What Were You Doing in the Fifth Division?

Early morning, Seireitei.

As the eastern sky had just begun to pale and the patrolling Shinigami were at their most exhausted, a black cat and a Shinigami darted through Seireitei's maze-like buildings like two ghosts.

The black cat transformed from Yoruichi Shihoin moved lightly and silently, while Kurosaki Ichigo wore a stealth cloak specially made by Kisuke Urahara, perfectly concealing his Spiritual Pressure. They had slipped in without anyone noticing.

Before long, the two arrived before a desolate ruin.

The enormous family crest was already shattered, the paint on the gates had peeled away in patches, and weeds grew wildly from the cracks between the stones.

This had once been the residence of the Tsunayashiro Clan, one of the Five Great Noble Clans.

However, after that night several years ago, the Tsunayashiro Clan had been completely erased. This estate, once a symbol of supreme glory and power, had become an abandoned ghostly wasteland.

In just a few years, the wild grass had grown past knee height, making the place heartbreakingly bleak.

"Hey, what are you standing around for?"

Seeing Yoruichi Shihoin return to human form and freeze the moment she entered, staring blankly at the ruined courtyard before her, Kurosaki Ichigo urged her in a low voice, confused.

This wasn't the Shihoin Clan estate. So what if it was rundown? What was there to look at?

"Nothing."

Yoruichi took a deep breath and shook her head, forcibly suppressing the thick, inescapable melancholy in her eyes. Then she took heavy steps and led Ichigo deeper into the estate.

This truly was not her home.

Yet as she looked at the broken walls and desolate weeds before her, she seemed to see the future of the Shihoin Clan.

Yushiro was now dead, nearly all her clansmen had been wiped out, and only