"My earlier thoughts were actually very similar to how you think now."
Aizen spoke calmly and revealed what he had originally believed:
"At first, I thought there was only one Soul King, so naturally this world could only produce one absolute winner. For someone like me, who wanted to stand at the top, anyone blocking my path was an absolute obstacle."
"Isn't that still the case now?"
Nimaiya Oetsu shot back. At the same time, his single eye quickly swept across the disastrous battlefield around them.
At the start, their rebel alliance had held an overwhelming advantage in numbers.
But the final result looked hopeless.
The captains were either wounded, crippled, or collapsed on the ground. Only a handful could still barely stand there breathing.
As for the ordinary Shinigami soldiers, the ones who had dared rush forward and fight to the death had long become corpses on the ground.
The rest, scared out of their minds, had already thrown away their swords and hidden far away. They were now being slaughtered one-sidedly by the lunatics from Squad Eleven like sheep being herded.
On the other hand, Hitsugaya, Unohana Retsu, and the others on Aizen's side were still standing there watching the show. There was barely even dust on them, and they showed no intention of joining the battle.
Aside from Zaraki Kenpachi, who clung to Kirinji like a mad dog, everyone else following Rosse was coldly watching this farce.
"Not at all. That's why, in my eyes, your vision is far too narrow."
Aizen smiled lightly and shook his head. On that gentle face, he generously offered his explanation to these people on the verge of death, "Since the first Soul King was able to find a way to reach the summit back then, naturally there are other ways now to break past the limits. More importantly..."
A trace of fanatic light flashed through Aizen's eyes.
"Since Lord Rosse was able to descend from another world and arrive in ours, then by following him, we can also break through the barrier of this sky and head toward even broader worlds."
"Lord Oetsu, the world we currently live in, this place barely surviving to maintain a fragile balance, is nothing more than a drop of water in the vast cosmic ocean. Only after truly seeing Lord Rosse's capacity and that unknown sea did I clearly realize for the first time how small I am."
"If a person only dares cling to this tiny patch of sky in our world like a frog at the bottom of a well, fighting until blood spills over a rotten throne, then that person will never have the qualifications to step into a higher dimension."
"That's all twisted nonsense! Complete garbage!"
Not far away, Hirako Shinji painfully held his abdomen, which Aizen had nearly sliced in half with a single strike. Blood kept pouring through the gaps between his fingers.
Leaning against a shattered wall, his face pale, he still ground his teeth and sneered, "Stop dressing it up with fancy words! We've got no interest in some stars-and-sea crap! We just want to live our own peaceful lives on this land! If you want to fight out in the ocean, then go die there yourself. What gives you the right to drag the entire Soul Society down with you?"
"What you said is indeed one way to live. But unfortunately, Captain Hirako, your actions today are the exact opposite of what you claim."
Aizen smiled and shook his head. He gently adjusted the black-rimmed glasses on his nose, genuine confusion showing in his eyes.
"You say you want peaceful lives. But didn't Lord Rosse give you a choice? Right before the war began, didn't I give you a chance to survive?"
"Neither Lord Rosse nor I are the type of strong people who deliberately step on ants by the roadside just for amusement."
"If you hadn't been agitated by those fools today, if all of you had chosen to lay down your swords and follow us, then Soul Society could have continued existing under Lord Rosse's protection. You still could have lived the peaceful lives you wanted, and you wouldn't even need to face any more threats."
"Wouldn't that have been better?"
"The chance you're talking about... was for us to throw away our dignity, submit to you, and become tail-wagging slaves for a bunch of outsiders and traitors?", Hirako Shinji suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood and let out an extremely harsh laugh.
Hearing that, the gentleness on Aizen's face instantly disappeared, replaced by deep ridicule.
He laughed in disbelief, his strange and piercing gaze slowly sweeping over all the captains barely hanging on, "Dignity? What a luxurious word."
"You're willing to serve those rotten nobles generation after generation. You're willing to obey Captain-Commander Yamamoto's harsh and even cold-blooded orders like blind machines. You're also willing to follow the absurd rulings of Central 46 like dogs."
