"—Ah, welcome, Captain Ichimaru."
The Sanctum of the Seijōtō, residential area of the Central 46.
It was the most heavily guarded area in the entire Seireitei, a noble garden forbidden even to the Captains of the Gotei 13 except in a state of emergency.
Yet, its original inhabitants were nowhere to be found. In their place stood three out-of-place, captain-class Soul Reapers.
"My, what a performance. You have the face of a true heroine, Momo. For a second there, you almost had me fooled."
"It's easy with you, Captain Ichimaru. All you have to do is grin, and people will suspect you on their own."
"Was that an insult just now?"
A young girl and a slit-eyed man exchanged pleasantries, their words like smiling sparks. The last of the three, who had been listening to their backstage-like banter with amusement, stood from his seat, a black, palm-sized sphere in one hand.
"—Now then, it is time."
"...!"
A command from their superior cut through the relaxed atmosphere. He handed the sphere to the girl and turned toward the exit.
"I am going to get myself killed by a person or persons unknown. You two may arrange the scene as you see fit."
"Understood."
With a chilling smile and a final, "I look forward to it," the man departed from the Sanctum, his exit as composed as ever. The girl and the slit-eyed man watched him go before turning to each other, the corners of their mouths lifting into identical smirks.
"Momo, are you sure you can stop the Captain of Squad 10 long enough to get rid of that Gigai? He's already declared he'll kill me if I go near you."
"It'll be fine. I have an idea, so if I start improvising, just give me a meaningful warning, Captain Ichimaru."
"...Ah, I see. In that case, I'll just say your name: 'Hinamori.'"
"Ooh... that sounds wonderfully villainous. You're a natural."
"No, no, the natural is you, wouldn't you say?"
"I'm just thinking what Captain Aizen would think. He's the real genius here."
"That's true enough."
Exchanging light banter, the man and woman each donned a jet-black cloak. After they both intoned the incantation, "Kyokō," the Sanctum of the Seijōtō was once again wrapped in uninhabited silence.
—AAAAAHHH!!
The scream was heard just before the start of the regular assembly, convened under a wartime special decree. It echoed from the central level of the Halls of Repentance, off the Great Eastern Sacred Wall, ensuring many would hear it. The three vice-captains who rushed to the scene, including Kira Izuru, discovered the lone figure of a girl, her back to them, standing motionless on the stage before the wall.
"What is it! What happened, Hinamor—"
But the young man's steps, moving to rush toward the source of the scream—his academy classmate, Momo Hinamori—froze him to the floor before he could take a third.
He, and Rangiku Matsumoto and Tetsuzaemon Iba behind him, had seen it. The unbelievable sight that Hinamori was looking up at.
"Wh—!?"
Impossible. It couldn't be real. But no matter how many times they blinked, the nightmare before them would not vanish. It was only when they heard the girl scream his name that the three of them were forced to confront reality.
—The Captain of Squad 5, Sōsuke Aizen, had been gruesomely crucified on the Great Eastern Sacred Wall.
"No way... Captain Aizen is... d-dead...!"
"Why? Who could have done this...?"
"Squad Four...! There's no way he could be killed this easily! Hey, someone! Get Squad Four, quickly!"
"Y-Yes, sir!"
Kira was the first to regain his senses, shouting orders to the patrolmen who had also rushed to the scene. At the same time, his mind began to mechanically deduce who the killer could be.
Even under a wartime decree, the assassination of a Gotei 13 Captain within the Seireitei was unheard of. This wasn't a matter of authority, but of the fact that their transcendent power made them immune to such petty tricks. A captain-class Soul Reaper could only be defeated by another with captain-class spiritual pressure.
Was it the work of the invader who had defeated Vice-Captain Abarai? He was the most likely suspect, but the lack of any major spiritual pressure clashes the previous night was deeply unnatural.
What about an assassination by surprise attack? But no fool who would let their guard down during an emergency could ever become a captain. The only possibilities were a master who could conceal their killing intent until the last second, or perhaps...
"It can't be..."
At the very moment Kira realized the possibility, a familiar voice reached his ears.
"—My, my, what a catastrophe."
The assembled group turned as one. Appearing with a strangely detached and slightly mocking tone was...
"Captain... Ichimaru...?"
"That's me. I heard my junior Hinamori scream, so I came to see what was up. Looks like somethin' terrible's happened."
