One Piece: The Living Devil

Chapter 718 718: Hesitating to Move Forward

"Alright."

Kuchiki Byakuya nodded lightly and said nothing more. He stepped into the lounge that was filled with the smell of blood.

The moment he stepped inside, that thick, metallic scent rushed straight at him.

Byakuya's brow tightened almost imperceptibly, but he didn't walk toward the corpse right away. Instead, he first swept his gaze across the room, taking in the layout.

The windows were tightly shut. The door lock was intact. There were no signs of forced entry.

His eyes moved back and forth several times between the corpse, the bed, and the doors and windows. A hint of confusion flashed through them.

"Captain Kurosaki, did you move the body at all?"

"I didn't," Ichigo shook his head, "When I woke up she was already there. I just grabbed a haori and covered her with it. I didn't dare touch anything else."

"Is that so?", Byakuya pondered for a moment, then pointed toward the room's layout and began analyzing calmly.

"Captain Kurosaki, look. Your bed is located in the center of the room. In this squad barracks, all the doors and windows face the outer corridor. But the body was placed on the inner side of your bed, near the corner by the wall."

Ichigo froze for a moment and followed the direction of his finger.

It was exactly as he said.

If someone had come in from outside, whether through the door or the window, they would inevitably have to pass his bed, or at least go around him, before placing the body in that blind corner.

"With your current spiritual pressure perception, which already surpasses that of an ordinary captain, even if the perpetrator's shunpo was flawless and their movements extremely subtle, the airflow from opening the door or even the disturbance of breathing alone would have been enough to wake you from your sleep."

Byakuya turned around and looked straight into Ichigo's eyes as he presented the first point of suspicion.

"Unless, for the sake of moving this corpse, Kyoraku deliberately came back, used the ability of his Zanpakuto, and directly blinded your five senses while you were dreaming."

"You mean this has nothing to do with Kyoraku?"

Ichigo's brain struggled to process it. His face was full of confusion.

"But the corpse clearly still has the spiritual pressure of that bastard Ukitake Jushiro on it! Aren't they in the same group?"

"Spiritual pressure can be faked. It can also linger. But the logic behind someone's actions can't lie."

Byakuya didn't answer directly. Instead, he silently walked to the side of Orihime Inoue's corpse.

He didn't touch it. He simply raised his palm.

Pure spirit particles scattered from his fingertips like fine threads, forming a delicate net that enveloped the cold body.

The room fell into silence. The only sound was the faint humming of flowing spirit particles.

After a long moment, Byakuya slowly withdrew his hand. A trace of understanding flashed in his eyes.

"Rukia's judgment was mostly correct, but not precise enough."

He stood up, his tone firm.

"There are indeed two completely different spiritual pressures lingering on the body."

"The first one is gentle and old. It does belong to Ukitake Jushiro. But that pressure mainly remains on the surface of her body. It's more like a trace left from prolonged imprisonment or contact."

"And the second…"

Byakuya narrowed his eyes and looked toward the fatal wound on Orihime's chest.

"This one is extremely subtle, but its nature is violent and cold. The owner clearly tried to clean it away, but judging from the density and texture of the residue, this person is also a captain-class shinigami. However, their spiritual pressure is roughly around second-class spiritual might. It definitely doesn't reach the higher level of oppression someone like Kyoraku has."

There was too much information in that explanation. Ichigo listened in a daze and scratched his head instinctively.

"So… uh… in simple terms, what does that mean?"

Logical analysis had never been his strong point. In the past, whenever something required this much thinking, Teacher Aizen would usually just tell him the conclusion directly.

"Idiot, Ichigo! What my brother means is that the logic behind this whole thing is full of contradictions!"

Rukia Kuchiki spoke up from the side.

After all, she had once lived in the Rukongai, served as an ordinary squad member, received some aristocratic education, and she was already over a hundred years old.

When it came to logical reasoning, her reactions were still much faster than Ichigo's.

"Think about it. If Kyoraku really snuck in last night and blinded your senses, why would he go through the trouble of bringing along a helper with second-class spiritual might just to kill someone here? And even bully Orihime?"

Rukia pointed at the corpse and continued analyzing clearly.

"Someone at Kyoraku's level, if he wanted to kill someone to make a show of force or frame someone else, he could've just killed Orihime outside with a single strike and thrown the body at your doorstep. Why go through all this trouble to make it so complicated?"

