"One of the Ukitake clan's members was killed by a Shinigami from our Katana-gari-shū (Blade-Hunting Corps)?
Do you even hear yourself right now?"
When Higashino Shuuichi received the news, he was in the Katana-gari-shū headquarters, going through information he'd just obtained from the Twelfth Division and Tokinada Tsunayashiro regarding the former Twelfth Division captain, Miyazaki Sakai Masato.
"I admit it sounds hard to believe. But before he died, that Ukitake Zama did, in fact, say only three words: 'Katana-gari-shū.' We have grounds to suspect that a member of the Katana-gari-shū is connected to his death."
Standing in the main hall, a Shinigami wearing a special uniform looked at Higashino Shuuichi as he spoke.
He belonged to a special operations squad under the First Division. Once upon a time, Kisaragi Shūsuke's father, Kisaragi Qin'yue, had also been a member of that very squad.
"So? What exactly are you planning to do… if it was one of us in Katana-gari-shū?"
Higashino Shuuichi closed the file in his hands, lifted his head, and looked straight at the man.
"Nothing complicated. We just want Kisaragi Shūsuke, Matsumoto Rangiku, and Nagasawa Satomi to cooperate with the investigation. As far as we know, all of them have motives."
The First Division Shinigami met Higashino's gaze without flinching.
"Heh."
A derisive chuckle slipped from Higashino Shuuichi's lips.
"What are you laughing at?"
The First Division Shinigami frowned and demanded, displeased.
"I'm laughing at how clumsy your attempt to 'fake an imperial edict' is. That's not exactly the wording your Head Captain told you to pass along, is it?"
"Are you messing with me, Grand Blade-Hunting Chief Higashino Shuuichi?
Because this isn't funny at all. What I just said is exactly what the Head Captain told me to convey—word for word!"
The First Division Shinigami insisted.
"In that case, do me a favor and convey my words back to your Head Captain, also word for word:
From here on, this case will be handled by the Katana-gari-shū. The Shinigami of the Gotei 13 don't need to concern themselves with this incident any further."
Higashino Shuuichi replied calmly.
"The Katana-gari-shū is trying to shirk responsibility and cover for its own people?
That's impossible!"
The First Division Shinigami's reaction was explosively intense.
Higashino, however, had no intention of humoring him.
"There's nothing impossible about it. I believe the Head Captain is a reasonable man.
Of course, that assumes you really do pass on my words to Yamamoto-dono, word for word. Looking at you, though, I'm not feeling very optimistic.
Still, I do have at least one virtue: I'm generously soft-hearted. I'll give you this one chance to relay my intentions properly. I hope you make good use of it, Kuchiki Kōga~"
To be honest, if Kuchiki Kōga hadn't shown up in front of him today, Higashino Shuuichi would have nearly forgotten the man existed.
In the original storyline, this former son-in-law of the late head of the Kuchiki clan, Kuchiki Sōjun—eldest brother-in-law to Kuchiki Byakuya—should have been locked in Muken decades ago, well before Urahara Kisuke's "betrayal."
But thanks to the butterfly effect caused by Higashino Shuuichi, the Kōga who should have been rotting in Muken was instead walking around perfectly free.
On top of that, with the Kuchiki family heads having died one after another, and the Tsunayashiro clan's naked ambition laid bare for all to see, the already extreme Kuchiki Kōga had developed a deep loathing for the Tsunayashiro.
And by extension, Higashino Shuuichi—the man widely acknowledged as the Tsunayashiro clan's hatchet man—had also been added to Kōga's personal blacklist.
As a staunch defender of the existing order, Kuchiki Kōga had sworn that if he ever got the chance, he would tear down Higashino Shuuichi, this right-hand man of the Tsunayashiro clan.
Best case scenario, he'd find a way to throw him into Muken.
After all, if Higashino were merely exiled to the World of the Living, the Tsunayashiro clan had more than enough pull to fish him back out again.
Of course, that was only one piece of Higashino's reasoning—it wasn't the main basis for his judgment.
His primary reference point was Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni himself.
For all his many flaws and stubbornness, Yamamoto did have some virtues.
One of them was that, as the man most synonymous with "upright and aboveboard," he would never stoop to passing judgment before the facts were settled—
Not unless something had crossed his absolute bottom line.
Like the Hollowfication incident back then.
That had been one of the rare cases where Yamamoto had rendered a verdict before the chain of evidence was complete.
But this current case clearly hadn't reached that level.
The victim was just a small fry from the Ukitake family.
Was it serious?
Of course it was. In the Soul Society, the death of any noble—even a former noble—was a grave matter.
