Stepping outside the room... oh my, a full moon.
The moon is beautiful.
'Ah, my Liege!! Confessing so suddenly... it is embarrassing to be gossiped about by friends!!'
Should I reply with "I could die happy" to that?
In the first place, there is no clear evidence that Soseki actually said that.
'As for me, rather than "I could die happy," if you replied with "No wa\~y \<3 Because the moon is watching..." or something like that, I would make great progress but...'
That's already going past "I Love You"! That's not it!!
It was around evening when I was talking to Isane, but now it's already night! I wanted to say that travel and treatment consumed plenty of time, and before I knew it, it was this late!!
...Ahem.
As expected of the Kuchiki family.
Walking a little down the hallway, there was a magnificent dry landscape garden (Karesansui) in the yard.
Patterns were finely drawn with firm broom marks, and I feel tremendous craftsmanship.
This kind of thing is nice. Gardens colored with trees and flowers are nice too, but infinite expressions are made just with stones, sand, and moss.
Ah, just looking at it calms my heart...
"Vice Captain Yukawa? What exactly is this talk...?"
Ah, my heart, which should have become quiet, suddenly became rough.
"Vice Captain Kuchiki... has Hisana-san rested properly?"
"Yes, she must have been quite tired. She is fast asleep. What about it?"
"That is good."
Then, there is no worry of being heard.
I stand next to Byakuya and smile brightly.
"Byakuya Kuchiki... clench your teeeth!!"
"Guaah!?"
I punched him abruptly. With a fist, with all my might.
Punched while off guard, Byakuya naturally flew away... wait, aaah!! Idiot! Don't fly into the garden!! Aaah!! The patterns!! The dry landscape garden is collapsing!!
"Wha... w-what exactly...!!?"
"Don't give me 'what'!!"
I also chase Byakuya down into the garden, grab the fallen Byakuya by the collar, and pull him up.
—Aaaaaaaah!! I stepped on the dry landscape garden!! Even though I didn't want to destroy this work of art!! Don't make me destroy it!!
'I don't want to shoot, don't make me shoot!!'
"It's about Hisana-san! Why, why did you leave her alone until she became like that!?"
As an aside, there is a height difference of about ○○cm between Byakuya and me. I am taller.
On the day such a me grabs Byakuya by the collar and lifts him up, well, it becomes a picture like being in the middle of a shakedown.
...I feel like I said something like this before. The men of the world are small.
"She is from Rukongai! You knew without being told that bringing her into the nobility would cause a mountain of problems, didn't you!! There should have been plenty of ways to avoid it!"
For example.
Adopt Hisana-san into some friendly noble family and make her a noble on the family register. Then Byakuya welcomes her as a bride.
Laundering not money, but the family register.
If you do that, nominally it's a marriage between respectable nobles, so at least it won't cause friction... though unnecessary ties might be attached.
Still, it should have been a hundred times better than honestly announcing "My wife is actually a lowest-class citizen from Rukongai."
Byakuya should have known that too.
"Yet you didn't do that! You understood you would be looked at with cold eyes, yet you brought out the fact that she was from Rukongai into the open, didn't you!? Because you really loved her, you didn't want to use any unnecessary tricks and wanted to love her as she was, right!?"
"That is..."
"Then show me enough backbone to die for that resolve!! Because it's the rules!? Because they tampered with things!? Is that why you were standing by idly until now!? Feed such a worthless reason to a stray dog!!"
"B-But...!!"
"What 'but'!!"
If I punch him one more time, Byakuya will fly away and—
Ah, wait!! The gravel!! The gravel!! It's a huge problem just that the pattern collapsed!!
Because of the impact of crashing into the ground, the stones! The stones chipped!!
Aaaaaaa!! Even though the sizes were aligned so beautifully!!
Because he got cut on the face from being punched, there's blood!! Don't drip blood!! The beautiful stones will get stained with a weird color!!
Eh? Are you asking if I'm worried about Byakuya?
...Why?
Injuries of this level heal even if you do nothing, you know? Rather, why is he injured by this level...??
But stones don't heal naturally even if broken!?
The beautiful garden collapsed, didn't it!!
Ah... the gardener's masterpiece... how should I apologize...
Right, it's all Byakuya's fault.
"It's not... it's not such a simple story!!"
Oh, I thought he stood up, and he got angry. Just like that, he grabbed me... so don't run!! The dry landscape garden aaahhhhh!!
