"You need not be so wary. I would not stoop to attacking the heavily wounded. Observe—I have refrained from delivering a single fatal blow thus far, have I not?" Aizen remarked casually to Genryūsai Shigekuni Yamamoto, who stood poised for battle, the air around him shimmering with apocalyptic heat.
"After all… it would be a profound waste if I, who will stand in the heavens, had no worthy audience to witness my ascension, would it not?"
Hearing such brazen arrogance, Yamamoto's grip on the inferno that was Ryūjin Jakka tightened, flames roaring in response to his fury. "Aizen Sōsuke! Though this old man does not know how you learned of the Soul King, the duty of the Gotei 13 is to safeguard the order of the Human World and Soul Society. As long as I draw breath, you will not succeed in your blasphemous ambition!"
Aizen merely spread his hands, a serene smile on his face. "An admirable sentiment. Unfortunately, had you acted sooner, you might have had a chance. Now… I have already prevailed."
His words held a terrible truth. Only three of Aizen's subordinates remained present, while Soul Society's side now had only Yamamoto standing. Aizen himself need not even engage; he could simply leave the confrontation to Wonderweiss.
Yamamoto, however, was stalling. He was waiting for Amamiya Miyako to complete the evacuation of the wounded. Only then could he unleash the full, indiscriminate hellfire of his Zanpakutō, engulfing the entire fake Karakura Town in a final, purgative conflagration.
After a tense moment of silent observation, Yamamoto finally sensed the cluster of Captain-level spiritual pressures moving away, heading for the barrier's perimeter. The time for restraint was over.
He appeared before Aizen in a blur of motion and unleashed a sweeping arc of flame. Aizen evaded with effortless grace. Kyōka Suigetsu's hypnosis was undoubtedly in effect. In the next instant, Aizen materialized behind the Captain-Commander, his blade thrusting toward Yamamoto's back.
Yet, the moment he felt the spiritual pressure of the piercing steel, Yamamoto did not dodge. Instead, his weathered hand shot back with shocking speed, clamping like a vice around Aizen's sword-wielding wrist.
"I have you!"
"Do you? Are you certain it is my arm you hold?" Aizen's voice was mocking.
"Judging by sight and touch alone, it is difficult to be sure. But this old man felt the distinct reiatsu of your Zanpakuto. There is no mistake. This is you!" Yamamoto growled, his grip unyielding despite the blade lodged in his side.
"Impressive. You would accept a wound simply to seize me? But to what end?" Aizen inquired, genuinely curious.
"This is the price of your arrogance, Aizen Sōsuke. Your conceit allowed Vice-Captain Amamiya to evacuate the others. Now… I can descend into hell and drag you with me without regret!"
His original, grim resolution had been to stop Aizen even at the cost of every life on the battlefield, trusting that the Captains still in Hueco Mundo could rebuild. But Miyako's successful retreat, which Aizen had permitted, changed the calculus. Now, Yamamoto could burn it all without hesitation.
As he spoke, multiple colossal pillars of flame erupted from the ground around them, forming a searing, inescapable prison.
"The Jōkaku Enjō (Blazing Hell) now encloses only you and I. It will harm no one else. Aizen Sōsuke, you will accompany me to the depths!"
"Is that so? And this is why you watched as your subordinates were felled one by one…" Aizen chuckled, his estimation of Yamamoto sinking further. "How utterly pedestrian."
As Aizen finished speaking, Yamamoto sensed a bizarre, hollow spiritual pressure appear behind him. He spun, swinging Ryūjin Jakka in a devastating arc.
The blow was halted not by evasion, but by a grotesque, gray hand. Wonderweiss Margela stood there, his monstrous grip easily catching the fiery blade. The moment his hand made contact, the raging flames that coated Ryūjin Jakka flickered and died, leaving only bare steel.
Before Yamamoto could process this, Wonderweiss drove a fist into his chest, sending the old warrior crashing through several layers of rubble.
Though the physical impact was not crippling, the psychological shock was profound. Why did the flames vanish?
Aizen descended leisurely before the rising Yamamoto. "Allow me to elucidate."
"Your Ryūjin Jakka does indeed possess the greatest offensive power among all Zanpakutō. In a contest of raw destructive force, I would be inferior."
"However, power is your sole redeeming quality. Should one devise a method to specifically counter that power… your defeat becomes a simple matter of execution."
A cold dread began to coil in Yamamoto's gut.
"Wonderweiss is the linchpin of my strategy. I created him in haste before departing for this battlefield."
"Created, you understand? He is the only Arrancar I personally modified. His Resurrección is known as the Extinguir (Extinguisher)."
"His purpose should now be clear to you."
As if on cue, the towering pillars of flame comprising the Jōkaku Enjō began to waver and dissolve into nothingness.
"The Extinguir seals the flames of Ryūjin Jakka. To perfect this single function, I stripped him of language, knowledge, memory, and even emotion." Aizen's explanation was chilling in its clinical detachment. Yamamoto had never anticipated an enemy who would craft a being for the sole purpose of negating his very essence.
After a moment of heavy silence, Yamamoto slowly sheathed his now-flameless Zanpakutō with a definitive click.
"A countermeasure targeting only my Ryūjin Jakka… How irksome. To think I have been underestimated to this degree." He vanished, reappearing directly in front of the motionless Wonderweiss. "Ikotsu!"
His fist, imbued with devastating Hakuda force, slammed into the Arrancar's torso, blowing a massive hole clean through it.
"As Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13, I have reached the pinnacle in all four combat arts: Zanjutsu, Hakuda, Hohō, and Kidō! To believe neutralizing my Zanpakuto is enough is the height of folly!" Yamamoto shed his scorched upper gi, revealing a torso mapped with countless scars and corded with muscle that belied his age. He held his fighting stance, a monument of martial prowess.
Aizen remained unimpressed, remotely compelling the gravely wounded Wonderweiss to attack once more.
Yamamoto's eyes narrowed. "Sokotsu!"
The force of this strike was more than double the last. The Hakuda technique utterly pulverized Wonderweiss's body, reducing it to a cloud of dust and debris.
Turning his smoldering gaze back to Aizen, Yamamoto demanded an answer. "Well?"
"Truly magnificent. As expected of the Captain-Commander," Aizen applauded softly. "Unfortunately, you overlooked a detail in my explanation."
"What are you implying?"
"I said his ability was to seal the flames, to contain them within his body to prevent new conflagrations. So, I ask you… what becomes of the flames when the seal is broken?"
Captain-Commander. Vice-Captain Sasakibe's team has lost contact. The barrier perimeter is compromised—we cannot exit. Amamiya Miyako's voice, tense and urgent, resonated directly in Yamamoto's mind through the Tenteikūra link.
Yamamoto's blood ran cold.
"Hoh… Perfect timing," Aizen murmured, sensing the faint spiritual ripple of the communication Kidō. "I presume that was Vice-Captain Amamiya? Did you truly believe I would make no move against the 'Fake Karakura Town' once I discerned its nature?"
Aizen's smile was venomous. "The flames Wonderweiss absorbed were merely sealed, not erased. Now that you have shattered the vessel… what do you suppose will happen to this town, and to those who have not yet escaped, when all that contained power is unleashed at once?"
Horrified, Yamamoto whirled to look at the dissipating remains of Wonderweiss. Within the fading dust motes, a terrible, familiar heat began to radiate—a deep, red glow intensifying from within the very particles of the Arrancar's destroyed form. The seal was broken, and the captive inferno of Ryūjin Jakka was about to erupt.