Chapter 208: The Unexpected Final Battle?
Outside Central Forty Six, the Captain Commander arrived at the doors with nearly every top combat force Seireitei could still mobilize.
Captain Commander Yamamoto Genryusai Shigekuni.
Second Division Captain Soi Fon.
Fourth Division Captain Retsu Unohana.
Sixth Division Captain Byakuya Kuchiki.
Seventh Division Captain Sajin Komamura.
Tenth Division Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya.
Eleventh Division Captain Kenpachi Zaraki.
Aside from Aizen, Kaname, and Kyōraku already below, only the missing Gin Ichimaru and Mayuri Kurotsuchi, who was buried in research, had yet to appear.
It was a lineup that could be counted among the strongest in Soul Society's history.
Even a lion used its full strength to crush a rabbit. Seireitei had enjoyed peace for so long that it no longer remembered how quickly it could become a war machine, but Yamamoto's wrath forced that memory back into its bones.
There was no need to sense anything. One look told Yamamoto everything he needed to know, his own disciple was speaking calmly with the traitor, smiling as if this were an ordinary conversation.
Kyōraku had realized something was wrong and immediately notified the Captain Commander.
Yamamoto did not bother with ceremony. When betrayal sprouted within the Shinigami ranks, he had always severed it at the root.
Orders went out. Captains and vice captains who could still move were assembled. Aside from Isane Kotetsu, who was still trying to persuade the disbelieving Momo, the sky above Central Forty Six filled with Shinigami in black uniforms, crowding the air like storm clouds.
Mayuri's spiritual pressure suppression drug was prepared. Arrays were carved into the ground. Tools and restraints were placed in layers, as if the very air itself was being bound.
Yamamoto Genryusai was furious.
Aizen had dared to strike Central Forty Six.
For Yamamoto, Central Forty Six was not merely an institution. The Gotei Thirteen, the system, the order, it was the result of his entire life.
In the first half of his life, he had sharpened himself into the strongest blade, grinding away weakness until only power remained.
In the second half, he had dedicated everything to building something that could outlast him, uniting Shinigami and nobles, forging a world where stability could mean a better life for all.
Now Aizen stood here like a slap across the face, defiling what Yamamoto cherished most.
It was provocation. It was challenge.
And worse, it was rejection.
Aizen had publicly declared dissatisfaction with the Seireitei Yamamoto created, then acted with slaughter instead of coming to speak to the Captain Commander himself. Yamamoto was enraged, yet beneath that rage, something heavy and bitter stirred.
Why?
Why rebel with such force when everything was finally stable, finally thriving?
Yamamoto did not understand.
He only felt the anger of faith betrayed, of something sacred dragged through mud.
A heavy silence settled.
Then Yamamoto spoke, voice like a furnace door sliding open.
"…The great traitor, Aizen Sōsuke."
Aizen's answer was calm. "Yes."
"Now what explanation do you have?"
"No."
"If you refuse to speak, then you will speak in prison. Do not force me to act with my own hands."
Aizen pushed up his glasses, eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at the furious old man and the dense ranks behind him.
"That is an interesting perspective, Captain Commander. Even if you do act personally, would it make any difference?"
He glanced around at the formations, the tools, the prepared Kido, and the sea of captains and vice captains.
"It is impressive. Arrays, Kido, secret treasures, and nearly everyone is here."
His smile did not fade.
"Yet not a single person who can truly speak is present. That is a pity."
The words were unpleasant in a way that crawled under the skin.
Not a single person who can truly speak?
What did he mean?
Some captains exchanged looks, expressions shifting. Others were still confused, blinded by the shock of Central Forty Six lying dead beneath their feet.
Komamura, mask fixed over his face, eyes wide with emotion, could no longer hold back. He roared down at Kaname, who stood among the corpses.
"Kaname, why would you go this far? Any problem could have been solved with words, with communication."
Kaname's reply was quiet. "I used to think that too, Komamura."
"Then why?" Komamura demanded. "Do you not believe the Captain Commander? He is righteous. We have followed him for so long, do we not know that?"
Kaname's voice did not rise. It did not tremble.
"Captain Commander cannot harm the Tsunayoshiro family."
The words landed like a stone dropped into still water.
Several captains fell silent at once. Even Yamamoto's immense anger paused for a heartbeat.
They all knew why Kaname had become what he was. They knew the story of his friend, Kagami. They knew the rot inside the Tsunayoshiro family, and the rot inside the nobility.
Kaname was stating an ugly truth.
The Captain Commander could not harm the great nobles.
The Gotei Thirteen existed to kill anything that threatened the Soul King system. It had learned to wear the mask of legitimacy, but its essence had never changed.
If so, then what were the Shinigami who were harmed by nobles supposed to do?
