Even though he had never met Kuchiki Rukia in person, Keiji knew the surname Kuchiki carried enormous weight within the Seireitei, being one of the Four Great Noble Clans.
Even having come from the Rukongai with no connection to the nobility, Keiji had already heard various stories and comments about them.
The reputation of the noble clans was practically a common topic in the Academy's hallways.
For that very reason, being chosen for this mission seemed somewhat questionable.
Considering his knowledge in Kaidō, it would even make sense if he were summoned to join a search team for the missing shinigami, even if this mission was in the Human World.
If the current head of the Kuchiki Clan were pressing for results, it would not be strange to request the support of someone like the Third Seat of the Fourth Division.
But being sent alone on this mission, without the Captain of the Sixth Division requesting him directly or even the Captain of the Thirteenth Division — the division Kuchiki Rukia belonged to — showing any interest, was curious at the very least.
{Something happening behind the scenes?}
'It's possible. I just have not guessed whether it was set up for me or for Kuchiki Rukia.'
Old fools who had stagnated due to a false sense of power; Keiji could expect anything from them.
{Heh. It does not matter. Let them come.}
Keiji smiled at the words of his Zanpakutō Spirit that rang inside his mind.
It sounded like someone was a little excited about the possible opportunity to flex her ego after so long.
Locking onto the point of reiatsu he had located earlier, he began walking unhurriedly in the desired direction. Since he was not using a Gigai for this mission, his spiritual body remained invisible to human eyes, even though his shihakushō stood out against modern clothing.
People walked past him without noticing, busy with their routines. At the same time, Keiji also sensed the presence of a considerable number of souls that remained stuck in that place even after death. It was not uncommon, but it drew attention because of the volume.
But Keiji diligently continued on his way. The job of dealing with those souls belonged to the division assigned to that area, not to him. So Keiji was not eager to do someone else's work.
Keiji even set aside other above-average reiatsu scattered throughout the city.
There was definitely something going on in Karakura, but Keiji was not in the mood to investigate.
Simply making a note of the fact in his report would be enough. Or perhaps not. But in that case, he would just have to listen to his Lieutenant's lecture for a few hours again.
The casual walk went on for quite some time. He walked without hurry, idly observing the buildings and the busy streets.
Even though he remembered growing up in Japan, Keiji did not feel any nostalgic feelings while strolling through Karakura.
So he simply continued on his way toward the reiatsu that could possibly belong to Kuchiki Rukia.
Honestly, the reiatsu felt somewhat weak, but perhaps Kuchiki Rukia was not as impressive as her surname, and that was why she made her way through the Thirteenth Division instead of following the noble path of the Sixth by her brother's side.
Either way, Keiji continued on his route, curious to see if his intuition was correct.
[——]
Keiji's walk ended when he arrived at a relatively ordinary square, where a few people were wandering distractedly along the surrounding streets.
He, however, focused his attention on two boys who were talking near the central fountain.
One of them had black hair with bangs split into two parts over his forehead, with glasses that gave him a studious air. The other had spiky orange hair, in sharp contrast to the first, and wore an irritated expression that seemed natural, as if it were his default mood.
Curiously, those two boys had the strongest reiatsu Keiji had felt so far in that city. They were not energies comparable to those of captains or lieutenants, but, when compared to lower-ranked seated officers, they were at a surprisingly high level.
'Spiritual Class 6 or 7, probably.'
Besides that, one of them resembled Keiji a little.
'A long-lost brother?'
He joked to himself, before dismissing the idea with a smile.
Despite the similarity in the color of their hair and eyes, Keiji's had a softer shade and his features were finer.
The Pumpkin Head, as he decided to call him in his mind, looked like a juvenile delinquent ready to pick a fight, while Keiji, at least in his own imagination, was like a divine angel walking among mortals.
'Kuchiki Rukia was supposed to be a girl, wasn't she?'
