"Hadō #32, Ōkasen!" Yellow light erupted in front of Kisuke Urahara, surging toward Sōsuke Aizen like fire.
Sōsuke Aizen raised his Zanpakutō. He did not even swing it. The Reiatsu he released alone was enough to block the approaching light. "You should know that a Kidō in the thirties means nothing against me, yet you used it anyway..."
Sōsuke Aizen waved the yellow light away, and Yoruichi Shihōin's figure appeared before him. "A diversion, just as I thought."
"Ha!" Yoruichi Shihōin gave a sharp shout and drove her fist toward Sōsuke Aizen.
"It seems what happened just now gave you the wrong idea." Sōsuke Aizen waved his hand and shattered the iron armor on Yoruichi Shihōin's fist. "This kind of thing... is completely useless."
Yoruichi Shihōin spun and threw her other fist.
Sōsuke Aizen raised his blade. "I already told you."
"Shunkō!"
Lightning burst from her elbow, accelerating her punch. Yoruichi Shihōin's iron-armored fist grazed Sōsuke Aizen's arm and struck his cheek, blasting cracks across it.
The powerful impact drove into Sōsuke Aizen's body and slammed him into the ground, sending dust flying.
Yoruichi Shihōin landed the hit, but the iron armor on both her hands completely shattered as well. Lightning exploded from her back, propelling her leopard-like body down from the sky as she kicked toward Sōsuke Aizen.
"I already told you." Sōsuke Aizen rose from the ruins and caught the iron armor on Yoruichi Shihōin's leg. With a slight tightening of his fingers, he crushed it. "Useless."
"Shibari, Benihime!"
Thread-like black Reiatsu spilled from Kisuke Urahara's Zanpakutō. With a sweep of his arm, the strands wove into a net and wrapped around Sōsuke Aizen.
"Still using tricks like this?" Sōsuke Aizen tilted his head, only to see clusters of fire blooming across the net of Reiatsu.
"Hiasobi, Benihime..." Kisuke Urahara turned his wrist. "Juzutsunagi!"
The clusters of fire detonated, their explosive force stacking together as rampant flames swallowed Sōsuke Aizen.
"Ridiculous..." Aizen waved his hand within the flames. "As if this could..."
Boom!
Under cover of the firelight, Yoruichi Shihōin attacked again. The last remaining iron armor on her left leg flashed with lightning as she broke through the flames and slammed a kick into Sōsuke Aizen's chest.
Kisuke Urahara's Kidō had been a cover earlier. Hiasobi, Benihime was a cover now as well.
Sōsuke Aizen was sent flying backward. From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Isshin Kurosaki closing in.
"Getsuga..." Isshin Kurosaki raised his Zanpakutō high with both hands, Reiatsu surging along the blade. "Tenshō!"
The blade fell. Unlike Ichigo Kurosaki's Getsuga Tenshō, Isshin Kurosaki's Reiatsu wrapped entirely around the blade, sacrificing range in exchange for immense close-range destructive power.
The body that Yoruichi Shihōin could only crack was split open by Isshin Kurosaki's single slash.
Powerful Reiatsu surged wildly from within Sōsuke Aizen, forming a terrifying explosion.
"How did it turn out?" Kisuke Urahara asked as he approached.
"I don't know. In that form... Aizen's Reiatsu is completely unreadable." Isshin Kurosaki looked wary. "He really is terrifyingly strong, but when he attacks, I can't sense his presence at all. If I couldn't still see him with my eyes, I'd almost think his existence was an illusion."
"I'm not confident we can win..." Muten Natsu raised his hand. "Bankai, Rin'en Bokukō!"
Spirit Ink surged out. Rin'en Bokukō burst from the pitch-black waterfall, and in the next instant, Muten Natsu ignited it, turning it into a black flaming dragon that crashed into his body.
Muten Natsu let out a muffled groan. The eerie white armor on his body grew further, covering his chest, waist, and abdomen.
"Special Seat Natsu..." Kisuke Urahara turned his head to warn him. "Unless I'm mistaken, you're devouring the Reishi around you, igniting it, and turning it into your own power. It can strengthen you for a short time, but the strain on your body is far too great. You may..."
"Is now really the time to say that? Doesn't that seem a little too relaxed?" Muten Natsu panted heavily, his voice layered with an increasingly savage roar. "He's getting stronger."
"You can sense his power?" Yoruichi Shihōin praised him. "Not bad. I can't even detect his presen—"
Yoruichi Shihōin's voice stopped abruptly. A roaring gust swept past Muten Natsu's head, blasting a gap into his eerie white mask.
