The tray slipped from Kuchiki Hisana's hands.
Higashino Shuuichi reacted instantly, catching it with one hand and preventing an accident.
"Grand Blade-Hunting Chief Shuuichi… you just said you'd met a girl who looks a lot like me, and who claimed to be my younger sister?"
Kuchiki Hisana's eyes were filled with both joy and guilt.
"Saying she 'claimed' it might be a bit of an exaggeration. When she described it to me, she used words like 'maybe' and 'probably' more than anything. It's just that I felt the girl who called herself Rukia looked so much like you, Kuchiki-fujin, that she most likely wasn't lying."
Higashino Shuuichi set the tray down steadily on the table in front of him, and in doing so, he also caught a flicker of surprise in Kuchiki Byakuya's eyes.
Clearly, at this point, Kuchiki Byakuya already knew about Hisana's sister—and it was very likely that Kuchiki Hisana had already asked Kuchiki Byakuya to help search for her.
"Rukia… Grand Blade-Hunting Chief Shuuichi, that's right, that's right! She must be my little sister, Rukia!"
"That's wonderful… it's truly wonderful!"
Kuchiki Hisana clasped her hands together, delighted. Even though she hadn't met the girl, the name, the appearance, and that kind of personality—Kuchiki Hisana felt that even if you searched all of Soul Society, you wouldn't find a second "Rukia."
What's more, the man in front of her—Grand Blade-Hunting Chief Higashino Shuuichi—couldn't possibly have known she even had a younger sister. After all, she had only ever mentioned it to her husband, Kuchiki Byakuya.
So Higashino Shuuichi couldn't be deceiving her.
However, the change in Higashino Shuuichi's expression a moment later made the heat in Kuchiki Hisana's heart drop by half.
Because Higashino Shuuichi turned his head away, as if he didn't want to face her—while in the courtyard's quiet, she could even hear a faint sigh from him.
"W-what is it, Grand Blade-Hunting Chief Shuuichi?"
"It can't be…"
Kuchiki Hisana held her breath. In her mind, countless explanations flashed by—among them, the worst: that her little sister had died long ago, and that the Grand Blade-Hunting Chief had met her sister a long time in the past.
And that was the outcome Kuchiki Hisana least wanted to face.
Fortunately, reality wasn't that cruel. Higashino Shuuichi was simply lamenting—
"So she really is your sister, Kuchiki-fujin… I should've been sure earlier. In Soul Society, two people who resemble each other this closely truly are rare."
"That little girl, Rukia, being your sister is the most natural possibility there is."
But…
"'But' what?" This time, even Kuchiki Byakuya got a little impatient. How had he never realized Higashino Shuuichi could be this maddeningly slow when he spoke? He wasn't like this at all—especially not just a moment ago!
"It's just that the Rukia of today is only an employee at an ordinary izakaya in South Rukongai District 1. Her status is that of a mere Rukongai commoner. I even heard she didn't pass the basic Shinigami knowledge screening."
"I've been busy with Yamada Seinosuke's sōtaichō succession matters lately, so I've rarely paid attention over there. Back then I promised that little girl I'd give her an answer as soon as possible… but if I count it up, it's been nearly a month already."
"I don't even know whether that little Rukia is still working at that Koizumi Izakaya in South Rukongai."
Of course, Higashino Shuuichi wasn't telling the whole truth—he had been keeping tabs on Rukia's movements the entire time.
But back then, as the Grand Blade-Hunting Chief of the Katana-gari-shū, his stance was naturally incompatible with the Kuchiki Clan's. Even if he "pretended" to be Kyōraku Shunsui's undercover man, the dignity of a Grand Blade-Hunting Chief still had to be maintained.
Proactively going to the Kuchiki estate over something like this would only make him look cheap—and for Higashino Shuuichi, it offered almost no practical benefit.
And if he tried to use it as an excuse to cozy up to the Kuchiki Clan—or to Kyōraku Shunsui—it would only lower his image in Kuchiki Byakuya and Kyōraku Shunsui's eyes.
That was unacceptable.
So Higashino Shuuichi had to grasp the right "degree" of involvement: he couldn't look overly enthusiastic, but he also couldn't look useless.
With an attitude of casual indifference, passing along a few key pieces of information—he could easily achieve what he wanted.
Like a hunter: the best way to hunt is often to disguise yourself as prey.
Higashino Shuuichi succeeded. Kuchiki Hisana and Kuchiki Byakuya took the bait.
Before he'd even finished speaking, the two of them separately apologized to Higashino Shuuichi and Kyōraku Shunsui, then hurriedly left first.
