A breathtaking silence fell over the study for a moment. Sandalwood smoke curled in the air, yet it couldn't dispel the invisible pressure permeating the room. On Aizen's face, his usual mask of gentleness cracked slightly before the shocking truth Hiroki had thrown out—even though he quickly repaired it with immense willpower, that momentary freeze and the flash of icy sharpness in his eyes did not escape Hiroki's deep, perceptive gaze.
As if he hadn't seen Aizen's fleeting lapse in composure, Hiroki picked up his teacup and took a slow, leisurely sip, letting the warm liquid slide down his throat while suppressing the turbulent waves surging in Aizen's heart.
When he set the teacup down, the bottom clicked softly against the red sandalwood low table, a sharp "tap" that sounded like a final decision being made.
"Well then," Hiroki's voice was as steady as if he were stating tomorrow's weather, "as for the Captain Commander's side, he's currently too lazy to bother with you. The old man is seeking stability right now; as long as the sky isn't falling, he'd rather paper over anything that can be glossed over. Especially—" He paused deliberately, his fingertip slowly tracing the rim of the cup, "since this matter also involves our Shihōin Clan, which is a fairly significant obstacle."
Aizen nodded slightly, his gaze behind his glasses as calm as a deep pool. "Yes, I am grateful for Lord Hiroki's enlightenment." He maintained a very low posture, his tone perfectly respectful.
"Mm." A soft sound escaped Hiroki's nose, a sign of accepting this superficial submission. "Now then, next, let's talk about the other... four factions that also know about your 'little tricks'." He deliberately bit out the words 'little tricks' lightly, with a hint of subtle playfulness.
"Yes!" Aizen replied, his back straightening slightly. He knew that this was the real "iceberg" beneath the surface of the Soul Society that Hiroki was going to reveal to him today.
Every name could potentially overturn his past understanding, and every piece of information was a crucial key for his future plans.
Hiroki held up a finger, his sharp gaze fixed on Aizen's face. "The first one... is the one hidden deepest and is also the most dangerous—the Wandenreich!"
"Wandenreich?" Aizen repeated in a low voice, his brow truly furrowing for the first time.
Despite having controlled the Fifth Divsion for decades and having secret networks spread throughout the Seireitei and even the Rukongai, this name was like a sudden gust of wind, completely unheard of!
To dare call themselves an "Empire" right under the noses of the Soul Society and the Thirteen Court Guard Squads? Their foundation and ambition were definitely not comparable to an "assassination organization" or "rebel bandits"!
A strange, massive shadow named "Empire" suddenly loomed over his consciousness.
"Yes," Hiroki's voice carried a hint of coldness, "the Wandenreich. An empire composed of Quincies."
"Quincies?!" Aizen's pupils constricted slightly as he blurted out a question, "Weren't they completely wiped out by the Thirteen Court Guard Squads hundreds of years ago and gone from the Soul Society?" This conflicted severely with the historical information he possessed!
"Wiped out?" Hiroki scoffed, his smile full of disdain for those who didn't know the secrets. "The ones who died were just insignificant underlings put on the surface. They might have even been pawns deliberately pushed out to let the Thirteen Court Guard Squads have their fill of killing! The true core, the Quincy elite honored as the 'Sternritter'..."
He leaned forward slightly, his voice dropping even lower, as if passing on a world-shaking secret. "Those guys are the true pillars of the Quincies! Every single one of them possesses strength no less than that of a Captain-level Shinigami!"
"The Sternritter... strength on par with Captain-level?!" Aizen's breath hitched slightly. An organization composed entirely of Captain-level Quincies? This news was like a giant boulder thrown into a lake, stirring up a thousand waves in his heart!
If this power was real, it was already enough to overturn the current status quo of the Seireitei!
"Their power is far beyond your imagination," Hiroki continued, as if he had already anticipated Aizen's shock. "Especially when they completely release their bloodline power and enter the 'Vollständig' state..." He shook his head slightly, as if recalling some terrifying scene, "Their speed and destructive power will climb to an extremely troublesome level."
"Vollständig..." Aizen chewed on this unfamiliar term, his eyes flashing with an intense desire to investigate.
