Bleach: Reborn — Chapter 294 - Killing Blow

Chapter 294, Fatal Strike

BOOM!

One slash cut through, and Aizen's entire body erupted with a surge of violent Reiatsu. The counterattack blasted Yoruichi away and shattered the Reishi bindings around his limbs. Its primary purpose, though, was to deflect Wayne's slash, which had come within a hair's breadth of his face.

Reiatsu and blade-light collided. The air itself compressed and cracked with a series of explosive bursts. The blade-light that had nearly kissed Aizen's throat was finally forced off course. It grazed his neck and slammed into the ground trailing crimson, carving a trench a hundred meters long.

Bindings gone, Aizen Shunpo'd backward. His neck hadn't been severed, but the razor-edged blade-light had cut through a full third of it. Blood gushed freely. The moment his hand passed over the wound, it slowly closed, yet the white substance encasing his body couldn't follow. Through the gap, Wayne and the others caught a glimpse of something flickering inside: a shifting violet-purple radiance.

"What is that? What's happening in there?" Isshin Kurosaki stared at the wound on Aizen's neck, more precisely, at the purple light pulsing behind that layer of white substance.

"That last attack was impressive. I genuinely felt it." Aizen spoke as though he hadn't been touched. "If not for the Hōgyoku's protection, that strike might have taken my head. Your timing was excellent, Wayne."

"Failing to kill you in one blow was my mistake." Wayne's eyes narrowed. That slash had been everything he had in Segunda Etapa, full power, no reserves, and it still hadn't broken through. Whether that was Aizen's own Reiatsu or the Hōgyoku at work, he couldn't say.

"At least you managed to wound him, Hinamori." Isshin Shiba let out an awkward laugh. "Since he shifted into that form, I haven't been able to feel his Reiatsu at all." It was common knowledge: when an enemy's Reiatsu far exceeded your own, sensing it became impossible. Reiatsu hierarchy suppression. The fact that Wayne could still wound him said everything, his Reiatsu level had already left the other two well behind.

"No matter. It is time for you to understand my power."

BOOM!

Purple Reiatsu flooded outward in every direction, blanketing nearly half the city. This was the first time Aizen had truly released his full strength since fusing with the Hōgyoku.

BANG!

A single flash of Shunpo and Aizen was in front of Yoruichi. His blade came down. She barely managed to block, and was sent flying anyway. Before anyone could react, he flashed to Kisuke Urahara. A downward slash. Urahara raised his blade to meet it and was physically driven to one knee under the weight. Isshin Kurosaki charged in to help and was stopped cold by Aizen's bare hand. One twist of the body, one kick, and Isshin went tumbling away.

"You're not attacking, Wayne?" Aizen deliberately left himself open. Wayne didn't take the bait. He didn't rush in the way Isshin had.

"The earlier fighting already drained too much of my strength." Wayne made no move to advance. Instead, he stood at a short distance and let his Reiatsu recover. "On top of that last strike, I've burned through nearly seventy percent. Going at you right now would just get me sent flying."

"A wise choice." Aizen pressed down with his right hand, driving Urahara to the ground. Before he could finish it, Wayne had already used his spatial power to pull Urahara to his side. "Hmph. You have a solid command of your abilities — that is an effective approach." Another rare compliment. "Pity. You have nowhere left to go. Even if your strength were fully restored."

"I don't see it that way." Wayne scoffed.

"Oh?" Aizen studied him with genuine interest. "With every card gone from your hand, what do you plan to use against me? Stall for time while your strength recovers? Those two I just sent flying — aren't they in the rubble right now, quietly rebuilding their strength and waiting for the right moment?"

"My, my, I suppose we have been found out." Kisuke Urahara climbed to his feet at Wayne's side. He called out toward the distance. "Lady Yoruichi, Mr. Isshin, come on out. Our plan isn't working."

"What a pain." A hundred meters away, Isshin Kurosaki and Yoruichi rose together, brushing dust from their clothes. "Guess we'll just have to force our way through."

"Perhaps Mr. Wayne has some strategy in mind?" Urahara glanced in Wayne's direction. His tone was light, almost joking, but the hope in his eyes gave him away.

