When Kyōraku Shunsui led the captains back to Seireitei, what they saw was a true river of blood.
Higashino Shuuichi had done exactly what he said he would.
Kuchiki Byakuya said nothing.
Soi Fon's body trembled, her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles went white.
Aizen Sōsuke let a few crocodile tears fall for those nobles.
Ichimaru Gin and Tōsen Kaname wore expressions tangled with complicated emotions.
They'd thought Higashino Shuuichi was only talking—who could've imagined he'd actually kill them.
Ukitake Jūshirō let out a quiet sigh. Thankfully, he'd warned his clan in advance to remain neutral.
Almost everyone who looked upon that scene felt something different in their own heart.
"So where's the Captain-Commander? Didn't he chase after Higashino Shuuichi?"
Standing in the street of Seireitei, Komamura Sajin asked the Kyōraku Shunsui at the front.
"I know," Kyōraku said with a small nod.
He didn't actually know where the old man was.
But he knew where Higashino Shuuichi was—assuming Higashino Shuuichi hadn't lied to him.
The captains followed Kyōraku to the Tsunayashiro compound and pushed open the door to the council hall.
In the thick stench of blood, Higashino Shuuichi stood before two corpses, holding a Zanpakutō still dripping red.
And the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13—Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni—stood in the center of the hall.
It was strange. The Captain-Commander was simply standing there, silently facing Higashino Shuuichi.
But no one was about to ask why in a place like this.
"You know how great a crime you've committed, don't you?
Higashino Shuuichi."
In the end, it was Kyōraku Shunsui who questioned him.
Higashino Shuuichi slowly turned around, prompting Komamura Sajin to immediately raise his Zanpakutō.
"I do. And I don't intend to deny anything I've done.
But I want to ask you something, Kyōraku-taichō.
A sinner like me—what punishment will I receive?"
Higashino Shuuichi let out a soft laugh, amused by Komamura's reaction.
"The exact judgment still has to go through Central 46. But barring any surprises, you'll be confined in Muken."
Kyōraku said it plainly.
It was the inevitable outcome.
Because aside from the ordinary Shinigami who didn't know, nearly all of Soul Society's upper ranks understood one thing:
Powerful Shinigami, powerful Hollows—even powerful humans—didn't enter the usual cycle of the Three Realms after death.
They were taken in by a place called Hell.
And Hell's capacity wasn't limitless. Long ago, one of the Five Great Noble Houses—the Kabuma clan—had issued warnings to all of Soul Society.
So unless absolutely necessary, the stronger the Shinigami, the less Soul Society could afford to kill them lightly.
The only choice was to imprison them in Muken.
And Higashino Shuuichi's strength could no longer be described as merely "strong."
Kyōraku glanced sideways at the old man who hadn't spoken once since they arrived—an aged figure with a weathered air.
No one said anything. Kyōraku saw nothing directly.
But some results were obvious at a glance.
"Then I accept that outcome."
Facing the captains, Higashino Shuuichi smiled calmly.
He lowered his guard completely and allowed Soi Fon—tears like tiny pearls on her face—to step forward and arrest him.
"Shaoling, I know you have a lot of questions, but I'm not going to answer them. If you get the chance, you can probably find the answers you want from someone else~"
Higashino Shuuichi looked at Soi Fon gently as he spoke.
"Shuuichi-sama…"
Soi Fon raised her head, utterly unable to understand how things had become this.
"Shh~
Shaoling~
You're the captain of the Second Division now. You can't let your squad see their captain like this~"
Higashino Shuuichi was escorted away by the Ninth Division captain, Tōsen Kaname.
Because halfway through, Soi Fon lost control of her emotions.
But she didn't immediately leave the hall.
There were Second Division members outside.
She couldn't let them see her like this.
With Higashino Shuuichi cooperating to an extreme degree, all that remained was his trial.
But that process alone took nearly half a year.
Because Higashino Shuuichi had slaughtered too ruthlessly—more than half of the original Central 46 members were dead.
