Chapter 16: Framed?
"So you are the one who did this ... Aizen.", Captain Hirako says and looks at his Lieutenant Aizen who just arrived.
"You noticed? impressive."
"Of course I did ..."
"Since when?", Aizen asks.
"Since you were in your mother's womb.", Hirako says.
"I see.", Aizen says with a gentle smile on his face.
"I believed for a while now that you are dangerous ... a man who can't be trusted ... So I chose you as my Vice-Captain in order to keep an eye on you, Aizen."
"Yes ... and I thank you for that, Captain Hirako. Due to your having distrusted me so deeply, you failed to notice it."
"I told you already .. that I did notice ...", Hirako says more and more out of breath.
"No. You did not notice that, for the past month, the man walking around behind you, was not me, did you?", Aizen says, shocking Captain Hirako.
"Wha!!!"
"Making the 'enemy' misconstrue any phenomenon in this world according to my will. That is the true power of my Zanpakuto, 'Kyoka Suigetsu'. I call this power ... 'Complete Hypnosis'.", Aizen reveals his ability. I do wonder why he tells me that. I mean, there is no way for him to infect me with this Hollowification. So the only thing he could want is ... aha. But I don't think that will work out either.
"... complete ... Hypnosis ... !?"
"You are a perceptive person, Captain Hirako. If you had connected with me in the same way the other captains connect with their adjutant, you may have been able to see through it. However, you didn't do that. You did not trust me.
And therefore always maintained a certain distance without opening your heart, without giving me information. You never once tried to get inside. That's why you didn't notice. Even when I secretly switched places with a completely different person.
I made my substitute memorize perfectly all my normal behaviours as well as all my response patterns to you, other squad members, and other Captains. If you had understood me more deeply, you may have experienced a sense of unease at differences in my quirks and activities.
The reason you are lying on the ground now is due to the fact that you so graciously never learned anything about me ... Captain Hirako."
"... Aizen ..."
"And one more thing. You said earlier that you 'chose me as your Vice-Captian so that you could keep an eye on me'. But that is incorrect. In the same way that Captains have the 'right to appoint a Vice-Captain' squad members have the 'right to refuse appointment to a new post'.
Well, in reality, it is exercised very rarely but even so, I had the option to say 'I will not be your Vice-Captain'. So why did I not do that? ... Because it was ideal.
Because your excessive distrust and wariness of me were truly ideal for my plans. Have you figured it out? It was not 'you who chose me', but rather 'I who chose you', Captain Hirako.
You should probably apologize to all your allies because it is due to my having chosen you, that both they and you have ended up on the ground before me.", Aizen finishes with a taunt.
"AIZE-"
*Bonk*
I flash next to Captain Hirako before he can go on a rampage or something and knock him out. He loses consciousness and falls to the ground. I look at Aizen and wait for him to continue his monologue. That seems to be something he enjoys doing. I feel his confusion and surprise. But he understands what I did there and it seems that he is ... tense. As he should be.
"Ah yes, Captain Kuchiki. The odd one out. The one person who hasn't seen my Kyoka Suigetsu and has refused to look at it every time I asked him to. You must have expected that something was up. No matter what reason I told you, you refused outright. And yet you didn't seem suspicious of me. Why is that I wonder?", Aizen asks rhetorically.
"I made sure to keep my substitute away from you. I knew you would become suspicious, so I had Captain Hirako take different routes or had to switch with my substitute if there was a Captain's meeting."
"You manipulated the Central 46.", I say and see in his reaction that he didn't expect me to figure that out.
"I am impressed. I didn't expect you to find that out so soon."
"Why did you want me to be here at this time? What use is all this monologing when I am present? You haven't injected me with this Hollow substance yet. So what's your goal here?", I ask him.
"I observed you for a while now. Someone who doesn't look at my Kyoka Suigetsu has to be taken care of in a different way than the others. So I used this chance to do my research and combine it with the chance to get rid of you. When someone tells the Central 46 about what happened here, they will be outraged, as experimenting with Hollowification like this, is a crime punishable by death. And if someone tells them that it was you who did the experimentation, then ... well, I'm sure you understand, Captain Kuchiki."
"And you think that I won't do something about you being here?"
"As I said, I observed you for a while now. Your power is impressive. Fitting for the current Kenpachi and Captain of Squad 11. But you won't be fighting me, are you ... you will be fighting your fellow Captains, who by this point ... have all fully been hollowified.", Aizen says and I feel the danger coming from my back again. I am rather bored with this. Captain Hirako has transformed into a Hollow and attacks me with his Zanpakuto. I dodge the slash and punch him in the face again ... hard.
"As I thought, the progress of the Hollowification is faster when the subject is in an excited state. And you are still much stronger than the Hollowified Captain. Truly impressive, Captain Kuchiki. You are the perfect commanding officer, similar to Captain Hirako.
You were wary of me and therefore kept a distance from me, unlike Captain HIrako, who kept me close at hand. While Captian Hirako thought, that by watching me with those eyes he could suppress and control my activities, you didn't care about getting close and simply observed from a long distance.
