After listening to Rosse's account, Shiba Kukaku fell silent.
Rosse's explanation was without a doubt much clearer than what Ukitake Jushiro had told her.
And because there were a lot more details, it made Shiba Kukaku feel even more that something was wrong.
"That's the Thirteenth Division's barracks. Why would there be some special Hollow of unknown origin there?"
This was the biggest suspicious point Shiba Kukaku noticed.
This was Seireitei, the gathering place of all Shinigami.
For a Hollow to appear in the Shinigami's stronghold, and even cause such heavy losses to the Thirteenth Division, no matter how you looked at it, it was completely absurd.
What kind of Hollow could do something so silent and unnoticed?
And what was even stranger was that, from Rosse's description, that Hollow was actually ridiculously weak.
After Captain Kyoraku arrived, he took care of it in just a few moves.
So before that, what on earth had her brother's own captain, Ukitake Jushiro, been doing? Waiting for rescue?
Even if Ukitake Jushiro was sickly, it shouldn't have been so bad that he couldn't at least hold off such a weak Hollow for a while.
"That's my question too. Why would such a weak Hollow suddenly appear inside Seireitei?", Rosse waved his hand lightly, and reishi became like a brush in his palm, sketching out a map of Seireitei on the tea table in front of them.
"I'm the captain of the Tenth Division. Our division is specifically in charge of Seireitei's security. Normally, if a Hollow invades Seireitei, it would first have to break through the walls made of sekkiseki stone, then face the Tenth Division's patrol squads, and only after that could it appear at the Thirteenth Division's barracks."
On the map, Shiba Kukaku could clearly see that the Thirteenth Division's barracks were located on the outskirts of Seireitei. But even if it was an edge area, it was still within the walls of sekkiseki surrounding Seireitei.
And because it was off in a remote area, the Thirteenth Division's barracks weren't near any of the four cardinal gates. If a Hollow entered illegally, it would definitely trigger the kido wall alarms.
After staying in Seireitei for over a hundred years, Shiba Kukaku was very familiar with this system.
Rosse's explanation also fit well with the doubts she already had.
So how had that Hollow made it through layer after layer of defenses and appeared in the Thirteenth Division?
"Captain Rosse, do you have any theories about this?", Shiba Kukaku couldn't help asking.
After a few exchanges, Rosse had given her a very reliable feeling.
And on top of that, since Shiba Isshin had been captain of the Tenth Division, the Shiba clan had always had quite a few of their own people in the Tenth Division.
From the news passed along over those days, the Rosse before her seemed to be a very dependable captain, at least much better than the frivolous Kyoraku Shunsui or the sickly Ukitake Jushiro.
Rosse hesitated slightly, then lowered his voice and leaned a little closer to Shiba Kukaku.
Seeing this, Shiba Kukaku, though she knew there was absolutely no one nearby, still couldn't help leaning toward Rosse as well, enough that she could smell the scent of a man on him.
But her heart had only just wavered when Rosse's voice quickly pulled her back, "Right now I have two guesses. One is that the Hollow didn't invade from outside, but was being kept somewhere and then released, and by accident it ended up at the Thirteenth Division."
"That's possible. What about the other one?"
Shiba Kukaku subconsciously nodded. Rosse's idea coincided perfectly with hers.
As for the second possibility, she had no idea at all.
Anyway, that Hollow definitely hadn't come in from outside. She was sure of that.
Hollows were intelligent beings. They weren't stupid. There was no way they'd just charge into Seireitei like idiots.
"The other possibility is just speculation. That Hollow was still being raised by someone, but the reason it was released was specifically to target the Shiba couple," Rosse said softly.
As his words fell, it was very clear that Shiba Kukaku's body started to tremble violently, and that pair of huge things comparable to Matsumoto Rangiku's kept bouncing up and down.
"How is that possible? The targets were my brother and sister-in-law? how is that possible..."
Shiba Kukaku muttered blankly to herself. Her mouth was saying "impossible," but Rosse's words were like a depth charge dropping into her heart, exploding in an instant and making her suddenly link everything together.
This hadn't been an accident at all. It had been a conspiracy aimed at the Shiba clan from the start.
First they killed her brother and sister-in-law. Then they picked off the Shiba elders one by one. Finally they would devour the Shiba clan down to the last scrap.
Vicious. Too vicious.
Who on earth was targeting the Shiba clan?
"Captain Rosse, I'm begging you, tell me who that person is."
With her defenses completely broken, Shiba Kukaku actually begged Rosse, pleading for him to tell her who the mastermind behind all this was.
In her eyes, in this vast Seireitei, Rosse was probably the only one she could trust now.
At the very least, Rosse definitely wasn't the mastermind.
Because as long as that mastermind was a normal person, he would never come here himself and tell her there might be a problem behind all this.
Wouldn't that be the same as turning himself in? Who would do something that stupid?
Before this, she hadn't known any of the details at all, just had a gut feeling that something was off.
Only with Rosse's help had she suddenly realized that this whole thing, from beginning to end, was a complete conspiracy.
So in Shiba Kukaku's eyes, Rosse was already the only person she could rely on.
Of course, her younger brother Shiba Ganju could be trusted too. But with that brain of his, if he didn't get sold off and then help count the money, it would already be good. If he came along, he'd just get in the way.
"Miss Shiba, this is only my guess. If I knew who the mastermind was, I wouldn't have to be so vague," Rosse shook his head. His answer made the light in Shiba Kukaku's eyes dim in an instant.
Right. If Rosse knew the truth, he could just expose it directly. There would be no need to say all this to her.
"Captain Rosse, what should I do..."
Shiba Kukaku pressed her lips together, like a desperate patient grabbing at any doctor she could, asking in a panic.
She herself had no way at all. In terms of strength or ability, she couldn't help with anything.
The only one she could rely on now was Rosse, a captain.
"Miss Shiba, panicking won't solve anything. Since you're sure there really is a mastermind, that means you've already had your suspicions for a while. If we want to find that person now, we have to think first about where we can get clues. Has anything happened to the Shiba family recently that made you start thinking this way?"
Rosse gently patted Shiba Kukaku's back, soothing her in a soft voice.
Shiba Kukaku had no time to care about that bit of physical contact. At least under Rosse's comfort, she felt her thoughts become clearer than ever.
'Yes, why did I feel there was a mastermind targeting the Shiba family?'
'Where did that feeling start from? And where can I get clues?'
Suddenly, Shiba Kukaku's pupils shrank and she sat up straight.
Because she was so close to Rosse, when her body moved, the two soft mounds bounced high without her meaning to and smacked right into Rosse's face.
"I'm sorry! Captain Rosse, I didn't do that on purpose!"
Even though she was the one taking advantage in that moment, the now-clear-headed Shiba Kukaku waved her hands repeatedly instead, feeling she had just gotten too worked up.
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