[Early Morning, Seireitei]
Taking advantage of the moment when the eastern sky had just begun to glow pale white, when the patrolling Shinigami were at their most drowsy, a black cat and a Shinigami moved like two ghosts, swiftly weaving through the maze of buildings in Seireitei.
The black cat formed by Yoruichi was light and soundless. Ichigo wore a concealment cloak specially made by Urahara Kisuke, perfectly suppressing his spiritual pressure. The two of them sneaked all the way here without a single person noticing.
Very quickly, they arrived in front of a desolate ruin.
The enormous family crest was already shattered. The paint on the main gate had peeled and flaked away. Weeds grew wildly out of the cracks between the stones.
This place had once been the residence of one of the Five Great Noble Clans, the Tsunayashiro family.
However, ever since that night a few years ago, when the Tsunayashiro clan was completely erased, this mansion that once symbolized supreme glory and power had fallen into a ghostly place no one cared about.
In just a few short years, the wild grass had already grown past the knees. The bleakness of it was enough to make one's heart sink.
"Hey, what are you standing there for?"
Seeing Yoruichi, who had transformed back into human form, freeze the moment she stepped inside, staring blankly at the abandoned and ruined courtyard in front of her, Ichigo urged her in a low voice, confused.
This wasn't the Shihoin house. If it was run down, then it was run down. What was there to look at?
"It's nothing."
Yoruichi took a deep breath, shook her head, and forcibly suppressed the thick sorrow in her eyes. Then she stepped forward with heavy steps, leading Ichigo deeper into the mansion.
This really wasn't her home.
But looking at the broken walls and overgrown weeds in front of her, she seemed to see the future of the Shihoin family.
Now that Yushiro was dead and the clan members were almost completely wiped out, only she remained, a wanted lone wolf.
Maybe it wouldn't even take a few years, maybe not even a few months. That once-glorious Shihoin estate might end up just like this place, becoming a nesting ground for stray dogs and crows.
The former site of the Tsunayashiro family was extremely close to Central 46, less than five hundred meters away.
Although Captain-Commander Yamamoto had once fought Shutara inside Central 46, that battle mainly affected the surface structures of the chamber and did not damage the Great Spirit Book Corridor deep underground. Naturally, that hidden passage was still intact.
After passing through a dark, damp, dust-covered abandoned secret tunnel, the two of them finally reached their destination.
As the heavy doors slowly opened, a massive space filled with a sense of futurism and technology suddenly appeared in Ichigo's sight.
Countless streams of flowing light intertwined in the air. Innumerable stone bookshelf slabs stood quietly like a floating forest of monuments. A vast torrent of information converged here.
"Tch! Soul Society looks like it's stuck in the Edo period from a few hundred years ago, but I didn't expect the Great Spirit Book Corridor underground to look this sci-fi."
Looking at the scene full of contrast in front of him, Ichigo could not help but sigh.
"This isn't the time to act like you've never seen the world."
Yoruichi walked quickly to the central control platform with a blank expression, her fingers skillfully dancing across the reishi keyboard.
"You keep watch for me. I'll search the information. Everything about the spiritual particle flow in Soul Society is recorded here. As long as Inoue is still in Seireitei, I'll be able to find her."
She had once been the sole head of the Shihoin family, so she naturally knew about the special permissions the Five Great Noble Clans held within the Great Spirit Book Corridor.
And last night, when she buried Yushiro, she had retrieved from his cold corpse the token symbolizing the head of the family and placed it back on herself.
So now, even as a wanted criminal, in the system authentication of the Great Spirit Book Corridor, she was still the Shihoin family head with the highest level of access.
Buzz!
As she operated it, one floating bookshelf after another flew rapidly through the air and reorganized. A massive stream of data turned into light screens that quickly unfolded in front of her and Ichigo.
"Found it!"
Yoruichi's eyes sharpened as her finger stabbed down.
But when Ichigo saw the latest spiritual pressure record, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. He could not sit still at all.
"Inoue is in the Fifth Division? And right now?"
He had imagined countless possibilities.
