Ink-like, swirling clouds obscured the sparse moonlight.
A desolate, cold wind continuously swept across the dark land.
The sea of trees surged into tumultuous waves.
Not far away.
Hoarse, shrill beast cries pierced the silence of the night, echoing in the ears from time to time.
Outside the Dangai.
It was a dim, lightless forest, with some bats hanging upside down from tree trunks. Their dense, crimson eyes shone like torches in the darkness.
Screech! Screech!
Listening to the bats' cries, Tsugikuni Yoriichi stepped onto the soft ground.
After waiting for a while, a hint of confusion appeared in his eyes.
He turned to look at the rapidly disappearing Dangai behind him...
His head tilted slightly.
Where is the Captain?
Where did the Captain go?
...
"Damn it!"
"Dangai coordinates, 308.301, abnormal energy fluctuations detected!"
"Is it the Kototsu?"
"Or the Koryu?"
Twelfth Division.
The Shinigami responsible for monitoring the Dangai looked at the garbled data on the computer. After a gasp, they fell into a panic.
They were flustered because there was a problem with the Dangai.
The Dangai is an existence that superimposes multiple severed spaces.
Through the influence of the Dangai, it connects the Human World and the Soul Society.
Souls who wish to go to the Human World must pass through the Dangai.
The time density inside is two thousand times that of the outside world.
In other words.
Thirty-three hours inside.
One minute in the Human World.
When a Shinigami enters and then exits, under normal circumstances, the time in the outside world barely changes.
However, while normal circumstances exist, so do unexpected situations.
Namely, the Kototsu and the Koryu.
They are like guardians within the Dangai.
It's fine if they don't appear, but once they do...
The Shinigami who enter will have no chance of survival.
The Kototsu is like a train, appearing every seven days, and will crush all foreign existences in the Dangai with irresistible force.
The Koryu, on the other hand, is a liquid-like mass of spiritual energy.
Its appearance time is irregular.
Its location is also irregular.
It will capture everything inside, and those who come into contact with it will never be able to leave.
The current situation...
It is very similar to the scene when both occur.
"This is not optimistic!"
One person slammed the computer, trying to restore it to normal through the most primitive method.
Unfortunately.
He slammed it for a long time.
There was no sign of any miracle happening.
"Did a Shinigami just enter?"
Knowing that the situation was irreversible, a few Shinigami could only report it to their superiors, and then, sitting together, they couldn't help but discuss.
...Yes, I remember it was the Captain of the Tenth Division, and an unfamiliar Shinigami.
...Their luck is too bad. Even if it's a Captain, encountering the Kototsu and Koryu, they probably wouldn't survive.
I heard that Captain is also a high-ranking noble of the Seireitei... What a pity.
I hope they only encountered the Koryu.
The survival rate for the Kototsu is zero. Although the Koryu's is also zero, at least there's a glimmer of hope...
A few people couldn't help but sigh.
As time passed.
Their superiors sent people to investigate, but they found nothing.
The energy emanating from the Dangai had subtle differences from that of the Kototsu and Koryu.
Even the current Twelfth Division Captain, the creator of the Soul Candy, Hikifune Kirio, who was about to be promoted to Squad Zero and held a status equal to Yamamoto Genryusai, couldn't figure out what it was.
Strange fluctuations...
Anyway...
The Dangai had a problem, that's for sure.
A rescue team would be dispatched shortly.
Hopefully... those two Shinigami would survive.
...
"Hmm?"
Shiba Isshin slowly opened his eyes, reflecting a nearly void scene.
The sudden change in the unfamiliar scenery made him draw his Zanpakuto abruptly, a sense of vigilance growing from the depths of his heart.
This was completely different from the Human World he remembered.
He recalled...
He should have entered the Dangai, right?
With Tsugikuni Yoriichi.
But now...
He surveyed his surroundings.
Three question marks gradually appeared above his head.
Where did Tsugikuni Yoriichi go?
Where is this place?
And the Dangai?
...
"Caw! Caw!"
A crow flapped its wings and flew across the sky.
On the ground.
After standing in the forest for a long time.
Tsugikuni Yoriichi finally accepted the fact of the Captain's disappearance.
Although it was his first time passing through the Dangai, after two months of theoretical knowledge study, he knew that...
The time difference between two people appearing consecutively would not exceed ten seconds at most.
Two minutes had passed so far.
Which was equivalent to about three days in the Dangai.
Three days...
Let alone a strong Shinigami, even a slow old man should have walked out by now.
However...
The Captain had not.
Sighing inwardly, Tsugikuni Yoriichi gripped his Zanpakuto at his waist tightly, his dark red eyes lowered. After two seconds of thought, he... stepped out with his right foot and walked out of the forest.
It wasn't that he didn't want to stay longer.
But staying longer was useless.
Firstly, he couldn't control the appearance of the Dangai at will.
Secondly, if the Captain was truly missing, he must have been lost in the Dangai.
At that time, professional personnel would enter to search.
He had no experience in this regard.
Instead of wasting a lot of time and plunging himself into it, causing himself to go missing as well, it was better to conserve his strength.
The Captain had a second-grade spiritual pressure after all...
Step.
Step.
The hard ground was like a swamp. Yoriichi gently stepped, and a pit appeared. The bright moonlight from the sky pierced through the gaps in the inky clouds, casting down obliquely.
Yoriichi looked at the footprints on the ground.
He frowned slightly.
It wasn't until he completely suppressed his spiritual pressure using the mission token hanging from his waist that the path he walked left no traces.
This Human World...
Is not right.
He couldn't help but think.
It was as if his spiritual pressure was incompatible with this world; even a tiny bit of power leaking out could cause unimaginable destruction to the environment.
One must know that before entering the Human World, his spiritual pressure was sealed, only one-fifth of what it normally was—this was a rule that Shinigami had maintained for a thousand years to preserve the stability of the Human World.
Even high-ranking nobles could not break it.
Therefore, he was not in his complete form at the moment.
At about a fifth-grade spiritual pressure level, it was enough to defeat a Menos Grande...
It's just...
He looked at the token, gripping it in his hand. The red dot flashing on it had now extinguished.
The red dot indicated the location of a Hollow; as long as a Hollow existed within a hundred-mile radius, it would be reflected on the token. There was nothing on the token.
Does that mean...
The nearby city is very safe.
Then...
What about the mission?
Confused, he walked out of the forest, and what met his eyes was not the prosperous Human World he knew.
There were no skyscrapers that his seniors spoke of, nor any technological creations. All there was, was a small village.
Houses built of straw and wooden planks were everywhere, neatly lined up along a street extending into the depths of darkness in the distance.
In the darkness, a few scattered candle flames flickered.
Along with it came...
The sound of a "night watch bell."
It made Yoriichi feel less like the Human World and more like the Rukongai. Especially the areas with larger district numbers.
[Where is this?]
Carrying these questions, he found a house and quickly understood.
Tokyo.
Foot of Mount Kumotori.
The current era is...
—The Taisho Era.