"Is that really everything you've managed to find out?"
Sitting in the main hall of Koizumi Izakaya, Higashino Shuuichi took a sip of ice crystal bellflower liquor and looked at Rukia across from him.
"Yes, Shuuichi-sama. I just went to ask my co-workers here at the izakaya, and that's all they know as well."
Rukia answered a little timidly.
This was the very first thing Shuuichi had asked her to do after agreeing to help her arrange a meeting with her onee-san, so she had naturally taken it as some sort of test.
And the answer sheet she'd just handed in… was, frankly, terrible.
Aside from knowing that Ukitake Zama was a Shinigami of the Tenth Division, and a lower-rank noble at that, she knew nothing else.
Her colleagues at the izakaya were the same.
For customers like Ukitake Zama and his friends—who neither caused trouble nor had any weird quirks—they really had no particular impression at all.
Let alone prying into information about Ukitake Zama and his group.
But that was exactly what puzzled Higashino Shuuichi.
According to the investigation Kisaragi Shūsuke reported back, Ukitake Zama and those missing friends of his were all like-minded "lying-flat office workers": their daily routine was clock in on time, clock out on time, and aside from meeting up here at this izakaya from time to time, they had no other hobbies to speak of.
If they hadn't provoked someone in this izakaya… then it couldn't possibly be just coincidence that someone set their sights on them, right?
Higashino Shuuichi didn't believe in that kind of thing—because Ukitake Zama had only been killed after he warned the guards at Seireitei's South Gate.
For an unplanned crime, there was absolutely no need to take such a huge risk: striking in a situation where Shinigami could arrive to check things out at any moment, and still insisting on killing Ukitake Zama.
Especially since this was Soul Society, not the World of the Living.
Anyone who had the ability—and the confidence—to kill a Tenth Division officer like Ukitake Zama before the South Gate guards could react, would, in Shuuichi's view, also have the ability to take Ukitake Zama's corpse with them, thus delaying the moment the incident came to light.
Yet the killer had chosen not to do that.
That alone was enough to show that person had their own considerations.
Whatever their purpose might be, one thing was clear: Ukitake Zama and his friends were definitely not randomly targeted.
And yet, judging from Rukia's account, Ukitake Zama and his friends behaved perfectly normal inside the izakaya.
So why had the killer set their sights on Ukitake Zama in the first place?
"Shuuichi-sama, I just remembered—there seem to be a few people here who are friends with that Ukitake Zama. I can go ask them for you!"
Seeing the troubled look on Higashino's face, Rukia thought he was hinting that she hadn't worked hard enough. After straining her memory for a bit, she quickly volunteered.
"He has other friends here?"
Higashino asked.
That was a piece of information he hadn't grasped yet.
Weren't Ukitake Zama and his buddies supposed to all be introverts?
And they still managed to make new friends in a place like this?
After hearing Rukia's explanation, the corner of Higashino Shuuichi's mouth twitched slightly.
No, Rukia… that's really not how you define a 'friend'.
Just because you exchange a sentence or two with a stranger doesn't make them a friend.
Shuuichi felt a bit overwhelmed.
Going by the timeline, Rukia shouldn't be that young anymore—at least in her tens or twenties, right?
Just because she was still a "kid" compared to the long lifespan of Shinigami didn't mean she had to be a clueless little girl in every sense…
Forget it. Shuuichi didn't plan on dampening her enthusiasm; he might as well let her try.
In truth, if he really wanted to handle this cleanly, all Higashino Shuuichi had to do was produce an alibi for Matsumoto Rangiku, Kisaragi Shūsuke and Nagasawa Satomi for the time of the incident.
Under Soul Society's current legal framework, proving innocence was actually very simple, and the vast majority of people would accept it without ever probing too deeply into whether it truly made sense.
But Tokinada Tsunayashiro's attitude made Higashino feel there was something fishy here.
No matter how little he thought of Tokinada Tsunayashiro as a person, Shuuichi still had to admit the man's eye for interesting things was… decent.
So Higashino Shuuichi stood up, deciding there was no point wasting more time in this izakaya.
If there was something he couldn't figure out for the moment, he wouldn't force it.
It wasn't like he had some obsessive need to personally handle everything.
He could just go find Aizen Sōsuke and throw the matter at him. That worked too.