"Stall." Wayne said simply. "Stall until my Reiatsu recovers."

"Naive." Aizen tilted his head. The white substance had fully encased his skull, but the contempt in those two words came through without a crack. "What gives you the impression that recovering your Reiatsu would be enough to defeat me?"

"Kyōka Suigetsu?" Wayne let a smirk show. "Why don't you just hypnotize me into thinking I can beat you?"

"Hmph. Dull." Aizen's eyes, now turned blue, narrowed slightly. "No matter. The Chrysalis Stage still requires time. I'll humor you all for a while."

He Shunpo'd toward Wayne. Wayne didn't move to engage. Instead, Isshin Shiba flashed in and intercepted the slash. Wayne retreated on Sonído, removing himself from the fight. In the instant he passed Urahara, the two exchanged a glance, a fraction of a second, then parted in opposite directions.

The three engaged Aizen again. Wayne hung back.

This time was nothing like the stalemate before. Aizen came out swinging at full power. Every slash pushed Isshin Shiba and the others past what they could absorb. Even Yoruichi, whose body combat was legendary, could barely keep pace, every exchange forced her to fire Shunkō at full capacity just to receive his blows. The drain was relentless. Inside three minutes, all three had been stripped of their Reiatsu support and blasted away.

Three minutes. How much Reiatsu could Wayne recover in three minutes?

BANG! BANG!

All three, Urahara included, collapsed into the rubble of nearby buildings. Their Reiatsu had taken a heavy hit. They could still stand, but standing wouldn't make them a threat to Aizen.

"From the perspective of a game, I did enjoy myself a little." Aizen rolled his shoulders. The white substance still encased him, though the fighting had left a network of cracks running through the white armor.

"Are you looking at these cracks?" Sensing Wayne's gaze, Aizen glanced down at himself. "Don't misunderstand, those three didn't cause them."

"I know." Wayne's eyes narrowed. "You said it yourself. The Chrysalis Stage."

"Correct. As a Hollow, you should understand my current state better than most." As he spoke, the white substance covering his head began to fracture, piece by piece. "The Chrysalis Stage is a necessary phase in which the Hōgyoku remolds my soul. It is also the stage at which my body is most vulnerable. Fortunately, the Hōgyoku granted me formidable defensive power. Heh, though your strength is too limited to deliver a fatal blow regardless. And now that the Chrysalis Stage is complete..." He paused. "You have no more chances."

The white substance fell away from his head. It revealed not only his chest, but his face, a face already transformed.

Aizen now had long hair, as though time inside the cocoon had flowed differently, letting it grow past his waist. His eyes had lost their former brown entirely. In their place: blue-violet sclera, silver-blue irises, a pair of eyes carrying something deeply, wrongly sinister.

With the Chrysalis Stage behind him, Aizen's Reiatsu climbed another tier. It was unmistakable. He had broken free of every constraint that bound a Soul Reaper and arrived at the ideal form he had spent his life pursuing.

"Well then, Wayne — are you satisfied with my new form?"

"Quite interesting." Wayne grinned. "I'd love to know, if I absorbed the Hōgyoku as a Hollow Beast, what would I end up becoming? Would I come out looking as neither-human-nor-ghost as you do?"

"Heh..." Aizen gave a slight shake of his head. "If you were still Tsukishiro Hinamori, perhaps I would give you that chance. What a pity..."

He Shunpo'd forward. The speed was enough that Wayne barely had time to react.

Wayne got his blade up in a desperate block. Aizen had channeled his Reiatsu directly into his muscles, and the force behind the slash was monstrous. One impact, and Wayne was sent flying, smashing through three buildings before he stopped. Aizen didn't give him a breath of rest. He casually swung out a slash, the power behind it almost on par with Wayne's own Void Slash.

BOOM! The rubble behind Wayne split open in a long trench. The blow tore a massive wound across his chest.

"Hah..." Wayne dragged himself out of the debris. Ultra-Rapid Regeneration was working overtime.

