"Hah, hah! Hah!!"
Looking at the heavily breathing Aizen, Yoruichi chuckled and teased, "So even a face like yours can show such a frustrated expression."
"Then you'd better look a little closer!"
Eh?! The voice sounded wrong. Yoruichi swore she hadn't even blinked, yet Aizen's face had suddenly turned into the back of a head tied with a black braid.
"D-Dead fish eyes?"
"Lord Kōe?"
The two exchanged a glance and flipped over the person pinned beneath them. Sure enough, it was Kōe's tearless, despairing face.
"Are you... are you two having fun?"
Hearing this, Yoruichi and Suì-Fēng simultaneously lowered their heads, terrified that Kōe would see their utterly humiliated expressions.
"What are you looking down for? Let me up!"
"O-Oh!"
Such a reaction was far too sluggish for the former and current Captains of Squad 2, but it no longer mattered. The moment they had tackled Kōe from behind, it was already too late.
"Kōe, step back!" Yamamoto sternly reprimanded Kōe, who was about to swing his blade at the pillar of light enveloping Aizen and the other two. No matter how unwilling they were, a failure at the final hurdle was still a failure. The outcome could no longer be changed.
"Sigh..."
The scythe in his hands ultimately failed to strike down. Kōe let out a long sigh, a sound that landed like a resounding slap across the hearts of everyone present.
This pillar of light descending from the Garganta was called Negación, a technique used by Menos to rescue their comrades. Once enveloped by the Negación, the inside and outside of the light pillar became two completely separate, non-interfering worlds.
In other words, even though the slowly ascending Aizen was right in front of them, no one present could harm a single hair on his head. They could only watch helplessly as the trio entered the Garganta and departed for Hueco Mundo. It was a supreme irony.
However, all of this could have actually been prevented. Setting aside Kōe, who was the closest, even the others who had been hiding in the surroundings could have at least shifted the positions of Ichimaru Gin and Tōsen Kaname the instant the Garganta opened.
But look at what they had actually done. The person pinned beneath Komamura's blade was a blood-soaked Kuchiki Byakuya, while Rukia stood beside them, looking completely stupefied.
Lieutenants Iba and Omaeda had targeted the collapsed Kurosaki Ichigo, and working together, they had managed to completely snap his barely-connected spine.
Even Kōe, who had the best opportunity, was tackled to the ground by the exquisite teamwork of Yoruichi and Suì-Fēng. Despite having personally defeated Ichimaru Gin and Tōsen Kaname, he could now only watch the three of them leave, utterly powerless to stop it.
Aside from causing trouble, this group seemed incapable of doing anything right. Very few even paid attention to who the fourth pillar of light in the sky was picking up. It looked like just an ordinary squad member. Rather than not caring, it was more that they didn't want to curse their own incompetence yet again.
How could it be an ordinary squad member? A pristine white, form-fitting uniform, a single-horned mask completely covering the left half of his head—Ulquiorra! To think Aizen had hidden him in Squad 5.
"Has he already conquered... no, should I say, modified Hueco Mundo?"
"What!" Yoruichi's pupils shrank violently. She had originally thought Aizen was merely using the Hōgyoku to cooperate with the Menos. "What did you discover?"
Kōe didn't answer Yoruichi. Likewise ignoring the confused gazes of Yamamoto and the others around him, he raised his head and looked at Aizen, who had ascended into midair, as if declaring war.
"Even if you hold the entirety of Hueco Mundo in your hands, I won't let you off! You managed to escape this time, but where will you run to next, Aizen!"
"Escape?" Aizen took off his glasses, looking seemingly exhausted. "You did indeed push me into a corner, Kōe."
*'I will let you leave the Seireitei. Consider it your reward for getting rid of Central 46 for me.'* Recalling Kōe's words back in Seijōtōkyorin, Aizen felt that this was perhaps one of the few truths Kōe had ever spoken to him.
He had considered that Kōe might guess his connection to Hueco Mundo and subsequently realize that his escape door wasn't on the ground, but in the sky. He had seen Kidō like the Three Locks Sealing Three Gates before; it wouldn't be surprising at all if Kōe knew it. Furthermore, given the man's mastery over Kidō, it was perfectly normal for him to have other methods prepared.
Changing the location of the Garganta, or ensuring someone could shatter the Kidō in an instant—these were the two options available to him. For the latter, Aizen had long since brought Ulquiorra, whose Shinigamification was already highly developed in Hueco Mundo, into the Seireitei.
After all, under the effects of Complete Hypnosis, Kōe could only lay down triggerable Kidō in advance. Without the caster's active support, destroying such Kidō wouldn't be very difficult.
The only thing he hadn't anticipated was that illogical second Zanpakutō. Kyōka Suigetsu's ability had absolutely no effect on it.
When facing the unknown, habit was indeed the most terrifying thing. But to Aizen, a sudden unknown was the most terrifying of all—though, naturally, it also brought him a sense of pleasant surprise.
He really had been let go. Unaffected by Kyōka Suigetsu's control, Kōe could have completely cut off his escape route. The outcome of their battle would have decided their lives and deaths. Escaping with the Hōgyoku would have been just like the battle itself—a mere fifty-fifty chance.
However, was the outcome truly a fifty-fifty chance? Based solely on their previous clash, under the premise that Kōe was already planning to let them go, how much of his performance in that battle could actually be used as a reference?
Urahara Kisuke far surpassed him in intellect. As for his friend, Kōe Shihouin, just how close was he to the absolute limits of a Shinigami? It truly made him look forward to their next meeting.
"It's just that you are far too arrogant, Kōe," Aizen said, suddenly crushing the glasses in his hand. "Even if you were right in front of me, our battle is already a thing of the past. It no longer holds any meaning."
"From the very beginning, no one has ever stood in the heavens. Not you, not I, not even God."
The fragments of the frames fell piece by piece from his right hand. Aizen brought his left hand up to the hair falling over his face. As if unwilling to let anything obscure his vision ever again, he slicked his loose brown hair entirely back.
"However, the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is about to end." Aizen's eyes were colder and more piercing than ever before. This was his true form, completely shedding his past facade. "From now on, I will stand in the heavens."
*'Do you think the Seireitei will still tolerate your existence after this, Kōe?'*
*'I have endured the word "tolerate" for far too long. Without you, I will stand wherever I please.'*
*'You are too naive, Kōe.'*
"Farewell, Shinigami, and the Ryoka boy. And to you, Kōe Shihouin."
*'You understand this place too well.'* Aizen looked down at Kōe on the ground once more. *'From this moment on, you are already standing at the center of it all.'*
*'But burdened with these mediocre fools, even you... how far can you really go?'*
"You truly are a fascinating person. You always have been, from the past until now."
The Garganta behind him slowly closed, and the place that carried all of Aizen's past completely vanished from his sight.
"Next time, I hope you remain just as interesting, Kōe."