As for Rukia, there was no need to wait around for her to finish her questions.
From her description alone, Shuuichi already knew those "friends" were just a bunch of strangers who'd exchanged a few words with Ukitake Zama.
What useful information could you possibly squeeze out of people like that?
Higashino Shuuichi planned to tell the other servers at the izakaya to inform Rukia later that he'd left.
But just as he arrived at the door and reached out to pull aside the curtain, the door of a private room in the corner happened to slide open.
Rukia backed out, bowing and apologizing as she did so.
Of course, that wasn't the important part.
The important part was that, just as her body shifted aside, Higashino Shuuichi caught sight of a familiar figure inside—one that really shouldn't have been here.
Why is he here?*
Shuuichi frowned inwardly.
He slowly drew back the hand that had been about to push the curtain aside.
What was the best way to solve a puzzle?
Higashino Shuuichi's answer: face it head-on.
So he walked straight toward that private room.
"Shuuichi-sama? What are you… ah? N-no, you can't, Shuuichi-sama! That room has already been reserved by that guest…"
Seeing him head over, Rukia first stared in surprise.
When she realized Shuuichi was ignoring her entirely and aiming straight for that private room, she panicked and rushed to stop him.
Letting another guest barge into a private room—if that led to a fight, her job at this izakaya would be as good as gone.
But how could Rukia possibly be faster than Higashino Shuuichi?
"There were no seats left outside, and I happened to see you still had plenty of space in here, so I took the liberty of coming in.
You wouldn't mind, would you, Captain Ichimaru~?"
Higashino Shuuichi sat down directly opposite the silver-haired man in the room and smiled as he spoke.
"Of course I don't mind. In fact, that seat was reserved just for you, Shuuichi, Grand Blade-Hunting Chief~"
Ichimaru Gin seemed not the slightest bit surprised by Shuuichi's arrival.
His foxlike eyes remained narrowed, the same snake-like smile curling on his lips as always.
Out at the doorway, Rukia—who'd been just about to apologize for Higashino Shuuichi barging in—went completely numb the moment she heard how the two addressed each other.
She was no longer the ignorant little girl scraping by in District 78.
After nearly a year in South Rukongai's District 1 with Abarai Renji, Rukia was now very clear on the existence of Shinigami—and even clearer on what the word "Captain" meant in Soul Society and among Shinigami.
Not just anyone could be called a Captain.
As for "Grand Blade-Hunting Chief", that needed no explanation at all.
Thanks to the Tsunayashiro clan's tireless propaganda since Higashino Shuuichi returned, who in Soul Society didn't know that within Seireitei there was a Katana-gari-shū that didn't get along with the Gotei 13?
Rukia had even heard that plenty of big-time thugs from the four outermost Rukongai districts were shouting about wanting to join the Katana-gari-shū just so they could pick fights with the Gotei 13 Shinigami.
As the commander of the Katana-gari-shū, the title of Grand Blade-Hunting Chief was hardly something just anyone could claim.
And now—what had Rukia just heard?
She didn't even need a reminder from Higashino Shuuichi; she immediately slammed the door shut.
"This has to be a dream. Yes, I must be dreaming.
Otherwise, how could my sister, who's been missing for so long, suddenly have news right now?
And how could a Captain-class big shot of the Gotei 13 and the famous Grand Blade-Hunting Chief of the Katana-gari-shū both show up in the tiny little izakaya where I work?"
Leaning back against the door, one hand pressed to the flat chest that felt like it was about to seize up, Rukia muttered under her breath.
But judging from the way her body trembled, even she didn't believe the lie she'd just told herself.
"So what was I doing just now…?
Worrying on behalf of some Captain-class Shinigami big shot?"
Rukia felt that even if she went home after work and repeated everything that happened tonight word for word to Renji, he might still not believe her.
But she soon realized her worries might not be unnecessary after all.
Hadn't everyone been saying that the Katana-gari-shū existed specifically to oppose the Gotei 13?
So if the boss of the Katana-gari-shū and a Gotei 13 Captain were meeting alone… what kind of sparks would fly between them?
Rukia swallowed hard.
With her poor imagination, she really couldn't picture it.
In the worst-case scenario, they might just flatten the entire izakaya.
