In the end, Aizen was sealed by the Kidō Urahara had planted within the Hōgyoku. Three enormous crosses pierced through Aizen's body, and Kyūjūrokkei Kakafūmetsu was completed.
Aizen was sealed.
"What a restless little fellow."
The Monk walked over to the seal and patted the crosses, revealing a satisfied expression. The seal was sturdy. Good. He would not need to waste any extra effort.
The Monk glanced at the circular curtain and sneered.
"Then, please rest well, Lord Soul King."
With a snap of his fingers, the curtain fell, and the great Lord Soul King was once again carefully protected by the Monk.
However, what the Monk did not notice was that behind the curtain, the Soul King's pupils actually moved.
The Soul King, who had been sealed within crystal for who knew how many ages, had actually shown the intent to actively interfere with the world?
Heave-ho, heave-ho.
The Monk spent a little effort carrying the sealed frame out of the inner sanctum. Once he left the inner sanctum, someone else would take over the frame.
"Come here."
The Monk called out. In the next moment, several enormous figures appeared around him.
Shields of the Soul King.
These giants were all disposable servants condensed from the Soul King's power. There was no need to feel any pity when ordering them around.
The Shields of the Soul King carried the sealing frame toward the Monk's Zero Division Palace, while the Monk stood in the center of the sky and looked at the Soul King Palace, which had been left in complete disorder. He scratched his head with a headache.
He had to admit that this junior named Sōsuke Aizen was indeed quite strong. The Monk was already considering whether he should bring Aizen into the Soul King Palace as a guard.
However, Aizen had invaded the Soul King Palace first, so he had to be punished to some extent. They would first imprison him for a hundred years. A hundred years should be enough to wear down his temperament. When the time came, the Monk could take him in as a dog.
Yes. He would restore the Soul King Palace first.
Looking at the messy surroundings gave the Monk a tightness in his chest. He began mobilizing the Soul King's power within his own Zero Division Palace to repair the other buildings.
At the entrance of the Great Underground Prison beneath Shin'ō, the instant the Monk carried out Aizen's sealed form, Urahara shut off the screen. At the same time, all of the surveillance spirit insects in the Soul King Palace self-destructed.
When Aizen invaded the Soul King Palace, Urahara could still borrow Aizen's momentum to make a few small moves. Aizen, fully aware of this, had also helped Urahara and the others cover their tracks.
But now that Aizen had been sealed, Kisuke Urahara could no longer act recklessly. He could not allow the Monk to catch any trace of evidence and use it as an excuse to make trouble for them.
"Everyone, today's activity ends here. Captain-Commander, do you have any further arrangements?" Kisuke Urahara asked.
"Return to your posts. Soothe your own squad members," Yamamoto said.
The aftermath of today's battle between Aizen and the Monk would undoubtedly affect the other Shinigami. The captains had to calm their subordinates while also concealing the truth.
"Tsunayoshi, what about you?" Urahara asked.
"I'm definitely staying in Soul Society. Ichigo, are you going back, or staying here?" Tsunayoshi said as though it were only natural.
"Of course I'm staying. Tsunayoshi, you didn't forget we happen to be on break these two days, did you?"
Ichigo cracked his knuckles.
"After watching such a heated battle, my hands are itching too."
The moment Ichigo said this, the other companions immediately agreed. If it came to fighting, Soul Society naturally had more experts. Surely the other captains also had the urge to fight.
"Then that's that. Everyone, dismissed," Kyōraku ordered.
Everyone vanished together. Kisuke Urahara's equipment had already been disassembled into pieces. A dozen or so people each carried one piece, and in no time at all, everything had been moved out.
"Phew, how scary, Master. They finally all left…"
After everyone departed, a young girl murmured endlessly at the entrance.
In the Soul King Palace, starting from the Omotesandō, each area was gradually being restored. There was no need at all for tools like the Blades of the Soul King. The Monk merely drove the Soul King's power, and the architectural components returned to their proper positions one by one.
Taking out Ichimonji, the Monk wrote a large character for "move" in front of his own Zero Division Palace. Under his control, his palace returned to its original position.
Next came his colleagues.
The Monk first chose Ōetsu's palace.
Under the Monk's guidance, the Hōōden gradually recovered. On the surface, it looked exactly the same as before. Even the seawater used to quench Aizen had been replenished. However, within this identical environment, something seemed to be missing.
"Awaken, Ōetsu Nimaiya."
The Monk spoke Ōetsu's name. A puddle of ink splashed from the tip of his brush and combined with the Soul King's power provided by the Hōōden to reconstruct a body.
Ōetsu's classic figure appeared once more.
"Yo, Monk. Has Aizen already been dealt with?"
Ōetsu was not surprised to see himself revived. In his understanding, the Monk was an invincible existence. Aizen definitely could not pass the Monk's trial.
The reason Ōetsu asked was because he remembered being toyed with and killed by Aizen. That was a humiliation. If not for Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnosis, it was not as though he had no way to fight Aizen.
"He has been sealed. He is in my Zero Division Palace. Do you want to take a look?" the Monk said, pointing in the direction of his own palace.
Ōetsu froze in surprise. He had thought the Monk would kill Aizen. He had not expected him to seal Aizen instead.