"If a member of the Kuchiki family, if I do not follow the rules, no one will follow the rules!! If I do not become a model, I cannot face my parents!!"
"I don't care about that even more!!"
I twist up the hand that grabbed me in reverse, and incidentally deliver a headbutt.
...Honestly, that blow just now was unnecessary.
Well, whatever. Such an opportunity probably won't come again. A commemoration, a commemoration.
"Gu... ah..."
"...At least, your father—Vice Captain Sojun, didn't say he wanted his child to observe the rules even if it meant killing his heart..."
"...Tch!!"
Ooh ooh, he's surprised.
"As a member of the Kuchiki family, I want you to follow the rules. But more than that, I want you to be happy. I want you to live regardless of such things. He said that."
"L-Lie...!"
"It's not a lie."
Because it's a story I actually heard.
If anything, I am older than your grandfather.
If it's just age, I can beat you back even if grandfather, father, and son do a triangle attack.
'Athos! Porthos! Aramis! We will execute a Jet Stream Attack!!'
Who are you... ah, d'Artagnan huh.
The Three Musketeers, they are nice. So romantic...
"Vice Captain Sojun had a weak body, you see. He came to Squad 4 several times, and at those times we talked... like complaints, but I became his conversation partner. At that time, it slipped out, you know."
"Impossible... that, Father... he never said such things to me..."
"Sojun-san had his position too, and there are things hard to say to family. There are things you can say because it's a stranger, right?"
Oops, strength drained from Byakuya's body all at once.
It seems he can't believe various things.
"About Hisana-san, you were troubled too, weren't you? But because you swore to follow the rules, you couldn't move. You can't break an oath so easily—is that about it?"
"Yes, it is... exactly..."
"But you also wanted to save Hisana-san. So, by attaching the reason that asking me personally wouldn't constitute breaking the rules or oath because it's okay, you were finally able to move, right?"
"Yes..."
"Driving your most beloved to the brink of death, and the conclusion you reached after worrying that much was a method to save her even by finding a loophole—then, that is the truth within you. Isn't that what you really wanted?"
Byakuya, who had been hanging his head weakly until now, suddenly raised his face and looked into my eyes.
"That is, my truth... what I really desired..."
"You don't want to lose Hisana-san, you want to be together—though you took a stupidly roundabout way just to realize only that."
Really, I wanted him to realize it sooner...
If it were about two months earlier, Captain Unohana or Isane could have managed somehow. If it were another month earlier, maybe it would have been impossible without relying on former Vice Captain Seinosuke.
Even though it was such a dangerous state, he delayed and delayed until today.
It sounds arrogant, but if not for me and Nubatama, parting by death would have been completely unavoidable.
'I really love my Liege who properly puts out her own name in these parts.'
Yes, yes, I love you too.
"Vice Captain Yukawa... I... myself, what should I have done...? Standing at the head of all Shinigami, showing that I follow the rules... was that thought a mistake...?"
I don't know.
...It would be easy if I could say that.
"Well, who knows. Answers aren't things that come out so easily—you understood that firsthand, didn't you?"
"Haha... certainly..."
He is stroking the cheek I punched as if it hurts.
...It shouldn't have been that strong though?
With a blow of that level, I couldn't stop Captain Zaraki even half a step.
"Well, if I were to state my opinion—I think rules have no meaning if you just follow them."
"What do you mean by that...!?"
"There are rules. If you break them, there are penalties. So you follow them—not that. Why are there those rules? Why were those rules established? Why did they want to make people follow the rules even by setting penalties? Shouldn't you think about the feelings behind the established rules?"
Not following them because you'll receive a fine or prison sentence, but showing the ideal of how they want people to live by following them.
The basics of rules are all like that, right.
"The feelings put into the rules..."
"Also, various things change as time passes. Thoughts, culture, and common sense. Then, shouldn't you just change old rules that don't fit the present? At least the Kuchiki family seems capable of doing that."
"That is... not impossible, but it seems adjustments with other great noble families will be necessary."
Ah, as expected, there are troublesome exchanges between nobles.
...Ridiculous.
"I just said it, so I'm not asking for that much. What you absolutely must do now is be by Hisana-san's side. And shoulder her suffering together."
"This, the wound...?"
"Because I punched you. It's the least I can do as an apology."
