Serveral 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?"
[Img]
The gentleman's face clouded at the young man's mention of that facet of the Soul Society, but a shout from behind him contradicted those assumptions.
"I saved up to buy that thing! Although I guess you could call it a toy since that's pretty much what it is."
The man with slicked-back hair narrowed his eyes as he turned to face the interloper.
"Oh. When the sound of a rare motorcycle lured me over, I had no idea I was about to come face to face with a Soul Reaper."
Hisagi scowled when he saw the stranger's face, which matched a description that had recently circulated several times among the Thirteen Court Guard Companies —the face of a dangerous Reaper killer, Kugo Ginjo.
Kugo Ginjo had been the first-ever deputy Soul Reaper, but he had become estranged from the Soul Society and had pursued and slaughtered countless Soul Reapers.
Hisagi had never seen it for himself, but after Ichigo had killed him, the corpse of the outlaw Kugo Ginjo had remained for a time in the Soul Society. Although he had eventually been buried in the world of the living at Ichigo Kurosaki's request, his konpaku was another matter entirely.
Because he had been a human of the world of the living, when his konpaku had broken free of his remains it had most likely drifted until it reached the Rukongai.
"Oh, what an honor. I can't believe someone with an assistant captain's armband recognized little old me."
Hisagi's shihakusho had no sleeves to hold his rank insignia, but he always fastened it to the wraps around his arm when he went out in public.
Hisagi's voice lowered when he heard Ginjo's brazen laughter at the armband.
"I heard rumors that you hadn't gone to hell, but what are you doing here?"
"Ah, that's no way to look at a stranger, is it? Did I do something to you?"
"So you're playing dumb. I haven't forgotten what you did to us Soul Reapers or to Kurosaki." Hisagi glared at the former deputy Soul Reaper with narrowed eyes.
Ginjo narrowed his eyes in reply and shot a shameless grin toward Hisagi.
"And so what? You tellin' me to bow down and apologize? Listen, even though I'm in Ichigo Kurosaki's debt, I'm still not buddies with you Soul Reapers and I don't regret turning against you."
"You lowlife! What're you scheming?"
"Hah. Do I look like I'm scheming?
And even if I was, what're you going to do about it?"
Ginjo snorted as the tall young man next to him closed the book he was holding and removed a bookmark from its pages.
"Stand down, Tsukishima."
"Are you sure? He looks like he might try to kill you," Shukuro Tsukishima said in an unruffled tone.
At that name, Hisagi drew up his guard even more. "Tsukishima… Aren't you the guy who screwed with Kurosaki's past?"
The very same Tsukishima smiled cynically as he looked at Hisagi. "What a terrible thing to say. It wasn't his past I changed. Oh, I guess I did help with his sword another time."
Unable to understand Tsukishima's meaning, Hisagi gave the man a puzzled look.
The gentleman in the eye patch who observed them sighed as he said, "Mr. Ginjo, it seems he is not aware that you were one of Ichigo Kurosaki's reinforcements."
"You were a reinforcement?"
'Wait, I think Abarai mentioned something about an "unexpected helping hand." Tch. I should've interviewed him first.'
For the past half a year, Hisagi had been working himself to the bone as the Ninth Company's acting captain while the corpseified actual captain had been undergoing medical treatment. As a result, Hisagi hadn't been able to conduct any detailed interviews while Captain Muguruma recovered.
Ignoring Hisagi, who was deeply regretting postponing interviews with the Court Guard on the assumption that he could do them anytime, Ginjo's response to the gentleman in the eyepatch seemed jaded.
"I wouldn't call us reinforcements. We were just returning a favor."
Hisagi fell into thought as the leisurely conversation between the three men continued.
'Can I win against these guys, one on three? I don't know who the guy with the eye patch is, but he's probably one of Ginjo's buddies. I don't know his abilities. I've heard about the other guy's abilities from Madarame and Captain Hitsugaya, though...'
