The Real Target

The head of the Tsunayashiro Clan straightened his somewhat disheveled robes and turned toward the exit of the secret chamber.

"And clean that filth off the floor for me! Don't dirty my place!"

With that final, merciless command, the stone door of the secret chamber slowly closed, and the clan head vanished from sight.

"Phew..."

Only after confirming that the clan head's Reiatsu had completely receded did the servant kneeling on the floor let out a long breath, as though all his strength had left him. He slumped to the ground.

Still shaken, he wiped the blood running into his eyes with his sleeve. His face was full of relief at having survived the ordeal.

His hands trembling, he wiped them on his clothes. Only after repeatedly confirming that they were completely clean and would leave no bloody fingerprints

did the lowly servant dare pick up the rag that had been thrown at him. He lay on the floor like a dog, cleaning up the tea mixed with his own blood and the sharp porcelain shards bit by bit.

Meanwhile, outside the Eighth Division barracks, the lamps were just coming on, and the scene was entirely different.

Xuanxin, Shunsui Kyōraku, and Ukitake stood shoulder to shoulder outside the tavern's wooden doors, apparently chatting as they welcomed their guests.

Shunsui Kyōraku pulled down the brim of his straw hat and looked Xuanxin up and down. A smile curved his lips as he said lazily:

"Junior brother, you certainly look impressive today. But whenever I see you, you're either at the 11th Division or teaching at the academy. You don't seem like someone who enjoys a lively crowd."

Hearing this, Xuanxin tucked his hands into his sleeves and nodded calmly. "That's true. So I'm sorry for the trouble of asking you two senior brothers to help cover for me here this time."

Jūshirō Ukitake, standing nearby, smiled gently. His white hair stirred in the night breeze, and his voice carried a warmth like a spring breeze:

"Xuanxin, it's only natural for fellow disciples to help each other. There's no need to be so formal. Since you chose this place, we'll naturally play our parts well."

Shunsui Kyōraku, however, pursed his lips and sighed in feigned distress. He tapped his shoulder with his folding fan and complained:

"Oh, come on, Ukitake, you were too quick to play the good guy. You stole my lines. I was going to take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to squeeze a few bottles of the Shihoin Clan's fine sake out of our junior brother, but now that's ruined."

As the three fellow disciples teased one another, an agile figure landed soundlessly on a nearby roof, then descended lightly before them like a falling feather.

It was Yoruichi Shihōin.

She had changed out of her uniform into a more casual, comfortable outfit. Yoruichi walked over to Xuanxin and said quickly in a low voice:

"Everything's ready. Blondie has left too."

A cold glint flashed in Xuanxin's eyes. He nodded slightly. "Good. Once everyone's here, the gathering can begin."

Xuanxin and Yoruichi then stood side by side at the tavern entrance and waited.

Before long, Ginrei Kuchiki, head of the Kuchiki Clan, arrived on time with a solemn expression, draped in the sheer scarf that symbolized his clan.

The old man's eyes met Xuanxin's for a moment. Though neither exchanged an unnecessary word, they had reached a certain understanding through that silent glance.

"Lord Ginrei, please come in." Xuanxin bowed slightly.

Everyone then followed an attendant into the tavern's most luxurious private room.

Inside the spacious room, Sōsuke Aizen had already arrived and had obediently seated himself in the most inconspicuous corner.

When Xuanxin and the others pushed the door open, Aizen immediately stood and bowed respectfully.

His eyes, concealed behind black-framed glasses, quickly swept over everyone present—the veteran head of the Kuchiki Clan and two unfathomable senior captains.

To quietly bring these forces together in the same room at a time like this... Teacher Shihoin, it seems the prey you're hunting tonight is even bigger than I imagined.

Aizen silently marveled to himself, then quietly returned to his seat like an invisible observer.

Once everyone had taken their seats, the banquet billed as a "private gathering" officially began.

Exquisite dishes and sake arrived at the table in a steady stream. The tavern owner had evidently received orders, as the area outside the private room had been deliberately cleared.

But not one of the people drinking together in the room was a fool.

Everyone present understood perfectly well that the lively feast at the table was nothing more than an elaborate ruse to lull the enemy into complacency.

Although no one present except Yoruichi and Xuanxin knew all the specific steps of tonight's operation, everyone still did their best to cooperate with Xuanxin and maintain a flawless disguise.

Ginrei Kuchiki held his sake cup and occasionally exchanged a few quiet words with Shunsui Kyōraku about amusing incidents among the nobles;

Ukitake, meanwhile, smiled and gently asked Aizen about his studies at Shin'ō Academy. The atmosphere in the room was warm and cheerful, with no hint of murderous intent.

Outside the window, the sky gradually grew completely dark, and a cold moon, half obscured by dark clouds, quietly climbed to the middle of the sky.

"Creak—"

The wooden door to the private room was gently pushed open. Several attendants in matching tavern uniforms entered with freshly prepared drinking snacks and warmed sake pots, their heads bowed and eyes lowered, ready to replenish the food and drink for the guests.

One of the attendants carrying a sake pot moved with particular care.

He deliberately kept his breathing quiet and his head lowered the entire time, his eyes fixed firmly on the floor without looking around for even a second.

The attendant believed his disguise was flawless, and that his stealth and ability to conceal his presence had reached their lifetime peak.

But he had made one fatal mistake—he had vastly underestimated the terrifying monsters sitting in this room.

The moment he entered, all of it had been exposed as plainly as a lighthouse in the dark.

No one exposed him. The astute people in the room tacitly played along until the end, as though watching a monkey put on a clever little performance.

