Momo Hinamori was busily directing her comrades where to position themselves after receiving the memo from the 12th Division that there might be a big 'door' that might appear here.
While doing so, Momo suddenly felt the air around her slightly change and thanks to her being alert, she was able to detect the projectile that was aimed at her head and was able to dodge it. She immediately placed her hand on her sword and turned around to see a Human woman waving at her with a big smile, "Hmmm..!? That is.."
She was the same woman who snatched one of the Beasts of Hell that attacked them.
Momo tightened her defenses but saw the latter had no intention of attacking as she just sat down on the bench, '...An invitation to talk?' After she thought about it, the projectile has no power behind it nor any ill intent.
After making sure that there are no follow-up attacks. Momo released her hand from her sword and turned in her Captain's direction. Since Shinji is quite a distance from her, she had to raise her voice, "Captain!"
Shinji heard her voice and turned around to see his Lieutenant gesturing something at him, "Huh? Look at what?"
He followed the direction she was pointing at and saw a woman that was sitting on the bench while waving at him with a small smile, "Hmmm?" At that moment, Shinji recalled something and immediately pulled out his phone and tapped it a few times for it to display a certain image. He turned from his screen and to the woman and vice versa a few times before muttering, "It's her, huh? To think she'd show up here. There were no more sightings of them after their encounter with Ichigo."
The picture he's looking at was secretly captured by the Chief Editor of the Seireitei Communications and the Lieutenant of the 9th Division, Shuuhei Hisagi on the night of 'Hell's Assault'.
Shinji thought about it for a moment before walking towards Momo first and bringing her with him to meet the strange woman.
Serafall, on the other hand, started walking towards a place where no one could see or hear her.
Shinji and Momo landed in front of Serafall and since it was the latter who wanted to talk, she introduced herself first, "I'm Sitri Serafall. Nice to meet you."
Shinji's eyes landed on her stretched-out hand and returned her gesture after hesitating for a short moment, "Hirako Shinji, Captain of the 5th Division of the Gotei 13."
Seeing that, Momo immediately lowered her head, "I'm Hinamori Momo! The 5th Division's Lieutenant! Nice to meet you too."
Shinji let go of her hand and directly asked her, "Are you here to snatch one of those Beasts again?"
Serafall shook her head, "No. Of course not. I'm done with that. I'm just here because it looks like a large hole is about to open, but it looks like your group is enough to deal with anything that could come out."
Shinji's brows furrowed, 'She can detect these 'doors'?'
Serafall successfully guessed what he was thinking and nodded amicably, "I can. It's actually pretty easy if you can feel the strange thing that's pushing the Spiritual Power away."
Shinji and Momo were both stunned at her statement but before they could ask questions, Serafall continued speaking, "But I'm not here to tell you how to do that. I grabbed your attention because I want to ask what you're going to do with the people around."
"The people around?" Shinji parroted and looked around him to see blissfully unaware people, "There's nothing we could do about them. It's not like we cause a commotion since that'll only gather more attention after they initially run away."
Momo, meanwhile, could only bite the corner of her lips since it'll be hard to save them. The only thing they could do is to finish off their opponents as fast as possible to avoid unnecessary casualties.
"...I guessed as much." Serafall sighed, "Then do you mind if I do something about them? I promise that it won't impede your operation."
Shinji stayed silent for a moment before answering, "As long as you can keep them away within the entire duration of the fight. If you can't then forget about it. You'll only cause more deaths."
Serafall didn't explain herself any further and just raised her right hand over her head.
Shinji and Momo don't know what she was trying to do but when a giant circle of strange geometrical shapes suddenly glowed in blue and expanded from her feet to cover the ground, the Captain and his Lieutenant jumped back to the sky with alarm, and grabbed the hilt of their swords.
The other Shinigamis were also alarmed by this sight and thought that it was already the enemies attacking with each pulling out their blades from their scabbard.
Serafall ignored what they were doing and just continued her actions. Soon, the circle stopped expanding when it reached a kilometer in radius. A similar but just a few centimeters wide circle also appeared on top of her right hand.
