By the time Higashino Shuuichi left Koizumi Izakaya, it was already late at night.
The Shinigami in the main hall had long since gone.
Only a few Rukongai commoners, drunk out of their minds, still sat at their tables, shouting nonsense at no one in particular.
Rukia was already off work. The izakaya's owner seemed to have realized something and was now treating both Higashino Shuuichi and the casually dressed Ichimaru Gin with extreme deference.
He didn't even let the two of them pay for their drinks.
Watching Ichimaru Gin walk off alone in the direction of Seireitei, Higashino Shuuichi paused for a moment, then turned and headed off in a different direction.
The big-shot thugs in South Rukongai wanted to join the Katana-gari-shū.
As the Grand Blade-Hunting Chief, Higashino Shuuichi had both the responsibility and the obligation to investigate those people's strength, backgrounds—and their loyalty.
That would be his official answer, no matter who asked later.
But clearly, tonight—and even tomorrow—not a single one of those South Rukongai "big villains" would pass his inspection.
Because an Arrancar had attacked them, and Higashino Shuuichi had very naturally treated that incident as their entrance exam.
The problem was, those so-called big villains truly let him down—none of them even managed to survive that one Arrancar.
"So you're saying that lately, it's not just in Soul Society that Shinigami have been getting killed again and again—Hueco Mundo is having similar incidents too?"
Standing in the newly rebuilt Las Noches, Higashino Shuuichi looked at Aizen as he spoke.
Outside the chamber, Espada No. 2, Tier Harribel, and her three Fracción were standing guard, ensuring no uninvited guests wandered in.
"It's only some minor Gillian that have been killed, nothing worth putting on the stage… but for Hueco Mundo in its current state, it's not a small loss."
Aizen nodded as he flipped through the re-copied dossier Higashino Shuuichi had handed him—the one based on the information Ichimaru Gin had compiled.
It was indeed Aizen who had instructed Gin to investigate this matter.
Seven years ago, in order to test Higashino Shuuichi's true worth, give him a lavish "gift", and at the same time reorganize all of Hueco Mundo into a force more obedient to his arrangements, Aizen had personally designed a plan that wiped out nearly half of Hueco Mundo's battle strength.
To pull that off, he had even opened a killing spree in Soul Society, barely maintaining the balance between the two sides.
Because of that, now that Hueco Mundo was slowly recovering, even Gillian that had once been "too low-class to bother mentioning" had become especially important.
The unexplained disappearance of a few Gillian was enough to draw Aizen's attention.
And after a period of investigation by Ichimaru Gin, they finally locked their target onto that inconspicuous izakaya in Rukongai.
Only now, it seemed that this izakaya really wasn't as simple as the residents of Soul Society imagined.
"An izakaya that's been open for not even seven years, yet its popularity in South Rukongai's First District already far surpasses those old shops that have been operating for hundreds of years—does that sound reasonable to you?"
Aizen gave a cold little snort as he read.
"Whether it's reasonable or not is secondary. The main issue is this izakaya's discount policy.
Any Shinigami who's shed blood for Soul Society, as long as they can prove it, can drink as much as they want here for just one kan—one unit of Soul Society currency.
How is that any different from free?"
Higashino Shuuichi pointed out the thing that felt most wrong to him.
In the World of the Living, people would probably call this "patriotism".
In Soul Society, however, Higashino Shuuichi preferred to describe it as "shady as hell"—either a crook or a schemer, take your pick.
How many Shinigami had bled for Soul Society?
He'd never counted. But in this world—one he'd already meddled in deeply—even if it wasn't eight in ten, at least half of all Shinigami qualified, right?
On top of that, in order to distinguish the level of contribution among these people, Koizumi Izakaya had thoughtfully implemented a "years" system and a "number of times" system.
The earlier you shed blood for Soul Society, or the more often you did so, the better the perks.
Some got newly brewed drinks named just for them. Others could, each time, pack away a bundle of liquor of equivalent value from Koizumi Izakaya to take home.
All of this… still only cost one kan.
Which is to say: basically free.
