#{ kota vc: sometimes i wonder... are we the baddies

[windstormwielding]

@catnippp​ said via Send 💭 + a topic and my muse will tell you what they think about it (accepting!):

💭+Quincies/Espada after the wars

“Goodness... where do I even begin with those?”

A mildly apprehensive Kōtarō couldn’t help but crane his head back a little, chin resting between thumb and curled index after he set down his cup of hot ginger tea. Eyes closed for a few moments so he could concentrate on his answer in relative silence… and with the additional comfort of guaranteed anonymity from the man with the bucket hat sitting across the low table, he was free to speak his mind without judgement or persecution.

When one of his men brought up the topic of Aizen a few days ago, his answer came with a straightforward explanation of his own distaste toward the turncoat with godly ambitions, a common opinion shared among many shinigami within the Gotei 13.

But the Espada and the Quincy, on the other hand… Just sharing his honest opinions on either group would take some time for him to elaborate freely, but both at once? That would take the 13th’s lieutenant a hot minute and a half to properly compile his thoughts.

Then again, there’s some benefit to speaking off the cuff—no second-guessing, just throwing out the first things that come to mind. Ten years still gave him plenty of time to think, even between restoration efforts within the Seireitei, and boy does he have a lot on his mind on these.

Might as well begin with the easy one?

“I guess I’ll start with the Espada. A group of already ultra-powerful Menos-class hollows whose transitions into Arrancar were heightened by the Hōgyoku… and were recruited or coerced into working under Aizen,” Kōta began. “As things currently stand now, I don’t have any particularly strong feelings on the Espada… I’ve said it once before already, but I really don’t think Arrancar are inherently evil. Heck, I’d even go so far as to say that even Hollows aren’t inherently evil, though they are definitely more frenzied by nature in order to feed—only ones who were truly evil as humans get sent to Hell upon death anyway. There’s good and bad among the Arrancar, just the same as us Shinigami, and I would be doing their reclaimed humanity a disservice if I still thought them no different from beasts. They’re people, and like people, all that matters is the kind of person each individual Arrancar chooses to be.”

With that train of thought, Kōtarō blinked to himself once he realized he had gone off on a tangent, then shook his head and downed some warm tea to renew his focus. With a satisfied hum, he resumed his discussion on the main topic of his monologue: the actual Espada, and not waxing philosophical on Arrancar wholesale.

"Anyway, I’m getting off-track, but my point is that I’m not going to condemn the surviving Espada for their past affiliations; once that war was over, the feeling I got was that they wanted to move on from Aizen just as much as we did. After the ex-Captain got them involved in his affairs, only to send them off to die by the hands of other Soul Reapers, they deserve at least that much from us. I won’t pretend I know the new Queen Tier Harribel personally, but she does have the A-OK from a friend (Nelliel) of a friend (Ichigo) of a friend (Captain Rukia) of mine. Overall impression is that she’s leaps and bounds ahead morally over the likes of Barragan Louisenbarn and Aizen himself, so that should count for something, right? My hope is that we can establish some kind of amicable relationship with her new order she’s trying to raise, although I’d imagine she would rather have us leave well enough alone—just so long as we’re not hostile toward one another…”

A wistful sigh followed as the Lieutenant’s thoughts drifted on wishful thinking. It would be nice if the Gotei 13 and the new Queen could found a diplomatic partnership of some kind, wouldn’t it? He personally felt an amicable alliance would only help to better strengthen each side, but even the new kingdom born within the realm of Hollows have little to no reason to trust the Seireitei as is. Then there’s the matter of Central 46, the governing body of the Soul Society, who’d surely have thoughts of their own on such an alliance, and none of them positive. What a shame.

Arms folded unto themselves for comfort as the lieutenant leaned back against the zaisu. His gaze stared off into nothing in particular as he looked up to the shop ceiling.

“...but that’s just how the system works, isn't it? We slay Hollows so they can be reborn into Souls, and so that we can keep preserving the balance between the Soul Society, Hueco Mundo, and the world of the living lest it all comes to an unceremonious end. While I don’t think that ought to apply to fully sentient beings like Arrancar, in a way, I see us slaying Hollows as a mercy. It’s a kindness, really, to end the suffering that consumed them as souls, souls we couldn’t save on time… which is more than I can say compared to how my precursors treated the Quincy.”

And there it is. Kōtarō turned silent at his mention of the Quincy—the polar opposite to his kind, those who he directly and involuntarily fought against in the Quincy Blood War. The relationship between Hollows, plus Arrancar by extension, and Shinigami was a relatively simple one to break down into words. It was an easy regurgitation of hard facts internalized over his century-long career, splashed with his own personal impressions on those who stood at the apex of Hollowkind. Quincy, on the other hand… where could he even begin?

“…I only swing my zanpakutō to slay Hollows. Cutting down humans though—the very people I’m supposed to be keeping watch over and protecting—that’s not what I signed up for, but that’s exactly what I did during that war, isn't it? Even if it was in self-defence, those Soldaten were still humans with lives to live and families to come back to… it’s shameful, when I think about it.”

Gaze narrowed as grim visions of the war returned to the forefront of his mind, then shut firmly with a wince for an expression as Kōta fought those unpleasant memories back.

