Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 120 - Is This All You've Got?
CLANG,
Like steel. That was Aizen's first thought, but even that fell short. He could feel it through the tip of his blade: what he had just pierced was not flesh and blood. It had been forged, hammered, tempered beyond measure. Straining his mind to its limit, Aizen could find no material in existence to describe what Ichigo's body was right now.
"Not just a Hollow's Hierro... but a Quincy's Blut as well..." The sensation traveled up through the blade as he murmured. "According to the records, Blut is divided into offensive and defensive—Blut Arterie and Blut Vene, one for attack, one for defense—and only one can be used at a time."
"Ichigo Kurosaki... you can already use both simultaneously."
"Yeah. Once you've truly stepped into the Transcendent realm and trained long enough, you can pull something like this off."
Ichigo brushed the sword from his chest with one hand and raised the black blade again.
"Have you already hit your limit? Can you not evolve any further?"
WHOOSH,
The instant the black blade came down, beneath the seemingly infinite radiance of the Hogyoku, Aizen's body finally shattered its shackles. He became a streak of light and vanished into the distance.
"Hah... hah..."
Cold sweat soaked him through. Aizen gulped air in great heaving breaths. In that single instant, death's shadow had closed over his heart. He didn't know whether it was his own instinct or the Hogyoku's warning, but it didn't matter. Even with the Hogyoku, if he hadn't moved in time, he would have died.
"Did you evolve a little, there between life and death?"
THUD,
This time, Aizen heard it, the sound of space being displaced. For the first time, he could actually perceive Ichigo's movement.
CLANG,
Blades crossed. Sparks scattered. Sword met sword in offense and defense, and the Ichigo standing across from him now, this was finally his full strength.
"On the whole... you're even a little stronger than I am right now."
One severe injury. One brush with death. Both had driven Aizen into continuous evolution. Now evenly matched, the two of them settled back into clean, unadorned exchanges, straightforward and relentless.
Again and again their blades crossed, each collision forcing the Hogyoku to push harder, driving Aizen forward one small increment at a time.
"Ichigo... Kurosaki!"
Impatience crept back into Aizen's chest. He could feel it clearly: the Hogyoku's power was fading. It seemed it could no longer push him to evolve again.
"Don't let the Hogyoku cloud your mind."
The black blade pressed Kyoka Suigetsu down. Those quiet words hit like a fist to the skull, and the haze in Aizen's eyes cleared instantly.
"You see—the moment you lose your reason, I can suppress you without effort."
Patient. Unhurried. Like a teacher who already knows the answer, Ichigo stepped back one pace, raised his right hand, and leveled the black blade forward.
"Squeeze it out, Aizen." His voice was slow and even. "Squeeze out what is yours, and squeeze out what is the Hogyoku's."
"That last trace of potential, push to the absolute limit of what you can do."
"Don't get too arrogant! Ichigo Kurosaki!"
As though answering its master's resolve, the Hogyoku blazed with the most blinding light it had ever produced, as if burning itself down to nothing.
"UWAAAAAAH!"
Just as Ichigo had done moments before, Aizen descended to the depths of his own soul. A white sea heaved and crashed, and invisible flames ignited across its surface. Aizen burned his very soul, offered it as the final fuel for his evolution.
BOOM!
A level that no one had reached since the world's creation was broken through at last. Aizen's spiritual pressure shattered its ceiling, then swiftly contracted inward. He had truly transcended the Transcendent, standing now at a height even Yhwach had not reached a thousand years ago.
CRACK,
A clean snapping sound rang out from within him. The Hogyoku shattered completely. It had reached its limit. More Soul King fragments would have changed nothing. It was an artificial creation, in the end, that it had carried Aizen this far was already a miracle.
"The Hogyoku... has completely fused with me."
His mind drifted for a moment, and the world looked somehow different. Faintly, Aizen sensed that his Bankai, the one he had believed lost to him forever, was stirring with something like new life.
"Is this... the true path of evolution?"
He looked no different from any ordinary man. Aizen studied his right hand where it gripped the Zanpakuto. His heart was perfectly still. The gaze he turned on Ichigo held none of the emotion it had carried before.
"Ichigo Kurosaki, I have arrived." Aizen said quietly. "At a level you have never touched."
"Do you regret it, pushing me here with your own hands?"
Unlike moments ago, Aizen could now perceive Ichigo's power with perfect clarity. It was still immense, enough to crush any Transcendent at the same tier, but Aizen had surpassed the Transcendent.
"You're getting ahead of yourself." Ichigo gave the black blade a small shake. "Do you actually think this is my full strength?"
"Show me. Let me see your power."
"I know you haven't used your Soul Reaper power yet." Aizen's tone was just as level. "But it won't change anything. Without reaching this level yourself, you can't understand what kind of force I now command."
"Simply adding Soul Reaper power on top of what you have is not enough to reach here."
"Ha... bold talk from someone who just got beaten like a dog."
"Hmph. That's all you can manage, isn't it."
WHOOSH,
Aizen became light. He crossed the gap in an instant and materialized directly in front of Ichigo, his sword already raised high.
SLASH!
Even with Hierro pushed to its absolute peak and Blut running at maximum efficiency, Aizen's blade cleaved through Ichigo's body without resistance. Blood came in an unstoppable torrent.
"Oh?" Aizen's smile was easy, unhurried. "At the last second, you stepped back with Blut Arterie."
"If you hadn't, you'd have been split in two right now, the same way I was moments ago."
SIZZLE,
White substance surged from the long wound, filled it rapidly, and sealed it shut. In an instant Ichigo was whole again, but the drain on his spiritual pressure was real, and his complexion had gone slightly pale.
"High-Speed Regeneration." Aizen gave a faint nod, every line of his bearing that of a man looking down from on high. "I'll ask again, do you regret it, Ichigo Kurosaki?"
"..."
"Nothing to say?"
He stepped forward. Spiritual pressure erupted from him in a terrifying wave. The Three Realms shuddered beneath it, and in certain parts of the World of the Living, the ground cracked open.
"Before your awakening, I had already drawn up a plan." Aizen spoke as he closed the distance. "Trigger your awakening at the right moment. Let you grow little by little. Use the special nature of your bloodline to advance rapidly to the Transcendent level."
"And then let me evolve."
"An awakening without warning. A power no one anticipated. It reversed everything between us. And instead, it was you who kept giving me the chance to evolve."
One black. One white. They drew close until almost no space remained between them. Their eyes met, and both were calm.
"...Why are you still so composed?!"
Staring at that tranquil face, something inexplicable stirred in Aizen's chest. He couldn't hold it back.
"..."
"Say something! Ichigo Kurosaki!"
The unease swelled. Aizen's hand shot out and closed around Ichigo's throat. His control was gone. He was shouting.
"Say something! Ichigo Kurosaki! Stop looking like you have everything under control!"
"...You..."
"Hm?"
Orange hair fell across one eye. The other was cold and hard, full of a pressure that needed no explanation.
"Is this all you've got?"
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