"It may be a prestigious assignment, but staying this serious all the time is making my shoulders stiff." Rangiku Matsumoto thumped her shoulders a few times. "Oh, right, Captain. Once we're finished here, let's go see a Christmas tree!"
"...A Christmas tree?"
"I heard it's something you absolutely need for a holiday in the World of the Living called Christmas. They hang all sorts of decorations on a big tree. Sounds pretty nice."
"...Not interested." Just hearing about it made Tōshirō Hitsugaya think it sounded like a hassle.
"Are you sure you're not interested?" The corners of Rangiku Matsumoto's lips curled upward. "I invited Hinamori too. She's very interested."
"Hinamori?" Tōshirō Hitsugaya's ears practically perked up. "She's coming to the World of the Living?"
"Yeah. Remember how Orihime invited Hinamori and me to go shopping in the World of the Living? She happens to have a mission here this time, so we thought we'd look around together afterward." Rangiku Matsumoto gave him an amused smile. "I hear couples in the World of the Living go on dates at Christmas~"
"A mission in the World of the Living?" Tōshirō Hitsugaya thought back. "Is it because of the effects of the Tenkai Ketchū from before?"
"That's right. Shrines and temples in the World of the Living often have naturally formed entrances leading into the Dangai, don't they? Normally they don't cause any problems, but apparently the Tenkai Ketchū set up earlier caused some of Karakura Town's entrances to connect back to the World of the Living, so they need to be dealt with." Rangiku Matsumoto continued, "It was originally a Thirteenth Division assignment, but they're all busy cleaning up the aftermath from before, so they asked the 5th Division to help. And Hinamori wanted to come to the World of the Living to clear her head anyway..."
"Well..." Tōshirō Hitsugaya coughed twice. "Once our mission is finished, we'll go help."
"No, no, no~" Rangiku Matsumoto waved a hand. "How could we trouble the Captain with such a tiny assignment? I can go by myself."
"Enough. Even a minor assignment can't be taken lightly!" Tōshirō Hitsugaya's face reddened. "Stay focused!"
"Yes~~~" Rangiku Matsumoto deliberately drew out her reply.
The solemn procession advanced slowly, like some grand pilgrimage. Lengthy spiritual chants intertwined with lingering court music, drifting between the dancers' graceful movements.
Strange fluctuations appeared, tracing a vague outline through the air.
The long transfer operation was finally nearing its end.
But at that moment, Tōshirō Hitsugaya suddenly sensed a faint Reiatsu...
No.
Something was wrong!
"Matsumoto!" Tōshirō Hitsugaya gripped the hilt of his Zanpakutō. "Stay alert!"
"Yes!"
Rangiku Matsumoto drew her Zanpakutō, detecting the abnormal Reiatsu only a moment after Tōshirō Hitsugaya.
A chilling gleam suddenly came hurtling toward them.
That was no faint Reiatsu.
It was an overwhelming Reiatsu rapidly closing in on them!
The shrine was pierced through in an instant. The barrier meant to conceal and protect it barely had time to react before the disrupted Reiryoku caused it to explode.
The shockwave sent most of the Kidō Corps members carrying the shrine flying, causing it to tilt violently. Splintered wood and shattered gold and silver ornaments rained down from above.
Numerous squad members immediately gathered around Rangiku Matsumoto.
"Lieutenant!"
"The enemy has long-range attacks! Spread out and protect the shrine!" Rangiku Matsumoto calmly issued orders. "That last attack may have been a feint. Cover one another and watch for an ambush!"
"Yes!"
The squad members leapt into the air together and surrounded the shrine.
As though proving Rangiku Matsumoto's prediction correct, a figure suddenly rushed toward it at tremendous speed.
"Protect the Ōin!"
"Don't let the shrine fall!"
"Attack together!"
Three squad members charged from three different directions at once.
They were sent flying away even faster than they had approached, crashing into the forest below.
"Stay back!" Rangiku Matsumoto stopped the others from swarming forward and swung her Zanpakutō. "Growl, Haineko!"
At her soft command, the blade of her Zanpakutō dissolved into ash and swept toward the approaching figure.
"Hadō #58, Tenran!"
The black-robed figure raised a hand. A roaring whirlwind erupted forth, forcing back the approaching cloud of ash.
"A Shinigami?!"
From the corner of her eye, Rangiku Matsumoto saw Tōshirō Hitsugaya rushing in.
A sudden feeling of unease struck her.
Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed him, pulling him away from his original path.
With her speed alone, stopping Tōshirō Hitsugaya should have been impossible.
But after so many years together, Tōshirō Hitsugaya trusted Rangiku Matsumoto completely.
She might be unreliable in everyday matters, but when it truly counted, she was someone he could always depend on.
So Tōshirō Hitsugaya deliberately slowed himself and allowed Rangiku Matsumoto to pull him aside.
