"Eh?"
"Wait, no…"
"Captain Kyōraku!!! Just what are you planning to do in the future?!"
"Are you seriously going to side with evil and release that terrifying guy Aizen from Muken?!"
Among everyone present,
the first to completely lose it was the Big Dog Captain, Komamura.
Under his metal mask was pure fury.
The wolf-man's sharp fangs were bared as he snarled, eyes practically spitting fire.
He was so enraged he pointed at Kyōraku's nose and started yelling right in his face.
And it wasn't just him.
Even Ukitake Jūshirō, who for the past few hundred years had almost unconditionally supported anything Kyōraku Shunsui did, was shaken.
Beneath that white hair,
his usually pale, sickly face flushed red from agitation.
He glared at the screen, completely unable to understand, and demanded, "Shunsui… have you lost your mind?!"
"Don't forget, just one minute ago you were the one saying this round of ranking was about to end, and that Aizen and Kyōka Suigetsu wouldn't be appearing again after this…"
"Just look at you now!!!"
By the time he got to the end,
Ukitake was so worked up he started coughing violently before he could even finish.
He was one step away from literally coughing up blood.
And it wasn't just him.
Unohana Retsu's brows were tightly knit.
Her gentle, serene expression was gone, her composure starting to crack.
Those captains whose seniority and status were a bit lower—Soi Fon, Kuchiki Byakuya, Hitsugaya Tōshirō and the rest…
All of them stared at each other in shock.
Their faces were filled with panic, completely unable to comprehend what they were seeing!!!
"I…"
Kyōraku Shunsui was speechless, tongue-tied.
He opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but not a single word would come out.
Because right now… even he was stunned by himself.
What the hell…
What is my future self even doing?
Sneaking into Muken to release Aizen? What kind of person does that?!
Kyōraku couldn't help but mentally try to defend his future self.
But—
He could clearly see it:
On the screen, his future self was walking through Muken…
And inside that pink-flowered haori,
a huge rectangular key-case was revealed!
That was obviously…
Brought there specifically to let someone out!
Unlike Yhwach, who had snuck in by himself just to talk with Aizen—
Seeing this,
Kyōraku was completely dumbfounded.
"Old man… please, whatever you do… don't misunderstand me…"
He didn't even have the courage to look up toward the head of the hall.
Because from that direction, a scorching spiritual pressure suddenly erupted,
bearing straight down on where Kyōraku was standing.
It was obvious—
Without knowing the full situation, the old man was absolutely furious!
It was like catching his own son skipping class to go to a shady internet café—same level of rage!
"Kyō! Ra! Ku! Shun! Sui!"
The enraged growl came from the Head Captain's throat,
each syllable squeezed out one by one as he roared,
"I see now—you've been planning to replace me for a long time, haven't you?!"
His wooden staff slammed down.
The force punched a hole straight through the floor, making the entire 1st Division barracks tremble!
Staring at the scene on the screen,
and then remembering the earlier reveal—that "Second Generation Head Captain" title hanging over Kyōraku's future—
The old man almost had a stroke on the spot.
He very nearly fainted right there and just handed his position over to Kyōraku like an inheritance!
——
Meanwhile,
inside Las Noches—
Every member of the Arrancar army
was just as baffled and just as shocked!!!
"???"
"I remember that blowhard personally admitting in his Zanpakutō ranking that he was going to be the future Second Generation Head Captain, right?"
"So it turns out Lord Aizen still had another trump card up his sleeve?"
"So it wasn't just you, Gin and Tōsen who defected as the two 'general supervisors'—he'd actually planted a fourth undercover ally all along: that Kyōraku dude!"
"And in the future he painstakingly climbs his way up and becomes the leader of the Gotei 13… all for this exact moment?"
"Lord Aizen, you're brilliant! Your schemes and foresight really are unmatched!!!"
That dark-skinned brother, Zommari, shook his head.
Letting his imagination run wild, he pieced together the "plot" in his mind and ended up worshipping Aizen even more than before.
So incredible…
Even the next Head Captain of the Shinigami turned out to be one of their own…
Why didn't Lord Aizen say so earlier!
Then again, for someone like Aizen, this kind of thing probably was trivial.
Everything had long since been within his grasp, right?
In any case,
with Zommari leading the way, the other Hollows and Arrancar, though they hesitated for a moment,
eventually all believed it.
All of this had to be part of Aizen's plan!
Otherwise, why would Kyōraku Shunsui go all the way down to Muken just to let someone out?
And besides—
Thinking about what was coming next—
If the fully-powered "Blood Aizen" was really about to be released, he'd have even more chances and bigger stages to show off that overwhelming power.
The Arrancar army as a whole was getting visibly more excited.
Getting to watch Lord Aizen keep flexing?
That was just too satisfying. It really made them feel vindicated!!!
