ICE HEART
epilogue. end"
❝MISSED ME, SHIRO?❞

Even though it felt like a lifetime, only two years had passed since the blonde-haired female had returned back to the Soul Palace, leaving behind all of the people whom she considered family and who had made a major impact on her life in such little time.

Of course, she felt deeply devastated, and almost like a chunk of her heart had been mercilessly ripped away from her, but she removed all traces of that emotion and returned back to her normal, emotionless, and sassy self as she was sent back up to the Soul Palace in the Tenchūren, not expecting that she'd return to the Soul Society or be able to see any of her friends anytime soon.

So, after she had given her report to the Soul King, she stepped foot on her floating city and resumed her normal lifestyle, where she trained in solitude, perfecting each and every skill whilst she attempted to discover any more combat styles. With every single second that passed whilst she was training, her spiritual pressure grew higher and higher, and it was evident to everybody who could sense it (including the Soul King himself) that the young female would soon become the strongest Shinigami alive.

BANG!

As the sound resonated throughout the entire floating city, one of the many walls of the Torēninguparesu came crumbling down into smithereens as a porcelain fist came into contact with it, causing the five other people in the room to release a sigh or wince in pain, knowing that a force that powerful would've broke their fists in numerous places. However, the person who struck the wall seemed to be perfectly fine as she pulled her fist away, her icy blue eyes narrowing as she tilted her head to face the leader of the Royal Guard Squad, Ichibē Hyōsube.

"Excuse me?" She muttered, irritation laced in her voice as she glared at the bearded man, not wanting to believe the words that had escaped his mouth a mere few seconds ago.

Despite being somewhat petrified by the blonde standing in front of him, the male managed to portray himself as calm and collected as he repeated the words he spoke before, "Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, Head Captain of the Gotei Thirteen, was defeated in battle by Yhwach two days ago-."

"I heard you the first time, Hyōsube." The woman growled, walking towards her zanpakuto that was carefully placed against the wall of the room and picking it up, twirling it around in her hands before she lifted her head to face the Captain of the Royal Guard Squad, "So, what are the orders, Captain?" She spat out the title with distaste, emphasising her irritation with the man, "Because, if I remember correctly, I predicted this would happen when Chōjirō Sasakibe was murdered, yet you gave all of us orders to stay put and wait for everything to blow over."

Yet again, the Soul Society were involved with another war, but this time, it was against a much more dangerous army who had already claimed several Shinigami's lives, yet the Royal Guard Squad hadn't even attempted to involve themselves, hence why the blue-eyed female was so frustrated with her fellow members.

Releasing a small sigh, the bearded man's eyes lowered to the ground in guilt, knowing that he probably could've stopped the old man from being murdered, "Our orders are to go down to the Soul Society and to help them rebuild."

"Is that it?"

It was evident that the young female was annoyed. After all, this group of Quincies had barged into the Soul Society without warning and slaughtered the person whom she considered a father, and all that her squad were going to do about it was help rebuild the Soul Society and not engage in any combat.

With a sad expression plastered across her face, Kirio Hikifune stepped forward, "Ayame, I understand that you're upset, but orders are orders and we are required to follow them. Our duty is to protect the Soul King, not to protect the Soul Reapers."

Clenching her fists tightly, Ayame Kireina snapped her head to face all of the members of the group, her eyes clouded with rage, "Have all of you forgotten that we were normal Soul Reapers at one point?"

"That was a long time ago, hun." Ōetsu Nimaiya chuckled, scratching the back of his head as he did so, though that only made the female even more angry, causing her to send a death glare his way, which made him put his hands up in surrender.

"We're due to leave now." Ichibē announced, and so the woman nodded, following the five squad members until they reached the Tenchūren and fit inside, preparing to see the devastation that was the Soul Society.

Eventually, the pillar came to a halt and the doors began to open, which alerted the six that they were on the ground of the Seireitei.

