"Kisuke Urahara…"
"With your eyes and your experience, you should be able to tell what those surging darkness monsters actually are, right?"
Inside the little convenience store,
Isshin Kurosaki asked with his heart pounding.
To be fair, he was once an old-school captain of the Gotei 13.
And after marrying Ichigo's mom,
he'd also come to understand quite a bit about the powers and knowledge on the pure-blood Quincy side. You could say he was someone who'd seen a lot.
Yet right now,
he was completely unable to tell
just what on earth these terrifying, grotesque eyeball monsters were!
Seriously,
in the entire Bleach world,
there had never been a creature with such a bizarre design!
And their bodies were made of solidified spiritual pressure, dense and heavy.
That was the scariest part of all!
"Well, about that…"
Under the brim of his green striped hat,
Kisuke Urahara narrowed his eyes to slits.
He stared at the screen, his brain running at full throttle, and very quickly came up with an answer.
A possibility so shocking
that even he himself felt shaken—
"The Soul King!!!"
As soon as those two words came out,
Kisuke Urahara took a deep breath,
forcefully suppressing the turmoil in his heart.
Then, under the stunned gazes of the people around him, he continued, "Only a power on the Soul King's level could produce such an enormous, all-encompassing torrent of spiritual pressure that covers the entire Seireitei and seems almost inexhaustible!"
"In plain language… it means the Soul King may already have met with disaster!!!"
That final sentence
sent a violent shock straight into everyone's hearts.
Holy crap!
The Soul King is actually in trouble?
Didn't that mean it was now completely confirmed that, in that battle against the Monk of the Eye, Yhwach ultimately turned defeat into victory?
Whether he only defeated him,
or outright killed him—
either way, the pure-blood Quincy king had stepped over the corpse of the leader of Squad Zero,
broken into the Soul King's Palace, and harmed the Soul King himself!
Only then would this apocalyptic scene unfolding before their eyes be possible!!!
Hearing this,
Yoruichi, Isshin Kurosaki, and Tessai Tsukabishi all stared, dumbfounded.
If even the Soul King
was involved and in danger,
then Aizen… really was carrying all the weight and had become the only hope left to save the world!
"This really is ironic, isn't it…" Yoruichi truly didn't know what to say.
At this point,
while everything was still just a future scene playing out on a screen,
the old man should hurry up and lead all the captains to Hueco Mundo,
go line up and kowtow to Aizen.
They might still be in time!
Maybe they could even earn Aizen's forgiveness!
"Aizen shouldn't be that petty," Tessai said with a teasing smile. "Everyone can sit down and talk it out properly. Hueco Mundo and the Soul Society could join hands and face the outside enemy together!"
"Taking down the pure-blood Quincy first isn't impossible either…"
From his neutral standpoint,
Tessai genuinely hoped that this kind of development would come to pass.
And
he also supported the idea of Aizen replacing the Head Captain and becoming the new man in charge.
After all…
he had actually gone to jail for the team!!!
——
At the same time,
while Kisuke and the others were discussing all this,
inside the video,
the torrent of dark spiritual pressure was everywhere.
Blackness swept across all of Seireitei, plunging everything into chaos as the captains ran for their lives, swinging their Zanpakutōs desperately to resist!
And right then…
just as things were at their most critical,
from the direction of Squad One's barracks, near the endless underground passage leading to Muken,
there came a voice from Aizen, calm in tone
yet dripping with natural, effortless mockery:
"How laughable…"
"Isn't it a bit too much hassle to keep hacking away with your swords like that?"
A violet brilliance surged forth,
and an overwhelming wave of solid spiritual pressure
erupted from within Muken. In an instant it turned into a storm,
crushing the entire swarm of surging monsters on the screen!
At the same time, the captains' bodies froze in place and they almost staggered and fell over!
When they
all turned their heads in shock,
their faces full of disbelief as they looked toward the exit of Muken—
in that very instant,
the footage paused.
The camera suddenly zoomed in, deliberately giving a full panoramic close-up!
This obvious shift again
sent the viewers into an uproar:
"He's coming, isn't he?"
"Our savior, Lord Aizen, is about to make a grand entrance!"
"Those foolish captains should be grateful from the bottom of their hearts that Lord Aizen is about to step in and save them!"
"That's right, Lord Aizen is absolutely right! The captains' Zanpakutō are all trash!"
"Even put together, they can't compare to Lord Aizen's invincible spiritual pressure!!!"
Inside Las Noches,
Aizen's army of fanboys and fangirls—the entire Arrancar corps—were all overjoyed, shouting with fanatical excitement.
