Kuchiki Ginrei stood at the edge of the cliff, his gaze fixed on Mirai's face.
The dying screams and the chaos from the battlefield below seemed not to affect him at all.
After several seconds, he spoke slowly.
"I sensed injustice and manipulation in that poem of yours. So, Fifth Seat Mirai, I want to know this: what did you base those lines on when you wrote them? Did you hear certain rumors, or... did you notice certain signs?"
"Injustice? Manipulation?" Mirai was genuinely puzzled.
That vague poem about Kuchiki Kōga's current situation and possible future had been created through the power of Tsuibun Manshō.
Naturally, the imagery was hard to pin down. Even Mirai himself had never cared to interpret every line too closely.
To him, it was simply a way to shape the tone and hint at fate.
To put it simply, as a recorder, there were times when even he did not fully understand what the things he recorded were pointing toward.
Kuchiki Ginrei's eyes narrowed slightly.
The lines on his aged face seemed a little more pronounced as he continued, his tone steady but carrying quiet pressure.
"To choke on a reflection... that suggests Kōga may face condemnation, or even a purge."
"Puppets and dancers... that clearly suggests a relationship between the one being controlled and the one controlling."
His gaze suddenly sharpened and locked onto Mirai.
"Fifth Seat Mirai, did you write those lines to imply that I am the one controlling Kōga from the shadows?"
He had not intended to ask so directly.
But Mirai came from a commoner background, and Ginrei assumed he might not be suited to the indirect way nobles often spoke.
Besides, as both a Captain and the head of a Great Noble House, Ginrei had no need to circle around the point with a mere Fifth Seat.
Mirai was caught off guard for a moment.
So this was how the head of the Kuchiki family understood it?
Thinking back to the conversation between father and son on the cliff earlier, about timing, the hidden mastermind, and proof, Mirai suddenly understood what Ginrei was really asking.
At once, he returned to his usual calm demeanor.
He neither admitted it nor denied it.
Instead, he answered in an even tone.
"Whether Captain Kuchiki is controlling Third Seat Kōga... isn't that something you would know best?"
Kuchiki Ginrei kept his gaze on Mirai's face for a long moment.
That answer carried the nerve of someone unwilling to back down.
At the same time, it seemed to hide a quiet attempt to protect his so-called friend's position.
It was not a bad answer.
The stern look on Ginrei's face eased slightly.
He turned his head and looked back at the battlefield below, which was now settling into silence.
His voice was low, as though he were explaining something, or perhaps speaking to himself.
"The world of the nobility... is far more complicated and troublesome than it appears."
"Kōga is too straightforward and too fierce. If I do not guide him and place limits on him, he could easily be dragged under by this mess, or even ruined for good."
After saying that, he said nothing more.
Below, the final dying screams and the sound of clashing weapons had already faded.
Mirai had no interest at all in the subtle relationship between this father and son.
His gaze swept over the shattered battlefield.
Only about a dozen enemies were still able to remain standing.
Every one of them was injured, pale, and visibly terrified.
They were so shaken by the lingering spiritual pressure from Kuchiki Kōga, and by the bodies of their companions covering the ground, that none of them dared move.
Mirai leaped down from the cliff and landed lightly beside Kuchiki Kōga.
"Third Seat Kuchiki," Mirai said in a professional tone, "I will take the survivors back to Squad 9 for confinement and questioning. After that, we can submit a report and decide how to handle them through the proper process."
However, Kuchiki Kōga shook his head.
He first looked up at his father's figure on the cliff, then turned back to Mirai.
"I'm sorry, Fifth Seat Mirai. These people are traitors to the Kuchiki family. By the rules, it is only proper for the Kuchiki family to take them back for quest—"
Before he could finish speaking—
Slash. Slash. Slash.
A string of muffled sounds of blades cutting into flesh suddenly interrupted him.
Those ten or so rebels who had survived by sheer luck and were trembling with fear did not hesitate at all.
They drove the swords in their hands straight into their own throats.
Blood splashed.
The last dozen bodies dropped to the ground one after another without a word.
They twitched a few times, then went still.
Both Mirai and Kuchiki Kōga were stunned.
Neither of them had expected these people to choose such swift collective suicide.
"Those bastards!" Kōga snapped, cursing loudly.
His face turned dark with anger.
He took a sharp breath, then gave Mirai a quick nod.
"Fifth Seat Mirai, I'll... leave the rest here to you. I need to return and report to the Captain first."
