"Nineteen, eight, seven… Ōetsu Nimaiya!"
After the Blood Oath Rotation, the one who appeared before Aizen was naturally Ōetsu Nimaiya.
No one knew where he had gotten speakers and a microphone from, but he showed off in front of Aizen for quite a while.
Even Aizen was rendered speechless.
He found it very difficult to believe that his opponent would be such an unreliable man.
Suddenly, Ōetsu crouched down in front of Aizen. Beneath his sunglasses, a sharp gleam flashed.
"Little Aizen, are you wondering what kind of madness I'm indulging in?"
"I'm celebrating!"
Ōetsu raised his arms and shouted.
"Celebrating the birth of yet another great work of mine!"
"Oh, right. Welcome to the Hōōden!"
Ōetsu bowed like a perfect gentleman, presenting his Hōōden to Aizen.
At the end of the cliff stood a shabby thatched hut. Hanging crookedly above it was an equally crooked signboard bearing the three characters: Hōōden.
This was the palace of Ōetsu, the God of the Sword?
If he had not been unable to move, Aizen would absolutely have beaten Ōetsu senseless.
He was a member of Squad Zero. Not building a grand and imposing palace was simply disgraceful.
Take Aizen, for example. Even after going to Hueco Mundo, that boundless desert wasteland, he had still raised Las Noches there.
In Aizen's view, appearances and prestige were still rather important.
"No, no, no, Little Aizen. The outside doesn't matter!"
Ōetsu saw through Aizen's thoughts.
"What truly matters is what lies inside the Hōōden!"
As he spoke, the shabby Hōōden seemed to transform into the maw of a gigantic beast, swallowing both Ōetsu and Aizen together.
When his vision returned, Aizen found himself inside a vast space.
The area was surrounded by curtains of water. At a glance, there did not seem to be anything particularly special about it.
So this was the interior of the Hōōden?
Aizen silently evaluated the situation, but he did not ask aloud. He continued quietly destroying the restraints on his body.
"Don't waste your strength."
Ōetsu was fully aware of Aizen's actions.
"Unless you destroy every Squad Zero palace, you won't be able to get out at all."
Aizen discovered that Ōetsu was not wrong.
Every time he destroyed part of the trees binding him, new ones would immediately grow in their place. If things continued like this, escape would be impossible.
Seeing that Aizen remained silent, Ōetsu returned to his usual playful expression. With exaggerated body language, he announced:
"Next, allow me to grandly introduce my royal guard — the Nimaiya Royal Guard! Welcome to my show!"
Five female voices of different tones answered from behind Ōetsu.
In one breath, five girls of entirely different styles leapt out behind him. What they had in common was that none of them showed Ōetsu any mercy, immediately punching and kicking him.
Perhaps they all knew the situation was important. After giving Ōetsu a beating, the Nimaiya Royal Guard immediately got to work.
One of them, a little girl with pink hair and cross-shaped pupils, grew two shovel-like tools from her hands. She began construction around Aizen. Before long, she had shoveled out a raised platform around him, with Aizen positioned at its center.
"She's Nonome Nonomi. Cute, right?"
Even while lying on the ground, Ōetsu did not forget to introduce the members of his royal guard to Aizen.
Whether Aizen wanted to listen or not, Ōetsu proudly continued his introductions.
Another girl, thin and small with a fiery red mohawk, struck her hands together, causing sparks to burst forth. Immediately afterward, she spat intense flames toward the platform.
"This is Mera Hiuchigashima. Her temper is just a tiny bit fiery."
Ōetsu pinched his pinky finger as he spoke.
After spitting fire, Mera Hiuchigashima did not forget to turn back and punch Ōetsu.
At the edge of the platform, a sentimental-looking woman complained about how troublesome everything was while gathering the surrounding seawater.
"Oh, that's Tokie Tonokawa. Her tears… you'll get used to them."
Immediately afterward came a blonde woman with twin-tails and a very impressive figure. She swung her exaggerated twin-tails and firmly pinned Aizen again just as he had begun to move.
