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.
Hisagi’s other reason—one that he was not wholly aware of—was that he wanted to personally see the enemy of his former captain, Kaname Tosen, imprisoned. His heart should have recognized that once Aizen was reimprisoned, all the loose ends would be tied up. He shouldn’t complicate matters with his grudges.
Hisagi’s hands had been gripped into firm fists as he tried to control himself, but his resolve had collapsed the moment he had heard Aizen’s words as he ran up. “Are you saying that you twisted Captain Tosen’s views with your words…?”
“What a strange way of putting things, Shuhei Hisagi.” Aizen’s mood was imperturbable in the face of Hisagi’s unconcealed rage. “You never saw Kaname Tosen’s mind change even for a moment, did you? That’s because Kaname Tosen was serving me by the time you became a Soul Reaper.”
“…!”
Kyoraku interrupted to chide Hisagi. “Shuhei, you’re right to be angry, but I’m sorry. Can you keep yourself in check right now?”
“Yes, I understand, Captain General.”
His hand had been about to reach for his zanpaku-to, but Hisagi quelled the impulse. He said to Aizen, “You might have battled alongside Kurosaki to defeat Yhwach, but you’ll be Captain Tosen’s enemy in my eyes forever, no matter what happens.”
Revenge.
How many times had that word come to mind when he heard Aizen’s name? It was something he viewed as simultaneously negative and positive. His heart harbored hatred for Aizen, who had without remorse led Tosen down the twisted path that had brought about the former captain’s ruin. But Hisagi also felt swirling doubt and frustration at himself for being a prisoner to his own intense, destructive emotions.
For Hisagi, who had done all he could to stop a revenge-obsessed Tosen from going down the wrong path, letting that word slip past his lips was nothing more
than an affront to the Soul Reapers like Komamura, who had fought alongside him, and even more so to Tosen.
Aizen smiled faintly as he strung together his cruel words, as though he could peer straight into Hisagi’s heart. “Forever is a word that shouldn’t be uttered so lightly. Even Tosen’s conviction wasn’t eternal, after all.”
“Gah! How dare you—”
Aizen overrode Hisagi’s indignant shout. “You seem to have the wrong idea.” His voice was quiet, but it held such definite power in it that Hisagi’s shout was overwhelmed.
“I did not kill Tosen as punishment for defeat.” He paused for a moment.
Aizen ignored the confusion around him and spat his thoughts out curtly, “It was my version of mercy.”
The air around them seemed to freeze.
Hisagi wasn’t the only one who couldn’t immediately grasp Aizen’s meaning.
Kyoraku and the Soul Reapers around him were likewise at a loss.
A short silence followed, then Hisagi spoke, clenched fists shaking. “You call
that mercy?”
Aizen seemed pleased at that, and Hisagi’s anger boiled all the more. But this anger wasn’t directed at Aizen. It was directed at his own weakness compared to the man who had so easily killed Kaname Tosen.
“How much of a fool do you need to make of Captain Kaname before you’re satisfied…?”
Aizen was persistently indifferent as he continued. “It was clear that Orihime Inoue or Retsu Unohana would have tried to save Kaname Tosen once they arrived. I don’t think any of you could understand what that would have meant for him.”
“…?”
“If Kaname Tosen had lived, he would have plunged into an unparalleled despair, and his mind would have fallen to ruin. I couldn’t bear to allow someone with such beautiful resolve to waste away in despair. That’s why I bestowed on my most loyal subordinate such a merciful death. It was nothing more than that.”
Hisagi couldn’t understand what Aizen was saying. But he didn’t think Aizen was making up some random explanation to trick them.
Ignoring Hisagi’s bewilderment, Aizen addressed his next words to the Soul Reapers around him. “Eventually the time will come when you will all understand. The Soul Society, the Soul Reapers themselves, are based on nothing more than a treacherous fantasy.”
“How about we end things there? You talk too much.” Kyoraku stopped Aizen from continuing and gave directions to the punishment force to start transporting Aizen into Mugen’s maw.
“Please wait, Captain General! What the heck is Aizen—” Second Company captain Soi Fon stepped in front of Hisagi as he spoke. She quickly circled around his back and twisted up his arm.
“Get ahold of yourself! You’re not the only person who lost a friend because
of him!”
“Guh! But, Captain Soi Fon—!”
