65 Meeting the Visored

"Kaname, that's enough."

"But Aizen-sa..."

"I said it's enough."

"Y-Yes."

Seeing that Kaname Tosen was hellbent on humiliating himself further, Aizen decided to stop him from attacking Yuna any further.

"You are dismissed, Kaname; I'll handle this situation myself. The same applies to you, Grimmjow."

Obviously, Grimmjow was far from satisfied being dismissed after his arm was cut off, but considering Aizen had put his foot down on this matter; he knew that there was nothing he could do about it.

So, as he was leaving the room, the only thing he could do was throw a seething glare at Tosen while internally proclaiming that he would get his revenge one day.

As soon as only Yuna and Aizen were left, Aizen directed his gaze at Yuna and resumed speaking.

"So, apparently, you left together with Grimmjow. What did you have to do in the world of the living that was so important that you had to sneak out of Hueco Mundo without informing anybody?"

Hearing Aizen's question, Yuna simply shrugged her shoulder as she answered Aizen with seemingly no care in the world.

"Mah, nothing too important. Just a little courtesy visit to a few members of my harem."

Initially, Aizen really wanted to ask what kind of nonsense Yuna was talking about, but after giving her a closer look, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows in doubt.

'Her clothes clearly are still disheveled, despite clearly not being involved in any fights. Additionally... this smell. Did she seriously sneak out just for that?'

Obviously, Aizen had heard through multiple reports about Yuna's... hobbies... but he didn't expect her to act this rampant just to meet a few women she was courting. After all, Yuna, strictly speaking, followed him here to Hueco Mundo, so leaving this place without telling anyone to do what she pleased could be considered a crime worthy of the death penalty.

"And what made you think you could just do as you wish and leave this place without my permission?"

"Mhh? Isn't that pretty obvious? I didn't ask you for permission because I don't give a shit about it. Whether you allow me to go or not, I'll do whatever I want anyway."

Naturally, Aizen wasn't happy with that answer, resulting in him flaring his Spiritual Pressure, which washed over Yuna like a gentle breeze, not bothering her in the slightest. Despite Yuna clearly not being affected, Aizen continued talking with a more serious voice.

"Do you really think I'll allow you to continue to do whatever you want? Do you think there is no limit to how rampant I'll allow you to act? Do you REALLY think that if you continue to annoy and disrespect me, I wouldn't just cut you down?"

As soon as Aizen stopped speaking, he disappeared from his position and reaped in front of Yuna, his blade already touching her neck.

"What stops me from cutting off your head right here, right now?"

Feeling Aizen's Zanpakuto touch her neck, Yuna couldn't help but smirk as she noticed Aizen still sitting where he previously sat, while the Aizen in front of her was just an illusion.

'That Zanpakuto's ability sure is broken, isn't it? Despite being aware of the illusion, my senses are still telling me that someone is actually standing in front of me. How fascinating.'

Unaware of Yuna's thoughts, Aizen couldn't help but frown, as Yuna seemed to be completely indifferent to the blade toucher her neck. Obviously, he tried to intimidate her, to prevent her from acting even more rampant, but he could clearly tell that this method didn't work.

He was just about to continue his act when Yuna's smirk widened as she moved even closer to Aizen's blade, almost causing it to cut into her neck.

"What stops you from cutting off my head? That's an easy question, Aizen. If you were to kill me right here right now, you would admit that you lost."

As soon as those words left Yuna's mouth, Aizen's hand briefly twitched in surprise, causing Yuna to smirk, while Aizen could only look at her in utter bewilderment.

'Just how much of a grasp has this woman on my personality? How can she deduce my thoughts and intentions so easily?'

Seeing a sliver of surprise briefly flash across Aizen's face, Yuna's smirk widened as she casually flicked away the blade resting on her neck while she continued talking.

"That's right. If you were to kill me, you would admit defeat. I'm messing around in Hueco Mundo, and you don't know how I do it. I'm doing something, but you don't know how which hurts your pride.

You could easily admit that I'm using an unknown method unique to me to mess around like that and be done with this matter, but that is not who Aizen Sousuke is.

Your pride does not allow you to accept a mere human doing something you can not comprehend.

Your pride does not allow you to kill someone you haven't completely figured out.

Your pride does not allow you to ask me how I'm doing what I'm doing.

And your pride is..."

Before Yuna finished speaking, she simply turned around and walked toward the room's exit, clearly not bothered by the blade that initially rested right next to her neck. Just as she was about to exit the room, she turned around and looked at Aizen with a twisted smile while her eyes seemed to glow with unmeasurable wisdom.

"... what will ultimately cause your doom."

Having said what she wanted to say, Yuna left the room, leaving a frowning Aizen behind. While he was glaring at the exit Yuna had just used, he subconsciously swiped his hand over his forehead, causing his frown to deepen even further.

'Wet? Why is my forehead wet? Is this... sweat? Why am I sweating? Was I... afraid?"

Looking at his slightly wet hand, Aizen gritted his teeth in anger as his gaze lingered on where Yuna had just left, with fury burning in his eyes.

