Chapter 202
The smoke slowly dissipated, revealing a strange mask.
It was a Nuo opera mask, originating from ancient Chinese culture.
The mask bore ferocious fangs, its appearance extremely menacing.
Nuo.
Wearing the mask, one takes the role of a god. Removing the mask returns one to being human. The Nuo mask serves as a medium to break the boundary between humans and gods and to communicate with them.
When the mask condensed on Yuta's face, his spiritual pressure vanished.
Yes, it disappeared completely.
At that moment, to Aizen Sōsuke's senses, Yuta seemed to have ceased to exist before him.
The mask itself was strange as well. It did not resemble an ordinary Hollow mask.
Although he could not fully comprehend it, Aizen accepted it as it was.
"Yuta, let me show you my power!"
From one of the six arms behind Aizen Sōsuke, a spherical energy mass began forming. It surged forward and struck the ground between them.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Like a nuclear explosion tearing through the ground, the earth shook violently. The explosion expanded outward as waves of heat and force eradicated everything nearby-trees, rocks, structures-everything was reduced to nothingness. A dense gray cloud rose above the battlefield as a shockwave swept across the landscape.
Even in Karakura Town, people felt the violent pressure as glass shattered in unison and winds strong enough to rip one off their feet tore through the streets.
Arisawa Tatsuki watched from a distance with unease. Though she couldn't see what had happened, the shockwave alone made clear the scale of the battle. Just what kind of monster was Yuta fighting?
…
When the explosion subsided, the ground beneath both combatants was gone. A crater one kilometer wide stretched beneath them, its depth unknown.
The two stood suspended in the air, locked in confrontation.
In an instant, Aizen Sōsuke closed the distance, moving with speed faster than lightning.
"Yuta! My speed has far surpassed Shunpo."
"This proves that I've transcended both Hollow and Shinigami. I have reached the level of a transcendent being."
The six arms behind him tightened their formation, surrounding Yuta. The six eyes embedded upon them opened all at once.
Bands of energy radiated outward from those eyes, forming three concentric layers that imprisoned Yuta within them.
"It's time to finish this."
"Yuta."
"Perhaps you did touch upon transcendence for an instant."
"But now… you are helpless."
Yuta finally spoke since donning the mask. His voice seemed distant and distorted, as though muffled by mist-yet still unnervingly close, as if it brushed right against the ear of the listener.
"Is your power… only this much?"
He raised his blade slowly.
"But you are correct about one thing. It is time to end this."
Yuta slashed downward once.
The gnarled branch in his hand dissolved into powder and vanished as the strike carried forth.
In the same instant, Aizen Sōsuke was propelled upwards like a rocket, his body hurled through the sky as if he had been launched toward the Soul King Palace itself.
His body collided with the Seventy-Two Barriers that protected the palace with a thunderous impact.
Dong!
The sound reverberated like a colossal bell being struck. Though the barrier did not shatter, the force passed through it, shaking the structures of the Soul King Palace itself. Towering buildings trembled under the shockwave.
Hyōsube Ichibē gazed downward from above, recognizing the collision immediately. "Yuta is truly terrifying."
Ūetsu Nimaiya exhaled slowly in surprise. "If he had even a little more strength, the Seventy-Two Barriers would have crumbled completely."
Shutara Senjumaru narrowed her eyes at the sight below. "So... Aizen Sōsuke, who sought to overthrow the Soul King himself, has finally been brought to judgment without us lifting a hand. I didn't expect Yuta's Hollowfication alone to hold such power. And yet… his Hollowfication is fundamentally different from anything we've ever known."
Each member of Squad Zero observed the battle below with silent vigilance. Their duty was to guard the Soul King Palace itself, not to interfere in matters of Soul Society. But should the Gotei 13 fall entirely, they would be forced to act.
…
The result was clear: Aizen Sōsuke was defeated.
And with that defeat came realization. The power that made the world tremble simply by existing did not belong to him. It belonged to Yuta.
Swish!
Yuta appeared before him in the air, suspended effortlessly above the earth.
By ordinary means, it would be impossible to reach this altitude using Shunpo alone, as the clouds themselves lay beneath their feet. But Yuta had mastered spatial manipulation. It was by that power alone that he reached such a place.
"Yuta… I lost."
The jagged black mask of rage on Aizen's face cracked apart and crumbled into fragments. His body shed its monstrous form bit by bit until he returned to himself.
There was no anger in his eyes as there once had been. Instead, he stared at Yuta calmly, with the barest trace of a smile upon his lips.
"But… it's enough that you defeated me…"
He exhaled lightly. "I believe… your world will succeed."
Yuta did not respond. His own Nuo mask also began to disintegrate into fragments, fading from his face. Though only a few seconds had passed since he summoned it, the cost to his energy was immense.
…
"Here is the judgment. The verdict is about to be announced!"
"Former Fifth Division Captain Aizen Sōsuke will be imprisoned in the eighth level of the Central Great Underground Prison-Muken-and sentenced to 18,000 years of confinement!"
Bound in black restraints, his right eye covered, Aizen sat silently on a stone chair as the Central 46 pronounced judgment. His lips pulled faintly into a smirk. "With only you… you dare presume to pass judgment on me? How… truly laughable."
"You traitor! Do you think arrogance can shield you simply because you survived?"
"Seal his mouth immediately!"
"The sentence will be increased to 20,000 years!"
With that order from the Central 46, Aizen Sōsuke was carried away and sealed within Muken-the eighth level of the Underground Prison of Soul Society. A place without boundaries. A place where only the most dangerous criminals were cast away. The escort went without resistance. As the door shut behind him, the single ray of light within vanished, leaving only endless void.
…
In the Human World, the sun shone brightly over Karakura Town.
On a rooftop, Yuta stood wearing his captain's haori, arms folded, his presence sharp and composed. A man followed closely behind him.
"It seems Aizen Sōsuke has been sealed away in Muken."
"Yes… But the one imprisoned is the villain Aizen Sōsuke. What does that have to do with me, Soyosuke?" The man adjusted his black-framed glasses with a faint push of his hand. Light glinted across the lenses, obscuring his eyes entirely.
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