"Arisawa!"
Tatsuki Arisawa, who was fleeing with Don Kanonji, heard the call and turned toward the voice. "Asano!"
"This way!" Keigo Asano waved. "I found everyone!"
Tatsuki Arisawa hurried after him and saw two people hiding in the alley. "Kojima... Honshō!"
"Yo!" Mizuiro Kojima waved in greeting and showed Tatsuki Arisawa his backpack. "Want something to eat? I've got jelly, cookies, beef jerky, canned food..."
Tatsuki Arisawa was a little surprised. "Wait... Is this what you usually keep in your backpack?"
"I took all this from the supermarket. Everyone's asleep, after all." Mizuiro Kojima waved it off. "I don't usually eat this stuff. Ever since middle school, I've only eaten home-cooked meals."
"Huh?" Tatsuki Arisawa knew a little about Mizuiro Kojima's family. "But your family..."
Mizuiro Kojima's father had passed away long ago, and his mother was almost never home.
"My mom's not the one cooking." Mizuiro Kojima smiled. "If you look hard enough, there are actually girls everywhere who are good at cooking."
Tatsuki Arisawa: "..."
So when Keigo Asano said earlier that he was probably sleeping somewhere, he had meant that kind of sleeping.
An incomprehensible crisis had happened, yet somehow, Tatsuki Arisawa had unexpectedly learned another side of her classmate. Her feelings were complicated.
"I heard the general situation from Keigo. Anyway, we're in serious danger right now." Mizuiro Kojima shook his backpack. "So I prepared stun guns, pepper spray, anti-molester spray..."
"Where did you even get... No, forget it." Tatsuki Arisawa shook her head. "This kind of thing is useless. His Reiatsu... Put simply, the moment we get close, we can't move."
Don Kanonji showed them his broken staff, looking like he wanted to cry. Because Rangiku Matsumoto had stopped him earlier, he had not gotten close to Sōsuke Aizen himself. "The moment my Stick got near him, it turned to dust."
"Reiatsu?" Keigo Asano caught the unfamiliar word. "What's that?"
Tatsuki Arisawa did not know how to explain it for a moment. "...Think of it as a kind of supernatural power."
"Ah... So when an angel descends, the direct impact of powerful soul energy on human souls in the material world is Reiatsu. But now isn't the time to study that." Mizuiro Kojima tossed a pile of things aside. "If we can't get close, then these are useless."
Tatsuki Arisawa glanced to the side and noticed Chizuru Honshō sitting limply nearby. "Chizuru, what's wrong? You've been spacing out this whole time."
"I... I should be asking you that! What else am I supposed to do but space out right now? I don't understand anything that's happening! How can you all accept this so quickly?" Chizuru Honshō hugged her knees. "The whole city has been taken to some strange place, everyone is asleep, and someone is trying to kill us... Even for a nightmare, this is way too terrifying! Tatsuki, you know something, don't you? What are you hiding? What exactly is..."
"I do know a few things, but none of them help with our situation right now." Tatsuki Arisawa clenched her fists. The karate she had trained in was completely useless here. "But I know that Muten and Orihime are both trying their hardest somewhere. Neither of them has given up."
"Orihime... Why bring her up now..." Chizuru Honshō bit her lower lip, and Orihime Inoue's cheerful smile flashed through her mind. "You should've told me sooner!"
She sprang to her feet. "I don't care if it's an angel, a demon, or whatever. If anyone dares bully Orihime, I'll never forgive them!"
"Is that so?" The ground trembled as terrifying Reiatsu descended, as if giving weight to the air itself. Sōsuke Aizen appeared at the mouth of the alley. "Then what if it is a god?"
A stun gun spun through the air toward Sōsuke Aizen, only to turn to dust as it approached him.
"Whoa!" Mizuiro Kojima watched the stun gun he had thrown vanish and could not help exclaiming, "It really does."
Mizuiro Kojima casually pulled a lighter refill canister from his backpack, opened it, and threw it over. "Try this. Hey!"
The others realized what Mizuiro Kojima was doing and immediately turned to run.
The burning lighter spun through the air, and flames exploded.
As the blast swept out, both Keigo Asano and Tatsuki Arisawa were startled by Mizuiro Kojima's recklessness.
Chizuru Honshō dug two more lighter refill canisters out of Mizuiro Kojima's backpack. "Keep going. Two more times!"
Don Kanonji stared in stunned silence. Young people these days really were something else.
