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Cant Fear Your Own World
Cant Fear Your Own World
By shadow_liepard
[] - translator notes
[*] - uncertain translation
Please don't steal. Free use otherwise.
"You must not seek beauty in waging war. You must not seek virtue in dying in battle. You must
not think of only your own life. If you wish to protect the king and five governors [*], slaughter all
your enemies from the shadows."
- Excerpt from Shinou Academy Textbook, Shinigami Informational Encyclopedia, older
edition
"Don't seek beauty in battle. Don't seek virtue in death. Don't think of only your own life. If you
want to protect what must be protected, strike down your enemies from behind."
- Excerpt from Shinou Academy Textbook, Shinigami Informational Encyclopedia, newest
edition
Prologue 1
The battle between the ones who called themselves the gods that govern death and the ones
who had exterminated evil souls was great.
At the end of the grudge crossing one thousand years, the chaos caused by the loss of both
'kings' had just ended.
The relationship between shinigami and quincy, through the great losses sustained, became an
opportunity to welcome a new era.
That the same one person killed both kings, that he is an existence neither shinigami nor quincy,
such a truth was only known by a few.
That the leader of the army that had invaded soul society, the Wandenreich, was killed by an
outsider to the Gotei 13, a substitute shinigami this piece of news, along with the
proclamation that he had defended the Gotei 13 and royal palace was spread in Soul Society.
In the end, the death of the soul king, the root of Soul Society, was to be covered up for
perpetuity in order to prevent chaos.
The inhabitants of Soul Society who were starting to become ordinary soldiers mostly believed
even now that the soul king was enshrined within the soul king palace.
Even those who knew a limited truth - some of the captains and higher government officials, and
possibly some who held important offices in Seireitei, did not dare to disrupt the peace of the
people by exposing it.
And so, the reconstruction of a destroyed Seireitei began.
Whether this decision from the higher ups to rectify the people's stolen trust was right or not
would be decided by the history of tens, hundreds, of years ago.
Meeting the end of this thing, which would later be called 'the great battle to protect the soul
king', were a series of disturbances.
Time goes back to immediately after the war's conclusion.
Harribel was, in the Wandenreich's attack on Hueco Mundo, the first to face them in battle.
However, before Yhwach's overwhelming strength, she was rendered powerless, and in order to
gain control over Hueco Mundo, she was taken prisoner.
In remodeling the soul king palace, Yhwach had naturally added a jail, and the prisoner had also
been taken there.
Whether to serve as an example to the arrancar, or to make her one of the Quincy army,
Yhwach's reasons for keeping her as prisoner were unknown after his death.
But the one sure thing was that she's still alive, and now freed by Nelliel who had come along
together with Ichigo.
Truthfully, Nelliel, despite having saved Harribel, the new queen of Hueco Mundo, held
complicated feelings about the current situation.
For the subordinates of Aizen, who had wanted to reach the soul king palace at all costs, to be
standing here where he couldn't felt bewildering, but Nelliel spoke to Grimmjow, who was still
facing the Shinigami with hostility.
"Quarreling with opponents who are exhausted from battling the Quincy? Is that a satisfying
fight for you?"
"...Chi. You're sentimental. Do you really think these shinigami will overlook us? It'd suck if you
were stabbed in the back when you're leaving."
The bald black-bearded old man responded to this
"Oh, for teacher, I'd be able to overlook any number of things. If you'd like, we can see you off to
Hueco Mundo."
"Ah? Who are you? Don't take us lightly."
With how wounded they were, they didn't seem like threats.
Saying this, Grimmjow glared at the bald old man while his entire body overflowed with killing
intent.
However, his opponent brushes it off easily, saying unconcernedly,
"No, no. At any rate, teacher, even with countless times heavier intent than this hollow, if we
were to purify or kill you, without being careful with this situation the balance of the three worlds
will crumble." [*]
"..."
Grimmjow was momentarily silenced. Coming to a compromise, he suppressed his killing intent
and clicked his tongue.
As for him, more than wanting to mess around here, he wanted to decide things with Kurosaki
Ichigo as soon as possible.
Nelliel guessed as to this, thinking about whether he would stop his surprise attacks and return
to Hueco Mundo without being dragged. Suddenly, Harribel on her back spoke.
"...Is this that which you call the 'soul king'?"
The words were said to herself in a whisper.
She looked at the thing enshrined in the center of the palace behind the shinigami.
"Something like that is the root of soul society?"
"Ah, arrancar girl. Can saying such things be permitted?"
At the words of the bald man stroking his beard, Harribel shook her head slowly.
"Right now I am only a defeated soldier. I don't have the right to say anything. However, I've
understood the implications of our former king's hatred for that."
Harribel slipped down from Nelliel's back to stand on her own, turning her back to the shinigami.
"We've caused trouble, haven't we? Someday, I shall repay this debt."
"Ah, good, good. As for that, if Hueco Mundo doesn't cause trouble, that'll be sufficient. In any
case, it's not us you should thank, but Kurosaki Ichigo."
