The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Soul Reapers (Chapter 10) Aizen's Speech
by Howlin
(Disclaimer: I don't own any rights to any of the universes, places, or characters, and only claim the protagonist, Sloth, and Loki as my own creation. This is fan fiction, and I don't profit from it. Please don't sue me.)
Above Sokyoku Hill, the Gate of Truth appeared. The great, stone double doors swung open and I leaped out, avoiding the grasping, shadowy hands of the Gate Children. The Gate swung closed and vanished, and I drew my zanpakto.
I'd been careful to open the Gate high enough in the air that no one below would be exposed to the infinite source of knowledge that was the Truth. My enemies already had enough advantages over me. As I plummeted, I assessed the situation.
Rukia was tied up at the base of the execution stand. I identified five captains and four lieutenants below, including Captain Kyoraku and Lieutenant Nanao. There was no way I was winning a straight fight.
The Sokyoku was unmistakable. Standing upright and bound by heavy ropes, the execution blade was a ten story tall halberd said to possess the destructive power of a million zanpakto. A group of masked men were performing a ritual around it. The light we'd seen from a distance was an inferno of bright blue spirit energy surrounding the men and the Sokyoku. Disrupting that ritual might buy time for Yachiru and the others to get here.
I couldn't take the risk of the visible spirit energy acting as a shield against my attack. I focused, channeling all my spirit energy into my zanpakto just like I'd learned to do with Kukaku Shiba's cannon ball, then I called out the incantation of the strongest dark curse I could expect to work. "Sectumsempra!"
I could see an arc of white light lance out from my zanpakto, cut a path through the blue spirit energy of the ritual, and strike one of the ritualists. A deep gash opened up in his chest where my curse hit, and he collapsed to the ground. The others halted their ritual. My plan had worked. Now I just had to hope backup arrived before these captains and lieutenants killed me.
I threw a cushioning charm below me and landed on my feet in a defensive posture. Rukia gasped in recognition once I was down. One of the captains, a bald man with a long white beard leaning on a walking stick looked at me, and I collapsed to the ground under the weight of his spiritual pressure. It was stronger than the entire party of captains and lieutenants Kenpachi had taken on combined. I struggled to breathe as the old man spoke.
"Ryoka, the prisoner Rukia Kuchki has made as her final request that the lives of you and your friends be spared, and that you be returned safely to the world of the living. You can do nothing to prevent the execution from proceeding. Stand down."
One of the lieutenants, a grey haired woman, rushed to the side of the man I'd attacked. She attempted to close his wounds with healing magic, but the powerful dark curse I'd used resisted conventional healing spells. That delayed the process only long enough for the grey haired lieutenant to call her captain over. The black haired captain wore her hair in an odd braid around her neck and down the front of her body stepped forward, quickly analyzed the energy still festering in the wound, devised a counter, and administered treatment right there. Watching her quickly and efficiently undo a completely foreign curse was the second most terrifying thing about this situation, right after the old man who's spiritual pressure was presently crushing me without him having moved an inch.
With their injured man back on his feet far too quickly for my liking, they finished the ritual for unsealing the Sokyoku. Three blocks on the execution stand rose up, linking to Rukia's hands and feet like magnets and raised her up to the top of the execution stand, level with the Sokyoku's blade. The enormous halberd burst into flames and transformed into a massive firebird. My best effort had delayed the execution by mere seconds.
But in those seconds, Ichigo arrived. Wearing an unfamiliar brown cape, he was flying between Rukia and the Sokyoku with his zanpakto raised in a defensive position. As the fire bird charged, Ichigo counter charged. In the same instant, a captain with a pale complexion and long, white hair arrived on the scene with a pair of subordinates. The newly arrived captain hurled a pole attached to a rope over the neck of the Sokyoku. Said rope was attached to a wooden shield. Captain Kyoraku stepped forward to stand beside the newly arrived captain as Ichigo paused in his charge. The grey haired lieutenant identified the new arrival as Captain Ukitake.
A slender, female captain with a harsh expression on her face ordered her lieutenant, a heavyset man with a lot of gold jewelry and a purple collar, "Stop them! They'll destroy the Sokyoku!"
She was too late. Kyoraku and Ukitake both stabbed their zanpakto into the shield, and spirit energy ran up the ropes. When they reached the fire bird, it exploded, raining fist sized chunks of fire down on everyone below. One hit my back square, but the spiritual pressure still paralyzing me overwhelmed my sense of touch, so I didn't notice any pain beyond my current suffocation.
Ichigo took advantage of all eyes being on the two captains to destroy the execution stand and free Rukia. That attack drew the attention of the soul reapers, who were plainly shocked by the act. That distraction allowed a new soul reaper to cut down the masked men who'd released the Sokuoku. He had red hair pulled back into a spikey pony tail. His hairline included a massive widow's peak. Rather than try to cover up this feature, he'd gotten forehead tattoos that emphasized it. Ichigo called out to him.
