Chapter 44

The battle momentarily ceased, both sides glaring at the other in a tense standoff.

Yamamoto's silence and the intensity of the Shinigami's growing spiritual energy were enough indicators of which stance that they were adopting in this situation.

They would fight, and that was all.

Coyote pursed her lips and took a few tentative steps back. If she ran, she doubted that anyone would be able to catch up to her other than Yamamoto. However, she couldn't. The child in her hands felt weak and moments away from dying. Any strenuous maneuvers or hasty actions could lead to a result that Coyote did not want to think about. Worse, if she didn't maintain a constant blanket of spiritual energy around the child, then the spiritual pressure suffusing the area would crush him faster than any attack ever could.

If, and only if she negotiated to retreat and put aside her grudge with Yamamoto, did she really think that Yamamoto would agree?

No. He definitely wouldn't.

The man was too caught up in tradition and the concept of black and white. Just because one was born into a race of 'monsters' that preyed on the souls of the innocent, did not mean that all could be considered monsters.

However, it wasn't as if Shinigami would ever understand that concept anyway. It wasn't that they were incapable of it, but more because they chose not to see or acknowledge it. The vast majority of hollows were mindless in the earlier stages of their evolution meaning that the Shinigami's ill placed preconception were not unfounded.

Hollows were hated, hunted down by both Shinigami and Quincy alike.

If the sole purpose of an entire race of beings was to just be hated and ostracized, then what was wrong in hating everyone back?

Coyote's grip around the child in her arms tightened ever slightly.

Battle was imminent and the only one that she felt could contend against Yamamoto was her.

Little did she expect though that someone else would step forward.

"As much as I'd prefer to simply observe, I do believe that you've all been ignoring me for long enough," Aizen stepped forward causing Isshin and the other Captain to tense. "It won't be much of a partnership you see if I didn't have anyone to actually call 'partner.'"

"Now then," Aizen began to grin as his spiritual energy began to rise. "Perhaps you are all forgetting that I am not a person so easily overlooked?"

The ground quaked as a torch-like aura of white spiritual pressure surrounded Aizen's form. It wasn't as oppressive as Coyote or Shirou's, but it was more than capable of contending against Yamamoto's own.

None dared to act lightly. Aizen was not someone simple to deal with. However, that didn't mean that the Shinigami would just stand there and watch.

Suddenly, a needle pierced through the skin of Aizen's back.

"Sting all enemies to death, Suzumbachi," Soifon's expression was ruthless, her eyes narrowed and lips thinned. "Aizen you bastard, you were careless not to pay attention to your surroundings."

Soifon was not one to waste actions over words. In the time that she used to speak, she'd already struck a second time in the exact same location where the markings of a black butterfly bloomed.

The first attack laid the target.

The second strike meant certain death.

It was the power of a Zanpakuto worthy of the Captain of the Stealth Force.

Aizen's expression never changed despite Soifon's successful attack. In fact, he looked like he was struggling to suppress his mirth despite blood leaking from his body as Suzumbachi's ability took effect.

"Oh?" He sounded amused while turning to stare at Soifon behind him. "Do you truly believe that I would be that careless? I'll indulge you and allow you to understand the error of your judegment for what the situation really is."

Soifon felt her vision swim.

She staggered. Something was wrong. Her heart beat audibly within her chest, her senses screaming at her as the image of the 'Aizen' before her faded into nothing.

In the next moment, she felt the chill of cold metal beneath her chin placed along the side of her neck.

"Tranquil as a lake's water, pristine as a mirror," Aizen's blade shifted dangerously close to piercing Soifon's throat. "Kyouka Suigetsu. Mirror Flower and Water's Moon. Did you forget my Zanpakuto's ability?"

Soifon tensed, Shunsui and the other Captain grimacing while trying to find a way to reverse the situation. Coyote was the only one who was staring at Aizen blankly. She had no idea about Aizen's ability because she'd never seen his Zanpakuto before. From Coyote' perspective, she'd watched as the Shinigami acted like fool and struck air while Aizen merely spectated from a distance.

Coyote could feel that Aizen was strong from his spiritual pressure alone, but perhaps more dangerous than his individual strength was the cunning and intellect that she could see in his eyes.

The only time when strength surmounted all however, was in the case of overwhelming power in which no strategy could ever breach.

She maintained her weariness against Aizen despite the man calling himself an ally.

"The visions, thoughts, and sounds one experiences while staring at a reflection are dangerously captivating, are they not?" Aizen stabbed Soifon in the throat and watched as she backed away while swaying. Her hands were pressed to her wound, but Aizen had made sure to strike at the jugular.

Blood spurted out in an arc before Soifon fell to the side with a choked gurgle.

"C-Captain!" Omaeda, the Lieutenant of Squad Two shouted in alarm while racing forward. He froze solid the very moment Aizen shifted his gaze on him.