No matter how stormy it was outside that door, the air inside the room remained thick and strange from the very moment Higashino Shuuichi sat down and Rukia closed it.
"Reserved for me, huh? I'll… choose to believe that for now~
Then may I ask you a question, Captain Ichimaru?
How did you know I was coming? We didn't make any prior arrangements, did we?"
Higashino Shuuichi set an empty cup in front of himself as he spoke.
"Then perhaps you shouldn't believe it, Shuuichi, Grand Blade-Hunting Chief.
But having you to share a drink with—that's my honor. At the very least, we can take this as the start of clearing up the misunderstandings between us, no?"
Ichimaru Gin answered as he obligingly poured Shuuichi half a cup.
A few months ago, he'd already patched up his story in front of Higashino Shuuichi through a carefully laid scheme, smoothing over what had happened back then.
But even that day, Shuuichi had only shown a hint of softening in front of the other Captains. He'd never made any further promises, much less taken the initiative to fully make peace with Ichimaru Gin.
So in that sense, there was indeed a sliver of sincerity in what Gin had just said.
Only a sliver, though.
At the very least, from Ichimaru Gin's tone, Higashino Shuuichi couldn't hear the slightest genuine desire to reconcile.
Back then, Gin had done all that solely to make it easier for him to ask about Matsumoto Rangiku later.
Now that Rangiku had already returned, whether the "misunderstanding" between him and Shuuichi was cleared up or not had become irrelevant.
"Misunderstanding?
Is there a misunderstanding between us?"
Higashino Shuuichi replied with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
In the current context, that sentence could be interpreted in two completely opposite ways.
One: Shuuichi had accepted Gin's explanation from that day, believed that Gin had been framed, and was now using these words to give both of them a way down—signaling that they'd finally put their grudges to rest.
Two: Shuuichi hadn't believed a single word of Gin's story. That day's performance hadn't swayed him at all; he still firmly believed Ichimaru Gin was the main culprit back then.
In that case, there was no "misunderstanding" between them—only genuine enmity.
How to interpret it was a choice Higashino Shuuichi had tossed into Ichimaru Gin's hands.
"Mmm. Tasty~ This is ice crystal bellflower, right?"
Shuuichi took a small sip and let out a sigh of appreciation.
"Yes, it's ice crystal bellflower.
Speaking of which, Shuuichi, Grand Blade-Hunting Chief—you came here to investigate the noble murder case from two days ago, didn't you?"
Ichimaru Gin was no fool.
He knew this was a question he absolutely could not answer.
Before Shuuichi had clearly laid out his stance, any answer Gin gave would only put himself at a disadvantage.
So he chose to change the subject.
It was just that his method of changing the subject was ever so slightly clumsy.
Fortunately, Higashino Shuuichi had "professional training".
"Otherwise what?
You think I'd suddenly visit some random izakaya in Rukongai for fun?
I mean, I guess I could be like you."
Higashino kept pulling at the thread.
Ichimaru Gin, however, acted as though he hadn't heard the jab.
"In that case, I have a bit of… modest information I've gathered here.
I hope it can be of use to you, Shuuichi, Grand Blade-Hunting Chief.
Let that be my answer—how about it?"
Higashino Shuuichi glanced at the small notebook Gin handed over.
On its pages were various notes written in Gin's own hand—it was impossible to have forged all this at the last minute.
So Gin had also been investigating this izakaya?
Now that was interesting.
If there was anyone whose status Higashino Shuuichi understood, it was Ichimaru Gin.
For Gin to personally investigate something like this, there were only two possibilities:
Either Aizen had ordered him to,
Or the izakaya itself had some connection to Aizen.
Given that Gin's long-standing principle was to personally kill Aizen one day, even if this situation fit Aizen's style, Shuuichi instinctively ruled out the second option.
If the matter really were directly tied to Aizen, there was no way Ichimaru Gin would be this generous in sharing information.
Which made the answer pretty obvious:
Aizen Sōsuke had sent Gin to investigate.
What on earth had happened here to draw even Aizen's attention?
Higashino Shuuichi realized that, sure enough, things behind this case were far from simple.
No wonder even Tokinada Tsunayashiro—who had likely already seen some of what truly happened via the Eizō Hall—found it "interesting".
Shuuichi felt that, tonight, he had to find a way to meet with Aizen.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to sleep easy.
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