NOVEL NEXT Chapter 8: Retorta chapter 2
It's a bit of an open secret in Division 2, but the Onmitsukido has small paths and shortcuts known only to them, scattered all over Seireitei. Where Division 4 has their sewer system, Onmi has much, much more. Kisuke takes full advantage of that now. Soi Fon will send someone after him, obviously, but as good as her troops are, Kisuke is just… better. To a hilarious degree. He was the one who came up with the current training regime, but he's had well over a century to improve on his techniques and he didn't spend all his time playing eccentric shopkeeper or mad scientist.
Not even Yoruichi as she is now can match his current speed or stealth, and as good as she is, she has never matched him in sheer, lethal efficiency.
Which means, very simply, that Kisuke in this time has no equal.
He doesn't even bother to kill the first Onmitsukido team he encounters, just channels his reiatsu into a tightly controlled flare that drives them helplessly to their knees, then facedown. The last one slips into unconsciousness just as Kisuke is arming himself properly, helping himself to their weapons.
He's well aware that he doesn't look like the Gotei's tame captain anymore. He's a killer, pure and simple, and with Ichigo's death he has returned to the roots of what he has always been.
Soi Fon finds him next. She only survives because Kisuke knows how Yoruichi favors her. He is still, perhaps, less gentle than he could have been.
That, and he can't afford her the time to alert anyone. Before she's even aware of his presence he is behind her, striking precisely at the back of her neck.
He's gone before she hits the ground. He takes her Zanpakuto with him.
The rest of the Onmitsukido members simply flee if they see him, after that.
Kisuke doesn't try for Aizen, first. He needs a distraction if he wants to make it that far, something to unsettle and put off. Something like Tousen's death, for instance.
The blind would-be captain is one of the finest reiatsu sensors in the entirety of the Gotei 13, but he doesn't "see" Kisuke until after his throat has been slit.
Kisuke hangs him above the entrance to the Fifth Division like a macabre banner and settles into the shadows to wait.
Aizen will be confused by this. In this situation, he would go straight for Kyouka Suigetsu. Kisuke's unusual independence from Benihime will unsettle him. In this, Aizen's cold mimicry of humanity will work against him; he cannot place himself in someone else's mindset.
He will keep Gin close to him, once news of Tousen's death reaches him, and he will prepare for a move against where Benihime is stored.
That places him directly where Kisuke wants him. Aizen doesn't have quite the authority with the soutaicho that he will in a hundred years, but he could not be content to have someone else foil his enemy. He will be there, waiting.
Aizen is waiting for him near the entrance to the Division 2 headquarters. Gin is hovering by his side, usual smile nowhere in sight and about half as tall as Kisuke remembered.
Kisuke has been watching them for nearly half an hour by then, naturally, but he can't move until he's absolutely sure that this is the true Aizen. And that means that he needs to get a hand on Kyouka Suigetsu.
For anyone else, this might be difficult. For Kisuke, well…
He gives Aizen just enough forewarning to draw his blade before he flashes forward and clamps his hand over Kyouka's long edge, uncaring of how deeply she bites into his hand.
The Soutaicho had been right, all those years ago. There was no mistaking the reiatsu of the sword Kisuke was in direct contact with. This really was Aizen.
Kisuke is very nearly worried at how easy that had been. But the furious, barely worried snarl twisting Aizen's face is genuine.
Now all Kisuke has to do is kill him. He raises his free hand, palm up, and begins to murmur an incantation he knows Aizen won't recognize.
With a final tug, Aizen tears Kyouka Suigetsu away from Kisuke, laying his hand open to the bone, but it's far too late to stop him. With a grim smile, Kisuke locks eyes and intones,
"Saishuu Danretsu (Final Severance)."
The resulting blast of energy is a void-dark purple edged in black, and Aizen leaps backwards, bringing Kyouka up to deflect the incoming bolt.
The sword and the kido meet with a surge of wild reiatsu, and Kisuke watches without wavering.
Checkmate.
Aizen is screaming, a high pitched sound of absolute agony. Kyouka Suigetsu is flaking away into nothingness, dissolving inch by inch.
"What have you done? What have you done!??!"
The last remnants of Kyouka dissolve away from a shattered asauichi, and Aizen shudders. But he's not an opponent to be underestimated, even now, and with a howl of pain and fury he casts away the useless hilt and flings himself at Kisuke. Aizen is not known for his hakuda, since he usually scorns anything that physical, but he is no less a master of this craft than he is of any other. Furthermore, although Shunko is uniquely Yoruichi's, Aizen is exceptionally skilled at interspersing silent, lightening quick kido with his attacks.
Kisuke keeps all this in mind, as he sways out of the way of the first blow and redirects the following byakurai harmlessly past his head. Aizen is good, very good. But Kisuke is still just better. And angry . Oh, he knows that Aizen hasn't yet done everything that Kisuke wants him dead for, but Kisuke doesn't care. Because of this man , Ichigo has died and revived and been hollowfied and fought in a war, has lost friends and family and been tortured and forced to grow up far too soon.
Sure, Kisuke was responsible for a lot of that. He'll never deny that debt. But it was all for the sake of taking down this man . Right here, Kisuke can end this before it ever begins, take the Visored and hide, make sure this Ichigo, if he ever exists, gets the life he should have had. Kisuke will watch over and protect him personally, if it comes to that.
But right now? It's very simple.
Aizen is going to die.