Chapter Ninety-Two: A Flaw

From the darkness, a woman slowly emerged into view. Beside her, her deputy looked uneasy and fearful, staring at the man before them, who wore a gentle smile.

"I was wondering when you would come out, Captain."

Aizen curved his lips slightly, his smile disarmingly handsome.

"You really have endured this far longer than I expected."

"How should I address you now? Captain Aizen, or no..."

Unohana regarded the man with quiet composure, her voice low.

"The greatest criminal of the Soul Society, Sosuke Aizen."

"Heh. A criminal, am I?"

Hearing the woman who had always treated others with kindness describe him that way, the arc of his smile only deepened.

"By what authority do you judge me guilty, Captain Unoha

na?"

"...."

Unohana had just begun to speak when Aizen cut her off.

"By what you have seen with your own eyes? No. Even the eyes cannot convey every truth to you."

His eyes narrowed into a dangerous line, a cold gleam beginning to flicker within his pupils.

"For example..."

With a slight motion of his sword, another identical figure suddenly appeared behind Aizen, wearing the same gentle smile and bearing the same broad shoulders.

Another Sosuke Aizen.

"!!"

Unohana and Yachiru rushed to widen their eyes in astonishment. There were two Aizens.

"This is..."

Looking at the two equally gentle men before her, Unohana's brow furrowed deeply.

"Kidou..."

"No, Yachiru..."

At her deputy's murmur, Unohana denied it at once.

With a thousand years of experience behind her, she had never once heard of any kidou in history that could produce something resembling a clone.

"That is not kidou..."

"Captain Unohana, as expected of you."

Aizen lowered his head slightly, his eyes hidden behind the glare on his lenses, and took a step toward her.

"Indeed, this is not kidou. It is something that has been shown to you all ever since my death."

"Shown to us?"

Yachiru did not quite understand what he meant.

"What is it? Even the thing that has been appearing before your eyes just now, you still have not noticed it?"

A trace of mockery entered his voice. Aizen glanced at Chojiro, who lay grievously wounded behind him.

"I had thought that if Vice-Captain Sasakibe knew, he would have told you. That is rather surprising."

Aizen shifted his gaze back to Unohana and Yachiru, and his smile returned.

"Well then, if you still have not recognized it, I will show you."

He lifted his sword upside down, and a strange light suddenly flared across the blade.

"Shatter—"

Feeling the eerie tremor running through the blade in his hand, Aizen's smile widened.

"Kyoka Suigetsu."

With a sharp crack, the world before Unohana and Yachiru suddenly split apart, shattering like a pane of glass to reveal the reality behind it.

And that reality was this: Chojiro, who had only barely been holding on, had fallen into a pool of blood, while the other Aizen standing beside him had vanished without a trace.

"This is..."

Unohana seemed to faintly grasp something, but just as she tried to seize it completely, it slipped away in some inexplicable manner.

"This is my Zanpakuto, Kyoka Suigetsu."

"It dominates the five senses of the opponent, causing them to believe completely in the appearance, form, quality, sensation, and even the scent of a particular target, exactly as I desire. And once the blade is released, anyone who has once witnessed the moment Kyoka Suigetsu is released will unconditionally fall into this art again. I call this ability—"

Aizen appeared deeply satisfied with his Zanpakuto's power, and raised the blade higher still.

"Complete Hypnosis."

"How could this be..."

At the side, Yachiru clasped her hands tightly together in agitation and cried out to Aizen, "You said Kyoka Suigetsu was a flowing-water type Zanpakuto, an ability that sowed discord among enemies by using mist and the irregular reflections of water. That was what you told us, and you even gathered all the vice-captains to verify it yourself."

"So that was the initiation ritual?"

"Exactly. To understand that much from a single instance is impressive, but..."

Aizen returned the sword to its sheath and said coolly, "You still do not understand it fully."

"What do you mean?"

The man's words were utterly incomprehensible. What else was there not to understand?

"I told you, didn't I? You fall under Kyoka Suigetsu's art the moment you look at it."

"!!"

"Judging by your expression, you understand now."

Satisfied by the shock on Unohana's face, Aizen looked down at the two women from the steps above.

"If one falls under the art by merely looking once, then in other words, if one does not see it, one does not fall under it. That is to say..."

"Tousen was my subordinate from the very beginning."

The instant the words fell, a white band of cloth suddenly burst from Aizen's sleeve and spiraled around him, wrapping his entire body within it.

"It seems the other side has already begun."

Examining the white strips whirling at high speed around him, Aizen knew at once that Tousen had succeeded. It seemed it was time for him to make his appearance there.

"Wait..."

"!"

A faint voice reached him from behind. Aizen glanced over his shoulder.

"You... when did you..."

"Ah, I have to say, you did very well, Vice-Captain Sasakibe."

Interrupting Chojiro, Aizen smiled with satisfaction.

"If you had not gone after Gin once he made his move, I would never have suspected you."

"What a pity. If I could, I would have liked to talk with you all here a little longer, but there is something I must attend to now, so..."

"It is time to say goodbye."

The gaps between the white cloth strips grew smaller and smaller, and soon Unohana and the others could see nothing but Aizen's face.

"..."

After giving a faint glance at Unohana's tightly clenched, slightly trembling hands, Aizen lowered his head with a touch of amusement.

"You do not have time for this now, Captain Unohana."

"There are wounded waiting for you to tend to over there. Perhaps this will be our last meeting."

"Then..."

The white bands swallowed Aizen's figure completely and vanished from before them. At the same time, on the distant hill of the Hill of Twin Deaths, the same cloth strips that had appeared when Aizen disappeared suddenly emerged again, and there were two sets of them.

"..."

The white strips slowly ceased their spinning and then withdrew into the sleeves of the two men.

"Where is this..."

Abarai, carrying Rukia as he prepared to flee, looked around him. A barren stretch of land. After encountering Captain Tousen just now, he had been forcibly brought here. What exactly did he intend to do?

"It has been a long time, Abarai."

"!"

The long-lost gentle voice that suddenly reached him stiffened Abarai's entire body. The broad shoulders that entered his sight left him staring in utter disbelief.

"Well, I do not intend to exchange pleasantries, so..."

With his unchanged smile, Aizen walked slowly toward Abarai and Rukia.

"Put Rukia down, and then leave here, Abarai."