However…
Beneath the throne,
Gin Ichimaru had gone stiff.
He wasn't squinting anymore; his trademark fox-grin had frozen.
He stared blankly at the Arrancar's wild speculations.
"Eh?!"
"Kyōraku Shunsui's one of us too?"
"How come… I never heard about that?!"
"If that's true, his acting is way better than mine!!!"
Gin was completely thrown.
Since when did the undercover trade become so competitive?
He'd been undercover for a hundred years.
There was no way Kyōraku had already been secretly colluding with Aizen several hundred years ago, back when they were still at the Shin'ō Academy and Aizen was just his upperclassman…
Right?!
Damn…
That would be too freakish.
Other people doing an "Infernal Affairs" route needed three years, then another three years, just to climb their way up to some crime boss.
But Kyōraku Shunsui?
He spent three hundred years, then another three hundred, finally became the new Head Captain… and then started "revealing" his identity?
Completely insane!!!
As for Aizen on the throne,
He didn't bother clarifying anything.
He just curved his lips into a meaningful smile.
Those deep eyes of his, from beginning to end, were fixed on the large key-case Kyōraku was about to take out.
"Breaking the seals, huh?"
"I'd guess he reached some kind of agreement with Central 46."
"Knowing Kyōraku Shunsui's personality, he'd only overstep his authority and commit such a bold crime if he'd been pushed into it."
Even if he didn't know exactly
what the future situation was really like—
Just thinking about his future self, that perfect version—Blood Aizen—
Very possibly…
About to be released from Muken—
Made a faint gleam of anticipation flash in Aizen's eyes.
Yes—
Just like the fanatical Arrancar around him,
He also wanted to personally witness his own future, fully-ascended self.
To see just how terrifying that spiritual pressure would be,
just how high that power would reach.
Maybe…
Taking advantage of this chance,
he might even march straight up to the Soul King Palace in one go?
At that thought,
Aizen felt a growing sense of excitement as well.
——
At the same time,
on the video—
When Kyōraku Shunsui reached the deepest part of Muken, the area with no restraining seals at all, he finally stopped.
His gaze beneath the straw hat stared straight into the darkness ahead.
Then he started talking to himself.
"Man… no reaction at all? Are you really insisting on not talking unless it's through spiritual pressure?"
"Or is this place somewhere even you can't do anything about, Aizen…?"
As he spoke,
right in front of the camera,
Kyōraku reached into his pocket, pulled out the key-case,
and set it flat on the ground, openly revealing the truth.
"These are the keys that can undo your seals. But… I'm only allowed to use three of them."
"So next, let's start by undoing the 'mouth' seal!!!"
The moment those words,
carried by the video, spread to the real world, a new uproar broke out.
The viewers
reacted instantly:
"It's starting again, huh?"
"Aizen's pretentious line-delivery art!"
"Sure enough, the seals were only temporary!"
"A real final boss can't be bound so easily!"
"From here on out, Aizen's presence and the pressure he brings are only going to get more outrageous, right?!"
——
In the World of the Living,
inside Urahara's shop—
"He's only undoing one seal to start with?"
"Then we can rule out the 'deep-cover ally' theory. That Kyōraku guy…"
Kurosaki Ichigo let out a long breath and wiped at the sweat on his forehead.
Just now,
he had almost believed it.
And he'd genuinely been terrified that Kyōraku might lose his head for a second and yank all the seals open at once.
If that happened…
It would mean that a version of Aizen at a height never before seen by anyone in history would suddenly appear out of nowhere.
That was way too horrifying.
His spiritual pressure would spill right out of the screen and crush the air in the real world.
At that point,
never mind continuing to watch the video—
Just being able to keep breathing under Blood Aizen's spiritual pressure
would already be something the strongest in the Bleach world would have to gratefully accept as their only privilege.
That was how much pressure
this Thousand-Year Blood War–era Aizen
had put on Ichigo and all the other top-tier fighters.
Especially the psychological pressure—it never stopped grinding at their nerves!!!
"If it's just his mouth being freed, then we can relax and keep watching. It's not like Aizen could injure us just by talking…" Urahara Kisuke said.
He simply did not believe
that no matter how strong Aizen was, there wouldn't still be a limit somewhere.
There was no way that simply speaking would make his spiritual pressure overflow.
If that were true, he wouldn't be Aizen—he'd be the Soul King!
Right then,
under the lens's close-up—
Kyōraku picked out one key and inserted it into one of the many keyholes lined up before him, each representing a different sealed body part.
Click—!!!
As the key turned,
the seal labeled "mouth" popped open.
Kyōraku continued, "Like this, we won't need to communicate through spiritual pressure anymore. We'll be able to have a normal conversation…"
"It's just that, for most people, after having their mouth sealed for two years, it's hard to adapt right away and start talking again…"
Through the camera's focus,
it was obvious there was a trace of urgency in Kyōraku's eyes…
Clearly,
he wasn't acting on impulse,
nor was he just fooling around and recklessly trying to free Aizen.
