Ichigo has lost his power, that's for sure. His soul has vanished, collapsing and dissipating within Hueco Mundo.
Orihime and Rukia were both startled, but Jun took them directly to the World of the Living and found Ichigo, who was in class looking completely bewildered.
"You guys go ahead with the class, we can talk about any questions later."
"Ichigo!" Orihime and Rukia called out in unison, but Ichigo didn't react at all. The two looked at Jun in surprise.
"This is the price; he no longer possesses the power of Soul Reaper."
"Then what can he do?"
"Don't do too much. I have a plan. Don't give him any power unnecessarily; he has serious problems with his soul right now."
Jun made it sound extremely serious, and since Ichigo had just defeated Aizen and now had lost his Soul Reaper Powers, the two immediately agreed with Jun's assessment. However, Jun was actually talking nonsense; he had no idea whether Ichigo had any problems.
"Go back inside his body and talk to him, calm him down, and I will find a way to restore his strength."
"Then I'll leave it to you, Shimizu-san."
Uryū is much more reliable. Compared to Uryū's competence, what has Rukia been doing all these centuries?
Jun went straight back to Hueco Mundo. Things were still complicated there, not just with the Arrancar Hueco Mundo, but also with the Expedition team. Jun, along with Ulquiorra and Oka, went to the Expedition team and found Shūsuke Amagai.
"Lord Shimizu ~", Shūsuke Amagai was quite nervous. He couldn't understand Jun, let alone figure her out. This guy had a strong desire for control, so he was feeling very uncomfortable and at a loss.
"Long time no see, Shusuke!"
"Uh, long time no see"
Chun saw many familiar faces, but also quite a few unfamiliar ones. Few of his original group remained; Son of Heaven, that's normal.
Let me be frank, because I don't have much time either.
I'm all ears.
"You all wait outside; some things are best kept secret."
Shūsuke Amagai was quite bold; after blocking out everyone else, she simply looked at him with a smile.
"How are the preparations for the counterattack against Soul Society going?"
"Uh, what are you saying?"
"Amagai Shūsaku, I don't need to say anything more, do I?"
This is the name of Shūsuke Amagai's father. He was once a student of Old Man Yamamoto, and a senior to Kyōraku and Ukitake. That was a very, very long time ago. Jun only learned about this from Sōjun Kuchiki.
"It seems you already know."
"I knew it all along, that's why I groomed you as my successor."
Shūsuke Amagai thought for a moment, then her face lit up with joy, "You mean..."
"I didn't say anything. Xiuzhu, I don't want you to use the entire Expedition team as a pretext for your feud with the Captain-Commander, understand?"
What does this mean?
"The Soul Society will be in chaos in the coming period, and many Soul Reaper will likely escape. The Expedition team must take them in and protect them."
Shūsuke Amagai looked completely bewildered. "What happened?"
"Once you receive the Soul Reaper from the defector Death, you'll naturally know what happened. There's too much to explain, and I don't have much time to go over it all. Whether you can seize this opportunity to strengthen the Expedition force depends on your abilities."
Okay, I understand.
What I admire about Shūsuke Amagai is that he's very pragmatic. What I don't admire is his arrogance and his inability to recognize the gap in strength.
"Just how strong is the Captain-Commander? Let me tell you the truth. Even with Aizen's power before, that monster would have had a hard time killing the Captain-Commander. Do you understand?"
Shūsuke Amagai was completely bewildered. "What does this mean? I... I..."
"If you want revenge, if you want to kill the Captain-Commander, even if you risk the entire Expedition force, you might not be able to kill him. However, I can indeed help you become stronger, but I require you to give up your position in the Expedition force. The choice is yours."
"I"
Chun tossed him a communicator. "Once you use this, the Arrancar will be able to find you. That means you're ready. If you really want revenge, I recommend this path. Well then, see you again."
Jun disappeared abruptly. Shūsuke Amagai had absolutely no idea how Jun left, and the two Arrancar also vanished. The Expedition team had no truly skilled members, so nobody knew when they disappeared.
In the Endless Sea, Aizen met Zegrod for the first time. Zegrod's strength was similar to that of the Captain-Commander; perhaps not at the absolute highest level, but his power was unimaginable.
After greeting Aizen, Zegrod continued his journey across the sea. This ancient being led an extremely detached life, never venturing into worldly affairs and showing absolutely no interest in Chun's plans or grand schemes. Even now, hundreds of years later, he no longer cared about the Arrancar race; since they had already developed to their current size, he might as well let things take their course.
When Jun returned, Aizen was observing the Arrancar's training base. It wasn't anything mysterious; it was just a beach with a Vasto Lorde cocoon every hundred meters or so.
"How did you come up with this idea? How could you catalyze the Arrancar like this?"
"It was all a coincidence. I ran into Starrk. You've seen him before, haven't you?"
