Chapter 145: Closing Eyes

"If it were not for Kyoka Suigetsu, I would indeed have suffered defeat just as you see."

Slowly withdrawing his blade from Chojiro's chest and flicking away the blood clinging to the edge, Aizen stood triumphantly right behind Chojiro.

If Kyoka Suigetsu had not been used...

That meant Aizen had already employed his transcendent Zanpakuto without Chojiro's knowledge, plunging him into a false world fabricated by Aizen himself.

Without a doubt, apart from centuries ago when he had first awakened Shizuruyu, Chojiro had never released this sword before outsiders. He had never even revealed it in front of Retsu Unohana and Genryusai Yamamoto. The only person who had ever known of this blade's existence was Aei Kazumoto, who had been exceptionally close to Chojiro back then.

Yet, Aei Kazumoto had been dead for centuries. Chojiro was the sole person aware that this sword still existed. How on earth had Aizen found out about it and used Kyoka Suigetsu in advance to guard against it?

"'How on earth did Aizen know about this sword and preemptively act with Kyoka Suigetsu?'"

Looking at Chojiro, whom he had critically wounded to the point of near-incapacitation, Aizen smiled. As though piercing straight through Chojiro's inner thoughts, he voiced the questions echoing in his mind.

"There is no need to know of this blade. I was using Kyoka Suigetsu right from the very beginning."

"From the moment you intended to enclose us within this red barrier."

Already at that instant—

Due to his injuries, although Chojiro could hear Aizen's words, he was entirely unable to respond. Fortunately, Aizen was adept at probing the minds of others and could guess what Chojiro was thinking with remarkable accuracy.

"Your reason for using this thing was actually quite simple: to prevent me from utilizing Kyoka Suigetsu and thus being unable to determine my position, leading you to drastically narrow down my range of movement; or perhaps you possessed something you could not use in front of everyone else, which necessitated this method. Whichever the case may be..."

Raising the Zanpakuto that symbolized near-absolute invincibility, Aizen stood over Chojiro like an omnipotent deity.

"I would have deployed Kyoka Suigetsu at the very first moment."

"In other words, the moment you used this red barrier, your fate was already sealed, Lieutenant Chojiro."

Still, no answer.

With his chest pierced, Chojiro now found even breathing a strenuous task. Yet, rather than feeling a shred of bitterness over his defeat, the corners of his mouth curved upward in a faint, elusive smile.

You have no idea at all, Sosuke Aizen...

Why I trapped you here, and why I so readily used the power of 'Shizuruyu' right before your eyes...

You also have no idea why I confined you within this crimson barrier...

It is because you cannot die.

Deprived of the spiritual pressure supporting it from Chojiro, the red barrier emitted a muffled sound before slowly beginning to decompose from the top down into spirit particles, allowing a stray ray of sunlight to pierce into the originally crimson world for the very first time.

Because you will not die, I arranged it this way...

All for that single instant when you would pierce through me...

Only in that exact moment could I know the real you, the real Kyoka Suigetsu...

And thus, I would have the opportunity to touch your blade.

All of this is because you cannot die...

I do not know in what guise you will appear in the future...

Yet I will not let slip a single possibility that could cause me to lose that final battle...

If we cross swords again in the days to come, you have already utterly failed...

Sosuke Aizen.

"Snap..."

The red barrier completely dissolved into spirit particles and vanished into the air. Chojiro, critically wounded by Aizen, fell powerlessly from the sky, gradually fading from everyone's field of vision.

"Chojiro!"

Though he knew nothing was as simple as it seemed, watching his most capable aide fall in critical condition right before his eyes filled Genryusai with searing anxiety, yet he could not stir from his spot even a single step.

He was the Captain-Commander of the Gotei 13; he had to hold the line here.

"What a pity. The current situation is hardly optimistic enough for you to spare glances elsewhere, Genryusai Yamamoto."

Behind him stood the Espada, along with combatants capable of rivaling them: a released Yamy, a Resurreccion Segunda Etapa Ulquiorra, the Tres Espada, and Wonderweiss, whom he had specially crafted for Yamamoto. With such combat strength, it would not be entirely impossible to annihilate the Soul Society in a single instant.

Yet, this formidable force was uniquely powerless to shake the single person remaining on this battlefield.

"It is time, Kurosaki-san."

Having administered emergency treatment to Kyoraku, Ukitake, and Ichigo, Unohana swiftly restored Ichigo's spiritual pressure so that he could rejoin the fray as a massive combat asset for the Soul Society.

"..."

Feeling his spiritual pressure return to its peak, Ichigo drew a deep breath, then propelled himself upward like a springing coil.

"Thud..."

Watching Ichigo's figure shrink rapidly in her vision until eventually only his spiritual pressure could be felt, Unohana finally turned her gaze to the giant manta ray that had just landed beside her.

"Thank you for your hard work, Minazuki."

Minazuki puffed out its cheeks, spat out a white figure coated in its characteristic mucus, and dropped it heavily onto the ground.

"Gah... ugh..."

The one-eyed manta ray mumbled, nodded in satisfaction, and slipped back into Unohana's scabbard.

"Cough..."

Coughing up the blood in his mouth, Chojiro was presently almost completely devoid of consciousness. The severity of his injuries was far beyond what could be healed merely by spending a brief spell inside Minazuki's stomach.

"..."

Looking at the figure before her—one who had stood protectively in front of her countless times, yet now lay collapsed at her feet—Unohana found herself momentarily unable to describe the emotions swirling in her chest.

His lean face was somewhat contorted from pain, brows deeply knitted, and even the scant remaining spiritual pressure on his body fluctuated uneasily alongside his agony.

Unohana took it all in.

Extending a hand so fair it bore no resemblance to that of someone who had lived for a millennium, Unohana slowly gathered her spiritual pressure and placed her palm over Chojiro's wound.

Tenderly treating the injuries of the one held deepest in her heart, terrified lest the slightest clumsiness inflict additional pain upon him, Unohana gazed down at Chojiro with a tenderness she had never shown before.

A thousand years ago, he had rejected her without a reason, and throughout the millennium since, he had continually sought excuses to draw near to her, sometimes even acting spoiled like a child.

Yet no one could ever guess what truly lay hidden within his mind.

He never acted according to conventional ways, sometimes even casting away an easily attainable victory to pursue something far more distant.

Precisely because of that, he made himself all the more impossible to resist getting to know...

To the point that, by the time she realized it, she could no longer tear herself away from him...

In such an inadvertent manner, he had taken away everything she was...

And never once returned it to her...

You are simply that kind of person...

"Fool..."

A tear glistened brilliantly in the sunlight, falling onto that unconscious face and blossoming like an exquisitely delicate, sorrowful flower.