“That’s very admirable…”
It was the day of Rukia Kuchiki’s installation ceremony as the new captain of the Thirteenth Company. Running along the main street that led to the First Company barracks, Tenth Company Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya murmured those words. Hitsugaya, who had just caught sight of Iba going through his captain’s training, unintentionally complimented Iba’s spirit not to skip out on his training.
“That could be what it takes to be a captain… Wish a certain somebody could hear that.”
His assistant captain, Rangiku Matsumoto, averted her eyes and smiled.
“Hmm? Who could that be? Could it be Shuhei?”
Someone from another company who was running just ahead of them heard those words and said, “Yeah. Pay attention, Shuhei.”
“I can’t let that slide, Rangiku!”
The one who had heard Kensei Muguruma and spoken up was none other than Assistant Captain Shuhei Hisagi.
“For your information, your captain agrees with us.”
Finding himself on the receiving end of Rangiku’s teasing, Hisagi pointed at himself and objected, full of self-confidence, “I’ll have you know… I’ve already mastered my bankai!”
Stop being so proud of your own bankai.
Muguruma thought that retort internally, but Rangiku and Hitsugaya were already pummeling him with harsher jabs.
“Well, I haven’t seen it yet.”
“Neither have I.”
“This some kind of bankai con?”
The rumor that Hisagi had acquired bankai had certainly spread.
Because Kenpachi had been trying to get Hisagi to have a duel with him by commanding, “Do your bankai,” it had spread to the other Soul Reapers.
However, for better or worse, the actual substance of the bankai hadn’t spread around, and because the incident at the Kyogoku was classified and they had no idea when he had gotten his bankai, the circumstances remained mysteries to the general soldiers.
Muguruma added, “I haven’t seen it either.”
“What?! I know you’ve seen it, Captain!!”
Hisagi was near tears as he desperately appealed to them. “Wh…what am I supposed to do?! I haven’t had the chance to use it since that…”
Though Hisagi and Rangiku continued with their quarrel, Hitsugaya was serene as he brought the conversation about Hisagi’s bankai to a close. “Well…the fact that he hasn’t had to use it for ten years is a good thing.”
Thinking of the Quincy war a decade ago and a few incidents since then, he celebrated the world that they had enjoyed since.
“It means for ten years we’ve maintained peace.”
Hitsugaya and Rangiku had been with Abarai and the Kuchiki siblings at the same place Ichigo Kurosaki was during the Kyogoku incident, so they knew nothing about it. However, Hitsugaya might have guessed at something. Though at first glance, Hisagi seemed the same as usual, Hitsugaya had sensed a change in him from a decade ago, which made the captain think that the assistant captain really could use bankai as he claimed.
When Hisagi heard Hitsugaya say “ten years” ago, he remembered a certain Soul Reaper.
≡
✦ ✦ ✦
The place was a valley settlement that had been part of the Eleventh Company’s jurisdiction. However, at the moment the Eleventh Company soldiers, not to mention Rukongai residents, didn’t dare approach it. As a result of the great war of ten years ago, when the konpaku balance of the three worlds needed to be adjusted, it was where the Twelfth Company had taken emergency measures and erased the residents of the sector. Though that itself was a secret, no one attempted to approach a village where all the residents had disappeared and no new residents came to attempt to appropriate the place, so the settlement became a ghost town.
However, in a charcoal-maker’s hut deep in the mountains of that district, someone was eking out a living for themself.
Shuhei, who stood in front of the hut, called out to that person. “Yo.”
The person in the hut—Hikone Ubuginu—heard Hisagi’s voice and replied with the same innocent smile as in the past. “Oh…Mr. Hisagi, you came by!”
After some adjustments had been made at the Shino-Seyakuin, and Hikone was able to live on their own, they left the Seireitei to live in a corner of a desolate part of the Rukongai.
Though Hisagi had thought they could enter Shinorei-jutsuin and take the path to becoming a Soul Reaper, not enough time had passed for them to accept someone who had once been a definitive enemy. Because the incident itself was treated as classified, they had disregarded any wrongdoing, but there was still a high possibility that Hikone wouldn’t be accepted by the nobility of the Seireitei. Though the Seireitei’s sensibilities were certainly changing, the Court Guards were still on high alert.
And, most importantly, Hikone themself had decided to leave the Seireitei of their own volition.
