And another chapter my pal Arei-The Peridot Dragon! Let's all give her a big thank you for these little side glimpses into my world that we're getting! At this point, I think she knows more about it than I do, LOL!

Chapter 7

Arigatou gozaimashita!*

Aizen was not a happy man, and that was putting it mildly. No he was pissed, Livid, ANGRY, as he thought of how badly things had gone wrong recently.

He'd planned so very carefully (for well over a hundred years!) to take over the Seireitei: his first major action had been foiled by Kisuke over a hundred years ago, and more recently Isshin had ruined his plans without meaning to, the daft idiot, when he used that 'ultimate attack' of his twenty years ago. The man didn't have a serious bone in his body EXCEPT when it came to protecting someone IF he could even take part in the fight. Otherwise he just goofed off. Aizen had a serious suspicion that early childhood brain damage played a factor in his attitude since his son didn't act the same way. No, Ichigo was serious all the time and when it came to a fight he was deadly serious.

Aizen had found out about Isshin's son quite by accident while taking a leisurely stroll through Karakura Town one day as he planned out a few backup plans for his latest plot (always have a plan b, then have a plan c, d, e, etc.). He'd seen a young man talking to a ghost and had realized the boy was spiritually strong. Following the young man back to his home he'd discovered Isshin and that the young man he'd followed was his son.

Oh, the irony if he used Isshin's son to bring about the fall of the Seireitei when Isshin himself had foiled his earlier plot! He'd liked the thought of sweet vengeance so much that he'd modified his plans just enough to include the young man, not that he needed to; and if things fell through with trying to trick Ichigo into helping him then he had several other plans he could put into play.

And it had worked BRILLIANTLY... at first. Kisuke had hidden the Hogyoku within Rukia Kuchiki, as it was likely that due to her protected status under her brother that she would never be in enough danger to actually have to inadvertently call upon the power of the Hogyoku. That plan might have worked as well had Aizen not been watching Kisuke so closely, waiting for him to make just such a move when his attempts to destroy it had all ended in failure.

Aizen wasn't too proud to deny that AT THAT TIME he was not strong enough to face Kisuke in a head on fight for the Hogyoku. No, the former member of the Stealth Force, the Head of the Maggot's Nest, and Captain of the Twelfth Squad was too powerful for him. And too tricky.

After that it was a matter of carefully arranging for Rukia to get attacked near the Kurosaki household and getting Ichigo involved in the whole thing.

In the end Aizen had both the Hogyoku he had created and the one that Kisuke had created. He'd merged both together and used it on himself. The POWER that was at his fingertips had been amazing. He felt as if he could take on anything...

And then Ichigo had showed up. He'd appeared weak at first but... that had been an illusion. The young man had actually been STRONGER than he was, evolved to a higher level!

Damn the Hogyoku! HE, Aizen, was the one in control! He was the MASTER, yet the damn thing TOOK CONTROL of his BODY and FORCED him to FLEE in the face of Ichigo's power!

He'd not been happy, several of the lower-level hollows under his command perished by his hand that day...

Then, when he'd gathered together a suitable force of Arrancars to attack Karakura town, Ichigo and those with him revealed a new power. This time he'd been forced back through the gate to Hueco Mundo while his body was dancing uncontrollably, even the Hogyoku couldn't help him stop this strange Kido that Ichigo used on him.

Several more under his command perished that day... though in hindsight perhaps he shouldn't have lashed out quite so badly, it was getting hard to find anything but cannon-fodder lately because of that. Even Tia Hallibel and her Fracciónes had slipped out and fled to Karakura Town and were now helping the Soul Reapers.

Right now he was leaning back in his throne, arm braced against the arm-rest and forehead resting against his hand as he contemplated the Kido Ichigo had used on him. It was obviously something esoteric as Aizen had never run across it before and all of the research he did said that such a Kido spell wasn't possible.

Perhaps it wasn't Kido...?

There was a fluttering against his nose that made him jerk his head back. He blinked and stared at the black hell-butterfly dancing in the air in front of him.

Who the hell...?

He held out one finger cautiously and allowed the fluttering creature to land. Its antenna wrapped lightly around his fingers before sinking under the skin and a bright... overly cheery... no PAINFULLY cheery voice echoed in his ears.

-Aizen-SAMA!- The voice began in its high tone. It took him a moment to recognize Rukia's voice as he'd only heard her use the sickly sweet tone on Ichigo when she was annoyed with him, and he'd only had the 'pleasure' of seeing such an event once. He noted as well that the '-sama' was said with an especially annoyed bite to it and blinked, wondering why in the world she was sending HIM a message. -You are a very evil man and I promise you that we WILL bring you down and punish you for trying to ruin or outright end so many lives. You're especially going to pay for trying to hurt Orihime and my Ichigo... but that's NOT why I'm sending this to you, I am SO SORRY for letting my TEMPER get the best of me right now. No, this message is to THANK YOU.-

Aizen's brow twitched as each emphasized word cut through his ears. He'd been about to destroy the hell-butterfly but the 'Thank you' part of the message actually caught his attention and curiosity enough that he held his hand.

-If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have met Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Ishida and so VERY many others that have made my life SO FULL of FRIENDSHIP and LOVE.- Aizen cringed again. -If it wasn't for you I wouldn't have realized just HOW MUCH my brother actually DOES care for me, not just because of the marriage to my sister but because of ME just being ME.-

Aizen frowned in confusion. Where the hell was she going with this...?

-ALL that being SAID I also wouldn't have realized the IMPORTANCE of being HONEST about my FEELINGS concerning Ichigo. If it wasn't for your BLATANT disregard for the lives of others I would NEVER have met him. I would never have FALLEN IN LOVE with him. Arigatou gozaimashita!-

What...? Did she just...? What?!

-If it wasn't for you I would not have given a single thought of marrying for LOVE and not DUTY to my family- No, no no no... No she was NOT about to...

-I wanted you to be one of the FIRST to know that Ichigo has PROPOSED to me and I said YES!- Destroy... yes he wanted to destroy something now, preferably something cute and cuddly, yes something cute and sweet was going to die soon. But the wretch wasn't finished. –

-We have yet to set the WEDDING date but it will probably be soon. So again, despite all the EVIL things you've done, if it wasn't for you I would never have found such a PERFECT man. Again, Arigatou gozaimashita!-

His brow was twitching as he stood, a low growl building in his chest.

-Oh! Before I FORGET! You are NOT invited to the WEDDING! Sayonara Aizen-SAMA!-

... RAARRGGHHH!

Legends in Hueco Mundo, even hundreds of years later, were told in awed and hushed voices, about the explosion of energy that consumed the Palace of the False God when he loosed his energy in a fit of rage at the audacity of his Soul Reaper enemies in thanking him for being the cause of their many, and happy, years of matrimony...

*(Rough translation: essentially it's thanking someone for a past event, ie; you saved my cat yesterday, 'thank you for that!' {Arigatou gozaimashita})