I'm really not the number one slacker in Soul Society.

Upon hearing this, the person who had asked the question was filled with inexplicable shock: "Then why did you still choose...?"

"Why choose to execute the plan?" Rokuki Shihouin glanced at him coldly. "I knew you were stupid, but I didn't expect you to be this stupid!"

"..."

"Listen carefully, because no matter what, the Shihōin family will not lose out."

Shihōin Rokuki said, "Of course, it would be a good thing if the plan succeeded. With Yamamoto Genryūsai eliminated, we can regain control of the Seireitei. But that doesn't mean that the failure of the plan will cause any losses to our Shihōin family."

"What's the meaning."

"After Yoruichi disappeared, our Shihouin family was already teetering on the brink of collapse, and anyone could come and kick us while we're down—do you know who's in the most danger?"

"It's... the Tsunayo family."

“That’s right. Among the ‘Five Lords’ still active in Seireitei, the Tsunayoshiro family, who are not skilled in martial arts, are the weakest. So Yoruichi’s disappearance is a great boon for them. They will never let go of this opportunity to bite Shihouin.” Shihouin Rokuki sneered. “So the only thing we can do is throw a piece of meat out before the Tsunayoshiro family bites us—anyway, no one can use that secret weapon anymore, so what’s wrong with giving it away?”

"You mean..." The man bowed respectfully.

"You think failure means failure? You're so shallow." Shihōin Rokuki reached out and patted the box next to him. "To be honest, I'm even looking forward to this thing being burned to ashes by Yamamoto Genryūsai. Anyway, it's the Tsunayo family that's actually doing the work, so they'll be the ones who have to withstand Yamamoto Genryūsai's wrath."

At that moment, Aizen suddenly stepped forward and asked Rokuki Shihouin, "Clan head...may I ask you a question?"

"What's wrong?" Rokuki Shihouin looked at another person, who was completely unaware.

Aizen placed his hand on the hilt of Kyoka Suigetsu and whispered, "How's the preparation for this 'secret weapon' going?"

"See for yourself." Rokuki Shihouin clicked his tongue and impatiently lifted the wooden box.

Aizen peeked over, then raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"Oh..."

—Inside lies a semi-transparent, crystal-like double-edged dagger.

..........................................

"What? You're sending Mima to... persuade people?"

Inside the headquarters, Chunshui stared in astonishment at Fuzhu, who looked completely innocent.

"What's wrong?" Ukitake scratched his head. "'That kid Yama is very creative when it comes to damaging the 46 Chambers'—Kyoraku, you told me that yourself."

“That’s true…” Chunshui said with a headache, “but Mi Zhen’s ‘sun’ probably doesn’t mean the same thing as you think.”

Ukitake was greatly puzzled and asked, "What does that mean?"

“Well…” Chunshui said in a low voice, “If we are the ‘reformists,’ then Mizhen should be called the ‘reconstructionists.’”

"Rebuild?" Ukitake seemed to understand something. "You mean..."

“When faced with a problem, I usually try to improve it, while Mima prefers to destroy the problem itself and then find another way.” Chunshui shrugged helplessly. “If he weren’t so lazy, he’d probably be hanged as a traitor by now… You’re asking him to persuade a young girl with an unstable mind? Even I’m not sure what kind of trouble he’ll cause…”

"This……"

Fukitake swallowed awkwardly, about to say something to salvage the situation, when he heard footsteps coming from not far away.

"Hey, what are you two busy with, seniors?"

A burly man with spiky black hair walked over with a hearty smile and greeted the two of them.

"Isn't this Captain Shiba?" Shunsui chuckled, adjusting his straw hat. "What can I do for you?"

"Well... I'm not very good at those formalities, so let's just get straight to the point."

Yixin sighed with some distress and said, "I have something I'd like to discuss with you two."

"What?" Chunshui raised an eyebrow in surprise, "Looking for us?"

“That’s right, I originally wanted to report directly to the Captain-General… but after thinking about it, I realized it wasn’t really appropriate.” Isshin hesitated for a moment, “Let me put it this way… I know some details of what happened just now.”

—Let's rewind the events a little, to a few tens of minutes ago.

After receiving the report from Mima, Mayuri Kurotsuchi rushed to the alley where the charred corpse was located. After taking a quick look, his eyes lit up, and he had Akin set up a tent on the spot to start studying it.

Because of the scientist's characteristic arrogance, Mayuri Kurotsuchi completely ignored Isshin standing next to him, and the captain of the 10th Division, realizing he was being rude, could only awkwardly retreat and run to the headquarters to report the situation.

When he arrived, he happened to meet Ukitake, who was reporting the situation to the captain. The group exchanged opinions but could not deduce anything, so they could only order the soldiers to intensify the search and then hastily dispersed.

But judging from what Yixin is saying now, he seems to know some inside information?

"That's really surprising."

Chunshui looked around and then quickly dragged Yixin and Fuzhu into an empty room.

The three sat down around a round table and began a private conversation.

"Captain Shiba, may I ask for your guidance?" Ukitake said solemnly.

“Actually, there’s no need to be so serious…” Yixin raised his hand and scratched his head awkwardly, as if he was being squeezed down by the aura of the two veteran captains. After a long pause, he finally spoke: “Well… I just know what that poison is.”

"Huh?" Chunshui raised an eyebrow and said, "It seems... this poison is involved with something extraordinary."

"Then I'll just say it straight."

Yixin's expression gradually became serious: "You two seniors should have heard of the name 'Yijijijiba'."

“I remember that was…” Ukitake frowned, “a Hollow that invaded Soul Society two thousand years ago and stormed the Soul King’s Palace.”

