"Then what's the point of saying all this? If they're really hiding somewhere in the Dangai or the human world, and we have no clues at all, there's no way we could ever find them."
Even though Tosen Kaname's sightless eyes were hidden behind his goggles, his brows were tightly knit into a deep frown.
Aizen had never told anyone about information regarding the Quincy King. Even he, as a trusted subordinate, was hearing of it for the first time.
Setting aside factional positions, within his black-and-white sense of justice, a race like the Quincy, who disrupted the balance of souls, were heretics who violated the greater good.
Once discovered, they should be purged immediately.
But he was an extremely pragmatic person. When they could not even grasp a shadow of the enemy, how could they talk about extermination?
"Now that there's already a lead, once the fox shows its tail, the hunter will always catch its trail," Rosse took over the conversation calmly, his tone leaving no room for doubt.
"Captain Mayuri, I'll leave this matter to you and the Research and Development Bureau. As for the Captain-Commander, given that this is a former mortal enemy, I'm sure the old man won't refuse letting us conduct a large-scale search for their whereabouts."
In just a few words, Rosse set the nature of a matter that was enough to shake all of Soul Society.
This so-called search for the Quincy was nothing more than a seed he planted in advance on Soul Society's side.
He was waiting.
Waiting for the thousand-year-sleeping Yhwach to fully recover, waiting for the blood-soaked holy war that was bound to come.
Only when these ambition-driven figures lurking in the shadows of history appeared at full strength would this muddy pool of a world become livelier, and far more interesting.
"Keh! Keh! Keh! Since Captain Rosse has said so much, then leave it to me."
Mayuri let out a shrill laugh that made one's scalp prickle, his face painted with bizarre makeup filled with excitement.
He agreed to this task with exceptional enthusiasm.
The Quincy King... that was an unparalleled experimental subject he had never seen before.
As a scientist, he had long been itching to study him thoroughly.
"Toshiro, I'll trouble you to escort Captain Komamura and Captain Kuchiki to the Fourth Division for treatment," Rosse methodically assigned the post-battle tasks, his composed manner making it seem as if he were the highest commander present.
Finally, before the remaining captains had all left, his gaze dipped slightly, landing on a certain man still lying on the ground pretending to be dead. His tone turned playful.
"Captain Kyoraku, how long are you planning to keep lying there?"
In truth, Rosse knew very well that the moment Aizen took action, Kurosaki Masaki had already withdrawn her control over Kyoraku Shunsui's Reishi.
From that moment on, him continuing to lie there was purely because he did not want to get up.
After all, if he were truly severely injured and unable to rise, that would be one thing. But if he lay there for just a few minutes and then suddenly sprang back to life, wouldn't that make it look like he had been faking his death the entire time?
"Ah... Cough! Cough!"
Now that he had been called out, Kyoraku Shunsui could no longer pretend not to hear. He still did not get up, only coughing bitterly twice as he spoke with a grave expression.
"Captain Rosse, that woman's ability is probably not so simple. I could clearly feel that her arrow was not just physical damage, but a kind of blockade at the Reishi level. It completely cut off the normal transmission paths of Reishi within my body. Right now, I'm utterly unable to mobilize even the slightest bit of my own spiritual pressure."
What he said was, in fact, the honest truth.
That was just before Aizen fought that woman. Now he actually could use it again, but since White Marsh had already pointed it out like this, he could hardly start using it right away.
What made his heart sink was the looks being cast toward him.
All he read in them was doubt.
No one believed his words at all.
Kyoraku Shunsui felt bitter to the extreme.
By heaven and earth as his witnesses, he was the one who had racked his brains trying to uncover the traitor within Hueco Mundo's royal palace.
Yet now the situation had flipped too quickly, and everyone was looking at him as if he were the traitor.
Especially with Aizen's life-risking display tonight serving as a stark contrast.
In that situation, Aizen had truly fought with his life on the line. He really could have died.
Compared to that, he himself, who had been taken out by a single arrow and then lay flat the entire time, no matter how eloquently he explained, would only look like pale excuses in the eyes of others.
"Oh? Really? Dear Captain Kyoraku, if that's the case, then your understanding of Reishi studies is truly laughably shallow."
Mayuri's uniquely mocking voice rang out once more. He shot a sideways glance at Kyoraku Shunsui on the ground and mercilessly exposed him in public.
"Reishi transmission blocked? If it were a Plus who had only just acquired a faint bit of spiritual pressure, then yes, they might be unable to move due to an unstable spirit body. But for a captain-class spirit body like yours, this doesn't affect basic physical movement that doesn't involve using techniques at all."
"My spiritual pressure is even stronger. Once the massive Reishi flow inside my body is locked, the backlash produced would only make it even harder for me to move."
At this point, Kyoraku Shunsui could only grit his teeth and stick to his explanation, his expression remaining composed.
"Heh! Absolutely ridiculous! That explanation of yours would be less laughable if you just made something up like 'the arrow was coated in a potent muscle-paralyzing toxin'!"
Mayuri snorted, his eyes filled with disdain for academic fallacies.
As Rosse's number one admirer, he not only delighted in watching Kyoraku Shunsui make a fool of himself, but also could not tolerate such low-level pseudo-scientific nonsense being spread in front of him.
This was nothing short of an insult to the truth he believed in.
"Listen carefully! The stronger one's spiritual pressure is, the higher the density of Reishi composing the body. Ordinary people think that once Reishi goes out of control, the body can no longer move, but that's just the ingrained notion of mediocrities!"
Mayuri lifted his chin arrogantly, as if lecturing a group of ignorant students.
"The 'base Reishi' that makes up our spirit bodies is 'inert Reishi', while the Reishi used for combat, for releasing Kido and sword techniques, is 'active Reishi'!"
"No matter how chaotic your active Reishi becomes, no matter how it's sealed, as long as your soul hasn't collapsed, the inert Reishi forming the foundation of your physical body cannot possibly go out of control! Otherwise, Captain Kyoraku, your current state would be your body directly collapsing and dispersing into Reishi dust, not lying here like a scoundrel claiming you can't move!"
Mayuri spoke at a rapid pace, each word like a scalpel, precisely dissecting Kyoraku Shunsui's lie.
"By the way, the brain transmits commands to the limbs through bioelectric signals resonating with inert Reishi. In other words, as long as you're not trying to use shunpo or release Kido, simply standing up, walking, or even dancing has absolutely nothing to do with whether your spiritual pressure is sealed!"
"As for your theory of 'the stronger the spiritual pressure, the greater the backlash', it's even more baseless!"
"On the contrary, the extent to which Reishi instability affects the body depends solely on an individual's control over Reishi! Only worthless trash with poor control will develop the psychological suggestion of 'being unable to move' because of chaotic Reishi flow."
At this point, Mayuri paused. His eerie eyes locked onto Kyoraku Shunsui, the corners of his mouth splitting into an extremely malicious curve.
"Or could it be that... as a captain of a hundred years' standing, your control over Reishi has already become so abysmal that it's not even on par with that of newly appointed Shinigami?"
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