Ichigo tightened the grip of his sword, keeping steady breaths as he ran ahead and made a path of Reishi for the others behind him. He didn't know how long they've been running, but each step he took brought him that much closer to the fake version of Karakura Town, the place where Aizen and his lackeys resided at, the place where he must strike Aizen down with everything he has.
It was a good thing that Unohana restored his Spirit Energy to its entirety, his ragged garment now back into its ankle length cloak once again with his full power. The Captain herself ran right behind him with Nelliel, who also had her power restored to full capacity.
'Remember, do not look at his Shikai release at all. If you do, you're completely screwed.' Ichigo thought to himself, as a bead of sweat crossed over his forehead. 'Although… who said I have to fight him head-on?' he plastered a grin onto himself. 'Maybe there's another way to finish this without dragging out a fight, and to do that, I'll have to give everything I got.'
He widened his eyes when he saw that something was starting to take shape in front of him, it was the image of Karakura Town. He was getting very close now. Taking another steady breath, Ichigo began to run faster. This was it. This may be the deciding factor that could change everything once he steps inside the Fake Karakura. He could see that the portal began to open up, but he wasn't in any mood to wait, now was the time to strike.
So with that said, Ichigo donned his new Hollow mask to use his full power right off the bat and deliver a finishing blow. 'This is it!' the teen thought to himself, running at full speed ahead, ready to break through the Descarror.
The fake replica of Karakura Town had now been completely filled as an entire battlefield, and Aizen remained by watching the spectacle fold, having been the only one that was not engaged in a fight with anyone.
As of now, both Captain Hitsugaya and Ukitake were rendered unconscious and no longer in any condition to fight anymore, the similar case could be said for his Tres Espada, however she suffered less wounds than the others so she may be able to get back up soon, unaware that it would be a shame if she didn't considering who was coming.
Starrk had just recently unleashed his Resurección and was currently fighting off a few Captains such as Kyoraku, Rose, Love, and the former Lieutenants being Hiyori and Lisa. Despite the struggle that Starrk seemed to be having outside, he knew that he wasn't so much as putting any effort into the battle even in his transformed state. It was a bit of a shame, if he wasn't so hesitant of unleashing his full power, he could have finished all of them at once without so much as breaking a sweat.
Barragan, however, was an entirely different story. He took a direct blow to Captain Soi Fon's Bankai, and wasn't able to use his Respira in time, nor was he able to escape thanks to being trapped by Hachigen Ushoda's multiple layers of Kido barriers. How amusing, to think that one of the most mightiest Hollows that ever existed has been reduced to this. It seems that the former King of Hueco Mundo was nothing like how he once was.
Captain Komamura and Lieutenant Hisagi have now begun to fight against Tousen. Well this would be more interesting than the other matchups, however the Lieutenant in question was exhausted from his previous battle against Findor, so he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight, or if at all. But he did wonder what's going to happen to Tousen, now that this battle was completely personal for both sides in question. If he began to waver further down from his path, then…
For the last fight in question, his former Captain, Shinji Hirako, was holding his own against Gin, but both were clearly holding back on one another, and it was clear his former Captain was saving his reserves against him. But some part of him would have wanted to see what Shinji Hirako's abilities were.
Now as for the Head Captain himself, he still wasn't doing anything to interfere. In fact the general in question wasn't seen anywhere. More than likely preparing something, and if Aizen's guesses were still correct, he would go with using that technique against him. Not that it mattered which ability would be used, as a counter attack of his own would negate just about anything that was thrown at him.
The tables were set, everybody was having their hands full, making it difficult for just about anybody to come after him. Now nobody could step in for what was about to occur next, and that's just what he needed, as his position ended exactly where the boy would come from and come at him from behind. And this should occur right about… now.
Behind Aizen, there were cracks beginning to form in the sky right, as Ichigo broke through the Descorrer before it could open up properly, making a rather shocking entrance. Behind his mask, Ichigo grit his teeth as he prepared everything he had in order to finish off Aizen once and for all. 'You're mine!' the Hollowfied teen thought to himself as he charged up his strongest attack at full strength, holding nothing back. "Getsuga… Tenshou!" he exclaimed the name of his attack as he fired the powerful black and red wave of energy at Aizen's neck. He wasn't done just yet, as he got ahead to throw another attack just in case. "Graaaaaagh!" Ichigo yelled out as he threw another Getsuga.
He hoped that this would be the end. That this would be where Aizen finally dies, but it would be nowhere near as simple as the boy thought it would have been. Both Getsugas have made contact against Aizen, but it was only against a bright green-like barrier that formed behind Aizen's neck, and was able to defend Aizen from his attacks with ease.
This sudden entrance he made took everybody out by surprise, as all of them stopped their fight with one another and looked over at what caught their attention.
The black spirals of Ichigo's energy wrapped around the shield before it dispelled all the Spirit Energy away. "No…" Ichigo murmured, his eyes widened over the realization that he failed, and now he would have to fight him head-on.
Aizen grew a small smile, turning his head over to look at the Hollowfied teenager. "It's been quite a while, hasn't it…" the two of them made eye contact. "Ryoka boy."
'Damn it all to hell!' Ichigo thought as he clenched his teeth, and glared at the leader of the Espadas. 'Now I have to fight this son of a bitch!'
Aizen used Flash Step to get directly in front of Ichigo, and Ichigo gasped as Aizen swung his sword horizontally at Ichigo's head, to which the teen managed to react to the attack speed by quickly making a backflip to get away from Aizen's strike, twisting his body in mid air before he landed in the air, gaining distance from his opponent while they were still at the same field.
"Your attack was good, but the area you chose was poorly thought out. The back of the neck is every creature's worst blind spot." The shield that protected Aizen was shown again, this time it was much smaller than before, and it kept making some flashes, as if on guard against someone attacking from behind again. "Did you really think that I would come into this battle without protecting my point of greatest vulnerability?"
Ichigo didn't say anything, but instead he now tried to come up with some strategies to get himself ahead of the curve, now that his hope of killing Aizen didn't work at all. He didn't understand why he depended on this tactic, nor did he understand why he wanted it to become so easy like this. But even so, he would have wanted it to at least reduce some damage.
"Let me guess what you're thinking at this very moment." Aizen spoke once more, cutting Ichigo's thoughts off on his own. The boy readied himself as he put his blade on the front. "You must be confused as to why your attack didn't work on me, even in your Hollowfied state. You were hoping to take me out by surprise, just so you would avoid fighting me in a one-on-one battle by yourself, even if you have grown much stronger. You may not even be consciously aware of this yourself, but some part of your mind must be growing in fear, thinking that you messed up everything when you failed to strike me down from behind. You weren't even sure of yourself if you would be able to do it anyways, yet you tried regardless…" Aizen sighed as he looked over at the sides of the Soul Reapers. "I can imagine how much weight you must have on your shoulders. Those fools from the Soul Society, they must have truly grown desperate or arrogantly disturbed that they would send a child to fight me like this."
Ichigo blinked his eyes in shock from this, as he was left practically speechless over everything that Aizen just told him. The worst part was that he was right. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the amount of pressure and weight on his shoulders of being the only one who could take down Aizen solely because he hasn't seen his Shikai was overwhelming, especially in saving the whole world from him, something he's never done or been through before.
"So let's try this again…" Ichigo hitched his distorted breath. "I want you to hit me with your best shot. We'll see how much you've improved since our last encounter." Ichigo shook his head before readying himself a fighting stance with his sword, with his Spiritual Pressure becoming notably sharper. "That's right… come on."
Ichigo raised his sword upright and charged up a Getsuga once more. "Graaaaaagh!" Ichigo yelled out as he fired off his attack full speed ahead at Aizen, who simply proceeded to use Flash Step to get away from the energy blast and appeared behind Ichigo, who widened his eyes when he sensed Aizen's presence.
"What's the matter?" Aizen asked, and Ichigo jumped back away from him. "I wouldn't recommend keeping distance between us. While it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's meaning is only useful when it's against combatants who possess equal power." The former Captain used his Flash Step to appear behind Ichigo, with his sword put right next to his neck, making the orange haired teen widen his eyes. "As you're about to discover…"
Ichigo compressed his Getsuga into his blade right before he clashed it against Aizen's. "Grrrrrrrr!" Ichigo grunted as he struggled to push back Aizen's sword. "Aaaaaaaargh!" The redhead released more power from within, and as such he was able to push back Aizen's sword away from his neck. Ichigo turned around and spun his sword in a different direction to now cut Aizen's head, but Aizen was able to block his lethal blow by placing his sword in a vertical position right next to his body, whilst holding the sword upside down.
Aizen pushed back Ichigo's compressed Getsuga blade, and the young man's guard became open. Aizen raised his leg and went ahead to kick Ichigo's abdomen, but Ichigo raised his knee in order to block the blow, to which he managed to do so, but he got pushed back from the force of the kick. "Gagh!" Ichigo howled from the pain he felt on his knee. But nevertheless he wouldn't let this stop him as he charged at Aizen.
"Damn it!" Shinji cursed as he leaped towards where Ichigo and Aizen were at just so he could aid the newest Vizard in combat, but was quickly stopped by Gin, who used his Flash Step to get in front of him before they engaged their swords in a lock.
"Were you thinking about leaving little ol' me behind just so you could go and fight Captain Aizen instead?" Gin rhetorically asked, showing off his ever present grin. "How very rude of you, and to think you were once a Captain. If you left, I would have been lonely and had no-one else as my play date."
