Kuchiki Ginrei was silent for a moment. His eyes remained on the chaotic battlefield below. When he spoke, his voice was low.
"Kōga, what do you intend to do?"
Kuchiki Kōga did not hesitate. He immediately bowed and answered,
"Father, please do not worry. Allow me to go down and put an end to this farce at once."
However, Kuchiki Ginrei shook his head. His tone turned sharper.
"Foolish. War is not a game. It cannot be ended just because one person wants to play the hero. You must consider the full situation and the consequences."
Kuchiki Kōga quickly glanced at Mirai, who was standing off to the side behind them. He reached up and adjusted the red gauze scarf around his neck, as if trying to steady his restless mood with that small motion.
"But Father, we do not have the luxury of standing here and watching any longer. If this continues, the flames of war will only spread. More people will die. In the end, it will stain the pride and name of the Kuchiki family."
Kuchiki Ginrei finally turned his head. His gaze swept over Mirai.
The appearance of this Squad 9 Fifth Seat meant that the Gotei 13 had already begun paying attention to the unrest in Rukongai. If they waited any longer, the nature of the situation could change entirely.
Among the people fighting below, some were forces gathered by the Kuchiki family's enemies. But another group was far more suspicious. Whoever was behind this was hiding well. The ones fighting on the front line were most likely expendable pawns, meant to drain their strength and draw them in.
A force of nearly two hundred people was enough to show that the person behind this had serious influence. Their goal was clearly not as simple as it seemed.
He turned back and spoke again in a grave tone.
"This conflict is certainly not as simple as it appears. You must remain calm. Find the real person directing all of this from the shadows, and solve the problem at its source. If you charge in blindly, you will only alert the enemy or even walk straight into a trap."
Kuchiki Kōga lowered his head first and gave Kuchiki Ginrei a respectful bow. "I understand your meaning, Father."
"In battle, use my title," Ginrei corrected him.
"...Yes, Captain Kuchiki." Kōga took a slow breath and looked up. "But I still believe I can change the battle in front of us. I will prove that to you."
Before he even finished speaking, his body moved. He leaped from the edge of the cliff without hesitation and rushed toward the center of the battlefield below, where the shouting was at its loudest.
"Kōga!" Ginrei called out in a low voice, but it was already too late to stop him.
Mirai stood at the edge of the cliff. His eyes followed the figure dropping fast. In only a few breaths, Kuchiki Kōga crashed down into the most chaotic part of the battlefield.
The shockwave of spiritual pressure from his landing knocked several nearby Shinigami off their feet.
"Who is that?!"
"That haori... it's the Kuchiki family!"
"It's that new son-in-law, Kuchiki Kōga!"
"Kill him! Kill him, and kill that brat Kuchiki Byakuya too! Wipe out the Kuchiki line!"
The shouting around them paused for a moment, then exploded with even stronger hatred and rage. Both the private soldiers of the enemy nobles and the Shinigami and servants who had betrayed the Kuchiki family turned their eyes toward Kōga.
The people who had been fighting one another actually stopped for a moment. Slowly, they formed a circle around him, trapping Kuchiki Kōga in the center.
Kōga slowly straightened after landing. Faced with the many enemies around him, all staring at him with murderous eyes, his expression did not change. He raised his right hand and rested it on the hilt of his sword.
In the next second, a huge amount of dark purple spiritual pressure burst from his body.
The air became heavy at once. That spiritual pressure formed a visible purple wave of force and crashed outward in every direction.
"Guh!"
"So heavy!"
"I... I can't move!"
The dozens of enemies closest to him felt it first. Their movements froze. Their faces filled with pain and shock. Some of the weaker ones dropped to one knee on the spot, nearly losing their grip on their weapons.
The purple glow of that spiritual pressure reflected across their twisted faces. Only then did Kuchiki Kōga speak.
"Curse me all you want."
"Or curse yourselves for letting this blade fall within your sight."
