Gaze

"Diezuka Hiroe! I'm going to kill you!"

At the graduation ceremony, Kao Susumu roared with bared teeth, raising his Zanpakuto high as he charged toward Hiroe, who stood not far away. Just moments ago, he had been kicked out of Squad 1—less than ten minutes after he had joined! The reason was nothing more than a single sentence from Hiroe: "With me in Squad 1, there's no room for him!"

In truth, when Hiroe uttered those words, the entire crowd had sneered. Squad 1 had always been impartial; even the favored disciple of Yamamoto could not openly ostracize someone so blatantly, especially when the target was a young Soul Reaper with infinite potential.

Even Urahara and Yoruichi wondered if Hiroe had lost his mind. Though they knew he would try to stop Kao from joining Squad 1, neither of them expected him to do it this way. It was hard enough to succeed with underhanded tactics; doing it out in the open made success seem impossible.

"Then as you wish."

Yet, the words of Chojiro Sasakibe caught everyone off guard. Had they heard correctly? Even until Chojiro gestured for Kao to choose another division, the crowd remained stunned.

In fact, even Kao Susumu himself hadn't processed it. To him, Hiroe's outburst was nothing more than the desperate cry of a loser. He assumed the Captain-Commander would be thoroughly disappointed in Hiroe, and that he himself would soon replace Hiroe as the next successor to the Captain-Commander.

But why did Chojiro Sasakibe say, "Then leave the division"? Why was he pointing at me? Was I really kicked out the moment I entered Squad 1?

A flurry of questions flashed through Kao's mind. By the time he regained his senses, he was met with the pitying gazes of the crowd and the mocking, unconcealed smile on Diezuka Hiroe's face. He hadn't misheard; Squad 1 had truly made a choice between him and Hiroe, and he was the one who had been discarded!

The shock of having his wish fulfilled only to see it vanish in an instant drove Kao into a frenzy. Regulations and prohibitions were cast to the wind; he had to kill the man who was currently waving at him with a smile—he had to!

Kao wasn't the only one who felt Hiroe had gone too far; in fact, most of the lieutenants were frowning as they watched Hiroe. However, disapproval did not mean they would condone Kao's actions. Within the Seireitei, harming a comrade without cause was a strict taboo.

The one who intervened was the lieutenant of the 5th Division, Nishikido Yumi, a slender woman with long brown hair. In the instant before Kao's blade could reach Hiroe, she struck his Zanpakuto away with her bare hand and followed up with a sharp strike to the neck, knocking him unconscious.

"I assume the Captain-Commander will hear of this, Chojiro?"

"This was an internal decision of Squad 1; the Captain-Commander is naturally aware."

"..."

With a single sentence, Chojiro left the lieutenant of the 2nd Division standing beside him speechless. The selection of members was an internal matter for each division; even the 2nd Division, which handled discipline, had no right to interfere.

"Then the 5th Division will take him!" Nishikido Yumi interjected, speaking bluntly. "Lieutenant Chojiro shouldn't have any objections to that, right?"

"The 5th Division should nurture him well, then. Don't let a good seed go astray."

The three lieutenants stood in a tense standoff, while the other ten harbored their own private thoughts. Yamamoto might be the master of Squad 1, but Squad 1 could never be Yamamoto's private property.

Was this stunt by Diezuka Hiroe an accident, or was it orchestrated by Yamamoto behind the scenes? Was Yamamoto, who had been detached for a thousand years, now looking to consolidate power? If so, the Seireitei was likely in for a change.

During the subsequent selection of new members, even those who joined their preferred divisions were not particularly excited. The lieutenants were distracted, and because of Hiroe's actions, the graduation ceremony ended on a sour note.

In the study of the Shihoin estate, only the current head of the house and Yoruichi, who had just finished her time at the Spiritual Arts Academy, remained.

"Yoruichi, do you think Diezuka Hiroe was truly jealous of that young man?"

"Jealousy? Such an emotion could never exist within him!" Yoruichi said firmly.

"From the clouds to the valley, people change, especially the young," the head of the house cautioned softly, his resonant voice echoing again. "Be wary of him from now on!"

Yoruichi wanted to retort, but her father was not wrong. Based on the results, Hiroe had fallen, and this blatant act of exclusion was indeed absurd.

Yet, for some reason, she still felt that Hiroe would rise again. She even harbored an absurd thought: that all of this was something Hiroe had done on purpose. But she kept these thoughts to herself for now; she believed that one day, Hiroe would prove himself.

Meanwhile, in the quarters of the 4th Division, Captain Unohana Retsu was listening to her lieutenant's report.

"That kid, he used to run over to my place quite often~" Unohana said with a squinting smile. "I didn't expect him to graduate from the Spiritual Arts Academy in the blink of an eye. Time really flies!"

"Captain, that's not the point we should be focusing on!"

"Our 4th Division only needs to attend to its own duties. But since so many people entered the 4th Division this time, you should continue to handle the next recruitment!"

",,,"

In the 8th Division barracks, two captains sat cross-legged, facing each other.

