Chapter 235: What is the Most Crucial Thing?
The stability of Soul Society rested on legitimacy.
And in Soul Society, legitimacy was chained to the Five Great Noble Clans and the Royal Guard. Without those two pillars stepping forward, the entire situation became what it already resembled, leaderless, drifting, and quietly collapsing.
Yet very few people ever stopped to ask the simplest question.
Why did legitimacy belong to them in the first place?
Too much time had passed. Even those who should have remembered had long since forgotten. Some had died. Some had vanished. Some were still here, yet lived like leaves on a river, letting the current decide their direction while telling themselves it was their own will.
But Aizen Sōsuke had not forgotten.
The legitimacy of Soul Society began with one sacrifice.
The sacrifice of the Soul King.
And the legitimacy of the Five Great Noble Clans was built on an even uglier truth, their attempt to kill the Soul King, to anchor the world in place.
Which raised a question that was both simple and unforgivable.
Was the Soul King truly dead?
The Soul King had been dismembered, sealed, suppressed, and made into the foundation of the current structure. To most, that was normal. That was truth. The world continued to turn, and so the legitimacy of the nobles and the Royal Guard continued to stand.
Yet the true legitimacy had never belonged to the Five Great Noble Clans.
It had never belonged to the Zero Division.
From ancient times to the present, it had belonged to one existence alone.
The Soul King.
The one who carved a path so the world could exist, who allowed everyone to live within it, who endured the ugliness of others and the malice of people, and still chose to bear it all. A saint who loved the world, and all who lived in it, enough to accept suffering as his payment.
He was the legitimacy of this world.
And many had forgotten that. Or worse, they avoided thinking about it at all.
To most, the Soul King was a dead idol, a distant symbol, a thing that could not possibly still be alive. After all, how could anyone survive being disassembled and sealed like that?
Aizen knew the answer.
Because the Soul King had always been alive.
He had watched the world change, watched rise and fall, watched the endless disputes and entanglements. He might have even watched his own death, over and over, in a thousand different meanings.
That was why Aizen did not care for the Zero Division's performance of legitimacy. Others treated the Royal Guard and the Five Great Noble Clans as the true controllers, because they did not know any better.
Aizen knew better.
If the Soul King's heart shifted even slightly, would not those scattered organs reassemble into the Soul King himself?
Aizen could do it.
Yhwach could do it.
And the Soul King, the source of the laws of this world, must be able to do it as well.
The irony was almost laughable.
The lower and middle ranks believed the Soul King existed, so they prayed for him to step forward and uphold justice.
The upper echelons believed the Five Great Noble Clans and the Zero Division held the reins, so they insisted on appealing to the Soul King Palace and asking for the Royal Guard's judgment.
Only Aizen Sōsuke and Kurosaki Ichigo looked at this sudden shift in power and saw the direct path, reach the Soul King Palace, and let the Soul King choose for himself.
Everyone else treated the Soul King like a corpse, or a statue.
Once, even Aizen had assumed the same.
But the man who truly saw the future eventually understood the truth.
The Soul King remained a self sacrificing saint to the very end.
He endured being sealed, dismembered, broken apart, and still existed within the Soul King Palace, anchoring the world in place. Bearing the burden that allowed everything else to pretend it was normal.
So Aizen was looking forward to one moment in particular.
The moment Kisuke Urahara went up and realized it.
Even now, Kisuke did not know the Soul King was alive. He had only been granted an audience with the Zero Division, taught secrets, handed privileges. The ones who had truly reached the Soul King's core, and had acted on matters concerning him, were Ichibe Hyosube, Kurosaki Ichigo, and Yhwach.
Not even the other members of the Zero Division entered that interior lightly.
This was the greatest secret of the Three Realms, a true nested doll, layer within layer, each truth hiding another.
And when everyone finally arrived at the Soul King Palace, the curtain would rise on the real final act.
On the television screen, Kisuke was frowning, arguing with Shiba Kukaku, pressing insistently for entry to the Soul King Palace.
"I have been inside the Soul King Palace before," Kisuke said evenly. "I am familiar with the Zero Division's affairs. Lady Yoruichi and I are the best match. And Kurosaki Ichigo absolutely must go up. Since he is here and Aizen Sōsuke is not, it means a plan has been made."
