Rukongai

The qualification of Diezuka Hiroe to challenge for a seat has been temporarily revoked, and he is ordered to be stationed in Rukongai for one hundred and fifty years. Only after this assignment is completed will he be officially inducted into the Gotei 13. This is the latest news regarding the disciplinary action against Hiroe.

Everyone was bewildered upon hearing this news. On the surface, it sounded quite severe—revoking his qualification and exiling him to Rukongai for a century and a half—but in reality, it was nothing of the sort.

The revocation of his qualification was only temporary, and the order didn't specify which district of Rukongai he had to guard. If Hiroe wanted to, he could simply pitch a tent just outside the Seireitei. Although one hundred and fifty years sounds like a long time, for a Soul Reaper, it is merely the blink of an eye.

Rather than a punishment, this was more of a protective measure to send him on a vacation far away from the center of conflict. The favoritism here was self-evident.

Perhaps the leaked information wasn't entirely accurate; after all, given Yamamoto's wisdom, even if he were shielding Hiroe, he wouldn't do it so blatantly. Yet, after verifying it personally, the order had indeed been announced by Yamamoto in front of all the members of Squad 1.

Was this Yamamoto making a statement? That from now on, Squad 1 was no longer the Squad 1 of the Seireitei, but the personal force of Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni? That he was the true master of the Seireitei, a power that stood above the Five Great Noble Families?!

No one could guess what was truly on Yamamoto's mind, only that the Captain-Commander had changed, and the Seireitei was likely about to face a seismic shift.

As for Hiroe, the one who had sparked all of this, he had already left the Seireitei. To be precise, he had departed last night—not to seek refuge, of course, but to hone himself while carrying out his mission.

Kicking Kao Susumu out during the graduation ceremony had indeed been an impulsive move by Hiroe. According to the original plan, once Hiroe entered Squad 1, Yamamoto would have ordered him into seclusion under the pretext of insufficient training, allowing Hiroe to operate under a different identity to confuse the public.

But since the deed was done, blaming Hiroe wouldn't help, and if handled correctly, his impulsive act might not be a bad thing after all.

At this moment, the Seireitei appeared calm on the surface, but it was actually plagued by internal strife and external threats, with dark currents surging beneath. Externally, there were the Hollows, the eternal enemies of the Soul Reapers; internally, the Gotei 13 had transformed from an assassination organization into one of the centers of power in the Seireitei, a prize that many were coveting.

At the same time, there were entities that were neither friend nor foe, a situation that had persisted for over a thousand years. If these malignant tumors and hidden wounds in Yamamoto's eyes could not be excised all at once, the remaining factions would only hide deeper. Because of this, Yamamoto felt constrained and powerless.

However, this frustration was relative; in the eyes of his opponents, was Yamamoto not also a massive boulder blocking their path? If this pillar of the Seireitei were to falter now, would those maggots hiding in the shadows jump out to act?

The answer was certain. Realizing this, Yamamoto knew that this farce might become an excellent opportunity—a chance to break the stalemate and rebuild from the ashes!

With that, the plan had to change. The master and apprentice discussed it for five or six hours and finally decided to split their forces.

Yamamoto would naturally remain in the Seireitei, the eye of the storm, while Hiroe, who was supposed to be in confinement, would step out of the Seireitei. This was the true reason for the disciplinary order.

Rukongai is the only place in Soul Society besides the Seireitei that receives protection from Soul Reapers. Surrounding the Seireitei, Rukongai is divided into four districts: East, South, West, and North, each containing eighty sectors, for a total of three hundred and twenty sectors.

Although it is called a "district," Rukongai exists to accommodate the souls of the deceased from the living world, and its scale is absolutely incomparable to any city in the world of the living.

After the souls of the deceased are sent to Soul Society by Soul Reapers through Soul Burial, they live in different sectors of Rukongai based on the timing of their deaths—let us call them people, for now.

However, despite its vastness, Rukongai struggles to contain all the souls that have arrived since time immemorial. The reason Rukongai, with its mere three hundred and twenty sectors, hasn't become overcrowded is entirely due to the location where Hiroe currently stands.

The 80th District of North Rukongai—Zaraki District, one of the most remote edges of Rukongai, a place with no trace of civilization, comparable to hell itself.

As mentioned before, Rukongai is protected by Soul Reapers, but compared to the vast number of mortals, the number of Soul Reapers is limited. Thus, the further one gets from the Seireitei, the more desolate the land becomes, and the more chaotic the law and order.

Beyond the 70th district, it is already a wilderness overgrown with weeds, a complete lawless zone. As for the furthest, the 80th district, Soul Reapers don't even consider it part of Rukongai, calling it by its other name: the Plain of Slaughter.

There are people here called drifters, and there are Hollows, but there is no concept of "one's own kind." Whether you are human or Hollow, you are practically a Hollow here. The only way to survive is to kill everything that moves, devour it, and grow stronger, in hopes of entering the first seventy districts of Rukongai to become a commoner.

However, unlike Hollows, the drifters here do not easily attack Soul Reapers; the black Shihakusho is a safe passage here.

But this does not mean they respect Soul Reapers. As Hiroe walked along, he encountered quite a few drifters drooling at him. He believed that if he weren't walking but instead lying on the ground severely injured, these people would definitely swarm him and tear him to pieces! To them, a Soul Reaper is full of treasures; devouring a Soul Reaper gives a chance to gain spiritual power, and even if one only managed to snatch a Zanpakuto, the wealth it could fetch would be enough to live in any district of Rukongai.

It is chaotic, but there are certainly no shortage of Soul Reapers in the Zaraki District. This is a high-risk area where Hollows enter Soul Society to hunt, and various squads station personnel here to protect Soul Society while also using it as a training ground.

But combat is not child's play, and the Hollows that dare to invade Soul Society are no ordinary fodder. Thus, Soul Reapers are not absolutely safe here either; some die in the mouths of Hollows, while others are killed by nearby drifters who take advantage of their severe injuries.

But would Diezuka Hiroe give the drifters such an opportunity? Well, that's hard to say. Although Hiroe is confident in his strength, one can never be too careful—if he really died, there would be no reloading a save file!

If I had known, I would have brought the other blade too! Hiroe thought to himself. Of course, he had mentioned it to the old man, but he was ruthlessly refused, so he only brought Jiagui this time.

However, the old man also said that if he were determined to run, few people in all of Soul Society could stop him, and those few were unlikely to cause trouble. Of course, there were entities in Hueco Mundo that could stop him, but beings of that level wouldn't appear easily. Overall, as long as he didn't act recklessly or stubbornly, surviving wouldn't be difficult.

Thinking of this, he relaxed quite a bit; after all, he wasn't some flower in a greenhouse. But just then, a flash of sword light appeared from his left, heading straight for his face.

There really are things without eyes! Hiroe wiped his left hand, drew Jiagui from his waist along with its scabbard, and blocked the sword light.

The light faded. It was a long sword with a blade full of notches, its tip stabbing against the scabbard of Jiagui. It looked like Hiroe had blocked it.

But only Hiroe knew that the opponent had pulled back their strength the moment they touched the scabbard; from start to finish, he hadn't felt a single shred of impact.

An expert! Just from this display of effortless control, Hiroe knew the owner of the sword was no simple character. He just didn't know the reason for this probing, or whether the person was an enemy or a friend.