Who is this?
Nothing—
The man loved clouds.
In the bright afternoon, they shone white against the sun; in the evening, they were stained a deep madder red. Never once did they hold the same shape for long. They were the sky's artistry—sometimes looking like spun sugar, sometimes like scales, or hats, or flowing cloth. He had heard that the mystery behind them was simple: they were the water that gave life to humans, beasts, and plants, transformed.
When he learned that, the man made a wish.
Just once... I want to see them.
The rain that moistened parched fields. The shadows that gently blocked the blinding sun. Heavenly miracles granted to the world below.
What did those "clouds" actually look like? The man loved to imagine the shapes he could never truly see.
"Listen, Kaname. I want to be someone who clears away the clouds that hide the stars in the night sky."
The man had a friend.
She protected the weak and supported the strong. She reached out to the wounded and stayed by the side of the grieving. She was bright, kind, and noble. Whenever they spoke, her voice was calm and comforting, calling his name—"Kaname"—over and over, as if to say, I am looking right at you.
She was a wonderful woman who smiled and said she wanted to be someone who removed the misfortunes of others, and that she loved a night sky full of stars without a single cloud.
One day, that friend became a Soul Reaper.
He didn't know what the turning point had been. But he knew her; he knew that one day, she would use her spiritual power to help people and brush away the clouds from their hearts. When that day came, he tucked his loneliness away and sent her off with a glad heart.
Even if he had known the future, he wouldn't have been able to stop her.
And so, when she came to visit him after a long time and smiled with that same gentle voice, asking, "Will you congratulate me?" the man knew deep down. He realized that this was the reason she had become a Soul Reaper.
Ah, you found him. The tragic soul you want to spend your life clearing the clouds for.
The man could not be "that person." The clouds in his own heart's night sky had already been cleared—by her.
That was why he couldn't stop her. There was someone more unfortunate than himself, and his friend was trying to save him. There was only one thing for him to do.
"Be happy," he said. He sent her off with the same smile as before.
It wasn't a sincere blessing. He simply couldn't believe that living only for someone else was true happiness. Even so, that was who she was. The man felt ashamed of his own shallow sense of justice compared to her.
The pained sigh she let out as she departed... perhaps it was because she noticed the clouds in his own heart. In the end, he was always the one being saved and pitied by her.
Even though she was the one who met a truly pitiable end.
"I'm glad you didn't wish for revenge."
His friend was dead. Murdered. By the hand of no one else but that "tragic man" she had tried to save—her husband.
Her husband was an aristocrat. He belonged to a family at the very apex of the Soul Society's history. For them, covering up a crime was as easy as snapping a twig.
That man called the irrational reality "evil" even as he upheld it. He admitted his wife's merciful wish was "justice" even as he spat upon it, saying he hated such desires so much it made him want to vomit.
That was the kind of Soul Reaper her husband was.
As he was beaten by the servants, the man's heart was covered in a despair that swallowed his hatred. He learned the true form of the world his friend had loved. He realized his own heart now hated the world she had cherished.
She had been beautiful. She was a person of true justice who could find the stars in a night sky even in this hell, cherishing and honoring them.
Then what was this world that had taken her away? Was it "justice" to kill a woman who tried to save even a piece of filth like that man, and then let the criminal walk free?
Battered and bruised, the man lay prone on the ground, falling into a bottomless darkness.
...And that was when he appeared.
"Would you care to entrust that flame of resentment in your chest... to me for a while?"
Before him stood a new kind of justice—one that sought to correct this rotten world through power, the polar opposite of his friend's simple love.
That was the meeting between the man who sought justice, Kaname Tosen, and the "Great Evil," Sosuke Aizen.
***
The sword—Suzumushi—felt heavy.
The other half of her soul, borrowed from his late friend's coffin.
Midway through his master Sosuke Aizen's ambition, during the battle in the World of the Living, Tosen faced the friends and subordinates he had met on his new path.
Sajin Komamura. A noble man who lived for his debts of gratitude.
Shuhei Hisagi. A pained youth who knew the terror of battle.