After all,
back when the countdown videos first appeared,
each round, the captains' Zanpakutō had been showcased by killing Espada, using the Ten Blades to demonstrate just how powerful those blades were!
But now,
even with so many captains together,
even if every Zanpakutō were released,
they still couldn't match the spiritual pressure Aizen had just casually unleashed!
What was more,
at this point
Aizen himself—chair and all—
hadn't even actually appeared in the shot yet.
The countless surging monsters had already been knocked senseless by his mere presence, dropping from the sky in batches like rain!
This, without a doubt, made Aizen's arrogance and supremacy
shine even brighter! And at the same time… it made the captains' weakness that much more obvious!
The Arrancar—especially the Espada—were in pure bliss!
All that frustration and humiliation from watching earlier rounds,
in one go they took it all back with interest. This payback felt unbelievably good!!!
Then,
under the fervent gaze of the Hollows,
that familiar special-style "throne" appeared on screen.
Aizen's figure sat upon it, his hands resting casually on the armrests.
His posture was elegant, his aura exceptional. Even his hair looked like it had been carefully styled with gel.
Even though the raging waves of spiritual pressure were buffeting him,
his hair didn't move at all—his hairstyle stayed utterly perfect.
Still the same handsome, flawless face.
The moment he appeared, he radiated irresistible charm, completely out of place with the surrounding darkness.
Whether it was his aura or his sheer pressure, everything was maxed out!!!
Right now,
sitting on that prison chair,
Aizen looked just like his real-world self seated upon a throne.
With half his face uncovered by the black restraints,
the corner of his mouth curled in an amused smile as he spoke in a cool voice:
"To deal with things like this…"
"Isn't it much cleaner to just use spiritual pressure and crush them all in one go?"
Those cold words,
every syllable dripping with mockery,
were like blades cutting through the screen, piercing from the future into the present.
They stabbed straight into the hearts of the Shinigami in the Soul Society—especially the captains—
delivering a devastating blow to their spirits!
Whatever scraps of wishful thinking they had left
were completely obliterated; the impact was enough to overturn their entire worldview!!!
"So it really came to this…"
"In the future, we… actually… actually have to rely on Aizen to save the Soul Society!!!"
At this moment,
inside Squad One's barracks,
with the Head Captain at the center,
all the captains lined up on both sides,
and behind them the lieutenants and elite seated officers—
every single person stood there, eyes wide, their hearts weighed down by crushing disappointment and defeat,
filled with a suffocating sense of pressure that spread like three layers of heavy clouds.
Shock, terror, despair, shame…
All sorts of emotions tangled together in the hearts of each captain.
Invisible pressure
once again re-created that familiar scene—
Aizen, through a screen, shattering the captains' mental defenses all over again!!!
——
"This is way too much showing off…"
"That Aizen is a born poser!"
"And yet, when it comes to style points, he really does outclass His Majesty!!!"
Inside the crystal palace,
it wasn't only the captains who felt that way.
Even the pure-blood Quincy of the Wandenreich were all wearing complicated expressions.
In fact,
by this point,
they were almost dazed.
They could no longer tell what Aizen's current identity was supposed to be.
The fake Head Captain: Shunsui Kyōraku.
The real Head Captain: the savior, Aizen!!!
That was precisely
how every Sternritter felt right now.
They had no choice but to admit—whether in terms of aura or oppressive presence, Aizen completely outshone Yhwach!
Even among villains,
the gap between them
was being highlighted to an extreme!!!
"Say…"
"Haschwalth, how about we change the plan and go attack Hueco Mundo first?" Lille Barro frowned and, after thinking it over carefully, made a serious suggestion.
And his suggestion
immediately received widespread approval.
The other top officers nodded one after another, voicing their agreement.
"Mm… exactly."
Gerard Valkyrie folded his arms and said gravely, "Compared to the Gotei 13—that ragtag bunch—"
"Aizen… that man, the most dangerous man in this world, is the only one who truly poses the greatest threat to our Wandenreich!!"
The moment he mentioned Aizen,
Gerard's eyes were filled with fear.
He was no longer sneering; he didn't dare to mock. He was as meek as a house pet.
It was a stark contrast to the wild arrogance he'd shown before!
He couldn't help it…
After watching this entire countdown,
Gerard's impression of Aizen had changed completely.
Aizen and his Zanpakutō, Kyōka Suigetsu, had put an oppressive pressure on him that cut right down to the bone.
Even if he wanted to bad-mouth Aizen,
anything he said now would only sound forced and clumsy!
"…"
Up on the high platform,
Haschwalth remained silent.
Though his expression beneath his blond hair was no longer that of a total emotionless mask, it was still extremely complicated.
