read more inpatreon CaveLeather
"Hey, you hear about it?"
"About what?"
"That huge spiritual pressure explosion the other day!"
"Yeah, yeah! Word is a ton of prisoners broke out of the Maggot Nest. Several divisions have already been sent out to hunt them down!"
"It gets worse! My seventh uncle's neighbor's third aunt-in-law is a seated officer in the Fourth Division. She says one of those captains who defected decades ago snuck into the Maggot Nest. The Ninth Division Captain who went to intercept him got badly injured—he's laid up in the Fourth Division barracks right now!"
"What?! Even a Captain got hurt?!"
"You bet. They say if the Fifth Division's backup hadn't shown up in time, a lot more prisoners might've gotten away. Now the Second Division's Punishment Force, the Fifth's support troops, the Ninth's prison guards, and the Eleventh's combat unit are all mobilized. Rukongai's probably in total chaos by now!"
Listening to the two upperclassmen whispering as they walked away, Luca—who had a pretty good guess at the real story—could only shake his head in disbelief.
It had been almost a week since the Class 1 combat exercise ended.
At the time, Luca had figured the fight would end with him backed into a corner, Aizen swooping in like a hero to win everyone over.
Instead, even without using his hidden trump cards and still feeling like he had plenty left in the tank, Aizen had jumped out early with Gin, announcing as the rescuers that the attacker had fled.
Afterward, Luca thought it over. Maybe because Renji and the others had been knocked out cold by the shockwave, Aizen decided stepping in wouldn't look dramatic enough, so he bailed on the plan?
Either way, with the Fifth Division Captain and Lieutenant personally taking over the scene, everyone else made it safely back to the Seireitei.
After the incident, Luca had expected Aizen's recruitment pitch or at least some probing. The guy was famous for his insane curiosity—anything outside his control sparked way more interest than normal.
But Aizen acted like he hadn't even noticed this rapidly growing genius.
The first ones to come knocking were another notorious organization in Soul Society.
Central 46!
Luca never saw that coming. The highest judicial body in the Seireitei—the source of so much evil—had summoned him right after they returned.
The reason for the "interrogation"? The attacker who looked like the long-defected former Fifth Division Captain Shinji Hirako.
Dealing with those arrogant, high-and-mighty idiots who had zero real power was torture. Luca had barely held back the urge to blast them all away while repeating his "eyewitness account" over and over.
There wasn't anything in what he "saw" worth hiding anyway.
But describing the details in full inevitably meant exposing his own abilities.
Which meant his Zanpakutō's Shikai and the matching "Kidō Capsules" quickly became public knowledge among Soul Society's upper echelons.
At one point he'd seriously considered, Screw it—maybe I should just defect to Aizen and help him turn these clueless morons into ash.
In the end, for the sake of his own future, he swallowed the impulse.
What came next was even more ridiculous.
After the third interrogation, Central 46 slapped restrictions on his now-public Shikai ability.
He could still release his Zanpakutō normally, but the "Kidō Capsules" created by that ability were banned from being distributed to others.
The reason?
"If Kidō Capsules ever lead to a crime in the future, Soul Society can pinpoint the culprit."
In other words, Luca himself.
When he heard that, Luca genuinely couldn't figure out what kind of twisted logic these people were operating on.
Were they afraid of the damage the capsules could cause?
They hadn't imprisoned him or tried to kill him, and they didn't stop him from making and using them himself.
Sixty capsules were just a small batch he'd whipped up in half a year. If he really went all-out stockpiling—with a Soul Reaper's long lifespan—he could easily amass enough to blow the entire Seireitei sky-high.
But if they weren't worried or trying to get their hands on the capsules, why did they also block the noble families backing Central 46 from getting the technology?
Their decisions were completely arbitrary and made zero sense.
It wasn't until later that Luca learned why a simple attack on some students had led to him being summoned three times.
The night after his first interrogation, the Maggot Nest—under the Second Division's supervision—had been attacked, and a large number of prisoners escaped.
The suspects? The same group of defected captains supposedly led by Shinji Hirako.
Luca's first thought was that this was obviously Aizen's handiwork.
What he couldn't figure out was why Aizen would suddenly hit the Maggot Nest.
Was it really just to cover up the fact that Tōsen got injured? Or were there some interesting prisoners among the escapees that Aizen wanted?
Of course, he wasn't about to ask Aizen directly, and guessing wouldn't get him anywhere.
Still, these back-to-back incidents weren't entirely bad for Luca.
At least now that the attacker's identity was public, word had spread that a first-year student from the Shin'ō Academy had successfully repelled a captain-level threat.
Even Mayuri Kurotsuchi—the guy Luca had been somewhat worried about—had shown some interest after hearing about the Kidō Capsules.
Luca's path to joining the Twelfth Division after graduation was now basically clear of obstacles.
Even so, he planned to finish out the remaining half-semester before graduating early.
For now, though, he had something far more important to focus on.
Luca lightly tapped the frame of the glasses he was wearing. A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he picked up his pace back toward the dorms.
Since Kyōka Suigetsu controls the five senses… I wonder if it can hypnotize electronic eyes?!