Boom!
In an instant, a violent explosion echoed through the Seireitei. Even Yoshio, far off in the 5th District, could hear it. The sky above the Seireitei seemed to darken.
"What's going on?"
Shinigami all around fell into panic. Yoshio looked up at the sky as it shifted from pitch black to ghastly white in flashes.
["Order from the Captain-Commander: all Shinigami are authorized to release their Zanpakutō and advance toward the 12th Division!"]
A powerful, elderly voice carried across the sky—1st Division Lieutenant Chōjirō Sasakibe, likely using Tenchūren to broadcast.
Yoshio immediately sprinted toward the 11th Division.
White streams appeared now and then in the sky—highly destructive. When they fell, they effortlessly obliterated buildings below.
Yoshio quickly arrived near the 12th Division. The captains of the Gotei 13 were already there, followed by each division's lieutenants.
"What the hell is Mayuri doing?"
Soi Fon frowned. "This kind of invention threatens the Seireitei itself. Who allowed him to research it?"
"Even if you ask, he can't answer right now." Kenpachi Zaraki grinned viciously. "The guy's gone mad. But that big thing up there—now that's interesting."
With that, Kenpachi leapt, soaring hundreds of meters, his Zanpakutō tearing the air before he vanished from sight.
"Idiot! Get back here!"
Soi Fon shouted, but Kenpachi wouldn't listen.
Yoshio glanced over and saw Nemu Kurotsuchi unconscious nearby.
Mayuri had been extracted from the R&D Bureau, but after being attacked, he was temporarily deranged.
Such is the parasitic Hollow.
Besides parasitism, the scythe on the parasite's tail can erase a person's memory. Combined with the two souls modified by Szayelaporro—one of whom also possessed a memory-deletion ability—the fusion made that power even stronger.
But even that wasn't enough. So Yoshio had the two enter the R&D Bureau and fuse with the original parasitic Hollow, boosting their Reiatsu to a considerable level.
Yoshio's self-made parasitic Hollow includes a thought–control module of his design. Even after fusing with another parasite, the controller influences the fused entity.
So Yoshio wasn't worried about losing control.
"What is that thing in the sky?"
Gin Ichimaru looked up at the flowing Reishi, curious.
The crowd didn't know. Only Captain-Commander Yamamoto and 4th Division's Unohana wore grave expressions.
"That's a Quincy Reishi convergence…"
Yamamoto said heavily, recognizing an old enemy's power.
As the first generation who fought the Quincy a thousand years ago, he recognized the forced, white cloudlike Reishi compression—very much like the Quincy's final form.
"Quincy?" Unohana murmured.
"No. We'll need answers from Mayuri and a sweep of the R&D interior."
"All captains: prevent the cloud flow from spreading. Lieutenants: enter the R&D Bureau and look for clues!"
Yamamoto issued crisp orders; captains and lieutenants moved at once.
Yoshio broke into the R&D Bureau.
The Bureau was a wreck—massive explosions everywhere, fires spreading. In the heat, Reishi grew hyperactive.
White Reishi cords had formed into whips to bar entry.
Yoshio sliced several of the whips and pushed inside.
Following a preplanned route, he rushed to a rear room. The Bureau seemed on the verge of collapse, but this room remained intact.
He lifted a hand and barked, "Hadō #33. Sōkatsui!"
Blazing force shattered the reinforced door, revealing the room beyond.
Inside lay the corpses of many Quincy—Mayuri's secret, inhuman lab.
Their souls and consciousness were dissipating, yet somehow Mayuri had kept them alive, forcing their brains to produce peak responses in pain.
Mayuri is a beast—but he chose the right side, the protagonist's side. No matter the atrocity—even killing the deuteragonist's grandfather—a light for the Seireitei would make it all evaporate like smoke.
Not only unpunished, he could even boss the protagonist around.
What can you do? That's the main character's fate—be used by these supporting-role types.
Yoshio had no desire to hold Mayuri accountable, nor to judge him. Objectively, Mayuri's no good man.
Frankly, Yoshio never considered the Shinigami good.
You get angry at their deeds—because you've labeled them justice. Treat them as just another set of villains, and nothing's surprising.
Everyone's a villain, even if cloaked in "for the world." Who doesn't claim that?
So Yoshio wouldn't seize the chance to kill Mayuri; he'd save him.
Mayuri's still useful. His research matters often. There might be room to cooperate later.
Yoshio collected the Quincy in the lab, sent them to Hueco Mundo, then hurried to another lab.
Boom!
The fire spread. A machine exploded, flames rushing at Yoshio.
"Yoshio-san!"
A chill swept in. The fire wave froze into ice—Hitsugaya Tōshirō.
He ran up. "Find anything?"
