"Why…?"
Even as he died, that minor noble still didn't know the reason.
He hadn't even gotten to enjoy life yet.
Higashino Shuuichi didn't care.
To him, whether this noble had ever committed atrocities didn't matter in the slightest.
Being born into that kind of family—being a vassal under the Tsunayashiro clan—was the original sin.
Whether an "innocent" person who enjoyed benefits stained with blood was guilty or not—
that had always been a philosophical question without an answer.
For Higashino Shuuichi, there was only one answer:
whatever he felt like.
That excitement the minor noble showed when he saw him was already proof of his stance on the Tsunayashiro matter. Even if he hadn't done anything yet, he would inevitably fall in the future.
So he deserved to die.
And there were many more like him.
That day, every noble inside Seireitei held their breath.
Because they knew their lives no longer belonged to them.
They belonged to that man—
that terrifying man—
the man destined to become the lifelong nightmare of every noble who lived through today.
Higashino Shuuichi had always kept a list.
While serving as the Grand Blade-Hunting Chief, he was responsible for protecting the nobles—yet that role also granted him authority to monitor every noble's movements.
So everything those nobles did during his tenure—
Higashino Shuuichi knew it all, down to the last detail.
"Kamihara-sama, Shuuichi-sama… h-he betrayed you!"
"Not Soul Society—he betrayed you!"
"Kamihara-sama, maybe we can surrender? If we do, Shuuichi-sama might spare us…"
"Bad news, Kamihara-sama! Shuuichi-sama is slaughtering the nobles who pledged loyalty to the Tsunayashiro clan outside—those noble households are basically down to less than one in ten!"
"Kamihara-sama! Shuuichi-sama is coming this way—run, now!"
Inside the Tsunayashiro main hall, Tsunayashiro Kamihara sat alone on his seat—laughing one moment, crying the next, then suddenly going mad and smashing everything around him onto the floor.
He never should have trusted Higashino Shuuichi, that Soul Society traitor!
He should have realized long ago that Higashino Shuuichi harbored ulterior motives!
But—
Tsunayashiro Kamihara couldn't understand it.
He had treated Higashino Shuuichi well—more than well!
He restored his honor. He put him in the position of Grand Blade-Hunting Chief—something Higashino Shuuichi should never have been able to attain.
At the very last moment, he had even handed Higashino Shuuichi his most important trump card!
Shouldn't that kind of trust have bought Higashino Shuuichi's loyalty?!
Why?!
Tsunayashiro Kamihara hurled another object at the floor.
But this time, he received no impact in return.
"Heh… hehehehe… you're here?"
He didn't lift his head—only laughed, half-crazed.
Because the only person who would appear before him now, he believed, could only be Higashino Shuuichi.
But it wasn't.
"Yes, Tsunayashiro… Kamihara-sama~"
It was a voice Kamihara found familiar, yet strangely unfamiliar.
He snapped his head up—and saw the man standing opposite him, catching the teacup he'd just thrown.
Kamihara recognized him.
"Tokinada?
Why are you here?"
Kamihara couldn't understand it, yet warmth welled up inside his chest.
At a moment when every clansman was trying to flee, there was still someone who chose to come here.
"Of course I came to see you, Kamihara-sama."
Tokinada Tsunayashiro smiled.
Normally, Kamihara would have sensed something wrong at once.
But now, like an old man at the end of his years, he'd lost the sharpness he once had.
"You shouldn't have come. Higashino Shuuichi's target is me, and it will be me. Those people were just innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire…
If I die…"
Kamihara understood Higashino Shuuichi's strength. He knew he had no room to resist at all.
So if dying calmly could buy the Tsunayashiro clan's continuation, then as its current head, he was duty-bound to do so.
But before he could finish, Tokinada cut him off.
"Ah-ree-ree~ Kamihara-sama? You don't actually think Higashino Shuuichi made this big a scene just to get revenge on you, do you?"
