Feelings

That terrifying, bloodthirsty spiritual pressure made every captain present change expression.

At that moment, overwhelmed by extreme grief and fury, Unohana Retsu seemed to be on the verge of going berserk...

"Calm down, Captain Unohana!"

Chiba Makoto hurriedly tried to soothe her in an urgent tone.

"Calm down? No, no! Aizen Sōsuke must never be forgiven. The evil of killing Makoto must never be forgiven!" As she spoke, Unohana Retsu's eyes seemed to take on a bloody hue.

Seeing that the situation was about to spiral out of control, Chiba Makoto urgently shouted, "Captain Unohana, Nel is our top priority right now!"

Nel?!

That single word briefly calmed Unohana Retsu. The other Soul Reapers also snapped out of their shock over the "truth" behind Makoto's death and refocused their attention on Nel.

"Mr. Kurosaki Makoto, you just said that you discovered Vice-Captain Chiba Makoto's soul within that Arrancar called Nel?" Kyōraku Shunsui asked.

"That's right!"

Chiba Makoto nodded and said, "The fact that Aizen Sōsuke was so eager to take Nel away despite the risks is enough to show how important she is to him. In other words, could most of Vice-Captain Chiba Makoto's soul have been fused into Nel's body?"

"If we find a way to separate Vice-Captain Chiba Makoto's soul from her, is there a chance that he can be revived?"

As soon as that final possibility was raised, the eyes of most of the Soul Reapers present visibly lit up.

Humans were made up of souls and physical bodies. Soul Reapers, meanwhile, were made up of souls and spiritual bodies.

Although the death of a spiritual body usually meant the end of a Soul Reaper's life, there were exceptions.

For example, Sōjirō Kusaka, who had attacked the Seireitei not long ago, had died physically, yet his soul