chapter 10

I stood in front of the door to the one house within the frozen forest.

I held the doorknob with hesitance.

"a fair warning to the three of you. Mitsuri may be angry." I pushed open the door...

And received a slap to the face.

I reeled back from the slap. Damn, that actually hurts.

"before you speak, I would like to apologise. Firstly, I broke the promise of allowing you to stay at my side. And secondly, I want to apologise for the situation with senjumaru." I looked her in the eyes, I saw tears.

Mitsuri was crying.

Immediately, I felt an ache in my heart. It pains me to see her like that.

"why... why didn't you fight back? Why didn't you resist? Why?! Why did you just comply?" God, this is painful to see her like this.

"I... I was scared. Scared that if I used the visionary... that I'd kill myself. In that moment, I was being cowardly. I understand if you cannot forgive me." I bowed my head, fully aware of what I've done.

Only to receive a hug.

"I understand being scared of your own death... but you put that fear aside in order to stay true to yourself." I stroked her hair.

"no need to worry. I've since quelled that fear." I looked over to Rose out of the corner of my eye.

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Rose noticed his gaze, but only one thought was on her mind.

'all of the words he spoke were so sincere. And he looked to me when he said that he had quelled his fear of death. What could he have meant by that?'

'he's so intriguing. The power he wields is immense and yet he doesn't lord over people. Its more like he wins them over with compassion. Though, that only seems to be the case for mitsuri.'

'nice guy.' Rose coughed after an awkwardky long hug.

"I know melascula. But who are the other two?" Derieri stepped forward first.

"a recent friend of Melascula's. Derieri." The blonde introduced herself in her simple way of speech, not mincing her words.

Rose stepped forward to introduce herself but stopped. Who... no, what was she? Rose didn't know.

Walter seemed to understand what she was thinking to some degree and asked

"would you like me to introduce you?" The recently born woman nodded, happy that he understood her predicament.

"alright. Well, mitsuri, this is Rose. She was born or created around 20 minutes ago. Rose is what's known as a magimata. Right now, she wants to see what it's like around me and then explore the world before making a final decision as to whether she'll join us." Mitsuri nodded her head and reached out a hand to each of them.

Derieri took the swordswomans hand and was immediately alarmed by her grip.

Rose did the same but only seemed to experience mild discomfort.

"hmm. Okay. That's good. Now, come in and let's talk!" The four woman piled into the room but Walter stayed outside.

"are you not coming in?" Her king could only sigh.

"mitsuri. I... need to speak with the soul king. But, I want you to try and help those three settle in. Especially rose. Rose... she's completely lost. She doesn't understand anything about the world... or even have a purpose." Mitsuri paused.

"close your eyes." Walter was perplexed but did as she said.

A soft yet wet sensation graced his lips.

'wait... is she... kissing me? I... didn't expect that.' His first sternritter pulled away with a feint smile on her lips.

Walter slowly opened his eyes to see a kind look in her eyes with her smile having returned to normal.

"be safe." Walter smiled at her.

"I will." In a blink, Walter dissappeared from her sight. Mitsuri held a hand over her chest to feel her beating heart.

"my heart always beats so fast around him..."

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In the Palace of the soul king, the being himself had opened his eyes and looked at his heir.

Walter thought back to the time when he spoke with the being, and placed his hand upon the mutilated beings cocoon.

And found himself on the green grass of his inner world.

"I didn't expect you to be back so soon, Walter." The dragon sighed.

"neither did I. But, I needed to know something. Why did you let the five Great noble families mutilate you?" The soul king could only look up at the sky.

"it was the only way. You see, the world before... it was peaceful. No-one even knew what death was. But then, a hollow appeared. To a soul reaper, there'd be no problem. But this hollow wasn't even a gillian. And it managed to keep me on my toes the entire fight. That was the moment I realised, this can't keep going on. I was the only one able to combat the pure hollows."

"and when the five Great noble families attacked you... you saw the future and decided to allow it. For the people."

"correct. At one point, I pondered that if I could amass beings as strong as me, we could return to that world. But I've long since given up on that dream." Walter could only stare I'm awe.

'to think he selflessly sacrificed his own freedom and suffered mutilation, just to ensure the safety of the people. I'm... amazed.'

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"Rose, Walter told me of you being created quite recently. However, he didn't tell me of the circumstances. I... would like to know." Mitsuri was hesitant. She didn't expect good circumstances.

That was because, in the short time she has known Walter, one thing stuck in her mind.

His tendencies to extreme methods to solve a problem.

For example, the time he killed himself to try and Rewrite his own death.

