5-2...

Hey.

You really went overboard. Did you actually think you could win?

I don't know. It's just that, it's got to be me. Otherwise Hikone will die.

It makes no sense for me to leave the fighting to somebody else while also asking them to hold back so Hikone won't die.

Ha! Are you trying to be a hero or something? Do you think you'll turn out like Muguruma when he saved you back when you were a kid?

Do you think you can be like Kaname Tosen when he saved a frightened loser like you?

You don't get it. I just...got involved with Hikone. Things have changed.

Besides, I can't just leave a kid who doesn't even know how to cry to fend for himself.

And I also just had a feeling that I'd be able to talk with you, like this.

Don't go getting yourself cut in half over some vague feeling.

You've had a rough time up until now, right? You wanted to be a Soul Reaper, but you weren't sure how to go about it.

That's why you were hell-bent on becoming the perfect Soul Reaper and you struggled desperately to learn every last thing exactly by the book.

Well, this is the result.

You have finally subdued me.

What?

I'm not at the level of White or Nozarashi, but I'm unique in my own right.

I'm more like a shadow than any of the other Asauchi.

You looked up to Soul Reapers and wanted to become a perfect one yourself, so a part of me took on that form.

A form that harvests lives, you see.

Huh?

I'm your shadow. You accepted everything about yourself. What's on the surface and what's underneath it, along with everything else. And then you followed your own soul and put your life on the line.

You asserted control over every aspect of your being, including me.

I have to ask you if you're actually prepared for it, though.

That's why I've appeared to you in a form that's easy for you to talk to.

Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't understand you until now.

I offer it to you. My blood, and my life.

So in turn, if you're saying you're my shadow, lend me your strength.

Life is not only about living. Similarly, you don't have to die or kill to give others life.

"Life" includes even death, and your "blood" is like an oil that slowly burns away.

Money, duty, pride...even that thing you call fear... Put everything you feel into my blade. I'll take it all.

Manipulating life and death of your own free will. That's what it means to be a Soul Reaper, right?

............