"And besides, if he really did it, why isn't there even the slightest trace of his spiritual pressure at the scene? He wouldn't go out of his way to wipe away all his own traces while leaving Ukitake's behind as evidence, would he? That would be completely unnecessary."

"Oh! Right!"

Ichigo suddenly slapped his thigh, a look of realization spreading across his face.

'That's right!'

'If Kyoraku did it, it simply doesn't make sense.'

'That guy might be a bastard, but he isn't stupid enough to do something like that.'

It couldn't be that the mysterious shinigami with second-class spiritual might had enough status to order Shunsui Kyoraku to act as his porter.

"So…"

Ichigo followed that line of thought, but his expression only grew uglier.

"Captain Kuchiki, are you saying that last night there really was someone with only second-class spiritual might who sneaked into my room silently, without using any illusion to block my senses, walked around my bed, and placed the body there?"

"But how is that even possible?"

Ichigo felt like his entire worldview was about to collapse.

"Come on! Even just now, Captain Kuchiki, when you were a hundred meters away and not even deliberately releasing spiritual pressure, I already sensed you and the spirit particles in my body were screaming warnings."

"But last night that guy not only opened the door and came in, he was carrying a person and even walked around me! And I slept like a damn pig without noticing a thing?"

"Does that make any sense? Even Captain Rosse couldn't pull that off, right?"

This line of reasoning not only failed to solve the mystery, it pushed the whole matter into an even more bizarre and chilling "impossible crime."

The room fell silent again.

Byakuya also remained quiet.

Indeed, it didn't make sense.

Unless… Unless the killer possessed some kind of Zanpakuto ability that could completely erase their sense of presence.

Or… The killer was someone Ichigo trusted so deeply that even his instinctive combat intuition would ignore them.

But neither possibility seemed very reasonable.

"Brother, how many captains in the Seireitei have second-class spiritual might? And how many captains could disguise themselves as second-class spiritual might?", Rukia suddenly asked.

When a deduction reaches a dead end, the best approach is to find a breakthrough.

To her, that second-class spiritual might seemed the most promising clue.

Of course, it could also be a false lead deliberately created by Shunsui Kyoraku and the others to mislead them.

"Second-class spiritual might already exceeds the ordinary range. Among the hidden combat power of the noble families, aside from my grandfather, no one exists at that level."

Byakuya spoke quietly. As the head of the Kuchiki family, his words carried considerable credibility.

"Then the noble families can basically be ruled out, which means the only ones left are the Gotei 13," Ichigo frowned slightly.

No matter what, he couldn't imagine accusing Byakuya's grandfather of being the murderer. An antique like that had no reason to do such a thing.

And he'd heard that the old man was even more rigid than Byakuya himself.

Although appearances could be deceiving, like Kyoraku and Ukitake Jushiro, it was still highly likely he could be excluded.

"Within the Gotei 13, the captains who either possess second-class spiritual might or could disguise themselves as having it are actually not many."

Byakuya paused before continuing, his tone completely objective and without emotion.

"As far as I know, Captain Ichimaru Gin, Captain Unohana Retsu, Captain Aizen Sosuke, Captain Shihoin Yoruichi, and Commander-Captain Rosse all definitely possess power at or above second-class spiritual might."

"Next, Captain SasakibeChojiro, Captain Hitsugaya Toshiro, Vice-Captain Shiba Kukaku, Captain Tosen Kaname, Vice-Captain Matsumoto Rangiku, and Captain Zaraki Kenpachi might secretly possess second-class spiritual might."

"Huh? Kukaku-nee and Rangiku-nee are that strong?", Rukia looked shocked.

In her brother's eyes, even two vice-captains might have that level of power?

"During the battle at Sokyoku Hill that day, although it was only a fleeting perception, I could feel that even after I used Bankai, those two still posed a threat to me."

Byakuya said it expressionlessly, not caring at all about stating the fact that he himself only possessed third-class spiritual might.

"I didn't expect they were that strong," Rukia sighed, then returned to the main point, "But even including those possible candidates, the list of suspects still isn't very large."

"We still can't confirm whether Kyoraku is trying to frame someone, or whether there really is a hidden spy among us," Byakuya said softly, shaking his head.

"Then after everything you said, we still can't confirm anything, right? If this really is Kyoraku deliberately misleading us, then all our guessing just falls right into his trap," Ichigo said gloomily.

The Kuchiki siblings were definitely enthusiastic and undoubtedly good people.