As soon as he finished speaking, his figure flashed.
He returned to the top of the cliff and exchanged a few quiet words with Kuchiki Ginrei.
Ginrei cast a heavy look at the mountain of corpses below, then looked at Mirai, who stood alone among them.
He said nothing else.
He simply turned and left with Kuchiki Kōga, and the two quickly disappeared behind the cliff.
Below, Mirai was the only one left.
The air was thick with the heavy smell of blood and the faint glow of reishi drifting before it began to scatter.
Mirai looked at the scene for a while without expression.
Then he pulled a communication device from his robe and pressed it.
A few seconds later, a lively female voice came through.
"Hey! Which idiot is this? What do you want with Squad 12? Spit it out, I'm busy!"
It was Hiyori Sarugaki.
Mirai spoke into the device in a clear, steady voice.
"This is Squad 9 Fifth Seat Mirai. Rukongai District 3, southeast side at the foot of Mount Koifushi. The coordinates are marked."
"I have discovered a large number of Shinigami corpses from unnatural deaths. The count is approximately one hundred and ten. Their spiritual class ranges from regular squad members to lower seated officers. The scene is secured. I request Squad 12 to send a team to recover and process them immediately."
"Huh?! Oh... it's... it's you..."
The irritation in Hiyori's tone faded noticeably.
"So many dead people again... Got it. We'll send people over right away."
She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was a little quieter.
"By the way... you're not hurt, right? You're okay?"
Mirai's tone softened slightly on its own.
"Thank you for your concern. I'm fine. I'll stay here until the scene is handed over."
"Fine! I'll send people right now!"
Hiyori sounded a little flustered as she hurriedly cut the call.
Mirai put the device away.
His eyes swept across the corpses once more.
From Hiyori's comment just now, "so many dead people again," he could already tell that the number of unnatural Shinigami deaths lately had likely reached the point where even Squad 12 found it frequent and troublesome.
Normally, after a Shinigami dies, the spiritual body gradually breaks down.
It returns to basic reishi and goes back into the cycle of Soul Society.
But for Shinigami with a high spiritual class, that process is very slow.
As for those at Captain level, they cannot disappear naturally at all.
They must be guided through a special Konsō Reisai ceremony.
Among the hundred-plus bodies on the ground, at least a dozen had a spiritual class at the level of a lower seated officer or above.
Holding a Konsō Reisai for each of them was impossible.
At the same time, they could not simply be left lying out in the wilds of Rukongai for months or even years while waiting to break down on their own.
That was why Squad 12 had to recover them and accelerate the process of reishi decomposition.
As for whether those bodies were truly being helped to disappear once they reached Squad 12, or whether they were being used for some unknown technical research instead...
That was not something outsiders could know.
It was also not something Mirai needed to concern himself with.
He waited there for about fifteen minutes.
Then a team of technical staff in Squad 12 uniforms arrived in a hurry, carrying sealed containers and various tools.
Mirai handed the scene over to them.
He did not stay any longer.
He turned and left the blood-soaked valley.
As he walked out of the Mount Koifushi area, he looked back without thinking.
The people from Squad 12 were moving busily through the scene.
Under the darkening sky, the reishi lamps flickered faintly.
Mirai gave a slight shake of his head.
A trace of disappointment passed through him because Hiyori herself had not come.
He had thought that if she showed up, he could give this loyal reader a little bonus, maybe something like a live autograph.
Oh well. There would be other chances.
He refocused and continued his patrol.
His pace was neither fast nor slow.
His spiritual sensing spread in all directions like an invisible web as he carefully searched for unusual reishi fluctuations in the first ten districts of Rukongai.
When he reached the outskirts of District 9, he arrived at the edge of a mostly empty area with few buildings.
His footsteps suddenly stopped.
Not far ahead stood a massive building with a strange shape.
It was cylindrical and rose high into the sky.
At the top was a thick, chimney-like structure.
The entire thing was made from an unknown dark material, with a rough design and hard lines.
It looked completely out of place compared to the common building styles of Seireitei, or even Rukongai.
It was the residence of the Shiba family, one of the Five Great Noble Houses.
It stood there quietly in the last light of sunset.
No smoke rose from the chimney.
Everything about it felt still.
Compared to the lights of Junrinan in the distance, and to Mount Koifushi where the slaughter had just taken place, it felt like a separate world.
Mirai stood there, looking at that strange building.
A faint flicker passed through his eyes.
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