"What was that?"
"Flames like that, in that direction... it was probably the Captain-Commander."
"Huh?"
"Let's go. Cough, cough~"
"Dad!"
"I'm fine. Let's go."
The group of five reunited, and the others couldn't help marveling at Jun's good fortune. Things had gone reasonably well for Yoruichi and the shopkeeper too, but Ichigen and his son Isshin had it a little worse. Old Man Ichigen had a hole straight through his stomach, though fortunately he wasn't going to die just yet.
Everyone urged Old Man Ichigen to seek treatment, of course, but he was afraid something else might go wrong if they delayed. So the five set off again. They encountered no problems along the way this time, and they even had members of the Punishment Force and Second Division escorting them. Hehehe.
The group delivered the written document containing the two families' terms of reconciliation to Central 46. Finally, the enormous incident that had engulfed all of Soul Society officially came to an end.
The Gotei 13 assembled again on the day after the incident was declared over. When Jun returned to the Tenth Division, he found himself surrounded by onlookers. On the surface, he had resolved the incident single-handedly. If not for all his efforts, there was no telling how long it might have lasted.
Jun did deserve the praise. No one knew how long the incident had lasted in the original story, but it couldn't have been short by any measure. Instructor Hanazawa's plan had been unsolvable in a sense: an open scheme that took advantage of the prevailing tide.
The Tenth Division had lost twenty-seven members this time. A fifth of its personnel were gone just like that, including two single-digit seated officers. Jun had killed Sasebo, and the Fifth Seat had died too, though it was no longer clear how.
As a result, Jun moved up to Seventh Seat. Of course, it wasn't much to celebrate.
Jun's subordinate, the young lady Asai Shinten, was still alive, which was probably some good news. Sadly, her fiancé had died. He had been in the Third Division, whose captain was one of the main participants in the incident. The Third Division's members had naturally been involved as well; after all, every division was heavily influenced by its captain.
Beyond the Tenth Division, the death toll for the entire Gotei 13 had reached 279. The Third, Seventh, and Ninth Divisions had suffered the most deaths. The Seventh Division had fared particularly badly. As the Inner Court Guard Squad, they had tried to intervene during the purge on the first day, and many of them had been killed.
Two captains had died, both at Yoruichi's hands. Twenty-seven single-digit seated officers had died, including the two from the Tenth Division. In an incident of this scale, the experts really did dominate, so the ones whose deaths truly mattered were all experts. The bottom-tier players had merely been caught up in it. What a shame.
Among the nobles, five or six families were already known to have been wiped out, every last member dead. There had been deaths in practically every family. Even the Kyōraku Clan had lost someone: Shunsui Kyōraku's younger male cousin from the second branch. That alone showed how things had gone for the nobles.
Rukongai had it even worse. Eight streets had been demolished—yes, eight actual streets—and seventeen districts had been half destroyed. There had been deaths in practically every district, including the street where Jun had once lived. The Reiatsu Sasebo, the now-dead Seventh Seat, released during Shikai could have accidentally killed one or two people on its own.
After the Gotei 13 had done some sorting out, the purge began.
First came the Kidō Corps. Instructor Hanazawa had been the Deputy Kidō Chief, and the repeated use of Shishō Saemon in all the subsequent attacks further demonstrated the scale of the problem within the corps. After its more than three hundred members were investigated, nearly half were killed or imprisoned.
Moreover, most of that half had been the Kidō Corps' elites. Instructor Hanazawa had indeed possessed both a good eye and ability, and the people who followed her were excellent as well—at the very least, they were highly capable.
Next came the purge of the nobles. They had attacked the Five Great Noble Clans, and there were retainers of the Shihoin Family to testify against them. Hadn't Instructor Hanazawa said it before? The vice-commander of the Punishment Force had decided to sell out the remaining pig teammates. The fat pigs were ready to be sold for a handsome profit.
Thus, basically none of the retainer families that had participated this time were spared, except those of the Shihoin Family. This was the biggest reason retainer families were nowhere to be seen in the original story. Of course, they weren't all killed; the Ninth Division's Prison Squad was kept busy.
Then came the reckoning over the cause of the incident, which led straight to the Shiba Clan. Only then did Jun learn that the Shiba Clan had also come under attack during the Shishō Saemon on the final day. The family head, Katsukoma, had died in the attack that day, leaving Kinjun Shiba as the sole heir to the Shiba main family. The young master had been scared out of his wits and was reportedly disfigured too.
That left Shiba Kazato as the only person who could represent the Shiba Clan. In the end, Central 46 ruled that the Shiba Clan would be stripped of its noble status. The Shiba family was no longer one of the Five Great Noble Clans, nor even a noble family.
At this point, however, young master Kinjun Shiba finally stood up for himself. He refused to accept the judgment but didn't dare question Central 46, so he cursed Shiba Kazato instead. Old Man Ichigen, already wounded, was so angry that he coughed up blood on the spot. Isshin nearly killed Kinjun Shiba.
But to the rest of the Shiba Clan, Shiba Kazato was a sinner. And so the Shiba main and branch families went their separate ways.
After that, Shunsui Kyōraku suddenly announced that he was releasing the retainer families—in other words, doing away with the position of retainer. The Nanbu Family followed suit at once, and a great many upper noble families did the same one after another. As a result, retainers essentially ceased to exist in Soul Society, except in the Shihoin Family.
Yoruichi had wanted to follow suit, but her will was no longer the Shihoin Family's will. A drama that shook heaven and moved ghosts to tears played out at the Shihoin Family gates. Countless Shihoin retainers knelt and wept, begging the family to reconsider. Left with no choice, Yoruichi withdrew the decision.
