"Shihoin Yoruichi."
When this name came from Kuchiki Byakuya's mouth, there was not a trace of emotion in it, as if he were reading out the name of a stranger who had been dead for many years.
Faced with Yoruichi's accusations toward Shiba Kukaku, and Kukaku's thunderous rebuttal, Byakuya's expression remained as indifferent as ever.
But deep down, he stood on Shiba Kukaku's side.
From his point of view, what the Shiba family had suffered back then was far more tragic than what had happened to the Shihoin family.
No matter what path Shiba Kukaku chose, in the end she had used those not-so-broad shoulders to forcibly carry the heavy burden of reviving her clan and taking revenge.
Instead of waving the banner of freedom like Shihoin Yoruichi and walking away, only to drag her entire family into the grave with her in the end.
Looking at Yoruichi, holding Yushiro's corpse with grief and fury written across her face, even a trace of pity appeared in Byakuya's eyes. It was pity for the weak.
"Do you even deserve to accuse others in this hysterical state?"
He slightly lifted his chin. His gaze passed over Yoruichi and swept toward the coffins that had been overturned by her rage. His tone was light, almost cruel.
"When you lost your head to anger just now and attacked without caring about anything, did you ever think about what that punch would do to Yushiro and your clansmen? What kind of desecration it would cause?"
He truly found Yoruichi's current ugliness unbearable to watch.
Since the two sides were already mortal enemies, life-and-death combat on the battlefield was the most normal thing there was.
If your skills were inferior, then death was simply death.
If in that earlier clash the weaker one had been Kukaku, then the one lying on the ground would have been her.
And if that were the case, would the Shiba family have behaved like Yoruichi now, childishly throwing meaningless accusations at the victor?
Utterly boring.
'You do not even care about the final peace of your own brother and clan, yet you are still obsessed with who swung the blade. Is that really so important?'
When the Shiba family was wiped out back then, when his father Kuchiki Sojun died in battle without a clear reason, no one had seen such a loss of composure like Yoruichi's.
If you chose to become a Shinigami, if you were born carrying the fate of a noble, then you should have long been prepared to die violently in the streets.
"Kuchiki Byakuya!"
Shihoin Yoruichi glared at that arrogant man through clenched teeth. She wanted to refute him, wanted to curse him out, but when she opened her mouth, other than calling his name over and over again in a pale, powerless voice, she could not say a single word in rebuttal.
Because the truth was exactly as Byakuya had said.
No matter how grand the excuse, just now she truly had not cared at all about the remains of her brother and clansmen.
Neither Byakuya nor Kukaku had made the first move, yet she had lashed out in anger simply because Kukaku's blunt truths had struck her sore spot.
At that moment, her mind had been filled only with her own rage. She had not thought at all about what a clash between two captain-level fighters would do to this land of coffins.
After a person dies, does the body matter? For some people, perhaps not.
But for her, Shihoin Yoruichi, it mattered.
If it did not matter, then back when she saw Sui Feng in that miserable state, her heart would not have felt like it was being cut apart.
The dead deserve respect.
Her brother and her clansmen were already dead. That was a fixed outcome that could not be changed.
Since the enemy had not used these corpses to threaten her, and had instead given her the chance to collect them, yet she had made such a scene, it was truly childish and laughable.
If she wanted revenge, she should at least wait until she had properly buried every single clan member before picking up her blade and returning.
Right now, she was not fit to speak of revenge.
With that thought, the hollow anger supporting Yoruichi collapsed in an instant.
She lowered her head in silence, like a child who had done something wrong, and quietly lifted the overturned coffin beside her.
She gently picked up Yushiro's mud-stained body, carefully placed him back into the coffin, tidied his messy collar, and only then slowly closed the lid.
After that, like a walking corpse that had lost its soul, she moved mechanically through the ruins.
She personally returned each scattered body to its coffin.
When she came across coffins that had been badly damaged, she used Kido to repair them.
When she encountered bodies that were incomplete, she used trembling hands to piece them together bit by bit, giving them their final dignity.
Destruction was always so easy. It took only a moment of impulse.
Restoration, however, was painfully difficult.
By the time Yoruichi had finished arranging all several hundred coffins, a full three hours had already passed.
Long before Yoruichi had lost her fighting spirit and begun silently repairing the coffins, Shiba Kukaku had already left.
On the vast ruins, only Kuchiki Byakuya remained, like a silent statue, standing at a distance and watching her complete everything.
He did not stay because he still held any old feelings for Yoruichi. It was simply because, as a captain of the Gotei 13 and the head of the Kuchiki family, facing a wanted criminal who had infiltrated Seireitei, he had the duty to monitor her every move from beginning to end, to prevent her from doing anything excessive again.
This was responsibility, unrelated to personal emotion.
"Ha!"
Finally, after arranging the last coffin, Shihoin Yoruichi stopped moving.
She did not look back at Kuchiki Byakuya even once. She simply lifted Yushiro's coffin onto her back, her figure flashing as she used Shunpo, turning into a black shadow that sped into the distance.
Seeing that she was heading toward the barren land of Sokyoku Hill, Byakuya slightly frowned, but in the end he did not choose to pursue.
If nothing unexpected happened, she was likely looking to choose a final resting place for these homeless souls.
Now that the Shihoin family had been completely wiped out, aside from Yoruichi in front of him, perhaps only those old men in Central 46 remained.
According to the unwritten rules of Soul Society, when the clan dies, the debt dies with it.
Since the family was already destroyed, the remaining individuals would no longer be excessively pursued.
What was more, the Shihoin family had been killed in the name of resisting investigation. They had not truly gone through a full trial and sentencing process.
And for Shihoin Yoruichi and those old men in Central 46, to continue living while carrying the guilt of an entire clan's death caused by them, that kind of psychological torment was probably ten thousand times more painful than simply killing her.
That was the best punishment for them.
Only after Yoruichi's spiritual pressure completely disappeared from his senses did Kuchiki Byakuya slowly withdraw his gaze.
He turned silently, adjusted the scarf at his neck that had not actually been disturbed, and walked toward the Kuchiki estate. That lone, upright figure gradually disappeared into the heavy night.
He did not think he had done anything wrong.
As the head of a noble family and a captain of the Gotei 13, he had not only carried out Seireitei's iron laws, but also upheld the conduct and discipline befitting a noble.
As an elder brother, he had stained his hands with blood and made his greatest effort to save Rukia.
As a childhood friend, he had given the other party his final tolerance and respect.
Things had come to this point. His conscience was clear.
Kuchiki Byakuya raised his head and glanced at the cold moon.
With the Shihoin family, this festering tumor, removed, although the process had been cruel, tomorrow's Soul Society would surely be better.
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