NABC Chapter 771: Do You Have the Resolve to Pay the Price of a World?
Chapter 771: Do You Have the Resolve to Pay the Price of a World?
[Fifth Division Captain's Office]
The fragrance of tea filled the air.
Aizen Sosuke sat upright before a solid wooden tea table, his movements steady and precise.
Boiling water poured from the spout of a purple clay teapot. The tea leaves rolled in the cup, and a faint bitterness gradually spread through the room.
Hinamori Momo knelt quietly behind him to one side. Her gaze rested on Aizen's broad back, her eyes brimming with undisguised admiration.
"Excuse me, Captain Aizen."
A slightly hurried report came from outside, breaking the calm, "Captain of the Thirteenth Division, Kurosaki Ichigo, is here to see you."
Hinamori Momo's hands paused slightly as she arranged the tea set.
Her expression shifted. She hesitated, even her breathing growing lighter.
At the captains' meeting a few days ago, Kurosaki Ichigo had publicly exposed the scandal involving Kurosaki Masaki and Rosse.
Now the matter had spread through all thirteen divisions. Even many members of the Thirteenth Division were privately looking down on their young captain.
To be honest, Hinamori Momo didn't want him to have anything to do with her own captain.
But unfortunately, the teacher-student relationship between Kurosaki Ichigo and Aizen was known throughout the Gotei Thirteen.
"It's fine, Hinamori."
Aizen set down the teapot and looked at her gently. "Go bring him in."
"Yes, Captain Aizen."
Hinamori Momo rose in response.
No matter what was being said outside, Kurosaki Ichigo was still Captain Aizen's student.
'Captain Aizen will never abandon his student because of rumors. He is always this gentle, this tolerant.'
Aizen watched Hinamori Momo leave with a faint smile.
When the paper door slid shut, cutting off the view, his expression did not change. He reached out, took the teacup that belonged to Hinamori Momo from the table, casually tossed it into the rinse bowl, and replaced it with a brand-new empty cup.
Clearly, Hinamori Momo had no place in the conversation that was about to follow.
Before long, footsteps sounded from the corner of the corridor outside.
Led by Hinamori Momo, Kurosaki Ichigo and Kuchiki Rukia walked side by side.
Along the way, the looks cast at Ichigo, both overt and subtle, stabbed into his back like needles. But he simply walked on expressionlessly, like a walking corpse.
The three stopped before the captain's office door.
"Walking so slowly and hesitating like this, it doesn't quite suit you, Ichigo."
Aizen's voice came from inside. He was still seated at the tea table, not even raising his head, yet it was as if he could see everything outside.
"Ah…"
Ichigo froze at the door, hesitation on his face.
His hand rested on the handle, but he didn't push it open.
He turned his head and glanced at Rukia beside him.
Rukia said nothing. She simply looked at him with those violet eyes, her gaze steady, offering quiet reassurance and encouragement.
She knew how he had endured these past three days. She also knew that coming to Aizen today was his final attempt to find the truth.
As Kurosaki Ichigo took a deep breath and resolutely stepped into the tea room, Rukia stopped.
Neither Rukia nor Hinamori Momo had any intention of following him inside.
Hinamori Momo even thoughtfully slid the door closed from the outside, shutting out all prying eyes.
"You should have come sooner."
Aizen looked at Ichigo as he entered, extending his long fingers to push the freshly filled cup across the table.
"When should I have come? When Kirinji and the others came to find me?"
Ichigo let out a mocking laugh. He strode forward, sat down cross-legged instead of kneeling, picked up the steaming cup, and drank it in one gulp.
The tea was scalding. It burned down his throat, but compared to the pain in his chest, it was nothing.
"Aren't you afraid I might poison you?"
Aizen folded his hands before him, smiling.
"Sensei, you're not like that bastard Rosse. You wouldn't stoop that low."
Ichigo snorted, setting the empty cup down heavily with a dull thud.