“A-anyway, right. The Quincy, a race of spiritually empowered humans who fight with reishi manipulation… though I’m guessing you’re asking specifically about my thoughts on the Vandenreich, aren’t you?” This earned the lieutenant a slow nod from his candy shop-owning inquirer. “Well, whereas the Espada were either coerced into joining Aizen, fought for the sake of fighting, or relished at the opportunity to kill Soul Reapers, the Quincy who rallied under Yhwach’s banner differ in that they all shared a justified, nigh-unified hatred towards us. Unlike Aizen and the Espada… the Quincy’s war was a direct consequence of the Gotei 13’s past actions—that much, I understand now. Yhwach only galvanized and weaponized what was already there because of my predecessors.”

The look on Lt. Ryōhei’s face came off as fatigued now—he had a long time to think about this particular subject, with many sleepless nights spent reading and discussing the matter with fellow reapers after the dust settled. “Even if genocide was attempted for the sake of preventing the collapse of all three realms, all in the name of balance again, it’s still genocide, right? Of course retribution was going to follow. Of course they’d want to wipe us out in turn, just as the Gotei 13 tried to do unto them between the first war and the attempted extermination over 200 years ago. Then the second war came, only for Yhwach to dispose of them just as easily once they served their purpose…”

The storm-haired man paused as his own words started to weigh him down. "I feel... awful for them, really. Time and again they’ve been persecuted through no real fault of their own. Quincy don’t exist—weren’t brought into this world—only to die by our hands. I refuse to accept that.” A brief pause, to top off his half-full cup with some fresh tea... only to realize the pot was empty. "Then for their loyalty, the reward many of the survivors wrought was abandonment by their own God-King. There’s no sugarcoating it: the Quincy deserve better. Compassion, aid, pity, whatever; they kept getting robbed at every turn, and then were robbed some more when they’ve had enough and bit back. I don’t care if negotiations in the past fell through—we need to sit down, try again, keep talking, and come up with something of a proper solution for both sides.”

His company noted how Kōtarō’s observations between the Espada and Quincy differed, given he’d only ever fought one of the two himself, and so he piped up with an interesting question. Forgiveness?

“Truth is… I do forgive them, Urahara-san. Really, I do. Impossible as it may seem, even after they’ve slaughtered thousands of our own? Including Yamamoto, Sasakibe, and… and even Ukitake? After everything they’ve done? I honestly forgive them. There’s no point in condemning the remaining Quincy for fighting under Yhwach’s banner once upon a time. What matters is how we survivors—us and them—choose to live our lives in the here and now. Those among the Sternritter who still swear fealty to Yhwach, it’s probably inevitable we’ll come to fight again. There, I can sleep comfortably knowing I’ll raise my blade to try and stop them from trying to pile on more needless sacrifices, and this time, I’ll be ready for them if that happens. Those who just want to live their lives in peace, on the other hand… I’d like to build up a proper rapport with them somehow, if it’s doable, you know?”

A laugh broke from the lieutenant, albeit a sardonic one, as he continued with that line of thought. “Though I’m sure they don’t want to risk making themselves visible to Gotei folk like myself, or would sooner put an arrow through my heart before I’d get the chance to say: ‘Hello, my kind tried to wipe yours out on three separate occasions! What say we forget all that and let bygones be bygones over a good sporting game of shogi?’” Kōtarō even swung his arms together to emphasize his delivering a punchline as though he were a standup comedian, but the wry smile on his face made it clear he wasn’t aiming for laughs.

Ah, his tea grew cold from neglect… and the cup was still half full.

Oh well, down the hatch.

As he drank the last of his tea, Kisuke chanced another question—if there were any Arrancar or Quincy Kōtarō would want to meet himself. An interesting proposition…

“Well… I did hear that Captain Kurotsuchi has a Privaron on standby who specializes in wind manipulation like me? I’d like to meet him sometime, if that’s the case—discuss our craft, see what we can learn from each other and what not.”

A name slipped from the man of science’s lips: Dordoni. The lieutenant of winds nodded and made a mental note of it; the next time he’s over by the Shinigami Research and Development Institute, he’ll ask around.

“As for the Sternritter, at least among those I’ve read about… that’s an easy one. Sternritter T: Candice Catnipp, the Thunderbolt.”

Somehow, his name choice only seemed to amuse the man sitting opposite across the table. The combination of fan raised over his face, a tasteless joke, and a sly smirk got under Kōta's skin immediately.

“H-hey, hey, it’s nothing like THAT! I’m a man of storms and wind, she’s a woman of thunder and lightning—I vibe with her aesthetic is all I’m saying!” Kōta was quick to shoot up onto his knees and slam his hands on the table as he tried to defend himself (he couldn’t help but wonder what kind of crazy weather they could create together, lover of storms he is), but it was a fool’s errand that only spurred Urahara into further laughter at his expense. Oh well.

“SO, as you asked, I shared my thoughts on our former adversaries and then some. Say you keep your end of the bargain and we keep all of this between ourselves?” he huffed, shooting an unimpressed glare toward the man in green, who just set down a new batch of fresh tea for them both with a nod. At least that’s settled.

Kōtarō mulled things over as he sipped on ginger, as he found his mind going back to Ginjō and the words they exchanged then. He had believed in the greater good of the Soul Society for so long, but some of the atrocities his own kind committed had him stop and think sometimes. Even his late Captain set his foot down when he saw one injustice too many with Rukia’s execution 12 years prior, which only made Ryōhei prouder to serve the Thirteenth Division under Ukitake’s name.

The source of all that injustice… the endless suffering of Hollows, the attempted genocides onto the Quincy, the ongoing squalor Souls lived in after believing in the idea of a cozy afterlife…

“…sometimes, I can’t help but wonder,” Kōtarō found himself saying. "How much easier would it be for everyone if we didn’t have to worry about something as arbitrary, impersonal, and cruel as ‘balance’ in the first place?”