"Ah! So you're up here, Captain!" Nanao Ise, Lieutenant of the 8th Division, climbed onto the roof and slapped the ridge tiles in irritation. "Please stop napping already. We need to get going!"
"Nanao..." Shunsui Kyōraku lay back with his arms folded beneath his head, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth as it swayed lazily. "I'm feeling rather troubled at the moment. Care to hear me out?"
"..."
Nanao Ise stepped over to him. She had a vague idea of what was weighing on him. This execution was full of suspicious points. Her captain was likely planning something, yet still hesitating. "Troubled about what?"
"Well, I thought chewing on a piece of grass would make me look cool. But it might be poisonous. My mouth's burning like crazy, and that's quite distressing..."
Nanao Ise yanked the grass out of his mouth. "Then spit it out!"
"Nanao... I... What should I do?"
"Why are you asking me?" Nanao Ise turned her gaze aside. "No matter what I say, you'll just do whatever you want in the end."
Shunsui Kyōraku looked at her quietly.
"Don't worry." Nanao Ise adjusted her glasses. "I'll do my best to stay out of trouble and keep a few steps away from you."
"What a headache." Shunsui Kyōraku lowered his straw hat to block the sun, then stood and looked up at the clear sky. "So in the end, I'm the only one who'll get scolded by Old Man Yamamoto again?"
Shunsui Kyōraku was the last to arrive. It was supposed to be an assembly of all captains and lieutenants, yet the turnout was pitifully small.
Beside Captain-Commander Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto stood the equally white-haired 1st Division Lieutenant, Chōjirō Sasakibe.
At the side of 2nd Division Captain Suì-Fēng was Lieutenant Marechiyo Ōmaeda.
3rd Division Captain Gin Ichimaru and Lieutenant Izuru Kira were both absent. Gin was always elusive, so few paid it much mind.
4th Division Captain Retsu Unohana looked as serene as ever, her eyes lowered slightly, hands folded before her.
Standing beside her, 4th Division Lieutenant Isane Kotetsu wore her own Zanpakutō at her waist and carried Retsu Unohana's Zanpakutō over her shoulder. Her fingers nervously twisted the cord wrapped around Unohana's blade.
5th Division Captain Sōsuke Aizen was dead, and Lieutenant Momo Hinamori had been imprisoned.
6th Division Captain Byakuya Kuchiki stood expressionless, with no lieutenant by his side.
7th Division Captain Sajin Komamura had been injured by Muten Natsu. After treatment by the 4th Division, it was said he would be unable to move for some time. 7th Division Lieutenant Tetsuzaemon Iba was caring for him.
8th Division Captain Shunsui Kyōraku and Lieutenant Nanao Ise were present.
9th Division Captain Kaname Tōsen was nowhere to be found. His lieutenant, Shūhei Hisagi, had been severely injured by Muten Natsu and was still recovering.
10th Division Captain Tōshirō Hitsugaya and Lieutenant Rangiku Matsumoto were both absent.
11th Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki had been gravely wounded by Muten Natsu and was still recuperating. His lieutenant, Yachiru Kusajishi, did not appear.
12th Division Captain Mayuri Kurotsuchi had been heavily injured by Uryū Ishida and had yet to recover. Lieutenant Nemu Kurotsuchi was attending to him.
13th Division Captain Jūshirō Ukitake was likely ill again. Since the death of former lieutenant Kaien Shiba, the position of 13th Division Lieutenant had remained vacant.
In total, twenty-six people should have been present.
Yet now, only nine stood here.
Looking at the scene before her, Rukia Kuchiki, who was about to be executed, almost felt like laughing.
Honestly... she was about to die. So why wasn't she afraid at all?
Her hands were bound behind her with Bakudō, a collar suppressing her Reiatsu fastened around her neck. Behind her loomed the massive execution frame, so large it was almost terrifying. And yet her heart felt steadier than it ever had.
"Rukia Kuchiki," Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto's aged voice carried an unexpected gentleness. "Before the end... is there anything you wish to say?"
Rukia Kuchiki glanced at him, then closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, her violet irises reflected the clear blue sky. A faint smile curved her lips. "I should have gone to see Sode no Shirayuki sooner."
A spear as thick as a man's torso stood upright, fixed into the ground and wrapped in heavy ropes. A fierce surge of Reiatsu burst from the earth around it, forming a vast circle that enclosed the spear within.
Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto leaned on his cane. "After the execution, Sode no Shirayuki will follow you."
Rukia Kuchiki gave a soft laugh. "Then I suppose I won't get to see that."
"Release..." Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto struck his cane against the ground. "Sōkyoku."
Eight members of the Kidō Corps, responsible for unsealing it, stepped forward to the ropes securing the Sōkyoku. Chanting lengthy incantations, they guided the Reiatsu surging from the earth, compressing and reshaping it.
The ends of the ropes embedded deep in the ground were burned through by the Reiatsu. Freed from the earth's restraint, the ropes coiled around the spear began to spin loose, unwinding completely before shooting down like blades into the rock and soil below the cliff.
Three cubes rose from the ground. The Bakudō binding Rukia Kuchiki's wrists vanished. An invisible force seized her arms and legs, spreading her into a cross shape and slowly lifting her into the sky.
Nanao Ise frowned as she watched Rukia Kuchiki ascend. Framed by the massive, gate-shaped execution stand, Rukia, small to begin with, looked even more fragile and alone.
"Nanao," Shunsui Kyōraku tilted his head, "don't look so sorrowful. You'll make me feel down too."
"If I were really sorrowful..." Nanao Ise's eyes were complicated, her voice softer. "It wouldn't look like this..."
Back then, she would have cried on the spot.
Rukia Kuchiki was still alive. Even if she was about to die.
Perhaps one day in the future, when she remembered that girl who often stood off by herself in a daze was gone, Nanao Ise would shed quiet tears for her.
But right now... what she felt was not sorrow.
It was unease over what was about to happen.
Everything seemed as though it were ending.
And yet, it also felt as though everything had only just begun.
The tip of the long spear suddenly erupted with flames. Tongues of fire surged upward, wrapping around the entire massive shaft.
Heat waves roared outward as the spear lifted into the air, turning horizontally, its enormous blade aimed straight at Rukia Kuchiki.
Within the blaze, the spear began to change. Even the flames reshaped themselves along with it.
Huge wings of fire spread wide. Nine long tails swept through the air. A long-tailed firebird, eyes closed, hovered before the execution frame.
Kikōō.
The Sōkyoku revealed its true form, the final executor of the execution.
The moment it pierced the condemned, the sentence would be complete.
Kikōō slowly opened its eyes, fixing its gaze on Rukia Kuchiki bound to the frame.
Its wings beat once.
Savage flames howled forward.
Rukia Kuchiki's eyes flew open as the inferno rushed over her body, only to scatter and vanish in midair.
Because someone was standing in front of Kikōō.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time. You never came home," Muten Natsu said, Myōki pressed firmly against Kikōō's beak. "So I came to bring you back."