A sense of déjà vu.
Known in French as 'déjà vu.'
*
Aizen opened his eyes to the sensation of being pulled out of the water.
Whoosh…. Beyond the horizon, the sun sank, dyeing the waves crimson. They rolled toward him before shattering into brilliant white foam.
Aizen shuddered as the cold water touched his toes, snapping him to his senses. He slowly looked around, but he could not tell where he was.
Other than the vast sea stretching beyond the horizon, nothing was familiar.
Yet strangely, he felt a profound sense of familiarity in this unknown landscape.
'This place….'
It was a place he had never seen before.
And yet, it was home.
Aizen felt confused by these two contradictory feelings.
But Aizen was a star of the era who had helped open the doors to a new world. He quickly gathered his emotions and surveyed the situation with deeply sunken eyes.
'This sense of déjà vu…. Have my memories been disassembled and reshaped into a new form? I feel no Spiritual Power. Has my perception been intentionally blocked?'
His sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste—all his normal senses were functioning.
Only one thing was missing: the sense that detected Spiritual Power and Spirit Particles was tightly sealed.
If it were something new that had appeared, he would have felt it strange, but because it was an existing sense that had vanished, he only felt a suffocating frustration.
It was like trying to breathe underwater.
'The senses of an ordinary man.'
Looking down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them to test his senses, Aizen chuckled and shook them off.
As the master of Kyoka Suigetsu—a blade capable of twisting every human sense—this was easy for him to diagnose.
'The reason I cannot feel Spiritual Power must be because this space is an illusion created through Kido or a Zanpakuto.'
Aizen concluded that everything around him was a mirage.
Since his sense of time had likely been warped as well, time here probably flowed much faster than in the outside world.
Then, why exactly was the Nether King showing him such an illusion?
The answer came easier than expected.
'Enlightenment, then.'
Was he telling Aizen to understand the pain of others? To repent for his sins while living a life different from his usual one?
What point could there possibly be in this?
Aizen lowered his hands with a bitter smile.
There were many ways to break out of this illusion, but for now, it was best to play along with his wishes.
Even if he broke the illusion and left, it was obvious he would only be dragged back here again.
Accepting the situation cleanly, Aizen moved to survey his surroundings.
However, contrary to his will, his body did not budge, as if it had turned to stone.
An illusion? No, did he touch my central nervous system? Was there physical force applied from the outside rather than an illusion?
Aizen sought an answer calmly despite the baffling situation, but no proper answer emerged.
Thinking for a moment, Aizen simply let it go. He had already achieved everything he wanted and had no lingering regrets about life.
"My dear, were you looking at the sea here again?"
That was when someone else's voice, not the sound of waves, reached Aizen's ears for the first time.
The voice was high-pitched and full of affection—a tone that should have felt awkward—but the moment he heard it, Aizen felt something warm swelling in his chest.
'Warmth? Why?'
Even if one were shown an illusion, the effect should be minimal if the recipient rejected it with strong willpower or knew it was a fake. So why…?
'Why does a single voice make me feel like this?'
For the first time, Aizen panicked as he tried to analyze the situation, but it was useless.
His body was already turning toward the source of the voice.
Standing there was a beautiful woman, approaching him with a fragile body like a delicate flower.
She was, of course, someone Aizen did not remember. A woman he had never seen in his life.
Yet a flood of emotions surged through Aizen's mind.
Longing. Guilt. And…. tenderness.
Aizen wanted to frown at this feast of incomprehensible emotions, but he couldn't.
Far from frowning, a warm smile bloomed on his face the moment he saw her.
"The weather is so cold, why did you follow me out? What if you catch a cold?"
Aizen felt like he was going mad because those words weren't acting; they came from the bottom of his heart.
What on earth was this? It was abnormal. An anomaly.
But he didn't hate it at all.
And that made him feel even crazier.
"It's alright. I knew you would keep me warm."
