Moves Before the Story Begins

In the Dangai.

Ten Unohana frowned as he looked at the Kōryū and Kōtotsu behind him. Normally, they would not have posed much of a problem. All he had to do was run faster, and everything would be fine. But Ten did not want to tire Masaki out too much, and Rukia was exhausted as well, so he planned to use his Zanpakuto's ability to evade them.

He pulled Masaki and Rukia close and said to them, "Don't move."

A silver chain wrapped around the three of them as the Kōryū and Kōtotsu thundered past behind them. Everything went smoothly.

But...

After the Kōryū and Kōtotsu passed,

Ten had barely released the three of them when he sensed something was wrong—

Time in the Dangai was out of order.

"This..." Ten frowned and murmured.

Ten did not know what was happening either. No one had ever been behind the Kōryū and Kōtotsu before, because people were generally swallowed by them and sent to the Valley of Screams.

Some badass people could immobilize or outright defeat the Kōryū and Kōtotsu. Kisuke Urahara, Isshin, Aizen, and a captain with a Bakkōtō, for example.

But no one had ever been behind the Kōryū and Kōtotsu. Who would have thought a turbulent flow of time lay behind them?

Sensing how fast time was flowing, Ten grew a little anxious. Masaki's Reiatsu began to drop rapidly under the torrent of time, and her belly slowly began to grow. The fetus had already begun to develop...

Ten gritted his teeth. Never mind that; he had to get through this first—

Clatter.

Clatter.

Ten thrust his silver chain into the wall of the Dangai, and time gradually returned to its normal flow. But they could not leave! As soon as they stepped outside the chain's range, time would speed up again.

"Restore your Reiatsu first. Masaki, Rukia, come over and absorb Reiatsu from me. I have the support of my main body at the seal, so I'll be fine. You two recover first. I'll think of another way," Ten instructed, seeing that both women were starting to lose strength because of their Reiatsu.

Sensing that the flow of time outside remained unchanged, Ten grew a little anxious. Could it be that time would not return to normal for the moment because of his interference?

"All right." Masaki and Rukia both stopped absorbing Reiatsu as soon as they had recovered enough that it no longer hindered their movement.

Ten looked around, then glanced at Masaki's belly. The most pressing issue now was that, because of her belly, Masaki could no longer endure too much movement. Ten looked at Rukia and said, "I have a way. It's the only way I can think of to keep us all safe and save the child."

He looked at Rukia, and she said firmly, "Just tell me what you need me to do!!"

Ten said, "Rukia, take this."

He took out a length of silver chain and handed it to Rukia. "Wrap this silver chain around yourself and step outside to see what happens. Be careful. If anything goes wrong, come back immediately."

"Mm." Rukia slowly stepped out of the silver chain's range, then turned back excitedly. "I'm fine! I really am fine!!"

Ten smiled. "All right, then! Go back to the World of the Living first!"

"Huh?! The way you're saying that... you mean??"

Ten answered, "Yes. You go back first. I can use your silver chain to locate the World of the Living and get out of the turbulent flow of time. But not yet. Masaki can't move around carelessly right now. Hehe, I wanted to give the child a better place to be born, but..."

Rukia clenched her teeth and said, "Wait here. I'll go to the World of the Living and get Yoruichi and the others. We'll save you together. Hang on!"

Ten smiled. "All right, all right. You make it sound like I'm about to die. It's fine. Once you're out, I can use your location to get out of here. As for Yoruichi, tell her what's happening here if you want, and forget it if you don't. Either way, as soon as you reach the World of the Living, we'll follow shortly."

"Okay, then I'm going to the World of the Living now!" Rukia said, quickly departing.

There were actually many holes in what Ten had said, but Rukia was too flustered to notice.

Masaki looked at Ten. "We can't get out, can we?"

Ten shook his head. "We can get out, but we have to wait until the child is born. You really shouldn't move around carelessly now."

Masaki looked at her belly and smiled. "Then come out quickly, little one."

Ten took Masaki's hand. "Masaki, come over here. Be careful. I'm going to release the silver chain now."

"Mm."

Rumble...

Looking at the approaching Kōryū, Ten roared, "This is definitely the work of Soul Society!! Just you wait!!!" Then he said viciously, "Mayuri Kurotsuchi, you'd better get rid of this right now, or you'll learn what wrath is!!!"

Soul Society,

The Dangai monitoring station.

Kagerōza Inaba watched Ten in the Dangai, an evil smile on his face as he murmured, "Ten Unohana!! Soul Society's great sinner!! You're going to die by my hand!! Hahahaha! And my Zanpakuto, Raikū, has absorbed the ability of Ten Unohana's silver chain. As for Ten Unohana's Blood Moon, its ability is very similar to my Raikū's, so now I can fight several of Soul Society's captains. Add Modified Souls and Soul Candy to that, and I can rule Soul Society!"

