"Damn it!"
Hirako Shinji gripped Sakanade's hilt so tightly his nails nearly dug into his palm.
He looked at Kurosaki Ichigo falling from the sky like a kite with its string cut, and let out an unwilling roar.
Even Kurosaki Ichigo, the one everyone placed their hopes on, the final trump card in everyone's eyes, had fallen before Rosse.
All hope was lost. He searched through every possibility in his mind, but he truly could not think of any method left in this world that could overturn those two nightmare-like men in the sky.
Tap... Tap...
Soft footsteps echoed through the air, like the countdown to Soul Society's end.
Aizen Sosuke had both hands in his pockets. His tall figure stepped down slowly and calmly, as if walking on an invisible staircase.
And the direction he was heading toward was the ruins where Hirako Shinji stood.
Looking across the plaza, there were barely any resisting survivors still breathing.
To Aizen, this was a play nearing its perfect finale.
If he did not take this chance to properly catch up with this old friend now, then after the cleanup was over, there would never be another opportunity this good.
"Captain Hirako."
Aizen stopped three steps away from Hirako Shinji and looked down at the miserable man from above, a gentle smile curling on his lips.
"All the irrelevant bystanders have already left the stage. At last, we have the chance to quietly catch up. A reunion that truly belongs to the two of us."
"Hmph! I've got nothing to say to a heartless animal like you!"
Hirako Shinji snorted coldly, his eyes filled with hatred that would not fade.
He clenched his teeth hard, forcefully squeezing the last dry traces of spirit energy from his body. With difficulty, he raised the damaged Sakanade in his hand and staggered forward, slashing at Aizen's head.
His body had already suffered fatal injuries during the earlier battle. Blood still seeped from the wound in his abdomen, and barely any spiritual pressure remained.
But the instinct to cut the man before him into pieces still drove him to launch this moth-to-flame attack.
"Weak."
Aizen chuckled softly and could not even be bothered to dodge.
Bang!
Hirako Shinji's blade slammed heavily into Aizen's shihakusho, but only produced a dull sound.
That slash full of hatred could not even cut through the most basic layer of spirit particle defense around Aizen's body. It did not leave behind even a white scratch.
"Compared to how you hid in the shadows, using pretty words to stir others up and send them after us, your attack right now is softer than a lamb waiting to be slaughtered," Aizen's voice carried undisguised contempt.
"Heh—Cough! Cough! If I had the strength to cut down a bastard like you myself, I would've done it long ago! Why would I need to borrow someone else's power like some coward hiding in his shell?"
Hirako Shinji coughed blood as he sneered and wildly swung Sakanade.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Slash after slash, he hacked at Aizen tirelessly.
Even though he clearly knew every strike was meaningless, this was the only thing he could still do at the end of his life.
He could not calmly kill himself for the sake of dignity like Kyoraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jushiro.
He carried Hiyori's hatred, the blood debt of countless Visored comrades. He could only die charging toward Aizen.
"This is exactly why your strength hasn't made any real progress in the past hundred years."
Aizen stood there like an unshakable iron tower, letting Hirako Shinji's weak blade land on him again and again.
"There are countless ways in this world to break the limits of a Shinigami and become stronger. But you never tried a single one. You never even thought about using them."
"You stubbornly clung to that laughable hatred, hiding in some corner of the Human World, foolishly hoping that one day someone else would punish me for you," Aizen leaned down slightly, his deep eyes piercing directly into Hirako Shinji's soul.
"Are you really that afraid of dirtying your own hands? Do you really not want to take revenge with your own power, Captain Hirako?"
Before the gap in spiritual pressure between them, as vast as heaven and earth, Hirako Shinji's attacks were like a breeze brushing against stone. They did not exist on the same level at all.
No matter how hysterical he became, he could not inflict even a millimeter of damage on Aizen.
"Take revenge myself? Heh... Right now all I can think about is killing you!"
Hirako Shinji panted heavily, staring fixedly at Aizen's disgusting smiling face.
"I don't care whether I do it personally or not! Since my own strength can't kill you, then I'll ask others for help and find other ways to kill you! And if every method in this world still can't kill you... then I'll go ahead first and stare at you from hell! I'll wait for the day a beast like you falls into hell too!"
