The sun had not yet risen over Seireitei. A soft mist lingered low to the ground, curling over rooftops and around the feet of early patrols. But Lan Yan was already awake. He sat cross-legged atop the eastern watchtower, eyes closed, listening.
Not for footsteps. Not for voices.
For silence.
It had been three nights since his duel with the Vasto Lorde. The scar on his side still ached, a subtle reminder that even the strongest light left shadows. Zhuoyin remained quiet, contemplative.
"They watched through it," Lan Yan murmured, eyes flicking open. "I could feel it. That Vasto Lorde was a conduit. A vessel. But for whom?"
"Perhaps," said a voice behind him, "you should look inward, rather than upward."
Lan Yan didn't turn.
"Kurotsuki," he said. "You walk softer than mist."
The woman in black emerged from the shadows, her pale face unreadable.
"The Gotei has many enemies," she said. "But only a few who play this deep."
"Then you believe someone inside the Seireitei is orchestrating these attacks?"
Kurotsuki raised an eyebrow. "You assume they ever left."
Her words hung like frost.
Lan Yan stood, wind tugging at the edges of his haori. "Speak plainly."
She stepped closer, eyes glinting. "There are archives sealed even to captains. Files on experiments involving Hollowfication, hybridization, and—"
"—Mirror-type Zanpakutō," Lan Yan finished.
Kurotsuki nodded slowly. "Mirror and light. Illusion and truth. Your Zanpakutō... and your brother's. Twin reflections. The central 46 thought such power needed to be... surveilled."
A chill ran down Lan Yan's spine. "You think they planned this from the start?"
Kurotsuki said nothing. But her silence was louder than any answer.
Behind them, the sky began to pale with dawn.
Elsewhere, deep in the heart of the Central Archive, a pair of gloved hands turned pages.
"They were never meant to reach this level," muttered a man cloaked in gray. His face was obscured, even to the flickering light of the data-crystal he examined.
"Project Tenken-2. Mirrors of the King," the label read.
"They've already surpassed the parameters," he said. "Especially Zhuoyin."
Another figure entered the chamber, silent as the grave.
"Kurotsuki met with Lan Yan again," the newcomer reported. "She suspects."
The gray-cloaked man chuckled darkly.
"Let her."
He closed the file with a soft Thud!
"The game begins in earnest now."
That evening, Lan Yan and Lanran met under the flowering moon-blossom trees of their private courtyard. Petals drifted on the wind like pale embers.
"You felt it too, didn't you?" Lan Yan asked.
Lanran nodded. "Ever since the last encounter. Something has shifted. Not just in the world... in us."
He turned his palm upward. A soft glow shimmered across his skin. The Yōkugan.
Lan Yan stared. "It's evolving."
"No," Lanran said. "It's remembering."
A hush fell.
Lan Yan drew his sword, holding Zhuoyin at eye level. "If someone in Seireitei is behind this, we'll need proof."
"And to find the origin," Lanran added. "Before they use us for their final experiment."
From the rooftops above, Kurotsuki watched them vanish into the shadows.
Her voice was a whisper in the dark.
"The mirror does not lie. But the reflection... can be shaped."
Author's Note:
Secrets behind secrets. Files hidden even from captains. Kurotsuki watches, but from which side?
Zhuoyin and Kyōka Suigetsu. Two blades. One reflection.
They were created for war. But now they will rewrite fate.
Daily mega chapters — don't forget to: Read | Vote | Collect | Support the Author!