After pouring the sake, the attendant bowed respectfully, then backed out of the room and gently closed the wooden door.

As soon as he left the room and escaped the oppressive range of those Captain-level Reiatsu, the spy felt as though all his strength had drained away. Cold sweat instantly soaked the back of his clothes.

But he dared not linger. He immediately quickened his pace toward the deserted service passage by the kitchen, intending to send the confirmed intelligence he had gathered back to the Tsunayashiro Clan.

And the moment the attendant's Reiatsu vanished from everyone's range of perception,

the previously cheerful atmosphere in the private room dropped abruptly to freezing, as though the air had been sucked out in an instant.

Xuanxin set down his sake cup, turned to exchange a brief glance with Yoruichi beside him, and nodded slightly.

Yoruichi understood at once. Without speaking to him, she turned toward an empty, shadowed corner beside her and coldly gave a few instructions in a coded language no one else could understand, her voice barely audible.

Then Xuanxin stood up.

"Clap, clap, clap."

He clapped his hands softly, the crisp sound strikingly abrupt in the silent room.

"All right, everyone. Thank you for your full cooperation tonight. This performance has been perfect enough."

Xuanxin looked around at everyone. The warmth faded from his face, replaced by the stern severity of a superior. Then he announced in a grave voice:

"However, there really are matters more important than drinking to handle tonight.

After secretly investigating over this period, Yoruichi and I have obtained conclusive evidence concerning the frequent attacks by groups of Hollows in Rukongai and the hidden hand behind them."

Xuanxin's gaze fell on Ginrei Kuchiki, and his tone grew solemn:

"And today is the time to close the net completely. So, next, I ask you to leave with us and witness a true reckoning."

Finally, Xuanxin turned to Shunsui Kyōraku and Jūshirō Ukitake, who sat in the places of honor:

"As for this place, I'm sorry to trouble you two senior brothers a little longer."

After hearing Xuanxin's arrangements, Ginrei Kuchiki rose without hesitation and straightened his white haori.

Aizen also stood respectfully in the corner, the excitement in his heart reaching its peak.

Shunsui Kyōraku pulled his straw hat down over most of his face, then lay back lazily on the tatami and waved a hand.

"No problem, no problem. Junior brother, you all go take care of business. Leave this place to us.

But... remember to get Ukitake and me two bottles of the Shihoin Clan's truly peerless sake as payment for keeping quiet once it's done."

"Of course. Of course."

Xuanxin smiled faintly, then led Yoruichi and the others through a concealed door at the back of the room. Their figures instantly vanished into the night.

Meanwhile, in the tavern's kitchen,

the attendant who had just escaped the private room was hiding in a corner piled with odds and ends.

He took out a specially made messenger Hell Butterfly and sent it off with the message: "Everything is normal. All the prey are in the trap."

Only after he saw the Hell Butterfly gradually fly away did he let out a relieved breath and prepare to turn and leave.

But...

Suddenly, an icy hand reached out of the darkness without warning and clamped over his mouth like an iron vise, forcibly stifling the cry he was about to let out!

Immediately afterward, an irresistible force dragged him into a dark alley in an instant, as though he were a ragged sack.

"Bang!"

With a muffled thud, he was slammed onto the cold flagstones.

The intense pain nearly made him faint. When he opened his eyes in terror and tried to see his attacker, the sight before him plunged him into complete despair.

For he was not alone in the narrow, dim alley.

He saw that all his accomplices who, like him, had been planted in the tavern tonight were now bound hand and foot, rags stuffed in their mouths, sprawled across the ground.

A circle of masked Stealth Force members stood around them, their eyes cold.

Under Shaoling Fon's decisive command, the Tsunayashiro Clan spies, their claws and fangs completely removed, had not even been given a chance to kill themselves.

Black hoods were quickly pulled over their heads, and under cover of night, they were secretly escorted back to the Second Division's underground cells.

Several miles from the tavern, in a remote, desolate part of Rukongai,

outside the Tsunayashiro Clan's backup secret base,

a combined elite force from the Second and 11th Divisions, personally led by Kisuke Urahara, had long since surrounded every entrance and exit, sealing the entire base off like a pack of bloodthirsty wolves.

Kisuke Urahara's eyes, hidden in shadow, remained fixed on the base's tightly shut, heavy iron gate.

His hand rested on the hilt of his Zanpakuto, while the hundreds of elite Soul Reapers behind him held their breathing to a minimum.

Everything was ready. Now they only had to wait for Xuanxin and Yoruichi to arrive with the others before delivering a devastating thunderbolt to this den of evil.

Deep within Seireitei, in the Tsunayashiro Clan's main residence,

the head of the Tsunayashiro Clan had just received the Hell Butterfly from the spy at the tavern.

Hearing the report that "everything is normal," his taut nerves should have relaxed.

Yet for some reason, an inescapable sense of unease lingered deep in his heart throughout the night.

"Too quiet... It's so quiet it makes my heart race."

He paced back and forth in the secret chamber, a faint sheen of cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

In the end, the intuition he had honed as a superior on the edge of life and death overcame his arrogance.

He stopped abruptly, waved a hand, and issued an order to his trusted subordinates in the darkness:

"No, something still doesn't feel right. Send out two more groups of scouts! Have them go to that tavern and make another trip to the backup base! They must confirm it with their own eyes. Nothing can be allowed to go wrong!"

Chapter 49: The Real Target

As the head of the Tsunayashiro Clan gave his order, several dark figures slipped out of the vast residence once more.