Ages passed, faces changed, and yet some things could not help but remain the same. The pettiness of the lower nobility was one such unchanging aspect. The pride of the higher nobility was another. Yet in Unohana’s mind, few things were as predictably consistent as the sheer stubbornness of the Hizuki clan.
Back during the modern iteration of Soul Society’s founding, Unohana was not particularly close to the Hizuki head of the era. She wasn’t any more antagonistic towards him than she was to anyone else, of course, but back then her fondness was reserved for those who directly fought at her side (i.e. her fellow Captains and her Division). Even that limited warmth had been conditional (any who got in her way were shown no mercy), but it was more than she offered to anyone else.
Even so, Unohana had something approximating respect for Hizuki. There was something to be admired in doing one’s duty for its own sake, in turning down a reward in service to a higher cause. They were absolute fools for not making use of every advantage provided to them, but they were righteous fools who stuck to their principles. There was something endearing in all that.
No matter how endearing it was, however, the fact remained that idealists who snubbed the rich and powerful did not last long on their own. Luckily for the Hizukis, whether they realized it or not, they happened to have acquired several powerful and influential allies in their dutiful service. Chief among those supporters being one Yamamoto Shigekuni Genryusai. And that? That gave Unohana free reign to do as she pleased.
Unohana’s involvement in the whole affair was incidental at first; if she stumbled across some plot or another, she’d unravel it as a conspiracy against the Gotei 13, but otherwise considered the situation a trial for the Hizuki clan to overcome by their own merits. Over time, however, she came to learn how to care about even those who were not major figures in her life. Empathy did not come easily to Unohana, but it did come eventually. Once it was there, Unohana’s interest in the Hizukis’ survival increased substantially, and she was willing to do far more in the interest of sabotaging uppity nobles than Yamamoto ever allowed himself to indulge.
Thus it was, through their own efforts in the light and the efforts of their allies in the shadows, that the Hizuki clan endured even unto the modern day. It was not always an easy process, though. Their habitual stubbornness was a double-edged sword; it allowed them to remain who they were at heart throughout the centuries, but it also produced an unfortunate tendency to double-down on their decisions, and that could make their situation much more harrowing than it otherwise would be.
Whenever such moments popped up, one of the senior Captains was sent to help attempt to ease the issue back into something resembling reasonable. Considering the Hizuki clans long and spotless record, the situation demanded no less. The fact that (at least within the past millennium) all three Captains were seen as some of the most friendly and reasonable was also important; it was much harder to take Retsu, Jushiro, or Shunsui visiting as a declaration of Bad Times than it would be if the visiting Captain were, say, Soi-Fon. A statement of intent, a reminder that the Gotei 13 was ultimately on their side.
It was Unohana who darkened the Hazuki clan’s doorstep this time around. She had been very kindly allowed entry by Akira-san, and had been offered tea while she waited for Akihiko-san to have a moment, which she accepted. It wasn’t too long before the door to the room she’d been lead to opened. It wasn’t the Hizuki Unohana was waiting for, but it was a Hizuki worth seeing nonetheless. “Ah, Hizuki-san. I hope you are doing well this day. I apologize for the intrusion; I am not interrupting anything, am I?”