"I'm trying to pull the R&D security footage, but Captain Kurotsuchi's gone mad, and 11th Division's senior seats and key R&D staff are all unconscious from the blasts. Without them, I don't know how to access it."
Boom!
Another explosion nearby; strange fluids sprayed from a ruptured device.
The Bureau was saturated with abnormal Reiatsu; odd creatures shrieked in the dark.
"What the hell is inside this place?!"
Hitsugaya gritted his teeth. "I have a bad feeling."
"Of course," Yoshio said. "There's who-knows-how-many unknown projects here. With Mayuri in charge, those were manageable. With him unhinged and explosions everywhere, devices and test subjects are rampaging."
Heh—consider this a lesson for Mayuri and the R&D Bureau.
Even if Yoshio doesn't see himself as good, the Bureau's projects still disgusted him.
Under Mayuri, they're inhuman. He'll do anything for research. experimentation? A trifle to him.
By Seireitei law, if exposed, his work would amount to "crimes against the Shinigami"!
But Yoshio knows: much of Mayuri's research proceeds with the Central 46's tacit approval. They need his "products."
Blowing up the Bureau also blasts away buried sins. If those test subjects feel pain and rage—then let them have their revenge.
Mayuri's tech tree focuses on "life sciences" and "pharmacology." Who knows how many bizarre organisms he's made.
The anomaly in the sky is the rampage of some organism-device fusion. There are many more.
Yoshio hadn't met them on the way in, but Hitsugaya had seen one.
If a monster devoured every test subject and drug here, it could become truly terrifying.
Yoshio had anticipated—and nudged—this monster's formation.
Not to "farm favor" with it to gain a soul ability—that's impossible. A monster that's devoured everything would be in madness and chaos.
It's only a pawn to tie down the Gotei 13.
Boom!
Another blast. The ceiling beams threatened to collapse.
"We should go," Hitsugaya said.
But Yoshio kept working at a functioning terminal. "Wait. I found something important."
Hitsugaya could only freeze the outer walls again and again. He dared not freeze the machines inside, since Yoshio needed them intact.
The outside continued to erupt—explosions, low moans, wails, Shinigami footfalls, and fighting.
At last Yoshio moved. "Come on—I found something."
They hurried to the deepest sector.
"Yoshio?! Hitsugaya! Get out! The Bureau won't last!"
Rangiku and Shūhei, evacuating, yelled when they saw them heading deeper.
"You go first!" Yoshio shouted. "I'm retrieving something!"
Hitsugaya formed an ice pathway along the route—provoking the white cloud flows and strange bugs.
Ice melted and shattered rapidly, swallowed by white Reishi streams.
"Hadō #63. Raikōhō!"
Webs of lightning drove the cloud flows back—but they surged again, swallowing the scattered arcs.
The fleeting retreat was enough: Yoshio reached a room.
"What you're looking for is here?" Hitsugaya asked.
"Yes."
Yoshio ran to a cylindrical unit—undamaged. He tried to open it, but didn't know the password.
Impatient, he cut the unit open vertically, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and turned back.
"Okay, let's run!"
They sprinted out. Hitsugaya didn't know what it was, but understood it had to be important.
In that moment, Hitsugaya felt a pang of admiration. Yoshio was lazy normally, but in a crisis he was more proactive than anyone—still holding a Shinigami's pride and broader view.
If so, who cares if he slacks off sometimes?
Yoshio, unaware of the misunderstanding, timed his pace—keeping just ahead of the flames—and leapt with Hitsugaya out of the Bureau at the last instant.
BOOOOM!!!
A jet of flame roared out—blocked by the waiting Rangiku and Hisagi.
"Phew…"
Yoshio sprawled, sooty. He shook his head. "Good… got it out."
Hitsugaya was singed but fine. He looked back at the Bureau, wrapped in white Reishi clouds and roaring flames—ruined.
He'd tried to freeze it all, but couldn't. The white clouds devoured any ice he formed.
"But… what did you risk your life to bring back?" he asked.
"Mayuri's memory backup," Yoshio said between breaths. "From his terminal I learned he backs up his memories routinely. If we can get his memory backup, we'll know what happened here."
At that, several captains appeared.
"Lieutenant Yoshio, well done," Unohana said, picking up the cylinder. "This is a great merit."
"Yoshio-kun, are you all right?" Aizen appeared, concerned.
He bore signs of battle—the captains were fighting in the sky.
"Just a scratch," Yoshio said. "That thing up there is likely a runaway from the R&D."
"Not just one thing," Ukitake arrived, face smudged. He looked skyward. "Multiple creatures fused with drugs and instruments. Incredible. It's still growing—and carries immense resentment. What did Mayuri do to them?"
"With Mayuri, anything's possible," Aizen said. "But now we need to stop the rampage."
