It was very late at night. Yoruichi was exhausted and collapsed on her bed in the Urahara shop with a moan. She'd spent the entire day training with Soi Fon, and her little bee was getting to be quite fast and strong. She was asleep almost the instant her head hit the pillow.
She awoke an hour later coughing. The room was full of smoke and she could barely see the flickers of flame. She rolled off her bed and on to the floor, drawing a breath of the cleaner air below the smoke. Regaining her senses, she looked for an exit. The door was not an option. She could already see the edges blackening as the fire from the hall outside worked away at it.
The window caught her eye and she flash stepped to it, smashed it, and was outside in an instant, panting. She was still winded from her training that day. Before she had recovered, she heard a scream. She launched into action as soon as she recognized Ururu's voice.
It didn't make sense. The little girl was so powerful, why didn't she simply punch down a wall and escape? She understood when she drew near the flames again. Hellfire. It was another of Urahara's inventions that he had destroyed long ago. A special flame that is fueled by the spiritual pressure of those around it. As it burns, it drains them.
For an instant, Yoruichi was thankful that she had been so drained already that the flames had little to feed on. Then she put on another burst of speed and flashed through the window into the hall nearest the childrens' rooms. She coughed and nearly collapsed as the flames lurched closer, nearly smothering her with smoke.
She felt her eyes watering and her lungs burning, but continued on, kicking through the door. It took her three tries to finally bring it down. The small black haired girl was laying on the floor, unmoving. The flash step queen lifted her little body and was soon back out on the grass. She took only a moment before returning for Jinta.
When she reached his room, she held back tears. She knew he was already gone. His room had no vent since he didn't like his room as cold as the other dwellers of the shop. The smoke had suffocated him in his sleep. She gently lifted his body and took it outside, laying it next to his friend.
Ururu wasn't breathing. Yoruichi could barely hold herself up on her hands and knees. As she panted, she had a horrible thought. Tessai hadn't come out yet. She forced herself to her feet and reentered the burning building. She was able to make it to the large man's room, but let out a soft cry of despair when she saw him, trapped, helpless beneath a burning slab of wood.
There was no chance that she could save him. She couldn't even drag herself out of this inferno again. They were both going to die. Just like the children. Then he was standing next to her. His spiritual pressure flared beyond what she had ever seen him allow before. Like a fire smothered in gasoline, the hellfire flashed, then flickered and died.
Kisuke Urahara stepped forward and tossed the smoldering beam away from his friend like it was made of foam. He lifted the man and then picked up Yoruichi, just as her vision faded.
Line -
"What happened?!" Soi Fon dashed into the room, nearly tearing the door off it's hinges in her hurry to reach her mentor's side.
"A group of extremists successfully freed Aizen from his prison. He sent a group of them with an old invention of mine to try and kill me in my sleep, thinking he would then be untouchable. Apparently he is unaware that Ichigo regained his powers, or I'm sure he would have launched an attack on that front as well. Tessai is seriously injured, and will remain badly scarred even after he has healed. Yoruichi is still unconscious from the smoke. Ururu and Jinta... Both died." Urahara explained the situation calmly, but Soi Fon saw him tightly gripping the hilt of Benihime.
"Why were you unharmed, if you were the target?"
"I was in the underground training field with Karin when she said she smelled smoke. We left through the back exit and I sent her home while I went to help the others. Her family should be arriving soon, for their own safety, until Aizen is taken care of."
"I'm going after him!" Soi Fon snarled and turned toward the door. Urahara caught her arm.
"No. Stay here with Yoruichi. She'd want you to be here when she wakes up. She'll need someone. She wasn't able to save Ururu or Jinta, and that will be hard on her."
"I... Fine. But what about that monster?" She sat next to her mentor's bed and gently slipped her fingers into the unconscious woman's grip.
"The Central 46 are discussing what they believe to be the best options. Aizen has demanded we submit to him. Having seen we can not contain him indefinitely, they are considering agreeing to this." There were gasps of shock and outrage from the other occupants of the room at Urahara's words.
