𝐒𝐓𝐑𝐈𝐕𝐄 | 𝐁𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 [MINOR EDITING]

³¹ ғɪɴᴇ

I was sixteen when I died. This means it's been a little less than a year since my passing. One thing I know, life here in the Soul Society versus my past life in the World of the Living, isn't that different. Here, my mother was a captain of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads and the Head of the Kaoku Clan, one of the Four Noble Families, and was basically hailed as a goddess. There, my father, a powerful Quincy and founding patron of our village, was also a Lord. My entire life, I've lived eating from a golden spoon. I've barely had to raise a finger, aside from asking someone to do something for me.

In both worlds, I've always had people around to do whatever I wanted them to do. So, what Shinji doesn't understand is that, yes, I did have to do this alone. I had to take on this burden of this fight, because if I'm going to become a leader in this world, I can't continue letting other people do everything for me. I must prove myself capable of taking care of problems on my own.

Our walk back to the manor is quiet. Not in a bad way, either. After all the yelling, shouting, death threats made on my life, and the sounds of me cutting them down, I have a ringing between ears. Sure, the silence makes it a bit unbearable, but with Shinji at my side, his hand in mine, it's caused my heart to beat erratically in my chest all over again. It's like that every time I'm around him. And he knows it, too; Shinji takes great pleasure in reminding me of this.

Suddenly, I'm stricken with a different kind of palpitation, one that stems from this possibility—what if the men I fought weren't the only men?

I switch out my hand from Shinji and start pulling him along. "H-Hey, what's—""We have to get back to the manor," I say, interrupting him. "Now."

-

My worst fear, as I'd suspected, has been realized. While I had been on the front lines, dealing with the vanguard of both Kusajishi and Zaraki, a separate, more insidious group, one that happily targets the lives of the innocent, had moved in without my knowing. And they've done so in spite of me. As leverage.

"Where is Shōri and the others?" Shinji says, hurrying toward the manor steps along with me.

"They're in the lowest dungeon; I sent a group with them, but..." The images of my guardsmen, who I'd had protecting the perimeter of the manor, lying on the ground in their own blood, and for some, their own weapons used to kill them. I shake away a sudden dark thought I have and flash step the rest of my way up the stairs.