"Cole, what are you staring at!?"
In her black cat form, Yoruichi looked at the direction Cole was watching with a strange expression.
Wasn't that just a wall!?
A wall you'd smashed and "eaten" several times, and it had only just been rebuilt recently!
Cole didn't answer Yoruichi's question. Instead, he grinned and asked,
"Yoruichi, you really want to go over there dressed like that?"
"Meow! Why not!?"
Still in cat form, Yoruichi licked her lips, showing no intention of turning back into her human form.
She felt like her cat form was a lot more comfortable.
"Fine. Then stay on my shoulder."
Cole laughed loudly.
"We're leaving… to see the dark side of Seireitei you've never laid eyes on."
With that, Cole leapt down from the Huike King's back, landed on the ground, and strode straight toward the shadow on the floor.
Yoruichi stopped talking too, watching Cole's movements nervously.
The dark side of Seireitei?
What kind of place was that?
Was it a place that held the crimes Seireitei had committed…?
But she should've known about somewhere like that.
While Yoruichi was still guessing, Cole stopped, then pulled out his Nyoi Kinkonbo (As-You-Wish Golden Cudgel).
Yoruichi was stunned.
"Cole, what are you doing? Didn't you say you were taking me to see Seireitei's dark side?!"
"Yeah. We're already here."
Cole smiled and tapped the black shadow on the ground with the golden staff.
Just as Yoruichi was about to curse him out for messing with her, her expression suddenly changed.
The little black cat arched her back, staring at the shadow beneath Cole's feet in shock.
"Wait, Cole—what is this!?"
The faint dark shadow cast by the building… after being tapped by the golden staff, turned into a pure, abyss-like black.
Worse still, it rippled like dark water.
In that darkness, Cole's body—and her own—began to sink slowly, as if being swallowed by the ripples.
In just a few seconds, Cole's calves were already swallowed by the darkness.
"I don't know the exact details," Cole said, rubbing his chin, "but it's probably something like the Senkaimon (Interdimensional Gate) for Shinigami, or a Garganta (Black Cavity) for Hollows."
"That's not what I'm asking!!!"
Yoruichi practically bristled with fury, glaring at Cole.
"I'm asking where this thing came from! How have I never heard of it before!?"
Just like he'd said before—when she still held power, Seireitei was practically transparent to her.
But she'd never even heard that Seireitei had a place this twisted, let alone something like a spatial vortex.
"If I explain it, how boring would that be?"
Cole laughed.
"Why don't you just go over and see it with your own eyes?"
By now, his body had been swallowed up to the waist.
"Meow! This feels bad, Cole! Maybe we should wait a few days—at least let me prepare first!"
Yoruichi stared at the dark ripples warily.
A retreating urge rose in her chest.
She didn't know where this led, but her instincts screamed that whatever was on the other side was dangerously, insanely risky.
"Too late to run now."
Cole grabbed the little black cat by her back leg, laughing as he sank into the darkness.
"Meow!!!"
A grief-stricken cat scream echoed through the street.
...
At the end of the darkness, light and shadow were sharply divided.
What appeared before them was a city hidden within the dark.
There were no stars, no sun, no moon.
Yet the sky was flooded with white light, illuminating the entire city.
Magnificent and grand—countless buildings in an ancient European style stood in rows, all pure white, radiating a solemn, inexplicable sense of awe.
Completely different from Soul Society or Hueco Mundo, this pure white carried a kind of noble elegance.
And as far as the eye could see…
There was no end to this white city.
It was as if they'd arrived in a brand-new Seireitei.
In her black cat form, Yoruichi was practically dumbstruck. She swallowed hard and spoke dryly.
"Cole… where is this place? Why have I never heard of it?"
Inside Seireitei's shadow… there was a space this vast, with so many imposing structures.
Even in her dreams she'd never imagined something like this—yet now she was seeing it with her own eyes.
"I'm not totally sure either," Cole said, his eyes shining as he took in the view. "This is only my second time here."
"But the people who live here… you've definitely heard of them."
"I know them too!? Wait—what! There are residents here!?"
Yoruichi was shocked out of her mind.
What kind of place was this!?
Was she really still in Seireitei?
Why did it feel like after passing through those black ripples, she'd stepped into another world?
Everything about this was absurd!
A space inside Seireitei's shadows.
Grand buildings inside that space.
And people living inside those buildings.
And she—former captain of the Second Division—had known absolutely nothing about any of it.
So whose home was Seireitei, really?
The Shinigami's?
Or the residents here?
What kind of residents could live right under Seireitei's nose!?
Just as Yoruichi was about to question Cole, Cole suddenly frowned, grabbed the scruff of her neck, and whispered,
"Keep it down. Someone's coming."
Yoruichi only managed a single "Meow—" before Cole hauled her up onto the roof of a white building.
Before she could steady herself, she stiffened, then stared at the figures walking down the street below, utterly stunned.
"T-This is… mmph—"
Before she could finish, Cole shoved a finger into her mouth.
Yoruichi almost choked to death.
She flailed all four paws desperately, clawing at Cole's hand, nearly suffocating as her eyes rolled back.
Down below, several tall, slender men in white robes paused and looked around suspiciously.
"Did you hear something?"
One of them scratched his head, frowning.
"I think I heard… a cat."
Another one laughed.
"You're imagining things. This is Silverframe City—how could there be a cat here?"
"You're right. I must've heard wrong."
They didn't think much of it and continued toward the end of the street, chatting as they walked.
"Honestly, those Shinigami are useless. The whole Seireitei mobilized and they still couldn't catch a single Aizen."
