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Shrouded in the pitch-black night, a young man stood in the darkness eating an orange, quietly observing the detached villa in the distance.
This distance was enough to ensure that people in the villa couldn't detect him.
Beside him, a figure whose face couldn't be seen whispered. "Are you sure you can do it alone?"
Hearing this, the young man nodded slightly. "If nothing goes wrong, there shouldn't be any problem."
"And if you take action and fail to kill him, then all your efforts will be in vain."
"Besides, there are plenty of people in the city who'd recognize your cards, right?"
The two were naturally Sebastian Sterling and Simon.
At this point, several days had passed since the Emerald-rank demon appeared.
Originally, Simon had planned to attack Russell the night Sebastian arrived. After all, all of Russell's cards had been on cooldown then—there couldn't have been a better opportunity.
He didn't know if it was to deal with the aftermath of the demon attack, but Russell had stayed at the camp by the coast for several days.
In addition to Russell, there were four Gold-rank cardmakers at the camp. Simon and his people certainly hadn't dared to force their way in.
"But can you really do it?"
"After all..."
Although Sebastian had agreed, Simon was still hesitant.
The death of the Emerald-rank demon had shocked him too deeply.
At this moment, Sebastian stuffed the remaining orange slices into his mouth and said vaguely. "My cards all specialize in assassination. If even I fail..."
"Then it won't make any difference if you come along."
"By the way—if the assassination succeeds, have you thought about what to do next?"
Simon nodded at this. After all, how could he not have thought of an exit strategy when doing something so shameful?
"We'll just pin it on the Spirit Begging Society when the time comes."
"After all, nothing that group of lunatics does is surprising."
"It's a shame we can't attribute it to the Unification Sect—that would be more believable."
There were naturally two excellent scapegoats available in East-Haven today: the Unification Sect and the Spirit Begging Society.
Russell had many conflicts with the Unification Sect before, so it would be reasonable for him to be assassinated by them.
But the problem was that the Unification Sect didn't just have cardmakers—they also had limb-replacing monsters that were neither human nor ghost.
Simon and his people couldn't get their hands on those strange things.
So they could only settle for second best and blame the Spirit Begging Society.
Anyway, the Society wouldn't have any objections...
"Alright, I'll go." Sebastian shrugged and stretched his muscles.
He didn't care. As a loyal warrior of the Sterling family, he wouldn't care even if he lost his life here today.
Assassins only needed a target and a location. The rest wasn't important.
In the villa, Russell looked at the young man with green algae hair who was leaning against the wall with three swords in his arms.
After making the card, Russell had naturally summoned him to take a look.
As for whether he'd be discovered—he wasn't worried. Under the double coverage of Zoro's Observation Haki and his own mental power, no one in East-Haven should be able to get close without alerting him.
Speaking of which...
Should Zoro be able to spar with Unohana now?
Although the green-haired young man hadn't yet reached the level of a future vice-captain, Russell's Unohana wasn't the cold-blooded villain of her youth either.
If it was just a friendly match, it shouldn't be a problem.
Just as Russell was thinking about whether to organize some team building in the future, Zoro suddenly frowned and looked somewhere outside the house. "Russell. Someone's here."
Russell was brought back to reality by Zoro's voice. But he soon realized something. "Did you detect them with Observation Haki?"
Seeing Zoro nod, Russell frowned slightly. "Do you know who it is?"
Zoro shook his head. "Haven't seen him before. But the one next to him feels somewhat familiar."
Hearing this, Russell couldn't help but become alert.
Since the green-haired young man had specifically mentioned it, the other party obviously didn't have good intentions.
Quickly thinking through his enemies in East-Haven, Russell quickly narrowed it down to two targets. "The Unification Sect? Or Simon?"
Right now, the only two groups who might attack him were these.
"I understand." A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind. Russell nodded slightly and dismissed Zoro.
It wasn't that he didn't want Zoro to fight—but the green-haired guy's Three-Sword Style was too distinctive.
Although it had been a while since his last appearance in Harborview, who knew if any clues had been left behind? It would be bad if someone with ulterior motives noticed.
That said, Russell didn't mind that Zoro had detected the enemy's location while he himself hadn't.
Setting aside that Zoro's Observation Haki range was wider than his mental power—the whole purpose of making cards was to compensate for a cardmaker's shortcomings in all areas.
Moreover, compared to some people whose Observation Haki could reach a level similar to future vision, it wasn't outrageous that Zoro had only detected two sneaky enemies.
Let me see who's so eager to run into the barrel of a gun.
Putting away his thoughts, Russell's eyes dimmed. He turned and went upstairs to the bedroom.
The bright moonlight shone through the window into the large bedroom.
A figure lay quietly on the bed, as if fallen into sweet dreams.
As clouds passing outside the window obscured the moon, the bedroom fell into deep darkness.