Kamihara looked at Tokinada. At last, a thin thread of doubt and suspicion surfaced.
"You seem to know a lot."
Tokinada didn't answer. Instead, he walked to the center of the hall, stood beneath a chandelier, and looked up at its extravagant splendor.
"How nostalgic… Back then, it was right here—beneath this chandelier—that you saved me, Kamihara-sama~
Even though I personally killed my comrades… personally killed my wife… and even had Kyōraku Shunsui, the captain of the Eighth Division, biting down on my trail…
But thanks to you, Kamihara-sama, all I had to endure was having my Zanpakutō destroyed and being confined for five hundred years—such a trivial punishment~"
"So that's why you came now?"
Kamihara felt moved. This was a clansman who knew gratitude. Compared to the others, Tokinada was far, far better.
"But, child… you need to leave, quickly. Before Higashino Shuuichi arrives—take it with you. You still have a chance to live!"
As Kamihara spoke, he unfastened a Zanpakutō from his body, intending to entrust it to Tokinada.
It was the Tsunayashiro clan's ancestral divine weapon: Enrakyōten.
In a sense, whoever held it was effectively the head of the Tsunayashiro clan.
Kamihara's meaning was obvious.
But what he didn't expect was that his gesture only made Tokinada smile wider.
"Hahahaha!
Kamihara-sama—why don't you take a look at this?"
Tokinada drew the "decorative" Zanpakutō at his waist.
Kamihara's pupils shook violently.
Because he recognized it.
It was Enrakyōten.
But if the one in Tokinada's hand was Enrakyōten…
then what was this in Kamihara's hand?
Kamihara immediately drew his own.
Identical.
Two Zanpakutō—identical in every detail.
"What… is going on…?"
Kamihara whispered, unable to believe it.
Tokinada savored his expression like a fine wine.
"Kamihara-sama, between these two Enrakyōten, one must be real and one must be fake. So… want to guess?
Which one of us is holding the fake Enrakyōten?"
Only then did Kamihara finally realize—
the Tokinada before him was no good man at all!
"Who are you?!
You're not a Tsunayashiro!
Are you Higashino Shuuichi?!"
He pointed his "Enrakyōten" at Tokinada.
"Tsunayashiro Kamihara-sama… were you calling me?"
At that moment, Higashino Shuuichi entered from outside, carrying a blood-dripping Zanpakutō. His pace was slow, yet every step landed on Kamihara's heart like a hammer.
"Higashino Shuuichi…
You're only arriving now…
Does that mean—"
Kamihara's voice trembled.
Then Higashino Shuuichi's nod shattered his last remaining illusion completely.
"Mm. Kamihara-sama really is as smart as ever~
The entire Tsunayashiro clan is dead now—aside from the two of you in this room, there are no survivors."
In truth, there had been one.
A little girl.
When Higashino Shuuichi struck at her, a mysterious, overwhelming reiatsu suddenly wrapped around the child.
And right before his eyes, that reiatsu teleported her away.
With Higashino Shuuichi's current strength, the number of people in Soul Society who could do that in front of him could be counted on one hand.
And those people either couldn't possibly be in Soul Society right now, or simply wouldn't bother with this kind of meddling.
So Higashino Shuuichi knew exactly who had dared pull a stunt like that to his face.
It was nothing more than a single word—
"Ling." (Shaoling - Soi Fon)
But it was only a little girl. Higashino Shuuichi didn't particularly care.
He would clash with the one behind the scenes sooner or later—
just not now.
"Did you hear that, Tokinada?! Whatever you were thinking before, the two of us can only fight him together now! At least stall until the Gotei 13 returns!"
Kamihara's fighting spirit flared back to life.
Before, he was ready to die for the greater good.
But now, Higashino Shuuichi had sealed that path completely.
Yet to Kamihara's stunned eyes, Tokinada didn't turn to face Higashino Shuuichi with him.
Instead, Tokinada lifted Enrakyōten and walked toward Kamihara step by step.
