Early reports were dismissed as stress.
The Soul Reapers returning from the outer Rukongai spoke of exhaustion without injury, of confusion without panic. They carried out orders perfectly, answered questions correctly, and returned to service without complaint.
And yet, something was missing.
The 4th Division doctors noticed it first, not through readings, but by absence. The patients responded to the treatment without fear, without gratitude, without pain. Their reiatsu levels remained stable, but flat, as if sanded. The emotional spikes that should have accompanied the trauma simply... did not occur.
It was not repression. It was not paralysis.
It was a subtraction.
The phenomenon spread out from the Frozen Eclipse Beacon in irregular arcs, not like waves, but like shadows cast by an object that should not exist.
They were not cold areas.
Temperature readings remained normal. The breath did not freeze. The skin did not become numb.
But within these zones, the reiatsu lost variation.
The Soul Reapers passing by described the same feeling, regardless of rank or division: their thoughts slowed down. Not dull, aligned. Fear was the first to retreat. Then hesitance. Then urgency.
The orders seemed easier to follow.
Staying still seemed acceptable to them.
Leaving seemed unnecessary to them.
Rukongai. District 68.
A 7th Division patrol was found standing in formation three blocks from the Beacon, motionless and with their eyes open. They responded instantly when asked - they greeted curtly, did not report any anomalies, and only asked one question:
"Where should we be now?"
When asked to leave, they obeyed without hesitation.
When later asked about the delay, none of them could explain why they had stopped.
None of them remembered having decided.
Seireitei. 6th Division Barracks.
At the 6th Division headquarters, Byakuya Kuchiki stood alone before the sealed form of Senbonzakura.
The sword trembled.
Not violently. Not continuously.
Only when the wind changed.
Only when the direction of the Frozen Eclipse was clear of obstacles beyond the walls.
Byakuya's hand rested lightly on the hilt. He didn't try to free it. He did not issue any orders.
The sword did not ask for one.
A slight vibration passed through the scabbard - the silent resonance of recognition without meeting.
The sword remembered something that no longer responded.
Now reports came in from multiple divisions, carefully mapped across the Seireitei and beyond.
The "cold shadows" as they were called, did not spread evenly. They curved around certain structures. They avoided others. They stayed longer in routine place - checkpoints, supply routes, barracks hallways.
Places where obedience already lived.
The captains noted the pattern with concern.
This was not an attack.
It was an environment in preparation.
Central 46 did not issue immediate orders.
That was also revealing.
Their silence suggested calculation, not ignorance. A phenomenon that did not destroy, did not speak, did not demand - only adjusted - was much more difficult to classify.
Containment required intention.
This one didn't have any.
Or worse yet - it was already done choosing.
Byakuya was summoned to a briefing which he did not attend.
Instead, he walked the perimeter of the 6th Division grounds, his steps measured, breathing calm, and senses extended. He could feel the limit where normal reiatsu behaviour was beginning to thin - not weaken, but simplify.
Inside it, emotions dulled.
Outside it, the fear worsened.
Senbonzakura's vibrations intensified as it approached the edge.
Byakuya stopped.
He didn't cross.
Yet.
Seireitei. 4th Division Barracks.
Elsewhere, a seated officer dropped her cup. It was shattered. She looked at the fragments without reacting. She knelt down and began to pick them up with hwe bare hands, ignoring the blood.
When they told her to stop, she did.
When asked if she was hurt, she said no.
Her reiatsu did not change.
This was not ice.
Ice preserved. Ice limited. Ice could break.
This was something colder.
Something that wouldn't freeze the soul - but convinced it that there was no need to move.
And high above the Rukongai, the Frozen Eclipse Beacon remained unchanged, its surface dark and smooth, casting shadows that did not belong to the sun.
Within those shadows, the will did not break.
It simply learned to rest.
Seireitei. 6th Division Barracks.
And in the 6th Division, a noble captain stood on the edge of a silence that his sword refused to forget.