86 Ban-KAI

"What is the meaning of this, Yuna Uzumaki? Why would you save the Captain Commander just to challenge him to combat moments later."

Although Aizen had already concluded what Yuna's plan was, he decided to ask her about it anyway to make sure that Yuna didn't realize that he knew what she was up to.

"Mhh, well~ Honestly, fighting you and your illusion power or whatever doesn't sound very appealing to me, and I would rather fight someone with fire-based powers like Yamamoto here."

Aizen couldn't suppress a sneer after listening to Yuna's explanation. He had expected her to make up some kind of excuse why she wanted to fight Yamamoto, but he did not expect she would come up with one so bad.

'Because fighting him looks more interesting? What a joke. If she wants to trick me into believing her, such a pathetic excuse won't do anything.'

As those thoughts passed through Aizen's mind, and before he could resume speaking, Yuna said a few more things.

"And on a side note, your opponent is already here, so it can't be helped."

"Wha..."

"[GETSUGA TENSHOU]"

Aizen's eyes widened as a Garganta suddenly opened behind him, allowing Ichigo to pass through it and attack Aizen from the back.

Aizen quickly moved out of the way, but despite reacting quickly, Ichigo still managed to make a small cut on Aizen's body, causing blood to flow.

Seeing that, Yuna only shook her head in disappointment as her focus went back on Yamamoto, who was surprised to see Ichigo here.

'What a lame sneak attack. If you want to sneak attack, at least don't yell out the name of your attack, and if you are so hellbent on yelling it out, then at least give it a cooler name. Seriously, only two words? Pathetic.'

Meanwhile, feeling the wound Ichigo caused him, Aizen couldn't help but smile lightly as he got a feeling for Ichigo's Spiritual Power.

"What are you smiling for, Aizen?"

"Mhh? Isn't that obvious? You missed your chance to kill me, Kurosaki Ichigo. This was my last vulnerable moment."

"So what? I still managed to wound you!"

"Wound me?"

Yet again, Aizen chuckled in amusement as he removed the wound he had received by slightly shifting his clothes.

"You call this a wound?"

To Ichigo's surprise, the gash he managed to afflict on Aizen was already healing at a rapid pace.

"What!? High-speed regeneration!?"

"No, this is not High-speed regeneration. Do you seriously think I would Hollowfy? No, this is it instinctively protecting its master."

"It?"

Seeing the confusion on Ichigo's face, Aizen chuckled in amusement as he parted his clothes, revealing his chest and stomach, showing that there was now a blue sphere embedded into his body.

Seeing that, Ichigo's eyes widened, but before he could say anything, Aizen yet again chuckled in amusement as he continued speaking.

"That's right, this is the Hogyoku."

Seeing the shock on Ichigo's face, Aizen's smile widened as he touched the remains of Ichigo's Spiritual Power still covering his wound.

"Magnificent. You have really grown a lot... just like I envisioned."

"What!?"

"Your encounter with Rukia. The awakening of your Shinigami powers while facing Uryu Ishida. Your realization of your Zanpakuto's power in your fight with Renji Abarai. The glimpse of your Bankai during your Battle with Zaraki Kenpachi. Then, you took a step towards Hollowfication during your battle with Kuchiki Byakugan, and in your battle with Grimmjow Jaegerjaques, you mastered it. Finally, in your battle with Ulquiorra Cifer, you managed to awaken an even greater power."

Finishing listing all of Ichigo's major power-ups and who caused them, Aizen couldn't help but chuckle in amusement as he resumed speaking.

"All of these battles happened in the palm of my hand."

"W-What? W-What do you mean? In the palm of your hand!? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?"

Seeing Ichigo getting more and more agitated, Aizen only shook his head as a calm smile appeared on his face before he continued telling his story.

"Now, now, there is no need to raise your voice. However, didn't you find it weird? You faced so many powerful opponents, but every time you faced someone dangerous, your power was more or less similar to your opponent. Do you truly believe that that was a coincidence?"

Ichigo's eyes widened in terror as he realized that Aizen's words were indeed true. Every time he went through a major breakthrough in his strength, an enemy popped up that was conveniently about as strong as him or significantly too strong for him to beat, egging him on further and motivating him to keep pushing. However, as he was thinking about how Aizen's words appeared to be true, something felt a little off.