"They can't do that! I'll fight the Central 46 and Aizen before I bow to that monster!" Soi Fon was about to jump to her feet again when Urahara raised a hand to calm her.
"That won't be necessary. I'm going to take care of Aizen." Urahara turned to the door and walked away from the others. He paused at the door and spoke to Soi Fon. "Tell Yoruichi thank you for rescuing their bodies, and that I'm sorry I was not able to get there faster. I will return after I have finished with him and buried the children."
Line -
"It seems my plan worked." Aizen laughed as Urahara appeared before him.
"And what was your plan? To murder two innocent children? Hospitalize my friends with my own invention? Destroy my home?"
"To test you. You've always been the one unknown in my plans. All the others are so simple. So stupid compared to myself. It was like playing chess, except there was one piece on the board that I did not understand. I didn't know how it would move. So I sent a few pieces to provoke it, and see what would happen. I would never have been defeated before had I fully understood you. I was a fool not to make that a priority, but I am not making that mistake again." Aizen smiled calmly and confidently.
"So what now? Do you know what this piece is capable of now?"
"I know where it breaks. I know where it's limits are. That is a start. Rest assured, I will be testing you more. Ichigo won't be able to weaken me for you again, and I know your tricks now. I learned my lesson, and I thank you sincerely for showing me my flaws so that I could remove them." He laughed cruelly, then walked closer to Urahara. "It is a pleasant surprise seeing you lose your composure. I had wondered if this would even be enough, but appears your limits are far lower than I had anticipated."
"You believe that this has made me weak? Aizen, you are a fool. A greedy coward, and a fool. I allowed you to live. I let you make Ichigo stronger. I let you make them all stronger. You never understood, even as you experienced it. Living things are different from non living things. Where a brick becomes weaker as you damage it, living things become stronger. All these people you hated so much... Every time you failed to kill them, you made them stronger." Urahara held Aizen's gaze as he slowly drew Benihime.
"When you cut someone, they bleed. When they bleed, they become weaker. That is the way of things. You have been damaged. You were not strong enough to defeat me yourself before, and you are not now. You allowed nothing. I am immortal. I am a god!" Aizen grinned, his face showing a small spark of insanity after the few short years in his prison.
"I allowed you to go on with your plan until it became clear your harm was beginning to outweigh your benefit. I thought that perhaps, 20,000 years from now, the world would be in need of someone to make them stronger again, so I only imprisoned you. But you could not be happy with your life. You are greedy. You needed more. You would not even face me yourself. You had your followers burn my home in the night. Coward. You never understood how weak the Hogyoku made you. You are no longer alive, really. When you are damaged, the Break Down Sphere gives you more power, but you do not become stronger. You become weaker, and so does it. You weak, cowardly, greedy fool." Urahara raised his zanpakuto in a flash and raked it across Aizen's chest, leaving a deep scratch in the sphere.
"No! It has made me too strong for you to ever harm! All I must do is desire more strength and it comes! The stone will never allow itself to be destroyed, and it is a part of me!" Aizen yelled at his, drawing his own blade and releasing it. His illusions would not affect one as brilliant as Urahara, but it would be fun to cut down his one remaining enemy.
"I'm through wasting words on you. You killed Ururu and Jinta. I think you ought to know their names before you die. This is what happens when you hurt a living soul. You see its true strength. Isn't that what you wanted? Maybe if you had not thought so lowly of humans, you might have listened to one of their old sayings. Be careful what you wish for." Urahara advanced on his enemy. His voice remained calm, but it carried a hatred he had never felt for anyone before. Aizen heard it, and slashed at the man, screaming in rage as his blow was effortlessly blocked.
"I wish for what I desire, and I attain it! Now, I wish for your death!"
"My death? Someday. But not today. Today is yours." Urahara raised Benihime over his head and finally let his rage and grief pour out through his soul, knocking Aizen back with his blast of spiritual pressure. "Bankai."
Line -
"Is she awake?" Urahara asked quietly from the door way. Soi Fon smiled tiredly at him. In the dim light of the room.