Aizen grinned before kicking Soifon's body over. "Did you know that slicing open a person's neck does not mean immediate death? However, delay in treating her any longer, and she will die."

Omaeda grew flustered and could only turn to Unohana for aid.

Unohana herself wore a grim expression.

"You are a treacherous man, Aizen Sousuke," Unohana spoke softly while assessing Soifon's condition and keeping her alive through healing Kido. "There's no way to treat this even if there was time."

Aizen shrugged and gave a meaningful stare at Orihime Inoue who was protected behind Rukia, Chad, Ishida, Karin, and many other Shinigami. "Maybe you just aren't looking at the right place," he commented with little interest.

He didn't care if Soifon died or not. She was but an example to serve for the others to realize their true predicament.

His true strength didn't lie solely on the quantity of spiritual energy, but on the sharpness of his intellect. Was it really him that they were fighting, or maybe it was just the air or a random object?

The ability to confuse and deceive was extraordinarily lethal both inside and outside of battle.

With Aizen stepping out at this tense moment, none dared to move lightly.

This was exactly what Aizen was going for. Rather than just the Soul King, he had long since begun to develop a keen curiosity regarding his fellow collaborator.

The Vasto of White. What sort of existence was he really?

Aizen looked once more at the new world around him whose laws seemed to follow a different principle axis, and felt that there was still much that he needed to know. A power like this, was it not on the level of the Soul King himself?

Aizen was a scientist. There was no way that he would leave a puzzle unsolved let alone allow others to skew the results of his observations.

"Good. It seems that you all won't be attacking for the time being," Aizen sheathed his sword. "Not like attacking now would do you any good anyway. Have none of you all realized it yet? Or are you all just blinded by a misguided opportunity to deal with the Vasto of White?"

Aizen moved back to stand by Gin and Tousen's side before staring at Yamamoto and the others in derision. "Nothing you do here will have any effect on the outside."

While everyone had been fighting Aizen had been experimenting. Although it was true that he could interact with the environment around him, nothing that he did could fundamentally alter it. For example, he'd blasted a crater into the ground and watched in fascination as the damage reverted to an unharmed state.

A world in a dream.

This was perhaps the most apt description.

Or perhaps it was just a memory?

Everyone grew confused at Aizen's words, but no one had time to process them for much longer. If the current world truly was just a dream within another reality, then the dream was in the midst of proceeding.

"Starrk!" Coyote grew startled as the child phased through her and landed on the ground.

The child then began to walk once more, listless and without purpose.

It didn't matter if it was Shinigami, Hollow, or humans, the boy directly passed through them as if they were never even there.

Moreover, the direction of the hands, pointed in the boy's direction. Everything was gradually starting to make sense.

'I didn't save them.'

The tone that reverberated within everyone's ears was flat, almost subdued in its lack of energy.

'Empty. There was nothing left to feel, to see, or to experience.'

The tainted flames burnt everything away.

There was nothing left, but a hollow feeling.

Coyote's breath hitched while everyone else watched in silence.

The boy finally collapsed in exhaustion. Parts of his clothing were stained with soot and powdered ash, and the expression of his eyes was vacant while staring at the pale moon above.

Up! Get up!

Coyote was by the child's side in an instant, her spiritual pressure forcing back anyone else who tried to approach in an instant. Her hands moved to hold him and shake the child awake, but nothing she did was changing anything.

Everyone fell silent.

Even if they didn't quite understand what exactly was going on, they weren't ignorant enough to not be able to comprehend that perhaps the current world was a reflection of the human life that the Vasto of White had led.

Was this where the Vasto of White had initially died before becoming a spirit?

It wasn't the case.

The scene shifted, the world of flames turning into nothing more than a blur before clearing up to reveal a distant battlefield.

'Always alone. Never knowing victory nor defeat.'

The steady voice continued to narrate in its flat monotone.

A man shrouded in a red mantle and surveying the battlefield nocked an arrow over a long black bow before firing consecutively.

Humans were fragile creatures.

Death, death, and more death.

The man killed, looking more like he, himself, was the one dying. However, not once did the man waver. For every individual that he killed, he saved ten, no, hundreds more.

'It was hell.'

This wasn't the life that the child who'd survived the flames had wished to lead. Far from it, it was a nightmare in which he had no means of escaping because he was already broken inside.

In the end, despite the constant struggles, the justification, and the means that he had employed, he had still been killed and executed by the very ones that he had saved. He did not resist. Not when it felt like everything that he had ever fought for suddenly had no meaning.

He was hung by the neck, tied within a body bag, and left to suffocate.

Coyote was trembling. The other hollows with relations, either friendly or otherwise to Shirou were inwardly incensed. By the time it showed the scene of the people condemning the man to death, Coyote had already began firing in her rage. However, no amount of anger can change something that had already once occurred.

