Hi there everyone, thank you so much for the reception of the story so far! I want to thank the reviewers of the last chapter, Ichigo Kurosaki Sotaicho, fuzzibunniez, TheUnseenProphet, X-Burner 27 and Scarlette Shizuru for their reviews! Please continue to support the story! :D Enjoy!
Socially Psychotic
Kisuke has a distant, almost solemn and saddened look in his faraway eyes now. Ichigo is sitting down beside him in the small, bronzed wire frame chair, his scrawny arm resting on the smooth, wooden desk beside him as Urahara stood, gazing from the window.
'Your…closest friend?' Kurosaki asks, raising an eyebrow at the man, Kisuke nodding slowly.
'That's correct. He was the fourth scholar. Although he wasn't one of the university's founders, he was the number one pupil in academics. That covered everything, from Kido to Zanjutsu.' Urahara whispers, Ichigo chuckling.
'Whoa…sounds like an impressive guy huh?' he mumbles, shaking his head, looking down at the floor, then at his own, dirty palms. 'I couldn't even begin to compare.'
'No one knew anything about his origins. Aizen Sosuke was a mystery to everyone. One day he wasn't there and one day he just appeared, taking his place above everyone else in the university, other than myself, Yoruichi and your father.' Kisuke explains, twirling a telescope in his fingers.
'So what happened to him…?' Ichigo wonders, Urahara smiling warmly at the boy, yet, the sad look still presenting itself.
'Aizen…' Kisuke thinks to himself, straightening up again to continue his tale.
'I take it you're feeling better, Sosuke?' Kisuke asked, washing his hands in the bowl, sparkling, swirling water running around his fingers, almost as if they were majestically repelling the force of the churning liquid.
'Oh…yes…thank you.' Aizen whispered, looking down at his satchel, the seams burst open at the sides, his tomes and books, notes and pads all scraped, torn and ruined. Sighing, the man placed them on the side of the bench beside him, running a hand through his messy brown hair.
'Was it the same people?' Urahara said, looking back at the man as they stood in the gardens of the university, Kisuke turning the tap of the faucet at the wondrous fountain's side.
'It…' Aizen says quietly, looking away. '…yes, it was.' Kisuke stepped back from the ornate fountain, looking up at it in quiet awe. The university certainly was quite the spectacle. With its towering dormitories and majestic domes and hallways it could quite easily have passed off as a palace. It loomed over the rest of Rukon, the thriving boomtown on which the university was situated.
'You know, Sosuke.' Urahara replied suddenly, Aizen looking up slowly. 'People are a lot like cities. They grow and grow as a community, yet there will always be some buildings that stand out more than others. Be that because they look strange, or have wondrous things, in the end, they will all be knocked down one day. No matter who they are, we all humble one day, Sosuke. Remember this, won't you?' Kisuke asked, turning to look at the man, the wind rippling around him, billowing like a cape, filled with pride.
'You just need to know who you are. Then, no one will be able to taunt you anymore, you see?' Urahara smiled, chuckling heartily.
'I see.' Aizen nodded, standing up slowly from the bench, hauling his tattered satchel over his shoulder. 'I am sorry for interrupting your battle, Kisuke. Forgive me.' With that, Aizen strolled away through the trees, Kisuke watching him uneasily.
'Something is definitely on his mind…' Urahara thought to himself. Suddenly, Sosuke stopped, looking down at his hand.
'I always thought people picked on me because of my abilities. That, when they couldn't handle the truth, they sought to find another, to create another. I admire them for that, Kisuke. I admire them for creating their destinies.' Aizen explained, Urahara raising an eyebrow. 'Therefore, I will create my own destiny. I will learn everything I can, Kisuke. I'd like you by my side.'
Urahara gasped, before finally collecting himself and nodding, a small grin creeping across his face.
