"—No... it can't be..."
His vision, once black, began to clear.
The sky, the horizon, the ground. It took Toshiro a long time to realize that the slowly shifting scenery was his own point of view, a reflection of his collapsed form.
Every bone, muscle, and sinew in his body had been crushed. After being assaulted by a tremendous force that felt as if it were tearing his body apart at the molecular level, he found himself unable to move a single finger, tasting the dirt in shame.
What just happened? Toshiro's dazed mind reeled in confusion.
But in the corner of his blurring vision, the boy saw a small figure standing alone.
"...Hina... mori?"
The blood-soaked girl stood there in silence. The last thing he remembered was the warmth of her in his arms.
Could she have been caught in that black space, too? This was bad. The attack was powerful enough to leave even him, a captain, battered to the point of being unable to move a finger. There was no way a vice-captain, already on the verge of death from Aizen's blade, could have survived it. He had to call Squad 4 immediately.
...But it was that same man, as always, who would force Toshiro to confront the tragic truth and shatter his desperate denial.
"—To crush herself along with you in a Black Coffin. Was that your self-punishment for betraying your childhood friend, Momo?"
With a quiet, mocking voice, the man called her name, adding, "How admirable."
Black Coffin, childhood friend, betrayal, self-punishment. The words stabbed into the boy's heart like poisoned daggers.
No, it's a lie, that's not, that can't be...
"You've made a mess of yourself, you naughty girl. ...Come now. Come back to me."
"...Yes..."
The call was gentle, yet it carried a terror that froze the blood. As if pulled by a leash, the wounded Hinamori began to stagger toward the man.
Toward Sōsuke Aizen—the one who had betrayed the Soul Society, betrayed everyone, betrayed the girl herself.
"Ah... ahh..."
The breath that escaped him was like a sob. With each step she dragged herself forward, fragments of memories raced through Toshiro's mind like a revolving lantern.
"Show me you can be a real man..."
Her teasing words, yet her expression was oddly serene, as if she had already accepted something.
"...Maybe I'll let you protect me."
Her uncharacteristic whisper of weakness, so different from her usual big-sister act.
"I heard something... unbelievable..."
Her shaking her head as if to banish a nightmare when he asked if something had happened with Aizen.
"If I obey, then Captain Aizen won't be..."
Her pale face as she pleaded with Ichimaru, as if begging, when he threatened her.
"Wait... don't go..."
Her hand, which had held onto his sleeve and refused to let go when he, thinking it for the best, had escorted her back to Aizen.
"If we fight Captain Ichimaru, everyone will..."
Her words, a complete contradiction of her actions just moments before, as if hinting at the great evil that stood behind Ichimaru.
And then.
—I'm sorry... Toshiro...
The dark expressions she had shown so many times. The pained words she had whispered. They flashed through Toshiro's mind and vanished.
"...N... no... I... I...!"
With his crushed throat, he desperately threw his words at her back. But what did he mean, "no"? His meaningless repentance, of course, did not reach Hinamori.
It was only when it was too late that he finally understood.
She had been agonizing over this the entire time.
Deceived without knowing, she had slowly begun to realize something was wrong... and when she learned she had been forced to aid in the evil deeds of the fiend wearing her benefactor's mask, she had been suffering, grieving, all alone.
Could she have asked for help?
Who would have believed her if she spoke of Aizen's true nature, which no one else knew? Who would have helped her?
Would that good-natured, simple-minded Momo ever try to involve someone else in a dangerous gamble where they might die?
And even if she had found allies, could they have defeated this monster?
Impossible.
...No, she wasn't even allowed to oppose him in the first place.
—I was asked not to harm you.
Aizen's words in the Sanctum planted a seed in Toshiro's heart.
Asked? By whom? There was only one possible answer.
"...I didn't... know..."
The truth she had tried to convey with unimaginable resolve. The help she had sought just once, at the end of her despair, as her last hope.
He had been the only one in the world to receive that desperate plea. All this time, he had been protected by her without knowing a thing.
And he had done nothing, nothing at all...
"—Welcome back, Momo."
And then, her broken body taking its final step, the girl collapsed as if her strings had been cut, falling into the arms of the great evil. As he watched, Toshiro Hitsugaya, to his own shame, finally understood.
How utterly powerless I am...
"Now then, with this, the entertainment is over."
Glancing at Toshiro, who was slumped on the ground in a stupor, Aizen magnanimously called the names of his subordinates. "Kaname, Gin."
He had obtained the Hōgyoku he sought, gathered information on the Soul King's Palace and Kisuke Urahara's research, and confirmed the growth of the heroes he was observing. Having bid farewell to the Soul Society and declared war, he had no regrets.
Smiling in satisfaction at his subordinates' nods, the arch-criminal declared his victory.
"—This is our triumphant return."
At his words, a brilliant light suddenly poured down from the heavens.
"Wh—!?"
Three giant pillars of light shot down from the high void. They enveloped Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tōsen, and the Hinamori held in Aizen's arms, as if illuminating the main characters of the world.
And there was more.
"Im-Impossible...! That's...!"
Beyond the light they looked up at, the sky was tearing apart.
It wasn't a metaphor. Space itself was ripped asunder like cloth, and from within, horrifying monsters peeked out their heads.
—The enemies of the Soul Reapers, a massive army of Menos Grande.
The towering monsters looked down upon Sōkyoku Hill with countless red eyes. Their simultaneous roar was like a choir from hell. As if beckoned by their call, the three traitors, within their pillars of light, began to rise into the air, along with the very ground beneath their feet.
