The Iron Sole Alchemist and the Soul Reapers (Chapter 42) Aizen's Goal
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.)
Knowing that today was the day Aizen's next strike was coming, I was on high allert. While attending martial arts classes, I kept an ear perked up for an alert from my soul phone. I had to trust the other visoreds to let me know if they arrived while I was sparring, since I couldn't spare the attention sensing for distant spiritual pressure.
At Karakura High School, I didn't deactivate my sense of hearing to work on my lip reading because I didn't want to miss an alert. As a result, I heard familiar voices arguing in the hall before the soul reapers came in.
Renji was leading the group that consisted of Ikaku and Yumichika of squad 11 and Rangiku and Toshiro of squad 10. Rukia came in through the window at the same time. All were in gigais and they were all dressed in school uniforms. Captain Hitsugaya, obviously in charge of this group, asked Ichigo and I to come with them to speak in private. Once in an empty classroom, Captain Hitsugaya adopted a clipped, professional tone.
"The Head Captain gave us orders to coordinate with the substitute soul reapers regarding the defense of Karakura Town against the arancars."
"So, them not taking my badge away when they banished me wasn't an oversight," I contemplated aloud.
"You know it wasn't, and you know why," said Hitsugaya. "Not that it'll do much good in your case."
"So, you're here to help us out against the arancars," said Ichigo, changing the subject. "Your timing couldn't be better. We're expecting an attack sometime today or tonight."
"How did you figure that one?" asked Rangiku.
"Same way I identified the Ryodoji," I said. "I have a magic mirror called a foeglass that shows me my enemies and shows me how close they are to making a move."
"How many?"" asked Hitsugaya.
"A small force of six arancars, including one espada," I reported. "Grimjow Jagerjack."
"We should get back to class," said RUkia. "We can talk more after."
"She's right," said Renji. "If we want to maintain our cover, we should go."
I hung back with Toshiro while t he others headed out. "They didn't give me any time to talk to anyone after I was banished. How'd Momo take it?"
"She understood what you were trying to do," said Toshiro. "And she understood you were trying to protect her and the rest of the squad by acting alone. It's the same way she feels about Aizen."
"So, are you going to kill me?"
He sighed and said, "No. You did your best to keep Momo out of it, and you turned yourself in to face judgement. I'm willing to call it even."
As had become customary, we gathered at Urahara's shop to compare notes. Kaien had been able to provide the Soul Society with detailed reports on the various arancars under Aizen. My foeglass showed enough to identify them as consisting entirely of Grimjow and his direct subordinates, a group called a fraccion.
Knowing there was an espada coming, Toshiro, Rangiku, and Renji contacted the Soul Society to get authorization to remove their limiters. Meanwhile, Rukia explained that with Aizen making attacks on Karakura Town, the Soul Society had decided to bolster the defenses here on a semi-permanent basis. The exact soul reapers here to lend support would likely cycle out, but the increased presence would remain until Aizen was dealt with.
The mansion had plenty of extra space, so it was agreed that the Soul Society's forces could stay there. Chad and Orihime passed on the secret and handed a pair of letters to Captain Hitsugaya to show the members of the next shift to allow them to find the mansion. A handful of bedroom suites were made avalible for their use. I made a few new portkey cases for them to aid in rapid deployment in Karakura Town when a threat was detected.
Kiske, Tessai, and Yoruichi were away from the shop today. Jinta, Ururu, and the mod souls weren't sure where they'd headed out to, but they expected them back sometime tomorrow. Even if we could contact them, odds were they wouldn't be able to get back in time. Hopefully, we wouldn't need them.
The Visoreds were no great fans of the Soul Society's leadership and had asked us to keep their presence a secret. As such, they weren't included in our defensive strategies. We could call them for help, but that would be a last resort.
It was nearly midnight when the arancars arrived. I was beating Ikaku in our fifth game of wizard chess when I sensed the spiritual pressure of the arriving arancars. A quick check of our soul phones confirmed six signals. The arancars immediately split up. Most of them were heading toward points I'd prepared portkeys to. Rukia quickly identified the pattern.
