Gin Ichimaru

"Captain Unohana, thank you for personally coming all this way. Lieutenant Shiba has already returned to Seireitei because of official duties, so I will be the one to explain the situation to you."

The Shinigami wearing the armband of the Tenth Division's Third Seat hurried forward and spoke respectfully to Retsu Unohana.

"Thank you for your trouble," Retsu Unohana said with her usual gentleness.

"Yes!"

The Tenth Division Third Seat answered respectfully. As he led Retsu Unohana and Akira forward, he pointed to the houses on both sides and said, "After further investigation yesterday, the confirmed number of residents with soul loss is now one hundred sixty-eight. A small number of them are unconscious. Although our colleagues from the Fifth Relief Team treated those residents yesterday, their condition remains quite poor, and their reishi continues to leak away."

Retsu Unohana nodded and asked, "Have you found any traces of Hollow activity?"

"Lieutenant Shiba personally led a team to search for two days, but they did not find any Hollow that might be hiding here. Lieutenant Shiba believes the Hollow may already have fled this area," the Tenth Division Third Seat answered.

Clearly, to avoid unnecessary panic in this Rukongai district, even though Tenth Division Lieutenant Isshin Shiba had his suspicions and had personally requested Fourth Division support to confirm the residents' condition, the official explanation for this phenomenon was still being treated as a Hollow attack.

"Have all the residents with missing soul portions been gathered here?" Retsu Unohana asked.

"Yes. Following Lieutenant Shiba's orders, we have gathered every resident with confirmed soul loss here. However, the final arrangement for them will still need an order from Seireitei," the Tenth Division Third Seat said respectfully.

"Very well. I will first confirm the patients' condition."

Retsu Unohana nodded, then dismissed the three Tenth Division Shinigami who had guided them. After that, she said to Akira, "Akira, we will split up and examine those residents' degree of emotional loss."

Akira nodded and was about to quickly begin the task when Retsu Unohana's voice sounded again.

"Akira, the nature of the world is sometimes cruel. Do not let your heart waver. It is enough to do what lies within your power."

Akira froze slightly, then smiled gently and innocently before nodding and leaving.

When Akira pushed open the door of the first simple house, he saw six residents lying densely packed inside the narrow space, both men and women. All of them were pale-faced and numb.

And the reishi in their bodies... was leaking away.

Although Akira had already anticipated this condition, seeing it with his own eyes still made his heart clench. He understood why Teacher Unohana had reminded him just now.

In Soul Society, the soul was the foundation of everything, while reishi was the basic substance that formed all things. The so-called body was a structure naturally built by reishi around the soul.

Now these residents' souls were severely incomplete. That was no different from losing part of the basis that formed their bodies, causing irreversible, continuous reishi loss.

It was like an ordinary human losing certain organs or limbs. If the degree of soul loss was not high, these residents could still live normally.

But if the degree of soul loss was too severe, it was like a human losing both kidneys. They might not die on the spot, but all they could do was wait for death.

"Hello. I am Akira Morisawa of the Fourth Division, here to examine your bodies."

Akira spoke gently and politely, but the six residents in front of him barely reacted. They continued looking at him with numb expressions.

Akira took a deep breath and began examining the six residents. The basic emergency treatment had clearly already been done by the Fifth Relief Team yesterday.

After that, Akira began testing the activity level of their emotions. Almost every result was an orange so pale it approached white.

'This low?'

Akira's heart trembled slightly. Then he hardened his heart and tried using words to stimulate the six residents, telling them the truth that they did not have long to live.

The color fluctuated, but it remained orange.

Finally, Akira used Kaido to replenish part of one resident's lost reishi in a method that treated the symptom rather than the root, improving his physical state considerably before testing him again.

It was still orange.

After that, Akira repeatedly entered and left the houses where the residents had been placed, using the same method to examine them. More than ninety percent showed an orange so pale it nearly became white, and only a few residents produced slightly deeper colors.

'It really is wrong. They only lost the emotional portions of their souls, which does not match a Hollow's normal habit of devouring souls. In that case, is it really Sosuke Aizen?'

Although Akira currently had no concrete evidence pointing to Sosuke Aizen, he understood one thing: counting one hundred years backward and one hundred years forward, if Soul Society's blame could be measured as ten parts, Sosuke Aizen could occupy at least eight. The nobles could take one, and the rest of the Shinigami could share the final part, excluding the innocent and pure Akira Morisawa.

As Akira was thinking, he suddenly felt a small body bump into him. He instinctively reached out and caught that small body.

Akira lowered his head. The child had rare pale purple hair so light it was nearly white, wore simple linen clothes, and had skin that was difficult to hide for its whiteness.

'Where did this little kid come from?'

The thought had just emerged in Akira's mind. He was wondering how he had such luck as to get bumped into on the street by a small child when the child looked up, and Akira's expression stiffened.

Gin Ichimaru?!

A little boy?

Although he was still small and light, he already had a pair of slightly narrowed eyes like a venomous snake, impossible to read for joy or anger. His face seemed to carry a smile, but he still gave off a sense of distance and danger that kept others away.

While Akira was briefly stunned, Gin Ichimaru abruptly pulled away, broke free of Akira's hand, and hurriedly ran in one direction.

Akira turned his head to look after Gin Ichimaru. In his mind flashed the thing Gin had been clutching against his chest.

If Akira remembered correctly, that should have been a ration from the Gotei 13.

Behind Akira, a Tenth Division member ran over while shouting angrily in Gin Ichimaru's direction.

"Damn brat, stealing rations again! Do you really think a Shinigami will not get angry? If I catch you, I am stringing you up and thumping you a hundred times!"

"???"

Akira.

How could someone say something that cruel? What kind of grudge did he have?

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