He gripped the hilt of his Zanpakutō and slowly drew it from its sheath. As the blade emerged, the dark purple spiritual pressure around him surged once more. The color grew heavier, turning into a purple-black veil that felt almost solid.
Then, he spoke the release phrase in a low voice.
"Whisper."
"Muramasa."
Vrrm!
A strange pulse followed the Shikai release. With Kuchiki Kōga at the center, it swept across the entire battlefield in an instant. Then, a bizarre and terrifying scene unfolded.
Across the battlefield, all the enemy-side Shinigami holding Zanpakutō suddenly felt their swords begin to tremble violently. They were no longer under control.
"What is happening?"
"My sword?!"
Shocked cries rang out everywhere. The Shinigami tried to grip their Zanpakutō tightly, but they soon realized that the blades they had always controlled so easily had become completely unfamiliar and were now acting on their own.
In the next second, those shaking Zanpakutō tore free from their masters' hands, or simply turned their blades on them.
Slash!
"Ah!"
"No! My sword! Why?!"
The blades stabbed into the chests, stomachs, and throats of their owners without warning. Others flew through the air and slashed wildly at the very people who had once wielded them. Blood splashed everywhere amid the screams and cries.
The Shinigami stared with wide eyes. Even as they died, they could not understand why their own Zanpakutō had betrayed them. In an instant, the battlefield turned into a bloody mess. The ring around Kōga collapsed. The cries and the sound of blades cutting into flesh were enough to chill anyone to the bone.
On the cliff, Mirai silently stepped forward twice. He stood slightly behind Kuchiki Ginrei's side and looked down.
He had not expected Kuchiki Kōga to be this swift or this ruthless. This was not suppression, and it was not a warning. It was a one-sided slaughter. And the targets were more than a hundred Shinigami with Zanpakutō and strength at least on the level of elite squad members.
If this kind of "purge" was happening every day in different parts of Rukongai, then the number of Shinigami deaths would already be reaching a shocking level. The cruelty of noble infighting was far worse than he had imagined.
At that moment, Kuchiki Ginrei spoke slowly. There was little emotion in his voice.
"Fifth Seat Mirai, I am sorry you had to witness such an ugly scene. In the end, this trouble exists because my Kuchiki family failed to handle matters properly. Rukongai has suffered because of it."
He paused, then continued. "Also, I want to thank you for the book you wrote about Kōga. It truly helped him gain a great deal of positive attention and recognition, both inside and outside Seireitei."
Mirai did not answer. He was still looking down. As he watched the Shinigami who had been alive only moments ago now struggle and die under their own blades, he frowned slightly without realizing it.
Kuchiki Ginrei did not seem to be waiting for polite words. He suddenly changed the subject.
"There is one thing about that book that I would like to ask you."
Mirai finally looked away. He turned toward Kuchiki Ginrei and nodded. "Please ask, Captain Kuchiki."
Kuchiki Ginrei looked straight into Mirai's eyes and asked,
"The poem at the end of the book, the one that closes the story... I am very curious. What did you see, or what were you thinking of, when you wrote those lines?"
The final poem? Mirai thought for a moment. He immediately understood what the Captain meant.
When all of Seireitei begins to choke on my reflection, every mirror grows calluses of blades in different layers. Some see puppets dancing. Some see the dancer slicing through the puppeteer's palm lines.
That was the result of him trying to write the "present" and the possible near future surrounding Kuchiki Kōga. The imagery was intentionally blurred, and it could be read in many different ways.
He wondered what this Kuchiki patriarch, a man who had weathered countless storms, had seen in it, or what it had made him think of.
Mirai met Ginrei's questioning gaze. His face still carried that calm, unreadable expression.
"That was only an extension of my imagination, built from the mood of the story and the fate of the character. It is only a set of literary metaphors," he said slowly. His tone remained flat.
"Does Captain Kuchiki have any particular thoughts about that poem?"
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