Names 7

To the side of Kyōraku who had mumbled this, the monk was also heading outside the Greater Palace.


“Where are you going, High Priest?”


“No need to worry, I’m merely going to take a moment to wake up the Zero Division.”



The Zero Division.


Consisting of five members including the High Priest, they are the elite guardians belonging to The Royal Guard said to be comparable to the entire force of the Gotei 13.


Each member is a pioneer who has created such things as the Zanpakutō or the Shihakushō, which can even be described as the very foundations of the modern day Shinigami, perhaps it could be said that these are the great men and women who built up the history of the Shinigami, from zero.


However, while making his way here, Kyōraku had heard that the Zero Division, excluding the monk, had died by the hand of Yhwach and his subordinates.


Kyōraku felt a sense of puzzlement at the choice of words that is “wake up”, but the answer soon came spilling out from the monk’s mouth.


“It’s not the case that our own flesh and blood was converted into the Ōken just for show you know? The Spiritual Pulse¹ that surrounds the Zeroban Riden* which all of us were given, is almost fused with the individual Reiryoku of each Squad Zero member. As long as the Zeroban Riden are not completely destroyed, they can be revived to the point of being up and about again, if I call their names.” (TN: Zeroban Riden are the separate palaces/estates of the Zero Division members)


“In that case, it would have been truly inconvenient if Ichigo kun was not victorious, don’t you agree, High Priest?”


At one point, the Soul King Palace was reworked to “Wahrwelt” by Yhwach.


If Yhwach was alive and well, the last vestiges of the Soul King Palace would have disappeared before long, and with the exception of the monk, Squad Zero may have ended up quite literally annihilated.


“No matter, the Zero Division do not die so easily, I won’t let them die. Such is their fate. Well, at any rate, I must have Ōetsu and the others work harder from now on.”


Speaking in an easygoing manner that was not dissimilar to Kyōraku on normal days, the monk then paused for a brief moment, he stroked his beard several times whilst raising his eyes to the sky of the Soul King Palace.


“Because there also seems to be a certain child who has taken advantage of this war, to cause a little mischief.”




About one hour later - Soul King Palace - Hōōden


“…Oh. Man I’m up the creek yo.”


Nimaiya Ōetsu had only just managed to return from the boundary of life and death thanks to the efforts of the monk.


In a deeper underground level of the Hōōden, he was melodramatically tearing his hair out within a storehouse for swords which would usually exist at the bottom of the sea that extends around his Zero Riden.


What is projected into his eyes through a pair of glasses, is a demolished iron door, and the remains of cloth and Shimenawa rope which had been cut up into pieces.


Under normal circumstances, there would have been a certain Zanpakutō sealed there.


However, the seal had been pitilessly destroyed and the Zanpakutō in question had disappeared without a trace.