CHAPTER 70: FROSTBITTEN LIGHTNING

"Alright, today's the day!" Tayomi beamed, hopping out of her bed feeling absolutely rejuvenated from a good night's sleep.

It had been twenty years since she had arrived in the Soul King's Palace and began her training with Squad Zero. She mostly spent her time alone, fully focused on her work, but still met with the members of Squad Zero from time to time, in order to seek their guidance and ask for their advice regarding her independent research. Most of the time, she sought advice from Tenjiro Kinjiri, the creator of the Healing Springs, as she knew about his proficiency in the area and wished to learn more about healing kido from him. Even though he initially treated her with a condescending attitude, which undeniably got on her nerves, she still respected his skills and was able to gain some form of respect from him within a year of her work in Squad Zero. Tayomi appreciated having so much time and space to herself, since she was able to manage her time as she wished and put all her concentration into her kido, while keeping up to date with her division and managing her duties as their Captain at the same time.

Today was a particularly exciting day for her, as she would be returning to the Spiritual Arts Academy. It was the very place where everything had began for her, and the very place which built her up to become who she was today. As a trial, she had been asked to impart her new kido to the students of the Special Accelerated Programme, the very programme she had been admitted to. She couldn't wait to see the faces of the students and offer them as much as advice as they wanted about school life. She only hoped she would be able to deliver a good lesson and that they would be able to learn something from what she had come up with.

"The Spiritual Arts Academy?"

Hitsugaya raised his eyebrows once he heard Shunsui mention the name of his old school.

"Yeah, it'll be under your care as well, once you become the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13," Ukitake explained. "We'll be going with you as well, to walk you through your duties as well as tour the school!"

"Well, I've been to the school before… Is it really necessary?"

"Why not?" Shunsui laughed. "It'll be nice to take a trip down memory lane too!"

"Yeah! And we'll be visiting the Special Accelerated Program classrooms today, just to observe the students and perhaps chat with them a little after class!"

"Okay…"

"We'll also get to interact with the graduating classmen during their combat lesson!"

"Why are you two more excited about it than I am…" Hitsugaya mumbled to himself.

Nothing much had changed around the Spiritual Arts Academy. Everything felt more or less the same as it did decades ago, when she was just a first-year student. Somehow, she felt a wave of nostalgia hit her as she recalled the day she first stepped into the school. Things had felt so uncertain and she felt so small, yet she had become much more than she ever dreamed of. Tayomi had just finished teaching her first lesson to the first group of students that day, and she felt quite embarrassed after seeing how much the students fawned over her and idolised her. But she certainly felt that she had delivered, since they were able to pick up the spells quite quickly. Looking down at her notepad, the next class on her agenda were for the graduating classmen. Their combat lesson had already started, and they had arranged for her to enter halfway through the class to observe and interact with the students, before they proceeded to their kido lesson with her. Onabara was the teacher in charge of their class, and Tayomi was more than excited to see her ex-teacher again.

Tayomi silently slipped into the room and tapped Onabara-sensei on the shoulder.

"Hi sensei!" She whispered.

Once Onabara saw her, his face instantly lit up in delight.

"Tayomi!" He smiled. "It's so good to see you again… I've heard so much about you and your accomplishments!"

"Well they wouldn't be possible without your guidance, Onabara-sensei!"

At this very moment, all the students had noticed Tayomi's presence and stopped in their tracks.

"A lot of them have been waiting for this day to come! The day Gotei 13's most talented prodigies come to visit!" Onabara nodded.

"Oh? Who else is coming today?"

Before Onabara could answer, Tayomi heard footsteps coming from behind her, and turned around in response. She instantly recognised Shunsui and Ukitake, but she wasn't too sure about the man in the center. His white hair and turquoise eyes were very familiar to her, but the height did not seem to match the person she had in mind. The man noticed her confusion and sighed.

"Stop staring, Sakuri! It's me!"

Tayomi gasped.

"How did you…"

"Grow so much taller? I don't know, it just happened. It's not like you didn't grow taller yourself."

"I just grew about thirty centimetres! You grew at least forty!"

Onabara chuckled as he watched his two ex-students banter back and forth, before turning to the students in the dojo.

"Well, this is the day you've been looking forward to. Students, I'd like to introduce you to these people. Firstly, this is Kyoraku Shunsui and Juushiro Ukitake, Captains of the Eighth and Thirteenth Division respectively. And to my left are two of my best students, and Captains of the Fifth and Tenth Division respectively, Tayomi Sakuri and Hitsugaya Toshiro."

A roar of applause erupted within the dojo and Onabara requested for Hitsugaya and Tayomi to do a combat demonstration, as the students had been looking forward to seeing the two youngest Captains of the Gotei 13 live in action. Tayomi smiled and agreed, and Hitsugaya shrugged, giving his consent as well.

"Umm, so Onabara-sensei, what are the rules this time?" Tayomi asked.