"Fuck off, Ichimaru!" Shinji exclaimed in annoyance. 'Damn it all! I have to get out of this mess and help out Ichigo! Even if he has gotten more powerful like the rest of us this past month, fighting Aizen alone is suicide! He needs backup, and fast!' the Vizard thought to himself.
"So I'm gonna take a guess and say this is the Ichigo kid I heard about…" Starrk commented as he watched Ichigo fighting Aizen. "I'm impressed he's not dead already…" he then heard Hiyori coming at him from behind, to which Starrk jumped higher in the air to avoid the blow. "Seriously... I can't find a breathing room at all, can I?"
He looked behind him to see Love swinging Tengumaru horizontally at him to split him in half, to which Starrk used his Sonido to get away. "And why did I have to be the one to fight so many people at once…"
"So the half Soul Reaper boy finally came to fight…" Tousen commented, as he, Shuhei, and Komamura watched over Ichigo having a one-on-one battle against Aizen.
Komamura frowned as he saw the young Substitute battling the traitorous Aizen, and quite clearly he could tell that Aizen was gaining the upper hand, but it was overall impressive for the Substitute Soul Reaper to even hold his own against a foe like this. 'So this is the Substitute Soul Reaper…' Komamura thought to himself, as this was the first time he's ever gotten to properly see the young man in person, though while he had seen him back at the Soukyoku Hill, he was far too enraged to think properly back then. 'The one that Captain Unohana told us to protect from witnessing Aizen's Shikai through the use of Tenteikura.' The large wolf man now felt conflicted. He knew he should help the Substitute and stop Aizen from using his Shikai so he wouldn't get caught by the illusions, but another side of him wanted to save Tousen from the depths of darkness he had fallen into. But even so, he should know Tousen would not let him get away so easily, especially not while Shuhei was in poor condition to fight.
'This is insane…' Shuhei thought to himself, gaining a bead of sweat on his cheek as he watched Ichigo clashing blades against Sosuke Aizen of all people. 'How the hell is he able to fight like this? It's a good thing that Momo isn't conscious to see this at the moment. But even so… to think that this Substitute is supposed to be a novice like I am.'
"So why exactly is it that you wanted me to bring an Espada here?" Nelliel asked as she gently put an unconscious Halibel down on the ground close to the others that were injured, such as Jushiro and Toshiro. "And why go heal her even?"
"I never said that I would heal her… yet." Unohana replied as she went on to start healing Jushiro first, whom she guessed keeled over his sickness in a horrible time. "For now I just wanted her to stay here so we can keep her under surveillance, in case she were to get up and start fighting again. However…" The medical Captain of Squad 4 looked over at scorched markings at Halibel's body. "To think she would be able to survive the flames from the Head Captain himself…" she commented. 'Huh, well she is indeed quite the looker. That is quite a strong body.' Unohana then looked back at the teal haired Arrancar. "You seem to be rather upset about something."
Nelliel looked down on the ground. "You could say that…" she said, as she looked back at the sky, remembering when the Soul Reaper Captain pulled her away the very moment they stepped out of the Garganta. "I wanted to help out Ichigo to take care of the last remains of Aizen's soldiers, or even Aizen himself but... I never imagined that the last of the Espada would be this powerful…" she got up from the ground. "But even so—"
"What do you think you're doing?" Unohana questioned as she saw Nelliel unsheathing her sword.
"What does it look like? I'm going out there to help others." Nelliel replied before she started walking away from the Captain of Squad 4. "Because I did not come all the way here for nothing."
"I wouldn't exactly do that if I were you. You Arrancars are able to sense Spiritual Pressure, right? You should know that everyone here is far out of your league." Unohana spoke, just so she could convince the Arrancar woman to not do anything reckless or even suicidal for that matter. "Especially the likes of Sosuke Aizen. I'm sorry to tell you this, but if you were to engage in battle in your current state, I'm afraid you'll only be getting in the way…"
Nelliel made a sigh out of frustration, as she gripped the handle of her sword tightly. "So what exactly am I supposed to do then?! Just go back to Hueco Mundo?! Or stay here and do nothing?!"
"Well…" Unohana looked back at the injured bodies. "Are you adept at any healing of sorts?"
Nelliel looked back at the Captain with a semi confused look on her face. "What? Uh, kind of I guess? But it's not very comfortable… it's kind of gross."
"Well I could use some help, so any kind of healing will do." Unohana said, gesturing to the former Espada to come closer to her. "You can start with healing that woman over here." she pointed to Halibel.
Ichigo kept swinging his sword in hopes that it would be able to cut Aizen, and whilst his blade was able to reach him, it wasn't able to pierce through the leader of the Espadas, as Aizen blocked each strike he kept throwing at him. He swung his sword in a downward diagonal matter to cut Aizen's body, but the ruler of Hueco Mundo moved his body out of the way before Aizen thrust his Zanpakuto forward to cut through Ichigo's ribcage, to which the Substitute instinctively pulled his sword back and placed it in a horizontal position to block the sword, however Aizen's blade was still able to nick through his chest, making Ichigo grunt from the cut he received. The teen then used his Flash Step to get behind Aizen and swung his sword in an attempt to cut down Aizen's arm, to which Aizen spun his body and crossed his sword against Ichigo's.
Ichigo widened his eyes when he sensed something from Aizen's blade. 'What the hell? What was that just now?' Ichigo thought, becoming somewhat confused from what he felt. 'Hold on a minute… something isn't adding up here!' Ichigo became surprised when Aizen took control with their locked swords by pulling his own back, before making a rotation and forcefully pressed Kyoka Suigetsu against his Bankai blade. The orange haired youth grit his teeth as he fired off a Getsuga Tenshou, and successfully pushed Aizen back with this before Aizen cut the Getsuga in half.
Aizen just stood still and did nothing, waiting for Ichigo to make the next move as the man put his hand in his pocket. Ichigo tensed up as he tried to think what he could do next. He wasn't sure if any plan or strategy would work against Aizen, and yet that wasn't what he was focusing on, as he was more bothered by what he felt from Aizen's sword.
He felt a sense of… joy. When he clashed with Aizen in that instant that's all he felt from the sword. It was as if Aizen was actually having fun with this, and it didn't make any sense to him. Well whatever he felt, he needed to focus on this battle.
Aizen slightly leaned his head to look at what was coming behind him, and he saw that it was Barragan's axe. In his dying moments, he made one last desperate attempt to get rid of him after all the humiliation he's been put through, but even with this, Aizen barely casted a glance, seeing it as nothing more than a fly coming in his way. And it would appear that both Captain Soi Fon and Hachigen Ushoda sustained heavy damage. Good, now at least they wouldn't be able to interfere.
Ichigo widened his eyes, finally seeing an opening and rushed towards Aizen. Aizen turned his head to focus back on Ichigo, and brought his sword to block against Ichigo's once more. Ichigo pulled his sword away from the interlock and then swung it again, to which Aizen blocked once more. Ichigo kept swinging his sword wildly, and Aizen made a step backwards to match Ichigo blow for blow.
It was then that Ichigo fired his Getsuga against Aizen, who raised his sword upwards to block the blow, to which he got pushed in doing so. Ichigo quickly used Flash Step to approach closer to cut Aizen down as the man slashed his technique before making a horizontal swing at the teen, to which Ichigo leaped away and got behind Aizen before coming right at him, this time coming in to slash his legs off. Aizen turned around to block the incoming blow as he raised his sword above his head in a horizontal position. Ichigo flipped over Aizen and gained some distance before charging at him yet again, this time intending to cut his right leg. Aizen got out of the way to avoid the slash, and Ichigo flew past him in doing so, but he regained his footing in mid air before turning around to fire a Getsuga Tenshou, to which Aizen swung his sword to cut the beam in half.
Ichigo then used his Flash Step to appear right next to Aizen and slash his head off, but the Ruler of Hueco Mundo reacted faster by blocking the lethal blow. The teen kept making one Flash Step after another, governing all sides so he could injure Aizen, but the man kept blocking each blow Ichigo kept giving. Ichigo then swung his sword horizontally once more, but Aizen blocked it again by placing his sword upside down in a vertical position.
The young man grit his teeth as he struggled to push back Aizen's sword. 'Damn it… there it is again! But something is wrong here, whenever I keep crossing blades with him, it's like Aizen's heart is constantly… changing? I feel one thing and then the next second I feel something that's completely different from before. It's like he just can't make up his mind!' he thought to himself. Everything he felt from Aizen was just all over the place.
Aizen made a small frown when he saw that Ichigo's concentration was starting to waver. This would not do, the boy needed to stay sharp, make him understand more. Aizen overpowered Ichigo's sword and then went on to swing his Zanpakuto down to Ichigo's head, to which Ichigo raised his sword above his head to block the blow, and Ichigo got pushed back in doing so.
"You shouldn't lose your focus like that. Do so again, and you will not be so fortunate next time." Aizen gave a warning to the boy.
Ichigo hitched his breath as he held his sword in front of him, thinking what his next move should be. Then he gasped as he felt a surge of power rising in another area. It wasn't just any sort of random type of Spiritual Pressure he felt, it was Hollowfication, but it didn't come from either of the Vizards, as it felt much darker, more twisted.
Komamura and Shuhei stood in disbelief as they watched their former comrade turned enemy use the powers of Hollowfication that were bestowed upon him, as black and purple swirls of Spirit Energy wrapped around Kaname violently.