Shinji and Momo have no idea what's happening and are considering if they should attack first, but the giant and small circle soon disappeared after releasing a soft light. The next moment, those who were enjoying themselves in the park packed their things and started leaving with blank expressions on their faces.
After seeing this, Shinji guessed what might have happened, "Hinamori, confirm what happened to all Humans in the area. Send multiple people out and give me a report immediately."
Still clueless, Momo answered before disappearing with a Flash Step, "Yes!"
Shinji slowly descended from the sky and landed in front of her again, "What did you do? And what were those magic-like special effects? Are you some sort of Magical Girl?" Shinji was reminded of his time in the Human World when he would sometimes binge-watch some anime shows.
At those magic words, Serafall's eyes instantly shone, "Yes! I'm a Magical Girl!"
Shinji thought that she was joking and Serafall intended to explain more when her mood suddenly went south.
Serafall slowly lifted her left arm and pointed her finger at one of the trees on her left. A Magic Circle appeared on the tip of her finger before multiple spears of ice abruptly manifested around her and rained down on the area she was pointing at.
Shinji immediately took some distance again from Serafall but she ignored him and just kept bombarding the area for a few seconds before stopping and leaving the poor trees and ground multiple holes in them, "I'm fine with you secretly observing since I'm doing this in public, but could you please stop that slimy and sticky stare?"
At that moment, Shinji felt a familiar eruption Reiatsu and saw a man with a strange head that looks like an antenna, "Kurotsuchi? What are you doing here?"
But just like the former, the newcomer also ignored him and directly talked to Serafall, "My... I'm very surprised that I was detected even with a potent Reiatsu-Concealing Cloak. As expected, you have an entirely different system of detection... The one that doesn't use any Reiatsu."
Editors:
28th00: You know what you must do now, you must bully the evil clown.
Serafall didn't reply to him but the 'slimy stare' had already disappeared as she had requested. She had guessed that he was using some equipment to probe her and didn't like the feeling it was giving.
Momo soon returned with a hurried expression, "Captain! What happened!?... Captain Kurotsuchi?"
"Your report?" Kurotsuchi immediately asked without taking his eyes off Serafall.
Momo was stunned for a moment before saying, "Y-yes! We've confirmed that the Humans have started leaving the area and within a few minutes, there won't be anyone left!"
"Interesting..." Kurotsuchi muttered with a small smile, "Illusion? Hypnosis? But it's not a Kidou or any known technique. A unique ability? But why are there no traces?"
Serafall grinned at him and said, "Do you want me to answer?"
"No. I have no point of reference to compare whatever you're giving me. I wouldn't know what sort of lie you'll insert into it."
Serafall turned to him and said, "But at least you'll get something, right? You can reference anything remotely connected to it and you'll still glean some data from it."
"True, but there's also nothing more dangerous than incorrect information."
"Then how are you going to figure me out? If you do that invasive probing again, I'm really going to get angry this time."
Kurotsuchi's smile became wider, "My, it's not every day you'd see someone threatening a Captain of Gotei 13. How confident are you?"
Serafall also returned the same smile without hiding her hostility and said, "Confident enough that I could have you kiss the ground~. After all, I know what you're capable of but you don't know me~."
The threatening demeanor between the two only kept escalating and that made Momo panic and hide behind Shinji who could only sigh.
But when it looked like they were about to go at it, something inside Mayuri's clothes started ringing and the Shinigamis stationed on the air started yelling at each other. Three holes like they were made by a Hollow's Descorrer opened, but unlike the former, there was a row of omnivore teeth along its edges. It's way more than the 1 or 2 Beasts that kept appearing this past week.
Shinji and Momo instantly responded to their appearance and commanded their soldiers to intercept the emerging Beasts of Hell numbering at least a hundred.
Seeing that Mayuri is not doing anything, Serafall asked, "You're not going to help them?"
"This is their assignment. If there's nothing outside of the ordinary, I won't." Mayuri also stared at the fast-developing battlefield.