"It's about time, Renji!"
"Renji!" called out Rukia, having recognized him.
"Rukia!" Renji called back.
"Oh, Renji, it's you! I'm so glad you're still alive!" said Rukia.
"I figured you'd show up," said Ichigo.
"What choice did I have? I couldn't just rely on you to save Rukia, could I?"
Then Ichigo did something so shockingly reckless, I started breathing again. He hurled Rukia face first like a javelin at Renji. There was enough force behind that throw that Renji dug a trench as he was pushed back from the impact. After being yelled at by the two of them, Ichigo ordered Renji to get Rukia to safety.
As Renji ran away carrying Rukia, the hard faced woman ordered the lieutenants to stop them. Three of them complied, with Nanao staying with Kyoraku. Ichigo got in the way, using the same high speed movement technique I'd seen the soul reapers fighting Kenpachi use. They released their zanpakto, but Ichigo easily took them all down barehanded before raising his zanpakto to block Captain Byakuya Kuchki, who's movements were too fast for me to see.
The hard faced female captain beat down Captain Ukitake's subordinates. Ukitake tried to step in, identifying the captain as Soi Fon in the process. The old man stepped in the way. With his attention off me, I could breathe normally and move my limbs again.
"No one move," ordered the old man just as I was about to try standing. Ukitake acknowledged him as Head Captain Yamamoto. "This crime, a lieutenant freeing a convicted criminal, and aiding her escape will be solved by capturing the treasonous officer and putting him to death. Thus his fate is sealed. But that is the least of our problems. What you two captains have done here today is a crime of far greater magnitude. Surely you both understand that your actions are unforgivable."
Kyoraku took Ukitake by the shoulder and they disappeared in a burst of high speed movement. Nanao followed likewise and Yamamoto pursued. Ichigo and Byakuya were clashing, leaving two captains unoccupied. The one who'd healed my sectumsempra tended to the injured, and Soi Fon approached me. She stepped on my chest, and I could feel my ribs cracking. Fortunately, she decided to kill me slowly, as that left time for an unexpected rescuer to arrive. A dark skinned, purple haired woman with an orange jacket tackled the captain off me and dragged her off the nearby cliff in one motion.
Against a captain, I was worse than useless. I was likely to be a distraction to Ichigo. So, I scrambled to my feet, rushed to the opposite side of the cliff Soi Fon had just gone over, and jumped off. With another cushioning charm, I landed safely in front of Renji, who'd taken the stairs down. I joined him in fleeing the scene, introducing myself as we ran.
When the Sokyoku's seal was released, it was visible from the Rukon District. My homunculus self looked up from his reading and swore. The rescue mission had failed. Rukia was dead. Now the only thing to do was find a way to rescue any of the survivors from the rescue party.
Kukaku had the same thought and asked if I was coming. The two of us headed for the gate to the Seireitei. I left Loki at the Shiba house. On our way to the gate, we linked up with Jidanbo. The guardian giant of the west gate had fully recovered from the injuries Captain Gin Ichimaru inflicted on him. Jidanbo opened the gate and he, Kukaku Shiba, and I all entered the Seireitei unopposed.
The streets were laid out like a maze, complete with dead ends and empty lanes with nothing but blank walls on either side. We avoided getting lost by jumping from rooftop to rooftop and heading for the Sokuoku Hill in a straight line. Days after the initial assault, and with the rescue thwarted, the soul reapers were caught off guard. There was no concentration of forces to oppose us and we were moving too fast for any meaningful pursuit.
Kaien's old schoolbooks had given me a better idea of what I would be facing. Trained soul reapers were capable of short bursts of intense speed using a technique called shunpo, or flash step. This technique didn't grant them superhuman reflexes, and combat between two practitioners was as much about predicting the opponent's movements as it was overwhelming their reaction times. Soul reapers did have superhuman reaction time as a product of their spirit energy, but they trained to fight one or more steps beyond that reaction time. The upside of all this was that with my red stone enhanced strength and speed, I might still be able to land an attack on a high level opponent if I could take advantage of the element of surprise.
Kukaku wa able to identify several battles going on throughout the Seireitei. Three of the captains were fighting amongst themselves in an abandoned part of town. Ichigo was fighting a captain on Sokyoku Hill. Yoruichi was fighting another captain at hte base of that cliff.
When I asked if we should split up, Kukaku laughed and said we should all go to help Ichigo and that Yoruichi could take care of herself. As we pressed on, Kukaky explained that despite the masculine voice, Yoruichi was a woman, and a former captain of the thirteen court guard squads to boot. Her cat form was essentially an animagus transformation, and she was likely fighting in human form.
