The moment Kisuke came to this wide cavern and was face to face with Ichibei, he already had a lot of things in his mind. Most notably, Soul King's last words.
He was certain that the Soul King was referring to Ichibei when he said something about 'the being that shouldn't have been born', but Kisuke wasn't so certain as to why the Soul King was making the effort of 'destroying' his work.
With the Soul King's power, there should be no way to have anyone compel him to create the three worlds and start the cycle of life and death by sacrificing himself. In other words, it was the Soul King's idea to create the world as it is. However, why does Ichibei want to protect it? And after all these years, why did the Soul King want to disrupt the balance that he created in the first place?
Of course, from the very start, Kisuke was just speculating all of this because he's not really sure if that's what the Soul King was trying to achieve.
In an attempt to search for clues about it, Kisuke spent most of his time gathering data on Ichigo, Aizen, and Yhwach secretly. It's also one of the reasons why he chose to free the latter two and allow Yhwach to restore his power for a bit. But even if he put so much effort into this, to the point that Kisuke had no choice but to leave the rest of 'migration' in Mayuri's hand, he had almost nothing.
It was then that he finally decided to look at another perspective. The perspective of the 'being that shouldn't have been born'. And to get into that, his first target of investigation was Kazui, the child who accepted Hell.
After that, it didn't take long for Kisuke to piece together the clues that he had gathered when he figured out that Kazui's mission was not to provide safe travel to Hell for the lost souls, but an experiment to increase the Hell's population and further breakdown the boundaries between it and the three worlds.
'If Soul King was the soul of this dead body, then Ichibei is some sort of Spirit that was born from its lingering powers... No... He's probably just a simple maggot or fly that gained sentience after eating and collecting this dead body's flesh. Now it thinks that he's the real thing and trying to 'revive' himself.'
Kisuke intentionally talked in a cryptic way because he wanted the final confirmation from the man himself. Since Ichibei had no more reason to hide anything, he managed to give Kisuke a bit of a straight answer.
Because Kisuke was loudly narrating his thoughts inside his head, Tiamat and Benihime could also clearly hear him, [You mean to say that he's just one of these insects?] Benihime asked, [I thought that you were just joking.]
[Then let's say that he's one of these insects. What's the point of pretending to be the Shinigami and how does this affect our situation?] Tiamat asked this time.
'Before I answer that, this is the overview of what I think happened. Once upon a time, an unimaginably gigantic creature swam through the endless dimensions for a countless length of time. It witnessed countless worlds and probably destroyed some of them intentionally or accidentally. But at some point, something happened to it and soon met its end.'
'Its soul left its decaying body and noticed that there were numerous creatures that were living on its body and most of them were already like it, a wandering soul with no purpose. Whether it's from the worlds it destroyed or somewhere else, it didn't know where they came from.'
'But thanks to its long journey, it had learned a lot of things. Even though it was just a simple soul now, it still possessed a lot of power and started nourishing these aimless souls out of its own interest.'
[Are you saying that this soul was the Soul King?]
Kisuke, however, didn't answer Benihime's question and just continued on narrating inside his head, 'The way he was nourishing these poor souls was by giving them a tiny piece of itself. Thanks to this benevolent act, they soon started having minds of their own, making their own decisions, and creating their own culture.'
[That soul forgot something important, huh?] Tiamat immediately guessed the next part of the story. As someone who was once in the position of a Transcendent, she knew how important their whole being is, whether it's alive or dead.
'As expected of you.' Kisuke chuckled before continuing, 'Yes. It forgot something, two things in fact. It forgot that its body still exists, containing an enormous amount of power and it also forgot that there's something else living on it and not just souls which it was fond of.'
'The forgotten ones, these insects and probably a bunch of others, gnawed and competed for the essentially discarded body until only one of them remained. And among the victors, one came out special and inherited the memories of this body by simply consuming a lot of it and now it thinks that it was once this corpse.'
'The soul wasn't just late in noticing that something huge had changed on its back and it only acknowledged it because it suddenly appeared in front of it, forming relationships and interacting with the souls it has been taking care of for countless eons.'