Kyouraku, saying this, sent the arrancars off, and the girls so left the imperial palace.
The male arrancar said "Oh, is that so so my debt to that Kurosaki bastard still isn't paid,
huh?", speaking of a different meaning of 'debt' than Harribel. Hearing this, the ram-horned
arrancar girl said "Settling things with Ichigo when he's injured all over - is that your wish?", in
the same way she had said last time.
"My, my, Ichigo certainly is popular, isn't he? ...Oh?"
Beside Kyouraku who had just muttered that, the monk once again stepped towards the outside
of the palace.
"Where are you going, monk?"
"Well, shouldn't the other members of the zero squad be awakening soon?"
Zero Squad.
These five people, including the monk, said to equal the entire power of the Gotei 13, were the
king's special elite bodyguard division.
Each member was a pioneer who had created such foundational things to the shinigami as the
zanpakutou or shihakushou, and could without a doubt be called the renowned people who had
built up the shinigami's entire history from zero.
But, before Kyouraku had came here, he had heard that all of the Zero Squad's members aside
from the monk had been defeated by Yhwach's subordinates.
But as Kyouraku tilted his head at the word "awakening" the monk immediately answered him.
"It's not just for show that our flesh and blood were made into the ouken. Those of us who were
given royal palaces have had our reiryoku fused with the spiritual pulse surrounding the palace.
As long as it is not completely destroyed, I can bring them back simply by calling their names."
"Then, it would really have been bad if Ichigo had not won, wouldn't it, monk?"
The Royal Palace had temporarily been restructured into "Wahrwelt" by Yhwach.
If Yhwach had remained alive, the last remains of the royal palace would have been destroyed,
and possibly the entire Zero Squad besides the monk would have been annihilated.
"Thus, the Zero Squad can easily meet with death and come back. This is our decided fate.
Well, even so, Ouetsu and the others should be taking their jobs more seriously from now on."
The monk said this airily and looked up to the sky above the soul king palace as he stroked his
beard.
"Because it feels like there are also children who used this battle to cause mischief."
Thus, with the ending of the fighting, the barrier to the soul king palace was once again closed.
In the remains of the battle, a freezing atmosphere could be felt, and the influence of the Soul
King, unchanged from before.
As well as the embers of many disasters.
And possibly
The various "sins" Soul Society had held since its dawning, floating within the heavy reishi.
Prologue 2
In Soul Society, there was a man.
In admiration for the shinigami who had saved his life, he had aimed to walk the same path.
Despite being a Rukongai-born commoner, he had received excelling grades at the Shinou
Academy, and rose from seated officer to lieutenant.
He was faithful to righteous orders, unafraid to get injured for his friends, and would lay down
his life for the sake of the Soul Society.
Furthermore, he was heartless to his enemies, and despite preferring a fair match, would hide
himself in mud to strike down his enemies by surprise for the sake of justice.
Shinigami.
He was one who brought death to his enemies.
He was one who cleansed the dead of this world.
And also, one who changed the 'death' of those living in the material world into 'salvation'.
Undoubtedly, he could be called a template for the shinigami in Soul Society.
For better or worse, he was the embodiment of a 'shinigami of the Gotei 13'.
At what time it was that he had accepted the life of a shinigami, no one can say.
Probably not even Hisagi Shuuhei himself, continuing to walk that path.
And so, the criminal who had defeated Yhwach with Kurosaki Ichigo disappeared into the
darkness.
Aizen's words did not seem to those around them to be far-seeing about the world, and many
shinigami were frowning and unwilling to admit defeat but many captains had kept that
'though he is a man who will lie to deceive you, he is not a man whose words have no meaning'
in a corner of their hearts. [*]
Hisagi was not able to sort out his emotions even at the end, Aizen's words becoming a slow
poison that remained within his heart.
That poison would not distort Hisagi's heart, but would eat at his fate, and in the end lead him
into a single battle.
Or perhaps it was not a poison that Aizen had left, but a fate that he would have inevitably
arrived at as long as he pursued Tousen's path.
Hisagi Shuuhei was not a prophet or all-knowing, and there was no way for him to see his own
fate.
He was not a memorable hero like Kurosaki Ichigo.
He didn't have Zaraki Kenpachi's sheer power,
Urahara Kisuke's intelligence,
Kurotsuchi Mayuri's crafts,
Kuchiki Byakuya's status,
Hitsugaya Toushirou's talent,
Yamamoto Genryuusai's experience
Kyouraku Shunsui's flashiness,
Komamura Sajin's spirit,
Or Muguruma Kensei's valor.
Like at a drinking party when he was saying 'whether to aim to be a captain or to continue being
a lieutenant, there's countless things I'm lacking of' in self-deprivation - a quality not all possess.
[*]
That is, his pride as a shinigami.
Hisagi Shuuhei still didn't know.
That which was the Gotei 13's members' own foundations, in order to protect such a mundane
thing, would become a battle which carried the fate of the world.
He would have to face the truth of this matter only half a year after the end of the war.