Finding Kuchiki Hisana's biological sister—Kuchiki Rukia—was, for both Kuchiki Hisana and Kuchiki Byakuya, an immeasurably significant matter.
Kuchiki Hisana wanted to make up for a mistake she'd once made—she regretted abandoning her little sister, Rukia, when she was still young, simply to survive.
And Kuchiki Byakuya wanted to make up for the sacrifice Kuchiki Hisana had made for his sake.
As a Rukongai commoner—one with so little reiatsu (spiritual pressure) aptitude that even becoming a Shinigami was difficult—Kuchiki Hisana merely living long-term within the Kuchiki estate, where the spiritual environment was oppressively dense, was already a heavy burden on her body.
Yet she had no choice but to endure it.
The Kuchiki Clan was one of the Five Great Noble Clans—one of the few remaining in Seireitei that could still contend with the Tsunayashiro Clan's power. The Kuchiki had to set the example and take the lead. As the wife of the current head, Kuchiki Hisana was even less able to move out on her own and choose to live elsewhere.
So in truth, both Kuchiki Byakuya and Kuchiki Hisana understood: Hisana's health was worsening by the day. Any day now, it might collapse entirely.
Fulfilling his wife's wish might be one of the few compensations Kuchiki Byakuya, as clan head, could still give her.
After the Kuchiki couple left, Kyōraku Shunsui lightly spun a finger around the rim of the empty teacup in front of him.
"Shuuichi… did you really stop paying attention to that girl called Rukia?"
What Kyōraku Shunsui asked was a question—but what it sounded like in Higashino Shuuichi's ears was a statement.
"This is, after all, the private business of the current head of the Kuchiki Clan. For an outsider like me to know even this much is already bordering on 'knowing too much.' Anything beyond that would be something I shouldn't know."
"Besides, using this method to cut off excessive contact between me and the Kuchiki Clan… I think that's something you'd prefer to see too, Shunsui, wouldn't you?"
Higashino Shuuichi took the newly prepared pot of tea from the fresh tray and poured himself a little under half a cup.
"What are you talking about, Shuuichi? If you can be on good terms with the Kuchiki Clan, I'm happy about it. Why would you think I'd feel that way?"
Kyōraku Shunsui stopped spinning his finger, letting Higashino Shuuichi pour him half a cup as well.
"Then… maybe I overthought it."
"Still, I really don't want any more entanglement with the Kuchiki Clan. Among Soul Society's Five Great Noble Clans, I've already provoked four of them."
"The Kabuma clan is the easiest. Sayako's been coming over to my place a lot lately—sometimes she even takes a short rest there for the night."
"As for the rest—the Tsunayashiro Clan, the Shiba Clan, and the Shihōin Clan—none of them are easy to deal with."
"If I add the Kuchiki Clan on top of that, my head's going to explode!"
"Sayako," "rest," "for the night"…?
Catching the keywords, Kyōraku Shunsui's eye twitched slightly. But habits forged over centuries kept him from losing his composure in front of Higashino Shuuichi.
For Kyōraku Shunsui—who had long suspected as much—it wasn't particularly shocking. At most, it simply confirmed a few of his past guesses.
But what about the Shiba Clan and the Shihōin Clan? What was that about?
Had he been too lenient with Higashino Shuuichi just to keep the Tsunayashiro Clan from getting suspicious?
"I know about the Kabuma clan and the Tsunayashiro Clan," Kyōraku Shunsui said. "But the Shiba Clan and the Shihōin Clan—what do they have to do with you?"
He lifted his teacup, intending to clink cups with Higashino Shuuichi—only to realize the other man had no intention of clinking with him at all. A bit awkward, Kyōraku Shunsui thought silently: wasn't clinking cups something Higashino Shuuichi himself had popularized?
"Eh? Shunsui, you didn't know?"
"Back when the former ruler of Hueco Mundo, Baraggan, invaded Soul Society, the Shiba Clan head died tragically. And the current Shiba Clan head, Shiba Kaien's younger sister, Shiba KūKaku, almost got killed by Arrancar too."
"Thanks to me arriving in time, she survived."
As Higashino Shuuichi spoke, Kyōraku Shunsui's expression shifted through light and shadow.
Luckily, that Shiba KūKaku wasn't the Shiba Clan head—otherwise, wouldn't Higashino Shuuichi have casually "captured" two of the Five Great Noble Clans?
Even if those two clans had little influence and almost no voice within Seireitei… they were still among the Five Great Noble Clans.
Since when was the "pretty-boy tactic" this effective?
Kyōraku Shunsui thought about the Five Great Noble Clans for a moment, and it seemed that only the Tsunayashiro main house still had unmarried women left.