But to pick a fight with Higashino Shuuichi, and behind him the Tsunayashiro clan and a host of nobles, over this?
That wasn't worth it.
Higashino Shuuichi didn't believe Yamamoto Genryūsai would take such an unwise course of action.
If Yamamoto really were that kind of man, he wouldn't have relented and agreed to clear Higashino Shuuichi's name—or to the establishment of the Katana-gari-shū—in the first place.
So, in Higashino's eyes, Kuchiki Kōga was simply using this as an excuse to make trouble.
The Kuchiki clan's son-in-law was far too desperate to see the Kuchiki name rise again.
"You—"
Sure enough, when Kōga realized that Higashino Shuuichi wasn't going to budge an inch, he hit a wall.
Though he was impulsive by nature, he wasn't stupid. He was well aware of the gap in strength between him and Higashino. With Higashino Shuuichi making it crystal-clear that he had no intention of turning anyone over, Kōga knew he had no way of forcing the issue.
Besides, Yamamoto's actual words had not been what he'd claimed earlier.
The Head Captain had, in fact, assigned full authority over the case to the Katana-gari-shū.
And that was exactly what Kuchiki Kōga couldn't wrap his head around.
What on earth was the Head Captain thinking?
Couldn't he see what the consequences of such a decision would be?
Once the Katana-gari-shū grew strong, given the Tsunayashiro clan's style of doing things, the position of the Gotei 13 within the Soul Society would become precarious indeed.
Kōga shot Higashino Shuuichi one last venomous glare, but in the end he couldn't muster even a single tough-sounding line. He slunk out of the Katana-gari-shū headquarters, tail between his legs.
He fully intended to report what had happened today to Kuchiki Byakuya.
This Grand Blade-Hunting Chief, Higashino Shuuichi, was growing more arrogant by the day. Just look at the people he'd recruited into the Katana-gari-shū.
Every last one of them was a Soul Society "traitor," and the only one who wasn't technically a traitor had originally been a human Fullbringer—someone just as unwelcome to the Soul Society.
Only after Kuchiki Kōga had left did Kisaragi Shūsuke and Matsumoto Rangiku come into Higashino Shuuichi's quarters.
"Shuuichi-dono, we're absolutely certain that Ukitake Zama's death—and those strange disappearances of Shinigami lately—have nothing to do with us.
Someone is clearly trying to use our return as cover to stir up trouble, hiding their own crimes behind our already bad reputation in the Soul Society."
The moment he stepped inside, Kisaragi Shūsuke couldn't wait to spill out everything he'd been thinking.
"Exactly, Shuuichi-dono. There has to be someone out there deliberately trying to dump filth on us.
If this wasn't intentional, then why not kill earlier or later? Why do it right when Shūsuke and I return to the Soul Society?
I'm telling you—there's definitely a conspiracy behind this."
Matsumoto Rangiku chimed in, her opinion almost perfectly aligned with Shūsuke's.
And in truth, their thinking matched Higashino Shuuichi's own.
It was just that Shuuichi could see further than they could.
Even though he hadn't visited the scene and was relying only on Kuchiki Kōga's description, Higashino was already convinced that the words "Katana-gari-shū" spilling from Ukitake Zama's mouth had probably not been in the killer's plans.
Because the latest issue of Seireitei Bulletin, which Zama had protected with his life so that only part of it was damaged, happened to contain the very suggestion that Higashino Shuuichi had made to Tsunayashiro Kamihara.
If you considered that Zama had read that issue, combined with the fact that he'd always been out of step with his own Ukitake clan and had actually sided with the Tsunayashiro, and a few other special circumstances…
Then it became very likely that his final shout of "Katana-gari-shū" had been nothing more than his way of responding to Tsunayashiro Kamihara's appeal.
So the idea that the killer had planned in advance to pin this entire incident on the Katana-gari-shū didn't quite hold water, in Higashino's opinion.
That said, the timing the killer had chosen was highly suspicious.
Why exactly did it have to be the moment Kisaragi Shūsuke and Matsumoto Rangiku set foot back in the Soul Society?
This had to be investigated—thoroughly and completely.
Higashino Shuuichi was certain that a completely unknown troublemaker was still lurking somewhere within the Soul Society.
And that was something he absolutely could not tolerate.
One Aizen, one Tokinada Tsunayashiro—that was already more than enough, and both cases were difficult and inconvenient to handle directly.
But this new troublemaker—what was he playing at?
What was his goal?
Those were things Higashino Shuuichi had to know.
