Jun had been isolated inside a Shishō Saemon. He looked around, but there was no one in sight.
"Hello~? Anyone here? Don't tell me this is going to be that boring."
"Boring?"
Hearing the voice, Jun suddenly turned and used Shunpo to get away. He had slipped up this time: his opponent had approached without any warning at all.
But then his opponent simply took off his cloak. Jun saw who it was and found himself at a loss for words.
"Surprised to see me here?"
"Instructor Hanazawa."
The person standing before Jun was none other than the instructor who had first taught him. Hanazawa had always given the impression of being detached from worldly affairs, so why was he here?
"I'm very surprised," Jun said with an awkward smile.
"Likewise. I'm surprised too—surprised by your appearance and your actions."
If Jun still couldn't understand what he meant after that, there would have been something wrong with his head.
"Instructor Hanazawa, you're the mastermind!?"
"Yes, that's right."
Jun wasn't surprised by his candor. After all, Hanazawa had come to him and made that clear, which meant there was a need for the two of them to talk. So Jun asked,
"Instructor, are you a retainer of one of the families?"
"No," Instructor Hanazawa said, shaking his head.
"Then are you a noble?"
"No," Instructor Hanazawa said, shaking his head again.
"Uh, a great noble?"
"My surname is Hanazawa, so no."
"Then why?"
"The answer to that question is the last answer I prepared to give you in this exchange. If you want to know, answer my questions."
Jun thought about it, but there didn't seem to be any other way. Just then, he noticed that Aizen was about to attack. Before that, Jun had seen Instructor Hanazawa's hand movements as he undid his cloak, and something suddenly occurred to him.
"Don't!"
But Jun's warning was still too late. After all, he had given it only after thinking things over, while Aizen's attack was an instant cast using Incantation Abandonment. Jun saw a black coffin appear, but the one enclosed within it was not Instructor Hanazawa, but Aizen.
The blackness faded, and Aizen barely managed to keep himself floating in the air. His cloak was ruined, and his entire body was covered in blood as he stared at Instructor Hanazawa in disbelief.
Aizen was not yet the man he would become in the future. Limited by his position, he hadn't been exposed to much, and even Jun hadn't encountered much at this point. The only reason Jun had been able to warn him was that he had seen the gesture in the original work, though he hadn't been entirely sure that was what Instructor Hanazawa was using.
"Demon Reversal?"
"No. Or rather, not just that," Instructor Hanazawa explained to Jun with great diligence. "Demon Reversal is an ability that cancels out an opponent's Kidō. I named mine Demon Destruction. It strikes an opponent with the same Kidō they cast."
Then Instructor Hanazawa looked at Aizen. "Are you Sōsuke Aizen? Your abilities are quite impressive."
A beam of green light entered Aizen's body, and his wounds healed visibly. Both Aizen and Jun looked at this inexplicable instructor in surprise.
"I think very highly of Jun. I believe Jun is the future of Soul Society, so I have chosen to acknowledge you as well, as the only companion Jun acknowledges."
"The principle behind Demon Reversal is actually very simple. Thanks to your idea of refining Reiatsu, Jun, I finally came to fully understand the technique and even developed Demon Destruction."
"The principle of Demon Reversal is to place a mark on yourself. When an opponent uses Kidō against you, the mark responds automatically. If your Spiritual Flow, Reiatsu, and Spiritual Pool are all greater than your opponent's, it will perfectly erase their Kidō."
"Conversely, if your Spiritual Flow, Reiatsu, or the Spiritual Power remaining in your Spiritual Pool is insufficient, Demon Reversal will inevitably fail. Based on that assessment, I developed a new mark, Demon Destruction. It makes full use of my superior Spiritual Flow, Reiatsu, and Spiritual Pool to cancel out an opponent's Kidō when they use it against me, then uses what remains of my greater power to cast the same Kidō on them."
"So, Aizen, your current condition is a result of my abilities being greater than yours, but it is also an acknowledgment of how formidable you are. If you were weak, that Kurohitsugi would have killed you. The strength you and Jun possess at your age is something I have never seen before in my life. I was far inferior to you as well."
"Mm!" Instructor Hanazawa nodded, thoroughly gratified. "You are both the future of Soul Society."
Jun and Aizen exchanged glances, then came together. Instructor Hanazawa flew off, and they followed him. The three arrived at a reception room in the Fourth Division and sat down on opposite sides of a tea table.
"Now, answer my question. Jun, what was your purpose in getting involved in this incident?"
Jun took a deep breath. "For the future."
"Mm, I understand. I also heard it was for the Shimizu Family's heroic reputation, and I agree with that too. But I want to know your deeper purpose."
"Influence." Jun felt he couldn't bluff his way past this instructor, so he decided to be honest. "My influence in Soul Society in the future. After this incident, my status as the heir to a hero will become that of a living hero. Then, after the incident, everything I do will have a halo of justice to guarantee its legitimacy!"
Aizen looked at Jun in surprise, then fell into thought, while Instructor Hanazawa nodded in admiration.
"Mm, an absolutely correct assessment! Justice carries an innate advantage. When people make judgments without taking sides, it has an almost invincible influence. To gain that support with your status as a hero's heir, you had to get involved in this incident. With your strength, the risk of death was extremely low and the rewards extremely high! A brilliant assessment! And on top of that, you brought Aizen along as your trump card. Absolutely brilliant!"
"Thank you for the praise!"
"Not at all. The fact that you can make such a judgment at your age makes me feel inadequate by comparison. But from now on, in any incident, you, the hero, will have no choice but to step forward."
