is about to be destroyed. If everything's going to end anyway, what's the point of clinging to things like the Soul King or Hollow King? In the end, it's all nothing. What's the point of fighting over it?"
"Huh?"
Kirinji's eyes widened as if he had just heard something absurd, "The world's being destroyed? What kind of nonsense are you talking about?"
Facing her old comrade's doubts, Hikifune Kirio sighed and patiently explained everything Rosse had proposed over the past few days about the world's collapse, along with Mayuri's technical additions.
From the imbalance of reishi density, to the collapse of the world's foundation, to the irreversible end.
In her view, even though Kirinji was a complete outsider in research and relied more on intuition and experience for his healing techniques, he had lived long enough to at least understand the basics.
With his help, their research could even progress faster.
However, his reaction completely exceeded her expectations.
"Hahahaha!"
After hearing everything, Kirinji burst into loud laughter, clutching his stomach as tears almost came out.
"The world collapsing? Reishi imbalance? Hikifune, have you gone stupid from research? Even a three-year-old wouldn't believe something like that, and you actually bought it?"
"You're calling that nonsense?"
Hikifune Kirio's face instantly darkened.
"Isn't it?"
Kirinji stopped laughing, his face full of mockery.
"You say you verified it, but weren't all those so-called verification data generated by their machines? You know what kind of person Rosse is. If he wants, forget world collapse, he could make you calculate that the monk's going to come down and dance in a grass skirt tomorrow. If you use a method they carefully fabricated to verify it, then of course the result will also be fake!"
"Are you insulting my character, or my intelligence?"
Hikifune Kirio's spiritual pressure exploded violently. The terrifying force instantly froze the surrounding air.
"Kirinji! I'm a scientist! I have my own judgment! The logical consistency of that data, the microscopic changes in reishi flow, those are truths that cannot be fabricated. Do you think I'm some idiot who can't tell real from fake?"
"I think you've been completely bewitched by that pretty boy!"
Kirinji didn't retreat a single step, shouting back just as fiercely.
"If the world was really going to collapse, would that old monk Ichibe not know? He's been in the Royal Palace for millions of years! If something like this were real, he would've discovered it long ago! Since he hasn't said anything, it means Rosse is just spreading alarmist nonsense! He's using your fear to make you betray the Soul King!"
Those words stabbed straight into Hikifune Kirio's heart.
Since when did they, members of the Zero Division, need to wait for Ichibei's opinion before speaking about something like the world's collapse?
If he didn't say anything, did that mean it didn't exist?
"If you trust that old monk so much, then go back to your Royal Palace."
Hikifune Kirio looked at him coldly, not a trace of warmth left in her eyes.
"Don't come looking for me again. And don't set foot in the Twelfth Division. We don't welcome idiots who can only think within rigid frameworks."
"You!"
Kirinji laughed in anger, "Fine, fine! Hikifune Kirio, so you're really set on betraying us, huh? Have you forgotten your duty as a member of the Zero Division? Forgotten the grace of the Soul King?"
"Heh, duty? Grace?"
Hikifune Kirio laughed too, but there was bitterness in it.
"If the world's about to disappear, what's the point of the Soul King or Hollow King? When everything collapses, what does it matter if the Soul King gets devoured? We all die together anyway."
"I think you've really gone insane!"
BOOM!
Two massive spiritual pressures collided violently in the open space. The resulting shockwave instantly blasted away the surrounding trees, and even the ground began to crack.
Shrill alarm sounds immediately rang throughout the entire Twelfth Division.
"Seems the two of you don't intend to have a proper conversation."
At that tense moment, Rosse and Aizen suddenly appeared beside them.
Rosse had his hands in his pockets, looking at the two confronting each other with a calm expression, like he was watching two elementary school kids arguing.
"If you want to fight, take it outside. Private combat is prohibited in the Twelfth Division, especially at this level of spiritual pressure. If you damage the equipment here, even the Zero Division won't be able to compensate for it."
"I'm not the one who wants to fight."
Hikifune Kirio withdrew her spiritual pressure and let out a mocking laugh. She didn't even glance at Kirinji, nor at Rosse or Aizen, and walked straight between them toward the deepest part of the lab without looking back.
"He's the one being stubborn. There's no reasoning with him."
That departing figure was resolute and cold.
Kirinji clenched his fists tightly, only able to watch her leave.
To him, that was outright betrayal, an irreversible fall.
"Rosse!"
Kirinji suddenly turned his head, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the still-smiling man.
"Your tricks will never stand in the light! You think you can fool everyone?"
His reason was on the verge of snapping. He even had the impulse to release his Zanpakuto right here and cut this disaster down.
"Fool?"
Rosse tilted his head, looking innocent.
"What did I fool you about? I merely offered you a different perspective on the world. Whether you believe it or not, that's your choice."
"The wisdom of mortals...."
Beside him, Aizen adjusted his glasses, delivering his usual verdict with condescending disdain.
"Always deceived by appearances, yet unwilling to seek deeper truths. How pitiful."
"BASTARDS!"
Kirinji completely exploded.
Terrifying spiritual pressure erupted like a volcano, hot spring water boiling around him.
Just as he was about to act without regard for anything, his gaze suddenly swept past a point behind Aizen.
There, three figures stood silently, their expressions complicated.
Kyoraku Shunsui, Ukitake Jushiro…
At that sight, Kirinji's rampaging motion abruptly halted.
He stopped, his eyes flickering uncertainly. In the end, he let out a cold snort and withdrew all his spiritual pressure.
"I'm going back to the First Division! I don't want to deal with these bastards!"
He was certain that his spiritual perception hadn't detected those people at all.
Even just seconds ago, he hadn't seen them.
But just now, when he fully released his spiritual pressure and connected to the power of the Soul King, it was as if a corner of the world had been torn open, allowing him to see the truth.
Kyoka Suigetsu.
Those people had been there all along.
They had just been concealed by Aizen's ability, silently watching everything without saying a word.
'Which means…'
A chill ran through Kirinji's heart.
Kyoraku and the others had always been in the Soul Society, just hidden by Aizen.
He couldn't act here.
Now wasn't the time to tear everything apart.
He needed to expose Rosse and Aizen's deception, or the entire Gotei Thirteen would collapse, and might even march on the Royal Palace.
Watching Kirinji storm off in anger, the smile on Rosse's face grew even brighter.
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