"My beloved Kamihara-sama… aren't you mistaken about something?
From the very beginning… I was never on your side~"
Tokinada's smile was bright—almost joyous.
"Y-you… you two…?"
No matter how Kamihara tried, he couldn't understand why Tokinada wasn't on his side.
Hadn't Kamihara saved his life?
Wasn't Tokinada a Tsunayashiro?!
"We… us~
That's right, Kamihara-sama. Higashino Shuuichi… was my man from the very start~
And this massacre against the Tsunayashiro clan? I planned it—and took part in it too~"
Tokinada took a little more credit for himself than was strictly true, but Higashino Shuuichi didn't mind at all.
If Tokinada wanted to claim all the credit, Higashino Shuuichi would only be happier.
"Why?!
Tokinada Tsunayashiro—why would you do this?!"
Kamihara roared at him.
"Because this is a filthy world!
Because the blood in our veins is filthy!
This world was never meant to be like this!
You were wrong!
The Soul King was wrong too!
Only by returning the world to what it was in the beginning can everything become beautiful again!
That is what the world is supposed to be!"
Tokinada roared back without yielding.
And as he spoke of his ideals, he released the Enrakyōten in his hand.
"Ah~
I remember now—Kamihara-sama, you seem to really dislike the new head of the Kuchiki family, don't you~?
Then dying to that Kuchiki head's power… must be especially painful for you, right?"
In Tokinada's eyes, Kamihara saw a devil.
"Bankai, scatter—Senbonzakura Kageyoshi!"
Thousands of enormous blades rose around Tokinada.
Then they all shattered, becoming a storm of petals that danced through the air.
Beautiful beyond words—
like a lethal poison.
Standing amid those petals, Kamihara lowered his gaze to the "Enrakyōten" in his own hand, and everything became clear.
His bitter smile—his final stubbornness.
"You'll regret this, Tokinada!"
Those were the last words Tsunayashiro Kamihara left him.
"No. I never will."
Tokinada laughed, stepping onto Kamihara's corpse.
From this moment on, he was the head of the Tsunayashiro clan!
Soul Society would soon welcome true change!
Blood sprayed from Tokinada Tsunayashiro's mouth.
A dark green Zanpakutō pierced cleanly through his chest.
"Even if we fought head-on, I don't think you'd ever be my opponent.
But there's no need for that.
I don't like giving myself extra trouble."
Higashino Shuuichi whispered from behind him.
"Fly, Nikuramamaru…"
Tokinada tried to struggle—
but Higashino Shuuichi locked him down again.
"Yakuryū!"
Higashino Shuuichi drove a fist into Tokinada's back, and every last particle of reishi (spirit particles) in Tokinada's body froze—its flow stopped completely.
Tokinada could only watch as his life drained away.
"Higashino Shuuichi… don't you want to create a new world with me?!"
Tokinada couldn't believe Higashino Shuuichi would betray him.
They had the same goal—didn't they?
They had both committed sins Soul Society would never forgive—hadn't they?
Did Higashino Shuuichi think he still had a way back?
"Sorry. Our goals were never the same."
Higashino Shuuichi pulled his Zanpakutō free.
A flood of blood poured from Tokinada's body.
All Tokinada could do was collapse to his knees, staring as his blood spread across the floor—mixing with Tsunayashiro Kamihara's corpse.
Two men who had both fallen to the very bottom—
instead of huddling together for warmth—
chose to slaughter each other.
"Heh…"
Tokinada suddenly thought… maybe this wasn't so bad.
Higashino Shuuichi was even more insidious, even more ruthless than he was.
After Tokinada died, would anyone still be able to stop Higashino Shuuichi?
Impossible.
So Higashino Shuuichi would definitely create that new world.
Definitely.
"It's just… I won't get to see it…"
At the edge of death, Tokinada seemed to hear again the question Kamihara had asked him before dying.
And this time, Tokinada's answer was still the same—
"No. I will never regret it."
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