"Heh..." An invisible wind howled up, scattering the smoke, dust, and flames. Sōsuke Aizen approached them with a smile, completely unharmed.
"It really is useless..." Tatsuki Arisawa shouted, "Run!"
Everyone fled in panic. Tatsuki Arisawa glanced back and saw that Sōsuke Aizen was still following at an unhurried pace. Though he walked slowly, the distance between them kept shrinking.
Hoo...
A figure landed behind Sōsuke Aizen. It was Gin Ichimaru, returned.
Sōsuke Aizen stopped.
"I'm back..." Gin Ichimaru walked toward Sōsuke Aizen. "Captain Aizen."
"You're back." Sōsuke Aizen watched Gin Ichimaru approach. "How is she?"
"I killed her," Gin Ichimaru answered with a smile.
"Indeed." Sōsuke Aizen's gaze shifted slightly. He could no longer find Rangiku Matsumoto's Reiatsu. "How surprising... I thought you still had at least some feelings for her."
"Feelings? I don't have anything like that. I told you when we first met, didn't I..." Gin Ichimaru opened his mouth like a snake about to devour its prey. "I'm a snake. Cold skin, no feelings, crawling everywhere as I search for prey with the tip of my tongue. When I find someone interesting, I swallow them whole. That's the kind of person I am."
Sōsuke Aizen looked toward the fleeing group and raised his Zanpakutō. "You came at just the right time. I just found... a fine place to hang their corpses."
"Sounds good." Gin Ichimaru raised his hand and gently pressed it against Sōsuke Aizen's Zanpakutō. "Let me take care of something this simple."
Perhaps because it was rare for Gin Ichimaru to be so proactive, Sōsuke Aizen called softly, "Gin..."
A streak of white light passed through Gin Ichimaru's wide sleeve and pierced Sōsuke Aizen's chest.
It was... the extended Kamishini no Yari.
"The only way to avoid Kyōka Suigetsu is to touch the blade before complete hypnosis is activated." Gin Ichimaru's sleeve was torn, revealing a slender, pale arm. "I don't even know how many years it took me to uncover that."
The people of the Gotei 13 did not even know this, yet they all thought they had a way to kill Sōsuke Aizen.
To Gin Ichimaru, their actions had been far too hasty.
Pshk!
As Kamishini no Yari shortened, the blade left Sōsuke Aizen's chest, and blood sprayed out.
"So this is how you planned to take my life..." Sōsuke Aizen pressed a hand to the wound in his chest. An injury that would have been fatal to an ordinary person was already healing rapidly. "Is that all?"
"Of course not." Gin Ichimaru showed him the notch in the blade. "Sorry. After uncovering your secret, I kept my own from you."
Kamishini no Yari could not extend as far as Gin Ichimaru had claimed, nor was its extension as fast as he had said.
But... in the instant it extended and retracted, Kamishini no Yari turned to dust, much like Rangiku Matsumoto's Haineko.
From inside the blade, it released a deadly poison capable of dissolving cells.
After the blade pierced Sōsuke Aizen's heart, Gin Ichimaru had left a piece of it there in dust form when he withdrew it.
"Kill..." Gin Ichimaru reached toward Sōsuke Aizen's heart. "Kamishini no Yari."
The wound that had already healed opened again, then abruptly expanded into a massive hole in Aizen's chest.
Gin Ichimaru's outstretched hand seized the Hōgyoku floating inside that hole.
At last...
Gin Ichimaru tightened his fingers, just as he had once picked up a dead branch from the grass.
That had been more than a hundred years ago.
Hidden in the grass like a snake, he had seen a Shinigami take something from Rangiku Matsumoto's soul.
That was something that belonged to Rangiku Matsumoto.
Again and again, he slipped out late at night like a snake that did not know to hibernate, following the Shinigami's trail, until he saw that Shinigami offer what had been stolen from Rangiku Matsumoto to Sōsuke Aizen.
Sōsuke Aizen had discovered the Hōgyoku before Kisuke Urahara.
To complete the Hōgyoku, he took the souls of hundreds of Shinigami... as well as hundreds of Rukongai residents with the potential to become Shinigami, and offered them to the Hōgyoku.
But the Hōgyoku was never satisfied.
Only after Sōsuke Aizen stole the Hōgyoku created by Kisuke Urahara and offered it to his own Hōgyoku was the Hōgyoku finally completed.