"Attacking it only makes it stronger. Looks like we'll need Mayuri to resolve it," Unohana said, holding the cylinder. She didn't know the password, and worried that forcing it would damage the data.
"We'll have to wait until the R&D staff wake and can crack it," she said. "For now, we limit its spread to this area."
Captains and lieutenants nodded and dispersed to contain it.
Rangiku stayed with Yoshio. "By the way, where's Captain Shiba?"
"Don't mention him!" Rangiku fumed. "With the Seireitei in chaos, he ran off to the World of the Living!"
"The World of the Living?!" Yoshio was startled. "What for?"
"Who knows!" She sounded angry, but Yoshio knew it masked deep worry.
With such a crisis, Isshin Shiba's absence meant trouble. The timing was too coincidental. Even if he'd done nothing, he'd face discipline—and he'd now vanished!
Rangiku was a mess inside, but she couldn't leave too. With the 10th Division captain gone, the lieutenant couldn't also disappear.
…
Because the 12th's incident came so suddenly, Captain-Commander Yamamoto had only mustered senior seats. Ordinary Shinigami like Rukia Kuchiki didn't even know what had happened.
Rukia's strength already qualified her for a senior seat—even a lieutenant. She had Hollow White's fusion, which boosted her talent, plus long training under Yoshio; she'd progressed quickly. She hadn't reached Bankai, but lieutenant-level was no problem.
But her identity was special; Ukitake hadn't assigned her a post—per Byakuya Kuchiki's private request—to keep her out of danger.
So while senior officers went to war, she, an ordinary Shinigami, wasn't mobilized—didn't even know what happened.
But… you can't hide forever.
Rukia looked up, dazed, toward the distant sky. She didn't know what was happening but felt unease.
The sky was dark yet bright—chill one moment, searing the next. Lightning dragons prowled the clouds. Even at a distance, she sensed clashing Reiatsu.
"Brother… Senior Yoshio, Renji, Captain Ukitake…"
She gripped her Zanpakutō and decided: she had to go. Maybe she could help.
Just as she stepped forward, she sensed an odd Reiatsu.
"Who's there?!"
She spun to see a woman in plain white clothes—not a Shihakushō, more like Rukongai attire.
That was her first impression. The second… was bad.
A scythe had already slashed—too fast, too strange. She couldn't react.
In a blink, the scythe pierced her.
"No…"
Dizziness. Then darkness.
Rukia fell; the woman caught her and vanished with her.
…
At the same time, Yoshio sensed it.
"Success."
Everything was proceeding as planned.
He'd transferred the Quincy from the R&D and used the Bureau's mutated organisms, drugs, and devices to create a monster.
It was cannon fodder—but recoverable if needed.
Yoshio liked oddities.
Meanwhile, the Rukia operation began.
At this moment, everyone around Rukia should have lost their memories of her.
Even Yoshio had. But the parasite hosted a thought controller Yoshio left, letting him track its actions.
So when it activated, Yoshio loaded his pre-saved memory backup into his brain—remembering Rukia again.
Now… the perfect time to farm Rukia's favor!
Everyone's forgotten her; only he remembers. Rescue her, and she'll worship him!
This was Yoshio's first plan. It went unexpectedly smoothly; he even had backup plans he didn't need.
Boom…
Yoshio cleaved a Reishi lash—but thunder erupted from the fragments, enveloping him and hurling him earthward.
Not just him—other lieutenants were falling. Even some captains returned to the ground.
They weren't out of fight—they simply realized continued battle would expand the damage.
Soon, even Captain-Commander Yamamoto landed.
He looked at the invisible monster, endlessly absorbing Reishi and swelling, and sighed. He could defeat it—Ryūjin Jakka's heat could disperse it.
But it had absorbed too much Reishi. If destroyed, all that Reishi would release at once.
It wouldn't destroy the entire Seireitei, but a third of it might be blasted sky-high.
So he couldn't simply obliterate it.
"Old man, looks like we'll have to contain it for now," Kyōraku Shunsui said, offering a plan. "It's absorbing Reishi and refining it around a core. If we isolate the area from the outside, then we can handle it. If it self-destructs, we minimize the blast radius."
"How?" Yamamoto asked.
"Sekkiseki—Reiatsu-blocking stone!" Shunsui said. "Build a ring wall, then have the Kido and barrier teams craft a small Sōkyoku-like screen—trap it inside."
"We can't gather enough Sekkiseki quickly," Aizen noted.
Byakuya arrived. "No need to worry. The Kuchiki clan will provide enough."
All eyes turned. The man was rich beyond reason.
Sekkiseki was critical and expensive. Byakuya casually offered enough to encircle an entire district—jaw-dropping.
Corruption!
Yoshio silently fumed. If only he had these resources for his research.