Selecting a new group of Central 46 members took time.
"Those Central 46 members were my good friends back when I was Grand Blade-Hunting Chief~
If you want me to take the fall for you, Aizen-taichō, you'll have to pay extra~"
Higashino Shuuichi's crimes were so numerous that a "trial" was practically unnecessary—only sentencing remained.
So of course people tried to dump more blame on his head. Reasonable enough.
But since the target was Aizen, Higashino Shuuichi felt it was worth haggling properly.
From Aizen's perspective, this really was misfortune falling from the sky—he'd been calmly advancing his plan to gradually replace Central 46, and then Higashino Shuuichi suddenly pulled this.
A flood of attention slammed onto Central 46.
But there was no helping it.
The one who was pressed for time now wasn't Higashino Shuuichi.
It was Aizen.
What had happened inside Central 46 before couldn't be exposed yet. If Kyōraku and the other old, crafty veteran captains started to suspect something—
Aizen's carefully prepared plans after that would become impossible to execute.
So in the end, in front of the newly formed Central 46, Higashino Shuuichi personally "confessed" to the "fact" that he had killed the members of Central 46.
As for what he and Aizen traded for that—
that remained a little secret known only to the two of them.
Still, during the days locked in a cell, Higashino Shuuichi sometimes found Aizen… dull.
Even with the world already changed so drastically, Aizen insisted on advancing step by step according to his original script.
He didn't even hurry to look for Urahara Kisuke.
No idea whether Aizen was just too confident—
or simply too confident.
Either way, it was good news for Higashino Shuuichi.
At least it left him plenty of time.
On the day Higashino Shuuichi was finally sentenced, almost no one in Seireitei knew.
Under Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's direction, the Gotei 13 deliberately reduced Higashino Shuuichi's impact on Soul Society.
They even intentionally erased the history of the Katana-gari-shū (Blade-Hunting Corps) itself.
"I hereby sentence Shinigami Higashino Shuuichi to confinement in Muken—term: ten thousand years!"
The new presiding judge of Central 46 announced the final verdict.
There was virtually no dispute.
For a Shinigami as heinously criminal as Higashino Shuuichi, sparing him the death penalty was already an affront to heaven's justice. One "great sage" even argued that ten thousand years was too short and should have another zero added to the end.
But considering that so far, no normal Shinigami (Zero Division doesn't count, since they underwent Ōken modification) had ever lived ten thousand years—
that proposal was ultimately dropped.
As Higashino Shuuichi passed by Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni, the old man—after the Tsunayashiro incident—asked him for the first time:
"Have you ever regretted it?"
By now, Yamamoto had already heard everything Kyōraku Shunsui knew—the full sequence, beginning to end.
He still didn't believe he had done anything wrong, yet toward a Shinigami like Higashino Shuuichi, he carried a complex emotion he couldn't quite name.
"Everything was my choice. I won't regret my choices, Sōtaichō-dono."
Higashino Shuuichi answered with a smile.
That same day, in Soul Society's best-selling magazine Seireitei Bulletin, an anonymous writer published an article titled "The End of an Era."
It fictionalized a Shinigami named Furukawa Hirae—someone who rose from being a Rukongai commoner to become a captain of the Gotei 13, then step by step opened an entirely new era.
But in the end, Furukawa Hirae fell—just before the dawn of that new age.
That week, Seireitei Bulletin completely sold out.
Countless Rukongai civilians mourned such a Shinigami, and countless others swore to become Shinigami like Furukawa Hirae in the article.
Meanwhile, the name Higashino Shuuichi began to fade from more and more hearts.
Sitting in his room, Ukitake Jūshirō set down his brush, walked slowly to the window, and looked out at the pond.
"All I can do… is this."
Once Kyōraku Shunsui and Kuchiki Byakuya revealed the whole truth, Higashino Shuuichi's ending would not change—but his image took root in many Shinigami's hearts in a different form.
Yet beneath that bustling surface—
was a completely different scene.
"Shuuichi-sama, look at the newest issue of Seireitei Bulletin!