At that moment, Kagerōza heard Ten's words and said angrily, "Wrath?! You're about to die!! And you're talking about wrath!! Goodbye, Soul Society's great sinner, Ten... Unohana."

The Dangai.

Burning with rage, Ten looked at the Kōtotsu behind the Kōryū. He embraced Masaki, wrapped her entire body in silver chains, and held up one hand to block the oncoming Kōryū and Kōtotsu. Then—

Boom.

After the Kōryū and Kōtotsu passed, the two of them had vanished...

The World of the Living.

Rukia quickly used Shunpo to find Yoruichi. Gasping for breath, she said, "Yoruichi, Ten—Ten's trapped in the Dangai by the Kōryū and Kōtotsu. Should we go save him?"

Startled, Yoruichi stood up. "What did Big Brother Ten say?"

Rukia showed Yoruichi the silver chain around her. "He gave me this and said he'd use it to locate me. Then he said he'd come back after I did, but he still hasn't..."

Seeing the silver chain, Yoruichi grew serious. "Tell me exactly what happened."

Rukia steadied herself, picked up the tea on the table, and took several large gulps before giving a concise account of what had happened...

However, time in the Dangai was not synchronized with the outside world.

In just that short while,

Ten looked at the darkness surrounding them in the Dangai and said, "Looks like we've reached the Valley of Screams. Hmph, Twelfth Division, just you wait!!"

Masaki asked Ten, "What do we do now?"

Ten reassured her, "It's fine. Time here is completely disordered. We're no longer on the timeline. Let's have the child first, and once you've recovered, we'll get out."

Ten used his silver chains to open up a large, bright space, then took many decorations out of his Zanpakuto world. Then...

"Huff... huff..."

Panting, Ten said, "Taking a few things out of my Zanpakuto world while my power is sealed really is tiring!!"

But then again—

Masaki had been so stunned that she stood there speechless. This was the Valley of Screams??

The Valley of Screams... the Valley of Screams...

Looking at the luxurious, comfortable surroundings, Masaki thought, What a comfortable Valley of Screams!! This is practically a vacation!! With that thought,

Masaki looked at Ten, who was exhausted and covered in sweat, and slowly got up and went over to him...

Smack.

Ten froze, his mind blank.

She had kissed him. She had forced a kiss on him...

But I like it!! Ten wanted to make a move himself, but then he looked at Masaki's large belly. He hurriedly said, "Honestly, why did you get up? Sit down, sit down."

Masaki said, "I'm not that fragile!" Even so, she slowly sat back down, pulling Ten down to sit with her.

Smiling, she said to Ten, "As a reward, I'll tell you something I wasn't going to tell you—the babies this time are... twins!! I was thinking of naming one Yuzu and the other Karin. What do you think?"

Ten's mind went blank, leaving only surprise and delight—genuine surprise and delight, both at once.

It took him quite a while before he said excitedly, "Good, good, good! That's wonderful! Um, um, all right, it's decided. As a reward, the two children can take your surname. Mm, what do you think?"

Masaki hurriedly said, "No, no! How could we do that? We can't!!"

Seeing how flustered Masaki was, Ten quickly said, "All right, all right, all right! We'll do as you say and give them the surname Unohana, okay? Don't get worked up like that. Be careful of the children!"

Masaki breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

Leaving the Dangai aside,

In Soul Society,

Aizen and the others had still learned that the Hōgyoku was inside Rukia. Unlike Kisuke Urahara, Aizen had lived in Soul Society all along and had even personally taken part in the battle to seal Ten Unohana. He knew full well what Rukia's relationship with Ten was: Rukia was the younger sister of Hisana, who had been sealed together with Ten, and Rukia was already living in Retsu Unohana's Fourth Division barracks.

"Are we going to become enemies with Ten Unohana, Lord Aizen?!" Kaname Tōsen spoke, while Gin stood to one side with a smile.

Aizen said, "Let's wait on that for now and see whether Kisuke Urahara has any useful tools. If not, we'll have to get our hands on the Hōgyoku before Ten Unohana breaks out of the seal."

At the same time, Aizen slowly began to scheme, and the subject of his scheme was none other than Rukia's execution!!

If this plan were carried out, then even if Ten Unohana resisted, he would end up standing against Soul Society. In that case...

The World of the Living.

After listening to Rukia's account, Yoruichi frowned. "There's nothing we can do now. Big Brother Ten's timeline is already different from the normal Dangai's. It's like he's reached a fork in the road, and it's a branch we can't enter. He can only get out on his own. But it's all right. Big Brother Ten has the silver chain to guide him. As long as nothing happens, he'll be out soon."

At that moment, Lisa Yadōmaru frowned and said, "The worry is that the disordered timeline might cause a time displacement. If that happens, there's no telling when he'll come out."

Hearing that, the women all fell silent...