Most of them were.
Although Aizen's exit felt somewhat like a forced narrative solution, a little calm reflection made it understandable. His abilities had been written to be far too overwhelming. With a character that powerful, if the story did not impose some kind of extreme solution, how could anyone possibly defeat him?
Besides, Ichigo had only managed to win by giving up both his shinigami and hollow powers completely, while also receiving assistance from the Spirit King. In terms of grandeur, Aizen had been given all the respect his status deserved.
The old mysteries had been revisited. The foreshadowing planted throughout the story had been paid off one by one. To be fair, the ending was already satisfying enough.
The problem was that Alex, that absolute bastard, had deliberately avoided answering the two questions the audience cared about most.
First: who exactly was Ichigo Kurosaki's wife?
Second: what was Sosuke Aizen's true final fate?
What the hell was going on?
Was Kyoka Suigetsu the one sealed?
Then what had Aizen himself been doing for the past ten years?
Was he planning his next return?
Or, as Ichigo had said before, had he abandoned victory at the very end and chosen to live only as an ordinary shinigami?
The ending gave the audience far too much room for imagination.
And too much room, in the hands of passionate fans, was practically a weapon of mass destruction.
Even the charm of a child actress has an expiration date, you know?
"Alex, did Aizen die in the end or not?"
On the set of Death Note in New York, Taylor leaned close to Alex during a break and asked the question with sparkling curiosity.
Alex's expression went blank.
He had already heard from Nadia that the discussion surrounding Bleach's finale had turned the entire country upside down. But things were not much better in the United States either. The day before, while he was filming, plenty of foreigners outside the set had shouted questions at him in English, asking who Ichigo's wife was and what exactly happened to Aizen.
He had to admit, the storm caused by that relatively open ending was far more intense than he had expected.
During the break, Alex's phone suddenly vibrated.
It was a message from Violet Grant.
Summer vacation was almost over, so the girl would soon be returning to school. Alex had no idea whether she had finished her homework yet, but when he opened the message, he was nearly overwhelmed by the sheer cuteness of the photo.
In the picture, Violet wore a cat-ear headband and little paw gloves, lunging toward the camera as if she were a tiny beast launching an attack.
Evil dragon roar.
Meow.
The only thing missing was a cat tail. If she had added that, it would have been an instant knockout.
Alex could not help remembering the time when they had still been back home. Violet often ran over to him on set, asking for attention, praise, and small bits of guidance with the natural confidence of a child who did not yet understand her own charm.
At some point, he had casually muttered that she would look even cuter with cat ears.
And she had remembered.
Terrifying.
Terrifyingly adorable.
"Did this girl grow a little taller again?"
While being struck directly by the photo's cuteness, Alex noticed something else.
The childish softness on Violet's face had faded just a little more, replaced by the delicate, almost imperceptible atmosphere of early adolescence.
Only slightly, of course.
After all, she had only just reached double digits in age that summer.
Still, for a director, it was a clear reminder.
"It's better to let her play those roles as soon as possible."
Eternal child characters only existed in animation, comics, and games. In reality, children grew up. The specific charm of that age had a time limit. Once it passed, it never returned.
In just a few seconds, several classic little-girl character archetypes surfaced in Alex's mind: Haibara Ai, the eternal genius child; Tatsumaki, tiny yet devastating; Rin, tied to one of the most memorable fantasy stories; Illyasviel, an absolute icon in the ACG world; Kanna, practically the definition of adorable mascot energy; and even the Platelets, whose cuteness could dismantle any adult's defenses.
With those roles in hand, Alex was confident he could push Violet into first-tier stardom before that window closed.
A first-tier actress at ten years old?
For some reason, that made Violet seem more like a webnovel protagonist than Alex himself.
Was he, in the end, her system?
In any case, truly talented child actors were rare. And besides being able to act, they had to possess charm, naturalness, and a face that could win the audience over immediately. Apart from Violet, Alex had not yet found another child capable of carrying that banner.