"A Shinigami capable of making even us feel troubled is far too rare. The last one was Kuruyashiki Kenpachi, wasn't it?"
Shrewdness showed in the Monk's eyes.
"It would be somewhat of a waste to kill such talent."
"I understand."
As a veteran member of Squad Zero, Ōetsu naturally placed the interests of the Soul King Palace first. He stretched and asked, "Is there anything you need me to help with? If not, I'll go retrieve Mera and the others first."
Ōetsu was referring to Mera Hiuchigashima. The members of his personal guard had also been smashed apart by Aizen. Fortunately, they were all his tools. As long as he polished them properly, they could be restored.
"You restore your strength first. Leave the others to me."
The Monk was just about to turn and leave when he suddenly looked back.
"Oh, right. Prepare the Tenchūren."
Watching the Monk leave, Ōetsu looked somewhat puzzled.
"The Tenchūren? Is he planning to send Aizen down to the Seireitei for imprisonment?"
Ōetsu's guess was more or less correct. The Soul King Palace was not a place used to imprison criminals. The most suitable location was still the Great Underground Prison beneath the First Division.
The Monk repeated the same method and repaired Tenjirō Kirinji's Zero Division Palace. After calling Kirinji's name, Tenjirō Kirinji was also fully restored.
"It's you? Ōetsu couldn't kill him?"
Kirinji found it somewhat strange. According to their plan, Aizen should have been killed by Ōetsu. In that case, the one reviving them should have been Ōetsu, not the Monk.
"Sōsuke Aizen transcended the fate Senjumaru had set for him," the Monk said.
If Aizen had not comprehended his own power surpassing Bankai during Ōetsu's forging, then the result would have been just as the Loom of Fate had determined: Aizen would have been forged by Ōetsu into a new Zanpakutō.
But Aizen had surpassed his original level of power. Naturally, he had also surpassed the fate originally set for him. That was no longer something Ōetsu could handle.
"I see."
Kirinji helplessly picked at his ear.
"We really underestimated him."
"Come. Help me call the other two back."
The Monk brought Kirinji along to restore the final two Zero Division Palaces. Unlike Ōetsu, Kirinji's Zanpakutō was intact, so there was no additional work he needed to do.
With Kirinji's help, Shutara Senjumaru and Kirio Hikifune were revived as well. The first thing the two of them asked after appearing was also Aizen's condition. After all, he was the first person to turn the Soul King Palace upside down.
The Monk left Kirinji behind to explain things to the two of them, while he himself went to move the inner sanctum back to its original position, above the center of the five Zero Division Palaces.
"He transcended fate? How surprising," Senjumaru said, covering her mouth with one arm.
"Even the combined efforts of the four of us could not take him down? No wonder he did not treat little Hiyori and the others as anything worth noticing," Kirio Hikifune said. She had also returned to her plump form.
"It wasn't exactly the four of us, was it? If all four of us attacked together, he definitely wouldn't have escaped!" Since they had been at an advantage while dealing with Aizen, Kirinji was still very confident.
"The four of us? Wasn't that impossible? If the four of us attacked together, the world would probably collapse," Kirio Hikifune said with a hand over her mouth, laughing.
"Ah. Squad Zero… gaining something always requires giving something up."
Kirinji once again held that toothpick in his mouth, his tone full of emotion.
As members of Squad Zero, they had obtained the blessing of the Soul King's power, and their strength had risen enormously. But what they had paid in exchange was their freedom.
Endless life brought only endless loneliness. Members of Squad Zero even had to be extremely careful when fighting. A life that was not at all satisfying did not suit Kirinji's bold personality.
"Let us not talk about that. I am going to take a look at Aizen, the man who escaped the fate I wove for him."
Senjumaru flew toward the Monk's Zero Division Palace.
How could Senjumaru not understand what Kirinji meant? From a certain perspective, hadn't she, who had not resisted, also accepted her own fate?
Kirio Hikifune and Kirinji exchanged a glance and immediately followed. In the center of the Monk's palace, they saw the sealing frame that held Aizen.
"Tch. Wasn't this kid acting so impressive? Now he's sealed up in there."
As he spoke, Kirinji even used his water-stirring rod to knock against the seal.
"This seal does not look like it can hold him for very long," Kirio Hikifune said. As someone who often used the Cage of Life to trap people, she had some understanding of sealing abilities.
"Of course it cannot seal him for a lifetime. Once he is in the Seireitei, we can have the Gotei Thirteen build a new set of sealing equipment," the Monk said.
He had already pushed the inner sanctum back to its original position and returned to his own Zero Division Palace.
"The Seireitei? You plan to send him down?" Kirinji asked.
"Yes. You should all prepare as well. We will go together and, while we are at it, settle the account with the Gotei Thirteen over Aizen's invasion of the Soul King Palace."
The Monk's expression looked sinister.
Kirinji, Senjumaru, and Hikifune all fell silent.
The three of them had all risen from the Seireitei, so naturally, they were not very willing to go looking for trouble with it.
But the Monk was not wrong either.
For an expert like Aizen to break through the barrier, and for the Seireitei to show no reaction at all, meant there was definitely a problem within the Seireitei.
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