"Hell?"
Hearing this, Aizen suddenly let out a very pleased laugh.
As if he had heard an excellent suggestion, he tilted his head slightly.
"That's why people like you don't even understand the basics of revenge. You place your hopes on some vague hell, using this primitive and powerless method to curse your enemy. It's truly disappointing to watch."
Aizen raised a slender finger and lightly pushed up the glasses on his nose bridge.
"Do you know why, after more than a hundred years, I'm still the one committing violence, while you can only bark here like a defeated dog and play the pitiful avenger?"
Hirako Shinji froze, the hand holding his sword stopping midair.
"Because I never believed in judgment after death. And I absolutely would not leave my enemies any chance to curse me in hell."
Aizen looked at Hirako Shinji, a cruel smile appearing at the corner of his lips.
Then he casually raised his right hand and snapped his fingers in the air.
Snap!
Along with that crisp sound, the spirit particles in the surrounding space suddenly began twisting violently.
Under the horrified and disbelieving gazes of Hirako Shinji, Nimaiya Oetsu, and everyone remaining, the void slowly tore open.
A cold red light carrying the smell of sulfur and rot poured out.
Right after that, two enormous ancient bronze doors slowly appeared before everyone with heavy grinding sounds. The doors were woven together from countless pale skulls and wailing faces.
"The Gates of Hell?"
Not far away, Nimaiya Oetsu's single eye widened as he stared at the door radiating despair, unable to stop himself from muttering.
As a member of Squad Zero, there was no way he could mistake it.
This was the legendary gate leading to the deepest level of the world, Hell itself.
Under the laws of the Three Realms, the souls of powerful Shinigami with spiritual power above third-class spirit rank would not simply dissolve into the world and return to the spirit particle cycle after death.
To prevent their massive spiritual pressure from disrupting the balance of the Three Realms, their souls would be dragged into Hell.
Within Hell's endless karmic flames, their consciousness and spiritual pressure would slowly wear away over endless years until everything was fully cleansed. Only then could they re-enter the cycle of reincarnation.
That was the reason Hell existed in this world.
Nimaiya Oetsu looked at the Gates of Hell, forcibly summoned and opened with a single snap from Aizen, and silently fell speechless.
He gained another horrifying understanding of Aizen and Rosse's methods and twisted tastes.
They were even forcing open the resting place of the dead.
Really not leaving anyone any way out, and truly doing nothing remotely human.
"N-No! You can't do this! Aizen!"
The moment Hirako Shinji saw that gate, his whole body suddered.
He was at least half-clever. The instant he saw Aizen summon the Gates of Hell at this moment, his mind buzzed and he immediately sensed something terrifying was about to happen.
His pupils shrank, and his already unsteady body began trembling uncontrollably like a sieve.
But Aizen had no intention of sparing him.
To kill someone, first destroy their heart.
Especially since this was the first performance he personally directed after becoming Rosse's deputy.
This time, he would make the ending as perfect as possible.
Creak!
Under Aizen's will, the Gates of Hell slowly opened a crack.
Inside the dark red karmic flames beyond the gate, several chained figures were forced up from the abyss and appeared at the entrance.
Although their faces were blurry and twisted in pain, Hirako Shinji only needed one glance for his heart to feel like it had been crushed by an invisible hand.
Those figures were clearly Sarugaki Hiyori, Muguruma Kensei, Love Aikawa, and the other Visored members who had died at the hands of Rosse and Aizen several months ago.
Since they were all captain-level Shinigami, they naturally fell into Hell after death.
And within Hell, the erosion of spiritual pressure and soul imprints was an extremely long process. It had only been a few months so far. Though their spirit bodies suffered pain, they still remained intact inside Hell.
"Hiyori... Kensei... no... don't..."
Hirako Shinji dropped the sword in his hand and knelt on the ground like a child, reaching out helplessly, trying to grab those figures.
"You see, Captain Hirako? They really are waiting for you in Hell."
Aizen's voice sounded beside Hirako Shinji's ear like a devil's whisper.