"As expected." The corner of Aizen's mouth curved up. "A Hollow's Ultra-Rapid Regeneration is a truly insoluble ability. But how many more times can you use it?" The next instant he was in front of Wayne again. Purple Reiatsu fired like lightning. A new wound opened at Wayne's waist and abdomen.

"You think I'm made of clay?" Ferocity flared in Wayne's eyes. He ignored the wounds and swung a blade-light back at Aizen with a reverse slash. Aizen caught it with his empty left hand. Then he pressed forward, driving his Zanpakutō into a relentless series of slashes. Wayne fought hard to absorb every blow. It gave Aizen the openings he needed, and wound after wound opened across Wayne's body.

"Your Reiatsu has dropped considerably, Wayne. Is this your last struggle?" Aizen treated Wayne's attacks as though they weren't happening. "If this is all the strength you have left, our game ends here."

"Does it?" Wayne's expression sharpened. Reiatsu erupted across his entire body. The wounds closed in an instant. He charged straight at Aizen and brought his blade down in a full slash.

CLANG!

Metal rang against metal. Aizen intercepted, but unlike before, he didn't send Wayne flying. Instead, he drove his left hand straight into Wayne's chest.

THUD!

Like a blade through flesh. Wayne took it clean. Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.

"It's over." Aizen's face was perfectly still. The blow might as well have crushed an ant.

"Over?" Blood still coming, Wayne dropped the Sky-Rending Greatsword with his left hand and grabbed onto Aizen's body with both, holding fast. "I still have one trump card I haven't used."

"Self-destruction?" Aizen read the movement instantly, contempt flooding his face. "With the Reiatsu you have left, you couldn't even scratch me."

"No." Wayne smiled. "This one you've never seen."

The corner of his mouth curled up. He breathed out the Incantation quietly.

"Shoot him dead — Kamishini no Yari!"

"What?!"

HUM!

An impossibly long blade erupted from behind Wayne, punching straight through his lung. At full extension, it kept going, and pierced clean through Aizen's heart.

Aizen's eyes went wide.

He looked past Wayne. A hundred meters away, Gin Ichimaru stood with his bright blue eyes open and calm.

"...Gin." The pain hit. Aizen's gaze dropped to Kamishini no Yari, buried through his own heart. Those sinister eyes contracted to pinpoints. "How did you..."

"My apologies, Captain Aizen." Gin's voice drifted over, light and unhurried. "I've been waiting for this day for over a decade."

"Impossible — you were clearly under my..."

"Kyōka Suigetsu?" Wayne was skewered alongside Aizen and acted as though he hadn't noticed. He lifted the hand gripping Aizen and drew back the sleeve. A faint blue ring of light, connected to a spatial rift, emerged slowly from concealment. Inside the rift, a pale white hand rested silently against the blade of Kyōka Suigetsu. In the distance, Gin held Kamishini no Yari in his right hand. His left was tucked inside his sleeve. At the sleeve's edge, a faint indigo shimmer drifted in and out of sight.

"Aizen." Wayne coughed up another mouthful of blood. "How does it feel to have a blade through your heart?"

"I see." Blood ran from Aizen's mouth too now. "You deliberately took Gin Ichimaru prisoner, then used your Concealment Ability to erase him from my perception, manufacturing the illusion that you had killed him. In reality, you had already secured his cooperation for a joint assassination. I always knew Gin wanted to kill me. I kept him close precisely because I was curious what method he would choose. I never imagined he would work with you."

"I had my subordinates reach out to him in secret. When I judged the moment right, I would release him to land the killing blow. You said Kyōka Suigetsu would weaken as your soul was reconstructed, I heard you. I still felt one more layer of insurance was worth having."

"The only way to break Kyōka Suigetsu," Wayne said, his voice clear, "is to touch the blade the instant it is released. Do that, and the hypnosis cannot take hold." He let the secret sit in the open. "Did you truly think, all those decades ago, that I was joking with you?"

"Hmph. This alone cannot kill me." Aizen reached out and closed his hand around Kamishini no Yari.

In that same instant, the blade had already contracted. It was back in Gin's hand.

"No, Aizen." Wayne was badly wounded. He spat blood. His voice came out spent, hollowed out, barely above a murmur.

"You're finished."

➤ Next: Final Form