The next day.
The day Rukia was to be punished.
On the surface, Soul Society remained calm.
But beneath it, trouble was brewing. No one knew what might happen next.
Rukia wasn't afraid. She only hoped Ichigo wouldn't get dragged into this.
But things didn't go as she hoped.
Ichigo was already preparing to break her out.
By contrast, Kuchiki Byakuya made no move at all.
As head of the Kuchiki clan, foremost of the Four Great Noble Clans, Kuchiki Byakuya had always obeyed Soul Society's laws to the letter. He refused to set a bad example.
As he put it, "If we nobles don't follow the rules, why would ordinary people?"
From a ruler's perspective, Byakuya had a point.
Unfortunately, this was a hot-blooded battle story.
I don't care whether you're right or wrong. Hurt my friends, and you're dead.
Yamabuki Chidori rose early that day and sat at the highest point, looking down over everything.
Long ago, he remembered watching a television drama called Lotus Lantern.
Everyone in the show hated the Queen Mother of the West because she forbade immortals from falling in love with mortals.
She believed immortals should cast aside worldly desires and serve the Three Realms, not indulge their own longings.
Decades later, after other dramas showed immortals destroying the Three Realms over a romance at the drop of a hat, the viewers who had grown up finally realized the Queen Mother of the West had been right.
After all, most people weren't born as exalted immortals. They were just the cannon fodder left watching helplessly when the Three Realms were destroyed.
What did everyone in the Three Realms ever do to you?
It's just a romance. If it works, great. If it doesn't, break up. Why destroy the Three Realms?
Over the past