"KANAME, YOU BASTARD!" Komamura roared in outrage at what was bestowed upon him, as his face was contorted to shock, horror, rage, and disgust all at once. "HAVE YOU TRULY SUNK THIS LOW?!" he screamed in demand, not wanting to believe this was real. That would be so easy, but Komamura knew better than that. This was very much real. For his friend to have fallen so low that he would even gain the forbidden powers of a Hollow and throw away the side of a Soul Reaper was just… it was simply unspeakable. Shuehi was having similar thoughts to the animal-like Captain.
Tousen's transformation had finished as the dark Spirit Energy dissipated. Tousen's Hollow mask covered most of his head, neck, and throat. It has a smooth white surface, with the only feature being a bilateral line down the middle, separating the mask into two portions. Tousen's outfit also changed, as he lost the orange strap on his shoulder, and gained a chest plate and a pair of small slim shoulder guards with designs similar to his mask.
"What the hell?!" Shinji widened his eyes in shock, feeling Tousen's Hollowfied Spiritual Pressure as he and Gin had their swords locked before Shinji backed away whilst keeping his eyes on his opponent.
"Oh? Is Kaname finally using that thing?" Gin wondered more so to himself, checking briefly over where Tousen was at. "I was wondering if he would ever use it."
"Alright, spit it! What the hell is Tousen doing with Hollow powers?!" the blonde haired Vizard demanded to know as he glared at Gin. "What did you bastards do?!"
"Wow, let's not get crazy here." Gin put his hands in the air. "Don't blame me as if I had something to do with this, after all you should realize where your Hollow powers came from."
"The Hougyoku…" Shinji scowled as he tightened the handle of his sword.
"Bingo! See, that wasn't so hard to guess now, was it?" Gin put his sword under his armpit and pressed it just so his sword wouldn't fall off. He knew that Shinji was becoming irritated with him.
"I don't believe it, you sick bastards even went as far to make another Vizard? What, having an army of Arrancars wasn't enough for you?" Shinji replied in a dull tone. "Or is this some twisted joke Sosuke made just to mock us?"
"That's the amusing part, it was actually Kaname that wanted to obtain Hollowfication on his own will." Gin informed Shinji, who simply looked baffled by this news. "But not me, because quite frankly that's not exactly in my style. Don't really think it would have looked good on me either."
"And Kaname went on about justice or whatever bullshit he was spouting, and he went on to do this? How ironic." Shinji spoke in the same dull tone as before. "How long has he even had these?"
"Oh, about a couple of months now." Gin shrugged his shoulders as he pulled his sword out from his armpit.
"Is that so?" Shinji grew a grin. "Then his mask shouldn't last very long to begin with. And since everybody else is using their Hollow masks…" the Vizard went on to put his own Hollow mask onto his face, increasing his overall power to end this fight faster and assist Ichigo. "I should have just done this from the start."
"Not sure if it would have made much of a difference." Gin spoke as he saw Shinji coming at him, and the Soul Reaper began clashing with the Vizard again. "But I wouldn't be so bold to assume that Kaname's mask works like yours."
"The hell are ya talking about?" Shinji asked in confusion of what Gin meant, but his answer was only answered by an amused chuckle, which only irritated the blonde haired Vizard.
"Rose! Are you seeing this shit?!" Love asked as he dodged another one of Starrk's Cero blasts.
"I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes!" Rose replied as he used his Flash Step to stand right next to Love. "I thought Ichigo would be the last one to become a Vizard like us! I didn't think that one of Aizen's men would acquire such abilities as well!"
Starrk looked over where his superior was at, who had already begun his battle against the Captain he was facing. "So General Tousen has that mask as well?" he wondered in curiosity before he saw a Hollowfied Lisa coming right at him from the front, as she swung her large Shikai weapon, to which Starrk lazily kept dodging each swing the girl kept giving. "This day just keeps getting weirder." he commented before he sensed a Hollowfied Hiyori coming at from behind, swinging her Shikai blade to cut his head off, to which the First Espada used his Sonido to get out of the way.
"The fuck is this bullshit?!" Hiyori was clearly agitated by what she was feeling. "Since when was there another Vizard?! And it's one of Aizen's men to make it worse!"
"Well however that became the case…" Lisa kept her attention on Starrk. "We should keep our priorities straight and focus on what's in front of us. We still have to help Ichigo."
Aizen made a frown when he saw Ichigo leaving himself vulnerable from the distraction of Tousen's Hollowfication. He used his Flash Step to appear in front of the boy, and the teen gasped when he saw that Aizen easily closed the range between them. He cursed himself in his mind for being taken by surprise like that, and he gasped when he felt Aizen stab him through his chest. "Gaugh!" Ichigo coughed up blood, feeling the sharp pain inflicted upon him as his blood oozed onto Aizen's blade.
"I warned you not to let your guard down, but it appears you didn't listen to me." Aizen said, as he pushed his sword deeper into Ichigo's chest, making the teenager gasp in pain. "And now you get to face the consequences." he began to pull his sword out of Ichigo's chest, and some of the blood that was stained trickled from his Zanpakuto. Before Aizen could pull his sword out completely, Ichigo grabbed the
front of the front of his blade with his left hand and gripped the weapon tightly, making sure to keep it locked despite the pain he felt.
This action made Aizen somewhat surprised by this as the boy grabbed the front of his Zanpakuto, which was a weakness from his Kyoka Suigetsu as he hadn't been exposed to its powerful illusions and hadn't even bothered to activate the illusions for that matter. The boy couldn't know this, as he must have been operating under his instincts to grab his weapon and put him still.
"Now you're mine!" Ichigo exclaimed as he waved his sword from behind and charged up his Getsuga at full power rather quickly. He could feel Aizen trying to pull his sword away, but he made sure his grip wouldn't let go at all. This would be risky, as using a Black Getsuga at point blank range like this would not only injure Aizen but also himself. But this was the only opening he could exploit, he couldn't back down now.
Normally if anybody else were caught in a situation like this, their first instinct would be to either somehow get out of the way or prevent the opponent from unleashing their devastating attack at such a close range. But there wasn't enough time to do that as Ichigo swung his sword, ready to unleash his Getsuga at full force. "Getsuga Tenshou!" He yelled out the name of his attack and released the Getsuga from his blade, making direct contact against Aizen, dwarfing a mass of explosion for both of them.
One of the figures got out of the smoke and fell down from the sky till he crashed onto the ground, forming a crater in doing so. The figure turned out to be Ichigo, who tried to get up from the ground, revealing the damage that had been done to him. A portion of his Hollow mask had been torn off from the left side of his face, and his Bankai coat was shown to have taken a bit of damage as well, having gotten a few tears and signed with scorch marks. 'Come on… tell me that did some damage…' Ichigo thought to himself as he waited for the dust to clear up, still feeling Aizen's Spiritual Pressure.
When the dust cleared up, Aizen had been revealed as well, having covered his left arm over his head to block the blow handed to him. There had been very little damage done to him, as his body was only covered by a few cuts that bled, along with a few singles. Aizen lowered his arm to look at the damage done to him, and he grew a small grin in doing so.
Down below, Ichigo widened his eyes in shock as there was very little damage that was done. 'You gotta be kidding me…! He took my Getsuga at point blank and that's all it did to him?!' Ichigo thought, and before he knew it his mask began to dissipate as well. 'At full power no less!' the teen grit his teeth as he began to fly back in mid air, and the Hollow mask completely disappeared. 'And now my mask is gone? What gives? I know I should be able to use it longer than this.'
"Oh?" Aizen became amused as he saw that Ichigo's Hollow mask had disappeared. "It would appear that you can't Hollowfy anymore. You must be wondering why that must be the case, after all it should be running far longer than the previous times you used your mask." he said, as Ichigo flew up to the same playing field he stood at. "It's quite simple, really, you're the cause of that." he saw the boy widening his eyes in confusion. "Your Hollowfication is, to put it simply, unstable as of the moment. It shouldn't be no more than a mask, it should have evolved past that, giving you a greater power than the one you have. You used up too much energy quickly while you were at full strength, and as such you couldn't hold on to your mask. Or to put it another way for you to understand… Perhaps a part of you is still afraid of drawing out the power of your Hollowfication, deep down inside…"
Ichigo tightened the handle of his sword, as his body somewhat shook up. Aizen spoke to him as if he could actually read his mind. There was a part of him that was afraid of using his Hollow powers, to lose control like he did before, and become a raging killing machine that acted on sheer violence, stopping at nothing to mutilate those who threatened him… just like what he would have done to Ulquiorra in that form, if Orihime hadn't stopped him.
'Shit! Ichigo can't use his mask anymore?!' Shinji thought as he kept trading blow for blow against Gin, still being stuck in this matchup. 'I don't have time for this! If I don't do something soon, Aizen is gonna kill him for sure! And if he does then protecting him from seeing Kyoka Suigetsu was all for nothing!' Shinji threw a diagonal slash at Gin, who put his wakizashi Zanpakuto at the side of his face to block Shinji cutting his face off, but got pushed back from the force of the blow instead.
"So this is the power of Hollowfication, eh?" Gin wondered mostly to himself. "I wonder how it would be like to take on all of you Vizards with those masks. It sounds like an interesting power to get, but even with all that, is that all you can do? Because if increasing your power is all you can do, then I'm a little disappointed. I would have at least expected to get a bunch of different abilities."