'It was only at that moment that it was compelled to use its vast power to see what would unfold. But whatever it saw, it didn't hesitate to destroy and divide itself into countless pieces, leaving only behind 4 major parts which became the foundation of the 3 worlds and its lynchpin, the Soul King. Its power gave birth to countless things and shaped this dimension to the image it probably saw in its past, creating the cycle of life and death.'
'So why did it do this? I don't know. It knew that the 'fake' wanted it to complete itself, but for some reason, instead of fighting against it, the Soul King decided to spread himself out as much as possible and seal the way towards its dead body.'
'The fake was probably furious but it too can play the long game. It first opened the path to the body and started sending the scattered powers of the Soul King towards it. Slowly but surely, the fake was gathering everything into one place.'
[Hold on... Then the reason why Captain-level Shinigami and strong Arrancars are sent to Hell is...] The story made a few things click inside Benihime's head.
'They are those who manage to gather a little bit more of the Soul King's power and the fake threw them onto its plate.'
[Then the reason why you can't use your Shinigami and Hollow abilities is...]
'Because these abilities spawned from the Soul King's power and with its understanding of it, it's a trivial matter for it to seal them. It'd probably be the same if I had Quincy powers.'
Benihime and Tiamat finally understood why Kisuke said that Ichibei was trying to 'complete' himself. Since the three worlds are made out of the Soul King himself, he's now trying to devour everything.
[If you knew that, then why did you dive into this place!?]
At that moment, Kisuke smirked, 'It's because I knew exactly that, that I came to this place. This guy is setting up the same situation as Chaos did. You know what happens to people that just eat the food I prepared, right?'
=================================
AN Aug 30, 2024: I apologize for being so late and sadly, I could only manage 4 chapters.
My sudden 'break' derailed a lot of things for me and that includes my momentum for this arc.
While I do have notes of what I want to happen, some of them look cryptic even though I'm the one who wrote them. I have a certain development in mind and just wrote down 'hints' for it for me to go back to in case I forget how it'll go.
But too much time has passed that those 'hints' can't get me back to what I was thinking a week prior. Thanks to that, it was hard to get back into it.
Oh well, enough of those excuses. Please enjoy and have a great day~!
==================================
Editors:
28th00: So it’s an Alex Mercer situation, where the Virus(Parasite) thinks it is their original host, and even has their memories.
Goyya: How are you even remembering these things? I don’t even remember what the Prototype is about since it’s more than a decade since I played that game. I’m honestly impressed with your memory.
"You seem to have an idea of the whole truth, but what are you going to do? As long as you're a person of this domain, there's nothing you can do to stop me." Ichibei was still confident. As long as the young girl doesn't make her appearance, there's no way for Kisuke to hurt him. After all, whether it's a Zanpakuto or other Kidou derivatives, everything will just be rendered harmless because he is the 'root'.
Kisuke nodded at his assessment, "That's true. However, I also figured out a few things regarding your criteria of 'harmless'."
Ichibei became interested and rubbed his beard, "Hooh? Mind explaining?"
"No matter how large your network is, you probably can't process everything that's happening in this 'domain'. In that case, you probably employ some sort of filtering system that alerts you of only important factors like whenever the Soul King uses his power or a special individual appears."
Kisuke then started walking towards Ichibei, took out Tiamat, and made Benihime disappear, "Zanpakuto are also a relatively new invention for someone like you, but you allowed its existence and even spread it as it is a good way to gather more of the Soul King's fragments as they are essentially another vessel to contain his power, but more importantly, you named them and also acted as a limitation for the individuals who wielded them. That became evident when Aizen Sosuke thought that he could surpass his 'Shinigami' self if he could discard his Zanpakuto."
This conclusion came from his research of the Hollows and later, the Arrancars. When a Hollow wanted to seal its vast Spiritual Power, it came in the form of Zanpakuto. However, Aizen realized that he was wrong when Ichigo instead absorbed his Zanpakuto himself. Although only possible temporarily due to its innate limitations, this showed Aizen a new avenue that made him doubt his path, and in turn, lose the Hougyoku's support.