"Huh?" the nearby Ichigo clone blurted out, eyes wide. "What plan? What are you two talking about?"
Of course the clone did not know.
Everyone understood that even if Ichigo carried Chakra now, the fused power of Shinigami, Quincy, and Hollow still slept deep in his soul. That power was the foundation that could make him the wedge of the Three Realms, the next Soul King.
And once someone became the Soul King, they could not leave the Soul King Palace.
Neither the Great Noble Clans nor the Zero Division would ever accept a living Soul King with thoughts, will, and power walking freely through the world. They would define what the Soul King should be, a torso sealed in crystal, suffering without end, reduced to a function.
That was the truth of the Soul King.
A dismembered existence, stripped of agency, treated as sacred machinery.
Which meant Ichigo's presence was not optional. If anything went wrong, Ichigo had to be the one who stepped forward.
Kisuke felt a faint relief at that. Even if Chakra became a problem, the existence of the Soul King remained a kind of anchor.
But when it came to Lady Yoruichi, Kisuke wanted to replace her.
As the retainer of the Shihōin Clan, his loyalty to Yoruichi Shihoin had always been real, even if his smile made it difficult to tell. In a situation like this, he did not want her standing before the Zero Division.
He trusted her strength, yet strength alone did not matter in a place like that. A piece from a Great Noble Clan was not something to throw away lightly.
"Let Kurosaki Ichigo and me go up to the Soul King Palace," Kisuke said. "We are the most suitable."
"But I do not trust your character," Kukaku replied without hesitation.
"That is why Lady Yoruichi stays down here," Kisuke answered, eyes lowered beneath the brim of his striped hat. "She is not only the young mistress of the Shihōin Clan, she is also my hostage. No matter what happens, I would never abandon Lady Yoruichi and leave alone. That promise was made from the beginning."
"Oh?" Kukaku's expression turned strange, half irritation, half disbelief. "A noble family head and her retainer. Convincing, but still not enough to persuade me."
"Precisely because I understand," Kisuke said quietly, "Lady Yoruichi must oversee the situation down here."
He continued calmly, as if he were discussing routine logistics rather than the balance of the Three Realms.
"If I do not return, and problems arise, Lady Yoruichi can reveal her identity and regroup Seireitei in the name of the Five Great Noble Clans. Even something Byakuya Kuchiki could not do, Lady Yoruichi can. Many captains would side with her, and the Kuchiki Family will understand the events of that year."
Kukaku did not interrupt. Kisuke's tone stayed steady, his words sharp and deliberate.
"And if there are no problems, I still need to give Kurosaki Ichigo some final help. Lady Yoruichi is not clear on many detailed issues, and she can be impulsive. I can remain calm. That is what matters most."
Kukaku's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Does it really have to come to this, the current situation?"
"If it is only Lady Yoruichi," Kisuke replied, "then she and Kurosaki Ichigo might cause commotion up there. Regardless of right or wrong, it becomes a matter of attitude. Lady Yoruichi has always been free spirited. My presence is safer."
He lifted his gaze just enough to meet Kukaku's eyes.
"I can guarantee Kurosaki Ichigo will not make disrespectful moves. And my abilities can ensure that even if something happens, the essence will not change. Otherwise, spontaneous actions cannot be stopped."
"Hey, hey, hey!" the Ichigo clone protested, offended on principle even while missing the deeper blade under the words. "Are you two underestimating me? Clogs and Hat, Big Sister Kukaku, do I look like the kind of person who barges into a stranger's house, yells, acts rude, and cannot control himself?"
Silence answered him.
The real meaning, the true stakes, were never spoken aloud. They passed through glances, pauses, and carefully chosen phrasing.
It was not about Ichigo losing control.
It was about whether they could kill him and make him the Soul King, and whether he might ruin it by resisting in the wrong way at the wrong moment.
Those truths stayed hidden beneath the conversation, sealed inside implication.
Kukaku exhaled, long and frustrated. As a Shiba, she carried a wish that had lived far longer than her own life. Atonement for the Soul King was a dream that clung to her clan like smoke.
She looked at Kisuke for a long moment.
Then she finally spoke.
"You have convinced me, Kisuke Urahara. You and little brother Ichigo go to the Flower Crane Cannon in a moment."
Her voice tightened, as if she hated the words even while accepting them.
"We depart immediately."
.....
[Check Out My Patreon For Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]