Chapter 148: As Everyone Knows, Leaving a Survivor Is What Makes It an Extermination
Inoue Orihime, sixteen years old.
Hair color: orange.
Eye color: brown.
Occupation: high school student, Substitute Shinigami.
As a child, she had run away from home with her older brother, and the two of them had relied on each other to survive. After her brother passed away, she had lived alone in a rented room with support from distant relatives.
That arrangement itself was perfectly reasonable.
However, her relatives had only agreed to support her until she graduated from high school, so like many other students, she had no choice but to work part time and save money for the future.
Then she became a Substitute Shinigami.
From that point on, she had to fight Hollows that frequently invaded the spiritually dense land around Karakura Town. Just keeping up with her normal schoolwork was already difficult. Holding down a part time job on top of that was even harder.
The Soul Society did send monthly wages and bonuses, but every time Rangiku, Hachihara, and the others dragged her out shopping and having fun, her savings would drop right back to rock bottom.
Still, those days of living hand to mouth came to an end on January 9.
At only sixteen years old, this high school girl now owned her own home.
On top of that, all of her expenses until university graduation would be fully covered by the Soul Society.
Considering her contributions to the Soul Society, that level of compensation could only be described as modest. But for someone who needed exactly those things, it had come at the perfect time.
While Takeru was taking Orihime, along with the curious Ichigo and Tatsuki, to see the apartment and then relax at the Karakura Town night market for the first time in a while, two shocking incidents occurred one after another in the Soul Society.
In the underground ice cellar beneath the Fifth Research Building of the Technical Development Bureau, more than a dozen Squad Members in white coats were crouched on the floor with their heads in their hands, shivering uncontrollably.
To be honest, even the Punishment Corps members standing guard over them wanted to tremble too, but they were forcing themselves to endure it.
Because if the furious commander saw even a trace of cowardice from them, their heads might roll on the spot, and they would never shiver again.
That was not even an exaggeration.
The cold air pouring out of the ice cellar was nowhere near as chilling as the killing intent radiating from Suì Fēng. Her spiritual pressure alone was enough to physically damage souls.
Ōmaeda felt as if his life could end at any moment. He did not even dare wipe away the cold sweat running into his eyes, and simply wished his huge frame could somehow disappear into a blind spot where no one would notice him.
Unfortunately, things did not go the way he wanted.
Suì Fēng still fixed her gaze on him.
"Ōmaeda. Tell me who did it, and where they are."
Her voice was as cold and hard as a corpse, utterly devoid of emotion.
Ōmaeda's knees went weak, and he dropped to the floor on the spot.
"C Captain, please let me explain. I really did my best guarding the place. The patrols were watching day and night. Even a fly should not have been able to get in."
"It it must have been another mole in the Technical Development Bureau. Or maybe Captain Kurotsuchi did it. He is definitely capable of something like this."
"The Quincy corpses Captain Takeru had collected must have been secretly misappropriated by Captain Kurotsuchi. Or there is a mole. Either way, this is because of their poor supervision. It has nothing to do with me!"
At that moment, a mocking voice drifted over from the far end of the corridor.
"So this is how the Onmitsukidō solves cases? You just dump the blame on someone at random, then close the file as quickly as possible? If it worked like that, solving cases would be easy. No wonder even an idiot like this can become a Lieutenant."
Click. Click.
Mayuri Kurotsuchi walked over slowly with Nemu at his side.
"Mayuri. This is the Twelfth Division."
Suì Fēng stared at him coldly.
"I know you are irritated that I came late. But when I received the notice, I happened to be in the middle of an urgent experiment. Even if I were willing to interrupt it, I could not just walk away on a whim. Otherwise, you might have ended up buried under rubble right now."
Mayuri cast a glance into the opened ice cellar. The interior was completely empty except for the facilities themselves. For a storage room, it was no different now from a hollow shell.
"So, do you have any excuses to offer?"
"None at all."
Faced with Suì Fēng's blunt question, Mayuri merely spread his hands and tilted his head, looking utterly unconcerned.
