At this moment—
Inside the footage.
As the camera pushed forward,
it followed in Yhwach's footsteps down that long, dark passage.
Very soon,
when they reached the end,
spotlights embedded in the floor switched on, and the figure imprisoned here—Aizen—appeared on screen!
It was still that same specially built, enormous prison chair.
Aizen sat upon it with graceful poise,
his figure upright and composed.
Even though his entire body,
from top to bottom,
was wrapped thickly in black binding straps, every single spiritual pressure node sealed away,
that did nothing to stop
his presence from clashing naturally with the surrounding darkness.
Anyone,
with just a single glance,
would instinctively feel that he did not belong in this space,
and would be convinced that this place, Muken—
sooner or later…
would not be able to hold Aizen!!!
And as soon as Aizen came into frame,
the sinister Yhwach—pure-blood Quincy King though he was—had his aura and sense of existence
instantly overshadowed by comparison!
Even among villains, there were levels; and at least when it came to sheer presence…
with the two of them sharing the same shot, Aizen clearly had the upper hand, pressing down on Yhwach!!!
"Aizen…"
"His spiritual pressure is obviously way stronger than it was back during the trial!"
"But those two moments shouldn't be that far apart in time, right?"
"I have to say… in this state, Aizen really is a bona fide monster!!!"
Inside the First Division.
The captains' eyes roamed over Aizen, probing his condition.
When they clearly sensed
that even with all his spiritual pressure nodes sealed, there was still a surging torrent of power inside him that couldn't be held back, threatening to burst out of the screen at any moment,
even the Head Captain,
along with everyone else, had a change of expression—their mood took an immediate hit!
It was too terrifying…
They had originally thought
that the finale of his battle with Kurosaki Ichigo in Karakura Town—that peak clash—would be Aizen's swan song.
But who would have imagined…
that now,
what they were seeing instead was an even stronger form!
By the time of the Thousand-Year Blood War, Aizen's spiritual pressure and power had only grown stronger and stronger with the passage of time!
More importantly…
that elegant, overwhelming aura of total control—that was the most bewitching thing about this man.
Now,
his flaws had faded away and his strengths stood out.
In the face of Aizen, even Yhwach seemed dim by comparison, which only made this man's flawless nature stand out even more!!!
"So that's Yhwach, huh?"
"There are countless ways one could learn that name…"
"But to actually see him in person is still unexpected…"
Aizen lifted his head.
Those dark eyes of his,
from high above the prison chair,
looked down on Yhwach.
His voice was calm, without joy or sorrow.
Even when facing the pure-blood Quincy King, and despite his whole body being sealed,
his mindset remained utterly unruffled.
The faint upward curve at the corner of his mouth
even carried a trace of amusement and mockery.
As soon as this scene appeared,
it caused an immediate uproar; the viewers could not help but comment:
"Aizen…"
"He really is the same as ever!"
"No matter who he faces, whether it's us Shinigami or even Yhwach himself, he always ends up unconsciously radiating that domineering, looking-down-on-everything attitude…"
Under the brim of his hat and straw cloak,
Kyoraku Shunsui shook his head, letting out a helpless chuckle.
Even though right now, from where he stood—Aizen and Yhwach, those two evil villains—were both enemies of the Gotei 13,
still…
as someone who had once been Aizen's colleague,
Shunsui had to admit that he was more than happy to watch Aizen show off in front of Yhwach.
Most likely…
in this entire world,
only Aizen alone
could so casually poke fun at the Quincy King to his face, and do it with such ease.
Sure enough,
Aizen's next words
proved exactly that.
"There's no need to ask why you're here…"
"The unpleasant spiritual pressures scattered all over the surface are explanation enough…"
His tone was icy.
Aizen spoke in an even voice, showing not the slightest hint of welcome.
"Well then… that makes this simple."
Yhwach lifted his head and met Aizen's gaze, his eyes fierce as he spoke:
"Aizen Sōsuke, one of the Special War Powers—"
"Join me."
An invitation, offered face-to-face.
His words echoed in the dark.
Carried through the ranking video to the real world,
they hit like a nuclear bomb.
Every part of the Bleach world shook like never before.
In that instant,
Shinigami, Hollows, pure-blood Quincy… every powerhouse among every race was shaken to the core!!!
"What…"
"His Majesty really did it!!!"
"He actually… while being looked down on, still raised his head to face Aizen and issued the invitation in person!"
"Seriously… that posture of lowering himself like that… is this really the Yhwach we know?!"
"Aizen… that man abandoned by the Shinigami and unable to rule Hueco Mundo—what makes him qualified to join the Wandenreich?!!"
The Ice Crystal Palace trembled.
The pure-blood Quincy of the Wandenreich exploded with shock!