This entire world was but a memory.

A resonance between souls.

The startling truth was that in life, the Vasto of White could be considered a Selfless Hero, neither wanting recognition nor riches.

'It's not wrong to save others.'

For a simple reason such as that, he had led a life worse than death pursuing an ideal that was impossible to achieve.

The Shinigami did not know what expressions to make. They spoke of honour and duty, and to uphold justice, but what they'd just seen wasn't anywhere close to justice. The Vasto of White had never done anything wrong in his life.

Perhaps the betrayal at the end was what drove him to become a Hollow?

No one had any real answers because the images were moving too fast.

At the end of it all, one last scene began to quietly play out.

The beginning of a simple wish.

------------------------------------------

Shirou's eyes were closed even as his mind returned to a memory of a single point at the zenith of an evening long ago.

A porch overlooking a still pond.

The gentle light of the stars shining overhead.

The inheritance of a dream, a legacy from father to son.

"That's what I'll be." A boy looked up towards the moon with eyes that were clear, free of doubt and hesitation. A hand was outstretched, reaching beyond the visible horizon and grabbing onto an unreachable ideal.

"An Ally of Justice."

This was the final scene that Yamamoto and the others lay witness to with startling clarity.

The world began to shift and move before receding back to reveal the dimension of the fake Karakura town. Yamamoto and the others were left baffled at their sudden return, but more than that was another anomaly.

They could see it now if only barely, monolithic gears hanging in the distance as if superimposing with the current reality. They were translucent, fading in and out, but they were unmistakably there.

Shirou who had been left by Coyote in the distance finally began to rouse. The swords that had been stabbed into him were no more, and power flowed freely from inside his veins.

Of all the memories that he had to see, why did it have to be that?

That's right. That was who he was. An Ally of Justice.

He groggily opened his eyes and made his way to stand on his feet.

His head was hurting, a hand placing itself over his face, but he no longer felt any indecision.

Did the purpose of his existence in the world matter?

There was once such a time that he was obsessed on it after years of inactivity in Hueco Mundo. However, he no longer felt that desire to know anymore. It wouldn't change his course of action anyway.

No matter where he was, or what he was doing, so long as he was still himself, then the Wrought Iron Hero would still save those that he could see with his eyes.

His hands extended forward as cracks appeared in the dimension of the Fake Karakura Town.

His was the power to create worlds. A means to bend reality to his will.

"I am the Bone of My Sword."

Chills suddenly spread down Yamamoto's back at Shirou's voice and words. He'd heard this phrase before. He knew it be instinct as a safety precaution ever since the events of the past.

The world began to move.

"Steel is my Body, and Fire is my Blood."

Shirou senses expanded out. It was how he discovered something important.

Someone was watching this battle.

His expression hardened.

Regardless of who won or lost in this conflict, both sides were not expecting a third party. Worse, he could feel numerous energy signatures suddenly entering Hueco Mundo in his absence. Something far more than just a conflict with the Shinigami was occurring at the moment, and now that he could sense it, there was no longer any time to waste.

The situation was dangerous; far more than what was being let on over the surface. However, they were taking him lightly.

They dared?

The sleeper had awakened, and the sword left stuck in its sheath was finally drawn.

Intruders to Hueco Mundo in his absence? At a time where the strongest Hollows were alongside him no less? Clearly the objective of the intruders was not anything close to friendly.

Still,

Were they truly that bold?

"I have created over a thousand blades."

Hueco Mundo was not just any other world, it was his world. His inner reality. To enter it willingly with ill intentions, wasn't that just a death sentence?

No matter. He would deal with it himself particularly because he could sense that the intruders were fairly strong.

He looked at Coyote and the others who had risked their lives on his behalf.

It was enough.

There were too many uncertainties present in this battle and he wouldn't let anyone die anymore.

Unknown to Death nor Known to Life.

The world within him threatened to expand outwards, but he couldn't do so just yet.

The Hollows needed Huenco Mundo. He could not activate his greatest magic lightly, at least not yet.

"Fall back," His voice was firm as it spread across the battlefield.

The suddenness of the order had everyone stunned. Given his current aura and Yamamoto's deathly reaction to his mantra, it could have had only been assumed that he was getting ready for battle.

However, only he himself knew clearest about the real situation.

He'd been present over a thousand years ago and he knew that the Shinigami did not only face hollows at that time.

Quincy, he recalled the term that Coyote had used.

Right now, he could feel a large number of them moving in places that one could not easily see or sense. Worse, they felt powerful enough to put those that he cared about at risk.

The hollows were baffled at his order, but none disobeyed.

Aizen was different.

"Retreat?" He asked in perplexity while appearing nearby. His brows were furrowed and from the looks of it, he'd never approached Yamamoto and the others from the beginning.