"Wait, you're saying that you wanted to see Hollow abilities?" Behind the mask, Shinji made a smirk as he gained an idea. 'I gotta hurry this up. I can only use the mask for about 5 minutes, and if I don't take it off until then, I'll be left vulnerable and be an easy kill.' he thought to himself. "Well why didn't you say so? Here, take this as a token of my apology." Shinji began to gather energy and displayed it in a horizontal line at his fist. "I promise you won't regret it." the Vizard spoke in a sarcastic manner right before he unleashed a crimson Cero straight at Gin.
The former Captain opened up his mouth from the power he felt from the Cero blast. He put his Zanpakuto at front to block the vaporization beam, and got pushed back in doing so until Gin used enough strength to cut the beam in half as he swung his sword upwards. "Phew!" Gin sighed as he wiped off some of the sweat on his forehead. "That's quite the power, now then I believe it's my turn to—" he stopped talking when he saw Shinji flying away from him. "Hey! Where are you going?!" he asked in a comical hurtful tone.
"Away from you!" Shinji replied as he kept hopping in the air.
"Well that's just rude…" Gin slumped his shoulders in disappointment as he sulked. "Now Captain Aizen gets to have all the fun…"
"Are you certain you should continue fighting me like this?" Aizen asked in a mocking tone. "With the way you are now, getting rid of you shouldn't be a problem." to back up his words, he charged straight at Ichigo and immediately managed to close the distance between them as he was ready to slash through Ichigo's body, but it was then that Shinji got between them and intercepted Aizen's sword against his.
"Shinji?!" Ichigo became surprised when he saw the blonde Vizard interfering in his fight.
"What the hell are you standing around for?!" Shinji exclaimed before he pushed Aizen back. "Are you trying to get yourself killed or somethin'?!" He removed the mask on his own, fully revealing his face just so he could save his time limit.
"So you managed to get away from Gin so you could fight me instead, Shinji Hirako?" Aizen spoke in an amused manner.
"Well one part of me just couldn't resist the temptation to cut your face and wipe off that smug look of yours." Shinji replied as he pointed his blade at Aizen. "After all, I still owe you payback for what you did to me and the others a 100 years ago."
"And in doing so you wish to assist the boy here to get your precious revenge? How reckless of you, have you been blinded by your hatred of me so much that you wish to prolong whatever life you still have left?" Aizen smirked at this, and the only response his former Captain gave him was a glare. "Or… by having your chance to fight me… you can finally have your whole being filled with life again. Because just by looking at you, your eyes still have that same emptiness when you and the rest of those Soul Reapers died that night a 100 years ago."
Shinji gripped his blade tightly as he felt his nerves getting poked through whilst keeping a grin of his own. He knew better than to give into Aizen's taunts, as when you finally fall for it, you would do exactly as he intended you to do, and be killed in the process. If someone like Hiyori heard this, she would have lost her cool and lunged at Aizen in blind rage. "Man, ya sure have your sweet way with words, don't ya? But you're right about one thing, I do still want revenge, each of us Vizards still do to this very day, but we're not blind. Our task is simple, and that's to protect Ichigo. Besides, I never said I would do this alone…"
"This is ridiculous!" Love exclaimed in annoyance as he deflected another one of Starrk's Ceros with his Shikai weapon. He and the others were dodging and blocking the Ceros that were coming at them. But it soon stopped as he, Rose, Hiyori, Lisa, and Captain Kyoraku grouped together. Starrk stopped shooting the Ceros at them for now. "We're getting nowhere like this! At this rate we'll be running in circles for a whole day!"
Starrk made a heavy sigh as he pointed his guns at the Soul Reapers, trying to think of a way to get a step ahead of them and get this fight over with. But thinking alone became difficult. Barragan died, and nobody so much as even bothered to acknowledge that. And now everybody else was ganging up on him, and there was only so much he could do. This day was just getting worse. He wanted this to end somehow, but he knew he needed to stick around, even though he didn't put effort into his attacks, being afraid that if he used his full power, he would just make almost everybody in this city disappear… and more than likely he would get killed by the Ichigo kid or that old Soul Reaper Captain. What could he possibly do next…
That was when Lilynette finally had all she could take. "Aaaaaaaaaah! This is completely ridiculous!" Lilynette yelled out in the form of Starrk's guns. "You guys are just wasting your time!"
"Did… did that gun just talk?" Lisa asked in shock. "Or am I going crazy?"
"All of you better listen when I say this, but you guys should just get out of here! And what I mean is, there's no point in dragging this bullshit out!"
"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Hiyori asked in irritation. "We can't just leave a fight, not until you and your buddy here get taken care of!" she exclaimed as she pointed her Shikai blade at Starrk.
"Are you people stupid or something?!" Lilynette rebuked, and if she was still in her regular form, she would have grown a thick mark on her head. "Let me put this in a way you numbskulls can understand! The 5 of you together teamed up just so you can take down one guy! Two if you count me in! And guess what, you STILL aren't anywhere close to getting that job done! Meanwhile your ally is fighting Lord Aizen while you dimwitted morons are wasting your time with us! And not to mention I can't convince this lazy bastard to go all out to just get the job done!"
The 5 of them widened their eyes in shock as they realized the point Lilynette was making. The longer they spent fighting with this Espada, the more energy they would waste, something they needed in order to fight Aizen.
"So wait a minute, you're just letting us go?" Love asked in hesitation, as this felt too good to be true. "And what's in it for you? Are you just gonna be betraying your leader?"
"Fuck no I just can't think of anything else to convince this lazy asshole to actually start putting effort into this boring fight! So I'll just have to give him what he wants and that's to sleep on a damn bed! So go ahead! Join with your Soul Reaper friend, help him stop Lord Aizen, besides it's not like he's any pushover! Hell, I wouldn't be surprised much if he can take care of you bozos without breaking a sweat!" Lilynette answered in further irritation. "Besides, our job is done here anyway!"
"Lilynette…" Starrk was surprised by this whole ordeal. No more than what felt like minutes ago she was nagging at him to give it his all and now she was putting a stop to this whole fight. On one hand he was glad he could finally just go home and sleep at last, but on the other hand he didn't want to make it seem like he was betraying Lord Aizen, after all he still owed a great debt to him. However, she was right about Lord Aizen's strength, if he could he might as well take care of everyone by himself. So with that said, he and Lilynette split apart as separate beings and their Released State was gone in doing so. "I'll have to agree with her on this. You guys can do whatever the hell you want, I pretty much lost my interest in this whole ordeal." the Espada then looked over at Shunsui. "Especially since that Captain over there refuses to show me his Bankai. I was interested but then he became a buzzkill real quick."
"Well if it makes you feel any better, I was considering using it when you kept firing those Ceros at me." Shunsui made a small chuckle as he shrugged his shoulders. "But unfortunately my Bankai isn't like Captain Hitsugaya's, it's more complicated than that. And with this many people in Karakura Town, using it would risk too many deaths. It only works best when I'm fighting by myself."
"Is that so?" Starrk rolled his eyes in annoyance as he put one of his hands into his pocket. All that effort he made to make the Captain use his Bankai was for nothing. "Well you could have just said that from the start." he sighed before he opened up a Descorrer. "Try to survive if you can when you go up against Lord Aizen. Oh, and one more thing, could you guys let that blonde Espada live? Honestly, it wouldn't sit well with me if I left her to die. After all, I'm letting you guys stay alive even though you're my enemies, so it would only be fair if I asked for something similar. Besides, it shouldn't be that much of a problem." he told them before he and Lilynette stepped inside the Garganta, and the portal closed off from behind them.
"Should we really trust what he says?" Love asked, questioning whether or not to actually take the Espada's words for granted or not.
Shunsui was considering the option of cutting down Starrk when he turned his back, but technically he was still obeying Old Man Yama's commands that he defeated his enemy. So now all the Espadas in Fake Karakura have been beaten, however only one still remains. But as of now this was not a concern to him. "Quite frankly it doesn't really matter if we trust him or not. Right now we have much bigger matters to deal with, such as stopping Aizen and protecting Ichigo from witnessing his Shikai release." he said, right before he used Flash Step to aid Ichigo, and so did the other Vizards right after.
Aizen debated with himself whether or not to kill Starrk and Lilynette. While he wouldn't necessarily consider this a betrayal, he still felt disappointment that with all the Espadas he gathered, they were this weak. However, Stark had been doing his job and held his own against multiple Captain class Soul Reapers, and cutting them down himself wouldn't require effort. But when he thought about it, this didn't change his plans either way, regardless if Starrk stayed or not. Besides… it may be for the best to let him live, as they would be coming sooner or later.
"I already have all the help I need from the likes of you." Shinji commented, as one by one other Soul Reapers joined them in the battle, and each of them stepped in different positions so that they were still placed in front of Ichigo, those being Rose, Love, Shunsui, Hiyori, Lisa, and Soi Fon. Kensei and Mashiro couldn't join in, as they have already been beaten by Wonderweiss, and as of now Komamura was having his hands full with Kaname Tousen. Hachi had been gravely injured and stayed to help heal the wounded. "Because we're fighting to protect Ichigo."
