Comprehensive First Aid Station, intensive care ward...
Duan Mu, his entire body wrapped in bandages, lay on the hospital bed, feeling nothing but helplessness.
"Boss Duan Mu, I heard you encountered Aizen. Did Tōsen also come to Soul Society?"
The enormous intensive care ward held more than just Duan Mu. There were also more than a dozen Soul Reapers, most of them ordinary squad members and seated officers.
Judging from the earlier conversations among the Fourth Division members, it seemed that all the intensive care wards in the Comprehensive First Aid Station were already full.
This sudden rebellion of the Zanpakuto had inflicted serious damage on the Gotei 13.
The one questioning Duan Mu was the only other captain in the ward who had suffered severe injuries: Komamura Sajin.
"..."
Duan Mu ignored him.
Partly because he genuinely did not want to answer, and partly because even if he wanted to, he could not open his mouth.
Although Urahara Kisuke's medicine was extremely effective at repairing spiritual bodies, it did little for the terrible condition inside his body. Neither his Core of Spiritual Pressure nor his Sekketzu and Soul Sleep showed any sign of recovery.
For an ordinary spiritual body, even if it did not die, it would have completely lost its ability to be a Soul Reaper by now.
Duan Mu's current condition was much the same.
The empty feeling made Duan Mu experience a weakness unlike anything before. The vital points that formed the foundation of a Soul Reaper had been damaged; this was no longer something that could be healed through self-recovery.
If this continued, then even if Duan Mu's body recovered, he would permanently lose his ability to be a Soul Reaper and become an ordinary resident of Rukongai.
Unless he could use a massive amount