"But according to Kirinji and Kyoraku Shunsui, I'm even worse than Captain-Commander Rosse. In their version, I'm the ultimate villain who'll do anything to achieve his goals, even toy with all of Soul Society."
The smile on Aizen's face deepened, as if he found the description amusing.
"But that's the you in their words," Ichigo stared at him intently.
"I admit, because of what happened to my mom and dad, I did suspect you. For the past three days, I kept replaying what Kirinji told me. They said you were one of the masterminds. I didn't come here for anything else, I just want clear answers."
After everything, his father killed by his mother, his mother publicly confessing she willingly gave herself to Rosse, breaking his Zanpakuto to stop him, he seemed to have grown up overnight.
He felt like he should have collapsed.
But he didn't.
Time was the best medicine for wounds, even if that medicine was laced with poison.
In just three days, he forced himself to swallow all those disgusting truths and digest them.
"My mom's betrayal, and my dad's death, did they have anything to do with you?", Ichigo asked, each word deliberate, "And my two sisters, Yuzu and Karin, what happened to them?"
"Very good questions. Clear logic, straight to the point."
Aizen smiled lightly, picked up the teapot, and refilled Ichigo's cup.
"Since you're willing to believe in me and come ask in person, I won't hide anything from you."
Aizen set the teapot down.
"Captain-Commander Rosse had his eye on Kurosaki Masaki very early on. At first, I didn't know what he insisted on going to the living world for. But his first visit there was indeed something I helped facilitate behind the scenes."
"The Tsunayashiro family was slaughtered by Tosen at my direction," Aizen poured himself a cup, "That fugitive who escaped to the living world was nothing more than a smokescreen I released, to give Rosse a reasonable excuse to go there."
"And then? He used that chance to forcibly take my mom away?"
Ichigo suddenly looked up, his hands gripping the fabric on his knees.
"That's not what happened."
Aizen shook his head, denying the assumption, "My first proper meeting with Captain-Commander Rosse was in Hueco Mundo. He does have a strong desire for control, even some twisted tastes, but in a sense, he's also straightforward. He wouldn't use such low methods to steal a woman."
"The truth is as I told you before, it's related to Yhwach's Auswahlen."
"At that moment, all non-pure-blood Quincy had their powers forcibly reclaimed. Your mother, Kurosaki Masaki, was caught in it. Her power was rapidly draining, and her life was in danger."
"I know that," Ichigo frowned slightly, "But when Kirinji came to me, he said this had your hand behind it too. He said if not for you, my mom wouldn't have been affected."
"That's correct," Aizen smiled faintly, "In fact, without me, you wouldn't even exist. Back then, Captain Kurosaki Isshin was lured to the living world by me for a special Hollow experiment. During that experiment, Kurosaki Masaki appeared and saved him, her bloodline becoming contaminated by my subject. The two of them bonded through that ordeal."
"So you were basically their matchmaker?", Ichigo's expression turned strange.
In the past, he might have been furious about his family being manipulated.
But now, compared to the schemes these captains of Soul Society had been running in the shadows, Aizen's actions seemed almost… normal.
And as Aizen said, he really had no standing to blame him.
If not for that Hollow Aizen created, Kurosaki Isshin and Kurosaki Masaki might never have met, and he himself would never have been born.
"You can see it that way."
Aizen nodded with a smile.
"Back to the matter at hand. When Yhwach activated Auswahlen, your mother faced two choices: join Rosse, or die on the spot. There was no third option."
"She chose the first?"
Ichigo clenched his fists. He couldn't imagine his gentle mother abandoning her family just to live.
"She chose the second," Aizen smiled, "At the time, although I was also in the living world, I wasn't present. I was at Urahara's shop. You could say I was Rosse's accomplice."
"If she chose death, then why—"
"People change," Aizen interrupted softly, "Think about it. If, for the sake of your family, you had to obey someone and kill innocent people again and again, after a few years, would you still be the same person? Are you sure you could still love your family the same way?"
