Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 118 - The Deepest Part of the Soul

"Disappointment..."

Even with only half a face left, Sosuke Aizen enunciated every word with perfect clarity. "I will make you despair."

"Ichigo Kurosaki!"

The Hogyoku kept pouring out power, blazing with a radiance that seemed to reach back to the very beginning of time. The severed body pulled itself back together, white substance surging endlessly from the torn edges. Moments later, Sosuke Aizen was alive again.

"Not bad." The corner of his mouth curled slowly upward. Ichigo asked, "Can you keep going?"

"Don't get too full of yourself... Ichigo Kurosaki!"

The blade shattered section by section. Sosuke Aizen had completely crossed a certain threshold, reaching a level consistent with Ichigo as he stood now.

"Oh... finally." Ichigo nodded. "Now you've truly reached the realm of a genuine Transcendent."

"But this is only where I was ten days ago when I used Bankai. It still isn't enough, Aizen."

Each evolution had been led first by a surge in spiritual pressure, which then drove the body's evolution along with it. At this moment, Sosuke Aizen had risen, in every single respect, to stand on the same level as Ichigo.

"You mean your true power still surpasses even this realm?"

His voice dropped. Sosuke Aizen's face reverted to something more human, and the skeletal structure behind him vanished.

"Ha. Want to find out?" The corner of Ichigo's mouth stretched behind his mask. "Try to beat me as I am right now."

"Then you'll know."

"...I will."

A flash of light, and a blade appeared in Sosuke Aizen's hand, identical to Kyoka Suigetsu. He had already merged with his Zanpakuto completely.

SLASH.

His body became light. He crossed the distance at the speed of light itself, sword already swinging.

CLANG!

This collision was a genuine clash of equals. The two exchanged attacks without end. The terrain held this time, but every swing of their blades warped the space around them.

Even the view from the heavens above had already been lost.

[To think they possess this kind of power... Sosuke Aizen... Ichigo Kurosaki... they have even reached the same realm as Yhwach.]

"I acknowledge it."

A blade grazed past a lock of hair. Aizen's expression shifted from ferocity to calm. He was continuously growing accustomed to his current power, and continuously coming to understand the power of the man across from him.

"You fused with the Hogyoku. Yes, you are very strong."

Ichigo tilted his head slightly, just enough to let Aizen's slash pass. The tip of the blade left a mark across his mask. His expression didn't change. In fact, amid this terrifying exchange of blades, he looked utterly at ease.

"But still not strong enough."

The blades stopped. The two stood locked in a standoff. Ichigo looked at Sosuke Aizen, his face beneath the mask perfectly calm.

"You're not speaking. Has the Hogyoku reached its limit?"

A long silence gave its answer. Aizen's face twitched. Beneath that composed exterior, emotions churned without end.

"Then let me give you a hand."

"?!"

Ichigo's left hand snapped together and drove forward. The sudden thrust made Aizen's pupils contract. Aizen slammed his feet hard against the ground and launched backward, several hundred meters in an instant.

"Don't be so on guard."

Ichigo didn't let up. He activated his footwork and appeared behind Aizen in the same breath. One foot came down onto Aizen's shadow.

"This...?!"

The moment it was stepped on, Aizen felt his shadow, that part of him that had never warranted a second thought, as though life itself had been breathed into it, thrumming with an eerie, uncanny energy.

CRACK!

A surge of powerful spiritual pressure invaded upward through the shadow. Aizen's pupils snapped tight. His body seized. Control over his own limbs, gone.

"The progenitor of the quincy had deep knowledge of shadows. Passed down through the bloodline, I've also mastered quite a bit of power over shadows. This is only one piece of it."

"What are you... trying to do..."

Like a fish on a chopping board. Aizen felt himself entirely at another's mercy, without a shred of ability to resist. And in that moment he understood, even with the Hogyoku, he could not close the gap between himself and Ichigo's realm.

After reaching his current level, the Hogyoku had gone silent. The power of evolution was spent. Aizen understood now how laughable his earlier boasts had been.

Having personally reached this realm and seen through Ichigo Kurosaki's power firsthand, it was strong enough that even the current Sosuke Aizen had lost all desire to fight.

If he took a severe blow right now, the seal Kisuke Urahara had laid beforehand would likely have already activated. After truly entering the Transcendent's realm, Aizen had detected the seal's presence.

But in truth, there was no need for any seal at all. Through his own will alone, Aizen had already been ready to abandon the fight against Ichigo?!

Drip,

"What are you... doing..."

Blood dripped from his chest. Ichigo's left hand had plunged deep into Aizen's body and closed around that incomparably rare treasure.

The Hogyoku.

"I have already merged with the Hogyoku completely. Even if you obtain it, it is useless to you." Aizen said, his voice cool. "And besides—do you even need the Hogyoku's power?"

"I genuinely don't need it." Ichigo smiled slightly. "But you need it quite a bit, don't you."

"...What do you mean."

"Exactly what it sounds like."

He waved his left hand and the mask fell away, leaving only a single horn on his forehead and a black marking over his left eye. After this battle, Ichigo had already learned to suppress the outward signs of Hollowfication to their absolute minimum.

"Let me see, then—with the power of the Soul King... just how far can the Hogyoku go?"

He closed both eyes and descended into the deepest part of his inner world. Not the familiar landscape of towering skyscrapers, something deeper. The most fundamental root of the soul.

Where is it...

His consciousness drifted through the root of the soul. First it passed through a vast expanse of blue, the portion belonging to his human self. Ten days ago, that place had been no larger than a pool. Now it stretched like a boundless sea.

Before long, his consciousness arrived at a place resembling a golden ocean. His Quincy power, vast and limitless in equal measure.

Blue wrapped around a portion of the gold, the former carrying the latter within it.

Further ahead was red, the place where his Soul Reaper power resided. Beside it was black, a black that represented the Hollow.

Black and red intertwined. The Hollow and the Soul Reaper fused with each other yet remained distinct, which on the outside manifested as a single, pure, unbroken black.

These four colors of the soul were the root source of Ichigo's power. Each one a different force. Each one a different bloodline.

For most people, the root of the soul held only a single color, the symbol of one's most fundamental origin. Its size varied with the individual. At its greatest, it could be like Ichigo's, vast as a limitless sea, pressing against the extreme ceiling of what one's kind could become. At its smallest, it might be no more than a water bottle. A bucket.

At last, passing through all four colors, Ichigo reached the endpoint.

A place of utter emptiness.

For most people, the root of the soul beyond those fundamental colors was largely like this, empty. As an individual grew stronger, the empty expanse shrank.

Using Ichigo as the example: his root of the soul was divided into five portions. Four were filled to the brim. One was nearly empty.

Found it!

After searching through that emptiness for a long while, a green radiance finally appeared before his eyes. He seized it without hesitation, and his consciousness snapped back into his body.

"Done."

A long while had passed inside his consciousness. In the outside world, only a single instant had gone by. A faint smile rested at the corner of Ichigo's mouth.

"Catch it properly, Aizen."

➤ Next: The Hogyoku Evolves Once More