Almost at the exact same instant, a cold gleam silently pierced through the space where he had been.
Had Tōshirō Hitsugaya continued along his original path, his heart would already have been pierced.
An attack like that...
Boom!
That brief delay was enough.
The shrine that the Kidō Corps had only just managed to stabilize collapsed completely.
The strange long-range attack had been a diversion.
The approaching Shinigami had also been a diversion.
A third attacker had taken advantage of the chaos to kill several members of the Kidō Corps, break into the shrine, and emerge carrying something.
"Stop!"
There was no time to say anything more.
Tōshirō Hitsugaya immediately chased after the fleeing figure.
The black-robed Shinigami attempted to stop him, but Rangiku Matsumoto forced the attacker back with a slash.
"Who are you?!" Rangiku Matsumoto demanded.
"A dead man."
The low voice answered.
Then the figure abruptly drew the Zanpakutō at his waist and drove it into his own abdomen.
Rangiku Matsumoto immediately closed the distance, but the person's body began dissolving at an unnaturally rapid rate.
With nothing left to support it, the black robe fell through the air.
Rangiku Matsumoto reached out to catch it, only to glimpse a strange fluorescent glow.
"What in the world..."
Questions flooded Rangiku Matsumoto's mind, but there was something more important to worry about.
"Where's the Ōin?"
"I don't know..." one surviving member of the Kidō Corps answered weakly.
It seemed the fleeing attacker had taken it.
Rangiku Matsumoto stared toward the direction Tōshirō Hitsugaya had disappeared.
"Lieutenant..." A wounded squad member reported guiltily, "We're terribly sorry! We failed to stop them! There are many casualties..."
"Contact Gotei 13 Headquarters immediately!" Rangiku Matsumoto looked around at the dead and wounded scattered everywhere. "Confirm the casualties..."
She was worried about her Captain, but with Tōshirō Hitsugaya gone, responsibility for the scene fell to her.
She had to handle the aftermath first.
In the sky, two Zanpakutō crashed together, scattering sparks.
"Sit Upon the Frozen Heavens, Hyōrinmaru!"
The moment Tōshirō Hitsugaya realized his opponent was a Shinigami, he released his Shikai without hesitation.
A twisting ice dragon surged forth amid a torrent of water, winding around the crossed blades before lunging for the black-robed figure's head.
Just before the attack connected, an eerie light flashed.
Tōshirō Hitsugaya narrowed his eyes against the sudden glare.
In that instant, his opponent broke free of the ice dragon and opened the distance between them.
"Damn it..."
Tōshirō Hitsugaya accelerated after him.
Their brief exchange hadn't revealed the mysterious figure's identity.
Instead, it had only deepened his confusion.
His opponent's Zanjutsu was exceptionally refined.
Unlike Kenpachi Zaraki's wild, battle-focused style, every one of this person's movements was so precise and orthodox that it could have come straight from a textbook.
And because Tōshirō Hitsugaya himself had trained according to those same fundamentals, fighting this opponent felt unbearably frustrating.
Every attack was intercepted before he could fully put his strength behind it.
His opponent constantly achieved the greatest effect with the smallest possible movement.
Zanjutsu at this level could never belong to an ordinary Shinigami.
Yet that Reiatsu was completely unfamiliar...
"Snap, Tobiume!"
A fireball streaked through the air.
The ensuing explosion stopped the mysterious figure in his tracks.
"Hinamori?"
Tōshirō Hitsugaya saw Momo Hinamori holding her Zanpakutō.
"What are you..."
"I happened to be nearby on a mission and sensed your Reiatsu," Momo Hinamori quickly explained. "Tōshirō, are you..."
"Watch out!"
Tōshirō Hitsugaya shouted a warning.
A cold gleam tore straight through the flames and slashed toward Momo Hinamori.
"Bankai. Daiguren Hyōrinmaru!"
Tōshirō Hitsugaya immediately placed himself in front of Momo Hinamori.
Wings of ice formed and spread behind him, enclosing Momo Hinamori protectively within them.
His right hand, now encased in the head of an ice dragon, tightened around Hyōrinmaru as he met the mysterious attacker head-on.
The flames burned away the stranger's black robe, revealing a refined face beneath it.
A long-buried memory stirred within Tōshirō Hitsugaya.
"...You? How could you..."
"It's been a long time, Tōshirō." The man gave an elegant smile. "Shine, Akatsuki!"
The Zanpakutō in his hand suddenly turned pitch-black, as though swallowing every trace of light around it.
At the same moment, a brilliant rainbow glow appeared on Tōshirō Hitsugaya's body.
His eyes shifted toward the source of the light.
Fortunately, it was on his back.
Pfft!
A forked Zanpakutō pierced directly into the place on Tōshirō Hitsugaya's back where the rainbow light was shining.
