"Really letting yourself go, huh," Rosse smiled and shook his head as he looked at Rangiku lying on the big hotel bed, her whole posture dripping with seductive charm.
The bar outing had ended with Rangiku drinking herself half-conscious.
Maybe it was because she already trusted him enough, or maybe today's news about Shiba Isshin had pushed her over the edge, but this time Rangiku was truly drunk.
When he held her, he could clearly feel that she was basically a puddle of mud in his arms.
Fortunately, Rangiku had washed the alcohol smell off herself before collapsing. Otherwise he might have tossed her back in the bar.
He didn't bother with the unconscious Rangiku on the hotel bed. He left behind a clone created by his fruit ability and disappeared from the room.
———
A few kilometers away, in an abandoned factory.
Rosse appeared there almost instantly.
Standing in front of him was Aizen, who had been waiting for a long time.
"Lord Rosse."
Seeing him arrive, Aizen's lips curled slightly. He bent forward in greeting. At least in attitude, ever since he lost to Rosse last time, he had become extremely proper.
Before he could catch up to Rosse, he would follow Rosse the same way Gin followed him, learning and improving until the day he had the ability to kill him.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Is your lieutenant handled?"
"I just said a few things casually and she was more than happy to go investigate Tsuneyashiro Tokikawa on her own."
Aizen lightly adjusted his glasses. When mentioning Hinamori Momo, his voice had absolutely no emotional fluctuation, nothing like the gentle, friendly persona he showed around her.
"So this is Tsuneyashiro Tokikawa? Looks pretty similar to Tsuneyashiro Tokinade," Rosse glanced at the unconscious man not far away. From his appearance, he was about eighty percent similar to Tokinade.
"In terms of bloodline, he should be Tokinade's cousin. They're both branch-family members of the Tsuneyashiro clan. But he is the head of the branch family, and Tokinade was the lowest seat," Aizen smiled as he explained.
"This 'branch head' is pretty undeserving of the title. After achieving Bankai, his strength might not even compare to Tokinade without a zanpakuto."
Just one look was enough for Rosse to roughly evaluate their power levels.
Of course, if Tokikawa's Bankai had special abilities, that would be a different matter.
But if he really did have something special, Aizen wouldn't be using him as bait. It would be far more cost-effective to use him as experimental material.
"Indeed. His so-called captain-level spiritual pressure is only thanks to his excellent bloodline," Aizen didn't deny it. This man was someone he had carefully selected, and the perfect ticket to justify coming to the living world.
And as for what Rosse planned to do next, Aizen was genuinely looking forward to it.
"Lord Rosse, this sword is my gift to you. Do you want it now, or after you've finished dealing with him and take it properly?", Aizen gestured at the zanpakuto stuck beside Tokikawa. It was the Tsuneyashiro clan's heirloom blade, named Enra Kyoten.
It had no value to Aizen, but giving it to Rosse in return for the intel Rosse had provided in the Great Archive was more than enough.
"The clan's heirloom, huh. I'll take it from him myself once we finish," Rosse grinned.
Since the Tsuneyashiro clan was already gone, their heirloom blade naturally belonged to whoever fate favored.
He had avenged the Tsuneyashiro clan, so it should belong to him.
Even if the matter reached Central 46, with Aizen covering it up, no one would object.
"But I am curious, how long did it take you to guess that my target was the living world?"
Rosse turned and examined Aizen with interest.
This was the first time someone had figured out his intentions in advance.
When he looked through information in the Great Archive, he hadn't hidden it from Aizen, but identifying his true goal from among so many documents and concluding he would come to the living world was no simple feat.
"It was thanks to your guidance."
Aizen's face carried polite humility, but there was a trace of excitement in his eyes.
It was his first time following Rosse's reasoning on his own.
"You mentioned before that Yhwach needs 900 years to restore his heartbeat and 90 years to restore consciousness. A being that powerful would never remain inactive once his consciousness returns."
"From the documents you checked, I discovered common points. Although many of them included redundant information, together they allowed me to pinpoint the exact moment 990 years later."
Aizen firmly believed that once Yhwach's consciousness returned, he would initiate a major event.
If he were Yhwach, he would.
And if he were Rosse, knowing that such a being would act, he would plan accordingly.
So he was certain Rosse's target was Yhwach.
Otherwise, Rosse wouldn't have mentioned Yhwach at the Great Archive.
Aizen understood clearly: Rosse had left that clue for him. Without it, he never could have connected the dots.
Luckily, he did not waste Rosse's expectations or his own efforts.
"And then? Why the living world?", Rosse's lips curved upward. His gaze toward Aizen carried admiration.
Though he hadn't hidden his goal, being able to find it with such precision must have required considerable effort.
And without sharp intuition, he might have headed in the wrong direction from the start.
After all, Rosse had also mentioned that the Quincies were hiding within Seireitei's shadows.
"Because there is a group of Quincies in the living world, Quincies who appeared suddenly in the past century and established a family here. The living world had not seen Quincies for over 900 years."
Aizen smiled confidently as he explained his deduction.
"According to my calculations, they must be a small group that left the Quincy gathering place. Maybe they had different beliefs, or maybe they got tired of waiting for Yhwach. They abandoned him."
"Whatever the reason, they should be people who left the main group. And if Yhwach makes a move, they will be the first ones affected."
"So I guessed that your target must be them."
"Good guess. But what if you were wrong?", Rosse asked with amusement.
In the end, this was only Aizen's speculation.
What if he hadn't meant to come to the living world at all?
"If I guessed wrong, then this time I simply invited you to enjoy the living world with me and to see my finest creations," Aizen wore a faint smile, clearly not thinking he could be wrong.
From the moment Rosse came to the living world, he knew his deduction was correct.
He just didn't know what Rosse planned to do.
But he believed that very soon, he would find out.
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