In the small hours before dawn, most residents of South Rukongai's First District were still fast asleep.
The entertainment street that had been noisy all night finally enjoyed a brief moment of peace.
Yushima Ōko stood in the middle of the street, facing the storefront with the Koizumi Izakaya sign hanging over it, quietly waiting for Higashino Shuuichi to finish setting things up in the surroundings.
He was using an old-model reiatsu-masking device—one that hid the spiritual pressure inside by artificially generating a reishi barrier.
The downside was that it was a hassle to set up, and the more intense the battle inside, the more devices had to be prepared in advance.
On top of that, as long as the people inside were truly determined to force their way out, this sort of device had almost no restraining effect on them.
So, now that spatial techniques were in widespread use, even within the Twelfth Division these antiques were rarely issued anymore. They basically used reiatsu-masking barriers that could peel off an independent extra-dimensional space instead.
Yushima Ōko had never expected to see the day they'd go back to using this kind of device.
And because he had never dealt with such antiques before, all he could do was stand aside and watch, unable to help Shuuichi-sama even a little.
It was mortifying.
Once Higashino Shuuichi finished his preparations, Yushima was too embarrassed to even meet his eyes.
"What's wrong?"
Ōko's mood shift was so obvious that it was impossible for Shuuichi not to notice.
"It's nothing, Shuuichi-sama. I'll definitely re-study all those older fundamentals from now on!"
Yushima promised earnestly.
"What are you even talking about?"
Knowing that this guy had once again let his thoughts run off somewhere weird, Higashino Shuuichi placed his right hand on Yushima's head.
"Stop filling your own head with random nonsense in the future.
Do you know why I specifically chose to use this outdated device?"
Yushima first nodded, then shook his head.
"…I'm sorry, Shuuichi-sama. I really don't understand."
Never mind this strange choice of equipment—even just being dragged to stand in front of some izakaya in Rukongai at this hour had left him utterly confused.
"You…"
Looking at the confusion in Yushima Ōko's eyes, Shuuichi suddenly felt that familiar urge to smack some sense into him.
Is this really that hard to guess?
If it were Aizen suddenly bringing him here, Shuuichi wouldn't even need him to say anything. One hint and he'd already know what the objective was.
Sometimes, he truly envied Aizen—for having a subordinate as worry-free as him.
Just a few vague words, and he'd work out the rest himself.
Unlike Yushima Ōko and Kisaragi Shūsuke… those two, honestly, were as dense as each other.
Shuuichi had no idea how long it would take—or how much effort it would cost—to train the pair of them into people who could fully handle things on their own.
"Ōko, you have to learn to analyze everything.
Take this incident as an example—why did I come to find you specifically, at this time?"
He took the opportunity to give Yushima a lesson.
"Obviously, first: this matter is urgent and can't be put off for long.
Second: it means you're indispensable to it.
Otherwise, if it were something I could solve on my own, do you think—with my personality—I'd come find you like this?"
Shuuichi asked pointedly.
He had placed a lot of expectations on both Kisaragi Shūsuke and Yushima Ōko.
"I understand now, Shuuichi-sama!"
With that hint, realization finally dawned on Yushima.
"It's because you want to use my spatial ability to create a new—
No, wait. If the goal was to create a new space, you wouldn't have needed to go out of your way to use that outdated device.
Even inside an already-isolated space, I can still create additional dedicated spaces of my own.
I get it now, Shuuichi-sama.
You want me to find the hidden space that already exists here!
There's a special spatial anchor point in this place!"
Hearing that, Shuuichi nodded in satisfaction.
Now that's more like it.
That was exactly his goal.
As everyone knew, spatial abilities weren't something you could just use however you liked.
If that were the case, Higashino Shuuichi wouldn't have trained for so many years under Aizen and still failed to learn Thousand-Fold White Snake—the technique Tōsen and Ichimaru had practically worn out with constant use.
Even after gaining Hollowfication, he was only using those spatial tricks vaguely, relying on a Hollow's instincts.
