Bleach: The Template System Chose Me, The Forgotten Kuchiki

"Very well—let's move out."

Matsumoto Rangiku smiled with her usual flair and walked confidently toward the Senkaimon gate shimmering ahead. Behind her, the student group, split into two coordinated squads under Shiraha's direction, followed with disciplined steps and measured breathing.

"Unlock the limit seal," she called calmly.

As her voice echoed across the staging ground, the portal creaked open with an ethereal hum, revealing a corridor of pulsating light—dim, yet stable enough for passage into the Human World.

"Let's go."

With those simple words, Matsumoto strode into the portal without hesitation, and one by one, the students followed her through the threshold, Shiraha stepping forward in the middle ranks, his gaze already alert and unblinking.

Inside the Dangai.

They emerged into the eerie stillness of the boundary space, a corridor that stretched endlessly between realms. Dim light filtered through purple-hued walls that seemed alive with faint, rhythmic pulsing. The silence was strange—not comforting, not threatening—just unnaturally quiet.

Matsumoto Rangiku led the group with a confident pace, her expression serious despite her casual demeanor earlier. Behind her, whispers began rising among the students.

"So this is the Dangai?"

"It feels... off. The walls—look how strange they are."

"It's darker than I expected."

Renji and the others murmured in awe, their curiosity getting the better of them as they glanced left and right at the shifting, semi-translucent surfaces around them. Unlike the dry pages of the Academy's textbooks, the Dangai was visceral—organic. It breathed.

Kira Iziru nudged Renji with a mischievous grin. "Renji, how about we make this interesting? Let's see who can bury more wandering souls. Loser buys meals for a month."

Renji scoffed and rolled his shoulders. "You're on, Kira. But don't go crying when I win. You've always been terrible with Kido anyway."

Hinamori Momo peered around with wide, gleaming eyes, her voice rising softly. "Sensei... It doesn't seem dangerous here at all."

"Hinamori, never lower your guard," Matsumoto said firmly, pausing in her steps to glance over her shoulder at the students. "This place may look dormant, but that's exactly when it's most deadly. The Dangai isn't something to underestimate. Even seasoned Shinigami have vanished here without a trace."

The tone in her voice changed slightly—firm, warning, almost maternal.

In truth, the Dangai was unstable by nature. While stabilized by Seireitei's Technological Development Bureau during scheduled passages, the unpredictable dangers—such as Kōryū (the Arresting Current) or Kōtotsu (the Cleaner)—could still manifest without warning.

And that was precisely what Shiraha sensed.

His Observation Haki picked up subtle tremors radiating through the space, originating from the pulsating walls. The vibrations were faint, barely distinguishable, but to his trained perception, they rang like sirens. The walls were shuddering—subtly but unnaturally. Something was wrong.

The moment he stepped through the portal, Shiraha had extended his sensory range, probing the corridor with silent, invisible waves of spiritual perception.

"Vice-Captain Matsumoto," Shiraha called out calmly, though his tone was sharp, "we need to pick up the pace. The Kōryū is forming."

Matsumoto blinked. "Kōryū? That's not possible. The TDB confirmed this corridor was stable. They do thorough pre-scans before any deployment."

She looked around with narrowed eyes, but the corridor remained undisturbed on the surface.

"I appreciate your caution, Shiraha," she added, smiling slightly, "but this might just be first-time nerves. The Dangai can feel disorienting—"

"It's not nerves," Shiraha interrupted quietly. "The spiritual pressure is subtly warping. The walls are beginning to liquefy at the seams."

Renji, walking a few steps behind, frowned and looked toward the nearest wall. "He's serious. You believe him, right, Vice-Captain?"

Before Matsumoto could respond, the walls began to ripple visibly—slow at first, like waves forming beneath a sheet of glass. Then the rhythm broke. Segments of the boundary shuddered, lost structure, and began to collapse inward like melting wax.

"Kōryū is surfacing!" Shiraha snapped.

Without waiting for confirmation, he turned and dashed forward. Renji, Kira, and Hinamori exchanged one brief glance of silent understanding, then bolted after him.