The phenomenon was called Negación. It was the last resort used by the great Hollows to protect their own. Its power was said to exist in a domain of reason beyond the mortal world, and no one could breach the light that enveloped its subjects.
The gathered Soul Reapers of the Gotei 13 could only stare in stunned silence, cursing their own impotence. All they could do now was howl at the moon reflected on the water's surface.
It was a humiliating, utter defeat.
"...You could've held on to me a little longer."
—Sorry, Rangiku.
Gin Ichimaru bid farewell to the woman on the other side of the wall of light.
"...I told you. What I see is the path with the least bloodshed."
—The path I walk is justice...!
Kaname Tōsen preached his justice to his noble friend, who was glaring up at him in fury.
"...You even joined forces with the Menos Grande...!"
—For what purpose...!
And then, someone threw a question at the ascending Aizen.
It was the captain of Squad 13, Jūshirō Ukitake, his face contorted in rage as he looked up at the hated enemy who had killed his vice-captain, Kaien Shiba, and ruined the life of his subordinate, Rukia Kuchiki.
"To seek greater heights."
Aizen replied in a monotone voice. It was the natural desire of his insatiable ambition.
But the man's endless thirst was an arrogant ambition that brought about countless tragedies. To the fiend who sought power without a cause, Ukitake spat.
"Have you fallen so low, Aizen...!"
At the insult, the arch-criminal raised an eyebrow.
"...You are too arrogant, Ukitake."
He closed his eyes, and as if admonishing him, the man carved the truth of the world as he knew it into words...
"From the very beginning, no one has ever stood in heaven. Not you, not I, not even God."
No one below would understand his meaning. Not even Kisuke Urahara, who would hear of it from Yoruichi Shihōin and Ichigo Kurosaki.
"But when the celestial maiden's song ends, the curtain will fall on our farcical epic."
But the man was certain. On the day the storyteller in the rift between phases closed the manuscript of that divine comedy...
"From now on..."
—I will stand in heaven—
His self, born a clown, would finally cry out its first breath as an individual life.
She was getting farther away.
A single girl was disappearing, up into the pillar of light.
As he watched her form slowly recede beyond his reach, the last embers of defiance in Toshiro Hitsugaya's broken heart were fanned into a flame by his desperation.
"Wait... Aizen...!"
It was the miserable howl of a beaten dog. No, it was a meaningless mutter that wouldn't even reach that far.
But the boy whipped his screaming body, desperately reaching his hand toward the heavens.
"Move... body...! Answer me... Hyōrinmaru!"
The other half of his soul, touched by his trembling fingertips, silently shook its head. His body was long past its limit. What moved the boy now was not his broken heart, nor his shattered bones and flesh.
It was the ugly, tenacious will he had left.
"Move, damn you... What is this Bankai for... What was all my training for...!"
The sound of things tearing apart ran through his entire body. But still, Toshiro, his soul, would not give up.
Why did I become a Soul Reaper?
To protect her smile, which had captivated him the day they first met. Her pout, when her cheeks puffed out in frustration every time she lost at top-spinning. Her blush, when she became flustered as he held her in his arms...
"...To protect her...!"
To protect her, to make her laugh, to make her pout, to make her blush, to have her acknowledge him as a man.
And then, to take her, all of her...
"—TO MAKE HER MINE, WASN'T IT!?"
In that moment, an explosive spiritual pressure erupted from Toshiro's body.
The arm to swing his sword would not move. He had no free legs to stand on, no wings of ice to fly, no strong heart to fuel his fighting spirit. Toshiro had none of that left.
But he still had one thing left. One thing that would never fade, never break, never weaken. A feeling stronger than anyone else's.
The undying love for the woman he had fallen for.
"GIVE HINAMORI—BAAAAACK!!"
The young boy's last shred of pride as a man unleashed his dying strength. The blizzard of spiritual power, squeezed out at the cost of his own life, swallowed the descending pillar of Negación and soared into the heavens as a giant tornado.
The great whirlwind of his ultimate attack, Hyōten Hyakkasō, created by throwing in everything he had. With a desire for a single girl, a feeling purer than any other, Toshiro Hitsugaya reached desperately, desperately, beyond the domain of reason.
And then...
"—Ah... ahh..."
The vortex of the blizzard faded away.
Blocked by the tower of light, the boy's final stand scattered like a flower in the wind.
What blocked his outstretched hand was the wall of this world's reason. A cruel, absolute fate that separated the two of them, a destiny that would never allow them to be together.
"No..."
The sob that escaped him was a remnant of his pride. A pathetic, spent force that was blown away by the raging wind.
"No...! I... not yet...!"
Though he knew she couldn't reach him, couldn't hear him, the boy, through his tear-blurred vision, confessed his endless repentance to the faint figure of the girl in the distance.
I didn't care about my position, my rank, my strength. I should have thrown away my stupid pride as a man, my pride as a Soul Reaper, all of it. I should have never left her side, not even for a moment.
On her last birthday at the academy, without being embarrassed, I should have just...
—I should have just told her.
"...Now... I can say it...!"
My pride, my shame, my reputation, all of it. I can ignore all that stupid stuff and say what's truly, truly important.
So.
"...Please... Hinamori...!"
Let me say it.
"...Don't go... Hinamori...!"
I've always, always...
"...Hinamori————"
Loved you...
"HINAMORIIIIIIIIIIII!!"
August 6th, at noon.
A tragic cry, the call of a single boy for the person he loved, echoed futilely across Sōkyoku Hill, the center of the Soul Society. With that final, pained scream, the Gotei 13, before the three arch-traitors and the conspiracy of one...
—Was defeated.
***
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