Bleach [99-101] (Patreon)

Chapter 99: The Destruction of the Tsunayashiro Clan

Corpses...

The ground was covered in corpses and blood.

The once magnificent Tsunayashiro Clan mansion had now turned into a hell on earth.

The bodies of Tsunayashiro Clan members were hung in various places, their blood staining the ground, trees, and walls like a horrifying painting.

The eyes of the Tsunayashiro Clan members showed deep fear and intense shock, as if they had seen something terrifying before dying.

When Yoshio and Rangiku arrived at the Tsunayashiro Clan estate, this was the scene that greeted them.

Yoshio had been here just yesterday, and today, upon returning, the scenery had completely changed.

"..."

Seeing this, both the captains and lieutenants fell silent.

The Tsunayashiro Clan...

They had been completely annihilated!

In the silence, Captain-Commander Yamamoto suppressed his anger and said, "Captain Suì-Fēng! What is going on here?"

Suì-Fēng's face looked grim as she replied, "I'm sorry, the Onmitsukidō was unaware of this. Last night, I received a mission from the Tsunayashiro Clan, so I wasn't on site."

Retsu Unohana then added, "Judging from the bodies, the Tsunayashiro Clan was wiped out early this morning."

"The perpetrator is truly audacious..." Aizen said in a low voice. "To kill one of the Five Great Noble Families right inside the Sixth District..."

"What was the mission you received?" Yamamoto turned to Suì-Fēng.

Suì-Fēng answered, "To guard the Seventh Treasury located in West District 32."

Yoshio noted this location, his mind stirring. Excellent, he now knew the location of another Tsunayashiro Clan treasury.

Isn't the Seventh Treasury in the main residence? What's inside? Are there Soul King fragments?

In fact, Yoshio could tell at a glance that the Suì-Fēng before him was fake!

Because this Suì-Fēng had no Souls Ability, whereas the real Suì-Fēng possessed the Souls Ability 'Love and Adoration.'

In other words, this "Suì-Fēng" was actually an "imaginary body."

Could it be that 'Suì-Fēng' was the one who destroyed the entire Tsunayashiro Clan?

Yoshio frowned, feeling something was off.

Because 'Suì-Fēng' and the 'Tsunayashiro Clan' had no grudge...

Sure, Suì-Fēng's brother was killed while protecting the Tsunayashiro Clan, but Suì-Fēng wasn't the type to seek revenge for her brother.

Hmm, it's hard to say...

After all, the thoughts extracted by Telaraña form the main basis for the imaginary body's actions. If Roka Paramia's extraction of Suì-Fēng's thoughts included a lot about her brother, then something like this could indeed happen.

However, besides that, another possible motive is...

Yoruichi?

If there's anything that truly matters to Suì-Fēng, it's definitely Yoruichi. Could it be that because the Tsunayashiro Clan posed a risk of marriage alliance with Yoruichi, Suì-Fēng harbored caution toward them?

And an imaginary body dominated by that vigilance wiped out the Tsunayashiro Clan?

Don't tell me, this possibility is actually much more reasonable than avenging her brother.

Yoruichi ahead, is it several brothers?

Of course, it's also possible that the one who did this wasn't 'Suì-Fēng' at all, but another 'imaginary body.'

'Suì-Fēng' was just cooperating with that imaginary body.

But no matter what, their actions would force Yoshio to change his upcoming plans.

These guys destroyed the Tsunayashiro Clan, which should make things easier for Yoshio, but it might also lead to the Gotei 13 strengthening protection for the Tsunayashiro Clan.

After all, so far, only the Tsunayashiro Main Family had been killed; the Tsunayashiro Branch Family was still safe.

In that case, the Tsunayashiro Branch Family would directly become the main family.

Now, if he threw Tsunayashiro Tokinada from the branch family into Lonely Hell, that would be 'guilty.'

Whatever, for his own innocence, it would be merciful to send the Tsunayashiro Branch Family to continue serving the main family.

Yoshio decided the fate of the Tsunayashiro Branch Family, but these people were insignificant anyway. The most important thing was to snatch the Soul King fragments from their hands.

Oh, right, the Tsunayashiro Clan also has the divine artifact Enrakyōten. It would be best to get that divine artifact as well.

In this way, destroying the Tsunayashiro Main Family and leaving the Tsunayashiro Branch Family was actually a good thing.