"Even if it means death to some of your soldiers?"
"It's their sworn duty. They know what it means to be a Shinigami and they all accepted it."
"How harsh."
Mayuri turned his eyes to her before replying, "The Seireitei is too soft these days and we almost paid the ultimate price for that. If I could be the whip that could straighten them, I'll gladly be a barbed one."
Serafall went quiet and just silently watched the ongoing battle with interest, 'A clear-cut system of spells that don't really deviate from each other. Just from that, one could see that their society is very strict and systematized. But why was it shaped like that? And there's also a very strict hierarchy in their ranks according to this guy beside me.'
She thought that they'll be a bit lenient due to Kisuke's behavior but it looks like he's an outlier even within their organization.
All of a sudden, Mayuri started moving, causing Serafall to focus back her attention on him.
After a few rustling of clothes, Mayuri pulled out what looks to be a smartphone but thrice as thick as a normal one and placed it on Serafall's side, "Do you mind pouring your power into this?"
Serafall first looked at the strange device and was once again amazed that something like this could be made with pure spiritual particles. She knew that this was out of necessity and culture but it's still incredible to see something that one would normally do with physical particles instead, "With passive and active observation not working, you opted to just ask directly?"
"I'm not the one to shy away from any method to achieve my purpose." Of course, Mayuri wasn't exactly expecting her to just do as he says and this is just trying out one of his options.
But without saying anything else, Serafall grabbed the thick smartphone displaying various numbers.
She first inspected it with her hands before pouring her Demonic Power into it. However, feeling something amiss, Serafall threw the device far away from them.
"What are you doing?" Mayuri asked without a hint of anger in his voice. Nevertheless, Serafall didn't have to give him an excuse as the device mid-flight suddenly exploded with enough to rattle the whole battlefield and temporarily pause it.
"I guess haphazardly mixing Spiritual Power and Demonic Power will cause such a reaction."
Mayuri took note of Serafall's words just now before using Flash Step to catch some debris from the broken scanning device that he handed Serafall. Along with some pieces, Mayuri was able to secure what seems to be Phosphoplasm that came from Hell. Although it answered a few questions in his mind, it only ended up opening more.
Serafall also followed him, curious of what he made out of it, "Still better than asking questions?"
Mayuri kept the debris in his Shihakushou while answering, "Of course. That confirmed a few things in my head."
"Then in exchange for that, allow me a passage when you guys finally secured a path to Hell."
"I can't allow that." Mayuri immediately answered, "While I don't really care what you do to others, I still won't allow unnecessary risks."
"Then what else could I do for you to allow such risks?" Serafall knew that she still may be able to get to Hell through their help thanks to Kisuke's connection, but she still want to get that privilege as naturally as possible to avoid needless suspicion.
"Hmm..." Mayuri seriously considered her offer, 'What can I do to force her to show more? I don't really want to fight someone completely unknown.'
At that moment, an enormous explosion shook the whole area and both Serafall and Mayuri saw Hinamori Momo flying out with grave injuries.
Serafall instantly flew off and caught her midair, 'A big hole in her stomach, but it doesn't look like it's fatal.'
While coughing up blood, Momo struggled to lift her head and muttered, "... Es-Espada..."
Wondering what she meant, Serafall heard Mayuri's voice, "If you deal with one of them, I could consider what you want to happen."
Serafall turned her head to where he was pointing and saw two individuals that seemed to come out of Hell, "At least promise that you'd make it happen."
"Sadly, I don't control the Seireitei so the most I could really do is vouch for you."
'Well, I guess this is enough. At least I don't need a sudden recommendation.' Serafall thought while sealing Momo's wound with her Magic and placing her down beside Mayuri, "Grant me entry to Soul Society too while you're at it."
Mayuri stared at her for a few moments before answering, "If you could give a few hours of your time to my lab."
"I won't allow any deep inspections."
"Deal."
Editors:
28th00: Poor Momo is the resident Jobber in Bleach. Just a constant punching bag. Mayuri is going to be so confused later on.