Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 293 - Old Acquaintances

"So you've come, Kisuke Urahara."

Aizen turned, as if he'd been waiting, to face the disheveled man who had just landed a surprise blow.

"It's been a while, Aizen." Urahara pressed down the brim of his hat.

"Indeed. A hundred years, hasn't it." Aizen's tone carried a mocking edge.

"We haven't seen each other in some time. Your attire has become quite unusual." Urahara's gaze moved over the blue cross-shaped markings on Aizen's chest and the Hōgyoku embedded at his midsection. "It seems you've already merged with the Hōgyoku."

"It isn't a merger. The more accurate way to put it is that the Hōgyoku — the one you could never control — has finally submitted to me." Aizen glanced down at the Hōgyoku. "Regrettably, the true evolution has not yet begun. The fact that I can still use Bankai is proof enough of that. Isn't your arrival also a rather well-timed choice of moment?"

"Remodeling a soul takes time. That will be the period when you are at your most vulnerable. And that period is right now."

"So what? There's no point saying any of this. Because,"

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Aizen had already Shunpo'd forward, his speed so great that Urahara had no time to evade.

Under his Bankai, Aizen manipulated the space beneath his feet as he moved. This Shunpo was faster than any he had used before, fast enough to rival even Wayne's instantaneous movement. And it was precisely that speed that let Aizen thrust his blade forward in an instant, piercing directly through Urahara's heart.

"This ends here."

With one clean thrust landed, Aizen followed through, pushing the blade three inches deeper.

Shock flickered in Urahara's eyes. His body went limp and began to fall. But before he hit the ground, the loose folds of his kimono suddenly swelled, inflating in a single breath into an enormous balloon, and then burst open right in front of Aizen.

"...Sajo Sabaku!"

The real Urahara appeared directly behind Aizen. Utsusemi combined with a portable Gigai. He had successfully forced Aizen to lower his guard.

With that one strike landed, Urahara flew back. He gave Aizen no time to speak or use his Bankai to destroy the Kidō. Incantations spilled from his mouth one after another.

"Bakudo number sixty-three, Sajo Sabaku." Five golden chains instantly coiled around Aizen.

"Bakudo number seventy-nine, Kuyō Shibari." Nine black-violet binding spirit orbs detonated outward with Aizen at their center.

Three Bakudo, all to lay the groundwork for what Urahara intended to follow with.

"The shore of a thousand hands, the revered hands that cannot reach the darkness, the heavenly archer whose light cannot be reflected, the path where radiance falls and scatters, the wind that fans the kindling spark. Gather without straying, heed where I point. Light bullets, eight bodies, nine cords, heavenly law, swift treasure, great wheel, the gray cannon tower. Nock the bow toward the far horizon, scatter purely and away."

"Do you think I will give you time to finish the full incantation? For a Kidō of this level."

Restrained by three Bakudo, Aizen's eyes narrowed slightly. The force of Fūsui Shibaku had already begun acting on both the Bakudo binding him and on Urahara himself.

The chains wrapped around Aizen were visibly crumbling, unraveling. On Urahara's body, wound after wound appeared in a grim and unnatural manner. Aizen tore through space once more, preparing to deal a devastating blow.

HMM!

In an instant, a curtain of faint indigo light enveloped Urahara. The space Aizen had been controlling was immediately snuffed out. Wayne's space laws, generating a spatial barrier around Urahara's body, temporarily shielding him from being torn apart by Aizen's Bankai. At the same time, a phantasmal silver Reiatsu appeared at those wounds and sealed them in a brief window, allowing Urahara to retain enough strength and focus to fire off the Kidō.

"Thanks, Wayne." Urahara let out a slow breath. He gathered together the Kidō that had nearly scattered from the damage he'd taken. "Hado number ninety-one, Senjū Kōten Taihō!"

Ten light cannons radiating pink Reiatsu gathered around Urahara and, under his direction, launched themselves directly at Aizen.

"A Kidō of this level, do you truly think I,"

"Then what about me added on top of it!"

From behind Aizen, a voice thundered out. Before anyone could make out who it was, a blue crescent of energy had already come slashing down at him.

"You are, Isshin Shiba?!" Aizen looked up at the broad, powerful figure that had leaped high into the air, his brow furrowing. What answered him was an immense blue crescent wave.

"Getsuga Tenshō!"

BOOM!

The ninety-first Hado and the Getsuga Tenshō struck Aizen simultaneously. A pink Reiatsu and a vivid blue Reiatsu both blazed to life in the air at once. The explosion sent a violent shockwave tearing outward, obscuring Aizen's condition from view.