After all, if the Tsunayashiro Clan were truly completely wiped out, their inheritance might be divided among the other four great noble families, or by Central 46 and the Gotei 13.

At that point, it would probably be difficult for him to quickly collect those items.

So, when old man Yamamoto roared at the Tsunayashiro Clan for a long time, Yoshio listened with great interest.

For him as Captain-Commander, something like this happening inside Seireitei was like a slap in the face—and a continuous, resounding one that nearly swelled his old face!

Central 46, upon seeing the Tsunayashiro Clan's massacre, would certainly pressure the Captain-Commander, because this incident showed that the Gotei 13 was utterly incapable of protecting the nobility.

"No matter what, even without Captain Suì-Fēng and the Onmitsukidō, the Tsunayashiro Clan's defenses were strong," Shiba Isshin said at this point.

He hadn't come for the first alarm, but this time the Jigokuchō had sent messages to all captains and lieutenants to come, so of course he had to.

"The enemy was able to silently complete the annihilation, which shows their strength is very powerful."

"Isn't that obvious?" Kenpachi grinned ferociously. "Didn't I say it? This 'Ryōka' is strong!"

Earlier, when returning from Hueco Mundo, Shiba Isshin had agreed to fight Kenpachi.

As expected, Shiba Isshin lost.

Of course, everyone understood the true meaning of the failure.

Everyone knew that if Shiba Isshin defeated Zaraki Kenpachi, the match would never end!

That Zaraki Kenpachi guy would keep going to the Tenth Division to fight Shiba Isshin.

So Shiba Isshin had to lose!

However, Zaraki Kenpachi seemed to notice that Shiba Isshin was distracted during the fight, so afterward he was very unhappy and kept wanting to fight Shiba Isshin again.

But Shiba Isshin wasn't a battle maniac; his previous fight with Zaraki Kenpachi was purely an agreement to prevent him from causing trouble in Hueco Mundo.

So, facing Zaraki Kenpachi's provocations, his approach was to avoid battle.

Yamamoto angrily said, "No matter what, even if the enemy is powerful, we absolutely cannot let something like this happen again!"

"Yes!" The other captains could only echo; there really wasn't much else to say.

They would indeed do their best to protect, but if more nobles were killed, they would be powerless.

"Captain-Commander Yamamoto, I request to review all of Kisuke Urahara's research in the Daireishokairō. Perhaps we can find some clues related to this incident from it."

The Daireishokairō is a special institution in Soul Society that forcibly records everything in Soul Society.

It even records the method for creating the Ōken!

Chapter 100: The Daireishokairō - Kisuke Urahara's Research Data

Captain-Commander Yamamoto approved Aizen's request.

Since this was proposed by Aizen but involved some specialized knowledge, the Fifth Division and Twelfth Division would jointly examine all of Kisuke Urahara's past experiments.

They would see if they could find any clues from these experiments.

As for the other squads, they were to strengthen defenses and absolutely not allow something like this to happen again.

How much pressure Captain-Commander Yamamoto would face from Central 46 upon returning was no longer Yoshio's concern.

Afterward, he would head to the Daireishokairō with Aizen.

Since this entry was legitimate, they also needed authorization from the first administrator.

Of course, Yoshio didn't need to worry about these things.

Dealing with nobles was definitely a high-level matter.

Once Aizen finished handling things, Yoshio couldn't help but smile. "Speaking of which, this is our first time entering the Daireishokairō legitimately, huh?"

Aizen smiled without saying a word.

The Daireishokairō was indeed not an easy place to enter; it held too many secrets of Soul Society.

Soul Society had too many unspeakable secrets.

The simplest one was creating the Ōken...

You see, what Aizen saw in the Daireishokairō wasn't the method for making the Ōken, but the process of making the Ōken!

So, what is the process for making the Ōken?

One hundred thousand souls, and Double Spiritual Ground!

In other words, someone in Seireitei had already done this before Aizen!

Through a special spiritual technique, one hundred thousand souls can be combined with a Double Spiritual Ground to form the Royal Key, also known as the "Ōken."

Of course, there's another way to make the Ōken: using Soul King's Power to reshape a Shinigami's body. The bones and hair of the rebuilt Zero Squad are the Ōken.