"You're a lieutenant, right?" I asked Renji as we fled Sokyoku Hill.
"That's right. What of it?" replied Renji.
"That means you've got like ten times as much spirit energy as me, right?"
"More than that, amateur," said Renji.
"So why can I keep pace with you?" I asked.
"Idiot," declared Renji. "If I exerted my spirit energy to enhance my speed, it would be like sending up a flare to anyone with the ability to sense spirit energy."
"If we're going for stealth over speed," I said, reaching into my satchel. I retrieved a pair of invisibility cloaks and draped one over Renji's shoulders as we ran.
"What are these?" asked Rukia.
"Captain Kyoraku destroyed my two good invisibility cloaks," I explained. "These are old, but they're better than nothing."
I pulled my cloak closed and took on the vague color and texture of the fortunately nearly identical walls and floor tiles. Renji pulled the cloak over himself and Rukia. Someone watching carefully would be able to notice us moving, but from a distance we'd look like nothing more than a distortion, even at a dead run.
Renji knew his way around the Seireitei, and I followed his lead. That the spirit energy from the various battles was getting more distant was a comfort. That the intensity of those battles was increasing was not. Suddenly, two of the battles, the ones involving Yoruichi and Ichigo stopped. My spiritual senses were too new and untrained to tell who had won.
In a flash of high speed movement, Captain Kaname Tosen was standing in front of Renji and I. His captain's coat was gone, but the only sign of actual injury from his fight with Kenpachi was a bandaged right shoulder. The one person even a perfect invisibility cloak would be useless against, Tosen was blind. Renji and I stopped on a dime.
"Captain Tosen, what's wrong?" asked Renji. "Please let me by. I'm in a hurry."
"He's the enemy!" I yelled, drawing my zanpakto. "Silencio!"
The silencing charm would protect us from the instantly incapacitating sonic attack of his zanpakto. Tosen's eyebrows raised in surprise under his visor. Renji shifted Rukia in his arms so he could draw his zanpakto. With Tosen's trump card disabled, hopefully, Renji would be able to deal with him.
Regaining his composure, Kaname Tosen took a long strip of white cloth in his left hand and held it up. The cloth was lifted in a breeze I couldn't feel and swirled into a dome around Tosen, Rukia, Renji, and me. I recognized the disorienting feeling of compression that accompanied apparition. When the cloth withdrew, we were back on Sokyoku Hill.
Renji had to take a knee from the disorienting trip. Tosen and I were still standing, facing eachother. That I could hear Renji coughing was a bad sign. My silencing charm had been left behind while we apparated. Another dome of cloth opened up, revealing Captain Gin Ichimaru and the supposedly dead Captain Soske Aizen.
"Welcome, Renji," said Aizen. "Leave Rukia where she is, Renji, and back away."
I tried to recast my silencing spell. I tried to shout a warning. But I was once again overwhelmed by spiritual pressure. These three captains had less of an effect on me than Yamamoto had. I could still breathe in shallow gasps and my feet stayed under me, but otherwise, my body was paralyzed. My zanpkato only stayed in my hands because my fingers couldn't move enough to drop it.
Renji's greater spirit energy let him ignore the spiritual pressure, but Rukia was actually in worse shape than I was. Renji had risked his life to rescue her. He wasn't about to hand her over now.
At that moment, a voice sounded that both instances of me could hear. From the expressions of the those around me, I could confirm they were hearing it too.
"All court guard squad captains, lieutenants, and seated officers, may I have your attention please. And also, the Ryoka. This is squad four lieutenant, Isane Kotetsu with an urgent announcement. Listen closely as the message will not be repeated. This is an emergency report from Captain Unohana regarding the traitor in our midst. As grim as the following facts are, what I'm about to tell you is the truth.
"Soske Aizen is alive. He faked his death with the assistance of Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tosen. Aizen murdered and has been impersonating Central 46. The execution order for Rukia Kuchki was a fabrication. After a confrontation in the Central 46 chambers, Lieutenant Momo Hinamori and Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya are in critcal condition.
"Be advised, all three traitor captains are currently at the execution grounds on Sokyoku Hill."
Renji and Aizen stared one another down. "I refuse to let her go," repeated Renji.
"Very well, then," said Aizen. Gin reached for his sword, but Aizen waved him off. "That won't be necessary, Gin. You are stubborn, Renji. Since you won't let go of her and stand down as I have ordered you, I have no choice. But I'll take your feelings into consideration, and I will let you have your way. She can stay in your arms. The rest of you goes."
Aizen slashed at Renji. The lieutenant managed to hop backward out or range, but not before taking a nasty gash to his arm.