"To borrow your subordinate's words, this has nothing to do with me."
"I already checked the surveillance on the way here and found nothing. The corpses that had been stored here simply vanished in a way that I do not understand."
"So no matter how much you torture or interrogate my employees, it will not help. I am a scientist. I would not make the same mistake twice and allow a mole to steal something right under my nose."
"..."
Suì Fēng took a deep breath and clenched her teeth.
"I am not interested in hearing you dodge responsibility. Right now, I only want to know one thing. Who is the culprit? Where are they? Where are the stolen corpses? What do they intend to do with them? And why did they specifically target the Quincy corpses Takeru collected?"
"So many questions. But unlike you, what interests me most is not that."
Mayuri rubbed his chin thoughtfully, a hint of malice in his eyes.
"What truly interests me is how someone managed to get past my surveillance and the Onmitsukidō's security network and steal a full thousand Quincy corpses. I am very curious about that, which is why I did not hesitate to interrupt an important experiment and come here to examine the scene."
"I have already checked. The Onmitsukidō's methods yielded nothing."
Even so, Suì Fēng still cleared the scene for him and let Mayuri conduct his own investigation again.
She was fully aware that relying on him meant setting aside her professional pride, but compared to recovering Takeru's spoils of war and bringing the thief to justice, that pride meant nothing.
Mayuri, at the very least, did not disappoint her.
He walked through the ice cellar several times, projecting reishi screens and having Nemu pull out one impressive piece of portable equipment after another. After going through a whole series of procedures, he finally seemed to grasp something and muttered under his breath,
"Hm... I see... now this is getting interesting..."
"Mayuri, enough with the riddles. If you found a clue, say it. I want to arrest the culprit before they have any more time to play whatever game they are planning."
"What is the rush?"
Mayuri cracked his neck, then looked back at Suì Fēng.
"If my judgment is correct, then the corpses will not be recovered, and the culprit will most likely never be caught."
"What did you say?"
"The space here is very stable. That rules out my original guess that the theft was carried out through a spatial ability. But after examining the structure of the space itself, I found traces of an unusual reishi phenomenon. Simply put, although this ice cellar appears exactly the same as before, it has actually already been destroyed once and then restored."
"..."
Suì Fēng's pupils contracted.
Seeing that reaction, Mayuri asked with faint amusement, "Let me guess. Did you immediately think of Inoue Orihime? What a shame. It was not her. Her ability is nowhere near this... well, low grade."
"But even a low grade method becomes terrifying when used properly. For example, going from basic reishi manipulation all the way to the absolute subordination of reishi."
"You mean... the culprit is a Quincy?"
"Even if not, they are certainly tied to the Quincies in some way. That is my current guess. I would not make a definitive judgment before seeing more evidence."
"The only thing I can say for certain is this."
As he spoke, Mayuri looked up at the intact ice cellar as if talking to himself.
"The culprit dismantled the reishi structure of the ice cellar and then reassembled it."
"It was most likely a technique of the same general category as Sklaverei, absolute subordination of reishi, but focused far more on precise reishi control. That means any ordinary defense would have been meaningless."
"So the culprit broke down the reishi of the floor and moved underground, then dismantled the ice cellar, disrupted the surveillance, located the corpses, broke those corpses down into reishi for collection, and then retraced their route before restoring the crime scene to delay discovery."
"However, that cover up is pointless."
"Even if there is no obvious evidence left on the surface, a little time spent in the Great Spirit Library Corridor should reveal the truth. The problem is that the culprit is not a Shinigami, and after committing something like this, the odds of them remaining in the Soul Society are basically zero."
"So you are unlikely to catch them. And even if you do, you will not recover the goods."
"After all, the culprit clearly came here specifically for those corpses. By the time you find them, they will most likely already have been put to use."
"I simply do not know for what."
Suì Fēng fell silent after hearing that, but the killing intent and spiritual pressure radiating from her only grew heavier, enough to scare someone to death on the spot.
Mayuri could say his piece and leave if he wanted.
Ōmaeda, on the other hand, could not.
For the sake of his own life, he hurried to say something that might calm his captain down.
