"Useless! All of them are useless!"
In the noble district of the Seireitei, within an ancient estate comparable to a city within a city, several figures were gathered in a study. One of them paced restlessly, cursing under his breath.
They varied in appearance, but their common trait was their aged countenances; nearly every face bore a trace of the majesty that ordinary people lacked. It was a temperament cultivated by holding high positions for a long time.
However, that temperament had largely evaporated the moment they began speaking words of frantic frustration.
"Didn't Ishikawa Sosuke claim a one-hundred-percent success rate? Didn't he say that with enough preparation, he could even assassinate a Soul Reaper Captain?"
"In the end, he couldn't even deal with a mere Warden in a prison. Were his previous boasts nothing more than a joke?"
"The biggest problem right now isn't that. It's whether that brat, as the victim, knows about the connection between the Araki family and us."
"How would he know? A brat who graduated from the Spiritual Arts Academy just a few days ago—he probably doesn't even understand how many organizations there are in the Seireitei. How could he possibly guess such a hidden secret?"
"Forget him; even the current Head of the family couldn't possibly know."
As soon as these words were spoken, the tension on everyone's faces eased significantly.
An assassination failure was only a minor issue. At most, they had lost one Ishikawa Sosuke; they could simply spend more time recruiting or training another.
But if their schemes were leaked, that would be a catastrophe. At any time, using Soul Reapers or residents as materials for forbidden matters was intolerable to the Soul Society. If discovered, they would inevitably face trial by the Council of the Golden Seal.
At best, they would be stripped of power and confined to their estates; at worst, their spiritual power would be sealed, and they would be exiled to the World of the Living or imprisoned in Shino Prison.
Clearly, neither outcome was acceptable to them.
But since there was no risk of the secret leaking, there was nothing to worry about. As for that Warden brat in Shino Prison, they could simply send a few more retainers or members of the Onmitsukidō to assassinate him.
If once didn't work, then twice, then three times.
The Shihōin family never lacked loyalists; those lower-class nobles were desperate to curry favor with them. Among them were even a few upper-class nobles.
Shihōin Buji leaned back in his chair, finding a comfortable position to admire the night view outside the window. The moonlight was clear as water, adorned by a scattering of stars.
Every time such a meeting drew to a close, he would watch like this, as if the entire Seireitei were within his grasp. The taste of power was truly intoxicating.
Speaking of which, it seemed the modification technology had been interrogated out of an upper-class noble. If memory served, that fellow had been quite close to a certain Soul Reaper Captain.
But that Captain had also been cast into Muken.
Tsk, tsk. The competition between superiors and subordinates was always this cruel. Yet, no matter how hard they worked, they could never shake our status. We are like the crescent moon in the sky, or those increasingly bright stars...
Wait, why are the stars getting brighter?
Shihōin Buji froze, an ominous premonition instinctively washing over him. He rose from his chair, intending to move closer to the window to see clearly.
Suddenly, a piercing sound of breaking air shattered the silence of the night. That light became increasingly clear and dazzling.
At that moment.
On the courtyard wall outside the window, a figure burning with blazing flames streaked past at high speed under the full moon. Sparks seemed to fly through the air in his wake.
He whistled through the sky.
Toward the building a hundred meters away—the only one where candlelight still flickered—he lunged!
A blazing fire of Reiatsu scorched the air. Like a meteor, it continued to enlarge in mid-air—growing bigger, bigger, and bigger still...
"What on earth is that..."
Shihōin Buji didn't even have time to finish his sentence. The sense of crisis pressing against his skin forced him to execute the fastest Flash Step of his life.
He threw himself out of the study, crashing straight through the door.
The others remained frozen in place, staring blankly at the rapidly expanding meteor, instinctively letting out cries of despair:
"Save—"
BOOM!
In an instant, the sturdy roof disintegrated. Under the frontal impact of Naraku Sora, it turned into a rain of debris that showered in all directions. Wails broke out everywhere.
The culprit behind this scene had already crashed directly into the study.
Descent!
He crushed every large object in his sight with irresistible force, appearing to roll over some unlucky soul in the process.
His Reiatsu received a tiny, negligible increase. It wasn't even as much as one would gain from a single day of meditation.
Dust and thick smoke mixed with the ruins. After the collapse, nothing remained but unstoppable wailing and cursing.
The high-ranking members of the Shihōin family, who had never experienced such a situation, could never have imagined in their wildest dreams that someone would descend from the heavens in such a manner, nearly wiping them out in one blow.
Outside the ruins, Shihōin Buji's expression twisted and twitched. He hadn't even processed what had happened; in just a flash, the vast study had become a wasteland.
The elders who had been laughing and discussing matters with him moments ago were now lying in pools of blood. Intense pain caused their faces to contort to the extreme, devoid of their usual grace.
Beneath a stone slab, Shihōin Sakujiro coughed up large amounts of blood. He reached out a hand toward Buji with difficulty, his lips trembling as if pleading for something.
But in the next second, a foot stepped on his face.
With a slight application of force.
A crisp *crack* sounded. The raised arm fell lifelessly, and he fell silent.
Naraku Sora felt no ripples of emotion; he almost wanted to laugh. From the moment these people plotted against his life, they had stood on opposite sides of a blood feud.
"Gentlemen, it's time to go."
Through the billowing dust, a menacing figure loomed. Blazing fire burned around him, wantonly radiating extreme heat.
However, such a massive commotion had already alerted the Shihōin retainers guarding the vicinity. To be precise, these were the servants and subordinates of the elders.
They drew their swords in fury and rushed toward the figure in the ruins. Their surging Reiatsu made the battlefield even more chaotic.
Shihōin Buji finally snapped out of his shock. Beside himself with rage, his features distorted as he shrieked:
"Kill this man for me!!"
It was unheard of!
One of the Great Five Noble Families, the pinnacle of power in the Soul Society, had actually been brazenly invaded in the deepest part of their estate by an outsider, causing such a massive disturbance. Even several elders were dead.
These were not lowly commoners from the Rukongai; they were high and mighty members of the Great Five Noble Families, comparable to gods!
Shihōin Buji's eyes nearly split from rage; he wanted nothing more than to tear the figure surrounded by the crowd into pieces.
However, the next scene sent him plunging into an abyss. The blood in his body froze instantly.
As Vajrayati was raised, the blazing light and heat seemed to rise like a sun surpassing the crescent moon within the ruins. The moment it swung down.
Azure explosive flames soared into the sky.
"HADŌ NUMBER THIRTY-THREE: SŌKATSUI!"
At this moment, the entire estate shuddered violently. Dust and explosive flames swallowed all the attacking Soul Reapers.
Once the flames subsided, only a scalp-numbing silence remained in the vast ruins, along with one thing—
A familiar, smiling face.
The moment he saw that face clearly, Shihōin Buji's pupils shrank!
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