In truth,
he felt exactly the same as the others—he too believed that Aizen during the Thousand-Year Blood War was far too dangerous!
With the power of a single man,
he could rival all of the Gotei 13… No, you could even say he surpassed them!
However,
as the emperor's right hand,
even though his position was "second only to one," that didn't mean he could casually alter the entire war plan!
After all…
launching the second Thousand-Year Blood War
was a vow that Yhwach himself had made a thousand years ago before he sank into his long slumber!!!
Unless they literally
ripped open his coffin right now,
and had Yhwach open his eyes in person and admit that he was scared of Aizen—
otherwise,
any proposal was meaningless!
The future's progression could not be changed! All of them would still just have to sit there and watch Aizen show off!!!
That was the part Haschwalth found so frustrating!!!
——
Meanwhile.
Back on the screen.
After breathing in his first lungful of Soul Society air—which was no longer clean and pure, but stained with blood and the stench of destruction—
Aizen,
still seated comfortably on his chair,
let his single visible eye sweep lazily over the Shinigami forces in front of him.
At last…
his gaze fell upon
one small figure: Rukia Kuchiki.
Then, as if his role had shifted back to his days as captain of the Fifth Division,
he spoke in the same calm, gentle tone as before:
"Long… long time no see, Rukia Kuchiki…"
"Congratulations on your promotion to lieutenant."
"I'm truly glad that the merits you earned fighting alongside us were recognized."
The corners of his lips lifted in a faint smile.
As always, he seemed like a captain who cared deeply for his subordinates,
concerned about each and every Shinigami.
It almost made the viewers feel for a second
as if time had turned back to the very beginning of the countdown, when Aizen's true colors had not yet been exposed—
when he was still captain of the Fifth Division,
chatting with every captain and lieutenant in that same gentle, considerate way.
However,
the moment this scene played out,
it was like the final straw that broke the camel's back.
It completely pushed "Mr. Can't-Keep-It-Together"—Byakuya Kuchiki—over the edge; he could no longer maintain his persona and exploded into rage!
Aizen!
You bastard!
Back then in the Fifth Division's barracks, who was it that snatched Rukia away right before my eyes?
And now look at you… He had honestly already predicted that this scene would set Byakuya off.
——
Somewhere else, countless voices were still arguing about whether or not to release Aizen.
He shook his head and cut in without a second thought: "Everyone, what you're really talking about here is just 'giving Hueco Mundo some face,' right? That kind of storyline where you go begging the Hollow King for talks and negotiations?"
"Face alone can't protect the world."
"Driving souls, borrowing Aizen's power—I don't see anything inherently evil about that!!!"
This time,
there was no need for any elaborate speeches.
Shunsui Kyōraku stepped out on his own, and the captains were all struck speechless!
He openly declared that Aizen was the savior.
Without him, the future would be doomed! And the Soul Society would be finished!!!
This exchange,
once again broadcast to the World of the Living, caused another massive uproar!
"Yayayaya…"
"Captain Aizen… honestly, just based on what Shunsui Kyōraku did just now, I'm convinced he's been your mole all along!"
"He was originally another crucial chess piece hidden in the Soul Society! Otherwise… there's no way a normal person would work that hard to hype you up, right?"
Peifan Lucia narrowed her eyes and teased.
In response,
on his throne,
Aizen simply smiled faintly and answered, "Gin… just wait and see. If nothing goes wrong, these restraints on my hands will soon be removed."
"After that, it'll finally be time to display my full power once again."
Yet,
to Aizen's disappointment,
in the video Shunsui Kyōraku refused to remove Aizen's shackles.
He clearly stated that Aizen would have to stay seated in that chair and deal with the torrent of dark spiritual pressure from there.
"Honestly…"
"So you all got ready for this, did you?"
"You captains… you really don't know how to appreciate someone's style, do you…"
Even alone,
sitting there strapped to the prison chair, with a mass of black spiritual pressure roiling above his head—
a dark sea that filled the whole sky, casting a gigantic shadow down over him—
Aizen's expression did not change at all.
Though his words sounded a little annoyed, inwardly he was utterly calm.
Then,
the camera zoomed in again.
Under countless watching eyes, it locked onto Aizen's handsome face.
And word for word, it played—
his eyes closing once more,
and that spell so familiar to all the viewers:
"Hadō Number Ninety-One: Black Coffin!!!"
In that instant,
the faces of viewers all over the world changed dramatically.
Almost everyone froze for a heartbeat, then jerked back and cried out:
"Holy crap…"
"It's that same old move again?"
"So even after being locked up for two years, Aizen still hasn't changed at all…"
"He really does love Black Coffin that much!!!"
(End of Chapter)
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