New Resolve

This article, , is the final chapter of the opening arc of Bleach: Cataclysm. It features Kentaro Hiroshi as the POV character with Kensei Muguruma as primary support, with Akiye featuring.

The events of the day had drained Kentaro enough that he was close to sleeping whilst sitting in his chair. He had to shake himself and rub his eyes a number of times but try as he might he couldn't stave off the exhaustion he felt. His head slumped against his tabletop and sleep took hold of him, and in short order he was dreaming...

Horiwari was whole and bustling. Merchants filled the Lower Heights and Docks, selling their wares and shouting their offers. Kentaro was a child again, dressed in his black one-piece outfit, with an assortment of bands on his arms. It was just after he had returned from freeing Akiye from the Imawashi, so many years ago. He paid for a piece of fruit and sank his teeth into it, the juice running down his chin.

Then the scenery changed.

He was older now, dressed in a grey-coloured high-necked short-sleeved shirt with black trousers and sandals. Horiwari was caught in a storm; rain fell in horizontal sheets, thunder roared overhead, and lightning flashed in the sky above. A gravestone stood out against the backdrop that read “Here Lies Yoshiro Kazuki, Devoted Husband and Father”. People surrounded the tombstone, including Yoshiro's daugter, Harumi.

Somehow he realized he was dreaming. His heart rate increased and the scenes began to blur, until two tombstones appeared beside Yoshiro's, reading “Here Lies Momoko and Harumi, Beloved Wife and Daughter”.

He wanted to wake up. He wanted to stop coming back here. He knew what was coming and screamed!

He saw people running in every direction imaginable, knocking over carts and stalls in an attempt to get away. It didn't matter where; they just wanted away. Kentaro was older again; close to the age he was now. He saw his reflection in a puddle and saw the same fear and uncertainty he remembered feeling back then. A bolt of lightning illuminated the heavens and in that brief moment of illumination the reflection not only held his face, but those whose lives had come to an abrupt end during the Collapse. Riki, Jinta, Hzarumi, Ashni, and Rika stood with accusatory expressions, but none haunted him as much as his mother, Ino, and brothers Shinrei, Hotaru and Akira. They turned their backs on him and vanished.

Kentaro reached his hand out to to stop them, to explain, but grasped nothing but air! It was then he awoke with a jump, his hand extended outward, grasping at the darkness.

“What do you want from me!?”

He cried.

His sadness soon turned to anger however and all the old feelings he once felt as a child came to the surface, causing him to split his desk down the middle with his closed fist! The wood exploded into fragments close to the strike-zone, with the two halves flying to either side of the room to crash against the walls. He then screamed; it was a wail of unbound rage and heart-wrenching sadness. When he stopped he was drained for the second time, but instead of putting his head down to rest he pulled on his black coat and stepping out into the dark of night.

He wandered for a time until he saw light in the distance. He closed the distance in a near-daze and stumbled into the training ground, which had long ago drained of students. Only the man affectionately referred to as the Drill Instructor remained. Kensei was winding down his exercises when Kentaro chanced upon him, which led the elder Shinigami to stop and look at him.

“Kentaro,” he greeted.

“Huh? Oh, Kensei. Hello.”

“You okay?”

“No, but I'll get by. Sorry for disturbing you.”

“Whatever. But you're here now so we might as well kill some time.”

Although he was drained Kentaro reacted despite his fatigue, slapping aside Kensei's punch with a palm strike. He then retreated as the older Shinigami pressed his attack, first with jabs and kicks, then combinations of the two. Kentaro dodged to the side.

“If you wanted to dance all you had to was ask...!”

They fought for about ten minutes before the last vestiges of Kentaro's reserves left him, causing him to slump to his knees before Kensei, who stopped his fist short of caving Kentaro's face in. Instead he hauled the young man to his feet and guided him to a nearby seat on the outskirts of the ring.

“I didn't see what happened during the Collapse,. Kensei began, not in an uncaring tone. “But I heard it was terrible; the death-toll alone was ridiculous. But you did all you could. Your brothers? Your mother? That wasn't your fault.”

“... How do you get over something like that?” Kentaro asked, in a defeated tone.

“You swear to do better next time.” Kensei answered. “You'll never get over it; it will stay with you forever. But you can decide to own your mistakes and learn from them, so you don't repeat them again. Trust me, kid. It gets better.”

He hauled Kentaro to his feet.

“For now, however, you need rest. That display was sluggish, unrefined. Sloppy! I expect better next time.”

“Yes, sir!”

As Kensei walked off into the night Kentaro silently thanked the veteran Shinigami. Perhaps Kensei had mellowed a little as he got older? He certainly wouldn't have reacted that way in the past. For now though Kentaro walked home. Akiye was lying in their bed when he got back. She stirred as he settled in beside her.

“I didn't expect you back tonight.” She admitted.

“... I had a talk with Kensei.” Kentaro admitted. “He helped me realize something. I did all I could to save you and Kay during the Collapse, but I left my brothers and friends behind. In the back of my mind I knew I couldn't save everyone, but I did what I could. That was my decision; I need to live with that, own that decision and accept it. The sooner I realize that the easier my life becomes.”

“I'm happy to hear that.”

He kissed her before settling in to sleep.

“Somehow I think I'll sleep easy tonight.”

And he did. The world he was in now wasn't ideal but it was what he had been dealt. He hadn't caused the Collapse and he certainly didn't bring back the Imawashi, but one thing was clear to him now. He could life his live to the fullest. That would be his atonement.

The only dreams he had that night where of his happier things. He sat in his home, with his family around him, his friends and loved ones alive and well, playing poker and drinking beer into the early hours of the morning... and when he woke the next morning he was refreshed, with a whole new resolve.

“Good boy.” He heard in his head, the voice of his father. ''“Live your life to its fullest. I'm not there physically, but I'll be watching over you, my son.”''

“... Look after yourself... dad.”