Chapter 135: Response Plan
The opening line set the tone.
It established the ground for everything that followed, gave everyone a point to anchor to before the details came in.
"This way. Both of you."
Sasakibe Chojiro turned without further explanation and led them at a quick pace through the corridor and into the conference room.
Several people were already inside. Eyes met the moment Hirako and Urahara entered, and the conversation shifted immediately to include them.
Hirako stepped forward without hesitation.
"What's the situation?"
Aikawa Love answered. Under the afro and the dark glasses, his expression was hard to read, but the shape of it was clearly serious.
"It started with Mashiro."
Mashiro.
Hirako put it together quickly.
"Kensei's vice-captain. What happened to her?"
"She lost contact during a mission in Rukongai."
Urahara caught the specific wording.
Lost contact and missing were not the same thing. Missing, by the Gotei 13's working definitions, was the worst case: a judgment call that functionally equated to gone. Unusual things happened in Rukongai. Accidents occurred. A missing person was something close to a foregone conclusion.
Lost contact, on the other hand, was a different kind of problem. It implied the person might still be there, injured and unable to respond, waiting for someone to reach them.
That possibility alone put a different weight on Hirako's expression.
Every member dispatched on an external mission carried communication equipment. It wasn't optional. The whole system existed to track progress and confirm status at every stage.
But to make someone of Kensei's caliber lose contact in a short window?
Was that actually possible?
"Rukongai, western thirteenth district. Any of you know it?"
"Can't say I do."
Honest answer. Also not surprising. After reaching captain level, actual missions became rare, especially ones that took you beyond the Seireitei. Most captains had at best a vague familiarity with any given district, unless work had taken them there specifically.
So Hirako's answer was ordinary enough.
And also.
"Just a vice-captain going missing shouldn't be worth an emergency all-hands call. That would be handled through normal... wait."
He stopped mid-sentence.
He'd just caught up with what Sasakibe had said at the start.
Muguruma Kensei was the one who had gone missing.
"Four hours after Mashiro lost contact, Captain Kensei left the squad building on his own initiative. Approximately one hour into his independent search, he went completely dark on all channels."
Otoribashi Rojuro said it in a measured voice, one hand resting lightly against the side of his hair.
"One captain's vice-captain, then the captain himself, one hour apart. By any reading, this doesn't look normal."
No argument there.
A captain was one of the handful of genuinely elite combatants Soul Society had. For one of them to be silenced without any warning, without any surge of reiatsu that the others would have picked up on...
The Seireitei was a contained space. Any captain-level flare of power registered immediately across the whole district. But Rukongai was a different proposition entirely.
Rukongai was many times the size of the Seireitei. The name made it sound like a suburb, a boundary zone. That was a misread. It was a vast expanse: residential areas, yes, but also mountain ranges, rivers, open desert terrain spread across dozens of numbered districts in every direction.
Going missing out there was not a simple thing to resolve.
Hirako rubbed his forehead, quiet for a moment, then asked:
"When was Kensei's last confirmed contact?"
"Twenty minutes ago."
Not long.
But taken together with Mashiro's disappearance four hours before it, the shape of the timeline produced something deeply uncomfortable. Like something invisible had been accumulating just out of sight, and was now close enough to cast a shadow.
The two latecomers had caught up with the situation well enough by this point. The seriousness of it had registered in full.
"Last confirmed location?"
"On record... approximately here."
Someone gestured to a point on the map laid out on the table.
"What's the plan from here?"
"Continue deploying personnel. The headcount needs to change, though."
Urahara spoke up, expression thoughtful, gaze dropping slightly toward the table.
"At least two... no, three captains should go together."
The reasoning followed without being asked.
"Given Captain Kensei's power level, for him to be neutralized without making a sound or sending any signal: I think three captains moving together would be significantly safer."
Kyoraku Shunsui, arms crossed, eyes half-closed, spoke from the side.
"Safety in numbers? Hadn't expected us to be thinking that way. That's fairly rare."
True enough.
A beat, then he added:
"If you're going, count me in."
"Actually, Kyoraku, you should stay here on standby."
Hirako had been working through the angles.
"The enemy hasn't shown themselves yet. We don't know their objective. I know this isn't encouraging to say out loud, but right now we're the visible side and they're not."
Unequal conditions, incomplete information. The only answer was to work from strengths and cover the gaps where possible.
"The old man and a portion of our people need to hold the Seireitei. This could be a diversion tactic: draw us out to Rukongai while something moves here. That possibility stays on the table until it's ruled out."
Systematic planning meant covering more than the obvious angle.
"I'm going, that's settled. Anyone else?"
Aikawa Love and Otoribashi Rojuro both stepped forward.
Hirako did a quick mental count. That would do.
"One more thing."
Kyoraku's voice, measured and thoughtful.
"Take Lisa along too. Combat support might not be her primary value here, but another body in an emergency situation means another channel for getting information back. That's worth having."
The logic was sound. No reasonable argument against it.
Hirako nodded.
From around the table, others added their own pieces.
"Hiyori should go with you. She's been worried sick about all of this."
"The head of the Kido Corps happens to be in the area. I'll go find him and get his read on things."