'I'll see you tomorrow, Sosuke. Don't be late.' Urahara reminded him, the man nodding, a smile on his face, his eyes hidden behind the shine of his glasses. With that, Sosuke walked away, giving his friend a half hearted wave as he disappeared into the distance, using Shunpo to dissipate into the air, a twirl of wind whipping around him as he went.
'Ah, you helped him out a lot then hmm?' Ichigo asks, Urahara nodding away.
'Yes I did. But, not only that, I could go to him for help too. I was at that point where I wasn't afraid to abide within him my weaknesses. I wasn't all powerful like the pupils thought…far from it. I was just one man far too interested in his own work.' Kisuke smirks, rubbing the back of his neck.
'Then, the next day, after we had finished our lesson, Aizen came and spoke to me again, but this time…it seemed…different. He wasn't the cowardly, weak man I once knew at all…' Urahara continues, his voice trailing off slowly.
Aizen stepped up, making his way to the front of the classroom. Kisuke was packing his things into his satchel, a lit fire roaring at in the centre of the antique mantelpiece carved into the wall. The rest of the room was dark now, only the dancing flames flickering on the walls, the shadows pouncing and twisting, diving and hissing, each one telling a story of itself.
'Sosuke…' Urahara asked, looking up as the man approached him. '…did you enjoy the lesson?' Aizen moved into the light of the fire, the flames reflecting off of his glasses, hiding his eyes behind walls of orange light, reams of burning, coiling fires, the rest of his face shadowed by the engulfing darkness.
'Indeed.' Aizen replied bluntly, flicking some of his brown hair from his face. 'But that's not the reason I came to talk to you, Kisuke.' he said, Urahara taken aback slightly.
'Oh? Then what is it?' Kisuke wondered, Aizen chuckling slightly under his breath.
'Ah…you see, I've been doing some research of my own recently and, it's just come to light that there are certain things I don't really know much about…' Aizen explained, watching Urahara carefully through his brown eyes.
'We all get that way, Sosuke. You just have to accept at times that there are some things out there man isn't meant to know…' Kisuke pondered, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder.
'Perhaps. But you must have thought about the boundaries, Kisuke.' Aizen asked again, the questions becoming quicker. Urahara removed his hand and sighed, placing his books into his satchel still, shaking his head.
'Boundaries? I'm sorry Sosuke, I don't really fol…' he began when Aizen interrupted him, the man looking down at Urahara.
'Transgression, Kisuke. Shattering the moral highways of man. Have you not asked yourself these unearthly questions?' Sosuke pressed on, Urahara straightening up and looking through one of his colossal books, blowing the dust from it in a quick puff, clouds of it shooting off and over the bright fires.
'Well…yes I have. But isn't that the nature of man? Curiosity? Would you not agree, Sosuke?' Kisuke asked, running a hand through his blonde hair, the two men staring at each other, like the two geniuses they were, only the roar of the flames occasionally breaking the weaker man's concentration.
'Yes. Of course it is…Kisuke.' Aizen said at last, smiling, placing a hand against his face and shaking his head slowly. 'It's been a long day.'
'It has.' Urahara smiled. He was on edge. There was no doubt about that. In the three years he'd known this man, there had never been a moment like this. How long had he been thinking thoughts like these? 'You know though, Sosuke. It may be best if you don't tell anyone about this meeting of ours. These are dangerous thoughts you're thinking up, my friend.'
'Oh?' Aizen coaxed, raising an eyebrow. 'Dangerous? Forgive me, Kisuke. I merely meant for them in the aid of study. That in itself leads me onto another question…' Aizen whispered, a cruel grin creeping across his face, although the room was too dark for Urahara to notice.
'…go on…?' Kisuke prompted, Aizen no longer facing him, but staring into the fire, as if it called out to him, as if its thundering waves crashed and roared like a ferocious tide, or a cracking storm above.
'…these flames. They are like the seas and the skies…they roar and flicker, whilst man can only stand idly by and gape in stupid awe. But…what if the seas and the skies were brought together? What do they create?' Aizen asked, Urahara placing a hand on the mantelpiece and staring into the fire with his friend.
