Chapter 475 - 475: Please, Make This Fun for Me

Even with only this much information, Cyrus's trip had already been worthwhile.

He looked at the sealed Soul King and raised his left hand. Flames gathered in his palm.

"Stop. Do you intend to destroy this world completely?"

The voice that had fallen silent suddenly returned, urgency clear in its tone.

"Even if I do, all that means is this world can no longer reset itself."

Cyrus smiled.

"That sounds more like how a real world should work."

"Then its destruction will become inevitable. Are you truly willing to ignore the lives of everyone who would die with it?"

The hidden speaker was clearly trying to make him hesitate.

"You're welcome to come out and stop me."

Cyrus didn't care much for the argument.

From everything he had learned, this world increasingly resembled some kind of limited simulation.

The purpose might be to discover how to control the Soul King's power, or perhaps to find a way past the limits of Shinigami.

Aizen's rise may even have been deliberately encouraged from behind the scenes.

But judging by how events had unfolded, whoever was manipulating things clearly didn't possess complete control over the experiment.

Cyrus had just begun to think that even this provocation wouldn't be enough to draw the hidden party out when a massive surge of spiritual power rippled through the chamber.

Black spiritual energy formed around him and began closing in.

"This again?"

He had seen the same technique while fighting Aizen.

Kidō.

Cyrus himself had no talent or interest in learning it.

Even after forcing an Asauchi to awaken through other means, Shinigami techniques offered him no meaningful increase in strength.

That was precisely why his attention had shifted toward understanding the nature of this world and finding a stable route between worlds instead.

A black coffin sealed him inside.

Hadō #90: Kurohitsugi.

The next instant, cracks spread across its smooth surface.

Boom!

The entire spell shattered.

Spiritual power exploded in every direction, violent enough to make even the seal surrounding the Soul King tremble.

Outside the Soul King Palace, Yamamoto and Squad Zero immediately sensed the disturbance.

"That was not him."

Yamamoto spoke first.

"He does not fight with spiritual power like this."

Their earlier battle had already shown him that Cyrus's primary abilities did not rely on Reiryoku or Reiatsu.

That was one reason Yamamoto had come to believe his claim of being a traveler from elsewhere.

So this enormous surge of spiritual power had come from someone else.

And Cyrus was almost certainly the target.

"Should we go in?"

Several members of Squad Zero were growing restless, their eyes turning toward the palace.

"No need."

Cyrus's voice suddenly sounded beside them.

Before the words had even finished, he was already standing in front of them.

And in one hand—

He was holding a severed head.

The instant Hyōsube Ichibē saw it, his pupils contracted.

He drew his blade at once.

"This isn't the Soul King."

Cyrus casually lifted the head a little higher.

"Just someone hiding behind the scenes and trying to steal his power."

"I assume I don't need to explain more than that?"

Ichibē froze halfway through preparing to release his Zanpakutō.

"So it really was them…"

His eyes widened as he stared at the severed head.

"Looks like I solved one of your problems."

Cyrus tossed it in front of Yamamoto.

"Probably not all of it, of course."

He smiled.

"But since I helped, I expect something in return."

His gaze settled on Yamamoto.

"When we meet in the World of the Living…"

"Please, make it fun for me."

Yamamoto's expression darkened.

"I will do my best."

The words sounded calm, but neither man mistook the challenge beneath them.

Avoiding this battle would have been preferable.

But that option was gone.

Even if Soul Society refused to fight, Cyrus clearly had no intention of stopping.

Yamamoto understood that now, so he no longer bothered looking for another solution.

"Good."

Cyrus raised one hand and opened a green doorway.

"Then I'll see you there."

He was halfway through stepping inside when he suddenly looked back.

"Oh, right."

"Aizen is heading to the World of the Living to abduct a young woman."

He smiled.

"You might want to hurry."

"Otherwise, you won't just be dealing with me."

"You'll also have Aizen after he breaks through the limits of a Shinigami."

Cyrus paused.

"For you lot, that sounds pretty troublesome."

The green doorway closed.

He vanished.

"That man…"

Senjumaru muttered, then looked around at the others.

"The number of Shinigami currently deployed in the World of the Living is already at the limit. The plan has begun, but if Aizen is truly heading there as well…"

Yamamoto looked across Squad Zero.

"Will you participate?"

Their duty was to guard the Soul King Palace and protect the Soul King.

But given what they had just discovered, the value of that duty had become somewhat questionable.

Ichibē lowered his eyes toward the severed head on the ground.

"We will not join the battle."

As leader of Squad Zero, his answer settled the matter.

Yamamoto said nothing more and turned away.

If Aizen was going to appear in the World of the Living, then Yamamoto needed to go as well.

As for what Cyrus truly intended…

Even he was no longer certain.

But whatever move Cyrus made, Soul Society would have to answer it.

After Yamamoto left, the other members of Squad Zero turned toward Ichibē.

"I suspected something like this long ago."

Noticing their looks, Ichibē picked up the severed head and walked into the palace.

The others followed.

Soon, they reached the Soul King's sealed body.

And what they saw stopped them cold.

The Soul King's torso had no head.

Yet his presence had barely changed at all.

Which meant the head had already been missing long before today.

The one they had always seen had been nothing more than a disguise.

"One of the Five Great Noble Houses did this."

Ichibē placed the severed head before the seal.

"Perhaps more than one."

He turned back toward the others.

"But even knowing that, our strength was never enough to change anything."

The Five Great Noble Houses had founded Soul Society itself.

Their influence ran through it like a spiderweb, reaching into almost every part of the system.

"Now we have an opportunity."

Ichibē looked back at the sealed Soul King.

"To exist like this…"

His voice lowered.

"…is worse than death."

The other members of Squad Zero fell silent.

…

The World of the Living.

Soul Society's preparations were already underway.

Enormous quantities of resources had been transferred over in preparation for constructing a second Karakura Town.

Even if their fears proved correct and the artificial city couldn't withstand a battle of that scale for long, they still had to try.

"So this is the crude method you came up with."

Mayuri Kurotsuchi, current head of the Department of Research and Development, gave his predecessor Kisuke Urahara's work an appropriately scathing evaluation.