Chapter Two

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by kaeonvz

by kaeonvz

CHAPTER TWO

Rukia at this time has been a lieutenant for only a couple of days. She takes Inoue to the Thirteenth Division's training grounds. The two of them sit beneath the cherry blossoms, eating super-expensive food prepared by the Kuchiki family. Inoue says Rukia's gloves are very pretty, and Rukia says that they're a gift from Byakuya. He was also the one who recommended that she become a lieutenant. While Rukia's thinking about how to reply to Inoue's question of "has anything changed since you became a lieutenant," Hirako shows up.

Next is Hirako telling about what happened to each of the Vizards. First up is Hirako and Hinamori. A month ago, Hirako went to the Fourth Division to see Hinamori, and they started talking about Aizen. After they talked for a while, a true Captain-Lieutenant pair was born! After she returned to the division, Hinamori worked so hard that Hirako told her that she needed to rest. Her way of doing things reminded Hirako of Aizen when he was a lieutenant. Aizen back then was a reformer and really did make things better for the division members, so he left behind more than just a blackened name.

Hiyori very much dislikes shinigami and isn't willing to return to Soul Society. She also believes that Hirako is betraying them. Others who stayed with her in the living world are Hachigen who still needs to maintain the barrier and Love who wouldn't go to a world where he couldn't read JUMP. Lisa and Mashiro sometimes go to see them.

Kensei became the Ninth Division captain. Mashiro wanted to be his lieutenant again, but when she was given another job – ultra radical scoop editor, responsible for reporting on strange occurrences in both worlds, she instantly agreed. The editor of the Seireitei Communications is still Hisagi. It seems like he'll have to continue on since Kensei can't be bothered with it.Lisa's started up a bookstore in Kuukaku's territory selling books from the living world. However, they're mostly porn, and quite popular among the male shinigami. She's saved up enough money to build herself a house in Rukongai, called 春画御殿. (I'm not sure how to translate this. I think it's something like "imperial palace of porn.")

Next up is Rose and Kira. Rose likes to take walks, and Kira hears his singing about nostalgia and melancholy. Kira invites him into the guest lounge, and Rose takes out a violin that he had hidden in there. Since the lieutenant back when he was a captain did not allow him to perform, Rose had changes done to the room so he could hide his violin there.

When Gin was captain, he only planted a single persimmon tree. When it was time to make dried persimmons, he would hand over all the division duties to Kira, and lecture about his methods to stray shinigami walking by. Rose says that they should continue to make dried persimmons this year, which makes Kira feel very moved. The only proof that Gin ever existed was this one persimmon tree. Even if Kira suffered a lot because of Gin's betrayal, he still didn't want to break off that relationship.

When Kira arrived back from the storage area with a ladder, he finds Rose surrounded by a ton of people, all of whom are willing to help and are thankful that there's still an opportunity to make dried persimmons. Because they're still able to do things that they're accustomed to, the division gets livelier every day.

Rose continued to perform on his instrument. Even if it's noisy, it still helps the Third Division develop again along a better path.

After he relates all this info, Hirako has to leave because he's received a text from Hinamori. Rukia asks Inoue what she wanted to talk about.

"Kurosaki-kun... has been troubled all this time."

Without his powers, he's been lost and confused.

He says that this is the life that he's always wanted with such a lonely smile.

"I want to do something for Kurosaki-kun, but there's nothing I can do..."

Inoue's tried to use her powers to bring Ichigo's shinigami powers back, but she couldn't do it. Thinking back to his lonely smile, Inoue feels so hurt that she starts to cry. Rukia pats her on the back and says:

"...Ichigo has always fought in order to protect something. This is the foundation behind all of his actions. Now faced with the ordinary struggles of people without any power, he shouldn't ever lose. So he should still be able to protect many people."

It was true that he was still able to protect a lot of people after he lost his powers. He even received a certificate of thanks from the police.

"However, he already knows. There are still things that he can't protect with only an ordinary human's abilities..."

"To Ichigo, whose determination to protect something is so much stronger than other people's, this must be pain that extremely hard to bear..."

She wanted to do something.

She wanted to do something immediately, no matter what it took.

She made the determination to bring Ichigo's powers back, and told Inoue to just leave it to her.