'NONSENSE! How could I possibly fear an insignificant human brat!'

As soon as these thoughts passed his mind, a disdain-filled snort left his mouth as he turned around and left the room as well, not even noticing Gin, who was leisurely leaning against a nearby wall while hiding his presence.

'Seems like Aizen has met his match. I'm not certain about all the circumstances, but she is clearly getting into his head. Mhh... Should I talk to her about my plans?'

However, after thinking about his thoughts briefly, Gin simply shook his head and discarded his idea with a wry smile on his face.

'There's no way I can do that. I've been planning, preparing, and gathering information for over a century now. Asking Yuna for help might seem tempting, but the more people know about my plans, the riskier everything becomes. Additionally, I have seriously no idea how to judge her personality, so I'm not even sure that the first thing she would do after I tell her about what I have planned for Aizen is to rattle me out.'

Finishing his thoughts, Gin smiled wryly as he left the room leisurely while gently shaking his head.

'In the end, the only one I can trust is myself.'

Meanwhile, far away from the battles in Karakura town, Tatsuki was sitting cross-legged on her bed while thinking about her current situation. She had noticed a bunch of foreign people with different Spiritual Pressure reaching the world of the living, but after feeling multiple people with similar levels of power blocking their path, Tatsuki decided not to participate in this fight.

Obviously, the thing she was thinking about was her relationship with Naruto. Or rather, it was how she was supposed to handle the information Naruto unveiled to her a few days ago.

'A harem, huh? No matter how I look at it, from the standpoint of a modern woman, I should ditch him immediately.'

It's been a few days since Naruto told Tatsuki about his other women that, despite being far away, undoubtedly were Naruto's lovers. Worst of all, not only were there women in a distant universe that had a relationship with Naruto, Tatsuki did not doubt that Naruto had plans to increase that number further.

She had been interacting with Yuna and Naruto for a while now, and while she initially thought that their utterly ridiculous claims of creating a harem were mere jokes, now that she knew the full story about who the twins really were, she no longer was under such a delusion.

'No matter how I look at it, both of them not only have a harem, but they want to expand it further as well.'

While those thoughts passed through her, Rangiku's face briefly appeared in her mind, causing her to frown as she remembered how casually she looked at Yuna, expanding her harem.

'There is no way I can just accept things like Rangiku did. Besides that, our situation is different as well. While Rangiku is attracted to women, so it's probably a smaller hurdle to accept other people, unlike how it is for me, who likes men and would have to accept other women. I'm not into women... I think?'

So far, Tatsuki had never felt attracted to another woman; however, before she met Naruto, she had never been attracted to another man either, causing her quite a bit of confusion.

'Have I just never met a woman I felt attracted to? Maybe if I just met the right person, I would be interested? No, that's beside the point. Whether I can feel attracted to other women isn't the problem right now. The problem is that if I were to stay with Naruto, I would, at one point in time, inevitably, meet a group of women that not only loved Naruto but were aware that he was sleeping with other women.

Hell, from the way Naruto narrated his past, I'm pretty sure that most of those women not only were aware of Naruto sleeping with other women but were actually present when it happened.'

While a mild blush appeared on Tatsuki's face as all kinds of unhealthy thoughts crossed her mind, she sighed deeply and fell back on her bed with her eyes closed.

'*Sigh* Cultivation, immortals, gods, sects, dimension travel, and much more. I've heard so many outrageous things; I somehow feel like the harem situation isn't even close to being my biggest problem.'

Tatsuki spent some time rolling around her bed as she continued thinking about the situation, resulting in another big sigh.

'*Sigh* In the end, I can't help it. I love Naruto, and I want to stay together with him.'

Frankly, if it were the Tatsuki of a year ago, she would have simply kicked Naruto in the nuts and left before he could even finish his story, but her visit to another world, Soul Society, had somewhat changed the way she thought. After realizing that the world was much larger than she initially thought, she became significantly more tolerant of accepting new ideas, even if it was something absurd as a harem existing in modern times.

'I guess I'll just give it a try. Worst case scenario, I'll just break up with Naruto. However, before anything else, I need to talk with Naruto and set up some rules. If I'm subjected to such a strange situation, I at least want to set up some boundaries first.'

After Tatsuki finished with her contemplations, she nodded in approval at the conclusion she had reached and sat up from her bed.

'Although I was not expecting that I would reach this kind of conclusion when Naruto told me about the situation, in the end, I think I have a good feeling about this. Weird, but good.'

She lazily stretched her back as her gaze wandered through her room, finally landing on the dusty computer screen that hadn't been used for months.

'Mhh, I wonder if the internet has any information about my current situation... Oh well, might as well take a look~'

Meanwhile, in another part of the town, Naruto had to suppress a sneeze as he was currently following behind the sulking figure of Ichigo.

'Phew, I almost gave my position away by sneezing. I wonder who is thinking about me. Considering how handsome I am, I'm surprised I'm not constantly sneezing.'

