Chapter 4: Teach Me To Love

"Ichigo Kurosaki, I love you."

The words echoed in the shinigami substitute's shocked mind and he stared back at the other man with disbelieving eyes, even as the truth in Aizen's unexpected confession burned all through him. It was such a strange feeling, looking into those calm eyes and being able to read the evidence there, as though there was nothing that those solemn, dark pools could hide from him anymore.

Is this because our inner worlds have collided?

His heart raced dizzyingly as he looked back at Aizen and frowned.

"Someone like you doesn't know the first thing about loving someone," he said in a low tone, "If you are telling me this, then you are manipulating me."

"You are correct that I know nothing about loving someone," Aizen agreed, making the breath catch in Ichigo's chest, "And I understand why you expect manipulation. After all, that is what your experience has been when it comes to me. I have manipulated you. But if you will look back, you will see how my love for you grew very slowly over time. You see, when I encountered you directly on Soukyoku Hill, I was merely somewhat surprised and curious at your survival and improvement. Your existence alone was an anomaly, and to have that anomaly strengthen itself so that it impacted my plans was very surprising. I enjoyed that feeling. It was like stretching my legs and breathing deeply after being cooped up inside for too long. And each time you took a step forward and continued to persevere, that feeling of breathing deeply returned to me. I cannot say that I consciously chose to bring you along the way I did in the end. I took each step with you as it came, never really expecting you to be different from the others. But, you are quite different, Ichigo. And that difference was never so shining as when you cut me down. I was actually in pain from watching as your powers faded. But even then, you made me feel something that I never expected."

"And what was that?" Ichigo asked numbly.

"I watched your heart gracefully accept the loss of your powers, and it made me want to let go of my own all over again. At that moment, all I wanted was for us to be any two normal souls, reaching out and touching the way normal souls do. And I felt your heart wanting that connection too."

"I didn't want to be connected with you."

"That's not true," Aizen said firmly, "Ichigo, when you fight a soul, you look into it. You looked into Renji Abarai's soul when you fought him, and you learned that he loved Rukia like a sister, and he wanted to save her as much as you did. You looked into Kenpachi Zaraki's soul and earned his respect by giving everything you had to surviving and defeating him. You looked into Byakuya Kuchiki's soul and realized that he is the farthest thing from the cold, unfeeling person he appears to be on the surface. Shall I go on?"

"I..."

"You connect with other souls when you fight them, and you try to understand them. Understanding them helps you to defeat them, but it also causes more lasting connections to form. That is why, if your opponents survive, they usually become friends, or at least allies. Ichigo, everyone wants to be understood. You watched those connections open as you defeated each one of them...Renji, Zaraki, Byakuya, Grimmjow, Ulquiorra...me. Ginjou Kugo as well, more recently. All of us faced you with something in our hearts that was driving us...something compelling and painful. When our blood spilled onto your blade, that pain was drawn out and recognized. There is great healing in that."

"I get what you're saying," Ichigo said hesitantly, "But none of that matters, because there is no way that I can return your feelings. None."

"Do you really believe that, Ichigo?" Aizen asked hauntingly, "Look at what has happened to our inner worlds! If you can't believe my words, then will you believe what you can see with your own eyes and feel with your own heart? How do you think our worlds became entangled?"

"I thought you might have done something to make that happen," Ichigo surmised, "After all, you do like to get inside people's heads, right?"

"Inside their heads, yes," Aizen agreed easily, "But...connecting with another person's entire soul, Ichigo...sharing worlds? Do you even realize that there are only two situations in our recorded history that inner worlds have so connected? Twins have connected worlds. That is why they are always able to have such insight into one another. The only other people whose worlds are connected as ours are, are people whose souls resonate at unthinkable levels...people in which the cognitive, physical and all other things balance each other perfectly. Such souls are considered 'perfected' when they join. And the binding of their inner worlds causes an effect that makes us refer to them as soul mates, or soul bonded."

"Soul bonded?" Ichigo repeated breathlessly, "But...?"

"True soul mates are exceedingly rare, but when they are born, they are capable of great things, Ichigo. That you and I connect on this level is a sign that we also were meant for greatness. We even balance each other in how we have achieved that greatness. You are a hero to the three worlds and I am their greatest and most wicked villain."

"But how can you be a great villain when you just told me that you created your own antithesis? You set yourself up to be defeated."