"They're targeting people with spiritual pressure, but they don't seem to care about the size of the spiritual pressure. They're making a hit list!"
Tatski and Keigo are on that list," I said. "I don't have portkeys to their houses. I'll have to apparate."
"Tatski's close to where Chad is," said Sloth. "Whoever goes to help him can protect her too. Keigo's alone."
"Both of you, go," said Captain Hitsugaya. "I'll distribute everyone else with your portkeys. Rangiku, Renji, activate gentai kaijo."
I switched off my limiters, sensed for Keigo's spirit energy, took Sloth's hand, and apparated. Keigo wasn't at home. He was taking a walk. He jumped when Sloth and I arrived.
"Keigo, you're in danger," I said just as the arancar appeared with a boom of soinido.
I'd really hoped Hitsugaya would get this guy. His file indicated he had an ability to manipulate fire that wold make my flame alchemy attacks too questionable to use as a decent alpha strike. Instead, I opted for a simpler choice, using my superior speed, strength, and martial arts training, I flash stepped behind the arancar and put him in a full nelson.
While I grappled the arancar to hold him still, Sloth looped a yo-yo around the hilt of his sword, yanking it free of his scabbard and keeping it out of reach so the arancar couldn't release it.
"Keigo, a little help?" I said as I exerted both my red stone enhanced strength and my spiritual pressure to keep the arancar still.
"Right," he said, taking his kido gun out of the belt pouch it was in. "Are you sure this guy-?"
"He's here to kill you," interrupted Sloth. "There are more attacking across town. We need to finish this quick."
"Right" he responded, taking aim. The arancar's struggles ceased as he instead opened his mouth to charge a cero. Keigo pulled the trigger before the arancar could fire it, blowing off the arancar's head.
"Great job," I said, dropping the arancar's corpse and regenerating my left er. "Now, let me find the espada."
"You're looking for me?" asked the light blue haired arancar with a large hollow hole through his stomach and a row of teeth along one side of his feet as his remaining mask fragment. He was standing in midair. "When one of my fracciones died that quick, it had to be the guys who killed Ulquiora. Which means I'll probably get a decent fight. Grind, Pantera!"
Kaien had given a report on the arancar technique called resureccion. Arancars sealed most of their power inside their zanpakto. When they released their swords, their full power returned to them, along with transforming their bodies partway back to their original hollow form. Kaien had compared it to a soul reaper's bankai in terms of how much stronger it made the arancar. It was why I'd tried in my previous battles to end the fight before they could use it.
Spirit energy poured off Grimjow like shock waves. The mask fragment clinging to his jaw shattered, and his limbs stretched and distorted. His sort, spikey hair grew long and draped down his back. White armor covered his body. His ears tapered to points, his fingertips formed claws, and his legs were now daigrade.
Sloth formed a barrier around herself and Keigo, protecting him from the crushing energy of the espada's spiritual pressure. I took a bottle out of my belt pouch and drank the potion. The enhancements to my senses the potion provided let me draw my zanpakto and block when Grimjow rushed at me in a burst of soinido just as his spiritual pressure stabilized from his transformation.
A thin crack appeared on the blade of my zanpakto, which led Grimjow to grin. It was undeniable evidence that my spiritual pressure was weaker than his. He didn't realize there was more than spiritual pressure involved in this fight.
I flash stepped out of the way of Grimjow's attack and called down to Sloth, "Can you put us inside a barrier together so we can limit the collateral damage?"
She nodded and the barrier around her and Keigo vanished, replaced by a cylindrical barrier around Grimjow and I made of bright red light. Grimhow paused and watched as the barrier went up. Then he turned to me.
"You locked yourself in here with me even after what I just did to your zanpakto. That's gutsy. You should know, I'm espada number five, Grimjow Jagerjack!"
"I know who you are," I said. "My name is Greed. If you surrender, I can make the purification painless."
