Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 55 - Use Bankai on Me—Yamamoto!

"What, what is this?!"

Eyes locked on Aizen hovering in the air, Ichigo ground out each word: "What did you do to me, Aizen!"

"You didn't think I made no preparations for you, did you?" Aizen said calmly. "Ever since I learned of your existence, I began preparing. It wasn't finished until I gave the order to capture Rukia Kuchiki."

"When did you..."

"Hmm?"

"When did you find out about me?" Something Ichigo had overlooked until now suddenly surfaced. "When did it start!"

"Before you were born, of course."

Ichigo froze.

"Oh? Does that exceed your expectations?" Aizen smiled, but his smile held not a trace of warmth. "You didn't actually think I only noticed you six years ago, did you?"

"You're a little too naive, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"What do you mean..."

"Do you know the source of the Hollow power inside you?" Aizen asked. "Do you know how your parents met?"

Ichigo said nothing.

"The Hollow that first attacked your mother was created by me, a Hollow forged from a Soul Reaper, black all over, named White." Aizen's voice settled into something almost nostalgic as he recounted that night more than a decade ago. "I released White into the World of the Living. Isshin Shiba sensed the disturbance and went there in pursuit."

"A great battle broke out. Because I ambushed Isshin Shiba, who was unable to use Bankai and was on the verge of defeat, and that was when your mother appeared. She destroyed White and saved Isshin Shiba."

"The Hollow power inside me... that was White..."

"Yes." Aizen nodded. "As an artificial Hollow, White possessed the ability to invade. Before dying, it chose to self-destruct and invade your mother, who was a Quincy."

"The specific handling afterward was Kisuke Urahara's work. I don't know the details. But the result was that White's power passed into your body through birth. The offspring of a Quincy and a Soul Reaper, with White's power layered on top, your birth was a miracle. I had every reason to watch you."

"Six years ago... my power awakened, and Soul Society never noticed. That was your doing."

"Of course. It took quite a bit of effort, actually. What I'm more curious about is why you—someone who had shown no sign of awakening—did awaken on that particular night six years ago." Aizen looked at the twin blades at Ichigo's sides. "Though the answer must be that the powers inside you came into conflict. The four bloodlines within you should be fundamentally incompatible, after all."

"But no matter. From the moment you awakened, I knew your power would eventually surpass anything I could imagine, and it has. Even without Bankai just now, you already stood at the pinnacle of Soul Reaper-kind. With Bankai, I without the Hogyoku would certainly be no match for you."

"So... what exactly did you do to me!"

"Simple. A spiritual pressure restrainer." Aizen turned the gemstone over in his hand. "I dispatched Hollows to continuously collect data on your spiritual pressure, then had the Hogyoku absorb that data and shape it into a restrainer, invisible to the naked eye, undetectable by spiritual sense."

"Then I sent Gin to wait for you at the west gate. Gin used Shinso to graze past you, and at that moment, the restrainer quietly attached itself to your body."

"So it had already begun from the moment Rukia arrived in Karakura Town..."

"That moment?" Aizen smiled, dark, unhurried. "I wanted to start collecting your spiritual pressure data from the instant you awakened six years ago. But Isshin Shiba, who had lost Soul Reaper power, somehow recovered it after your awakening. Every single thing I sent out was tracked down and destroyed, one by one. After you arrived in Seireitei, the way you dismantled those surveillance devices—intentionally or not, that was Isshin Shiba's teaching, wasn't it."

"Come to think of it, you also fell under Kyoka Suigetsu back then."

"Why act now, though..."

"Beyond that reason, it's more that I feared if I delayed any further, you'd exceed my projections entirely." Aizen closed his fingers around the Hogyoku. "What I want from you is this: after I fuse with the Hogyoku, you draw out a power that surpasses the limits of a Soul Reaper, and use it to help me, who will have likewise broken past those limits, go even further."

"But I realized your power was growing too quickly. If I waited until you were fully grown and your strength had fully matured, I feared no measure I could take would bind you. And if you were too weak, you wouldn't serve the purpose. Your current age is the ideal moment."

"I see. You even calculated my growth into it..."

"Of course." Aizen glanced across the assembled Captains. "Don't worry, the restrainer does have its limits."

"In terms of Rei'i, you were originally at the peak of First-Class Spiritual Rank. Right now you've just barely crossed the threshold into Second-Class. This will last no longer than three months, and three months is enough time for me to fuse the two Hogyoku and merge with them myself."

"You factored everything in..."

The assembled Captains had listened to every exchange in silence. Aizen's terrifying nature had already exceeded their imagination, the ease with which he had absorbed Ichigo's opening strike made his power plain enough. And everything being laid out now revealed something else entirely: the unfathomable depth of his scheming. He planned in units of decades. Thinking back further, the incident involving Kisuke Urahara a hundred years ago was almost certainly tied to Aizen as well. For over a hundred years, they had worked alongside someone like this.

What a terrifying thing that was.

"But..." Ichigo smiled. "For all you've thought through, did you think about this?"

"Think about what."

"That even now, I have the power to kill you."

"If we're talking before the restrainer, with the Captain-Commander at your side, even in Hueco Mundo, you two would have had a real chance." Aizen shook his head slowly. "But the you right now doesn't have that power."

"You're overestimating yourself." Ichigo's voice was flat. "And overestimating that so-called Hogyoku."

"Old man. Do me a favor, use your Bankai on me."

"...What?" Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, who had not spoken a word until now, blinked. "Use Bankai on you? My Bankai is..."

"Trust me, old man. There's nothing to lose for you in it, is there."

He stared at Ichigo for a long moment, unmoving. Then something settled behind his eyes, and his voice came slow and deliberate: "I'll humor you, brat."

Terrifying spiritual pressure surged from that aged frame. An endless sea of fire rose around Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, consuming the air itself, casting him as a demon dragged straight out of Hell.

The assembled Captains fell back, especially the two traitorous disciples, who scrambled to clear the blast radius. Aside from a certain ageless monster, they knew better than anyone what this old man was truly capable of.

"Bankai, Zanka no Tachi!"

➤ Next: Trinity!!