Everything was going according to plan.
Takehiko Tsunayashiro watched Soi Fon's petite figure disappear into the distance, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly. Next, she would investigate District 26.
No, perhaps she had already begun secretly searching for the supplier providing raw materials in District 26 before she came.
The Hollowfication of Shinigami and the Shinigamification of Hollows involved removing the boundary between two extreme types of beings, allowing them to develop toward a higher realm.
This method had already been proven viable in academic theory.
In practice, no one had ever truly succeeded.
Even decades ago, the Shinigami captains and lieutenants led by Kisuke Urahara and his associates had sought to use a forbidden technique to achieve Hollowfication, only to fail and be exiled from the Seireitei, their whereabouts unknown.
However, repeated experiments had given the Central 46 Chambers one piece of information: the essential raw material for Hollowfication was called the Two Poles Flower.
It was a plant whose cultivation had been forbidden long ago, yet the ban had never stopped it.
On the one hand, nobles immersed in pleasure could not resist the bliss that surpassed the pleasures of men and women.
On the other, those who sought to surpass the limits of Shinigami were unwilling to let the Two Poles Flower go extinct.
Their existence made the Two Poles Flower highly profitable, giving rise to people who sought to profit from it illegally.
Once the Stealth Force found the Two Poles Flower supplier and obtained the transaction records, they would come to arrest him openly.
When the time came, he would resist, the Hollowfication laboratory would be exposed, and he would kill members of the Stealth Force and remain on the run, burdened with the crime of Hollowfication.
That would continue until he was caught again and sent to Sōkyoku Hill.
Takehiko Tsunayashiro had already prepared himself to die.
If he could die for Lord Aizen, then this empty, meaningless life would have extraordinary meaning.
He firmly believed that Lord Aizen would destroy this false world built on deception and create a true new world.
To that end, he was willing to betray his clan and his parents and steal a great many of the Tsunayashiro Clan's secret documents, concerning Hollowfication, the Soul King, Hell...
Those documents would only gather dust in the Tsunayashiro Clan. Only by letting Lord Aizen read them could their true value be realized.
Takehiko Tsunayashiro stayed where he was and thought for a moment. Deciding that the plan still needed a little something, he called outside, "Musashi."
"Yes, Lord Takehiko. What are your orders?"
A burly man appeared, kneeling on one knee. He was dressed entirely in black, his face covered, his attire wholly in the style of the Stealth Force.
Takehiko Tsunayashiro's face turned cold. "Take Kojirō and kill the supplier codenamed Meowth. Don't let him fall into the Stealth Force's hands."
"Yes." Musashi lowered his head. As an assassin of the Tsunayashiro Clan, he had no need to ask why he was to kill. When orders came from above, he simply killed.
Regardless of right or wrong, that was an assassin's loyalty.
"Go." Takehiko Tsunayashiro waved him away, thinking that Kojirō was an undercover agent the Stealth Force had planted at his side after he was released on bail from the Maggot's Nest.
With that agent involved, Meowth would not die. He would surely fall into the Stealth Force's hands, and if he wanted to save his life, he would have no choice but to give them information about Takehiko's side.
Everything was ready; all that remained was the final push.
Takehiko Tsunayashiro was suddenly in an excellent mood. Kūkaku Shiba, Shiraishi, Soi Fon-everyone was acting according to the script Lord Aizen had written.
So this was what they called fate.
Marveling inwardly at Lord Aizen's cunning, he turned and returned to the study on the top floor. He spread a sheet of white paper on the desk, picked up a brush, and wrote two large characters on it with bold, powerful strokes.
The world!
"Ha." Takehiko Tsunayashiro smiled, frozen forever like a photograph.
Steel Tempest.
A golden blade pierced the back of his skull and emerged from his forehead, then withdrew. Blood sprayed outward as the blood-slick blade swept through the air.
The headless corpse fell onto the desk. Blood poured out over the paper, washing away the ink that spelled "the world."
Shiraishi held the severed head in one hand, his brows slightly furrowed. It looked bloody and dirty, and it would be awkward to take it back to show Kūkaku. He might as well leave it here.
He let go, and the head rolled onto the floor.
He was not a member of the Stealth Force, and he did not need clear evidence to act. He only had to determine that this person was an enemy, an accomplice of Aizen.
Then there was no need to hesitate. Relying on the fact that his Reiatsu could not be sensed, he opened with a sneak attack.
As everyone knew, in the world of Shinigami, a sneak attack was always twice as powerful. Without Aizen's caution and strength, anyone caught by one would almost certainly be killed or grievously maimed.
With his guard down, how could Takehiko Tsunayashiro's strength possibly let him withstand Shiraishi's blade?
Shiraishi sheathed his sword and turned to leave through the window, using Steel Tempest to burst through the Kidō barrier outside.
"Who's there?" The four people maintaining the barrier noticed. One rushed to the top floor and glanced through the window. When he saw the dead Takehiko Tsunayashiro, his expression changed at once.
"Assassin! Lord Takehiko has been assassinated!"
Clang! Clang!
The alarm bell rang out in haste.
It was too late. Shiraishi had been careful when he infiltrated the place, but he held nothing back on his way out, charging at full force to the edge of the tiled-roof district.
He trampled countless Reishi traps and smashed through several barriers. In another second, he would be far from the scene.
A chill rose along his spine, and Shiraishi immediately understood that someone was trying to sneak up on him.
He spun and swung his sword.
A petite figure leaped nimbly into the air, the black sole of her shoe kicking toward Shiraishi's face. A blade like a bee's stinger touched his elbow, and a butterfly pattern dark as ink silently bloomed there.
Before she could strike a second time, Shiraishi retreated swiftly and landed on a rooftop ridge. "I really didn't expect you to be so unable to forget me that you'd chase me all the way here."
Soi Fon flipped through the air and landed nearby, her delicate, palm-sized face cold. "Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, don't think you can escape the Stealth Force's grasp."
"Killing trash like that helps social harmony. Instead of giving me a good citizen award, you're hunting me down. Isn't that a little unreasonable?"
Shiraishi spread his hands, showing his helplessness.
Soi Fon narrowed her pale gray eyes slightly. "You can tell the Central 46 Chambers that."
He grinned. "Sorry, I'm not interested in those lousy old men. Having afternoon tea with you and chatting about our ideals in life, though-that interests me very much."
That smile!! Soi Fon suddenly remembered that decades ago, there had been a man like that too, always wearing a lazy smile, with lazy habits and an unkempt appearance.
"I'll kill you!"
Icy Reiatsu erupted from her petite body. The guards who had been about to approach were intimidated by it, and for the moment none of them dared advance.
Shiraishi's gaze grew grave. He understood that this battle was unavoidable, but he kept running his mouth. "Sorry, I might casually let a beautiful woman steal my heart, but I won't let one take my life."
Soi Fon advanced with Shunpo.
Here she comes.
Shiraishi moved to counterattack.
Boom!
A powerful force erupted from the ground, forcing Soi Fon to change direction and land on another rooftop. She looked at the great hole that had appeared in the ground. This Reiatsu... a Hollow?!
Not an ordinary Hollow, but a Menos Grande.
That bastard Takehiko Tsunayashiro really never changes.
She cursed inwardly.