Of all the factors, grasping "spatial anchors" and manipulating "spatial coordinates"—those two were the core indicators of truly mastering spatial abilities.
And at present, the only one in Soul Society who could achieve both by relying on his Zanpakutō was Yushima Ōko.
The reiatsu-masking barriers jointly developed by Urahara Kisuke and Kurotsuchi Mayuri?
Those only set up a spatial anchor point, nothing more.
The famous Senkaimon (World-Transcending Gate) that everyone in Soul Society knew about?
That only targeted spatial coordinates. It was nowhere near manipulating them.
As for the Hollows' Garganta (black cavity), that was even cruder.
It was just Hollows using their unique power to forcibly tear open a hole in space—a violent act of destruction that couldn't really be called "control" at all.
So, in theory, as long as someone prepared a special space in advance and didn't recklessly radiate power outward from within it, no external force should have been able to interfere with it.
Higashino Shuuichi's own Zanpakutō Shikai ability—Heisha, Tōgen—was a textbook example of this type of technique.
In the original storyline, Urahara's creation of the fake Karakura Town to serve as the final battlefield and force Aizen into a showdown there was also based on the same theory.
So, in principle: as long as the extra-dimensional space set up near Koizumi Izakaya chose not to reveal itself, it was absolutely safe.
This was precisely why Aizen hadn't yet passed on any "next-step" orders back when they were in Hueco Mundo.
At this stage—before fusing with the Hōgyoku and evolving beyond the rules—Aizen simply didn't have the ability to break the game.
Shuuichi was quite sure that whoever owned this space was thinking along those same lines.
Otherwise, with Ichimaru Gin's ability, there was no way he would have kept a long-term watch on Koizumi Izakaya without picking up any trace of the mastermind.
Clearly, once that person realized the Ukitake Zama incident was about to blow up, they'd temporarily abandoned this place.
What they could never have imagined was that Higashino Shuuichi had an ace in the hole like Yushima Ōko.
Half an hour later, Yushima Ōko finally pulled back, drenched in sweat but smiling.
"Shuuichi-sama—I found it!"
A mirror-like surface, as if drenched in layers upon layers of bloody ink, appeared in front of them.
It was obviously the entrance to that special space.
But even someone like Higashino Shuuichi—whose hands had been stained with more lives than he cared to count—couldn't help but frown at the lingering stench of death it gave off.
Because it didn't feel like a hiding place at all.
It felt more like a jingguan—
A mound built from countless wronged souls.
Nor was it just Shuuichi; Yushima Ōko also sensed the ill omen hanging over it.
So he turned to Higashino and said:
"Shuuichi-sama, why don't you let me go in alone?"
His instincts told him there was grave danger inside.
Not knowing yet what Shuuichi-sama's purpose was in finding this space, his first thought was to scout the way for him.
But Higashino Shuuichi was not the kind of person who stood safely in the back.
Especially since the one who had created this space could, at most, be someone on Kyōraku Shunsui's level. Any stronger than that would have been impossible.
And in a Soul Society not yet distorted by Aizen's Hōgyoku-induced evolution, Shuuichi was still confident.
There was no way he'd see an "accident" like the one during his battle with Baraggan again.
So in the face of Yushima's concern, Shuuichi merely gave a small shake of his head.
Then he stepped past Yushima Ōko and strode straight into the space.
"Shuuichi-sama!"
Seeing this, Yushima didn't hesitate; he dove in after him without another word.
A hellish sight greeted him.
They were standing in a vast domed cavern.
Yet wherever Yushima looked, he saw no dome.
Because what should have been the ceiling was completely hidden behind countless corpses hanging down from above.
The moment he stepped inside, a thick, sticky bead of crimson hit him right on the nose.
And the ground he could actually walk on was no less crowded than the air overhead.
If anything, it was even more horrific.
"Shuuichi-sama… these are all Gillian, aren't they?
But why are their bodies… carved up like this?"
All around, faint groans and low howls echoed, near and far.
For the first time in his life, Yushima Ōko found himself feeling genuine pity—for Hollows, whose life force was usually so much tougher than that of Shinigami.