If not for the fact that there actually weren't that many truly heavy-drinking Shinigami—and most people only came to see what the fuss was about—Higashino Shuuichi would have had no idea how deep the izakaya owner's pockets had to be to burn money like this.
Putting these suspicions together with everything else about Koizumi Izakaya, Higashino Shuuichi had reason to suspect that all these "conditions" existed to precisely lock onto a specific group of people.
The group the culprit wanted was almost certainly contained within one—or a few—of the tiers the izakaya had carved out.
In other words, as long as he could find out which benefit bracket Ukitake Zama and the others belonged to, Higashino Shuuichi could follow the thread and discover what they had in common—and why they'd been targeted.
The good news was that, for a Shinigami of Higashino Shuuichi's standing, obtaining that information was no difficult task.
The bad news was that the scope was rather wide.
They were all a bunch of "lucky ones" who had already been shining brightly in the Gotei 13 long before Higashino Shuuichi ever defected to the World of the Living.
"So you've only seen that much, Shuuichi?"
After listening to his analysis, Aizen closed the file in his hand and turned his gaze toward the new throne Szayel Aporro had specially crafted for him.
People were always dazzled by whatever was right in front of them, losing the chance to step back and see the whole picture.
Higashino Shuuichi often displayed exceptional insight, easily counted among the very top of all Shinigami.
Even so, Aizen found that Higashino Shuuichi still made this kind of mistake.
But that was fine.
At the very least, it meant he could still maintain his usual aura of superiority in front of Higashino Shuuichi.
What Aizen didn't know was that, after learning the real reason Ichimaru Gin had gone to investigate Koizumi Izakaya, Higashino Shuuichi had already faintly pieced together part of the truth.
He just couldn't show himself to be too clever in front of Aizen.
He had to leave Aizen some room to "perform".
Otherwise, dragging him out here on short notice in the middle of the night and then not giving him a chance to act cool—Higashino Shuuichi felt that even if Aizen never said anything, he'd definitely write a heavy, black mark next to Shuuichi's name in his little mental notebook.
And times were different now.
Back when Ichimaru Gin hadn't yet joined Aizen's camp, Higashino Shuuichi could still maintain their relationship by visiting often, strengthening the bonds between the two of them.
Now, because of their respective identities—and with Ichimaru Gin wedged between them—it had become extremely troublesome for Higashino Shuuichi to see Aizen at all.
To the point that, unless there was some major incident, they simply wouldn't meet.
For ordinary matters, they communicated using special methods.
Because of that, even though something huge had been happening lately in Hueco Mundo, if not for running into Ichimaru Gin by chance, Higashino Shuuichi wouldn't have caught wind of anything at all.
"Is there something I've missed, Aizen-sama?"
Higashino Shuuichi furrowed his brow and put on a suitably puzzled expression.
Very good.
That was Aizen's evaluation of his expression in that moment.
Higashino Shuuichi was still, as always, not very good at these non-combat subtleties.
That fit perfectly with the stereotype Aizen had of him.
Not that he minded. In fact, he quite enjoyed "training" and advising a Higashino Shuuichi like this.
"Gin didn't write this part in the dossier, but Shuuichi, you should still be able to see why, even though he already locked onto that izakaya, he never locked onto any specific suspect."
Higashino Shuuichi deliberately put on a sudden look of realization.
"Aizen-sama, you mean Gin tracked the culprit all the way to that izakaya… and then lost the trail there—is that it?"
"To be precise, he wasn't tracking the culprit.
He was tracking the Gillian that had been captured.
We'd put markers on all of them, yet they still disappeared in that place.
Do you know what that implies, Shuuichi?"
"It implies that either the person responsible has some way of detecting and erasing the marks you personally set, Aizen-sama…
Or he used some method to completely hide those Gillian."
That had been Higashino Shuuichi's original deduction.
He hadn't really thought of it as a multiple-choice question, either—he had already discarded the first option entirely.
After all, if someone truly had the ability to erase the marks Aizen had painstakingly laid down, that person might as well stop doing cheap, petty, shady things.
He could just pick any Captain of the Gotei 13 and take them out.
Higashino Shuuichi was absolutely sure they'd have that level of power.
