However, Ginrei Kuchiki still clung to a sliver of hope.
Even after dying of old age in the Soul Society, he had come to Hell and lingered on for more than a century.
Having become a sinner of Hell, Ginrei Kuchiki naturally knew that people like them were considered "tumors" within Hell.
The Hell guards hunted them again and again, draining their spiritual strength in hopes of scattering the Reishi that made up their souls and returning it to the world's cycle of Reishi.
According to a Soul Reaper's duty to "maintain the stability of the Three Worlds," Ginrei Kuchiki should have faced the Hell guards and allowed them to kill him without pause, so that the Reishi in his soul could return to the world's Reishi cycle as soon as possible.
But as a father and a grandfather, not knowing what had become of Haruko Kuchiki and Byakuya Kuchiki, he did not want to let his obsession fade away just like that.
Yet during his more than hundred years in Hell, Ginrei Kuchiki had never seen any trace of his son, Sōjun Kuchiki.
Thinking about it carefully, that made sense.
Although Sōjun Kuchiki had been the Sixth Division's Vice-Captain, he did not truly possess the strength of a Vice-Captain.
It was only because Ginrei Kuchiki had personally appointed him that, as the Vice-Captain of a noble division, Sōjun Kuchiki had remained securely in that position for over a decade despite the doubts surrounding him.
After Sōjun Kuchiki was killed by Hibiki Hoshino, Ginrei Kuchiki had held a Squad Funeral—a rite reserved for Captain-level powerhouses—for Sōjun in his capacity as head of the Kuchiki Clan. Yet Sōjun's weak spiritual pressure had not been enough to support his soul's descent into Hell.
In the end, Hell only accepted those whom its