In response, Aura quietly smiled and said, “I believe that Lord Hisagi bears the professional duty to know the truth. He can perhaps serve as a good judge to determine whether the world Lord Tokinada seeks to create is right or wrong.”
“Me…?”
What is this? What is Aura trying to do?
Though Hisagi couldn’t see the woman’s smile, he understood that she wanted him to hear everything Tokinada had to say. However, not knowing the reason for that, Hisagi kept his eyes closed and tilted his head.
Is this just obfuscation to confuse me?
Though he was certainly curious about what Tokinada might say, he couldn’t slack on his offense. Hisagi manipulated Kazeshini again and tried to attack in the direction of the spiritual pressure, but…
Shinso’s blade, which stretched out faster than his spiritual pressure perceptions could detect, pierced Hisagi’s shoulder.
“Guh…!”
A sharp pain assaulted Hisagi. The long-distance thrust that surpassed his spiritual pressure perception in speed made the fear eddying under his rage start to swell.
“Hasn’t the thought crossed your mind before, Shuhei Hisagi?” Tokinada asked, as though mocking Hisagi’s fear. “About whether Kaname Tosen, or rather, Sosuke Aizen, might have actually been right?”
“What are you saying?”
“Even if it was for revenge, can you really comprehend how someone as virtuous as Kaname Tosen would betray the Soul Society itself? Have you ever dedicated any part of that somewhat deficient brain of yours to considering why Sosuke Aizen detested the being called the Reio so much?”
Tokinada gripped the hilt of Kazeshini in order to evade it as it approached and pulled Hisagi along with the chain. “Or maybe I should put it this way…”
Tokinada braced his hand and started to yank Hisagi over. With a supremely sadistic smile, he laid things bare: “Have you considered why Kisuke Urahara would have made the Hogyoku, or what his motives were for doing so?”
He exposed the bowels of what could be perceived as the original sin that shaped the Soul Society’s history.
“Huh? What are you talking about? He said that the Hogyoku is for removing the boundaries between Hollows, Soul Reapers, and konpaku to surpass the limits of growth…”
“For what reason would anyone need to do that? In those days, he did not even know about Aizen’s rebellious inclinations, and no being could have defeated Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto. What would he accomplish by making anyone more powerful?”
“That was…to stop the Quincies’ attack…”
“In the end, you were able to survive without the Hogyoku. Although, to be completely accurate, it was likely that he would not have allowed the use of the Hogyoku.”
Hisagi recalled the conversation between Aura and Urahara.
“If Ichigo Kurosaki were given a Hogyoku, the world would become very solid for sure. However, that is far from the result you’re looking to achieve, isn’t it?”
“Yes, I’m sorry. I lied. If I had given Mr. Kurosaki the Hogyoku, it would have been something entirely different, wouldn’t it?”
Though he had not understood the meaning of the conversation at all at the time, now things were different. The nature of Hikone’s spiritual pressure, which was so similar to Ichigo Kurosaki’s… That Aura had said they would use the Hogyoku to make Hikone into the Soul King… All of these assorted elements connected within Hisagi, building to one hypothesis.
Then, as though he were giving the final hint, Tokinada spoke about the man who had been his former classmate. “The Reio’s right arm that dwelled in Ukitake’s body. Don’t you think that was odd?”
“…”
“Why would the Reio’s right arm have been lost? Had it dropped to the ground, why would he not have used Squad Zero to retrieve it?”
That was Mimihagi, the thing that had dwelled in Ukitake’s body at a young age—in other words, the Reio’s right arm. And then there was Pernida Parnkgjas, the one who had claimed that he was “always a Quincy”—in other words, the Reio’s left arm.
The Reio’s right arm controlled “stillness” and his left arm “advancement.” In that case, what did that mean for the Reio who had lost both of those things? He neither stayed still nor advanced, simply existed in the place between stillness and motion.
What did Aizen say back then…?
When Ichigo Kurosaki first appeared in the Soul Society, the words that Aizen had left them with at the end of the rebellion, when Aizen informed them of his true motives… These words resurfaced in Hisagi’s mind. The words Aizen said when Ukitake had asked, “Have you fallen?” seemed now to have a different meaning.
“No one ever stood atop the heavens before.”
“Not you, or I, or the gods.”
Why had he gone out of his way to specify “not you” to Ukitake? Maybe Aizen had known that a part of the Reio dwelled in Ukitake?
If that were the case, Ukitake was someone with the right to stand atop the heavens. Until now, Hisagi had thought that the “gods” not standing atop had meant that the Reio was ultimately a king rather than an almighty god. However, Aizen had gone on to speak these words: “But the unbearable vacancy of heaven’s throne ends now.” In which case…
“The Reio…was dead…from the start?”
When Kyoraku heard Hisagi’s whispered murmur, he quietly cast down his eye. Yoruichi did not let her expression change and stared on as Tokinada and Hisagi had their exchange. After a moment of silence, Tokinada smiled cynically and shook his head.
“Close. Very close. The thing they forced the name Soul King on indeed was not living. However, it was not dead either.”
“What does that mean?!”
Even in a bewildered state, Hisagi’s attacks did not weaken. He pulled on the sword that Tokinada held using his left arm, and he threw the other side of Kazeshini that he gripped in his right hand.
Tokinada sent that flying back using a morning-star-shaped zanpaku-to—Gegetsuburi—and replied to Hisagi’s yell. “The Reio was a sacrificial goat. However, he did possess powers that were the equivalent of a god’s.”
“What…?”
“Before the world took on its current form… In a chaotic place where there was no border between life and death, there was an original protector who stood between the Hollows and humans for the first time. The Quincies, the Soul Reapers, and also the Fullbringers…it could be said that he is the ancestor of them all.” Snickering, Tokinada continued. “He was a Quincy and also at the same time a Soul Reaper, and also just a normal person bearing countless abilities like a Fullbringer. He was the symbol of hope who ruled over all in the chaotic world.”
Then, as a smile filled with noticeable pleasure warped his face, he told Hisagi of the dark side of the Soul Society. “These three realms were created by sacrificing that man who was both a devil and a savior…
“…by the five people who are the ancestors of our Five Great Noble Clans—the five traitors.”
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