"My, my," said Aizen. "I can see your defensive skills have improved a great deal, Renji Abarai. I am happy to see that you've continued to progress, but I hope you won't struggle for too long. It's difficult for me to control my power. It's difficult to step on ants without crushing them. And as your former superior, I would prefer not to kill you if I don't have to."
This was Voldemort and his damn speeches all over again. The smug bastard, secure in his superiority, was taunting us. He'd orchestrated Rukia's execution, turned her own brother against her, and now he was giving a speech. I wasn't going to just stand there and take this. I pushed back against his spiritual pressure with everything I had, forcing my body to move. I was sluggish, but at least I was no longer utterly paralyzed.
"Yeah right," said Renji. "You don't want to kill me? Then what about Momo? You killed her in cold blood."
Aizen smirked. "What happened to Momo couldn't be helped. I had trained her so that she couldn't live without me, so don't you think that killing her was an act of mercy? Still, what I said is true. I did not want to kill her myself. That's why I went to all the trouble of forging the letter, leading her to attack Izuru and Toshiro, but that didn't work out, so I had no choice. I had to finish her myself."
With every word, proudly revealing the people he'd manipulated to bring us to this point, I felt the white hot rage that had let me force my body into motion turn to seething hatred. My spirit energy was nothing compared to his. Aizen didn't even glance in my direction. There was only one spell in my arsenal that had a chance of working. A spell that couldn't be resisted or blocked by conventional means. A spell powered by hatred, which Aizen was helpfully stoking the flames of. It might not work on a spirit being, but this was the perfect time to find out. I choked out the words, "Adava kedavra!"
A bolt of gree light fired from the tip of my zanpakto, right on target. Aizen made no effort to dodge the killing curse, allowing it to strike him square in the chest. The bolt of green death wasn't slowed down by his aura, impacting like I'd seen happen altogether too many times during the war with Voldemort. Aizen was completely unaffected.
Though my curse did nothing Renji took it as a starting pistol. He leapt into the air, calling out, "Roar, Sabemaru!" His shikai took the form of a segmented blade, each segment containing a piercing spike. The segments were linked together by rows of fine chains, allowing Renji to extend Sabemaru out like a whip or retract it as he saw fit.
Aizen halted Renji's blade with his bare hand and sliced the chains connecting the segments of the weapon using his zanpakto. Closing the distance in the blink of an eye, Aizen cut through my left shoulder, through the collar bone, and into my left lung, slicing through several ribs as he went. Then, in another instant, he was in front of Renji, having inflicted a similar wound on him, though not as deep.
Aizen got back to giving his speech, but I ignored it in favor of mending my bones so as to prevent my body from literally falling apart under its own weight. The soft tissue damage and the blood loss would have to wait. For his part, Renji was still holding Rukia protectively.
Raising his blade, execution style, to finish off Renji, Aizen's blade was blocked by Ichigo. He'd entered the scene so fast, it was only by inference I assumed he'd moved to get here. Ichigo's zanpakto had changed again. It was now the size and shape of a normal sword, with a jet black blade and a short chain extending from the hilt. This was his bankai.
At some point, Ichigo had traded the top half of his soul reaper uniform for a black long coat. The coat was tight, nearly form fitting for his arms and chest, while the bottom part billowed open. Ichigo and his new coat had a number of cuts and gashes, blood staining his coat, especially around the shoulders, but it didn't look like any injuries he may have particularly bothered him.
Ichigo and Renji hopped back from Aizen and bantered a bit with one another. While they did so, Gin Ichimaru apologized to Aizen for letting Ichigo through, ut noted he didn't think Aizen wanted him to interfere. Something about that didn't ring true. Aizen, now revealed to have been manipulating the other soul reapers from the start, had appeared in my foegless. Tosen, now revealed to be a co-conspirator, had likewise appeared there. Gin Ichimaru hadn't. All the other soul reapers we'd been fighting had been manipulated, so it made sense my foeglass didn't classify them as enemies. Gin held back when driving us away fro the west gate, and now he'd let Ichigo, who'd already beaten Captain Kenpachi Zaraki and Byakuya Kuchki, by him without a fight so he could cross swords with Aizen. Was he actually on our side?
When Ichigo and Renji coordinated an attack on Aizen, I focused on Tosen. My left arm was hanging limp and useless at my side, and damage to my lung had me coughing up blood, but I could, if nothing else, cast a fresh silencing charm and eliminate the threat of his shikai. If Gin was waiting for a moment of vulnerability to step in and help, I'd do what I could to provide it. If he was actually on their side and had somehow fooled my foeglass, we were screwed anyway.
