Seven days after the meeting between Tokinada and Aizen, the names were confirmed.
Four noblemen of the Tsunayashiro clan. All of them old. All of them powerful. All of them standing between Tokinada and complete control of his family's political reach.
But they were not just old men in robes.These were the kind of nobles who spoke once and the Seireitei listened.They controlled committees, funded enforcement squads, and even had access to parts of the Great Spirit Palace's correspondence. One whisper from them and an entire division could be frozen in paperwork for weeks.
Tokinada didn't just want them gone.
He wanted them to vanish in a way that screamed chaos but whispered guilt—all directed toward one name: Jin.
🧩 Squad 5 – Deep Records Room
Aizen stood alone under the dim flicker of a single kido-lit lantern, flipping through detailed reports Gin had gathered on the four targets. Each noble had their routine, their strengths, their weaknesses."Assassination isn't about death," Aizen said coldly."It's about timing. You don't kill them when it's easy. You kill them when it's loud."
☠️ Target One: Lord Mibune Tsunayashiro – The Bookkeeper
An old man obsessed with balance and spiritual purity. He spent most of his days inside the clan's temple archives. No guards. Just silence, and scrolls.Gin volunteered for this one.Late one evening, while Lord Mibune was reading alone under candlelight, he suddenly noticed a small silk thread tied around one scroll.He tugged it. A sharp needle flew out from behind the shelf, piercing him directly in the neck.Instant death. No reiatsu. No mess.As he collapsed, Gin casually stepped out from the shadows and placed a worn hair ribbon—Jin's old insignia—near the corpse, letting it fall softly like a whisper.
🗡️ Target Two: Lord Saika Tsunayashiro – The Hunter
Known for keeping private guards and being paranoid as hell.Aizen didn't approach this one directly. Instead, he manipulated two bounty squads into thinking Jin had been seen around District 10.While they chased shadows, Tosen slipped inside Saika's estate through a back wall, using sound-based kido to move without noise.Saika was training with his guard. In the middle of combat.
That didn't matter.
Tosen used a short burst of Kurai Juzai — his blind pressure technique — to stun Saika long enough to paralyze him. The guards didn't even see who moved. They only found Saika's body 4 seconds later, his throat sliced from behind and a single blue steel pin — traced back to Jin's ceremonial robes — jammed into the dojo wall.
🐍 Target Three: Lady Komai Tsunayashiro – The Whisper
She never left her room. She was ancient. Sick. But her letters controlled half of the Soul Society's noble grant fund. Killing her was risky—it could raise too many questions.Aizen handled it personally.Dressed as a temple priest, he visited her estate, saying prayers over her private shrine. The guards let him in. Why question a priest?Inside her room, Komai blinked slowly at the stranger lighting incense. She couldn't speak, couldn't move. But her eyes showed terror."Forgive me," Aizen said, bowing politely. "But you… are already forgotten."He blew out the candle. Darkness fell. She never screamed.Later, a note written in Jin's handwriting was found beside her bed. It read:
"Justice begins with fire. The house shall burn next."
🔥 Target Four: Lord Kano Tsunayashiro – The Defender
The strongest of them. An ex-retainer, known for his brute strength and constant vigilance. He never ate alone, never slept without two guards.So Aizen didn't try to sneak in.He made it look like an attempted rebellion.Two of Aizen's manipulated agents—rogue nobles from minor houses—started a fake skirmish outside Kano's walls. While Kano rushed to the balcony to address it, Gin was already inside, hiding under the tea table.The moment Kano turned his back to grab his armor, Gin struck.It wasn't clean. The fight was short, brutal, and full of blood.But in the end, the heavy blade of Kano dropped onto the tatami floor, followed by his head.
🕊️ Framing the Ghost
Over the next two days, evidence "found" by Tokinada's men was spread like wildfire through the noble networks. The perfect trail:
Jin's robe thread in Mibune's archive
His insignia by Saika's wall
His handwriting next to Lady Komai's bodyA blurred painting of his face seen outside Kano's estateIn less than a week, Jin Tsunayashiro was no longer a noble.He was a fugitive, wanted for multiple high-profile political assassinations.
The aftermath of the assassination sent ripples through the Soul Society, but not in the way justice should have demanded.There was no grand inquiry.No hearings.
No attempt to interrogate the truth behind the clean, surgical slaughter of four noble pillars.Instead—paperwork arrived.
📜 Seireitei – Captain's Assembly Hall
Two sealed orders, stamped with Tsunayashiro wax and the red-crescent seal of Central 46, arrived at Head Captain Yamamoto's desk.Shunsui, Ukitake, and Unohana were present when he read them aloud, each word hanging like an executioner's axe.