Ichigo widened his eyes when he heard this. The way he was even saying this was as if he wouldn't even be allowed to fight at all. But he needed to take down Aizen once and for all, if he couldn't fight then what was the whole point of this. "Fighting to protect me…? Hold on a minute—"
"Don't even try to argue your way out of this. Allowing you to fight Sosuke by yourself would be even crazier than all of us teaming up without any plan to take him out. A lot of people here wouldn't appreciate you doing something like that, it would be completely insane for you to take him on by yourself. You already have for a short amount of time, and look where that got you." Shinji cut off Ichigo as he looked back at the redheaded youth. "Each of us here has a stake in this battle…"
It was then that the Soul Reapers made their first move as Hiyori charged towards Aizen…
Urahara swung his fan, watching in curiosity as his allies became tense, as Ryuken brought up the issue he had over the Karakura plan. He merely showed a grin before he closed off his fan, and the elder Quincy noticed the grin he held.
"You sure seem quite relaxed, Kisuke." Ryuken's tone was blunt, and he gave the shopkeeper a sharp glare, which sparked his annoyance. "Is there something you're not telling us? Or are you not even worried about the fact that people are going to notice that an entire city is nothing more than a ghost town and it would suddenly pop back up?"
"Oh come now, Ryuken, don't you think you're being a bit too harsh on me?" Urahara put his hands in the air as he still kept up his grin, but the older Quincy's glare didn't settle down at all.
"What are you hiding?" Ryuken wanted to know right away. He was not in the mood to bear through one of Kisuke's ridiculous antics. He was just about ready to summon his bow and fire a never-ending stream of arrows. "I am not taking a serious matter like this very lightly. You should know what consequences will occur once somebody starts picking up the puzzles, and word will spread out like a wildfire."
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you…" Urahara put his hands at the front before sighing. "There's really no need to be concerned over something like this. I already took care of that issue long ago. You guys are worrying over nothing."
"Huh?" Isshin blinked in confusion from this. "Wait, what do you mean you solved it? How did you even do that?"
"See, when I originally came up with the idea of creating a replica of Karakura Town, I created a device called the Tenkai Kechu, creating an enormous gateway to envelop this entire city to the Soul Society, which is the one we're standing on as of this moment. It differs from the Senkaimon as it enables whatever it surrounds to be replaced by something that exists in the Soul Society, so in other words Karakura Town has been placed in the outskirts of the Rukongai." Kisuke began to explain, and the others didn't interrupt him. However while the idea of the Tenkai Kechu and Fake Karakura Town was something they knew already, they let Kisuke go on just so he could get to the point. "But at the same time, I asked those in the Research and Development to create an exact duplicate of Karakura Town. While they were going on about their work, I took a deliberate time to set up multiple Kido barriers so that nobody from outside could step in to see that a city looked dead, and in case somebody that somehow didn't work, we would just get to wipe off their memories."
"Hold on a minute." Yoruichi interjected as she folded her arms, giving her old friend a questionable look. "If you knew about this the entire time, then why the hell didn't you tell any of us about this sooner? All I got was we put the innocent people to sleep, make a Fake Karakura and then put the real one in the Soul Society."
"I honestly didn't really think it would be necessary." Kisuke answered as he tipped his hat, to which Yoruichi gave him a glare. "Now before any of you jump down my throat, hear me out first. I spent living in this world for over a 100 years, did you really think I would be so sloppy to not be prepared for something like this? I only gave the information about the major concerns of the city and its inhabitants that the others would be worried about because we know from the Head Captain himself that sacrificing the innocents to make the Ouken is what Aizen wanted. I didn't inform anything beyond that because I already took care of all the stuff you guys were worried about. The satellites, the government, the people, the public, you name it, I took care of it. After all this whole plan revolved around deceiving the entire world that everything is going by like normal, not to mention I had an entire month to prepare for this…"
Yoruichi, Isshin, and Ryuken only stared at Kisuke for some time before they sighed. "You still should have informed us regardless, otherwise we wouldn't have gotten a panic attack just now." Isshin spoke. "But just to make sure, you did take care of everything, right?" Urahara nodded his head. Isshin made a sigh. "Ok… so I guess that takes care of everything?"
Yoruichi shrugged her shoulders. "Well I don't really have any other complaints. If so, then I guess I might as well be prepared for this battle." She then looked over at Isshin. "Oh wait, I almost forgot, what about Yuzu and Karin?"
"I put a Kido barrier around the house that prevents them from leaving in case they wake up earlier than expected." Isshin answered. "Cause if they did wake up earlier and found out that everybody in this entire city was asleep for no reason, explaining the issue to both of them would be a bit convoluted to say the least…"
"Alright, so did we clear everything up?" Urahara clapped his hands. "Cause if so, we might as well head for the Fake Karakura while we can, since the Soul Society is gonna need backup for sure." The shopkeeper then looked over at the former Captain of the Kido Corps. "Tessai, make sure to watch over the store, and the whole city if you can."
"Will do, sir." Tessai nodded his head in understanding.
"The 3 of you can go on ahead if you must." Ryuken pulled up another cigarette and lit it up with his lighter again. "I'll stay behind to provide assistance in case Aizen and his Arrancars do get past you. We can't waste all of our firepower."
"Before we leave, I gotta get something from the shop real quick, I'll be back right back." Yoruichi said, as she used Flash Step to get a certain sense of equipment that Kisuke made for her.
Within the territory of Hueco Mundo, there only remained one last battle to be settled, and if that battle was to be cleared just like all the rest that the Soul Reapers cleared through, all the Espadas that were assigned to stay here will have been defeated, and the first part of this victory would go to the Humans and Soul Reapers that have been here…
… Which would be the case if the last battle had been taken seriously, but there were other priorities to be taken care of.
"Come on, Byakuya Kuchiki! You better not be pulling any punches with those petals of yours!" Kenpachi exclaimed, keeping his ever eager grin as he kept cutting the hundreds of thousands of Byakuya's Bankai petals coming at him whilst charging forward.
Byakuya said nothing as he charged towards the brute of a Captain, using his hands to double the speed of his petals as he made them lunge straight at Kenpachi, who was ready to cut them with a vertical swing of his sword, but the Captain of Squad 6 then split the petals in two as they changed directions and got behind Kenpachi before they struck him in the back. Kenpachi grunted from the blow he felt, and Byakuya got away from Kenpachi.
While they were focusing on each other, another figure has been in the same fighting arena as the two Soul Reaper Captains, but had been completely ignored the entire time. It was Yammy, as the hulking figure was lying down in his own pool of blood that had been drawn from both Soul Reapers that the oaf considered ants to him, but as it quickly turned out it was the other way around, even when he powered up further. Yammy's fingers kept twitching, clearly indicating that he was still alive. Both Captains stopped their fight as they turned around to face Yammy, who began to get back up once more, groaning weakly in doing so.
"Oh for fuck's sake…" Kenpachi grumbled in annoyance. "This guy just won't stay down at all." he said, placing his sword on his shoulder. ''Now he's just getting on my nerves."
"For once I may agree with you, he is quite a nuisance indeed." Byakuya remarked, making his head raise upwards to get a proper look at his last remaining enemy. This oaf simply refused to stay down. ''How do you suppose he should be taken care of?"
"Hell if I know, either you or I keep striking him down but he just won't quit. I am not in the mood to deal with maggots." Kenpachi answered.
Yammy grit his teeth as he glared angrily at the Soul Reapers, clenching his fists as if he was getting ready to attack them at any given moment, but they didn't even care. To them, he was nothing more than a joke. A fodder to be tossed around like a can of garbage. It made the Espada fume in anger even further. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ASSHOLES STANDING THERE FOR, HUH?!" Yammy screamed in demand. "FINE! IF YOU WON'T ATTACK, THEN I WILL!" he then threw his right fist at both Soul Reapers, but they dodged it without much issue.
Sand was sprayed from the contact of Yammy's fist, and the large figure in question felt something tingling on his arm. It turned out to be Kenpachi, coming straight to him. "You filthy rodent! Get off of me!" Yammy exclaimed as he tried to swat Kenpachi away with his other arm, to which the giant missed as Kenpachi outran him. When Kenpachi got to Yammy's forearm, the Captain jumped high in the air far enough to be above Yammy's height now.
Kenpachi made a sickening grin as he looked down at Yammy, raising his sword upwards. "Say... I think I finally figured out how to get rid of you for good!" Kenpachi exclaimed, and with that said he put his other hand onto the handle of his Zanpakuto. Normally he would never use this unless it was a last case scenario, which even then he didn't like the very idea of it. But considering how someone like Yammy was like a cockroach that just cannot die, he figured he could just use this and then go back to fighting Byakuya. The bloodthirsty Captain raised his sword above his head, now using both of his hands. "Say goodbye!"
And with that, Kenpachi swung his sword downwards, and there was an enormous amount of Spiritual Pressure being released as a wave. When it came upon contact with Yammy, it cut through him like how a hot knife would to butter. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Yammy screamed in agony as his head began to get cut off from the sharpness of the Soul Reaper's sword, destroying his mask completely. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" blood exploded from Yammy's body as his head had been sliced in half, but it didn't stop there as Kenpachi continued cutting him apart even further. Yammy screamed in agonizing pain as now his body was getting sliced, and it continued to do so until Kenpachi managed to slice the entirety of Yammy's body.
The gigantic body of the Espada split apart as his body parts began to fall down, and the amount of blood that had been released from him burst like a waterfall, and along with some of Yammy's internal organs spilling out of him and falling down onto the sandy ground that was quickly becoming soaked by the enormous amount of blood. Kenpachi got down on the ground, looking upwards as his body was now showered by the blood of his enemy.
