Three golden beams engulfed Aizen, Ichimaru, and Tōsen. The ground beneath them cracked, rumbling as their bodies began to rise slowly into the air.
"Ah? So you're running away already?" Kyōraku Shunsui tilted his bamboo hat with a lazy grin, though his eyes remained sharp as he watched the scene unfold.
Even knowing Aizen's escape was imminent, none among them made a move to stop him. Their orders had been clear—expel Aizen, suppress him if possible. But once those golden beams descended, they all knew interference was meaningless.
That golden radiance was Negación, the energy used by Menos Grande to retrieve their own. Once trapped within its light, the space inside and outside became separate realities—untouchable, impenetrable.
Aizen's eyes swept over the captains below, pausing finally on Shiraha.
Sensing the gaze, Shiraha smiled faintly.
"Captain Shiraha," Aizen called down, his tone mild yet unmistakably reverent, "I must admit, aside from Urahara Kisuke, you are the one who has surprised me most within the entire Soul Society."
"You're unlike those stagnant nobles who rot in their own arrogance. I hope, when next we meet, we won't stand as enemies."
The remark carried layered meaning. None of the others could see it, but Shiraha understood. Despite the chaos, Aizen had never exposed their shared secret—the silent understanding between them that went deeper than words.
"Captain Aizen, you flatter me," Shiraha replied with an easy smile.
Ichimaru Gin, battered and bloodied, still found strength to wave cheerfully. "Goodbye, Captain Shiraha. You really are one troublesome opponent."
Ukitake raised his eyes, pain written across his pale face. "You've fallen so far, Aizen. To ally with Hollows… why? Why betray everything we stood for?"
Even now, he could not grasp why the man he once called friend had turned on the Gotei 13.
Aizen looked down at him, expression untouched by sentiment. "To seek a higher realm," he said coldly.
"You're too arrogant, Aizen," Ukitake's voice broke, disbelief warring with grief.
"No," Aizen replied evenly. "No one stands in the sky from the beginning. Not you. Not me. Not even God."
He reached up, fingers brushing his face as he removed his glasses. With a faint crack, the lenses shattered, scattering as spirit particles. His left hand swept his hair back, baring his sharp features as the faint light of the Negación painted him in gold.
"The empty throne of heaven has waited long enough," Aizen said, his voice carrying through the stunned silence. "From now on… I will stand in the sky."
For a moment, no one moved. The captains and lieutenants stared upward, their faces pale beneath the crimson-tinged light.
"Farewell, fellow Shinigami," Aizen said, stepping lightly onto the bony claw of a Gillian as it lifted him higher. He turned his gaze one last time toward Shiraha. "Goodbye… Captain Shiraha."
As the three figures vanished into the black rift above, the surrounding Gillians withdrew, their massive forms sinking back into the void. The gash in the heavens slowly mended, sealing with a low hum until the sky was whole again.
But the silence that followed was heavy. For the first time in centuries, three captains had defected from Soul Society—one of them the most brilliant mind it had ever produced. And worse, they had joined forces with the Menos Grande.
The balance of the worlds trembled.
After a long stillness, Kyōraku exhaled and scratched his head beneath the brim of his hat. "Well, no use standing around brooding. Aizen and his lot are gone, so let's call this a temporary victory, shall we? You all look too gloomy."
They all knew he was only trying to lighten the air. Aizen's departure was no true end—only a pause before something far worse. Still, the immediate crisis had passed.
Ukitake stepped beside Shiraha, his tone gentle. "Your strength is frightening, Shiraha. To stand alone against three captains and suppress two… You truly are the strongest Shinigami since Captain-Commander Genryūsai."
"Captain Jūshirō is too kind," Shiraha said softly.
Kyōraku chuckled. "He's not exaggerating, you know. Even I couldn't handle those three at once. Aizen alone would have been a nightmare." He adjusted his hat again and added, "We all felt his reiatsu from half a district away—it was like Yamamoto-sensei himself had returned to his prime. Yet here you stand, not a single tear in your uniform."
Shiraha smiled faintly. "I was simply immune to Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnosis. That's all."
Had Aizen's illusion taken hold, the battle would have ended differently. But between Shiraha's Limitless Spell techniques and his precise control of cursed energy, even Aizen's perfect hypnosis could not reach him.
Byakuya stepped forward, voice calm but eyes betraying unease. "Shiraha, where is Rukia now?"
Compared to Aizen's betrayal, his concern was fixed entirely on her safety. He had promised Hisana—his late wife—to protect Rukia no matter what.
"Brother," Shiraha asked with a teasing lilt, "why such sudden concern?"
"I simply don't want her wandering off again," Byakuya replied coolly, though the faint relief in his tone betrayed him. Now that Aizen's conspiracy was exposed, Rukia's sentence would surely be reconsidered.
"Wait a moment."
Shiraha vanished with a pulse of energy, his figure dissolving into nothing. In the next instant, he reappeared before Byakuya, holding an unconscious Rukia in his arms.
Byakuya's eyes flickered briefly, the faintest trace of relief crossing his features. Seeing that she was unharmed, he turned away without a word, resuming his calm, aloof stance.
Shiraha watched him with quiet amusement, then gently laid Rukia on the ground beside him. Her breathing was steady, her spirit pressure stable. The battle's residual reiatsu had merely forced her into temporary unconsciousness. She would awaken soon.
As the captains gathered, the last traces of Negación faded from the air, leaving behind only silence and the scent of burning spirit particles.
Above them, the sky of Seireitei was whole once more—yet none could shake the feeling that a shadow far greater than Aizen's betrayal now loomed over all of Soul Society.
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