From the moment he agreed to Kuchiki Byakuya's request and accepted Kuchiki Rukia into the squad, Jushiro Ukitake had already begun to view her as a member of the Thirteenth Division.
However, as a Captain, he could not personally look after her, lest it provoke even more resentment from others toward her.
At this moment, his heart was slightly uneasy because Suo Tsukasa was also a Shinigami who originated from the Rukongai. He feared that his words might make Suo Tsukasa feel uncomfortable, and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret.
Words once spoken are hard to take back; Jushiro Ukitake had only realized this layer of meaning after he finished speaking.
In the next moment, Suo Tsukasa's words made him doubt his own ears.
"Rukia? I know her. Captain, you can rest easy."
Having received a definitive answer, Suo Tsukasa also perceived the Captain's worries and concerns. He no longer kept it hidden and replied with a smile.
"Ah, really? That's wonderful!"
"Tsukasa, I'll leave it to you!"
Unexpectedly finding such a pleasant surprise, Jushiro Ukitake's spirits immediately lifted. He didn't ask how they knew each other; his eyes flashed with delight as he solemnly patted Suo Tsukasa on the shoulder.
"Understood."
"Captain, if there is nothing else, I shall take my leave. Please get some rest."
Suo Tsukasa nodded in agreement, stood up, bowed, and excused himself.
"Very well."
The sliding paper door of the main house opened and closed, and Suo Tsukasa's figure gradually receded into the distance.
Jushiro Ukitake sat quietly in his spot, his gaze lingering in the direction Suo Tsukasa had departed, a gentle smile appearing in his eyes.
Calmness, vitality, a spirited smile, and excellent leadership skills.
As a Captain, he could demand of himself to treat every member of the division equally, but that did not prevent his heart from admiring and liking Suo Tsukasa.
"Sigh—"
Withdrawing his gaze, Jushiro Ukitake looked down at his pale palm.
As the Captain of the Thirteenth Division, it was naturally his duty to manage the division's affairs, and nurturing division members was also part of his responsibility.
When Tsukasa joined the division, Ukitake had seen his file—his scores in Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, and Kidō were all excellent, along with praising remarks from his instructors. It was then that Ukitake had entertained the thought of personally cultivating and guiding him.
With his current body, eroded by illness, the daily review of documents already left him somewhat overwhelmed; tasks like training a junior were even more difficult for him.
It had taken him several months just to pick up a brush and add annotations to a Kidō book.
Thinking of this, Jushiro Ukitake let out a deep sigh, filled with the melancholy of being unable to do as much as he wished.
He pondered for a moment.
Suddenly, an idea seemed to strike him. He picked up a brush and paper and began to write.
"Presented respectfully—"
Retracting the brush tip, he checked the wording repeatedly before calling an attendant to take the letter away and send it.
Suo Tsukasa could not currently appreciate his Captain's complex and indescribable state of mind.
Cradling the book in his arms, his steps were light. His fingertips pressed against the thick cover of the volume, and the corners of his lips curled up involuntarily.
At this very moment, he felt like bursting into a passionate song. But thinking about his public persona in front of the other squad members, he decided against it to avoid social death.
"Third Seat Suo, good evening."
On the way back to the dorms, many squad members stopped to pay their respects upon seeing him. However, Suo Tsukasa merely nodded in response, his pace never slowing as he flashed past everyone.
Once his figure had rapidly disappeared into the distance, several squad members staying behind couldn't help but huddle together and whisper.
"Say, what's up with Third Seat Suo?"
Normally, they had never seen Suo Tsukasa walk like that. He usually responded to their daily greetings, and if they were lucky, they could even ask him for a bit of guidance or pointers. Seeing him in this strange state today was a first.
At that moment, a sharp-eyed member's eyes lit up as he proposed a theory.
"No idea, but he looked very happy. Since he's coming back from the Captain's place, he probably received a commendation."
"And because he stayed too long, he's hungry! If he doesn't get to the canteen soon, there won't be any food left, so that's why he's moving so fast!"
"Oh! So that's it. Makes sense. You're good!"
