Chapter 381: BSUS Chapter 384: The Traitor is Actually Me?

It was a dream, yet even knowing it was a dream, one couldn’t break free, left with no choice but to wait for it to fade away on its own.

Urahara and Yoruichi seemed to have been prepared for this. Their expressions were grave, but they hadn’t lost their composure. They had questions they wanted to ask Hiroe, but now was not the time.

“What is going on?”

“Did you leave nothing behind, Chōzuka?!”

“Say something, you damn baldy!”

Urahara and Yoruichi didn’t need to speak up; Hiroe was already being swallowed by the barrage of questions from Hirako and the others. Just listening to it was enough to give anyone a headache.

“As you can see, half of Karakura Town has already fallen into Aizen’s hands. It’s in Hueco Mundo right now.”

“I saved Inoue Orihime, as well as those two guys, Kuchiki and Zaraki. We got played this time, so all we can do is minimize our losses…”

“So stop yelling at me…”

Hiroe let out a helpless sigh. This was already a foregone conclusion. Anger, grief, and regret were completely useless; there was still a mess to clean up right now.

“The spatial freeze on Karakura Town needs to be maintained, or if you feel it’s necessary, set up a barrier. Let the humans in the city sleep for a while longer, and treat anyone who was injured by Reiatsu. We don’t have much time to dwell on our mistakes.”

Hiroe swept his gaze across the highly expressive faces before him, not giving them a chance to speak. “Even if you think this isn’t important, there’s Ichigo, Love, and Hachi. Aside from Karakura Town, we’ve suffered other casualties as well.”

“What the hell is with that attitude of yours?!”

Sarugaki Hiyori looked thoroughly displeased and was just about to curse him out when Hirako stepped in and pulled her behind him. “But don’t you think figuring out how to deal with this massive crater beneath our feet is the most pressing issue, Chōzuka?”

Hirako didn’t speak too explicitly, as there were still people around like Ginjō whom he didn’t trust.

Such a reminder was enough. The disappearance of half the city was terrifying, but what truly bothered them was the significance behind it—the Ōken.

“I know what you’re trying to say.”

Despite his words, Hiroe’s calm demeanor made it hard to believe him. “This hole definitely needs to be patched up, but how? Are those of us who still have some combat capability supposed to just charge into Hueco Mundo right now?”

“Even if we wanted to do that, we’d need Urahara to build a Senkaimon first, wouldn’t we? We might as well focus on what we can actually do right now.”

Though his attitude was poor and his words were harsh, he was speaking the truth. This wasn’t a problem that could be solved in a short amount of time.

“Let’s discuss a countermeasure first.”

Hirako sighed as well. Even he was losing his cool. The last time a situation like this had occurred was on that night a hundred years ago.

Unexpectedly, Hiroe still refused.

“Save the discussion for tomorrow. For now, take your people back and look after Love and the others.”

“Hey, Chōzuka!”

“Feeling defeated?” Yadomaru Lisa smiled, teasing him. “It’s rare to see you like this.”

“Pull yourself together, you damn baldy!”

Hiroe let out a bitter smile. *’We’ve barely even started. Why are they acting like I’ve lost all hope for the future?’*

“Thanks for your concern, but… do you really think Old Man Yama won’t notice a hole this massive? And if he does know, don’t you think he’ll contact me?”

“…”

At the mention of Old Man Yama, everyone’s expressions turned strange.

“So, wait until I reach a conclusion with them before we discuss things together. Of course, if you want to meet with Old Man Yama, I don’t have any objections.”

“No thanks!”

“You handling it is fine.”

“We can’t be bothered to get involved with the Seireitei again anyway. You are you, and the Shinigami are the Shinigami.”

Kensei, Ōtoribashi, and the others made to leave as they spoke, leaving Hirako alone to stare at Hiroe for a long time.

“What, do you want to come see Old Man Yama with me?”

“You aren’t hiding anything from me, are you, Chōzuka?”

Hiroe countered with a question of his own. “What could I possibly be hiding from you? That I colluded with Aizen to take half of Karakura Town?”

It was just a feeling. Hirako patted Hiroe on the shoulder. “Don’t overthink it. You’ve already done well enough.”

With that, Hirako also left. Although he felt somewhat anxious, Hiroe revising the plan with the Seireitei was the top priority right now.

Although Hiroe was acting a bit strange, it could only be interpreted as him blaming himself too much for such a massive failure.

But was that really the truth?

…

Night fell, yet the missing chunk of the city below was even darker than the night sky.

The Urahara Shop was completely silent, like a beast licking its wounds, not even daring to breathe too heavily.

“I hesitated too much!”

However, beneath those wounds lay an unknown wail of despair.

“Hesitation is defeat! I didn’t even grasp such a simple truth. What the hell was I doing?!”

Filled with remorse, Hiroe showed none of his previous calmness. What did they mean he had ‘done well enough’? He hadn’t done a damn thing and had just been completely played by Aizen.

“I could have moved Karakura Town first, but I hesitated. Why did I even care about those two Arrancar?”

Hearing this, Yoruichi’s temper flared up instantly. “Exactly! You made a plan and didn’t execute it, and you even let Aizen beat you to the punch. You’re a traitor, aren’t you?!”

Hirako’s instincts hadn’t been wrong. Hiroe was indeed hiding something from them, and it was something truly jaw-dropping.

After all, the plan to use Inoue Orihime to distract everyone else and then use the Arrancar to snatch away half of Karakura Town had originally been proposed by none other than Chōzuka Hiroe himself.

Let alone the fact that Hirako and the others hadn’t interacted with him much and always felt his moral alignment was ambiguous. Even if they trusted Hiroe, as long as they still considered themselves Shinigami at heart, they would be wary of a plan to move half of Karakura Town to Hueco Mundo.

It couldn’t be helped. Once it was known that Karakura Town was the Jūreichi, the importance of this city far surpassed the lives of all Shinigami, even including a living fossil like Captain-Commander Yamamoto.

Anyone who targeted the Jūreichi would be treated as an enemy, and Hiroe’s case was particularly severe. Think about it—just how much of a gap was there between him and Aizen?

The gap between two Zanpakutō and Kyōka Suigetsu?

The gap between Urahara Kisuke and Shihōin Yoruichi versus Ichimaru Gin and Tōsen Kaname?

No, none of these gaps were insurmountable.

Even in the eyes of others, whether or not they had Arrancar under their command wasn’t a gap. After all, he had an Arrancar under his command too, one that could even rival the Espada.

Therefore, the most fundamental gap between Hiroe and Aizen was the Hōgyoku. As long as he had the Hōgyoku in his hands, he could become the next Aizen Sōsuke and accomplish the very goals the other man sought to achieve.

Hiroe possessed these prerequisites. Thus, whenever he expressed thoughts that could trigger these conditions, the same vigilance directed at Aizen would naturally fall upon him.

Because of this, only the three of them and Roka knew about this plan. Yoruichi and Urahara hadn’t done much either; at most, they had guided a bunch of brats so they wouldn’t interfere with the transfer of Karakura Town. Roka had been by his side the entire time, and besides, asking her to collude with Szayelaporro would be worse than asking her to die.

Logically speaking, there was no way the secret could have leaked. Suspecting a mole was indeed a reasonable thought. But this mole wasn’t Urahara, nor was it Yoruichi, and it certainly wasn’t Roka. After ruling everyone out, the only one left was Hiroe himself…

The traitor is actually me?