𝐈 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐖 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃

vii | finis vitae sed non amoris

translation — " the end of life, but not of love "
song recommendation — dynasty by neoni

" i am not the king, i'm the whole damn dynasty

funny that you think that you can pick a fight with me

and pretend we're friends like you don't have a knife to me

careful, 'cause i'm the whole damn dynasty "

fourteen years ago, 2009
karakura town

Gray eyes slowly opened to see a cloudless sky. Tamaki was confused as she pushed herself up, looking around and finding herself on the side of a skyscraper. Her confused face fell into a deadpan with she heard a familiar cackle behind her.

"Really?" she sighed as she pushed herself up onto her feet, turning to look behind her at the individual in all white. "Is now the right time for this, Shiro?"

He shrugged uncaringly, earning an eye roll from her. "Ossan's been gettin' on my nerves about trainin' ya," he explained, sticking out his tongue in distaste. "So, why not now?" He raised his sword, a mirror image to her own when she was in her Shinigami form, though the blade was bigger. Show off. "What do ya say, Shorty?"

Her eye twitched as she summoned her Zanpakuto. "I've told you to stop calling me that."

"Does it look like I care?"

~ — — — ~

"Who wrote those letters?"

Tamaki glanced up at Rukia, who was trying to read the letters from over Tamaki's shoulder. The blonde set her notebook on top of the letters, obstructing them from the Shinigami's probing gaze. "None of your business. Just some friends who live in Tokyo."

"They weren't brought in with the rest of the mail," Rukia pointed out.

"That's because I had them sent to the Urahara Shoten," Tamaki said, ignoring Rukia's flinch. "Isshin's got a bad habit of going through my mail, so this was the best way we could come up with to get around that."

"We?"

"Urahara-san and I." Tamaki checked her watch and frowned. "He's my godfather, after all."

"He's that close to your dad?" Rukia blinked in surprise.

"Close with both of my parents," Tamaki corrected as she looked around. "Mom was the one to pitch the idea of him being my godfather. Isshin had no choice but to agree, lest he earned his heavily pregnant wife's wrath." She snorted. "Oh, I would have loved to see him get cowed by her."

Rukia hummed. "You don't have that good of a relationship with your dad, do you?" she questioned knowingly. "You call him by his first name and you went as far as having your mail get sent to the Urahara Shoten."

"He hasn't been my dad in years," Tamaki said softly, fiddling with her fingers. "Not since Mom died. He blamed me for it. I didn't know about Hollows and all of that back then, so when I saw a girl by the river, I went down to check on her. Mom realized too late what it was and everything happened so quickly. One minute I was standing in front of the girl and the next I was underneath my mom's dead body." She exhaled shakily, looking away from Rukia's sympathetic gaze. "I felt the life drain from her body, Rukia. Right before she died, she gave me her family's heirloom. I still carry it to this day."