"But your health is frail. And…."
"It's alright."
In her firm voice, there was deep trust and a solid will.
"…It's because of the war coming soon, isn't it? You're troubled, which is why you were staring at the sea."
"…As expected, I can't hide anything from you."
"I am fine. So do not worry about me, and please return alive. If you truly wish to do what is best for me, do not seek glory—simply come back alive."
Watching the steel-like resolve within her fragility—she looked as if she might break if touched or blow away with the wind—Aizen realized he was drawn to her.
"Thank you."
"I'm the one who should be thankful. You were willing to marry a spoiled girl like me."
"Haha, is that so?"
The moment Aizen went to embrace her, the sound of a sharp arrow cutting through the wind rang out, and the woman before him vanished.
The acrid smell of fire and the metallic scent of blood filled the air, while damp sea winds and a muggy heat constricted his body.
It was an incredibly abrupt change, just like when he first opened his eyes here.
His entire body felt heavy and unpleasant. It wasn't because his senses were blocked.
It was because of the blood covering him from head to toe and the armor sticking to his skin.
Even though he knew it was an illusion, his brow furrowed instinctively at the sensation.
Frowning in disgust, Aizen scanned himself when he suddenly caught sight of a pair of legs at the edge of his vision. He froze.
"What is this…."
Aizen blinked as his surroundings shifted. There, right in front of him….
Lay the woman, dead with an arrow through her heart.
The moment he saw her like that, Aizen felt something surge violently within his chest.
Indescribable emotions stormed inside his head.
They were not Aizen's own feelings, yet they were so strangely agonizing that he could not speak.
The illusion did not end.
And once more, the scenery changed.
*
The Cycle of Rebirth—Samsara—doesn't force a living person to reincarnate.
It makes them recall the past lives they forgot through the process of reincarnation.
Simply put, think of it as a very, very long revolving lantern that includes not just this life, but your previous life, the one before that, and the one even further back.
Since it's about recalling forgotten memories, it only takes a fraction of a second.
I wonder how Aizen will react after looking back at his past lives.
I know one thing: it won't be a positive reaction. Who knows, he might come back and start shouting in anger right away.
"Five minutes…. It's about time he came back."
I sat next to the stationary Aizen for five minutes. Thinking it was about time, I looked over and saw Aizen, now back to his senses, staring blankly at his hands.
He looked like he had a lot to say, so I decided to wait quietly until he could compose himself.
After a short wait, Aizen closed his eyes tightly, then opened them and looked my way.
Aizen's eyes, which had previously held the relief of finishing his task and the emptiness of someone who had lost their purpose, now shone with a different light.
It was a complex emotion—hard to describe. Regret, guilt, and things of that nature.
"It seems…. it wasn't a mere illusion or hallucination."
"No, it wasn't. So, how was it?"
Aizen fell silent once more at the question.
Well, naturally. If one could summarize such a long existence in an instant, they would have attained nirvana long ago.
Before long, Aizen spoke tentatively.
"I have no regrets. I do not believe I have done the wrong thing. I merely strived to achieve my goal."
Waiting a bit longer, Aizen shook his head with a bitter smile.
"However, I will admit that my methods were flawed. And that innocent people suffered because of them. That is my fault. Therefore, I must take responsibility."
Saying so, Aizen turned his head toward the storehouse.
With a complex expression, Aizen turned his back without a word.
"I thought you'd go and apologize immediately. That's unexpected."
"I am not ready yet. Going now would only reopen their wounds. So…. after I have done what I must, I will return and apologize to them. Of my own accord, not yours."
Saying that, Aizen opened a Senkaimon and returned to the Soul Society.
I watched him go, then started walking in the opposite direction.
I went and apologized to them today, too.
As usual, I was cursed at and kicked out.
A short while later, breaking news spread across the Soul Society: Aizen Sosuke had resigned from all positions, surrendered, and was declared a criminal after a trial by Central 46.