Was this the guy who, as rumor had it, "croaked after a single swing of Kenpachi Zaraki's sword"?
Hisagi considered that information, but he wasn't foolish enough to write the man off as weak just because Kenpachi Zaraki beat him with one sword stroke. Hisagi was well aware that there wasn't much difference between a wolf and a puppy in the face of someone like Kenpachi.
In any case, these men had been enemies who had slaughtered other members of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies. Ichigo Kurosaki seemed to have found a way to forgive them, but that was a separate conversation. As a Soul Reaper, he could by no means ignore their presence.
Coming to that determination, Hisagi decided that he first needed to discover their objective. He tightened his guard as he jumped back into the conversation.
"Why did you betray the Soul Reapers? Why did you betray Ukitake?"
The darkness in the back of Ginjo's eyes brightened instantly. He looked surprised and exasperated.
"What a surprise! Why would a Soul Reaper ask me that now?"
"I heard that Captain Ukitake used your deputy badge to keep an eye on you, and that was enough to make you decide that the entire Court Guard was your enemy. No one enjoys being spied on, but all you had to do was bring it up with Ukitake as soon as you discovered it."
"I should've brought it up as soon as I discovered it?" Ginjo muttered, then fell silent for a moment. Finally he laughed out loud as though he had seen some ridiculous clown act.
"Hah...is that it? You don't seem like you're playing dumb, which means that even someone at the rank of assistant captain doesn't know what happened."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm saying I really get it now—you just don't know anything!" Then his smile vanished, and he started to fidget with a cross necklace hanging around his neck.
Hisagi felt the reverberation of some sort of unpleasant spiritual pressure coming from that necklace and took a step back, reaching for his zanpaku-to.
The air around them filled with the foreboding of a coming eruption, and they were quick to put distance between each other. But the tension was suddenly shattered by a rumble and the braying of a beast.
They turned to face the braying, and a gigantic boar the size of a small car came charging at them from the direction of the nearby village. It thrust itself between Hisagi and Ginjo as they faced off, slowing abruptly as it got to them.
As a result, the man on its back plunged headfirst into the grass between them.
"Bwaghh?!"
The boar rider shrieked comically as he crashed into the ground, then staggered to his feet and gave a thumbs-up to the boar. "Heh, you're as enthusiastic as always, Bonnie!"
As though ignoring him, the boar raced off like the wind to a different horizon.
Hisagi's eyes went wide at the sudden, comedic exchange. The man, who had watched the boar rush off, turned to him and started talking in a voice full of authority.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! What's going on here! You havin' a fight?"
"It's nothing, Ganju. I was just riling up a Soul Reaper who hasn't got a clue how the world works."
The rough-faced Ganju looked exasperated as he continued.
"You were fighting with a Soul Reaper? Seriously, I get that you hate them, but don't go around digging up trouble! I'm not gonna tell you to let bygones be bygones, but it ain't smart picking fights with them face to face."
The gentleman with the eye patch, who had been listening in, tilted his head as he asked, "What was that you said? According to Madame Kukaku, your meeting with Mr. Kurosaki was like a child's squabble."
"Guh...! I can't believe my sister's been talkin' about that!" The man, whose face was the spitting image of the flagbearing statues Hisagi had just seen, scowled as he spoke.
He was unmistakably just the man Hisagi had been looking for. But with Ganju Shiba right in front of him, Hisagi knit his eyebrows together as though troubled. "I don't know if this is good timing or what, but..."
"Hunh?! Who're you? Actually, aren't you assistant captain of whatever company…? Assistant captain Hi...Hisa..."
After an awkward pause, Ganju nodded firmly and smiled at Hisagi with the same thumbs-up he had given the boar.
"Hi-sa-a-ay, it's so great to see you again! Rukia Kuchiki's assistant captain buddy!"
