short chapter today, but I feel given what this chapter is about, I don't think it needs to be much longer. fair warning though, the final scene (marked with a double line break for your convenience) is from Tokinada's PoV and he is a piece of work. so if you are particularly squeamish I do not blame you if you skip that scene.
Ichigo didn't know what to do next.
He and Rukia had acknowledged that they had fallen for each other. She had told him to live his life in spite of Yhwach, and he had confirmed that he was likely to remain in Soul Society long term.
But now what?
If this were the living world this would have been so much simpler. He would ask her out on a date. They would hang out more. Eventually, they would start a romantic relationship.
But this wasn't the living world.
So Ichigo found himself reading up on noble procedures more than he did before.
It was honestly dry reading. Whoever wrote those records was clinical and to the point, but they had almost no voice to their writing and Ichigo found the dense material difficult for even himself to read.
So he had taken a break and found himself in a small merchants' plaza in the Seireitei. He didn't know what he was looking for, he'll, he had only left for a walk around the noble district to clear his head.
"Hey Ichigo, what are you doing here?" The familiar voice of the ninth squad lieutenant called out across the plaza.
"Could ask the same of you," Ichigo snarked.
"Fair enough, I was getting things prepared for a small vigil today," today was the day of Kakyo's death. A day his former captain had never forgotten, nor a day that Kommamura had forgotten.
"Who for?" Ichigo asked. He had grown used to the hint of somberness that constantly hung in the air. For many, now that the war was over, and the process of rebuilding had begun, so too had the grieving of those lost in it.
"An old friend of my former captain," Hisagi looked forward at nothing. Today was the day, all those centuries ago, when Tosen had started to tread the path that doomed him to Aizen's manipulations. "She was a relative of yours, Kakyo."
Ichigo had heard the name a few times before, and that it was connected to the ancestral grudge with the Tsunayashiro, but not much else.
"Who was she?" Ichigo asked. Looking over at Hisagi.
"I'm not sure how to explain it. I never heard the story from Tosen. It was Kommamura who told me," Hisagi's mind went back to the former captain. Tetsuzaimon loyally saw to his care, but while his mind remained intact, Kommamura had forfeit his humanoid form and speech along with his strength.
"What happened to him?" Ichigo had expected the sight of the large captain when he had come to stay in the Seireitei. To see Love instead was concerning.
"He sacrificed his powers in an attempt to avenge Yamamoto," Hisagi didn't know what more to say, but he was alive, and he was coming to the vigil.
"Shit…" Ichigo knew how much the old man meant to everyone. How his death had shaken everyone, even himself. He also knew what that kind of sacrifice was like. He had made it to stop Aizen.
Hisagi let the moment linger. He didn't know what to say, or what to do. Then he had an idea.
"Hey, would you mind helping me out with getting some of the things for the vigil?" He turned to face Ichigo.
"Sure, what do you need?"
Komamura did not exactly like his new existence.
Sure. He was alive, he had all of his faculties and was living a relatively comfortable retirement.
But being stuck as a mere dog was a dent upon his pride.
He could not speak, he could not write, and he now stood on for legs instead of two.
But he was alive.
And as long as he lived, he could remember.
He could remember his friend, and how he had accepted him when no one else had.
He could remember his mentor, who had personally taught him when the academy had rejected him out of hand.
And he could remember Kakyo, even though he had never seen her in his life.
Komamura walked about the seventh's barracks. Since his forced retirement he had embarrassingly become the squad's mascot. His predecessor, who had come in to replace him for the time being, had even gone about getting him a collar marked with the squad's heraldry so that he wouldn't be confused for a wild dog.
How shameful.
Fortunately, he was still respected, and his once lieutenant loyally saw to his well-being.
And how bad is it really to be slightly pampered in one's retirement?
But he could indulge later. He had a place to be today.
He walked up to a sliding door to the current captain's/lieutenant's office and belted out an authoritative bark before sitting patiently. Tetsuzaimon would know what today was. He had often cleared the schedule for him when he was captain to allow him this day of vigil.
Now, he required his once subordinate so as not to be shooed off by the groundskeeper.
He could wait for Hisagi, but he wished to be there sooner rather than later.
He could hear the sounds of his former lieutenant asking for an early dismissal, and soon the door slid open to reveal perhaps one of the most loyal men he had the pleasure of working with.
"Komamura, sir," Tetsuzaimon gave a slight nod of his head.
Komamura noded to his former lieutenant and caretaker, and turned to depart for the Shiba plot.
Ichigo and Hisagi had finished getting the things that were needed for the yearly vigil that was held for Kakyo and were now on their way to the Shiba family graveyard.
Something Ichigo had learned was that Soul Society did graves differently.
There wasn't a burial per se as a body will naturally dissolve into reishi quite rapidly depending on the relative power of the individual. The only exception being those of captain level. They required a special ritual known as Konso Reisai to force the body to dissolve.
So what everyone was calling a grave was more a monument to his late relative as she wasn't buried there.
"So, what happened to Kakyo?" Ichigo didn't really know the story, but given her ties to Tosen, it probably wasn't good.