Jun smiled proudly. "From now on? Then I have nothing to fear. My strength is enough to deal with any difficulty."
Instructor Hanazawa's eyes were full of admiration. "Mm, that confidence, and your assessment of this incident, are enough. I'm very satisfied. Now, my next question: what do you think of Soul Society? Where do you think the problems with Soul Society lie today?"
"You've already done enough about the problems at Shin'ō Academy. Now I want to know what else you think. Say whatever you like; anything is fine."
Jun scratched his head. "The nobles?"
"Anything."
"Mm, I have a lot to say, but I don't know where to start. Since this incident originated with the issue of class, I'll talk about my views on that."
"At present, Soul Society's class system is too rigid, with no way to rise through it. That's the biggest problem. Second is the origin of class in Soul Society. That's something I'm very unclear about."
"Come to think of it, I only noticed this because of what you taught me, Instructor. You said that after becoming a Soul Reaper, eating and drinking became a way to preserve one's humanity. That's how I realized that, in Soul Society, the necessities of survival aren't necessary. 'As long as you don't die, you can live' isn't a joke. There's no need to worry about the necessities of life when you were alive, or how to get food and water."
"Under those circumstances, in the real world, where living people have to think about survival, those who control the resources needed to survive become the strong, and those who exchange labor for those resources become the weak. That's how classes are born."
"But in Soul Society, where there are no such necessities for survival, class appeared solely because power appeared. And when there's no need to worry about the material necessities of survival, everyone can actually obtain power. So this kind of class system—"
"Shouldn't exist?" Instructor Hanazawa was all smiles.
"It's not that it shouldn't exist, but that it can't be like it is now."
"What a good answer!" Instructor Hanazawa exclaimed, though he looked at Jun with a profound gaze. "Do you know? That way of thinking stands against Soul Society itself, against everything Soul Society has been for thousands of years, against all the Soul Reapers, the Kidō Corps, everyone who wants to use power to oppress others, and humanity's most terrifying will when freed from the pressure of survival: desire!!!"
Jun remained perfectly calm and smiled. "Yeah, I know."
Instructor Hanazawa stood and patted Jun on the shoulder, then Aizen as well. "I'll leave the future of Soul Society to you."
Then he started to leave, but when he reached the door, he remembered that he hadn't given his answer yet. So he sat back down, leaving Jun and Aizen not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
"Sorry, I haven't kept my promise yet. I was indeed the cause of this incident."
"The Deputy Captain of the penal division and I are old acquaintances. When we were classmates, I already knew he was an ambitious man, but shortsighted and blinded by greed."
"He'd always wanted to overthrow the Shihoin, and I'd always known it. When the opportunity came, I analyzed the situation that would follow Shiba Mitsuo's death for him, and he acted immediately."
"We were originally going to spend another month planning. That would have given us a very good chance of killing Yoruichi Shihōin. If he had acted according to my ideas, we could have overthrown the Five Great Noble Clans. But that was impossible because of one man."
"Yamamoto Genryūsai! His existence made it impossible for my plan to be fully realized, so I took a step back and sought only to wipe out the Shihoin and the Shiba. But Jun's appearance disrupted my plan."
"At that point, that fellow backed down. He'd already realized that the alliance of Shihoin retainers he had brought together was enough to strip the Shihoin of their power. He had no further ambitions."
"He has already sold out the other loose alliances of shared interests. There's nothing I can do about it. He'll make one last use of those people. Poor fools blinded by greed—they're bound to fail."
"So I made one final change. I would come to see you, then go and do the one thing I most wanted to do. That is my answer. Are you satisfied?"
All Jun and Aizen could do was nod. His plan was just that incredible, and hearing it from him made it very easy to believe. He was so calm, talking about wiping out the Five Great Noble Clans as if he were killing five chickens. And judging by the current situation, there really wasn't much difference.
"Instructor, what is it you most want to do?"
Just then, a powerful explosion interrupted their conversation. Instructor Hanazawa didn't answer Jun, and after a few seconds of silence, a rift opened in space.
"This is Rending Space Realm, a Kidō I developed. It can transfer you to the Shishō Saemon near the Tenth Division. That way, you and I will never have met. Remember, you never saw me."
Then he took out a book and pressed it into Jun's hand. "These are all my insights into Kidō. Jun, they're yours now. Go, quickly."
"Instructor—"
"Go. I didn't arrange that attack. Something must have gone wrong somewhere. As expected, the Five Great Noble Clans have a sufficiently strong foundation, and my hastily made plan wasn't thorough enough. Remember, whatever you do in the future, plan thoroughly. Don't trust shortsighted people who are easily swayed, because they can just as easily betray you due to their shortsightedness."
"I—"
"A man must be decisive!"
After he said that, Jun and Aizen had no other thoughts. They walked straight into Rending Space Realm and arrived at the Shishō Saemon by the Tenth Division. It was completely empty, and indeed, no one knew whether anyone had been there.
Jun and Aizen were still stunned. Jun gave Aizen his cloak. "Put this on. Leave invisibly in a little while. I'm the only one here."
"Mm." Without another word, Aizen burned all the tattered clothes he was wearing, leaving not a trace. "Hey, what do you think Instructor Hanazawa's ultimate goal is?"
"What do you think?"
"I asked you."
"Do I even need to answer?"
"So I was right?"
The two understood each other without another word. The Shishō Saemon began to break apart, and Aizen hurriedly put on the cloak and turned invisible. Jun tucked Instructor Hanazawa's insights into Kidō inside his clothes.
The battlefield was a mess. Jun looked east, where a great blaze pierced the heavens and earth.
"Farewell, my instructor forever."