Chapter 24: Nothing but Confusion

Ever since Ronnin told the Royal Guard the truth behind the struggle between him and Aizen, and the inevitable fight they were certain would come soon, all of them wanted to make sure they were all ready for it as much as they could. Everyone was taking training like the next day could be the day Aizen came to attack them. None of them wanted to be unprepared, no one wanted to be too weak to stop Aizen. They were taking training so seriously they were doing one-on-one training sessions with Ronnin in an attempt to become much stronger as quickly as possible.

Ronnin knew that Aizen would go to Karakura Town to create the Oken, so ahead of time he went there and set up reistu camera's just like he had done in Seretei 50 years ago when they tested the 13 court Guard Squads. He would check the camera's often, not sure when Aizen would come, and not wanting to get caught off guard when he did come. Ronnin knew that the 13 Court Guard Squads would try to stop Aizen from achieving his goal at all costs, but he was almost certain that would be useless against Aizen.

Ronnin was fearing this battle ever since the day he accepted the challenge. Aizen was much stronger than himself back then, and there was no doubt his powers had grown just as Ronnin's powers had been growing ever since then. If he were honest with himself, he was sure if it was even possible for him to surpass Aizen. He wondered if he was fighting a hopeless battle for all this time, if he really should have just accepted death from Aizen's blade in their first clash.

But there were things surrounding Aizen that Ronnin did not understand. If Aizen was going to do battle with him, why didn't he go to the Human world and create the Oken without making the 13 Court Guard Squads get involved? Why is it Aizen stayed within the Seretei for so long when he could have just come to settle the battle so much sooner? If he had no doubt in his power, why would he go through the trouble of getting the Hogyoku?

Further more, if he wanted the Hogyoku so bad, why did he go through the trouble of tricking everyone into getting Rukia Kuchiki, who held the Hogyoku in her body, to be executing when he could have gone to take it by force in an instant? Why did he need Gin Ichimaru and Kaname Tosen to carry out his plans? Why did he enlist the help of the Arrancar and go to Hueco Mundo? So many question flowed through Ronnin's mind that he was getting a headache thinking about them all.

And there was one question that circled high above all the others. Through all this nonsense for the past few months, Ronnin had noticed one strange factor that Aizen seemed particularly interested in, although Ronnin didn't have the slightest idea what the reason for that was. But this factor was the Substitute Shinigami: Ichigo Kurosaki. For some reason, Aizen seemed to have caused all the occurrences with Ichigo, as if he had planned every single detail of what had happened with the chaos of Soul Society from years before specifically to test Ichigo Kurosaki.

But why? There was no reason for Aizen to do any of this. He should have just gone to make the Oken right when he found out about it. In any other kind of situation, Ronnin wouldn't worry about much, if at all, but this was a special case. Aizen always seemed like a logical person who took everything into account and tried to find the fasted way to get his plans completed. And he was strong enough to execute any plan without a problem, so why was he taking this long to get here.

Then there was one more question the Ronnin had actually been asking himself ever since Aizen let him live. That question of course was, why did Aizen allow Ronnin to live at all? This was the one question Ronnin would never find the answer to on his own, in order to learn the answer, he would have to ask Aizen directly. And the question about why Aizen let him live wasn't even the biggest question. There were plenty of other questions about Aizen Ronnin didn't have a clue about.

Where did Aizen come from anyways? How long did he have the powers of a Shinigami? If he wanted him and Takumi dead because of their Shinigami powers, why is it he ever let the Seretei project to be completed and so many Shinigami to be born at all? There had to be more behind Aizen's motives for attacking him and Takumi than meets the eyes.

Aizen really thought extremely little of the Shinigami of Seretei. Ronnin could tell this because throughout all his tricks during the Ryoka break in involving Ichigo Kurosaki, he had not once actually brought about the death of any of them. He may have gravely wounded them, but he never once actually delivered the death to any of them.

A while had past since Aizen fled Seretei. With the time frame Aizen had stole the Hogyoku, he should have the seal on it broken by Winter, which all-in-all, was not very close, but it also wasn't very far away. However, Ronnin didn't think it would take Aizen as long as it should to brake the seal, and Ronnin was betting on it happening sooner than that as well. So he was treating every day of training like it was the last training session he and his Royal Guard would have to prepare for the battle.

Yet through all this madness, Ronnin couldn't help but remember the words he spoke to Aizen the day he was told he would live to die another day, the claim he was no longer sure he could fallow through with... "I will get stronger, I will fight you again, but I will not die, I will prevail over you, surpass you, and kill you!"