Under Hirako Shinji's despair-filled gaze that looked ready to bleed, Aizen slowly drew Kyoka Suigetsu from his waist.
The blade shining with cold light pointed toward the struggling souls inside the Gates of Hell.
"But unfortunately, I already said this before. I won't give you any chance to reunite with them in Hell, or continue cursing me there."
Aizen's eyes were ice-cold. Holding the sword casually, he lightly swung it forward.
Rip!
A purple lightning sword pressure carrying the ultimate concept of destruction and erasure slashed directly into the Gates of Hell without resistance.
BOOM!
Along with the indestructible white-bone bronze gates, the painful soul imprints of Hiyori, Kensei Muguruma, and the others inside were instantly torn apart and vaporized by that violent power right before Hirako Shinji's eyes.
Reduced to nothing.
Not a single trace of spirit particles remained. There was no possibility of reincarnation.
This was true complete annihilation on the level of existence itself.
"AHHHHHH!"
Seeing this, Hirako Shinji completely broke.
A strange sound came from his throat. His body shook as if struck by lightning as he knelt weakly on the scorched earth.
Two streams of tears mixed with blood ran down his pale face.
Watching his close friends die once before his eyes had already pushed his mind to the edge of collapse.
And now, Aizen had torn open Hell in front of him and forced him to watch his companions be erased completely a second time.
Not only that, but erased forever, without even the chance for reincarnation in another life.
"AIZEN!"
Hirako Shinji suddenly threw his head back and let out a scream so miserable that even he himself did not know what emotions were mixed within it.
The scream carried extreme pain, regret, despair, and deep self-loathing.
He should hate Aizen.
He should cut Aizen into ten thousand pieces.
But... he truly did not know how he could possibly do it.
The man stood there like a god, trampling over his dignity and crushing his hope again and again.
And he, aside from kneeling here crying like trash, did not have even the slightest way to fight back.
"Captain Hirako, now, have you finally realized it?"
Aizen sheathed his sword, his gaze calm as still water as he coldly looked down at the completely broken soul before him.
"When someone's anger reaches its limit, but they lack the absolute power to match it, that anger only becomes laughable. And suicide becomes the only way weak people like you can preserve the last bit of dignity you have."
"You wait in the shadows again and again like some resentful woman, hoping miracles will appear, drawing that weak sword against me over and over... none of it will change anything."
"You refuse to search for methods that break moral boundaries to make yourself stronger like a madman. But you also can't do what we do, throwing away everything, even betraying your original ideals, just to cross the class that divides us."
Aizen's voice grew colder and colder.
"So people like you, stuck between so-called justice and revenge, are destined to fall further and further behind us and become weaker and weaker."
"In the end, all you can do is helplessly watch the things you treasure die and disappear before your eyes again and again. Hirako Shinji, do you really think revenge with no growth at all has any meaning?"
"ha... HaHaHa... HAHAHAHA..."
Hearing Aizen's cruel judgment that cut into his heart like a blade, Hirako Shinji suddenly lowered his head and burst into hysterical laughter.
The laughter grew louder and louder, carrying a kind of complete release and madness.
Yeah. Was this the ending his indecisive life had reached?
He could no longer find any reason to keep living or breathing the air of this world.
Hirako Shinji stopped laughing.
He picked up the fallen Sakanade, and his eyes became like dead water at that moment.
Without the slightest hesitation, just like Kyoraku Shunsui and the others before him, he gripped the sword in reverse and stabbed the blade directly into his own heart.
Puchi!
Blood splashed everywhere.
He truly could not endure it anymore.
Watching his friends get killed in front of him again and again while being powerless to stop it only made his broken heart collapse further.
And he felt he no longer had the right to face Hiyori and the others who had completely vanished.
Rather than continue dragging himself along like a joke waiting for more suffering, he would rather end everything with his own hands right now.
"Sorry... Hiyori... I'm sorry... someone like me... really is trash in the end.... I... couldn't do it..."
Hirako Shinji lay on his back on the cold ground, blood staining the ruins beneath him red.
Carrying endless unwillingness and deep guilt, he slowly closed his eyes and completely lost all signs of life.