Hikone spoke with self-confidence.
But Hisagi refuted it.
“When I first met you, you were just a kid crying about how you weren’t useful to Lord Tokinada and so you’d die…”
“Yes! That’s why I became much, much stronger than I was back then! Now I won’t lose to anyone!”
“It’s the opposite.”
Hisagi readied his zanpaku-to, and like an adult admonishing a child, he said in a voice that might have betrayed a hint of affection, “I think…that back then you might have been your strongest.”
Hisagi then threw Kazeshini. The vigorously revolving blade approached Hikone, and tearing through the air around them, it traced a complex path. The black chains entangled Hikone and restrained them right away.
However, reality is cruel.
Hikone easily tore off the chains using simple brute force.
In an instant, Hikone’s blade flashed as they closed the distance in the space of a breath.
After Hikone passed by him, Hisagi’s torso was bisected horizontally.
Hisagi’s body, sliced in half, crumpled…
≡
“Yo.” The shade spoke to Hisagi.
At the top of a giant tree that made him feel almost as though he were above a forest or a mountain, a rust-colored windmill rotated creakily.
It was the usual scene.
It was a mirror of the world that reflected the cycle of life.
Death and life would repeat, creating something new to perish that would become a new wind continually circulating in the space between the tree and iron.
In that scene, Hisagi saw the form of Kazeshini that called out to him. Just as when Kazeshini had appeared to him earlier, he looked like a jet-black humanoid monster.
“Looks like you pulled something pretty reckless. Did you think you’d win?”
“No idea. I just knew that if I didn’t do it, Hikone would’ve died. It wouldn’t have made sense if I had somebody else fight and asked them to hold back in order to avoid killing Hikone.”
“Hah! So you’re trying to act like a hero? You didn’t think you’d be like Muguruma when he saved you as a brat, did you? Did you think you’d be able to emulate Kaname Tosen, when he saved you when you were scared of death?”
“It’s not like that. I just…found out about circumstances relating to Hikone, and even then I was only scratching the surface. I couldn’t abandon a kid who doesn’t even know what it’s like to cry.” Hisagi’s reply was neutral, even though Kazeshini had attempted to rile him up. “And…for some reason, I just felt like talking with you like this.”
“You went and got yourself cut in half for some reason?”
Kazeshini snickered and leaned onto the windmill in human form as he said, “You’ve started to get desperate, haven’t you? You looked up to the Soul Reapers, but you didn’t know what to do. So, recklessly and irresponsibly, you tried to become the ideal Soul Reaper. You kept struggling, trying to follow the manual the Soul Society prepared for you. And the result is this…”
At that point, Kazeshini’s expression disappeared for a moment, then a smile different from the one before—as though he was satisfied by something—appeared on his face.
“Looks like you’ve finally gotten me to submit.”
“What?” Hisagi inquired, not understanding.
Kazeshini began to speak about his characteristics. “I’m…not any White or Nozarashi, but I’ve got a little something that makes me unique. My nature is more shadowy than the other asauchis.”
Though Hisagi wondered whose zanpaku-to White was, since he hadn’t heard the name before, he kept silent and waited for Kazeshini to continue.
“You looked up to the Soul Reapers and ended up getting it into your head that you wanted to be as Soul Reaper-like as possible. So a part of me took on that form. The form of reaping a life.”
“What…”
Hisagi’s eyes opened wide with surprise. The shape he had so loathed had actually been created as a reflection of his own desires.
“I’m your shadow. When you yourself accepted both your surface and your underside, and the moment you followed your soul and put your life on the line, you accepted all of yourself—in other words, you made me yield. So I needed to ask whether you were finally determined to do that, and I made things work out so that we could have a talk.”
With a more talkative than normal Kazeshini in front of him, Hisagi put on a pained smile and apologetically replied, “Yeah…I’m sorry I’ve misunderstood you until now.”
Oddly, he felt as though he understood all of what Kazeshini was saying. If Kazeshini were his shadow then that answer would have already been in him from the start. He just hadn’t realized it.
Comprehending that, Hisagi declared to his shadow, Kazeshini, “I’ll offer it to you. My blood…and also my life.”
