Sosuke Aizen was currently very busy.
The development of the Hogyoku had not stopped for a single day, and he had just mastered the means to stably enter and exit Hueco Mundo. Next, he needed to travel to Hueco Mundo to expand his influence and build an army of Hollows capable of contending with the Gotei 13.
Originally, Kaname Tosen and Gin Ichimaru, who could assist him, had both ascended to the position of Captain. They could no longer help him as conveniently as before, and he had not yet had time to cultivate a new batch of subordinates to work for him.
Therefore, he now also needed the interior of the Seireitei to become busy—specifically, he needed to make Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto busy.
Aizen remained vigilant about whether Kyōka Suigetsu could completely deceive that old man.
If it were just him alone, he could still slack off and use his Zanpakuto's ability to give himself a vacation, and the Captain-Commander would not say much. However, if three Captains were all Reiatsu puppets created by him, that would not be something he could gloss over with clumsy excuses.
This made him involuntarily miss Kisuke Urahara somewhat. If that man were willing to stay and assist him, perhaps the Hogyoku would already be complete by now.
"Understood, I will go back and report this immediately."
Gin Ichimaru departed using Shunpo, and Aizen once again focused his attention on the research before him.
He merely wanted to cause some trouble for the Gotei 13. As for that man named Suzuki Makoto, and that woman who likely came from the Western Branch, they were not important to him.
After the 3rd Division sent up the news regarding the 'suspected Western Branch powerhouse within the Yellow Turbans,' it did not exceed Aizen's expectations: the Captain-Commander's attempt to suppress this intelligence could no longer continue. This was because the Tsunayashiro family had already expressed strong dissatisfaction to the Gotei 13 through Central 46.
Therefore, this Captains' meeting was unavoidable no matter what.
When Gin Ichimaru walked into the meeting hall, everyone else had already arrived.
"Ah, sorry, sorry. I've been stationed in the Rukongai recently, so I came back a bit slow."
"No matter."
The old man in the head seat was not the type to fixate on trivial details. Although this incident was stirred up by Gin Ichimaru, the true cause of the trouble was, after all, the organization named 'Yellow Turban'.
"This Captains' meeting concerns the recent anomalies in the Rukongai, which were also discovered by the 3rd Division Captain, Gin Ichimaru."
"It's just some vague intelligence, really—I imagine Captain Kyoraku should have more detailed data, right?"
The man with the perpetual slit-eyed smile slickly diverted everyone's attention to the Captain of the 8th Division. Shunsui Kyoraku, wearing his straw hat, sighed helplessly and looked at his teacher.
Seeing Yamamoto nod, Shunsui Kyoraku finally took a step forward and began to explain what exactly had happened in the Rukongai.
"The recent chaos in the Rukongai is due to the emergence of an organization named the Yellow Turbans from the Zaraki District. Its leader, Suzuki Makoto, is a Wandering Soul who only appeared in the Soul Society half a year ago. He appeared in the Zaraki District and founded the Yellow Turbans with the slogan: let everyone in the Rukongai have enough to eat and drink."
"Consequently, the common people of the Rukongai support him greatly, while the local tyrants view him as a thorn in their side. They united to organize army-scale forces to encircle and suppress the Yellow Turbans several times, but they were all crushed by Suzuki Makoto in frontal assaults. Since then, the Yellow Turban Army under his command has begun to sweep through the entire outer ring districts, and they have now gradually advanced to the vicinity of District 70."
"Because they are powerless to resist Suzuki Makoto, and because he does not accept any privileged class, nearly half of the local tyrants from those eleven districts have taken the wealth they amassed, along with a large number of guards and population, and flooded into the more inner districts. Furthermore, fearing that Suzuki Makoto will continue to advance, they are all squeezing toward the higher-ranked districts as much as possible. This is what has made public security in the nearest Rukongai areas extremely unstable."
Gin Ichimaru stood at his designated spot, watching his nose and his heart. He naturally knew that Shunsui Kyoraku's report was avoiding the heavy issues and dwelling on the light ones. For instance, he neither explained the rules of the Yellow Turbans in detail nor mentioned the woman suspected to be from the Western Branch—however, the other party had clearly received a hint from the Captain-Commander. Gin would not stir up trouble for no reason at a time like this.
Since Captain Aizen had 'confidence' in those nobles, there was no need for him to risk angering the Captain-Commander to reveal the truth.
"Zaraki District? I didn't expect such an interesting guy to appear there after I left? Really, I'm starting to regret becoming a Shinigami a little."
Kenpachi Zaraki grinned. Originally, he had only middling interest in such meetings, but after hearing Shunsui Kyoraku's report, he instantly became energized.
If he had known earlier that he wouldn't be able to fight as he pleased after joining the Gotei 13, he might as well have stayed in the Zaraki District—otherwise, Suzuki Makoto would have been waiting for him.
"As a Captain, you must not evaluate your own responsibilities with such a frivolous attitude."
Retsu Unohana, the Captain of the 4th Division who rarely spoke at Captains' meetings, opened her eyes and spoke in a slightly stern tone.
And Kenpachi Zaraki, who had always been at odds with other Captains, actually shut his mouth just like that. He neither showed a contemptuous attitude nor retorted with that usual desire to pick a fight.
"In short, the current situation is that the existence of the Yellow Turbans has already affected the stability of the entire Seireitei. Even Central 46 has issued orders to quell the turmoil in the Rukongai as soon as possible. Therefore, what we need to discuss here is how to stabilize the Rukongai."
Shunsui Kyoraku pulled the topic back.
"I do hope this matter can be resolved quickly. The 3rd Division is already somewhat busy just suppressing the surrounding Rukongai districts; I can barely spare any hands here to attend to support work on other fronts."
Gin Ichimaru quickly and skillfully extricated himself and the 3rd Division from the matter. Judging by Aizen's earlier attitude, he clearly wanted to keep the Gotei 13 busy, and perhaps even dig a few pits for them along the way. Gin had no desire to get involved at this moment.
"The 11th Division has no problem with it. Why not leave it to us? I really have quite a bit of interest in that kid from the Zaraki District."
Kenpachi Zaraki immediately volunteered to take over the mission. Moreover, as a combat division, the 11th Division was supposed to be responsible for such matters.
"The situation is not yet severe enough to require the Gotei 13 to declare war on a faction in the Rukongai."
Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto did not even raise an eyebrow as he casually suppressed Kenpachi Zaraki's combat application.
_____
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