Chapter 470 - 470: Before the Battle—How Every Side Responds

Karakura Town.

"Something's wrong."

The door to a small shop opened, and a man in a striped bucket hat stepped inside before quietly closing it behind him.

"Hm? What's wrong?"

A black cat sat beside the door, looking up at him.

"Shinigami. Far too many Shinigami have entered the World of the Living."

Urahara Kisuke pushed up the brim of his hat and headed toward the back of the shop. The black cat followed him down into a vast underground chamber.

"Did Soul Society detect something happening in Hueco Mundo?"

The cat waited until Urahara stopped before asking again.

More than a dozen figures sat in the open area ahead.

Strange white material occasionally emerged from their bodies, hardened, then disappeared again.

"Probably not."

Urahara sat down instead of approaching them.

"I haven't detected any large-scale Garganta openings, and there are simply too many Shinigami."

"Too many?"

The black cat crouched beside him.

"How many are we talking about?"

Urahara hadn't explained much when he returned, so she still didn't understand the scale of the problem.

No matter how many Shinigami came to the World of the Living, there should have been limits.

Shinigami who operated here were normally required to restrict their power.

Without those limitations, their spiritual presence alone could cause enormous damage to the living world.

The rule had been established by Seireitei long ago and was treated almost as law. Violating it could easily lead to judgment and punishment.

So how excessive could the deployment really be?

"Far more than you're imagining."

Urahara's expression darkened.

"The World of the Living is already beginning to convert into Reishi."

The black cat's fur stood on end.

"That's impossible. Have they lost their minds?"

Poof!

White smoke burst around her body.

The cat transformed into a completely naked, dark-skinned woman who stared at Urahara in disbelief.

"It's real."

Urahara's voice remained low.

"I've confirmed it. Something major happened without us noticing, and by the time we investigate properly, it may already be too late."

"Could this have something to do with Aizen?"

Yoruichi immediately thought of him.

Soul Society might not know what Aizen was really doing, but they certainly did.

After all, Aizen was the reason they had been forced to flee in the first place.

They also knew he had been preparing something inside Soul Society for years.

Had he finally made his move?

"If that's the case, then this is very bad news."

Urahara frowned.

"It may mean he found it."

Yoruichi remained crouched like a cat. Out of habit, she lifted one hand as if to lick it, only to realize halfway through that she was currently human.

"We should've taken that thing with us."

"If we had, we might not still have it."

Urahara shook his head.

"Aizen had reasons to restrain himself inside Soul Society. Here in the World of the Living, I'm not sure we could have protected it from him."

A sinister voice suddenly came from nearby.

"You two just said Aizen, didn't you?"

They turned.

A blond man wearing half of a white bone mask stood nearby, glaring at them.

"Where's that bastard?"

His eyes gleamed with hostility.

"You succeeded?"

Urahara's voice rose slightly as he looked at Hirako Shinji.

Because of Aizen's Hollowfication experiments, Shinji—the former captain of the Fifth Division—and several other officers had been transformed before Urahara rescued them and escaped to the World of the Living.

Merging Hollow and Shinigami powers was extremely dangerous.

Even with Urahara's help, there had been no guarantee they could stabilize.

Yet judging from Shinji now, he seemed to have done it.

"More or less."

Shinji touched the bone mask.

"That bastard Aizen probably never expected his experiment to make me stronger."

"He absolutely expected that."

Urahara immediately poured cold water on his satisfaction.

Then, after a moment's thought, he explained what he had discovered.

They had too little manpower to keep information compartmentalized now. Every useful fighter mattered.

"So you think Aizen's been exposed, and that's why Soul Society mobilized this heavily?"

Shinji tore the mask from his face.

"And now he's planning to attack the World of the Living?"

"That's only a theory."

Urahara shook his head.

"We still need to investigate."

He looked at Shinji.

"But you shouldn't show yourself yet. Your appearance could cause unnecessary misunderstandings."

Urahara stood.

"I'm going back out. You should help the others learn to control this power."

He gestured toward the figures still sitting in the chamber.

"Trying to reject it completely won't help them stabilize."

They had all once been Shinigami.

Naturally, they instinctively rejected Hollow power, and that resistance was one reason their condition had remained unstable.

Shinji had likely succeeded because hearing Aizen's name reignited his hatred strongly enough to overpower that disgust.

"I'm coming with you."

Yoruichi transformed back into a black cat and followed Urahara upstairs.

But not long after they left the shop, both stopped at once.

"You felt that too?"

Urahara lowered the brim of his hat.

"A barrier."

Yoruichi's voice was filled with disbelief.

"A massive one."

"Constructing something this large would consume enormous resources even in Soul Society, let alone here."

Her tail flicked sharply.

"What exactly are they planning?"

"Want to risk taking a closer look?" Urahara asked.

"I'll go."

Yoruichi answered immediately.

"Stealth is my specialty. You should head back and wait for news."

The black cat vanished almost the instant she finished speaking.

Urahara made no attempt to follow.

Blending in with the ordinary residents of Karakura Town, he simply turned around and returned to the shop.

…

The Shinigami really were constructing an enormous barrier.

They knew the concentration of spiritual power involved would cause irreversible changes to the World of the Living, but they had decided there was no alternative.

Several Quincy secretly living among humans also sensed the disturbance and quietly gathered to discuss whether Soul Society was preparing to move against them.

Ordinary residents of Karakura Town noticed far less.

Most only felt slightly unusual—as though their bodies tired less easily than before.

Those born with stronger spiritual sensitivity, however, noticed much more.

They could see strangely dressed people appearing throughout the town.

And those people were flying through the sky.