Renji used a technique that levitated the separated segments of his zanpakto, turned all their piercing points inward, and shot every segment at Aizen. Ichigo rushed in at Aizen with speed I couldn't begin to follow. I pointed my zanpakto at Tosen. I'd hoped casting the spell wordlessly in the middle of the distraction that was Ichigo and Renji's combined attack would give me enough element of surprise to land the spell. It wasn't.
Aizen blocked Ichigo's zanpakto with one finger, then slashed him across the stomach down to his spine. Only Ichigo's immense spirit energy prevented his spine from detaching. At the same time, Tosen flickered out of sight, dodging my spell with his high speed movement technique, only to appear right in front of me and cut my zanpakto in half. Deliberately exherting his aura, Tosen forced me to my hands and knees. No help was coming from Gin.
With another flash of speed, Aizen cut Renji down, then casually strolled over to Rukia. Gripping Rukia by the collar on her neck that had been part of her restraints before Ichigo rescued her, Aizen pulled her to her feet.
"Come now, stand up, Rukia Kuchki. Hm, I see. My spiritual pressure has caused your body to go limp." Aizen glanced at Ichigo who was trying to force himself up on pure willpower. It wasn't happening. Aizen taunted, "Poor, doomed thing. Is he actually still conscious? Your stamina is amazing, but your spine is barely connected to your body. You should lie still. At any rate, you have each served your purpose. Your job in all this is done now."
"What job is done?" choked Ichigo.
I tamped down my annoyance that Ichigo had given the egotistical asshole an opening to keep talking. Much as I hated listening to these psychopaths drone on and on about how clever they were, keeping him talking served a purpose. Word of Aizen's treason had spread throughout the Seireitei. The longer he talked, the longer any potential allies had to get here and save us.
"That's correct. I knew you were coming. I even knew from where. I knew you would arrive in the west Rukon District. That's why I had security incresed there, with squad members stationed at the gate. I had Gin go there as well in case something went wrong. I lowered the wall around the Seireitei right after our arrival and placed third and ninth squads behind the gate. I knew the only way you'd be able to get in would be with Kukaku Shiba's Flower Crane Cannon. A very flashy entrance that everyone would notice. A bold approach.
"It helped that you Ryoka were skilled enough to get past the captains. As a result, the eyes of all the soul reapers were focused only on you. The perfect diversion. Your actions after you entered the court and all the turmoil that you caused were actually quite impressive. As a result, there wasn't much fuss at all over me when I faked my own death. You made it easy for me to make my move."
"But, hold on," gasped Ichigo. "How did you know for sure that we were going to come in through the west Rukon District in the first place?"
"That's an odd question for you to ask," said Aizen. "Where else could you possibly have entered? The western Rukon District is Kiske Urahara's headquarters after all. It's the only place you can break through with his senkaimon. Why do you find that so surprising? After all you work for him, don't you? Surely the reason you're here in the first place is to retrieve Rukia Kuchki under his orders.
"Oh, I see. You poor boy. You weren't told anything, were you? Oh well. Since this is the end anyway, I'll tell you one last thing. Did you know that soul reapers have four basic fighting methods? Zanjutsu, hakuda, hoho, and kido. These are the four, but there is a limit to how strong a soul reaper can become in any one of them. No matter which of the techniques he chooses, there comes a point at which he will have mastered it. And all his growth will stop there. As a soul reaper, he has reached his limit.
"However, for some it is possible to get past that wall and to exceed the limit that's built into all four techniques. And to do that, there's only one way. The soul reaper has to be come a hollow. Either that, or a hollow can become like a soul reaper. Either way, what is required is the removal of the barrier between those two opposing existences. That is the key to making a spirit's power even greater.
"In theory, the idea seemed plausible, so I studied it in secret. I started testing, focusing mostly on the transformation of hollows into soul reapers. I was successful in creating hollows which came close. Hollows that could hide their spiritual pressure, even one that could fuse with other soul reapers. But in the end, none of them worked out as well as I'd hoped. It appeared the theory was was only that, destined never to be a reality.
"But, Kiske Urahara succeeded where I had failed. The mechanism he invented removes the barrier dividing hollow and soul reaper, instantly making one into the other. It defied all logic within the Soul Society. It's called, Hogyoku. I knew immediately how dangerous it was. I think Urahara felt the same way. He tried to destroy it, but he was unable to find a way to undo his own creation. Instead, he reluctantly resorted to another method.
"He created a shield around the hogyoku and activated it. Then he enveloped it deep within a konpaku in order to try to conceal its location from anyone hwo would want to use it for evil." Turning to Rukia, Aizen said, "You know, don't you? You know that's why I want you. Because the place Urahara decided to hide the hogyoku is inside you.
