Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh—
Several figures landed on the street.
The woman at the front crouched down to check on the fallen Shinigami. After a moment, she shook her head. "They went on ahead. There may still be survivors."
She wore a haori with a pale cherry-gray lining. Her appearance was gentle and serene, her black hair parted in the middle and braided neatly, the plait hanging down in front of her chest.
Rising to her feet, she looked toward the distance and said with mild emotion, "This place really is as chaotic as ever."
The young Fourth Division Shinigami behind her didn't quite understand what she meant. Why did their captain seem so familiar with this outermost edge of Rukongai?
The woman said nothing more and simply led the team forward.
As the medical support division of the Gotei Thirteen, the Fourth Division rarely went on the offensive. As captain, Unohana usually remained at the division barracks, overseeing the treatment of severely wounded Shinigami sent in from other squads.
This time, she had just completed a special assignment and was returning when she encountered a distress signal from the Fifth Division.
When Unohana and her subordinates leapt onto a rooftop, she suddenly halted, gazing at the scene below. A subtle ripple passed through her eyes.
The other squad members looked surprised as well. The distress signal had cut off several minutes ago; they had assumed that by the time they arrived, they would only be collecting bodies.
The task of pursuing rebels wasn't Fourth Division's responsibility anyway—that would fall to combat-oriented divisions like the Second or Eleventh.
But the scene before them didn't make sense.
All the rebels mentioned in the report were lying in pools of blood. The only one still standing wasn't a Fifth Division Shinigami, but a vagrant holding an Asauchi.
On the street below, ten rebel corpses lay strewn in disarray. The man standing at the center wore ragged clothes, calmly drawing the Asauchi past his cheek to shave off the last traces of stubble.
Who calmly shaved their beard while standing amid a pile of corpses?
Under the blazing sun, the man's features were sharp and masculine. He sheathed his blade, looked up at the figures on the rooftop, and smiled—what he believed to be a friendly smile.
In that instant, the Fourth Division members felt a chill run down their spines. The scene was simply too eerie.
Unohana leapt down.
Her pure white haori spread like the wings of a butterfly as she descended, landing softly without a sound. She looked at Kurosaki Rei with narrowed eyes and a gentle smile.
Kurosaki Rei's smile gradually faded.
For the first time in a long while, he felt the presence of true death.
Not the sensation of a gun pressed to his head—but real, tangible killing intent. The suffocating pressure of a living being wielding overwhelming power, bearing down on him without restraint.
Yes.
This was the power he sought.
This was the world he longed for.
Those rebels—whose technique and strength were both crude—had done little more than warm him up. They hadn't given him the pleasure of true combat.
But that fleeting disappointment was quickly dispelled by the woman before him.
He had only just arrived in this world. Who knew how many mountains still lay ahead, waiting to be climbed? Battles worth savoring were surely countless.
Just as Terminal Space had said—
He would face challenges unlike anything before.
"What's your name?" Unohana asked.
As she spoke, the oppressive killing intent vanished. Her smile now seemed genuinely warm.
"Kurosaki Rei."
He answered simply, with no intention of adopting a local alias.
From the pressure she exuded—and from her appearance and attire—he could already confirm her identity.
Unohana Retsu (Yachiru), Captain of the Fourth Division.
And with her already serving as captain, Kurosaki Rei could roughly infer the timeline: Yhwach was already in slumber.
As for how long before the main storyline of Bleach this was—that would require more information.
"Kurosaki Rei… were these people killed by you?" Unohana asked, glancing at the bodies on the ground.
"The Shinigami were killed by them," Kurosaki Rei replied honestly. "I was just defending myself."
He didn't want any misunderstandings. He yearned for battle, yes—but he didn't want to court death, especially now that he had finally arrived in such an interesting world.
Unohana nodded, readily accepting his explanation, as though it were perfectly normal for a vagrant to kill ten rebels that even ordinary Gotei soldiers couldn't handle.
"Do you want to join the Gotei Thirteen?"
The Shinigami behind her were startled.
They hadn't expected their captain to make such an offer—especially not an invitation to the Gotei Thirteen as a whole, rather than specifically to the Fourth Division.
If Captain Unohana had taken an interest in Kurosaki Rei's talent, shouldn't she have invited him into the Fourth Division?
"The Gotei Thirteen?"
Kurosaki Rei froze for a moment.
He hadn't expected the first stage of his main quest to be completed so easily. It seemed that all he needed to do now was nod his head.
"If you're willing," Unohana said with a smile. "Of course, by regulation, you'll still need to enroll in the Shin'ō Academy first. Only after graduating can you formally join the Gotei Thirteen."
Kurosaki Rei pretended to think for a moment, then nodded.
He now understood why the quest's difficulty range fluctuated so much.
If Terminal Space had a god's-eye view, then the path he was currently on was actually the easy route.
After the brief fight, he'd realized that those ten rebels were inferior to him in overall attributes—and utterly lacking in technique. He'd killed them without even dirtying his clothes.
On the other hand, leaving this area and traversing Rukongai alone carried far greater risks. And following the normal process, there was still no guarantee that the Shin'ō Academy would accept him.
With Unohana's recommendation, enrollment was all but assured.
"Then let's go," Unohana said. "We're heading back anyway."
She glanced at the Asauchi in Kurosaki Rei's hand. "You can keep that Asauchi."
The other squad members weren't surprised by this decision.
An Asauchi was, by nature, an unbound Zanpakutō. Before its wielder learned its true name and released Shikai, it possessed no special abilities—just a particularly sharp blade.
When a Shinigami died, their Zanpakutō would usually "reset," reverting back into an Asauchi. At that point, it could be claimed and bonded anew.
(Of course, there were exceptions—but that was another matter.)
Thus, Seireitei typically recycled unclaimed Asauchi, redistributing them to Shin'ō Academy students. As long as the blade remained within Seireitei's system, no one paid special attention.
Now that Kurosaki Rei had one, he wouldn't be issued another upon enrollment.
Kurosaki Rei hung the Asauchi at his waist and followed Unohana and the others.
What happened here was no longer their concern—other divisions would handle the aftermath.
Inside, however, he felt a rising excitement.
As a martial arts master, he was intensely curious about the supernatural combat techniques of this world.
Compared to the rewards promised after completing missions, he was far more eager for the skills he could learn directly within the world.
And the Asauchi he had just obtained—
In a sense, it was already a god-tier piece of equipment.