Clang!
Aizen slowly drew his Zanpakuto.
"Come on, Aizen, let me see what skills you have besides those petty tricks!"
Toshiro shouted loudly.
"Heh..."
Aizen chuckled lightly, then lightly stepped on the ground, his figure instantly vanishing.
'Here he comes?'
'Hmm!'
Just as Toshiro was bracing himself, preparing to go all out against Aizen's attack, he discovered that Aizen's target was not him, but Rukia not far away!
"Damn it!"
Toshiro shouted in anxiety, and immediately used Shunkuho at full power.
Whoosh!
At the critical moment, Toshiro, moving at full speed, arrived before Rukia and immediately swung his sword to meet Aizen, who arrived almost simultaneously on his heels.
Clang!
Their Zanpakuto clashed.
"Aizen, you bastard, attacking Rukia! Don't you have any dignity as a strong one?"
Toshiro said angrily.
"Hmph, I had no choice, Toshiro-kun. If I can't capture Rukia, I won't be able to obtain the Hogyoku."
Stopped in time by Toshiro, Aizen's expression also darkened.
"Ha!"
Toshiro shouted loudly, exerting force with his hand to push aside Aizen's Zanpakuto, temporarily repelling him.
"Rukia, go over to the Captain-Commander and the others for now. I'll handle Aizen. Don't worry, I won't let him hurt you."
Toshiro kept his eyes fixed on Aizen, speaking without turning back to the frightened Rukia behind him.
"O-Okay... please be careful..."
Having been caught by Aizen earlier, and finally saved by Toshiro, only to have Aizen suddenly attack her again, Rukia was terrified.
If Toshiro hadn't stopped Aizen in time, she would certainly have been caught again.
After saying a word to Toshiro, Rukia quickly left the scene and headed towards where Yamamoto and the others were.
Seeing Rukia leave the scene, Aizen did not stop her, but looked at Toshiro with a confident expression and said: "Heh, Toshiro-kun, although your strength is great, if I were determined to capture Rukia, do you really think you could stop me?"
"Aizen, you want to capture Rukia for the Hogyoku, right?"
Toshiro suddenly asked.
"Of course, isn't it obvious? Why ask again unnecessarily?"
Aizen said dismissively.
"Then, what do you think this is?"
Toshiro suddenly took out a blue-black orb from his bosom, identical to the one Aizen had shown earlier.
"That's… Hogyoku!"
Aizen exclaimed in shock.
"That's right, this is the Hogyoku created by Urahara Kisuke that you've been arduously pursuing."
Toshiro nodded.
Aizen asked puzzledly: "But wasn't it hidden by Urahara Kisuke within Rukia's soul? How did it come into your hands? Could it be..."
"That's right, it's just as you think. The Hogyoku was already extracted from Rukia."
"I have already investigated your actions in detail regarding the Hogyoku. Then, I also obtained the method to extract the Hogyoku from the Great Spirit Book Gallery. Moreover, to avoid you detecting that I had infiltrated the Great Spirit Book Gallery, I went out of my way to completely eliminate any traces I left."
"Then, I had Captain Kurotsuchi help me create a device capable of extracting foreign objects from a soul. Finally, I went to the Repentance Cell Deep Prison. After sending the others away, I extracted the Hogyoku from the soul of the unconscious Rukia."
"So, if you really want the Hogyoku, then come for me!"
"Let me see if you have the strength to take the Hogyoku from me! Aizen!!"
Toshiro looked at Aizen challengingly and, in full view of everyone, put the Hogyoku back into his bosom.
The reason Toshiro did this was mainly to make Aizen focus his goal on him, and stop targeting Rukia.
Otherwise, if Aizen were determined to capture Rukia, although Toshiro was confident he could stop him, it was better to be safe than sorry.
If, by some chance, Toshiro was momentarily careless and Aizen broke through his defense to capture Rukia, then who knows what might happen.
In the original work, Rukia was saved from Aizen by Byakuya, but that was because Aizen had already obtained the Hogyoku and no longer cared about Rukia, so he allowed Byakuya to take her back.
Otherwise, there's no explanation for how Byakuya, battered from his fight with Ichigo, could have taken Rukia from Aizen.
But the current situation is different from the original story. The Hogyoku has already been extracted by Toshiro. If, by some chance, Aizen went to great lengths to break through Toshiro's defense and captured Rukia, only to find that Rukia didn't have the Hogyoku, then an enraged Aizen would be very likely to either kill Rukia in anger or take her as a hostage.
So, to avoid involving Rukia, Toshiro actively showed the Hogyoku, letting Aizen know that the Hogyoku was on him. If he wanted it, the only way was to defeat Toshiro.
"Is that so? I see. It seems that to obtain the Hogyoku, I have to defeat you, Toshiro-kun."
Aizen's expression turned serious.
"Unfortunately, that's impossible!"
Toshiro said assertively.
Aizen said noncommittally: "Heh, you're quite confident, Toshiro-kun."
"But enough talk. Let's settle this with our swords, Hitsugaya Toshiro!"
"Hado #90, Kurohitsugi!"
A purple-black light flashed in Aizen's hand and vanished, then a huge black light curtain enveloped Toshiro from all sides, trapping him inside like a black coffin.
"Hado #91, Senju Koten Taiho!"
A deep voice suddenly sounded from within Aizen's Kurohitsugi.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless beams of pink light suddenly shattered Aizen's Kurohitsugi, and then, with undiminished force, shot straight towards Aizen.
Seeing this, Aizen quickly defended himself.
"Bakudo #81, Danku!"
A transparent barrier appeared in front of Aizen.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Senju Koten Taiho beams from Toshiro struck Aizen's Danku barrier, causing a violent explosion that directly shattered Aizen's Danku, and the explosion instantly affected Aizen.
When the smoke from the explosion cleared, Aizen's figure reappeared.
However, apart from his Captain's Haori being somewhat disheveled and damaged, Aizen didn't seem to have suffered any serious injuries.
Although the 91-level Hado was extremely powerful, it first broke through the 90-level Kurohitsugi, then shattered the Danku, which could completely defend against Hado below level 89. The remaining power was naturally unable to harm a strong one of Aizen's level.
"Quite surprising. I consider myself relatively skilled in Kido, but after many years of training, I can only manage to use 90-level Kurohitsugi while skipping the incantation, and even then with less than one-third of its original power."
"But I never expected that you, Toshiro-kun, so young, could easily skip the incantation for a 91-level Hado, and its power seems even greater than the original."
Aizen couldn't help but marvel.
"Hmph, stop using these boring little tricks. Show me your true strength, Aizen!"
Toshiro snorted.
Although 90-level and 91-level Hado were extremely powerful, enough to instantly kill a Captain-level if hit, Toshiro and Aizen were far beyond ordinary Captain-level.
For strong ones of Toshiro and Aizen's level, their body's Reishi Density was extremely high. Not necessarily impervious to swords and spears, but the power of 90 or 91-level Hado alone might not even be able to break through their bodily defense.
To injure them purely with Kido, one would need Hado above level 95.
And to instantly defeat a strong one of Toshiro and Aizen's level like Komamura was defeated, even 99-level Kido wouldn't suffice.
That's why Toshiro said Aizen's Kurohitsugi was just some boring little tricks.
"Yes, indeed, some little tricks won't work on you, Toshiro-kun. To obtain the Hogyoku, it seems I'll have to go all out..."
Aizen suddenly said seriously.