It was obvious that before coming to Muken, he'd already thought this through carefully.
It seemed to imply that right now,
Seireitei was facing some sort of catastrophe.
They were being forced into a corner, making it so they had no choice but to borrow Aizen's power!!!
"Could it be because of the Soul King?!" Urahara's eyes flashed, his expression turning grave.
With his sharp mind,
the first thing he thought of was the Soul King—the keystone of the three worlds, the core maintaining the stability of the Bleach universe.
Only if something happened in the Soul King Palace—
if the Soul King met with disaster, or his life was in serious danger—
would the shockwaves spread down to the lower realm,
endangering the entire Soul Society.
Only then would the Gotei 13 find themselves helpless, backed into a dead end,
and be forced, with no other options left,
to consider borrowing Aizen's strength to turn the tables.
"The Soul King?"
Hearing that,
the others were stunned.
Tessai Tsukabishi swallowed hard and said in terror, "Don't tell me… this was Yhwach's doing?!"
"I remember when he fought the monk, his Quincy powers invaded the monk's body and tried to devour him!"
"Even though he failed in the end and got killed in return, the same thing could happen to the Soul King!!!"
Just the thought made Tessai shudder.
Devouring the Soul King—
If not for the existence of this ranking video,
no strong being would have dared imagine such a thing before.
The Soul King
was a legendary existence.
Forget devouring him—
even just seeing him was practically impossible.
Just getting past the Royal Guard was a monumental task.
But here was the problem…
Back in the monk's ranking,
the Bankai of the Zanpakutō Ichimonji—
the one that rewrites names—
had clearly rewritten Yhwach's name, declaring him to be nothing but a crawling little bug, and finally crushed him to death with a single brutal stomp.
So then—
How could Yhwach possibly go on to
invade the Soul King's palace, and even… devour the Soul King?
"Sigh…"
Yoruichi shook her head with a soft sigh. "All we can say is, the footage isn't complete enough. Every time we only see a fragment, cut up into bits. The story's not continuous."
"Maybe the end of that fight had another twist, and Yhwach didn't actually lose!!!"
"So now, after thinking it through, Kyōraku's decided on Aizen… the only guy who ever really made Yhwach suffer, right?"
She laid out her guess.
In the Thousand-Year Blood War, with that endlessly growing spiritual pressure and combat power of his,
Aizen really was… ironically enough,
one of the very few people, like the monk, who actually had the qualifications to fight Yhwach.
If you looked at it that way,
Kyōraku's motive made perfect sense.
At the same time, Urahara and the others were even more shocked.
Who would've thought…
The man judged by Central 46,
and unanimously branded a traitor by every Shinigami captain—
Aizen—
might actually become the savior of Soul Society during the Thousand-Year Blood War?
That outcome… was truly ironic!!!
——
Meanwhile—
The video suddenly cut to a new scene.
Darkness.
From the direction Kyōraku was looking up toward,
Aizen's voice, dripping with that familiar, seductive magic, rang out again:
"You're right."
"However… don't you still have two more keys you can use in your hand?"
Footsteps.
Shoes striking the ground.
Out of the shadows, Aizen's tall, imposing figure stepped into view.
And although his tone
was as calm and indifferent as ever—
The scene itself…
Especially because Kyōraku had to crouch down a little to insert the key into the keyhole, so he was in a half-squatting position…
Just then—
The moment Aizen appeared, Kyōraku's rear was up and his head tilted back.
Their heights didn't match at all.
From the way the shot was framed, it looked like the future Second Generation Head Captain, Kyōraku Shunsui, was gazing up at Aizen.
Just like the previous scene,
when Yhwach came to Muken.
Leaders of completely different factions—
and yet without exception, they all had to look up at Aizen.
In front of this man, they were all one rank lower!!!
The instant this image appeared,
it set off another huge uproar.
"Whether it's the Head Captain of the Shinigami or the King of the Quincy… does everyone have to bow their heads three levels in front of Aizen?"
"He's been locked away in Muken all this time, but how come it feels like his aura is even more overwhelming than ever?!"
"Right now he's just standing there, and it already feels like he's crushing the whole screen!"
"And Kyōraku only undid the seal on his mouth!"
"So how the hell is Aizen already walking around freely? This is insane!!!"
The spectators, shocked as they were,
were starting to go numb.
Ridiculous things kept happening around Aizen.
Most people were already mentally PUA'd into accepting it.
They were starting to instinctively feel that Aizen showing off was just… the natural order of things.
Because only he,
no matter when he appeared,
could always crank the style and presence up to max and make everyone submit.
(End of Chapter)
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