Aizen wanted to use Double Spiritual Ground and one hundred thousand souls to create the Ōken, which essentially meant he wanted to turn himself into a member of the 'Zero Squad.'

And "Soul Society" had obviously done something like this before.

For example, Captain-Commander Yamamoto knows the location of one Ōken. This Ōken probably wasn't purified by Soul King's Power but was made using the "Ōken creation method" that Aizen wanted to use.

In other words, "Soul Society" had done it once before "Aizen."

Soul Society had done it too!

But of course, such things couldn't be leaked, after all, for the propaganda to ordinary people, they still needed to maintain their glorious and just image, allowing them to proudly appear as balancers of the world to ensure the organization's cohesion.

This time, their entry into the Daireishokairō was strictly limited by the first administrator; they could only query records related to Kisuke Urahara, and nothing else.

This restriction was meaningless to Aizen; for him, there was no place in Soul Society he couldn't go, but entering openly was indeed rare.

The Fifth Division followed the Twelfth Division over. When Aizen opened the Daireishokairō, some technicians from the Twelfth Division entered along with the captain and lieutenant of the Fifth Division.

Aizen and Yoshio entered, ostensibly because Aizen had proposed this and was there to observe, but in reality, to monitor Mayuri Kurotsuchi.

Although Mayuri Kurotsuchi was the captain of the Twelfth Division, his behavior and ideas were too dangerous to be trusted.

So Captain-Commander Yamamoto ordered Aizen to come along specifically to monitor Mayuri Kurotsuchi and prevent him from causing trouble.

Such things couldn't be said openly, but for Shinigami who had lived for hundreds of years, everything was understood without words.

After entering the Daireishokairō, Yoshio looked at its structure, which resembled a supercomputer, and couldn't help but want to complain.

Although the Daireishokairō was a supercomputer, aside from the screens, the surrounding structures were all wooden—truly advanced yet ancient, worthy of Seireitei.

Yoshio ignored the Twelfth Division and found a screen for himself, wanting to see if there was anything fun.

Of course, he could only search for Kisuke Urahara's research data.

Kisuke Urahara was indeed a genius, especially after establishing the Research and Development Institute, where various creations gushed out like a fountain.

Unfortunately, his time as director was too short—only nine years. If it had been longer, who knows how many more interesting things he could have invented.

After a while, he even discovered research related to the Hōgyoku.

If Mayuri Kurotsuchi saw this, who knows what that guy would do, but when Yoshio looked, he found that Mayuri Kurotsuchi seemed to completely ignore the Hōgyoku.

With his abilities, it's impossible he couldn't see the research value of the Hōgyoku, yet he casually skipped over it...

This indicated...

Yoshio glanced at Aizen, who was standing beside Mayuri Kurotsuchi at the moment, looking as if he knew nothing about the research.

Yoshio knew that Aizen must have used Kyōka Suigetsu to alter what Mayuri Kurotsuchi was seeing.

Yoshio then stopped paying attention to these things and focused on Kisuke Urahara's research content.

For him, who aspired to become a scientist, having Kisuke Urahara's research data would be extremely helpful in becoming a super scientist.

Among them, he discovered many inventions that he thought he could replicate himself when he had time.

After about five more minutes, Mayuri Kurotsuchi suddenly let out a slightly sinister laugh.

"How interesting, Kisuke Urahara."

Mayuri Kurotsuchi looked at the data in front of him and sneered coldly, "And there's this."

Yoshio looked over curiously and found that what he was viewing was a Hollow.

"This is..."

Aizen asked with some 'confusion.'

"Hmph..." Mayuri Kurotsuchi snorted coldly but still explained to Aizen: "This is called 'Parasite Hollow,' a special Hollow modified by Kisuke Urahara. It can parasitize any spiritual body, and once it does, it completely hides itself."

The Hollow's appearance was a bit like a small snake, and combined with its abilities, it reminded Yoshio of the Parasite Hollow from the Dark Rukia movie.

Does this Parasite Hollow really exist in the living world?

But in the movie, this Hollow ultimately escaped from the Research and Development Institute, yet the data here shows that Kisuke Urahara eventually deemed this Hollow too dangerous and stopped the research, even destroying the experimental subjects.

"Captain Kurotsuchi, do you mean..." Yoshio tentatively asked.

