Aizen's plans had never been about a single objective. After long preparation, he always tried to use the smallest move to reap the largest number of results.
This time was no different.
The only difference was that, unlike his usual total victories, this time all the "scrap-side" objectives had gone off without a hitch—yet the most central goal, using the heavily weakened Shiba clan as an excuse to expel them from the Four Great Noble Houses and thereby crush Shiba Kūkaku's status, had failed.
The main thing Aizen hadn't accounted for was that Shiba Isshin, that branch-family member he'd barely spared a glance for, would be so stubborn—dragging a large portion of the branch family's battle strength to the front lines to hold off the Menos invasion.
Not only did this move allow the Shiba branch family to evade the "cleanup" Aizen had arranged using a group of specially prepared Arrancar, it also won the Shiba clan the support of several neutral noble houses in this incident.
If it weren't for the fact everyone knew full well that the Grand Blade-Hunting Chief, Higashino Shuuichi, was formally attached to the Tsunayashiro clan, most of the nobles would have been very comfortable saying that, in this incident, only the Shiba clan had shown the sort of responsibility worthy of one of the five great noble clans.
Even though the spotlight had ultimately been stolen almost entirely by the Tsunayashiro clan, as represented by Higashino Shuuichi, the idea of Tsunayashiro Kamihara rallying the other nobles to push through a motion to ostracize the Shiba was now… basically dead.
Because not only had the Shiba main family's core members—Shiba Kūkaku, Shiba Ganju, and Shiba Kaien—all survived, but the branch family had also preserved considerable fighting strength.
Especially the current head of the branch family, Shiba Isshin, who had successfully mastered the Bankai (Final Release) of his zanpakutō during the defense against the Menos. After the war, he officially stepped in—alongside the new Kuchiki clan head, Kuchiki Byakuya—to fill one of the captain's seats left vacant in the battle.
Kuchiki Byakuya became the new 6th Division Captain. Shiba Isshin became the new 10th Division Captain.
This made it extremely difficult for Tsunayashiro Kamihara to push his plan of booting the Shiba clan out.
Isshin was a brand-new captain. That was very different from the previous aging Shiba clan head.
If nothing unexpected happened, Shiba Isshin alone would be enough to guarantee the Shiba clan a few hundred years of stability. And if you then added the new Shiba clan head, Shiba Kaien—whose terrifying potential meant becoming a captain was only a matter of time—then Kamihara's little dream would remain just that: something he'd never see come true in his lifetime.
Every time Kamihara thought about this, he couldn't help feeling a bit bitter about why Higashino Shuuichi had been in such a rush to finish off Baraggan. If he'd just taken a bit longer… let those Menos kill a few more of the Shiba…
Wouldn't that have been better?
Of course, words that undermined "unity" like that only ever stayed in Kamihara's heart. There was no way he'd actually say them to Higashino.
Their relationship wasn't nearly that good.
From Aizen's perspective, this was just as much of a headache.
Because the Shiba clan had not been expelled from the five great noble clans as expected—and, in fact, had no realistic reason to fear expulsion for the foreseeable future—Higashino Shuuichi would find it much harder to "strike while the iron was hot," cozy up to Shiba Kūkaku, and get her to hand over the technical data he wanted to see.
A Shiba Kūkaku with the status of one of the five great nobles, versus a Shiba Kūkaku who'd fallen to a commoner's lot…
Even someone as "inexperienced" in emotional manipulation as Aizen knew which one was easier to handle.
On this point, Higashino couldn't help mentally complaining about Aizen's baffling way of thinking.
He'd already gotten his hands on a legitimate ticket to the Royal Palace, but Aizen refused to use it—insisting on finding a way to get in with a scalped ticket instead.
Still, Aizen was nothing if not a man who always left himself a way back.
For example, in this incident, he'd known there would be huge casualties in Soul Society. In order to avoid unnecessary losses from Soul Society's retaliation afterward, Aizen had proactively handed over all the "disposable pawns" he'd prepared in Hueco Mundo to the Gotei 13 as a "gift."
As a result, on paper, Hueco Mundo's losses were even more catastrophic than Soul Society's. So much so that when Captain-Commander Yamamoto Genryūsai Shigekuni read the stats compiled and submitted by the 12th Division, he stayed silent for a long time.
Because unless he wanted to personally slaughter a chunk of Rukongai's population, he really couldn't lay a hand on Hollows from Hueco Mundo. Otherwise the balance between the two realms would collapse.
And this, in turn, became something else that gave Tokinada Tsunayashiro a headache.
Soul Society now knew about the Arrancar—but for now and a long time to come, the whole of Soul Society would remain in a strategically defensive posture, seeking to restore a delicate balance between Soul Society and Hueco Mundo.
In that sort of environment, trying to use political maneuvering to let Higashino Shuuichi legitimately approach the Arrancar and then bring them under their control…
Was little more than a pipe dream.
