The rumor spread through the Seireitei like wildfire.
By now, it had become so widespread that even the captains had heard about it.
"Nanao-chan, what do you think?"
Kyōraku Shunsui lay comfortably on a rooftop, basking in the warm sunlight as he casually addressed his lieutenant — and adorable niece — beside him.
"Do you think the rumor is actually true?"
Ise Nanao calmly adjusted her glasses.
"If you truly want to know the answer, Captain, you could simply go and ask someone involved. Why bother asking me about something so trivial?"
She had little patience for the rumors flying around the Seireitei.
They certainly sounded convincing, filled with supposed eyewitness accounts and detailed explanations, but none of them contained any actual evidence.
As far as Nanao was concerned, anyone with a functioning brain should be able to see they were probably nonsense.
Shunsui, however, suddenly became serious.
"Nanao-chan."
He turned his head slightly toward her.
"Haven't you noticed what makes this situation so strange?"
Nanao paused.
A thought flashed through her mind.
That was true.
The rumor had already been circulating for several days.
And yet the two people at the very center of it — Captain-Commander Yamamoto and Kazuma — hadn't publicly denied it.
If this were merely some ridiculous piece of gossip with no basis in reality, one would normally expect the Captain-Commander to stamp it out immediately.
Instead, both men remained silent.
Their lack of response only made the whole matter more suspicious.
Shunsui had always possessed excellent instincts when it came to intelligence gathering, and his ability to pick apart unusual situations was far sharper than his lazy appearance suggested.
When he first heard the rumor, even he had dismissed it as potentially nothing more than another silly prank.
The Seireitei was hardly immune to ridiculous gossip.
But as the days passed, the story didn't die.
Instead, it grew.
More witnesses appeared.
More supposed sources surfaced.
The rumor spread from division to division until practically everyone had heard some version of it.
That was when Shunsui began to suspect something was wrong.
Under normal circumstances, if the story were completely fabricated, Old Man Yama would have intervened long ago.
Yamamoto was not exactly known for tolerating chaos or allowing baseless rumors to disrupt the Gotei 13.
Yet this time?
Nothing.
Not a denial.
Not an investigation.
Not even an order telling everyone to shut up.
That silence was completely unlike him.
And then there was Kazuma.
He'd vanished under mysterious circumstances and remained missing for days.
When Shunsui linked all those details together, an unpleasant suspicion began forming.
Someone was manipulating events from behind the scenes.
Someone with enough influence to spread the same rumor throughout the Seireitei almost overnight.
And after thinking it through carefully, only one name truly fit.
Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni.
Yes.
Across the entire Gotei 13, who else possessed enough authority, connections, and manpower to make a rumor explode this quickly and reach almost every corner of the Seireitei?
Shunsui's brows slowly furrowed.
The more he considered it, the more convinced he became that his teacher was somehow involved.
"Well…"
He sighed.
"Looks like I'm going to have to investigate this personally after all."
His figure disappeared from the rooftop.
A moment later, he was already racing toward the Seventh Division.
Going directly to Yamamoto and asking him outright didn't seem particularly wise.
After some thought, Shunsui decided it would be better to speak with Batsu'unsai first.
She was far more likely to let something slip.
Before long, he arrived outside the Seventh Division barracks.
He didn't simply walk inside.
Batsu'unsai was one of his seniors from the original Gotei 13, and barging into her division unannounced would be far too disrespectful.
Before Shunsui could decide how best to announce himself, hurried footsteps approached from inside.
Iba Tetsuzaemon appeared at the entrance.
The moment he recognized Shunsui, he immediately bowed.
"Captain Kyōraku."
Then he asked, "Did you come specifically to visit Captain Kazuma?"
Shunsui blinked.
"Hm?"
His expression changed.
"Captain Kazuma is already back in Soul Society?"
"When did that happen?"
Suddenly, his confusion doubled.
The rumors had already been suspicious enough.
Now he'd learned that Kazuma had quietly returned to Soul Society without anyone being informed.
That made the entire situation even stranger.
Then another word in Iba's question caught his attention.
"Wait."
Shunsui's eyes sharpened.
"Visit him?"
His relaxed expression disappeared.
"Captain Kazuma is injured?"
How was that possible?
Shunsui's thoughts immediately began racing.
Had Kazuma encountered an overwhelmingly powerful enemy during his disappearance?
Was that why he'd returned wounded?
If someone had managed to seriously injure Kazuma, then just how dangerous was the opponent?
And why had his return been kept quiet?
Unless…
Kazuma's condition was far worse than anyone wanted the Seireitei to know.
A bold possibility suddenly formed in Shunsui's mind.
'Could that be it?'
Perhaps Old Man Yama had deliberately spread the rumor about Kazuma becoming Captain-Commander to stabilize morale.
If the Gotei 13 learned that one of its strongest captains had returned from a mysterious disappearance gravely wounded, panic could spread.
But if everyone believed Kazuma was about to inherit the Captain-Commander position?
That sent the opposite message.
Kazuma was fine.
Soul Society was strong.
There was nothing to worry about.
Shunsui's eyes widened slightly.
"That has to be it."
The more he thought about it, the more reasonable his theory seemed.
Unfortunately, what Shunsui believed to be a brilliant deduction had wandered so far from the actual truth that it might as well have entered another dimension.
Not long afterward, he followed Iba inside and finally saw Kazuma.
Shunsui stopped dead.
What lay before him barely looked human.
Kazuma had been wrapped from head to toe in bandages.
He looked like a living mummy.
"Captain Kyōraku?"
Batsu'unsai had remained in the room caring for Kazuma and looked genuinely puzzled by Shunsui's arrival.
"What brings you here?"
As far as she knew, practically no one should have known that Kazuma had already returned.
She'd also spent the last several days shut inside the Seventh Division, entirely focused on persuading her husband.
As a result, she knew absolutely nothing about the rumors now sweeping through the Seireitei.
Shunsui looked at the heavily bandaged Kazuma.
His expression softened.
"Captain Batsu'unsai…" He spoke in an unusually gentle voice.
"You have to stay strong."
Batsu'unsai blinked.
Shunsui continued solemnly,
"Captain Kazuma has survived countless dangers before. I'm sure fortune will favor him again and he'll recover soon."
Batsu'unsai stared at him.
"Huh?"
She looked completely lost.
Kazuma was fine.
Well, his face was swollen and Yamamoto had beaten him rather enthusiastically, but there was nothing remotely life-threatening about his condition.
So why was Shunsui telling her to stay strong?
Stay strong for what?
Batsu'unsai's thoughts tangled into a complete mess.
She had absolutely no idea what this man was talking about.
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