As I spoke, I donned the Ultimate Shield. Arancars have their hierro, an intense concentration of spirit energy in their skin that makes it as hard as iron. With no spirit energy whatsoever, my black, carbon hardened skin was stronger than diamond. My body's energy bolstered the strength of my Ultimate Shield further still so I was able to block Grimjow's next attack barehanded.
"Bind, Tsumi no Rensa!" I called out as I rushed inside Grimjow's guard. Wrapping my right fist twice, I added and removed links such that two chainsaw blades were grinding across my knuckles in opposite directions, expelling a massive amount of sparks. That fist punched Grimjow in the chest.
The force of my punch threw Grimjow backward to slam hard against Sloth's barrier. His chest was partly caved in on one side and two deep gouges had been cut into his flesh that were bleeding freely. My hand was undamaged as I stopped the chains.
"You bastard," said Grimjow, touching his fingertips to his bleeding injury.
"I'm surprised you survived that," I admitted. Then raised my left hand to my face and snapped, donning my hollow mask. "You won't survive the next one."
As I flash stepped at him, the chain around my right fist grinding faster than before thanks to my greater durability in my hollowfied form, Grimjow raised a bloody hand and yelled, "Gran Ray Cero!"
A blue green cero slammed into me with enough power to reverse my forward momentum and slam me back into the far wall of the barrier we were fighting in three times harder than I'd hit him. Grimjow's psychotic grin vanished as the energy of his cero finished washing over me, revealing that the only thing he'd accomplished was breaking my mask and shattering a few instantly replaceable links of my zanpakto.
"How?! How are you not dead?!" demanded Grimjow in a rage.
"That's right," I said, a smirk audible in my voice even if my inhuman face couldn't form the expression. "I never told you the name of this technique. It's called the Ultimate Shield."
I flash stepped in a zigzag pattern toward Grimjow to make it harder for him to get a bead on me. He raised an elbow and fired a cluster of five darts at me. Compared to his cero, they might as well have been moving in slow motion. Having closed the distance, I snapped my fingers, reforming my hollow mask to give me some extra power, and I landed a chainsaw punch directly to the espada's face. My fist came out the back of his head.
I let my mask crumble, withdrew the Ultimate Shield, and resealed Tsumi no Rensa into the form of a sword as Sloth lowered the barrier. Keeping the fight contained had cost her. Every bit of that cero that hadn't hit me had collided with her barrier. Those darts I'd dodged, her barrier had to stop. The Soul Gem on the golden circlet she wore was nearly black. A few sparks of red light were visible through the murky black corruption, but even those were vanishing quickly.
Sloth ended her transformation, her almost fully corrupted Soul Gem was in her hand. She held it out to me, her teeth gritted with determination as she powered through the despair that I could see flooding her soul. I set the Soul Gem down on the ground and formed a square orange barrier. The black grief that clouded her Soul Gem began to fade, letting the crimson light within starting to shine through.
"So, you've not only gotten the five arancars you took without permission killed, but you've died yourself, Grimjow."
I looked up to see Kaname Tosen standing in midair. The former captain was now dressed in a white, sleeveless outfit, though he retained his orange scarf. He had a hand on the sheath of his zanpakto and looked alert. Preoccupied with the barrier cleansing Sloth's Soul Gem, he had me dead to rights. I wouldn't be able to cast a silencing spell to protect me from his zanpakto's special ability before he could use it to render me, Sloth, and Keigo unconscious.
Instead, he snapped his fingers and a black garganta opened. He declared, "I shall inform Lord Aizen there will be no need to punish you for your insubordination." Then the garganta closed and he was gone.
While I continued cleansing Sloth's Soul Gem, I reached out with my spiritual senses and verified that Tosen was right. All of the arancars' spiritual pressures had vanished. Even better news was that the spiritual pressures of our friends remained strong.
