Looking at the rather lively Hōgyoku hovering in the air, Ōetsu Nimaiya said coldly, "Did you forget? The Hōōden is my territory!"
The moment Ōetsu's words fell, a torrential downpour descended from the sky.
But it was not rain.
It was a dense storm of Zanpakutō.
The Hōgyoku moved through the rain of blades without the slightest pressure. As long as there was even the smallest gap between the falling swords, not a single Zanpakutō could strike it.
And even if one did hit, it hardly mattered. After enduring Ōetsu's hammering for an entire day and night, the Hōgyoku was no fragile thing.
"Is this your countermeasure, Sword God?" Aizen's voice was thick with mockery.
"Don't rush me, Little Aizen…" Ōetsu pushed up his sunglasses. He raised one hand upright, and his words seemed to carry a strange power. "In my name, all weapons—manifest!"
In the next instant, the resonance of the Zanpakutō spread rapidly outward with Ōetsu at its center. The blades began to vanish, replaced one after another by human figures.
The ones closest to Ōetsu all became beautiful young women. Those farther away transformed into black-clad figures with only a pair of eyes visible.
Manifestation.
Ōetsu had forced every Zanpakutō to manifest the power of the spirit within its blade. He knew Kyōka Suigetsu was no longer under his control, but he still had a method. By using a large-scale resonance among blades, he could forcibly draw out the Hōgyoku's blade spirit.
That was right.
In Ōetsu's eyes, the jewel before him was a Zanpakutō.
His craftsmanship had never failed in thousands of years. If he said it was a sword, then it was a sword.
And Aizen was the spirit of that blade.
What Ōetsu intended to do was force Aizen to appear. Only then could he proceed with his next move.
"How fascinating, Sword God…"
Inside the Hōgyoku, Aizen could clearly feel a strange force guiding him outward. The force was not powerful. In fact, Aizen could have completely rejected it.
After all, Aizen was not a blade spirit in the traditional sense.
In his state of fusion with his Zanpakutō, Aizen was still Aizen. Within the Hōgyoku, all power was under his control.
Very well. I will play along.
Aizen's mentality shifted once more. The confidence granted by his overwhelming power made him regard Ōetsu as insignificant.
Crack.
A splitting sound rang out from the Hōgyoku.
It was not the Hōgyoku shattering. Rather, four rhombus-shaped crystals separated from it, positioning themselves above, below, to the left, and to the right of the jewel.
The world was suddenly dyed in a mysterious shade of violet. White light shone through the purple, while the surface reflected a mirror-like sheen.
Black, tree-like patterns rapidly spread and intertwined from the Hōgyoku's new form. Soon, a dark humanoid figure appeared, its surface glowing with violet light.
Pitch-black Shinigami power formed a fitted robe. White Hollow power draped itself over the shoulders, collar, and hem. White gloves covered both arms. At the elbows, the violet power of the Hōgyoku merged with Shinigami and Hollow power, forming mysterious eye-shaped petals.
As for Aizen's appearance, he still had that arrogant slicked-back hair. A long lock fell across his brow. A vertical eye split open on his forehead, and all three eyes shone with an enigmatic violet glow.
Another cracking sound rang out.
Several fissures tore open in the sky. Six silver mirrors gathered behind Aizen like wings.
Finally, Aizen spoke in that magnetic voice of his.
"I shall transcend everything."
"Sōsuke Aizen."
Ōetsu removed his sunglasses once again. This was the first time he had truly looked directly at Aizen.
An Aizen in this state was no longer an opponent he could deal with through jokes and casual banter.
Aizen merely smiled at Ōetsu. He was in no hurry to attack. This was the first time he had shown this form to the world, and he had absolute confidence that he could dispose of this so-called Sword God.
"What is that?" Rōjūrō Ōtoribashi stared blankly at the screen.
The instant Aizen appeared, the entire sky and earth were dyed in that graceful violet radiance. It was strangely beautiful, dreamlike and illusory enough to draw him in.
"He has surpassed Bankai. Aizen has already completed his Transcendent Bankai."
"That is Transcendent Bankai?!"
Although they had already guessed as much, every captain still fell into shock after hearing Tsunayoshi's judgment.
They had clearly been the first to follow Tsunayoshi in learning how to surpass Bankai, yet Aizen had beaten them to it again.
Was this what it meant to be a genius?
Among everyone present, aside from Tsunayoshi, only Kisuke Urahara remained relatively calm. Even so, his expression was not pleasant. His fingers were rapidly analyzing data from across the Soul Society.
"Tsunayoshi, if they keep fighting like this, the Soul Society will not have problems, will it?"
The data transmitted by the instruments told Urahara that faint tremors of varying intensity were occurring in every corner of the Soul Society.
It was obvious that this was the influence produced by the Reiatsu of those two Transcendent Bankai-level beings in the sky.
"Do not panic. Someone in the Soul King Palace cares about the continued existence of the Soul Society even more than you do."
Tsunayoshi seemed very calm. With the Monk there, it was impossible for the Soul Society to be destroyed.
"Sawada Tsunayoshi, this old man asks you to stabilize the situation in the Soul Society," Yamamoto said voluntarily.
Tsunayoshi sighed.
After all, he was not from the Soul Society. His feelings for it could not resonate with Urahara, Yamamoto, and the others in the same way.
Another Transcendent Bankai was activated. Rain Mist quietly spread to every corner of the Soul Society, using the calming property of the Rain attribute to stabilize the tremors.
