The scene shifted, carrying the audience away from the battlefield and into the Soul King Palace.
"Thank you for taking care of us. We're heading out now!"
With a brown cloak draped over his shoulders, Ichigo Kurosaki turned back toward the five members of the Royal Guard and called out with a smile. His entire presence had changed. It was not just his clothing, nor was it merely the result of training. There was something steadier in him now, something sharpened by exhaustion, pressure, fear, and resolve until it became unmistakable.
Standing beside him were Rukia Kuchiki and Renji Abarai.
The moment viewers around the world saw that, Bleach fans could not help but cheer.
The main cast was finally heading to the battlefield.
Without wasting another second, the three stepped into the Tenchūren, the divine transport connecting the Soul King Palace and the Seireitei. Like a pillar dropped from the heavens, it carried them downward at terrifying speed, sending them straight toward the heart of the war.
Meanwhile, in the Seireitei, the battle had already reached a point beyond ordinary desperation.
"All of you using Bankai?" Sosuke Aizen stood at the center of several captain-class fighters, his expression as calm as ever. A faint sneer touched his lips. "A wise choice. Without that, you would all be finished in an instant."
"Save that talk for after you win!"
Kensei Muguruma moved first. Both of his fists seemed to be wrapped inside raging cyclones, and in the next instant, he charged toward Aizen with crushing force. Even the flames surrounding them were torn aside by the pressure of his strike.
But then, something no one expected happened.
A mountain of corpses and bones rose out of thin air in front of Aizen.
It was a grotesque wall of skeletons, piled together like the remains of an ancient battlefield. With almost insulting ease, it swallowed the storm Kensei had unleashed and blocked the attack completely.
It had begun.
Zanka no Tachi, South: Kaka Jūmanokushi Daisōjin.
"Everyone, attack together!" Shinji Hirako shouted.
The sight of those undead soldiers filling the Seireitei was enough to chill anyone to the bone. Every ally understood the same thing. Even if Aizen could not draw out the full power of Zanka no Tachi, even if what he wielded was only an imperfect version of Yamamoto's Bankai, a single moment of carelessness would mean death.
And Aizen himself had not moved since forcing Yoruichi into the air. He simply stood there, letting the undead soldiers below clash with the Gotei Thirteen as if he were watching an experiment unfold.
"Is that all?" Aizen looked at the new generation of captains struggling just to deal with the reanimated dead, his face filled with open mockery. "With this level of strength, you dared to claim you could defeat me?"
Then, Kisuke Urahara's voice suddenly pulled Aizen's attention away.
"Bankai."
Aizen turned his gaze.
Above Urahara crouched an enormous woman with long black hair bound by ancient hairpins. Her aura was old, solemn, and deeply unsettling, as if she were not merely a spiritual manifestation, but a curse given form.
"So this is your Bankai, Kisuke Urahara." A flicker of surprise passed through Aizen's eyes, though it vanished almost immediately. "I admit, this is my first time seeing it. But so what? Compared to the Head Captain's Bankai, what can yours possibly do?"
As soon as he finished speaking, Aizen gently raised his blade. He aimed its tip toward Urahara and the giant woman behind him, then lightly touched the ground.
The world exploded.
A deafening roar tore through the battlefield. From the point where Aizen's blade touched the earth, the ground vanished in a straight line stretching for miles. It was not crushed. It was not split open. It simply disappeared, erased by an overwhelming concentration of heat. Around the edge of the massive trench, the earth had been burned into crystalline scars, silently telling everyone what had happened.
Zanka no Tachi, North: Tenchi Kaijin.
Kisuke Urahara and the towering woman he had summoned, who had been standing hundreds of meters away moments earlier, were gone without a trace.
"Did Urahara just die? It shouldn't be that easy, right?" On the set of Nirvana in Fire, one of Mark's younger castmates blinked in disbelief.
Although Urahara had never been portrayed as a brute-force fighter, his status throughout Bleach had always remained extraordinarily high. A man like him being killed immediately after revealing his Bankai, before even showing what it could do, felt far too absurd.
And sure enough, just as Aizen seemed to conclude that Urahara had been eliminated and shifted his attention back to the other captains, the ground near his heel began to distort unnaturally.
Aizen noticed it and turned his head.
The next instant, the earth split apart like cloth being torn open by invisible hands. The eerie giant woman emerged from beneath the ground, and Kisuke Urahara rose with her.
