...

It didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense. It didn't make any sense.

Why...

Why..?

WHY!?

For all that he wanted to scream the word out. For all that he wanted to question it- To curse it all...

He simply couldn't.

He could only grit his teeth, his eyes staring all around his inner realm as he watched it ever so slowly, crumble the slightest bit.

He'd always known the world he'd lived in... The world he'd been forced to accept was wrong-

But to think it was that wrong? That broken?

He had never before cursed his intelligence, until today.

For every word that boy spoke, the lines of truth edged themselves closer before him. The facsimile of an illusion that had engulfed, even him, broke bit by bit.

Illusions upon illusions. Lies upon lies.

All veiled so simply, stacked on top of each other as they were, on the ground beneath him. On the skies above. In the very air he breathed!

That he, Aizen Sosuke, had failed to see what was writ before his very eyes.

Had failed to see that the truth he'd craved, ever since receiving a taste of it, had been before his very eyes.

He'd known the Nobles of the past had betrayed the Soul King. He hadn't known that the Soul King would have the last laugh.

Soul Society was a lie. Hueco Mundo was a lie.

They were two sides of the same coin.

Of the same lie that hid a darker truth. A twisted corrupted one.

A cycle that could, and would, go on for eternity, with none but the Soul King wiser.

Different names. Different forms. Different homes.

And yet the same souls.

Humans could become both, depending on timing. Depending on fortune.

But both, all the same.

It should've been a sign.

Ichigo himself should've been proof. A Hollow, Quincy, and Shinigami in one. Had they been truly different, his existence wouldn't have been possible.

How hadn't he noticed? Why hadn't he questioned it?

If that was all, he may not have been able to accept it, but he would've learned to live with it.

But it was worse.

Hollows became Shinigami when slayed. Shinigami became tools. Those tools slayed Hollows.

A never-ending cycle. So simple to notice, so simple to break.

One word here. Another word there, and the truth unravels.

Yet the truth does not set you free.

It only brings despair.

His mind turned, a long-forgotten memory echoing to the front of his mind. A long-forgotten oath that he'd taken for granted.

Ulquiorra had been right.

Ulquiorra had been right.

It was all for nothing.

He was loyal because it didn't matter. He hid truths from him because it didn't matter. And he accepted his death because it didn't matter!

But it didn't make sense.

Even if it didn't matter. It didn't make sense.

Three realms... But two of the same coin?

Two realms then?

Yet the human realm was in the middle.

There were three gates after all...

But if two of them were conceptually the same then...

Why was a third gate available?

What was the Human Realm in the middle of then?

The answer broke him. The answer disillusioned him. The answer was the same as the truth he lived in.

Hell.

Hell.

Hell.

A shinigami captain's destination. An evil hollows destination.

Were shinigami captains evil by default?

No.

Yet they were wanted all the same. Accepted all the same.

All humans were given a chance to go to Soul Society. All grey humans who turned hollow were given the same courtesy.

Evil was wanted. Shinigami Captains were wanted.

Bankai was wanted.

The Soul King would have the last laugh...

The picture it painted was dreadful.

The Soul King was laughing even now.

The boy was not lying. The boy was not wrong. He wasn't speaking his mind. He was being directed towards it. Towards the truth. Towards hell.

Hell.

Hell.

Hell.

The end result.

...The clown... Had been right.

Forget the rails I can't even find the train indeed.

He couldn't help but start chuckling. But start laughing at the thought.

The damned clown had barely glimpsed into his world, and he'd seen through it all.

Because he understood, didn't he?

He understood what hell was.

He understood what it represented.

Evil's destination. Cowards destination. Powers destination.

The nobles hadn't committed it after all.

Even they had been under an illusion.

Even they had been lied to all their lives.

The Soul King knew. Understood even. Created it.

The Soul King was responsible for the Original Sin.

The Original Sin had been committed by him.

The Nobles were fools not to see it. Not to notice it.

Even he, the first to do so, had noticed it too late.

The Soul King cared only for the Human Realm after all. And hells gates were locked by the very same. Once the realm fell... Hell would open.

And Hell had grown. Had been growing for so long... Was growing even now.

It was too late for change and worse perhaps too late to fix it all.

For the Human Realm needed no guiding hand to break itself.

Hell. Was. Coming.

The Soul King would have the last laugh.

And yet... Only one question truly remained in his mind...

Why now?

Even as his inner realm shifted away from its perfection, Aizen cared not for it, his mind focused on the memory before him. The memory that had led to this all. The memory of that boy and the Imaginary fool's effect on his words.

The realization that filled him, was an unwelcome one.

Muramasa hadn't been mentioned at all.

Why now... The question echoed through his head, as he felt something shift a hand across his shoulder.

Hell wanted bankais.

Hell wanted power.

He had gained a Bankai, one more powerful than any other it had seen.

The power to manipulate time at an unbelievable level.

He turned a mute stare upwards and found Muramasa staring down at him, an emotionless smile on his face.

He watched as the form shifted, as the colors twisted.

There was, after all, only one other being that had heard of him. That had seen enough of him to bring him to 'life.'

Gremmy wasn't responsible for Muramasa after all.

He watched as Kyoka Suigetsu's form appeared before him, the same emotionless smile on its child-like face.

"Are you finally happy now?" It asked him, a curious tone to its voice.

It turned its gaze up towards the screen before them that showcased the boy and distraught noble walking back.

He didn't have an answer for it, as he simply faced the same screen.

He had finally, finally, found out why the Empty Throne existed.

Why the most powerful being in the universe chose to do nothing but watch.

Because it didn't need to.

Because it had already won.

It was simply enjoying what it had reaped, so long ago.

...

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