The moon's reflection hatches a plan. The board is set. It is a gamble. He thinks a thousand moves ahead. A simple goal. To save them all from a thousand year curse. If the prophetic song speaks true, the sealed king will come again. His gamble counts on it. It will be the only thing to make his sacrifice worth it.
In his soul, he plans. Twists and turns. No one can know. Anyone may be the enemy. So, with his sword at his side and in his mind, he begins to make his way toward the center of the Rukongai. It will be a long journey. Almost as long, he feels, as the journey to the awaited time when the sealed king will make his appearance.
He reaches the court of pure souls. He studies and finds himself adept at everything he learns. He soon graduates and becomes a god of death. His plan is still in mind, but his success has dulled his purpose with pride. He sees those around him and begins to think himself superior. Then he wonders. Maybe, rather than save the Soul King from the Sealed King, he could simply become the Soul King. He was brilliant and powerful, and with his ability, he could surely defeat the Sealed King and his men.
But how to become the Soul King? To rule over all souls, he would have to transcend all souls. Shinigami and Hollow alike. To reach the Soul King, he would need a king's key. And so, his plan began to change. A thousand steps became ten thousand as his ego twisted and turned his means to reach ever new and loftier goals.
He found one man to be his equal. Yet another goal. To surpass that man. The one who's strength and intelligence went almost completely unnoticed. His would not. His would be honored. Worshiped, even. He followed the research of this humble man. He stumbled upon a tool of unimaginable potential. A new step in his plan. He would make it his own.
The tool was incomplete, but the principle was simple. Enough spirit energy to activate it, and it would give the power to surpass Shinigami and Hollow. The limits placed on them in death would fall away and allow him to rise higher than anyone before. It was irresistible. The Sealed King could wait. He still had over a century. He would be the Soul King well before then.
He began his own experiments as he rose through the ranks. He became a Lieutenant in the Fifth. His captain, though lacking his vast intellect, far exceeded him in his own simple observant ways. Under his gaze, he felt his plans unraveling. No one would outsmart him though. He could use the man's distrust.
The whole of the Court of Pure Souls was under his control, though none of them knew it. The moon's reflection was a powerful thing. There was one he could not control, though. A young man who had no power of sight to cast illusion upon. Luckily, the only thing he needed to sway this man to his cause was the promise that he was working to save them all from the Sealed King. His path would be bloody, but in the end, less blood would be shed for his actions. So he gained his first ally.
There was still that man of the Twelfth, though. The crimson princess and the moon's reflection danced in the shadows, always waiting for the other to falter. Finally, opportunity arose. In the course of feeding the tool, he attracted the attention of the Court Guard Squads. It would give him the opportunity to test his latest theory, as well as to eliminate his one true threat.
So were born the Masked Ones. Visored. Shinigami who had donned the masks of Hollow. His enemy was cast out. A victory for his plan. But even so, he could still feel the uneasiness of letting such a dangerous man live.
Time passes and he gathers a new ally. An ambitious and ruthless boy, with a sharp mind and a sharp wit. The perfect man to stand at his side. All he needs to do is guide him. But beneath that unfaltering smile he knows there is something lurking. He can not let his guard down around this one.
His army is in progress. As he feeds the tool, he turns his attention to the world of the Hollow. Those rare few who have transcended their own kind in even a trivial way are brought to his cause. They too are drawn to the prospect of power and their own salvation. Those two goals together will win him every ally he ever needs. They need never know they are disposable.
The scathing moon rises over the Tenth. One of the great noble houses, but in no way incredible. He does not know why he is filled with dread at the appearance of this man. He drives him out. His newest creation nearly kills him when an archer intervenes. Saved by a Quincy. What irony, the enemy he set out to vanquish should stand in his way even now.
He turns his attention away, but it is drawn back soon. The crimson princess has worked a miracle. A child will be born who transcends Hollow and Shingami, as well as Quincy. An anomaly that could never exist, but will be born once in all of eternity. He is in luck. At the falling of the scathing moon, a new moon may rise for him to reflect.
He is a captain now. His grinning ally has risen to the same rank, while he has taken on a new Lieutenant. The tool has progressed well, but it has yet to awaken. It needs something else. The answer comes to him. The crimson princess will aid him this time. He makes his plan, and then decides it is time to take the measure of the next moon.
The young reaper is sent to the crimson princess. In her soul, the man implants his failed tool so that it can never be recovered. She will never be a god of death again. Or at least, that is the plan.
A fight. A family in danger. Powers transferred to save his sisters.
The slaying moon rises.
Power suits him. His purpose can finally be fulfilled. To protect. To defend. It is what he lives for. Now he has the strength to do it. He and the small god of death grow close as they fight side by side. He comrades come and steal her away. They leave him powerless to protect.
The crimson princess raises him up. His powers awaken. The strength of a Shinigami. The instinct of a Hollow. The infinite potential of a Human. He is exactly what the moon's reflection hoped and feared he would be.
The one who lives to protect comes for the girl, just as he was always meant to. Through adversity he grows strong. Stronger and faster than anyone could ever have imagined. Maybe, just maybe, through this child, all of his goals will be attained. Strong enough to open the King's Palace. Strong enough, maybe, to defeat the Sealed King. All he needed to do was survive and let the boy do what came naturally. Manipulating him will be as easy as setting up the right people for him to protect at the right times.
His army grows and then falls, just as planned. The final battle rages and he is imprisoned. It all goes according to plan. They believe with all their hearts that they have won. The boy loses his powers, but they will return. Thanks to his beating human heart. The time of the slaying moon has not come to a close yet.
Seventeen Months. The Sealed King has arrived. The bloodiest war of all time erupts. No one is spared from the fury of the hatred of a thousand years. His true enemy comes to offer an alliance. Of course he declines. He has already won. This is what he had planned for from the start.
The Sealed King faces the one who protects. Twice he is victorious. The third time, the Sealed King falls. And it is thanks to him, though no one will ever know. Nine days, the Quincy had, to take the world. His last illusion. The Sealed King never knew he missed his moment. He thought he had one more day, but in reality, he lost his war on the ninth hour of the tenth day.
Time passes and the slaying moon rises high in the sky. He marries the one who brought him the power to protect. He becomes a captain and a hero. He has a child. A son. The twisted moon. He carries the name of her lost hero.
Time passes. The sentence carried out. The moon's reflection walks free again. The Sealed King is dead. The hatred toward him has waned, but will never truly die. He did end many lives. That would take more than 20,000 years to forgive.
Now he had only one more ambition. To take the throne. The highest seat in all the worlds. To be the Soul King.