Once the captains got involved, things moved quickly.
It didn't take long for them to sweep Karakura Town clean of Hollows, and as luck would have it, one or two of those Hollows had committed crimes heinous enough to warrant damnation.
Before long, a Gate of Hell opened in midair.
"All right. Now we need to decide who's going inside."
With the enormous gate slowly opening before them, the next question was obvious: who would actually enter Hell?
"I'm going."
Zaraki Kenpachi volunteered immediately.
The battle maniac had heard long ago that creatures killed in Hell could eventually come back to life.
As far as he was concerned, that sounded like paradise.
"I'm going too."
Rukia stepped forward.
She'd already entered Hell once before and had at least some familiarity with the place. If nothing else, she could serve as their guide.
"Rukia, you're staying here."
Byakuya's tone left no room for argument.
"There is no reason for you to involve yourself in something this dangerous."
Part of it was naturally concern for his sister-in-law's safety. More importantly, both he and Kōga were present.
Whether from a personal or practical standpoint, there was no reason to allow Rukia to risk herself.
"Nii-sama!"
Rukia immediately bristled.
"I've been to Hell before, so I can actually help. And the person who disappeared is my teacher. How could I possibly stand here and do nothing?"
Her stubborn streak had surfaced in full force.
Her own teacher had vanished without explanation. As his student, there was no chance she'd simply sit on the sidelines.
"That's enough, Byakuya."
Kōga stepped in as the elder of the family.
"Rukia isn't a child anymore. She can make her own decisions, and her strength is more than sufficient to protect herself."
He understood that Byakuya was only trying to keep her safe, but they also had to look at the situation objectively.
"If she has previous experience with Hell and is willing to go, then having her along will only help."
After some discussion, the group finally settled on the team that would enter.
Zaraki Kenpachi.
Hitsugaya Tōshirō.
Shihōin Yoruichi.
Kuchiki Rukia.
Kira Izuru.
Matsumoto Rangiku.
The six of them would enter Hell, while everyone else remained in the Human World to respond to any other emergencies that might occur.
...
"This place is seriously fucked up."
Kazuma wandered aimlessly through the endless chaos, stopping every so often before continuing in another direction.
Not that the word direction meant much here.
There seemed to be no concept of time or space.
He couldn't even tell where he was.
"Emperor, can you figure out what this place is?"
With no better option, Kazuma finally asked Hokushin Raitei for help.
This was worse than prison.
At least in prison, there would usually be someone nearby to talk shit with.
Here, there wasn't even a damn insect.
"This is still within the world you know."
Hokushin's voice sounded within him.
"It appears to be an unusual space that came into existence through Hell itself. I sensed no disturbance that would suggest the boundary of this world was breached."
"So I'm still in the Bleach world?"
Kazuma stared blankly into the void.
"How the hell does that work? Isn't this entire world built around reishi? I haven't sensed a single trace of it since I got here."
Now he was genuinely confused.
If this place didn't rely on reishi, did the Three Worlds secretly contain another power system altogether?
After another stretch of fruitless searching, Kazuma's patience finally snapped.
"Fuck this!"
He planted his feet and shouted into the endless darkness.
"I don't give a damn whether you're the will of Hell or some other piece of shit hiding back there! You dragged me into this godforsaken place for no reason, so grow some balls and show yourself!"
Nothing answered.
That only made him angrier.
Kazuma promptly launched into an absolutely vicious stream of profanity.
Every insult he knew came pouring out one after another, without pause or mercy.
He cursed whoever had brought him here, their ancestors, their descendants, their entire bloodline, and probably several branches of their family tree that had never even existed.
When he finally ran out of breath, he stopped.
The anger hadn't gone away.
So he started over from the beginning.
Word for word.
Apparently, he'd decided that if whoever was hiding here refused to appear, he'd simply insult them until they did.
Eventually his throat became painfully dry.
Kazuma paused, took a huge swig of alcohol, cleared his throat—
and resumed.
"Fuck you! Get your ass out here!"
The torrent continued.
...
"Haa…"
"Haa…"
"Haa…"
After an extended session of verbal warfare against empty space, Kazuma finally exhausted himself.
He dropped heavily onto the featureless void, utterly out of ideas.
He'd already spent all this time screaming himself hoarse and had received absolutely no response.
All he'd accomplished was wasting saliva and energy.
He was just about ready to give up and embrace doing absolutely nothing when—
"Tsk, tsk. You really do have a filthy mouth."
A faint voice suddenly emerged from the otherwise deathly silent chaos.
Kazuma froze.
Then his eyes lit up.
"Who the fuck are you?!"
He sprang upright as though someone had injected adrenaline straight into his veins.
"Get your ass out here! Stop hiding in the dark like some coward!"
At this point, he was genuinely delighted.
So there really was someone else here.
Thank God generations of humanity had spent centuries perfecting the art of creative profanity.
Who knew it would someday prove useful for flushing ancient bastards out of hiding?
"My, my. Captain Kazuma really is troublesome."
The amused voice came again.
"Having such frightening strength is already difficult enough to deal with, but that mouth of yours might be even worse. You really do know how to leave a person speechless."
As the words faded, something shifted within the chaos.
A hazy human silhouette gradually emerged from the darkness.
Then, as the first figure became clear, several more appeared behind him.
Kazuma narrowed his eyes.
"Hmph."
A cold smile appeared on his face.
"So it really was you old bastards."
Four figures now stood before him.
One was immediately recognizable.
His skin was dark, unmistakably carrying the same distinctive complexion associated with the Shihōin Clan.
There was virtually no room for doubt.
This man had to be the founder of the Shihōin Clan.
As for the other three, their appearances and the aura surrounding them made their identities equally obvious.
They were the remaining founders of the ancient Great Noble Clans.
"Oh?"
One of the figures behind the Shihōin founder gradually became clearer.
"Captain Kazuma already knows who we are?"
The moment Kazuma saw his face, he nearly laughed.
That smug, thoroughly punchable expression could only belong to the founder of the Tsunayashiro Clan.
He looked far too much like Tsunayashiro Tokinada.
It was as if the two had been carved from the same mold.
"Hmph."
Kazuma looked over the ancient nobles without the slightest respect.
"Ever since Adnyeus told me what happened to the five of you, I was convinced you weren't actually dead."
"You had to be hiding somewhere in the dark, pulling strings and stirring up trouble."
His eyes sharpened.
"And now you've finally decided to crawl out."
Kazuma had suspected this for a long time.
Within the Three Worlds, there were only a handful of beings capable of forcibly dragging him into an isolated space like this.
Either it was the mysterious god that had been lurking behind everything—
or these ancient old monsters.
Until now, the founders had never personally appeared, so Kazuma couldn't be completely certain they were involved.
But now that they'd shown themselves of their own accord, his earlier suspicions had gained considerable weight.
These old bastards had survived all the way to the present day.
And if Kazuma's reasoning was correct, they had almost certainly managed it by conspiring with that unknown god whose origins remained a mystery.
---------
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