Chapter 1175 Invading the Palace

Chika and Katori remained silent as Furoufushi explained the situation in Hell as they understood it.

After the first Quincy Great War, the founding members of the Gotei 13 didn't reach Hell at the same time as they all aged differently. However, Furoufushi, Chika, and Katori are all in agreement that they wish that they all died at the same exact time. Because maybe, that way, they wouldn't find themselves in the situation they were currently in.

The first one to go was Saizou Sakahone, the oldest of them all. He didn't die of old age. Saizou knew that his time was almost up but he still couldn't give up his bloodthirst. So as his final act of brilliance, he went to the Hueco Mundo and began a massacre that took the lives of countless Hollows. He died in battle, but they never thought that it was the start of their tragedy.

Upon the old man's death, the rest of the founding members of the Gotei 13 realized that they were the greatest threat to the peace they fought so hard for. So in the coming years, without saying a word with each other, some took their own lives while some followed Saizou's footsteps.

Even without an agreement, it was decided that Unohana and Yamamoto would stay behind to keep the Soul Society military running for the future generations to come.

"I won't go into detail about who went in first because that's not important. The crucial thing is that we were fooled by Sakahone. Not knowing what it meant to be [Chained], some of us were tricked into thinking that we could do whatever we wanted and those who didn't follow what he wanted were killed with some success. This is a gross oversimplification, but that's the gist of it."

Furoufushi clenched her fist tight but immediately loosened it along with a long sigh, "Thank God though that we were able to survive long enough to remove our chains."

Kisuke almost chuckled because Furoufushi suddenly started thanking a nonexistent God, "And these unknown monsters?"

"We call them unknown monsters because we don't know what they are." Chika answered, "We knew some people who ventured deep into unexplored regions and some witnesses said that they were eaten by some unknown entity from far away. To this day, we're still trying to figure out the veracity of these reports but since none have returned alive from exploring the depths, we don't have any information about it."

Kisuke closed his eyes to think, 'Sounds dangerous, but with a remote [Homunculus], I should be able to explore it.'

He then tossed the idea to the back of his head and continued asking, "What about the [Chained] gaining more power?"

"We are also not sure ourselves." Furoufushi scratched the top of her head, "Since we're not [Chained] ourselves, we don't know where they got the idea of killing other strong individuals grants them more power. However, it's a fact that only those who still have the black chains on their bodies are capable of manipulating or utilizing Hell's Blessing. It's one of the reasons why we attacked you when we first met."

Kisuke nodded before turning his attention to the quiet Gin, "What about you, Ichimaru-san? Will you share your method of leaving Hell despite being an [Unchained]?"

At Kisuke's questions, the three former captains' eyes all widened and hurriedly turned their heads to him, "You can leave Hell!?" Furoufushi shouted.

Gin was momentarily startled by the sudden attention to him but instantly recovered his demeanor and feigned a cough to clear his throat, "I don't really mind but I doubt any of you could replicate it."

"Anything will do, what is it!?" Furoufushi and the other two don't intend to leave Hell but there are also other people like them. If there's a method, they want to make proper countermeasures against it, 'The Human world will be overrun by them who can't let go of the fact that they're already dead.'

Gin smirked and answered, "Technically speaking, I'm still one of those people who you call [Chained], however, I managed to get off it by letting my Hollow side take over the chains."

The three former Shinigamis were confused by his words but Kisuke's figurative light bulb lit up, 'So that's it! I forgot that he's one of Aizen's men and should have also awakened their Hollow side. Since he never used it back then, I assumed that he just didn't receive the awakening of the Hougyoku.'

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Kisuke returned to his base after hiding the spot where Yamamoto was sealed. Meanwhile, the other former captains left to search for Unohana and Juushirou. Although their characters would allow them to reject the whispers of the black chains, they still need to search for them before the other side finds them.

Kisuke wanted to help them as he wanted to reduce the risk of their enemies increasing but he had more important things to do.

"Benihime, are you ready?"

After a few seconds, Kisuke received a reply, [Anytime.]

"Alright. Tiamat, return to me."

A few seconds later, a tanto blade appeared in his hand, [Since you're calling me, will it be a dangerous venture?]

Kisuke nodded while hiding the tanto blade within his sleeve, "Incredibly so. There's even a chance that my identity will instantly be revealed the moment I step into that place."

[And if that were to happen?]

"We'll escape to Hell." Kisuke made his way towards another room where yet another portal could be opened.

Kisuke stood in front of the door where the portal would be opening and took a deep breath while strengthening his disguise, 'I have more than 20 escape routes prepared. That should be enough, no?'

Kisuke then activated the portal and immediately jumped into it while also immediately closing it. The darkness around him felt very heavy and he could tell that he was going through several barriers that stopped spatial manipulations. However, these barriers were 'outdated' compared to the Evie and Etoulde technology of the space jump.

A second later, Kisuke found himself standing on a suspended half-circle white platform. Connected to this platform is a long paneled path suspended in the air, leading to a large floating cylindrical structure.

Kisuke first looked up into this cylindrical structure before pulling out the tanto blade from his sleeve and muttering, "Descend, Tiamat."

Unlike the previous instance, there was no 'Goddess' descending to this plane of existence. The tanto blade in his hand immediately transformed into a green-tinted longsword with Dragon horns for its handguards.

And as quietly as his Zanpakuto transformed, two figures also appeared out of nowhere, bearing their blades at Kisuke, "How bold. This isn't a place you can just step into casually." The one on his left, swinging down a small blade with a curved tip attached to a long wooden pole, muttered.

"How did you come in?" Asked the one on his right while her golden skeleton arms rushed towards Kisuke.