"When I learned you had disappeared in the world of the living, I realized right away that Urahara had something to do with it. All soul reapers in gigai are traceable by the Soul Society, no matter where they go. This is because of the gigai's healing energy. But the gigai Urahara gave you was different, created by him without reshi. As a result, it was untraceable. For this offense, Urahara was cast out of the Soul Society.
"There is also one other reason Urahara was exiled. A gigai like the one he gave you, one without reshi, will constantly break down and devour the reshi of the soul reaper using it. He will never be able to completely recover his power. It will fade, and eventually, the connection with the gigai will dim. finally, the soul reaper is reduced to a mere human.
"Do you understand? Urahara didn't give you any strength. He didn't help you at all. He used you, Rukia Kuchki. He turned you into a human just so he could hide the hogyoku. Fortunately, before it was too late, you were found in the human world and arrested.
"I went immediately to Central 46 and killed-"
Finally, backup had arrived to put a stop to this interminable speech. Aizen had said some interesting things, which I'd obviously need to fact check, but I was relieved it was over. I was still loosing blood from my shoulder wound, and both Ichigo and Renji were worse off than I was.
Our savior was Captain Sajin Komomura, the armored soul reaper who'd fought Kempachi alongside Tosen. His helmet was gone, revealing Sajin wasn't human in appearance like most of the other soul reapers. He was some kind of anthropomorphic wolf. Maybe a victim of a transfiguration accident, maybe a nonhuman soul from the start. He had yellow eyes and brown-red fur. And he looked pissed.
"Aizen!" Komomura yelled and swung his sword down. As he swung, a ghostly, disembodied, gigantic arm wielding a sword as long as Jidanbo was tall mimicked Captain Komomura's swing, coming down at Aizen's head.
When the dust settled from the impact, the ghostly arm was gone, and Aizen had closed the distance to catch Komomura's sword, having dragged Rukia with him. I swore to myself if I ever fought this guy, I'd put a contact activated poison on my blade. This habit of his, blocking barehanded to show off how powerful he was, represented a level of arrogance that deserved to blow up in his face.
"It's been quite a while since the last time I saw your face," said Aizen to Sajin. "What's brought about the change of heart, Sajin? Has something happened?"
Komomura's features twisted with hatred. Brows lowered like a human and teeth were bared like a wolf. "Aizen, how dare you stand there and smile like that? Aizen, you betrayed everybody, every one of us! You will not be forgiven! Nor will you, Kaname!"
Captain Komomura punched down, nowhere near Aizen, but a ghostly armored fist the same size as the last one appeared and was right on target for Aizen. Aizen had to leap back, taking Rukia under his arm as he went. Landing next to Gin, he handed Rukia off to him and began to stroll back up to Komomura, who'd turned his attention to Tosen.
"Kaname, if you've got an explanation, I need to hear it now! That's it? Nothing? Too bad, Kaname. Bankai."
I felt Komomura's spiritual pressure swell. Then he looked down at Aizen as though he hadn't noticed him walk up. Sajin glanced between Aizen and an empty spot near Tosen while Aizen raised a hand.
"Hado number 90," said Aizen as a ball of purple outlined blackness formed above his hand. "Kuno hitsuigi." The edges of a rectangular prism made of the same black-purple energy surrounded Komomura, then black walls and ceiling enclosed him. The construct of dark energy dwarfed the execution stand, and had a number of blade-like protrusions extending out of its top and sides. Those protrusions pressed inward, then the entire construct evaporated.
The construct had obviously pierced Komomura in numerous places. Blood spurted out from a dozen wounds and what remained of his armor shattered. Aizen turned his back, confident his spell had defeated his opponent. Komomura collapsed.
"Kyoka Suigetsu's complete hypnosis is flawless," bragged Aizen, "but even if there were a flaw, it would be impossible to escape it."
"So," said Gin, "that's unspoken hado 90. Pretty scary stuff. I take it you mastered that little attack when I wasn't looking."
"No, it was a failure," said Aizen. "What you saw was only about a third of its true destructive potential. Number 90's difficult to control. Now, then- Oh, sorry, I hadn't finished explaining things to you, had I?"
Aizen took Rukia by the collar again and dragged her to an open space as he picked up his interminable gloating speech where he'd left off. The brief confrontation had given me a few pieces of information. First, Aizen was able to cast illusions, selectively manipulating the senses of chosen individuals while leaving others unaffected. He'd used it to sneak up on Komomura. Second, Aizen wasn't invincible. Though he'd won his fight with Sajin handily, he'd felt the need to dodge his second attack, and didn't want to deal with his bankai. Third, for all his talk about mastering the four forms of soul reaper combat, he wasn't yet at that point himself, having been able to cast only a weakened version of the spell he attacked Komomura with.
