Inheritance -closed-

Why was it that I’d come so far? Was this really all life had in store? From the moment of my conception it seemed to be the will of the gods that I, Kiyohara Kosuke, would be destined for great things. The Ryuugamine had taken me from the streets, from the slums, allowing me to become something greater than anything I could have been had I stayed in the 70th, but my final curtain was closing.

The rough taste of blood filled my taste buds while I lay defenseless. Eyes had narrowed to slits, simply staring up at my opposition who had both begun to walk away from me; to where I hadn’t a clue. Maybe they were walking away together with the knowledge that they’d crumble to nothingness with my demise. Two of the fiercest foes I’d ever face dealt me the single biggest defeat of my life, the cost being my life.

Images flashed before my sight as I struggled to watch the two spirits as they strolled away. Nothing moved at normal speed in this near-death state for my final moments were upon me. I accepted death. I’d been one of the Shinigami incapable of reaching the next level of strength, unable to unleash to the true form of my soul. I was a complete and utter failure. I was nothing.

Don't think like that. Her voice, neither mocking nor soothing, sounded in the depths of my psyche. You were overconfident in your abilities for besting a bunch of third and fourth seats, but when it was time to face real opponents you crumbled. How pitiful you are little Kiyohara, unfit for the title of Ryuugamine.

Words spewed forth like venom. Regret pumped through my blood, mingling with sorrow and fear. In my final moments she’d kick me beyond my defeat, shatter my soul to pieces. Why did she have to wear the mask of my mother?

The Seireitei will crumble and you will stay beneath the 70th district ruins. No one will even know what had become of Ryuugamine Kosuke the fearful Gobantai fukutaicho. Your life was for not, you were nothing, you are unfit to wield me and as such you shall waste away where no soul can see you.

The Seireitei shall not fall.

I could barely make out their figures now, but the shadows had ceased movement, that much I was certain. There was no way in hell I’d allow the captain commander to continue her rule over the Shinigami who worked so hard to live. The Shinigami who fought diligently while she lay back and watched them be slain by their enemies. I wouldn’t allow them to remain under the rule of the woman who’d readily sever the arm of her soldier while Quincy scum rained hell upon the living.

I rose~

Energy pumped from my being as I struggled to rise to a knee, my blade having deconstructed to its unreleased form. Reishi poured from my existence, kicking back up the winds with ten times the force of before. Blackness filled the sky over head as lightning cackled like a hyena through the meadow. This would not be my final resting place and even if it was then I wouldn’t spend it milling about on the ground like a wretch. I took my stance in an all or nothing bet. Either I’d die here or I’d die outside, but I wouldn’t waste my last breaths on the ground. Lightning ripped through the clearing as I charged, my spirits doing the same. I wouldn’t hold back a single strand of power, putting forth every last bit of my soul into one final slash at the two of my enemies.

I closed my eyes, the power behind my resolve quaking the ends of my inner world.