So no matter how you looked at it, this "whim," as Aizen had called it, was in truth a carefully orchestrated major operation.
And yet, as Higashino Shuuichi thought it over, it felt like he was the only one who'd come out of it as the biggest winner.
He raked in reputation, secured status, conned people's feelings, and massively boosted his own reiatsu.
In short: he'd absolutely, utterly won out.
But for every winner, there had to be someone on the losing end.
Human joy and sorrow were never evenly distributed.
Sitting in the 4th Division's vice-captain's lounge, listening to the squad members outside excitedly gushing over the performance of the Grand Blade-Hunting Chief, Higashino Shuuichi, in this battle—
Yamada Seinosuke felt thoroughly miserable.
Seriously, how many days has it been already?
So he killed the ruler of Hueco Mundo. Big deal.
So he used to be 4th Division's vice-captain. So what.
Do you have to talk him up so loudly right in front of the current vice-captain?
Sure, the squad members weren't literally praising Higashino openly to his face… but Yamada Seinosuke still felt unhappy.
In the past, he could at least chalk this up to the fact that Unohana-taichō was always paying attention to Higashino. So long as Higashino was present, her gaze would, consciously or not, drift over to him.
Yes. He admitted it. He was jealous.
But now Yamada Seinosuke had realized something else.
Even when a conversation had nothing to do with Captain Unohana—if it was praise for Higashino Shuuichi, he would still feel upset.
Because they were both 4th Division vice-captains. Whenever someone complimented Higashino, he couldn't help comparing himself.
Just where, exactly, was he inferior?
…Fine. Aside from Kaido (restorative Kidō), he had to admit he was worse at pretty much everything else.
And the more that was true, the more suffocating it felt.
To Seinosuke, it felt like this vice-captain's seat in 4th Division was covered in Higashino Shuuichi's lingering shadow—a maggot clinging to bone, impossible to shake off.
Even though Higashino hadn't held that position for years now, Seinosuke still felt like he was living in his shadow.
He'd even noticed something else: ever since Higashino had dramatically returned to Soul Society from the Human World, Captain Unohana had been visiting her private training ground in 4th Division far more frequently.
Each time, she stayed for a long while. Yet there were no signs of combat at all.
It was like she was… waiting for something.
Seinosuke knew he probably, and should, know the answer.
But he didn't even dare say that name aloud in his own head.
"Why? Why is Higashino Shuuichi the only one in everyone's eyes?"
He stared at several sealed documents laid out in front of him, not even sure who he was asking.
He knew the answer he wanted might well be inside these folders.
Because they were documents Captain Unohana had deliberately preserved.
The wear and age marks on them made it clear they'd been kept for quite a while.
If it hadn't been for the Menos invasion damaging the 4th Division barracks—destroying the captain's lounge in the process—and for Unohana leaving for a stretch in the chaos, Yamada Seinosuke probably never would have seen these.
At first, he hadn't planned on taking them.
But when he saw that all the documents had his captain's handwriting on them—writing that clearly spelled out one name: Higashino Shuuichi—then, after a hard internal struggle, he'd gathered his courage and quietly retrieved them from the rubble of the captain's room.
What sort of material about Higashino Shuuichi would Captain Unohana preserve for so long?
Was what lay inside the reason she held him in such high regard?
Taking a deep breath, Seinosuke finally raised his trembling left hand and opened the first document.
…Huh.
The contents were rather mundane: a casualty report about a few Shinigami from a hundred years ago. It recorded that the Hollows who'd attacked these Shinigami had not devoured their spiritual power after defeating them.
Instead, they'd used some extremely unusual extraction method to violently tear out most of the core spiritual power from the Shinigami's bodies—leaving them dead from spiritual exhaustion rather than from direct injury.
From what Seinosuke knew, around that time Higashino Shuuichi had still only been a regular 4th Division grunt.
While he had already been a seated officer.
So he had no idea what any of this had to do with Higashino.
He opened the second file.
Its content was similar to the first: follow-up examinations of injured Shinigami's bodies.
The difference was that this time, the incident had happened far more recently—and every Shinigami investigated in the report had been treated by 4th Division.
They shared one thing in common with the Shinigami from the first document: the portion of spiritual power tied to the core of their souls had been partially stripped away by some special means.
The difference was that, unlike those who'd died quickly in the first document, all the Shinigami in this report were still alive.
The losses they'd sustained barely affected their daily lives.
They didn't even impact their combat strength, because the amount stripped away had been controlled with extreme precision—as if someone had carefully calculated it in advance.
Not a fraction too much, not a fraction too little.
Still, this file never mentioned Higashino Shuuichi by name. But from the dates given, Seinosuke could roughly recall that by that period, Higashino had already become 4th Division's vice-captain, right?
But what did that have to do with him?
Puzzled, Seinosuke opened the third document.
And finally, there it was.
Higashino Shuuichi's name.