Seeing these Gillian dissected in all manner of ways, he couldn't help but think that the ones hanging from above might actually be better off.
At least they were no longer suffering.
"This is… hell itself."
Before Shuuichi could answer, Yushima had already supplied his own description in a hushed voice.
At that, Higashino Shuuichi—who had walked a short distance ahead—suddenly stopped.
He looked up, raised a hand, and gathered a bead of blood about to fall onto his head, suspending it with reiatsu.
"No, Ōko.
Hell is much nicer than this."
Shuuichi was certain that if this scene were ever printed in the Seireitei News, it would be voted "Best Hell Joke of the Year".
"…"
Yushima Ōko had no idea how to respond to that, because he knew Shuuichi-sama had actually been to Hell.
If Shuuichi-sama said Hell was better than this… then it was.
They continued forward slowly for quite a while, weaving through several Gillian whose bodies longed for death but hadn't yet been allowed to die, before finally arriving at a new area.
Several times along the way, Yushima almost raised his hand to grant those Gillian release.
But every time, he stopped at the last moment.
I'm a Shinigami… and I'm feeling sorry for Hollows. There's clearly something wrong with me.
Besides, they had trespassed into someone else's territory.
They didn't know what traps might have been laid here, nor what Shuuichi-sama planned to do about all this.
Acting on his own wouldn't help anyone—least of all Shuuichi-sama or himself.
"Shuuichi-sama… these are…?"
Soon, Yushima realized just how limited his own experience truly was.
What lay before them now were beings partly shaped like Gillian, yet whose bodies still mostly retained Shinigami traits.
Their Zanpakutō hadn't degenerated into Asauchi.
But in Yushima's perception, these things—if they could still even be called Shinigami—were already dead.
He was left almost speechless.
By contrast, Higashino Shuuichi's expression barely changed.
If anything, Yushima had the vague feeling that Shuuichi-sama had already expected a sight like this.
"Failed experimental subjects.
Pitiful sacrifices in the hands of a madman."
Shuuichi said quietly.
In that, Yushima hadn't been wrong.
From the moment he'd stepped into the space and seen the first scene, Shuuichi had already guessed what he'd eventually find.
And he'd also understood who this space belonged to.
Yamada Seinosuke.
There was only one possible answer.
"I should have thought of it earlier…"
Higashino Shuuichi let out a bitter little laugh.
In fact, even if his butterfly wings had never flapped here, in the original timeline Yamada Seinosuke would still have been discovered by Tokinada Tsunayashiro and recruited into his camp.
It was probably just a matter of ten or twenty years from now.
Judging from the current situation, Shuuichi guessed that the moment Yamada Seinosuke achieved Bankai (Final Release) with his Zanpakutō was when Tokinada realized his potential value.
Shuuichi didn't know exactly what Yamada's Bankai did.
But as someone who'd once worked with him—and even clashed with him for a while—he knew very well what Yamada's Shikai (Initial Release) could do.
Its name was Hyakka—"Hundred Families".
In essence, it could forcibly combine different spells of kidō (demon arts).
That was why, even without outstanding kidō skill, Yamada Seinosuke still possessed considerable combat strength.
If Higashino Shuuichi had never appeared out of nowhere, Yamada would have been all but guaranteed the position of Fourth Division vice-captain.
As for his Bankai, based on the usual connection between Shikai and Bankai abilities, plus his behavior in the original future storyline and the ironclad facts now laid out before them…
Shuuichi was confident his guess was close to the mark.
It was undoubtedly an ability that could forcibly fuse different things together.
In the original timeline, it should have been with this power—combined with the "scraps" he picked up after the great war—that Yamada Seinosuke successfully created a new Soul King candidate: Hikone Ubuginu.
But now…
"What on earth are you doing…?"
Higashino Shuuichi stared at the experimental subjects ahead of him and addressed the empty air.
Yamada Seinosuke shouldn't have been someone this far gone.
What had happened to him to turn him into this?
And what exactly was he trying to obtain by doing all this?
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