Bleach: Awakened — Chapter 123 - Undercurrents Beneath the Peace

"The great criminal! Sosuke Aizen!"

Inside Central 46, newly appointed judges and elders had gathered in full to deliver a verdict against the criminal of a year and a half ago, Sosuke Aizen.

"Defection and collusion with Hueco Mundo!"

"Unauthorized infiltration of the Great Spirit Library!"

"Murder of the previous Central 46!"

"Intent to overthrow the rule of the Soul King!"

"Endangering the Three Realms!"

"Punishment compounded for multiple crimes!" The presiding judge delivered the final verdict. "Confinement in Muken! Sentence: twenty thousand years!"

"Heh."

Bound to a chair, Aizen smiled with contempt. The so-called Central 46, to his eyes, nothing but a pen of swine.

"Ignorant fools."

"Insulting Central 46! Add five thousand years!" someone shouted.

"And to think Ichigo Kurosaki protected people like you." The meaning behind Aizen's words was impossible to read. "Fellow prisoner—you must see it quite clearly too. What exactly the so-called nobility is."

"And what exactly Soul Reapers are."

"What are you babbling about?!" one of the sages cried. "Take the criminal away at once!"

The captains leaped in one after another, among them several faces from a century ago. Even bound to the specially fitted chair, even with his spiritual pressure suppressed by Ichigo's power, not one captain relaxed their vigilance toward Aizen in the slightest.

"So you've returned to Soul Society, Shinji Hirako." Aizen looked at the captain who had once been his own and let the mockery into his voice. "You simply couldn't let it go, could you. That identity of Soul Reaper."

"Ha, don't trouble yourself over me." Shinji curled a corner of the mouth. "What identity I choose is my own business, isn't it?"

"Heh. You too—an ignorant person who never saw through it." Aizen shook his head. "Though still better than certain people who willingly chose to fall."

"Go ahead and guard this decaying Seireitei of yours, and wait for someone else to come save you."

"Silence, criminal." Captain-Commander Yamamoto struck the floor with his cane. "None of your words will sway our minds. We who bear the burden of protecting this court have long since taken all manner of sin upon our own shoulders."

"And we will protect this hard-won peace."

"Peace, is it... heh." Aizen's eyes filled with mockery. "And if Ichigo Kurosaki wished to shatter this peace, what exactly would you do then?"

"Would you join forces with the Quincy—or even with me?"

"..."

"Heh. As expected." Aizen said it leisurely, like a man with nowhere better to be. "The so-called balance is measured by you, isn't it."

"Whether this balance is truly balance at all, who could ever see through it, the so-called balance."

"It's almost time."

Deep in a dark corner of Seireitei, a man dressed in noble garb stroked the cultivation vessel before him, face awash with rapturous indulgence.

"Soon you'll be able to come into this world."

Dark green hair rested against the glass wall. Inside the vessel was a boy with a head of orange hair and dark skin, looking to be around ten years old.

"Before the progenitor of the Quincy, Yhwach, comes into this world, you will take the place of that human pig and become the true Soul King."

From the corner, a gloomy figure with two-toned hair stepped out. With that arrival, more light filled the room.

More cultivation vessels stood throughout the space, men and women, all manner of types, and every face among them was well-known throughout Seireitei.

"And your original."

The noble's hand suddenly clenched. A strange smile crept to the corner of the mouth, the face awash with utter madness.

"Kill him, kill that human, and prove that you are the one most worthy of becoming king!"

World of the Living. Karakura Town.

"Karin, Yuzu, let's go."

At the Kurosaki household, Ichigo finished breakfast and called out to his two younger sisters, who had just entered middle school. Karakura Middle School and Karakura High shared the same route, and their start times were the same.

"Yeah, yeah! Coming!"

Black hair tied in a ponytail, Karin Kurosaki had a slice of bread hanging from the mouth, looking every bit like someone who'd just rolled out of bed, the spitting image of how Ichigo used to be.

"Wait for me, Ichigo!"

With short brownish-yellow hair, Yuzu Kurosaki untied the apron from around the waist. Always fond of doing housework, Yuzu had gotten up early to make this first breakfast since starting middle school.

"Too slow, Yuzu!" Karin put on shoes and walked to Ichigo's side. "Ichigo and I are heading out."

"Geez, Karin!" Yuzu grabbed the school bag in a hurry and came trotting over. "Wait for me!"

"No rush, take it easy." Ichigo smiled gently. "There's still plenty of time before school starts."

"Exactly!"

The atmosphere among the Kurosaki siblings was as warm as ever, harmonious and loving as always. The two adults of the household, though? At the suggestion of a certain old-timer, they'd gone off to enjoy their own little world together. They were supposed to have returned last night, but for some unknown reason the trains had stopped running, so tonight it would be.

"Yo! Ichigo!"

At the gate of Karakura High School, a familiar voice rang out from behind. Keigo Asano called out a greeting.

"How was your break!" Keigo casually slung an arm around Ichigo's shoulder. "Did you head over to Soul Society to hang out with Rukia?"

"Went once. They were still in the middle of training." Ichigo shook the arm off without making a fuss. "What, you want to go have a look yourself?"

"I could send you off early, you know."

"If it's the kind where I can't come back, allow me to decline." Keigo crossed both arms. "I'm planning to live a good long life."

"Come to think of it, Ichigo, someone like me, if I just live out my natural life and end up in Soul Society at a hundred or so, what would I look like? Would I look like an old man?"

"I actually happen to know the answer to that." Ichigo kept walking. "For someone with high spiritual power like you, the soul after death takes on the appearance it held when that spiritual power was at its peak."

"Generally speaking, young adult or middle-aged. Though it varies by individual."

"I see. Then I'll just wait until I'm a hundred and experience a whole other life."

"Idiots don't get sick." Mizuiro Kojima had appeared at their side at some point, holding a small notebook. "So idiots tend to live a long time too."

"True enough... wait, Mizuiro, who exactly are you calling an idiot?!"

"No one." Mizuiro closed the notebook. "How was your break, Ichigo?"

"Not bad. Nothing much changed overall." Ichigo thought about it for a moment. "So peaceful it's starting to feel a little strange, honestly."

"...You really are a violent maniac, Ichigo." Keigo's mouth twitched. "Peace isn't good enough for you? All you ever think about is fighting, you meathead."

"...Say that again and I'll deck you."

"Yes sir! Ichigo sir! Nothing more from me!"

"Honestly." Ichigo rolled his eyes, brushed off his friend's antics, and let a slight frown settle on his face. "Peace is obviously a good thing. But some kinds of peace are nothing more than surface-level."

"Something I can't quite name keeps feeling like it's stirring beneath the current."

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