"You even willingly accept Squad Zero and the Soul King himself, people you've never even met."
Aizen's voice was not loud, but every word struck at their hearts like sharp blades stabbing into their souls, "Even when you were nothing more than low-ranking Shinigami soldiers, you willingly accepted leadership from captains and seated officers you had never met before."
"So tell me. Since it's all still rule and obedience, why can't you accept me, someone with greater vision and greater strength? Why can't you accept Lord Rosse, who can bring real change to this world?"
Silence filled the battlefield. Only the sound of wind blowing across pools of blood remained.
Aizen looked down at them from above.
"In the end, ask yourselves honestly. During the years since Lord Rosse descended and became Captain-Commander, has he truly done even one unforgivable thing that enraged both heaven and man? On the contrary, how many people here only gained the chance to break through barriers and join the Gotei 13 because of the new policies he pushed forward?"
"And now, what ridiculous reason are you using to raise the banner of rebellion here?"
Aizen stared directly at Hirako Shinji.
"Was it because you listened to a few inflammatory words from the Kuchiki family and Kyoraku Shunsui? Was it because deep down you resented an outsider standing above you? Or was it simply because Rosse removed the restrictions on Shinigami, allowing more and more people to become one, making old-timers like you, who pride yourselves on noble bloodlines, feel your privileges were being diluted and that you were no longer so special?"
"That's bullshit! It's because you people are running wild! You allowed Hueco Mundo to collapse and destroyed the balance of the Three Worlds!"
As if a sore spot had been hit, Hirako Shinji roared with bloodshot eyes, "If you had been willing to sit down and discuss things with us properly, how do you know we definitely wouldn't have agreed to accept him?"
"Properly? Discuss?"
The ridicule on Aizen's face had grown to the extreme. He could not even stop himself from laughing.
"Captain Hirako! Out of everyone here, you're the least qualified person to say the words 'properly' and 'discuss.'"
Aizen looked at Hirako Shinji's furious face, as if he had once again seen the arrogant captain of Squad Five from a hundred years ago.
"A hundred years ago, when I first entered the Gotei 13, I never showed any abnormal behavior beyond the rules, nor had I done anything harmful or immoral. I even handled all the squad duties for you."
"But simply because of your unreasonable intuition, from the very first moment you saw me, you had already decided in your heart that I was a dangerous man destined to bring disaster to Soul Society. You kept me by your side not to nurture me, but to monitor me."
"So everything I'm doing now is merely perfectly matching the prejudice you had against me back then, just as you wished."
Aizen spread his arms. Purple lightning wildly leaped around his body, reflecting off his unruly face.
"If the captain who promoted me back then had been the tolerant Senior Unohana, or the free-spirited Shihoin Yoruichi... then I, Aizen Sosuke, might have become someone like Urahara Kisuke, silently dedicating myself to protecting Soul Society."
"And if the positions were reversed, if the Urahara Kisuke you all see as a savior had experienced the suspicion, hypocrisy, and pressure that I went through, then he might not have failed to end up standing here as today's Aizen!"
"Hahaha! So what you mean is, this is somehow my fault instead? I personally forced you into becoming a demon trying to destroy the world? I brought this onto myself?"
Hirako Shinji looked like he had heard the funniest joke in existence. He laughed so hard tears nearly mixed together with the blood on his face.
"Quit flattering yourself! A bastard like you, born with wolfish ambition, would never stop showing your fangs just because you got put in a warmer environment! You're crazy to the core. In the end, all you wanted was to satisfy your ambition, devour the Soul King, and destroy the peaceful life we worked so hard to maintain!"
"Ah..."
Aizen's smile faded, and pity appeared in his eyes.
"That's why people like you will never understand."
"You keep shouting about righteousness, but your so-called peaceful life is nothing more than sitting comfortably behind high walls while pretending not to see the misery in Rukongai and the suffering worse than death at the bottom of the Three Worlds' system! As long as disaster doesn't fall on your own heads, and as long as your privileges stay untouched, then you can just indulge yourselves however you want. Isn't that right?"