"That oughta put him down for good…" Kenpachi then turned towards Byakuya, showing off an eager grin, his eyes glowing by the color of his Spiritual Pressure as he now held his sword with one hand. "Now then… where did we leave off?"
Komamura almost couldn't believe what was happening. The moment Tousen unleashed his Hollowfication, the battle became one sided as Tousen's physical augmentations were beyond Komamura's imagination, showing that this Hollow power truly was indeed greater than a Bankai. Shuhei tried to convince his former Captain to come back to the light, but he was taken out of condition almost immediately. With that, Komamura didn't have any other choice, in order to survive this he had unleashed his full power by using his own Bankai, but even that didn't leave much effect, as Kaname easily healed his broken arm by using Instant Regeneration when Komamura's giant of a Bankai backhanded him.
Despite all this absurd power increase, along with knowing that Kaname truly has abandoned his side as a Soul Reaper, and causing a mess in the environment of the battlefield, that wasn't what shocked Komamura the most. He came to learn that Kaname's reasoning for joining the Soul Reapers, spending all those years becoming stronger, honing his skills… was all for the sake of revenge for his fallen friend.
"For revenge…? Are you serious?" Komamura was flabbergasted to learn about this. Would that really mean that after all this time, after all the bonds Kaname formed with not just him, but most of the Captains in the Court Guard Squads, and even teaching his own squad members, and battling together, were all just lies and deceit? All for revenge?
"That's right, Sajin…" Tousen answered without skipping a beat. "You seem to be rather shocked about this." he placed his Zanpakuto diagonally across his face. "It would appear you've taken your sight for granted, and become blind to the truth. Those eyes of yours will never reach the truth that I can see."
Regaining his fighting composure, Komamura made his giant of a Bankai swing its massive sword horizontally at Tousen, who proceeded to use his Flash Step to dodge the attack. Komamura sensed Tousen from his left, and turned around quickly to cut him in half vertically, but before he knew it Tousen already cut the giant's left wrist, and as such that's what happened to Komamura as well, who grunted from the pain. That left him an opening, which Tousen took advantage of and slashed the Bankai's back. Tousen kept flying around the giant, slashing it across multiple places such as its thighs, shoulders, and more spots on his arms.
Komamura yelled out from the pain being inflicted upon him, as blood kept spilling out of him, and thus he kneeled down on the ground, trying to get over the pain. Tousen looked down as he stood above, with his former being on his hands and knees. "Is that all, Sajin? Have you lost your wind already?" Tousen asked in a mocking manner.
Komamura struggled to get himself up, as the wounds inflicted upon his body made it hard to do so, along with the Spiritual Pressure added in that was stronger than himself. The large wolf man looked upwards, seeing Tousen charging straight at him. "Graaaaaagh!" Komamura yelled out, as he stood back up and made his Bankai swing its sword horizontally to prevent Tousen from coming in any closer, hoping he would send him away flying to buy himself time.
But it failed, as Komamura widened his eyes in shock to see that the sword of his Bankai had been stopped by Tousen's sword with fair ease, who placed his blade upside down onto his right. Komamura grit his teeth, struggling to push Tousen back, and could hardly make him so much as budge. This was crazy, how would he be able to beat Tousen like this with such a wide gap of power between them like this? Either way, the Captain will not stand down so easily like this.
Multiple Captains and Lieutenants, both current and former, have now teamed up in order to take out Sosuke Aizen once and for all. The only ones who haven't attacked just yet were Shinji, Love, Rose, Lisa, and Soi Fon, who stayed with Ichigo.
"Can you guys really take him on like this?" Ichigo asked.
"Well what other choice do we have? Besides, with this many people attacking him all at once, even Sosuke would be bound to have some trouble." Shinji answered as he shrugged his shoulders. "Anything is better than letting you fight him alone. While it is true that you are an important benefactor in this battle, that doesn't mean you should take on all of this on your own. I ain't a psychologist, but I'm pretty sure that's not a very healthy mindset to have."
Ichigo looked down upon his sword, struggling with what to answer. A part of him hated the idea of letting others protect him instead of the other way around, but he knew that their logic made more sense. So why couldn't he just let them do just that? He then looked to see Soi Fon walking in front of him. "Stop acting so pathetic. Nobody told you that you couldn't do anything. It's not like you're just gonna stand there like a fool and do nothing. Don't think that just because we're fighting this battle we'll be resigning to our own deaths. We're fighting to live to see another day." she said.
"Huh?" Ichigo was confused by this. It wasn't the harsh words, but rather the last parts that caught his interest.
"I think what the Captain is trying to say…" Lisa spoke up as well. "Is that you don't have to take everything by yourself just because you were told to do it. I can understand that saving the entire world can be overwhelming, especially for you. We're fighting to save ourselves, to save you, and save everybody from Aizen."
"But they can only make an opening for an instant, assuming we're lucky enough for it to last that long. If you miss that, then it's all over. If that opening lasts for even a split second, take full advantage and strike him when his guard is down." Soi Fon instructed. "Don't fall behind, Ichigo Kurosaki. You're an important key to this battle."
"Alright, that's enough pep talk. Let's go in there or else it'll be over before we know it." Shinji added on, right before all of them used Flash Step to lunge with their allies to assist further firepower.
Ichigo only looked at what was in front of him. 'I see… so that's what they're doing.' his eyebrows squinted, as he only focused on the battle in front of him. 'I guess they might have a point. On my own I couldn't do much against Aizen… but now the others are helping me. Even so, they're counting on me to deliver the blow. I have to pay close attention to what's happening…' he ignored everything else around him, only focusing on the fight that was going on. 'Stay focused…'
"Man… this is crazy." Iba commented, as he crouched next to Izuru, who put up a small barrier to heal both Momo and Rangiku. "Every Soul Reaper here is raising their Spiritual Pressure up to maximum. They're all going at full power."
Izuru frowned, as he himself could easily feel the weight that was pressing down. "I feel ya… and while I can understand why they're not pulling their punches, this is gonna be damaging Rangiku and Momo even more. And even with all of their combined powers, will it truly be enough to stop someone like Aizen?"
Both Lieutenants turned their heads when they sensed an Arrancar approaching them, making them tense up in doing so. Then they saw Nelliel in front of them, who appeared via Sonido. Nel immediately put her hands up in the air. "Listen, I'm not your enemy right now, I'm just here to help you."
"Help us?" Izuru was confused by this. Just who was this Arrancar? From the Spiritual Pressure alone it was clearly that of an Espada. But how did another one come here without them noticing? And why was she offering to help?
"Wait, who exactly are you?" Iba asked, wanting to get information.
"Look, a Captain by the name of Unohana or whatever sent me here to heal your comrades, since she's already busy healing others." Nelliel answered as she tried to make herself look as non threatening as possible.
Iba leaned closer to Izuru while keeping his eye on the former Espada. "What do ya think? Should we trust her?" he whispered.
"Well… if I remember correctly there were only 3 Espadas that entered Fake Karakura Town, along with that weird blonde Arrancar kid. Don't think I saw her anywhere before." Izuru looked back at the teal haired former Espada. "Plus, there's no hostility coming from her either."
"I guess that's true." Iba looked back at the Arrancar. "Alright, if you can heal people then that would be great. We could use some help."
"Haaaaaaaagh!" Hiyori made a battle cry as she swung her Shikai blade at Aizen, who lazily jumped higher in the air to evade the blow while keeping a smug grin the whole time. Aizen then looked in interest as he sensed an incoming attack coming at him.
"Tengumaru!"
Love swung his massive weapon as he attacked from above, using his Hollowfication to boost his power. He felt contact coming from Tengumaru, but before he knew it Aizen disappeared from his sight. "Huh?!" Love widened his eyes in shock as he tried to stop himself from descending any lower. 'Where did he go?! I know I felt something make contact with Tengumaru, but he disappeared! He's moving too fast for me to see!' he thought to himself.
"A group offensive…" Love hitched his breath as he turned around to see Aizen standing not too far away from him, with no visible damage being done to him at all. "Sneak attacks, distractions, decoys… in order to even so much as capture me… you must combine at least all 4 of these. But even then, your chances of doing so are extremely slim."
"How interesting!" Rose exclaimed as he swung his golden-like Shikai whip, but Aizen put his sword onto his right side so that his blade got wrapped tightly instead of himself. "With so many of us attacking you at the same time, do you really think that you can stay calm?!"
Aizen heard a battle cry coming from behind him, and turned his head to see a Hollowfied Lisa coming at him, to which he spun his sword to block her pole. "Keep him steady just like that, Rose!" Lisa exclaimed. 'If we continue to trap him like this, he'll become defenseless, and at that point Ichigo should be able to strike him down!'
"Hyaaaaaaah!" Love cried out from above as he swung his black kanabo down at Aizen. Now that Aizen was getting stuck, surely it should be enough for the Vizard to strike a heavy blow. Lisa backed away at the last second, and Rose tightened the grip of his whip as much as he possibly could with both hands to prevent Aizen from escaping. Love's kanabo came in contact completely this time, but as the weapon was so large it was hard to see what happened to Aizen. They at least hoped it sustained him an injury bad enough to slow him down…
That's where they were wrong.
