"Urahara Kisuke, have you lost your mind?!"
The moment Byakuya heard the words Hueco Mundo, his expression darkened, and anger appeared in his usually composed eyes.
In the past, Hueco Mundo had simply been regarded as the world inhabited by hollows. Although it had always existed as a realm separate from Soul Society, its relationship with the shinigami had largely revolved around the balance between the worlds and the threat posed by hollows.
But the Hueco Mundo of today was no longer the same place it had once been.
After being ruled by two generations of kings, the realm had undergone tremendous changes. It was no longer merely a world inhabited by hollows. Under the influence of Mazuru and his predecessor, Hueco Mundo had developed into an organized power with its own hierarchy, forces, and ambitions.
And for the current Gotei 13, Hueco Mundo represented something far more troublesome than a neighbouring realm.
It was the domain of Kyo Mazuru, a former shinigami who had betrayed Soul Society and become one of its most dangerous enemies.
Before the war against the Wandenreich began, Soul Society had always regarded Hueco Mundo as a potential enemy. In their eyes, a confrontation between Soul Society and Hueco Mundo was inevitable. The shinigami and the forces of Las Noches, led by Mazuru, stood on opposite sides of a conflict that had been brewing for years.
The Gotei 13 had prepared itself for the possibility of such a war, knowing that the day might come when they would have to fight Mazuru and his forces.
Yet now, after everything they had endured, Kisuke was actually proposing that they form an alliance with Hueco Mundo?
How could they possibly accept such a suggestion?
The other captains also wore unpleasant expressions. Some looked surprised, while others seemed outright offended by the very idea.
To them, forming an alliance with Hueco Mundo was tantamount to abandoning the pride and honour of the shinigami.
Kisuke sighed as he took in their reactions.
"I understand. This isn't something any of you can easily accept. However, I'd like everyone to consider one question before rejecting the proposal outright."
He paused briefly before continuing.
"Setting aside the conflict between Mazuru and the nobles, does he actually have any other irreconcilable conflict with Soul Society?"
The answer was no.
Apart from slaughtering Central 46 and destroying most of nobles, Mazuru had not deliberately targeted ordinary shinigami or civilians. Even during the expedition to Hueco Mundo organized by Soul Society more than a year ago, he had shown restraint and allowed the shinigami involved to leave alive.
If Mazuru had truly wanted to eliminate them, the outcome would have been very different.
The expeditionary force might have been wiped out completely, leaving no survivors to return to Seireitei.
Had that happened, the current situation would have been even worse. The Gotei 13 would have lost those shinigami long before the invasion of the Wandenreich, and they would have had even fewer people available to fight against Yhwach's army.
Of course, the fact that Mazuru had shown restraint did not mean that Soul Society had forgiven him.
Quite the opposite.
That was precisely where the problem lay.
For Soul Society, Mazuru's massacre of the nobles was a crime that could not be overlooked. Central 46 and the aristocratic families under its authority formed the foundation of the existing political order. They were not merely influential individuals; they represented the highest authority governing Soul Society.
By slaughtering them, Mazuru had challenged the very system that had existed since the establishment of Soul Society.
From the perspective of the ruling establishment, his actions amounted to trampling upon the authority of the entire organization.
As long as Central 46 and the existing order remained in place, Mazuru would continue to be regarded as an unforgivable sinner.
It did not matter how much restraint he had shown toward ordinary shinigami. It did not matter whether he had personally harmed them or whether they had any reason to hate him.
As far as the ruling people were concerned, Mazuru had committed a crime for which there could be no reconciliation.
And that was why Soul Society had been unable to tolerate him.
Even so, the feelings of ordinary shinigami toward Mazuru were considerably more complicated than the official stance suggested.
Many of them did not harbour the overwhelming hatred that the nobles expected them to feel. Mazuru had not personally harmed them, nor had he deliberately undermined their individual interests. For the average shinigami, he was a dangerous criminal whose actions had shaken Soul Society, but he was not necessarily someone they had a personal reason to despise.
Nevertheless, the nobles' influence remained deeply rooted in Soul Society. Their authority had shaped its laws, traditions, and institutions for generations.
Even those who felt little personal animosity toward Mazuru could hardly ignore the consequences of opposing the established order.
Thus, regardless of their private feelings, the shinigami had little choice but to stand against him.
Byakuya's expression grew colder.
As the head of the Kuchiki family, one of the Four Great Noble Clans, he was naturally the first to reject the idea of forming an alliance with Mazuru. His position was hardly surprising. The issue was not merely one of military strategy or the practical advantages of cooperation.
To Byakuya, it was also a question of the dignity and authority of the nobility.
He could not simply disregard the laws and traditions that had shaped Soul Society for generations.
For him, Mazuru's crimes could not be excused merely because Soul Society now faced a greater enemy.
Sui-Feng, on the other hand, had a different perspective.
Although she had been born into a lower-ranking noble family, she was not particularly concerned with preserving the prestige of the aristocracy. What mattered to her was the law. Mazuru had committed serious crimes against Soul Society, and in her eyes, those crimes could not be ignored simply because he happened to possess considerable strength.
If he had violated the law, then he had to answer for his actions.
That was why she wanted to bring him to justice.
Jushiro's reaction was more complicated.
Like Sui-Feng, he had been born into a lower-ranking noble family. However, he had never placed much importance on the glory of the aristocracy. The lower-ranking nobles, despite their titles and inherited status, were often little more than commoners in all but name. Their long-standing family lineages granted them a somewhat higher standing in Soul Society, but they did not wield the same authority as the great noble houses.
