July—just as the northern hemisphere in the Living World stepped into the blazing heat of midsummer, Seireitei in Soul Society welcomed yet another summer of its own.
The heat wave affected everyone in Soul Society… especially the Shinigami of the Kuchiki clan.
"Byakuya, this time the Tsunayashiro clan has gone way too far!
I can't take it anymore!"
Kuchiki Kōga stood in the main hall, roaring at Kuchiki Byakuya.
Because just yesterday, the wife of the Kuchiki clan head had nearly been abducted in the chaos by a member of the Tsunayashiro clan. If Captain Aizen Sōsuke of the Fifth Division hadn't happened to come to support them due to the sudden Zanpakuto manifestation outbreak near the Kuchiki estate, then Kuchiki Hisana would likely be in grave danger right now.
Unfortunately, the Tsunayashiro clan member chose to take his own life the moment the plan was exposed, leaving behind no evidence. Otherwise, based on that act alone, Tsunayashiro Kamihara would never have been able to dodge responsibility the way he was doing now.
Instead, Tsunayashiro Kamihara could brush it off as nothing more than "the personal action of a dead man."
But anyone with eyes could tell what it really was: the Tsunayashiro clan was giving the Kuchiki clan—who had exposed Higashino Shuuichi, causing the Tsunayashiro clan to lose a top-tier enforcer they could use openly—a warning in color and blood.
"There's something strange about this. We can't jump to conclusions so easily…"
When Byakuya first heard the news yesterday, he'd been just as furious as Kōga. But after a night passed—after he settled Hisana down and confirmed she wasn't in mortal danger—Byakuya forced himself to calm down.
And once he did, he realized there might be something unnatural hidden inside this incident.
For example…
Had Tsunayashiro Kamihara truly grown arrogant to that extent?
The Kuchiki clan simply hadn't wanted a direct clash with the Tsunayashiro clan all these years—that didn't mean the Kuchiki clan lacked strength.
And the network Byakuya had built over the years as Captain of the Sixth Division wasn't something the Tsunayashiro clan could erase in a day or two.
"How is there anything strange about it?!
Even if Hisana's case has some tiny issue, what about Rukia?! So many Shinigami saw Rukia get blown to pieces with their own eyes!
And what did Captain Kurotsuchi Mayuri of the Twelfth Division say to the Head-Captain yesterday—have you forgotten already, Byakuya?!
'This is a new weapon I've secretly developed—Nikubakudan (Flesh Bomb). None of its information has been made public. But not long ago—right after Higashino Shuuichi was arrested—a batch of first-generation prototypes was stolen.'
Those were Mayuri's exact words!
Aside from the heads of the Five Great Noble Houses—who can enter the Twelfth Division and view confidential material without even applying—who else could do that?
Who else could take those secret weapons from a place like that without alerting a captain and the guards of so many Twelfth Division Shinigami?!"
Kōga was furious beyond restraint.
And there was another point of rage he didn't even say out loud:
His Zanpakuto manifestation ability… had been stolen and used by someone else.
Those "manifested Zanpakuto" that had appeared near the Kuchiki estate that day weren't the Zanpakuto of those Shinigami at all—Kōga had already confirmed that through his own Zanpakuto, Muramasa.
Someone had used a different Zanpakuto ability to impersonate his.
In the end, the blame was pinned firmly on Higashino Shuuichi—who had already escaped from the Maggot's Nest and vanished without a trace—but Kōga still felt profoundly insulted.
He would find the bastard who dared to imitate his Zanpakuto.
"…What you're saying there is true."
After Kōga laid it out like that, a conflicted look surfaced on Byakuya's face as well.
To be honest, because he'd only just come into contact with Rukia recently, he hadn't had time to build any deep bond with her yet. At most, it was simply affection by association—accepting Rukia as his adoptive little sister purely to honor Hisana's feelings.
So yes, Byakuya was angry about Rukia's death…
…but it still didn't compare to the terror of Hisana nearly being harmed.
Even so, how was he supposed to explain it to Hisana?
To tell her: the little sister you finally found again… was blown apart outside Rukongai because of my negligence?
A wave of powerlessness surged through Byakuya's chest.
Once upon a time, he had believed—absolutely—that being a head of the Five Great Noble Houses made him unimaginably lofty in Soul Society.
But now, he was realizing that when facing many things, he wasn't much stronger than the commoners of Rukongai.
He couldn't even protect the adoptive little sister he had just accepted.
"Retaliate, Byakuya. We have to retaliate!"
Kōga saw Byakuya's hesitation, and it reminded him of the time he'd looked at his father-in-law—Byakuya's grandfather, Kuchiki Ginrei.
