Seireitei – West Gate – Baidaimon
Dressed in a tattered hemp robe, Nagasawa Masaru stood silently, eyes fixed on the towering structure before him, like a citadel encircled by the Walls of Maria.
Soul Society was vast. A normal soul starting from beyond the 60th district of Rukongai would take at least a full month of travel on foot to reach Seireitei.
But after activating the Peak Shinigami Experience Card, that once-daunting journey was completed in what felt like an instant, like racing to the capital for the imperial exams and arriving before noon.
Of course, the barrier surrounding Seireitei wasn't the actual Walls of Maria. If anything, it was a wall made of class division, tangible, invisible, and absolute.
Inside the wall and outside it, two completely different worlds.
Tch. And yet I'm not included in that world?
Masaru spat lightly and brushed his hand against the invisible barrier. With the immense Reiatsu surging within him, even the subtlest fluctuations in the spirit particles around him began outlining a full aerial map of Seireitei in his mind.
The walls, constructed from sekki-seki stone, emitted waves that disrupted spiritual energy, forming a dome-like barrier that protected Seireitei from all directions above, below, and around. It kept out ordinary souls and also served as an alarm system against potential invaders.
Ironically, if one's Reiatsu surpassed a certain threshold, that very wall became a handy tactical map. Within seconds, Masaru had locked onto the location of the Shino Academy.
Which made sense. The wall was never built to fend off the strong. It was there to keep out the weak and protect the aristocrats. When true threats showed up, it was always the Gotei 13 who responded, not the wall.
That said, Masaru wasn't here to invade Soul Society.
If he couldn't get into the Gotei 13 by the end of today, then even if someone offered him the Soul King's throne
Pfft, no thanks. That thing's cursed.
"Kid, this isn't a place for you. Turn around and go back."
Just as Masaru was about to move toward Shino Academy, a massive shadow suddenly loomed over him, followed by a voice like thunder rolling through the earth.
Western Gate Guardian – Ikkanzaka Jidanbō, aka 'The Hero'
Perhaps it was because Masaru looked like a teenage boy, or maybe because Jidanbō himself came from Rukongai, but he didn't attack right away. Instead, he tried to gently dissuade him.
In response, Masaru simply looked up, tilting his neck to gaze at the nearly ten-meter-tall man, then offered a sheepish smile.
A moment later, Jidanbō's vision blurred.
The boy who had been standing calmly beneath him vanished in an instant. Before he could even reach for the massive twin axes at his waist, the same boy was already standing right in front of his eyes.
"Sorry, I'm in a bit of a hurry. Mind taking a nap for me?"
The youth's voice was soft, almost childlike. Before Jidanbō's brain could even react, he felt a light flick on his forehead, just a gentle tap from a finger as thin as a toothpick.
His eyes rolled back instantly. The towering giant collapsed.
Yet, when Jidanbō's massive frame toppled backward, it made no sound at all.
Masaru had once again used [Shunpo], reappearing behind the falling man. With just a subtle lift of his arm, he caught the giant mid-fall, stopping him dead in his tracks like a pillar of stone frozen mid-collapse.
Propping the unconscious Jidanbō against the barrier wall, Masaru even had time to arrange his limbs into the classic sleeping pose of a certain sleeping detective from Earth.
From a distance, Jidanbō now looked like a mystery-solving anime icon taking a tactical nap mid-case.
Ahem.
It wasn't that Masaru was afraid of getting hunted down by the Gotei 13 for sneaking into Seireitei.
His real goal was to attend the Shino Academy graduation and secure a spot in the Gotei 13 to save his own skin.
If his little stunt got the graduation ceremony canceled, who was he supposed to cry to?
He didn't consider his life disposable. Quite the opposite, he treasured it.
The sekki-seki barrier's spiritual dome could scan Seireitei in every direction sky, underground, everywhere. The only way to bypass it without alerting anyone was to enter openly through one of the four gates.
Until he successfully snuck into the graduation ceremony, the most important thing was ensuring the event actually happened.
Carefully prying open a sliver of Baidaimon, Masaru slipped through like a phantom.
The door quietly shut behind him. Jidanbō sat against the wall, peacefully unconscious.
It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Once inside Seireitei, Masaru relied on the mental map built from his spiritual sensing, Aizen's Reiatsu-concealing techniques, and Kirinji Tenjirō's super-stealth [Shunpo], which made the stealth skills of even black ops captains seem clumsy.
En route to the graduation hall, he ran into a Shino Academy student who was nearly late. The poor guy didn't even know what hit him.
Masaru knocked the unlucky soul out cold, stole his blue and white school uniform, and grabbed his wooden name tag that resembled a student ID.
"Rokukai Class 7... Sakamoto Boss?"
Reading the tag reminded Masaru of a certain famous cat-loving pacifist.
Looking at the tightly bound and thoroughly gagged Sakamoto, wrapped in a thick snake-like chain from [Bakudō #63: Sajō Sabaku], Masaru softly muttered an apology, then wrapped a strip of cloth around his face to conceal his identity.
Without hesitation, he slipped into the ranks of the Rokukai Class 7 graduates, completely ignoring the curious glances from those around him.
As he got closer to the Shino Academy auditorium, the buzz of student conversation grew louder.
One bulky, outgoing student walked alongside a classmate, complaining aloud, "Hey, did you hear? That Kuchiki heir, the one who spent six years at Shino for some reason and was always top of his class, he's graduating straight into Squad 6 as Third Seat."
His companion, a thin youth about sixteen, replied matter-of-factly, "Well yeah, obviously. Kuchiki Byakuya's skills are terrifying. And Squad 6 is basically the Kuchiki clan's home turf. Third Seat? Honestly, if his dad weren't already the Vice-Captain, I wouldn't be surprised if he got promoted to that straight out of school."
He even cast a slightly disdainful look at his boisterous friend.
The larger student didn't take offense. Instead, he just clutched his head in agony. "Seriously? His family's one of the Four Great Clans, he's got talent bursting out of his ears, and now he's taking all the best positions too? Can regular folk like us even catch a break?"
The thin boy just sighed. "Tch. Quit whining. But actually, you're not wrong. This year's graduating class has another freak, someone whose talent may even surpass Kuchiki Byakuya's."
"Huh?"
That got the big guy's attention. "Another monster? Who? I haven't heard anything about that."
He looked around, scanning the other graduates in hopes of identifying this so-called genius.
Smack.
The thin boy, clearly used to his friend's antics, simply facepalmed and pointed in a direction.
Their conversation had already drawn Masaru's attention, especially at the mention of Kuchiki Byakuya.
He instinctively followed the direction of the pointing finger.
At that moment, the thin boy's voice drifted into his ear once again.
"See that silver-haired guy with his eyes closed like he's always smiling? He graduated in just one year. Got appointed as a seated officer right out the gate. Rumor is, he's even younger than Kuchiki Byakuya. That's the real monster."
They all turned to look.
There he was, a silver-haired youth, hands tucked into his sleeves, eyes curved in a permanent squint, walking calmly forward.
Even the outgoing student was struck silent.
No question, guys who keep their eyes shut like that, always monsters.
But unlike the two classmates, Masaru didn't look shocked. Instead, his expression became thoughtful.
"So that's how it is…"