"Exactly. I heard Aizen even fought his way into the Soul King Palace."
"Seems even that 'strongest Shinigami of a thousand years'—Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni—got badly injured. Lost an arm."
"What do you mean 'seems'? He did. His arm got severed clean off. Not as amazing as the rumors make him out to be."
"I really don't know what those lords are thinking. If you ask me, starting a war with Seireitei right now would be fine."
"Hahaha… of course. We'd definitely win. His Majesty is the strongest."
"How could those Shinigami captains ever beat the Sternritter?"
"Hurry up and start the war already. I want to slaughter every last one of those damn Shinigami. Only we Quincy are the rulers of this world…"
...
Their voices faded as they walked away.
Only then did Cole pull his finger out of Yoruichi's mouth, gaze following the Quincy's backs as he sighed,
"If Uryu came here and saw this many of his own people, his eyes would probably pop out of his head, huh?"
In the World of the Living, you could count the remaining Quincy on your fingers—and there weren't even ten.
But here, on just one street, in less than five minutes, thirteen Quincy had already passed by.
The population density was insane.
After saying that, Cole noticed Yoruichi wasn't responding. He looked over in confusion.
"Yoruichi, why aren't you—"
Only then did he realize Yoruichi was practically rolling her eyes, and it took her several minutes to recover.
The little black cat lunged at his hand viciously.
"You damn brat! Your finger is so thick—were you trying to choke me to death!?"
She was in black cat form right now—Cole's finger was thicker than her entire thigh.
He'd jammed it in so deep she couldn't even breathe properly for ages.
Cole clicked his tongue.
"Who knew your reaction would be that big? If I didn't shut you up, we'd be discovered already."
Yoruichi scratched at him even harder.
"Was that shutting me up!? Who the hell 'covers someone's mouth' by stuffing their finger down their throat!?"
After venting her anger, Yoruichi finally remembered what she'd just seen.
Shock and gravity filled her eyes.
"Quincy… and so many of them…"
She remembered that two hundred years ago, Quincy in the World of the Living hadn't been wiped out on a large scale yet.
But even back then, Quincy were family-based—there had never been organized, large-scale clustering like this.
Yet the Quincy here were disciplined, structured… like a massive faction.
Yoruichi lifted both tiny front paws to cover her head, speaking in a voice like her entire worldview was collapsing.
"No, no, no!!!"
"Seriously!!!"
"Why are there Quincy here!!!?"
"Wasn't that race supposed to be extinct!?"
"No—okay—even if they weren't extinct, there should only be a handful left. How are there so many here!?"
"And this is Seireitei! How the hell did they hide here!?!"
Questions flooded Yoruichi's mind, giving her a pounding headache, like her brain was overheating.
But no matter how she thought about it, she could feel an enormous sense of danger.
A Quincy power hidden beneath Seireitei's shadow… there was no way it existed just to "fill the emptiness of darkness."
They had to be plotting something.
An ambush.
A sudden overthrow of Seireitei's rule.
Before Yoruichi could even sort out her thoughts, Cole turned to her with a dangerous look.
"Yoruichi, if you meow one more time, believe it or not, I'll give you a deep-throat special."
In Silverframe City, there were clearly no cats. If Yoruichi made noise again, it would definitely alert the Quincy.
And once that happened…
The entire Invisible Empire would explode.
Yoruichi snapped back to herself and hurriedly covered her mouth with her paws.
"I got it. You keep your voice down too."
Cole curled his lips, eyes locking onto a lone Quincy on the white street below. He licked his lips.
"Don't worry about me."
In a blur, he appeared beside that Quincy.
Before the Quincy could react, Cole chopped him with a hand strike and knocked him out cold on the spot.
Cole slung the unconscious Quincy over his shoulder and returned to the roof.
Then Yoruichi watched a familiar procedure unfold.
Stripping clothes. Changing clothes.
And then—right before her eyes—a brand-new "Quincy" was born.
Wearing the Quincy's white outfit, Cole rolled his shoulders a bit and said with satisfaction,
"Why do I feel like Quincy clothes are more comfortable than you Shinigami uniforms?"
Yoruichi rolled her eyes.
"Listen to you—you talk like you're not a Shinigami yourself."
"And… why are you so skilled at this!?"
Cole chuckled casually.
"Did you forget when I invaded Seireitei? Back then, I disguised myself as a Shinigami the exact same way."
Then Cole looked at the Quincy on the ground—knocked out and left in only his underwear—and smiled at Yoruichi.
"Yoruichi, you used to be captain of the Second Division. Interrogating an ordinary Quincy shouldn't be a problem, right?"
He also wanted to know the current state of the Invisible Empire—especially the Sternritter.
And in that area, Yoruichi was obviously the expert.
After all, she had once been the commander of the Stealth Force.
Hearing that, Yoruichi's eyes lit up too. She looked at the Quincy and instinctively licked her lips.
"Leave it to me. I'll make him confess everything—even stuff from when he was a baby."
As she spoke, Yoruichi padded forward on four paws, ready to show the methods of a former Second Division captain.
The Stealth Force handled intelligence.
So where did that intelligence come from?
Interrogation, of course.
That was why the Second Division was the best at it.
But just as she was about to start, Yoruichi suddenly remembered something. Her body stiffened, and she turned to Cole awkwardly.
"Um… can you get me a set of clothes too?"
Only now did she remember—she was in black cat form.
If she turned human right now… she'd be completely naked.
That was way too embarrassing…
(End of Chapter)
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