Chapter 86 – The Will of the Soul King

Chapter 86 – The Will of the Soul King

When Captain Ailin married into the Kuchiki family, he also took on the "Kuchiki" name. And everyone knew that if not for Captain Ailin's support over the past years, the Kuchiki family, which was facing a generational gap, would have surely encountered the biggest crisis in its history.

Back then, everyone thought that Captain Ailin would become the next Head of the Kuchiki family. But who would have thought...

Why was Byakuya Kuchiki's strength so powerful?

Everyone who knew the inside story also knew that the main reason was that Captain Ailin had used Bankai to assist Byakuya Kuchiki in his cultivation for three months in the Kuchiki family, allowing Byakuya Kuchiki to undergo a magnificent transformation. Upon entering the 6th Division, he already possessed strength not inferior to Vice Captain Ginjirō Shirogane, becoming the new 3rd seat of the 6th Division.

But who knew that afterwards, the Kuchiki family sold out Captain Ailin for violating Commander-General Yamamoto's ban through long-term assistance. This led to Ailin being stripped of his post and banished from Seireitei.

Six years later, which was now, when Lord Ginrei Kuchiki's end was nearing, Captain Ailin still came to visit him.

According to informed sources, Captain Ailin brought Young Master Byakuya Kuchiki away for three days. When Byakuya returned three days later, he had successfully attained Bankai.

One could say that Captain Ailin had given everything for the Kuchiki family. But what did he obtain in the end? He obtained nothing.

The 28th Head of the Kuchiki family was Byakuya Kuchiki.

The new Captain of 6th Division was still Byakuya Kuchiki.

The members of 6th Division felt extremely indignant for Captain Ailin.

Unfortunately, their status was low and strength lacking. They were also not nobles. Regarding this extremely unfair treatment of Captain Ailin, they could do nothing.

Just when everyone was sympathizing with Captain Ailin, a sharp-eyed member saw Captain haori-clad Byakuya Kuchiki arriving. He quickly signaled to everyone with his eyes.

Instantly, the members tidied themselves into a line and stood at attention. When Byakuya arrived, they bowed neatly in unison.

"Captain Kuchiki!"

Only after Byakuya Kuchiki and Ginjirō Shirogane had walked far away did they return to their previous casual state and continue speaking up for Captain Ailin.

"Captain Kuchiki, those members were ignorantly spouting nonsense just now. I will strictly punish them later and forbid them from continuing to spread rumors."

Following behind Byakuya Kuchiki, Ginjirō Shirogane felt his back drenched in cold sweat beneath his death-god attire.

Those members were usually so astute. How did they become idiots these days?

Did they not know that the stronger one's strength, the stronger their perception?

At the distance between them and those Shinigami, even Ginjirō Shirogane could hear the members' words clearly. Someone of strength surpassing his like Captain Kuchiki would definitely be able to hear them even clearer.

Could they not sense that Kuchiki 3rd Seat, no, he was Captain Kuchiki now, had become different from the past?

Captain Kuchiki was no longer the 6th Division's 3rd seat from before.

As a veteran member of the 6th Division whose seniority exceeded even Byakuya's father Sōjun Kuchiki, Ginjirō Shirogane saw things very clearly.

He understood early on that no matter if it was the Captain or Vice Captain of the 6th Division, it could only be someone from the Kuchiki family holding those positions. However, this thinking changed after Captain Ailin assumed office.

After becoming the 6th Division Captain, Ailin did not leave the Vice Captain position vacant for future young master Byakuya Kuchiki. Instead, he directly appointed Ginjirō Shirogane as the 6th Division Vice Captain.

One could say that Ginjirō Shirogane sensed a kind of "fairness" within the 6th Division under Captain Ailin that had never existed before.

The reason why Ginjirō retained his Vice Captain position after Captain Ailin's departure was because Ginrei Kuchiki didn't have long left. After his death and Byakuya taking over the 6th Division Captain position, there would be no need to nominate someone else again.

This point was very clear to Ginjirō. And so, even when Byakuya held the 3rd seat position in the 6th Division, Ginjirō had already taken the initiative to guide Byakuya in all of the division's affairs.

Back then, Ginjirō felt Young Master Byakuya was rather amiable to get along with. But ever since Byakuya became the 6th Division Captain, Ginjirō felt Byakuya Kuchiki was like a different person, his entire being seemingly even colder than before.

