"Shihoin Soichiro."
Kuchiki Byakuya spoke in a flat, emotionless tone, calling the old man's na directly.
The three elderly n standing before him, their faces strikingly alike, were biological brothers. Their nas were Soichiro, Sojiro, and Sosaburo.
Simple and straightforward nas, yet perfectly in line with the Shihoin family's naming traditions.
And the one leading them, Shihoin Soichiro, possessed seniority so deep it was almost unbelievable.
He had once served as Captain of the Second Division, his tenure even predating Byakuya's grandfather.
Yet in the face of such a living relic from ancient tis, there was not the slightest trace of respect in Kuchiki Byakuya's eyes.
There were far too many old antiques in Soul Society. Not every one of them deserved to be respected.
"You should be very clear about why I'm here."
Byakuya's gaze swept over the fully ard Shihoin mbers before him, his voice cold as ice.
"Hand over the demon cat and the human she took. I can represent the Gotei 13 and grant the Shihoin family leniency."
"Heh! Brat of the Kuchiki family!"
Shihoin Soichiro let out a cold laugh, his cloudy old eyes filled with disdain.
"Looking at you now, it seems you've completely forgotten the honor of being a noble. Before you beca a captain of the Gotei 13, you were first a noble of high birth, and only then a Shinigami of the Gotei 13!"
"When your ancestor, Lord Shihoin Chihiro, was the first to join the Gotei 13, did he hold the sa thoughts as you?"
Kuchiki Byakuya replied expressionlessly, his words sharp as blades.
When it ca to using the authority of the Gotei 13 to suppress other noble houses, the Shihoin family had been the true pioneers.
Back in those days, before Captain-Commander Yamamoto had settled in Seireitei, when all the noble houses were watching coldly and even secretly sabotaging him, only the Shihoin family had been wise enough to read the situation. They were the first to side with him and beca a pillar of the original Gotei 13.
Shihoin Chihiro had been the head of the family at that ti, and also the first Captain of the Second Division.
Because of that service, the Second Division had remained the Shihoin family's private army all the way until the era of Shihoin Yoruichi.
By comparison, the Sixth Division gradually becoming a noble squad and falling under the control of the Kuchiki family only happened in Byakuya's grandfather's generation. At most, it had been a few hundred years.
"Hmph! What a sharp-tongued little brat."
Having his old history exposed in public, Shihoin Soichiro's face darkened at once, anger churning in his eyes.
"No matter how clever your words are, we will never hand over Yoruichi. You can give up on that idea."
He paused, the corner of his mouth lifting into a sneer.
"And Kuchiki Byakuya, your adopted sister should be sent to the Sokyoku in three days, correct? I'm very much looking forward to seeing whether you can still act this tough when those flas rise."
Among nobles, respecting elders was an unspoken rule.
But Byakuya's attitude of not taking them seriously at all had completely enraged the old patriarch.
The Gotei 13? In front of one of the Five Great Noble Houses like the Shihoin, the so called divisions were nothing more than trash they had discarded and tossed away.
The Shihoin family's foundation had never been weaker than the Gotei 13.
And yet they dared to send only two captain level juniors here to cause trouble. How naive and laughable.
"Stubborn fools."
The last trace of patience in Kuchiki Byakuya's eyes was gone.
Rukia ant sothing extraordinary to him. She was the only thing his late wife Hisana had entrusted to him before she died.
Bound by the oath he had once made when marrying Hisana, that he would never again break family law, he could not use the family's power to bend the rules and save Rukia.
But this ti was different.
This ti, he was carrying out official duties in the na of the Gotei 13.
Since Shihoin Soichiro refused to recognize the situation, that saved him the trouble of wasting more words.
"Sixth Division, all units!"
Kuchiki Byakuya raised his right hand, his voice icy.
"The Shihoin family refuses to obey orders. As of now, they are all to be treated as rebels and placed under arrest. If there is resistance…"
"KILL WITHOUT RCY!"
As the Sixth Division led the main assault, Byakuya gave the order for a full attack without hesitation.
Almost the instant his words fell, Abarai Renji, who had long been unable to hold himself back, charged forward like a tiger descending the mountain, roaring as he went.
For Renji, this battle ant more than anything.
