Jun arrived at Hirako's Seaside Villa with Isuzu and Nel. Everyone else went about their business; since Aizen hadn't activated his final phase yet, it wasn't Jun and the others' turn to participate.
Chun stood at the villa's entrance with two girls and rang the doorbell. It wasn't even eight o'clock yet; Chun probably hadn't woken up yet, since she didn't see a single person.
She tapped the door twice but no one answered. Not worried, Chun tapped it a couple more times while still enjoying the view. Little did she know, an explosion had erupted inside the villa.
Someone heard the doorbell ring the first time; usually, Hachigen Ushōda would be awake by then. In his World of the Living life, he was a priest and the head of their exorcism organization.
After getting up, he would order takeout, then go to church to pray and pick up the faxes that had arrived that day. These faxes were requests for exorcisms; they had hired a human detective to help them find cases. This human detective was quite an eccentric person, particularly fond of such things.
Hachigen Ushōda heard the doorbell, he went to the window at the bottom of the stairs to peek out. Just as his groggy hand was about to press the button to open the door, Jun happened to glance at the security camera. Hachigen Ushōda saw Jun's face clearly and was so startled that his yawning face froze.
"Help! Someone!" A scream woke up people in several nearby houses.
Hirako, still in his pajamas, came out of the house and threw a pillow at Hachigen Ushōda's face. "You fatso, what are you yelling about?!"
The fat man was completely stiff, pointing rigidly at the window. Seeing this, Hirako didn't wait for him to speak and simply walked over to take a look.
"Holy crap!" Hirako was fully awake now. "What the hell? How did he get here!?"
Hirako's shout was quite loud, and everyone woke up immediately. They rushed out to see what had happened, only to find Jun...
A person's reputation precedes them. Jun and Aizen both deceived the Soul Society, but if Aizen tricked the entire Soul Society, then Jun took a direct hit from them. He's the only one who could escape from a Soul Society -Captain-Commander who was truly serious.
In the entire Soul Society, very few people have ever seen the Captain-Commander, let alone an enemy who survived after being attacked by him! Who is the Captain-Commander? He's the man who single-handedly charged into an army of 100,000 Hollows, killed two Vasto Lordes, and emerged unscathed.
Therefore, after his clash with the Captain-Commander, Jun's strength had transcended that of an ordinary person. He was automatically placed in the position of the second strongest in Soul Society by everyone, a position unprecedented in history.
Based on this assessment, even if everyone in Hirako's house were combined, they might not be enough to defeat Jun Junichi. However, if Jun had used the same equipment he had when he fought the Captain-Commander, he really could have wiped out the entire house.
Chun didn't bring any equipment today, so he's not fighting, but the people inside the house don't know that.
The door slowly opened, Hirako ran up to greet him, "What wind blew you here?"
"It's been so long, Hirako- san," Jun said, opening her arms wide.
Hirako came up and hugged Jun. The two had a fairly good relationship. Jun was as popular as Aizen, with many friends everywhere. However, Aizen now completely corrupted, while Jun was different.
The four walked towards the villa together, with Jun Hirako leading the way. Jun answered the earlier question, "I came this time because I estimated that Aizen would be in the final stage in about a month or two, so I came."
This answer was a bit surprising. Hirako was stunned for a moment. "So fast?"
"Aizen's plan was already nearing completion; all he had to do now was wrap things up. That wrap-up required Orihime Inoue's power, which meant controlling the Hōgyoku."
"And then?" Hirako asked seriously. "What exactly is Aizen planning to do?"
Jun decided not to mention Aizen's plan to sacrifice Karakura Town, since Soul Society could deduce it anyway, so he shrugged. "I don't know what he's going to do, but I do know his ultimate goal: to become a god, a god of Soul Society."
"Chengcheng God?" Hirako was stunned. What kind of operation was this? He couldn't understand it at all.
"Yes, to become a god," Jun said, already inside the villa, facing all eleven Visored. "For example, replacing the Soul King."
Everyone looked confused. Chun chuckled, "Why are you all making that face? Is it that hard to understand? I've explained it very clearly."
"This isn't a question of whether it's difficult to understand," Hirako tidied his thoughts, "It's a question of whether my brain is functioning properly."
Jun casually sat down on the sofa. "Normally speaking, I'm not the normal kind of person either. After all, what normal person would always be thinking about changing Soul Society?"
"Your goal is also to change Soul Society," Hirako realizing his mistake. "Haha, sorry, you've always been trying to change it."
Are you going back to Soul Society after this?
The Visored exchanged glances, and several of them shook their heads, especially Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi, which surprised Hirako.
"Ōtoribashi, you"
"I'm not going back," said Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi, his long hair twirling sadly. "Hatred and revenge can't be my whole life. I used to be like that, but I'm different now. This World of the Living suits me better. I love it here. Looking at the sea and basking in the sun every day is the life I want."
"Of course I can exorcise spirits, I will protect those I should protect, and I will send the Dead Souls to the Soul Society. I will naturally do these things that I should do, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. The Soul Society is no longer suitable for me."
Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi's words are perfectly reasonable. He wouldn't even steal a living person's job, except from certain swindlers. So, is it wrong for someone like him to be a guardian of Soul Reaper in the World of the Living? Actually, there's no problem.
