"Welcome to Koizumi Izakaya! Right this way~"
For the residents of Rukongai, death was a perfectly ordinary thing.
All the more so when those Shinigami hadn't died inside the izakaya, but only met their end after leaving. So tonight, the shop was just as lively and noisy as ever.
"Do you have a private room?"
Standing at the entrance, Higashino Shuuichi peered through the gap in the noren curtain into the izakaya, and saw that even though it was still relatively early, the place was already almost full.
That alone said a lot about how popular this izakaya was.
"Uh, I'm really sorry, sir. The only private room we had left for today was booked in advance. I'm afraid we only have seats out in the main hall."
The waiter at the door wore an apologetic expression as he bowed to Higashino.
Since Higashino was out in casual clothes today and not wearing his distinctive captain's haori—and because, as Grand Blade-Hunting Chief, he now lived in Seireitei instead of Rukongai—he scarcely showed himself around here anymore.
It was perfectly normal that the locals didn't recognize him.
Although he wasn't exactly eager to sit in such a noisy environment, Higashino wasn't the type to throw his weight around over nothing.
So he didn't make things difficult for the waiter. He simply stepped inside, found a spot where there weren't too many people nearby, and sat down.
Along the way, he did run into a few Shinigami who recognized him.
But given who he was now, not a single one of them dared come up and greet him of their own accord.
In fact, once he sat down, those Shinigami subtly began to edge farther away.
Higashino noticed all of it.
It told him that Tsunayashiro Kamihara's propaganda campaign was working very well.
Now, throughout the Soul Society—aside from the Hirugetsu Class students who had interacted with him to varying degrees in the past, or otherwise actually understood him—the vast majority of the Gotei 13's Shinigami firmly believed that the Katana-gari-shū he led would one day stand directly opposed to them.
There had been a time when things had started to shift, just a little.
After he defeated Baraggan, public opinion had begun to tilt in his favor—if only slightly.
But once Kisaragi Shūsuke and Matsumoto Rangiku returned and joined the Katana-gari-shū, that small patch of goodwill had immediately gone up in smoke.
"So that's why you agreed so cheerfully back then, isn't it, Tsunayashiro Kamihara?"
Higashino chuckled inwardly, full of scorn.
"What can I get for you, sir?"
Before long, a new, young waitress arrived with a drinks menu in hand. From the faint tremor in her voice, Higashino could tell that she'd already noticed, from the reactions of those around them, that he was not someone to be taken lightly.
Even so, when all her coworkers were too scared to come serve him, she had volunteered to take the job.
Because for the others, this was just a job.
But for her, it was a hard-won opportunity she'd burned who knew how much effort and how many connections to get.
She had to prove herself if she wanted the boss to genuinely keep her on long-term.
"Ice Crystal Bellflower—do you serve that here?"
Higashino didn't reach for the menu she was holding out. Instead, he smiled and asked directly.
It was one of Matsumoto Rangiku's favorite drinks. Back when he still lived in Rukongai, she'd often bring that sake back to drink, so he remembered it clearly.
"Yes, sir! We do have Ice Crystal Bellflower. Besides that, is there anything else you'd like?"
The young waitress bobbed her head rapidly as she replied, not daring to meet his eyes head-on.
She'd already taken a good, careful look at him earlier from the prep area and had thought he didn't seem like such a terrifying Shinigami.
But since her coworkers all spoke of him like some kind of demon out of a novel, she assumed she must have misjudged.
So now, standing in front of him, she was barely breathing at all.
"That's all. Just bring me a cup of that for now~"
Smiling with his eyes, Higashino leaned back slightly. Just as the waitress was about to turn away in relief, he suddenly spoke again:
"Oh, right. Mind if I ask your name?"
"Huh? M-my… name?"
The young waitress was clearly caught off guard by the question.
It wasn't the first time a customer had asked her that, but it felt strange to have this Shinigami—the one her coworkers had described like the devil himself—show any interest in her.
And that… was not necessarily a good thing.
She froze, frowning slightly.
She was hesitating.