Back then, when Kōga served in the First Division's Special Operations unit and was relentlessly excluded by other factions—especially nobles aligned with the Tsunayashiro clan—he had once, exhausted to the bone, told Ginrei:
Either let me strike back, or allow me to return to serve within the Sixth Division.
But Ginrei wanted to use Kōga's efforts in the First Division to expand the Kuchiki clan's influence—so that the Kuchiki clan's reach wouldn't be confined to the Sixth Division alone—yet at the same time, he didn't want Kōga exposing his true strength and drawing the fear of other noble houses.
So Ginrei kept insisting that Kōga endure.
If Ginrei hadn't gone to Hueco Mundo to protect Kōga—only to die in an accident—then with Kōga's temperament, he might've exploded decades ago.
But now…
Kōga truly couldn't endure anymore.
In Kōga's eyes, the enemy was already squatting on their heads and taking a dump. If they kept swallowing it like this, were they still worthy of being called one of the Five Great Noble Houses?
They might as well run off to Rukongai and exile themselves.
Byakuya had just opened his mouth to answer—when another voice, rich with magnetism, rang out in the hall:
"My advice is that before you uncover the truth, it's better not to act rashly."
Kōga turned around.
Sure enough—it was that man he found irritating.
Captain Kyōraku Shunsui of the Eighth Division.
"This is Kuchiki family business. What right does an Eighth Division captain have to comment here?
Or what—can you, Kyōraku Shunsui, speak for the Kyōraku clan?"
Normally, Kōga would never dare speak like that to a veteran captain—much less the Head-Captain's prized disciple.
But right now, with anger boiling over, even if the Head-Captain himself walked in, Kōga would still dare to square up.
"Uncle Kōga, Shunsui is someone I invited."
Byakuya didn't even let Kyōraku explain—he immediately gave Kyōraku the proper "standing" to be here.
"So you're going to let an outsider decide how we handle Kuchiki family affairs?
Is that how you act as clan head?!"
Enraged and reckless, Kōga started lashing out at everything in sight. The explosive bitterness in him couldn't be contained.
If one were to borrow a term from Higashino Shuuichi's original Earth, then Kuchiki Kōga was, without question, a hardline hawk.
And you couldn't really blame him.
Anyone who spent a hundred years working in an environment where everyone excluded them—where they had greater talent but could never use it, forced to swallow humiliation again and again—would become extreme.
The fact that Kōga had held on this long already meant that, in this altered timeline where Higashino Shuuichi had interfered, Kuchiki Ginrei had truly forced himself to hold Kōga down with everything he had.
In the original timeline, Kōga would've erupted long before the Hollowfication incident ever drove Urahara Kisuke and the others to defect to the Living World.
"You can't put it like that. I'm only here to offer some trivial advice. The final decision still depends on what the Kuchiki clan head wants."
Facing Kōga, who was basically a walking powder keg, Kyōraku Shunsui still wore that same lazy, carefree expression.
"But at least in my personal view, this incident is probably not so simple. And before coming here, I already contacted Higashino Shuuichi."
"Him?" The moment Byakuya heard Higashino Shuuichi's name, his eyes sharpened. "What did he say?"
"According to Higashino Shuuichi, Tsunayashiro Kamihara did not contact him in advance about what happened yesterday."
"So what? What does that prove?
Higashino Shuuichi's public identity is a traitor—wouldn't it be normal for Tsunayashiro Kamihara not to contact him?"
Kōga snorted coldly.
But both Kyōraku and Byakuya immediately shook their heads.
"You're wrong, Kōga-kun. Precisely because Higashino Shuuichi is a traitor—and a traitor Tsunayashiro Kamihara personally helped escape—Kamihara would feel no psychological burden at all using him.
If I were Tsunayashiro Kamihara, and I wanted to carry out a dangerous plan like yesterday's, I would absolutely mobilize Higashino Shuuichi.
Because no one would have stronger motivation, greater ability, and greater certainty to execute the plan without mistakes than a Shinigami who is already a traitor to Soul Society."
"And yet Tsunayashiro Kamihara never contacted Higashino Shuuichi from start to finish. That alone already says a lot."
Byakuya added, aligning with Kyōraku's reasoning.
"Hah. In the end, Kyōraku Shunsui, you're just afraid of what kind of consequences it would cause if this really was the Tsunayashiro clan.
And you, Byakuya—you never truly put Rukia's life, or your wife Hisana's safety, at the center of your heart. Isn't that right?
You two never even considered what kind of situation the other Kuchiki clan members are facing in Seireitei right now!
Everything you're saying is built on 'normal' logic. But what if I tell you the Tsunayashiro nobles have already become so arrogant that they no longer need to follow basic logic at all?!"
