Chapter Text
The realization that Kyouka Suigetsu's Shikai had no effect on Yhwach had certainly been disappointing, to say the least, but not a circumstance that Aizen had felt unable to cope with. Reliance on a Zanpakuto was merely one of the many inherent limitations of being a Shinigami, and he happened to excel at circumventing these limitations. That aside, ever since her physical disintegration, Aizen had anticipated that she would be of significantly less use to him going forward, due to the specific activation requirement of his Shikai. In the face of Yhwach's ridiculous ability, it reaffirmed his decision not to have ‘allied’ with the other man. Even though he could manage without her, he had a hunch that Yhwach's ‘The Almighty’ would have seen through any ambush on his part flawlessly without assistance from Kyouka Suigetsu. And no matter how he would have ultimately gone about it, eliminating Yhwach was the only option Aizen saw for himself. The realization of Yhwach's ideology was inherently in conflict with the realization of his own visions, so ultimately, he would have had no choice but to oppose the man in some way or another.
His utilization of his abilities for the Shinigami in this process was not so much a matter of him expecting to have better chances on that side, nor was it because he cared about the Soul Society in any capacity - both would be foolish assumptions. Cooperating with the side that held the literal keys to his chains was merely in his own interest, and he had, in fact, expected that they would severely limit him out of fear of his unleashed abilities. Though, he still found it amusing that they had actually expected him to protect the Soul Society against Yhwach from this imposed ‘throne’; the man himself had ultimately liberated him from it, ironically enough.
He had also been aware that, even in the most optimistic of scenarios, the Soul Society had only a marginal chance of surviving Yhwach. Consequently, it had never been a question of taking the winning side, because then, he would now be breathing the ashes of a completely decimated Seireitei side by side with the Quincy King. Well aware of the inconvenience this would cause for him, he still chose to fight alongside the Shinigami - alongside the man who had made his imprisonment possible in the first place - because this side, much to Aizen's faint amusement, reflected at its core why Yhwach and he could not see eye-to-eye.
Evolution didn't happen through faith; it happened through fear, through sheer necessity, through the need coupled with the will to survive. Aizen had never been a man of faith, but he did believe in this. And ever since Yhwach had descended upon the Soul Society, fear had been filling up the air like smoke, lingering like a suffocating oppressor.
Fear…
Somewhere in the far distance, he made out muffled screams that barely managed to break through the eerie silence around him, until they blended in with the occasional hiss and crackle of their ruined surroundings. Somewhere far closer to him, he thought he could hear a choked wheezing sound.
He blinked. Where was he?
Right, he had been reflecting on his recent judgments to ascertain whether he had erred at any point. But no matter which way he spun it, within the given circumstances, even looking back, he couldn't see how he could have circumvented this outcome.
Before him lay Kurosaki, the source of the wheezing, an increasingly vacant look in his half-closed eyes. Seemingly inexhaustible amounts of blood were flowing from the gaping hole in his torso.
Aizen became aware of his own breathing, heavy and ragged, while his heartbeat echoed in his head, loud and fast.
Was this fear?
For a split second, the faces of the men who had ever managed to bring out that instinct, that impulse in him, appeared before his eyes. Perhaps it was the fact that one of them lay dying on the ground before him, which was why, when the man responsible for this sight turned to face him, Aizen felt an instinct flare up in him that was unlike any previous experience of this kind.
That was secondary, he decided. He had better think about how he was going to successfully stop the other man at this point, when he had already exhausted his extensive arsenal of skills within this fight to no avail. Even coupled with the immense destructive potential of his Reiatsu, he could keep using Kido spell after Kido spell, it was pointless if Yhwach could foresee and counter all that. Rarely had Aizen found himself longing for the benefits of his Zanpakuto out of sheer dependence, and the fact that he had nothing to oppose this thought only seemed to make the sound of his rapidly beating heart echo even louder in his ears.
"Pathetic, Aizen." Yhwach's approaching voice cut through their monotonous soundscape, drowning out Aizen's heartbeat. "To be honest, you fell short of my expectations overall, even if your choice of alliance caught me a little off guard."
"I am pleased to know that I could at least do this for you," he heard himself say smoothly, almost convincingly, whilst turning his head towards Yhwach, and it was only then that he realized that he had been staring at Kurosaki the whole time, unable to take his eyes off the ever-growing pool of blood.
The choked wheezing had stopped, but as he could see now, Kurosaki’s blood was still dripping down from Yhwach's blade.
Don't think about that, he heard a tense-sounding voice in his head say, and he almost found it amusing - what was left of Kyouka Suigetsu after her physical dissolution had not once called out to him over the last few years, and that she was now breaking her punishing silence gave him no comfort; rather, it seemed shameful that his Zanpakuto recognized him as so powerless that it decided to intervene.
"I'm sure you are," Yhwach replied, a confident grin on his face as he slowly walked towards Aizen, coming to a stop only a few steps away from him. "The question is, what are you going to do next? It's pretty obvious that you have no means to oppose The Almighty, though that doesn't devalue your potential use to me. So are you finally going to move out of my way, Aizen? Or are you going to force my sword too?" Yhwach asked, pointing towards Kurosaki with the last question.
"Oh, I’m sure you don’t need anyone to force your sword. In fact, using force seems to come to you rather naturally, Your Benevolent Majesty."