'I don't…' Kisuke began when Sosuke spoke up.
'They create Heaven, Kisuke.' Aizen smirking, Urahara gasping under his breath. Shaking it off, Urahara regained his composure and sighed, picking up both his and Aizen's satchel and handing the respective one to his friend, the man however, ignoring it completely.
'Look, Sosuke. Let's forget about this and go for something to eat, hmm?' Urahara pleaded, Aizen looking into the flames.
'Eat? But it's raining, Kisuke.' Aizen replied, Urahara not daring to look out of the window as the rain lashed down, the only remaining light in the room still the spitting fire, the only sound in the room still the spitting fire. 'Rain. It's power is like that of a God's, wouldn't you agree?'
'If by God…you are referring to the World's Gate, then I would say their powers are respective of one another, Sosuke.' Kisuke whispered, a stammer in his voice now. Finally, Aizen turned to him again, the rain pounding even harder now on the window pane, rattling it along with the howling wind like that of a starving wolf.
'Kisuke…what do you know of the Hogyoku?' Aizen asked. Eyes widening in horror, Urahara slammed his satchel down on the desk beside of him, clenching his fists tight.
'Out.' he breathed, Aizen taken aback. 'Get out. Sosuke, please. Out.' Urahara said, trying to maintain his calm. Silently, dangerously, Sosuke made his way to the door, his back to Urahara as he grasped the handle gently, twisting it in his fingers as Kisuke spoke again.
'Remember what I said, Sosuke.' the man whispered, his face desperate, distorted, almost like it had seen a ghost. 'There are some things man was not meant to know.' In the moments silence, Aizen locked eyes with the man before finally, smiling slightly and turning to the door.
'Indeed. It would certainly appear that man cannot know about these things after all.' With that, Sosuke closed the door shut behind him, Urahara sighing and resting his head in his hands.
'I should have known from that moment what my friend would become. In my naivety, I did nothing to stop him. I curse myself everyday for even letting him walk out that door. A misfit, an outcast who could only find solace in his texts and his training…his thoughts…it was a matter of time before he stumbled on the Hogyoku…' Urahara whispers and Ichigo thought he saw him shudder.
'So…what happened…Urahara?' Ichigo asks, the man looking down at him with his watery green eyes.
'HOGYOKU!' Yoruichi screeched, Kisuke raising his hands in defence. The man was shaking his head, Isshin sighing, his arms folded as he stood up by the side of the wall, leaning his head back up against the cold stone. They were in a small room concealed behind what was thought to be a wall, but there was in actual fact a secret passage which Kisuke had installed. The only four people who knew about it were the top four scholars.
'My, my…' Isshin muttered, looking over at Urahara, the other two sitting at a wooden table in the centre of the room. '…he really is just like you, Kisuke.'
'Except I didn't create my Hogyoku using the conventional method! You know that!' Urahara hissed. As he was saying this, he didn't notice the man standing just outside the door, none of them did. Aizen listened softly, his eyes wide in shock.
'Your…Hogyoku…?' he thought to himself, his glasses flashing as his lips turned down into a cruel snarl. '…what…am I not good enough? What's the conventional method…tell me!' Aizen thought, craning his neck to hear more.
'I know Kisuke, I know…' Isshin whispered, shaking his head. 'If Aizen were to delve far enough he'd find the truth anyway you know that. A Hogyoku is a dark, mysterious object. For crying out loud Kisuke you have to take the souls of thousands of people to create one! Why does he even know about it?' Kurosaki snapped, an evil leer spreading across Aizen's face. Then, the room fell quiet.
'I…' came Kisuke's voice. '…I believe in him.' Aizen's eyes widened in shock. 'I'll tell him myself. I'll tell him about the Hogyoku, everything. I believe in him, he won't try and make one.'
'K…isuke…?' Aizen says to himself under his breath.
