SEVERAL DAYS LATER, IN THE RUKONGAI
SHUHEI HISAGI WAS A MAN OF MANY HATS. One of his occupations was Ninth Company assistant captain, which everyone knew about. His other role was editor-in-chief of the Seireitei Bulletin.
The Seireitei Bulletin was a dispatch published by Ninth Company and circulated all over the Seireitei and even occasionally to certain parts of the Rukongai. Although working on the Bulletin was officially considered the same as any other posting, it was so different from a Soul Reaper’s regular duties that the world at large unofficially recognized it as a side business.
Until a few centuries ago, the Seireitei Bulletin had been little more than a simple one-page publication printed off a wooden block like the proclamations from the Edo period. But after Kaname Tosen became captain, the Bulletin adopted more modern printing methods from the world of the living, and it had quickly evolved.
Tosen had served as the editor himself, possibly because of his deep sincerity.
Under the captain’s leadership, the Bulletin had become a comprehensive newsletter disseminated across the Seireitei, running articles, essays, and serialized novels written directly by the captains. With Tosen no longer in the Soul Society, his assistant captain had taken over.
Customarily the new captain, Kensei Muguruma, should have become the next editor-in-chief. But Muguruma himself had said, “Back in my time, I left everything to the company soldiers. To be honest, it’s not my thing,” and had left it all to Hisagi. So Hisagi had forged ahead with his new position.
“So? What’s brought you all the way out here, Mr. Editor-in-chief?” A puzzled woman’s voice rang out from the doorway of the residence. It was none other than the leading fireworks expert of the Rukongai, Kukaku Shiba.
“I’m covering a story, of course.”
“About what? Is this about the new statues? You got me. And I can tell you that those things aren’t just for show.” She proudly turned her eyes to the stone flagbearers Hisagi had just passed under. The two gigantic statues were both of an oddly posed, gruff man. They stood side by side, holding aloft a horizontal banner that read “Welcome to Kukaku Shiba’s Residence.”
“Um…Well, they’re definitely a hot topic in some circles.”
“If you want, you can make them the cover of the next Sereitei Bulletin.” “Well…I’ll mention that at our planning meeting.”
After that noncommittal reply, Hisagi eased into the topic at hand to get her off the subject. “Ms. Kukaku, I came here to ask for your help on a retrospective of the Great Soul King Protection War.”
“What? You’re doing a retrospective already? But it hasn’t even been half a year!”
“That’s exactly why I want to collect accurate accounts right now.”
Kukaku Shiba was a fireworks technician through and through. She openly called her engagements with Squad Zero a “side hustle.” As Ninth Company assistant captain, Hisagi technically outranked her. But there was an enigmatic quality about Kukaku that made most of the assistant captains treat her with deference.
Although the Shiba name had been dragged through the mud over the centuries, they had produced many high-ranking members of the Court Guard and had even once been one of the Five Great Noble Clans, alongside the Kuchiki and Shihoin. And Kukaku Shiba was nothing to scoff at herself.
Hisagi had heard that she had once taken on a sturdy Seireitei guard with nothing but kido. To Hisagi, she wasn’t a mere maker of fireworks. She was a Soul Society authority of untold power.
He was there to see her for exactly the reason he had stated. Although publication difficulties had forced the Seireitei Bulletin to go on hiatus, they had released a small run of special issues to spread the word that they would be launching a full revival now that the war was over. Hisagi had been hoping to build the groundwork of his endeavor slowly, with the goal of formally relaunching the Bulletin on the anniversary of the end of the war.
After the exciting relaunch announcement, his Teach me, Mr. Shuhei!! column
had received numerous reader requests for details about the Great Soul King Protection War. Teach me, Mr. Shuhei!! was a periodic column where Hisagi replied to reader questions. It was only sporadically popular, so while it was revived when there was demand, its future was unpredictable because it could be discontinued again after only few issues.
But the people of the Seireitei still didn’t have a full picture of the war, and there was a deep unease about whether it was actually over and worry that something similar could happen again. They looked to the Seireitei Bulletin to wipe away those fears.
Many wanted the war to be the focus of the entire newsletter, but Hisagi had decided to handle all the demands in his own column. It was an important responsibility for the Seireitei Bulletin, and he couldn’t trust it to just any old member of the company. Hisagi had decided to take the lead on the reporting and treat this as a revival of his Teach me, Mr. Shuhei!! column for the first issue of the restored Seireitei Bulletin.