The thought came out of nowhere. Even without knowing her personally, he had already heard a few rumors about Rukia, mainly because she was a member of the Kuchiki Clan. That made it curious that he had not found any woman there yet.
'More importantly… what did that boy just do?'
"Megane-kun" had just destroyed something that Keiji could only consider to be a "Bait," an item similar to the ones the Academy instructors used for student training.
That became even clearer when Hollow reiatsu started spreading from every corner of the city, with a Garganta (Black Cavity) opening right behind Megane-kun.
From inside the Garganta, a hollow began dragging itself out, confirming Keiji's already formalized idea.
Megane-kun is an idiot who lured hollows to the city using a "Bait."
"What the hell did you do?!"
Pumpkin Head shouted, turning indignantly toward the boy with glasses.
"Simple. I used a—"
"Hadō #4, Byakurai."
Before he could finish the sentence, Keiji's calm voice cut through the air. He raised his hand and cast his Kidō.
A blue beam shot across the space and pierced straight through the hollow's mask, destroying it before it could take a second step into the Human World.
"W-What?!!"
"… a Shinigami?"
Both teenagers turned at the same time toward Keiji, now visible to them. He watched them in silence for a few seconds, analyzing both of their reactions, while feeling the number of hollows in Karakura climbing higher and higher in the air.
'An unexpected event happening right now of all times?'
{A coincidence, I tell you~}
'Coincidences are always terrifying~'
The inner dialogue with his zanpakutō only reinforced the suspicion that was already growing inside him.
Adding to the fact that his spiritual sense started to pick up new presences at different points in the city, Keiji strengthened his conviction that something was going on behind the scenes.
'Damn decrepit old men.'
"What are you doing in this city, Shinigami?"
Megane-kun asked with anger reflected in the eyes behind his glasses.
Keiji casually ignored the boy's indignation while he launched a succession of low-level Kidō, each one calibrated to cut down and scatter the hollows that kept appearing.
His beams were simple and efficient — basic Hadō and Bakudō that served to clear the way and keep those creatures from reaching unsuspecting souls.
"I am looking for Kuchiki Rukia. Which brings me to ask… are any of you Kuchiki Rukia?"
Pumpkin Head and Megane-kun frowned when they heard the name Keiji mentioned, which he did not miss.
They definitely should know about her.
'Now, where are you?'
It did not make sense for a Kuchiki and an Officer of the Gotei 13 — someone with training and standing — to be weaker than those two, even more so since one of them was a human.
If Rukia really was there, why hide? Why was her reiatsu not showing up clear and strong the way it should?
"What do you want with Rukia?!"
Pumpkin Head shouted, impatience taking over.
"You know her, Pumpkin Head-san? Her disappearance worried her sweet older brother, and I was sent to ensure her safety, so can you help me find her?"
"… her brother? Rukia does not— Wait, who is Pumpkin Head?!! It is Ichigo! Kurosaki Ichigo!"
The spiky orange-haired one exclaimed, as if his own name shocked him more than the situation did.
"Right, Kurosaki-san. Can you show me where she might be afterward? First, I need to do some cleaning in this city, thanks to the Bait that Megane-kun used, Hollows are about to flood this place."
Keiji explained, pointing in a practical tone to the immediate problem.
"I will need—"
Ichigo began to say something else before being interrupted.
"Who is Megane-kun? My name is Ishida Uryū, a Quincy! And I do not need the help of one or two Shinigami! I can handle these hollows on my own!"
"Doing that while protecting all the innocents you put in danger in this city because of your childish actions? Yes, I am sure you can~"
"Karin! Yuzu! You put them in danger, Ishida?!"
"I will find you shortly, Kurosaki-san."
Keiji said at last, not waiting for further arguments. With a quick movement, he used Shunpo and vanished, heading wherever the most urgent reiatsu were guiding him.