Kyouka Suigetsu truly was a broken ability.

"I'm glad that you finally understand the depth of my elegance." Kyouka spoke in his mind.

He ignored her and just focused on Aizen. He was smart, so it probably wouldn't take much to convince him.

"You can't sense them?" He said firmly before elaborating further. "Who wins in a war? The ones who fight in the light, or those who creep in the dark?"

Aizen was intelligent enough to fully interpret his meaning. A hint of curiosity appeared over his face before the man fell into quick contemplation.

"Someone's watching. A third party?" Aizen mused aloud before conceding. "Very well. I'll trust that you aren't lying to me. Gin, Tousen, we're leaving."

Moving away, Aizen, Gin, and Tousen followed after Harribel and the other hollows who had already opened a Garganta back to Hueco Mundo.

Coyote trailed behind, clearly unwilling to leave unless she was forced to. She kept looking at him in concern and apprehension, leaving him no choice but to comfort her.

"I won't leave this time. I promise," he called out to her. 'Trust me."

She hesitated, but in the end, even she too soon left. The others were following one by one.

The retreat came suddenly. The Shinigami could hardly believe it, but even more were red-eyed and furious.

Baraggan, Nel, Harribel, and the others had killed hundreds of Shinigami. Corpses of Arrancar and Shinigami littered the area from wherever one looked. Baraggan's warpath was the only exception. There was nothing left but large black cavities.

The battle had taken its toll.

"L-Let go of them!" Isshin looked like he was moments away from going mad.

Of in the distance, rather than reasoning with Ichigo, Nel directly opened a Garganta beneath him and sent him back forcibly.

Held in Nel's arms was 'Silent' who Isshin could clearly see for the first time. The man became both floored and desperate.

If not for the fact that Isshin was being pressed down onto the ground by Yamamoto's orders, then the man would have had attacked by now.

Everyone soon left.

Shirou stood alone across from the Shinigami in silence. However, the Shinigami were looking at him oddly.

"Even if you were a Hero once, you're just a Hollow now," A Shinigami spoke coldly while holding onto the body of a deceased comrade. Her animosity was justified, but Shirou could not understand what it was that they talking about.

It didn't matter.

"Do you still wish to fight?" He asked flatly. Tendril of lightning-like spiritual energy manifested around him before taking the form of many, many swords. The translucent gears hanging up over the horizon seemed to groan with a low hum.

"Do you think that you can just leave like this?" Toshiro spoke up in fury.

"Do you think that you could stop me?" He replied in kind. "Moreover, I am not the one that you should be looking out for."

He leveled his stare at Yamamoto who'd been silent since the beginning. Right now, the demeanor and aura that Shirou was outputting were identical if not greater than how he had been once before.

"How much of this could have had been avoided if you'd just decided to speak rather then mercilessly kill all those years ago?" Shirou spoke with a weary, yet reminiscent tone while looking at all the dead.

He shook his head. "Don't ever appear in front of Coyote again. This time she was too concerned on my behalf, but she will try to kill you. You hurt her too much for her not to hate you."

Yamamoto did not reply, his brows knitted together. Perhaps, he had actually been wrong?

He still recalled the way that Coyote had tried to reason with him to let her and her family off in the past. He hadn't listened then because Hollows were never to be trusted. They lost their humanity as souls after falling into evil.

Yet, had that truly been the right conclusion?

Yamamoto did not know. However, what he did know was that if the Vasto of White was back to his same level of power in the past, then even he stood no chance. For the safety of the Shinigami under him, he could not allow anyone to move recklessly and inadvertently set off the Vasto of White.

The situation called for caution.

"Can the words of a hollow even be trusted?" Zaraki spoke up in the silence while leering for a fight.

Zaraki's words echoed much of the opinions of the gathered Shinigami.

Shirou did not raise himself to the provocation.

"If that's how you all see it then, fine," Shirou turned around to leave through a garganta that he had created. "Just know that if Hollows were really the monsters that you all see them to be, then none of you would be alive right now."

All at once, the four pillars supporting the dimension of the fake Karakura town shattered into pieces at the hands of four massive swords that had formed from the ether. The energy that Shirou was outputting was large enough to distort the very realm.

The Shinigami tensed, but the spiritual pressure was soon reeled back like a sheathed sword.

They stared at Shirou's back in silence, beads of sweat trailing down their foreheads.

"A monster, I am not." Shirou returned to Hueco Mundo to deal with its intruders.

Once again, all the Shinigami thought back to what they had seen in a different reality.

A Hero of another time.

An Ally of Justice that opposed them.

Then did that mean that they were the one's that were truly evil?

None wished to dwell on that topic any longer.

Yamamoto simply sighed.

The future was looking bleak.