If he waited another two years, when she was preparing to enter middle school and grew past one meter fifty, it would already be too late.
Meanwhile, the media had begun to deliver its final verdict on Bleach.
"Bleach Creates a Miracle, Global Views Surpass 35 Billion."
"The Greatest Work of the Streaming Era and the Perfect Villain: Sosuke Aizen."
"Bleach Finale Leaves Behind a Major Foreshadowing - Is Alex Preparing the Next Work?"
"A Peak From the Start: Can Alex Still Create Something Beyond Bleach, or Even Equal to It?"
No matter how fiercely the audience debated Bleach's ending, the finale had already aired. It could not be changed.
Naturally, the media entered full celebration mode.
Other works released during the same period disappeared completely. Series, films, animated projects - no one cared. All the audience wanted to read was the media praising Bleach.
At the same time, the entire internet was discussing whether Ichigo Kurosaki's wife was Rukia Kuchiki or Orihime Inoue, as well as Aizen's true state after the ending and what, exactly, he intended to do next.
Countless critics and commentators shared their opinions through livestreams and videos.
Among them was Foster, an old acquaintance of Alex.
"I believe there is a ninety-nine percent chance that Aizen was not sealed. What was sealed was his zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu. Everyone knows that after Aizen evolved into his fearless state, Kyoka Suigetsu fused with him. In other words, Kyoka Suigetsu became a complete part of his body and also possessed divine power. Using it in place of the Spirit King as the wedge maintaining the balance of the three worlds makes sense."
Foster spoke with an annoyingly firm confidence.
"I also think Aizen's final narration already made his state of mind very clear. He saw 'courage' in Ichigo and the others. So I don't believe he'll continue causing trouble in the same way."
He paused, adjusted his glasses, and continued:
"But I also don't think Aizen will stop exploring. For someone like him, the meaning of existence lies in constantly moving toward the unknown."
Then, when the question about Ichigo's wife appeared in the chat, Foster laughed.
"Who is Ichigo's wife? Isn't that up to Alex himself? Go ask him. But I suspect he did this on purpose, just so the Ichigo-and-Rukia faction and the Ichigo-and-Orihime faction wouldn't tear each other apart."
During a break on the Death Note set, Alex happened to stumble across the video and nearly laughed out loud.
The guy had guessed pretty accurately.
Alex knew better than anyone that no matter who Ichigo chose, one side of the fandom would feel betrayed. So he simply created a son for the protagonist and refused to say who the mother was.
Let them imagine it for themselves.
When the school year began, a large number of dramatic teenagers who had spent their entire days flooding Alex's comment section asking who Ichigo had chosen finally returned to their cages.
The world became a little quieter.
But Alex had to admit something about himself.
He was a little wicked.
After seeing the comment section finally calm down, he strangely felt as though something was missing.
So he opened social media and posted:
"The wife is Orihime Inoue."
One minute later, the post shot straight to second place on the trending list.
First place was still related to the ending of Bleach.
The Ichigo-and-Orihime faction screamed in victory as though they had conquered a kingdom. The Ichigo-and-Rukia faction immediately began cursing Alex, his family, and probably everyone who had ever crossed paths with him. In the middle of that war, plenty of spectators complained that Alex should not have revealed the answer, because they still wanted to watch the two factions keep fighting.
In the end, every last one of them was a chaos-loving criminal.
Five minutes after posting it, Alex deleted the message and wrote a new one.
"The last post was a lie. It might also be Rukia. Guess for yourselves."
That damn post shot straight to third place on the trending list.
A little trolling was fun.
Too much trolling, however, greatly increased the risk of getting beaten up.
Fortunately, Alex was currently in the United States, far beyond the physical reach of that furious crowd.
As expected, half an hour later, Alex's own name reached the top of the trending list.
This time, he had been pushed there by both the Ichigo-and-Orihime faction and the Ichigo-and-Rukia faction, who, for the first time in a long while, had found a common enemy.
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