"Order One:
Promotion of Third Seat Sosuke Aizen of Squad 5 to the position of Lieutenant, effective immediately.
Request issued and approved by the Tsunayashiro Clan.
Signed and sealed by Central 46.
No objections permitted."There was a pause. Then the second scroll was unrolled.
"Order Two:
Due to the recent tragedy within the Tsunayashiro lineage, the nobility must be protected under personal supervision.
Squad 10 is henceforth assigned full-time Noble Guard Protocol.
Captain Mohit is to be removed from direct Soul Society operations and reassigned to noble security patrol, including ceremonial appearances and diplomatic escort missions.
Failure to comply will be treated as disobedience of central law."
The orders had come down from the top.
Signed in gold-rimmed ink by the Tsunayashiro clan head, and sealed with the iron stamp of Central 46. Unquestionable. Absolute.
Squad 10 was to report for permanent noble protection duty. Escort rotations. Perimeter security. Guard work for nobles who barely acknowledged them. It wasn't a mission. It was a leash.
On the day of their assignment, Captain Mohit and his entire squad lined up outside the towering black gates of the Tsunayashiro estate.
Polished. Disciplined. Silent.
As the gates opened with a low groan, an old nobleman in formal silks stepped forward. He didn't look at them as soldiers — he looked at them like house servants.
"Before you enter," he said with a dry, cracking voice, "there is one rule that is not up for debate. No zanpakutō may be brought inside Tsunayashiro grounds."
There was a sharp silence.
The words hung in the air like a threat — not spoken in anger, but arrogance.
Isshin, standing just behind Mohit, clenched his jaw.
"With all due respect," he said, taking a step forward, "we're not couriers or kitchen staff. We're Gotei 13. We walk with our blades."
The noble turned his gaze slowly to Isshin, not even offended — just amused. As if watching a child bark at thunder.
"And you will obey, soldier," the nobleman said flatly. "Your blade is not welcome here. It is… unsightly."
A ripple of agitation spread through the ranks.
Several Squad 10 members instinctively placed their hands on their hilts — not in rebellion, but habit. Training. Protection. Identity.
Isshin stepped forward again.
"This is an insult," he growled low. "You're stripping a soldier of his sword. That's not a command. That's a leash."
But before the tension could spiral, a voice cut through clean and calm:
"Obey the command of the nobleman."
It was Captain Mohit.
His voice didn't rise. It didn't need to.
Every member of Squad 10 immediately sheathed their resentment, alongside their zanpakutō. Even Isshin — though his eyes stayed locked on the noble like he was memorizing every wrinkle in his face.
Mohit stepped forward and bowed — just deep enough to count as formal.
"We understand the conditions," he said. "Let us proceed."
From that day forward, Squad 10 was no longer a front-line unit.
They became escorts. Bodyguards for silk-robed nobles who looked at them like dogs trained to heel.Each member was assigned to a household elder or heir.Isshin was given to Tokinada — a calculated insult.And Mohit himself… was assigned to guard the clan head personally.
Years passed.
Noble schedules, tea ceremonies, political assemblies. The sword hand dulled, the instincts grew sharper. Mohit learned how to fight a new kind of war — one waged behind paper walls and under ceremonial fans.
But even as the surface remained still, his mind kept digging.The Jin betrayal didn't sit right.Mohit had re-read the assassination report twelve times. The wounds. The blood angles. The footprints. Everything was clinical — almost too perfect.But there was one detail that haunted him:The placement of the body. It wasn't defensive. It was posed.
And now, as he knelt in quiet posture near the meditation chamber of the Tsunayashiro Clan Head, that puzzle was about to break open.
The floor was old. Polished tatami, layered in generations of footsteps and ceremonies. But Mohit had noticed a slight unevenness beneath his knee.Something sharp… embedded.He reached down calmly, sliding his finger under the edge of the mat.And there it was — barely visible.A single strand of silver hair.He plucked it delicately, as if it were glass.
It wasn't part of the clan head's hair.
It wasn't old.
It wasn't a servant's.It was left behind. Unnoticed.A thread in the wrong place.That night, in his private quarters at Squad 10's guest compound, Mohit didn't sleep.He placed the hair into a black silk wrapping and attached it to a hell butterfly.and didn't address it to any records office. He didn't write anything fancy.Only three things were written:
TO: Urahara Kisuke – Squad 12
Check for DNA match – Squad 5 personnel onlyReply through sealed butterfly channelHe watched the butterfly vanish into the wind.