Bleach Fan Fiction ❯ Seireitei Monogatari ❯ The Laughing Grim Reaper ( Chapter 80 )

Title: The Laughing Grim Reaper

Characters: Aizen Sousuke, OC, Ukitake, Urahara

Ratings: T

Warning: Written before the revelations in the Turn Back the Pendulum Arc. Massive speculation on my part, but it fits with current canon. If you squint.

Words: 1,278

Description: Altruism is in the eyes of the beholder.

 

 

Any normal person liked to believe that his choice was the result of a desire to better something greater than himself. But in the end, humans are simple, selfish beings through and through.

 

Aizen Sousuke was no exception.

 

For him, taking down Soul Society was more than just instilling his own justice, was more than righting the wrongs that had been cast.

 

For him, becoming god and king was personal.

 

The story began many years before the current events, before Aizen plotted and planned, creating an elaborate and complicated journey into godhood. It started long before Hitsugaya received his captain's haori, long before Zaraki Kenpachi stormed into Soul Society and took the eleventh division, long before he had ever heard of Kurosaki Ichigo.

 

The story began with his first lieutenant, a man who had once been the third-seat in the same division under the same captain as he.

 

Sohma Shigure was a man he remembered going to Academy with, one of his closest friends in those youthful days. He had known Shigure before then, as a boy he had grown up alongside, a passing acquaintance. Their true friendship started in the Academy, drawing together out of mutual interests and respect, mutual skill.

 

Shigure never had as much reiatsu as Sousuke in those days, but he was just as skilled. He had perhaps more of a talent in kidoh, though Sousuke could beat him seven times out of ten in a spar. It was only seven because sometimes, Shigure fought dirty.

 

After graduation, they went their separate ways. Sousuke first labored within the thirteenth division, under the watchful eye of Ukitake Jyuushiro. Shigure was sent straight to the fifth, where he quickly rose in the ranks until he had matched Sousuke in nearly everything.

 

Sousuke was soon appointed to the fifth division, rejoining his friend once more, taking the recently emptied second-seat. A fortuitous and regrettable Hollow attack of epic proportions had opened it for him. He and Shigure served side by side, as second and third, the pair a great asset to their captain.

 

Then, the fifth division captaincy became vacant. And Ukitake nominated his former subordinate for the spot. Sousuke was flattered and infinitely proud, modestly accepting the nomination. A week later, he was the new captain with Shigure as his subordinate.

 

Shigure never seemed to mind, however. Why should he? While Sousuke was busily training to learn his bankai, studying hard and meditating to communicate with Kyouka Suigetsu, Shigure was wooing the ladies. He had a family now, a wife and two children, both very young.

 

Each had their own accomplishments. There was no reason to brag one way or the other. Sousuke was happy. He was Sou-oji-san. And Shigure was just glad he had a leader he respected, rather than being stuck with someone like the crazed captain of the tenth. Even if he was the grandson of Yamamoto-soutaichou, the man was simply cracked.

 

Time passed. Their division prospered. Their friendship grew, and Shigure's children slowly aged, the eldest already showing signs of reiatsu.

 

Sousuke noticed something was odd after the first five years but never said anything. It didn't seem to be too important, questioning his vice-captain always pushed aside for more pressing matters. It didn't appear to be dangerous; it didn't matter that sometimes Shigure's reiatsu pulsed with a faint darkness that had the taint of Hollow. It didn't matter that Urahara Kisuke sometimes shot his lieutenant strange looks.

 

He had to have been imagining things.

 

He was so very wrong.

 

It all happened so fast.

 

The arrest. The accusations. The imprisonment. There was no such thing as a trial, as justice in Soul Society. Shigure was charged and found guilty within twenty-four hours. Sentencing quickly followed.

 

Execution on the morrow.

 

They claimed he was a menace, that he was dabbling in something dangerous, that he was a threat to all of Seireitei. He was siding with the Hollows. He was leading his men purposely into danger. He had betrayed them.

 

He had given his powers to a human. He stood by and watched a Hollow eat a child for his own amusement. He was committing deprave experiments in the dead of night.

 

Accusation after accusation, more absurd than anything Sousuke had ever heard. There was nothing he could do but watch.

 

Watch as the closest thing he had to a best friend was mercilessly executed, no longer crying innocence since no one had bothered to listen before. Ukitake-taichou stood at his side, sympathetic, face pinched into a confused frown. Urahara Kisuke was off to the side, knowledge in his eyes, but he did not speak either.

 

Sousuke returned to his office, lacking a vice-captain. It would be a long time before he selected another.

 

He simply couldn't believe all those accusations, not about his dear friend and lieutenant. The only one that even seemed to hold an inkling of truth was the suggestion that Shigure had delved into something he shouldn't have for an increase in power. A Shinigami acquiring the powers of a Hollow. A Vizard.

 

Shigure's name was stricken from all records; his existence was erased. Those who didn't know him well would eventually forget.

 

A week after the execution, Sousuke received the message. Sohma Shigure's family had mysteriously disappeared, the wife and her two children. No one could find them, even after tracing the reiatsu of his firstborn son. It was as if they had vanished, truly like a kamikakushi.

 

Sousuke knew better. It was merely Soul Society's way of tying up loose ends. No doubt they had been silently stolen away in the night and callously murdered. Shigure's innocent wife and children, their lives taken so Seireitei's ugly truth wouldn't ever emerge. This way, no child would be there to seek revenge.

 

When Sousuke inputted his grand plan, years and years later, Shigure's laughter was on the back of his mind. Calls of Sou-oji-san echoed in his ears. He thought of all the atrocities that Soul Society had committed in the name of justice.

 

He didn't blink when he stabbed Hinamori Momo. He didn't flinch as he defeated Hitsugaya Toushirou in a single, reflective moment. He was disappointed his kidoh hadn't done more damage to Komamura Sajin. He didn't falter when he betrayed everyone, crunching everything that had made him innocent and docile in his fist.

 

How could he? Their betrayal had come first.

 

Long, long ago.

 

Sousuke would like to believe that he was better than a human, a god really, that he was above petty things like revenge or making choices for personal reasons. He would like to think that he wasn't a selfish man, that his choices were for the good of everyone.

 

And they were. Soul Society needed to be taken down. It was beyond time for pleasantries and quiet change. Every dark truth needed to be forced into the light. They needed to learn that they weren't unbreakable, that they had weaknesses. That arrogance did not equate strength. That fear was not an excuse to murder children and lie.

 

They would learn, by his hands, by his plans. They would see their own destruction; they would look in his eyes and see all the innocents they had slain. The Bounto and the Quincy and the Vizard and the Shinigami, who never even committed a sin but were locked away just in case.

 

Just in case.

 

Sousuke believed that he was above being selfish. That his deeds were for the sake of everyone. Anything else was just happenstance. Accidental.

 

His own vengeance just happened to coincide with his justice.

 

It was as simple as that.

 

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