"Maybe they have not had time to use them yet. There is still a chance. I will apply right now to head to the Great Spirit Library Corridor and investigate."
"I doubt it."
Mayuri's tone remained almost cheerful.
"If their target was really only those corpses, then why come now? Not yesterday, not the day before, not a week ago, not right after the defensive battle ended. They chose this moment. Unless they acted on pure impulse, that means they had already finished all their preparations and were only waiting to acquire the corpses before moving."
The logic was airtight.
Ōmaeda could only stare at him resentfully, with nothing left to say.
"Ōmaeda..."
Suì Fēng suddenly spoke, startling him so badly he nearly jumped.
"C Captain... your orders?"
"I remember that the corpses of the Gotei 13 members who died in battle are also being stored here."
"That is right. I already checked. They are all still here. There are no signs they were touched at all."
"..."
Suì Fēng's expression eased slightly, though her fists still remained clenched.
"No matter what, I have to give Takeru an explanation."
"Then... should we notify Captain Takeru?"
"Wait until I catch the culprit. Let us move. We are going to the Great Spirit Library Corridor."
"Yes!"
Watching Suì Fēng storm off with her subordinates, Mayuri narrowed his eyes and sank into thought.
Beside him, Nemu asked in confusion, "Lord Mayuri, do you truly believe the culprit was a Quincy?"
"Rather than surviving Quincies, I am more inclined to suspect another group."
"...Another group?"
"Yes. A group like Inoue Orihime and the Quincies. A group carrying the Blood of the Soul King in their veins, and possessing both extraordinary abilities and reishi control. If that is the case... then this is truly becoming interesting."
His eyes flickered with something unsettling.
"Especially the fact that they stole the Quincy corpses but left the Shinigami corpses untouched."
"They are all just corpses. So if they wanted the Quincies but not the Shinigami, does that mean they have no use for what Shinigami corpses provide, or that they already possess it, or that they have access to an even better source?"
"The Father of the Quincies, who in a sense could be seen as the successor to the Soul King, has already died. So is it finally time for the other candidates to start leaping onto the stage?"
He smiled faintly.
"It seems I may have some new experimental materials after all."
Suì Fēng moved with astonishing efficiency.
Before she even arrived, she had already sent an electronic report to the First Division.
By the time she reached the Great Spirit Library Corridor, the approval to use it had just come through.
Strictly speaking, the Projection Hall would have been more convenient.
But only two days had passed since the war ended, and the nobles were already reverting to their old habits, wanting to reestablish clear boundaries between themselves and the Shinigami.
The Tsunayashiro Clan in particular wanted to force the Shinigami out of the Projection Hall and reclaim what they called their ancestral property.
However, Ōmaeda's father was sly enough to turn even that into leverage.
Not only had he effectively seized control of the Projection Hall by force back then, he had even gone so far as to visit the Tsunayashiro Clan, complain bitterly about his hardships, and make them sign an agreement.
According to that agreement, the Tsunayashiro Clan would lead the other nobles in providing a large amount of funding for Seireitei's restoration, and in exchange, if the war turned against them, the Gotei 13 would protect certain important individuals during any evacuation.
The meaning of "important individuals" was self evident.
Now that the war was over, many of those same nobles, led by the Tsunayashiro Clan, wanted to act as though that condition no longer mattered.
As they looked at a Seireitei still in desperate need of reconstruction, their ambitions were already stirring again.
In addition to wanting to distance themselves from the Shinigami, they also intended to use second and third quarter reconstruction funding as leverage in negotiations with the Captain Commander over the future reorganization of both Central 46 and the Golden Seal Society.
Unfortunately for them, that only created an awkward stalemate.
Because by violating the spirit of the agreement, they had effectively given the Gotei 13 every excuse to maintain control over the Projection Hall and several other noble properties under the pretense that "the situation has not yet fully stabilized."
So if the Tsunayashiro Clan and the other nobles wanted their properties back and the Shinigami removed, they first had to honor the contract and provide the promised funding.
For the moment, the two sides were locked in a quiet stand off.