"What are you..."
Kira started to ask what he was talking about so nonchalantly, but he froze as he looked directly at his superior's unchanging smile.
His earlier deduction inevitably flashed through his mind. Why can he smile in the face of an ally's death? Why was Captain Aizen killed without any time to resist?
And the simple conclusion that anyone would reach was, of course, also reached by the one person here who revered the victim more than anyone else.
"...I'm sorry."
"Wha—!? Stop, Hinamor—"
With that small whisper, the spiritual pressure of the girl beside him exploded.
"—Ghh, AAAGGGHHH!!"
The young man's warning was in vain. Releasing a storm of spiritual power, Momo Hinamori charged at his superior.
This is bad. This was an act that could never be permitted. Following the clear priorities he had set for himself, Vice-Captain Kira Izuru used a desperate Shunpo to get in front of the girl, barely managing to block her descending Zanpakutō with his own.
"!!"
The grating shriek of sharp steel grinding against steel echoed across the Great Eastern Sacred Wall.
"Lower your sword, Hinamori...!"
"...Get out of my way... Get out of my way, Kira..."
Kira tried to reason with her in a deliberately calm voice. But Hinamori's words were choked by sobs. From her Zanpakutō, locked with his own, he could feel a turbulent spiritual pressure, like a raging sea. It seemed to be the physical manifestation of her crying heart, just like the tears streaming down her cheeks. The sight was so painful that the young man instinctively closed his eyes.
"...I told you to get out of my way—DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?"
"Wha—!? Stop it, Hinamori!"
But that single moment of mercy—or rather, of escapism—proved to be his undoing. With clumsy footwork that was a pale imitation of her usual beautiful form, Hinamori created distance and began to channel her chaotic spiritual energy into her Zanpakutō.
And then, she committed a crime that far surpassed the one committed by Rukia Kuchiki.
—Snap, "Tobiume"!!
The release command, shouted like a trembling scream, awakened Momo Hinamori's sealed Soul Reaper powers.
"...Ghh, AAAAGGHH!!"
"!!?"
At the same time as the girl's roar, her blade was enveloped in pale pink flames, which coalesced and exploded right before Kira's eyes.
"Damn it... What have you done! Do you have any idea what you're doing!? Do not mix your public duties with your private feelings, Vice-Captain Hinamori!"
The release of a Zanpakutō.
A sacred technique that should only be wielded for justice—to purify Hollows, to regulate souls, to protect the order of the three worlds—was being used by a girl consumed by grief to strike down an ally. And here, of all places, in the Halls of Repentance, where criminals atone for their sins.
And for him, a vice-captain whose superior was being threatened, this act was an evil he could not possibly overlook.
"...I see. This is truly regrettable."
"!"
"I have no choice. I will consider you an enemy."
Sealing away the part of his heart that screamed 'I don't want to,' Kira resolved himself to cut down the girl he had loved for half a century.
—Raise your head, "Wabisuke"!!
But for a single instant—perhaps a trick of the light caused by his own subconscious weakness—Kira thought he saw Hinamori's anguished, crying face break into a wide smile. For that reason, his resolve wavered ever so slightly.
And yet, it was that brief hesitation, unbecoming of a vice-captain, that ultimately spared him from directing this utterly unwanted killing intent at her. The heart of a man in love is a strange, and sometimes reliable, thing.
Of course...
"—Don't move, either of you."
...such praise was more fitting for him—Toshiro Hitsugaya—the one who could always be counted on to rush to his childhood friend's side in a time like this.
"—Toshiro...?"
By the time Toshiro Hitsugaya arrived at the Great Eastern Sacred Wall, the situation had nearly spiraled into the worst possible outcome.
He had heard his childhood friend Momo Hinamori's scream and rushed over as fast as he could, but Sōsuke Aizen was already dead. The girl, having lost the man she adored, had lost herself and attacked the prime suspect, Gin Ichimaru, leading to a battle with Vice-Captain Kira Izuru. Grasping the general sequence of events from the lingering spiritual pressure, Toshiro somehow suppressed his inner fury and prioritized his duty as a captain to bring the situation under control.
"Captain Hitsugaya...!"
"...Take them into custody. Confine them to their respective squad jails."
"SIR!"
The other vice-captains, snapping back to their senses, gently restrained the two combatants. Glancing at Hinamori's grief-stricken face, Toshiro's gaze shot daggers at the other captain present: Gin Ichimaru.
