Tokinada realized that a blade had emerged from his abdomen. After having observed tens of thousands of zanpaku-to, Tokinada immediately recognized it.
It wasn’t even a shikai, just a simple asauchi.
Mayuri didn’t move a step in front of his eyes. It was as though he no longer had the slightest interest in Tokinada as he looked at the bindings on the room’s bookshelves.
“Imposs…ible… Who…”
Tokinada’s spine creaked as he turned around and found a girl dressed in black who appeared to be quite young.
“Hm? Who…are you…?”
For a moment he thought that she was Soi Fon, based on her stature, but he realized that wasn’t the case. Then Tokinada noticed that the clothing she wore matched that of a family of assassins he himself had framed in the past, pinning the blame for the killing of one of the Tsunayashiro family on them.
“I see. So…the commission has finally been filled, then?”
As Tokinada neared his ironic end, he said something she wasn't expecting.
“C-commission…? What…what are you talking about?”
Her voice quivered, and she gripped her blade as though she did not know any of the fundamentals of swordsmanship. Seeing that, he realized that she was just a trainee who was far from having the skills of a true assassin.
“Everyone’s…spite…! Tokinada Tsunayashiro…! You…did that to my whole family…!”
The young girl grew teary-eyed while trying to speak. Tokinada was in a daze for a moment before he spat up a gob of blood and squeezed out some empty words. “Your parents’…enemy…?”
“Th-that’s right! You did that to everyone…”
To Tokinada, the emotions in the girl’s eyes were nothing like an assassin’s. This girl whose name he didn’t know was different from the assassins Tokinada had seen. Since she still had feelings for her family, a hindrance an assassin would have immediately abandoned, it was likely she was completely inexperienced.
“You say that you killed me…for something as small as that?”
“As small as…something as small as that…?!”
The girl in black opened her eyes wide and raged as she stabbed Tokinada again and again.
Mayuri acted as though he had no interest in the tragedy unfolding before him and skimmed a book that had happened to draw his eye. The sound of the blade hitting flesh and of pages turning filled the room.
How much time had passed?
After stabbing Tokinada countless times with the asauchi in her hand, the assassin sank to the floor, breathing raggedly. However, Tokinada was still standing.
“So…are you…done, then?”
“Uh ugh…”
Seeing his nightmarish behavior, the would-be assassin’s fear had overtaken her hatred, and she started to quiver from a different emotion. With such an enemy in front of him, Tokinada slowly straightened his form from its slumped position. The sound of something shredding within Tokinada reverberated, and blood started to flow from his mouth without ceasing.
Death.
It would have been clear to anyone that Tokinada had arrived at that fate.
If he could just squeeze out his remaining strength to fire one kido at her, he would have easily been able to send the inexperienced assassin before him into oblivion. However, Tokinada’s eyes had already turned away from the assassin. Tokinada forced out his remaining strength to take his final action.
It wasn’t to cry out in fear of death.
It was not even to shake in rage from the fate of being killed by someone he looked down upon.
It wasn’t to repent for his wife or Tosen now that he was on the verge of death.
Nor did he slaughter the assassin who had fatally wounded him.
Nor did he leave a message with Mayuri.
“Ha…ha ha ha…”
He simply laughed.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I get it! So I…I die here! It was not Tosen, who held a grudge for so long, but someone like this…an insignificant nobody seeking revenge has caused me to meet my doom! So this is how I will spend my last moments, after taking everything from the Tsunayashiro family and properly inheriting the karma of the Soul Society! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!”
“Uh…ahh…”
Overwhelmed by Tokinada’s laughing even as he spat blood, the assassin was immobilized.
Meanwhile, Mayuri silently lifted his eyes from his book. His expression didn’t change as he listened to Tokinada’s final words. Tokinada then turned his attention not to the two who were present in the room, but to the man he shared a fate with who was not there.
“See…see what happened, Shunsui Kyoraku?!”
Pouring his disappearing life into it, Tokinada spewed vast amounts of blood as he, the head of the Four Great Noble Clans, simply shouted words of malice and ridicule.
“My life comes to an end here, Kyoraku! That means a girl whose name I don’t even know defeated all of you! You couldn’t even reach me! Finally! Finally I ruined your plans! How unfortunate! How deplorable! You Soul Reapers! Now you’ll never be able to punish me!”
Only the volume of his voice was clear. His face was so pale that it was a wonder he was still alive. Though he shouldn’t have been able to speak due to his wounds, Tokinada turned his bloodshot eyes to the void as he continued to yell at those who weren’t there, amusement on his face.
“How’s that, Tosen?! Do you feel crushed? I will…die without feeling the slightest regret for what I did! How’s that, Shuhei Hisagi?! How’s that, Ginjo?! How’s that, Aura?! Are you being killed by Hikone right now? Even if you survive, you won’t…be able…to lay a hand on my soul anymore.”
The assassin girl was so alarmed by the unintelligible shouts of her opponent that all she could do was watch. It seemed that Tokinada could no longer see. He was slowly walking toward nothing and no one even as a wicked smile continued to warp his features.
“How’s that…Ukitake…the man you tried to believe in…is still going to die…and nothing will change…”
As though a wound-up spring had shot up within him, he spurted yet more blood and collapsed on the spot.
It was unclear what he saw in his last moments…
“How’s…that…Kakyo? The stars…you…”
Though his eyes looked peaceful for just one moment, his mouth twisted heinously, as though he were trying to cast away that emotion and his own salvation…
Then he simply came to a halt.
“So it was the sentimentality of an inexperienced assassin that did it, then.”
After Mayuri gave the still quivering young assassin a glance, he slowly walked out and left the Tsunayashiro family room behind.
“I see. So it seems that cutting short the Soul Society’s karma only required something as small as that.”
Mayuri likely would have been able to extend Tokinada’s life. It might have been possible for him to resurrect the man like the Corpse Unit or as a living corpse like Izuru Kira.
However, he did not attempt to do so.
Perhaps it was because there was no value in that to Mayuri or for some other reason that could not be guessed. He did not even turn around to look at Tokinada’s corpse or try to capture or kill the assassin that had just killed someone from the Four Great Noble Clans. He simply ignored everything as though he had lost all interest whatsoever and wiped all trace of himself from that place.
A while after that, the still-frightened girl in black ran from the room.
Only the miserable corpse was left behind in the bloodied room.
Tokinada Tsunayashiro.
It might have been by design, or because he truly had just forgotten…
In the end, his life was cut short without leaving any words for Hikone in the final moment.
It was a major disgrace for the head of the Four Great Noble Clans.
Yet he continued to remain true to his soul up until his very last moment.
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