"Kisuke!"
Kuchiki Aoba ran up and threw her arms around Urahara Kisuke.
"What are you doing here?" he asked with a trace of helplessness in his voice.
"Captain Aizen helped me!" Aoba said, visibly relieved. "My brother found out about us and put me under house arrest… If it wasn't for Captain Aizen, I wouldn't have escaped!"
After being caught by Kuchiki Sōjun, Aoba had been confined. But with Aizen Sōsuke's assistance, she had easily broken free.
Urahara sighed. "Headache after headache..."
He looked toward Aizen, expression sharpening. "Captain Aizen, the warrant from Squad Six... It's fake, isn't it?"
Urahara was no fool. Everything had happened quickly, but he had already spotted the inconsistencies on his way here.
Now that he was face-to-face with Aizen, he was nearly certain—this entire mess had been orchestrated.
"You've figured it out?" Aizen smiled faintly. "My teacher always said you were one of the most intelligent minds in the Soul Society. It seems he was right."
"To think the Captain holds me in such high regard..." Urahara scratched the back of his head, trying to stay calm. "I made a promise with Aoba. She'd never expose me. The Kuchiki Clan shouldn't have discovered anything this early."
He knew Aoba well—knew how much he meant to her. She wouldn't betray him.
"I still don't get it... how did Captain Aizen discover us? Was the cloaking not effective?"
He couldn't figure out how he'd been exposed. He'd taken every precaution. The Kuchiki hadn't been researching the Soul King Fragments, just storing them, which made them unlikely to notice anything missing.
He'd even had Aoba replace the real fragment with a replica.
Unless Aoba betrayed him, detection was almost impossible.
That's why he dared to take such a risk in the first place.
But Aizen had seen through it all.
"You'll have to solve that mystery yourself," Aizen said with a soft chuckle. He seemed to relish the idea of Urahara uncovering the truth on his own.
"You always act like you're five steps ahead. It's infuriating."
Urahara suddenly drew his blade—an arc of red light sliced through Aizen's body… only to land harmlessly on the ground behind him.
"A mirror image…" Urahara's face darkened. He remembered: Aizen's Zanpakutō had the ability to use mist and moisture to create reflections.
"The warrant from Squad Six might be fake for now," Aizen smiled calmly, "but just a moment ago, 'Urahara Kisuke' infiltrated the Kuchiki vault, stole their treasures, and kidnapped their heiress. In other words… your pursuers are already en route."
"You impersonated me and did all that?! I don't remember offending you!" Urahara's face twisted in disbelief.
Now, even if the warrant was originally fake… it was about to become very real.
"Leaving you in the Soul Society… doesn't sit well with me." Aizen's eyes gleamed with regret. "The hunters are coming. Looks like it's time for goodbyes."
He acknowledged Urahara's brilliance—but precisely because of that, he saw him as a future threat. So he used the scandal with the Kuchiki family to push Urahara into exile.
With that, Aizen's figure faded and vanished.
"...What rotten luck," Urahara muttered.
He turned to Aoba with a frown.
She didn't seem to have noticed anything strange.
"What did Captain Aizen say just now?" he asked.
"Huh? He said he wouldn't disturb us and left. Isn't he a good person?" Aoba replied cheerfully.
"...So only I heard that?" Urahara furrowed his brows and pulled out a spiritual recording tool.
"...Not activated?"
His face fell.
He was sure he had activated the tool, intending to record Aizen's confession as evidence.
But the tool had never been triggered.
"How the hell did he do that…"
There was no time to reflect.
He could already sense a massive surge of Reiatsu approaching fast.
"Put this on! Squad Six is on their way!" Urahara pulled an invisibility cloak from his Reishi pocket and handed it to Aoba.
There was no turning back now. He'd actually stolen the Soul King Fragment from the Kuchiki vault. His only option was escape.
Aoba, though still confused, obediently donned the cloak.
Urahara grabbed her hand and headed for his lab in Rukongai.
The lab's defenses hadn't triggered—but something told him Aizen had already taken the Hōgyoku.
Before leaving the Soul Society, he had to check.
As they ran, he explained the situation.
"This is all my fault. I can't stay here anymore. But if you stay... you'll be in danger too."
"Aizen did something so despicable?" Aoba exclaimed. "I thought he was a good man! I'll explain everything to my brother. He'll believe me—we can expose Aizen's lies!"
"It's useless. If Aizen dared involve you in his scheme, then he definitely has a way to counter you."
Urahara sighed. He wasn't as optimistic.
If Aizen was confident enough to use her, he certainly had a way to silence her.
Besides, they had stolen the Soul King Fragment. Aoba might suffer punishment, but her life wouldn't be in danger.
But Urahara? He wasn't a Kuchiki.
An outsider who stole from the Kuchiki vault would, at best, be thrown into Muken—the Soul Society's deepest prison. At worst… he could be executed.
He had no choice but to flee.
"Then I'll go with you. Wherever you go, I'll follow!" Aoba said firmly, fully realizing the weight of her decision.
"Okay. I'm planning to escape to the World of the Living. But first, we need to stop by somewhere else," he said with a nod.
Heading to the World of the Living was the best plan. Thanks to new Central 46 regulations, Shinigami had to limit their Reiatsu in that realm to avoid harming it.
Which made it the perfect place to hide.
They traveled swiftly—though Aoba was slower, so Urahara adjusted his pace. Luckily, their cloaks prevented spiritual detection, so the pursuers didn't catch them.
Eventually, they reached the forest of dead trees that concealed the lab's entrance.
Urahara examined the barrier outside. No signs of tampering.
Still, he had a bad feeling.
He entered the lab and immediately noticed it—
"...It's gone."
The Hōgyoku was missing. And there wasn't a single trace left behind.
"How did he even find this place…?" Urahara's face was grim.
Without the Hōgyoku, all his recent efforts had gone up in smoke.
He turned to check the incubation tanks.
The artificial soul embryos were still there. Aizen hadn't taken them.
But now that the Hōgyoku was gone, producing more would be nearly impossible.
So Urahara carefully packed both tanks into his Reishi pocket and took them with him.