Love's Shikai snapped in half, and there was some kind of powerful pressure that surrounded Aizen. The 3 Vizards that tried to corner the leader of the Arrancars gasped as they widened their eyes in shock. Aizen became completely amused, snowing a smug smirk across his features, as if though this was nothing but a game to him. "Even the vast difference between the earth and the sky… doesn't even begin to remotely compare the difference between our powers." Aizen spoke as he turned his head upwards to look at Love. He then shook his head. "Wait… that's right. I must have forgotten that my view of power is undoubtedly, completely different from what the word power means to you." Aizen then proceeded to use his Flash Step and appeared directly above Love, his sword held up high as he put his other hand into his pocket. "Here… allow me to educate you…"
"Oh no you wo—" Love swung his broken weapon as a desperate attempt to get Aizen away from him, but it failed miserably as Aizen swung his sword down and completely destroyed all that remained of the weapon in just one swoop whilst slashing deeply from Love's shoulder to all the way down his hip. "Gaaaugh!" blood spilled out of the Vizard as he fell down from the sky, having been defeated in one blow.
Rose attacked from behind as he swung his Kinshara to trap Aizen with it, but Aizen didn't even bother to look at what was coming after him, as he grabbed Kinshara's whip with his left hand sustaining any damage. Rose widened his eyes as he got yanked closer to Aizen.
'You people are focusing far too much on stopping Captain Aizen from releasing his Kyoka Suigetsu…' Gin thought to himself as he watched the battle unfold from the sidelines as he stood on a rooftop. 'And as such, you have already lost this battle before it even began. It is indeed true that Kyoka Suigetsu is a terrifying ability, but if that was all he had then it never would have been enough to subjugate those who would rather take their own life than obey him.' Gin saw Rose being slashed on his back by Aizen's blade, before he pulled his sword and let Rose fall in defeat while still holding onto the edge of Kinshara. 'There was only one reason why those crazy Espadas functioned as a group despite their different personalities and individual motives, and that's because… of Captain Aizen's strength in itself.'
He continued to watch as Aizen wiped the blood on his sword by making a simple swing. 'His speed, power, and precision surpaas far beyond any average Soul Reaper, even in their wildest imagination. Almost nobody in the Soul Society can stand equal to him. You can go ahead and prepare yourself to safeguard against his Kyoka Suigetsu all you like, but it will never be enough. Even if you put your heads together, he will outhink you almost instantly. Even if you were to prepare yourself for unfortunate events such as the sky falling or the Earth itself splitting in two, I can guarantee there would be no point in trying any of that. His superior powers will outdo anything you throw at him.' he thought to himself.
"Aaaaaaah!" Hiyori yelled out as her body got wrapped by Kinshara thanks to Aizen's usage of it, rendering her helpless as she could hardly make any movements at all. "Gaaugh!" Aizen slashed across her abdomen, making her spill out blood from her body. Hiyori yelled in pain as she dropped her Zanpakuto before Aizen let unwrapped the bindings of Kinshara before throwing it out of his hand, deeming it useless while Hiyori was falling.
Aizen then sighed as he sensed Lisa coming at him from behind again, and in response he lazily stepped out of the way from her attack while also snapping her Shikai in two as he cut it with his sword. Lisa widened her eyes in shock. "Attacking me with Hollowfication?" Aizen spoke in not just a tone of amusement but also incredulousness, as he was shown to be behind Lisa. "You Vizards are just failed experiments, you couldn't have possibly forgotten that I rule over the Arrancars." Lisa gasped as blood spewed from her back, and she never figured out at what time Aizen did it as well. "Mock Arrancars like you should be wise not to point their blades at me."
Ichigo couldn't believe what was going on. He knew that they weren't going to last for a long time against someone like Aizen, but he never expected that this battle would be so… one sided. It looked practically hopeless, and Aizen wasn't even so much as breaking a sweat. The Captains were dropping down like flies…
Aizen turned around to notice that Captain Soi Fon stood not far away from him, as her body language alone was enough for him to tell that she meant to engage him in close range combat. It was ironic when he thought about it. "Is it your turn now? Very interesting, I never expected the commander of the Stealth Force to engage me like this. One must not expect beauty in a battle, nor virtue in death. It's not only your life that's at stake. If you truly wish to protect your comrades, attack your enemy from behind. Every Soul Reaper should have learned this in the Academy, especially a member of the Stealth Force." he said.
Soi Fon knew she was far from being in peak condition, and attacking like this was extremely dangerous. Usually stealth attacks were her priority on how to fight, but considering how quickly Aizen dispatched the Vizards, attacking him from behind would be useless. Beads of sweat were seen coming down on her face. "I never expected a traitor to talk about how a Soul Reaper should act. It's rather ironic."
"Do not forget that I was once a teacher to them." Aizen replied. "A teacher must pass down his teachings to students so they can learn everything that's necessary in order to survive."
Soi Fon scowled at this. "Central 46 must have been insane to let someone like you teach them. Although it would explain how they all got deceived by a traitor like you."
"It is not good to speak ill of the dead, Captain Soi Fon. Let's face the facts, you were fooled just like how everybody else was." Aizen said.
"Really now?" Soi Fon proceeded to glare at the traitor of the Soul Society. "Do you think I was actually fooled by you? Of all people? Me?!"
Aizen became somewhat interested when he saw what looked to be a couple dozen after images that his former colleague was producing. "Cloning, eh? That's quite the performance." he complimented.
"I feel so honored receiving compliments from you." one of the afterimages of Soi Fon spoke sarcastically. "We of the Stealth Force rarely receive praise for performing our duties." she looked down at her Suzumebachi before looking back at her enemy. "So allow me to return the favor… by finishing you off with this performance!" she exclaimed as she and the after images she produced charged at Aizen all at once.
Aizen decided to play along with what he knew the Captain would do next, as he charged towards the many fake images of Soi Fon. He carelessly swung his sword and missed on purpose, making himself vulnerable. Soi Fon thought that her attempt had successfully fooled Aizen, and thus she stabbed Aizen's gut with her Shikai twice. "Nigeki Kissatsu!" she exclaimed the name of her attack. It was now done. Within a moment or two Aizen's whole body would be destroyed.
Or at least… That's what was supposed to happen.
"Nigeki Kessatsu, huh? It's quite an amusing technique." Soi Fon gasped as she looked up to see that Aizen remained alive, who also held her wrist. "But is that all you can do with it?"
"Wha…" Soi Fon didn't understand this. It should have worked. Why didn't it? "But how did you—"
"A battle between beings like us is a battle of Spirit Energy." Aizen replied casually. "I can easily negate your silly power and techniques with my own Spirit Energy." he then raised his sword upright while keeping his grip on the Captain so she wouldn't escape. Soi Fon's eyes grew in fear for what may happen next. Aizen stabbed Soi Fon below her chest area and extended further by horizontally swinging his sword out of her body, as blood splattered from her body, and some of it drew on Aizen's clothing as well.
"Gugh…" Soi Fon coughed up blood as she already felt her body growing hazy and weak. Her battle against Barragan gave her enough injuries as it were, but with a blow like this handed to her, this was far too much for her body to handle, and as such she already began to descend lower till she hit the lower ground.
"Now then…" Aizen turned over to look at the last two remaining Captains for him to deal with, those being Shinji and Shunsui. "I believe you will be my last opponents."
Shinji made a small glare as he looked at his enemy. "Before we get to settle this… let me ask you one thing, Sosuke, do you feel afraid?"
Aizen seemed completely amused by this, and although he didn't show it he was somewhat baffled as well. "Most of your comrades have been defeated, and you're asking me if I'm afraid? Has the reality of your predicament disturbed you so much that your sense of reality is beginning to slip away from you?"
"That's not what I'm talking about…" Shinji replied. "No matter how strong you are, I know you must have some doubts. That's what you told me a 100 years ago." Aizen didn't say anything, but rather let his former Captain continue his talk. "I never opened up to you. I never let you get close enough to learn anything about me. So even after all this time, you still don't know the power of my Zanpakuto."
"You think that matters?" Aizen questioned this. "Do you really think I need to understand the power of your Zanpakuto in order to fight you?"
"Who knows." Shinji shrugged his shoulders. "But I understand yours, and how it works."
"And because of this, do you believe this puts you in an advantage?" Aizen asked.
"Not necessarily." Shinji answered. "But I'll tell you this much…" the blonde Vizard pointed his sword at the ruler of Hueco Mundo. "If you think your Zanpakuto is the only one that's based off of illusions… then you're sadly mistaken, Sosuke." he then made a sigh. "Collapse, Sakenade." he released the command to activate his Shikai. The shape of his sword changed as well. The pommel became a large ring that allowed Sakanade to rotate around Shinji's hand without him actually gripping any part of the Zanpakuto. The first few inches of the blade were covered by an extension of the cross-guard. Sakanade's blade was straight and slim, with the tip ending in a slanted razor-like edge instead of being tapered to a point. There were five holes along the sword's length.
"Your sword has a very interesting shape." Aizen commented.
"Looks nice, doesn't it? Too bad you can't take it." Shinji revealed a toothy grin, making a somewhat childish banter.
"Let's see…" Aizen looked around his surroundings. "I don't sense anything different. You implied that your sword is based off illusions as well, correct? Yet nothing is happening."
