Seireitei, Technical Development Bureau.
"Have you still not found a signal?"
Kiyohara Tsumugu looked at the Technical Development Bureau members fiddling with their equipment, his expression darkening. "Did you really boost the signal on the Command Divine Machine you gave Boss Duan Mu? It's been five days. If the signal was boosted, why haven't you been able to find Boss Duan Mu's location all this time?"
"It's not that we can't find him."
A steady voice came from behind him. "The Command Divine Machine was damaged. Please don't make me repeat myself again."
Kiyohara Tsumugu frowned slightly and looked toward the voice. A young man in a researcher's uniform, with three horns on his head, came in from outside, yawning. "A Command Divine Machine with a signal boosted by the Technical Development Bureau can't lose its tracking signal unless it's damaged."
"Five days ago, after your Supervision Team's Boss Duan Mu arrived in Hueco Mundo, there were no signs of signal instability. We monitored him the entire time. We only lost track of him after he received a signal from the Fujiwara siblings' Command Divine Machine and met up with them."
The horned young man glanced at Kiyohara Tsumugu, then continued, "Our guess is that during that time, he fought fiercely with someone... or a Hollow, and damaged the Command Divine Machine he was carrying."
Kiyohara Tsumugu regarded the horned young man with a cold gaze.
Although the young man named Akon was a third seat in the 12th Division, ranking far above him, a fifth seat in the 2nd Division, he hadn't come here in his capacity as a member of the 2nd Division. He was here as the deputy captain of the Onmitsukidō's Supervision Team.
And there was one other thing that mattered most...
Though Akon was now