A World of Mutual Balance!

Whatever you do, there's always a motive behind it.

Natsuki really couldn't understand Azashiro Kenpachi's motive.

Though his life in Seireitei was monotonous, with virtually no entertainment, he naturally knew something about the place he lived.

There was a very special group in Seireitei.

The nobles!

The nobility wasn't a class formed by the souls of people who had died in the Human World and come to Soul Society. They were native to Soul Society. Even before the Gotei 13 had been established, they had existed there as the ruling class.

The establishment of Seireitei and the Gotei 13 had both been made possible by the nobles' support behind the scenes.

In the beginning, the profession of Soul Reaper had been a warrior class in the service of the nobles.

Over time, the nobles had gradually withdrawn behind the scenes. Even so, they still enjoyed enormous privileges in Seireitei and throughout Soul Society.

Soul Society's highest judicial body was called Central 46. It could interfere with the Gotei 13's operations and arbitrarily judge whether a Soul Reaper was guilty. Central 46 was made up of representatives of the nobility.

It could be said that the ones at the top of Soul Society had never been the Gotei 13, but the Five Great Noble Families.

Natsuki didn't know whether Azashiro Kenpachi came from a great or lesser noble family, but he was clearly of noble birth.

His noble status gave him an illustrious background, and as Kenpachi, he also possessed tremendous strength.

What could someone like him still be plotting?

At the word "nobles," a cold glint flashed in Azashiro Kenpachi's eyes, then vanished. He answered Natsuki calmly. "I want to eliminate every Hollow."

He didn't explain why, despite already having everything, he had chosen to do such a thing.

He simply stated his goal.

"!!!"

Natsuki couldn't help feeling shocked. He couldn't help thinking of the questions Azashiro Kenpachi had asked him the last time they met in Rukongai.

No wonder Azashiro had asked him what he thought of Hollows.

It turned out he hated Hollows so much that he wanted to eliminate them all.

"That's simply impossible!"

After steadying himself, Natsuki said to Azashiro Kenpachi.

He wasn't ignorant of how the world worked.

As long as humans continued to live and die, and as long as desire existed, Hollows would keep being born. Even if every Hollow in Hueco Mundo were wiped out for the time being, new ones would soon appear.

Besides, killing every Hollow wouldn't be a good thing.

That brought up a deeper issue: balance.

Watanabe Yuji had told Natsuki a lot while they were in the Expeditionary Force.

The balance between souls was, in essence, the balance of the worlds.

The Human World, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo formed a triangle. They could also be thought of as a set of scales. Hueco Mundo and Soul Society were worlds of Reishi, while the Human World was a world of Kishi. The world of Kishi was heavier than the worlds of Reishi, where Reishi was scarce.

That was why Soul Reapers and Hollows, who were surrounded by high concentrations of Reishi, could easily float in the air when they came to the Human World, and could leap great distances with a light jump.

When humans in the Human World died, their souls went to the two worlds of Reishi: Hueco Mundo and Soul Society.

These two worlds lay on either side of the Human World, balancing each other.

If the number of souls in either world grew too large or too small, the balance would be broken.

The souls in Soul Society were managed by the Gotei 13, so their numbers could be controlled. Hueco Mundo was different: new Hollows were born there every moment. Whenever the Human World experienced some upheaval, more Hollows would appear in Hueco Mundo.

An excess of Hollows would seriously endanger the two worlds beside theirs.

They preyed on humans and devoured the souls of Soul Society. If that continued, the entire world would become a place inhabited only by Hollows, and the world would eventually perish.

That was why Soul Reapers had to fight Hollows and eliminate the excess.

But having too few Hollows wouldn't work either. That would also throw the world out of balance.

The concentration of Reishi in Hueco Mundo was already slightly higher than in Soul Society. If there were too few Hollows, the Reishi concentration in the world itself would rise even further. The world would grow heavier, shift toward the other side, and press against the neighboring worlds.

Of course, there were ways to make up for it if that really happened.

They only needed to take some of the existing souls in Soul Society, erase them, and turn them into pure Reishi. Once that Reishi merged with the world itself, the balance could be restored.

But Soul Society would never do such a thing unless it had no other choice.

Watanabe Yuji hadn't told Natsuki about those countermeasures, of course. Though Watanabe Yuji knew quite a bit about the balance of souls and the balance of the worlds, he didn't know things to that extent.

The rest was speculation Natsuki had pieced together from his memories of certain events in the original story.

Ever since learning what kind of world this was, he had kept trying to recall the plot.

He still couldn't remember many things, but he had managed to recall quite a few scattered fragments.

"Right. Under normal circumstances, of course it would be impossible."

Azashiro Kenpachi said gravely, "Even if the entire Gotei 13 entered Hueco Mundo, facing the countless Hollows, it would be difficult to wipe them all out. So, if we could transform the souls in Rukongai and give them power, making them into warriors to fight the Hollows, would that make it possible?"

After a pause, Azashiro Kenpachi's gaze settled on Natsuki's face. "You once said that souls without spiritual power couldn't gain the strength to stand against Hollows. I don't think that's true."

"Why should souls without spiritual power gain immense strength after falling into depravity and becoming Hollows?"

"If we could figure out the principle behind it, could we use a similar method to give ordinary souls tremendous power?"

Natsuki fell silent. After Azashiro Kenpachi finished speaking, he still had plenty of questions, but there was no need to ask them.

At least he knew now.

The recent disappearances of souls in Rukongai had been Azashiro Kenpachi's doing.

He had been conducting experiments in Rukongai, trying to give those souls tremendous power so he could make them into warriors to fight the Hollows.

The results had clearly been a failure.

"You're too extreme!"

Natsuki passed judgment on Azashiro Kenpachi.

If Azashiro Kenpachi really succeeded in doing this—

If he made the souls of Soul Society and Hueco Mundo fight each other until they perished together, perhaps it wouldn't upset the world's balance. But such a world might not be a perfect one. At any rate, Natsuki didn't agree with it.