At the same time, no matter what he did he always put "duty" first. Apart from that, there were practically no fluctuations in his expression.

Just now when those people were talking about Captain Ailin, Ginjirō sensed changes in Captain Kuchiki's expression. Fearing he would vent his anger on those members, he swiftly spoke up first, wanting to protect the members a bit. However, Byakuya’s response exceeded Ginjirō Shirogane's expectations.

"No need. Since they wish to speak, let them speak. The 6th Division does not have any precedents of speech crimes."

Because he didn't know the truth of the matter, Byakuya also knew that what the members said was likely the view most in Seireitei held towards the Kuchiki family.

Allowing such talk to spread would damage the Kuchiki family's prestige. But in Byakuya Kuchiki's heart, what his grandfather did was much more serious than what those members said.

After all, no one expected that just to keep Uncle Ailin in Soul Society, his grandfather actually thought of killing his aunt in the human world!

This was undoubtedly a betrayal towards Uncle Ailin's sincere feelings. Furthermore, thinking back to their ancestors who also became one of the Five Great Noble Families because of betraying the Soul King, it couldn't help but leave Byakuya confused.

After his Zanpakutō's power completely fused the entirety of Soul Society's space, Sōya understood the truth of the world.

The main purpose behind establishing the three realms was to restrict Hell's expansion.

The most fundamental existence in this world were souls. With sufficient souls circulating in this world, only then could this world advance. The total number of souls in this world would not change. It would not increase or decrease.

However, there was a place in this world specifically for detaining egregiously evil souls. That place was Hell.

All souls dragged into Hell would vanish from the world's circulation. Every soul Hell snatched meant its domain expanding while the world's domain shrinking by that much.

To restrict Hell and allow the world a longer existence, Hueco Mundo was created. Hueco Mundo was actually the battlefield where Soul Society and Hell contested for souls.

With the existence of Hueco Mundo, evil men after death would first fall into Hueco Mundo and transform into Hollows instead of their souls instantly being seized by Hell after perishing.

Like so, Shinigami could purify the Hollows' souls through slaying them, allowing the Hollows' souls to reenter the world's circulation. This maintained the balance and operation of the world.

"In order to allow the world to continue existing for a longer time, one cannot allow Hell to snatch away more souls."

This was the "path" Sōya realized he should take to protect the world over the past hundred-plus years.

"If I utilize my ability to modify the souls of all Rukongai residents into my personal undefeatable army, then purify all the Hollows in Hueco Mundo, Hell would no longer be able to snatch another soul from this side of the world."

"Let me give it a try. If I succeed, even the Soul King would be greatly alleviated..."

***

The human world, inside Ailin's dojo. Haruko Kuchiki focused her concentration, mobilizing the spiritual power in her body and gathering it in the palm of her hand.

White motes converged in Haruko Kuchiki's palm until they eventually formed a pingpong ball-sized white sphere.

"Ah, success!"

"Ailin-kun, quick look, I did it!"

Haruko Kuchiki carefully cradled the white sphere in her palm as she ran to Ailin and held it up to him like she was presenting a treasure.

"Not bad, not bad. Haruko did the best." Smiling as he stroked Haruko's head, Ailin expressed approval at Haruko's learning progress.

It had been a month since Haruko started cultivating. Haruko Kuchiki also successfully sensed the external spiritrons and initially refined them into spiritual power of her own.

Even in Spiritual Arts Academy, such results would likely anger teachers to death.

Ailin remembered that the slowest in their batch only took a week to complete spiritual power condensation.

But upon considering the difference in spiritron density between the human world and Soul Society, it was understandable.

As for estimating Haruko's current strength after condensing spiritual power, Ailin racked his brains before finally recalling a basis for comparison.

Don Kanonji!

Yes, that star was very popular for hosting supernatural shows over two hundred years in the future.

Haruko's current strength was a little weaker than Don Kanonji's.

Although the quality and quantity of their spiritual power was about the same, Don was a man after all. His physique exceeded Haruko's by several fold.

If both sides released all their spiritual power until exhaustion, then fought barehanded, Haruko would not stand a chance at all.

"Alright, now that Haruko has completed spiritual power condensation, we'll start learning Kidō today!"

"Mm!"

"So-called Kidō means using spiritrons as construction components to arrange them in certain structures, transforming the spiritrons into other substances to achieve effects like attacking, binding, obstruction and such on the enemy."

"For now, let's start learning the first Kidō."

"Hado No.1, Thrust."

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