But very quickly, those present could sense it, the smoke and haze dissipated completely. Aizen's figure was nowhere to be seen. Yet every person on the field clearly felt it: Aizen's Bankai had vanished. The atmosphere, space, and elements that had all been under his control returned to normal.

"Phew. It's over." Urahara let out a quiet sigh, then turned to face Isshin Kurosaki, who had just arrived. "Mr. Isshin, thank you for your assis, "

"What do you mean, over?"

Aizen's voice appeared abruptly right behind Urahara.

"What?!" Urahara spun around immediately. What met him was a hand-blade strike aimed squarely at his midsection, a blow with enough force to wound.

"Who gave you the idea that I would disappear from a single attack like that."

The Aizen standing there now was no longer the same as before. White armor-like material had crept across his entire body, seemingly melded seamlessly with his long white coat. It was beginning to creep upward, moving to envelop his head.

There was not a single trace of burn or injury anywhere on him. He looked like someone who had just stepped onto the battlefield, his Reiatsu brimming over.

"How is that possible?!" Isshin Shiba was utterly stunned. The attack just now was something not even the Captain-Commander could take without injury. How had Aizen managed it?

"Surprised?" Aizen raised his wrist and regarded his new appearance. "Are you wondering why I stand here without a scratch, yet my Bankai has disappeared?" He looked down at the gathered figures below with an expression that was equal parts mockery and contempt.

"My soul is in the process of being restructured by the Hōgyoku. During that time, I am unable to stabilize Kyōka Suigetsu's Bankai. That said, I must also thank you for that last attack. Although Kyōka Suigetsu's Bankai was forcibly terminated, I can already feel it: my body, now that the Hōgyoku has been tamed, has already begun to far surpass every ability I once possessed in Soul Society, abilities that were already unrivaled. And your Hado number ninety, just now, is no longer something I need to bother dodging."

"Have you abandoned the power of a Soul Reaper?" The badly wounded Urahara used Shunpo to fall back, putting distance between himself and Aizen, and came to stand alongside Isshin Shiba and the others.

"It is not abandonment. It is ascending to a higher level built upon that foundation."

"Tch." Wayne clicked his tongue. "You've turned yourself into something that's neither human nor Hollow, and you want to talk about advancing? Even I, a Hollow, look down on you for it."

"Everything is ugly in the midst of its evolution. Insects, living things, it is the same. Even when Hollow beasts in the Gillian stage evolve toward higher-level Adjuchas, they must first form a cocoon, weak and fragile."

"I don't like that comparison." Wayne gave a cold snort. "You don't even have the right to speak about advancement in front of me."

"Surpassing the limits of oneself is not something I consider shameful." Aizen clearly had no interest in trading verbal blows with Wayne. "Fitting, actually, I need to test my current power. Come at me all at once."

"Letting your guard down will get you killed, you know." Urahara said, treating his own wounds as he spoke.

"Letting my guard down? You mean that inconsequential attack from just now?"

"No. I mean the fact that I've touched you twice since that attack."

"Hmm?!"

Before Aizen could react, two golden rings of Reiatsu blazed suddenly to life at his wrists. His Reiatsu was sealed shut in an instant.

"It's a seal." Urahara had already finished healing his own injuries. "I've blocked the Reiatsu discharge points located at each wrist, points that every Soul Reaper possesses. And you will be incinerated from within by your own Reiatsu."

As Urahara spoke, the two seals at Aizen's wrists grew brighter and brighter. Before Aizen could attempt to reassert control, the two golden rings connected from top to bottom, binding him completely within them. The eruption of Reiatsu began burning Aizen from the inside. Very quickly the golden seal rings transformed into a blazing sphere of light that illuminated everything around it. Inside that sphere, Aizen began to be consumed thread by thread, ignited by his own Reiatsu.

"Is it over?" Ichigo Kurosaki came running in from the distance. When he spotted his own father standing nearby, a flash of surprise crossed his face, but he quickly set aside the question forming in his mind and turned his attention to the battlefield instead.

"At most it will have done some damage to him." Wayne watched the sphere of light in the sky. With the restraint of Aizen's Bankai gone, Wayne could at last catch his breath. He had burned through far too much power to protect the people of Soul Society. But now that Aizen was pinned down, the rescue plan on Timd's side could proceed smoothly.

