Chapter 139: One Against All
Where did that come from?
The instant they heard it, everyone moved.
Hirako raised his left hand in pure reflex and swept it behind him.
Kido? No. Something simpler. More blunt. Reishi called up at scale, gathered without form, and then released all at once. A detonation.
BOOM!!!
The blast erupted in a wall of sound and wind, slamming hard into every face turned toward it.
Hiyori still seemed a step behind. She stood there looking blank, quietly asking "what's happening?"
Everyone else's reactions were noticeably more dialed in.
Lisa grabbed Hiyori and pulled her behind herself, stepping back while reaching for the pre-prepared communication equipment.
The three captains, Hirako at the front, formed up and faced the direction the sound had come from. Every expression was hard.
"That was..."
Rojuro's tone was still uncertain. Love already sounded like he'd made up his mind.
"No question. We know that voice."
Hirako's jaw went tight.
"Aizen... Sosuke!!!"
A gust of night air rolled through and cleared the smoke.
A familiar, slender figure.
Standard shihakusho. A smile on his face like warm sunlight. Hands clasped in front of him, looking out at the assembled group with complete ease.
A moment of silence as everyone processed the sudden rush of information.
Why are you here? What did you mean by what you just said? Does what happened to Kensei and Mashiro trace back to you?
Questions like these circled and churned, but only for a few seconds' pause before rapid, efficient processing stripped them down to their conclusion.
Aizen Sosuke.
Is the enemy.
The golden chain swung out and drove straight toward where Aizen stood.
Rojuro had moved first. Expression hard, judgment decisive.
"Suppress him. Take him back to Squad 1 and sort it out there."
A captain needed strength as proof. A captain also needed the judgment to use it when it mattered.
Interrogation could come later. Right now, the priority was the traitor.
The coordination between the three was clean. Love, seeing Rojuro had already moved, stepped back.
"Yadōmaru! Signal flare, now. Biggest one."
He meant something visible from Seireitei.
No response came.
Then the night wind shifted, carrying something with it. The smell of blood, familiar and gut-wrenching, hit him all at once.
What happened?
He turned.
He caught the last moment of Yadōmaru Lisa collapsing to the ground.
Two figures stood beside Lisa and Hiyori. Expressions flat and calm. The one on the left even had the leisure to wave at Love.
Love's eyes went wide, his voice jumping several registers.
"Matsushita Yusuke! What are you DOING?!"
Watching Yadōmaru Lisa go down with a look of raw frustration on her face, Matsushita Yusuke gave his Zanpakuto a light swing, shook off the blood, and stood to the side.
"What am I doing... isn't it obvious?"
That would be.
"Causing trouble."
Tosen Kaname, standing beside him, turned in place and faced the direction of the three captains.
No words needed. He simply raised his blade toward them. That alone was evidence and statement enough.
He was also the enemy.
Hirako and the others pulled together, forming a back-to-back configuration.
"Took out communications first... came prepared."
"Could be called an ambush."
"Three against three."
Scattered thoughts, exchanged in short fragments.
The three reached a conclusion quickly.
Break through.
But.
"Hold on!"
Kensei, who had been lying on the ground, hauled himself upright.
His expression was haggard, but he was still dangerous. Compared to Mashiro, the experiment seemed to have taken considerably less out of him.
He swayed getting to his feet. Rojuro reached out to steady him. Kensei shook him off.
Every vein in Kensei's forehead was standing out. The grin on his face was jagged and dangerous.
"You all really looked after me just now, didn't you."
Just from the words alone you could hear the unstable current underneath. Which was understandable in its own way. As the first captain-level person taken down by all of this, Kensei's frustration ran deep and didn't need explaining.
Ambushed. Suppressed. Forced to use some power he didn't recognize.
"Kensei, what's your condition right now?"
Hirako reserved judgment, and felt the need to assess before planning anything else.
Kensei cracked his neck and said with a thoroughly unimpressed expression:
"Condition's hard to say... but my fighting spirit is going, stronger than usual!!!"
So. Three against four now.
"You've got to hand it to captain-level people. In terms of endurance, completely beyond what a vice-captain can manage."
Tosen picked up Matsushita Yusuke's observation without missing a beat.
"Which is precisely why these people are worth studying."
"You occasionally say things with actual depth."
"I always do."
The exchange between the two was light and easy, as if the situation they were standing in had no real danger to it at all.
That level of composure had its own effect on the other side. Pressure, steady and unspoken.
The enemy knew what was coming; Hirako's side didn't. That imbalance still hadn't changed. Which meant more intelligence was still needed before committing to anything.
"Who's the person next to Matsushita Yusuke?"
Kensei's brow pulled hard. He said it through his teeth.
"A seated officer from my squad. Decent enough, or so I thought. Turns out he had something hidden. He's the one who ambushed me."
Being able to ambush Kensei said everything about his power level on its own. Also captain-class?
But. Right now it was three against four. Where the advantage sat needed no further analysis.
And at exactly that moment, Matsushita Yusuke opened his mouth.
"Ah, wait, hold on. I think something wasn't made clear?"
He stepped forward at an unhurried pace, drawing his blade as he moved, wearing a helpless, lightly reflective expression.
"It's not three against four right now."
It's.
"Me. Against all of you."
[One Against All]
[Betrayal and hatred trail each other like shadows, inseparable twins... Your double-dealing has become thoroughly repugnant. And now, you must make amends for what you've done -- or rather... bring them to their knees!]
(Conditions-based, multi-stage triggered quest)
As has been established before.
Matsushita Yusuke's quest system was nothing if not varied.
And as he kept pushing forward, testing its limits from every angle, his understanding of what it was capable of had deepened considerably.
This quest.
Was something different entirely.