When the moonlight reappeared, there was a standing figure in the room. Sebastian looked at the young man sleeping before him. His face was expressionless, but he was somewhat surprised internally. That easy?
The process of sneaking into the villa had taken almost no effort—much smoother than he'd imagined.
He's just a young kid after all. No defenses at all.
Thinking this, Sebastian summoned his cards without hesitation.
The shadows in the bedroom seemed to come alive instantly, pouncing toward the figure on the bed.
But at that moment, the young man who'd been sleeping suddenly opened his eyes. In the blink of an eye, he sank into the shadow beside him.
"Tsk. Knew he wouldn't be that easy to kill." Sebastian clicked his tongue, unsurprised.
If Russell were really easy to kill, Simon wouldn't have had such a headache.
Suppressing the irritation in his heart, he instantly caught the young man's aura reappearing and gave chase without hesitation.
Outside the house, Russell's expression was calm. He'd basically confirmed that Simon was the mastermind.
After all, the Unification Sect hadn't come out to cause trouble even during the huge commotion on the coast. It was even less likely they'd go to the trouble of assassinating him now.
And if it really were the Unification Sect, it would be impossible for only one cardmaker to come.
Just as Russell was thinking through a thousand possibilities, Sebastian appeared before him again.
The two sides wasted no time talking—they started fighting again the moment they met.
But it was obvious Sebastian was no match for Russell.
After all, the mistake an assassin fears most is failing to deliver a fatal blow. Not all assassins were Grand Assassins, after all.
"Hadō #91: Senjū Kōten Taihō."
As Aizen spoke in a cold voice, a massive crimson spirit bullet suddenly attacked Sebastian.
BOOM!
The crimson cross created by the spirit bomb's explosion illuminated the night sky.
To minimize losses, Russell controlled his cards' output as much as possible.
And with such a commotion, he figured if the nearby residents weren't fools, they'd have notified the Association already.
At that moment, a loud shout rang out. "I'm here to help you!"
But it wasn't some big yellow hamster shouting this.
It was Simon, President of the East-Haven Cardmaker Association.
As soon as Simon appeared, he summoned his card and attacked Sebastian fiercely.
Then he quickly came to Russell. "Vice President Russell? Are you alright?"
"I received word that cardmakers were fighting here. Knowing you were staying here, I rushed over immediately."
Russell frowned slightly. He glanced at Aizen and Mikoto Misaka, whose attack rhythm had been suddenly interrupted, and couldn't help but sneer internally. Tsk. This trick.
What happened next was exactly as Russell had expected. After just a few rounds of fighting, the person who'd tried to assassinate him vanished.
Obviously, the assassin had evacuated safely under Simon's cover.
Of course, if there were bystanders here, they definitely wouldn't have been able to tell that Simon was actually covering for the assassin.
But Russell wasn't prepared to expose him. After all, without solid evidence, this wasn't enough to convict Simon.
But he had no intention of looking for evidence anyway.
Compared to going through proper procedures, Russell felt it would be more convenient to just settle accounts directly.
In fact, before Simon appeared, he'd also considered whether to have Aizen use Kyōka Suigetsu to fake his own death—replicating what the brown-haired man had done in the Soul Society.
But after thinking it over, he'd abandoned the idea.
After all, who knew if East-Haven had any other strange cards? The risk of exposure was really too high.
And since the mastermind had already been identified, there was no need for Russell to work in secret.
Seeing Russell just frowning and looking at where Sebastian had disappeared without paying attention to him, Simon's eye twitched. "Vice President?"
"Who do you think attacked you?"
Hearing this, Russell turned his gaze to the middle-aged man beside him but still didn't speak.
Seeing this, Simon—who didn't know he'd been exposed—shamelessly analyzed. "Look, Vice President. This person came alone for the assassination. Compared to those cardmakers from the Unification Sect who are eager to lick the demons' boots, it's more likely this was the Spirit Begging Society."
However, before Russell could reply, two more Gold-rank cardmakers appeared on the scene.
They were Zayne and Luther.
The two had rushed over after receiving word that Russell was attacked.
When he saw Russell was unharmed, Luther was obviously relieved. Then he turned to look at Simon. "President Simon, you arrived so quickly?"
"What's this about the Spirit Begging Society?"
The square-faced middle-aged man had only heard the last few words. It was obvious that Simon—who was at odds with Russell—being the first to arrive at the scene really surprised him.
Soon, Simon repeated his inference.
But this time, instead of just suspecting the Spirit Begging Society, he directly pinned the blame on them.
Hearing this, Zayne's usually deadpan face flashed with a hint of surprise.
"The Spirit Begging Society?"
Why didn't anyone inform me about assassinating Vice President Russell?
As the only two Society members present, this was Zayne's thought.