"Teacher Matsumoto, the walls! They're collapsing!"

A few students screamed as sections of the corridor behind them twisted, then dissolved into undulating sludge. Panic erupted.

"Damn it!" Matsumoto cursed, her calm facade cracking. "TDB assured me this path was stable!"

She cursed again, more sharply, and turned around mid-sprint. "Everyone, move! Don't stop running! If you get caught in the Kōryū, you'll be erased completely!"

As if to emphasize her point, the sound of a deep, unnatural vibration rolled through the corridor. The very road beneath their feet began to twist, segments of the walkway caving in behind them as they fled toward the portal.

"Shiraha," Renji shouted as he caught up, breath labored but voice steady, "how the hell did you know this was coming? Even Vice-Captain Matsumoto didn't catch it."

Kira and Hinamori looked toward him as well, their faces reflecting a mixture of awe and anxiety.

Shiraha didn't slow. "Intuition," he said simply. "Now move. If we're caught, not even a captain could save us."

None of them questioned him further. They just ran harder.

A student to their rear, panicked and desperate, raised his hand and began chanting a Hadō incantation, hoping to blast through the crumbling corridor.

"Ye lord—mask of flesh and blood, Vientiane—"

"You idiot!" Matsumoto roared. "Don't use Kido in the Dangai! You'll only draw more spiritual current and provoke the flow!"

The student froze mid-spell, face pale, realizing his mistake.

Up ahead, the exit gate glowed faintly—still stable, still reachable—but time was running out.

And then came the sound.

A buzz—low, guttural, and rhythmic—echoed from deeper in the Dangai. Something moved through the spiritual muck with terrifying speed.

A blinding streak of white light darted along the corridor's edge, revealing the unmistakable cylindrical form of the Kōtotsu—the Cleaner—its massive body encased in a shimmering halo, its velocity impossible to outrun.

"Matsumoto-sensei! What is that thing?!"

The question rang out from a trembling voice behind her.

"That's the Kōtotsu! The Cleaner!" she barked. "It appears on a fixed seven-day cycle, but it shouldn't be here today! What in the world is the TDB even doing?!"

She didn't stop to answer. She only ran faster.

"The Kōtotsu doesn't reason, doesn't pause, doesn't distinguish—it erases everything. Keep moving!"

No one needed convincing. The students poured toward the exit, legs burning, lungs heaving.

Shiraha grabbed Renji by the collar and shoved him forward, then gestured sharply. "You three—go first!"

The exit gate surged with reiryoku, now pulsing in time with the collapsing corridor behind them. Without hesitation, Shiraha led Renji, Hinamori, and Kira through the flashing barrier just as a pulse from the Kōtotsu roared behind them.

The four of them fell forward into the Human World, landing hard on cracked pavement, their bodies rolling across the ground near a ruined industrial building beneath the evening sky of Karakura Town.

Behind them, the gateway remained open for only seconds more.

Matsumoto Rangiku burst through next, leading the remaining twenty-four students who stumbled out one by one, their expressions wild with adrenaline and disbelief, faces slick with sweat and dust, clothes torn from the turbulence.

The last flickers of the Senkaimon collapsed behind them.

Silence returned.

Matsumoto doubled over, breathing hard. Her eyes swept across the group, counting quickly. No casualties. Everyone made it. Barely.

"This... this is Karakura Town?" someone murmured.

Shiraha stood slowly, brushing dust from his sleeves as he extended his Observation Haki outward to assess the surroundings. The faint spiritual echoes of wandering souls drifted from every corner, scattered across the nightscape like dying embers.

He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them. "Yes. This is it."

Matsumoto finally straightened, hands on her hips, her chest still heaving from the sprint, her frustration bubbling to the surface.

"The Technological Development Bureau is full of brain-dead incompetents," she growled. "Kōryū and Kōtotsu in one day? What kind of diagnostics are they running over there? I'm filing a complaint when we get back."

The students around her didn't speak. They simply nodded, grateful to be alive.

Their real mission had just begun.

But already, Karakura Town was not what it seemed.