Yoruichi and the others hurried as fast as they could and finally made it back to their base in the Human World.
"You're back already?"
Kurotsuchi Mayuri had been completely absorbed in his experiments, tinkering with various instruments and reagents without paying the slightest attention to what was happening around him. It was only when the group appeared in front of him that he abruptly looked up in surprise.
"If we hadn't come back, we probably would've died in Hell!"
Rangiku still looked shaken by the experience.
"That place is a nightmare for Shinigami. Hell's miasma constantly corrodes our spiritual bodies. Stay there too long, and eventually we'd be transformed into Togabito ourselves!"
The feeling of that miasma invading her body was something she had absolutely no desire to experience again.
"Exactly."
Hitsugaya looked exhausted as well.
"It's easy for you to talk when you were standing safely out here. Once that miasma gets inside you, it's no joke."
"Hell's miasma?"
Mayuri's eyes immediately lit up.
"That sounds fascinating."
He rubbed his hands together eagerly.
"Had I known beforehand, I wouldn't have stayed behind in the Human World. I should have gone with you and studied it personally."
Hitsugaya's eyes shifted toward Kira.
"Well, how convenient."
He pointed at the unfortunate lieutenant without hesitation.
"Kira still has some Hell miasma lingering inside him. If you want a sample, you can study him."
Hitsugaya had sold him out without even pretending to feel guilty.
Perhaps there was a tiny bit of personal satisfaction involved too. Kira had once served as Ichimaru Gin's lieutenant, and Gin had hardly been one of Hitsugaya's favorite people.
Call it delayed revenge.
Kira looked as though someone had just fed him something deeply unpleasant.
There was absolutely no way he was the only one among the six who still had traces of Hell's miasma inside him.
He glanced at Kenpachi.
No chance.
Then Yoruichi.
Definitely not.
Then Rukia.
Also dangerous.
Finally Hitsugaya and Rangiku.
Still no good.
Kira slowly realized the terrible truth.
He was the only safe target.
The Third Division still had no captain to protect him.
Life was unfair.
"Hehehe…"
Mayuri turned toward him.
"Kira, surely you wouldn't object to sacrificing yourself for the glorious advancement of science?"
The smile beneath Mayuri's makeup was so unsettling that Kira suddenly felt less like a research subject and more like a beautiful maiden being sized up by a starving wolf.
"C-Captain Kurotsuchi…"
Kira wanted to refuse.
He really wanted to run.
Unfortunately, there was nowhere to run.
"All right, Captain Kurotsuchi."
Hitsugaya finally decided Kira had suffered enough and returned to the real issue.
"Did you detect Captain Kazuma returning to the Human World while we were gone?"
Mayuri's expression sharpened.
"You're saying you didn't find Captain Kazuma in Hell?"
He'd already established an extensive reiatsu-monitoring network throughout Karakura Town. If anything significant happened, he'd detect it immediately.
From the moment Hitsugaya's group entered Hell until their return, Mayuri hadn't detected another Gate of Hell opening.
Yoruichi's face darkened.
"That makes this even worse."
Kazuma was nowhere in the Human World.
They'd searched Hell and found nothing there either.
So where exactly had he gone?
She and Rukia had watched the Gate of Hell swallow him with their own eyes.
Kuchiki Kōga stepped forward, his expression grave.
"What was Hell itself like?"
Their expedition had never been solely about finding his missing teacher.
There had been another equally important objective.
Determining whether Hell had truly developed a will of its own.
"As far as we could tell, there were no obvious abnormalities."
Yoruichi answered carefully.
"At least, Hell behaved normally toward us. We didn't observe anything suggesting it was actively interfering with us."
She paused.
"That said, it's also possible whatever is happening is beyond our ability to perceive."
Yoruichi had been the first to raise the frightening possibility that Hell had awakened self-awareness, so she'd paid particular attention to signs supporting that theory throughout the expedition.
Unfortunately, they'd found nothing substantial.
Kōga visibly relaxed.
"If that's the case, then at least we have one piece of good news."
"We may not have found my teacher, but Hell itself appears safe for the moment."
