At this moment, it felt as if the world's fate hinged on the slightest motion from Yuta. The lightning flashing beyond the window illuminated the room in stark, vivid intervals-brightening the silence and casting the faintest light on Aizen Sōsuke's calm expression.
No-if Aizen led, it wouldn't be mere idealism anymore. It would be reality, shaped by methodical planning brought to the brink of success.
Tōsen Kaname found his thoughts pulled back across the decades he had served under Aizen. Over hundreds of years, he had wondered-was he merely chosen because Kyōka Suigetsu had no effect on him? Was he nothing but one of Aizen's many chess pieces?
And even so, the man he had come to know-no, the man now standing before him-had become someone beyond the title of Shinigami. In Kaname's mind, Aizen had become the very concept of authority. The king among kings.
He remembered questioning Aizen once, when one of his experiments would have sacrificed civilians in Rukongai. Tormented by his conscience, Kaname had stepped in to object.
Rather than anger, Aizen responded with even calm:
"The path I take will indeed require many sacrifices, but surrendering this world to the flow of death is to ignore the cost of every passing moment."
"Even if I am rejected by every soul but my own, I will not abandon this path. If you intend to oppose me, you are free to keep your blade ready at my side."
"But you must understand-only you, who knows despair and fear, who walks forward with both, may illuminate the way I cannot see. Because I do not have those emotions."
From that moment, Tōsen understood: to Aizen, good and evil were relative. Sacrifice was not villainy if it was done for what he called true order. He was willing to act as the villain to achieve what he saw as justice-without regret. And every time Kaname thought back to that moment, he questioned himself.
Did he stand beside Aizen to complete his own revenge? Or because he, too, believed in that righteousness?
Sensing the conflict within him, Aizen had once asked:
"Are you confused?"
"I don't understand it... because I hate Death," Kaname had admitted. "Hatred is the only thing that moves me forward. How could I ever condemn this world from that place?"
"No... This world is built on sin," Aizen had answered. "And I do not intend to forge it into what the Quincy desire. I will become the foundation of the true world-and its highest sacrifice: the Spirit King, cast down from the heavens."
Kaname had stared at him, stunned.
"The Spirit King... is a sacrifice?"
In Kaname's upbringing, the Soul King had been sacred-pure, and exalted above gods and kings. Aizen's statement felt impossible to understand.
"Do you... understand the nature of the Hōgyoku?"
"Forgive my ignorance," Kaname had replied.
"It's not your fault. The Tsunayashiro family hides much of the truth. Do you know why Hollows target pregnant women who later give birth to Fullbringers?"
Kaname's breath had caught. A cold realization began forming in his thoughts.
"Are you saying... it's not that the Hollow's attack causes the child to become a Fullbringer-but that the child already has...?"
"Yes. Many of those mothers carried fragments of the Spirit King in their bodies, passed down unconsciously. The attack was merely attracted to it."
"I once killed many souls in Rukongai-girls among them. One in particular survived. After investigating, I learned the Hōgyoku had consumed only the 'nail' of her soul-one of the severed fragments taken from the Soul King long ago by the Gotei 13."
Tōsen had been shaken to his core. Everything they had believed about the world's foundation was inverted.
It wasn't that Hollows transferred power through violence. The truth was-those children had been born with it because they carried parts of the sacrificed King himself. The entire belief system passed down through the Gotei was designed to obscure that sin.
From that moment on, Tōsen's doubts disappeared.
Sōsuke Aizen spoke again: "One day I will surpass even this truth. I'll create my own order in the sky-free of the sacrifices built into this world's foundation."
"Now-tell me. What do you desire? As my follower, I will grant it."
In that moment, Kaname had recalled the words of Ge Kuang and thought long before answering:
"My wish... is that if I ever learn to accept this world-if the world begins to grant me peace-please, erase me from it."
"Is that so? If the Shinigami someday forgive you-don't accept it."
"Yes," Kaname had answered firmly. "It was you who taught me what justice really means. If they forgive me, then everything I've done-all the lives I've taken-would have been senseless. That would dishonor her memory. I'd be killing her again with my own hands."
"Do you believe she would forgive what you've done?" Aizen had asked him.
"Yes," Kaname had said without hesitation. "And for that reason-I want you to be the one who ends me. Let my death become the mercy she would offer."
"If I do rise into the sky to build that new world-what will you do then?"
"I will take my own life... with these stained hands. To purify the world you build."
"I see. And if you are offered mercy by the Death Gods-then I will bury you with my own hands."
Kaname had knelt before him then, swearing loyalty as he had so many years ago-not to the soul of justice as the Court believed it-but to Aizen's vision of truth at any cost.
...
Decades had passed, but that memory stayed fresh in Tōsen's thoughts. Now, another soul stood at this same precipice-Hideki Yuta, the boy who had witnessed the truth with his own eyes.
Surely, he too would choose the same path.
"Come, Yuta. I'll take you into the Great Spirit Book Corridor. You'll see it for yourself."
"I'll remain here and guard the entrance. No intruders will pass alive," Tōsen said solemnly.
"I trust you," Aizen replied.
Kaname bowed deeply-not as to his superior, but to the one he saw as the world's rightful sovereign.
Together, Aizen and Yuta stepped into the grand chamber below-the entrance sealed behind them with finality.
It felt less like entering another archive and far closer to stepping into another realm entirely.
Within the dark corridor, blue light skimmed across the surfaces of the sea of knowledge. First there were books-shelves of them-and then monumental stone slabs etched with ancient markings. As they walked, the air thickened with the gravity of history.
