"Azashiro, what exactly are you trying to do?"
Kyoraku Shunsui had witnessed Azashiro Kenpachi become Kenpachi. He had seen how Azashiro Kenpachi defeated Kuruyashiki Kenpachi and took his place.
Afterward, because Azashiro Kenpachi had been wearing noble attire at the time, Shunsui deliberately looked into his background and learned where he came from.
Azashiro Kenpachi was the eldest son of a minor noble family. He should have lived a life far more privileged than that of an ordinary person. But after the Azashiro Clan suffered a calamity, other nobles coveted their holdings. Every member of the clan was framed and killed, while Azashiro Kenpachi and his only sister became playthings for those nobles. They were thrown into the Coliseum to fight Menos Grande.
To protect her younger brother, Azashiro Kenpachi's sister forcibly used Ghost Way and perished alongside the Menos Grande.
But the nobles still weren't satisfied. They sent another Hollow onto the battlefield.
After that, no one knew what had happened.
The Hollows and the Soul Reapers alike were all dead.
By the time the great nobles discovered what had happened, Azashiro Kenpachi was the only survivor left in the arena.
Since Azashiro Kenpachi himself was a victim, the great nobles naturally couldn't punish him. On the contrary, the other nobles' actions were unforgivable. But because they were nobles, even the great nobles, led by the Five Great Noble Families, couldn't actually strip them of their status.
They merely issued a mild warning to the houses of the deceased nobles, telling them to exercise restraint.
And so this incident, which exposed the dark side of the nobility, was sealed away and kept secret.
Ordinary Soul Reapers and Commoners knew nothing of how filthy and vile things truly were behind the noble faction that represented justice, the Central 46.
But Kyoraku Shunsui was no ordinary person.
He was the head of the Kyoraku House, a High-Ranking Noble.
The Kyoraku House ranked just below the Five Great Noble Families, which gave him a special status. If the family hadn't been so small, and if he hadn't been a captain in the Gotei 13, he could certainly have taken a seat in the Central 46 if he'd wanted to. He might even have been able to compete for one of the six magistrate positions.
After learning about Azashiro Kenpachi's past, Shunsui had kept an eye on him.
After all, anyone who went through such a tragedy would have their personality changed.
Azashiro Kenpachi had remained hidden for years, then suddenly appeared and chose to defeat Kuruyashiki Kenpachi. What was he after?
Shunsui was quite curious.
But after watching Azashiro Kenpachi for a while, he found that aside from being a loner, the man didn't seem to do anything out of line. Gradually, Shunsui stopped paying attention to him.
He hadn't expected that Azashiro Kenpachi really was up to something.
The disappearances of souls that the Gotei 13 had investigated for so long had been Azashiro Kenpachi's doing.
"I want to wipe out every Hollow!"
The apparition, formed from Reishi manipulated by Azashiro Kenpachi's Zanpakuto, answered Shunsui.
Just as he had when facing Natsuki, he laid out his intentions in full.
On learning Azashiro Kenpachi's goal, Kyoraku Shunsui, Ukitake Jushiro, and Shihoin Utsusemi were all stunned. They immediately tried to argue against him.
But persuading Azashiro Kenpachi with words was clearly no easy task.
After all, Azashiro Kenpachi had an exceptionally strong will. Someone like him wouldn't be easily swayed before suffering defeat.
And so the battle began.
Calling it a battle wasn't quite right.
For the most part, Azashiro Kenpachi was playing hide-and-seek with Shunsui and the others. He never confronted them directly.
The final outcome was also unexpected.
Kyoraku Shunsui and the others hadn't defeated Azashiro Kenpachi.
Instead, Azashiro Kenpachi had turned himself in.
According to him, at the very last moment, he had felt the Soul King's will.
The Soul King seemed to be trying to stop him.
All nobles had once been followers of the Soul King.
Even though Azashiro Kenpachi was the last of his clan, he was no exception.
No matter how reluctant he was, he couldn't defy the Soul King's will.
As the affair came to a close in such a theatrical fashion, the Gotei 13 followed Azashiro Kenpachi's account and conducted a more thorough investigation in Rukongai.
The conclusion they reached was terrifying.
If Azashiro Kenpachi had succeeded, every Commoner in Rukongai would have been transformed into a weapon of war. Then Soul Society and Hueco Mundo would have clashed, the balance would have been shattered, and the Three Worlds would have been overturned.
This was an unforgivable crime.
So, after the Central 46 reached its verdict,
Azashiro Kenpachi was imprisoned in the lowest level of the Great Underground Prison, Mukaden.
Sentence: Ten thousand years!
This was also the harshest punishment Soul Society imposed on a Captain-level Soul Reaper.
In Soul Society, punishments were broadly divided into several categories according to how dangerous a Soul Reaper was.
Exile, execution, and imprisonment.
Soul Reapers who committed crimes that weren't too serious might be exiled to Hueco Mundo to atone. Others might be exiled elsewhere and forbidden from ever returning to Seireitei, which amounted to stripping them of their status as Soul Reapers.
Soul Reapers who committed more serious crimes but weren't Captain-level would be executed. The Sōkyoku Execution was the most famous form of execution.
As for Captain-level Soul Reapers, even the Central 46 wouldn't execute them lightly.
That was because the cost of executing such Soul Reapers was simply too high.
Because of their immense spiritual power, the souls of Captain-level Soul Reapers lingered in the world after death and had difficulty entering Hell. If the authorities forced them through the "Captain's Funeral" ritual and sent them to Hell, such a powerful soul would affect Hell as well.
Thus, the best way to deal with these Soul Reapers was to imprison them forever.
Time would slowly drain away their immense spiritual power. As the years passed, a Soul Reaper would go from their prime to decline, their spiritual power gradually weakening until it finally vanished.
Besides them, some Soul Reapers who posed a serious danger but hadn't committed particularly grave crimes would be temporarily confined in the Supervision Tower. The most famous prison within the tower was known as the Nest of Maggots.
Azashiro Kenpachi's imprisonment brought the disappearances of souls in Rukongai to a definitive end.
But for the 11th Division, it was a heartbreaking matter.
Even though Azashiro Kenpachi's personality was utterly different from that of the former Kenpachi, Kuruyashiki, he had still borne the name Kenpachi. Over the past year, Azashiro Kenpachi had also chosen to fight when faced with battle, despite being a loner.
Losing him this way left many members of the 11th Division deeply distressed. Once again, they had lost their Kenpachi.
The Kenpachi title and captaincy had always been passed down by defeating the previous Kenpachi. Now that Azashiro Kenpachi was imprisoned, how would a new Kenpachi be chosen?
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