Byakuya likely hadn't noticed his sister was missing. If he had, he wouldn't be so composed.
"Good. We'll do as Kyōraku and Kuchiki suggest," Yamamoto said. Once the barrier was up, he'd finish the monster. If it exploded, only the 12th District would be destroyed—better than a third of the Seireitei.
Alternatively, they could wait for Mayuri to recover and solve it himself.
The R&D staff, waking, urgently began cracking Mayuri's memory backup.
"Look closely—this thing likely uses Mayuri's Reiatsu Amplifier', Yoshio said.
"Reiatsu Amplifier?" Others looked over.
"Something I saw in Mayuri's files. It can amplify Shinigami Reiatsu—collectively, even."
"Not just an amplifier," Ukitake said. "There's Quincy Reishi convergence too. I've told Central 46 not to let Mayuri study Quincy powers."
"Enough. We'll discuss later," Yamamoto cut off any talk of Central 46. "This monster—let's call it 'Wraith'—is still growing. To keep it from threatening the Seireitei, all divisions: transport stones and build!"
Orders issued; everyone busied themselves.
Yoshio and the lieutenants built the Sekkiseki wall; captains stalled the Wraith.
….
Meanwhile Yoshio analyzed the Wraith's Reiatsu, while his clone Baelz got busy.
Originally, Yoshio's plan didn't involve the Quincy. But the Quincy were monitoring the Seireitei and noticed the Wraith.
In the R&D Institute of the Wandenreich, Baelz received a new mission:
[At any cost, bring the Seireitei's Wraith into the Wandenreich—without exposing the Empire!]
That complicated things.
This plot didn't include the Quincy's stage.
Baelz thought: absurd. The area's locked down, captains are fighting. Sneaking it to the Empire unseen? Easier to just nuke the Seireitei.
But the mission promised unlimited resources and, upon success, a reward: Yhwach himself would raise your power.
Baelz didn't care about material rewards—but Yhwach's loan? He wouldn't repay it anyway.
He'd need a plan. Fortunately, Mayuri had one he could borrow—from Mayuri's research, which the Empire could monitor perfectly through shadows. Mayuri's research was essentially Baelz's research—until Mayuri suspected the shadows.
Recently, Mayuri had created something evil—thanks to inspiration from Yoshio's novel "Stone Mask."
Yes, the Stone Mask.
In Yoshio's setting, it induces Hollowfication, akin to the Visored masks. Mayuri modified it into a temporary Hollowfication device—wear it to enter a Hollowfied state, remove it to end it. Limited, controllable, small power—like Urahara's later "Shin'eiyaku."
Yoshio didn't care—he could Hollowfy without it, and his circle didn't need it either.
Mayuri likely didn't care much either; he really wanted the "ultimate evolution" of the villain Kars—combining the Red Stone of Aja and Stone Mask to become a perfect lifeform. Irresistible for a life-science researcher. Stone Mask was a byproduct.
But now that byproduct could be useful.
If the Empire must stay hidden, scapegoat the Hollows. Let Sternritter disguise themselves as Hollows, snatch the Wraith, and run.
Baelz relayed his plan to Haschwalth, who summoned the Sternritter.
Baelz stayed back to mass-produce Stone Masks and to whip up a temporary amplifier for Liltotto's ability.
"I originally wanted to capture that thing for study," Yoshio said, looking up. Captains had suppressed the Wraith's spread, but it was saturated with Reishi—a bomb. Even captains hesitated to poke it, lest it "nuke" the Seireitei.
The Sekkiseki wall steadily rose.
…
Three days later, the Sekkiseki stones formed a ring around the 12th District. Barrier teams crafted a small Soul Shield and layered defenses.
At the same time, the R&D cracked Mayuri's memory lock and retrieved his backup.
The parasitic Hollow had removed some of Mayuri's memories, but unlike with Rukia, it couldn't erase his existence from others' minds. It only cut part of his memory.
Mayuri forgot being released by Urahara and invited to lead the R&D. He believed himself still a "fugitive."
But being Mayuri, he calmed down in his cell. From how others treated him, he realized his memory was off. When Nemu brought his backup, he expected it, verified it, and restored himself.
"Hmph…"
Mayuri smiled wickedly.
"Impressive, Urahara Kisuke."
His fingers twitched; the grin turned sinister.
"You made me look quite wretched. But your insolence ends here."
He looked coldly at Nemu. "Why are you dawdling, you useless thing? Let me out!"
Nemu opened the cell. Mayuri shoved her to the ground.
"Useless."
He stepped out, then stomped her.
Gazing at the Reishi flows over the 12th, his eyes darkened.
"Hmph. Trash clustering together—think you can take revenge on me? And those two women…"
His tone rose. "I'll dissect every inch of your flesh—removing your organs while you live—and make you watch as I analyze your insides."