It was as though they moved backward through time, their steps tracing history down to its original chaos-the moment when the world had no divisions, no barriers, no names for life and death… before Soul Society, or Hueco Mundo, or the Living World ever existed.
As a result of this, Hollows began devouring humans without restraint.
With this change, the cycle of souls and the balance of the world gradually lost their meaning.
Left unchecked, the world that had finally come into existence was on the verge of returning to nothingness.
And so, as if to reject this "end," a being appeared in the world-a being that destroyed every Hollow in existence, reducing their bodies to particles of spirit sand and eventually forming what became the desert terrain of Hueco Mundo.
It was from that point that the concept of "death" first came into human awareness.
Through that act, the cycle of life resumed, and the balance of the world stabilized once again.
And that being born into the world was the Spirit King.
Later, under the Spirit King's power, others with unique spiritual abilities began to appear. Among them were the military priest Ichibei and the ancestors of the five noble families. Though talented, their power did not surpass the Spirit King's, and they remained his followers, doing what they could under his guidance.
Over time, their understanding deepened.
Realizing that the omnipotent Spirit King, if allowed to continue eliminating Hollows endlessly, would eventually return the world to another form of nothingness, five noteworthy individuals among these spiritually gifted beings revealed themselves as the ancestors of the five noble houses.
Each one held different values and beliefs surrounding the origin and nature of the world.
Tsunayashiro's founding member feared that the Spirit King's power would eventually turn on him and his kin and lived in distress because of it.
Kuchiki's founder focused on the necessity of structure and rules to maintain eternal balance and circulation within the world.
Shihoin's originator viewed stagnation as true danger and believed in forging larger cycles to sustain progress across existence.
Shiba's founder believed that Hollows possessed hearts and required not destruction but purification through alternate means.
And another believed the question of Hell itself needed to be addressed first-before the rest could even be considered.
No matter their differences, they agreed on one purpose: constructing dividing boundaries between "vessels" and "souls"-to define the edges of reality itself.
Thus was born the idea of the Three Realms.
To achieve this required immense spiritual power.
In pursuit of that goal, the founder of the Tsunayashiro family defied the Shiba family's pleas and initiated a covert plan. Alongside others, he ambushed the Spirit King and sealed him away.
No one knew why the Spirit King did not resist. Perhaps he had already seen this outcome through his omniscient awareness. Either way, the five used his power-both as origin and anchor-to divide the worlds of humanity, soul, and void.
From this came the formation of the Human World, Soul Society, and Hueco Mundo. From that point onward, those tasked with governing the cycle of souls were given the title "Shinigami"-or "Gods of Death."
Yet Tsunayashiro's founder remained uneasy.
He feared revenge-that the omniscient Spirit King would one day break free and return judgment on those who betrayed him. To prevent this, he severed the Spirit King's left and right arms, trapping him in perpetual contradiction: neither truly alive nor completely dead-a state of endless death and rebirth.
His heart and legs were taken next. The remaining organs were shredded and scattered across the worlds.
And even after everything, the Spirit King retained consciousness...
"Now you understand what kind of being the Spirit King you serve truly is."
"Do you want to remain one of the Shinigami?"
"Or will you join me-to remake this world as our own?"
Yuta didn't answer right away.
He simply lifted his hand.
In that instant, the world changed.
Everything around them turned white-snow began to fall from above, coloring the scenery as if ink had spilled into clear water and slowly spread outward.
Wind and snow surrounded them entirely. The corridor of the Great Spirit Library was gone. In its place stood the summit of a snow-capped mountain. The two of them stood at the peak, observing from above as if viewing the span of existence itself from afar.
Snowflakes clung to their hair and robes. The bitter wind pressed against their faces but could not shake them.
Behind Aizen, his captain's haori bearing the kanji for "Five" fluttered lightly in the icy wind.
Yuta's white cloak moved the same way.
Watching the snow-laden sky and the empty peaks beyond, Aizen said, "Your 'world' truly is remarkable. Even the most refined Kido couldn't create this. You were the right one, Yuta... You're the only person capable of standing alongside me."
Yuta raised his hand again, and two stone benches and a chessboard appeared before them.
"Sit," he said plainly.
With amusement, Aizen responded, "Since it's your invitation, Yuta-I'll join you."
They sat. Postures mirrored, robes matching in form and color-like reflections on opposite sides of the board.
Yuta picked up one chess piece between his fingers and placed it gently on the board.
Sosuke Aizen followed suit.
To them, what they held were not just pieces-but lives.
Their battlefield was the world itself. Their plan stretched far beyond mere strategy.
"Now that you've spoken-it's my turn."
"Let's begin with this: why do the nobles of Soul Society retain power if they're so weak?"
"Millions of years ago-yes-they were the most powerful, and it was they who shaped the world we now know. Naturally, they wrote its rules and became its rulers."
"But no matter how exceptional the first generation may have been, their descendants do not inherit greatness by default."
"Perhaps the second and third generations retained some of that brilliance..."
"But time... time has passed for too long. Generations beyond counting have turned the noble class into brittle remnants of their ancestors' legacies."
"The strong have re-emerged to replace them-men like Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni, Unohana Retsu, Zaraki Kenpachi, Urahara Kisuke... and you."
"Some, like Urahara, conform to the rules. Others-like you-see the rot and seek to become the next sovereign of their own world."
"...And then there's me."
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