"C'mon, it's just one more syllable! It's Hisagi! From the Ninth Company! Shuhei Hisagi!"
Ginjo sighed from where he stood next to the yelling Hisagi as he pulled his fingers from his necklace. "What? You know each other?"
Confirming that the incredibly strained atmosphere had truly eased, Tsukishima opened his book once again and dropped his eyes to its pages.
"Hey, Ganju Shiba, what's going on here? Who are these guys, and do you and Ms. Kukaku know them?"
"Of course we do! We don't just know them—they're freeloaders my sister picked up."
"Freeloaders...?"
Ignoring Hisagi, who had no idea what was going on, Ginjo and the two others tried to take off. But Ganju quickly spotted them and halted them with a cryptic, glowering look.
"Hey, hey, where do you think you're going?! I dunno what happened between you and the assistant cap here, but I'm not gonna let there be grudges between the Soul Reapers and the Shiba gang while I'm alive!"
Ganju, unlike Ginjo and the other two men who turned around with annoyance, or the befuddled Hisagi, was full of self-confidence as he resoundingly explained the peace plan.
"I won't assume anybody's in the wrong here. Just leave things up to ol' Ganju—the self-proclaimed deep-red bullet of West Rukongai! The self-proclaimed but universally acknowledged boss of West Rukongai—voted number one for fourteen consecutive years in a row! And!! The self-proclaimed former number-one Soul Reaper hater of West Rukongai, Ganju!"
Ganju beat his own drum very loudly. Ginjo and the other two men were already acquainted with Ganju but had no idea how to respond to the cryptic names he had bestowed upon himself. Hisagi looked on unimpressed and barely managed to utter something coherent.
"About that last bit…? Why are you still calling yourself that if it is former...?"
Suddenly, his many years of experience as a Soul Reaper set alarm bells ringing in his mind. This seems bad. I feel like I've been caught up in something that's gonna mean trouble...
≡
Serveral Hours Later,
Seireitei First Company Barracks
"This is definitely going to mean trouble—a lot of it."
The two assistant captains in front of Captain General Kyoraku—Nanao Ise and Genshiro Okikiba—traded quick looks at his words.
Kyoraku had said the phrase half out of habit, but as assistant captains, Nanao and Okikiba knew by his voice that it was serious. Though it was something only those familiar with the Captain General could have noticed, his tone indicated that something truly terrible had happened.
"What is, Captain General?"
Kyoraku let out a long sigh at Nanao's words. "Ah, sorry, sorry. Did I worry you? Why don't you leap into my arms and let me quell your frightened shivers."
"I'm being serious, Captain General."
"Right, well. Just before you showed up, little Nayura came to me with a few guards. They had a formal message and request from the Central 46."
"You mean Nayura Amakado came here directly?" Even Nanao knew about Nayura.
The Central 46 was the acting voice of the Soul King and so led the Soul Reapers. Occasionally they acted as the supreme judiciary body and meted out judgments. Nayura Amakado was the youngest member of that body—a girl who appeared to be just ten years old.
But both Kyoraku and Nanao recognized that the girl had a sharpness that came from living many years longer than her looks suggested, and that she had initiated steady changes in the Central 46, which had on principle previously served the aristocrats foremost.
As the result of Nayura and Kyoraku's efforts, the gaps in knowledge between the Soul Reapers and Central 46 had slowly been shored up.
At least, that was how Nanao felt. And although the issue of balance still remained, Nanao had hopes that the differences in judicial treatment between the nobles and the Soul Reapers, or perhaps even between them and all the inhabitants of the Rukongai, was beginning to settle in a good direction.
Nanao did wish Kyoraku wouldn't use the names of the Central 46 members so casually when he spoke. But Nanao often accompanied Nayura Amakado when she occasionally observed the populace incognito, and even Nanao was close to using just her first name.
Kyoraku's face held a slight shadow as he sighed. "There was a pretty concerning incident with the four noble families earlier. I think you've heard about that."
