Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 122 - The Scales of Balance

The black flames vanished. The Soul King's power within Aizen, nearly snuffed out entirely, rekindled from dying embers and rapidly expanded, restoring itself to its proper state in the blink of an eye.

White substance surged forth, repairing Aizen's body. The right side of the torso, burned away completely, regrew under the endless flow of that white matter and was soon restored to its original form.

"...Why, Ichigo Kurosaki."

Aizen stared at the right hand growing back into place, bewilderment filling every corner of the mind behind those calm eyes. Just moments ago, complete annihilation had been within reach, the kind where not even Hell would have accepted what remained.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Sensing the unceasing vitality flooding back through the body, Aizen said slowly, "You were only a moment away."

"I never thought you were the type for that kind of soft-hearted mercy."

Ichigo's face was calm, no killing intent, but no compassion either. He said nothing. Just silence.

"...It seems you've come to understand something deeper." Aizen's brow furrowed. "The reason that would make you stay your hand—there seems to be only one."

"And that is: killing me would affect the Three Realms."

"What did you see, Ichigo Kurosaki?"

"How to put it." Ichigo spoke. "Over tens of millions of years, without anyone noticing, the scales of balance had already been tilting."

"The death of a Transcendent would, without a doubt, shatter what is already an unbalanced state—completely."

"So you do want to become the next Soul King." Aizen couldn't help the mockery that crept into the voice. "You worry far too much, don't you, Ichigo Kurosaki."

"Unless the Soul King is reborn, with the power you possess—what else is there to be concerned about."

"You want to protect them, to protect these Three Realms." Aizen rose to both feet, the two of them facing each other. "Impossible, Ichigo Kurosaki. That is something even the Soul King never managed."

"Do you really think you can do it?! Hm?!"

"Who knows?" Ichigo turned away and started walking in the direction of Karakura Town. "I don't know how to go about it. I don't know what I should be doing."

"But I will do it. I'll find a way."

"You are far too arrogant! Ichigo Kurosaki! You think you alone can protect everything?! You dare?!"

The surging emotion drove the spiritual pressure. A terrifying wave of spiritual pressure erupted from within Aizen, but black flames ignited across the body, like a seal, and not a trace of that spiritual pressure leaked out.

"I truly don't know what I can accomplish." Ichigo didn't look back, voice unhurried. "But I know what I need to do."

"Such as making sure you can't exert even a trace of your power."

"You bastard! What do you take me for?!"

"You are nothing more than a criminal, Sosuke Aizen." Ichigo glanced back, eyes completely calm. "In others' eyes, you are a force that has surpassed even Transcendents. But in my eyes, you are simply a criminal."

"Go reflect on yourself in prison. And while you're at it, feel remorse. Remorse for creating the chain of accidents that brought me into existence."

The great battle, the only one of its kind in tens of millions of years, finally drew to a close with Aizen's defeat. Neither the Soul Reapers nor those lurking in the shadows knew what had actually transpired between the two. Every means of observation had proved useless.

Not even the eye above the heavens had witnessed the battle in its entirety.

Once the Soul Reapers confirmed Aizen's condition, they confined the former captain to the deepest level of the Seireitei prison, Muken. The sentence was pending, to be determined once a new Central 46 was assembled and a ruling handed down.

The Zanpakuto Rebellion had lasted only a few hours, but the destruction it left across Seireitei was considerable. Battlefields of every size were scattered throughout the whole of Seireitei, and countless buildings had been reduced to rubble.

After the battle, some were glad and some were sorrowful. Most were sorrowful. Very few were glad.

There was a certain bloodthirsty beast who had shattered many a Zanpakuto and squared off against several captain-level Zanpakuto simultaneously, the power growth was visible to the naked eye.

Then there was a certain scientist who had nearly been split in two. Gravely injured, and yet quite pleased; through this rebellion, a wealth of valuable intelligence had been collected.

More of the captains came away feeling the sharp edge of their own inadequacy, especially a certain white-haired young man who had been instantly put down by the Bankai of his own Zanpakuto. The other captains might not be able to overcome their own Bankai either, but none of them had been struck down in a single instant. That fact filled the genius with overwhelming shame and fury.

In the aftermath, the Soul Reapers started from scratch and retrained in all four disciplines, Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hoho, and Kido. If a person's baseline power was solid enough, even a Zanpakuto in Bankai could be met in battle, as the captains of First-Class Spiritual Rank had demonstrated.

As for Ichigo Kurosaki, the hero who had defended Seireitei, and indeed the Three Realms themselves, certain parties moved to offer noble titles, authority, and other such rewards as both tribute and enticement. All were refused.

That left certain nobles deeply uneasy. Allowing someone capable of destroying Seireitei, or even the Three Realms, to roam free was, in their eyes, far too dangerous. After all, they were well aware that some things could not bear the light of day.

A parade of demons walks the night, and among them are those who rejoice more than the demons themselves.

On another front, Ichigo was in no hurry to return to the World of the Living after the battle. First, he accompanied his family to pay a visit to the Shiba Clan.

Once again, Ichigo did not get to meet that member of the Shiba Clan who was older in age yet recognized by Kukaku Shiba as a cousin, Ganju Shiba. Word was that Ganju Shiba was at a critical point in training.

Perhaps lacking in strength, but the men of the Shiba Clan were upright people who stood tall. Even after losing their noble standing, they still regarded the protection of the Three Realms as their own responsibility.

After visiting the blood relatives, Ichigo headed to Seireitei. The moment he arrived, an invitation was waiting, to attend another so-called captains' meeting.

Ichigo declined. No particular reason given. There was simply no desire right now to involve himself in the internal affairs of Soul Reapers. When all was said and done, Ichigo was a human. The world of the dead was not something the living should be managing.

Unless the Soul Reapers themselves could no longer keep things under control.

Ichigo met up with Rukia and Renji and chatted for a while, but he could tell both of them were distracted, each carrying something heavy, something unspoken.

He wanted to ask, wanted to help them sort through it. But the moment his mouth opened, he swallowed the words back down.

The years those two had lived through were many times longer than his own. Whatever was weighing on them both so heavily, someone with great power but otherwise unremarkable in every other way certainly couldn't resolve it.

In that moment, Ichigo came to a genuine understanding of what it meant that power cannot solve everything.

The Kurosaki family stayed with the Shiba Clan for several days. The two young girls played in the Rukongai for days on end, visited Seireitei more than a few times, and satisfied their curiosity about the world of the afterlife. Then they made ready to go home.

It was still the school season. Had Karakura Town not been transported wholesale into Soul Society, leaving every human inside comatose, triggering tremendous social panic, forcing all the schools to close for days, they likely would have had to return to school the very day it all ended.

And so the war Aizen had ignited drew to a close. On the surface, everything seemed finished.

But in the dark corners that remained hidden, shadowed hands were already reaching out toward the Three Realms as they edged toward peace.

➤ Next: Undercurrents Beneath the Peace