"In other words, you're probably filtering out most of the information about Zanpakuto since they have no way of actually hurting you, especially as you are now."
"Are you insinuating that the thing you're holding will be able to hurt me because it's not of this world?" Ichibei suddenly grinned widely, "I hate to break it to you, but it's still a Zanpakuto. Something that has been subdued by your own soul, hence, still a direct extension of the Soul King's fragment through you. That won't be able to hurt me no matter how foreign its ability is since it can only manifest its power through your Spiritual Power."
Kisuke stopped walking and also flashed a grin, "And what if there's a way to directly manifest her abilities?"
"By physically summoning it? That might work, but up to what degree? I've seen what that being is capable of and there's no way for it to reach the level of that young girl."
'Look at how he underestimates you.' Kisuke chuckled.
[It's the truth. Even if I physically manifest, there would be extreme limits to what I could really do. And why did you retract Benihime?]
But instead of Kisuke, it was Benihime who answered Tiamat, [Because this guy is about to do something crazy.]
Ichibei's grin disappeared when he saw Kisuke chuckle. It was then that the latter continued to ask, "Aren't you forgetting something? That isn't the only way to manifest her powers."
Naturally, Ichibei didn't forget. It was one of the events that he took notice of and also one of the things he didn't want to see anymore. It was the moment when Ichigo became Zangetsu himself. Although it was in exchange for his entire Spiritual Power, it was a form that Ichibei felt threatened.
Black spikes suddenly appeared beneath Kisuke's feet but unlike the unreal black spears from before, he felt their existence and was able to dodge by jumping back.
"That's impossible for you with what you're holding. You may be able to do it with your original Zanpakuto, but not with someone who isn't related to you. And if by some miracle that's possible, you wouldn't have enough energy to fuel such a transformation, even if you sacrificed your life."
The black spikes continuously appeared and Kisuke also continuously dodged them, however, the grin on his face never disappeared, "Two hurdles right? Then let me tell you something. I once fused with the Hougyoku. It's gone now though."
"!?" Ichibei was surprised. He never thought that another one of those things could exist, 'Soul King... How did he...'
To those who aren't aware, they may see the Hougyoku as a wish-granting stone. However, that's far from the truth as its essence is one of the Soul King's greatest abilities, 'The [Mark of Adaptation]. It is what allowed him to create the three worlds.'
As Aizen used it, it changed into a [Mark of Evolution] which allowed him to raise himself. However, in Ichibei's opinion, it's a lesser derivation of [Adaptation] since it can only go 'forward'.
'If his words were true and he was able to keep the [Adaptation] aspect...'
Kisuke was able to read what was on his mind and continued his thoughts for him, "Then the first hurdle was already cleared."
Even then, Ichibei was still confident because he had his own hidden cards, "...Then are you going to sacrifice your life? If you're lucky, you might indeed be able to hurt me with a few strikes."
"Ah... I'm really glad I kept it. I was thinking of using it for something else, but this is also good." Kisuke suddenly started muttering to himself.
Ichibei wondered what he was on about but before he could figure it out, his eyes widened and looked down. Although it's hard to tell, Ichibei noticed that the pulsing flesh under him abruptly slowed down, "...What?"
At the same time, Kisuke's crimson Spiritual Pressure exploded out, "As expected, you can't control everything even though you're so obsessed with it."
Ichibei stood up in confusion and watched Kisuke slowly grow a pair of large horns on the side of his head, his eyes turning pink and his hair growing out while turning it from pale blonde to a light blue one.
"...Hmmm... If releasing the full capabilities of a Zanpakuto is called [True Strike], what should I call this one?" Ichibei heard Kisuke's easygoing voice, "[True Blade] perhaps? Oh well, it's time to speed things up."
Editors:
28th00: I thought that was his Devil aspect(that literally got retconned outta existence by his mother) for a second there, but it’s the Tiamat final fusion mode. He had one of her horns, or her corpse, didn’t he? That’s gonna be his fuel for this, right?
Goyya: Nope. There’s something else. A spiritual ability that Ichibei is not aware of.