Bleach: The Strongest Shinigami, Hitsugaya Toshiro

"Did you get through, Renji?"

Toshiro asked.

"Yeah, I think so. There's a breeze coming through, so it should be passable."

Renji replied.

But at that moment, Nel, in Toshiro's arms, stared wide-eyed at the large hole in the wall. "Wh-what are you doing?! Why did you break the wall? If you just walk that way for three more days, you'll see the gate of Las Noches!"

'Three days just to see the gate? How huge is Las Noches?! The entire Seireitei probably isn't even this big, right?'

Toshiro was shocked again.

Then Toshiro patted the cute little skull mask on Nel's head. "Silly child, we're not visiting a friend's house where we have to go through the front gate. Besides, we don't have three days to waste!"

Having said that, Toshiro said to the others, "Alright! Let's go in!!"

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The group flickered and rushed through the large hole in the wall.

Then, they were very surprised to find that the wall was extremely thick. They walked for a while but still hadn't emerged from the hole into the interior of Las Noches.

"This wall is really thick. We've been walking for so long and still haven't gotten out of the hole!"

Toshiro couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

Renji also complained, "And it's so dark in here, I can't even see the path at my feet."

Then Renji seemed to get a bad idea and grinned mischievously. "Heh heh, this is troublesome. Looks like I'll have to take care of it!"

"Hey, Renji, don't do anything rash!"

Toshiro instinctively felt something was wrong.

Renji said, dissatisfied, "Captain Hitsugaya, trust me a little, will you? I'm very smart. See, with a little modification, Kido can be used like this."

"Hado #31: Shakkaho!"

"Pfft!"

After a sound like a leak, a tiny, tiny fireball appeared in Renji's hand, as small as it could possibly be.

Renji: "Huh?"

Renji's face turned red with embarrassment.

"Oh ho, that's quite a small fireball. I didn't know you were such a modest person, Renji!"

Rangiku teased.

Renji said, embarrassed and angry, "Shut up!"

"I remember that back in the Shin'o Academy, Renji was never good at Kido, especially Shakkaho. He would always blow himself up and end up with a soot-covered face."

Toshiro also said, amused.

"Did something like that happen? I don't remember."

Renji played dumb.

"Enough playing dumb. Everyone knows about that. But the idea of using Kido for illumination is pretty good."

Toshiro said.

Having said that, Toshiro also chanted, "Hado #31: Shakkaho!"

Then a very bright fireball, far larger than Renji's, appeared in Toshiro's hand.

Toshiro nodded with satisfaction. "This is much brighter."

Swish! Swish! Swish!

The group chatted as they walked, and after a while, they finally emerged from the hole in the wall.

"Phew, we finally made it through the wall."

Rangiku breathed a sigh of relief.

Renji said, "But it's still very dark here. A few steps away from Captain Hitsugaya's fireball, you can't see clearly."

Swish, swish, swish—

Before Renji could finish, torches suddenly ignited in the darkness one by one, illuminating the surroundings brightly.

"What!"

"What's happening!"

The sudden change put everyone on high alert, as if facing a great enemy.

"Calm down. There are no enemies. These torches were probably set to automatically light up when someone enters."

Toshiro explained.

"They light up automatically when someone enters? That's pretty amazing!"

Rangiku exclaimed in admiration.

"It's not really a rare technology. Humans in the Living World have had similar things for a long time."

Toshiro said, looking around.

After breaking through the wall and entering Las Noches, they were still inside some unknown building. The area around them was split into several different paths, their destinations unknown.

"So many branching paths. What a strange place."

Renji muttered.

"Captain, with so many branching paths, to find the Expeditionary Force and Nel-san's companions as quickly as possible, we'll probably have to split up."

Sojiro said after thinking for a moment.

Ashido said hesitantly, "But splitting up would scatter our strength. The danger would probably increase significantly. Maybe we should try each path one by one..."

"No, trying each path one by one would waste too much time. There are five branching paths. Let's split into five groups!"

Rangiku said resolutely.

Rangiku was one of the weakest in the group. Splitting up would undoubtedly be more dangerous for her. Yet, knowing this, she still said that.

"Ah, this is troublesome. If you ask me, we should just knock down all these branching paths and buildings, bulldoze our way through. Then we'd see at a glance where the Expeditionary Force is being held."

Renji said impatiently.

"That's not appropriate. As Lieutenant Abarai tried earlier, Las Noches is built of some unknown material. The walls are very hard. Even Lieutenant Abarai, who has Captain-class strength, could only punch a hole in the wall with his full-powered attack."

"And Las Noches is extremely vast, probably no smaller than the entire Seireitei. If we try to bulldoze our way through, we'd probably exhaust our Reiatsu before finding the Expeditionary Force. Then, when we encounter enemies, we'd be helpless."

Sojiro shook his head.

Renji said, somewhat anxiously, "This won't work, that won't work. What do you suggest we do?"

No one else had a good idea, so they all looked at Toshiro to decide.

"Wait a moment."

Toshiro said, then suddenly closed his eyes, fully activating his sensory abilities to detect the distribution of Reiatsu in Las Noches.

One Reiatsu after another, some strong, some weak, appeared within Toshiro's perception. He could even vaguely sense Aizen's Reiatsu. But from beginning to end, Toshiro did not detect the Reiatsu of the hundreds of Shinigami in the Expeditionary Force.

"It still doesn't work? It seems Aizen was indeed prepared."

Toshiro said helplessly.

"It seems we have no choice but to split into five paths!"

Toshiro took a deep breath and made up his mind.