His anger was not for Gin's negligence in allowing a fight to break out before his eyes, nor was it for him harming and killing Aizen as he'd expected.
It was for so brazenly approaching his precious friend, completely ignoring the warning he had given him, and putting a look of such utter misery on her face. For that reason alone, Toshiro Hitsugaya could wield his blade with the intent to kill.
"W-Wait, Toshiro...!"
But the moment the boy's hand touched the Zanpakutō on his back, the girl beside him cried out.
"...Relax. I'm just going to give him a serious warning."
"N-No! That's not it...!"
Hinamori desperately shook her head at his attempt to calm her. And with her next pleaded cry, Toshiro, along with every other captain-class Soul Reaper present, stared at her in unison.
"Please... you can't—!
You can't be hostile to Captain Ichimaru...!"
Hinamori's shriek echoed off the great wall.
Did I hear that right? For a moment, the boy doubted his own ears, but one look at his trembling friend made him hold his breath. Her words were so utterly incomprehensible, yet seeing the blood drained from her pale face, no one could dismiss them as madness.
"I-If you fight him... everyone will..."
"Hinamori...? What are you saying—"
"Hinamori."
The flat voice cut through the air, invading everyone's ears with startling clarity.
A single, cold, quiet word from the man instantly dominated the scene, sending an involuntary chill down their spines.
"Are you sure about that? Leaving Captain Aizen hanging up there?"
"Ah... ahh..."
It wasn't spiritual pressure or intimidation. It was a voice stripped of all will, yet pregnant with some other, unspoken meaning. Faced with it, Hinamori's legs gave out, and she collapsed to the floor.
Seemingly satisfied with the sight, the speaker turned slowly to face Toshiro.
"My apologies, Captain of Squad 10. Seems my vice-captain has caused you some trouble."
"Tch, Ichimaru...!"
"Well then, I'll leave Captain Aizen to the members of Squad 1. I'll be taking my leave now."
The man called out, "Come, Izuru," to his restrained vice-captain and departed the stage before the wall, that eerie smile never leaving his face. Among all those who watched him go, not a single one could bring themselves to stop him.
"—Matsumoto. Take Hinamori to the jail in my Squad 10 barracks."
As he watched Aizen's corpse being lowered from the crucifix and carried away on a stretcher, Toshiro lifted his childhood friend into his arms.
Exhausted and trembling, she was completely pliant in his arms, unlike the other day.
"I will report to the Captain-Commander. I'm counting on you with Hinamori."
"W-Wait, Captain!?"
Toshiro left with a Shunpo without waiting for a reply.
Right now, Hinamori was a criminal who had violated Soul Reaper law. As a captain, he couldn't afford to show her any careless words of concern. Even as he told himself this, the boy felt a deep sense of urgency over her inexplicable behavior.
"...What the hell is going on, dammit...!"
Something was wrong. A massive, critical piece of the puzzle was missing, but he had no idea what it was. Some horrifying, unknown something had been tormenting his precious friend for so long.
Hinamori had witnessed Aizen's body and attacked Ichimaru, the likely culprit. Given her devotion to her captain, this was perfectly plausible.
But what did she mean by her plea for him not to fight Ichimaru? Her actions and words were in complete contradiction, like those of a mad person.
"And besides, she..."
The most jarring thing was Hinamori's reaction when Aizen was being taken down from the wall.
In what might have been her final farewell to her beloved superior, she had not a single word of mourning, but merely looked down and trembled. Was it a retreat from reality, driven by her madness? Or...
—Was she still entangled in some extraordinary plot by Ichimaru, one that gripped her heart even more than the death of the man she admired?
"ICHIMARUUUU...!"
He gritted his teeth in hatred. He had let him go before because the girl had clung to his sleeve, but Toshiro knew that his own patience had already reached its limit.
There would not be a third time. No matter what darkness Gin had entangled Hinamori in, defeating him would end it. And if that didn't end it, he would just defeat the darkness that followed.
All he had to do was destroy everything that made her cry.
"—This is the power I've honed for that very purpose...!"
Gripping the hilt of Hyōrinmaru, the other half of his soul strapped to his back, Toshiro's resolve to kill his enemy was complete. He shot through the skies of the Seireitei, unleashing a storm of raging spiritual pressure.
***
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