"There's a huge crater here, but no corpse."
"Looks like he ran off. Why didn't he just fall to his death? What a pain!"
"But hey, do you guys smell something burning?"
"You're thinking about food at a time like this? Hurry up and search the area! The Ryoka that fell might not have gotten far!"
It was close. Leaning against the tree trunk and using the dense branches to conceal himself as much as possible, he had narrowly avoided being discovered by those Shinigami just now.
At this moment, the spot where his left arm had been pierced was completely charred black. Centered around the wound, nearly half of his arm looked as if it had been roasted. If that pillar of light had struck his main body, he probably would have been unable to move and plummeted straight to his death.
That kind of attack was truly terrifying. It seemed even more terrifying than the captain they had encountered at the gates of the Seireitei...
*Terrifying?* No, from a Quincy's perspective, Ishida felt that the ambush they suffered in the skies above the Seireitei could only be described as horrifying.
High speed and highly condensed Reiatsu—these were supposed to be a Quincy's greatest strengths. Yet, the person who launched that attack performed better than he, an actual Quincy, ever could. Setting aside the sheer destructive power, the attack was so fast it couldn't even be seen, and this was while he was wearing the Sanrei Glove, theoretically reaching the absolute pinnacle of what a Quincy could achieve.
Now, he could only hope that the enemy could only unleash an attack of that caliber once in a while. Otherwise, given that person's ruthless style, the others might be killed before they even realized what was happening!
*Regroup.* Ishida knew he had to find the others as quickly as possible. It would be great if he could find an opportunity to gather some intelligence—for instance, where exactly was Rukia being held?
Also, who exactly was this Kōe Shihouin that Mr. Yoruichi mentioned at the very end? Could he be the one who attacked them?
...
"The above is Lord Chōzuka's deduction regarding the Ryoka."
Inside the Squad 1 captain's office, Yamamoto listened silently to the latest intelligence brought by the Squad 2 member. *Are the Ryoka intentionally scattering to divide our attention?*
"Squad 10 also just reported in. They discovered a Ryoka but the target managed to escape. The opponent's strength did not seem particularly high," Sasakibe chimed in at the right moment, hoping to assist Yamamoto in his judgment as much as possible.
From the looks of it, this group of Ryoka wasn't entirely composed of elites. Connecting this with the intelligence Kōe had sent over, if the mastermind behind the scenes truly was Urahara Kisuke, then their real objective might not even be Kuchiki Rukia. Even if this was just a smokescreen, sending out these fragile cannon fodders could only be meant to buy time.
"The security deployment remains unchanged. All squads are to hold their positions and confirm the identities of all the Ryoka as quickly as possible."
Since it was a smokescreen, they would just quietly wait for the smoke to clear. If those brats expected to achieve their goals with such petty tricks, they were far too naive.
"Also, regarding Lord Chōzuka..." The reporting member looked a bit troubled. Should he report this matter to the Head Captain? It was clearly a trivial thing, but when it involved Kōe Shihouin, it made people incredibly nervous.
"Speak your mind directly!"
"Yes, sir! Lord Chōzuka has already left the Shin'ō Academy, saying..."
Not many people knew that Kōe had left the academy yet. However, the reason for his departure was already known to some, and it was giving him a massive headache.
"Don't move. Whatever you do, do not move!" Madarame Ikkaku tried his best to pacify Ichigo, who stood opposite him. It was a good thing he was bald, otherwise he would have torn all his hair out by now!
When the alarms blared last night, he and Yumichika had searched for a while before finding a quiet corner to rest. After all, running blindly around the Seireitei wasn't exactly a fun activity.
It wasn't until early this morning that one of the Ryoka, scattering from the sky, happened to land right in front of them. What incredible luck! It turned out windfalls really did drop right out of the sky.
After resting for a night, having a fight right as the sun rose to stretch their muscles while simultaneously earning some merit—every wonderful thing they could think of had happened. Ikkaku had even specially performed his signature tip-toe dance to express his gratitude to the opponent.
But he never expected that misfortune lived right next door to good luck. A tiny little thing falling from the sky had turned all his previous actions into a complete joke.
"Bastard! Didn't I tell you not to move?!" Ikkaku glared at the demonic claws slowly inching toward the little creature, the veins on the hand gripping Hōzukimaru bulging. "If you move again, I'll stab you to death!"
"You think I don't want to cut you down? You damn baldy!" Ichigo retorted, drawing Zangetsu from his back and giving it a forceful swing. "You've been spouting nonsense I can't understand for a while now. I've put up with you long enough!"
That movement was nearly disastrous. The black cat perched on Ichigo's head was almost thrown off. Beside them, Ayasegawa Yumichika was so frightened he nearly fainted. That was Chōzuka Kenpachi's most beloved cat—Sayo! If it suffered any injuries because of this, they would definitely be beaten into dogs!
"Calm down, calm down!" Yumichika raised both hands to show he meant no harm. "This hand... handsome young man..."
"Huh? You just called me ugly a second ago."
"Did I? You must have misheard." Yumichika forced a smile. Saying such words against his conscience was pure torture for him, okay?!
"We didn't gang up on you two-on-one, so we're still pretty honorable in the spirit of Bushido, right?"
"But you just said you had no interest in me..."
"Excuses, those were all excuses!" Yumichika replied loudly. Realizing he had lost his composure, he put on a fake smile and urged, "I believe you are a man of principles as well, so let's not involve innocent lives. Like, for instance, that cat on your head?"
His words were half-true, half-false. As seated officers of Squad 11, both he and Ikkaku disdained sneak attacks and would never use numbers to bully the weak. That was why they had given the Ryoka ample time to react upon discovering him.
But this had absolutely nothing to do with the spirit of Bushido. If Ikkaku lost, Yumichika would simply step in to fight Ichigo next. He absolutely would not give the opponent a chance to rest for a fair duel.
It was just a pity that this excellent two-on-one situation had been ruined by Sayo suddenly jumping onto Ichigo's head.
God knows how this cat, which never left Kōe Shihouin's side, had appeared in this place. But any member of Squad 11, or any new recruit who had entered the Gotei 13 under Kōe's instruction, knew that this cat was absolutely one of the most untouchable entities in the entire Seireitei.
And now, Ichigo seemed to have realized this as well...
"This cat named Sayo is very important?"
"Uh..." Yumichika didn't know how to answer. Beside him, Ikkaku finally couldn't hold back anymore and shouted, "Nonsense! Your blood isn't even worthy of staining it! Do you see the little clothes it's wearing? Chōzuka Kenpachi made those himself!!"
Furthermore, was Sayo a name *he* was allowed to use? Ikkaku remembered that he had merely patted Sayo's head once, and ended up lying in the Squad 4 barracks for half a month. The reason given was that Kōe was afraid he would make Sayo shed...
Strictly speaking, Sayo's status was equal to that of their own lieutenant. Of course, Yachiru was willful because of her own personality, and her strength was more than enough to back up her capricious actions.
But Sayo's status was entirely due to having a cat fanatic capable of destroying the world. Surely, at this very moment, that willful cat fanatic had already mobilized, right?