"So this is the extent of your strength..." Sōsuke Aizen stood beside Muten Natsu. A massive wound carved by Isshin Kurosaki split his head, and through the gap, purple chaos flowed inside like a nebula. "I understand now."
"Yoruichi!"
The instant Kisuke Urahara looked toward Yoruichi Shihōin, his body was sent flying.
Before the blood Kisuke Urahara spat out could hit the ground, Sōsuke Aizen's hand had already seized Muten Natsu's head. His fingers curled slightly, and the mask on Muten Natsu's head shattered and vanished.
Aizen tossed Muten Natsu aside casually, then raised his hand and cut down Isshin Kurosaki, who had launched a surprise attack. "Isshin Shiba... Of all these people, you disappoint me the most."
"You..." Blood gushed from Isshin Kurosaki's waist and abdomen. "What did you say?"
"I created such ideal conditions for you." Sōsuke Aizen held his Zanpakutō in a reverse grip and pointed the tip at Isshin Kurosaki. "And yet you only produced someone like that..."
"Getsuga Tenshō!"
A deep blue radiance closed in, only for Sōsuke Aizen to swat it away with a wave of his hand.
"Speak of the devil..."
Ichigo Kurosaki staggered, then steadied himself. He had been relying on Isshin Kurosaki's power to suppress the Hollow power inside him.
But after seeing his father in danger, how could Ichigo Kurosaki possibly stand by and do nothing?
He raised the Zangetsu in his hand, gathering the attack he had released moments earlier. "Getsuga..." "You're too slow, Ichigo." Sōsuke Aizen waved his hand, shattering Zangetsu, then raised his other hand and seized Ichigo Kurosaki by the throat, lifting him into the air. "Compared to my expectations, your growth has been far too slow. After all this, what do you think you can accomplish by coming here?"
"Ichigo!" Isshin Kurosaki cried out. He had just tried to get up when Sōsuke Aizen stepped down on him.
"You bastard!" Ichigo Kurosaki roared. "Get your foot off him!"
"Since when..." Sōsuke Aizen's fingers tightened. "Do the strong have to obey the weak? And if I refuse, what can you do about it?"
"I..." Ichigo Kurosaki's voice came out distorted. "I... will kill you!"
An eerie white substance poured from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth, then hardened and contracted over Ichigo Kurosaki's face. Two sharp horns grew from his temples, curving forward like a bull's.
In an instant, the writhing white substance covered Ichigo Kurosaki's entire body, forming armor like a second skin. Strange red hair sprouted from his neck, wrists, and ankles, swaying in the wind.
"Oh?" Sōsuke Aizen observed Ichigo Kurosaki's transformation. "This is—"
The eerie white substance extended from Ichigo Kurosaki's palm, forming a pure white crescent-shaped blade. With one horizontal sweep, he sent Sōsuke Aizen flying.
The air beneath Sōsuke Aizen's feet exploded as he steadied himself in midair. "It really has been a long time since I saw this form... Hollow White."
"Roar!"
Sōsuke Aizen's answer was a Hollow-like howl. Ichigo Kurosaki, now like a Hollow himself, shot into the sky and slashed at Sōsuke Aizen.
"It seems you've forgotten." Sōsuke Aizen caught the blade in one hand and raised his Zanpakutō with the other. "The one who created you back then... was me."
The eerie white substance swelled in Ichigo Kurosaki's other hand, and a second, shorter blade dropped into his grasp, blocking Sōsuke Aizen's descending Zanpakutō.
Sparks scattered. At that instant, Ichigo Kurosaki kicked Sōsuke Aizen in the chest and sent him flying backward.
The air beneath Ichigo Kurosaki's feet burst into a wave, and he flashed forward, raising his blade for a straight thrust.
A sharp flash of sword light swept past, cutting open Ichigo Kurosaki's chest.
Sōsuke Aizen appeared behind Ichigo Kurosaki and swung again, slicing open his back. "Have you already lost self-awareness? It seems Soul Suicide isn't far off."
Ichigo Kurosaki's falling body abruptly stopped in midair. White substance spurted from the wounds on his chest and back, sealing them shut like glue.
His strange body twisted in the air. The eerie white twin blades danced, releasing crisscrossing deep blue Getsuga that surged toward Sōsuke Aizen.
"As Hollowfication deepens, not only does the boundary of the soul collapse, but even the boundary between the soul and the outside world breaks down. Consciousness separates from the self until it disappears." Sōsuke Aizen swept his hand out, casually knocking the approaching Getsuga aside. "Once self-awareness separates from the self, you can no longer perceive your own existence, so naturally, you cannot reject yourself. You will sink completely into the belief that you are omnipotent..."
Sōsuke Aizen appeared beside Ichigo Kurosaki. "Into that illusion."
