"Rumble!!!
Rumble!!!
Rumble!!!"
The aftershocks refused to die. Smoke billowed up, swallowing half the sky.
Cole lowered his right forefinger with a cold smile. "Trying to stop me with a mere shikai? I can't tell if that's arrogance or idiocy—no, it's beyond idiocy."
Sogyo no Kotowari (Twin Fish of Logic) was indeed a formidable pair of blades—one to absorb, one to release. A natural counter to cero.
But it still depended on the scale of the attack.
His current Hollow state crushed even the bovine Vasto form Ichigo once showed and far eclipsed Sajin. You think a single shikai can drink that dry? Did a horse kick your head?
Everyone else stared at the rolling smoke with cold sweat on their backs.
Nanao's voice came out dry. "Um… Captain Rukia, Captain Soi fong—do you… think the head of Tsunayashiro is still alive?"
Rukia and Soi fong couldn't form words.
It was one thing that Cole had "eaten" the mansions of three noble clans. Now he'd blasted the Tsunayashiro head to who-knows-what. Was he insane?
Striking nobles offended the Central 46; offending Central 46 meant standing against the entire Seireitei—against Soul Society itself. Every shinigami would be set to hunt him.
Yoruichi recovered, forgot her brother for the moment, and snapped at Cole, anxiety leaking through her anger. "Cole, are you crazy!?"
The Tsunayashiro family head had been attacked. Even she might not be able to shield him from that.
Byakuya, too, stopped thinking about revenge and frowned deeply.
Cole—still in Hollow form—watched the airborne grit with a thin sneer. "He asked for it. Waving a borrowed Shinsō at my heart—who gave him that courage? Even Ryujin Jakka (Flowing Blade Like Fire) isn't that reckless."
He turned to Yoruichi and Byakuya, voice cutting. "And at the root of it, it's your 'noble' rot. That senseless arrogance, that reflex to look down on humans in the World of the Living."
"Don't forget—World of the Living, Soul Society, Hueco Mundo. The three realms prop each other up. Remove one, and all three collapse."
"In importance, humans are not beneath you. What are you so high-and-mighty about?"
Among the three realms, yes, the Living World looked weakest. But it was also the keystone of the cycle. Without human souls, Soul Society starves and Hueco Mundo withers.
And nobles—buoyed by status—spit on humans. The very first day he arrived here, they sneered at him. When the zanpakuto rebellion hit, they were first to run. No courage. Drowning in luxury. Abusing power. The biggest pile of trash across three worlds.
Yoruichi and Byakuya both frowned, but neither could refute him. As the strongest of their houses, they knew perfectly well what their clansmen were like. Shinigami in Seireitei had long been dissatisfied, but who dared say it aloud?
Then came Cole, who would swing because he was displeased.
Byakuya shook his head. "It is still no excuse to assault nobles. You've caused a calamity." As Captain of the Sixth—"the Noble Division"—guarding noble interests was a core duty. Under normal rules he could already declare bankai and arrest this upstart.
Cole snorted, set his black nyoi-bo into his palm, and drove it point-first into the earth. Pressure rolled out in waves. "Then let's see who'll fight me for those cowards. You think I'm here to be eaten?"
Rukia, Soi fong, and Nanao hurried to his side, a bit guilty but forming up anyway to add presence.
"Hey," Rukia muttered, "you did wreck their estates first. How are you still this righteous?"
Soi fong and Nanao both nodded hard. Two rounds of demolition—who was the bad guy here?
Cole curled a lip. "Because I've had enough of them. This is a lesson. Seireitei belongs to Soul Society, not exclusively to nobles. And Soul Society isn't only shinigami—every human comes here after death."
Unless you fall and turn hollow, the road ends in Soul Society. Even he—after a century—would land here. He had no intention of arriving only to play a noble's hound.
Their exchange had barely ended when other captain-class pressures converged. The Captains of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads arrived, took one look at Cole, and mass-facepalmed.
Shunsui tipped his straw hat. "Knew it. Only this kid makes this kind of mess."
Toshiro and Sajin nodded in pained agreement. In centuries they'd never met a calamity magnet like him.
Jushiro coughed weakly, surveyed the ruins, and gave a wry smile. "So, gave up on wrecking the barracks and set sights on the nobility? Not a paving stone left."
"That's not all…"
The Shihōin nobles rushed up to complain, listing Cole's crimes from A to Z, painting him a tenfold sinner.
When the captains finally pieced the story together, temples throbbed. Why had they come? Should've stayed home like Mayuri, tinkering in a lab.
From the smoke crawled a charred elder, a green one-eyed ray drifting at his side. In a threadbare voice he rasped, "Captain Kyoraku, Captain Jushiro—move! Arrest this criminal who dared assault nobles! Don't let him escape!"
