The original captains appeared one after another before Yoruichi, each of them radiating tremendously powerful reiatsu.
The sight left her stunned.
If Rukia's recent transformation had already seemed difficult to believe, then the changes in the original captains could only be described as downright terrifying.
"Ancestor… what exactly happened to all of you?"
Yoruichi stared at Shihōin Chika.
The spiritual pressure rolling off him was immense, crashing over her in waves and making it difficult to breathe.
A newly awakened Shinigami who hadn't yet learned to control their reiatsu might accidentally let it leak into the surroundings, but the man standing before her was one of the original captains of the Gotei 13.
There was no way someone like Chika simply didn't know how to control his own spiritual pressure.
The sheer weight of it made Yoruichi instinctively take several steps backward.
For a moment, she almost felt as though the person standing before her was not her friendly ancestor at all, but Captain-Commander Yamamoto in the middle of a murderous rage.
Seeing how unsettled she looked, Chika merely smiled and reached out to affectionately pat her head.
Cats generally enjoyed having their heads stroked, after all.
Perhaps that still applied when they were in human form.
At least, Chika seemed to think so.
He placed his palm on Yoruichi's head and gently rubbed her hair.
"We've had a little improvement recently. Our control hasn't quite caught up yet."
He smiled.
"Did we scare you?"
Yoruichi stared at him.
"A little improvement?"
She gestured toward the other original captains.
"And every single one of you just happened to improve at the same time?"
Even Kurosaki Ichigo wouldn't have swallowed an excuse that ridiculous.
Kazuma had obviously done something to them.
It was probably the same reason Yamamoto had suddenly regained his youth and Rukia had undergone such absurd growth.
"All right, enough about that."
Chika smoothly changed the subject.
"What happened just now? Why was Kazuma suddenly dragged away?"
Figuring out where Kazuma had gone was far more important than discussing their own strength.
Kazuma had been with Yoruichi and Rukia the entire time, so the two of them should know exactly what had happened.
"I don't know either."
Rukia still looked shaken as she recalled the scene.
"Sensei was telling me to help deal with the Bounts, and before he could even finish talking, a Gate of Hell suddenly appeared and sucked him inside. We didn't even have time to stop it."
The whole thing had been terrifying.
Normally, the Gates of Hell appeared only when an exceptionally sinful Hollow was being judged and dragged away.
This time, there hadn't even been a Hollow anywhere nearby.
"You're saying the Gate only pulled Kazuma in?"
Shijima Chigiri frowned.
"Neither of you was affected?"
That made the situation even stranger.
Had the Gate of Hell appeared specifically for Kazuma?
Rukia suddenly had a bizarre thought.
Could drinking, slacking off, and neglecting your duties really count as sins serious enough for Hell to come personally collect you?
"Only Kazuma…"
The original captains exchanged grim looks.
One possibility immediately occurred to all of them.
At their core, every one of them had been a soul imprisoned in Hell after death.
Kazuma hadn't merely dragged them back out — he'd then gone so far as to increase their strength dramatically.
Perhaps that had finally provoked Hell itself.
If so, Kazuma may have been taken away as punishment for interfering with Hell's prisoners.
At the moment, it seemed like the most plausible explanation.
And if that theory was correct, there might still be some invisible restraint from Hell attached to each of them, something even Kazuma himself had never discovered.
Of course, the original captains were being rather imaginative.
If Hell truly regarded them as escaped prisoners, why would it only drag Kazuma away while generously leaving all of them behind?
Wouldn't the more logical response be to haul every last one of them back, charge them with escaping Hell, and run them through every torture the place had to offer?
"Rukia!"
Yoruichi suddenly broke the silence.
"Contact Soul Society immediately. Tell them your teacher was taken by a Gate of Hell. Hurry!"
Her expression had become unusually serious.
After thinking it through, Yoruichi had arrived at a far more disturbing possibility.
This incident was simply too important to keep quiet.
Throughout recorded history, Hell had never directly interfered with affairs among the Three Worlds.
If that had suddenly changed, the implications were enormous.
Because if Hell possessed the ability to actively intervene in the Three Worlds, then the very existence of Shinigami became questionable.
Think about it.
If Hell could independently judge events and act on its own, why would it need Shinigami to kill sinful Hollows first?
It could simply reach into the Human World and drag evil souls away itself.
Waiting for Shinigami to purify or destroy them before opening a Gate afterward would be an absurdly unnecessary extra step.
More troubling still was something Shinigami relied upon constantly when traveling between realms.
Hell Butterflies.
For generations, everyone had treated them as ordinary guides through the Senkaimon.
But what if they were something more?
What if those seemingly harmless creatures had effectively been acting as Hell's eyes all along?
If Hell could take Kazuma whenever it pleased, then nobody could guarantee it wouldn't do the same to other Shinigami someday.
And if that possibility became reality, the consequences for Soul Society would be unimaginable.
"Hello! This is Kuchiki Rukia of the Seventh Division!"
Rukia hurriedly pulled out her Soul Pager.
"I have an emergency and need to speak with the Captain-Commander immediately!"
She didn't fully understand why Yoruichi looked so alarmed, but an event this abnormal obviously needed to be reported at once.
"Understood. I'll connect you to the Captain-Commander immediately."
The member of the Department of Research and Development handling the call knew that anyone requesting Yamamoto directly over an emergency line was dealing with something serious.
A short while later, a familiar deep voice came through.
"This is Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni."
"Rukia, what emergency do you have to report?"
Yamamoto had been wondering whether those insignificant Bounts had somehow managed to cause a major incident.
"Captain-Commander!"
Yoruichi took the Soul Pager from Rukia.
"Captain Kazuma was suddenly pulled into a Gate of Hell."
She quickly explained everything they'd witnessed, then laid out her theory about Hell potentially possessing far greater awareness and influence over the Three Worlds than anyone had previously assumed.
Silence followed.
Then Yamamoto finally answered.
"I understand."
The connection ended.
That was all.
"Yoruichi…"
The original captains looked increasingly uneasy after hearing her theory.
"That conclusion is a little too frightening. Perhaps the situation isn't that serious."
If Yoruichi was correct, then every Shinigami in Soul Society could potentially be in danger.
Fortunately, her theory was still nothing more than speculation.
There was no actual evidence supporting it.
Most of the original captains still believed the simpler explanation was more likely: Kazuma had forcibly brought them back from Hell, and Hell had finally retaliated against the person responsible.
"I hope you're right."
Yoruichi stared at the place where the Gate of Hell had disappeared.
Her usual carefree demeanor was nowhere to be seen.
"Because if I'm not…"
She fell silent for a moment.
"What exactly does that make us Shinigami?"
This was no longer a problem involving one captain.
It concerned the future of Soul Society itself.
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