Destined for Destruction

The two walked and talked.

Kirisuke Tōshirō's booming laughter rang through the night from time to time. Passing Shinigami turned to look, reassured by the easy camaraderie between them.

The entire 12th Division was enclosed in a Spirit Particle barrier. From outside, all anyone could see was a pale blue curtain of light.

With her strength, Kirisuke Tōshirō could have forced her way through it with her senses.

But the 12th Division was no longer her domain, and the Gotei 13 had treated her well enough today. She had no reason to do anything so out of line.

"After you, Senior Kirisuke!"

At the gates of the 12th Division, Ross gestured for her to enter.

"After you, Captain-General Ross!"

Kirisuke Tōshirō was unfailingly polite, and they stepped through the gates together.

"Th-this is...?!"

The moment she entered, Kirisuke Tōshirō's pupils contracted. She froze where she stood.

What lay before her was no longer the damp, gloomy Research and Development Bureau she remembered, with its lingering smell of preservatives.

As far as she could see, a realm of science fiction stretched beneath the Spirit Particle barrier.

Countless transparent Spirit Particle conduits crisscrossed like blood vessels, connecting independent laboratories suspended in midair.

The laboratories were not conventional buildings, but spheres formed from some kind of translucent liquid Spirit Particles. Inside, researchers in white coats worked in plain view, while streams of intricate data cascaded across the walls of air around them.

What stunned her most was the enormous core apparatus rising to the top of the dome.

She could tell it was a Spirit Particle computer, running without pause.

Powered by Spirit Particles, it served as the brain of the entire laboratory complex.

Kirisuke Tōshirō had heard of computers, things found only in the Human World.

She had never imagined the 12th