This was also the beginning of Yoruichi's loss of power in the Second Division and Punishment Division. Did everyone remember Byakuya's recollections in the original story? They mentioned that Yoruichi had raised Byakuya when he was young. Just think: a captain who also served as commander of the Punishment Force, holding both positions, running off to look after a child every day. What a humiliation that was!
Some time later, Jun learned of Instructor Hanazawa's end. She had fought her way into the First Division and defeated Vice-Captain Sasakibe to reach Old Man Yamamoto, but that was as far as she got. In the end, she was no match for the strongest person in Soul Society.
After that, the name Hanazawa E became taboo in Soul Society, never to be mentioned again.
Once the dust had more or less settled, someone finally remembered Jun. Old Man Yamamoto summoned him personally, and the two had a talk. Jun was thoroughly respectful, a model young citizen of Soul Society.
Old Man Yamamoto was very pleased. Then, with Central 46's encouragement and approval, Jun's status as a hero of Soul Society became the real thing. His plan bore fruit, just as he had wished.
"Yo~ Hero~"
"What's that supposed to mean? Are you making fun of me?"
"I wouldn't dare. How could I make fun of a hero?"
"Tch~. Enough of that. I've finished reading this. Here."
Jun handed Instructor Hanazawa's notes on her insights to Aizen. Aizen took one look and saw that it was the original.
"Honestly~ This is the most precious thing your instructor left you. You couldn't have made me a handwritten copy?"
"Huh? Wouldn't making a handwritten copy be your job? Besides, I've already made one. I wasn't planning to copy it a second time for you."
"Oh? You already made one? Hmm, are you getting married?"
Jun stared at Aizen with dead-fish eyes. "How did you get from a handwritten copy to me getting married?"
"Look, someone as lazy as you wouldn't make a handwritten copy for no reason. But you did, so it must be for someone else to read. Apart from me, the only person you could show it to is your fiancée. Otherwise, that just leaves your children. So doesn't that mean you're getting married?"
Jun slapped his forehead. "I kneel before that imagination of yours."
Aizen burst out laughing. "If you didn't leave it for your children, who else were you planning to show it to?"
"I made it into a journal."
Aizen fell silent for a moment. "You're putting it in Shin'ō Academy? You really do think of yourself as the Journal Hall's curator, don't you?"
"It's not a big deal. There's a great deal in these notes, and most of it isn't among the ninety-nine Kidō spells. They even record Kaido and Sōdō, two kinds of Kidō the Kidō Corps doesn't share with outsiders. I think they're really useful."
"Useful or not, surely you can't share them with all of Soul Society right now? I understand your thinking to some extent, but aren't you being a little too radical? Though I can also understand, to a degree, how you feel about losing your instructor."
Aizen spoke with some gravity, but Jun didn't mind at all.
"What are you talking about? My instructor's death actually wasn't as painful for me as I'd imagined. Isn't dying for a worthy cause what we all wish for?"
Aizen's eyes lit up. "Well said."
"I'm not as radical as you think. I'm putting these journals and some secret journals I wrote into the Journal Hall, but I'll hide them with Kidō. Only people with both the right affinity and talent will be able to see them."
"Oh? What standard?"
"Anyone who reaches forty percent of the level I had at the academy within thirty years of enrolling will be able to see them. Reaching forty percent of my level in thirty years counts as genius, doesn't it? But if someone graduates in less than thirty years without reaching it, there's nothing I can do."
"Of course, for anyone who builds up slowly and only becomes amazing after forty, fifty, or sixty years, I have corresponding values that can trigger it too. I'd say I've thought it through."
"Their state of mind?"
"Mm. Only people patient enough to bide their time can understand our thinking. The impatient ones can go do whatever they want. They aren't on the same path as us."
Jun was referring to Tōshirō Hitsugaya from the original story. The little lion was absolutely the greatest genius in Soul Society's history. In terms of talent alone, he surpassed even Aizen. In all of Soul Society, no one else was a monster who achieved Bankai in under fifty years from first coming into contact with Spiritual Power. Not even Aizen could do it. Ichigo was human, so he had to be counted separately.
"Hey~ I can use Shikai now."
"Oh? Congratulations."
"Don't you want to see it?"
"No thanks. When are you planning to hold the demonstration?"
"Uh, next month."
"What a shame. I'm going on an academy mission next month."
"Huh? That really is a shame."
Jun was relieved to have dodged that bullet. Once Aizen's Shikai caught him, it would be game over. Fortunately, the two were on reasonably good terms, and Aizen knew how sensitive Jun was, so he didn't insist that Jun watch. The two had burned through another round of brain cells as usual.
"Speaking of which, what do you think of the instructor?" Jun felt he needed to change the subject quickly.
"The instructor? Tsk~ Hard to say. What about you?"
"You always try to get me to talk first."
"You do the same, you know. Whichever of us asks a question first always has to answer first."
"Haha." Jun laughed, amused, and so did Aizen. "All right, all right, I'll answer first. I think it was the prevailing tide."
"The prevailing tide? You can see something I can't again? Like the nodes?"
"Speaking of which, do our eyes really see different things after all? In that case, from now on, we'll each do our own thing."
"Okay. Remember to cover for each other. I think what I see is power."
"Just like you. You even insist on forcibly controlling Reishi."
"Haha, I suppose."
"Here's to our success." Jun held out his fist.
Aizen bumped his fist hard against Jun's. "Here's to our success."