Because she had an idiot at home—someone who always went to settle the score with any customer who'd harassed her at the izakaya. Even if the target was a Shinigami, that fool would still charge in without a second thought.
Of course, it never ended well.
And at the moment, said idiot was laid up at home nursing his injuries.
"What's wrong? Is it inconvenient to say?"
Seeing the way she seemed to be struggling with the question, Higashino asked, curious.
"N-no, it's not that, sir. My name is Rukia. Even if I didn't tell you, you could just ask any of the other staff here—they'd all tell you. It's not some kind of secret~"
Rukia hurried to explain, afraid he might get the wrong idea.
Inside, however, she was praying that the blockhead who'd followed her from South Rukongai's 78th District to this First District—Abarai Renji—wouldn't do anything rash if he heard about any of this.
Because the man in front of her was definitely not some "ordinary" Shinigami.
"Rukia, huh… that is a nice name.
Just like another woman I've met—you two have pretty good names. More importantly, you also look a lot alike~"
Leaning back in his chair, Higashino commented casually.
And who was Rukia, really?
In the original story, she'd been the "pseudo-heroine"—countless fans had wanted to see her end up with Kurosaki Ichigo, only to watch the "fated girl from above" lose out to the childhood friend.
More importantly, she had an older sister—Hisana.
Of course, by now, even Higashino had to put the family name "Kuchiki" in front when he referred to that sister.
Because Kuchiki Hisana was the wife of the current Kuchiki clan head, Kuchiki Byakuya.
However, since Hisana was still alive at this point in time, Byakuya hadn't launched a grand search for her lost younger sister yet.
Only after Hisana's health finally failed and she passed away would he, full of remorse over her regrets, set out to find Rukia.
And even then, in the original plot, Byakuya never breathed a word of this secret to the outside world.
All the more so in the current moment.
Right now, Kuchiki Hisana's body was just weak—it hadn't reached the point where she could no longer hold on.
As someone outside the Kuchiki clan, Higashino couldn't afford to act like he already knew Rukia's true identity.
Still, with her showing up here so much earlier than she had in the original story, and in a district so close to Seireitei, he couldn't rule out the possibility that Kuchiki Byakuya—or even Hisana herself—might one day pass through this area and stumble across her.
Especially since Rukia's face was strikingly similar to her sister's.
Yes, in the Soul Society, very few people had seen Hisana's face. Among those, many likely hadn't paid much attention to a mere Rukongai commoner's features. But Higashino was not willing to gamble that there wasn't a single person besides him with such a memory.
Because he'd realized that this might be a peaceful way to draw closer to the Kuchiki clan.
A possibility that hadn't even crossed his mind a few months ago.
But his last conversation with Kyōraku Shunsui had let him glimpse the man's intentions.
Kyōraku wanted to make use of Higashino Shuuichi to eliminate the hidden dangers currently festering in the Soul Society—perhaps even to thoroughly weaken the Tsunayashiro clan's power, then elevate the more "proper" Kuchiki clan in their place.
Higashino, on the other hand, was wondering whether he could use the bridge Kyōraku was trying to build to cultivate good relations with the Kuchiki.
If this had been in the past, when he didn't yet carry the label of "rebel Shinigami," the very idea would've been laughable.
Back then, the Kuchiki head had been Kuchiki Ginrei—an old fossil on par with Yamamoto.
His successor, Kuchiki Sōjun, was milder by temperament, but after a lifetime being tutored by Ginrei, he was just as firm in defending orthodoxy.
But times had changed.
No one could have predicted how quickly things would shift in the Kuchiki clan.
Before Byakuya had even truly faced the harshness of reality, he had somehow ended up taking over as clan head.
If even Kyōraku Shunsui was trying to influence his judgment, why should Higashino think any less of himself?
Guiding someone? He wasn't about to admit that Kyōraku had a monopoly on that art.
He was a repeat offender in that field.
In the new order he envisioned, Higashino Shuuichi knew he would need a network of allies.
After all, there was one thing he and Aizen Sōsuke agreed on completely:
No matter how you reformed it, the framework of the Soul Society could not be utterly shattered.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be "rebuilding order"—it would be forging an entirely new world.