"After my Bankai is activated, anything touched by my Zanpakuto can be remodeled." Urahara smiled faintly. "I altered the ground in advance and hid inside it."
The moment he finished speaking, Urahara slashed at Aizen.
The attack came too suddenly. Aizen could only raise his arm to block it.
Urahara's blade failed to wound him.
After fusing with the Hōgyoku, Aizen's defense had already surpassed even the Hierro of the Espada. And beyond that -
Flames like the surface of the sun erupted around Aizen's body. The ground beneath him melted instantly, turning into glasslike crystal beneath the suffocating heat.
Zanka no Tachi, West: Zanjitsu Gokui.
"For a Bankai that feels like a parlor trick, the fact that it managed to touch me at all is impressive. I suppose that much is expected of you, Kisuke Urahara."
Aizen's tone was mocking.
But Urahara, retreating in a battered state with burns across his face, showed no fear. Instead, he smiled with the smug satisfaction of someone who had just confirmed his trap had worked.
"As expected, your Zanka no Tachi is nowhere near the Head Captain's. If it had been him just now, I would already have been vaporized."
"You really never lose that talent for talking." Aizen's eyes narrowed. Urahara's words had clearly displeased him. "Then why don't you try taking this next one?"
He raised his sword horizontally, no longer bothering to play along. His next strike was meant to end it.
Zanka no Tachi, North: Tenchi Kaijin.
But just as Aizen was about to reduce Urahara to spiritual particles, his right arm burst apart from the inside.
Blood and flesh exploded outward.
"What?!"
Even Aizen himself was startled.
Because his arm had been blown to pieces, the Zanpakuto in his hand fell to the ground with a metallic clang. At the same time, the blazing cloak surrounding his body vanished.
"I already told you, didn't I?" Urahara smiled, his face marked with burns and triumph. "My Bankai remodels things. Naturally, that includes a person's body."
He looked directly at Aizen.
"That's why I said your Zanka no Tachi wasn't powerful enough. When you used Zanjitsu Gokui, my Bankai had already finished remodeling your right hand."
"Kisuke Urahara… you bastard!"
At that moment, the audience finally saw Aizen's composure shatter. The calm that had seemed untouchable vanished, replaced by shock, anger, and regret.
With his Zanpakuto fallen, Zanjitsu Gokui had disappeared as well.
"Burn, Engetsu!"
A flaming blade wreathed in explosive fire struck from behind and pierced straight through Aizen's abdomen.
It was Isshin Kurosaki.
Then, a divine pillar descended from the sky and crashed into the center of the battlefield.
The ones who rushed out from within it were none other than the main cast.
And at that exact moment, Ichigo Kurosaki, Rukia, and Renji arrived just in time to see Isshin drive his blade through Aizen's body from behind.
"Did they do it?!" Rukia and Renji were overwhelmed with joy.
But Ichigo froze.
His eyes widened in horror, his pupils shrinking as if he had just witnessed the end of the world.
"You're finished, Aizen!"
Toshiro Hitsugaya flew in from the distance and stabbed Aizen directly through the heart from the front.
Blood slid down from the corner of Aizen's mouth.
"No way…"
Bleach fans across the world nearly dropped their jaws at the sight.
Aizen… had lost?
No, that can't be real.
I know Alex loves writing insane plot twists, but this is way too insane.
The protagonist just arrived and the final boss is already defeated? Impossible.
Maybe Aizen still has another trick.
Wait, Ichigo's expression looks strange.
I noticed that too. Rukia and Renji look happy, but Ichigo looks terrified.
And just as the audience suspected, something was horribly wrong.
While every Shinigami in the Seireitei - captains, lieutenants, and ordinary soldiers alike - began cheering over Aizen's apparent defeat, Ichigo Kurosaki broke out in cold sweat. Every hair on his body stood on end as he shouted in a voice full of panic and rage.
"What are you… doing?"
The entire battlefield seemed to fall silent.
Ichigo took a step forward, his eyes trembling, his voice almost tearing out of his throat.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
His roar struck the others like a hammer, shattering the illusion in front of their eyes.
In the next instant, the image froze at the center of the screen.
The person pierced through the heart by the blades of Isshin Kurosaki and Toshiro Hitsugaya - the former and current captains of the Tenth Division - was not Sosuke Aizen.
It was Momo.
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