It turned out Higashi Shuuichi's instincts were dead-on.
The same night he unwillingly accompanied Gin Ginjirou to register at the Cherry Blossom Plaza, he received a message from Aizen.
"So this really was about the hunting festival, huh?" Shuuichi murmured as he gazed out his window toward Rukongai. "But seriously… 'Rescue our captured comrades'? That's the slogan they're going with? As if Hollows would shout something like that. Who's actually buying this crap?"
He sneered. Aizen's nonsense was, as always, beautifully packaged, but still nonsense.
Still… the message wasn't the point. The point was the misdirection.
Aizen's real move was likely elsewhere—probably deep in Rukongai, where he'd quietly harvest all those "qualified souls" he'd preselected, while the whole Gotei was busy guarding a glorified noble dating show.
"Typical. Aizen," Shuuichi chuckled coldly.
So much for 'no rush.' Turns out Aizen had been preparing for this all along. All that talk about waiting for Tōsen to graduate had been just that—talk.
And what was Shuuichi's role in this masterstroke?
Simple: provide the layout.
Identify the key nobles. Mark the high-interest zones. Feed information to Aizen's people so the actual strike could be executed during the chaos of the event.
Aizen couldn't rely on Kyōka Suigetsu here—not when nobles would scatter the moment the hunt began, making illusionary preemptions unreliable.
But Shuuichi's Zanpakutō? That was another matter.
"How long's it been, Heisha… since we last danced in the shadows?" he whispered to the moonlight.
The festival came fast, wrapped in pageantry.
As one of the few grand spectacles nobles had organized in recent years, the Gotei 13 went all in. All captains showed up in person. The only absentee was Jūshirō Ukitake, whose illness kept him away.
The male Shinigami turnout wasn't small either. Shuuichi counted at least twenty participants. Not bad, considering only seated officers were allowed to register.
But when he glanced around at his own squad—Fourth Division, the so-called girl magnet of the Gotei—he saw only three: Captain Unohana Retsu, Vice-Captain Yamada Kiyonosuke, and himself.
"Don't those girls want to fall in love?" he muttered.
Still, this suited him fine. With fewer people around, he had fewer eyes to dodge. He could deploy his Zanpakutō with less suspicion.
He sidled up to Unohana just as the Tsunayashiro patriarch began his pompous speech, and whispered, "Captain… considering how few of our squad showed up, should I release my Shikai? It might help keep the nobles safer."
He wasn't reckless. He would never unleash a Shikai inside Seireitei without clearance. That was literal law, punishable by death.
He expected a nod. A quiet, professional "Go ahead."
What he got instead was devastatingly gentle rejection.
"That won't be necessary," Unohana said with that smile that melted glaciers. "I know your Zanpakutō can split into tiny autonomous spirit avatars—perfect for this kind of situation. But Kiyonosuke already assured me he can handle all medical responsibilities during the event. I've given him my word. I can't break it, now can I?"
"…I see."
Shuuichi's eyes slid past her—right to the shadows behind her, where Kiyonosuke stood with arms folded and a frosty glare.
Coincidence?
Hell no.
That little bastard was watching him like a hawk.
And suddenly, the last two years clicked into place.
The decrease in patients. The constant redirection to the medicine lab. The subtle demotions.
It hadn't just been Kiyonosuke's politicking. It had been Unohana's quiet nod of consent.
She knew. Or at least, she suspected.
And if that was the case… his days in the Fourth Division were numbered.
Shuuichi locked all that panic away behind a bright, brilliant smile.
"That's actually wonderful news," he said cheerfully. "Using that technique always exhausts me. If Vice-Captain Kiyonosuke can handle the burden alone, I'm grateful for the reprieve!"
"Oh, is that so? Then maybe you're relaxing a little too early."
A voice like crashing sunlight hit him from behind. Shuuichi didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
Muguruma Kensei, current captain of the Ninth Division. A man who looked like he'd walked straight out of a shōnen manga. Built like a tank, heart like a furnace.
They'd known each other in passing—everyone in the Gotei 13 knew Shuuichi, even if just as the "former gentle vice-captain."
"You seem to know something, Captain Muguruma," Shuuichi said, still smiling. "Care to enlighten me?"
His mind was racing. Everything was spiraling since Unohana's unexpected refusal.
"Trap! It's a trap!" Kensei announced with zero subtlety, flinging an arm around Shuuichi and grinding his knuckles into his hair like an overenthusiastic older brother. "Turns out those Hollows in Hueco Mundo have been acting real fishy—gathering in large groups, moving in sync. Two of them even seem to be giving orders. Add that to some other intel we got, and… well, the Commander-General and Kyōraku are convinced they're planning to hit here. During this festival."
Shuuichi jerked away, fixing his hair with a grimace.
Kensei just laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Honestly, I don't know why we even agreed to host this stupid thing. All it does is make us babysit nobles and keep a bunch of barely-contained Hollows at fighting strength so the show looks good. Total headache."
Kensei kept rambling, but Shuuichi was no longer listening.
His entire spine had gone cold.
Because if he knew… then Unohana definitely knew.
She had known everything. The trap. The danger. The odds.
And yet, she said nothing.
She was watching him.
She's testing me.
He kept his expression neutral and replied, "Makes sense. That's probably why the rest of our squad didn't show up. They must be on standby for post-battle relief."
But inside, his thoughts were spiraling.
Unohana was no fool. She wouldn't leap to accusations.
But if she suspected he was connected to the Hollows—if she thought he was feeding Aizen intel…
She didn't need proof.
She just needed an excuse.
Don't rely on past-life impressions, Shuuichi reminded himself. Don't trust the mask she wears. She's not just kind. She's the first Kenpachi.
And she wouldn't hesitate to slit his throat with a smile.
But what he still didn't understand was why.
What had made her suspect he was linked to Hueco Mundo?
What clue had he left behind?