"Why did you heal him if you wanted to fight him so badly in the first place?" Naruko questioned curiously while Haruto took a long sip from his sake and sighed. She may have spent countless years with him, but there were still times when she had no idea what he was thinking and doing.
"My primary objective in fighting the old fool was not only to show him the difference between my power and his but to also show him his mistakes. Destroying him would have accomplished nothing in the long run. His experience and long life battle hardened mind is precisely what the Soul Society needs; the only problem is his arrogance and his Danzo-like mindset. The aftermath of this battle will decide whether he chooses to leave his useless pride or stick to it like a lovesick puppy. If he chooses to discard it, it will be to his advantage and benefit."
"And if he doesn't change?"
"Should he refuse to change, I will kill him. I believe Shunsui is more than skilled enough to take over the duties of Head Captaincy." Haruto clarified evenly. Being in her presence, there was no need to act cheerful or idiotic, she knew him from A to Z.
"My, aren't you in a bad mood today," she teased.
"I'll show you my mood when we get back," he leered with a grin. "I think we should head to the Hill as well, Ichigo has just made his presence known and is currently fighting Aizen."
Ichigo lay bleeding on the ground with a large sword slash on his torso, his vibrant orange hair red with blood, his black Shinigami outfit in tatters. Renji was lying face first on the ground in the same condition a few meters away from him. Rukia was looking wide-eyed at the approaching Captain Aizen.
Who would have thought the calm and kind Captain of the Seireitei would fake his death to betray the Soul Society, kill all the members of Central 46, give out fake orders to have her retrieved from the World of the Living, almost execute her by the Soukyuko and now injure his former subordinate Renji as well as his Lieutenant Momo?
One minute she was in Renji's arm running for their collective lives and the next she was on top the same place she had escaped from with the three traitor Captains, Aizen, Tosen, Ichimaru, standing in front of her with her two friends laying on the ground bleeding from serious wounds.
Aizen approached the down Rukia with his usual fake kind look, his sword drawn and covered in blood, the blood of Ichigo and Renji, and spoke politely. "Come on, stand up, Kuchiki Rukia." Without waiting for her compliance, he extended his hand and grabbed her by the collar, prompting her to stand up lest she choke herself to death. "You see, my Spiritual Pressure has caused your body to go limp."
Rukia could only look on with a hopeless look on her face.
Overhearing a pained grunt and groan of agony, Aizen turned towards the source of the sound and saw a badly bleeding Ichigo struggling to get up, no doubt to help Rukia.
"You're still conscious, I have to say your stamina is amazing but your spine is barely connected to your body, you should lay still. In any rate, your job in all of this is done."
"My job?" he grunted out.
The glasses wearing bastard was so strong he hadn't even seen the sword slash before he was bleeding on the ground.
"That's right. I knew you were coming, I knew from where, I knew you were going to appear in the West Rukon District, that's why I had security tightened there, I had Gin go there as well just in case something went wrong. I lowered the wall of the Seireitei right after you arrived; I placed the 3rd and 9th Squad members behind the wall. I knew the only way you could enter would be by Kukaku's Flower Crane Canon, a very flashy entrance that everyone will notice, a bold approach. It helped that you Ryokas were skilled enough to get through the Captains and Lieutenants, as a result the eyes of all the Shinigami were focused on you, a perfect diversion. Your actions after you entered the Seireitei and all the turmoil that you caused were actually quite impressive."
Ichigo couldn't help but glare at the traitor Captain. He had planned all that even before their arrival!?
"After that, there wasn't much fuss over me when I faked my death; you made it easy for me to make my move"
"Just how the hell did you know for sure that we would appear in the West Rukon?"
"That's an odd question for you to ask; where else could you have entered? The Western Rukon is Kisuke Urahara's Headquarters after all, it's the only place where you could enter with a Senkaimon." Seeing the wide eyed Ichigo, he smiled mockingly. "Why do you find that so surprising? You work for him after all. Surely you're here to rescue Kuchiki Rukia under his orders?"
What? Hat and Clogs? What the hell does he mean by that? Ichigo thought with wide eyes.
"Oh you poor boy, you weren't told anything." He smiled mockingly, holding the motionless Rukia and started dragging her with him as he started his long explanation
"Since this is the end anyway, I'll tell you one last thing. Did you know that Shinigami have four basic fighting methods, Zanjutsu, Hakoda, Hohou and Kido? Those are the four, but there is a limit to how strong one can become in these four. No matter which method he chooses, there comes a time at which he'll have mastered them all. All his growth will stop there, he has reached his limit as a Shinigami, however it's possible for some to get past that wall and to exceed the limit that's built into all four Techniques. To do that, there is only one way, the Shinigami has to become a Hollow"
"W-what?" Ichigo gasped in shock.
"Either that or a Hollow can become like a Shinigami, either way, what is required is the removal of the barrier keeping the two opposing existences. That's the key to making the Spirit power even greater. In theory the idea seemed possible, so I started researching in secret, focusing mostly on the transformation of Hollows into Shinigami. I succeeded in creating Hollows who came close, Hollows who could mask their Spiritual Pressure and even those who could destroy the Zanpakuto with a touch and fuse with a Shinigami. In the end, none of them came close to what I had expected."
"It appeared that the theory was only that, destined never to become a reality. But Kisuke Urahara succeeded where I had failed. The mechanism he invented removes the barrier dividing Hollows from Shinigami, instantly making one into the other. It defied all logic within the Soul Society, it's called the Hogyoku. I knew immediately how dangerous it was, I think Urahara realized the same thing and tried to destroy it, however he was unable to find a way to undo his own creation, instead he reluctantly resorted to another method. He created a shield around the Hogyoku and activated it, then he enveloped it in a Conpaku in order to conceal its location from anyone who would want to use it for evil."
Rukia had a bad feeling in the bottom of her stomach with the way Aizen turned to her with a calm and analyzing look. "You know it, don't you? You know that's why I want you. The place where Kisuke hid the Hogyoku in order to conceal its location is inside you."
Ichigo couldn't believe his ears. "W-w-what did you just say?"
"When you disappeared in the World of the Living, I knew immediately that Urahara had something to do with it…"