Motivated by eagerness, Hisagi spent his days chasing down interviews with the Surveillance Department, the Department of Research and Development, and the special relief groups from the Fourth Company. But he hadn’t been able to gather the sort of material he had hoped for.
It was unlikely that one single person had seen the full scope of the entire war. He had no idea how many accounts he would need to collect before he was able to see it himself. Doubt assailed him.
Yhwach, the person with the most comprehensive view of the war, had already been put in the ground by Ichigo Kurosaki. All Hisagi could do was gather the fragments. People wanted as much information as they could get as an antidote to the uncertain times they found themselves in. If he was able to publish the outcomes of the many battles the Soul Reapers had fought all over the Soul Society, it might bring hope to those facing the current battle— recovery.
In other words, I’m the only one who can fight this battle!
After Hisagi had spiritedly explained his mission, Kukaku crossed her arms and replied, “I know this isn’t what you want to hear when you’ve got a glitter like that in your scary intense eyes, but I don’t really have much to tell you. All I did was launch Squad Zero and Ichigo.” Though her words were rough, her tone was oddly compassionate.
It made Hisagi think, Oh, she probably really doesn’t have much to say then.
She seemed to him less like someone who didn’t want to talk about the past and
more like someone who had gotten the job done and accepted it as routine. “Well, I just came by to get the ball rolling. I’ll come back another time.” “Coming back will just be a pain for you, and it’s kind of weird for me to be
commenting on Soul Reapers and your fights. So if you’re going to talk to anyone, talk to my brother Ganju. He went with Ichigo and those guys to the Reiokyu, so I’m sure he’s got something to say about it.”
“Huh?! He went to the Reiokyu?”
Ganju Shiba had been one of the people who had appeared as a ryoka with Ichigo during the disturbance at Rukia Kuchiki’s execution. It was the first time Hisagi had heard that someone from the Rukongai had gone all the way to the Reiokyu since he had withdrawn from the front during the war’s endgame.
Come to think of it, I still haven’t interviewed the people close to Kurosaki. Obviously he should have interviewed Ichigo and the others who had been most deeply involved in the war’s conclusion. But as inhabitants of the world of
the living, they weren’t part of the Soul Society. He would need to get permission from the Captain General to go all the way there to interview them.
I think I’d be able to get the Captain General’s permission, but I don’t know if Kurosaki will cooperate. He doesn’t seem like the type to open up about himself.
If it came down to it, Hisagi wondered if he could speak with the people who were close to Ichigo instead, like Inoue or Sado. He decided to leave the Shiba residence for now.
“I see. I’ll try talking to your brother first.”
“Right. Ganju’s probably still hanging out in West Rukongai on that boar. If you have a look around, you’ll probably find him. He’s an obnoxious idiot, so you’ll know who he is the moment you see him.”
“Yes, I saw him a few times during disturbances in the Seireitei, so I should be able to recognize him.” Armed with this dynamic advice for identifying his quarry, Hisagi gave Kukaku a bow and turned his back on the house and its attached firework launcher.
Hisagi headed down the road toward where he had left his ride, which he’d gone out of his way to bring over from the world of the living and transform into reishi. But once he got close, he noticed several men gathered around it. The men had dense spiritual pressure that made them unlikely to be from the Rukongai, but they didn’t feel like Soul Reapers or Quincies either.
“What’s a Kawasaki Z2 doing here?” A man with slicked-back shoulder- length hair asked.
The tall young man next to him shrugged. “Who knows?”
The motorcycle from the world of the living, with its characteristic red paint, gleamed in front of them. The two men, who had died and come to the Rukongai, had gotten used to the ambient culture feeling like it was stuck around the Heian or Edo era. Many aspects of life there, from clothing to buildings, seemed to be from those far off times, possibly because the Soul Society had never experienced the social reforms that had rocked the world of the living.
They hadn’t seen an automobile of any sort since the moment they had arrived.
A gentleman wearing a black patch over his right eye looked at the motorcycle with deep curiosity from his position behind the other two. “Hm… Even we Fullbringers can only transfer that which is more or less a part of our bodies, like our clothes or tools, and we manipulate the souls of objects! Perhaps someone loved their motorcycle so much it became an extension of their self.”
“What about gas?”
“Yes, the Soul Society doesn’t really produce petroleum. Apparently most fuels go to the Department of Research and Development or to the aristocrats.”
“Does that mean this motorcycle is some aristocrat’s toy?”
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