But it was clear that Kōga wasn't listening to a word Kyōraku or Byakuya said.
Because to Kōga, those two—one a clan head, one a division captain—could never understand what kind of suffocating environment a "bottom-tier" Shinigami like him faced every day.
People avoided eating with him on purpose. They didn't call him when there were gatherings. During scheduling and missions, they deliberately withheld complete information. Many times, if Kōga didn't possess strength far beyond what he pretended to have, he would've ended up dying gloriously on assignment—just like Kuchiki Ginrei once had.
Those noble Shinigami not of the Kuchiki line excluded him openly and shamelessly, just to keep him from exerting Kuchiki influence in a place like the First Division.
No safe missions ever went to Kōga.
Every dangerous mission that would breed resentment—Kōga was always first in line.
That was exactly why Kōga had hated Higashino Shuuichi so deeply: that Grand Blade-Hunting Chief who endlessly favored the Tsunayashiro-aligned nobles, dramatically increasing their influence and authority.
Kōga had even been willing to break the promise he once made to Ginrei.
But unfortunately, no matter how thunderous Kōga's words were, neither Byakuya nor Kyōraku could truly empathize with him—even if they both knew Kōga was describing reality.
Because from Byakuya's position, the problems he had to consider were far more complex than Kōga's.
For him, weighing the overall situation outweighed personal emotion.
Just like in the original story: no matter how unwilling he was inside, the future Kuchiki Byakuya still chose to obey Central 46's orders and personally send the rule-breaking Kuchiki Rukia to the execution platform atop Sōkyoku Hill.
And as for Kyōraku Shunsui…
he believed, for a reason he couldn't say aloud to either Byakuya or Kōga, that this incident had hidden circumstances—and that it hadn't reached the level of disaster it appeared to be.
That reason was this:
After the fact, Kyōraku questioned two Shinigami from the Eleventh Division—Madarame Ikkaku and Ayasegawa Yumichika—as well as Iba Tetsuzaemon, who had followed in his mother's footsteps and joined the Third Division. From them, Kyōraku had formed a personal guess about the identity of the Shinigami who had saved Rukia yesterday.
In all of Soul Society, who still knew the former Second Division captain—Shihōin clan head Shihōin Yoruichi—well?
In Kyōraku's view, it was only himself and Ukitake Jūshirō: the two old friends of Shihōin Yoruichi.
And whether it was Ukitake Jūshirō or Kyōraku Shunsui, both believed that the Shinigami who saved Rukia was most likely Shihōin Yoruichi—who had been missing in the Living World for a long time.
Only that identity could explain why, after the battle, there were no traces of death found at the scene—neither for Rukia nor for that Shinigami.
Because for Shihōin Yoruichi, snatching Rukia away at the very last instant would be effortless.
And if that guess was correct, then as long as they found Shihōin Yoruichi—or waited for her to return Rukia of her own accord—then what happened yesterday would no longer seem quite so severe.
It sounded ridiculous, but in practical terms, as long as no "important people" died, the entire matter really could be negotiated down—turning a major incident into a minor one, and a minor one into nothing at all.
At least, even to Kyōraku Shunsui, the deaths of some ordinary Shinigami—people who were dragged in by accident—were insignificant compared to a direct conflict between the Tsunayashiro clan and the Kuchiki clan.
But the fact that the Shinigami was probably Shihōin Yoruichi…
Kyōraku couldn't tell anyone besides Ukitake Jūshirō for now—not even Kuchiki Byakuya.
Because Kuchiki Sōjun had died too early, and Byakuya was still too young. Kyōraku hadn't fully grasped Byakuya's personality and mindset yet.
If Byakuya didn't acknowledge what had happened back then with Urahara Kisuke… or with Shihōin Yoruichi, then blurting out this suspicion would only create unnecessary trouble for Yoruichi.
Yes—Kyōraku and Ukitake had already reached one shared conclusion after discussing it:
Shihōin Yoruichi's sudden return this time meant she must have something she needed to do.
Because of Higashino Shuuichi, they believed the truth of the events back then had hidden layers—so supporting Shihōin Yoruichi's actions carried a certain confidence, and a certain justification.
And under that kind of background…
Kuchiki Kōga's wishes and demands were naturally doomed to go unmet.
As Kyōraku Shunsui and Kuchiki Byakuya quickly guided the discussion toward "how to uncover the truth," Kōga, filled with a bitter sense of "we walk different roads," stormed out of the Kuchiki main estate.
And after Kōga left…
the air outside the Kuchiki residence suddenly rippled for no reason, as if space itself had shivered.
A figure stepped out from within that distortion—then, as if nobody else existed, followed after Kuchiki Kōga.
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