"You'll probably have to speak to Lady Kukaku to get the details, but Kakyo was a close friend of my former captain," Hisagi sighed, this story was infuriating, and was a demonstration of the deep flaws of the Seiretei's laws, "She had shared her dream of becoming a shinigami with him, as well as her want to make this world a better place."
"Sounds like she was a good person," Ichigo looked forward into the distance. If there was one thing he had learned about this world, it was that the purest souls went through the greatest suffering, "So what happened?"
"She had agreed to be married off to a Tsunayashiro. From what I was able to gather, it seems to have been as an attempt to ease tensions," Ichigo sighed deeply. It made sense, but it also reminded him of the politics behind marriages. At least she had been willing. "Several years later she was then murdered by her husband in a seeming fit of rage after he thought he had caught her cheating."
Ichigo raised his eyebrow at this. It just seemed off to him. No there was something more to this.
"What happened to the murderer?" Ichigo figured he knew where this went, but he didn't want to assume. A part of himself also hoped he was wrong.
"He was thrown into the upper levels of the great underground prison for minimal sentence and had his zanpakuto confiscated," Hisagi's answer was infuriating. Now he understood why Tosen was so pissed. This was a murder. Aggravated or not, someone was dead!
"Who was it?" Ichigo almost didn't want to know. However, his want to know who had snuffed out such a pure flame won.
"Tokkinada." Hisagi's answer couldn't have been any worse. Now Ichigo knew that story was a lie. Tokinada was a sadistic bastard. He probably enjoyed every second of it.
Ichigo had calmed himself by the time he had met up with Tetsuzaimon and Komamura.
He was surprised to see the former captain had lost more than just his powers, but a knowing glance between the two conveyed all that needed to be said between the two.
Ichigo didn't need to think about how the former captain felt. He knew it. He knew it deep into his very bones.
The insult of losing his ability to speak was just an added cruelty.
And yet the nobility of character that he had come to expect from the once towering captain was still there. Sajin Komamura may be powerless, but he was unbroken.
"I didn't know you were coming by Ichigo," the squad seven lieutenant spoke quietly.
"Hisagi invited me," Ichigo motioned to the other lieutenant. "She was a relative of mine, and so I figured I'd drop by."
He didn't need to know how her death motivated Tosen to try to burn the Seiretei to ash, Hisagi told him. He didn't need to know how much his deceased enemy had hurt after her death, because he had nightmares of Rukia befalling a similar fate.
Tosen was a broken man. One who had never had someone to stop him, to help him process his grief. So grief became anger, anger stewed into hatred, and that hatred left him vulnerable to Aizen.
Hisagi had finished decorating the shrine with what they had bought. It was a meger display, but he had insisted that he pay for everything.
They all continued in silence in the memory of someone they had never met.
Tokkinada looked over the sunset from a balcony.
Today was a day he fondly remembered.
It was the day he had killed the purest soul he had ever seen.
The beauty that his late wife had walked with was one befitting such a selflessly kind soul.
It was why he had chosen to kill her from the moment he had first laid eyes on her.
He wanted to gain her trust, gain her love even, and then betray all of that and see her face when he did it.
The friend she was speaking with simply gave him an excuse to do it.
He sighed happily as he remembered seeing the life leave the man's eyes as he strangled him, and the feeling as he felt his traychia collapse beneath his thumbs.
The only stain on that was Kakyo's words.
No. She did not beg for mercy for herself. Never herself.
She begged that he spare her friend, which was why he killed him. When his violent gaze turned to her however, there was no begging to be spared. There was no disgust in her being betrayed. She didn't even fight back unlike her friend.
No, she had done the only thing that could have possibly soured what should have been a moment of ecstasy.
She apologized!
They both knew she hadn't committed adultery. He knew she was too pure for that, and she knew he was too smart to make such a dumb assumption.
No, she apologized for something else.
Failing to fix him.
She had knowingly walked into the den of a monster hoping to teach it love, and when presented with her failure she apologized!
The rage at such a pathetic act almost ruined the moment.
It was then he flew into the rage that he had claimed he was in for the entire act.
The only joy she had given him came with her final silence, but the moment was tainted.
Fortunately her friends and family weren't so pathetic.
The Shiba were enraged. The tense but easing relations between the two clans was broken overnight.
The desperate pleading of a then powerless Tosen as he begged to be let in, only for him to explain the order of things, how the world worked, how it was only to the benefit of the great houses.
The way Tosen's face twisted to anger and hatred so easily.
He thought that was the last he was ever going to see of the blind man.
To learn he had become captain and betrayed Soul Society?
He had laughed uproariously that day. The betrayal of everything Kakyo stood for was so delicately sweet.
Not even burning the Seiretei to the ground and building something 'just' in its place would truly be just.
Soul Society's existence could never be just. Thus was the very nature of its foundation.
Soul Society was built on sin. Trying to make it 'just' was a fool's errand.
What was the point of being just when your entire existence was built on sin?
What was the point of being kind when your very existence benefits from a system built to insulate you from that very sin?
There is no point in mercy when your very existence is an act of violence against your inferiors.
Yeah... Tokinada is fucked up. and yes, that tirade about 'sin' is a hint at his motivating values. no I will not elaborate.