"Wait a moment, what about Kenpachi?"

Ichigo went through a major power-up in that fight as well, realizing the first step of how to archive his Bankai, but he actually lost that fight... badly.

Hearing Ichigo's words, Aizen almost started cursing, as that fight indeed didn't go as he had predicted. For some reason he wasn't aware of, Kenpachi had managed to reawaken to his full power while he wasn't watching.

Frankly, Aizen had not even a sliver of a clue about how that happened initially, but after hearing the brief conversation between Yoroichi, who tried to rescue Ichigo, and Kenpachi, after defeating Ichigo, he could make a good guess.

Somehow, Kenpachi started respecting Yuna enough for him to stop bothering about the well-being of Seireitei for the sake of doing Yuna a favor.

Although it was impossible for him to fathom what exactly had happened, it was rather clear that Yuna had her fingers in this whole mess somehow.

Luckily, Yoruichi managed to convince Kenpachi to let Ichigo go. Otherwise, Aizen might have been forced to do some things that could have possibly messed up his plans.

"That situation was different. In that situation, you were supposed to witness the overwhelming power the strongest Captain in Seireitei had to make sure you understood your situation."

Obviously, that was a lie, but there was no way that Aizen would admit that he had lost control over his plan for a brief moment.

Hearing Aizen's explanation, Ichigo felt like something was off, but unfortunately, he didn't have enough experience in dealing with schemers like Aizen to figure out what exactly was wrong.

So, the only thing he could do was grit his teeth in anger while glaring at Aizen in a mix of confusion, anger, and desperation.

Seeing Ichigo's facial expression, Aizen still wore his usual leisurely smile and continued narrating.

"That's right, Kurosaki Ichigo. Not only have I controlled every battle you had up until now, but I planned to do so from the very start."

"W-What? From the start? What do you mean?"

"I mean, that I knew about you from the day you were born. After all, you were born under special circumstances. You are a human and a..."

"That's enough chatting."

Suddenly, another Shinigami appeared between Ichigo and Aizen, and seeing the new arrival, Ichigo's eyeballs almost popped out of their sockets.

"D-D-DAD!?"

Currently, Isshin Kurosaki, donning a Shinigami uniform and the remains of a Captain's coat, was standing between Ichigo and Aizen, revealing his Shinigami form to his son for the first time.

"D-Dad? I-Is that really you?"

Hearing Ichigo's question, Isshin approached Ichigo with shadows covering his eyes, starling Ichigo. Moments later, Isshin stood in front of Ichigo, still not talking.

"D-Da..."

And then Isshin headbutted Ichigo...

Meanwhile, after finishing her internal rant about too-short technique names, Yuna raised her Zanpakuto, which had already turned into a huge sword of ice, and pointed it at Yamamoto.

"Anyway, let's get this party started, shall we?"

The moment Yuna stopped talking, a battle-thirsty smile appeared on her face as her Spiritual Power erupted, instantly causing her surroundings to freeze over.

Feeling Yuna's powerful Spiritual Pressure, Yamamoto scoffed in disdain as he drew his own blade that instantly burst into flames, melting the ice that was closer to him than to Yuna, forming a bizarre picture of a world of ice colliding with a world of flames.

'What incredible Spiritual Pressure. To think there would be a human one day that could match me in that regard. On top of that, she is still very young as well.'

As these thoughts passed through Yamamoto's mind, he couldn't help but smile slightly. He is an old man by now; however, in his youth, he was just as hot-blooded as people like Kenpachi. Fighting Aizen didn't really make him feel the thrill of battle, but this situation was different.

'A clash of raw power! It is unbecoming for me to do so due to being the Captain Commander, but I can't help myself. This battle... will be exciting.'

Seeing the old man in front of her smiling lightly, Yuna couldn't help but smile even wider.

'Seems like that old man isn't as stoic as he pretends to be. The thrill of a good battle seems to be able to still get him excited, even going so far as to disregard Aizen's presence.'

However, before any one of them could make a move, Yuna shook her head at Yamamoto.

"This isn't how this should happen, old man. Bankai. Use it!"

