AN: Here's the first of the three epilogues. Read and Review
The Letters
Hanataro stared at the letters in his hands. Every time he reached for the seal, his hand froze. Outside his room, he heard the party raging on, but he didn't feel like he should be out there.
It didn't feel right without him standing in the middle of it.
With a choked sob, he reached for the seal, and tore it off the envelope.
A sheet of paper fell out, along with a heavy iron key.
Hanataro,
I suppose I should start by saying I'm sorry. I hope you understand that I did what I had to do. I know I promised you that I would help you grow stronger, that I would teach you what you needed to know to survive. I can't help but feel I've failed. You're going to have to figure that out on your own from here.
I know that after what I've done, you owe me nothing, but I have a request. I need you to take my place, to run the bar. My purpose in Seireitei was more than just a bartender, but you're not ready for that yet. When the time comes, someone will come to help you understand what the real purpose of that bar is. On that day, you will have a choice.
If you continue my path, if you truly become the next bartender, then you will find yourself taken away from the battle. You will have to watch as friends die, as people you watched go through the academy come back in tears, or not at all. You will not be able to help the survivors, only comfort them. You will not be able to save lives, only mourn them.
This is the bartender's burden.
A day will come when this burden grows too much. You will know it's coming, just like I did. You will have to choose a successor, someone like you, someone like me. Someone who understands what it's like to lose, someone who wants nothing more than to win. You will have to help this person understand the path to victory, and then, like me, you will have to let them follow the path on your own.
I should not be passing this task onto you. You are too young, too inexperienced. But maybe that is my legacy. It might be that these lessons are something you need to understand on your own, something that can't be taught so easily. But all the same, I feel like I've failed you. But you are the one I choose as successor, and the time has come for me to pass on my title.
The burden is a curse, it will torture you, but it will never break you. You are too strong for that, you can turn any blow aside and return it a thousand fold. I know you can, even if you doubt it yourself. If anyone can take on this pain, bear this weight, it is you.
I can honestly say that I don't want you to follow my path. If it were up to me, the bar would be burned, and nobody would have to seclude themselves in that way again. But, in the end, Seireitei needs the bar, and it needs a bartender.
I hope you forgive me,
Nisshoku Yasuhiro
1st Bartender of Sereitei
PS: If anyone give you trouble, make sure you aim for the windows. Walls are much harder to replace.
PPS: Ask if I looked cool before I died. It should make a great story either way.
Hitsugaya sorted through the papers on his desk, searching for the note Soi Fon had told him about.
"Why would he leave something for me?"
The question echoed thought his empty office.
There was no answer.
A part of Hitsugaya wanted to throw away the envelope, to avoid hearing the last words of a man he respected.
"But…I suppose I owe him this much, at least."
Hitsugaya opened the seal.
Toshiro,
Last year, I told you something. I told you my secret, the secret I used to help people who needed it. I would like to tell you that you are the perfect person to use this secret, to help the people of Seireitei in my place. But we both know that isn't true.
You needed the secret then. You needed to help somebody who was close to you, to understand their pain. But that secret isn't made for helping the people you care about. It's not made for helping everyone. It's only made for helping the people in front of you, the people you can reach.
I don't think this is your burden to bear. You are strong, and intelligent, but in the end that would only hurt you more. You would try so hard, too hard, to help everyone, and failing would shatter you. In the end, you cannot help people the way a bartender needs too.
In the end, you are only a messenger. When the time comes, and you will know when it does, you will have to tell that secret to my successor, to pass on this burden. But he is not ready yet, he is too young, too innocent, to understand what the secret means. He has to grow, to learn, before he can take this job from me.
Until that time comes, I am going to ask you to help carry this burden. It will be difficult, it will make you feel weak, or useless. But so long as you remember to pass it on, so long as you focus on that day, you will survive it.
This isn't something I ask lightly. I chose you because you are young, because you are still growing. No one else could hold it for long enough to pass it on. No one else could take the weight. You are the only one I can trust this task to.
I hope you will help me. I hope you will hold off until he is ready to tell him this secret. But you hold no debt to me. You have no reason to listen to my words, which is why I want you to understand this task, understand why the bartender is necessary.
I beg you, Toshiro, hold onto this burden for as long as you can, try to understand the importance of what I'm asking you. Because you're the only one left who knows this lesson, the only one who can pass it on.
Thank you,
Nisshoku Yasuhiro
1st Bartender of Seireitei