"Yes. You're referring to the assassins who snuck into the Tsunayashiro household and murdered the head of the family?"
In peacetime, the brutal murder of one of the heads of the Four Great Noble Clans would have been enough to shake the Seireitei itself. But since the chaos of the war had yet to subside, the official public declaration was that the noble had "fallen ill from distress during the battles and passed away due to an epidemic."
That was precisely why the particulars of the incident had only been relayed to the highest ranks. Among the Thirteen Court Guard Companies, only Captain General Kyoraku, his adjutants, and the captain of the secret remote company, Soi Fon, had knowledge of the progression of the events.
"Well, Captain Kurotsuchi and Yoruichi have probably found out by their own methods. They probably even found out what happened next before I did."
"Does that mean there's a problem with who will succeed the head of the family?"
"Little Nayura gave me some general details, but issues with the nobles are out of our jurisdiction. The Gilded Seal Aristocratic Assembly deals with that, not the Thirteen Court Guard Companies. At least, for the time being…"
Nanao picked up on Kyoraku's implication and narrowed her eyes.
"When you say it's theirs to deal with for the time being, do you mean that the situation will involve the Court Guard later?"
"Well, it'd be nice if it didn't." After letting some of his misgivings show on his face, Kyoraku looked at the official directive from Central 46 and continued, "Oh, and could you call Muguruma and Hisagi in for me?"
"From the Ninth Company?"
"Hisagi alone will be just fine. I'd like to make sure the captain knows what's going on, the situation being what it is."
≡
At The Same Time,
Kikuka Shiba's Residence
"So then, just when I'm thinking that suddenly the statues weren't appearing anymore, that jerk Ichigo pops up behind us outta nowhere! And he was like 'Sorry, I ended up going down first, so I came by to get you'! Even though Chad and me were all revved up about clearing the path for Ichigo's way back! What's up with him already going back down to the Seireitei?!"
They were in the underground parlor of the Shiba residence, and Ganju was complaining to Hisagi as he slugged down his drink.
"And ya know what?! That Chad guy was all, 'Ichigo can only see the path he's on'! But I sure never thought that'd literally be true, damn it!"
"Uh-huh...well, seems like you had a tough time."
"And that Chad guy being Chad and all! The first thing he says in that whole mood is 'I see...so it's over,' and he had a smile on his face! He made me look like a shallow dingus with how I started off by just complaining—guh-huh?!"
Ganju was interrupted by a kick in the back that sent him to the floor face-first. Kukaku, the one who had kicked him, stepped on her younger brother's back as she said, "Stop babbling like a baby! You haven't actually got any grit anyway!"
"But, sis! That hurt and was cruel!"
"No buts! You punk… You trained yourself for years so you could battle on the front lines till the end, so how'd you end up off the track and lost...?"
"Who told you I got lost?! It must have been Ichigo, that little ow ow ow ow! Will you please stop, sis?! You're gonna pulverize my back! Into smithereens!"
Ganju yelled as Kukaku continued to step on her younger brother with-out mercy.
Not knowing how to react to the two siblings, Hisagi seemed troubled as he sipped his drink. In the midst of that ordeal, he turned his eyes toward Ginjo, who sat on his periphery.
Hisagi had been forcibly invited into the parlor earlier by Ganju in order to "let bygones be bygones by drinking together." But when he had tried to ask about the relationship between the Fullbringers and Ganju, just to have something to say, he had wound up in the plight of having to listen to Ganju's drunken complaints.
Tsukishima, incidentally, wasn't taking part in the drinking party and was instead leaning against a wall in a corner reading a book. On the way to the parlor, Giriko Kutsuzawa, the man with the eye patch, had said, "I'll fix some snacks," before withdrawing into the Shibas' kitchen.
"Actually, what's up with Tsukishima and Ginjo getting past us to Ichigo?! Isn't that kind of unfair?! Hey, isn't that unfair?!"