Although Yamamoto was slightly taken aback by Yuna simply calling him an old man, he decided not to care about it. After all, those of great power had much more leeway in the way they had to conduct themself.

However, when he heard Yuna asking for him to use his Bankai, he could only frown. Obviously, he had mastered his Bankai a very long time ago, but despite that, he didn't use it against Aizen.

Naturally, there was a good reason for that, as he was certain that if he were to use his Bankai, this place would be destroyed, which is exactly what he didn't want to happen. He was just about to say that he wouldn't use his Bankai when Yuna resumed speaking.

"Now, now, don't back out of this so early. I've already gathered information on what your Bankai entails, so I'm aware of why you don't want to use it, but aren't I here? What could your flames possibly consume when my ice is there?"

Hearing Yuna's words, Yamamoto frowned deeply as she was practically saying that his flames couldn't overpower Yuna's ice. However, he felt the coldness radiating out of Yuna, and seeing that his Spiritual Pressure wasn't pushing back Yuna's in the slightest, he could only consider Yuna's words to be true.

After all, both of them currently only had their Shikai activated. Although Yamamoto was confident in the power of his Bankai, who knew just how much stronger Yuna would get after activating her own Bankai?

As for actually possessing a Bankai, Yamamoto had no doubt that Yuna had already gotten to that level. After all, Naruto had one, so how could Yuna not have one?

"I'll be frank; my Bankai has enough power to turn everything around me into dust. Do you really think you can fight back against something like that?"

A ferocious smile appeared on Yuna's face as the coldness radiating out of her body intensified, and she started slowly falling onto her side of the battlefield.

"Come on. Bring it on!"

Seeing confidence radiating out of Yuna's eyes, Yamamoto briefly hesitated before a look of determination appeared on his face.

'Very well, I'll take this gamble.'

However, before he could use his Bankai, four more people appeared on the battlefield, their Spiritual Pressures easily clashing and contesting with Yuna and Yamamoto.

"Geez, nee-san, like always, you try to hog all the fun for yourself. Please don't forget about me~"

"Well, I'm usually not the type for direct combat, but I guess it can't be helped."

"Well, forgive, Yuna, but I'll be fighting for this side for now."

"HAHAHA, NOW THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!! THIS WILL BE FUN!!!"

The first person who spoke was obviously Naruto, who had just stepped out of the Garganta he had made himself, and the moment he stopped speaking, he had already moved next to Yuna, with his Zanpakuto already in its Shikai form.

The next person to speak was Hinata, who usually was more of an assassin type, but considering the situation, she decided to get directly involved. Unlike Naruto, she didn't step out of the Garganta, as she had been here for a while and only now decided to show herself.

The third person to speak was Retsu, who decided to side with Soul Society instead of Yuna for the sole reason that she was fully aware of what kind of character Yuna was: There was no way Yuna would be happy with an uneven fight, so she decided to temporarily switch sides.

Finally, the last person who appeared was Kenpachi, who was excited about a good fight. He didn't spend much time thinking about what side he should join and only saw that one side had three people and the other one had two, causing him to make a decision instantly. He would join the side with fewer people.

"Hehe, no worries, Retsu. After all, it will be more fun like this~."

Noticing the brief interaction between Yuna and Retsu, Yamamoto briefly frowned, thinking about what Yuna had said about her motive behind going to Hueco Mundo.

'Surely, I'm just imagining things... right?'

Shaking his head to get rid of his idle thoughts, Yamamoto looked at the current line-ups and frowned deeply.

'The three strongest Shinigami in Seireitei are currently fighting a force of three humans whose combined age doesn't even reach the third digit. This is not a scene I would have ever expected to witness in my life.

However, feeling the incredibly dense Spiritual Pressure those three are radiating, I can not help but feel like they are worthy of facing us.'

Feeling the tension in the air, a massive grin split Yuna's face in two as she was already anticipating quite a fun fight.

"Well, then... shall we begin?"

Six different Spiritual Pressures started becoming even more rampant, combining with each other while others collided in a devastating clash, cracking the round while summoning powerful winds.

All six combatants raised their Zanpakuto simultaneously and spoke one sole, terrifying word.

""""""Ban-KAI!""""""