But Mayuri Kurotsuchi directly interrupted: "Don't try to guess my thoughts with your intelligence! I really don't understand why those guys sent you two, who know nothing about technology, here!"

Heh, no one in the world knows more about Kisuke Urahara than me—er, than Aizen. If not us, then who?

Yoshio muttered inwardly but said nothing on the surface.

Didn't you see Aizen didn't say anything either?!

Yoshio noted down the experimental records related to the Parasite Hollow, planning to try it himself after returning to Hueco Mundo.

Meanwhile, Aizen was researching methods to extract foreign objects from souls, preparing for the future extraction of the Hōgyoku from Rukia Kuchiki's body.

Next, Mayuri Kurotsuchi became somewhat impatient. He seemed disdainful and annoyed by Kisuke Urahara's research.

Yoshio particularly noticed that Mayuri Kurotsuchi appeared extremely irritated upon seeing Kisuke Urahara's research records on soul evolution, as if he was very dissatisfied with Kisuke Urahara.

Yoshio guessed he must have seen parts of Kisuke Urahara's experiments that surpassed his own; otherwise, Mayuri Kurotsuchi wouldn't be so frustrated.

Finally, Mayuri Kurotsuchi snorted coldly and, without another word, walked straight out of the Daireishokairō.

Yoshio glanced at Aizen, who innocently spread his hands.

"Well, that's that."

Yoshio said, "It seems Captain Kurotsuchi has a deep prejudice against Kisuke Urahara."

"Did I say that?"

Suddenly, Mayuri Kurotsuchi turned around, looking at Yoshio with a very dangerous gaze.

"...Alright, don't make things difficult for my lieutenant, Mayuri," Aizen said at this point. "Right now, the most important thing is to resolve the hidden dangers in Seireitei and crush Kisuke Urahara's conspiracy."

"Hmph."

Mayuri Kurotsuchi snorted coldly and left with the Shinigami of the Twelfth Division.

Yoshio shrugged indifferently and then left the Daireishokairō with Aizen.

Half an hour later, the captains of the Fifth Division and Eighth Division, along with members of the 22nd Division, appeared in the office of the 18th Division.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi faced Yamamoto Genryūsai, who was seated in the main position, and said: "In Kisuke Urahara's research, I did find some interesting things."

He lightly moved his palm, and the next moment, a light screen projected from his hand.

The data that appeared was the Parasite Hollow.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi said: "First is the 'Parasite Hollow.' Considering that Kyōraku Shunsui said the guy was wearing a Hollow mask, there's a 60% possibility."

"Parasite Hollow?" Yamamoto Genryūsai frowned and couldn't help but say, "What is that?"

"You can tell from the name, right?" Mayuri Kurotsuchi's gaze was unkind. "Then I'll be blunt: perhaps someone in our squad has already been parasitized."

"Who could it be? Kyōraku Shunsui, who was attacked? Suì-Fēng, who was in charge of security? Or..."

"Enough!" Before Mayuri Kurotsuchi could finish, Yamamoto said in a deep voice: "Don't say such things without evidence."

"What a pity," Mayuri Kurotsuchi said with a hint of sarcasm. "Originally, these two were the most suspicious."

"Captain Kurotsuchi, you must have seen more than just this, right?" Aizen interjected at this point.

"Hmph, then it's this." Mayuri Kurotsuchi swiped the light screen, and the Parasite Hollow immediately transformed into a special device: 'Tenshintai'!

"This is called Tenshintai, also an invention of Kisuke Urahara. Its effect is to create an imaginary body with one's own memories and combat abilities, used for combat training."

"Oh?"

"Although theoretically it doesn't last long, I think with slight modifications, the duration could be extended. Most importantly, whether Kisuke Urahara used Tenshintai or not doesn't matter."

Mayuri Kurotsuchi said coldly: "We just need to know that Kisuke Urahara has the ability to create 'clones' of all of us, and that's enough."

His words were clear: Whether Kisuke Urahara used Tenshintai or further modified it, this thing proved that Kisuke Urahara had such capabilities!

In this case, whether you've done it or not is irrelevant; what's important is that you have the ability to do it!

"Then what's the solution?" Yamamoto asked.

"The simplest way is to wait for it to dissipate naturally," Mayuri Kurotsuchi said. "An imaginary body is ultimately just imaginary; it can't exist forever. Based on the Tenshintai's effects, maintaining the imaginary body requires consuming the spiritual pressure of the person sustaining the Tenshintai effect."

