"You want to overturn the verdict on Sui Feng from before? You do know the ones who accused her were me and Kukaku, right?", Rosse frowned slightly and raised his head to look at Yoruichi in a strange way.
When it came to Sui Feng, he could understand Yoruichi wanting to do something.
But going to Kyoraku Shunsui or Ukitake Jushiro would have been the proper solution. Even going to the Kuchiki clan would make more sense than coming to them.
After all, Sui Feng had fallen by his hand. He was the one who personally sent her into prison.
That was something the entire Soul Society knew. He did not believe Yoruichi did not know it.
"Precisely because it was you who sent her in," Yoruichi pressed her lips into a thin line. A rare, almost humiliated flush rose on her face. Her voice was so low it was almost inaudible, yet every word was full of pleading, "So only you can prove her innocence."
Yoruichi pursed her lips, a rare hint of redness appearing on her face.
Even for her, saying this was rather awkward.
Sui Feng breaking into the Shiba residence at night and even activating Bankai there was something she also knew Sui Feng had done wrong.
But the dead were already gone, and that century long bond forced her to lower her head for this.
At this moment, she could only place her hopes on Rosse and Kukaku, hoping they could set aside that grudge.
If the situation were not so awkward and so thorny, how could she have agreed to Shiba Kukaku's almost humiliating request?
"Being so wishy washy, that does not look like you, Yoruichi," Shiba Kukaku's voice came from beside Rosse, calm without the slightest ripple. She expressionlessly lifted her tea and took a light sip, as if she did not care at all who was still half kneeling on the ground.
However, the icy anger in her heart was already starting to burn fiercely.
Yoruichi and Sui Feng were indeed close, but what about her and Yoruichi?
Could their many years of friendship really not compare to a convicted dead person?
Sui Feng did not know Yoruichi's whereabouts, but she did.
She knew where Yoruichi was hiding in the Human World, knew her movements over the years.
Even so, she had never gone to disturb her, only silently guarding Soul Society's news for Yoruichi.
Every time Yoruichi needed intelligence, she gave it her all and delivered it at the first moment, never showing even the slightest slack.
But now, what was Yoruichi doing?
For the sake of a dead woman who had even tried to level her home, she was making things hard for a living best friend of many years?
When Sui Feng attacked her in the Shiba residence and even activated Bankai, Yoruichi, where were you?
A person dies and debts are wiped away?
Then what about all the grievances Shiba Kukaku had borne over these hundred years, the hatred of her family being destroyed, the home personally ruined by Sui Feng? Where were those supposed to be wiped away?
Shiba Kukaku did not beat around the bush any longer. She spoke bluntly, her tone carrying a cold hardness that allowed no doubt:
"I will say the ugly words up front. I can help you with this. But you must understand that if I or my husband step forward to clear Sui Feng's name, it will not only damage the prestige of the Shiba clan or my husband, it will also chill the hearts of everyone who supports us."
"I understand, so I am extremely grateful to you. Really, I am begging you!"
Yoruichi's smile froze on her face, the awkwardness making her feel like she had nowhere to hide.
She pressed her hands tightly together and lowered her body even more, pleading almost humbly.
She knew how difficult this request was, but she had already paid such a shameful price.
Other than begging, what else could she do?
"Has your brain gone bad from staying in the Human World all these years?", Shiba Kukaku finally could not hold it in anymore. Her composure completely collapsed. So angry she laughed instead, her tone instantly returning to the fiery explosiveness of years ago:
"Do you think this is playing house? I have made it so clear, and you think you can brush it off with a few light words of thanks? Anyone can say pretty things! If they were useful, you would not be kneeling here right now! Bring out something real, Yoruichi Shihoin!"
Those eyes of hers burning with fury stared straight at Yoruichi. When she was living in fear and anxiety, what was Yoruichi doing?
Now that things were over, Yoruichi came to play the good person. Then what did her experiences over these years count as? What did it count for that her whole family had died until only she and her younger brother were left?
"Enough, Kukaku," Rosse gave a light chuckle and shook his head. A single casual sentence easily suppressed Kukaku's about to explode anger.
He looked at the somewhat bewildered Yoruichi on the ground, his tone gentle but pressing step by step:
"Miss Shihoin, you are our friend, but we will never sacrifice the people who trust and follow us just to help a friend. Do you agree with that?"
"Of course I agree," Yoruichi looked up in surprise, then became somewhat puzzled.
"But what I need is just a small statement. How would that drag others in? I am not asking you to do anything else, just to say a few fair words for Sui Feng and prove that she was desperately trying to find me, a criminal, rather than colluding with Hueco Mundo. Such a simple thing, does it really cause that much trouble?", She really could not understand how just a few words could lead to such complicated consequences.
"Tch! You think everyone is a loner like you? Do you know how my big brother died?", Shiba Kukaku suddenly asked.
"Killed by a special Hollow. That Hollow should have been one of Aizen's experiments," Yoruichi answered honestly.
She did know that piece of information.
"Then do you know why that Hollow did not go anywhere else, but went to the Thirteenth Division instead?", Shiba Kukaku asked coldly.
"I do not know. Maybe because Captain Ukitake was ill and weaker than the other captains?", Yoruichi guessed.
"Heh! No matter how weak Captain Ukitake is, if he truly wanted to deal with a Hollow that had not reached captain level, it would not be difficult. It was only because that Hollow could devour Shinigami and transform into their appearance that Captain Ukitake did not immediately make a move," Shiba Kukaku gave a brief explanation, took a deep breath, and then looked at Yoruichi word by word as she said, "The reason Aizen chose the Thirteenth Division is very simple. It was because Sui Feng was the Hueco Mundo spy that Kyoraku Shunsui had identified, so they dragged my big brother into constant secret battles with Sui Feng and the Fon clan."
"Even without Aizen stirring things up, in the end Kyoraku Shunsui would have forced Sui Feng to make a move against my big brother. And after my big brother died, the elders of the Shiba clan were completely slaughtered by the Onmitsukido led by the Feng clan. Each and every one of those is a blood feud."
"I can help you clear Sui Feng's name, but once I or Rosse speak up, it will be the same as telling everyone that we have put this hatred aside. How do you want the other noble clans to look at us, and how do you want me to face the dead members of the Shiba family?"
Shiba Kukaku's questioning left Yoruichi completely speechless for a moment.
She knew this was troublesome, but she had not expected this to be involved as well.
If it were only a matter of reputation, she might argue that reputation was useless.
But this also involved the dead, and it was indeed the Feng clan that had gone too far. How was she supposed to respond to that?
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