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"Now this is interesting…"
"Since becoming captain of a combat division, this is my first official arrest mission. And the target just happens to be a former colleague who used to sit with us at the captains' meetings."
"Pretty damn ironic, huh…"
Inside the Eleventh Division.
Kenpachi Zaraki stood fully geared up, his chipped zanpakutō slung casually over his shoulder. The moment he received the notice from First Division, he'd been itching to move, a savage grin splitting his face.
He looked like he couldn't wait to start cutting people down.
"Captain… please take this seriously," Ikkaku Madarame urged, worry written all over his face. "This situation isn't a joke. Aizen… he's the most vicious traitor the Gotei Thirteen has ever seen."
The moment he recalled the footage, the scene where Tōshirō Hitsugaya was cut down in a single blow, Ikkaku and Yumichika both swallowed hard.
One exchange. Instant kill.
That overwhelming gap in strength made it painfully clear. Aizen's power had already surpassed that of an ordinary captain by an absurd margin. Far beyond what anyone had imagined.
Facing a monster like that…
If this arrest operation hadn't gathered every captain-level Shinigami, Ikkaku honestly might've chickened out.
"Ikkaku, you scared already?" Kenpachi laughed, flashing a feral grin. "Did you forget what the order said at the end? 'If the target resists, kill on sight.'"
"Aizen's a dead man walking."
"What's there to be afraid of?"
He shifted the sword on his shoulder and strode toward the door without hesitation.
"Let's go."
"Aizen's head is mine. No one else gets it!"
Fifth Division. Underground chamber.
"Well well…"
"Aizen-taichō, what should we do now? Looks like we're completely surrounded," Ichimaru Gin said lightly, his body hidden beneath a black cloak that suppressed spiritual pressure.
His voice sounded flustered, but the familiar fox-like smile gave him away. He wasn't worried in the slightest.
Aizen ignored Gin's act. Turning slightly, he cast a calm glance at Kaname Tōsen.
"Tōsen. The Negación and the Senkaimon preparations are complete, correct?"
He had planned this long ago.
The moment he realized that the ranking video would expose future events and every secret of those involved, Aizen had been certain he would appear on it. And so he prepared in advance.
"Everything is ready, Aizen-sama," Tōsen replied respectfully. Like Aizen and Gin, he too was cloaked in black, his spiritual pressure completely concealed.
"Good."
Aizen looked back at the screen, his scholarly face cold and detached. A faint, mocking smile curled his lips.
"Then let's keep watching. When they finally realize the one in the office was an innocent colleague they killed by mistake, that's when we make our grand entrance and tell them the truth."
"Eh? Eh?" Gin chuckled. "So you're planning to wait until the video exposes our future betrayal, then defect together in perfect sync? Wow. That's pretty nasty."
"Gin."
Aizen turned slowly, casting him a flat, emotionless glance.
"If even with the truth exposed in advance, the Gotei Thirteen still can't stop us from leaving Soul Society…"
"Doesn't that just prove how foolish and incompetent they really are?"
His voice was utterly devoid of emotion, dripping with disdain.
"And the psychological damage from that result should be even harder for them to swallow, don't you think?"
At the same time, while Seireitei was shrouded in the tension of a traitor's arrest, the ranking video continued to play.
The scene shifted.
High above Sōkyoku Hill.
"Renji Abarai."
"Put Kuchiki Rukia down and step aside."
Before the image fully settled, Aizen's cold, commanding voice rang out.
As the camera moved, Renji Abarai's face came into view, frozen in shock and confusion.
"Aizen… Captain?!"
"But you're supposed to be dead! How are you…"
The shock hit him so hard his arms slackened, nearly dropping Rukia.
She was dressed in white prison robes, her expression just as stunned.
This single scene nearly gave a certain redhead, who was on his way to Fifth Division to carry out the arrest, a heart attack.
"No way…"
"Am I losing it? Why is Rukia in prison clothes? And why am I facing Aizen alone while holding her?"
Passing by the barracks, Renji caught the footage out of the corner of his eye. His pupils shrank as sweat poured down his face.
The image of Hitsugaya being cut down in one strike was still burned into his mind.
Was future him insane?
How could he dare face Aizen alone?
What made it even worse was this.
Future Renji didn't obey Aizen's order. He actually drew his zanpakutō and slashed at him from a distance.
"I'm crazy. I'm completely insane. Future me has lost it!"
Renji's vision went dark. He nearly passed out on the spot.
What the hell!
Future me, calm down!
Pulling your sword like that gets people killed!
But his panic and shouting couldn't cross time. The future continued exactly as it was meant to.
"Abarai Renji."
"Stubbornness can be a virtue. But when it goes too far, it's just arrogance."
Aizen's cold voice still lingered in the air.
But his body had already moved faster than the camera could track.
In an instant, he appeared behind Renji.
At the same time, a towering column of blood erupted, spraying more than ten meters into the air.
"What?!"
"Another single slash! Another captain-level Shinigami killed in one blow!"
"No, we didn't even see him move. The camera couldn't keep up. Before we saw the strike, Captain Abarai was already down!"
Terrified cries echoed once more throughout the Gotei Thirteen.
Renji collapsed in a pool of blood in the blink of an eye. Watching it, countless seated officers trembled in sheer terror.
One slash per captain.
Aizen's power, displayed so casually, was brutally overwhelming and visually devastating.
And yet…
The slaughter wasn't over.
As Aizen stepped toward Kuchiki Rukia, fear spread again like a contagion.
"Kuchiki Rukia."
"Once I retrieve the Hōgyoku sealed inside you…"
"We'll be able to return to Hueco Mundo without any trouble."
…
"We?"
First Division.
Chōjirō Sasakibe stiffened, eyes wide in disbelief.
"Did we wrongly accuse Kira Izuru? Or does Aizen have accomplices other than him?"
Before this, because of the chase in the courtroom, everyone had assumed Kira was Aizen's ally, the one who helped slaughter Central 46.
But now…
It seemed the real accomplices were someone else entirely.
And just as Sasakibe's cry left his mouth, the scene shifted again.
The camera turned to Aizen's left and right.
Two figures stood there, each wearing a captain's haori.
Ichimaru Gin.
Kaname Tōsen.
In that instant, despair detonated across the entire Gotei Thirteen.
"..."
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