All of Soul Society descended into chaos.
Most Shinigami, even up to now, couldn't manage even basic communication with their own Zanpakutō (Soul-Cutter Sword), let alone deal with a manifested Zanpakutō.
Of course, there were also a few "geniuses" who immediately realized this was a shortcut that could help them rapidly grasp Bankai (Final Release).
They got so excited they refused anyone's help—insisting they would defeat their own Zanpakutō themselves.
And then, without exception, every single one of them was beaten down by their Zanpakutō manifestations… which were, in reality, being controlled by someone else.
Fortunately, this time the taichō's reinforcements arrived quickly enough, and the Zanpakutō didn't get the chance to devour their masters on a large scale.
Otherwise, it would've become another historic catastrophe that would leave Soul Society severely crippled.
Of course… some people weren't thinking along those lines at all.
For example: the current head of the Kuchiki clan, Kuchiki Byakuya.
After leaving the Director-General inauguration venue, he didn't rush to the various division barracks in Seireitei to provide support.
Instead, he returned directly to the Kuchiki estate.
And there, he met his father's elder sister—his aunt—Kuchiki Shizakura.
"Aunt… where is my uncle-in-law right now?"
Kuchiki Byakuya, who was usually extremely courteous toward his aunt, didn't bother with pleasantries this time. He went straight to the point.
"Byakuya? Aren't you supposed to be at that Shin'ō Shiyakuin Director-General inauguration?
Why did you suddenly come back?"
Kuchiki Shizakura folded the clothes in her hands, then lifted her head to look at him.
"That's not important. What matters is this—Aunt, tell me the truth. Has my uncle-in-law, Kuchiki Kōga, mastered Bankai (Final Release) or not?"
Kuchiki Byakuya stood opposite her and demanded an answer.
At those words, Kuchiki Shizakura fell silent.
"…So it really is him, isn't it?"
Sometimes silence was the clearest answer. Kuchiki Byakuya let out a bitter laugh. The worst-case scenario had still happened.
"What do you mean 'so it really is him'?! Byakuya, Kōga mastering Bankai is a secret!
It was a secret your grandfather—my father, Kuchiki Ginrei—specifically instructed me and your father to conceal before he died!
I don't care how you found out, but you'd better keep it for Kōga too—just like I have!"
A bad feeling crept into Kuchiki Shizakura's heart.
"What…?
Grandfather and Father both knew?
Why—"
Kuchiki Byakuya never imagined he would get such shocking information from his aunt, but none of that was the key point anymore. The key point was—
"Now isn't the time for that! Aunt, tell me—Kōga's Zanpakutō's Bankai ability… is it the kind that can force a Shinigami's Zanpakutō to materialize?!"
Even though he had essentially confirmed it already, Kuchiki Byakuya still couldn't stop himself from asking for a final confirmation.
Maybe… somewhere deep down, he was still clinging to a sliver of luck.
Unfortunately, Kuchiki Shizakura shattered that last illusion.
"…Byakuya… how do you know that?"
Her voice trembled.
By the time Kuchiki Byakuya had said this much, if she still didn't realize what it implied, she wouldn't deserve to be a member of one of the Five Great Noble Houses.
"Today—just now—Soul Society erupted into chaos!
And the cause of this unprecedented riot is that the Zanpakutō of the vast majority of Shinigami were forcibly materialized… and they attacked their owners!"
"Impossible! Byakuya, that's absolutely impossible! Kōga… Kōga would never do something like that!"
"And why are you so sure?"
"Because Kōga promised your grandfather… he swore he would never act on impulse…"
Biting her lip, Kuchiki Shizakura told Kuchiki Byakuya a past he had never known.
It turned out Kuchiki Kōga had already mastered Bankai decades ago.
Back then, he had only been married to Kuchiki Shizakura for a short time, and he had only recently joined the First Division as well.
Originally, after seeing Kuchiki Kōga's Bankai ability, Kuchiki Ginrei intended to go to Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni and lay everything out.
Because Kuchiki Ginrei understood very clearly: taken alone, Kuchiki Kōga's Bankai might not seem all that threatening.
But if Kuchiki Kōga ever intended to expand it to affect all Shinigami… then for Soul Society, it would become an unprecedented calamity.
Kuchiki Ginrei didn't want something like that to happen—and he certainly didn't want the Kuchiki clan to bear that kind of sin. Given the political situation the Kuchiki faced at the time, it would be disastrous.
However, before Kuchiki Ginrei could tell Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, the event that shocked all of Soul Society—an event that would even influence Soul Society's future history for a long time—broke out:
The Kasumiooji clan rebellion.
