"It's Negacion!"
Aizen's expression turned serious at once. He slowly lowered his Zanpakuto, his brown eyes reflecting the figure of Kyoraku Shunsui rising into the sky. His tone was flawless in its gravity.
"Aizen-sensei, what's Negacion?"
Kurosaki Ichigo could not help asking, not even bothering to hide how he addressed Aizen.
In this chaotic situation, who the villain was had already been made clear. Everyone else was naturally on the same side now. If that slipped out, so be it.
"It's a method used only when a Menos rescues its own kind."
Aizen explained patiently, his voice carrying across the battlefield.
"The inside and outside of the light are completely isolated spaces. Once the target is enveloped, they exist within an independent dimension. Until the Negacion disappears, nothing from the outside can touch the one inside."
"So that means we can't do anything to him now? We just have to watch him leave?"
Ichigo's face was full of frustration and unwillingness.
This fight had been suffocatingly humiliating.
Kyoraku Shunsui had been slippery like an eel. Every time they thought they had him, someone ended up in a pool of blood instead.
Just when it seemed his spiritual pressure had run dry and he was cornered, Hueco Mundo came to extract him.
"That is indeed the case," Aizen nodded lightly. The helpless look on his face was worthy of an award.
He lifted his head and stared at the pink figure growing smaller in the sky. Then he took a deep breath and shouted in the tone of someone questioning a fallen friend, "Kyoraku!"
"Did you truly betray us?"
His voice echoed across the empty sky.
Inside the Negacion, there was silence.
Kyoraku Shunsui kept his head lowered, looking down at Seireitei shrinking beneath him.
Hearing Aizen's righteous accusation, he felt an itch in his throat and let out a hoarse laugh.
"Did I betray you?"
He murmured to himself, lips curling into an endlessly desolate smile.
"If that's what you think, then think so."
If betraying meant seeing the truth.
If betraying meant no longer being the fool kept in the dark. Then perhaps he had betrayed.
Looking down at the land he once swore to protect, at comrades who once fought at his side and now hated him, everything felt dull.
Anger. Hatred. Regret.
They thinned with the rising height.
"Aizen… Rosse…"
Kyoraku's voice was calm as a dead lake in late autumn. It passed through the Negacion.
"Today's performance was splendid."
"Let's meet again."
He did not know where the beam would take him.
Hueco Mundo? A prison prepared by Rosse?
It did not matter.
Yamamoto was dead. Jushiro was ruined. The Gotei 13 was finished.
Hueco Mundo was under Rosse. Soul Society would soon follow.
This world was beyond saving.
As the Garganta slowly closed, Kyoraku's final figure disappeared into darkness.
All that remained was the scarred earth and a group of bitter Shinigami.
"Damn it! He just got away like that?"
Ichigo smashed his fist into the ground. Rock cracked instantly. Debris cut his cheek, but he did not notice.
His young face was filled with overflowing frustration.
'What is this? This is the result of everything we fought for?'
The Captain-Commander dead. Countless casualties. Nearly everyone injured.
They had finally worn him down, only to watch him leave without resistance.
Yet no one answered his outburst.
The surviving captains sat or lay scattered, their faces numb and exhausted.
They had lived for centuries.
There was a strange familiarity to this ending.
A hundred years ago, Yoruichi took Urahara and escaped like this.
Recently, Shutara took Sui Feng the same way.
Now Kyoraku and Ukitake left like this too.
Soul Society felt like a sieve. Enemies came and went freely.
"Ichigo."
A warm, steady hand rested on the boy's shoulder.
Aizen Sosuke had walked over at some point. One corner of his glasses was cracked, yet his calm aura remained untouched.
He patted Ichigo's trembling shoulder gently.
"It's over. Don't let useless frustration control you. We all failed to stop him. Next time, we'll settle it."
"Aizen-sensei…"
Ichigo sighed. He knew venting meant nothing now. He forced himself to calm down.
Not far away, several captains watched this warm teacher-student moment with complicated looks. None spoke.
"Ichigo, why are you so familiar with Captain Aizen?", A tired voice came from the side.
Rukia, in a white prison uniform and looking worn, finally limped over.
She had not even qualified to approach that battlefield earlier.
She first stayed beside Renji. When Byakuya fell protecting her, she used her meager Kaido to treat them both.
Now that their lives were stable and Squad Four had taken over, her heart finally eased. Only then could she check on the idiot who stormed Soul Society to save her.
Seeing Ichigo battered but alive softened her expression slightly, though her mouth remained sharp.