But the Tsunayashiro Clan…
Forget it. A "pretty-boy tactic" was clearly destined to have nothing to do with a handsome man like him~.
Kyōraku Shunsui couldn't help feeling a little regretful… and maybe even a bit envious.
Meanwhile, Higashino Shuuichi had already moved from the Shiba Clan to the Shihōin Clan.
In truth, Higashino Shuuichi's ties to the Shihōin Clan weren't that deep. The connection mostly ran through the secret dealings of the Second Division taichō, Soi Fon.
The current Shihōin Clan head, Shihōin Yūshirō Sakimune, wanted to clear his elder sister's name. He firmly believed that the taichō and fukutaichō who had been forced to the World of the Living back then alongside his sister and Urahara Kisuke had all been framed.
Because of that, he placed a level of trust in Higashino Shuuichi that even Higashino Shuuichi himself found a bit unbelievable.
Part of the reason Higashino Shuuichi had dared to ignore Tsunayashiro Kamihara's orders—returning from Hueco Mundo and going straight to confront Baraggan anyway—was precisely because Shihōin Yūshirō Sakimune and the Shihōin-aligned noble faction supported him unconditionally.
Shihōin Yūshirō Sakimune always believed that everything Higashino Shuuichi did was in service of one future outcome: Shihōin Yoruichi returning to Soul Society.
And now, the successful return of Kisaragi Shūsuke and Matsumoto Rangiku was ironclad proof.
But these were things Higashino Shuuichi couldn't spell out to Kyōraku Shunsui—so he only touched on them lightly.
Only at the very end did Higashino Shuuichi set his teacup down and look at Kyōraku Shunsui.
"By the way, there's also something I'd like to ask you for, Kyōraku-taichō."
"In the Shiba main house, there's a not-very-promising little brat named Shiba Ganju. His Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, and Kidō aren't anything special, but I've looked him over—he's barely passable."
"Letting him keep causing trouble in Rukongai isn't a solution either. Could you use a bit of your taichō authority and have him transferred into the Tenth Division?"
After saying that, Higashino Shuuichi thought for a moment—then felt he understood what Kyōraku Shunsui had been trying to do earlier. He raised his cup and lightly clinked it against Kyōraku Shunsui's.
Tea didn't need clinking—only alcohol did—but maybe this was Kyōraku Shunsui's particular quirk?
Higashino Shuuichi was a little confused. He truly didn't know—he didn't drink tea with Kyōraku Shunsui often. But cooperating wouldn't kill him!
On the other side, Kyōraku Shunsui clearly paused for a beat, but he didn't take it too seriously.
"You came to me on purpose because Shiba Kaien can't bring himself to lower his face as the head of one of the Five Great Noble Clans, right?"
"And for the same reason, they also won't go to the head of the branch family, Shiba Isshin, to ask."
"Yeah… this kind of thing really is better done by an outsider like me."
"So, Shuuichi—sometimes, outsiders are more suited to getting things done."
Kyōraku Shunsui guessed the reason behind Higashino Shuuichi's request immediately, and left him with that meaningful line as a bonus.
Between the two of them, some things didn't need to be said outright.
Understanding was enough.
And with that, the night was still long.
Since sleep was clearly out of the question anyway, Higashino Shuuichi and Kyōraku Shunsui continued their night talk—chatting about everything under the sun, about romance and the seasons—like two kindred, like-minded drinking buddies.
Until the next morning, when dawn's first light broke.
Standing by the pond, Kyōraku Shunsui looked into the sunlight.
"Do you know, Shuuichi… if you hadn't been born only a little over three hundred years ago, but earlier—back in that glorious era—if you'd been my classmate… maybe we could've been very good friends."
Higashino Shuuichi sat atop the artificial rock beside him, one leg hanging down, looking at the pale fish-belly white of the horizon, and smiled.
"Aren't we good friends right now?"
Kyōraku Shunsui turned his head. Under the sunlight, Higashino Shuuichi's outline at that moment was oddly hard to grasp—almost unreal, almost illusory.
"Yeah… good friends."
No one knew what Kyōraku Shunsui was thinking as he said those words—just as no one knew what Higashino Shuuichi was thinking at that moment.
But at the very least, someone would know where Higashino Shuuichi went after leaving the Kuchiki estate.
The Tsunayashiro Clan.
And yet—this Tsunayashiro Clan was not that Tsunayashiro Clan.
Because it was a Tsunayashiro branch house, and a certain special person lived here.
"What a rare guest~"
The man looked at Higashino Shuuichi and wore that familiar, sinister smile.
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