"Ah, he talked about meeting you. Haha, an Arrancar and a Soul Reaper who could only Shikai his Shikai back then, and you became his father. It's unbelievable."
"Actually, I'm a little resistant to this title. Suddenly I have so many children and stuff, please spare me! But they all want to call me that, so I can't help it."
Aizen browsed through the cocoons, following Jun's original method, which was essentially a labeling system from modern science. Each cocoon had a label indicating the symbolic species of the Vasto Lorde, its capture location, and the amount of food given. All of this was new and exciting to Aizen.
"You met Starrk; that must have been fate."
I think so too.
"But this is also a unique opportunity for you. I am not as fortunate as you. If I had met Starrk back then, I might have died, hahaha."
Who knows? After all, there's no "what if."
"Alright, I concede defeat. Your considerations were indeed more comprehensive," Aizen put the label back. "I wanted to rely on my own strength, but in the end, I didn't rely on myself, but on the Hōgyoku. From the moment I obtained the Hōgyoku, I had already lost. I changed everything."
"Why keep saying all this? We need to look forward."
Aizen was taken aback by Jun's words. "Yes, you're right. You've never been confused, have you?"
"Of course not. During the time Isuzu was dead, I also thought about doing some really Kongbu things, but later I brought her back to life through research, so she saved the world."
"Haha~ You're pretty good, you saved the world for your wife," Aizen laughed, clutching his stomach.
Jun looked up at the sky, grinned, and said, "I'm serious, Isuzu really did save the world. Anyway, there's nothing much to see here, let's go look around somewhere else."
"Okay, hmm?"
Hmm~?
The two men both made strange expressions because they witnessed a bizarre scene: a burly man was being held down by several other burly men, while another burly man pried open the mouth of the held-down man, and a little girl was stuffing Spiritual Power made by Gillian into his mouth.
What are you doing now?
"Ah~ an experiment"
"An experiment? Is there some secret about Yammy that I haven't discovered?"
"I don't know either, I'm just guessing. Senior, you probably don't know much about natural sciences, do you?"
Natural sciences? What are those?
"It's a branch of World of the Living science, about understanding biology and nature, and so on."
Aizen seemed to be deep in thought. "Those labels on the cocoons, those symbols of species, that's using this kind of knowledge, right?"
Chun nodded. "That's it."
"And what about Yammy? What's his secret?"
Chun chuckled, "The symbol of Yammy is the caterpillar. In the biological world, all caterpillars are larvae. These larvae have a nucleus inside them, and this nucleus is the core of the caterpillar's development into an adult."
"During its larval stage, the caterpillar eats voraciously to accumulate enormous energy. Once it reaches a certain energy limit, it spins a cocoon and becomes a pupa. At this point, the caterpillar begins to develop its developmental core as an adult."
"The developmental core of the adult insect absorbs the energy accumulated during its caterpillar stage, eventually growing into a fully formed adult insect and emerging from its cocoon. This is the developmental process of these insects."
Aizen understood. "So Yammy is a caterpillar with a developmental core inside him. After acquiring enough energy, he spins a cocoon and eventually transforms into a butterfly?"
"Maybe it's a moth, or some kind of beetle. Many species in nature have larvae that are all sorts of grotesque caterpillars. As for what the Yammy will produce, well, it might just explode and die!"
The two witnessed a miraculous scene: Yammy was utterly powerless against the Original Arrancar, so he could only be swarmed with energy. Once the energy was pushed to its limit, he Resurrección, transforming into his giant caterpillar form. Then, all the glands in his body simultaneously emitted Spiritual Power threads, enveloping him and forming a cocoon tens of meters long and over ten meters high.
"Haha, that's really interesting, you guessed right again."
"Coincidence, it's all just a coincidence."
Aizen patted Jun on the shoulder. "Fate is the excuse of the weak, and luck is the humble word of the strong. I've heard that. Don't pretend in front of me, or my stomach hurts."
Haha, okay, I won't say anything more.
Aizen took one last look, then sighed wistfully, "This is ultimately not my final resting place."
I don't mind.
"But I mind!"
"Fine, never mind," Jun couldn't do anything about it. Could he force Aizen to stay if he didn't want to? Of course not.
"Give me a map, I want to go for a walk."
"Here you go~"
"You were prepared all along."
"Where else could you go? A thousand-year journey through the Soul Society's Muken?"
"Haha, well, Felix will come with me, I guess there's nothing I can do about it."
"That's great, you don't have to take responsibility."
Aizen looked intently at Jun, whose lazy eyes and roguish expression left Aizen speechless. "Fine," Silence.
"Where's Ulquiorra? Are you taking him with you?"
"No, you have plans for him, right?"
"Some"
"Then you go ahead with your work, I'm leaving."
"Leaving already? Or staying a few more days?"
"No!" Aizen vanished with a Shunpo, leaving only his voice behind. "I don't have much time to waste. If I continue to be so confused, I'll ruin myself."