Shunsui and Jushiro's scalps prickled.
"You're… the Tsunayashiro head?"
A great noble crawled out looking like a coal-pit survivor.
Even Cole blinked. "Still alive?"
His Hollow state was pushed to the edge, like a second resurrección. That Cero Oscuras (King's Hollow Flash) could erase Sajin a few dozen times over, yet the old noble still clung to breath.
The elder wheezed—furious and humiliated. Sogyo no Kotowari had absorbed most of it; Enra Kyoten (Mirror-Codex of Glamour) had switched to Minazuki (Flesh Spirit) to heal, and even then he'd nearly died. And the brat dared sound surprised?
"Captains of the Thirteen!" he roared. "What are you waiting for!"
The captains traded looks. Intervene? Strange—felt like the one stepping in would be the one beaten.
Shunsui coughed. "Lord Tsunayashiro, you don't look that badly hurt. Perhaps… let's call it square?"
The old man almost died again on the spot. Not badly hurt? Was the man blind?
Retsu arrived, smiling. "Cole-kun, misbehaving again. Good thing there were no fatalities—otherwise the Commander would have… opinions."
The noble gaped. "You—you—"
Had the servants decided to rebel?
Kisuke drifted in and rubbed his hair. "Head Tsunayashiro, with respect—you overreached. During the zanpakuto revolt, you never used Enra Kyoten. If you had, the Commander needn't have bled that much."
The head of Tsunayashiro stood stunned. The dutiful captains… were scolding the nobles?
"The Central 46—" he blurted.
"Isn't rebuilt," Retsu said with a squinting smile. "Aizen butchered them, remember?"
Speechless. First Aizen, now Cole. Had the age turned?
Two more figures arrived. Relief spread over the old man's face. "Commander Yamamoto! And… Senjumaru!"
Surely the Commander of the Thirteen and a Royal Guard member would stand with him.
They did not.
The Commander snorted, face like thunder. "Brat. Can't you pass a day without making trouble?"
Senjumaru covered a laugh. "You're lucky it was me. Anyone else might have cut you down."
She'd only been Royal Guard a few millennia and owed the four houses no ancestral favors.
The Commander swept the wreckage once and grunted. "Enough. Cole—come with me. We must speak."
Cole bobbed his head. "Okay, grandpa!"
A shiver ran through the old man's frame. "Don't call me that in that disgusting tone."
Cole laughed; hands over mouths, others did too. First time they'd seen the Commander… rattled.
As they turned to leave, the Tsunayashiro head couldn't swallow it. He yelled at Yoruichi and Byakuya, "You'll let a human walk away like this? What about your noble honor!?"
Both mouths twitched. In unplanned harmony, they glanced at the black-clad figures standing with Cole.
"Soi fong…"
"Rukia…"
Teeth ached. Pursue this how? Arrest their own? Forget it.
"Shff! Shff! Shff!" Bodies vanished one by one. The Tsunayashiro head stood dazed, eyes hollow. For the first time he felt it—the times had changed. Servants now had the power to ignore nobles.
Rage rose—then rock fell. With a crash, a heap of rubble buried him as Kenpachi stomped in, Yachiru on his back and his chipped blade on his shoulder. "Who was fighting? Fight me!"
Yachiru plopped two konpeito into her mouth. "Too late, Ken-chan. Only an old man left."
Kenpachi scowled. "Because your directions got us lost for days."
"Nu-uh, it's Little Cole's fault," Yachiru huffed. "He ate the buildings so I couldn't navigate."
Kenpachi let it drop, peered down at the buried noble, and grinned. "Old man. Where'd the fighters go?"
…
First Division Hall—broad, bright. Commander Yamamoto sat with both hands on his staff, stern. Senjumaru smiled beside him. Arrayed before them: Seireitei's heavy hitters—Shunsui, Jushiro, Soi fong, Byakuya, Sajin, Mayuri, Toshiro, Retsu; Kisuke; Rukia; Ikkaku; Renji; Chojiro—and, in the back, Cole craning his neck.
The Commander scanned the room. "Where is Captain Kenpachi?"
Shunsui sighed, as if by tradition. "Lost. Four days."
The Commander's eyelid twitched. He drew a breath to speak—then snapped, reflex like a startled tiger. "Brat—what are you doing?"
Cole had just set a palm on the wall. He smiled. "Curious where this building came from. Didn't see it yesterday. First Division builds fast?"
Faces darkened in unison. This wasn't First Division's work—it was all of theirs, together. Otherwise they wouldn't have even had a place to meet.
Cole drew back his hand sheepishly. "Relax. I was only touching it. Not… absorbing reiryoku."
The Commander glowered a few moments more, still cutting him side-eye, then spoke, voice solemn. "I summoned you to address vacancies in Seireitei—specifically, three captain seats."
(End of Chapter)
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