If they crushed the Shihoin family, they could shake the authority of Central 46 and force all the noble houses to reconsider, saving Kuchiki Rukia.
And this Shihoin family had been the main force behind the proposal to execute Rukia.
Old grudges and new hatred turned into endless drive.
Though Rukia was now a noble, and under his own deliberate distancing they had grown further apart, he knew very well that it was only because a stray dog like him did not deserve a noble flower. It was not because he did not care.
He might just be a stray dog by the roadside.
But even a stray dog like him would never stand by and watch the flower he loved wither in the cold wind.
"Bankai!"
With a furious roar that shook the sky, overwhelming spiritual pressure burst out from Renji's body. A massive skeletal serpent phantom appeared behind him.
"Roar, Zabimaru! Hihio Zabimaru!"
The roar born from a stray dog's fury echoed before the gates of the Shihoin estate.
This was the result of the special training he had earned by kneeling for an entire day and night before Rosse after being utterly defeated by Kurosaki Ichigo that night, trading his dignity for power.
He was still a stray dog.
But now he was a strong, muscular stray dog that could tear apart any obstacle.
"Bankai?"
Watching the gigantic skeletal serpent rampaging before the gates, a trace of gravity and shock flashed through Shihoin Soichiro's cloudy old eyes.
"Have vice-captains now reached this level of strength?"
The montum of these lowborn Sixth Division Shinigami had indeed exceeded his expectations.
He suddenly understood why the Gotei 13 dared to stir up such trouble at the Shihoin estate with only two captains and two vice-captains.
But even so, his pride as a noble would not allow him to believe the Shihoin family would lose.
Battles between Shinigami were never decided by numbers alone.
"Third brother, that red-haired brat is yours."
Shihoin Soichiro suppressed the unease in his heart and calmly issued orders.
In his eyes, a re vice-captain, even one who had mastered Bankai, was still just a lowborn stray dog, only worthy of being cleaned up by the weakest of the three brothers.
Compared to the commoner born Abarai Renji, the noble born Kuchiki Byakuya and Rosse deserved more of his attention.
"Leave it to , big brother."
Shihoin Sosaburo nodded slightly, a cruel smile curling at his lips.
He looked arrogantly at Abarai Renji, who was charging like a wild beast, and slowly drew the Zanpakuto at his waist.
"I'll finish this quickly and teach these lowly commoners what it ans to know their place."
"Bankai!"
BOOM!
———
Five minutes. Only five minutes later, under the horrified gazes of the Shihoin family mbers, the once overbearing Shihoin Sosaburo was flung away like a torn sack, crashing heavily into a pool of blood.
His chest was caved in, his breathing faint. More air was leaving than entering.
"Damn it! How did this happen?"
Shihoin Soichiro gripped his Zanpakuto tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.
In just five minutes, not only had Sosaburo suffered a crushing defeat, the entire battlefield had collapsed into a one sided rout.
In the face of the Sixth Division's overwhelming nurical advantage, the Shihoin family's resistance seed so pale and powerless.
Though many of the Sixth Division's soldiers had spiritual pressure hovering around the sixteenth or seventeenth level, they made up for it with sheer numbers.
The entire Shihoin clan, even when fully mobilized, numbered barely a thousand. The Sixth Division could easily form brutal encirclents of six to one, even seven to one.
As for elites?
The Shihoin family did have capable fighters, but not everyone was a dragon. The seated officers of the Sixth Division were not inferior either.
The Sixth Division's individual quality might be slightly lacking, but in the face of absolute nurical violence, that small gap in quality was instantly erased.
More deadly still, these new recruits from Rukongai fought harder than anyone.
Since the Shihoin family had chosen to seek their own destruction, these Shinigami who had clawed their way up from the bottom had even less reason to hold back.
Every one of them shared a past like Abarai Renji.
In that forgotten Rukongai, you had to risk your life over a single moldy bun.
And in their eyes, after Rosse's daily propaganda and brainwashing, the Shihoin family was the true culprit behind their poverty, hunger, and broken hos.
Faced with enemies who had sucked their blood for countless years, how could they possibly show rcy?
Amid flashing blades and clashing steel, this was no longer a battle.
It was a massacre driven by hatred.
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