Back at the Soul King Palace, the Monk sitting cross-legged at its edge opened his eyes for the first time.
Ever since Aizen had invaded the Soul King Palace, he had remained there, guarding the safety of the Soul King.
The reason the Monk had not acted was that, in his eyes, Aizen's actions had been nothing more than a minor disturbance. Something that had yet to amount to anything could be left to the others to clean up.
But now, the Reiatsu Aizen was releasing had finally made the Monk take him seriously.
Like the Monk, Ōetsu had already abandoned the thought of hammering Aizen into shape.
Aizen, who had completed fusion with his Zanpakutō, could no longer become material for Ōetsu's blade-forging.
That left him with only one option.
Kill Aizen.
"All right. Playtime is over. All of you, come here!"
Ōetsu shouted toward his personal guard.
At his call, the five girls of his personal guard revealed their original forms one after another: chisel, flint, water tank, hammer, and fire tongs.
The five tools flew to Ōetsu together and hung at his waist, allowing him to use them freely.
At the same time, Ōetsu's outfit changed as well.
His once-fashionable hairstyle and sunglasses vanished entirely. In their place was an extremely short buzz cut. His upper body was bare, and a tattered apron hung over his chest. He looked every bit like a blacksmith who had been working for countless years.
"So this is the real you, Ōetsu Nimaiya?" Aizen asked, narrowing his eyes.
A faint trace of mockery quietly drifted toward Ōetsu.
Ōetsu's face turned terrifyingly cold.
"You will regret forcing me to reveal such an unsightly form, Aizen!"
His short stature, thin frame, and less-than-handsome appearance had always been a sore spot in Ōetsu's heart.
In the past, he had suffered endless ridicule because of it. Even after he became a blacksmith and gained his own power, those who mocked him would still laugh at him for his plain and rustic appearance.
From then on, Ōetsu sealed away his truest self.
He wore new clothes, adopted new hairstyles, and sang the most popular songs. Even in the inescapable Soul King Palace, he was forever the one walking at the cutting edge of fashion.
Now, in order to deal with Aizen, Ōetsu had no choice but to reveal his true appearance.
It was humiliating to him.
And to vent the dissatisfaction in his heart, Aizen could only atone with death.
With a flash, Ōetsu rushed in front of Aizen and began a fierce battle with him. Every kind of tool appeared in rapid succession, as if he wished to cut Aizen down immediately.
But to the people at the entrance of the Shin'ō Underground Great Prison, this scene looked somewhat strange.
"What the hell? Why did it stop moving? Kisuke, your bug did not get discovered, did it?"
Kensei immediately pushed Urahara's shoulder as he spoke.
Ever since a moment ago, the image had been frozen without changing.
"Kensei, do you think it is possible…" Shinji Hirako pressed a hand to his forehead, sounding somewhat reluctant to say it.
"Squad Zero has fallen under Kyōka Suigetsu," Ukitake finished for him.
"What?"
A flush of embarrassment surged onto Kensei's face.
The combat power Aizen had displayed was so overwhelming that, for a moment, he had forgotten Kyōka Suigetsu existed.
Shocked, he asked, "When did he activate Kyōka Suigetsu?"
"Transcendent Bankai is the fusion of the Zanpakutō with its wielder. Kyōka Suigetsu's ability has completely merged into Aizen's body," Tsunayoshi explained. "In other words, every movement he makes is releasing Kyōka Suigetsu's power."
"Then does that not mean…"
"Anyone without resistance to illusions does not even have the qualifications to be Aizen's opponent," Tsunayoshi said. "Originally, Ōetsu could still use his control over Zanpakutō to avoid Aizen's illusions. But now that Kyōka Suigetsu's power has completely returned to Aizen's body, Ōetsu has lost his trump card against him."
"What if Tenjirō Kirinji were fighting him instead?" Retsu Unohana asked.
"He might still be able to put up a fight," Tsunayoshi said, though he was not entirely certain. "After all, his lightning ability that breaks through deception should be able to reduce the influence of illusions on him to some extent."
A violet prism rose before Ōetsu.
Inside the mirror-like surface was the scene of Ōetsu fighting with all his might.
Apart from him, identical prisms had appeared before Ōetsu's personal guard and the other manifested Zanpakutō spirits.
From the very beginning, Ōetsu had never had the chance to use his true strength.
At the same time Aizen manifested, he had already hypnotized everything in the Hōōden.
Not even a single Asauchi had been spared.
After fully fusing with the Hōgyoku, the power of Aizen's Kyōka Suigetsu had evolved once again. Its hypnotic ability was now something even Zanpakutō could not completely escape. One by one, they sank into that dreamlike, kaleidoscopic world.
Ignoring Ōetsu, who was lost in his own imagined battle, Aizen turned his gaze toward a corner of the Hōōden.
There was an insect there.
A surveillance spirit bug.
When they saw Aizen turn his gaze toward them, even though they knew it was only an image transmitted through the screen, most of the captains still gripped the hilts of their swords.
There was nothing they could do about it.
Aizen's presence was simply too powerful. The urge to draw their blades was an instinctive reaction.
Aizen's gaze seemed able to pierce through the surveillance spirit bug and meet the eyes of every captain present.
An amused smile appeared on his face.
Floating in the air, he turned in a circle, displaying his post-Transcendent Bankai form to everyone in the Seireitei.
"Mugen Hōka."
Aizen's voice was soft.
But every captain watching heard him clearly.
"That is the name of my Transcendent Bankai."
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