[Well, my first thought about you sneezing was that you might have caught a cold, but then I remembered that idiots don't get colds, so I changed my mind.]

'Oi, you wanna fight, shitty fox?'

[Come at me, brat!]

While Naruto and Kurama were arguing, Ichigo reached his destination: a seemingly abandoned warehouse.

However, as soon as he entered the building, it became rather clear that it wasn't abandoned, as a group of eight people was already waiting for his arrival. Although they seemed to be a rather diverse group, all eight of them shared a single similarity: All of them were carrying Zanpakuto.

As soon as Ichigo entered the warehouse, a man with smooth blonde hair stepped forward with a wide grin on his face.

"It seems like you finally made the decision to join us, Visored, Ichigo. Frankly, I'm surprised to manage to find this place, considering how shit you are at detecting Spiritual Power, but since we constantly focused our Spiritual Power on you, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Anyway, since you are here, you must be ready to join us."

Shinji Hirako, the Visored that previously made contact with Ichigo and Naruto, was the first to greet Ichigo while implying that the other seven people in the room were the same as him: All of them were Visored, Shinigami that attained Hollow powers.

However, to Shinji's surprise, Ichigo didn't give the answer he expected him to give.

"No way."

"Huh? What?"

Seeing Shinji's confused expression, Ichigo smirked as he pointed his sword at him.

"That's right. I'm not here to join you. I'm here to use you. I won't join your group, but you'll tell me how I can control the Hollow inside me."

Hearing Ichigo's words, Shinji scoffed in disdain as he shook his head in denial.

"We'll tell you? I don't think so. We'll tell you nothing."

"That doesn't matter. I'll get it out of you."

"Hoo~ And how do you think you'll do that?"

"Isn't that obvious? I'll use force!"

As soon as Ichigo finished speaking, he charged at Shinjhi, who could only scoff in disdain as he easily blocked Ichigo's initial attack.

"What a joke. Oh well, come at me."

Ass as Shinji finished speaking, he counterattacked, forcing Ichigo to block his strike and sending him skidding backward before he gritted his teeth and resumed attacking.

While the duo was fighting back and forth, the other seven Visorde merely spectated the fight while casually talking about what they saw.

"The kid's not bad. He's holding himself against Shinji."

"What are you talking about? Shinji isn't even trying."

The first comment was made by a tall man with fluffy blonde hair wearing a black suit, while the next one was from a young woman with black hair wearing a school-girl outfit.

"It doesn't seem like Ichigo is trying hard either."

"Hmph, no matter how I look at it, he's afraid."

Following those two, a huge, almost round man commented on the fight, followed by a man with an afro. After those two, a young girl with smooth blonde hair made a comment, followed by a grew-haired man with multiple piercings.

"Afraid? What is he afraid of?"

"He's afraid of his inner Hollow. Honestly, are we really considering letting that kid join us?"

As the other Visored continued arguing, the last of them, who hadn't said anything yet, sighed deeply while watching Ichigo and Shinji fight. She was a small woman with chaotic-looking blonde hair wearing a jumpsuit, and as she continued watching the confrontation, the last vestiges of her patient finally snapped, resulting in her approaching the fighting duo.

As soon as she had gotten reasonably close to Shinji, she raised her leg, causing her flip-flop to fly off her foot, allowing her to catch it with practiced ease, followed by her nonchalantly smacking it into Shinji's face, sending him flying away.

"You have got it all wrong, Ichigo. This isn't a matter of you wanting to join us or learn from us or whatever. It is you that NEEDS to learn from us. We'll test you, and when you are up to our standards, we'll teach you how to control your Hollow. Whether you can learn that or not is entirely up to us. If you are not up to our standard, your Hollow will consume you, and you will die, which none of us would give a shit about."

As soon as she finished speaking, the Spiritual Pressure around her increased, forcing Ichigo to prepare himself for battle.

"So, stop pissing about and Hollowfy already. Let me see if you have reached the appropriate level."

Although Ichigo briefly wondered what she meant by "Hollowfy", considering the current situation, he didn't need to be a genius to figure that out.

"No, I won't, Hollowfy."

Realizing what she meant, Ichigo immediately rejected her due to not wanting his Hollow to take over. However, hearing Ichigo's answer, the young woman grew even angrier as she raised her hand up to her face in a claw motion.

"Seems like you still don't get it. You have no choice in this matter!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a Hollow mask appeared on the young woman's face, immediately causing her Spiritual Pressure to skyrocket.

"*Munch* Things sure are getting hectic in here, aren't they?"

Suddenly, the sound of someone eating something crispy echoed through the room, attracting everyone's attention.

Right there, around five meters away from the gathered Visored, a single individual with spiky blond hair and blue eyes was leisurely lying down on a sun lounger, happily eating crisps while spectating Ichigo's fight.

"""""""""WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM!?"""""""""

Hearing everyone in the room asking the same question simultaneously, the blond-haired man simply shrugged his shoulders.

"What are you talking about? I've been here the whole time."