Finally ... there is one thing you should remember the treachery which the eyes can see is obvious. What is truly terrifying is the treachery which the eyes cannot see.", Aizen says with a mysterious smile.
And as he was talking, I felt another presence coming. It took a moment but after a while, the person was here, right when Aizen was finished talking. I knew who it was, but what I didn't know, was why he was here ... Tabata Iwao. The person, I had taken under my wing for a time to teach others who wanted to come back to the 11th Division. I had taken a liking to him and whenever there was time, I would sparr with him for a while and check his progress.
"Tabata Iwao, what are you doing here?", I ask him.
"I am here for you, Captain Kuchiki. Aizen told me about your problems and I want to help you. Please let me help you with your problems. It is not wrong to have those urges, but you must get them under control. I will save you.", he says with a strange look in his eyes. He was manipulated for a while now. I didn't bother with him for a time, since there were a few things I had to do and my progress was reaching interesting stages.
"And how are you going to do that?", I ask him.
"With my Zanpakuto. It has a purification ability, Captain. I will help you reach the light.", he says with a crazed expression. Truly saddening what happened to him. He unsheaths his Zanpakuto and then attacks me. At first, I simply dodge his attacks. I want to find out whether there is a way for him to snap out of it. I block his strikes and from what I know about Aizen, he only uses Iwao for either a distraction, a means to an end or ...
"Let me help you, Captain Kuchiki. It will be over soon.", Iwao says as I dodge another one of his attacks. I know what this is about. I look at Aizen who is looking at me with interest. He sees me as an object of his research. Well too bad for him.
"Pathetic.", I say and catch Tabata Iwao's blade between my fingers, like I usually do in our sparring matches. I look at Aizen again.
"Do you think I don't understand what is going on? You are trying to hurt me using psychology. You think that it would get a rise out of me if I had to fight one of my own subordinates.", I say and grab Iwao's face with my hand. "I apologise, Iwao ... that you had to fight me."
*Crack*
I break Tabata Iwao's neck with one flick of my wrist and now hold his dead body in my hands, before letting him drop to the ground. There is no change in my expression and there is no change in my emotions. I had to kill my subordinate, but it's not that easy.
"So you decided to kill him. Very ruthless of you, Captian Kuchiki.", Aizen mocks.
"Don't you remember the words of your Academy days? 'Do not seek beauty in battle. Do not seek virtue in death. Do not make the mistake of considering only your own life. If you wish to protect that which you must protect, slice the enemy you must defeat from behind.' ... He sealed his death, the moment he chose to raise his blade against me. I didn't kill a subordinate ... I killed an enemy. It's as simple as that. So make no mistake, you will meet the same fate.", I say and narrow my eyes. I am just about to attack him and kill him when another person arrives at the scene and tries to cut Aizen from behind.
Aizen though manages to dodge the attack and uses Shunpo to create distance. I am getting tired of the different plans Aizen is throwing out there at me. It is like throwing bodies at a giant mountain. They won't do anything and just leave bloody messes.
"And here we have another pair of interesting guests. And what brings the two of you out here? Captain Urahara and Grand Kido Chief Tsukabashi.", Aizen asks.
"No good. They done found us.", the young Ichimaru Gin says with his usual expression. It seems that Aizen's plotting has made the little man quite confident.
"I will cut them down.", Tousen says.
"No. It's alright.", Aizen says.
"But-"
"Kaname ... I said. 'It's alright.'", Aizen remarks and like a good dog, Tousen takes a knee and apologises.
"Yes sir. I was out of line when I spoke. Please forgive me!"
"Lieutenant Aizen ..."
"Yes?"
"What are you doing here?", Urahara Kisuke asks.
"Nothing at all. It's just what it looks like. I happened upon the members of the special resolution unit for the soul vanishing matter who had been injured in battle and I found Captian Kuchiki, attacking them. So now I am trying to offer them assistance. You see, he even killed one of his own Squad members.", Aizen says.
"... why are you lying?"
"Lying? Is there a problem with a Vice-Captain attempting to rescue a Captain?"
"Not that. That's not the part that I'm hung up on. Injured in battle? You called that an 'injury'? Don't lie. I can see that Captain Kuchiki has done some damage, but nothing which would result in looking like that.
This is 'Hollowification'."
"So you truly are, the man I thought you were. I'm glad you came here tonight. We're pulling out. Gin. Kaname.", Aizen says and turns around.
"WAI-!"
"Please move aside, Urahara-dono!!", Grand Kido Chief Tsukabashi screams and fires a Hado at the retreating trio.
"Hado No. 88 - Hiryuu Gekizoku Shinten Raihou!!"
"Bakudo No. 81 - Danku.", Aizen mutters and erects a barrier which has the power to shield from any Kido up to the number 89. It seems ... like I was forgotten ...
*KKUUUCK!*
The man in font of me says as my Zanpakuto impales him from behind and I hold him in the air like that.
"Where do you think you're going?"
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