"When we were in the World of the Living, Teacher told me that Yhwach was hiding inside the Seireitei. A thousand years ago, after he was defeated by the Captain-Commander and Teacher, he didn't die. Instead, he fell into a deep sleep. After waking up, he led Haschwalth and used the shadows of the Seireitei to build the Wandenreich. Right now, he should have fallen asleep again."
Rukia laid out everything she knew in one breath.
"You said Yhwach is still sleeping. So why go to all this trouble to set up a barrier?"
Aizen quickly worked through the situation from what Rukia had told him.
Rukia didn't know how to answer and looked at Kazuma, confused.
"That's because part of his consciousness is inside the Gotei 13. And you're the one who brought him here!"
Kazuma answered irritably.
If not for Aizen, none of this would have happened.
"Me? What did I do to summon this so called King of the Quincy?"
Hearing Kazuma pin the blame on him, Aizen defended himself at once.
What kind of man was he? If he'd done something, he would own it.
But if he hadn't, then not even the soul king could pin the blame on him!
"Let me ask you this. Did Kurosaki Ichigo's birth have anything to do with you or not? Did you bring him to Soul Society or not? You designed all of this for the Hōgyoku. Do you dare to say otherwise?"
Kazuma's words left Aizen with nothing to say.
Everything that had happened was indeed his doing, one way or another.
"Weren't we talking about Yhwach? How did this suddenly turn into a discussion about Kurosaki Ichigo?"
But Aizen was Aizen.
He caught the strange thread in Kazuma's words right away.
"Yeah! Yeah! Teacher, why are you dragging Ichigo into this?"
Rukia actually started arguing against Kazuma too.
"Idiot! It's because Yhwach is inside that brat Kurosaki Ichigo's consciousness! The Zanpakutō he has right now is Yhwach's power!"
Kazuma flicked Rukia on the forehead without mercy and dropped a fact that shocked all of them.
"What?!"
Aizen, Gin, and Rukia felt their thoughts knot up completely.
Yhwach's consciousness was hiding inside Ichigo's inner world?
That joke had gone way too far.
"Now you can carry this blame properly, right?"
Kazuma glared at Aizen.
No matter what, he was going to make Aizen shoulder this — and he had no intention of mentioning that part of the cause traced back to himself!
"I admit I had some part in this. But I didn't force Isshin and Masaki together. They did that on their own, all right?"
Aizen admitted it, but he wasn't foolish enough to take the full blame.
"If you hadn't created White and stirred up trouble in the World of the Living, would Shiba Isshin have gone there to investigate? If you hadn't ambushed him from behind, would he ever have met Kurosaki Masaki? You were the fuse that lit everything."
Today, Kazuma was set on pinning this squarely on Aizen.
No matter what happened, it was still Aizen's fault.
Watching Kazuma work so hard to shove the blame onto him, Aizen could only grit his teeth and take it.
He couldn't beat this sneaky bastard anyway...
"Fine. I admit it was because of me. But why tell me all this now? Since you and the Captain-Commander already defeated him once a thousand years ago, even if he comes back, you can simply defeat him again. Besides, you should be even stronger now than you were then."
Aizen couldn't see why Kazuma was telling him any of this.
He had no interest in getting tangled up with Yhwach.
"Let's set Yhwach aside for now. Aizen, do you actually know what state the Soul King is in?"
Kazuma didn't want to keep arguing the point.
They'd circle back to it eventually, so it was better to start with the Soul King. Otherwise Aizen would just keep being stubborn.
"The Soul King? He is the ruler of the Three Worlds, watching over all of existence. He is the strongest being in the Three Worlds."
Aizen spoke passionately about everything he knew.
His goal was to reach that level, replace the Soul King, and stand above every being in the Three Worlds.
"Heh. You're dreaming big."
Kazuma shot him down without mercy.
Replace the Soul King? Did he want to become a limbless human battery?
Forget everything else — even if Aizen got the Hōgyoku and evolved to a higher level, he didn't have the powers of the Quincy or Fullbring.
He didn't even qualify as a Soul King candidate.
"The Soul King is basically a living torso. If you want to become the Soul King, I can grant that wish right now and cut off your limbs."
Kazuma kept pouring secrets Aizen didn't know straight into his ears.
"How is that possible? Isn't the Soul King the ruler of the Three Worlds? How could he be a limbless torso?"
It was the first time Aizen had heard such a thing, and it truly shook his worldview.
Kazuma sighed. "The Soul King is really just a mascot, used to hold the Three Worlds together. His power keeps the Three Worlds from falling apart.
Countless years ago, the Three Worlds were actually one world — no life or death, no progress or decline. Even Hollows were part of the cycle of reishi. Later, Hollows began devouring humans, and from that point, the cycle stopped completely.
If it had gone on like that, all souls would eventually have merged into one massive Menos Grande, and the world would have fallen still. Then the Soul King was born. He used Quincy power to destroy the Hollows and set the world's cycle moving again.
But the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Clans didn't accept a world like that.
What they wanted was a Three Worlds that were divided.
For that, they went to the Soul King.
When the ancestor of the Shiba Clan asked the Soul King to act, that sneaky bastard from the Tsunayashiro Clan seized the chance to seal him. The Soul King saw certain futures in that moment. That's why he didn't resist, or maybe he was tired.
Maybe he was lonely.
Maybe after being unbeatable for so many years, he'd decided living had no meaning anymore."
In a way, the Soul King was the ultimate slacker — the king of doing nothing.
If he'd wanted to act back then, ancestors of the Five Great Noble Clans or not, every last one of them would have died.
"Not only that — the Tsunayashiro ancestor was afraid the Soul King would take revenge later. So he didn't just cut off the Soul King's limbs. He also dug out his organs and turned him into an energy generator.
After that, the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Clans used the Soul King's power as a linchpin and shaped the chaotic world into the Three Worlds. That's still how the world stands today."
Kazuma had turned into a history teacher, explaining the Soul King's past to this group of curious children.
These weren't things you could learn at the Shin'ō Academy or from the spirit records.
Who would write down such shameless deeds for everyone to read?
If they'd had any shame, they wouldn't have done those things in the first place.
Everything Kazuma had said was a secret among secrets.
None of them knew where he'd learned it all.
"So. Do you still want to replace the Soul King now?"
Kazuma looked straight at Aizen and asked the question that cut to the heart of it.
"If what you say is true, then I have no interest in replacing the Soul King anymore. If I'm going to do something, I'll become someone like the ancestors of the Five Great Noble Clans."
Aizen was cold by nature and full of ambition.
How could a few words from Kazuma change his goal?
"I swear, you really don't listen to a thing. You want me to throw you into Muken right this second?"
Kazuma was so frustrated he could barely stand it.
He'd said so much, and still hadn't managed to pull Aizen off the wrong path.
"As you wish. I lost to you this time because my skill wasn't good enough. That doesn't mean I'll act according to your wishes. I have my own plans."
Aizen still looked completely unbothered, like a man with nothing left to lose, plainly turning down Kazuma's goodwill.
"That's true. If you'd actually agreed, then you wouldn't be the Aizen I value. I'd have killed you on the spot without hesitation."
From Kazuma's calm words, Aizen felt unmistakable killing intent.
He had no doubt Kazuma really would have done it.
At that, a chill of fear lingered in him.
His ideal had yet to be realized..... to die just like that would be far too regretable!