As for the one remaining option, he also had his own guess.
Extra-dimensional space.
A few decades ago, that term might still have sounded exotic.
But ever since Higashino Shuuichi brought back that gemstone from the West Administration and tossed it to Urahara Kisuke and Kurotsuchi Mayuri for joint research, extra-dimensional spaces had become far less distant and mysterious for many Shinigami.
Rumor had it that nowadays even some Thirteenth Division Shinigami, when carrying out assignments in the World of the Living, could deploy a small extra-dimensional space—preventing their battles with Hollows from causing heavy collateral damage to the human world.
However, all use of such spaces through that channel was recorded in detail within the Gotei 13.
Even the Five Great Noble Clans—such as the Tsunayashiro family that was currently basking in its own glory—were, at least in principle, required to submit applications to First Division if they wanted to use extra-dimensional spaces.
Whether Kurotsuchi Mayuri could withstand pressure from the Tsunayashiro family in private was another question entirely.
So… was the Tsunayashiro clan really the mastermind behind this?
Higashino Shuuichi thought it over carefully.
If this were aimed solely at him, it would indeed look like just the sort of thing the Tsunayashiro family would pull.
After all, giving him sweet fruit with one hand while constantly throwing mud at the Katana-gari-shū with the other had always been one of their long-term basic strategies.
Their goal was to make sure there was no room at all for any reconciliation between Higashino Shuuichi and the Gotei 13, forcing him to be tightly bound to the Tsunayashiro clan.
But this matter didn't only involve Higashino Shuuichi.
From the Tsunayashiro clan's perspective, there was absolutely no need at this moment to go looking for trouble with a bunch of madmen from Hueco Mundo.
So Higashino Shuuichi looked back at Aizen, hoping to get more information from him.
Aizen, who had already been planning to give him a few pointers, had no intention of hiding much on this topic.
"Even when space is used to hide something, there will still be traces of reiatsu left behind.
Yet Gin found nothing of the sort anywhere in or around that izakaya.
So I had Tōsen check the Twelfth Division's recent product distribution logs.
There was nothing abnormal in them at all."
Aizen paused there on purpose, clearly leaving some room for Higashino Shuuichi to "perform".
Higashino Shuuichi understood Aizen's intention.
In this Soul Society, aside from the group of Shinigami closely tied to Aizen and Higashino Shuuichi, attempting to do anything related to space manipulation without the Twelfth Division's help was practically impossible.
So… was the Tsunayashiro clan really the culprit after all?
Right now, all the evidence did seem to indicate that the family was ultimately backing the entire incident from the shadows.
But watching the faint, elusive smile at the corner of Aizen's mouth, Higashino Shuuichi suddenly realized something.
The two of them had been talking this whole time about extra-dimensional spaces—about the new application types that Kurotsuchi Mayuri had created for them, about their official uses.
Yet they had subconsciously overlooked one simple fact.
The ability to create extra-dimensional spaces didn't exist only within the Twelfth Division.
Plenty of spatial tools with different effects—tools that had already been developed and were now subject to strict secrecy—were also in the hands of forces stationed in other realms and hidden domains.
And then there were the high-end combatants who had helped shape the current balance of spatial power in Soul Society—the true "original shareholders".
Like that special gemstone Higashino Shuuichi had intercepted from an enemy of the West Administration.
When Higashino Shuuichi had been preparing to flee to the World of the Living with Urahara Kisuke and the others, he'd chosen not to bring that gemstone along.
Instead, he'd left it with Fourth Division's Captain, Unohana Retsu.
Later, even after Higashino Shuuichi had returned to Soul Society through legitimate means, he never tried to retrieve that gem.
He chose to let it remain with Unohana.
And even so, he'd never once seen Unohana wear that gemstone on her person.
By that point in time, the minor benefits the gem could provide no longer interested him.
Even if he needed to set up an extra-dimensional space for some special operation, he had more than enough abilities and tools to choose from.
There was absolutely no need for him to keep that gem for himself.
So that gemstone should still be with Unohana Retsu now… right?
With that question in mind, Higashino Shuuichi felt as though he had already caught a glimpse of his own future.
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