"Even if Kisuke Urahara modified it, it's impossible to provide 'infinite spiritual energy' to ensure their eternal existence."

Yoshio inwardly agreed with Mayuri Kurotsuchi's judgment. As expected of Mayuri Kurotsuchi; he understood Kisuke Urahara's abilities very well and was quite knowledgeable about the power of various tools.

But he could never explain the existence of Roka Paramia.

Indeed, the people created by Roka Paramia's ability couldn't exist permanently and would dissipate once spiritual energy was exhausted. However, compared to mere imaginary bodies, they could indeed survive much longer.

After ability fusion, combined with the Hōgyoku's effects, the imaginary body's existence time could reach an astonishing one month!

"We don't have time to wait," Yamamoto said coldly. "Is there a second method?"

"Make the person maintaining the Tenshintai stop inputting spiritual energy, or destroy the Tenshintai," Mayuri Kurotsuchi said indifferently.

"I'm quite puzzled," Aizen asked at this point. "Captain Kurotsuchi, you seem to have been considering the possibility of a traitor among 'us.' Why is that?"

"Hmph, because that's naturally the only possibility," Mayuri Kurotsuchi said again. "Ever since the Eighth Division captain was attacked, the entire Seireitei has been under my surveillance. Do you think anything could escape my monitoring?"

"From the beginning until now, no 'unfamiliar faces' have appeared in Seireitei. You know what that means, right?" Mayuri glanced at Aizen.

Aizen remained silent.

It means that everything happening now is caused by 'familiar culprits'?

Hacking into surveillance in one area might be possible, but hacking into the entire Seireitei's surveillance? Wouldn't that mean the Research and Development Institute is full of idiots?

Actually, Yoshio really wanted to say that if the opponent was truly Kisuke Urahara, couldn't he hack into your surveillance system and modify it at will?

But if he said that, "Mayuri Kurotsuchi" would definitely go on a "rampage," right?

Isn't that blatantly saying your technology is inferior to Kisuke Urahara's?

Yamamoto probably had similar thoughts, but he didn't say them out loud either.

And honestly, although Mayuri Kurotsuchi's technology was indeed a bit inferior to Kisuke Urahara's, casually hacking into Mayuri Kurotsuchi's system wasn't that simple.

Especially when Mayuri Kurotsuchi himself was being serious.

Chapter 101: Heading to the Living World

Although Mayuri Kurotsuchi said there was an infiltrator in the squad, there was no way to prove it yet.

At least on the surface, Yamamoto took no action and had Aizen and Yoshio return to prepare for an investigation in the Human World.

As for what he might say to Mayuri Kurotsuchi privately, that was beyond Yoshio's knowledge.

Besides, there was nothing worth staying for.

Soon, two more days passed.

…

The destruction of the Tsunayashiro Clan headquarters naturally caused a huge uproar within Seireitei, but fortunately, the Tsunayashiro Clan still had branch families, who were now busy taking over the main family's past industries, work, and positions.

It was foreseeable that from now on, there would be no distinction between main and branch; they would become the new main family.

However, Yoshio had no intention of letting them live.

His actions against Tsunayashiro Tokinada were seen by the clan as punishment for the branch, but for the branch family, Tsunayashiro Tokinada was one of their own.

They were too busy now, but sooner or later, they would remember Yoshio, and then they might take action against him.

Yoshio wouldn't wait for others to act first; he liked to strike others unprepared.

Whether you truly intend to do this to me or not, as long as you have the capability and can pose a threat to me, then essentially, you've already done it.

So, when Yoshio himself had the ability, striking first was only natural.

"The Third Division, Fifth Division, Sixth Division, and Seventh Division—a total of four squad units—will conduct the investigation in the Human World."

Yoshio said to Tōshirō Hitsugaya beside him: "You can see how seriously the higher-ups are taking this. Don't wander off; it's best to stick with Captain Aizen. If you encounter danger, don't play the hero, understand?"

At this moment, they had arrived in front of the giant Senkaimon, preparing to head to the Human World.

Captain-class and lieutenant-level Shinigami heading to the Human World must have a "limited reishi seal" applied.

Because the spiritual pressure of captain and lieutenant-level Shinigami is too strong, if they appear in the Human World unprepared, it could cause instability in the reishi there.