Komamura, who had been roaring a moment ago, found no words.
Hitsugaya's expression tightened. Others, even those who normally spoke with confidence, avoided Kaname's gaze.
Because there was no easy answer.
Many Shinigami were confused, torn, tormented. They were willing to die for Seireitei, but did the nobles truly deserve their loyalty?
If Aizen's presence felt like a rebel's interrogation, then Kaname's emotionless statement was soaked in blood, tears, and pain from the lowest strata of society. That pain had long been carved into the foundation of Seireitei itself.
Kaname did not shout. He did not beg.
He simply told the truth.
"Why do I hate the Tsunayoshiro family? Why did we choose this?"
"Because we had no other choice."
"Captain Commander cannot harm nobles, and neither can Seireitei, nor the Gotei Thirteen."
He turned his head slightly, as if letting the captains hear the words properly.
"I have tried many things. Lord Aizen has tried many things too. Have we not made demands? Have we not appealed?"
"I believe every captain here knows that. No one was more enthusiastic about solving the problem through normal means than us."
Kaname's grip on his Zanpakuto tightened.
"But from beginning to end, Central Forty Six was a playground for nobles. They do not pity the suffering of ordinary people. They do not sympathize. They only protect their rule and their interests."
His gaze lifted toward Byakuya.
"Would the Kuchiki family deal with someone like that? I think it is impossible."
Byakuya, suspended in midair, did not reply. He simply looked away, jaw set.
He despised lying. He refused to lie.
To strike the Tsunayoshiro family, another of the Four Great Noble Families, for the sake of justice alone, was not something the Kuchiki family would ever allow.
Even if Byakuya personally found the world disgusting, even if part of him approved of swift punishment, he was still the head of his clan. He carried an entire lineage on his shoulders.
Even when Rukia's execution order had been handed down, he had not moved openly, not because he did not care, but because his position demanded restraint.
Kaname's voice lowered, colder.
"The Gotei Thirteen never gave me that authority."
"I hate this corrupt Seireitei. I also hate the Gotei Thirteen that protects it."
A brief pause.
"It is only a pity I did not have enough time to wipe out the other nobles. There was not enough time."
"Kaname," Komamura said urgently, voice rough with pain. "Do not say that. Just tell the Captain Commander what you truly feel."
Kaname did not flinch.
"Should I recount the story of me, Kagami, and the Tsunayoshiro family again?"
"If so, then I will tell it again."
He stood among corpses and bloodstains and spoke as if reciting a fact carved into his bones.
It was not a complicated story.
Two childhood friends shared beliefs, shared justice, shared the naive dream of becoming people who could uphold righteousness.
The girl gained a noble's favor and became his wife, spared from becoming a wandering spirit that could be ground down by the world.
The boy stayed behind, still believing that one day she would stand within justice, wield its power, and return to tell him stories of punishing evil.
But nobles treated women like toys.
The sense of justice Kagami held was nauseating to the Tsunayoshiro family. It began as targeting, then curses, then, after a few days, it became murder.
A noble killing a commoner wife was not common, but it was not rare either.
Yet when it happened to Kaname, the structure of the world collapsed.
Worse, the Tsunayoshiro family did not even stop there.
For amusement, they came to Kaname afterward and asked if he wanted revenge. If he did, they promised they would humiliate him publicly, then kill him.
That was their entertainment.
The outcome was confinement at most, a punishment so meaningless for nobles it might as well have been a joke.
Perhaps it was intentional. After all, as a Tsunayoshiro, killing a few commoner wives would never truly stain him.
Kaname's story ended, and the sky felt heavier.
No one was surprised that he had become talkative.
Pain like that could twist even a silent man into someone who needed his truth heard.
At last, Yamamoto's voice cut through the weight.
"…I will handle this matter afterward."
A pause.
"But for now, you will still be captured."
His spiritual pressure pressed down like a mountain.
"No matter what happens, the dignity of Seireitei must stand. Aizen Sōsuke and Kaname Tōsen, you two will be put on trial."
Silence answered him.
Then Yamamoto raised his hand, stopping the captains around him from moving.
If someone else interfered in a battle like this, it could scar them for life.
If there was pain to be endured, if there was blood to be spilled, then it should be borne by the one who forged this order.
The air began to dry. Heat gathered, subtle at first, then suffocating.
Yamamoto drew his Zanpakuto, and the world itself seemed to bend.
"All things turn to ash," he intoned, voice steady as death. "Ryujin Jakka."
The blade like flowing flame ignited. The heat distorted everything, as if reality itself could be burned down and remade.
He gazed at Aizen and Kaname below.
And slowly, he swung a sword that could incinerate all things.
If there truly was something in front of him, then he would burn it to ash.
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