Current and Former Espada No. 3

After hearing Rukia out, Yoru Machi's expression remained grave.

Honestly, the way things had unfolded was somewhat beyond his expectations.

In Urahara Kisuke and the others' eyes, they probably regarded Ichigo as the key to defeating Aizen. But in Yoru Machi's view, Urahara Kisuke was even more important than Kurosaki Ichigo.

When it came to combat strength, Ichigo was not irreplaceable. At the very least, Yoru Machi could suppress Aizen in his Hollowfication state as well.

But the real issue was what to do with the Hogyoku after he beat Aizen down.

If that thing was not sealed away, then after defeating Aizen's first stage, there would be a second stage. After the second, there might be a third or fourth. It would never end.

"Damn it, if I'd known things would become this troublesome, I wouldn't have turned down that Hogyoku simp back then.

"Even if I didn't use it myself, I could've used the thing as marbles."

Now that things had come to this, regardless of whether Urahara Kisuke ultimately escaped alive, Yoru Machi felt that he would need to study a way to seal the Hogyoku once he returned.

Of course, the first thing to do now was raid Aizen's home while he was away and find Ichigo and the others who had been scattered across Hueco Mundo.

"Let's find the other Espada first. Going by the logic of a hot-blooded anime, once the protagonist's group enters enemy territory, they'll definitely run into the boss because of all sorts of unavoidable circumstances."

Although Yoru Machi's words had no basis whatsoever, Soi Fon and the others had no objections to his suggestion.

Hueco Mundo was simply too vast. Finding several people out of thin air would not be easy, so rather than waste time on that, it was