While everyone had won their fights against the arancars, Hitsugaya was concerned about what it meant that even with the power limiters released, he'd still had to use his bankai against the fraccion he fought. Given that even with my mask, I only survived against Grimjow because I had been in my homunculus body, and that even that wouldn't have saved me against Tosen if he'd decided to make an issue of it, I couldn't argue the point. There was also the fact that we still had no counter for Aizen's shikai. There was still a lot of work to do before we'd stand a chance against his full forces.
"Why is he giving us all this time to get ready for him?" I asked when we'd finished going over our battles with one another back at Urahara's shop.
"Our assessment is he's using the time to recruit additional vasto lordes to provide a counter to the soul reaper captains," said Hitsugaya.
"Except he can personally neutralize the captains and lieutenants with his shikai," I said. "All his arancars would need to fight are the lower seated officers he never showed his shikai to. Given the number and strength of his forces, that would be a nonissue. He could conquer the Seireitei tomorrow if he felt like it."
"Maybe he's worried about winning the peace," said Uryu. "Crushing the Thirteen Court Guard Squads is one thing, but he'd need to be ready to seamlessly take over their duties once he managed it."
"Do you figure arancar zanpaktos purify hollows and perform konsos like soul reaper ones do?" asked Sloth, holding up a sword taken from a fallen arancar.
"I'll pass on the question to the Department of Research and Development," said Hitsugaya.
"There is another possibility," said Yumichika. "We know how strong his forces are relative to us because we've faced them and lived to tell the tale. As I understand it, so far none of Aizen's scouting parties has been able to report back."
"You're saying he might not realize how strong his arancars are because we've been able to keep beating them?" asked Chad.
"There's not much point sending scouts to probe the defenses of a place you think you know the strength of," noted Ikaku.
"Whatever's taking Aizen so long, that doesn't really change what we've got to do," said Ichigo. "We just need to get strong enough to beat him."
I couldn't shake the feeling that I was missing something, that the pieces didn't quite line up in terms of what I knew of Aizen's plans. It lingered in the back of my head for the next couple of days until the answer came from the Soul Society. Hitsugaya's team installed some communication equipment at the mansion that allowed for real time audio visual communication with the Soul Society. The first thing said on that line was that their investigation into what Aizen had accessed during the time he faked his death yielded results.
The Soul Society had a king. He dwelled in a separate dimension from the Soul Society called the Royal Realm. While nominally in charge, most of the day to day work of governing had long since been vested in Central 46. His significance was that he served as a kind of linchpin for reality. Without him, the Soul Society could not exist in its current form, which would have cataclysmic results for all worlds connected to the Soul Society. I couldn't help but be reminded of Sennna and the roles he played in the newborn Soul Society we'd forged from the Valley of screams.
Various precautions protected the Soul King, from powerful kido barriers, to a Royal Guard composed of powerful former soul reaper captains, to the very existance of the Royal Realm as a separate dimension. The only way to even access the Royal Realm was with an artifact called the Oken, or the King's Key. Only Yamamoto knew the location of the Oken, that information never having been written down as an additional precaution. Aizen had accessed a restricted document in the Central 46 library detailing how to make a replacement Oken.
The process demanded 100,000 living human souls and a plot of land with high spiritual density. Aizen was probing the defenses of Karakura Town because he intended to sacrifice it do forge the Oken. In light of Aizen's statements before leaving for Hueco Mundo, his goal wasn't the conquest of the Soul Society. His goal was to assassinate and replace the Soul King.
"I'm honored you'd trust me with this information given the reason for my banishment," I said.
"It is not lost on me that your actions have been instrumental in impeding Soske Aizen's progress thus far," said Yamamoto. "Nor do I believe your actions regarding the Shinenju were as reckless as they appeared to others. And if I am wrong about you, concealing this information will do nothing to prevent Soske Aizen from revealing it to you."
"You aren't the only exiled former captain living in Karakura Town," said Hitsugaya. "Am I to preume this information is to be passed along to Kiske Urahara and his group?"
"Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends as well," said Yamamoto. "Both worlds will need to gather their strength for the coming battle. The outcome will be decided in Karakura Town."