If one set aside the matter of noble status, Jushiro was not all that different from an ordinary shinigami.
He had never believed that tradition should be followed blindly, nor did he consider every violation of Soul Society's rules to be inherently unforgivable. What mattered to him was whether a decision was justified and whether it protected the people who depended upon them.
His actions in the past had already demonstrated this clearly.
When Rukia Kuchiki had been sentenced to execution, Jushiro had not simply accepted the ruling because it had been issued by the authorities. He had acted against the execution, refusing to let the established order prevent him from doing what he believed was right.
In that respect, the usually gentle and mild-mannered Jushiro could be considerably more uncompromising than his friend Shunsui.
When he believed something was worth doing, he was willing to challenge authority itself.
Now, as he listened to Kisuke's proposal, Jushiro's expression became thoughtful. He was not yet prepared to agree, but neither was he willing to dismiss the possibility without consideration.
After all, their current circumstances were unlike anything they had faced in generations.
Finally, Shunsui let out a long sigh.
"Urahara Kisuke, you've certainly given us a difficult problem to deal with."
As one of the oldest serving captains in Soul Society, a direct disciple of Yamamoto Genryusai, and the head of one of the big noble clans, Shunsui occupied a particularly influential position among the surviving captains.
With Yamamoto unconscious and unable to lead the Gotei 13, Shunsui was also the most likely candidate to succeed him should the Captain-Commander never recover.
There was little doubt about that.
As for Unohana Retsu, despite being older than Shunsui and possessing immense experience, she had always remained aloof from political affairs. Nobody seriously regarded her as the most likely successor to Yamamoto's position.
Consequently, with the Captain-Commander incapacitated, Shunsui's words carried considerable weight.
Yet rather than immediately rejecting Kisuke's suggestion, he began considering it carefully.
If they temporarily set aside the central conflict between Mazuru and Soul Society, then forming an alliance with Hueco Mundo was not quite as absurd as it initially appeared.
In fact, there were several reasons to consider it.
First, Mazuru had been the one to reveal the existence of the Wandenreich to Soul Society.
He had informed Kisuke about the quincy threat, allowing the latter to begin developing the medicine that would enable the shinigami to reclaim their stolen Bankai. Without that warning, the Gotei 13 might have entered the battle completely unprepared for the quincies' ability to steal their greatest weapons.
The consequences would have been disastrous.
Furthermore, when Shunsui had previously gone to Hueco Mundo, Mazuru had provided him with a warning that helped him understand the danger they might eventually face.
Those warnings had given Soul Society the opportunity to prepare, even if that preparation had ultimately proved insufficient to prevent the tremendous casualties they had suffered.
Mazuru had already helped them, at least indirectly.
And that raised an important question.
If he genuinely wished to see Soul Society destroyed, why had he bothered to warn them about the Wandenreich in the first place?
He could have remained silent, allowing the quincy to invade Seireitei without the Gotei 13 knowing what was coming. He could have watched from Hueco Mundo as the shinigami were slaughtered, then waited until both sides had exhausted themselves before deciding what to do next.
Instead, he had chosen to provide information that gave Soul Society a chance to prepare.
That decision alone suggested that his relationship with the Gotei 13 might not be as straightforward as they had assumed.
Shunsui began to see the possibility behind Kisuke's proposal.
If they could establish some degree of cooperation with Mazuru, perhaps Hueco Mundo's forces could help them survive the coming battles against the Wandenreich.
And once he began thinking along those lines, another name inevitably came to mind.
"Aizen Sosuke..."
Shunsui spoke the name quietly, but the surrounding captains heard him.
According to Kisuke, Aizen had also received a warning about the Wandenreich before being sealed away in Muken.
That, too, was significant.
Aizen had spent years working against Soul Society, manipulating its institutions and pursuing his own ambitions. Mazuru had likewise challenged the existing order, committing crimes that had made him an enemy of the ruling authorities.
Yet neither man's actions could be explained solely by a desire to destroy Soul Society.
After reviewing their past actions on multiple occasions, Shunsui and Jushiro had both come to recognize a troubling possibility: for Mazuru and Aizen, the existing order of Soul Society had always been a central obstacle to their ambitions.
Their goals were not necessarily the same, but neither had treated the destruction of Soul Society's ordinary population as the sole objective of their actions.
Perhaps, then, the current crisis offered an opportunity to seek their cooperation.
Of course, neither man could be considered trustworthy in the conventional sense. Their crimes remained serious, and their ambitions made them dangerous even when their interests temporarily aligned with those of the Gotei 13.
But that did not change another important fact.
Whatever else they might be, both Mazuru and Aizen had once been shinigami.
They understood Soul Society, its strengths, and its weaknesses. They knew the nature of the threats facing it, and their abilities could prove invaluable against an enemy as formidable as Yhwach.
If Soul Society was to survive, perhaps it was time to reconsider whether its old enemies could become temporary allies.
Shunsui continued thinking for a while before turning back toward Kisuke.
"I have to hand it to you. Coming up with the idea of an alliance with Hueco Mundo is certainly something."
He shook his head slightly.
"But even if we are willing to put aside our hatred for the time being and agree to your proposal, that doesn't mean Kyo Mazuru will accept it. Why would he agree to help the very Soul Society that has spent so long treating him as an enemy?"
Kisuke fell silent for a moment.
His expression became complicated, and the familiar, carefree air that usually surrounded him was nowhere to be seen.
Then, after a brief pause, he answered.
"Not necessarily."
*****
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