Ganju, who had been released from under his sister's foot, aimed his complaints at Ginjo instead. Ginjo let Ganju's words slide past him with a cool expression as he shrugged and gracefully drank. "Yukio and Riruka transported us there directly. We were crossing a pretty dangerous bridge too, you know?"
"Yukio and Riruka?"
Ginjo turned his eyes away at Hisagi's muttered question. Then Ginjo said, "Yeah, they were part of the group we hung out with in the world of the living. They're still alive, unlike us, but they still came all the way here just to help out Kurosaki."
"They came here to help him...?" As the editor of the Seireitei Bulletin, Hisagi wanted to pry for details, but he just couldn't bring himself to do so because of the wariness he felt toward Ginjo.
Kukaku, who saw Hisagi's hesitation, spoke out. "Don't look so miserable while you're drinking. I told you earlier, didn't I? Ganju and I have accepted these freeloaders. We haven't got any concerns about them stabbing us in the back or anything."
"But they're—!"
"We even ran it by Ukitake."
"Huh...?"
As Hisagi swallowed back his protest, Kukaku continued. "Well, it's not like we can prove that now though."
"Wait a second. Then did Ginjo meet Ukitake too?"
When Hisagi looked at Ginjo, the Fullbringer was rolling his empty cup around in his hands.
"I didn't see him myself. To be honest, I was going out of my way not to see him here."
"You're saying it's different now?"
"Who knows. Suppose we had met. It might've become a battle to the death."
"Why are you so intense about him…?"
What in the world had happened between Ginjo, the first deputy Soul Reaper, and Ukitake? At the very least, Hisagi couldn't let his guard down until he knew. No—no matter what was behind the rift, nothing would change the fact that the man in front of him was an enemy and Reaper killer. But… Hisagi felt a slight hesitation—or perhaps it was fear he felt in his chest.
If they crossed swords now and he managed to kill Ginjo, could he honestly say that he was just fulfilling his duties as part of the Court Guard by killing an enemy of the Soul Reapers? Wasn't it wrong to let emotions swing his sword when he himself had tried to stop Captain Tosen's revenge?
Aizen's words from half a year ago came back to him. "What you have isn't hate. All you have is sentimentality for Kaname Tosen and what he left behind after he disappeared."
There might be some truth in that. If someone asked whether there was even a sliver of emotion in his blade, he probably wouldn't be able to deny it.
But he also couldn't just overlook Ginjo. Losing sight of how to use his sword because he had been swayed by Aizen's words would be an utter failing on his part.
Acknowledging his hesitation and fear allowed him to regain his composure.
He wiped the emotion from his face and, as a member of the Thirteen Court Guard Companies question-ing an enemy of the Seireitei, he turned back to Kugo Ginjo.
"You're right that I don't know anything. That's exactly why I want you to tell me. What did the Soul Reapers...what did we do to you, the first deputy Soul Reaper?"
Ginjo, who had noticed Hisagi's internal debate, lifted one eyebrow in slight surprise and put his cup on the table.
"I see. So you at least have the qualities of an assistant captain."
He paused for a moment, smiling in fascination, before slowly shaking his head.
"I'm grateful that you're taking it seriously, but no matter what I say, you're still going to treat me as dangerous, aren't you? How about you go and ask your Captain General about it?"
"How's that fair? The Captain General isn't one to lie, but I'm a journalist. I need to get everyone's side of the story to be impartial."
"I never thought I'd hear a Soul Reaper call himself a journalist. Besides, it's not like all journalists are impartial."
"I'm honoring the previous editor-in-chief's policy of putting fairness first."
Ginjo chuckled at his words. "You're a weird one. At first glance, you look just like a Soul Reaper, through and through."
"I'll take that last bit as a compliment."
"So? If I tell you why I became a traitor and you don't buy it, what happens?"