Using the Projection Hall openly in front of the Tsunayashiro Clan was therefore inconvenient.
The Great Spirit Library Corridor, incidentally, also belonged to the Tsunayashiro Clan.
But a long time ago, in order to ensure that each generation of "Sages" from the Tsunayashiro Clan retained a strong voice within Central 46, they had handed management of it over to Central 46 itself.
The Amanokado Family had also benefited from that arrangement.
Regardless of whether the head of their family entered Central 46 as a Sage, they still inherited the position of Librarian of the Great Spirit Library Corridor.
Now, however, with Central 46 kidnapped and functionally gone, control of the Corridor had, according to spiritual law, passed into the hands of the Gotei 13 along with everything else.
At this point, it had practically become their private garden.
Back to the main matter.
Suì Fēng spent several hours inside, staring until her eyes were bloodshot, but in the end, she finally found a clue.
"...The Tsunayashiro Clan?"
The forced records stored there were fragmented and rigid. They would not simply spell out the full story for anyone to read.
Actually extracting the truth from them was far from easy.
Yet after painstakingly piecing together the evidence, Suì Fēng found that all the clues led straight to the Tsunayashiro Clan, the same great noble family currently locked in conflict with the Onmitsukidō.
The realization startled her, but she quickly forced herself calm.
"The Golden Seal Society has not yet been reorganized, so I cannot apply for a warrant. The Gotei 13 is not supposed to interfere in noble affairs... but I am part of the Onmitsukidō, and I have legitimate grounds. There is no reason to hesitate."
"No matter what, I have to arrest that despicable thief before Takeru returns from the Human World. Otherwise he will end up having to worry about everything again. If I cannot even safeguard his spoils of war, then I would look far too incompetent. How would I ever have the face to mock Yoruichi again?"
With that, Suì Fēng did not pause for even a moment.
She took Ōmaeda with her and went straight to the Tsunayashiro Clan.
What greeted her, Ōmaeda, and the rest of the Onmitsukidō, however, was a massacre so grotesque it was difficult to look at.
"..."
As Suì Fēng walked through the luxurious corridor, her beautiful face was filled with shock and fury. Her lips trembled from rage.
Within such a vast noble estate, there was not a single living person left.
Blood covered the floors in streams.
Everywhere she looked, there were corpses.
Servants.
Attendants.
Retainers.
Family members.
One after another, all dead.
She had come to catch the criminal who stole the corpses.
She had not come to find more of them.
"Just who... who did this?!"
The bodies of dead servants lay scattered at her feet.
It was as if the murderer had simply walked in at a leisurely pace and slaughtered the entire Tsunayashiro Clan from top to bottom.
But why?
What possible benefit could there be in killing them all?
"Captain, we found a survivor over here!"
Ōmaeda's urgent shout rang out.
Suì Fēng vanished at her fastest speed.
When she arrived, she found Ōmaeda and several others standing there in stunned silence before a floor covered with the corpses of richly dressed nobles.
No.
One was still alive.
It was a young girl lying among the dead.
Suì Fēng recognized her at once. The girl and the corpses in this room all belonged to the direct bloodline of the Tsunayashiro Clan.
The current head.
His wife.
Their children.
And among them, only one daughter remained alive.
"...Not even the servants were spared, and yet the main family's princess was deliberately left alive. So that means... since you came for corpses, then I will leave you more corpses? You bastard..."
Suì Fēng was practically grinding her silver teeth to dust.
She could almost see the murderer's sneering face.
But no matter what she felt, the killer had already fled far away.
Exactly as Mayuri had predicted, they had most likely already left the Soul Society.
"Captain, what should we do?"
Seeing Suì Fēng close her eyes and steady her breathing, as though forcibly suppressing herself, Ōmaeda finally dared to ask.
"Investigate the scene and report everything to the Captain Commander."
Suì Fēng opened her eyes and gave the order, her voice carrying a strange bleakness.
"As for this survivor... send her to the Fourth Division immediately. We will interrogate her once Takeru returns."
"Yes!"
.....
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