While surprised, he strokes the punched part over and over to confirm the state.
Because it's a wound I inflicted, healing it doesn't take even an instant.
"I will excuse myself for today with this. I will visit again in a week to see her condition."
"For everything... thank you very much...!"
"Also, if her condition changes suddenly again while I'm gone, please have Seinosuke Yamada-san of the Mao Relief Station examine her. If it's that person, he will keep her alive even out of stubbornness. If you mention my name too, it will probably be fine."
After all, his hobby is "forcibly keeping those who want to die alive."
In a sense, he is suitable.
Haa... even so...
Whether it's unknown trouble or known trouble, I'm already full!!
I hate this... I'm going to eat soba at Tankaho-san's place and go home...
I'll contribute to sales...
-----
Yukawa leaves the Kuchiki house.
While gazing at her back, Byakuya was ruminating on what she said alone.
"Feed the rules to stray dogs, huh... Certainly, that might be exactly right..."
It was a shock as if all the values he believed in until then were rewritten.
His figure standing still in the garden looks so small one wouldn't think he is the head of a great noble family.
"There should have been any number of ways to do it... Not doing so was my negligence, I suppose..."
The cold pouring down from the winter night sky and the hard sensation of stones transmitted from the soles of his feet torment his body.
But Byakuya thought this was fine.
This much is natural. Because until now, he had been causing her hardships incomparable to this level.
"Start from what I can do... For the current me, that is the best I can do."
"...Ngh...?"
Hisana Kuchiki slowly opened her eyes.
There, she finally realized that she had been sleeping until now.
Next, she begins to recall what she had been doing until now.
She received treatment from Yukawa, it became a long haul, and she fell asleep.
Outside is dark, and signs of night are drifting in, so she must have kept sleeping for several hours. Moonlight is shining in from beyond the shoji, and the full moon is faintly casting its shadow.
And—
"Are you awake?"
"Lord... Byakuya...!?"
Suddenly called out to, she moved her gaze and was surprised.
There was Byakuya Kuchiki. Sitting in seiza next to her, he is gazing at Hisana with incredibly gentle eyes.
There, Hisana finally realized. Her right hand is very warm.
"Ah... my hand... why?"
"A, Ah, this is... um..."
Completely different from the usual, calm and composed Byakuya. Flustered like a child whose mischief was found, Byakuya begins to speak embarrassedly.
"I was told that being by Hisana's side is what I can do right now. This hand, um... I heard that holding it brings relief... so..."
"Eh...? Fufu, was that so... Thank you very much. I felt very calm."
"A, Ah... you are, welcome..."
"...Ufufufu..."
If Yukawa were here, she would have complained, "Being by her side... isn't wrong, but it doesn't mean that..."
At the exchange that was too clumsy, Hisana involuntarily burst out laughing.
Seeing that, Byakuya also showed an elegant smile without voicing it.
"It is strange... Before falling asleep I was in such pain, but now my body is light like a lie... and I can laugh together with Lord Byakuya like this... Lord Byakuya, is Hisana perhaps still dreaming...?"
"No, it is not a dream or anything. I hear complete recovery will still take time, but Lady Yukawa certainly cured your illness."
The title changed to Yukawa "Dono" (Lady) without him knowing.
That is because Byakuya paid maximum respect to his benefactor.
"Ah, as I thought, it was not a dream... Lord Byakuya, if this body heals, I can go look for my sister again, right..."
"No, that is forbidden!"
"...Eh?"
Surprised at being refused, Hisana involuntarily stares at Byakuya's face.
But that might be natural. She went looking for her sister, pushed herself too hard, and fell ill. Then it's natural she won't be allowed to go out ever again.
Just when she was about to give up like that.
"Hisana... Your sister means she is a sister to me too. Even if we are not related by blood, even if she is from Rukongai, it does not matter. She is already family. Since you are going to look for that family, naturally I will go too! Even if you say no!"
"Lord, Byakuya...!?"
"Let us search for the unseen sister together! And I will remove your suffering!!"
"Thank you... very much... Hisana is happy."
Feeling reliable in the figure of Byakuya who was very clumsy, but very earnest and very, very warm, she smiled gently.
"Hey, Lord Byakuya..."
"What is it...?"
"The moon is beautiful, isn't it?"
"Ah... indeed."
The moonlight was gently wrapping around the new departure of a couple.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]