Aizen departed, just like that, with absolute composure.
He left behind only the devastated ruins of Sokyoku Hill and an air thick with the stench of scorching.
The towering execution stand of the Sokyoku had long since been reduced to a scattering of splintered wood by the aftershocks of the battle.
This execution ground, a symbol of the Soul Society's order, along with the blood of the Executive Militia and the corpses of Central 46, silently mocked the absurdity of this trial.
Drip.
Whether it was unevaporated moisture from the clouds or blood dripping from someone's body, the sound of it hitting the glass-like, scorched earth was distinctly audible.
"..."
A muffled grunt squeezed out of Asuka's chest.
Turning around, the hideous patterns on his skin, formed from the condensation of absolute malice, peeled away and dissipated with his movements.
He took a step, his pace quickening, as if he had already decided his exact destination from the very beginning.
Even though the receding tide of his limit-breaking Spiritual Power left him with a wave of dizziness, it did not deter his resolute advance.
He did not look at the fallen Executive Militia members on the ground, nor did he pay any mind to Ichigo Kurosaki, who had just been fighting alongside him. He certainly did not care about the recently rescued Rukia Kuchiki nearby.
Asuka's gaze remained entirely fixated on a single, petite figure.
At the edge of the battlefield, Shinobu Kocho stood in a daze.
Her medical kit had overturned on the ground, shattering various precious potions, but she paid it no mind.
She simply stood there, her hands clutching the fabric over her chest in a death grip.
It was as if this was the only way she could suppress the heart that felt ready to leap out of her chest.
Eighty-eight years.
Almost the entire lifespan of an ordinary human.
Even for Soul Reapers with their extended lifespans, this had been an agonizingly long expedition.
And now, this expedition had finally reached its end.
"Asuka..."
Shinobu's lips trembled as she let out a faint call.
The next second, she dropped her Zanpakuto and stumbled forward to meet him.
The wind blew past their ears, stirring up distant memories.
Ten steps.
Asuka still remembered the day he first made a promise to Shinobu.
Back then, he was consumed only by hatred and fury, completely ignorant of normal human emotions.
That was the first time he vaguely realized there were things worth caring about beyond revenge.
Five steps.
Poison.
Shinobu stumbled, yet her gaze was incredibly resolute.
She remembered that snowy night when she was injured by Doma, lying on her sickbed at death's door, waiting to become the final dose of poison to kill him...
...when he stood before her bed and told her that her sister's death had finally been avenged...
The heavy shackles finally shattered, and a sense of liberation she thought she would never experience again welled up in her heart.
It was from that moment on that she truly reverted to being Shinobu Kocho, rather than the hollow facade of the Insect Hashira.
Three steps.
Both of them simultaneously thought of the night of the fireworks festival.
Even the usually dense Asuka couldn't help but feel a prickle in his nose, while Shinobu's eyes grew completely red.
The dazzling fireworks bloomed brilliantly in their minds.
When there was only one step left between them, Asuka suddenly stopped in his tracks.
Carried by her momentum, Shinobu crashed directly into his embrace.
Asuka reached out with his bloodstained and dust-covered arms, tightly wrapping them around her trembling, petite frame.
He held her so tightly, as if she would vanish from his world again if he loosened his grip even the slightest bit.
"Shinobu."
Asuka looked down into those tear-filled purple eyes.
"I'm home."
A simple phrase, yet it carried the weight of a mountain.
"Waaah!!!"
Shinobu no longer cared about her composure as a Seated Officer of the Fourth Division, nor did she care about the many people watching them.
The string she had kept so carefully and cautiously taut, walking on thin ice all this time...
...finally snapped.
She buried her face in Asuka's bloodstained chest, her hands digging fiercely into his back as she wailed aloud.
"You massive idiot who only knows how to make girls cry!"
"Why were you gone for so long... Why did you make me wait so long again..."
"Every time I thought I found a clue, every single time... it was a dead end..."
"Even that shady merchant Urahara was about to give up... I thought you were never coming back!"
Her fists pounded against Asuka, but to his thoroughly tempered body, there was no pain whatsoever.
However, hearing these words left a bitter taste in Asuka's heart.
'Yeah, year after year, it had been eighty-eight years...'
'I can't even begin to imagine how Shinobu endured all those days.'
He silently bore her venting, letting her tears and snot rub all over him.
It wasn't until her cries gradually quieted down into muffled sobs...
...that Asuka gently stroked the short hair at the back of her head. "I'm sorry."
"It won't happen again."
It wasn't some romantic sweet nothing, nor did it count as a formal confession.
The relationship between them had perhaps long since surpassed the stage of needing to be built on flowery rhetoric.
The paper-thin veil between them had actually been as delicate as a cicada's wing for a long time; neither of them had simply bothered to pierce it.
Both of them knew.
In this world, they were the only ones who could truly understand each other, the only true soulmates.
Shinobu pressed her face against Asuka's chest. Listening to his steady and powerful heartbeat gave her an unprecedented sense of security...
But at the same time, she clenched her fists tightly.
"Aizen... took Nichika away..."
She choked on her words, her voice full of self-blame. "I'm sorry, Asuka... I couldn't protect her... I'm a failure of an older sister..."
'Nichika...' Asuka recalled the name.
'She was Kagaya's daughter, wasn't she...'
'To think that little girl had ended up here too... No wonder Shinobu tried so desperately to make her stay earlier, and cried so heartbreakingly...'
Asuka patted Shinobu's back and comforted her.
"That wasn't your fault."
"I was late... I didn't make it in time to tell you Aizen's true colors..."
"He had been planning this for a long time. You couldn't have stopped him."
He slightly loosened his embrace and looked at Shinobu's tear-stained face, reaching out with a rough thumb to clumsily wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes.
"Stop crying, or your vision will get blurry again."
Asuka forced a comforting smile. "I promise, I'll bring that runaway little brat back... and I'll make Aizen pay for all the grievances you've suffered, with interest."
Looking at his somewhat comical face from forcing a smile, Shinobu couldn't help but laugh through her tears.
"Idiot..."
She sniffled and reached out with both hands, cupping Asuka's cheeks.
She didn't mind the lingering black patterns on his face that hadn't fully faded, nor did she care about the fierce glint that had yet to dissipate from his eyes.
She just looked deeply at his face, as if trying to carve every subtle expression of his into her eyes.
After a long time, Shinobu finally spoke again.
"Welcome back, Mr. Asuka."