"Our little junior brother really doesn't play by the rules. I really want to call him over for a drink!" Kyoraku Shunsui laughed loudly. "Though I suspect he doesn't have the time today~"

"I'm telling you, look at the situation—how can you still say such things?" Ukitake Jushiro held his head, looking helpless.

"Why are you worrying so much!" Shunsui tilted his head back to take a drink and continued, "Chojiro allowing Hiroe to cause such a scene must mean Old Man Yama gave his tacit approval."

"It's precisely because the teacher approved that I'm worried. I don't know what the teacher is actually planning."

"If Old Man Yama wanted power, he would have acted long ago; why go through all this trouble? So, I suspect the reason still lies with our little junior brother!" Shunsui replied seriously.

Ukitake pondered this. That was true; if Shunsui's guess was correct, then Yamamoto might be trying to hide Hiroe. But everyone had seen the test results: Hiroe hadn't grown in six years, and that wasn't something one could achieve just by not training.

There was only one possibility: that Yamamoto had used some method to deceive the Spirit Pool. But was such a thing truly possible?

The person thinking about the Spirit Pool was not just Ukitake Jushiro; Urahara Kisuke, who had just joined the 12th Division, was also asking the plump, purple-haired woman before him. She was the creator of the Spirit Pool, 12th Division Captain Hikifune Kirio.

"The Spirit Pool is a tool for testing spiritual power levels—or rather, spiritual purity. The method involves decomposing a tiny amount of spiritual power to match the effect of the lowest-level spiritual power, which is then expressed as a quantity through the Spirit Pool."

"Is there any way to deceive the Spirit Pool? For example, by controlling the input of spiritual power?" Urahara continued to ask.

"Theoretically, it is possible, but I have never seen anyone capable of reaching that stage." Seeing Urahara's lingering confusion, Kirio explained in greater detail.

Simply put, the Spirit Pool tests a Soul Reaper based on their unconscious spiritual defense. To prevent artificial manipulation of the results, the attack from the Spirit Pool's pedestal is so weak it is almost imperceptible. The spiritual power triggered for autonomous defense is also reduced to an absolute limit; regardless of purity, the minimum spiritual power the body can release is fixed. Kirio called this 'unit spiritual power.'

Given this premise, to deceive the Spirit Pool, one must first consciously control the body's self-defense mechanism while also having the ability to further decompose and reduce that unit of spiritual power.

These two requirements were each harder than the last. The former might be achievable by a few top-tier Soul Reapers, but the latter was something even Hikifune Kirio, who had the deepest research and most skilled control over spiritual power, could not do.

In that light, Hiroe had either grown to an unimaginable level or had simply fallen. However, that guy always provided surprises; perhaps this time would be no different? Urahara thought to himself, the smile on his face deepening.

"Is that all? I understand! You may leave now!" Hirako Shinji, captain of the 5th Division, said with a wave of his hand.

"Yes!" After bowing, Nishikido Yumi left the captain's quarters, though she had another place to go.

A few minutes later, Nishikido arrived in front of a barracks building and knocked on the door. Upon receiving permission, she slid the door open and stepped inside.

The master of the room was a man who gave off a comfortable impression at first glance. With black-rimmed glasses, a gentle smile always gracing his face, and brown curly hair, he possessed an air of gentle languor. He was the 3rd Seat of the 5th Division, Aizen Sosuke.

"Does the lieutenant seem to have something on her mind?"

"Just call me Yumi. That Kao Susumu is indeed quite talented; I've brought him into the division." After a moment of thought, Nishikido decided to tell Aizen about what happened today. "However, some unpleasant things occurred as well."

Aizen poured a cup of tea for Nishikido and listened quietly as she recounted the farce that had unfolded.

"It seems that Diezuka Hiroe really does consider himself the crown prince of Squad 1," Aizen teased with a smile.

"Who's to say he doesn't! And Sasakibe actually agreed to it—I truly don't know what he was thinking!" As she spoke, Nishikido felt her irritation growing, and she downed the tea in her cup in one gulp.

"Perhaps the Captain-Commander agreed as well." Seeing the heavy look on Nishikido's face, Aizen quickly changed the subject. "If I had been there, I might not have stepped in to save Diezuka Hiroe. I would have let him suffer a bit to teach him a lesson."

"I imagine everyone present thought the same, which is why I was the only one who acted in the end. Like you said, Kao is a good seed; it would be a pity for him to be punished over something like this."

"Stepping in at the very last moment—that kid must have been terrified, right?"

"Not at all! I suspect he knew Sasakibe would save him, so he acted quite nonchalant!" Nishikido pouted as she replied, then immediately asked, "Do you think the Captain-Commander intends to hand the future of Squad 1 over to Diezuka Hiroe?"

"We shall see what punishment he receives; that will reveal the Captain-Commander's true attitude!" Aizen replied nonchalantly, staring into his teacup as if something had just occurred to him.

It was not just Aizen; countless eyes within the Seireitei were currently fixed on Squad 1, waiting to see how Yamamoto would deal with Hiroe.

And as news of Hiroe's specific punishment spread the following day, an invisible storm officially began to ripple out from Squad 1 across the Seireitei, acting as a signal that a great upheaval would likely arrive before long.