The other Visoreds who didn't want to return to Soul Society shared similar thoughts: Soul Society was too oppressive. It's not that Soul Society was entirely bad, but it lacked freedom and happiness; there was nothing there. Compared to the World of the Living, Soul Society was like a primitive society—what was the point?
Why do people in Soul Society use eating, drinking, whoring, and gambling as pastimes? It's because they lack better alternatives. If people had good books, fun games, music, dance, and the ability to travel the world, then aside from a few with unusual hobbies, it's unlikely anyone would choose whoring as their primary form of entertainment.
Not everyone can settle down and practice calligraphy, Kadō, Tea Ceremony, or anything like that. How are you, with your lively and active nature, supposed to survive in Soul Society?
"Sigh," Hirako sighed deeply, "I knew it."
Hachigen Ushōda muttered softly, "Actually, I also want to stay."
Jun looked at Hirako, Hirako looked around and finally met Jun's gaze. He shrugged helplessly. "You won. You won twenty years ago—no, even earlier. You won five hundred years ago."
"Hmm~", he nodded with pure flirtatious smirk, "I think so too."
It's hard to imagine how a modern person could live without a cell phone, a computer, or the internet. That's reality. After experiencing these things, abandoning them is incredibly difficult. So, Jun isn't worried at all that the Visoreds, who have lived in the World of the Living for decades and truly experienced modern life, will return to Soul Society.
In the original work, they lived like ascetics, never interacting with humans and strictly adhering to a large number of Soul Society doctrines, which ensured the relative purity of their thoughts.
"So, besides dealing with Aizen, what brings you here this time?"
Chun looked at Hirako in surprise, "You're not welcoming me at all? I just came to see an old friend."
What could Hirako say? Completely defeated, he slumped onto the sofa, "Fine~ I give up, thanks for visiting an old friend."
"Haha~ You're overthinking it. That's exactly my goal: to be open, honest, and aboveboard. Only then can I remain invincible," Chun laughed heartily. "I love teasing smart people like you, Hirako. As long as I do things openly and honestly, you all have to rack your brains, only to find out in the end that I actually did it this way, without any scheming. You've wasted your brain cells, haha."
"And then you'll do a nine-truths-one-fake, huh? You're such a nice guy Jun Shimizu- san," Hirako laughed too.
Then the two of them started chuckling mischievously, making everyone in the room feel extremely uncomfortable. Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi waved his hand, "You guys chat, I'm leaving."
Ōtoribashi took the lead, and the others disappeared in a flash, leaving only Hirako and Kageyama Akira to accompany them. Isuzu wanted to tour the villa, so Jun let Nel go with her.
Kageyama Akira was the Sixth Seat of the Eighth Division over a hundred years ago. The Eighth Division is known for recruiting beautiful women, and she was one of them.
Hirako watched as Isuzu and Nel went upstairs before waving her hands across her face and nodding her chin towards Nel.
"I just find it funny. You guessed right, Nelliel is Arrancar."
"At the level of the Espada?"
"I still don't know who the Espada are, but Nelliel is stronger than Felix and Nnoitra. By the way, do you have any information about who the top Espada are?"
"You know who's number one, right?"
"I know, I also know his name is Ulquiorra," Jun laughed, "He's the Orihime Inoue away."
Ulquiorra knew about Ulquiorra's presence with Aizen a long time ago, over a century or two. Junichi aware of Ulquiorra's movements and kept a certain level of surveillance on him. But how did the Arrancar even come to be? Aizen didn't actually know about Arrancars; he only learned of Arrancar existence after meeting Ulquiorra. In the original work, he learned about Arrancar after meeting Starrk. It's just that mysterious.
How did you know?
"Secret route"
"Fine, I have nothing to say," Hirako helplessly. "What can you say?"
"I could say a lot more, like Ulquiorra's abilities. His symbol is Bat, but his ability is called the Shared Vision Eye, and his Resurrección is called..."
"Wait!" Hirako Shunpo to get paper and pen. "I don't care how you knew, just tell me, I'll write it down."
"What's there to ignore?" Jun called out as Nel walked by, Isuzu told Nel to go ahead, as she had other things to look around.
After Nel, Chun smiled and pinched Nel's cheek. "Tell him about my relationship with you."
Nel solemnly, "Hi! You are the great sage of our Arrancar, the guide and creator of our Arrancar race."
Hirako's pen and notebook fell to the ground. He was stunned, truly stunned. Oka had told Hirako that Jun was their master, a sage. At that time, Hirako thought Jun had merely discovered and taught these Arrancar, but he never imagined that Jun had created Arrancar.
It can be said that it was creation; without Jun, the Arrancar race could not have expanded normally. Aizen's method was ultimately abnormal. Now, the Arrancar can be called a race, not a created entity, and this is all thanks to Jun.
Jun handed the pen and notebook to Hirako. "I'll tell you, take this: I'm the Arrancar's mentor. The first few Espada were all people I let go. They didn't like my philosophy of life, so they left. But before that, my Arrancar disciples and I taught them some necessary things and recorded their abilities, so I know their abilities perfectly well. Do you want to know?"
"Nonsense! Speak!" Hirako couldn't care less about being stunned at this point; this was the most valuable firsthand information.
Anyway, you get used to being confused eventually.