"I don't know," Ichigo fell silent.
Recently, he had gone through the Kuchiki family archives. The methods nobles used, torture, exploiting weaknesses, were sickening.
Being targeted and tormented by someone like Rosse… he couldn't even begin to imagine the hell his mother went through.
If it were him, he might not recognize himself anymore either.
And the fact that Kurosaki Isshin died at her hands was proof she had completely changed.
"For now, she doesn't intend to kill you. But if you do something she considers foolish, she won't hesitate to kill you either," Aizen added.
After a pause, he continued, "As for Kurosaki Isshin's death, I wasn't even aware of it. I only know he was likely persuaded by Urahara Kisuke and Kyoraku Shunsui to participate in the recent assault on Hueco Mundo. You should understand what happens when you charge into the enemy's base without sufficient strength. I taught you that."
"Total annihilation."
Ichigo spat out the words slowly, teeth clenched, "If that bastard Rosse didn't have his twisted hobbies, Kyoraku and the others would probably be dead too."
"That's the reality. When Kyoraku and the others were driven out of the Wandenreich, they stayed in the Fifth Division at first," Aizen's expression remained calm.
"So from the beginning, you knew everything. Then what's your goal, Aizen-sensei?"
Ichigo suddenly looked up, staring hard at him.
Aizen didn't answer. Instead, he shifted the topic.
"After I last saw Kurosaki Masaki, I asked Captain-Commander Rosse about your two sisters."
"How are they?"
Ichigo's attention snapped to the question.
"Do you want them dead or alive?", Aizen asked in return.
"Of course alive—"
Before he could finish, Ichigo froze completely.
'Alive?'
'Das is dead. The living world is under Rosse's control.'
'If my sisters are alive, they have to be in Rosse's hands. With that man's nature, the outcome is... obvious.'
"I… hope they're dead…"
Ichigo's voice was hoarse, each word dragged out with pain.
To wish for the death of the people he loved most, what bitter irony.
But he would rather they be dead than suffer under Rosse.
"They're alive. Kurosaki Masaki took them to Rosse's base. Their memories of you have been erased. Rosse isn't interested in them for now, but once they grow up, that may change."
Aizen stated it calmly.
"Damn it!"
Ichigo slammed his fists onto the tatami, his eyes bloodshot.
"Sensei, you're not telling me all this just to provoke me. You want me to work with you and kill that bastard, don't you?"
He looked up, staring at Aizen.
The situation was clear. Aizen definitely had an agenda.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have become his teacher in the first place.
Though Aizen hadn't told him everything at the start, the guidance he gave had been real.
And many things, Aizen simply hadn't said them, but he hadn't lied either.
Looking at it now, everything traced back to Rosse. Aizen was only an accomplice, carried along by the tide.
"Correct. From the beginning, you were the partner I chose to stand beside me. Rosse is too powerful. I admit I'm not his match. But with you, that changes," Aizen spoke frankly.
"Then what do we do now? Build up strength?", Ichigo asked in a low voice.
At this point, his family was either dead, betrayed, or stripped of memory. The people of Soul Society were full of lies.
The only one who had been consistently honest with him, Aizen, had become the only person he could trust.
'This is all Rosse's fault!'
"Rosse is preparing a large-scale social experiment in Soul Society. The longer this drags on, the more unbeatable he becomes. But our current strength isn't enough, we need the power of the entire Soul Society to oppose him."
Aizen lifted his gaze, eyes deep and unreadable.
"First, we throw Soul Society into chaos. Ichigo, do you have the resolve to pay the price of a world for your revenge?"
"I do!"
Ichigo let out a near-mad roar.
In the past, his kind nature wouldn't have allowed such a thing.
But now, he had nothing left.
If that was the case, then what did it matter if this hypocritical, rotten Soul Society was destroyed?
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