Despite wanting to scold the Quincy boy a bit more — he had heard rumors that the Quincy were supposed to have been wiped out, but that might have been bad information — for his irrationality in using a "Bait," he did not have that much free time because of the growing number of hollows.
As for worrying about Megane-kun and Pumpkin Head-san… one of them was apparently a Quincy and was the one responsible for using the Bait and luring the hollows; the other was a Shinigami — which made Keiji curious whether he was someone breaking the law, since it was against the rules for Shinigami to make unauthorized trips to the Human World, and as far as he had gathered from the mission brief, Kuchiki Rukia should have been the only Shinigami assigned to Karakura.
One of them, because of the blunder of using the Bait, deserved to suffer a good scolding. The other, in turn, probably had enough strength to survive the trouble.
In the event that would follow, they would be the only ones responsible for keeping themselves alive.
[——]
{Need help?}
Hearing the voice of his Zanpakutō Spirit, who was without a doubt watching through his eyes, Keiji gave a slight shake of his head in response, with a smile at the corner of his lips.
"Even if I hunt rabbits with a cannon… even I will find it unfair to use our power against them."
He understood his zanpakutō's desire perfectly. She always longed for action, for enemies who could truly test her strength. But Keiji also knew she would not be satisfied fighting ordinary hollows.
Just as he said, it was simply far too excessive and completely unnecessary.
{... I agree too. Will there be no one worth the trouble?}
"In the future. There will definitely be someone."
Perhaps in this world, perhaps in another. It could take days, years, or centuries, but as a Shinigami, he had that time.
The fate of a Shinigami who walked with such power was inevitably to find worthy opponents. Perhaps dozens or hundreds of opponents.
{Kekeke~ it is a good future we have ahead of us~}
'I think so too.'
{But we will still win.}
'Without a doubt.'
{Everyone else is merely a spectator.}
"Because we were born into this world."
The answer came with a carefree smile, like a child who knew his place in the world. That was his and his Zanpakutō's role — to win. No matter the opponent, no matter the situation.
Continuing forward, Keiji used Shunpo in short movements, appearing in front of the hollows and breaking their masks with a simple movement of his zanpakutō. There was no elaborate technique, only brute force contained in direct and precise gestures.
That was the point. No matter how basic the movement was, the amount of spiritual power he carried was enough to make any gesture devastating.
The same went for Kidō. Byakurai was only spell number four, a low-level attack taught in the very first year of the Shin'ō Academy, but when channeled with enough reiryoku, it would become far more overwhelming.
This was the difference between an ordinary shinigami and someone whose reiryoku had already reached the scale of Great Spiritual Power.
Even so, Keiji never limited himself to brute force. He championed the importance of technique just as much as raw power.
Zankensoki was the summary of a Shinigami's basic combat techniques that was taught at the Academy.
Zan for Zanjutsu, Ken for Hakuda, So for Hohō, and Ki for Kidō.
Even Keiji could not devote himself to mastering each one in so little time, which also depended on a Shinigami's potential for each field.
In his case, Hakuda would be his weakest point. Even if it was only one level lower than his command in the other areas.
If not for his choice to focus more on Zanjutsu, to spend countless hours in combat and in dialogue with his Zanpakutō, Sora, or on perfecting less common Kidō such as Kaidō, he might already have surpassed that limit.
But learning Kaidō was the real reason Keiji enlisted in the Fourth Division, even without receiving an official invitation.
He had received invitations to join more prestigious divisions, even the First Division, directly under the command of Captain-Commander Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, but he chose the Fourth Division.
Because Captain Unohana was the absolute authority when it came to Kaidō. Her skill was beyond dispute, and no Shinigami would dare question her supremacy in that art.
For Keiji, learning under her supervision was a logical path, even if it was not the brightest choice in the eyes of Central 46 and the rest of the Gotei 13.
Though Keiji continues to feel that there is more than the spirit of the patient, gentle healer that everyone saw in his Captain...