They were the small lights of this world—souls his late friend would have described as "stars shining in the night."
"I have already forgiven you."
But that light was too bright for the blind Tosen.
Don't mock me. What could someone who knew nothing understand? Whom did he think he could forgive? Yet, even as Tosen screamed internally, his heart was a raging storm.
I'll stay with you until the end.
Holding Suzumushi low as she seemed to smile sadly at him, he projected his swirling passions into the power his master had granted him.
Suzumushi Hyakushiki: Grillar Grillo.
The world filled the man's darkness. The path of justice stained in blood, the clouds in the sky he had longed for—all of it was reflected in his blinded eyes.
And when he finally saw the face of his long-time friend, Tosen spat out the words, as if describing his current self.
"You're... even uglier than I imagined."
The look on Komamura's face in that moment was something the man would never forget.
In his mind, his friend's eyes overlapped with a phantom of his lost companion, and Tosen executed his final "justice" with reckless abandon. With the immense power granted by Aizen, he easily trampled over his friend's Bankai. Looking down, Tosen told himself his path was the correct one.
...But the man was defeated.
The former subordinate he thought he had finished—Shuhei Hisagi—had taken his blind side, piercing through his vitals from within.
It was a lethal strike that exploited his opening; if he hadn't been in his Resurrección form, he would have died instantly.
As Tosen fell to the earth in shock, his former subordinate spoke.
The old you would have noticed. He said that the "light" Sosuke Aizen had given him—his version of justice—had made him unable to see the things he used to see in the dark. He spoke with a voice that sounded like it was on the verge of tears.
As the release vanished and Tosen returned to human form, his former friend spoke.
He said that just as Tosen knew they were destined to cross blades, he too had anticipated this fate. And now that they had fought, they could become true friends, not just the temporary allies they had been. He spoke with a calm, gentle voice.
"I do not say 'do not hate.' I do not say 'do not resent.' But... do not seek a revenge that forces you to discard who you are."
Komamura said that if he lost Tosen, a hole would open in his heart, just as Tosen had lost his friend. Looking at Tosen's chest and then his own, Komamura reached out a hand with eyes full of compassion.
Seeing that, Tosen wept. He felt as though he finally saw the stars his friend had loved—the ones he could never see—shining in the night.
And then, he remembered the final wish he had entrusted to his master, Aizen.
Ah... I see. You knew.
You knew it would end like this.
Hinamori.
***
The morning of the final battle.
While Ichigo Kurosaki and the other intruders were being monitored in Las Noches, Tosen met his colleague, Momo Hinamori, as she moved through the central tower alone. When he warned her not to act on her own, she gave her usual reply: "It's necessary." She was as mysterious as ever.
Momo Hinamori was the subordinate Aizen favored above all others.
Aside from her irredeemable, wicked habit of wanting to torment her childhood friend, she was absolutely loyal to her master. She possessed eyes like a god, capable of seeing even the hidden desires within one's soul.
Setting that one "hobby" aside, she was a merciful Soul Reaper who led the Arrancars well, maintained order, and insisted on building workshops and farms to provide them with clothes and food.
Since even her "dark side" was enjoyed by Aizen, Tosen made an effort to get along with his colleague as a fellow servant.
...In fact, the work they did together on "Aizen's Farm" and the "Las Noches Kitchen" had been unexpectedly pleasant. As the Army Leader, she was a massive help to his duties as the Overseer of Hueco Mundo. He found her more reliable and far less unpleasant to work with than Gin Ichimaru.
Hinamori had come to him for a consultation just before she was scheduled to depart the battlefield.
She spoke of preparing for Aizen's plan to use Ichigo Kurosaki as a stepping stone for evolution. As she explained the details in the monitoring tower, she wasn't looking at the conclusion of the coming battle—she was looking even further into the future.
"I want you... to see the end of this world."
It was a request framed as a consultation. No matter what happened in the final battle, survive until the end. That was the girl's wish.
