To the man in black's senses, there were indeed several red Reiraku—spirit ribbons—within this estate. The color red symbolized Soul Reapers, just like himself. Unfortunately for the household, these signatures were either too aged or far too weak; as a high-ranking Seated Officer, the man in black didn't spare them a second thought.
With a flash of movement, he appeared before Taichi's bedroom door with practiced ease. He eased it open and slipped inside. Whether it was due to the intruder's supreme skill or the high quality of the craftsmanship in a wealthy home, the door didn't let out so much as a single creak.
Expecting the job to take mere seconds, he didn't bother closing the door behind him. Instead, he left it slightly ajar, allowing a sliver of candlelight from the corridor to spill into the room.
The man in black moved toward Taichi's bedside with the silent, predatory grace of a cat. He drew a device from his waist and pressed it against Taichi's brow. It resembled a syringe, though it lacked a needle.
As he channeled his spiritual pressure into it, the device emitted a pale, sickly light. Two beams of energy converged at the base and began to spiral upward in a counter-clockwise motion, as if attempting to siphon something directly out of Taichi's body.
Ten seconds passed. The man in black furrowed his brow in confusion. "I can't pull it out? What's going on...?"
This wasn't his first time doing this. He had preyed upon at least seventy or eighty gifted youths, yet this was the first time the device had failed to work.
"Is it because I've used it too many times? Is it broken?" he mused to himself. "I'll have to test it on one of the other brats."
Deep down, he actually hoped the issue lay with Taichi himself. If it did, it meant Taichi might represent a significant breakthrough for their research.
Just then, he noticed Taichi's eyebrows twitch and his eyelids flutter.
Realizing the boy was about to wake, the man in black was struck with horror. In his dozens of previous abductions, no one had ever woken up on the spot. The device was designed to extract a portion of the soul; while not fatal, the process was a massive drain on a child's constitution.
His muscles tensed instantly. His left hand shot out like a claw, clamping firmly over Taichi's mouth. Simultaneously, he gathered a dense but faint amount of spiritual pressure in his right palm, forming a Kido strike that he slammed into the side of Taichi's neck.
Because of Taichi's perceived uniqueness, the man only intended to knock him unconscious. Taichi let out a muffled groan, but he didn't black out. On the contrary, the sharp pain only made him more alert.
Their eyes met—one pair wide with shock, the other with panic. The man struck again, this time with several times the force. Finally, the overwhelming pain forced Taichi into unconsciousness.
Looking down at the slumped boy, the man in black wiped sweat from his brow that wasn't actually there. Now, he just needed to verify whether the problem was the device or the boy. Although there had been a slight hiccup, he felt it was perfectly handled. He took a deep breath, yet a persistent sense of unease gnawed at him.
As fate would have it, the more one wishes to avoid trouble, the faster it finds them.
A small girl appeared stealthily in the corridor—it was Rangiku. Noticing Taichi's door wasn't fully closed, she pushed her way in without hesitation.
"Taichi, Taichi! Do you want a late-night snack? I already told Gin... wait, who are you?! Help— mmmph!"
Rangiku had come to drag Taichi to the kitchen, only to find a thief-like figure in his room. Despite her fright, she remembered to call for help, but her mouth was quickly covered by the intruder. A moment later, she too was knocked unconscious.
"This brat... she didn't make a sound when she walked in... no, wait. It's because of this boy..."
Taking a deep breath, the man in black looked between Rangiku and Taichi. His gaze eventually settled back on the boy. "It's not just this room. The entire estate is saturated with this kid's spiritual pressure. It completely threw off my senses."
He sighed, feeling particularly unlucky today. However, there was a silver lining: Rangiku had delivered herself right to him, saving him the effort of tracking her down.
Thinking it would only take a minute, he still didn't close the door. He pressed the device to Rangiku's forehead. This time, the process was seamless; a fragment of her soul was successfully extracted.
But as the fragment emerged, the man realized it was different from all the others. Usually, soul fragments were a ghostly blue, but Rangiku's was a pale, shimmering red.
It seemed this girl was also an anomaly—another subject for research.
Confident now that the device was functional, he tried it on Taichi one more time, but it failed again.
"It really is this kid!" The man's eyes gleamed with the excitement of finding a rare treasure. "I have to report both of these children to Lord Aizen!"
"Someone help! A thief!"
The sudden cry of a child startled the man. He whipped his head toward the door and saw a silver-haired boy standing there, holding a plate of fruit.
Even with the strength of a high-seated officer, the man in black was currently a startled bird. He had no wish to expose too much of Aizen's operations. He smashed through the window and vanished into the night.
Behind him, the Kamiya estate instantly flared to life with lanterns and shouting. They found nothing, of course, leading them to assume a kidnapper had attempted to take Taichi for ransom.
The man in black used Shunpo relentlessly. More than escaping, he wanted to report the peculiar nature of Taichi and Rangiku to Aizen as quickly as possible.
Sōsuke Aizen, the current Vice-Captain of the Fifth Division. Ever since he had learned of the Zero Division and the existence of the Soul King, Aizen had refused to settle for being a mere Soul Reaper. He had begun secret research into a way to transcend their limits—a tool he called the "Hogyoku."
Taking the device from his subordinate, Aizen watched as the soul fragment from Rangiku emitted a beautiful pink glow. His eyes widened slightly. Through the light, he thought he could see something resembling a finger.
A theory began to form in his mind. He decisively fed the strand of soul to the Hogyoku. The moment the soul touched it, Aizen could clearly feel the Hogyoku in his palm pulse with an excitement far greater than anything it had shown before.
After listening to the report and the subordinate's theories about Taichi and Rangiku, Aizen grew pensive.
"I told you to target children not just because they are easy prey, but because their souls are much weaker than adults. Therefore, I suspect the boy, Taichi Kamiya, simply has an exceptionally high soul density," Aizen said, pausing as if reminiscing. "It's likely a one-in-a-thousand level of talent, but not necessarily an 'anomaly'."
To catch a glimpse of the view from the summit, Aizen had manipulated over a dozen Soul Reapers into conducting experiments for him. Thinking of the tens of thousands of children who had suffered by his hand, his heart didn't stir with even a ripple of guilt.
It wasn't that he lived by the creed of "better to betray the world than let the world betray me." Aizen simply believed that anyone who truly reached the heights must have hands stained with blood and a path paved with bones.
Concerned his subordinate might not understand, Aizen kindly offered an example. "The higher the soul density, the harder it is for such a device to affect it. Take Captain-Commander Yamamoto, for instance. Forget tearing away a fragment of his soul—without Captain-level power, you couldn't even leave a scratch on him."
Aizen's words stunned the man in black, and his previous excitement instantly cooled. Noticing this, Aizen's tone became warm and encouraging; he was never stingy with praise if it meant his subordinates would work harder.
"You have done well. This Taichi Kamiya might even become a Captain one day. When he enters the Shin'ō Academy, I will personally make contact with him. If there truly is something special about him, it won't be too late to deal with him then. As for that little girl's soul..." Aizen couldn't help but stroke the Hogyoku. "I find myself very interested in her as well."
As the subordinate withdrew, Aizen looked up at the sky, though no stars or moon were visible.
Despite his immense strength, the early autumn wind made him instinctively wrap his cloak tighter around him.
"From such a high place... I wonder what the scenery is like?"
He turned and walked away alone, quickly disappearing into the dark of the night.
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