Night had completely fallen, and warm orange lights illuminated the small courtyard in the Rukongai.
The low wooden table was filled with vegetarian dishes personally prepared by Gyomei Himejima.
The light soba noodles, golden and crispy wild vegetable tempura, and steaming tofu miso soup were far from the exotic delicacies found on the dining tables of Seireitei's nobility.
But to Asuka and this family, they exuded a deeply comforting aroma.
Sitting cross-legged at the table, Asuka looked at the hot soup in front of him, feeling as though he had been transported back to the Taisho era in a daze.
He was brought back to that cold winter night, to the moment an unnamed old man had handed him a bowl of hot porridge.
"Asuka, try this," Shinobu Kocho said, sitting beside him as she naturally picked up a piece of pickled radish and placed it into his bowl. "This is a radish Mr. Gyomei grew himself. It's pickled perfectly; even Captain Unohana often asks me for some."
Asuka picked up his chopsticks and placed the radish into his mouth.
'Delicious.'
"It tastes good," Asuka nodded, giving a fair assessment.
The last time he had eaten human food was at Haruri's house.
For someone like him, who was accustomed to replenishing his energy by devouring Spiritual Pressure, it had been a long time since he had touched normal food.
The sweet, sour, and crisp taste made him truly feel that he had returned to this world—a world that, despite being riddled with holes, still held a glimmer of light.
Watching Asuka eat the noodles in large bites, Kagaya and Amane exchanged a glance, both revealing relieved smiles in their eyes.
The atmosphere at the dining table gradually warmed up, and everyone tacitly avoided bringing up any heavy topics during the meal.
Shinobu softly recounted some of the changes in the Rukongai over the years, while Amane smiled and added a few amusing anecdotes about their neighbors.
Asuka spent most of the time quietly listening, occasionally responding with a brief question or two.
He could sense that, although everyone was trying hard to appear relaxed, the shadow looming over everyone's hearts had not completely dissipated with his return.
The name of that shadow was Sosuke Aizen.
After dinner, Gyomei and Amane cleared the dishes, while Hinaki used the excuse of helping out to silently leave the room.
Only Kagaya Ubuyashiki, Shinobu Kocho, and Asuka remained in the room.
The candlelight danced within its lantern, casting their long shadows onto the paper sliding doors.
"Alright," Asuka said, setting down his teacup and looking up at Kagaya.
Although nominally he had once been his Master, Asuka treated him more like a friend most of the time.
"Dinner is over, and it's time to end the catching up."
"Kagaya, can you tell me what exactly happened with Nichika?"
On Sokyoku Hill, he had watched with his own eyes as the little white-haired girl willingly ran into Aizen's embrace, remaining completely indifferent even to Shinobu's tearful cries.
That kind of absolute resolve was definitely not something that could be produced by simple illusion manipulation.
Hearing Asuka bring up this topic, Shinobu subconsciously gripped the hem of her clothes.
She bit her lip and spoke with renewed self-blame, "...It was my fault for failing to see through Aizen's disguise, giving him the opportunity to get close to Nichika."
"No, Shinobu, this is not your fault," Kagaya said, shaking his head slightly, his face revealing an incomprehensible calmness.
Meeting Asuka's questioning gaze, he slowly spoke, "I don't know much about this man, Aizen, but from our few brief encounters, I could sense that his intellect and eloquence far exceed those of ordinary people."
"If, as you say, even the entire Gotei 13 and the supposedly strongest Head Captain Yamamoto were played like fools in the palm of his hand, how could we possibly guard against his deliberate infiltration?"
Asuka frowned, his fingers tapping lightly on the tabletop. "I heard from Shinobu that your Ubuyashiki family possesses a certain Future Sight capable of peering into the future."
"If that's the case, why didn't you notice anything unusual beforehand when an extremely dangerous guy like Aizen approached you? Why didn't you stop it?"
This was also what baffled Asuka the most.
Back then, even when heavily burdened by illness, Kagaya Ubuyashiki had relied on this mysterious intuition to grasp Muzan Kibutsuji's movements, even setting up that earth-shattering suicide trap at the final moment.
Now that he had recovered his health, his intuition should have been even sharper. How could he just watch helplessly as his own daughter walked into the abyss?
Faced with Asuka's questioning, Kagaya fell into a long silence.
The room was so quiet that only the crackling of the burning candle and Shinobu's slightly hurried breathing could be heard.
After a long while, Kagaya picked up his teacup and took a gentle sip of the slightly cooled tea.
He sighed, "Asuka, you overestimate our family's Future Sight..."
"My Future Sight is not like what is written in the storybooks of the World of the Living, where one can clearly see every detail of what will happen in the future."
"Sometimes, I can indeed see certain scenes from the future, but more often than not, it is just a chaotic blur."
"It is more like a vague perception of danger and turning points based on intuition, allowing us to catch the most crucial scent among the countless branching paths of fate."
Kagaya set down his teacup, his deep gaze fixed on the dancing candle flame, as if returning to those days and nights plagued by visions of the future.
"When Aizen first appeared beside Nichika and Hinaki in his capacity as the Captain of the Fifth Division, I did feel a trace of unease."
"I could not see that man's future; I could only see chaos and the color of blood."
"Therefore..." Kagaya's tone suddenly became rather strange, even carrying a bitter smile, "I changed my approach and tried to peer into the future of our family after coming into contact with that man..."
"And what I saw was not... complete despair."
Asuka's eyes narrowed slightly. "What did you see?"
Shinobu also looked at Kagaya nervously.
Kagaya slowly closed his eyes, as if reliving that scene. "In that blurry, almost bizarre fragment of the future, I saw Nichika..."
"There were many people standing beside her. There were Soul Reapers, as well as some strange beings I didn't recognize... She stood with those people, smiling very happily..."
Hearing this, Shinobu's eyes instantly reddened again, while Asuka furrowed his brows. "So, you thought her leaving with Aizen was actually a good thing? And that's why you didn't stop her?"
"In case you didn't know, let me remind you that Aizen can completely manipulate a person's five senses. Perhaps the future you saw was just an illusion he wanted you to see?"
Kagaya opened his eyes, his gaze clear and resolute. "...That is not impossible. After all, the methods of you Soul Reapers are unpredictable and unfathomable. I also cannot confirm what is real and what is an illusion."
He looked directly at Asuka, his eyes flashing with a wisdom and open-mindedness that surpassed ordinary human comprehension.
"But what if it wasn't an illusion?"
"What if that is the reality destined to happen?"
Asuka was stunned for a moment.
"Asuka, the river of fate has never been a straight line," Kagaya said, his voice gentle and carrying a soothing power. "Sometimes, a dead end that seems to lead into the abyss might just be the necessary bridge to a vast new world."
"The affairs of this world have always been a mix of fortune and misfortune... Aizen taking her away might, to some extent, be helping her fulfill her destiny."
"If it was an illusion, then as a father, I naturally cannot shirk the blame."
"But if it was a true future, it means Nichika will find her own meaning on that path full of thorns."
"She will get hurt, and she will feel lost... but I believe that the children of our Ubuyashiki family will never be easily swallowed completely by the darkness."
After saying this, a smile appeared on Kagaya's lips—one that, although helpless, remained ever optimistic.