"Yes. And I didn't think that was possible. Because, as much as I knew about soul perfection, I never dreamed that I could achieve it with anyone, especially not someone I created by accident."

"Someone you...created?"

"I will not tell you exactly how it happened. That is a story for another time. But I will tell you how our souls were perfected, Ichigo. The answer is the same one that explains how your friends received their powers. It explains how Kisuke Urahara managed to break the barrier between hollow and shinigami!"

Ichigo leaned forward and reached out as Aizen smiled.

"Yes, you sense it now, don't you?

The younger man's fingertips brushed against the leather bindings that covered the sealed hougyoku and Ichigo flinched at the intense power he sensed within it.

"The hougyoku," Aizen said, looking into Ichigo's widened eyes, "It sensed the same thing in me that you did. And knowing what my greatest desire was, it created you. I told you before that I also created a hougyoku, as Kisuke Urahara did. And it was with that imperfect hougyoku that I began my experiments. One that went awry affected your mother, Ichigo. And you were the result. You were born with powerful gifts of perception and you had within you the powers that you needed to defeat me. You only needed to grow and develop. So, over time, I helped you to do that."

"For your own benefit!" Ichigo snapped, withdrawing his hand.

But he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Aizen's one uncovered one as it seemed to look through him, and the man continued.

"Yes, you are right, of course. I only ever thought of myself. I never bothered myself with sympathy or empathy, because I learned to manipulate people to get what I wanted without resorting to those things. It wasn't until we fought that I first felt the true connection that empathy causes. When you tried to understand me, and our worlds collided, Ichigo, I felt another heart touch mine for the very first time!"

Ichigo stared back at the prisoner, saying nothing for a time, then his eyes darkened and grew determined again.

"If you felt my heart, then you know that I could never love a person like you!" he hissed angrily, "You manipulated and hurt people, right and left! People I care about! You messed with my family and friends, and I am not going to forget that!"

"Neither am I saying that you should," Aizen said calmly, "Ichigo, I am not saying that you should love me despite us being what we are. I am saying that we should love each other because of who we are!"

"I told you," Ichigo said, shaking his head firmly and glaring at the other man, "I could never love someone like you!"

"This from the man who crushed Kuchiki Byakuya's pride and won his undying gratitude and respect? This from the man who helped Grimmjow see how his disregard for his 'subjects' was a detriment to his truly ever being any kind of king? Are you telling me that when your blade pierced me and you felt Kyouka Suigetsu's soul and mine, you did not feel anything in response? I don't believe it. I think you just don't want to see it. And that is fine, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"What?"

Aizen smiled.

"We certainly have no lack of time, Ichigo. We have all of the time we want or could possibly need to reason this out. If it takes an eternity to figure it out, then we have all of that time to do it...both of us."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Ichigo said, shaking his head, "You might have forever to live, but I am not like you. I..."

Ichigo froze, his face going deathly pale as Aizen's words spun in his shocked mind.

We?

He said we?

Then...then that means...?

"Do you doubt me, Ichigo? Do you think I am lying to you? Remember, then, all of the times that you were on death's doorstep and yet, even though you nearly died, or even did die, you did not remain that way."

"That..!"

"Byakuya Kuchiki mortally wounded you and you held on and emerged from Urahara's training as a vizard, but a more perfect one than your predecessors."

"Yeah, but I wasn't really dead..."

"Then, when you fought Kenpachi Zaraki, you were again brought to the brink."

"Zangetsu helped me."

"Yes, but did it ever occur to you that he shouldn't have been able to, at that point? Did you really think that it was your zanpakutou that kept you alive to fight to save Rukia?"

"That's what he told me."

"He was wrong! But even if you discount Byakuya and Zaraki, you cannot look me in the eyes and tell me that you didn't feel it when Ulquiorra killed you, not once, but twice, and you did not stay dead, Ichigo!"

Ichigo felt a hard tremor go through him as the unbidden memories fired themselves through his mind, making a cold sweat break out on his skin and his hands clench.

"Orihime healed me."

"The first time. And remember, her power was granted by the hougyoku."

"The second time, I fully hollowfied," Ichigo remembered.

"And that shouldn't have happened. But, do you know why it did?"

Ichigo continued to stare back at Aizen, unable to form an answer.

"It happened because we were already connected."

