"That old bastard is hiding really well."
Kazuma frowned and once again released his spiritual perception, sweeping it outward like a vast tide in an attempt to pinpoint the Shiba founder's location.
He found nothing.
After searching repeatedly without the slightest result, Kazuma began to question his original assumption.
Was the old man even here?
The atmosphere on the battlefield had become strangely tense.
Neither side was willing to make the first move.
Kazuma was unquestionably powerful, but with the Tsunayashiro founder and the other three ancient nobles forming a defensive line together, charging them head-on would be reckless.
On the other side, those four old monsters were equally wary of him and had no intention of casually stepping forward to attack.
And so an almost ridiculous scene emerged.
Kazuma stared at the four founders.
The four founders stared back.
Nobody moved.
Eventually, Kazuma casually pulled out his flask and started drinking as though the men standing across from him were nothing more than scenery.
The noble founders, however, remained equally patient.
Their primary objective had never been to kill Kazuma here.
They merely needed to keep him trapped.
As long as he couldn't leave this strange space, everything else was secondary.
So when they saw Kazuma calmly drinking instead of desperately trying to escape, they weren't annoyed in the slightest.
Quite the opposite.
If he was willing to sit around wasting time, then they were perfectly happy to save themselves the effort and wait with him.
Neither side seemed willing to break the stalemate.
Time passed — or at least Kazuma assumed it did.
In a place with no obvious flow of time, it was impossible to tell.
Finally, his patience began wearing thin.
"Hey, how about we all compromise a little?"
Kazuma raised his voice toward the four founders.
"I'll forget about you dragging me into this godforsaken place, and you stop getting in the way of me returning to Soul Society."
He spread his hands.
"Everybody wins. No need to turn this into some fight to the death, right? Peace and prosperity, all that good stuff."
The real problem was that Kazuma had no idea how long he'd been gone.
This place had no recognizable concept of time.
For all he knew, only a few minutes had passed outside.
Or perhaps he'd already been missing for days.
What if something important happened while he was stuck here?
The four old bastards standing across from him were obviously determined to keep him trapped.
The instant he tore open another spatial fissure, they'd undoubtedly rush him like starving dogs and prevent him from escaping again.
Kazuma's brows tightened as he began considering how Soul Society would respond to his disappearance.
Rukia and Yoruichi had both watched him get dragged away by a Gate of Hell.
By now, Soul Society might already have mobilized a large force and started combing through Hell looking for him.
Unfortunately, this strange chaotic space wasn't technically part of Hell itself.
If they were searching the normal layers, they could turn the entire place upside down and still come back empty-handed.
...
Fifth Layer of Hell
The atmosphere was oppressive and sinister.
"Well?"
Hitsugaya Tōshirō frowned.
"Did anyone find anything?"
They'd already spent a tremendous amount of time and effort searching, practically turning the Fifth Layer inside out.
There was still no trace of Kazuma.
"Nothing."
"Same here…"
The repeated answers only made the mood heavier.
After entering Hell, they'd split up.
Rukia searched the First Layer and found no sign of her teacher.
Kenpachi handled the Second Layer.
He found nothing either, although he'd greatly enjoyed cutting down every Togabito foolish enough to cross his path.
Yoruichi and Kira searched the Third Layer together.
Nothing.
Hitsugaya and Rangiku scoured the Fourth Layer.
Again, nothing.
Finally, all six regrouped in the Fifth Layer and conducted another broad sweep.
Still no Kazuma.
During the search, they did encounter several powerful souls who'd once been captain-class fighters.
One particularly unpleasant example was Szayelaporro Granz.
He'd once made the mistake of running his mouth at Batsu'unsai, only for Kazuma to reduce him to pieces afterward.
"Could Captain Kazuma… not actually be in Hell?"
Rangiku finally voiced the possibility everyone had been avoiding.
"No."
Rukia rejected it immediately.
"Yoruichi-san and I both saw Teacher get pulled into a Gate of Hell. He has to be somewhere here that we haven't found yet."
Hell was simply too vast.
Even after several days of searching, six people couldn't possibly cover every corner of it.
"That's definitely possible."
Kenpachi looked thoroughly annoyed.
"I came here thinking I might get to fight some of those original Gotei captains everyone talks about."
He clicked his tongue.
"Didn't even find one."
Missing out on a chance to fight legendary warriors had clearly offended him far more than the failed search.
"This place is enormous."
Rukia nodded.
"With only six of us, there's no way we could search all of Hell in just a few days."
Even if they refused to sleep and searched continuously, finding Kazuma in such an unimaginably vast realm would still be difficult.
Of course, the truth was that no amount of searching would help.
Kazuma was currently trapped inside a bizarre isolated space outside the normal layers of Hell.
And the original captains Kenpachi hoped to find had long since returned to the Human World.
Kira suddenly spoke.
"Is it possible Captain Kazuma already found his own way back to the Human World?"
Everyone looked toward him.
"We can't communicate with anyone outside while we're here, so we have no idea what's happening back there."
It wasn't an unreasonable theory.
With no access to outside information, practically anything could have happened while they were searching.
"I think we should leave."
Rangiku rubbed her arms uneasily.
"The miasma here keeps eating away at our spiritual bodies. If we stay much longer, finding Captain Kazuma might become the least of our problems."
She shivered.
Her breathing had become slightly heavier, and the corrosive effects of Hell's atmosphere were clearly beginning to wear on her.
"We could end up trapped here ourselves."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
The decision was unanimous.