From the very moment
Yhwach appeared on screen and set foot in Muken,
this was the one scene they had most hoped would never happen!
What they found hardest to accept
was that when Yhwach made his invitation, his tone was not lofty or arrogant at all, but calm—like he was speaking as an equal!
Yet—
the way the footage presented it,
he was clearly tilting his head upward, looking up at Aizen, as if he had come all this way just to pay his respects!
It was precisely this point
that the pure-blood Quincy simply could not accept.
In their minds, what they had imagined
was a scene where the Quincy King suppressed everything and dominated Aizen in terms of aura and presence.
But not only did that fail to happen—
instead… Yhwach's "status card" was completely thrown away without anyone realizing it!
If not for the earlier ranking clips,
which had already shown them how incredibly powerful Yhwach was and how he aimed to seize the Soul King's throne,
someone might almost have mistaken him,
in front of Aizen, for just some random warlord with a mean-looking face!!!
That was, right now,
the feeling that even Yhwach's own subordinates, the pure-blood Quincy,
could not help but have as they watched.
What worried them even more, though, was—
what if,
right there in front of the camera,
Aizen just turned around and rejected him?
Wouldn't that be incredibly awkward for His Majesty?
Lowering himself like this,
only to get shot down—wasn't that just textbook bootlicking?
That would be a disgrace to the dignity of the pure-blood Quincy King!!!
"Damn it…"
Valkyrie ground his teeth, grumbling in frustration. "I mean no offense, but I really think His Majesty is being impulsive!"
"With a show-off like Aizen, we should just use force and be done with it. There's no need to talk to him so nicely!"
"Isn't this basically handing him a perfect chance to show off on a silver platter?!"
"It's seriously irritating!!!"
Originally,
whether it was Valkyrie
or the other elite Sternritter,
before these ranking videos appeared, they had all believed themselves to be brimming with style and arrogance.
Yet…
after this round of ranking began,
no matter how unwilling they were, they had been forced to admit that—compared to Aizen, all their posturing looked downright pathetic.
This man
was like the ancient Greek god of showing off.
Anyone who talked with Aizen, even a little,
would easily fall into his trap.
In just a few lines, with that razor-sharp way he used language, he could provoke you into losing your temper and exposing a weakness!
Right now,
Valkyrie was extremely worried.
Yhwach taking the initiative to extend an olive branch
was, without a doubt, giving Aizen the perfect stage to flaunt his superiority!
Very soon,
with the camera cutting in closer
and the ranking video being broadcast live to the entire world,
whatever answer Aizen gave would inevitably cause another shockwave—
and,
it would stomp all over Yhwach's reputation,
dragging down the Wandenreich and the dignity of the pure-blood Quincy King,
grinding them underfoot!!!
——
On the other side,
inside Las Noches,
a completely opposite scene was unfolding.
Because of Yhwach's invitation,
the entire Arrancar army felt both shaken and wildly excited.
This incident
instantly made them admire and worship Aizen even more!!!
"Even the pure-blood Quincy King has lowered himself and come in person to seek a partnership?"
"Aizen-sama is truly wise! It seems that in the Quincy King's eyes, you are the only person in this world worthy of standing as his equal!!!"
Zommari, the black-skinned Espada,
as Aizen's most fanatical believer, was the first who couldn't hold back; his voice shook with excitement.
And as it turned out,
the big guy was reading the situation perfectly.
With just this one scene, Zommari had already seen through Yhwach's thoughts.
In his heart, his fervor surged even higher—
to him, Aizen was a leader no less powerful than Yhwach!!!
"Yeah…"
"It really is unexpected."
Even Nnoitra was taken aback, his single eye gleaming with obsession as he said:
"You think back to the footage we saw earlier…"
"Whenever Yhwach faced the Head Captain or the leader of the Royal Guard, Ichibē…"
"His stance was always to kill them outright; all he showed was hostility and murderous intent. Any 'conversation' was only for the sake of battle!"
"But now… in front of Aizen-sama, he's actually the one taking the initiative to lower himself. A Quincy King like this is truly shocking!!!"
This view
was shared by every Espada and every Hollow and Arrancar present.
After all,
setting aside Aizen's old identity as "captain of the Fifth Division" before his defection—
he was now the ruler of Hueco Mundo!!!
Even if he would lose in the future, be sealed and imprisoned, that fact could never be erased.
Precisely because of that,
it made this moment all the more startling.
Everyone knew perfectly well how antagonistic Hollows and pure-blood Quincy were as races—
even more so than Shinigami and Quincy!
Their relationship
had already reached a point where the two sides simply could not coexist—only one side could be allowed to survive!
Therefore,
for Yhwach, founder of the Quincy,
to invite the ruler of Hueco Mundo—
was downright traitorous behavior.
