Once, there was a man who lived in the Soul Society and revered a god who had saved his life. This man sought to walk the same path as his god.
Though this man was a commoner from the Rukongai, he earned excellent grades at the Shinoreijutsuin Academy and rose through the ranks until he reached the level of assistant captain. He was steadfast in his honor, loyal to his orders, and never shied from danger if his companions were in peril. He would have risked his very life for the Soul Society.
Yet while he revered fairness, he was callous toward his opponents and more than capable of hiding in the muck to launch a surprise attack, slaughtering and driving back the enemy for the sake of the greater cause.
He was a Soul Reaper.
He gave his enemies death.
He cleansed death from the world.
He transformed the human deaths in the mortal world into salvation.
He was, beyond a doubt, a model Soul Reaper. For better or worse, he embodied the essence of what it meant to belong to the Thirteen Court Guard Companies.
His name was Shuhei Hisagi. He was remembered in the chronicles of the Soul Society as assistant captain of the Ninth Company and had clearly distinguished himself as stronger than ordinary Soul Reapers. But while he was indeed recorded in the chronicles of the Soul Society, there was an unmistakable gulf between him and others who would endure in the stories of the people, such as Shigekuni Genryusai Yamamoto, Kenpachi Zaraki, and Ichigo Kurosaki.
All told, Shuhei Hisagi was considered to be a “very good” assistant captain. He wasn’t sure how to interpret that term, which could be taken as praise or ridicule. Either way, he wouldn’t change how he lived because his path was already chosen.
Had his decision been made when he was saved by a Soul Reaper? Or maybe in the moment when he had first gripped a zanpaku-to after entering the Shinoreijutsuin Academy? Or was it when he had lost friends during training? Or was it when he had met the man he had decided to follow—the man he had offered himself to, mind and body?
Or perhaps it was when he had killed that man with his own hands.
No one knew when on the journey down his chosen path Hisagi had decided to embrace his life as a Soul Reaper, likely not even Shuhei Hisagi.
≡
Seireitei,
in front of the First Company barracks
“So, any last words?”
The Captain General’s words quietly reverberated around the accused.
The war against the Quincies had been over for a few days, and they had finished eliminating the grotesqueries that had rained down on the Seireitei like strange birds. Although the smell of death had mostly dissipated, the figures in front of the First Company barracks were presently just as tense as if they were in the heat of battle.
Captain General Kyoraku was surrounded by the punishment squad from the deepest level of the subterranean prison, Mugen, and by the captains who had been deployed for the emergency.
Sosuke Aizen, the criminal accused of high treason, had been temporarily released from Mugen for the war. He was now being reimprisoned.
Many Soul Reapers had died in battle with the Quincies, and most of those who had made it out alive were still being treated for their injuries. Although Orihime Inoue had managed to save most of the Soul Reapers who had teetered on the brink of life and death, her Twin-God Reflection Shield was not meant for recovering lost spiritual pressure. She could treat their wounds, but had she tried to fully restore a patient’s original spiritual pressure, it would have compromised her ability to save others or to sustain her own stamina.
And so Orihime had been set to treating patients who had been so seriously injured that they had no other hope. Those who had gotten past the worst of their injuries were handed over to the Fourth Company for treatment. Those with fatal injuries who hadn’t been reached soon enough, those whose konpaku had completely disappeared, and those who had left no trace of themselves behind couldn’t be saved by the Twin-God Reflection Shield. Even Orihime’s powers, which had once restored an Arrancar with a blasted upper body, had its limits.
Many lives had been lost and many Soul Reapers had felt powerless nearly to the point of breaking, but news of the ultimate victory had been more than enough to rally the unified and resilient Thirteen Court Guard Companies.
Now they were faced with Sosuke Aizen, and there was no infallible precaution they could deploy against him. They were operating at the highest threat level as they looked out on the prison where he would once again be confined.
