"You're planning to stay here a little longer?"
Rosse walked up to Shiba Kukaku and glanced at the lingering melancholy that had not yet completely faded from her face, asking bluntly.
Just moments ago, when she swung her blade and killed Yushiro, she had not hesitated for even half a second. She had been cold, like a machine built for slaughter.
Now that the dust had settled and the battlefield had turned into a graveyard, a trace of remembrance surfaced instead.
Still, that kind of conflicting emotion was only natural.
No matter how many times one resolved it in their heart and prepared themselves mentally, personally killing the younger brother of a former friend would inevitably stir something inside.
"Yes. Is that alright?"
Shiba Kukaku looked at Rosse with slight hesitation, a hint of inquiry in her eyes.
The turbulence from the killing had already calmed. The real reason she insisted on staying was that she wanted to see that woman.
She would meet Shihoin Yoruichi here, in front of what had become the ruins of the Shihoin estate, on this blood soaked ground where her kin lay buried.
"Of course."
Rosse let out a soft laugh. Not only did he not object, he waved his hand generously.
"Whatever you want to do is your freedom. Even if you reveal captain level strength in the process, it doesn't matter."
After saying that, he lightly patted Shiba Kukaku on the shoulder and turned to leave, his figure unhurried and at ease.
Truthfully, he also wanted to see Yoruichi's expression when she rushed back.
But after a second thought, if he were present, it might ruin the effect.
If Yoruichi held herself back because of him, the show would not be interesting.
Rather than stand there like an awkward extra, he might as well go back, brew a cup of tea, and comfortably watch from afar with his Observation Haki.
"Thank you."
Watching Rosse's retreating back, Shiba Kukaku silently expressed her gratitude.
She had always been clear about her position.
She was not some partner, nor an equal ally. She was attached to Rosse, someone who should not even have a self to speak of.
Without his protection, under the suppression of those nobles, the Shiba family's fate would likely have been even more miserable than the Shihoin's now.
Even if she and her younger brother managed to survive, they would have had to flee their ancestral land like stray dogs and scrape by in Rukongai.
She could grit her teeth and endure such days for the sake of survival.
But if one could live comfortably, who would willingly choose poverty?
As for the so called Shiba family, she had long since stopped caring.
As head of the clan, she had done everything she could and everything she was supposed to do.
She had even begged for her troublesome younger brother, Ganju, to be sent to the other world that belonged to Rosse.
She did not know whether Ganju would adapt there. But he has to adapt.
Compared to this world that had long since rotted and was on the verge of destruction, that place was the only future where the Shiba bloodline could continue.
As for herself, after delivering this final funeral to the Shihoin family, only Rosse's will remained in her heart.
Strictly speaking, compared to those colleagues in Hueco Mundo who did not care what happened to the world, she was the one who most wanted to see this rotten world completely destroyed.
Only total destruction would stop this miserable cycle of reincarnation.
———
The sky gradually darkened, the setting sun red as blood.
Shiba Kukaku stood quietly before the Shihoin gates, watching the Shinigami of the Sixth Division methodically clean the battlefield.
Under her and Kuchiki Byakuya's insistence, the matter was not handled hastily like the disposal of ordinary criminals.
One by one, members bearing the name Shihoin were placed into simple coffins and neatly arranged on the land they had given their lives to defend.
The Shihoin estate might soon be leveled to the ground, or divided up like carrion by emerging noble families.
But no matter what became of this land, the Shihoin family, once known as the "Tenshi Heisoban," had been erased from the rolls today.
Just like the once overbearing Tsunayashiro clan years ago, reduced to a speck of dust in history.
And the hundreds of wooden coffins lined up before them were the final respect offered by the Kuchiki and Shiba families.
"Vice-Captain Shiba, I'll leave the rest to you."
After everything was handled, Kuchiki Byakuya walked over calmly.
Behind him, the Sixth Division had already withdrawn under Abarai Renji's lead. Only he and Shiba Kukaku remained alive here.
What had been a noisy battlefield was now silent again, save for the rows of coffins telling a tale of endless sorrow.
"Leave it to me."
Shiba Kukaku nodded slightly, her gaze drifting toward the distant horizon, a complicated smile curling at her lips.
"Judging by the time, she should not have long before she receives the news and rushes back. Captain Kuchiki, won't you stay and wait? I remember that back then, you two got along fairly well."
"No need."
Kuchiki Byakuya adjusted the silver-white scarf stirred by the wind, his tone calm and without ripples.
"The past is like smoke, long since scattered by the wind. Our positions are different now. If we meet again, we would only draw our swords as enemies. Why add unnecessary trouble?"
He shook his head slightly and showed no intention of staying, turning to walk in the direction the Sixth Division had left.
After personally wiping out her entire clan, staying behind to wait for the lone survivor to return and confront her would be crude and cruel. It did not fit his noble aesthetics.
More importantly, if he were to see Shihoin Yoruichi again, he did not know what expression he should wear.
Those childhood memories of being toyed with by that wild cat, yet filled with vitality, were nothing more than memories now.
When Yoruichi defected from Soul Society years ago, those memories had already faded.
But today, after personally burying the Shihoin family, they inevitably surfaced once more.
Emotion was emotion. It would not affect his actions.
He was the head of the Kuchiki family. He was the captain of the Sixth Division.
He felt no regret, no hesitation.
At this moment, standing before these coffins, he simply did not wish to see her.
Meeting would bring no benefit. It would only tear open the cruelty and make it bleed more vividly.
However, things in this world rarely go as one wishes.
Suddenly, a wind that was not even fierce swept across the silent gates of the Shihoin estate without warning. It stirred a few withered leaves and lifted Kuchiki Byakuya's silver scarf.
His departing steps stopped abruptly.
At almost the same moment, he and Shiba Kukaku behind him made the exact same move.
Both of them turned sharply, their eyes locking onto the open ground before the Shihoin gates, where hundreds of coffins were arranged.
There, at some unknown moment, an additional living figure had appeared.
The figure had made no sound, as if condensed from the bleak wind itself.
Yet the spiritual pressure, suppressed to the extreme and thus all the more violent, could not be ignored even with one's eyes closed.
Shihoin Yoruichi had arrived.
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