"I... I'm not too sure. Walter told me that he had created me out of convenience. I... i was scared. I couldn't remember much. But I knew basic speech, vocabulary and the like. I looked at Walter, his presence seemed so familiar and I didn't know why?! It scared me. Especially to see that his hands were covered in blood."

At this point, rose had held her knees up to her chest, her entire body had jitters and her eyes were filled with fear.

Mitsuri was calm, unusually calm for the news she had just received.

Melascula and derieri could only awkwardly sit there, unable to find a good point to insert themselves into the conversation.

"who... who's blood was it?" Rose could only mumble incoherently to the swordswoman.

"please, just tell me."

"he... he said it was his." Mitsuri then realised, Walter had broken his promise.

'He... he broke the promise. I didn't expect him to break it so quickly. No... he... he must've just forgotten... right? That... that still hurts... that he could just let our promise slip his mind.'

"I believe we should move off of this topic. It doesn't seem to make either of you happy and as much as I'm enjoying your misery, it's quite awkward." Mitsuri just pulled out her dango bag and ate some.

"that... that'd be nice. But what should we talk about?" A dead silence hung throughout the room.

"how about our pasts?" That brought a devilish smile to melascula's face.

"I'll go first. I was once a simple demon snake who had the misfortune of being attacked by a stronger demon. I had magic, but no idea how to use it. I was injured and almost completely defeated. That was until Walter showed up. Before I could even process whether he was friend or foe, Walter had already obliterated my enemy." Rose looked over her knees at melascula.

"a pathetic whelp who was weak enough to need saving. How sad." Her comment irked the snake demon, but melascula didn't respond as she was aware that Rose was trying to anger her.

"afterwards, my king was generous enough to grant me both a name and my current appearance. Along with a large catalogue of magic. In exchange, I was to create a haven where familiars would dwell. And now, I am officially a sternritter. Sternritter V, the vanquished." Mitsuri coughed into her hand, drawing attention to herself.

"Sternritter B, the benevolent. I'm Mitsuri Kanroji, Walter's first sternritter and one of his creations. I've been with walter for a while and I welcome you to the frozen forest."

"thank you..." The maid was barely audible and derieri decided to start her introduction.

"I'm derieri. A demon. To make a long story as short as possible, I would usually just sleep but demons always attacked me. One day, I met melascula while she was manipulating the ground and I was happy to just relax with her around." Mìtsuri nodded her head.

"I'm happy with you being here. Just... one question. Why are you naked?" The demon itched her chin.

"it's comfortable." The dango girl could only sigh.

"not the first time I've heard that... Rose? Would you like to introduce yourself?" Rose froze up but peeked over her knees.

"my name is Rose. I wasn't created too long ago but... the circumstances. They weren't great. I was spawned in grasslands, bloody. horrific. grasslands. Thats when I saw him, Walter. His hands were absolutely doused in blood. I asked him... who's blood it was. He said his own... and... and that I was created out of convenience!"

The other three could each swear they saw a feint blush on her cheeks. But as mitsuri processed this, her breath caught in her throat.

His own blood? She thought back on what he said... he... quelled his fear of death.

The image of walters lifeless corpse in her arms flashed through her mind.

'Walter... I'm not bothered that you broke the promise... but why do these things to yourself? Are you preparing for something? There has to be a good reason.' Kanroji was completely drowned within her thoughts.

"Well, now that introductions are over, what now?"

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After his chat with the soul king, Walter decided to do something he'd been holding off on for a while.

Contacting his zanpakuto spirits.

Generally, the average soul reaper has a singular zanpakuto. But there have been exceptions to this rule such as jushiro ukitake, shunsui kyoraku and ichigo.

Walter himself knows very little about the circumstances of sogyo no kotowari but he knew shunsui's zanpakuto has something to do with hiding the Ise family zanpakuto.

Ichigo. Walter didn't know. Maybe it was that he had so much reiatsu that he needed two, he could only theorise.

But Walter chose two as they represented a part of his personality and of his biology.

Each soul reapers inner world is different. Walters Inner world, is quite soothing.

Nothing but a vast landscape of water, only a large sakura tree was in the middle.

It was strange but Walter could stand on the water. Each step rippled the water and he slowly made his way towards the tree.

The petals fell, neatly littering the water nearby.

He stared up at the cloudy sky. A key thing of a person's inner world is that their inner world reflects what they're feeling. He could only assume it reflected his current unsure state.

The Quincy sat down next to the tree, but his clothes didn't get wet. As if the water was a solid entity.

Walter needed to clear his mind, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the tree before letting out a deep sigh.

"what a day."

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