"You already know. When that happens—"
Kukaku, who had been silent until then, interrupted Hisagi as he readied himself to say the next words.
"I'm not getting involved in a feud between the freeloaders and the Soul Reapers, but if you're gonna fight, make sure you do it out front."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Got it. I'm not going to cause you any trouble."
Hisagi nodded obediently as Ginjo shrugged in consent.
The tense air wavered, and after a few seconds Ginjo spoke.
"This'll mean that I wasn't honest with Ichigo Kurosaki."
"Huh? Oh, I kind of sensed that."
"I had Tsukishima change my past, but...in that past, there was a half-Soul Reaper human who tried to help remove the Fullbringers' Hollow powers... In that timeline, Tsukishima killed the half-Soul Reaper and all our friends."
Every Fullbringer shared in common the fact that their parents had been attacked by Hollows. Hisagi had heard that it caused Hollow powers to course through them when they were born and to manifest as unique abilities called Fullbrings.
"So if you want to know what happened in that original past...there was never a half-Soul Reaper like Kurosaki. I was the only deputy Soul Reaper. So in that case, who killed my friends in my memory?"
"Wait a second. Aren't they part of the past that Tsukishima altered…?"
"Tsukishima's ability, the Book of the End, can stick Tsukishima into other people's pasts. He can place memories and events relating to himself into other people's histories, but he can't just conjure up someone who never existed.
So the person we thought was a half-Soul Reaper was actually just one of the Soul Reapers I killed after I went into a rage."
"It couldn't be..." Hisagi gulped, getting a bad feeling.
In the corner of the room, Tsukishima had taken his eyes off his book and was watching Hisagi and Ginjo. Ganju must have gathered that it wasn't the time to interject and was listening to their conversation in silence.
The look on Kukaku's face said that everything was irrelevant to her, but she quietly drank from her cup, unlike her usual self.
An unpleasant silence reigned over the parlor. Ginjo's words were the first thing to break it as he spoke with darkened eyes.
"Soul Reapers killed my friends from my other past. But I don't even know what they looked like."
Silence and a cold atmosphere once again tried to fill the parlor. Hisagi stood up and shook his head to keep from being swallowed by the dark mood.
"Wait...Are you saying that Ukitake told them to do that?!"
"Who knows. But that was when I figured out the secret of the deputy badge. You get what happened next without me telling you, right?"
"Uh..." Hisagi recalled their earlier conversation.
"All you had to do was bring it up to Ukitake the second you discovered it."
He hadn't known the circumstances, but when he realized how far off his words had been, he was hit with a wave of shame.
"I see... I can't believe yet that this is the whole truth, but...sorry about earlier."
"Don't worry about it. It gave me a laugh."
After that little burst of humor, Ginjo continued. "I meant to meet Ukitake that day in the Reiokyu when I paid back my debt to Kurosaki. I wanted to know how much of it had been his orders. I didn't care that he hadn't trusted me from the start or that he tried to kill me,
but I wanted to know why he'd killed my Fullbringer friends. It's all laughable now. I was prepared for the worst as I searched for Ukitake. I thought we'd die on each other's swords. But he couldn't even talk anymore."
"That's..." Hisagi tried to say something, but the words just wouldn't come out.
He thought of the moment Aizen had killed Tosen. Tosen had certainly been able to talk to Hisagi in the end. But Aizen had butchered Tosen before Hisagi could see whether their paths would meet again, and Hisagi had forever lost his chance to hear from Tosen again.
Ginjo clucked his tongue at the expression the memory brought to Hisagi's face and sighed. "Tch… I've said too much. I guess I let the alcohol get to me."
"Wait a second. If that's true then—" The ring of the soul pager in his pocket interrupted him in the middle of his sentence. He saw a familiar summons notification when he pulled it out to check.
"Sorry. I've been summoned by First Company."
"Speak of the devil. I wonder if the top brass is watching you too."
Hisagi replied to Ginjo's biting sarcasm.