So they must use limited sealing methods to seal away 80% of their spiritual pressure, meaning that if captains and lieutenants appear in the Human World, they can only exert one-fifth of their full spiritual pressure.

Only after the Research and Development Institute removes the restriction seals can they exert their full strength.

However, Yoshio scoffed at this practice—not that he thought there was anything wrong with it, after all, captain and lieutenant-level spiritual pressure did indeed have negative effects on the Human World.

What he found complain-worthy was that they only applied the reishi seals to captains and lieutenants!

In other words, even if your spiritual pressure reached lieutenant or captain level, if you weren't a lieutenant or captain yourself, you wouldn't get the reishi seal!

This operation truly puzzled Yoshio. If Yamamoto retired as Captain-Commander and went to the Human World, wouldn't he need a reishi seal?

Does this really emphasize strict adherence to regulations?

This is clearly lazy governance! If I were Captain-Commander, everyone responsible for applying reishi seals would be in trouble!

Hearing his words, Tōshirō Hitsugaya couldn't help but roll his eyes and said: "If all the lieutenants in the Gotei 13 were as serious and responsible as you old man, I'd really worry about this organization's future."

"What do you know?" Yoshio pressed his hand on Hitsugaya's silver hair and said in a low voice, "You don't know how terrifying Kisuke Urahara is. He could eat a kid like you without even spitting out the bones!"

Tōshirō Hitsugaya was somewhat speechless and didn't want to bother with Yoshio.

"Ah, not listening to an old man's advice will lead to suffering."

Yoshio sighed.

"Yoshio, you're spreading nonsense again." Iba came over at this point, obviously having heard their conversation, and couldn't help but say: "As a lieutenant, you should set a good example for your subordinates!"

"I know, I know." Yoshio glanced at Iba, then looked around and said: "Where's your captain?"

"The captain said to bring the squad members over first," Iba said. "Where's Captain Aizen? He's not here either?"

"He's already gone to the Human World," Yoshio said. "Because many squad members are passing through the Dangai this time, Captain Aizen is directing some people to set up the 'Kaikyō Kotei.'"

Kaikyō Kotei is a method to block the Kototsu in the Dangai.

The Dangai is a highly concentrated reishi space. To put it in analogy, Hueco Mundo, the Human World, and Soul Society are three planets; the cosmic space surrounding these three planets is Garganta, and the passages connecting these three planets are the Dangai.

It can be said that the "Dangai" is a very important area in the "worlds," serving as bridges connecting the "worlds."

However, such passages contain many dangers.

For example, the Kōryū, which are substances flowing down from both sides of the Dangai passage; if caught in them, one would be trapped in the Dangai.

Then there's the most dangerous Kototsu, beings symbolizing time and space, which Shinigami theoretically cannot deal with.

However, while "Shinigami" have no way to deal with "Kōryū," they do have ways to handle "Kototsu."

Normally, it wouldn't be this troublesome, but this time, quite a few Shinigami were passing through the Dangai passage—enough for four squads—so they had to set up Kaikyō Kotei, or getting entangled by Kōryū would be a hassle.

Aizen is truly a good person in Soul Society; he always rushes to the front for such tiring tasks.

He really makes me cry.

"Alright, Iba, you wait here for Captain Komamura. We'll head to the Human World first."

Yoshio waved goodbye to Iba.

Iba nodded and said: "Yes, I hope we can find Kisuke Urahara's whereabouts and end this conflict soon."

"I hope so..."

Yoshio nodded.

He let Tōshirō Hitsugaya enter the Senkaimon first, then stepped into the eerie Dangai.

Behind him were the other members of the Fifth Division squad.

And Yoshio, as lieutenant, naturally became the rear guard for the squad members.

"Hurry up!"

Yoshio urged.

He was already eager to go to the Human World.

He was very curious about how Kisuke Urahara would handle this matter.

And...

Since they were going to the Human World, should he go see Ishida Sōken again?

His previous Quincy training had no follow-up, which was a bit regrettable.

If there's a chance, he'll go see him.

With that thought, Yoshio passed through the Dangai behind the squad and arrived in the Human World.

"How coincidental..."

After Yoshio walked out, he looked at the Garganta appearing in his line of sight and the Menos Grande emerging from it, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"This is quite a special welcome ceremony..."