Chapter 212: Aizen's Smile
The tension inside Seireitei did not stay contained.
It seeped outward, spreading like dampness through old walls, until even the lowest ranked Shinigami began to move differently. Patrols lingered too long at crossroads. Conversations stopped the moment a superior passed. Even the air felt sharper, as if every breath carried the taste of suspicion.
This was not a normal defeat.
It was not even the kind of loss that could be explained away with excuses about terrain, fatigue, or unlucky matchups. Hundreds of Shinigami, including lieutenants, had been crushed. Captain Commander Yamamoto himself had led the charge, backed by several captains, with a formation so layered and confident it had seemed unbreakable.
And it had meant nothing.
Worse, no one understood when Aizen Sōsuke's genjutsu had taken hold. No one could point to the instant the trap closed. They only knew that somewhere between waking and dreaming, everything had already ended.
Aizen and Kaname had done nothing more, then left.
The image they left behind did not resemble defeated fugitives fleeing for their lives.
It resembled restraint.
As if they did not want to harm their former comrades, as if they had deliberately chosen mercy over slaughter.
No Shinigami was arrogant enough to believe Aizen could not kill them. Every Shinigami knew how fragile their bodies truly were. Hands severed, organs removed, the fight ended quickly. Aizen could do it silently, cleanly, without even raising his voice.
Fear was inevitable.
And humiliation only fed it.
Rumors began to spread like wildfire. Some claimed the true rot was inside Seireitei, not outside. Some swore the nobles were framing Aizen, that they had driven away two of the most righteous captains. Those whispers fused with the unrest already growing in Rukongai, and soon Seireitei itself felt like a battlefield with no enemy in sight.
The nobles were even more terrified than the soldiers.
They understood exactly what Aizen and Kaname would do to them if power truly shifted. As nobles, surrender was unthinkable. So they reached for the tools they knew best, connections, pressure, public opinion, and they began to provoke the Shinigami into action.
When they learned Aizen might be opening a new battlefield, that he might replace the aristocratic system itself with a chakra based order, their desperation turned ugly. Bargaining, screaming, threats whispered behind closed doors, the sound of panicked self preservation became constant.
They could not accept losing their place.
With Yamamoto's tacit approval, Seireitei slid into chaos.
Not even an external enemy could have done this. When faced with a unified foe, Shinigami always displayed astonishing resilience, astonishing tenacity. But this enemy could not be stabbed. It could not be captured. It was a shape made of reputation, mutual recognition, and future promises.
It was an attack that could not be defended against.
No one gained anything from the vortex of confusion. They drifted through it like wandering souls caught in a storm, relying on instinct and momentum in an era that had already broken its own spine.
"The Seireitei is probably a corpse now."
Inside a quiet dojo, Aizen lifted a cup of tea with calm hands, took a small sip, and spoke as if he were discussing the weather.
Kaname sat across from him in silence.
Aizen's gaze remained steady, almost gentle.
"You see," Aizen continued softly, "if you want to uphold justice, you did not need to decide to destroy everything. Of course, it is a bit malicious for me to say that now. Not everyone can obtain something like chakra."
Kaname's fingers tightened slightly around his Zanpakuto.
"Lord Aizen," he said at last, voice low, controlled, "you know I have always admired you."
"Of course I know," Aizen replied. "And I want to."
He blew lightly across the tea, savoring its fragrance, as relaxed as if this were his own home.
"It would be more accurate to say we share similarities," he said. "Otherwise, even with conflict between us, we could not stand together. Personality cannot truly be hidden. It is the most intrinsic part of a person, the foundation of life. Hiding your nature is pointless."
Kaname's brows drew together.
"Then why has it become like this?" he asked, voice tightening despite his control. "I cannot understand it, Lord Aizen. I thought the nobles, the people of Seireitei, would become even more arrogant and haughty, but now…"
"Because everyone has more choices now," Aizen said simply. "Yes."
He set his cup down.
His next words were not comfort, but instruction, as if he were laying out the frame of a broken world and showing Kaname where the cracks had always been.
The reason Shinigami fought so hard to maintain the system, the reason they showed such terrifying resilience, was not because the system was righteous.
It was because they had no other choice.
The Soul King system was the only known structure that could keep the Three Realms balanced, prevent total collapse. As long as Shinigami were thinking clearly, they could oppose an individual noble, or criticize someone repulsive, even reprimand them publicly.
That was acceptable.
But the core, the cornerstone of the nobles' existence, that could not be compromised.
Because nobility was tied to the narrative that upheld the Soul King system. All of it was connected.
The nobles held the power of discourse and final interpretation. They told the story of the Soul King, and through that story, they justified their own rights. The Shinigami structure was built on that foundation of rules and sanctioned meaning. In truth, the Gotei 13 protected the nobles' legitimacy.
Yet over the years, Yamamoto's education and the growth of the Gotei 13 had quietly changed the Shinigami's self image.
They believed Seireitei was their home.
They did not think they were protecting noble honor. They believed they were protecting the land they lived in, the people they were sworn to defend. That was why they raised their blades.
The nobles and the Shinigami both sensed the disconnect, but neither considered it a dangerous conflict.
Until now.
Aizen and Kaname, two captains with the best reputations in Seireitei, had opened Pandora's box.