"I might believe that if it were coming from Captain Kurotsuchi instead of the Captain General. But whether or not they're watching me, I'm going to finish my work."
Hisagi stood and told Ginjo, "I can't just take your word on this. I'm a Soul Reaper too. I don't want to believe that my colleagues massacred people in the world of the living for no reason. I'll look into what's going on behind the scenes in the Court Guard. Even though I'm a Soul Reaper, I'm still the Seireitei Bulletin editor-in-chief. You can trust me."
"..."
"Anyway, the conversation is still just beginning. And Ganju, I want to talk to you again. Next round is on me." Hisagi bowed to Kukaku and left the Shiba residence.
As the sound of the motorbike engine echoed off into the distance, Tsukishima, who had been quiet until that moment, turned his eyes back to his book and spoke.
"How unusual. I wouldn't have expected you to bring that up to a Soul Reaper yourself, Ginjo."
"Yeah. Guess I'm losing my edge." After playing it off as a joke, Ginjo looked into the air with a serious look.
"Well, he seems like an honest Soul Reaper. Like he's really meant to be in the Court Guard. I didn't know if he'd listen to what I had to say, but… Well, maybe I just wanted someone to listen to me in Ukitake's place, since the guy kicked the bucket."
Giriko appeared with some plates and said, "Oh? I just finished making snacks. Did the Soul Reaper go home already?"
"Yeah, looks like he's the punctual type. He was in a hurry."
"I see, how exceptional. The flow of time is an absolute law whether we are in the world of the living, the Rukongai, or the Seireitei. Even gods of death like the Soul Reapers follow it naturally."
Ignoring the Fullbringers and their conversation, Ganju turned to his unusually silent sister who was still drinking.
"Hey, sis, what did you actually think of that?"
"How should I know? I told you, didn't I? This isn't the time for us to butt in when we're not Soul Reapers."
"I wonder if our brother knew something about it." He meant Kaien Shiba, who had been Ukitake's adjutant before the fall of the Shiba household.
The circumstances of his death and the disappearance of Isshin Shiba, who had been part of a branch family, had led to the Shiba family being driven out of their noble station. But Ganju still thought of his older brother as the pride of the Shiba household.
Recalling the face of her no longer present brother, Kukaku dropped her eyes to her cup.
"Who knows. Soul Reapers always look outward in order to protect the Seireitei. They might just be dense when it comes to villains the Seireitei creates itself. Look at that Aizen idiot."
≡
Half An Hour Later,
First Company Command Room
"Yo, you're late, Shuhei. How far out did you go?"
"Sorry, Captain. I went to get an interview with Ms. Kukaku Shiba in West Rukongai."
"Kukaku...? Oh, you mean Kaien's younger sister."
The Ninth Company captain Kensei Muguruma was already there when Hisagi entered the command room, and Kyoraku was peeking his head out of the door across the way.
"Ah, you two are here. Sorry for calling you in while you're busy."
Muguruma watched Captain General Kyoraku raise his hand in his usual manner "So? What's up, Shunsui? Did you have a particular reason for bringing in just the two of us from the Ninth?"
"Well, I suppose. It's just something that relates to the Seireitei Bulletin."
"Huh? Then why do you need me?" Though Muguruma was the captain of the Ninth, he was in no way involved in the editing of the periodical.
He had also been in recovery until just the other day after being treated for his zombified flesh and wasn't even aware of the Seireitei Bulletin's recent activities.
"So, about that. The higher-ups have something they want announced directly in the Bulletin. I thought I'd at least tell you about it, since you're the captain."
"They want something announced? By 'higher-ups,' do you mean Squad Zero?"
"No, the Central 46. Or the aristocrats behind the scenes, to be exact."
Kyoraku turned to Hisagi for just a moment before he continued.