"As Wayne has said." Urahara joined the group. "If Aizen could be defeated by an attack like that, he'd be far too easy. Trust me, he'll be out of there soon."

"Urahara, is there any way to deal with this?"

"Not at the moment." Urahara shook his head. "What about you, Ichigo, aren't you going to say something to your father?" He produced a folding fan from somewhere and covered his mouth with it, looking very much like he was settling in to enjoy the show.

"No, there's no time for that right now." Ichigo shook his head. "My dad has a lot of things, a lot of words he never told me, there must be a reason. When he's ready to tell me, he'll tell me."

"Ha, quite the devoted son." Wayne teased from the side.

"Speaking of which, Hinamori." Isshin Kurosaki set aside any lingering thought about his son's words and turned to look at Wayne. "How is it that I never knew you had all this behind you."

"No time to fill you in right now, let's talk after this fight is over." Wayne focused on recovering his Reiatsu. In his Segunda Etapa form, the massive use of the power of laws had already burned through more than half his Reiatsu. If not for the surprise attacks from Urahara and Isshin Shiba, the amount of Reiatsu Wayne would have needed to spend covering the retreat of Soul Society's people would surely have been even greater.

"Thanks, for what you did for the captains." Isshin Shiba said to Wayne. He had left Soul Society decades ago, but he still carried those people in his mind. In particular, the affairs of the Shiba Family, but with Ichigo here right now, there were many things Isshin Kurosaki found it inconvenient to say, many things it was not the right time to reminisce about.

"Wait — Dad, do you know Hinamori — no, do you know Mr. Wayne?" Ichigo asked.

"Ah, we met back when he was still a wet-behind-the-ears kid." Isshin Kurosaki clicked his tongue. "When you were born, he even came to drink at the celebration."

"Nani?!" Ichigo's face was filled with shock.

"Let's not dwell on the past, enemies first." Wayne turned to look toward Timd's position. The Soul Reaper forces had already been moved entirely into Wayne's inherent space. The Negación layers were disappearing one by one. And on Wayne's end, recovery was also underway as quickly as possible.

Judging by Aizen's current state, he appeared to be in the process of having his soul remodeled by the Hōgyoku. The white substance now covering him could be considered a kind of protective measure, like the cocoon before a butterfly emerges. Aizen in this phase should be at his weakest, unable to use Kyōka Suigetsu's abilities, forced to rely solely on Kidō, his own Reiatsu, and his sword techniques. If they could not suppress him during this phase, then once he broke free of the cocoon, the fight would become far harder to win.

Before long, Aizen stepped out from the flames of the seal. The half-face that had still been visible moments ago was now wrapped completely in white material. The metamorphosis stage had begun.

"Using a Hado in the nineties to pressure me on two fronts, drawing me into launching an attack. Then using a spirit technique of your own invention to burn me from within." Aizen murmured, studying the seal rings at his wrists.

"If your opponent were not me — no, if it were not me who had already tamed the Hōgyoku — that should have been enough to end this fight." With that, Aizen pulled the seal rings free from his wrists. "But the Hōgyoku you created has already gone beyond your comprehension. This sealing technique, I imagine you invented it specifically to fight me. A shame. It has absolutely no effect on me."

"Tch. That white cladding on him, the hardness must be even higher than my Hierro." Wayne observed, sizing him up. "To deal any damage to him, you'd have to break through his defenses first."

"Forget it, we just have to go in!" Isshin Shiba didn't bother with any of that. He charged straight at Aizen with his sword raised.

BAM!

A kick lashed out and Aizen broke through Isshin Shiba's slash. Before Aizen could recover his balance, Urahara had already used Shunpo to circle behind him and seized the opening to attack, but Aizen saw through it and blocked the strike with his blade.

Balanced on one foot, Wayne used Sonído to close in. A sweeping leg strike broke Aizen's balance. Urahara and Isshin Shiba simultaneously pulled on their Reiatsu-forged steel chains, hoisting Aizen's hands and feet into the air and stripping him entirely of any footing.

"This approach. What exactly are you trying to do?"

"Haaah!"

A woman's battle cry gave Aizen his answer.

A dark violet shadow burst from the rubble. A Reiatsu-charged iron fist came smashing squarely into Aizen's back.

"You, Yoruichi Shihōin!"

"Cut!" Without giving Aizen a moment to react, Wayne had already wound up his strongest attack and slashed it directly at Aizen's throat.

"Ku!"

BOOM!

An enormous blade wave erupted skyward, carving a massive trench nearly a hundred meters long.

➤ Next: Killing Blow