Aizen's voice sounded far more nonchalant than was appropriate for the current situation, but he wasn't nearly as unfazed as he feigned. He was aware that he didn't really have many more options than the ones Yhwach had pointed out, at least in the long run - with the Hougyoku in his chest, it was doubtful that Yhwach would actually be able to kill him, though Aizen wasn't keen on testing the Hougyoku's limits that way. The much more pressing issue, regardless of how Yhwach might oppose him, was how he could oppose Yhwach in order to successfully stop the other man from disintegrating the three worlds. So far, there had hardly been a moment in Aizen's existence where he had to concede that he saw no way out, but then again, he had never really had to do without his Zanpakuto.
Well, as far as his Shikai was concerned, he really had no choice against Yhwach but to make do without it, not being able to activate it in its physical form. Of course, his Zanpakuto had more abilities than just its Shikai. So from there on, it became a question of will.
You know that this is not an option.
Aizen resisted the urge to shake his head, feeling a strong sense of irritation surging within him - ever since he had merged with the Hougyoku, this sensation had a very particular hold on him.
I have no need for your judgment to come to that conclusion, he thought. He knew, even without Kyouka Suigetsu's unsolicited objection, that it was not so much an option as it was a last-ditch effort. Still, it was already preposterous enough that he was at a point where he had to admit defeat, and even more preposterous that he shouldn't - no, wouldn't - use the one chance he saw for himself because he was af-
He felt the Hougyoku pulsing in his chest, almost as if to confirm Aizen's incomplete thought, and the irritation grew.
"Do not get cocky with me, Aizen." The grin on the Quincy King's face fell with a disapproving sigh. "I'll be honest with you, I would have preferred it if you had made a more sensible decision, but I seem to have misjudged you immensely in that regard. A shame, really, for all the potential you would have had by my side."
A toneless, empty laugh escaped Aizen. "Even if our views, or just our objectives, aligned, my place at your side would have been fixated by the chains of your rule. There is no potential to be found in that.”
"And yet you seemed content in the chains of defeat that the Shinigami imposed on you. That is the difference between us."
As Yhwach spoke, Aizen noticed dark smoke seemingly emerging from the ground and forming into patches of inky black shadows, and with the developing darkness, Yhwach's energy emanated like a sticky gas, polluting the air almost palpably. Aizen knew what that meant.
Framed by his shadows, Yhwach looked down at him in disdain. "I am a victor."
Aizen was about to reply, but paused for a second, thinking of the words he had once shouted at a man he did not grace with a thought on the best of days.
The Hougyoku in his chest pulsed again.
"A victor?" Aizen repeated, spreading his arms, as more and more of that threatening darkness formed around them. "A victor over what? The world needs chaos, fear, to evolve. Eternal order in its stagnation is just another form of nullity. It offers no grounds for growth. And a world without development, without growth, is a dead, lifeless world. That is your world without fear."
"Ha!" Yhwach gave an amused laugh. "You failed miserably, Aizen, so I don't expect a defeatist's imagination to extend far enough to capture me. But I will truly create a world that will be better."
The shadows that emerged from the ground continued to thicken into a front of darkness.
"You could have been a part of it. But you chose this meaningless ending."
Aizen threw a fleeting look at Kurosaki’s motionless body, which seemed to be gradually swallowed by those rapidly developing shades, and he immediately averted his gaze again.
There were no other options, he thought, not sure if he was trying to convince his Zanpakuto or himself, as more and more shadows started to form around himself as well. Then why hesitate?, he asked himself. The fact was that it would end here, one way or another. Did it make any difference whether he was doomed to fail, then?
You are looking at the problem from the wrong perspective. In your current state, you could only change things for the worse, uninspired as you are.
Aizen felt that this was a rather impertinent objection, and wondered if it wasn't the current state of his Zanpakuto that posed the core problem.
And what has brought about this state of affairs?
Kyouka Suigetsu now sounded just as irritated as Aizen felt, but in the next moment, that became irrelevant.
The darkness around him suddenly expanded exponentially, climbing up his body until it even reached the bare skin of his face. It was almost licking at him, like a raging flame, and yet it felt cold, almost so cold that Aizen felt nothing, while it painted his world black. His eyes widened, no doubt in fear, he realized almost distantly, for the cold kiss of the flame was followed by such an engulfing feeling of loneliness that it completely overwhelmed him, and since he found himself unable to, the Hougyoku responded in his stead.
What happened next, Aizen would only fully understand much later, and to his imminent annoyance, only after Kisuke Urahara had once again beaten him to it.
For a moment he felt the Hougyoku all but radiating in his chest, and also experienced the sensation of seemingly vast amounts of Reiatsu pouring out of him without restraint, and while a part of his subconscious thought about how this, coupled with his current lack of control over his Zanpakuto, should be concerning, this peripheral thought almost immediately gave way to a feeling, no, a state, of euphoria. The darkness that had been gnawing at him a moment ago was immediately dispelled by this overwhelmingly good feeling, and this change occurred so suddenly that it took over all his physical senses at once. His head seemed to explode with images - memories?
Illusions?
Dreams?
- which seemed to fall around him erratically, like raindrops in a storm.
The rest of the world faded to white.