A tense standoff had frozen the center of the fake Karakura Town. On one side stood the combined forces of the Gotei 13 and the Visored. On another, the Primera and Tercera Espada, Coyote Starrk and Tier Harribel, stood together, united by a shared sense of betrayal. And facing them all alone was Sōsuke Aizen, his expression serene, that infuriatingly calm smile plastered on his face, exerting an immense, silent pressure on everyone present.
Aizen's gaze drifted towards a distant building, neatly sheared in half by the path of Gin's Shinsō, a faint look of amusement on his features.
"Aizen," Shinji Hirako called out, breaking the silence with a mocking tone. "Sending your best man to deal with a mere Vice-Captain? Does that little sealing trick of his really scare you that much?"
"Scared? Do not misunderstand," Aizen replied, closing his eyes as if bored by the notion. "I admit Amamiya Miyako's ability is… inconvenient. But…" He opened his eyes, and his gaze swept over the assembled Captains and Visored. "Without his interference, dealing with the rest of you will not take much time at all."
If Miyako were merely immune to Kyōka Suigetsu, Aizen had countless ways to manage him—he could even use hypnotized allies to attack him. But Miyako's combination of immunity, sealing power, and high defensive capabilities presented a unique problem.
His words made everyone tighten their grip on their Zanpakuto. Without Miyako, they truly had no counter for Complete Hypnosis, but Aizen's arrogance—claiming they were all less troublesome than a single Vice-Captain—was a galling insult.
"Aizen…" Tier Harribel's voice trembled with barely suppressed rage. As the Espada who embodied 'Sacrifice,' the ultimate betrayal was to be used and discarded as a mere tool. "AIZEN!"
She could no longer contain her fury. She lunged forward, her massive sword, Tiburón, aimed at him. "Cascada!" A torrent of high-pressure water erupted from her blade, roaring towards Aizen.
Aizen didn't even flinch. He merely raised a single finger. "Hadō #81: Dankū."
A translucent, rectangular wall of energy materialized before him. Harribel's powerful water blast slammed against it with the force of a tidal wave, but it could not advance a single inch further, splashing harmlessly to the sides.
"Harribel, why such anger?" Aizen asked, his smile never wavering. "I was the one who gave you this power. Is it not right that you return it to me when I have need of it?" He tilted his head, feigning recollection. "Ah, I remember now. You do not wish to gain strength by sacrificing others. In your worldview, I must be the embodiment of evil, must I not?"
His words were a direct and cruel mockery of her core ideals, stoking her rage into an inferno.
As Aizen was preoccupied with Harribel, several blue Ceros streaked towards him from a distance. Aizen effortlessly weaved between the beams, not a single hair out of place, and turned his placid gaze towards Coyote Starrk.
"And you, Starrk?" he asked with a light chuckle. "Did I not find you a group of comrades?"
"Sōsuke Aizen," Starrk replied, his voice weary but firm, maintaining a final shred of respect. "I am grateful you found me comrades." His tone then hardened. "But we are not your comrades. You merely used our power to achieve your own goals." He had hoped to repay Aizen through battle, but now he saw the truth—they were never anything more than instruments.
"If I fell in battle, I would have no regrets. But you… you betrayed us with your own hands!"
"Starrk, I believe I told you," Aizen sighed, as if disappointed by a slow student. "Trust is synonymous with reliance. I only said we would go to the real world together. I never said 'trust me and follow me.'"
"I often advised you not to trust anyone. That includes me. The tragedy is that none of you ever listened."
Starrk and Harribel were left speechless, the memory of Aizen's past, seemingly casual warnings now ringing with sinister clarity.
"And what disappoints me most," Aizen continued, his voice dropping to a whisper that somehow carried across the battlefield, "is that the Espada I worked so hard to gather… your combined power is inferior to mine alone. So, what reason do I have to keep you?" In a movement too fast for most to follow, he vanished and reappeared directly behind Tier Harribel.
In Aizen's view, if the Hōgyoku were complete, their lives would be meaningless. But now, the incomplete orb needed them, so they should simply fulfill their purpose.
Harribel spun around, her sword stabbing backward. It connected, but the Aizen she pierced shattered like glass.
It was an afterimage.
The real Aizen was still behind her, his own Zanpakuto raised to strike down at her exposed back.
A flash of white and blue intercepted him. Tōshirō Hitsugaya flash-stepped between them, Hyōrinmaru creating a thick wall of ice that blocked Aizen's descending blade.
"My," Aizen mused, flicking his wrist and shattering the ice wall with contemptuous ease. "Captain Hitsugaya, who was just locked in mortal combat with Harribel, now actively protects his enemy? How… progressive."
"Aizen, we know you plan to use the Espada as fuel for the Hōgyoku," Tōshirō stated, his voice cold with suppressed anger. "Do you think we'll just stand by and let you?"
"Is this truly acceptable?" Aizen asked, his smile widening as he glanced towards the motionless form of Yamamoto-Genryūsai in the distance. "Shinigami and Hollows, cooperating?"
"Don't misunderstand," Hitsugaya snapped. "This is an action taken solely to stop you. It has nothing to do with aligning with Hollows."
"Captain Hitsugaya is quite right, you know," Shunsui Kyōraku added, strolling up to stand near Coyote Starrk, his tone deceptively casual. "Although I don't know why you're in such a hurry to complete the Hōgyoku, for the safety of the three worlds, I think we can make a slight exception to the rules. Don't you agree, Yamamoto-Genryūsai?"
The old Captain-Commander gave a low, grunting sound. "Hmph." He knew the paramount objective was to stop Aizen from acquiring the completed orb. A temporary, uneasy alliance was a distasteful but necessary concession.
"I never thought we'd be on the same side just moments after trying to kill each other," Starrk sighed, the absurdity of the situation not lost on him.
"Don't mention it," Shunsui replied with a wry smile. "After all, the guy on the other side is pretty terrifying, you know."
Aizen's interest seemed to pique slightly as he observed this newfound, fragile alliance.
"Just you lot?" he stated, his voice flat and unimpressed. "A crippled Gotei 13, failed Hollow experiments… what difference could two more Arrancar possibly make?" To Aizen, their addition was statistically insignificant.
"Don't approach him rashly," Hirako Shinji warned, his voice low and serious. "You all saw it. We didn't even notice when he used Kyōka Suigetsu before." Aizen had only used it twice that they knew of: once to absorb Baraggan, and just now to deceive Harribel. Both times, only Miyako had seen through it.
"How considerate of you to say that, Hirako… Captain," Aizen said, deliberately using the old title to provoke him. "But the phrase 'approach rashly' is truly comical."
He looked at them all, his gaze final and absolute. "Whether you approach rashly, cautiously, or not at all… the outcome remains unchanged."
"This isn't a prediction of your future. Your deaths are an inescapable, predetermined fact."
"He's baiting us! Don't fall for it!" Hirako shouted, his eyes darting towards Hiyori Sarugaki, who was gripping the hilt of her Zanpakuto so tightly her knuckles were white.
"What is there to be afraid of?" Aizen asked, his tone one of genuine-seeming puzzlement. "Weren't you all already dead on that night one hundred years ago?"
The words were a deliberate, cruel twist of the knife. Hiyori's face contorted into a mask of pure, unadulterated rage. With a guttural scream that shattered all reason, she broke ranks and charged at Aizen alone.