A conspicuously strong wind swept by, scattering the leaves of the large tree and making the windmill rotate more harshly.
“If you’re saying that you’re my shadow too…then please lend me your strength.”
Kazeshini, who had just been standing in front of him, disappeared before he could blink.
“Life is not just living. By asking you to offer life, I am not asking you to die, and I am not asking you to kill. Life includes dying. And as for blood…that’s the oil that has kept your life burning. It could be money, your sense of duty, your pride…or even that thing you call ‘fear.’ I don’t care. Take all of that and add it to my blade.”
Hisagi seemed to hear that voice coming from inside of him. He realized that at the same time Kazeshini disappeared, the windmill had stopped and the world became devoid of noise.
“Controlling life, including both living and dying, is exactly what a Soul Reaper—a god of death—is, isn’t it?”
Kazeshini’s power flowed into Hisagi. He didn’t receive a power that increased his spiritual pressure. The power seemed to come in the form of Hisagi comprehending the totality of Kazeshini as a concept. In that moment, Hisagi accepted his own shadow Kazeshini, whose way of being he had hated until that point.
Then the wind died, marking the end of the cycle of life.
≡
“You idiot! You talked a big game to the captain and then got done in right off the bat! Stand up!”
“Um…I think he’s a goner…”
Madarame’s response to the scene in front of him was to yell, but Yumichika had clearly seen Hisagi’s torso cut in half, so he spoke almost as though he had abandoned hope.
Had Orihime Inoue or one of the more powerful members of the Fourth Company been there, Hisagi might have been narrowly saved from death. However, neither were near that place. Those who knew Hisagi sucked in their breaths when they saw Hisagi’s body slashed into two separate pieces, while the others just watched with expressions that said, “So he really couldn’t do it.”
But two people had a different reaction.
“No…he’s not done yet.”
Kenpachi murmured that, and Kyoraku, as though he had also sensed something, said to the speechless Nanao, “It’s okay.”
Then, in order to make sure that all that occurred next was seared into his vision, he stared at Hikone’s back.
“So, I’m looking forward to joining you again!”
Without showing even a fragment of remorse for slashing Hisagi in two, Hisagi whom Hikone themself had judged to be a kind person, the child once again turned to Kenpachi. But Kenpachi remained expressionless as he replied to Hikone, “Don’t you think you’re getting a little ahead of yourself?”
“Huh?”
Hikone then realized something strange. A black chain that they were sure they had sawn apart was now entangled around their arm. Hikone thought for a moment it might have been a remnant of the broken chains that had wound around them before, but they immediately came to realize that wasn’t the case. Hikone was yanked from behind.
“…Huh?”
When they turned around…
Hisagi, the very person who had been cut in half, was standing there uninjured.
“What? Huh?”
Hikone marveled while Hisagi stood in front of them, wearing an expression that was no different from earlier. Hisagi looked at them without saying a word. Hikone had no idea what was happening and seemed slightly surprised as they gripped their sword.
“I’m sure that I cut through you, Mr. Hisagi… Was that some sort of kido illusion?”
“That was…”
As Hisagi began to answer, he was cleaved again, diagonally this time.
“I’m sure I felt my sword go through you that time!”
Watching Hisagi, who had simply collapsed, Hikone slashed through the chain wrapped around them and sent it flying. After confirming that it had fallen to the ground, the child turned to Kenpachi and Aura.
“Huh?”
They noticed that the chain was once again wrapped around them. And when they turned around, of course, Hisagi was standing there unharmed. Strangely, even the shihakusho Hisagi wore, which Hikone was sure they had slashed through along with Hisagi’s body, had regenerated as though nothing had happened.
Though Hikone thought perhaps they were seeing some illusion, when they looked at those around them, with the exception of Kenpachi and Kyoraku everyone seemed confused to see Hisagi there.
“Hey…you serious…”
NaNaNa Najahkoop, who had been observing Hikone, looked at Hisagi’s spiritual pressure pattern and was even more bewildered than those around him as he muttered to himself, “That Soul Reaper…isn’t he in rather a precarious situation?”
“Oh…huh? That’s strange…”