'I'm the only friend he's ever had. I should be the one to tell him.' Urahara said defiantly when Yoruichi shook her head.
'You can't, Kisuke. I don't care if you believe in him or what, the matter is a Hogyoku is dangerous. Someone who searches for the conventional methods of making a Hogyoku is dangerous.' she sighed, her yellow eyes piercing the room in which they sat. Urahara looked back at Isshin, the man scratching the back of his head lazily, Kisuke seeking some kind of help.
'Forgive me, Kisuke. I'm with Yoruichi on this. He's a danger to the university. There are so many resources around for him to learn that one vital point.' Isshin said gruffly. 'That you can make a Hogyoku using any spherical object? They are everywhere in the university. I'm sorry Kisuke but there's only one solution.'
Aizen's eyes widened as he listened still, his breath caught in his throat as Kisuke punched the table in distress before nodding slowly, his hand over his mouth as he breathed in deep.
'Alright. I'll remove him from the university.' Urahara whispered, Aizen's hand crushing the tome in which he was holding, his eyes open in furious wrath, his brown hair swirling around his face as he screamed in his mind.
'How could he betray me like this? What do they think I am, some kind of fool?' Sosuke thought to himself, shuddering as he went. Looking around frantically, he rattled through the various test tubes and alchemical instruments on the rickety shelving units beside him, all the fruits of Urahara's hidden inventions and schemes situated in this corridor. Finally, he found one, caressing it gently with his fingers; a small, transparent orb.
'Yes…this will do nicely. Thank you, Urahara.' he sneered, pocketing the orb and making his way out of the corridor. As he left, he missed Kisuke's final words of the meeting, the man sighing as he sat down.
'I would never have wanted this. I will never forgive myself. In fact…I'll leave the university with him. It's in your hands now, guys.'
'So…did you know he was there, listening?' Ichigo asks, now standing beside Urahara at the window, the two of them looking out into the distance. Kisuke shakes his head, sighing heavily.
'No. Not until he would tell me moments later. I truly meant it though didn't I? That I would leave the university if he was removed. I planned on helping him start anew. My friend. If only my mind had observed then and there the catastrophe I had just thrown us all into…' Kisuke shudders, his hands clenching onto the table.
'Urahara…' Ichigo whispers in awe. '…I've never seen him like this before. This tale of his is bringing out some kind of…new…emotions in him. Please go on…Urahara…' Ichigo thinks to himself, sighing.
'I don't really know much of what happened exactly after that meeting. I can guess however that, using his superior analytical skills he deduced the two pupils most likely to become corrupt and recruited them to his side - Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tousen. Two dedicated and brilliant students in their own right…but not at his level, they became Aizen's support posts. He believed he'd lost the friend in me and turned to someone else, someone equally as outcast…Kaname Tousen is blind from birth and Gin Ichimaru preferred to be alone, frightening people with his unsettling demeanour.' Kisuke explains. After raising a hand to his forehead, Urahara sighs, rubbing his temples.
'My only guess is that immediately after that he instructed them to get their zanpakuto and unsheathe them, something that would result in expulsion from the university unless permission is granted by a tutor, and take their positions, one in the West Wing and one in the East Wing. Aizen would then return to the North Wing just as we were finishing up our meeting. Then…'
'Hey! Aizen!' came a brutish cry, Sosuke turning on the spot, his hand resting on the hilt on his zanpakuto hanging from his sash. Four scholars came running up to him and the first one, a large, burly man, swung out with his fist, cracking Aizen on the cheek and sending him crashing down to the ground.
'Got yourself a new satchel huh? Looks nice! Might just have to…' the man grunted, laughing as he brought his foot down on it. '…smash the damn thing!' Suddenly, his eyes covered by his hair, a smile broke out on Aizen's face as he gripped his sword.