"However," Hiroki changed the subject, his tone seemingly relaxing a bit, "you don't have to worry too much about them for now. At least until that old monster Yhwach is completely back on his feet, these rats hiding in the shadows will only keep their tails tucked between their legs and honestly gather intelligence, never daring to easily show their heads or stir up trouble."
"Yhwach... can still be resurrected?" Aizen keenly caught the second key name and that even more shocking verb, "resurrected"! An ancient king recorded in history as "defeated" or even "dead" could actually return?
"Of course he can." Hiroki's tone was as if he were talking about something natural. "Haven't you heard that ancient prophecy that has circulated in the Soul Society for a thousand years?" He looked up and recited word for word, with absolute clarity:
"'The sealed King of the Quincies regains his heartbeat after nine hundred years, regains his consciousness after ninety years, and finally, after nine years, regains his full power'."
"..." Aizen fell into silence, these words imprinted in his consciousness like a clear incantation.
"What does this mean?" he asked in a low voice.
"What does it mean?" Hiroki laughed, a laugh carrying a hint of the vicissitudes of someone who had seen through time. "It means that if you calculate the timeline... at most another hundred years or so, it will be the day that the Quincy King who once made the world tremble—Yhwach—reigns over the world once again!"
Boom!
Even as steady as Aizen was, his heart felt as if a massive tsunami had been whipped up! "A hundred years later, Yhwach returns"! He instantly understood the Wandenreich's dormancy and being "invisible"—they were waiting for their Emperor's awakening!
Once that monster who could be crowned with the title of "King" was resurrected, the current landscape of the Soul Society would be turned upside down!
Seeing the shock that Aizen couldn't hide in his eyes, Hiroki seemed very satisfied with the impact this information brought.
He leisurely took a sip of tea before continuing, "So, for now, these so-called 'Empire' lackeys indeed do not pose a direct threat.
All they can do now is crawl in the cracks of every shadow like the lowliest insects to survive. If you really want to be vigilant..." He paused and glanced meaningfully at his feet, "Just pay more attention to things in the 'shadows' in the future."
"Shadows?" Aizen's gaze subconsciously swept over the smooth floor and the blurry dark shadow he cast. An invisible enemy, hidden in the gaps of light and shadow... Hiroki no longer explained this metaphorical tip, as if leaving time for Aizen to digest this earth-shattering news. Only the faint sound of the wind outside the window and their silent breathing remained in the study.
After a long time, when the steam from the cup had almost completely dissipated, Hiroki spoke again, his voice returning to its previous flatness: "Next, let's talk about the second one." He held up a second finger, "That is... Squad Zero."
"Squad Zero?!" A hint of disbelief finally appeared in Aizen's voice. "Squad Zero... also knows?!" This startled him even more than the Wandenreich!
Squad Zero guards the Soul King Palace; their status is transcendent, and they are the ultimate line of defense above the Thirteen Divisions. They actually know about his plans?
"Yes," Hiroki's expression was calm, as if stating a simple fact. "You couldn't be so naive as to think that your 'Kyōka Suigetsu' Zanpakuto's little ability to 'control the five senses' could hide from the whole world, could you? Heh."
That contemptuous "Heh" was like a cold needle pricking Aizen's nerves.
His most proud and invincible trump card of illusion seemed to become worthless in Hiroki's casual words.
"Squad Zero guards the Soul King Palace, and naturally, they also guard the ultimate secrets of this world and the foundation of everything—the Soul King himself." Hiroki's tone took on a hint of unquestionable authority. "Their eyes can see with a breadth and depth you cannot imagine. Most importantly—"
He paused again, his gaze becoming extremely sharp, as if piercing through Aizen's soul. "The root of every Shinigami's Zanpakuto, its original form, its Shikai, and even the source power of the ultimate Bankai form... all come from the core of where Squad Zero resides—one of the five palaces, the 'Phoenix Palace'!"
"It was that Squad Zero member known as the 'God of the Sword'—Nimaiya Ōetsu—who personally hammered and forged thousands upon thousands of 'asauchi' and injected 'souls' into them, giving them the possibility to eventually grow into true Zanpakuto!"