But he also had to admit that their abilities were still somewhat lacking.

If it were Aizen, he would definitely be able to analyze much more.

But right now, he didn't want to disturb him at such a critical moment, which only made him feel more irritated.

The Soul Society felt like a man-eating demon cave.

Once you were caught in it, it felt like stepping into thick mud, with no chance of ever pulling yourself out.

'Ahhh! This is so annoying! Who the hell killed Orihime?'

In the end, the three of them still couldn't come to any conclusion. They only committed that trace of spiritual pressure to memory.

Although it had been concealed, if that person released their spiritual pressure, someone at their level would still be able to trace it back to the source.

Whether it was Kyoraku's scheme or not, they would find the person first.

———

[10th Division, Commander-Captain's Office]

Recently, Vice-Captain Matsumoto Rangiku had been extremely busy. Now that she had become someone second only to one person within the Gotei 13, she was far more motivated than when she used to slack off.

After all, when one person rises to power, even the chickens and dogs ascend with them. As one of those "chickens and dogs" who had finally climbed up, she naturally wanted to enjoy a bit of prestige.

At this moment, inside the Commander-Captain's office, only Rosse sat in the commander's seat quietly reading reports from his own world, while Kurosaki Masaki lay lazily on a nearby chair out of boredom.

For Masaki, physical stimulation no longer meant much.

Still, yesterday's activities had been a little excessive. Even though she had suggested an even more extreme idea, when they actually messed around in the 13th Division captain's lounge yesterday, that overwhelming excitement almost swallowed her whole.

Even now, she hadn't fully recovered.

"Looks like they still didn't manage to come up with anything."

Rosse said with slight boredom. He withdrew his attention from the 13th Division and put down the population report of the Red Line in his hands.

He had focused on the Shinigami world for almost ten years.

But the development of his own world hadn't stopped. Under the efforts of Otohime, Sora, and the others, the Red Line was no longer as desolate as before. It had begun to show some signs of prosperity.

Once he finished devouring the Shinigami world and completed his advancement, it would be time to return and deal with that small loose end.

In fact, the will of that world had already acknowledged him as its only partner.

As for the so-called Child of Destiny, if he wanted to replace them, he could do so at any time.

But since it had been planned long ago, he wasn't the type to abandon something halfway.

Besides, he was quite looking forward to returning and playing a little "house game" to pass the time.

"You're overestimating their intelligence."

Masaki shifted lazily into another position. Her graceful curves pressed against the chair, making her charm even more obvious.

"If you don't spoon-feed them the answer, they'll just keep guessing forever."

The gap was simply too big.

So big that she couldn't even bear to look at it.

Rosse was merely playing a small game here, yet the other side was already panicking at every rustle of wind and crane's cry, afraid to make any move.

With such a gap, how could they possibly defeat Rosse?

Their strength was lacking. Their brains were lacking too. They were completely toyed with in his palm.

Right now, Masaki only wanted this to end quickly.

If possible, it would be best if she could be buried together with this world.

That way she wouldn't have to face that bastard Rosse anymore.

"Telling them the answer directly would be too boring. Even though the chain of suspicion has already formed, they'll still doubt whether the result is being manipulated. But because that chain exists, they'll also remain wary and suspicious of the person I choose. They'll look at him through tinted glasses."

"And often, distrust is the beginning of the collapse of order."

Rosse's lips curled slightly.

"So you just sit there and watch your subordinates obey on the surface while secretly fighting among themselves, and you stand in the Commander-Captain's position like some saint, exhausting yourself for the sake of Soul Society?", Masaki curled her lips.

She had been beside Rosse for every step he took, so she understood his thoughts better than anyone else, even more than Rangiku or Kukaku.

If this continued until the Soul Society was on the verge of collapse, ordinary people there might still think Rosse was a good person. How would anyone even play against that?

"That's the basic idea. But whether the script changes depends on their abilities. Maybe one day they'll suddenly realize the problem and stand in front of me."

Rosse smiled faintly and looked toward the direction of the 13th Division with a trace of anticipation.

He liked performances that followed the script.

But he also enjoyed a few unexpected surprises.

After all, at this moment, as both the Commander-Captain of Soul Society and the King of Hueco Mundo, he already stood in an undefeated position.

Now all that remained was for Yhwach and Aizen to make their move and pave the final stretch of the road for him.

═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═

[email protected]/AmbitiousTranslator

🥳Joining P@treon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through P@treon.