"Huh? I've known Aizen-sensei longer than I've known you, okay?", Ichigo rolled his eyes while brushing off dust.
"If I relied only on your awful teaching skills and those ugly rabbit drawings, plus all that confusing nonsense, how would I have grown so fast? I'd have been eaten by Hollows already."
"Who are you calling ugly? Who are you calling awful?"
Veins popped on Rukia's forehead. The small warmth she felt vanished. Her fists clenched loudly.
But as she raged, a thought struck her like lightning.
"Wait! That's not right!"
She stared at Ichigo like he had betrayed her.
"If you already knew Captain Aizen and had awakened Shinigami powers before meeting me, then that night in the human world, when the Hollow attacked you, you were just standing there watching me act like an idiot?"
"Your acting was incredible, Kurosaki Ichigo!"
The more she thought about it, the worse it felt.
This chaos started because she gave him her powers.
Then she lost her own, had something implanted in her by Urahara, got arrested, and became the center of everything.
If Ichigo had already been a Shinigami, then she suffered prison for nothing?
"Uh… well…"
Ichigo scratched his head awkwardly.
"I was about to draw my sword that night. You just started going on and on with that weird speech and wouldn't listen. I couldn't interrupt your performance, right?"
"And besides!"
Seeing her about to explode, he quickly changed direction.
"Even without that, do you think Kyoraku would've stopped? I was just an excuse. They would've found another reason," His expression dimmed.
Everyone had been in the dark.
Until the final moment, Kyoraku tore off his mask.
If they had not caught the 46's opening, they might still believe Rosse and Aizen were villains and think Kyoraku was the righteous one.
"We almost framed the wrong people."
Ichigo glanced at Rosse with lingering fear.
"What do you mean framed? I'm talking about that night!"
Rukia snapped, not following his thought at all.
"And that damn Urahara Kisuke! That shady shopkeeper! I went to his store kindly and he stuffed that dangerous thing inside my gigai! Is he insane?"
The more she thought, the angrier she got.
Her life was already unlucky enough.
"Urahara Kisuke's mind has always been deep. Hard to understand."
Rosse walked over slowly. His haori remained almost spotless among the wreckage.
He wore a gentle smile and nodded at Rukia.
"Rukia, regarding the medium placed inside you, I will arrange for Captain Kurotsuchi to perform the removal as soon as possible. Don't worry. It's technically difficult, but I will oversee it personally. You won't suffer even the slightest harm."
"Thank you, Captain Rosse!"
Rukia bowed deeply, flustered and embarrassed.
It seemed she had only caused trouble from the start.
Yet he never treated her like a burden.
"Merely my duty."
Rosse waved it off, then changed tone.
"But I won't seal or destroy the medium. I will use it, and grant it to those truly suitable and resolved."
The ruins fell silent.
Every surviving captain and vice-captain looked up.
Rosse's gaze swept across them.
"After this battle, you all see it. The Gotei 13 is too weak."
"I will not cling to so-called Shinigami honor like Captain-Commander Yamamoto did. The world changes. Enemies change. Only by strengthening ourselves without hesitation can we face what's coming."
The words dropped like a stone into still water.
A day ago, such words would have meant arrest.
Now, silence.
Not everyone can hold firm before bloody reality.
They had just experienced being crushed by a Hollowfied fake Ukitake and the despairing power of fake Kyoraku.
The helplessness still clung to them.
Compared to total defeat and manipulation, accepting Hollow power, becoming a conscious Hollowfied Shinigami, did not seem so impossible.
It was for protecting Soul Society, after all.
"I think I understand why Urahara did it."
Aizen adjusted his cracked glasses and spoke.
Facing everyone's gaze, he analyzed calmly.
"On one hand, perhaps he wanted revenge, drawing out the deeply hidden Kyoraku."
"On the other… he and those captains forced into Hollowfication long ago could only return legitimately by breaking the old rigid structure."
"Only if we personally feel the power Hollowfication grants and understand the importance of strength will we abandon prejudice and accept them."
"If we all wield Hollow power…"
Leaning against rubble, Kuchiki Byakuya slowly opened his eyes.
Compared to the unconscious Renji, his injuries were heavy, but his mind was clearer than ever.
His kenseikan was shattered, hair slightly messy, yet his noble bearing remained.
He continued Aizen's thought.
"That would mean we are no different in essence from those once called monsters. If we are all monsters, accepting them back becomes natural," A perfect closed loop of logic.
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