As soon as the blonde stepped out, she immediately saw the remaining Captains of the Gotei Thirteen and a faint smile passed her lips as she noticed that Shunsui and Jushiro, who gave her a small wave, were alive. Along with them, she also noticed that a few Visoreds were there, wearing Captain's Haoris. However, she couldn't see Toshiro, which made her heart beat fast out of fright, and to calm her down, she grabbed the snowflake necklace tightly in her hand.

"Get out the way! Get out the way! We're finally here! Make way for the badass Zero Division!" Ōetsu cried out happily, waving around the squad flag as he did so, causing Ayame to facepalm whilst he continued, "It's been a minute, you lil' Gotei Thirteen noobs! You been restin' and takin' your Wheaties?!"

"I swear that I told you that they were like us only a few minutes ago. Why are you treating them like kids? The blonde-haired woman questioned, causing all of the eyes to turn to face her and several gasps to escape people's mouths.

"Is that... Ayame Kireina?" Soifon breathed out, her eyes wide, before she crossed her arms over her chest and her eyes narrowed in annoyance, "If she loved the Head Captain so much, then why didn't she come earlier when we were all being torn to shreds?!"

At that, icy blue orbs turned cold as the blonde flash stepped behind SoiFon faster than anybody could comprehend and raised her spiritual pressure, which caused a few Captains, including SoiFon, to tumble to the ground as they struggled to stand up, which made all of the Shinigami's eyes go wide.

"Trust me, Captain SoiFon, I tried to come here as soon as I heard that somebody had infiltrated the Soul Society, but somebody-" The blonde glared at the leader of the Zero Squad, "-didn't allow me. Never doubt my loyalty, or else I will release all of my spiritual pressure."

With that being said, the woman lowered her spiritual pressure and allowed all of the Captains to breathe again, though all of them were extremely shocked with how much the blonde had developed over a few years.

Her hair had grown longer, and she now wore it down so that it rested gently upon her shoulders. Along with that, it was evident that she had grown a few inches taller and that she had become a lot thinner due to the large amount of training she did daily. Of course, her power was the most surprising thing of all.

"Ayame..." A familiar voice mumbled, causing the blonde to instantly snap her head to face the male and a bright smile to overtake her lips as she flash stepped in front of the male and wrapped her arms around him tightly, which he happily returned.

Before Ayame came to the Soul Society, Toshiro had such a solitary heart that was coated with ice and open to hardly anybody, maybe only Momo Hinamori and Rangiku Matsumoto. Everybody said that he had an ice heart, even those closest to him, but he didn't really expect that to change. He expected that his heart would forever be coated in ice and sealed away from the outside world, but then a small figure wearing all black flash stepped from behind the Head Captain's chair, and unknowingly changed everything.

After she had left, Toshiro had thought a lot, and he constantly wondered how does somebody break open the walls surrounding a locked away heart if that person does not want their ice heart to be crushed by some mere fingertips and stomped upon by some mere words and completely destroyed by such a mere phrase like, "I guess this is the end.".

After all, that was exactly what Ayame had done.

The icy Captain never wanted to feel emotions, knowing that they could only hinder his ability to protect somebody. He thought it was stupid to fall in love, because as a Soul Reaper, they are literally face to face with death at every passing moment.

Yet, that blonde woman had entered his life and made him feel something, and despite the fact that she left, Toshiro didn't regret feeling that something.

"Missed me, Shiro?"

▲▼▲

[03.01.18]

NOTE: and that is the last ever chapter of ice heart, and the last time we will ever encounter ayame kireina.

once again, thank you so much for supporting me constantly with this story, and i hope that you enjoyed each and every second of this book. i spent so much time writing it and shedding tears over it, and i'm so grateful that people like it.

meanwhile, this book is dedicated to louie (i hope that you enjoyed it, idiot. i finally wrote you a book), who is a dude in my class who kept begging me to write a story for him so i just dedicated this book to him.

anyways, i love you all so, so, so much.