Under the roasting flames, the trees binding Aizen had loosened slightly. Just as Aizen was about to escape, he saw twin-tails wrapping around his body.
Moreover, the binding force of those twin-tails seemed to be slightly stronger than the Cage of Life.
"Don't struggle. Hasuka Hashihara has caught countless disobedient Zanpakutō. Don't even dream of escaping."
"Oh, right. Tsumiko Tsuchimiya, give me a hammer."
Ōetsu called out to the last girl, a silent black-haired woman whose entire body was wrapped in bandages.
Tsumiko Tsuchimiya pulled aside the bandage over her mouth, broke off one of her teeth, and the tooth transformed in her hand into a long black hammer. She then threw the hammer to Ōetsu.
Catching the hammer, Ōetsu took off his sunglasses for the first time.
He revealed a serious expression completely different from his usual joking demeanor.
Aizen recognized that expression.
In the past, whenever he encountered experimental materials that delighted him, he had shown that very same look.
By this point, Aizen had already figured out what kind of situation he was in.
Ōetsu was treating Aizen as material for a Zanpakutō.
He intended to forge a blade.
"Hiss! No way. That Aizen… is going to be forged?"
At the entrance to the Great Underground Prison beneath the Shin'ō Academy, several people sucked in a cold breath.
Shinji, in particular, voiced the doubt in his heart in disbelief.
That mighty, peerless Aizen was actually so fragile before Squad Zero?
The captains of the Visoreds in particular felt cold fear beneath their joy at seeing Aizen in such a wretched state.
It was precisely because they knew how powerful Aizen was that the scene before them felt so terrifying.
Squad Zero was far too powerful.
The other captains, who were not Visoreds, mostly revealed solemn expressions.
No one capable of becoming a captain was a fool. Ever since the Seireitei began promoting training to surpass Bankai, they had faintly sensed that they might one day come into conflict with the beings above them.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi, what do you think?" Yamamoto asked.
His originally narrowed eyes had opened wide, and his gaze was filled with sharpness.
"The others are one thing, but this Ōetsu is hard to say. He can forge Zanpakutō, yet he has never once revealed his own Zanpakutō. Without seeing his trump card, I don't have much confidence either."
"As far as I can tell, those girls around Ōetsu should be Zanpakutō, correct?" Byakuya Kuchiki asked.
He had clearly regarded Ōetsu's royal guard as Ōetsu's blades.
"All Asauchi in Soul Society were forged by Ōetsu. But have you ever thought about this? Before Asauchi appeared, Zanpakutō already existed in Soul Society," Tsunayoshi countered.
"That possibility exists," Yamamoto confirmed. "When I was still young, I had already seen people fighting with blades that possessed special abilities."
Yamamoto's words stirred up a storm.
Everyone stared at Tsunayoshi. How did he know about matters from what was practically ancient history?
"Don't look at me. All I know is that before Ōetsu created Zanpakutō, there was another term for Bankai: Shin'uchi."
Tsunayoshi thought of the monk who had lived even longer than Ōetsu.
Unexpectedly, Aizen had not even seen the monk's face before being defeated by Ōetsu.
"Shin'uchi? In other words, there is also a Kageuchi? Corresponding to our Bankai and Shikai?" As a noble, Byakuya was still very perceptive.
"I'm not sure. It is only because this term exists that I suspect Ōetsu already possessed his own Shin'uchi when he invented Zanpakutō," Tsunayoshi speculated.
"That is very possible. He is someone who has lived even longer than this old man. Even my Ryūjin Jakka was forged by his hands," Yamamoto confirmed Tsunayoshi's guess.
"Then isn't Aizen finished? Even if he escapes, Ōetsu still has a Bankai waiting for him?" Kensei asked in surprise.
"It's still uncertain whether he can even escape Ōetsu's forging," Kisuke Urahara said with a serious expression.
His hand moved rapidly as he recorded the images on the screen.
"His life will not have been wasted. At the very least, he has allowed us to understand the abilities of the others."
