Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 113 - Kyojitsu
"Soul King Fragment?!"
Aizen raised his left hand and called out to the Hogyoku in his mind. Nothing answered.
"It's no use, Captain Aizen." Gin Ichimaru turned the priceless treasure over in his fingers. "The moment Kamishini no Yari's poison entered your body, a small Soul King Fragment went in alongside it."
"It has one purpose, to sever your connection to the Hogyoku. Because with the Hogyoku, no wound, however fatal, could ever kill you."
"Gin...!"
"You see, to get that fragment inside you, I used Kamishini no Yari one extra time beforehand, deliberately. Left a piece of the blade missing."
He gave the sword a small shake. Look closely, and you could see two tiny notches along the edge.
"Go regret it in Hell." Gin Ichimaru turned and walked away. "Without Kyoka Suigetsu."
"Gin...!"
The roar faded. Aizen's voice dropped lower and lower as his catastrophic wounds drained his life force at a terrifying rate. With the Hogyoku, injuries like these would have meant nothing. Without it, they were enough to kill him.
I did it. Rangiku.
His long, narrow eyes opened slowly. Pale blue, filled with warmth. Gin Ichimaru walked toward the unconscious golden-haired woman, his steps steady and unhurried.
I've finally taken back what was yours.
A faint smile rested at the corner of his mouth. A hundred years of hiding. A hundred years of waiting. And now, at last, it was done. The killing intent he had suppressed for a century released in a single breath, a poison corrosive enough to eat through bone.
"Mm..."
An unconscious groan. Rangiku Matsumoto slowly opened her eyes, mind still caught on the moment Gin had attacked without warning.
You're awake. You've grown stronger too, Rangiku.
The thought was silent. His steps were slow, very slow, each one releasing something that had been buried for a hundred years.
It was close, but everything went smoothly. It's all finally over?!
"Bankai—"
A low voice. From behind him.
Gin Ichimaru's pupils snapped shut. He spun around, disbelief written across his face, pale blue eyes reflecting the image of Aizen, still dying, still standing.
CRACK,
An inexplicable sound of something breaking. Strange fracture lines spread across Aizen's body, threading outward until even the space around him was splitting apart.
"Kyojitsu."
CRACK!
Like a mirror shattering, Aizen, and the very space he occupied, broke apart completely.
"I don't think I ever told you about my Bankai's ability, did I, Gin."
"?!"
That gentle voice. The one he had listened to for over a hundred years. Right beside his ear.
Gin Ichimaru threw himself sideways, moving to flee.
"I must say—you did very well, Gin."
"?!"
SLASH,
Aizen was in front of him. Instant. Effortless. The blade came down, and the arm holding the Hogyoku was gone.
"Among all the Soul Reapers, even the Captain-Commander, no one could have come so close to killing me while I was still evolving."
Aizen reclaimed the Hogyoku and smiled, pressing it back against his chest.
"I had originally planned to use this technique against Ichigo Kurosaki."
An unknown white substance surged up and over him, sealing across his entire body like a suit of armor. Evolution, continuing.
"Because I feared he would throw everything aside and use that terrifying power from ten days ago. Even at my second stage, a single blow from him would likely have killed me."
CRACK,
A hairline fracture split the white armor. The next instant, it broke open, and underneath, a pair of Hollow eyes stared out.
"But you forced it out of me ahead of time." Aizen's smile didn't waver. "Truly remarkable, Gin. Though it also worked out rather well, thanks to you, I've evolved once again."
Gin said nothing. He felt like a fish pinned to a cutting board, held completely still under Aizen's weight, one wrong move and he would be killed.
"My Bankai is actually quite simple." Aizen's voice was almost gentle. "The transformation between the illusory and the real. I can take a phantom idea from my mind and make it reality. And I can take something real and reduce it to illusion."
"...I understand now." A weak voice. Kisuke Urahara pressed a hand to his chest and forced the words out through the pain. "Was the Hogyoku's very existence one of your phantom ideas?!"
"Am I also part of your Bankai?!"
"At first, I thought my Bankai had failed, after all, the phantom idea I held was to surpass the limits of a Soul Reaper." Aizen's tone was leisurely, unhurried. "Then one day I created the Hogyoku, and I thought Hollowfication was the technique that would break those limits. Later, once I understood the Hogyoku's true nature, I finally realized, because Transcendence is involved, my Bankai could only work this way. Step by step, moving toward that phantom idea. One mistake anywhere along the way, and everything would have come to nothing."
"..."
"No need for silence, Kisuke Urahara. Even without you, someone else would have created the Hogyoku. You are not the only brilliant person in the world."
Aizen walked to where Gin lay and raised his blade. Cold light ran along the edge.
"Whether turning illusion into reality, or reality into illusion, each can only be used once." His eyes narrowed. Boundless killing intent bled through. "You were entirely right to sever my connection to the Hogyoku, Gin. That was the only way you could have killed me."
"But it is precisely because of that, my ability to turn the real into illusion could take effect. All I needed to do was reduce the fact of my poisoning to illusion."
SLASH,
The blade fell without mercy. Warm blood soaked into the ground. Gin Ichimaru crumpled.
"Oh?" A trace of mild surprise. "You actually stepped back at the last moment. When did you learn that from Tosen?"
"Hgh... hgh..."
Ragged, labored breathing. The wound ran from his left chest all the way to his right abdomen, deep, nearly fatal. Without that single step back, Gin Ichimaru would already be dead. Even with it, the step had bought him only a little more time.
"Let me finish you properly. Consider it recognition—you forced out my Bankai."
The blade tip found Gin Ichimaru's heart. Aizen drove it down, intending to end the life of this subordinate of a hundred years,
WHOOSH!
A blue-golden flame erupted from the Hogyoku at his chest. Aizen's pupils shrank. His expression broke. He threw himself backward without a second thought, putting distance between himself and whatever was happening.
Fwoosh,
The flame died as quickly as it had come, as though it had only burned some abstract concept. The Hogyoku was unharmed. Aizen was unharmed.
"That spiritual pressure... is it you, Ichigo Kurosaki."
His brow pulled tight. In that single instant, the instant the flame rose, a lethal shadow had crashed over his heart. Even with the Hogyoku, it had been exactly that.
"You've grown stronger too..."
He murmured it quietly. Then Aizen opened the Senkaimon, paid no attention to Gin Ichimaru or anyone else, and walked through.
"Gin!"
A few seconds after confirming Aizen was gone, Gin heard Rangiku's cry. A familiar face swam into the blurring vision. The corner of his mouth curved slowly upward.
The last face I see is yours. That's...
...more than enough.
The words echoed through his mind as Gin Ichimaru lost consciousness. Faintly, beyond Rangiku's voice, he could hear someone else calling out too, Hachigen.
➤ Next: Welcome to My Karakura Town