Meanwhile, on the other side.
In stark contrast to the desolation of Hueco Mundo, the group of girls gathered in a dilapidated thatched hut on a street that, while still run-down, had a bit more of a lived-in feel than Hueco Mundo.
Dust filled the room. Cobwebs hung in the corners. Moonlight filtered sparsely through the thin thatch on the roof.
Many of them still hadn't fully recovered.
After all, for them, being pulled into the Reincarnation Game in the middle of a battle was a first.
Not to mention that several of them were being chosen by the Reincarnation Game for the very first time.
At that moment, Utaha pushed open the old, broken door. The moment her hand touched it, the entire door nearly toppled over, 'creaking' and tilting against the frame. It was obvious just how rundown the place was.
Utaha didn't seem to mind. Her black-stockinged legs stepped over the crooked door panel as she entered, found a relatively clean corner, sat down, and said to the group, "This place is called the Rukongai. We're in the 78th District."
Soon after they had arrived in this world, Utaha had immediately gone out to gather information.
With her Sharingan, she didn't need to go through the trouble of coaxing information out of people. She could simply control the local residents and get all the answers she needed.
She had already figured out the current situation of the entire group, the rules of this world, and the distribution of power in the surrounding areas.
Then, Utaha explained the intelligence she had gathered to everyone.
The place they were in now was called the Soul Society. It was the world that human souls came to after death.
And those who ruled over the Soul Society were the Shinigami.
The Shinigami were responsible for maintaining the balance of the three worlds. Their main job was to safely guide the souls of humans who died in the real world to the Soul Society.
"When I heard 'Shinigami World' before, I thought it would be terrifying."
Rebecca looked out the window at the sky, which, though run-down, was surprisingly peaceful, and said softly, "It feels more peaceful than I imagined."
Although the streets were very shabby, compared to some countries she had seen that had been abandoned by the World Government for failing to pay the Heavenly Tribute and were ravaged by pirates on a daily basis, this place was already pretty good.
"S-so this is how everyone gains their superpowers?"
Fujiwara Toyomi asked timidly.
It was her first time being pulled into a game world as a player, and she still hadn't recovered.
Just a moment ago, she had finally learned through her player panel what the Reincarnation Game actually was, and she finally understood where her sisters' incredible abilities had come from.
Toyomi, who had no combat ability, had been kept at Makoto's palace doing clerical work. But this time, she had been chosen as well and was transported along with everyone to this unfamiliar place.
Other new players who had also been chosen for the first time included the Kotegawa sisters, who were university classmates.
Kotegawa Chisa turned to her university classmate Uzaki Hana and asked, "Hana-chan, is this your first time being chosen too?"
Hana shook her head, showing her bright smile. "No. Two years ago, me, Yanagi, and Mom were chosen once already."
As soon as she said this, the expressions of Utaha, Airi, Nino, and a few others turned sour.
Of course, they knew about that — two years ago, during that Reincarnation Game, they hadn't been chosen. Instead, those three slutty mother-and-daughter Uzaki women had been transported to another world with their man.
And when Makoto came back, he had a bunch of big-breasted girls with them.
Even a fool could guess that those three slutty mother-and-daughters had hooked up with their man in that world.
Hana, however, didn't care at all about the strange looks coming from around her. She wrapped her arm around Chisa's and said cheerfully, "Don't worry, Chisa. As long as Makoto is here, everything will be fine~"
Seeing her best friend's cheerful smile, Chisa felt a lot more at ease.
At that moment, her older sister, Kotegawa Nanaka, asked, "So, Kasumigaoka-san, have you found the Commander yet?"
As soon as she said this, the room fell into silence.
Megumi, Saeko, and the other Observation Haki users said nothing.
They had been releasing their Observation Haki ever since they arrived, desperately searching for the man's presence.
But not only could they not sense Makoto, they couldn't even detect a trace of Yu, Beam, or any of the other male comrades.
Their Observation Haki swept out like a stone dropped into the ocean, with no echo.
That meant that only they, the girls, had been chosen for this Reincarnation Game.
"Wh-what do we do? What do we do? Makoto isn't here..."
Miku immediately panicked. Her eyes filled with tears, her voice choked with sobs, her hands twisting and knotting her skirt.
"What's there to cry about? We can do it ourselves!" Nino scolded, frustrated.
But although Nino's words were full of bravado, her slightly trembling legs gave her away.
After all, Nino appeared strong on the outside, but among the five sisters, she was the one most dependent on Makoto.
"Everyone, calm down."
Just then, Yukino stepped forward. "Let's first gather information about this world, and then we'll slowly figure things out."
Although Yukino wasn't one of the Mrs. Nishikawa, she was still a veteran player.
And after her experience in the One Piece World, many people had changed their opinion of her and were willing to listen to her advice.
In terms of strength, Yukino wasn't in the top tier among the girls. Even squeezing into the second tier was a bit of a stretch.
But she had spent forty whole years in the One Piece World, and twenty of those years without Makoto's protection, surviving in that hellish place.
Her ability to withstand pressure was definitely in the top tier among everyone present, maybe even the zeroth tier.
That was why Makoto's absence affected her the least.
Yukino also reminded them, "We still don't know the combat level of this world. When gathering information, everyone should avoid revealing their powers to prevent drawing too much attention."
With that, she turned to the Dojutsu users — Utaha, Kaguya, and the Hyuga sisters. "I'll leave that to you."
Yukino's arrangements had a bit of the flavor of Nara Shikamaru commanding the Konoha kids.
Back during the Fifth Great Ninja War in the Naruto World, Makoto didn't assign many roles to his women, just sending them to the front lines to fight and level up.
But if Yukino had been there at the time, she could have been a captain.