"Actually, the head of one of the Four Great Noble Clans is changing. It's already been brought up with the government, and he's formally the head now. But he's demanding that news of his installment be broadcast extensively across the Soul Society."
"What? So it's just the aristocracy being pigheaded as usual?" Muguruma said, peeved.
Muguruma was fully aware that he didn't get along with the nobles, Yoruichi Shihoin excepted, and because they were talking about the Seireitei Bulletin, he quickly lost interest in the conversation.
Hisagi, on the other hand, acted as if he hadn't noticed anything.
"Huh... How much of a page will it take up? We aren't planning on publishing the first issue until next month, and we're starting with a special Great Soul King Protection War retrospective, so it will have to balance with that..."
"Apparently they want you to publish a special edition. And they want you to distribute it all the way out to the Rukongai."
"A-a special edition?! Even if I can get the whole publishing system up and running right now, we really don't have that kind of budget..."
A new head of house being installed was big news, but putting out a full issue for just Four Great Noble Clan celebrations or funerals was rare because the Soul King was the highest position in the Soul Society.
This was sudden and would require funds he hadn't accounted for. If he had to distribute it all the way to the Rukongai, there was a chance it would blow through his entire year's budget.
Hisagi groaned as he tried to think of how to scrape by on budget with additional manufacturing costs, but Kyoraku smiled and clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Don't worry. The noble family said they will take on all expenses."
"Really?!"
In that case, Hisagi could use the special edition as a pretext to spread word of the Bulletin's return and increase subscription numbers.
Hisagi started to calculate costs in his mind with a much different aim than he had a few moments before.
But—
As though to pull him back to reality, Kyoraku's smile clouded. "And about that new head of house..."
"Huh? Is something wrong, Captain General?"
"If I told you it was Tokinada Tsunayashiro, you'd recognize the name, wouldn't you?"
Thunk. Every vessel in Hisagi's body pulsed intensely.
"Tokinada...Tsunayoshiro."
Hisagi did know that name. In order to bring Kaname Tosen back from the wrong path he had wandered down, Hisagi had tried to look into the former captain and learn even a little bit more about him.
Details of the murder of Tosen's closest friend had been appalling, particularly the fact that the husband hadn't been imprisoned or properly punished and was now living his life unencumbered.
"Wait a second. Wasn't he a member of the furthest branch of the family…?"
"He's risen in the world. Aizen slaughtered the Central 46, and we were in a mess after the war. And then the head of the Tsunayashiro family and those closest to him were assassinated one after another last week."
"Captain." Nanao, who had been quiet until then, spoke.
The assassination of the Tsunayashiro household had been put under a gag order, so although Hisagi was an assistant captain, she wasn't sure if they were allowed to tell him about it so casually.
Kyoraku stopped Nanao with his hand and continued.
"I won't conjecture, but Tokinada Tsunayashiro single-handedly killed all the assassins and was promoted from the branch family in light of his accomplishment. In other words, there conveniently isn't anyone else in the main family now."
Contrary to his preface, Kyoraku had phrased his words so that anyone could figure out who he was implying to be behind the assassination and what that person's goal had been. Hisagi was no exception, and he steadily scowled as the conversation progressed.
"I know about him. I think you know this already, but he's the type to do that without batting an eye."
Hisagi wasn't the only one to be astonished at those words. Nanao and Muguruma also reacted with some surprise. Genshiro Okikiba also seemed to agree with Kyoraku, based on his deep-rooted silence.
Hisagi and Nanao were surprised because they couldn't believe those words had come from Kyoraku, who rarely spoke ill of others.
As though he had noticed their surprise, a smile full of self-derision made its way to Kyoraku's face.
"I'm not a saint. There are people who even rub me the wrong way."
Then Kyoraku's smile disappeared again, and he questioned Hisagi with an earnest gaze.
"So you see that I need to confer with you about Tokinada Tsunayashiro's instructions to release a special edition celebrating his installment. Hisagi… Can you do it?"
...