The ice armor that should have been hard as steel became more fragile than paper.
The blade punched straight through his chest.
Tōshirō Hitsugaya struggled to turn his head and look behind him at Momo Hinamori.
"Hinamori...?"
"I'm sorry..." Momo Hinamori bit down hard on her lower lip. "I have to do this..."
She pulled Tobiume free with a sweep of her arm.
Blood sprayed from Tōshirō Hitsugaya's body as he fell helplessly toward the ground.
Only then did the strange pale pink mist finally drift completely away from him.
Right...
Tōshirō Hitsugaya realized it too late.
That mist could conceal Reiatsu.
Even if a battle broke out inside it, others wouldn't sense anything for a short while.
So how could Momo Hinamori possibly have sensed his Reiatsu and come to help him?
Unless she had known about the attack beforehand and had already been lying in wait nearby.
But...
Why?
Why would Momo Hinamori do something like this?
No.
Hinamori would never do something like this!
His severe injuries made it impossible for him to maintain his Bankai, and the ice dragon covering Tōshirō Hitsugaya's body gradually began to melt.
It was the perfect opportunity for the two enemies to finish him off.
But neither of them attacked.
As though they had suddenly sensed something, both turned toward the same direction.
Then they vanished in an instant.
When Muten Natsu and Retsu Unohana arrived, they found Tōshirō Hitsugaya lying in a miserable state amid melting ice and water.
Retsu Unohana immediately used Kaidō to administer emergency treatment and stabilize his condition.
"Get me out of here..." Tōshirō Hitsugaya used the last of his strength to grab Muten Natsu's wrist. "Don't let Matsumoto find me..."
"Tōshirō!"
Muten Natsu leaned closer and heard Tōshirō Hitsugaya's final whisper before he lost consciousness.
"It was... Akatsuki..."
Muten Natsu's pupils abruptly contracted.
...
This...
This feeling...
Tōshirō Hitsugaya slowly opened his eyes and saw a golden barrier.
Just as he thought.
It was Orihime Inoue's Sōten Kisshun.
Tōshirō Hitsugaya relaxed slightly.
He was in Muten Natsu's house.
He was still in the World of the Living.
Things hadn't yet reached the point of no return.
"I sealed your Reiatsu, and Muten has already erased the Reiatsu you left behind at the scene," Retsu Unohana said. "Suì-Fēng investigated the area once, but she hasn't come here."
"You said 'Akatsuki'..." Muten Natsu stared intently at Tōshirō Hitsugaya. "Are you certain?"
"Concealing one's own Reiatsu during battle, pushing perception to its absolute limit, identifying an opponent's weakness, and causing that point to emit rainbow light..." Tōshirō Hitsugaya's voice remained weak. "There's no mistake. That was Akatsuki."
Rukia Kuchiki reached out and took Muten Natsu's hand.
"Muten..."
She understood exactly what that name meant.
Akatsuki was a Shikai exceptionally well suited to Muten Natsu's sword-drawing technique.
Back in Hueco Mundo, it had helped Muten Natsu slaughter countless Hollows, allowing their group to carve a path by force through the Forest of Menos.
And that Shikai belonged to...
"Takuma Tsunayashiro." Muten Natsu's voice trembled slightly. "He's dead. I watched him die with my own eyes."
"At this point, how many things have we seen with our own eyes that later turned out not to be what we thought?" Tōshirō Hitsugaya struggled to sit up. "Thank you, Inoue. I'm fine now."
Orihime Inoue shook her head. "The treatment isn't finished yet."
"This is enough." Tōshirō Hitsugaya pressed a hand against his wound. "I have something more important to..."
"It's about Hinamori, isn't it?" Retsu Unohana said calmly.
Tōshirō Hitsugaya stiffened.
"..."
"When Hinamori's Zanpakutō enters Shikai, its blade splits into three branches. When it pierces someone, it leaves a very distinctive wound," Retsu Unohana continued. "Takuma Tsunayashiro wasn't the only one who attacked you. Momo Hinamori did as well. That's why you didn't want Soul Society to find you. If they did, Momo Hinamori would be treated as a traitor."
"Hinamori would never do something like that!" Tōshirō Hitsugaya protested loudly.
The wound across his chest split open again, fresh blood seeping out.
"I'll prove it..."
"You don't need to prove anything. The truth is already quite clear." Retsu Unohana patted Muten Natsu on the shoulder. "Muten?"
"Reigai." Muten Natsu's eyes darkened. "That wasn't Takuma, and it wasn't Hinamori. Someone used their Reishi to create Reigai of them."
Only after the others explained the secret events from a hundred years ago did Tōshirō Hitsugaya understand what they meant.
"So our objective now is to find whoever created those Reigai. But how are we supposed to find them? It's not as though they'll simply come knocking on our door..."
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.