"What?"

"Ichigo, you were the hougyoku's answer to my greatest desire! You were another great power in the making, brought about by the hougyoku's ability to grant the desires of the ones around it. So, all along the way, it protected you from death, and when our worlds collided during our battle, the protections that the hougyoku granted to me by fusing with me...were also granted to you, as my soul mate!"

"No," Ichigo gasped, coming to his feet, "That's not possible! Me? I'm not...!"

"Immortal? Yes, you are," Aizen said solemnly, "Look, deep down. You know my words to be true."

"No!" Ichigo cried, backing away, "There's no way that I am immortal, like you! I'm not like you!"

"Our worlds are bound, and you know why that is," Aizen continued, his dark gaze, piercing through the stunned youth, "You could only see into my soul by opening your own. And when you did, our souls fell into balance. Our worlds came together and fused! And if you look in my soul now, Ichigo, you won't see what you saw before. You won't see a soul longing for someone to complete it. You will see that the only longing left is for you to accept what is between us, and for us to acknowledge that."

"You're out of your mind!" Ichigo exclaimed desperately, "That can't possibly be true! You are lying, manipulating! It's what you do best, isn't it! But I'm not going to listen to you!"

"I can prove it to you."

Ichigo froze again, the words echoing disturbingly in his head. He wanted to turn and escape the room, to forget the awful things Aizen was saying...to flee even the possibility. He was sure someone else had spoken the next words that were uttered, but strangely, they were said in his own voice.

"How can you prove it?"

Aizen's one uncovered eye blinked slowly and his lips were careful not to smile at all.

"There is purity and truth in everything that happens between those who are soul bonded, Ichigo. If you want to know the truth, then the simplest way to sense it...is to kiss me."

"What?"

"They say that when a man loves a woman...or when he does not, there is one place that the truth may always be found. The kiss is always truthful, though the lips might otherwise lie. They cannot lie when pressed to the lips of a lover. In the same way, but to an even greater level, when soul bonded kiss, they can feel the connection between them."

Ichigo's eye flared and his body quivered with rage.

"Don't even think that I'm stupid enough to do that!" he shouted furiously, "I see what you're doing and I'm not going to let it happen!"

"What do you think I am doing?" Aizen asked calmly.

"You're twisting everything into knots," Ichigo accused him, "You're taking what happened and rewriting everything the way you want me to look at it, so that you can get me to lower my guard with you!"

"And why would I do that?"

"You want me to fall in love with you. You want to use me!" Ichigo cried, taking another step back, "You're trying to get to me like you got to Momo, to make me..."

"Please do not compare yourself to that soft, little weakling, Ichigo," Aizen said solemnly, "You are nothing like her, nor would I even dream that the kind of manipulation I used on her would work with you. You have seen into my soul. You know me. And that is why you will eventually see that I am telling you the truth. But, as I said, there is time. You can spend as much time as you like coming to your conclusions. I will wait patiently. Still, if you desire a swifter road to the truth, you have but to open your heart and give me one kiss, and your questions will be answered. Do you have the courage to do that, Ichigo?"

"You're going to do something to me if I touch you," Ichigo snapped, "Anyone can see through that."

"I cannot do anything to you with my powers sealed. I am not dangerous to you."

"Bullshit! I know that the seal doesn't take away your powers entirely. You just can't focus them through a zanpakutou or use the ones that take more than a tiny bit of reiatsu. I am not stupid!"

"I don't think you are stupid. And I will admit that I could throw off your senses slightly, but that could never masquerade for a soul bond...not ever. There is no manipulation that I can do in kissing you. In fact, all manipulations are set aside when soul bonded kiss. Kiss me then and look the truth in the face! Or are you just afraid that I am right?"

"I'm not afraid of you!" Ichigo hissed angrily, moving closer and laying his hands over Aizen's bound risks, leaning forward and looking deeply into the prisoner's curious eye, "I beat you before and there will never be a time when you can overcome me again, Sousuke Aizen! So, try all you want to deceive me. I won't fall for your lies and deceptions. I am calling your bluff, here and now!"

Ichigo's lips crashed into Aizen's forcefully and his golden-brown eyes remained open and looking for any hint of deception. He had a momentary feeling like standing on the edge of a great precipice, then he loosed a chilling scream and tumbled down into a sea of endless black.