Before Soifon could think of a suitable excuse to deflect the question, the Isane in her arms suddenly went limp — and without a single warning sign, fell fast asleep.
Young people truly do have an impressive ability to sleep. Down she went, just like that.
"...Isane?" Soifon called softly.
The only response was a slow, deep, steady rhythm of breathing. — She was genuinely, completely asleep.
Soifon held her position, frozen for two full seconds, and in the end simply let out a quiet, soundless sigh.
She carefully adjusted her grip — one arm looping around Isane's slender waist, the other sliding beneath the backs of her knees — and lifted the tall Vice-Captain clean off the sofa in a bridal carry.
She was surprisingly light. Certain areas notwithstanding, she weighed far less than expected.
Soifon got her bearings, then set off with the sleeping white-haired girl cradled against her chest, heading toward the inner courtyard she remembered as Yoruichi Shihōin's private quarters.
She passed through several covered corridors, skirting wide of the still-lively main banquet hall, until the scenery gradually quieted into the tranquility of the inner garden.
She had just stepped through the courtyard entrance when she nearly walked straight into a handsome young man heading briskly the other way, head down — Yūshirō Shihōin.
He caught sight of Soifon carrying someone and blinked, then immediately blurted out: "Captain Soifon!"
"Are you here to see my sister?"
Soifon gave a small nod, tilting her chin toward the girl in her arms. "Good evening, Yūshirō. Vice-Captain Kotetsu has had a bit too much to drink — I'm going to take her home to rest, and thought I'd let Lady Yoruichi know as well."
In truth, given Soifon's current strength and standing, there was no longer any real need for her to address her as 「Lady Yoruichi」— it was simply a small, private little quirk (?) the two of them shared.
Their voices were low, but in the stillness of the inner courtyard they carried clearly.
Yoruichi Shihōin — who had apparently been there for some time already — pushed open her door and leaned against the doorframe with her arms folded, purple hair spilling loose over her shoulders, wearing the rare sight of actual sleepwear.
"Oho~~ Soifon." She smirked at her with gleeful mischief. "Getting someone drunk and then taking them home to have your way with them, are we?"
Soifon looked at her with an expression of total blankness. "Lady Yoruichi, it's not as though you don't know… Isane was already drunk when she showed up."
"Mm-hmm." Yoruichi gave a noncommittal shrug. "All the same, if you've gotten someone drunk, you'd better take responsibility, Captain Soifon…"
"Anyway… I'll be going." Soifon had no patience for being drawn into that kind of conversation. She shifted her hold on Isane, pivoted on her heel, and vanished in a flash of Shunpo.
Working from hazy memory, she streaked toward the Kotetsu family residence — located in the neighborhood adjacent to the Fourth Division — and touched down lightly at the front door.
She freed one hand and rummaged along Isane's waist until she found the key ring, still warm from its owner's body heat, and fished it out.
She moved to insert it into the lock — and then realized the door was already ajar. A gentle push and it swung open.
Warm amber light spilled through the gap, along with the soft sounds of someone busily moving around inside.
Soifon stepped in. Her gaze swept across the entryway, then settled on a small, bustling figure moving about in the direction of the kitchen.
"Captain Soifon?!"
Kiyone Kotetsu crossed the entryway in three quick strides and bent into a textbook ninety-degree bow. "It's our first time meeting! I'm Kiyone Kotetsu — I'm so sorry for the trouble, Captain Soifon, coming all this way to bring my sister home yourself!"
Soifon was about to exchange a few pleasantries when a powerful Spiritual Pressure surged out of nowhere from the direction of the Rukongai.
[That's Starrk — what is he doing in Soul Society?!]
Soifon hastily transferred Isane into Kiyone's arms. "Something's come up — I'm leaving Isane in your hands."
"Huh?"
"Won't you stay for a cup of tea, Captain Soifon…?"
The words were still in the air when Soifon's figure had already dissolved into Shunpo, leaving Kiyone standing at the door with her sister in her arms, blinking in bewildered silence.
...
Several hours earlier. Hueco Mundo.
Sōsuke Aizen had locked himself away in his top-floor chambers for quite some time, wholly absorbed in analyzing and absorbing the power contained within Yhwach's remains.
As if in sympathy, the entire Las Noches seemed to have sunk into a kind of suspended stillness — no orders, no missions, not even the routine patrols were carried out.
Kaname Tōsen waited in silence in his own room. Gin Ichimaru lay about as aimlessly as ever. The lower-ranked Arrancar and Hollows were left entirely to their own devices.
Szayelaporro had no objections to any of this — as long as no one disturbed his research, he was perfectly content.
Grimmjow, for his part, divided his days between pestering Starrk for a sparring match and sweating it out alone in Las Noches' training grounds.
Predictably, Starrk had once again declined his challenge that day, vanishing from the area at a speed Grimmjow couldn't even track.
Days like these — utterly calm, bordering on tedious.
But boredom is merely the prelude to a storm.
BOOM——!!
An explosion — ten times more violent than anything Szayelaporro's usual failed experiments produced — erupted from the direction of the laboratory, sending shockwaves rolling through the entire structure of Las Noches.
"Hmm?" Starrk glanced toward the blast, then slowly let his eyes drift shut again. "Szayelaporro's really outdone himself this time..."