Captain General Kyoraku would be venturing into Mugen alone with the prisoner. Although he had asked for last words as a formality, he knew allowing Aizen to speak was dangerous. Even secured to a chair with every part of his body restrained, Aizen could use kido, and his very words could be part of a plot. The Captain General knew that if Aizen said anything threatening, he would need to immediately seal Aizen’s voice. Aizen knew that too, and the prisoner shook his head as a brazen smile played over his face.
“Unfortunately, there’s no one here worthy of hearing my words. That includes you, Shunsui Kyoraku.”
“That’s for the best. It’s bad luck to be considered worthy by you.”
“Though I did want to talk to Ichigo Kurosaki a bit more. Did Kisuke Urahara get the wrong idea about me?”
Ichigo was currently with his father Isshin Kurosaki and Orihime Inoue at Kukaku Shiba’s residence in the Rukongai. From a military perspective, it would be best for Ichigo to be there as Aizen was sealed away, but they were taking precautions in case Aizen could influence the Hollow inside Ichigo.
“It turns out Ichigo was never one of us. And if you had something to say to him, you should have taken the opportunity earlier,” Kyoraku said smugly, righting his hat and looking down on Aizen with his uninjured left eye.
Though Kisuke Urahara had increased the strength of the seal, they still couldn’t be careless. Mayuri Kurotsuchi, just after he had come off of life support, had said, “Can we really count on any of Kisuke Urahara’s methods?” Kurotsuchi had attempted to create his own restraint device, but there hadn’t been time to wait for it to be completed.
“Let’s head out then. We’ll just pray you’ll be on the Soul Society’s side after you’ve served your time.”
“Why say that when you’re not sincere?” Aizen smiled as if he could see through everything but didn’t even look at Kyoraku as he spoke. “Do you really think the Soul Society will even still be here by the time my sentence has ended?”
“Of course. It’s our job to make sure it is.”
“You saw it at the Reiokyu, didn’t you? You saw the Soul Society’s original sin.” Aizen was suggesting exactly what his former subordinate Halibel had spoken about, referring to what Kyoraku himself had seen in the Greater Palace of the Reiokyu. But Kyoraku purposefully did not respond and simply headed toward the entrance to Mugen. Even if he chose to answer Aizen’s question, he had judged it best to do so in the depths of Mugen, once the voices of the other captains could no longer be heard.
Though Aizen hadn’t expected a reply, he spoke sarcastically as though he had seen into Kyoraku’s mind, or perhaps into the minds all of the Soul Reapers surrounding him. “Well, aren’t you unusually quiet. Are you afraid a conversation with me will cause Soul Reapers to defect? Just like Kaname Tosen.”
A rage-filled voice echoed through the First Company barracks. “Stop screwing with us!”
It wasn’t Kyoraku. This Soul Reaper was a young man with characteristic scars and tattoos on his face, and he was out of breath as if he had just run the whole way there. It was none other than Ninth Company assistant captain Shuhei Hisagi.
The bandages wrapping his entire body hinted at the severity of his wounds, and he looked as though he had until recently been covered with lacerations. He had in fact just slipped out of the Fourth Company’s infirmary.
He had been shot by Lille Barro, one of Yhwach’s personal guard, and had been on his deathbed with serious damage to his saketsu and hakusui, the organs considered the heart of a Soul Reaper.
But Lille’s X-Axis power had been too precise, and Shuhei had miraculously survived the holes that had squarely targeted his body with his primary composition still intact.
Though Orihime had treated Hisagi, she had only healed his wounds, and his damaged hakusui had made it difficult for his spiritual pressure to recover. He had effectively been in a coma for several days, and although he had yet to make a complete recovery, he had come to witness Aizen being reimprisoned. Hisagi had forced himself to run despite being unwise in his condition, in part so that he could see out his duty as the assistant captain of the Ninth Company.
Hisagi’s superior, Ninth Company captain Kensei Muguruma, had been zombified and was in a state of suspended animation. He had been placed in one of the Twelfth Company’s special treatment capsules to revive. That was specifically why Hisagi, who could barely move, was trying to make sure that at the very least he would be part of the guard at the event.