“I understand now. Until I decided to leave the Seireitei, Mr. Hisagi, Mr. Kyoraku, and Mr. Seinosuke’s brother Mr. Hanataro…taught me many things. Now even I can understand what kind of person Lord Tokinada was. But I can’t hate Lord Tokinada. I can’t scorn him. Lord Tokinada was the one who gave me a reason to live. Because I…was really happy during that time. I think…a Soul Reaper like that couldn’t exist within the Court Guards. I want to live alone for a while if I can. Yes…I am very scared. But, Mr. Hisagi, you were the one to teach me that’s what it means to live!”
When Hisagi recalled Hikone, whose anxiety and fear were visible within their innocent smile, he once again asked them, “Did you find anything? Something you want to do in the future?”
“Yes, sir! I think…I want to become stronger.”
Since Ikomikidomoe had stolen their power, Hikone’s spiritual pressure had decreased significantly. Regardless of that, they had spiritual pressure that was much higher than normal Soul Reapers. But they had relinquished Ikomikidomoe to Squad Zero, and their battle power had dropped significantly compared to when they were in their prime.
“Oh, and what are you going to do after you become strong?”
Hisagi asked as though testing them, and Hikone looked straight at him and answered, “I’m going to find Ms. Aura… I’m going to find my mother.”
When he heard Hikone say that clearly, of their own volition, Hisagi had complex feelings. Though he didn’t know whether Aura was alive, he thought it likely that she wasn’t in the Soul Society. He hadn’t heard anything about her konpaku reaching the Soul Society, either.
Since Hikone was not formally a Soul Reaper and had lost Ikomikidomoe, who could use gargantas, it wouldn’t be easy for Hikone to leave the Soul Society. Despite that, seeing Hikone had found a reason to live as a Soul Reaper, Hisagi believed that Hikone’s future would be bright.
“Right…I’ll try to help as much as I can when the time comes.”
Recalling Tosen and Kanisawa, those who had left him in the past, Hisagi carried the fear of losing them in his heart as he said to Hikone…
“I’ve also…decided that I’m going to find the ‘path of least bloodshed’ in my own way.”
≡
As he recalled that exchange with Hikone, Hisagi decided anew that he would not let the last ten years of peace go to waste. In order to believe that Hikone and the Soul Reapers’ future in turn would be bright, he decided he would do what he needed to as the editor-in-chief of the Seireitei Bulletin.
When Rangiku saw Hisagi with a fearless smile on his face, she said, “Come to think of it…Shuhei, you’ve been going out to the Rukongai more often these past ten years, haven’t you?”
“Uh…yeah, well, I started connecting with more people through my interviews.”
It wasn’t just Hikone. He still went to see Ginjo and the others, and Hisagi was secretly collecting information about the Tsunayashiro family’s actions as well. Though many things had become uncertain because of Tokinada’s death, he wanted at least to expose their past evil deeds. He’d been battling the influence of a faction of aristocrats while continuing to interview those who were peripheral to the Tsunayashiro family.
“Yeah, because this guy’s a ‘journalist.’ His work is well known among some people. Plus, he’s been looking after a kid in the Rukongai.”
Muguruma phrased his responses in a way that wasn’t lying.
“A child?”
“Yeah, going from a brat who was once reduced to tears after a Hollow attack to someone who helps children is nothing to scoff at. But he’s still got a long way to go as far as experience is concerned.”
Muguruma shrugged and Rangiku listened to him, tilting her head quizzically.
“Hmm…I can’t see any kid becoming attached to a face like Hisagi’s…”
“Well I’m sorry for having such a scary face!”
Ignoring Hisagi’s complaint, Rangiku thought for a while, but as soon as they got into the First Company barracks, she lifted her head up and pointed at Hisagi as she yelled, “…Is it yours?!”
“No!! Why would you think that?!”
Muguruma responded, seeming exasperated, “Like I said, you seem like you’d be the most likely to be seduced.”
“Captain!! You’re bringing up something from a decade ago now?!”
It was a lighthearted conversation they were able to have specifically because of the peace they had won, and thus they continued to live their days.
They were Soul Reapers.
They ruled over life and death and were also those who walked the path in the space between life and death.
They feared death, feared life, and clad themselves in all manner of dread.
However, those who live as Soul Reapers can’t fear their own world that they bear.
If so, accompanied by the fear of all their days until the last, they would have to sweep away the fears of the next day to reach the world that lay ahead.
And the wind once again circulates through the world.
The End