Uryu, Chad, Orihime, Ganju, and the soul reaper Yachiru had nicknamed Whiskers arrived on the scene. Gin exerted his spiritual pressure and forced them all to the ground. Oddly, Uryu, who'd beaten a captain on his own, went down faster than Chad and Ganju, who'd both lost to their captain class opponents. Fortunately, holding them down with his spiritual pressure was all Gin intended to do for the moment. Aizen now had a larger captive audience for his speech.
"Now, Rukia Kuchki, after I found you in the world of the living, do you know what the first thing I did was? I went in and eliminated the Central 46. I imagine you heard a somewhat different story from Isane. She probably told you, 'Soske Aizen faked his death and his his whereabouts. Afterwards he slaughtered Central 46.' But that's not how it happened at all. I killed them as soon as I discovered you, then used my Kyoka Suigetsu on the entire central underground assembly hall. To simplify matters, I made it look as if Central 46 was still alive, holding meetings. In order to do that, one of us remained in the underground assembly hall at all times. Since then, we have taken over the functions of Central 46 and we have been issuing all of their orders.
"To make sure of your arrest, I had those members of squad six take you in. To separate you from the humans, I ordered the return and destruction of your gigai. To evaporate your soul and take the hogyoku from inside you, I decided the simplest way would be to have you executed with the Sokyoku. The only time we weren't in the underground assembly hall was the few hours surrounding the two captains' meetings.
"After that, I pretended to die and hid underground. Because I knew your Ryoka friends might save you, I knew the execution might fail.
"When a foreign object has been planted directly into a soul, there are only two methods by which to remove it. You can use an intense thermal disruption like the Sokyoku, which evaporates the soul around the object. Or, some other method which breaks down the soul's cohesion and allows them to be separated. In the unlikely event the execution by Sokyoku failed, I needed to find that other method."
Aizen took a small, thin metal tube from inside his shirt. "Which takes us back to Central 46. You see, the information I needed could only be found in the underground assembly hall's daireishokairo. I spent endless hours pouring over Kiske Urahara's research. He was the one who developed the technique of implanting a foreign object into a soul."
Aizen pushed a button on the cylinder, and it released an unknown gas. "So, I reasoned that hte answer to the question of how to remove one was also hidden in his research. Yes. This is that answer."
Green spikes rose up around Aizen in a ring from beneath the ground. His right hand turned green. Purple energy arcs leapt between the spikes and white arcs surrounded Aizen's right hand. In one motion, he put htat hand through Rukia's chest and out her back. Hee removed a small, round object from the hole in her chest and dropped her. The spikes withdrew back into the ground and Aizen's hand returned to normal.
Rukia fell to her knees, but didn't drop dead like a human with a hole like that in the chest. I was reminded of the holes hollows had in their chests without experiencing negative effects. If wounds like that were potentially survivable, I'd been fighting too cautiously since becoming a soul reaper.
"How fascenating," said Aizen. "I didn't expect it to be so small. The hogoku." The hole in Rukia's chest closed, and even her clothing was undamaged. "And no permanent harm to the soul. What an astounding technique. It's too bad, but I just don't have a use for you anymore. Kill her, Gin."
"Well, if I must," said Gin drawing his zanpakto. "Shoot to kill, Shinso."
Like during hte attack on Jidanbo, the extension of Gin's blade was too fast for me to see. Unlike that time, someone who could both see it and was fast enough to do something about it arrived just in time. Byakuya Kuchki took Rukia from Aizen, got her out of hte way of Gin's shikai, and nearly got herself out of the way. Shinso ended up piercing Byakuya's left lung. Aizen turned to finish off the Kuchkis himself, when the real rescue party finally arrived.
Jidanbo had taken a flying leap with my homunculus self and Kukaku Shiba on his back in order to make a dynamic entrance. As we fell, Kukaku intoned a kido chant, building power for the spell and unleashing a massive electrical blast just before we landed, throwing up a vision obscuring dust cloud. The Mad Eye allowed homunculus self to see through the dust and act accordingly.
Two women used the soul reaper high speed movement technique my homunculus self knew was called flash step to get close to Aizen. The one with dark skin, yellow eyes, and a long purple pony tail wrapped Aizen's sword hand with a strip of cloth while the other woman that my soul reaper self knew was Captain Soi Fon put her zanpakto to Aizen's throat. Aizen successfully captured, homunculus me rushed at Tosen, who was still standing over soul reaper me.
As a soulless homunculus, that version of me had no spirit energy to sense, and as a result, I was able to take Tosen completely by surprise, gripping him by the throat with my left hand and raising him off his feet. My preparations hadn't been useless. My red stone powered strength let me not only hold a soul reaper captain with one hand, but I had to avoid putting too much pressure as I choked him out to avoid shattering his spine.