He thought for a moment.
"You were able to enter, search several layers, and return without Hell directly interfering with you. That alone suggests the situation may not be as severe as we feared."
His brows still remained slightly furrowed.
"I'm returning to Soul Society immediately to report to the Captain-Commander."
With that, Kōga opened a Senkaimon and departed.
...
First Division Barracks
"Captain-Commander, that is everything we know so far."
Kōga quickly summarized the investigation.
"I understand."
Yamamoto remained silent for a moment before asking,
"What is your assessment?"
"My current judgment is that Hell does not appear to pose an immediate threat to Soul Society."
Kōga answered carefully.
"As for my teacher…"
He trailed off.
Based on Yoruichi's investigation, he agreed that Hell probably hadn't developed a conscious will capable of directly interfering with the Three Worlds.
"Regarding your teacher…"
Yamamoto considered the matter for some time.
"Very well. Hitsugaya Tōshirō will remain in command in the Human World."
"Kira Izuru, Hinamori Momo, and Matsumoto Rangiku will remain with him."
"All others will return to Soul Society and await further orders."
Yamamoto had revised the deployment.
"Captain-Commander."
Kōga suddenly remembered another matter.
"What about the Bounts we were originally preparing to eliminate? Should Captain Hitsugaya's group handle them as well?"
There was still a collection of troublesome clowns running around Karakura Town.
Since Soul Society already had a captain stationed there, they might as well clean up that problem at the same time.
"That is acceptable."
Yamamoto nodded.
"Also dispatch Ayasegawa Yumichika of the Eleventh Division."
"One of the Bounts' allies is a deserter from the Eleventh Division. Let them deal with their own former member."
Kenpachi had already mentioned Ichinose Maki to him earlier.
This arrangement would settle both matters at once.
"And Captain Suì-Fēng?"
Kōga asked.
"Suì-Fēng…"
Yamamoto gave it a moment's thought.
"She will remain in the Human World for now as well. Once the Bount situation has been resolved, she may return."
He waved a hand, signaling that Kōga could leave.
Kazuma's sudden disappearance had caught Yamamoto completely off guard.
But when he connected it with the secrets Kazuma had previously told him concerning the Soul King and the founders of the Five Great Noble Clans, a possibility began forming in his mind.
Could those five ancient bastards hiding behind the scenes be responsible for what had happened?
The Captain-Commander was still the Captain-Commander.
With only a handful of clues, Yamamoto had somehow managed to land remarkably close to the truth.
Unfortunately, identifying the likely culprits did little good if he had no idea where Kazuma had been taken.
For now, there was nothing to do but wait.
"That boy never gives anyone a moment's peace."
Yamamoto sighed.
"We haven't even finished dealing with Aizen, and now he's gotten himself involved in another mess this large."
His words sounded like he was talking to himself, but his gaze had already shifted toward the courtyard.
"Wouldn't you agree, Batsu'unsai?"
"There's no need to worry so much, Captain-Commander."
Batsu'unsai's figure slowly appeared in the courtyard as though she'd materialized from thin air.
"Whatever happens, we'll deal with it."
Yamamoto's brows rose.
"What technique was that?"
He'd sensed Batsu'unsai somewhere nearby, but he'd been completely unable to determine her exact location.
"Nothing particularly impressive."
Batsu'unsai's voice carried an oddly ethereal quality.
"You can do it as well, Captain-Commander."
"Me?"
For once, Yamamoto looked genuinely confused.
He certainly didn't remember possessing an ability like that.
"The Solar and Lunar Stars illuminate the Three Worlds."
Batsu'unsai explained calmly.
"Once you learn to make proper use of that property, you can appear anywhere their light reaches — anywhere you can see."
She'd clearly been experimenting extensively with the power of the Lunar Star and had somehow developed it into a means of near-instantaneous movement.
Yamamoto stared at her.
"You can use it like that?"
The idea had never even occurred to him.
If the Solar Star's power could be applied in the same way, then he'd effectively gained an absurd teleportation ability.
Anywhere its light reached—he could simply appear.
That was ridiculously overpowered.