"What're ya talkin' about?" Shinji's grin grew wider. "It's already taken effect. Besides… don't ya smell something? It smells really good…" Aizen widened his eyes as he did indeed smell something, and quickly tried to hold his breath so that he wouldn't be affected. "Don't bother holding your breath. It's already too late. I want to welcome you, Sosuke…" to Aizen's point of view, everything about his surroundings was upside down, along with Shunsui's and Shinji's positions. "To the Inverted World. This is Sakanade's real power. It reverses the senses of your direction. Think of it like a puzzle game, changing how you move." Shinji made a small chuckle. "Although it's kinda funny, you probably never really played any video game at all…" he then proceeded to charge at Aizen.
'So everything is supposed to be in reverse?' Shunsui thought to himself, as from his point of view everything was still as normal before. 'This might just work into our advantage.'
"Well now, this is quite interesting…" Aizen grew a grin of his own. "Everything is reversed… up is down… and left is right." he commented before he turned around to face towards the reverse of where Shinji was supposed to strike towards. Shinji widened his eyes from this. "Did you really believe I wouldn't notice—" as their blades were supposed to clash, instead Aizen's blade phased through Shinji's, and his right arm got slashed, drawing out blood in doing so. Aizen widened his eyes in surprised by this, as the blood on his arm began to sustain his white clothing.
"I would say you didn't notice." Shinji spoke from behind Aizen. "Up and down, left and right, front and back are reversed. The way you turn and the way you attack are all reversed." the world began to rotate all over Aizen. "All those changes in direction and damage coming at you from every single angle possible? Let me ask you this: Can you really fight when everything is reversed in your head? All of this information must be driving you insane from even trying to figure this out. Whether you're a Soul Reaper, an Arrancar, or hell even a Human, the sense that is commonly used the most in battle is sight. Most of us fight based on visual information." He explained his ability. Normally revealing your abilities was a horrible idea, but with how convoluted the ability of Sakanade was of reversing all the senses you're so used to fighting, it made the explanation far more confusing to the opponent. It was convenient for Shinji if anything. "Once I employ Sakanade, it becomes practically impossible to fight with just sight alone, and thus you're left to react on your reflexes and instincts, and let me tell ya… that is very difficult to fight against. You have to think twice before every movement." Shinji snickered. "Even you have to admit that's challenging. The more conditions you're set in… the greater chances there are for you to fail!"
Shinji then charged at Aizen whilst he kept rotating from his enemy's view. Aizen swung his sword, to which he missed as the blonde Vizard used his Flash Step to get away. Shinji appeared right next to him, who seemed to be upside down, and Aizen swung his sword horizontally but he missed again as Shinji used Flash Step again. Aizen turned around and looked above to see Shunsui coming at him downwards. Aizen raised his sword as he swung diagonally, only for his blade to phase through Shunsui's as well, which in turn caused blood to spur from his right leg, also sustaining the lower clothing as well.
"It's too bad, Sosuke…" Aizen kneeled down as Shinji appeared behind him, with distance still being drawn between them. "Although I gotta say, despite the fact everything is reversed for you, I'm impressed that you managed to dodge most of our attacks like that." he said, as Shunsui appeared on the front of Aizen. "You really are something else… but unfortunately for you…" Shinji turned around and donned his Hollow Mask to deal the finishing blow, as he both and Shunsui flied towards Aizen to finish him off for good. "IT'S OVER SOSUKE!"
Both cuts have been made, but it did not come from them. Instead, the blows came from Aizen as he cut both of them down at the same time. Blood spurred from both Shinji and Shunsui. "Wha..." Shinji couldn't believe this.
"I must say... I've already grown quite bored of this." Aizen sighed as he was seen between both his opponents, with Shunsui already falling down on the ground. "I was hoping to play along with you a little longer, but your abilities are quite disappointing to say the least. I was hoping for much more than that." Aizen turned to face his former Captain. "Earlier you talked about how warriors battle with their sight, no? You're no exception to that rule either."
"The hell… are you talkin' about?" Shinji struggled to so much as stand, covering the back of his right shoulder with his other hand as he glared at his former Lieutenant. "The fuck do you mean by that?"
"Oh please." Aizen nearly rolled his eyes over this. "Don't act so surprised, Shinji. Your level of abilities comes nowhere close mine, which takes control of all 5 of your senses. Instead of beating me with this visual effect, it was you instead." Shinji widened his eyes in shock over this. "If I can control your senses even little bit, then it's all over for you. Your illusion is a mere far cry compared to my Kyoka Suigetsu. Even if you had used this when Captain Soi Fon attacked me, my Spiritual Pressure would have been more than enough to nullify whatever you attacked me with. So to put this in a way you can understand, figuring out your ability was like playing a game with a toddler." he used his Flash Step and proceeded to stab Shinji though his chest, making the Vizard cough up blood before Aizen pulled his sword back and let Shinji fall down to the ground. "You don't have to worry, I won't kill any of you. Your powers should still make you strong to stay conscious at least. I want you all to watch the outcome of this war, as you all lie on the ground, unable to do anything to prevent the inevitable."
Ichigo gulped as he saw that every Soul Reaper and Vizard alike have now fallen against Aizen's overwhelming might. He never thought that Aizen would be this powerful. Unohana, Nelliel, and Hachi were busy healing the wounded down below, and everybody else he could think of were down for the count. Now it was up to him. But even despite these overwhelming odds stacked against him… he managed to crush Grimmjow, he beated Ulquiorra, and rescued Orihime. Remembering the promise he made, and seeing how far he's come now, no way in hell was he just going to stop here. He was willing to stick with this until the very end, and he was making damn sure he would bring down Aizen.
'Alright…' Ichigo began to gather resolve. 'Let's do this thing!' he thought before he charged at Aizen's back.
Before he could get any closer, an enormous pillar of flame shot up from the ground between Ichigo and Aizen, making Ichigo back off immediately. Aizen looked behind him in keen interest to see Yamamoto emerging from the flames, holding his Zanpakuto as his Shikai became active. The two of them stared down at one another, as if waiting for either of them to make the first move.
And so it shall.
Ugh, fucking finally. Even with the summer break I have I still can't get to upload this fast enough. But hey, I hope this was at least worth reading for all the waiting. Aight so let's break some things down for some of the changes that were made compared to Canon.
Alright so starting with the part of Ichigo still not being able to break Aizen's barrier shield that protects his neck, so as I read the Manga version of this, Aizen did confirm that even if Canon Ichigo did Hollowfy when he broke through the Descorrer, he still wouldn't have been able to break the barrier he made since he pretty much tells Ichigo to actually use his Hollow Mask to "try again" which as we saw, did absolutely jackshit. Although in the Anime version the fight between Ichigo and Aizen was extended and uh… frankly I don't really like the extended scene, since in all honesty just really makes Ichigo look like a dumbass. Reason being is because he comes to these weird, irrational conclusions that if Aizen was using his Zanpakuto when he didn't even see his release, or if Aizen was scared of his Hollowfication… despite the fact he was being treated as fodder. Honestly the Anime version doesn't really make much sense
Although something I personally found amusing if when rewatching and reading the Manga scene of Aizen asking for what reason is Ichigo is even fighting him, and guessing that none of his friends, the thing I noticed is Aizen saying Ichigo's friends drag him down, basically saying that the power of friendship actually nerfs Ichigo, which in a way he's really not wrong, especially the later portions of the Bleach arcs, considering how Ichigo's biology actually works.
Although… while I was watching the Gotei vs Aizen fight... I caught something that really bothered me. It was the line where Komamura told Ichigo that they know the reason why he was sent here, and that was to fight Aizen because he hasn't seen Kyoka Suigetsu. The thing that really bothered me is that earlier Unohana herself was shocked that Ichigo hadn't seen Aizen's Shikai, and even wanted to make absolutely sure that he hadn't seen it. So if Unohana of all people didn't know about this… how in the hell did everybody else, including the Vizards act as if they knew the whole time. A friend of mine did discuss it might have been possible if she used the Tenteikura, but the problem is that this is never addressed or even implied how they know this.
I did also think about Nelliel joining with Ichigo to help him… but I kinda realized that she's way too weak at this point, and she would just get in the way. Oh and another thing that was kind of confusing was that none of the Vizards reacted to Tousen having Hollow powers… which is weird considering what happened to them, and this is still a Shounen series where characters act shocked practically all the time. Although this is only a nitpick and hardly affects the story at all. Oh and uh… yeah Starrk gets to live in this, surprisingly enough. Considering how the timing of the battles between Las Noches and Fake Karakura are different than in Canon, I did think if it would have been possible to let him live, since quite frankly it was really weird and a bit confusing how he even died by Shunsui, besides that he got cheap shotted. I did think about Starrk using his full power to take out the others… but I remembered that he's way too lazy to do something like this, and not really in his character unfortunately. So hopefully sparring him like this was not a mistake.
Oh and you remember from the last chapter from my notes about pointing out the Fake Karakura problem? Well apparently, it turns out that plot hole got answered in Volume 3 of CFYOW Light Novel, the one translated by Viz that my friend owns, and it was oddly similar before I even found out about this. The only difference between what I did and what the Novel was that I more or less showed how they did on-screen.
And speaking of the Light Novel, it also does reveal why Shinji does explain how his Shikai works to his enemies, which is the reason why I explained above. But the reason as for why his ability got countered a couple of times is that with Aizen he underestimated his intelligence, and against Bambietta he wasn't expecting an AOE attack coming at him which… Even if everything is reversed it wouldn't really matter if the AOE is big enough to neg that.
But yeah... I think that's about it for now honestly. See you guys until next time.