Because of that event, Kuchiki Ginrei realized that within Seireitei, there existed a noble power beyond control—one that was attempting to overturn the existing order.
For the Kuchiki, who leaned toward preserving the status quo, that was extremely dangerous.
So after repeated deliberation, Kuchiki Ginrei ultimately chose to secretly conceal Kuchiki Kōga's Bankai. And he ordered Kuchiki Kōga that without explicit permission, he was absolutely forbidden to use it.
The main reason was that Kuchiki Ginrei couldn't be sure where Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni truly stood.
After all, Yamamoto had made excessive compromises with the Kasumiooji clan—who was to say what side he would choose in the end?
If Yamamoto ultimately stood on "the other side," then Kuchiki Kōga would become the Kuchiki clan's final trump card—one they could use to uphold "justice" and defend Soul Society's stability.
And it was precisely because of this that, in a conflict deliberately provoked by other nobles, Kuchiki Ginrei chose to personally step into the fray—so that Kuchiki Kōga, whose temperament was somewhat radical, wouldn't be dragged into it.
In the end, Kuchiki Ginrei personally took on a mission: capturing a traitor to Soul Society.
Kuchiki Shizakura had already forgotten the traitor's name, because that Shinigami wasn't important—just ordinary beyond ordinary.
Yet it was precisely such an "ordinary" Shinigami who somehow inflicted grievous injuries on the Sixth Division taichō, Kuchiki Ginrei… injuries so severe that he ultimately died.
There were countless suspicious points in that story.
Even when the Chūō Yonjuuroku Shitsu (Central 46) finally offered an explanation—claiming it happened because Kuchiki Ginrei was already suffering from severe internal injuries left long ago by another traitor, the former Eleventh Division fukutaichō Higashino Shuuichi—neither Kuchiki Shizakura, nor Kuchiki Kōga, nor even Kuchiki Sōjun (who was still alive at the time) believed that conclusion.
But what could disbelief accomplish?
All the "evidence" was placed neatly on the table. The Shinigami Kuchiki Ginrei pursued admitted to it, and was ultimately executed at the Sōkyoku (Twin Execution Spear).
Seireitei gave Kuchiki Ginrei the highest honors he deserved. And for the stability of Soul Society, the Kuchiki clan head at the time—Kuchiki Sōjun—chose endurance.
Only no one expected that endurance to last forever.
Kuchiki Sōjun died without ever learning the truth behind his father's death.
Kuchiki Byakuya's face darkened. He hadn't expected that behind this matter there would be so much hidden history—so much that even his grandfather and father had been entangled in it.
More importantly, although his aunt hadn't uttered a single explicit name, Kuchiki Byakuya understood perfectly:
She was one step away from saying that surname outright.
Tsunayashiro.
Even more terrifying was what happened when Kuchiki Byakuya calmed down and carefully sorted through everything that had happened in Soul Society from the Kasumiooji clan rebellion until now.
He saw a vast net hanging over the entire realm.
The Kasumiooji clan—once just beneath the Five Great Noble Houses, even showing signs of becoming a "Sixth Great Noble House"—had collapsed.
Among the Five Great Noble Houses, the Kabuma clan never had much power to begin with—hardly worth mentioning.
The Shihōin clan, after the former clan head Shihōin Yoruichi publicly defected, directly lost its influence within Central 46. It was said the current clan head—Shihōin Yoruichi's younger brother, Shihōin Yūshirō Sakimune—would've already fallen into mediocrity too if not for the full support of the Second Division taichō Soi Fon and the Ōmaeda family.
And the Shiba clan… didn't even need to be mentioned. Other nobles never liked them in the first place, and now their "pillar" was only the head of a branch family. Their current head, Shiba Kaien, hadn't even mastered Bankai yet. Their clan members were virtually wiped out in the last assault by Baraggan—the former ruler of Hueco Mundo. It could be said they had completely disgraced the name of the Five Great Noble Houses.
After circling through all of that, the truth became chillingly clear:
In all of Soul Society, the only noble house still capable of contending with the Tsunayashiro… was the Kuchiki.
If—if Kuchiki Byakuya allowed himself to imagine—
If his grandfather and father's deaths had both been the work of the Tsunayashiro…
And if the Tsunayashiro had deliberately recalled Higashino Shuuichi from the World of the Living—a Shinigami who bore deep resentment toward the Gotei 13—and then ordered him to establish the Katana-gari-shū, a force meant to oppose the Gotei 13…
Then for the Kuchiki clan, this was an unprecedented crisis!
Kuchiki Shizakura didn't know what Kuchiki Byakuya realized after hearing the past she knew.
