The scene before him was absolute chaos, but Aizen Sousuke still had no idea what exactly had happened to Kisaragi Akira.
What he did know, however, was painfully clear:
If Akira didn't snap out of that ritual trance soon, the entire boys' dorm of Shin'ō Academy was going to be uprooted and thrown into the sky.
Thunderous heartbeats rumbled like rolling storms beneath the ground. The pulse of the earth matched the violent rhythm in Akira's chest. Wind howled like a beast unleashed, tearing through walls as the entire building trembled—no, collapsed—as if a dragon beneath the soil had turned in its sleep.
Wave after wave of crushing spiritual pressure erupted outward—layer upon layer—like volcanic magma bursting from the crust. The heat rolled through the storm winds, swallowing everything around him without mercy.
Within just a few seconds, Akira's room had been completely annihilated, reduced to a few scattered planks that still clung to the idea of being "floor." Yet the destruction didn't stop there—no, it spread with the hunger of a hurricane, expanding outward until the entire boys' dorm area was engulfed.
Unsurprisingly, the violent disturbance drew the attention of students and instructors alike.Shinigami stationed at the academy were the first to arrive, their expressions filled with stunned shock as they stared at the boy standing at the eye of the storm.
With their limited understanding, they couldn't even begin to grasp what was happening.
But duty demanded they act, so they approached anyway—attempting to reach Akira and pull him out of his dazed state.
The instant they stepped onto the shattered remains of the floor, another pulse of crushing spiritual pressure slammed onto their shoulders.
BOOM—
A dense, overwhelming weight crashed down, making the ground tremble as if about to collapse again.
Each step forward became harder, as though the air itself had thickened into mud.
"What… what the hell is happening to this kid?"One officer gritted his teeth. "This level of pressure— even a lieutenant would struggle to compare!"
"Damn it, we can't get close at all! Evacuate the nearby students first.""Before someone gets hurt—go!"
The moment they retreated from Akira's range, the pressure lifted instantly, vanishing as if it had never existed.
Their nerves were stretched thin, yet none of them questioned further.To them, everything was obvious:
The culprit behind this mess was the boy standing right there.
What was a little extra blame on top of that?
Hidden in the shadows, Aizen silently watched the officers leave. His expression remained blank, cold, unreadable.
He had intervened earlier not for heroism or justice.
He simply didn't want these fools interfering with Akira's ritual.
Nothing more.
His gaze drifted back to the center of the storm, dark eyes sharpening.
Using a shrine ritual to commune with an asauchi…Imprinting one's soul onto it…And forging the very first connection with a Zanpakutō.
A path no one had ever taken before.
Interesting.
Aizen suddenly realized that greeting Akira during enrollment…might have been the smartest decision he'd made this year.
Inside the inner world.
Kisaragi Akira stared blankly at the world around him.
So this is… my Zanpakutō's inner world?
With what he knew from the academy—and from the anime he'd watched in his previous life—he assumed that any moment now, someone who looked suspiciously like him would appear.
That person would then introduce themselves:
"I am your Zanpakutō spirit."
Then they'd ramble about kings, horses, instincts, enlightenment, and all sorts of cryptic nonsense.
Finally they would explain the difference between them with a dramatic flourish:
"Because I am… instinct!"
So Akira waited.
And waited.
Eventually he squatted down, resting his chin in his hand, staring at the empty horizon.
Five minutes later, he came to a deeply painful realization:
Experience is a liar.
"…Looks like no Zanpakutō spirit is showing up."
He stood, scanning the world around him.
"Also—do other people's Zanpakutō worlds look this abstract too?"
Because what he saw was unmistakably familiar.
He had lived here for years.
He had been beaten bloody fighting over a cup of clean water.He had risked his life against packs of feral dogs for a single rancid fried fish.
This was the 76th district of the East Rukongai—Gyakuho.
Rukongai was split into four major regions—north, south, east, west—each divided into eighty districts.The higher the number, the harsher the environment.
District 80 was essentially barren wasteland, where souls killed each other for the right to survive.
And district 76, Gyakuho, wasn't much better.
Akira had struggled here for many years before fate began to shift.
He remembered it clearly.
That day… Ise Shizune had smiled at him like sunlight breaking through clouds.
Following the familiar road, Akira walked until a building entered view—one he knew as well as his own memories.
A solemn, imposing shrine.
His heart thudded with growing certainty, and he quickened his pace.
But when he stepped inside—
He froze.
Standing on the shrine platform was not the familiar one-eyed deity statue.
It was something far stranger.
A figure identical to himself.
"I… got enshrined as a god?"
Akira stared, dumbfounded.For once, his intelligence utterly failed him.
Had the nature of his Zanpakutō changed the moment he used a shrine ritual to communicate with the asauchi?
Was this the result?
He tried reaching out to touch the statue—
But the world suddenly shattered.
His consciousness blurred—
—and he jolted awake back in the academy.
A face—pale, exhausted, covered in burst blood vessels—filled his vision.
Akira instinctively stepped back.
Below those bloodshot eyes was a haggard face drained of life.
"Kaede-sensei…?"
"Yes. Good. You're alive."Kaede Junya's voice was perfectly flat, like a mummy casually narrating its own funeral.
"Now we can… discuss the bill."
Akira's heart dropped.
"The entire boys' dorm was destroyed by your little stunt. Ignoring the damage to the land and counting only the building… the loss is exactly 389,654 kan."
He paused.
"But since you're a student, I'll round it up. Make it 390,000 kan."
Akira's eyes flew open.
"Three… three hundred and ninety thousand!? You might as well kill me!And you call that 'rounding'!? Old man, were you a con artist in your past life!?"
Kaede understood perfectly well what he meant.
But after enduring days of torment from this boy, his mind and spirit had long since collapsed.He didn't even have the energy to argue.
"Damage is damage. If you have questions, take them up with the headmaster."
Kaede sighed deeply.
"One more thing. Since the headmaster is away on assignment, the acting headmaster position has fallen to the Captain-Commander himself."
"After all, he founded the Academy. He wouldn't trust anyone else to manage it in the meantime."
"So… you're on your own."
He sighed again—longer, deeper—and limped away with the posture of a man who had aged fifty years in one night.
Akira inhaled sharply.
Then he turned toward a particular patch of shadow among the ruins.
Someone hidden there felt their heart seize.
And before they could react—
A familiar, desperate wail tore across the rubble:
"Sousuke—save meeeeee—!!"