In a blink, Shihōin Ichiryu and Rangiku Matsumoto arrived at the door of the vice-captains’ meeting room.
Their awkward small talk cut off as they stepped inside.
vice-captain Momo Hinamori was asking the assembled vice-captains if any had seen her captain.
She was the vice-captain of the Fifth Division.
Her captain was Aizen Sōsuke.
“vice-captain Matsumoto,” Hinamori asked, turning to Rangiku after getting no answer from the others.
“May I ask… have you seen Captain Aizen recently?”
“I’ve told you, just call me Rangiku.
Captain Aizen… I really haven’t seen him, but he should be at the captains’ meeting now, right?
Don’t worry.
If there’s any problem with Captain Aizen, it will definitely be resolved.” Rangiku offered a comforting smile.
Hinamori nodded, but her expression remained clouded.
She had rarely seen Aizen lately.
Worse, she felt he had been acting strangely, as if he were doing something alone.
She worried her captain might be involved in something dangerous.
Her eyes drifted to Ichiryu standing beside Rangiku.
She immediately looked away, pretending she hadn’t seen him.
In her opinion, Shihōin Ichiryu was the person most at odds with Captain Aizen.
But she was introverted.
She wouldn’t scold or question him outright.
Ichiryu raised an eyebrow.
“Hey, hey.
vice-captain Matsumoto, why can’t I just call her ‘Rangiku’?” He turned his teasing tone on Hinamori.
“And… vice-captain Hinamori, why don’t you ask me if I’ve seen Captain Aizen?
Maybe Captain Aizen and I have a close relationship in private?”
“That’s harassment, Vice-Captain Shihōin,” Rangiku said, her smile slight.
Hinamori flushed with embarrassment.
“H-holding—sorry, I mean… the Vice-Captain of the Second Division must be very busy, right?”
It wasn’t fear.
Hinamori Momo did not lack courage.
She just felt flustered under Ichiryu’s teasing.
While she did not agree with many of Shihōin Ichiryu’s actions, she also felt that as a vice-captain of the Gotei 13, she shouldn’t harbor subjective, negative thoughts about her colleagues.
“Vice-Captain Shihōin,” Rangiku interjected, “if you provoke little Hinamori again, my captain may cause trouble for you.”
She said it mainly to pull Hinamori out of the awkward spot.
vice-captain Matsumoto, don’t talk nonsense!” Hinamori instinctively started to retort, then panicked as her captain’s nickname was revealed.
Being interrupted by Rangiku did relieve a lot of her earlier anxiety.
“It’s nice to be young,” Ichiryu sighed, his feeling genuine.
But since no one asked him in the end whether he’d seen Aizen recently, Ichiryu didn’t volunteer an answer.
He also ignored the vague hostility radiating from Ise Nanao and Abarai Renji.
They did not wait for all the vice-captains to arrive.
They waited first for the alarm.
A sharp alarm tone cut through the room.
“Sekkiseki barrier alert!
Sekkiseki barrier alert!”
“There are intruders in the Seireitei!”
“Alarm, alarm!
The intruders are divided into multiple groups!”
“An order from Central 46!
Place all divisions on alert!
All divisions on alert!”
In the vice-captains’ meeting room, before the meeting could even start, everyone was greeted by the alarm signaling the ryoka’s invasion.
“The entire Gotei on alert?” Renji muttered.
“Feels like you’re so busy looking ahead you forget about your own back.”
“Hey.” Tetsuzaemon Iba shot him a look.
This was not the place for loose talk.
Iba wore sunglasses year-round.
His hairstyle gave a rough impression, but he was strict—a good match for his captain, Komamura Sajin of the Seventh Division.
As Iba indicated, he glanced at Renji from the side.
Sure enough, Ichiryu was looking at Renji with a faint smile, as if mentally recording the disrespectful words about Central 46.
“But in this case, we have to prioritize security,” Rangiku said.
“The meeting should be abandoned.”
She was already heading for the door.
Ichiryu didn’t linger either.
He merely muttered, “These intruders are really full of energy.
Breaking in, in broad daylight.” This chapter is updated first at g.com.
Outside the division headquarters, the surrounding streets were in chaos.
The alarm stated the intruders broke through the Sekkiseki barrier from the air and then dispersed.
Now each division had no idea where the enemy was.
What Renji had said was reasonable.
Only a few little mice had come in.
Putting the entire Gotei on alert did seem like caring about the head and ignoring the tail.
Soul Society was vast.
While not as large as Hueco Mundo, it was no smaller than the land area of the human world.
The barracks of each Gotei 13 division were all within the Seireitei, but the responsibilities of most divisions weren’t tied directly to Seireitei security.
Those directly responsible for guarding the Seireitei were mainly the Seventh Division and the Tenth Division, which handled internal patrols.
The two divisions usually had a well-established division of duties, including an emergency plan to strengthen the Seireitei’s alert level.
Once activated, the Gotei 13 would fully protect the Seireitei.
This would deploy more combat forces.
It would also shift the jurisdictions and patrol areas of each division dramatically.
Which meant, as now: a few intruders had entered, yet the entire Seireitei was in chaos due to the emergency order.
Some areas were a mess with several squads crammed together.
Others were quiet and completely unguarded.
The Seireitei covered forty square ri, comparable to thirty large human-world cities combined, but its population density was far lower.
First, everyone was unfamiliar with this emergency response plan.
Second, with the Eleventh Division as a prime example, many of its members were violent.
The friction kept escalating.
Originally, the Seventh and Tenth Divisions, performing their regular duties, could have controlled the situation completely.
Now they were thrown into disarray themselves.
This order from Central 46 was swift and stupid.
Ichiryu estimated Captain-Commander Yamamoto must be cursing inwardly.
Yamamoto wouldn’t suspect anything because of it.
The old man wasn’t particularly fond of using his head for intricate plots.
And for Central 46, bad moves were a consistent performance.
“Today is exactly half a month,” Ichiryu murmured to himself.
He began walking toward the Senzaikyū.
There was still half a month until the execution.
According to protocol, the condemned prisoner would be transferred to the Repentance Cell now, where she would be completely deprived of food and spiritual sustenance for a fortnight.
She would be rendered clean before facing the Sōkyoku.