Bleach: Stirring Up a Storm

"Train Derails, Over a Hundred Casualties!!!"

A middle-aged man in a sharp suit stood in front of the bus stop, gasping as he stared at the striking front-page headline of today’s newspaper. He couldn’t believe such a disastrous event could happen in a small place like Karakura Town.

"How truly tragic."

"You can say that again. A family of three living right next door to me was on that train. It seems none of them survived. What terrible luck."

"May they rest in peace."

"Let’s hope so."

The dead rest in peace, and the living forget. For the small Karakura Town, this was the overarching theme. People always felt that forgetting was a process; perhaps, sometimes, it was also an outcome.

"I’m back!" Urahara returned to his shop, finding Jinta and Ururu blocking the doorway, looking at him with full expectation. He waved the shopping bags in his hand. "I bought juice too."

The red-haired Jinta curled his lip. "Who cares about some stupid juice?"

Despite his words, his body honestly reached out. After taking the shopping bags from Urahara’s hands, he immediately opened them, peeked inside, and held them out to Ururu beside him. "You pick first, but you can only take one."

"Not that one! That’s my favorite! Not that one either, that’s my second favorite!"

"..."

Urahara didn’t interfere with the two dividing the juice. He turned sideways and continued walking into the shop. Yoruichi had still been sleeping before he left. As for now, looking at Yoruichi, who seemed to have buried her face in a bowl, Urahara couldn’t help but smile. Naturally, one had to eat after waking up. Looking at the towering stacks of empty bowls around her, it seemed she had eaten quite a lot.

"Ah—"

"Are you full?"

"Eighty percent. Just right!" Yoruichi patted her stomach with a look of complete satisfaction. Picking up the teacup beside her hand, she continued, "However, Dead-Fish Eyes hasn’t replied to me yet."

"Judging from the situation outside, Soul Society has already altered the memories of the people involved. Therefore, there’s a high probability that Kōe and the others are currently discussing this incident as well."

The news of a train derailment causing over a hundred casualties was naturally the result of Shinigami from Soul Society tampering with memories. The true cause of this vicious incident was two Hollows. Two special Hollows.

Arrancar—a new term born following Aizen’s defection to Hueco Mundo. Unlike previous Hollows whose faces were obscured by masks, Arrancars referred to those whose masks had been broken, revealing human faces and acquiring partial Shinigami abilities.

About a week ago, Hollows with special abilities began appearing in and around Karakura Town. Two days ago, a Hollow wielding a Zanpakutō and displaying a nearly two-thirds human face appeared. It was worth mentioning that the one who took care of it was Ichigo’s father—Mr. Kurosaki Isshin.

However, Urahara could tell that these were merely low-level Hollows that had mutated under the influence of the Hōgyoku’s fusion. If the results of Aizen’s Hollow Shinigamification experiments were solely these pieces of trash, it would be far too laughable.

And indeed, that was the case. This wasn’t just because of the Hollow, nearly identical to a human in appearance, that only Kōe had seen when Aizen was taken into Hueco Mundo.

Just yesterday, Urahara and Yoruichi had also seen it with their own eyes—two entities that could be called mature Arrancars. They had even engaged in a brief skirmish with them.

"How are your injuries?"

"Movement isn’t an issue, but it’ll take a few more days to recover to a one hundred percent perfect combat state." Yoruichi clenched her fists a couple of times. As a Hakuda master, she knew very well that her body had not yet reached its peak condition.

At the time, because Ichigo, Chad, and Inoue were all injured nearby, she hadn’t used a highly destructive technique like Shunkō, relying solely on Hakuda for combat.

Her opponent had been massive and severely lacking in mobility, so he hadn’t launched any effective attacks against Yoruichi. In other words, the one constantly attacking was Yoruichi, and the one who got injured was also Yoruichi.

"The situation isn’t looking good, Kisuke. It’s not just the unknown number of mature Arrancars; we seem to know absolutely nothing about Aizen. Did he really send those two Arrancars here just for Ichigo?"

Urahara shook his head. "Although those two Arrancars claimed they came to deal with Ichigo, the words of an enemy are always the hardest to believe. Taking a step back, even if everything the other party said was true, it doesn’t necessarily mean Ichigo is Aizen’s true objective."

"Since they’ve made the first move, all we can do is start responding. I believe Kōe’s side will come up with a conclusion soon. We don’t need to be too pessimistic, Yoruichi."

Just as Urahara said, at this very moment within the Seireitei’s First Squad barracks, a heated discussion regarding this sudden incident was underway.

"I have already said this many times!" Kurotsuchi Mayuri raised his arms level with his shoulders, loudly explaining to the other captains while venting his displeasure. "Based on the data calculations, the awakening of the Hōgyoku will take at least four months! There are no unexpected variables!"

The rapidly evolving and iterating Hollows in the World of the Living, culminating in the appearance of two mature Arrancars yesterday, easily led people to associate it with the state of the Hōgyoku in Aizen’s hands. It suggested he was using the Hōgyoku to create a terrifyingly powerful military force at an alarming speed.

This was definitely a situation the Seireitei did not want to see. The enemy’s rapid accumulation of combat power would inevitably force them to enter Hueco Mundo and launch a preemptive strike against Aizen despite lacking intelligence.

"I contacted Urahara about this earlier, and his conclusion doesn’t differ much from Mayuri’s." Kōe stepped out from the ranks. "Furthermore, the Shinigamification of Hollows is not without its limits. This is a fact that even the Hōgyoku cannot change."

Kurotsuchi Mayuri nodded in agreement. "Exactly. Trash is still trash, even if it takes on the appearance of a Shinigami. Mass-producing those two monsters is an impossible feat. Of course, they wouldn’t even need to be mass-produced. Having ten or twenty of them would be highly troublesome. If there were over fifty, we might as well raise our hands and surrender."

Such a joke wasn’t funny in the slightest, but it was enough to slightly relax everyone’s tense nerves, allowing them to analyze the current situation with clearer minds.

"If it wasn’t a deliberate show of force aimed at us, then the surprise attack on Karakura Town was a planned scheme with an underlying motive?" Shunsui rubbed his chin back and forth with his index finger. After muttering to himself, he shifted his gaze to Yamamoto at the head seat. "What exactly is his goal? Do we have any relevant intelligence?"

Yamamoto did not answer. Instead, he glanced at Kōe on his right. Kōe understood implicitly; he and Ukitake were the ones in charge of this area.

"Aizen reviewed a massive amount of data in the Seijōtōkyorin and the Great Spirit Book Gallery, including geography, historical records, and various experimental reports. Because of this, Ukitake and I have yet to uncover his true motive."

Hearing Kōe’s words, some of the people present lowered their heads in disappointment once again. Among them, Komamura and Hitsugaya were the most obvious, making no effort to hide the dismay on their faces.

"However, we do have a small clue. Don’t be so down, everyone."