"She woke up two hours ago, but the doctors used the time to run a more thorough check up and then put her back to sleep. She will be glad to see you came back in one piece." Soi Fon followed the man out into the hallway, then gasped as they stepped into the light. Urahara was bathed in blood from head to toe. Kenpachi would have been proud. "W-where is Aizen?"
"An unfortunate amount of him is on me. The rest is buried in a landfill in the human world. The Hogyoku is destroyed. I need a shower now. If Yoruichi wakes up, tell her I'll be back soon, but don't keep her up if she is too tired." Urahara held something out to her. "Please hang onto these as well. I don't want his blood on them." With that, he turned and walked away from her, leaving a trail of red foot prints behind him.
Soi Fon lifted the lid of the box she had been handed. Inside were four necklaces, each with a small lock of hair. Two red, two black. She smiled and closed the lid, returning to Yoruichi's side and taking her hand again. She could rest easy now, knowing Aizen was gone for good. And for the first time since she had agreed to stay behind, she was very glad she had not been present when Urahara had confronted him.
Line -
"Woah, Hat-N-Clogs, what the hell happened?!" Ichigo stared at the man.
"Aizen escaped and sent his followers to burn my home in the night. Ururu and Jinta died. I assumed he was trying to eliminate me as a threat, and would then turn to you, so I had you brought here for safety."
"I meant what happened to you! You look like you spent the day hanging out with Kenpachi!"
"Ah, that. Aizen's been taken care of. Benihime loved those children very much."
Line -
Many decades ago, Urahara made a discovery about the nature of the balance between the spirit world and the human world. When a human dies, they travel to the Soul Society, to Hueco Mundo, or to the Underworld. Those who become hollows and die are reborn in the Soul Society. Those who die in the Soul Society are reborn in the human world. And when a Soul Reaper dies, they become the Zanpakuto that dwells within the soul of human destined to become Soul Reapers. When a Zanpakuto is destroyed, it's soul is set free, and they pass on beyond the Soul Society.
He never learned what may happen to those souls that passed beyond or into the Underworld, nor how more souls came into being, but he did learn that his Zanpakuto was once a Soul Reaper. Benihime lived many centuries before Urahara, and after her death, she waited many generations for the right soul to come along to wield her. As she waited, she watched. Her children grew and died, and so did their children. And theirs. Now, her descendant were all but gone. The last two children of her line did not even know they were related.
When Urahara first spoke to her, she knew he would do this one thing for her. He had adopted the two children, her own distant descendants, and kept an eye on them. Training them, teaching them, protecting them. Preparing them to become Soul Reapers one day as well.
In exchange, she taught him how to achieve Bankai. He understood it immediately, and set to work creating the apparatus necessary. Within weeks he had completed his work. He took his blade deep into the earth and plunged it into the device, drawing forth her soul into physical form once again.
They fought for two days and two nights, Urahara never surrendering in his desire to master his blade, and Benihime not willing to give herself to a man too weak to wield her. The children found their way into the training grounds, and watched in awe as the two battled so fiercly.
Neither had grown strong yet. They were little more than human children. When a large and powerful Hollow followed them through the door they had left open, Benihime feared it was too late. To her surprise, Urahara flung himself at the creature unarmed, wrestling it away from the children she had tasked him with protecting.
With that act he had proven himself to her. That was all it took. Mutual trust.
"I will lend you my power, Kisuke Urahara! From this day forward, I am yours!" Benihime cried. He drew her from his invention and pointed the blade at the hollow.
"Bankai!" Urahara shouted, feeling the blade hum in his hand. It was a terrifying sight, even being on the safe end. Benihime was unlike any other Zanpakuto. Her Bankai did not lend her's partner some special power or weapon. It was an agreement that she would slay the threat he gave to her. He had been willing to sacrifice his life to save those children for her, so she would give this man her power. There were no exceptions or conditions. She was the Crimson Princess, and when her master called on her, she would destroy his enemies.