I used to really believe!! I was always REALLY SUSPICIOUS of Kira and how much Gin did/didn't tell him, so I wanted to believe that the absence of an on page goodbye from him (much as it would have distracted from the greater tragedy of Gin and Rangiku and their rabu) meant, or could mean, he had somehow saved him and stashed him away. But, the little novella in Unmasked and details in the novels that came out this year by Makoto and Narita (of DRRR fame) suggest Gin really did kick it... I mean those weren't written by KT and are outside canon but slfkmsdlf cries.

and lol yeah, I guess logically there was never any way that Masaki was just a normal human. Not for the shounen hero! But... execution.

BUTTERFLAIZEN. I'm actually suspecting that the Quincy are a giant red herring, which doesn't excuse that they didn't have adequate build-up (even the Fullbringer nonsense had the badge being suspected by Ishida way back after SS, whereas here there was never any indication that there were more Quincy or even that their contention had started 1000 years ago). but wow i've. tl;dred at you enough so I'll just... link to my further tl;dr re: why I think the Quincy might not be it, AND IT'S YOUR CHOICE, I'M SORRY WHY DID YOU GET ME STARTED /)(\

making his outfit for his appearance sometime next year

lol that's not even the worst icon I have (AND I LIKE HIS HAIR but couldn't pass it up)