After hearing this, Yuta reluctantly grew slightly interested.
Nobles again-always the Three Realms.
He figured Tsunayashiro Tokinada had to be involved behind the scenes.
Tsunayashiro Tokinada had always been twisted and sinister. He wasn't particularly strong himself, but Yanra Kadenori from the Tsunayashiro family held terrifying power. That Zanpakutō wasn't made by Ūetsu Nimaiya-it was one of the oldest Zanpakutō in existence.
And Tokinada's two subordinates? Both monsters in their own right. Dohane Aura and Usan Kinuhiko were far from ordinary.
"Okay, I'll accept this black card."
Hirano Sora saw the smile spread over Yuta's face as he accepted it and slowly backed away.
Yuta headed straight to Kiyota Kuranosuke's office.
Kiyota was there at his desk when Yuta entered and glanced up with confusion.
"What's wrong, Yuta?"
"I want to apply for graduation."
"What?" Kuranosuke stared as if he'd misheard. "You've only been enrolled for three days. Three! Are you insane? Even Ichimaru Gin-the prodigy-took nearly a year to graduate. And you think you're ready?"
"I said I want to apply for graduation," Yuta said again with some finality.
Kuranosuke cleared his throat.
"Ahem. Fine, come with me."
He pushed his chair back and led Yuta outside to the sparring grounds.
"If you want to graduate, you'll have to prove you've earned it. Show me your strength-attack me with everything you've fucking got."
Kuranosuke pressed one hand behind his back and gestured with the other, beckoning Yuta forward with crooked fingers.
Yuta rolled his eyes-'attack with full strength'? If he did that, the guy would be dead in seconds.
Whatever. He raised one hand lazily.
"Hado #4-Byakurai."
In the space of half a second, lightning as thick as a barrel flashed out of his fingertip and fired across the grounds.
Kuranosuke barely had time to curse.
"Shit."
There was no dodging it. The light blinded him before the crack even finished echoing in the trees.
From the sky, it looked like someone had carved through the forest with lightning itself-a long, black path burned into the earth below them.
When the thunder faded, Kiyota Kuranosuke lay flat on the ground-skin charred black and hair fried straight up. Only his eyes were moving, wide and reflecting disbelief.
There was no way that had been just Byakurai from Hado #4-not with that level of devastation. It had looked closer to Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō from Hado #88.
Yuta walked over to him slowly.
"Kiyota-you okay?"
Kuranosuke coughed out smoke before croaking back.
"I'm… mostly fine. I approve your graduation."
"Join the sixth-years for their field-assigned soul burial internship tonight."
"I… I just... I seriously fucking ... I really... I just..."
His body gave out and he collapsed right there in the grass.
Yuta sighed as he stepped closer, light glowing at his fingertips again before pushing it down into the man's chest until his breathing eased out normally again and his burns faded completely.
Kiyota sat up-his face stark with realization. Whatever Yuta was turning into, it wouldn't be contained in any classroom or curriculum the Shino Academy could offer.
"You'll take it easy for now," he said finally. "Just head to the main courtyard tonight and join the others there."
Yuta nodded once and left the grounds without another word.
Kuranosuke watched him vanish around the corner, sighing hard through his nose. The Captain's judgment had been dead-on again. That much destructive force compressed into Hado #4-it wasn't just spiritual pressure at play here. It was control. Mastery.
Hitsugaya Tōshirō had overwhelming pressure back then too-but not control over it. Restraint took training most Shinigami would take decades to learn-Yuta already had it hardwired in his body somehow.
To graduate after using only base-level Kido felt like a waste-but if just one Byakurai could do this? He didn't even have to learn anything else. Hollows wouldn't stand a chance either way.
Didn't matter how far beyond them he was-power like that would collapse everything in its path either way...
-
Later, Yuta stood outside the library building, frowning under his breath as he thought through what he'd learned so far. Every book on Kido above #90 had gone missing from this place-and that limited where else he could go next for answers.
Well-there was one place left: The Great Spirit Book Corridor.
Every record about Soul Society from every era sat archived there-including classified spiritual theory and battlefield research lost to time itself.
Assuming one could even sneak in-he could find everything from secret arts to taboo experiments there. Afterall, Aizen Sōsuke had once used it to investigate Urahara Kisuke's past-it was where he'd found intel on how to operate directly on souls and remove foreign matter embedded deep within them...
Someday-I'll get inside too. Just once will be enough...
-
Central Room 46
Down in Seireitei's restricted zone, Aizen Sōsuke walked calmly toward Central 46's chamber doors with Kaname Tōsen and Ichimaru Gin flanking him on either side.
Two guards in black Shihakushō paced stiffly at the door-along with dozens of hidden operators from the Covert Ops Division camouflaged in every shadow above and behind them...
None of them moved-not one raised their hand nor stepped forward.
All of them were already under hypnosis.
"Open it."
"Yes."
One door opened. Another followed behind it-and another after that.
Nine doors in total separated them from the heart of the judiciary chamber-and each creaked open without resistance until they finally stepped into the main room where forty-six stone seats stood, arranged in tiers beneath high overhead windows.
Each seat had its own plain desk and number plate-from "one" to "forty-six." Every person seated there looked between middle age and elderly-all dressed in immaculate white robes of judgment authority.
"Aizen Sōsuke," one of them barked out, "this is not your place."
"Do you understand what type of sentence trespassing into Central Room 46 demands?!"
"Enough! Where are the guards? Arrest that man immediately!"
-
Light flashed across Aizen's glasses as he adjusted them softly by the hinge-his smile unreadable behind the glare.
"Ah… yes-I know where I am."
"I came here with one request."
Somehow-just by tone alone-the room's temperature dropped by several degrees. The judgment council watched him warily now, though they did not interrupt again just then...
"…And what would that request be?"
"I ask you…"
His lips curved into mock courtesy-his tone impossibly calm and cruel beneath it-
"…to kindly wait here… and die."
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