"!!!" Aizen's pupils suddenly constricted to the limit! A chill, a chill truly originating from the depths of his bloodline, instantly surged from his spine to the top of his head! This news was even more subversive than the "Wandenreich"!
"Including your proud Kyōka Suigetsu!" Hiroki continued to add weight, his lips curling into a nearly cruel, playful smile. "From the moment you graduated from the Shino Academy and reached out to 'choose' Kyōka Suigetsu from among thousands of identical asauchi... the God of the Sword, Nimaiya Ōetsu, already clearly knew what form this blade would eventually bloom into! Including its core ability known as 'hypnotizing the five senses of all things'! While you were racking your brains and carefully designing how to play with illusions and manipulate the real and the false..."
Hiroki spat out the last sentence softly and with absolute clarity: "In the eyes of that 'Lord God of the Sword', everything you've done is probably nothing more than a child holding a toy sword he made and clumsily swinging it around. Your trump cards were already recorded on his desk long ago."
"..." Aizen fell into complete silence. His expression froze in that moment of shock, and all his wisdom and schemes seemed pale and powerless at this moment.
A creator-like "God of the Sword" who stood above all Shinigami, an existence that understood the essence of all Zanpakuto... this completely overturned his understanding of Zanpakuto and even his own power!
Seeing Aizen's rare state of being lost, Hiroki's expression softened a bit, as if he had just been analyzing an objective physical phenomenon.
"Zanpakuto, from the perspective of power, are indeed a great invention." His tone carried a scholar-like calm evaluation. "Unfortunately..." He shook his head, his tone carrying a hint of subtle, almost sigh-like contempt, "they are ultimately just external forces, a convenient but... 'shortcut' with an upper limit."
"Shortcut?" Aizen keenly caught this word, forcing himself to find his train of thought from the massive information impact.
"Bankai can explode the holder's own power by ten, dozens, or even a hundred times in a very short period," Hiroki explained, his voice as flat as if he were describing a formula.
"Then, have you ever wondered where this power, like a sudden mountain flood, actually comes from? Before it explodes, where in your body is it hidden? Is it really... a completely 'extra' power that the Zanpakuto 'bestows' upon you out of thin air?"
What kind of person was Aizen? His wisdom was like an abyss. Hiroki's hint was like a bolt of lightning that split the fog in his mind, instantly lighting up that thin layer of paper!
A brilliant light burst from his eyes, and he blurted out, "Lord Hiroki means... the essence of Bankai is not bestowing power, but forcibly opening the massive potential treasury already hidden within the Shinigami themselves, which was inaccessible in a short time due to various restrictions (like insufficient cultivation time or unbroken bottlenecks)? It is merely the 'key' to open this treasury, forcibly prying open and guiding out the power core that the holder originally needed to spend long years accumulating or experience a life-and-death breakthrough to reach?!"
"Exactly!" Hiroki nodded heavily, expressing praise for Aizen's comprehension.
"A Zanpakuto is like a specially made key with a high degree of soul compatibility. Its release, especially Bankai, forcibly opens that heavy, locked portal for you, allowing you to possess or 'advance' power belonging to the future ahead of time. However, learning the technique of 'opening the door' and truly owning and being able to completely control the 'treasure' (your own potential) behind the door are two completely different things!"
Hiroki picked up his empty teacup and gestured, "Owning the key and opening the door are merely means. Owning that power itself is the root. The former is technique and tool; the latter is foundation and cultivation."
This incisive metaphor analyzed the essence of the Zanpakuto to the fullest.
Aizen fell into deep thought; for the first time, he clearly recognized the limit of a Zanpakuto's ability—it could not create power out of thin air; it only accelerated the excavation and application of one's own potential.
"However," Hiroki's words took another wonderful turn, this time his tone carrying a hint of playfulness regarding the subtle arrangement of the world's rules themselves, "under the rules of this world, there are always exceptions. There is always an existence that transcends the limitations of 'tools'."
"Exception?" Aizen's gaze instantly focused on Hiroki's face.