It was only the beginning.
Before the echoes had fully faded — while most of the Arrancar were still watching on in puzzlement or gleeful curiosity — Grimmjow, deep in his training, came under attack.
"Hadō #88: Hiryū Gekizoku Shinten Raihō!"
Without any warning, hundreds of Kidō blasts erupted simultaneously from every blind angle and, in a single instant, converged on Grimmjow — his stamina already more than half spent.
Grimmjow didn't even have time to release his Resurrección. The overwhelming torrent of lightning tore through his body, and he collapsed into the rubble, his fingers still clawing, still trying to close around his Zanpakutō…
"The Panther King fused with the Hōgyoku, and he still won't die? Impressive."
The next second.
A cold gleam flashed.
A Zanpakutō drew across his throat without hesitation.
Simultaneously — two explosions, two surges of powerful Spiritual Pressure. Kaname Tōsen, Gin Ichimaru, and Starrk finally registered that something was deeply wrong. This was no laboratory accident.
— Grimmjow's and Szayelaporro's Spiritual Pressures had vanished entirely.
As the three of them raced toward the last location where Spiritual Pressure had spiked, the very air of the corridor seemed to come alive. Countless triggered Bakudō, woven from densely packed Spirit Particles at extreme density, snapped shut around all three of them simultaneously.
Hundreds of Bakudō, each carrying the Spiritual Pressure of a captain-class combatant — even these three, together, could not break free in an instant.
"Hey, hey...what on earth have we gotten ourselves mixed up in this time?"
For the first time, a flicker of genuine gravity appeared on Starrk's face.
Then, from the far end of the smoke-filled corridor, a silhouette stepped slowly into view.
— Azashiro Sōya.
Behind him stretched a vast, uncountable army of Gigai — bodies without number.
Every one of them wore a blank, expressionless face, hollow eyes staring forward, yet every arm rose in perfect unison, palms leveled at the three figures bound by the Bakudō.
"I said it before — since Sōsuke Aizen has chosen inaction, and you too have broken the promise you made with me..."
"Then I will handle this myself. In my own way."
"In any case, Sōsuke Aizen has eyes only for his Yhwach right now. He won't spare a thought for whether any of you live or die."
Crimson Reiatsu blazed into existence all at once — like hellfire igniting across hundreds of palms in the same breath.
"Hadō #91: Senjū Kōten Taihō!!"
Volley.
Hundreds of crimson beams roared forth as one, a torrential downpour of destruction that swallowed half of Las Noches whole.
When the smoke cleared, the figures of Kaname Tōsen and Gin Ichimaru had been utterly erased — obliterated entirely within the barrage. Only Starrk remained.
Dragging his grievously wounded body, he forced his way into his Hōgyoku Resurrección form, and with a burst of Sonído at full speed, fled the battlefield.
A moment later, he appeared in the chamber where the Quincy prisoners were being held. Without a word of explanation, he grabbed the shackled Haschwalth — bound by Rikujōkōrō — along with several of the female Sternritter members, tore open a Garganta toward Soul Society, and stepped through.
"No time to explain. You are Lady Soifon's prisoners of war — I have to confirm you're safe."
Back to the present.
THUD——
Starrk hit the ground hard. Around him, the Quincy he'd brought through were equally dust-covered and battered.
In the next instant, Soifon and the Captain-Commander appeared at Starrk's side.
The Captain-Commander furrowed his brow at the bizarre assembly before him, but kept his blade sheathed — Starrk was soaked in blood, and the handful of Quincy around him were barely breathing, hardly in any shape to fight.
"No. 1 — Starrk. My subordinate." Soifon stepped forward first to make the introduction. "These are surviving Quincy from the Wandenreich. I've kept them around — they have their uses."
Two sentences. Enough to let the Captain-Commander lower his guard.
Soifon crouched down. Kaidō light bloomed in her palms as she began restoring Starrk's Reiatsu, and she didn't speak again until his breathing had steadied.
"What happened, Starrk."
"Azashiro Sōya." Fury crossed Starrk's face. "He betrayed us. He had prepared hundreds of Gigai — launched an attack on me, Tōsen, and Ichimaru..."
The rest went without saying. They were all dead.
Through the Garganta that Starrk had not yet closed — across the darkness of the Dangai — both the Captain-Commander and Soifon caught the scent of something strange. Then, one by one, a few drops of black Spirit Particles drifted out from within the passage.
Drip——
The Captain-Commander moved with startling speed, catching a single droplet on the blade of Ryūjin Jakka, and held it up between himself and Soifon for close inspection — then his pupils contracted sharply.
"This is——"
"Miasma from Hell?!"
This was the advantage of living long. Even though Soifon's strength now surpassed his own, in sheer breadth of experience she was still several leagues behind.
The moment he identified what it was, the Captain-Commander snapped his head up to stare into the depths of the Dangai, toward Las Noches beyond...
"Well, well. Long time no see, Yamamoto."
A woman with purple twin-tails and a black eyepatch over her left eye was grinning at them, waving in cheerful greeting.
At that moment, the Garganta could no longer sustain itself and collapsed shut.
"Saitō the Undying… it's been a while indeed..."
____
👻🔥+40 ch: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: COTE: Confessing to Sakayanagi From the Start
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