'You'll do nicely to start with.' he whispered, the man raising an eyebrow. Then, without even a word of warning, nor a sign nor a movement, Sosuke struck out, blood erupting from the man's chest as he choked on it, the red staining the once beautiful corridors. His friends began to cower from him as Aizen cut them all down, one by one he slew them. At the end, they all lay at his feet as Sosuke reached into his pocket. Then, he heard one stutter and looked over; it was the first man who attacked him, lying defenceless in a pool of blood.
'Y…you…you're insane…you'll…you'll be expelled…no…locked up…executed…!' the man spluttered, blood dribbling down his chin.
'Expelled? I…' Aizen whispered, a sad look on his face for that moment. '…already am.' With that, he removed from his pocket a glistening, sparkling orb, the outside of it shining like an angel's relic, the inside however, dull and cloudy. There was nothing special about it, it was just an alchemist's orb. However, he held it close to the man's face and it began to glow a deep purple, the man's own soul being drawn from his face, his body crumbling as he screamed for mercy, the rest of the bodies on the floor having their souls taken, like amethyst coloured strands of light seeping into the orb. Finally, when he had finished, there was now, in the orb, a few strands of purple light swirling around.
Urahara and the others looked up suddenly from their meeting as an explosion went off in the West Wing. Darting outside, Kisuke looked around in horror as explosions were erupting all over the university as it was all thrown into chaos in that one, unforgettable instant.
'Aizen…could it be…?' Kisuke thought to himself, coughing in the dust and the smoke, the heat of fire trickling around them as they squinted to see, scholars stumbling through the smoke, screaming as chunks of stone and debris flew everywhere. 'Everyone! Move to the gardens! Move!' Urahara cried, trying to guide people through the dust. It was horrible, nothing more than a scene of death. There were bodies lying on the floor, friends cradling their loved ones. Isshin came bursting through the smoke, his sword drawn.
'KISUKE!' he bellowed as a wall came collapsing down behind Urahara, the man vanishing in time, taking with him a small girl, narrowly saving her life. 'GET THEM OUT OF HERE! EVERYONE, MOVE!' A group of scholars came running across the hallways, screaming, crying when suddenly an explosion wracked the floor above them, Urahara and Isshin falling to the floor as glass shot out of the windows, silencing the group of scholars in an instant, a thick haze of dust and debris covering everything. In a flash, Yoruichi leapt from one of the rooftops, scanning the area for survivors as another explosion decimated the East Wing, sending the woman crashing to the ground.
'YORUICHI!' Urahara screamed, darting over to where she had fallen. Isshin scowled and shouted to the scholars to keep running as flames licked the walls, the statues once proud and tall now broken upon the floor. Even the gardens were aflame, but it was still safer than inside. As they ran, the spires atop the university creaked and groaned before toppling over, falling far and fast, crashing down upon the ground and whoever unfortunately ran beneath. They illuminated the entire university in flames, Urahara bursting from the smoke, Yoruichi in his arms as he pulled through, coughing and wheezing. Isshin was guiding people out of the building when he caught sight of them and rushed over.
'Yoruichi…!' he stammered, Urahara passing the girl over to Isshin as another explosion barrelled across the university.
'It's what we feared, Isshin. Please…' Kisuke whispered as Isshin turned to run. '…take this.' From the inside of his pocket he withdrew a small, round, purple orb, Isshin's eyes widening in horror. 'The Hogyoku I created. You must get it out of here.'
Reluctantly, Isshin took the orb and placed it in his robes before sighing heavily, watching Kisuke as scholars came running past, pushing their way through the doors.
'What about you, Kisuke? What are you going to do?' Isshin pondered as Urahara turned away from him, gripping his sword in his hand.
'Something only I can do. Good luck, Isshin.' Urahara smiled to him, Kurosaki nodding back to him. With that, Isshin was gone, Yoruichi in his arms, Hogyoku in his pocket. As another ball of fire billowed up into the sky, Kisuke closed his eyes and darted upwards through the fire and smoke, his zanpakuto glistening in his hand.
