After receiving his orders, Yoriichi did not linger in the First Division.
He took Hekyō and left Seireitei directly, heading toward the outskirts of Rukongai.
The closer he came to the area where people had disappeared, the fewer people he saw in the streets.
The nearby souls had clearly heard about what had happened last night.
Many houses had their doors and windows tightly shut. Occasionally, someone peered through a gap, only to immediately shrink back upon seeing Yoriichi's Captain's Haori.
Soul Reapers should have reassured the souls.
Yet now, there was only unease in their eyes.
Yoriichi did not stop to question them.
Ordinary souls did not know what had happened. Even if he asked, it would only frighten them more.
An hour later, he reached the first area where people had disappeared.
The street entrance had already been sealed off by the Soul Reapers investigating the incident.
Two division members immediately stepped aside when they saw Yoriichi.
"Captain Yoriichi."
Yoriichi nodded.
"Have you found anything?"
One of the division members shook his head, his expression grim.
"No signs of a fight, and no Hollow Reiatsu."
"The houses and belongings are all intact. It's as though the missing people vanished into thin air."
Yoriichi entered the neighborhood.
It was far too quiet here.
The wooden houses on either side of the street were undamaged, and clothes still hung drying on bamboo poles, swaying gently in the wind.
The door of one house stood open.
Yoriichi walked inside and saw two rough earthenware bowls on the table.
The food in the bowls had long since gone cold.
A pair of chopsticks lay on the floor beside it.
It seemed the people inside had been eating one moment and suddenly disappeared the next.
Yoriichi crouched and pressed his palm against the