"What?" Tosen exclaimed in shock. Even Komamura's breath caught in his throat.
"Why is this happening?" Tosen's voice was hoarse, filled with despair and resentment. "Murder, and killing a fellow officer and his own wife! Isn't this an undeniable capital offense? The Central 46, aren't they the highest judicial body of the Soul Society, representing absolute justice?"
"Justice..." the noble young man repeated the word softly, as if savoring its meaning.
He looked at Tosen and asked, "Tosen-san, do you know of the [Five Great Noble Families]?"
Tosen was taken aback. "I know a little. They are the five oldest and most prestigious families in the Soul Society. But that's all I know. I'm not clear on the details."
For someone from the Rukongai, this was already the limit of common knowledge.
The noble youth sighed. "Then let me tell you. Kakyo-sama's husband is a member of one of the Five Great Noble Families. Not only that, he isn't even a core member of the main family, just someone from a branch family. Yet the Central 46 was unwilling to pursue the matter."
He looked at Tosen's pale, ashen face and slowly added, "If the perpetrator were a core member of a main noble family, then to preserve the nobility's dignity and stability, the Central 46 would likely pin a fabricated charge on the deceased Kakyo-sama, something like 'intent to rebel' or 'assaulting a noble'… Making her death seem like she brought it upon herself."
The air under the maple trees seemed to freeze.
Only the rustling of wind through the red leaves, and Tosen's increasingly heavy, pained gasps, could be heard.
"How... how could it be this absurd..." Tosen's voice came out like air forced through a broken bellows. His worldview, his sense of justice, had just suffered a devastating blow.
He had always believed the Gotei 13 was the shield and sword protecting the world's balance, and the Central 46 was the hall embodying the world's truth and justice.
But now, the interior of that sacred hall was filled with such blatant favoritism, injustice, and even corruption aiding the wicked?
A deep, suffocating despair overwhelmed him.
The noble youth timely reached out and gently patted his trembling shoulder, a gesture carrying a restrained hint of comfort.
"I understand your feelings, Tosen-san. Anger, confusion, despair… it's all normal. But this is the Soul Society. Beneath the glossy order, there are unshakable currents. Some people are born standing in the clouds. The cost of their mistakes is often borne by those on the ground."
Immersed in immense pain and disillusionment, Tosen nevertheless grasped a faint glimmer of light at the edge of the abyss of despair from the 'understanding' and 'empathy' in the other party's words, and the 'goodwill' of revealing such taboo details.
'It seemed the world wasn't entirely dark. At least there were good people willing to speak the truth.'
He roughly wiped the tears from his face with his sleeve, trying hard to steady his breathing. His voice carried gratitude and earnestness. "Thank you. Thank you for telling me this. It's cruel, but better than being kept in the dark forever. May I ask, what should I call you?"
The gentle smile on the noble youth's face, at this moment, became exceptionally clear, even taking on a strange, satisfied gleam.
He looked at the blind young man before him, whom he had personally pushed into despair only to offer a false shred of comfort, and spoke slowly. "My name is Tsunayashiro Tokinada."
Sajin Komamura was very surprised. "The Tsunayashiro Clan? Isn't that one of the Five Great Noble Families?"
Tokinada nodded slightly, his smile unchanged. "Yes, not only that. Kakyo's husband is named Tsunayashiro Tokinada… that is, me!"
This poisoned ice pick mercilessly pierced through Tosen's remaining sanity and hope.
Tosen's face, which moments ago had shown gratitude and grief, after a brief moment of blankness, was rapidly replaced by a nearly twisted, volcanic fury.
His voice squeezed through clenched teeth, filled with the rage of being toyed with and trampled upon. "You tell me all this just to mock me? To watch me suffer, watch me despair, watch me grovel in gratitude to you like a clown? Is that your pleasure, Tsunayashiro Tokinada!"
Facing this overwhelming, almost tangible hatred, the smile on Tsunayashiro Tokinada's face didn't fade. Instead, it grew brighter.
"Mock you? No, not entirely," He tilted his head. "At Kakyo's funeral, I saw you crying very sadly, very painfully. That pure grief was quite interesting. So I looked into you a little. And then a question arose in my mind."
"Could it be that there was some unspeakable secret between you and Kakyo? For instance, a private affair beyond friendship? If that were the case, things would become simple and interesting."
"Kakyo 'betrayed' me. She was no longer pure, no longer perfect. Her death would then carry a hint of self-inflicted consequence. That way, I could continue living in my darkness even more comfortably and without burden. After all, she was the one who fell first."
He spread his hands, a strange expression mixing regret and mockery on his face. "Unfortunately, after investigating, I found that between you there truly was only that nauseating, pure friendship."
"No selfish desires, no filth. Just mutual support and trust. So boring. And so dazzling. Such pure, flawless beauty, like a diamond under sunlight. Every refracted ray mocks my darkness. It truly... makes me dislike it more and more."
"Ahhh!!!!!" Tosen's last thread of sanity, under this extremely insulting and blasphemous speech, snapped completely.
"I'll kill you!" He let out an inhuman roar. Like a wounded beast, relying on the direction of the sound, he recklessly lunged at Tokinada.
But reality was cruel.
Tokinada didn't even draw his Zanpakuto. He simply sidestepped lightly, stuck out a foot to trip him, and casually pressed a palm against his chest.
Tosen's forward momentum stopped abruptly. His entire body flew backward even faster, crashing heavily onto the ground covered in maple leaves. He couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood, staining the red leaves and dust beneath him.
"Tosen!" Komamura's eyes burned with fury.
He roared, his massive frame exploding with astonishing speed, crossing the few meters in an instant. His fist, like a giant's mallet, whistled through the air and slammed fiercely into Tokinada's still-smiling face.
Tokinada was sent flying by this furious blow, crashing into a thick maple trunk behind him.
He slid down the trunk to the ground, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. His expensive dark green attire was now stained with dust and crushed leaves, looking somewhat disheveled.
But the smile on his face hadn't diminished at all.
He even leisurely raised a hand, gently wiping the blood from his lips with a fingertip. "Not bad strength, Third Seat Komamura. Seeing you without your helmet truly pleases me. Our Tsunayashiro Clan has, for generations, been in charge of the [Great Spirit Book Gallery]. It records almost all the history and information of the Soul Society since its inception."
"For instance, your Wolfman Clan originally had no sin. Your ancestors were not sinners who fell into the Animal Realm due to crime. They might even have been heroes, guardians who paid a tremendous price. But then..."
His gaze fell on Komamura's canine face, his smile deepening. "Simply because certain high and mighty noble lords detested your ugly, inhuman faces, found them unsightly, and thought they defiled their 'pure and noble' world."
"So, solely based on this utterly baseless aversion, your entire clan was easily labeled 'descendants of sinners', branded with a mark of shame, and forced to live in the shadows and self-loathing for generations. See? This is the history of the Soul Society. This is the power of the nobility. Isn't it interesting?"