Only after the spiritual pressure that belonged to Kuchiki Byakuya had completely faded from his senses, and after confirming that no one else was watching nearby, did Kurosaki Ichigo, who had been hiding in the corner the whole time, finally receive Aizen's permission through a glance. He yanked off the concealment cloak in one motion and rushed out, face full of confusion, grabbing at his messy orange hair as he asked, "Teacher, why do I feel more confused the more I listen?"
"The one with that terrifying ability to control the five senses, wasn't that who you kept hinting at before, Rosse? And I even saw him use that ability myself. So why just now, in front of Kuchiki Byakuya, did it suddenly get tied to that Kyoraku Shunsui?"
Ichigo felt like his CPU was about to burn out.
The script was changing too fast. He could not keep up at all.
In just a single day, the person with the ability to control the five senses had changed again and again.
First Aizen said it was Rosse, and Ichigo had verified that himself. But Rosse then said Aizen's ability was to control the five senses. And now Aizen was analyzing that Kyoraku Shunsui was the one.
So who exactly had the power to control the five senses?
Right now, everyone felt suspicious to him.
The key point was, if his five senses had really been manipulated, then everything he had seen and heard before might have been fake.
Rosse might actually be a good person. Maybe someone had deliberately controlled his senses so that he saw a fake Rosse and heard a fake voice.
"Calm down, Ichigo."
Aizen slowly lifted his teacup, his eyes steady.
"The guess I put forward before was based on the fact that Kyoraku Shunsui and the others stood against Rosse, and Rosse seemed to be connected to the Royal Palace."
"But now, as the investigation has gone deeper, things have become more complicated."
"Huh? What's different now?", Ichigo scratched his head, completely lost, "You can't be saying that Kyoraku Shunsui and Rosse, who are fighting each other like they want the other dead, are actually both from the Royal Palace, right? Then what are they even fighting for? Wouldn't that mean Soul Society is rotten to the core already?"
With his straightforward mind, he really could not untangle all these twists and turns.
If both sides were people from the Royal Palace, then what chance did Soul Society even have?
If everyone was from the Royal Palace, and the other side had someone who could control the five senses, they might as well just slit their own throats and get it over with.
"It's not impossible. In fact…"
Aizen shook his head. At the right moment, a trace of hesitation and gravity appeared on his face.
"I was once very certain that Rosse was the King planted by the Royal Palace. But now, because of this terrifying ability to 'control the five senses,' something that can alter perception itself, I'm no longer so sure. What we see and hear may all be carefully woven illusions. Perhaps Rosse is actually a scapegoat pushed to the front. Perhaps he's even a good person?"
"What? No way! Absolutely no way!"
Ichigo reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. His words were sharp, his eyes turning red.
He would never forget that night in the Human World, when Rosse had pinned him under his foot and, in the most contemptuous tone, spoken those humiliating words about Kurosaki Masaki.
Family was the one thing he would never allow anyone to touch.
'Anyone can be good, but not that bastard. Absolutely not!'
Unless there was solid proof that those words had never come from him in the first place, but from the real mastermind behind the scenes.
"Don't rush to conclusions."
Looking at the agitated Ichigo, Aizen calmly dropped a bombshell.
"Kurosaki Masaki appeared yesterday."
"What? That's impossible!"
Ichigo's pupils shrank violently. It was as if he had been struck by lightning. He froze where he stood.
He had asked around all through Rukongai and heard countless versions of gossip, but not a single one mentioned this.
Kurosaki Masaki had already been taken away by the Royal Palace. How could she possibly appear in Soul Society?
Seeing that Ichigo clearly knew nothing about it, Aizen frowned slightly in apparent confusion. Then he objectively described what had happened the night before, and finally concluded, "When you lost control of your spiritual pressure and turned into a Hollow yesterday, and were struck down, it was Kurosaki Masaki who suddenly appeared and took you away. Of course, that could also have been an illusion created by the enemy. But I remember her unique spiritual pressure. That cannot be faked. If she appears again, I will definitely be able to tell."
Aizen's tone was firm, leaving no room for doubt.
"Mom saved me?"
At this point, Ichigo could barely process anything else. He just stood there blankly, his mind empty.
The impact of this news was far too great. It even surpassed all the previous information combined.
If his mom had really suddenly come back to life and saved him, and had taken him away right in front of top-tier powerhouses like Rosse and Kyoraku Shunsui, and had done so freely as if she could come and go as she pleased, no matter how he thought about it, something felt very wrong.
'What on earth was going on?'
"Why? If she saved me, then why wouldn't she show herself to me? Why didn't she wait for me to wake up?"
Ichigo clutched his chest. The pain of regaining something only to lose it again made it hard for him to breathe.
He did not believe Aizen would lie to him. Something that big had happened in front of so many people. He could ask any Shinigami captain and find out whether it was true.
'But why?'
'Why would she appear, fight to save me, and then leave so decisively without even a single word?'
"I don't know. That's a puzzle you'll have to solve yourself."
Aizen gently shook his head, looking somewhat helpless.
Then he loosened the collar of his Shihakusho, revealing a chest wrapped in thick bandages.
Only then did Ichigo realize in shock that not only his chest, but Aizen's hands, which had been hidden inside his sleeves all along, were also wrapped in heavy bandages, faint blood seeping through.
"But she now calls herself one of the Royal Palace's Eighth Espada," Aizen's voice lowered slightly, "Yesterday, I tried to stop her and exchanged blows. The result… you can see for yourself."
"And from her attack, I felt a kind of bottomless despair."
"Mom is that strong?"
Ichigo swallowed unconsciously, his heart churning violently.
After that period of special training, he was one of the people in this world who understood Aizen's strength best.
The man he could not injure no matter how desperately he tried had been heavily wounded by his mom?
"And why despair?"
Ichigo clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white. A suppressed anger and heartache showed on his face.
"Could someone be forcing her? Is someone controlling her? Is it Rosse, or someone else from the Royal Palace?"
Kurosaki Masaki had saved him.
That alone proved that his gentle mother still cared about him. Her heart had not changed.
As for why she left without waiting for him to wake up, and even joined the Royal Palace as one of the so-called Eighth Espada, she must have been under someone's control, forced by circumstances she could not escape.
And precisely because this key figure, Kurosaki Masaki, had appeared, many of the earlier conclusions about Rosse truly seemed to need reexamination.
Was it really Rosse who bullied and controlled his mom? Or had someone used the power to control the five senses to lay out a smokescreen, deliberately making it seem like Rosse was the Royal Palace's agent in order to cover up the true mastermind?
For a moment, all kinds of messy thoughts exploded inside Ichigo's head.
Truth and lies, illusion and reality, he could not tell them apart at all.
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