With his arms spread wide as though he wished to embrace the whole world, Kariya Jin looked down at the Bount below him and said in a deep voice, "Everyone, I will lead you into Soul Society and reclaim everything that should be ours!"
"Hey, Kariya. Just because we acknowledge you as our leader doesn't mean we're going to follow you to our deaths!"
Though Kariya Jin's words were highly stirring, not every Bount obeyed him.
The one who spoke was a green-haired woman with long hair, dressed in a qipao. Her tone carried no respect for Kariya Jin.
Yuki, one of the remaining female Bount besides Soma Yoshino.
However, unlike Soma Yoshino, both before and after gaining her power, Soma Yoshino had only absorbed the remnants of souls left behind in the Human World by the dead, taking them from graveyards.
After gaining power, Yuki had repeatedly absorbed the souls of living people. As a result, both her lifespan and the strength of her doll's power far surpassed Soma Yoshino's.
Still, although Yuki had also killed some Hollows that coveted her soul, having lived through the Soul Reapers' campaign to wipe out the Quincy, they all understood that their current strength was simply not worth mentioning before the Soul Reapers.
The nine Bount who remained were all survivors of the Soul Reapers' war against the Quincy.
Though they were no longer the same as they had been when the Soul Reapers hunted them down over two hundred years ago, that did not mean the gap between them and the Soul Reapers had narrowed enough for them to attack the Seireitei.
"That's right, Kariya."
After Yuki, a middle-aged man in a suit with a brown goatee also spoke. "Compared to the Soul Reapers, our Bount clan has had far too