I went to pass the information on to the Visoreds while Sloth went to tell Orihime and the others. With the stakes now clear, the annihilation of a city's worth of people in service to putting a megalomaniac on the celestial throne, it made perfect sense why exiles like me and Urahara were being tapped. Every resource needed to be brought to bear and every strategy needed to be considered. Once the others were informed, I began my preparations.
The specific location in the human world Aizen needed was unique. It could only be done in Karakura Town. If there weren't enough living humans here, the Oken couldn't be made. I prepared a two stage denial system. The first was an underground transmutation circle deeper than the various buried training areas that I could activate at a moment's notice to kill everyone in Karakura Town and forge a Philosopher's Stone before Aizen could make his key. The second was a fifty megaton thermonuclear warhead in case Aizen worked out a way to disrupt my alchemy.
These were obviously options of last resort, but given the stakes, not having them would be incredibly foolish. The Soul Society was working with Urahara on a means of quietly evacuating the residents in a way that wouldn't tip off Aizen, so hopefully it wouldn't be necessary to kill them all to deny Aizen the Oken.
Last resort fail safes in place, I moved on to more practical matters. Spirit beings could be seen by those who weren't spiritually aware by looking through the scope of a kido gun. I armed a group of a hundred automatons and sent them out under invisibility cloaks to position themselves around town. As Aizen was sending forces to probe our defenses, I ordered the automatons to observe and stay hidden until I gave the order. I'd removed their ability to hear to protect them from sonic attacks like Tosen's shikai, instead implanting a disk into each one's forearm with a protean charm on them like we used for the DA coins. Transfiguring my master coin with their new orders would cause the coins in their arms to change to match. It was a very secure system. Aizen would have no way of knowing they were there until he committed his forces to attack in earnest.
Sloth made it back to the mansion not long after I'd sent out the automatons.
"How'd it go with the others?" I asked.
"Kiske wants to keep Orihime out of the fighting," said Sloth, indignantly.
"Keeping at least one person who can revive the dead back out of harm's way seems like sound tactics," I said.
"You don't understand," said Sloth. "He doesn't want her to contribute at all. He called her powers useless and said she'd just get in the way."
"Okay, he is not that stupid," I said. "Her only weaknesses are mobility and direct attack. The work she's doing with the quincy bangles should shore those up nicely. Even at her current level, she's prove she's an amazing force multiplier for you, cleaning your Soul Gem while you fight so you can go all out."
"I told him all that and more. He wasn't listening. He's convinced everyone else'll have to protect her, making her a liability."
"With that shield that blocked the Cleaner on her first real outing?"
"I know," said Sloth, frustrated. "It got to Orihime, though. She's so afraid of being useless and holding everyone else back that she just took it and ran off crying."
"How's she doing now?" I asked.
"Rukia talked to her. She's going to get back to training harder than ever to prove him wrong."
"Good for her," I said. "I guess even someone as smart as Kiske can get a dumb idea stuck in his head. Feel free to knock his Gigai's head off next time he tries to pull something that stupid. He's got plenty of spares and he could use the reminder he's only in charge of anything to the extent the rest of us decide he's got decent advice."
Sloth let out a sigh and said, "Well, it's not the first time we've seen a wise old man obsessed with taking down a powerful enemy utterly drop the ball. Wasn't Harry also about fifteen when Dumbledore told us nothing good could come from Harry learning legilimency?"
"He was," I confirmed. "And now I can't unsee the parallels. I just hope the important parallel holds. Despite how much of an idiot he could be sometimes, Dumbledore was trying as hard as he could to get us all out of that mess alive."
"One more paralell we should be hoping for," said Sloth. "We beat Voldemort."
Author's comments:
If Grimjow was going to wipe out opposition in the world of the living based on Yami losing an arm in cannon, both Ulquiora and Yami dying would have him do the same thing. Jumping to resureccion after finding the people who presumably did it is about as pragmatic as I can imagine him being while still being the arrogant espada who had Ichigo healed just for the sake of getting a good fight in.