Once he understood, he might very well choose not to act, so long as the other party's core objectives didn't conflict with what he intended to do in the future.
But Higashino Shuuichi would never allow an unknown bomb to sit behind him, its time and place of detonation a mystery—
Especially not now, at this critical juncture where he planned to use his Quincy clone to lure Miyazaki Sakai Masato, the former Twelfth Division captain of the Soul Society, into a trap.
He did not want any surprises.
"Whether it's a conspiracy or not, we'll only know once we investigate. I've already told that First Division man, Kuchiki Kōga, to go back and inform the Head Captain that this matter is being handled by the Katana-gari-shū now.
As it happens, Shūsuke and Rangiku, you two have just returned. This incident will be your first joint investigation."
Higashino Shuuichi instructed them evenly.
"What about the Katana-gari-shū's day-to-day operations and our contact with the Tsunayashiro clan?"
Rangiku propped her chin on one hand as she asked.
She was referring to the duties that had been assigned to her upon joining the Katana-gari-shū.
As the former Tenth Division lieutenant in the original story, Higashino naturally had full confidence in her "management skills."
"Let Satomi handle it for now. As long as no new incidents crop up, she should be able to manage on her own."
Higashino replied.
At the moment, precisely because there weren't many people in the Katana-gari-shū, their day-to-day workload was quite light.
Mostly, it amounted to helping Higashino deal with matters related to the Hirugetsu Class, and conveying directives from the Tsunayashiro clan.
So letting Nagasawa Satomi handle things for a short period wouldn't cause any major problems.
Seeing that Higashino Shuuichi had already arranged everything, Shūsuke and Rangiku didn't insist on arguing.
Especially Shūsuke—he never questioned Shuuichi-dono's commands, only carried them out.
After watching the two of them leave his quarters, Higashino Shuuichi didn't return to studying the dossier on the former Twelfth Division captain.
Instead, he rose and left the room as well, heading toward the center of Seireitei.
There lay the Tsunayashiro family estate.
Only this time, the person he wanted to see wasn't Tsunayashiro Kamihara—it was Tokinada Tsunayashiro.
At present, there were very few people in the Soul Society who understood just how powerful the Eizō Hall really was.
And because the Eizō Hall had long been monopolized by the Tsunayashiro clan, even members of the Central 46 or captains of the Gotei 13—even someone like Yamamoto Genryūsai—couldn't simply stroll in whenever they liked.
Unless they planned to force their way in by brute strength.
That was how Tokinada Tsunayashiro had managed to enjoy such a long "era bonus."
But Higashino Shuuichi was different.
Faced with a case where both evidence and leads were scarce, his first instinct was to go straight for the recordings.
To him, the Eizō Hall was like the "Skynet system" from his previous life.
No matter how cunning the mastermind was, they would not be able to escape its surveillance.
Even Aizen hadn't realized he'd been under constant watch. If he hadn't entered the Great Spirit Book Corridor and learned of the Eizō Hall's existence, he wouldn't be nearly as cautious as he was now.
What Higashino hadn't expected, however, was that he would be refused—
By Tokinada Tsunayashiro.
"Why?"
Sitting across from Tokinada, Higashino Shuuichi demanded.
Ever since that ambitious campaign into Hueco Mundo had collapsed before it even began, Tokinada had entered a long period of "cooling off." For more than seven years, he hadn't sought out Higashino Shuuichi even once.
So much so that Shuuichi could no longer read what Tokinada was thinking.
"Because I think it'll be far more interesting if you uncover the truth of this case yourself~"
Higashino froze for a moment.
So it wasn't that Tokinada didn't want to show him—the man had already watched the footage himself.
"I knew this guy had a serious voyeurism problem."
Inwardly, Higashino Shuuichi cursed Tokinada savagely.
Did this bastard not understand how much he hated people keeping him in suspense?
"Interesting? I don't need 'interesting.' I just want this incident resolved as quickly as possible."
Higashino snorted coldly.
But his wishes were destined to go unfulfilled where Tokinada Tsunayashiro was concerned.
Because Tokinada had seen something in that recording that he found very amusing—interesting enough that he thought this incident might become a turning point.
So in the end, Higashino Shuuichi temporarily set aside the other work at hand and mobilized the students of the Hirugetsu Class, sending them to compile the names and detailed information of every person who had mysteriously disappeared from Rukongai and Seireitei in recent years.
At the same time, one day later, he arrived at the very izakaya where Ukitake Zama had spent that last carefree night with his friends.
Because of what Tokinada Tsunayashiro had called "interesting," Higashino Shuuichi had become just a little curious himself.
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