He has been a member of Soul Society’s finest, the Gotei Juusantai, for a long time, longer than he’d like to admit to, really. Whenever anybody asks him just how long that is, he always flashes his kindest smile, the one that his old age hasn’t dared touch, and tells them about how he and Kyouraku-taichou were part of the first graduating class of the Shinigami academy.

Everybody knows the Shinigami academy is nearly three thousand years old, after all.

So, really, after about half of that number, he’s stopped counting how old he is. He doesn’t even know. The point now is that he has been in Soul Society a long time. Granted, so had Aizen Sousuke. He remembered when the graduate had just joined the ranks, remembered thinking that one day, he’d be a captain.

Well, really, nobody was surprised a thousand years ago when Aizen Sousuke became captain of his own division. Something about the man had always intrigued Ukitake Juushirou and they had been friends, or he had thought they had been, throughout the years. They often had tea together in the receiving room of either the thirteenth or fifth division barracks and had exchanged stories. The brunette with a kind smile always had innocent inquiries that would help him be the best captain he could be, and Ukitake made his best effort to answer those inquiries.

He tells these stories to all of the young Shinigami who are so bitter about his betrayal; it helps relieve his own shock.

But, he knows with a grim tightening of that smile that is indeed something borne of his age, Aizen Sousuke could not cut the ties he had with everybody, though he tried very hard. Compared with the white-haired man, the evil mastermind is truly just a child.

Often, children don’t realize that strings cannot be cut on the first try.