Aizen turned his head and looked toward Komamura Sajin lying in a pool of blood.
"Captain Komamura, I imagine what's supporting your final breath right now isn't the outcome of this battle, but the fact that you never understood why Kaname Tosen, who always longed for the light, chose without hesitation to follow me and Rosse and raise his blade against all of you. Am I right?"
Komamura Sajin, lying among the ruins, suddenly shook.
His massive chest rose and fell violently, blood continuously spilling from his mouth.
But he still used the last of his strength to slowly turn his head and stare at Aizen. In a hoarse voice, he asked, "Why..."
This was also the thing he most wanted to know before dying.
Even now, with his abdomen pierced through by lightning and only half a breath left, he still wanted this answer before closing his eyes forever.
"Because...", Aizen's voice was like an ice spike in winter, "when the close friend he silently loved, that Shinigami as kind as sunlight, was cruelly murdered for no reason, not one person in the entire Gotei 13, not one person in this enormous Seireitei, was willing to stand up and seek real justice for this blind man who had lost everything."
Hearing this, Kaname Tosen, who had quietly stood behind Aizen's camp the whole time, slightly tensed.
But his lips remained tightly shut. He stayed silent, with no extra emotion showing on his face.
The current him, though his hands were stained with blood, was living well, and his heart had never been this calm before.
More than ever, he believed firmly that the choice he made back then was absolutely correct.
"That's impossible! That incident...", Komamura Sajin's wolf eyes widened. Because of his agitation, he spat out another large mouthful of blood, "That murderer already received punishment from Central 46!"
Komamura answered in a deep voice.
But even he himself did not notice how weak and uncertain his voice sounded right now.
"Punishment? HAHAHAHAHA..."
Aizen seemed to have heard the most ridiculous joke in the world, laughing so hard his shoulders shook.
"That's right! After murdering his own wife, who had also been a fellow Shinigami that shed blood for Soul Society, the punishment given by Central 46 to that noble murderer was merely a few months of confinement!"
Aizen abruptly stopped laughing, his gaze seeming to pierce directly into Komamura's soul, "Captain Komamura! When that murderer finished his sentence and swaggered right up in front of Tosen, openly mocking that innocent dead woman to his face, where were all of you people who constantly speak about 'justice'?"
"Did your blades ever swing toward that murderer? Did your anger ever burn for Tosen?"
Facing Aizen's soul-piercing questioning, Komamura Sajin's huge body stiffened. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
"So..."
Not far away, Kyoraku Shunsui, who was half-propped against a stone pillar with his battered body, breathing heavily, suddenly seemed to understand something. With a bitter laugh, he spoke, "Back when Rosse became captain, the Tsunayashiro family was wiped out overnight. I always thought that was something you and Rosse did to better control the Great Spirit Book Corridor."
Kyoraku Shunsui looked deeply at Kaname Tosen.
"But now it seems the one who slaughtered the Tsunayashiro clan back then was actually you personally, wasn't it?"
Facing Kyoraku's accusation, Kaname Tosen did not avoid it.
He slowly stepped forward, his face still calm, "I did do it."
Kaname Tosen's voice was not loud, but it spread clearly across the battlefield, "Every core member of the Tsunayashiro family deserved to die ten thousand times over. Killing them was the act most true to my heart and the purest form of justice I have ever carried out in my life."
"So... that's how it was..."
Hearing Kaname Tosen admit it personally, Komamura Sajin looked as though the last bit of strength had been drained from him.
His massive wolf head slammed heavily back onto the cold ground as two cloudy tears slid down through his fur.
He fell into silence like death itself.
So this had been the root of it all.
It seemed that from the very beginning, they had been wrong beyond belief.
At the same time, a thought inevitably surfaced in Komamura Sajin's mind.
'If back then I have done more, thought more carefully, would today's ending have turned out differently?'