He was voluntarily betraying the Quincy race!!!
At this time,
beneath the throne,
after his initial shock,
Ichimaru Gin's foxlike smile returned. Amused, he teased,
"Aizen-taichō… what kind of answer do you think the 'you' of the future is going to give?"
"Accept the invitation and join the Wandenreich?"
"Or… refuse the Quincy King to his face with that cold attitude of yours?"
To be honest,
no one could guess the answer—not even Gin himself.
After all those dizzying rises and falls Aizen had weathered,
no one could say for sure whether being locked in Muken for such a long time, surrounded by unending darkness,
might have twisted his heart and thoughts,
corrupted by the shadows until he wanted to take revenge on Soul Society.
However…
based on Gin's understanding of Aizen,
not even the Soul King could make Aizen bow his head—let alone Yhwach.
That title, "Quincy King,"
to Aizen,
was worth less than a scrap of paper.
It carried absolutely no pressure!!!
Sure enough,
Aizen's next response
did not disappoint him.
"Gin… why ask a question you already know the answer to?"
"Whether you call it cooperation or an invitation, Yhwach's goal lies on a path completely different from mine…"
"And with the level of his thinking, he is nowhere near qualified… to shoulder my blueprint for the Royal Realm."
This domineering declaration
sounded almost like a prophecy—a preview of what would soon happen.
He was foretelling that his future self would make the exact same refusal!
Sure enough,
in the very next sequence,
the footage played out a scene that matched his words perfectly:
"So, the pure-blood Quincy King is inviting me to join the Wandenreich?"
Aizen's lips curled upward.
"In order to destroy Soul Society!!!"
Yhwach's tone was frigid. "At least from where I stand, that is one goal we share in common!!!"
"Share a goal, do we? I see…"
Aizen's gaze stayed cool.
Unruffled.
But the arc at the corner of his mouth deepened.
And then—
the camera clearly pushed in,
tightening the frame.
It centered on Aizen's face, giving him a deliberate close-up shot.
This shift
pulled every viewer's curiosity taut like a bowstring.
Would Aizen accept?
Would he choose to walk alongside the pure-blood Quincy, aiding Yhwach,
and together destroy Soul Society with their own hands?
In that instant,
the world fell silent, quiet enough to hear a pin drop.
Every viewer everywhere focused on the video, their hearts restless as they waited for Aizen's answer.
It was as if…
even bound to that prison chair,
Aizen was sitting on a throne—holding in his hands the authority to decide the fate of the world,
standing as the absolute protagonist of the future yet to come.
The answer was revealed very quickly—
"I couldn't bear to see the Quincy King trailing behind a former Third Division Shinigami…"
"So… I refuse."
He rejected him, coldly.
His tone towered above.
Even as he spoke, in that close-up, Aizen's cool eyes were filled with obvious indifference and contempt.
And his words were brutally plain.
He did not speak of "cooperation" or "walking together," but of…
"following."
It was Yhwach,
the pure-blood Quincy King himself,
who would be trailing after Aizen, playing the role of his underling!!!
His dignity beneath that of a king among Shinigami,
bowing his head and obeying orders!!!
Those words,
especially that arrogant attitude
and Aizen's utterly uncompromising coldness,
once broadcast by the ranking video
and seared into the memories of viewers across the world,
instantly set off another firestorm.
The entire Bleach world exploded again!!!
"Holy shit!!!"
"Aizen is insane—he has never once let us down!!!"
"Not only does he talk to Yhwach from a position of superiority, he actually says it straight to the camera—openly looking down on him as nothing more than a henchman!"
"The best part is that he keeps emphasizing the word 'Shinigami.' It seems… that no matter how many earth-shattering things he's done…"
"Deep down, he has never abandoned his identity as a Shinigami. I'm actually crying here…"
In their shock,
in their awe,
the viewers were thrown into chaos.
Even among the Gotei 13,
the Shinigami were left stunned.
The captains stared, frozen where they stood.
None of them had expected Aizen to give such an answer!
For a moment,
some of them even wondered—
had they completely misunderstood Aizen, twisted this man's true intentions?
Otherwise…
why would he, on the battlefield of Karakura Town, stab Harribel in the back, scorn every Espada, and sneer that the Arrancar were trash…
and yet now,
still use the word "Shinigami" to describe himself as he looked down on Yhwach, placing himself above and belittling him?
All these actions Aizen had taken
were so contradictory that it was hard not to start doubting—
perhaps,
Aizen's ultimate goal
had never been to destroy Soul Society, wipe out the Gotei 13, or slaughter the Shinigami.
Maybe he only wanted to replace the Soul King
and rebuild order.
In any case,
this latest reveal
gave the viewers a completely new perspective on who Aizen really was!!!
(End of Chapter)
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