“If someone like you could get revenge on him, we would have executed him by now! He’s just trying to get you to act out and cause chaos for his own amusement!”
Hisagi was more painfully aware of that truth than anyone. He was nothing compared to the powerful being that was Aizen. What could someone like him, who had been so upset by Aizen’s mere words, do?
Though he hated the man, Hisagi couldn’t kill Aizen. But he could not forgive or forget what had happened either. Hisagi already understood that well enough.
Aizen, whose body had been restrained in the chair, tilted his head slightly as he turned his gaze toward Hisagi. “‘Swinging a sword for duty alone is what a captain does. To swing a sword out of hatred is just violence.’ Toshiro Hitsugaya once spoke those words to me.”
“Urk…” Hisagi could only be silent. It felt like Aizen was telling him that he was far from captain material, which was something he himself thought. But he could only turn his eyes down and grind his teeth instead of arguing.
Aizen didn’t even allow Hisagi the luxury of frustration. “Don’t worry about it. What you feel isn’t hate. It’s just sentimentality for Kaname Tosen and what he left behind.”
“What did you say?”
“You would do well to remember this: Regardless of how firm your resolve is, you can’t defeat the strong with sentimentality alone.”
“Huh?!”
Kyoraku clapped his hands together firmly as though to cut off the conversation. “All right, all right, I said that’s enough already, didn’t I? Could you stop intimidating the kids hauling you around with your spiritual pressure? You said it wasn’t worthwhile to leave any last words, didn’t you?”
At Kyoraku’s words, the other Soul Reapers looked at the members of the punishment force who were carrying the restrained Aizen in his chair. They couldn’t seem to move and were dripping with sweat.
“It’s all just a show. I’m going to be quite bored for a while, so I’m entertaining myself with the presumption that my modest words might have the slightest effect on the future of the Soul Society.”
“Good grief, that’s not what I call a decent pastime.”
Finally, the members of the punishment force were liberated from Aizen’s spiritual pressure and desperately steadied their breaths as they started forward
again.
In the moments before they disappeared underground, Aizen flung words at the assembled Soul Reapers as though he were testing them, his voice as quiet as it had been in the beginning. “If you want to see through to the truth, you must flounder and sacrifice your own flesh, blood, and soul.”
Then lastly, and possibly redundantly, he added one final statement for Shuhei Hisagi’s benefit, who stood by dumbstruck. “At least that’s what Kaname Tosen did. Maybe you should know that?”
And so the monstrous criminal, who had defeated Yhwach alongside Ichigo Kurosaki, disappeared into the shadowed depths.
Aizen took a farsighted view of the world and hadn’t spoken like an abject prisoner. It made many of the Soul Reapers scowl because they thought his words were born of the arrogance of a sore loser. The captains, however, centered themselves and held in the corner of their minds the thought that “although he lies for sport, Aizen isn’t one to say things without a purpose.”
Hisagi had not been able to restrain his emotions at the end, and Aizen’s words became a poison that lingered in his heart. The poison didn’t warp him, it altered fate itself and eventually led him toward a singular conflict. But that fate might have been inevitable for a Soul Reaper following in Tosen’s footsteps, regardless of whether Aizen’s poison had found a mark.
Shuhei Hisagi was neither a prophet nor omniscient and so naturally had no way of knowing his future. He wasn’t a hero who would go down in history like Ichigo Kurosaki.
He did not have the brute strength of Kenpachi Zaraki. He did not have the wisdom of Kisuke Urahara.
He did not have the skills of Mayuri Kurotsuchi. He did not have the status of Byakuya Kuchiki. He did not have the talent of Toshiro Hitsugaya.
He did not have the experience of Genryusai Yamamoto. Nor the brilliance of Shunsui Kyoraku.
Nor the drive of Sajin Komamura. Nor the courage of Kensei Muguruma.
He was the type who derided himself over drinks by saying, “Whether I try to become a captain or stick to being an assistant captain, I can’t even list all that I’m lacking,” He had few heroic qualities, especially when it came to his own self-respect as a Soul Reaper.
Shuhei Hisagi still did not have the slightest clue.
He had not even the slightest inkling that he would be the one to shoulder the fate of the world as he fought to protect the common qualities that served as the foundation for most of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies.
He came to face that reality just barely half a year after the great war ended.
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