Hinamori likely knew Tosen's past. Aizen had told him she was a transcendent being, and her speech was littered with hints of her secret knowledge. She was a rare ally, and it was only natural that the master took interest in her.
But the girl didn't pry into his hidden history. She simply said, "I want you to see the future." She refused to speak of revenge or hatred; she claimed that at the end of the world, he would see the conclusion of the "Evil" that he and his master sought to correct.
It wasn't the self-righteous charity of a superior saying, "I'll show you."
Nor was it pushing the responsibility of choice onto him by asking, "Don't you want to see it?"
She simply said, "I want you to see it." She spoke with a sincerity and a tension that was rare for her.
In her words, the name of his friend—Kakyo—was never mentioned.
Neither was the name of the husband who killed her—Tokinada Tsunayashiro. There were no shallow, insensitive offers to "help him achieve his revenge."
However, Hinamori did not remain silent about the man who was the reason for all the world's curses... the one who caused the aristocracy to target his friend in the first place.
The Soul King.
Some called him the Savior. Some called him a pathetic human sacrifice. Others called him the symbol of the world's original sin.
But to Tosen, he was the root of all evil, someone he hated far more than a worthless stain like Tokinada.
The reason Kakyo was exposed to the malice of the Tsunayashiro family was because she possessed a "Soul King Factor."
What a joke. Her life, a life that loved this world so much, was stolen for something so meaningless. He remembered standing in a daze when Aizen first told him the truth.
And when he asked why this "Soul King Factor" was allowed to plague the world like a curse, a single ray of light shone upon Tosen's path of justice and despair.
That light became the justice he walked.
Destroy the pillar that supported the world of sinful nobles. Break the curse that tormented his friend. This justice was both concrete and abstract, allowing revenge and a grand cause to coexist. Yet, because he was ultimately a good man, it continued to torture him. In the end, he had been ready to choose death.
A monster like me, who has been swayed by Soul Reapers and lost even the "righteous fury" of revenge, has no right to live.
"Am I to lose my most loyal confidant either way?"
But Aizen had called that man's resolve "beautiful."
As he wished, Aizen promised to erase him before he could suffer from the Soul Reapers' forgiveness. His great master truly pitied such a worthless man.
"I think Captain Aizen is actually quite a lonely person."
It was a beautiful smile—troubled yet full of compassion. It reminded him of someone he had seen before. Sensing the expression on Hinamori's face, Tosen stiffened for a moment before lowering his gaze.
The girl told him that if he were to die for his justice, he should at least do so after witnessing the end of the world he wanted to change—using the "eyes" Captain Aizen had given him to burn the image into his soul.
It was a cowardly way to bind a loyal servant. Yet, at the same time, it was her form of mercy.
"...You truly are an incomprehensible girl."
"You think so? I think I'm pretty easy to understand, except for the Shiro stuff."
"That one point ruins everything else."
When he poked at her, the mercifully wicked maiden shrunk back, looking embarrassed.
Then, after a small breath, as Tosen wavered over her request... Momo Hinamori gave him a brilliant smile.
"I simply love everyone—the good, the bad, the hopeful, and the desperate. As long as they belong to this world, I love them unconditionally."
***
Wandering through the darkness.
A world of total ignorance where front, back, up, and down had no meaning—much like the inside of his Enma Korogi. Tosen floated in the void.
Where am I? I should be dead. Why am I conscious?
In his confusion, he thought he heard a woman's voice from far away.
"Now that you've died once, you feel a bit saved, don't you?"
It was her voice—happier than he had ever heard it.
His life-long partner, the one who had supported him since the first time they met on that star-filled hill.
I will not help you with your revenge. But I will be your strength. That was the pained promise his late friend's other half had made.
Saved?
Tosen reached a hand toward where his chest should be. The hatred that should have been there, burning the world, had settled into a strangely smoldering ember.
As he realized this, he hallucinated the same comforting voice...
"W-welcome back... Captain Tosen."
The voice of a girl who sounded like a child being scolded by her parents—a pathetic, small voice—brought the man's slumbering consciousness back to the light.
***
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