"Maybe you could use this opportunity to demonstrate your new kido, Tayomi. The kido spells that you'll be teaching them later on! Let's cap your powers at 40%."

"Alright then," Hitsugaya nodded.

Both of them drew their Zanpakutous slowly, releasing their Shikais simultaneously and drawing gasps of awe from the students. Onabara smiled, before nodding at his students.

"Watch closely, students."

The sun had begun to set in the blue sky, resulting in a wide array of pastel shades spreading across behind the white clouds. Tayomi stepped into the gardens outside the cafeteria, admiring the scenery and noticing how nothing had changed since her days in school. The gardens had been well-tended, with large trees towering above her and flowers blooming everywhere. From the corner of her eye, she spotted a familiar face under the tree and found herself moving instinctively towards him.

"Hi!" She tapped him on the shoulder, causing him to look up.

"Hey."

"Where's Shunsui and Ukitake?"

"I asked them to head back to the Gotei 13 headquarters first."

"Oh?" She teased. "You waited for me?"

Her words made Hitsugaya's face turn red.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Tayomi sat down beside him and sighed. She hadn't expected him to be so honest right off the bat.

"This feels kind of nostalgic, doesn't it?"

"Yeah. This is the same tree where you approached me and we first talked."

"Haha, you remembered?"

Hitsugaya nodded.

"Of course I would. This was the place where we really started."

She lay her head on his shoulder and giggled. Things really had changed a lot since then. Both of them had grown up and been through so much together, and managed to stay together till the very end.

"I'm almost done over in Squad Zero, so I'll be back really soon."

"Really?" He asked. "How soon?"

"Umm… Maybe five years?" She shrugged. "Or if things go really well, next year."

"That's good."

Suddenly, Hitsugaya grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight.

"So that means… Once you're back, we can start planning?"

Tayomi blushed.

"Yeah, we can start planning our wedding then!"

Matsumoto watched on as the new recruits of the Tenth Division began their first day of training in the Division's barracks. As expected, the new recruits were causing a huge stir, especially the females. She shook her head and sighed, as the female recruits were peeping in on the males' Zanjutsu training in the main garden. There were squeals of admiration and sighs of bliss as they looked on dreamily.

"Isn't our Taicho just amazing?"

"I know right, just look at him!"

"Sigh, maybe someday I would catch his eye…"

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Matsumoto burst out laughing, unable to hold it in and drawing confused looks from the girls.

"Huh? What's so funny?" One of the female recruits asked.

"You can give up on that thought, it's never happening!"

"Well," the girls had a look of ire on their faces. "How would you know?"

Matsumoto straightened up and calmed herself done from her fit of laughter, before sighing.

"There's only one person who has been in his eyes for the longest time, and that person's spot is irreplaceable."

At this moment, Hinamori appeared behind Matsumoto and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hinamori!"

"Rangiku-san!" She beamed. "Guess who's back?"

Matsumoto grinned as she watched someone sneak up behind her Captain.

"Tayomi-chan!" Matsumoto shouted as she and Hinamori ran towards her.

"Rangiku-chan! Hina-chan!" Tayomi smiled. "I've finally finished my stint at Squad Zero… So I'm back for good this time!"

"Aww, Shiro-chan, say something!" Hinamori nudged Hitsugaya.

"Go take a break guys!" Matsumoto called out to the other recruits, allowing them to clear out.

Hitsugaya stared at Tayomi for a moment before smiling.

"Back for good?"

Tayomi nodded, before running forward to hug him by the waist.

"Yeah, back for good."

He hugged her back tightly and kissed her on the forehead. It had been a long wait for her return and an even longer struggle for them to be together. But finally, permanently, she was back.

And they would never ever be apart again.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

This chapter is a little shorter than expected, since I cleared the ending last chapter, so this was more of an epilogue for the two of them.

It's been a long journey with this story. I started the first saga a few years back and it's so strange to think that I've finally ended this second saga and concluded the story of Tayomi and Hitsugaya. I'm glad I was able to give them a conclusion despite the long hiatus I took due to personal family problems. I'm not sure how many of my original readers have stuck around, but regardless, to those who have stuck around and to those who just discovered this story, I want to say a big THANK YOU for reading this story to the end. I hope you've enjoyed this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. It hasn't been a smooth journey, but I hope I was able to give them the ending they deserved.

Not sure if I will write a bonus chapters for this story (Eg. Tayomi and Hitsugaya's wedding), since I'll be leaving the country soon to go on a student exchange program for one semester. It's a huge deal for me and I'm not sure if I'll have the time to write when I'm there.

THANK YOU for supporting and sticking by this story, I hope you all enjoyed it! Do feel free to tell me your feedback on this chapter or the story on the whole :)

Thank you so much for reading, I can't thank you guys enough for the support for this story ever since "School Days and Frostbitten Lightning" 3