That anonymous author wrote another story about Shinigami Furukawa Hirae—this one seems adapted from the time you escaped the Maggot's Nest!
This issue sold out too!"
Kisaragi Shūsuke—now the vice-captain of the Seventh Division—held out the newest issue of Seireitei Bulletin to Higashino Shuuichi.
At that moment, Higashino Shuuichi sat in a chair, his entire body bound in heavy chains. Each chain bore special symbols, reinforced with stabilizing sigils.
Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni's caution had exceeded Higashino Shuuichi's expectations.
Higashino Shuuichi had assumed Yamamoto would have the Shihōin clan head—Shihōin Yūshirō Sakimune, the one known as the "Heaven-Gifted Armament Division"—personally oversee his sealing.
Instead, Yamamoto brought in Ukitake Jūshirō too, as a second layer of insurance.
Higashino Shuuichi could've used the power of the "Face-Fruit" to get Ukitake to go easy on him, but then he thought about it and decided there was no real need.
"Let me see… Furukawa Hirae, a Shinigami with a time-type Zanpakutō ability?
Ukitake-taichō really came up with this?
With that kind of power, you'd just steamroll all of Soul Society, wouldn't you?"
Higashino Shuuichi reached out, took the magazine, flipped through it casually, and offered his critique.
As for the chains on his body, it was as if they didn't exist at all.
"Hey, hey, hey! If you're not reading it, give it to me!
This novel's good—I love this!"
Urozakuro suddenly popped out from behind Higashino Shuuichi, snatched Seireitei Bulletin from his hands, then sat cross-legged in midair and began reading with relish.
It was obvious: with Urozakuro's help, those seals on Higashino Shuuichi had long since been completely mastered by Azashiro Sōya.
"S-so the anonymous author is Ukitake-taichō?!"
Kisaragi Shūsuke's jaw practically hit the floor.
That flamboyant writing style didn't resemble Ukitake Jūshirō at all.
"The first one was probably written by Ukitake-taichō. As for the later ones… hard to say. He might've hired a ghostwriter~"
Matsumoto Rangiku—now the vice-captain of the Tenth Division—cut in.
"Oh, I know this one. I heard Ukitake saw how many people were begging for updates, so he specifically had his vice-captain Shiba Kaien go to the Human World to 'catch a blade'~"
Kabuma Sayako happened to be walking over with Shiba Kukaku. Hearing Rangiku, she covered her mouth and laughed.
"Sayako, stop it—this is way too embarrassing!"
The moment Kukaku heard her spill it, she made a helpless face.
"So it was written by a human? That makes sense. They're good at writing wild, imaginative stuff. Too bad their lifespans are a bit short~"
Walking behind Sayako and Kukaku, Yushima Ōko spoke as he put away the device used to enter and exit.
And just like that, the people who had once surrounded Higashino Shuuichi gathered again—here in the empty void of Muken.
That this was even possible was thanks to one of Mayuri's bizarre bursts of inspiration.
Back then, Mayuri had referenced the spatial-link device he designed for Tsunayashiro Kamihara, then connected Seireitei's four great gates directly to Muken's entrance.
Afterward, Higashino Shuuichi set his sights on that device.
And Mayuri—ever the opportunist—simply handed it over the moment Higashino Shuuichi asked.
No haggling. No resistance.
Higashino Shuuichi figured Mayuri was probably afraid he'd come to settle accounts afterward.
Because no matter how you sliced it, Mayuri had definitely screwed him over once.
With that device in place—and with Azashiro Sōya, the local "old hand," inside Muken—
Higashino Shuuichi and his little group practically treated Muken as their second home.
They came and went constantly.
Matsumoto Rangiku even kept a small wooden bed and a liquor cabinet over here!
But happy times never last long.
Once Urozakuro fully merged with the seals on Higashino Shuuichi and restored his freedom of movement, Higashino Shuuichi could barely contain himself as he had Sayako notify Shiba Kukaku to come over.
He was going to the Zero Division.
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