TZC: Raise Your Head
Izuru stood in the middle of his division’s training ground and lifted his face to the sky. It was finally over. Oh, Capt-Gin was long dead and the war long over, but he hadn’t been able to move past the pain of it all until recently. He hadn’t been able to move, period, until he’d stopped trying to do it alone.
Are you ready, Wabisuke?
Of course. I await only your call.
Izuru was about to respond to his zanpakutou, his partner, the one who’d shown him the way home in the end, when Renji’s voice rang out behind him.
Oi! Captain Kira! We sparrin’ or are we sparrin’?
Izuru smiled. He called out his shikai release and for the first time-for the very first time-he didn’t hear it as an admonishment.
Raise your head, Wabisuke!