But she had eyes.
And she could see Kuchiki Byakuya's lips turning pale.
"Byakuya… is this serious?
Kōga should know what the consequences are. He surely wouldn't leave such an obvious handle behind…"
Kuchiki Shizakura clutched the fabric at her chest with both hands, at a loss.
"This isn't a question of whether it's serious.
It's a question of whether someone wants it to become serious."
Kuchiki Byakuya's mind raced.
As the Kuchiki heir who had received elite training from Kuchiki Ginrei since childhood, Kuchiki Byakuya's youth and inexperience only meant he revealed more flaws compared to old foxes like Higashino Shuuichi and Kyōraku Shunsui.
But if you judged him purely as a clan head—
After more than a decade in the position, Kuchiki Byakuya was, without a doubt, qualified.
—
At the same time, having received Tsunayashiro Kamihara's orders, Higashino Shuuichi arrived at the Tsunayashiro estate—and faced Tsunayashiro Kamihara's questioning.
"Tell me. What's your view of this matter?"
Tsunayashiro Kamihara went straight to the point.
"Kamihara-sama, on the surface, this looks like an attempt to slap the Katana-gari-shū in the face. We held such a grand ceremony for Seinosuke taking office as Director-General, and we even invited so many taichō and fukutaichō from the Gotei 13.
In theory, the Katana-gari-shū should be responsible for the venue's security… and also bear a certain degree of responsibility for Seireitei's overall safety…"
"That's impossible, Shuuichi. With your Katana-gari-shū's current headcount, being able to protect the ceremony venue at all is already impressive."
Tsunayashiro Kamihara shook his head.
"Even so, Kamihara-sama… the broad mass of Seireitei's Shinigami, the nobles, and even the commoners of Rukongai won't care about those details.
From the results alone, this is indeed a catastrophic failure for the Katana-gari-shū."
Higashino Shuuichi explained calmly.
This was a yangmou—an open scheme. Even if you knew the enemy's goal, you were powerless to stop it.
But Higashino Shuuichi didn't care about that.
Whether the Katana-gari-shū had a good reputation meant nothing to him.
He only needed the Katana-gari-shū to exist in Soul Society as a tool he could operate.
"Rukongai commoners? They're worthy of knowing this sort of thing?"
Tsunayashiro Kamihara said, displeased.
Higashino Shuuichi only smiled lightly. "Come to think of it, I've never seen it in Kamihara-sama's residence before… but after this incident, Kamihara-sama might end up making time to look at that magazine founded by the Ninth Division taichō, Tōsen Kaname—Seireitei Tsuushin (Seireitei Correspondence).
I hear that magazine sells extremely well—not only in Seireitei, but even in the lower-numbered districts of Rukongai."
"…"
Tsunayashiro Kamihara hesitated, and ultimately swallowed the words he had wanted to say at first.
"So, Shuuichi, your opinion is that this incident is targeting our Tsunayashiro clan?"
"I can't be sure, Kamihara-sama. It's also possible this is simply a coincidental event."
"Hmph! There's no such thing as coincidence. Go—immediately—for me.
West Rukongai District 5, 21, 43, 59… South Rukongai District 4, 17…"
Tsunayashiro Kamihara snorted, then rattled off over a dozen locations in one breath.
Higashino Shuuichi frowned slightly. He could guess these locations were the true reason Tsunayashiro Kamihara had staged Yamada Seinosuke's inauguration so grandly in the first place.
But the number of locations was… far too many.
"Kamihara-sama… these places are?"
"I previously sent some Shinigami there to set up something 'special' for me. But as you can see, it's not only the Gotei 13's Shinigami who were affected—those Shinigami I sent were affected too.
They're requesting assistance from me. I originally planned to dispatch some reserve Shinigami to reinforce them, but after your analysis, I think it's better for you to lead your Katana-gari-shū to help instead.
But Shuuichi—remember this.
If you encounter the mastermind behind this incident… I want them alive."
Tsunayashiro Kamihara let out a sigh.
There were things he truly didn't want Higashino Shuuichi to learn this early.
But circumstances forced his hand. And right now, he only had one exceptionally useful card in his deck: Higashino Shuuichi.
Besides, Higashino Shuuichi had never done anything especially outrageous so far. He worked for Tsunayashiro Kamihara diligently and reliably.
So Tsunayashiro Kamihara could only make this choice.
"I see. Understood, Kamihara-sama. Leave it to me!"
Higashino Shuuichi immediately gave his assurance.
He hadn't expected that this incident would come with such a benefit for him.
So… he could finally touch the Tsunayashiro clan's true hidden moves?
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