His blade swept across. Ichigo Kurosaki's movements froze, and his upper and lower body began to separate.
With nothing to support it, his upper body fell toward the ground. Crimson light gathered between the two horns on Ichigo Kurosaki's head, then erupted.
A brutal torrent of Reishi struck Sōsuke Aizen's body, and the violent explosion shook the air with a thunderous roar.
The cracks on Sōsuke Aizen's face, which had already begun to heal, widened again. "Cero..." His gaze settled on Ichigo Kurosaki's body, now reconnected by the eerie white substance. "High-Speed Regeneration."
There was a trace of anticipation in Sōsuke Aizen's eyes, and he did not rush to attack. "Let me feel a little more of this, as a farewell to the past... and the end of your life."
Ichigo Kurosaki's body joined back together. He was just about to move when clear cracks appeared across the surface of his body.
The intersecting cracks spread over Ichigo Kurosaki like blood vessels. The eerie white substance shattered and peeled away, revealing flowing traces of light underneath.
As the mask on his face broke apart, the light traces on Ichigo Kurosaki's body dimmed with it, then vanished completely.
Ichigo Kurosaki toppled forward powerlessly and stopped moving.
"The power of a Quincy?" Sōsuke Aizen lowered his eyes slightly. "The fusion of powers... is not so simple after all."
"Bankai, Rin'en Bokukō!"
A powerful Reiatsu flashed and disappeared.
Sōsuke Aizen turned toward Muten Natsu. "This is... the third time, isn't it? The first time, your Reiatsu increased threefold. After the second use, it became nine times the original. Now... twenty times. It seems you cannot increase it without limit."
A deep darkness closed in within an instant. Just as Sōsuke Aizen flashed aside to avoid it, blackness swirled around Muten Natsu's body and erupted into a dazzling, icy light that swept outward.
Like a despairing tsunami, surging Spirit Ink rolled forward, following the blade light as it swallowed a vast stretch of ruins.
Sōsuke Aizen broke free from within it. "You deliberately held back to avoid hurting the others... Even now, you still have time to worry about them."
His elegant figure flickered strangely, and Sōsuke Aizen appeared beside Muten Natsu. "Doesn't that seem a little too relaxed?"
The eerie white armor had almost completely covered Muten Natsu, leaving only parts of his limbs exposed.
As if he had not noticed Sōsuke Aizen beside him at all, Muten Natsu swung his blade forward. "Bakudō #1, Sai!"
"This kind of Kidō."
Sōsuke Aizen had only managed those four words before his body shifted sideways against his will. Dense black characters bound him and dragged him in front of Muten Natsu.
Blade light swept past, followed by a continuous series of clear cracks. A large section of Sōsuke Aizen's chest broke open, the fissures spreading to reveal the strange chaos within.
"Bakudō #1." Muten Natsu angled his body slightly and drew Myōki back into his palm. "Sai!"
More characters floated up, binding Sōsuke Aizen's hands behind his back.
"I see..." Sōsuke Aizen sensed the abnormality in the Spirit Ink beneath his feet. "The Reishi devoured by Rin'en Bokukō was mixed with my power. You used that to analyze my Reiatsu. No wonder you could still detect changes in my power when the others could no longer sense my presence."
Ripples spread through the Spirit Ink beneath Muten Natsu's feet. The surrounding Reishi was captured by his Reiatsu, turning into an invisible gale that howled around him and wrapped itself around his body.
His slender frame bent as though bearing a mountain. Muten Natsu's right arm swelled, overflowing with roaring karmic flames.
He took a heavy step forward. The Spirit Ink beside him surged into the sky, only to be cut apart by a single slash.
Power compressed to its limit erupted all at once, tearing a twisted darkness through the air and swallowing everything it touched.
In that blindingly fast draw, everything around them seemed unbearably slow.
Only that chilling, soul-shaking light continued to expand in Sōsuke Aizen's eyes.
With his perception pushed to the extreme, in a world that had almost stopped, only the eerie white shell peeling from Sōsuke Aizen's face scattered at a normal speed.
The blackness swept past like a violently splashed stroke of ink, dragging in everything it touched and crushing it to pieces. All that remained was a faint black mist drifting through a smooth trench that stretched far into the distance.
The smile vanished from Gin Ichimaru's face. "Aizen..." His voice paused slightly. "Captain..."
"I am deeply grateful."
The rolling black mist vanished quickly, revealing Sōsuke Aizen within. The cracks across his body had disappeared completely. His head, which had previously been wrapped in eerie white, was now fully exposed, and his short brown hair had grown down to his shoulders.
"Just as I expected, you accelerated my evolution."