Several centuries ago,
Seireitei government district
“Why? Why won’t you execute him?” It was a cry of desperation.
“Please let me have an audience with the Central 46! I beg you!” The lone young man continued to raise his voice despite the obstruction of the sturdy guards bearing steel staves.
The young man’s eyes were colorless, and one could infer from their subtle movements that they saw nothing. He seemed to grasp the situation around himself solely from sounds and sensations and likely sensed the brusque attitude of the guards in front of him. The guards, who were possibly related to the nobility, had clear contempt in their eyes for the young man, who appeared to have come from the Rukongai. But the young man was not timid as he tried to stretch toward the inner reaches of the gate.
Cries for a judgment of guilt came flying out of the blind young man’s mouth—a genuine entreaty for a just execution. The gate guards would not lend him an ear, however, and swung their staves at him.
The young man heard the sound of fabric being grazed, of air swishing and the flow of footsteps. He perceived all of it and surmised that the guards were going to pummel him without mercy.
But he did not try to evade them. Was it despair or sadness that appeared on his face? He showed not even the faintest flinch of fear. He had been prepared to risk his own life from the moment he had arrived.
The guards didn’t notice his resolve, and believing that his blindness prevented him from evading them, they brought their weapons down on their defenseless opponent without hesitation.
The sound of a harsh collision rang out, and the guards’ strikes were sent flying back!
A still-sheathed zanpaku-to appeared before them. The guards’ expressions froze the moment they recognized who wielded the weapon.
“There’s no need to be so rowdy. He’s still mourning Kakyo.”
“Y-you’re...”
“I will talk to him. You should return to your posts.”
“Y-yes sir!”
The young man couldn’t figure out what had happened. His thoughts were overrun by the name his savior had uttered.
Kakyo.
The reason he had risked his life in coming there. The name of his irreplaceable friend with whom he had spent his youth in the Rukongai.
The man who had said her name spoke gently to the blind man. “I know who you are. You came to Kakyo’s funeral, didn’t you?”
“Did you know her…?”
“We were colleagues of a sort. I’m a Soul Reaper too. But I suppose I failed in my duty the moment I wasn’t able to protect her.”
The man spoke with a sorrowful air and offered a hand to the blind man. “Let’s go elsewhere. You have nothing more to say to those pigheaded guards, do you?”
“I see, so you’re Kaname Tosen. She occasionally talked about you in the barracks. That’s probably why you received a special invitation to the company funeral.”
The blind man—Kaname Tosen—was a resident of the Rukongai. Since he was not a Soul Reaper, he normally would not have been able to come and go freely in the Seireitei. He had been allowed to enter by special arrangement.
“Kakyo wrote out a will when she enlisted as a Soul Reaper. The Shinoreijutsuin Academy actually recommends it. She had no way of knowing when she might die during a battle with a Hollow, after all.”
According to the Soul Reaper who claimed to know Kakyo, her will had stipulated that she be buried in the Rukongai. “Apparently she said she wanted to be buried at the foot of a hill where she could see the stars, and that her close friend Kaname Tosen would know where she went.”
“Yes, I think I know that hill.”
Memories of looking up at the night sky with his friend, near a village that had once been on top of a hill, flooded Tosen’s mind.
“I love the night sky, Kaname. It reminds me of the world. Everything’s covered in darkness. There are tiny points of light everywhere, but the clouds try to cover them up.
“You see, Kaname, I want to clear away those clouds so that not a single light is hidden. I’m going to clear away those clouds, Kaname.”
The woman who had looked up at the stars and said those words had eventually fulfilled her dream. She had obtained the power and position to protect the world’s light as a Soul Reaper.
Soul Reapers were the foundation of everything in the Soul Society—they led the inhabitants of the world of the living here and maintained the cycle of souls.
They drove away the evil souls called Hollows. They were the people’s hope.
She had been given the right to literally protect the stars. But although her dream had come true, she had not been able to take her next steps.
“I heard that it was her husband who killed her.”
“Yes, that’s right. Her husband killed a colleague in his company over a trivial dispute and then killed her when she tried to protest. That is the truth.”
“Why did she... Why did someone like her have to die?”
“This is only a guess, but she was more honest than anyone, and I think it’s because she kept justice and peace close to her heart,” the Soul Reaper replied to Tosen, whose fists were clenched in frustration.
Tosen also understood that.
Kakyo, his best friend, had loved peace more than anyone. She had prized justice more than anyone. That was why she had been prepared to stain her hands with the blood of Hollows she slew herself.
“I was concerned that this would happen to her someday. She loved peace too much to carry out justice. If she had rejected love and peace and lived only for harsh justice, she probably would have killed her husband instead. But she wasn’t capable of that.”
“Are you saying that her dreams were wrong?! I heard her killer isn’t even being charged with a serious crime!”
“Is that why you sought an audience with the Central 46?” The Soul Reaper breathed out a small sigh and continued as if hesitant. “Do you know about the Five Great Noble Clans?”
“I don’t know their names, but aren’t they the highest-ranking families in the Seireitei, even among the aristocrats?”
“The man who killed Kakyo is a member of the Five Great Noble Clans.”