Yoriichi did not answer immediately.
What Tsukishima had said was already enough to change the direction of this investigation.
Shihakushō.
A barrier capable of enveloping an entire district.
And a Reishi device that erased souls outright.
Taken together, these clues actually made the answer quite obvious.
Few divisions within the Gotei 13 could do something like this.
To be precise, there was only one.
The Twelfth Division.
After a moment of silence, Yoriichi said calmly, "I understand. Thank you for the warning."
Tsukishima looked at him.
"You believe me?"
"I do."
Yoriichi answered without the slightest hesitation.
Instead, it was Tsukishima who froze for a moment.
He had thought Yoriichi would at least ask for more details, or demand that he return to Seireitei with him to testify.
But Yoriichi did neither.
"Aren't you afraid I'm lying to you?"
"You have no reason to lie to me."
Yoriichi looked toward the empty street.
The wind blew between them, gently stirring the old cloth beneath the eaves.
"Twenty-eight thousand wandering souls disappeared. Someone has to tell the truth for them."
Tsukishima's hand paused slightly around his book.
He followed Yoriichi's gaze.
Many wandering souls had once lived here.
The old man who had lent him the book had also lived in a small house at the end of the street.
The old man had always been extremely stingy.
If anyone so much as touched his books, he would glare at them for ages.
But last night, those books he treasured had been scattered all over the ground.
And the old man had not even had a chance to pick them up.
"What are you going to do?" Tsukishima asked.
"Find the person who did this."
Yoriichi turned around.
"Since you've come to Soul Society, make a good life for yourself."
"This