“That’s truly an ancient thing,” Chunshui asked. “So, what is the connection between such an ancient existence and this mysterious toxin we have today?”

"After being defeated by the Zero Division members, many of its body parts ended up in Seireitei."

Isshin scratched his head, bringing to light the long-dormant knowledge in his mind: "One of them was tainted with a strange spiritual pressure that could corrupt matter—according to the speculation at the time, it was probably a wound left on it by a Hollow of the same rank as Miki. The noble family heads collected those fragments, studied and analyzed them, and finally created a batch of poisons based on the characteristics of that spiritual pressure."

Chunshui frowned and nodded, saying, "Is that so..."

"The poison we made was far less effective than that special spiritual pressure, and its properties changed from 'decay' to 'corrosion.' Moreover, the production was limited, and I thought it had already been used up long ago." Isshin sighed with a complicated expression, "...It was a product of joint research by the Shihouin family and the Tsunayoshi family, so naturally only those two families could use it."

Shunsui and Ukitake were both shocked. They exchanged a glance, conveying something with their expressions, and then Shunsui spoke up, asking, "Captain Shiba, is there anything else you know?"

"No... I'm sorry." Isshin said with some regret, "If I hadn't 'slightly' explored the Shihouin family's place when I was a child, I would never have thought of this... I'm probably the only outsider who knows about this."

..........................................

"Fuck."

Mi Zhen transformed into a beam of white light and emerged from the glass bottle, falling into deep thought.

After leaving Seireitei, he used "Historical Retrospection" on the bottle of mysterious green liquid to see what it was for.

As a result, this glance took us back more than two thousand years.

The scene wasn't unusual; it was simply a group of aristocratic researchers conducting academic work, using a bunch of strange white objects as a reference to develop this bottle of poison.

Judging from the words, it was probably imitating the Barragan spiritual pressure remaining on Mikito. The result was a counterfeit, with very low production and extremely poor quality. It was basically useless against those with a spiritual power of level four or higher. So the invention was thrown into a corner of the laboratory to gather dust. Many years later, it was repackaged and used as a small prop for suicide missions, which can be considered as making use of waste.

Chapter 93: Sorry, I Have a Strategy Guide

But what's noteworthy isn't the toxin itself, but rather other things being researched in that lab.

Tsunayo and the people of Shihouin obtained a mysterious material and wanted to replicate the "Great Hollow from the Soul King era".

And it seems to have been a success...

That's a bit scary.

Others may not know, but Mi has personally witnessed what Hueco Mundo during the Soul King's era was like—unlike the likes of the current Gillian Chukaswastika, those monsters were so large that they could reach the heavens and the earth, and could even alter the terrain by punching them, not to mention the Cero that could tear the sky apart.

Although he didn't think that the Shihouin and Tsuna Yayo family could replicate the original item one-to-one, Yama still realized the seriousness of the problem.

If the Tsuna-Yashiro family could offer anything to get rid of the old man, it would probably be this.

We must find a way to deal with it as soon as possible!

The black market of East Rukongai is just ahead. We've missed it twice today, so we have to go in and find out what's going on!

..........................................

A few minutes later, Mima walked out of the black market, rolling her eyes.

Damn it, it's completely useless.

According to those information brokers, nothing major has happened in Rukongai recently... Well, not nothing, after all, a group of captains were killed here just three days ago.

But it was Mima who did it.

This is very embarrassing.

"What should we do..."

After standing by the roadside and thinking for a while, in the spirit of having supplies before a big battle, Mima decided to go and get some freebies first.

Soi Fon gave him a little inspiration—if you ask which Soul Society has the most wool, of course it's Urahara-san!

Several days have passed, and Urahara and the others should have settled down in Karakura Town by now. It shouldn't be difficult to find them now.

Speaking of which, Shikato Hakunsai should have rested enough by now. The first captain's combat power is extremely strong, and if things get out of hand, we'll have to ask her for help.

So he casually slashed open a dark passage and slipped inside.

Following the order of Soul Society → Hollow Corner → Hueco Mundo → Hollow Corner → Human World, Yama changed buses twice and quickly jumped to the Human World, then changed his appearance to resemble Watanabe Yama.

In fact, if Anise's ability was to pass through interdimensional portals instead of the Black Hole, he could save himself a lot of trouble.

With that in mind, Mima first ran to Anise, took a few Gundam 1 Mods with him, and then sped all the way, arriving near Karakura Town in a few tens of minutes.

It's also because Japan's land area is small... Kyushu to Karakura Town is only about 200 kilometers, otherwise he might have been delayed on the road for a long time.

It truly deserves to be called a sacred place of this generation.

As soon as he arrived nearby, Mima sensed a surge in the density of spiritual particles in the air.

In other parts of the mortal world, he could run around freely without worrying about becoming an urban legend, but in Karakura Town, it's more troublesome. There are quite a few people with spiritual vision, and if he were to fly around in the sky so brazenly, he would probably frighten many mortals.

However, Japan at the end of the Meiji period still had an extremely strong superstitious atmosphere. If he had been willing to do it, he could probably have become one of the eight million gods, and it would have been normal for temples to be built and people to sing his praises.

But it's of no use.

Moving in the blind spot of the crowd, Mima expanded his spiritual pressure perception as he walked, without concealing his spiritual pressure at all.

Before Mijin had gone very far, a fluffy thing appeared on his shoulder.

"Isn't that Watanabe?"

The well-proportioned black cat licked its paws, then sniffed Mi Zhen's face, revealing a rather sly smile: "You're quite something to have managed to find your way here."