It was a report Unohana had asked then–12th Division Captain Kirio Hikifune to conduct—on a Shinigami who had been treated by Higashino Shuuichi.
The conclusion showed that this Shinigami also exhibited the phenomenon described in the first two documents.
And that was it. The report ended there.
Seinosuke instinctively felt this was part of a continuous series. There had to be follow-up volumes.
But when he reached for the next document—
He froze.
There wasn't one.
He'd only recovered these three files from the ruins of the captain's lounge.
"There's no way it's just these three. There should be more…"
For the first time, Yamada Seinosuke felt genuine regret.
Why hadn't he searched more thoroughly in those ruins? If he had, maybe he could have found the entire set.
He completely forgot the fact that only a few hours earlier, he hadn't even wanted to lay a hand on them.
Now, he felt like someone chasing a favorite novel, reading right up to the latest chapter—only to hit the exact peak of the climax…
And have the author suddenly stop updating.
It was agony.
Especially since he didn't dare go back to the captain's destroyed quarters to look for more. Doing that would be like confirming for sure that the "author" had dropped the story entirely.
It would only make his teeth grind harder.
With no other choice, Yamada Seinosuke could only piece together the flow of events based on his own logic.
First: all three documents were clearly labeled with Higashino Shuuichi's name by the captain. That meant they definitely had something to do with him.
Second: even though there were long spans of time between each document, they were clearly pointing at the same incident.
And finally, the most important question—what sort of role had Higashino played in all of this?
The mastermind?
Impossible.
That was the first possibility Seinosuke rejected.
If Higashino Shuuichi were the mastermind, would Captain Unohana really have let him live this long?
Someone like that should have been executed long ago.
So then… why was Higashino tied to these incidents?
Especially since, by the third document, it was highly likely that Higashino had already been deeply involved.
After turning it over and over, Seinosuke finally arrived at an explanation that satisfied him—one that was both plausible and logical.
Higashino Shuuichi must have been the one Captain Unohana had entrusted with secretly investigating and researching this matter.
She must have discovered that something was wrong and, at that point, appointed then–Vice-Captain Higashino Shuuichi to quietly take the lead on a covert investigation.
Then the content of the follow-up files was obvious without even reading them, right?
Higashino must have ultimately discovered—
No.
At that moment, lightning flashed through Yamada Seinosuke's mind.
He frantically paged back through the specific dates recorded in the documents, then dug out the 4th Division's logbook.
Somewhere in that long history… he remembered.
At that time, he'd been constantly challenging Higashino for the vice-captain's seat—only, because he couldn't beat him in a straight fight, he'd diverted his focus and used his mastery of Kaido (restorative Kidō) as a wedge, hoping to bring Higashino down that way.
Originally, Captain Unohana had refused this request.
But then one day, she suddenly agreed.
And he had successfully taken the vice-captain's post from Higashino Shuuichi.
Didn't that mean that, at that time… Higashino had actually failed to meet Captain Unohana's expectations?
He hadn't managed to complete the investigation she'd entrusted to him.
He hadn't gotten to the bottom of the truth behind this phenomenon.
Yes. That had to be it.
Otherwise, why would Captain Unohana have suddenly agreed to his challenge? She couldn't have just randomly gotten tired of Higashino out of nowhere.
That made no sense.
It was only that, after taking over, Seinosuke hadn't shown the same level of research talent Higashino had. He'd focused solely on proving his superiority to his predecessor in Kaido, trying to show Unohana his worth in the healing arts.
And that was why she'd eventually taken the vice-captain's seat back and returned it to Higashino.
With that, all of Captain Unohana's past behavior fell neatly into place.
In truth, Higashino Shuuichi had always been secretly conducting certain hidden investigations and researches under her orders—
Things that Soul Society didn't prioritize, or didn't dare conduct openly.
It was even possible that the Hollowfication incident itself had been the result of a backlash Higashino suffered while working on one such project—a price he'd had to pay for failed research.
That would explain why he could now return to Soul Society so openly.
Because he had been operating under Captain Unohana's instructions all along, quietly doing the dirty, thankless work for Soul Society.
Clearing his name was simply Soul Society's, and Unohana's, way of compensating him.
Higashino had never betrayed Soul Society.
Not once.
And that explained why, just a few days ago, he had stepped up to block the ruler of Hueco Mundo for a Soul Society in crisis.
All the past mysteries fell into place in Yamada Seinosuke's heart.
But he had no intention of making this revelation public.
Instead, he intended to prove himself to Captain Unohana in his own way.
If Shuuichi can do it—then so can I!
Higashino Shuuichi might be a brute who can't even handle the delicate control required for Kaido properly, but research?
If he'd managed to do anything with that, it would be a miracle.
Backlash and failure were only natural.
But Yamada Seinosuke was different.
He had absolute faith that he could do better than Higashino Shuuichi. Far better.
//Check out my P@tre0n for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810.