The first clash shattered unrest that had been held down by overwhelming power. And mercy, the simple fact that Aizen did not slaughter them all, allowed chaotic thoughts to keep spreading.
More importantly, the nobles who should have controlled interpretation were suddenly speechless, and the Zero Division, the only authority capable of ending the argument, did not appear.
The royal agents above Seireitei remained unmoving black dots in the sky. The sealed entrance stayed closed. No message came down, not even a hint of right or wrong, not even a judgment of what should happen next.
It was as if the entire Zero Division had perished.
If their presence could not still be confirmed through calling out their names, Seireitei might already have fallen into civil war.
And because of that silence, people began to realize how much pain had been buried beneath the surface of prosperity.
Sword testing.
Experiments on wandering spirits.
Experiments on Shinigami.
Public and private, internal and external.
Did they truly believe low level Shinigami were obedient and without temper?
They were quiet because they knew temper was meaningless.
In a system ruled by the Soul King, nobles and royal agents were privileged by nature. Resistance had no meaning. Rebellion had no reward.
But now chakra existed.
Even if people did not rebel immediately, chakra itself became a bargaining chip, and bargaining chips always turned into knives when enough hands reached for them.
Even in the quiet dojo, they heard the news like distant wildfire. Resistance, complaints, mutters of anger, they spread across Soul Society in waves.
Many Shinigami and wandering spirits had suffered for far too long.
Even Aizen, cautious and meticulous, had created someone like Ichimaru Gin, a person who hated him. If one man could inspire that kind of hatred through manipulation and necessity, how much hatred existed across the entire world?
From the Eleventh Division's cruelty to the quieter experiments of other divisions, how much suffering had been written into routine?
Aizen's voice lowered.
"Many people share your pain," he murmured. "And so do others."
Kaname's silence deepened, his heart surging, restrained only by discipline that had been carved into him over decades.
"Everyone has their own suffering," Aizen continued. "Everyone has their most painful part. Many have been tormented by the nobles. The lack of resistance does not mean they lack the will to resist. It means the iron fist could fall at any moment, and fear does its work."
He leaned forward slightly.
"But when that seemingly invincible figure falls, even if it does not lose, even if it only hesitates, everyone will realize time has begun to move. People have begun to change."
Then Aizen's gaze shifted.
The words that followed were not meant for Kaname at all.
"Kisuke Urahara," Aizen said calmly, "I have proven myself enough now, have I not?"
Across from him, on the far side of the Shiba family dojo, beyond an artificial hill and a small stream, Urahara sat with a cup of tea in hand. Yoruichi sat near him. The space between them and Aizen looked calm, but the tension was like a drawn wire, invisible, humming.
Aizen enjoyed it.
If Urahara surrendered without a word, there would be no meaning in continuing. Aizen valued him too much for that.
Urahara was bound to Yoruichi, Yoruichi was bound to the four great noble families. Their ties were deep, complicated, inseparable. Aizen was genuinely curious what Urahara would do to stop him.
The Naruto world continued along its relentless trajectory. Chakra was manifesting. Shinigami conflicts were igniting. The things that once looked stable cracked one after another, and the footsteps of war grew closer.
So what could the genius fixer do now?
Aizen confirmed once more that Kaname was not spiraling into despair, then turned his full attention to Urahara.
"I have never had ill intentions toward you," Aizen said, voice clear. "Whether it is the Visored, the Shinigami, the Zero Division, the Hollows, or even the Wandenreich that is watching and searching for answers but cannot grasp them. I treat everyone the same."
His expression remained calm, composed, convincing.
"I know you have opinions about my past self, Kisuke. I will not deny I did things in the past. But I believe everything can begin again."
He lifted his cup slightly, as if making a quiet toast.
"You understand the potential of chakra, just like Mayuri. He performed the Shadow Clone Technique in a few days. He deconstructed chakra's changes and is developing techniques already. It should not be called ninjutsu here, but you understand what I mean."
Aizen's smile sharpened by a fraction.
"You can do better, can you not?"
Urahara did not respond immediately.
His eyes were steady, his expression unreadable, but inside, confusion threaded into his thoughts.
Wandenreich.
The Quincy.
What did they have to do with this?
Urahara had no answer for that sudden mention, nor did he want to explain the other part. Yes, he could do better. He always could. He always had plans, layers of schemes, contingencies hidden behind humor.
But he had always felt something near helplessness in the face of Aizen.
Urahara did not hide his plotting. He sometimes displayed it openly. Aizen was the same.
And even when Aizen's plans were foiled, what did it matter?
Now Ichigo had been persuaded.
That boy, who carried the potential of a Soul King, changed every day in Urahara's eyes. Whenever Aizen spoke to Ichigo through that strange telepathic method, Ichigo's fighting power surged as if dragged upward by invisible hands.
It left Urahara with a quiet, unsettling sense of being outpaced.
At last, Urahara took a sip of tea and spoke softly, as if it were casual.
"To be honest," he said, "I do not know what happened to you during this time."
His gaze lifted slightly, meeting Aizen's.
"During your so called time travel, what exactly happened, what turned you into who you are now?"
He paused, the question hanging like a blade.
"Would you be interested in telling us?"
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