I think I had a "rallying speech in front of all the soldiers" scene in the previous story, too. This one has lower stakes than that. I was really going whole-hog last time. This is … I dunno, a more intimate story. I guess.

That's the best word I can pin down for it, anyway.

.

Hitsugaya stood before the soldiers of the Tenth Division, examining them as carefully as a jeweler studying new stock. His back was ramrod straight, his hands clasped behind it, as he paced. The gathered soul reapers watched their leader in silence. The Tenth was proud. They knew their captain was young, inexperienced, compared to some—perhaps even most—of the others. They knew their captain was, in some ways, untested; but in other ways, Toshiro Hitsugaya was more tested than any soul reaper before him, and his people wore his crest with pride and tenacity.

Matsumoto stood off to one side; Hibiki and Izumi stood beside her, watching the congregation. Every so often, an officer would glance the twins' way, curious, but no words were spoken. They all knew that Captain Hitsugaya was gearing up to say something important, and it was best to wait.

Hitsugaya gripped his weapon's hilt; Hyorinmaru sang in the morning air.

"You who follow me!" he called out. To a one, the Tenth Division straightened and pulled its shoulders back. "Children of the Tenth! Ours is the strength of dragons. Ours are the wings in the night. There may be others who proclaim themselves stronger, or more tenacious, or to carry the singular honor of ensuring Soul Society's security, compared to us. But there is one thing we will always have, and it will never be taken from us. We, more than any battalion, more than any army, embrace the cold. We walk where others freeze. We stand where others crumble. We are strong when others are weak. Any army can march by the light of the day, in the sheltering warmth of the sun. But vanishingly few can march on ice."

Matsumoto grinned; she knew where this was going.

"There is a man," Hitsugaya called out over the throng, "who calls himself Nishi. He claims the shadows as his domain. He works in the absence of light. He thinks himself untouchable, so long as he is cloaked beneath the stars, hidden behind the moon." Hitsugaya gestured with his sword at the men and women, the veterans and the greenhorns, the young and the ancients. "We are the custodians of the night. Oh, yes, there are plenty who weave shadows. Our own Captain-Commander. The Omnitsukido. But they only move in the dark. We live in it. They do battle in the cold. We thrive in it. I ask you, my children: will we permit a pretender, a coward, to hide in our home?"

"No, sir!"

"Will we allow a man with delusions of grandeur use our home to make mockery of our mission? To steal the safety of Soul Society out from under us?"

"No, sir!"

"Will we be brought low by a groveling insect?!"

"NO, SIR!"

Hitsugaya held his sword high. "Walk proud, my children! Any shadow out of place, any unwelcome trespasser, a rat where one isn't expected, I want to know about. Dismissed!"

The Tenth Division vanished in all directions.

Hitsugaya slammed Hyorinmaru back into his scabbard and turned to his vice-captain. "You know what to do, Rangiku," he said. Matsumoto nodded curtly, then disappeared as quickly as any of her subordinates.

"Where's Miss Matsu goin'?" Hibiki asked.

"Is she gonna finds somebody?" Izumi guessed.

"Something like that," said Hitsugaya, barely paying attention.

It was Matsumoto's job to watch for anyone within their own ranks who might take this call to arms as a threat. Anyone who might work for, or with, their current enemy. As much as he wanted to believe that his own soldiers were loyal and honorable down to the last, Hitsugaya knew he couldn't rely on that.

He'd trusted Sosuke Aizen, too.