For Higashino, tearing down the existing system would mean spending an enormous amount of time and effort building a new structure and new rules from scratch—he'd rather be dead.
For Aizen, if the Soul Society were completely destroyed, how would he spread his ideals and impose his will on others? Admire himself in the mirror?
Absolutely not.
Watching others submit to his vision and act in accordance with his will—that, too, was one of life's pleasures.
So unless he and Aizen both slipped up and gave lunatics like Tokinada Tsunayashiro or Yhwach a chance to exploit a loophole, Higashino believed it was necessary to secure a few reliable allies in advance.
At the very least, it couldn't hurt.
Naturally, his words had captured Rukia's full attention.
"You said you've met a woman who looks a lot like me?
Is… is her name Hisana?"
She asked, heart pounding.
For as long as she could remember, she'd believed she and her sister had gotten separated in the chaos.
After meeting Abarai Renji and the others and finally settling down for a while, Rukia had never stopped trying to find her sister.
They'd practically interrogated every resident of South Rukongai's 78th District—and even 77th—over and over.
They'd lost no small number of companions along the way… and still, she'd never found a single trace of Hisana.
She had never imagined that today, she'd hear a Shinigami casually mention someone who might be her sister.
"The fact you can say that name… it does seem like there's a connection between you and that lady."
Higashino widened his eyes in a show of surprise.
"It really is Hisana-nee-san? Where is she? Shinigami-dono, can you take me to see her?"
Rukia's composure shattered. She grew even more excited, and without realizing it, she'd switched from calling him "sir" to "Shinigami-dono."
"No. At least, not right now.
There are some things you may not know, so I have to warn you, Rukia-san: your sister's status is just the tiniest bit special—by which I mean extremely special.
Even I can't just go and see her whenever I feel like it."
On this point, Higashino wasn't lying.
No matter what, a Five Great Noble Clan like the Kuchiki had a certain level of prestige that couldn't simply be brushed aside.
Unless Higashino managed to "win" Kabuma Sayako and marry into the Kabuma clan—a fellow member of the Five Great Noble Clans—he had no claim to equal footing with Kuchiki Byakuya.
Even with his current strength and position, he was still little more than a servant in the eyes of those clan heads.
That was the reality of the Soul Society.
And it had been the underlying structure for thousands of years.
"Then… what do I have to do to see my sister?"
Rukia's shoulders drooped slightly as she spoke, afraid it would all turn out to be just a dream.
"Once I finish dealing with the matter at hand, I'll help you try to get in touch.
But whether you'll actually be able to meet her… that's not something I can control~"
Higashino didn't give her any guarantees.
He had no idea whether the Byakuya of this moment in time would accept Rukia's existence.
After all, simply marrying a commoner had already generated enough controversy.
Back then, though, Byakuya hadn't been clan head yet, and given how long Shinigami lived, the nobles had assumed it would be centuries before he succeeded the position. That was the only reason there hadn't been more protests.
Now, Byakuya had already become head of the Kuchiki clan—and only recently at that.
If he pulled the same move again, taking in another commoner as a sister and openly acknowledging her, some of the more wavering nobles might very well defect to the Tsunayashiro camp.
It was something Byakuya had to consider—and something Higashino worried about as well.
For Rukia, at least.
For Higashino himself, simply informing Kuchiki Byakuya about her existence would be enough to accomplish his goal.
All the headaches that came after could be left to Byakuya.
"All right, Shinigami-sama! I'll keep working here at this izakaya! When the time comes, you can just send someone here to find me!"
As a Rukongai commoner, Rukia had never seen real high society. She had no concept of what kind of position her sister now held.
She just assumed that what Higashino had told her was a polite excuse.
And that was fine.
She understood very well that she was just a nobody. For a Shinigami-dono like him to agree to try helping her contact her sister was already a stroke of incredible luck.
She had no right to demand anything more.
"Of course~"
Higashino nodded, then asked with a smile,
"In that case, as a favor in return, could I trouble you to tell me, in full and as accurately as you can…
Do you happen to know that Shinigami who used to come here often—Ukitake Zama?"
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