The world that Kaname Tosen had decided was evil…
Hisagi thought that his mind had accepted it but that his heart had not.
Why did Captain Tosen despise Soul Reapers to such an extent?
It wasn’t just Tokinada Tsunayashiro individually, but the existence of Soul Reapers themselves that he hated.
Realizing that answer was in the sin that Tokinada spoke of, Hisagi muttered to himself, “I wasn’t afraid of anything… I didn’t understand anything.”
“Hm? What are you going on about?” Tokinada was deeply curious when the Soul Reaper finally spoke, not understanding the meaning of the words coming from Hisagi’s mouth.
However, instead of answering Tokinada’s question, Hisagi continued to fire off those words with anger clearly directed at himself. “I was always convinced that I was right. That was why I went into the fight with the resolve to open Captain Tosen’s eyes.”
Tosen’s words were revived in Hisagi’s mind, words he spoke when the man had stood in his way as Aizen’s retainer.
“You haven’t changed at all. Even in those words of yours, there wasn’t a hint of fear lurking in them.”
They were words that he had recalled earlier when he was speaking with Tessai in Karakura Town as well.
However, they struck Hisagi’s heart with a different significance now.
I might be the one who’s actually wrong. It might be my sense of justice and the world that I’m standing in that’s wrong. I never even thought of that possibility. I thought Captain Tosen had just been tempted by Aizen.
Someone who does not fear the blade they swing has no right to fight.
Tosen always said that. That blade wasn’t just a zanpaku-to. Tosen likened the justice itself he brandished to a blade. What Tokinada said was likely the truth. There was no reason for him to lie now, and it was consistent with what Aizen had said. Then, most of all, it was more than enough of an answer as to why Tosen had determined the Soul Society itself was evil.
Kaname Tosen had despised Soul Reapers and the Soul Society because the existence of the former and the history of the latter were themselves a betrayal of the wishes of Tosen’s own friend.
It wasn’t Tokinada individually.
The Soul Society’s “justice,” which covered the world in clouds that could never be cleared, yet continued to give the false hope that the clouds could be dispersed, might have been Kaname Tosen’s true enemy.
I wasn’t scared of the Soul Reapers’ and Court Guards’ justice in the slightest. And the only reason I wasn’t was because I believed in the Soul Reapers’ justice! While Captain Tosen went on this whole time carrying his fear…
“If I really feared fighting, then why did I…? Why didn’t I try to hear Captain Tosen out? I just kept spewing nonsense about how I was going to ‘open his eyes’!”
As Hisagi spoke out loud in frustration and Tokinada listened, Tokinada’s expression was permeated with joy, as though he had finally been released from his tedium.
“Ah! I see! So you’re regretful then? Because without knowing what Kaname Tosen’s true feelings were, you shamelessly insisted that you were an ally of justice! Then what will you do about it? Do you wish to rewind time? Would you return to the middle of the fight, shedding tears as you join Tosen’s side under Aizen?” Tokinada continued deliberately, as though tormenting an ant by plucking off its legs.
Ultimately, Hisagi did not turn the brunt of his words at himself, but at Tokinada.
“But I still don’t intend to claim that Captain Tosen was right. Even if everything you said was true…regardless of that, I would still probably stand in Tosen’s way.”
“Hm… Then how about we try to reproduce that?”
Then Tokinada drew a new power from Enra Kyoten.
“What do you think you really accomplished back then? The justice that Tosen adhered to was itself pure. Don’t you think that when faced with that, your justice and your textbook truths are flimsy?”
He shot toward Hisagi countless blades that separated into long, needle-like shapes.
“Suzumushi Nishiki, Beni Hiko.”
In order to provoke Hisagi, Tokinada had brazenly used Tosen’s—and also his own former wife Kakyo’s—zanpaku-to power.
However…
The jet-black chain that connected the two blades of Kazeshini swept aside the countless blades with precision.
“What?”
It was almost as though his eyes had seen them all—no, even if he had been able to see them, Hisagi had manipulated the chain in a way that usually would have been impossible for him. Seeing that made Tokinada’s grin disappear.
Then, with a transparent hostility that had not been apparent in his words until then, Hisagi said, “Don’t talk about justice.”
Did he have the right to condemn Tokinada? While accepting that he would walk a path alongside that fear itself, Hisagi wagered his own fate as he challenged Tokinada.
“A bastard like you who hasn’t got any fear of death…has no right to talk about Captain Tosen.”