With the spiritual pressure let up, my soul reaper self could move again. Knowing the dangers of attempting spells with broken wands, I dropped the hilt of Tsumi no Rensa. Extending my right hand in the obscuring dust cloud, I cast a nonverbal, wandless spell. If it weren't for the extended period I'd just spent crushed by spiritual pressure and bleeding out from my wounds while Aizen made his speech, my spirit energy might not have grown enough for my spell to succeed. I thought as loudly and forcefully as I could, "Acio hogyoku!"
If Aizen had still been holding the orb, the power of my spell wouldn't have been nearly sufficient to wrest it from his grip, but the traitor captain had put it in his pocket when he needed the hand that had been holding it to draw his sword against Rukia. I didn't dare risk Aizen seeing me with the orb when the dust settled, so I hastily shoved the prize he'd orchestrated all this over into my bag.
As Tosen struggled nad tried to pry the fingers of my homunculus self off his throat, the woman who'd bound Aizen's sword said, "Don't o it. If you even move so much as a muscle..."
"...then we're going to cut off your head," finished Soi Fon.
"Yes, I can see that," said Aizen far too calmly.
"Kukaku," greeded the yellow eyed woman binding Aizen's sword.
"Hey, Yoruichi," replied Kukaku Shiba, confirming this was the talking cat in human form. Apparently, his voice was only masculine in cat form. "I had a little free time on my hands, so since I was out, I thought I'd check in."
"What happened to you?" asked my homunculus self.
"What's it look like? I got cut up by soul reapers," said my soul reaper self. "What about you? How did you lose an arm? I'm the one who's been fighing."
"Cut it off myself so I'dhave a test subject for Kukaku's new automail. What do you think?"
At that point, more soul reapers started arriving. A busty, orange haired leutenant put a sword to Gin's throat. Yamamoto, Kyoraku, Ukitake, and a number of additional leutenants flash stepped onto the scene.
"This is the end," said Yoruichi.
"What? Did you say something?" asked Aizen as though completely unconcerned about this added opposition.
"Don't you understand, Aizen?" said Yoruichi just as confident as he was. "There is no place left for you, no place you can escape to. It's over, Aizen."
With a superior smirk and a condescending chuckle, Aizen said, "I'm sorry to do this, but the time is come."
Recognizing a danger no one else saw, Yoruichi called out, "Soi Fon, get away from him!"
Both women leapt asside as a column of golden light descended from the sky, forming a square base around Aizen. They'd gotten out of the way just in time. The point in the sky where the light had descended from cracked open, revealing a dozen or more menos grande. As the cracks widened, two more beams of light lanced down. I dropped Tosen and leapt back, and the soul reaper holding Gin did likewise. Inside the force field, Tosen dropped to his knees and clutched his throat, despirately gasping for air. As he managed to get back to his feet, the ground beneath all three traitor captains broke loose and began rising into the air.
Captai Komomura's leutenant drew his zanpakto, saying, "You're going to just run away? That's it?"
"Stop," ordered the elderly Head Captain Yamamoto. Everyone on the ground obeyed. "That light is a weapon with the name of negaccion. It's a technique the menos use when they are rescuing their fellow hollows. Once enveloped by that light, it is impossible for those within and without to interact. It is an isolated world inside the beam. All those who have fought the menos know it well. From the moment that light fell on Soske Aizen, it became completely impossible for us to reach him."
Captain Komomura, who'd regained consiousness at some point, punched the ground, splintering rock and yelled, "Kaname! Come back, Kaname! Have you forgotten? You once told me why you became a soul reaper! Wasn't it for your friend who lost their life? Wasn't it to carry out your justice? Where is your sense of justice now, because I don't see it?"
"I thought I made it clear to you," said Tosen, still rubbing his neck. "My eyes can only see one path, and that is the path with the least ammount of blood. Justice is always there, and the path I follow is justice."
Ukitake faced Aizen and said, "You'vejoined with the menos. Why would you want to do that?"
"I need to keep reaching higher," explained Aizen.
"Have you become that corrupt? Have you?" demanded Ukitake.
"You're blinded by your selfrighteousness," said Aizen, launching into another damnable speech as he rose into the sky. "From the beginning, no one has ever stood at the top. Neither you, nor me, nor the gods." Aizen removed and crushed his glasses and slicked back his messy hair. "But soon, that unattainable vacancy at hte top will be filled. From now on, I alone will stand at the top. Goodbye, soul reapers." Then he addressed Ichigo directly, "And goodbye, Ryoka boy. Even I have to admit that for a human, you were quite ammusing."
The rip in the sky closed, taking the three traitors with it.
Author's comments:
Aizen didn't get the hogyoku. Of course, the fact that he already had one means this particular change won't actually impede his plans, especially since he did get Kiske's research notes on how he made his own hogyoku to fill in the blanks.