The others nodded one after another, finding the deduction reasonable and offering their praise.
The squad member's guess, while not exactly on the mark, wasn't far off.
Suo Tsukasa, having eaten a plate of ohagi at Ugendo, wasn't actually that hungry. With something on his mind, he didn't feel like cooking for himself today.
After finishing dinner at the canteen, Suo Tsukasa returned to his courtyard without stopping. He pushed open the door and turned on the lights.
Thanks to his mission bonuses and connections, his room was no longer as simple and austere as when he first joined. Exquisite chandeliers, a comfortable sofa, a convenient refrigerator—if it existed in the Seireitei, he had arranged it for himself, fully stepping into a comfortable middle-class life.
On the sofa, Suo Tsukasa reclined and impatiently flipped open the book.
In addition to the originally printed text, many small words were meticulously written on the margins; he knew these were gifts from the Captain's heart.
His gaze didn't linger too much, skipping over the parts he was already familiar with, and began to focus on searching through the high-level Hado.
Suddenly, Suo Tsukasa paused.
His fingertip stopped at the corner of a page, and the large characters of the title instantly locked onto his vision.
"Hadō No. 90: Kurohitsugi (Black Coffin)."
In the next second, the scene of him raising a finger to the sky while a pitch-black sarcophagus rose from the ground flashed through his mind. He couldn't help but marvel.
"This is so cool!"
Carefully reading the text and annotations on the page, a burning brilliance ignited in the depths of his eyes.
If anyone were to ask him what Kidō he wanted to learn most, there had only ever been one answer: Kurohitsugi!
It had to be Kurohitsugi! It must be Kurohitsugi!
Even if it wasn't the highest-numbered Hadō, and even if there were even more profound Ura-Kidō, nothing could shake Suo Tsukasa's love for it.
From the day he mastered the basic spiritual energy orb, this desire had been buried deep in his heart. At the Shin'ō Academy, he had only learned Hadō below No. 60; No. 90 was something incredibly out of reach for him.
Taking on Hollow extermination missions, aside from completing his own goals, was also partly driven by the thought of accumulating enough merit to exchange for the chance to learn Kurohitsugi. He hadn't expected his wish to be realized so quickly.
"Captain Ukitake, long live!"
With a surge of deep gratitude for his Captain, Suo Tsukasa began to carefully read the incantation and techniques of the Kurohitsugi spell.
A long while later, Suo Tsukasa closed the book, and his expression calmed down.
It wasn't that he couldn't learn it, nor was it that he lacked the strength to cast it. Use it, and use it repeatedly—the way to cultivate Kidō was just that plain and simple.
As long as one could understand the spell and precisely control the release of one's spiritual pressure. From one-thousandth to one-hundredth, from one-hundredth to one-tenth, until finally mastering the Kidō completely.
However, Suo Tsukasa currently faced a very awkward problem: the location for practice.
The Seireitei strictly forbid Shinigami of seated officer rank and above from releasing their Zanpakutō in daily life because it could easily cause significant damage to the architecture. By the same token, the release of high-level Hadō for practice was also prohibited.
Forget Kurohitsugi; if he were to fire off a No. 63 Raikōhō in the Seireitei and blast through a few walls, his name would be on the Stealth Force's capture list the very next second.
But the Kurohitsugi he had longed for was right in front of him, and he couldn't quite restrain the urge in his heart.
Right now, what Suo Tsukasa lacked was a place where he could legally practice Kidō within the Seireitei.
The awkward part was that while there were many Hollow extermination tasks, there weren't actually that many missions that required him to lead a team out. According to the past frequency of deployment, it would be at least ten days to half a month, and while out on a mission, it wasn't convenient for him to perform personal cultivation.
Suo Tsukasa looked at the ceiling light, a faint shimmer in his dark eyes.
With no mission at hand and no leave, he couldn't leave the Seireitei recently.
He was so anxious! He really wanted to try casting Kurohitsugi as soon as possible.
"Whew—"
But reality was cruel. He took a deep breath to suppress the thoughts in his mind. Closing the book, Suo Tsukasa began his nightly cultivation practice.