And now... the thing completed by stealing part of Rangiku Matsumoto's soul was finally in Gin Ichimaru's hand.
Sōsuke Aizen grabbed Gin Ichimaru's arm and threw him away.
But Gin Ichimaru had already seized the Hōgyoku, using the force to retreat with it into the distance.
"Gin..." Having lost the Hōgyoku, Sōsuke Aizen dropped to one knee, his broken body falling backward.
Just before his head touched the ground, powerful Reiatsu condensed into lines, weaving a cross over the hole in his chest.
"Aaaaaaaaaah!" Sōsuke Aizen forced his body upright as stark white matter surged from his chest.
"Hah..." Gin Ichimaru panted heavily and looked at the Hōgyoku in his palm.
A deep blue glow flowed across it, releasing a terrifying Reiatsu.
This was... Sōsuke Aizen's Reiatsu.
"I win, Gin." Sōsuke Aizen appeared in front of Gin Ichimaru, the three pairs of butterfly-like wings behind him trembling faintly. "Whether or not it is inside my body, the Hōgyoku in your hand... belongs to me."
A vertical mark split open on Sōsuke Aizen's forehead, revealing a deep darkness within.
The Hōgyoku in Gin Ichimaru's hand flickered and vanished, then embedded itself at the center of the cross in the hole in Sōsuke Aizen's chest.
"Fear is essential to evolution. Only fear can draw out the power of evolution. But that fear gradually disappears as one's power increases. That is why I waited for Muten Natsu to grow, and that is why I... kept you by my side." Sōsuke Aizen swung his Zanpakutō, cutting open Gin Ichimaru's body. "Just as I expected, the fear you brought me has allowed me to evolve into a being beyond both Shinigami and Hollow. Thank you... Gin."
Gin Ichimaru reached toward the Hōgyoku in Sōsuke Aizen's chest, but Sōsuke Aizen was faster.
With a casual motion, Sōsuke Aizen tore off Gin Ichimaru's arm. His face showed neither joy nor sorrow as he drove his blade through Gin Ichimaru's chest.
"Gin!" Rangiku Matsumoto's desperate cry rang out. Ignoring the danger and her own injuries, she rushed toward the fallen Gin Ichimaru.
Don't come closer... Gin Ichimaru struggled to open his eyes, his sky-blue gaze reflecting Rangiku Matsumoto's tearful face.
That's why I never dared tell you where I was going.
Ahh... In the end, I still couldn't take back what you lost.
I still couldn't stop you from crying.
"You sealed her Reiatsu with Hakufuku?" Sōsuke Aizen raised his blade. "Gin... You truly are exactly the man I thought you were."
But all of this was about to end.
Sōsuke Aizen swung his Zanpakutō down, cutting Gin Ichimaru.
The blade sliced through empty air, stirring a howling gale that shattered the distant rocks.
A vast, empty wasteland entered his sight. Sōsuke Aizen turned his head and fixed his gaze on the figure draped in a blood-red cloak. "Muten Natsu... is it? You used Shadow Stealth to bring me here because you didn't want Karakura Town caught in the damage. Doing something pointless again, I see. After you die, Karakura Town will still be..."
"Then stop talking." Muten Natsu raised his hand and pulled the hood covering his head back behind him. His clear black-and-white eyes looked at Sōsuke Aizen. "Kill me."
"..." Sōsuke Aizen narrowed his eyes slightly. In that instant just now, he seemed to have seen the illusion of several hands extending from Muten Natsu. Those hands overlapped in part like phantoms, then finally merged completely into a single arm. "Your body... is collapsing."
What he had seen did look like an illusion, but the current Sōsuke Aizen could not possibly hallucinate.
The problem lay with Muten Natsu.
"Retsu Unohana's power is keeping you alive, while the uncontrollable power inside you is destroying your body. The two have formed a delicate balance." Sōsuke Aizen saw through Muten Natsu's condition. "As you are now, you cannot use Hollowfication, and you cannot use Hell Flames. Even the slightest damage would break that balance and cause irreversible Soul Suicide."
"In your eyes..." Muten Natsu's voice overlapped in layers, as if dozens of him were speaking at once with tiny delays between them. "Is that what my condition looks like?"
"In the end, you still chose a path of mutual destruction." Sōsuke Aizen shattered like glass. "When will you understand... that no matter how violent an explosion is, it cannot compare to the sun's continuous burn?"