While everyone was discussing, Aizen had already taken several hammer blows.
He could clearly sense that his body was changing under Ōetsu's strikes.
Combined with Ōetsu's increasingly excited expression, Aizen could only conclude that this change was disadvantageous to him.
Aizen was not someone who would sit still and await death.
After the trees binding him were burned away by the flames, he immediately used Kyōka Suigetsu's power in an attempt to escape. However, Hasuka Hashihara's twin-tails clamped him down firmly, preventing him from moving.
When he used Hollow power to attack Ōetsu, the moment the Hollow power left Aizen's body, the surrounding flames burned it away completely, as if incinerating impurities.
Kidō was even more impossible to use now.
That girl named Tsumiko Tsuchimiya had wrapped a circle of gauze over his mouth. The gauze possessed a mysterious power that sealed his ability to chant Kidō.
Was there only one final move left?
Aizen raised his unwilling head.
A crack suddenly split open between his brows, and a sharp blade shot straight out from his forehead.
It was Kyōka Suigetsu.
Ever since he had begun fusing with Kyōka Suigetsu, the blade had been traveling throughout Aizen's body. He could call it forth from any part of himself.
And now, Aizen intended to ambush Ōetsu.
As long as he created a gap, he could erupt with Reiatsu and blast away these members of Ōetsu's royal guard.
However, Aizen's scheme was completely seen through by Ōetsu.
Looking at the blade shooting toward him, Ōetsu did not panic in the slightest. As he swung the hammer, he said calmly:
"Strip Kyōka Suigetsu of its sharpness."
There was no sound at all.
Kyōka Suigetsu stabbed into Ōetsu's face like a finger poking a cheek. It did not even pierce his skin.
Having lost its follow-up power, Kyōka Suigetsu could only fall weakly beside Ōetsu's foot.
Ōetsu looked at Kyōka Suigetsu with great disdain, then kicked it back into Aizen's body, hammering it together with Aizen.
"Forget it. A failed product with no soul like this can simply accompany you."
Ōetsu's tone did not fluctuate in the slightest.
He had forged countless blades, and he had also destroyed countless failed works.
This was merely a typical forging.
To Ōetsu, it meant nothing.
But to Aizen, it had been his final method.
After even his Zanpakutō became ineffective, it was as if all strength had left his body. On the surface, he no longer struggled and simply allowed Ōetsu to forge him.
"Hiss! Tsunayoshi, that strike Aizen just used may have revealed Ōetsu's ability!"
Kisuke Urahara pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose with one hand, his gaze sharp and intelligent.
"If it's control over Zanpakutō, then Ōetsu alone could crush the entire Seireitei."
Tsunayoshi voiced a terrifying speculation.
Everyone else tightly gripped their Zanpakutō while simultaneously turning their gazes toward a certain dark-skinned woman.
When it came to someone who did not rely on a Zanpakutō yet still possessed immense combat power, it seemed the only candidate was Yoruichi Shihōin.
Ōetsu's hammer blows continued to fall in orderly rhythm, one after another.
Time gradually passed.
There was no trace of irritation on Ōetsu's face. Instead, his excitement only accumulated further.
In Ōetsu's view, following that ancient Menos Grande from long ago, yet another powerful and terrifying Zanpakutō was about to be born in his hands.
Author's Note
Personally, I don't think too highly of the scene where Ichigo goes to the Soul King Palace to have his Zanpakutō reforged.
From a plot perspective, The Blade Is Me allowed Ichigo to recognize his own power, and that process was indeed moving. But in my view, because White exists, Ichigo clearly already had his own Zanpakutō. He simply could not recognize his own power.
Going to the Soul King Palace to have his blade forged essentially meant handing his weakness over to the Soul King Palace.
I do not believe that Ōetsu, as the God of the Sword, would refrain from adding something of his own into the Zanpakutō.
Just like Ichibē, the monk who calls true names, controls the world in a certain sense through the conceptual power of "names," Ōetsu could also control the Shinigami as a group by controlling Zanpakutō.
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