Inoue Orihime might have been hidden in a base at the Royal Palace of Hueco Mundo. She might have been locked up in the Eighth Division. She might even have truly been taken away by Kurosaki Masaki.
But he never dreamed that Inoue Orihime's spiritual pressure was currently sitting plainly inside the Fifth Division barracks.
What made his scalp go numb even more was that the records showed Inoue Orihime had arrived at the Fifth Division earlier than he had infiltrated it last night.
In other words, when he had been eavesdropping on Aizen and Kuchiki Byakuya in the captain's office last night, or even earlier, Inoue Orihime had actually been somewhere nearby the whole time.
'We passed by each other?'
"What were you going to the Fifth Division for?"
While Ichigo was still in shock, Yoruichi, who had been flipping through the records, suddenly turned her head. Her gaze was sharp as a blade as she stared straight at him.
The Great Spirit Book Corridor did not only record information about Inoue Orihime. It also faithfully recorded every captain-level spiritual pressure fluctuation entering and leaving the Fifth Division last night.
Among them was one unfamiliar but powerful spiritual pressure. Although it was not labeled, that unique fluctuation clearly belonged to Ichigo, who was standing beside her now.
It was already strange enough that Kuchiki Byakuya had visited at night when not long before during the day he had still been monitoring him outside the Shihoin residence.
But Ichigo had gone to the Fifth Division even earlier than Kuchiki Byakuya. And according to the spiritual pressure records, Ichigo, Kuchiki Byakuya, and Aizen had remained in the same room for a long time.
The Great Spirit Book Corridor did not record conversations. It only recorded the specific locations of spiritual pressures.
Even so, it was enough for Yoruichi to roughly infer what had happened yesterday.
"I…"
Ichigo opened his mouth, knowing he was in the wrong.
In front of the ironclad evidence of the Great Spirit Book Corridor, any attempt to hide the truth would look weak and useless. He took a deep breath and chose to be honest.
"Captain Aizen is my sensei."
"Hah?"
Yoruichi's voice shot up, full of disbelief, as if she had just heard some ridiculous fantasy.
"Aizen? Aizen Sosuke? He's your teacher?"
Although she had not obsessively monitored the Kurosaki household like Urahara Kisuke, she knew Urahara paid a lot of attention to them.
She also knew that someone was backing Ichigo. Urahara had guessed as much before.
But she never imagined that this guy was actually Aizen's student.
'Since when?'
'In the Human World? Or after coming to Soul Society?'
And the most crucial question was whether Urahara knew about this or not.
Alarm bells rang loudly in Yoruichi's heart as she fell into deep thought.
"So what if Aizen-sensei is my teacher?"
Seeing her react so strongly, Ichigo argued unhappily.
"Even if Aizen-sensei does have his own secrets and considerations, I can guarantee you he's absolutely not the culprit behind the Hollowfication tragedy a hundred years ago. He's a good person!"
"How can you be so sure?"
Yoruichi looked at the firm-faced boy with a complicated expression.
Although his earlier words about controlling the five senses had shaken her suspicion of Aizen a little, she had suspected him for a hundred years. It was not so easy to erase that bias.
"I was born in the Human World. My old man is the former captain of the Tenth Division, Kurosaki Isshin. He also really likes the current Soul Society."
Ichigo said in a deep voice, bringing up his father as proof to increase his credibility.
"I have no reason to lie to you about something like this. I swear on my character that Aizen-sensei is innocent."
Of course, he could not reveal a core secret like the Hogyoku to Yoruichi.
After all, Yoruichi was Urahara Kisuke's close friend. And judging from all the current signs, Urahara Kisuke and that mysterious person who could control the five senses were more likely to be the real masterminds.
The Hollowfication experiments, collusion with Kyoraku Shunsui, Inoue Orihime being dragged in for no clear reason… If Aizen was removed from the equation, this whole chain of conspiracies actually connected more smoothly.
That was exactly why, even though Ichigo hated Rosse more in his heart, he still maintained a high level of suspicion toward Kyoraku Shunsui and the others.
Neither side was anything good.
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