A Clear Mirror and Still Water

The Captain-Commander's study was filled with the quiet fragrance of ink.

Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai stood before his desk, his brush moving slowly across the rice paper, each stroke as steady as an ancient tree, each line penetrating the paper with power.

Outside the window, the alarms of Seireitei sounded incessantly, and the chaos of the Ryoka's invasion continued to spread, but this study was like an isolated island forgotten by time, with only ink flowing silently on the paper.

At this moment, Chōjirō Sasakibe had already gone to the scene of Aizen's death, leaving only the Captain-Commander in the large study.

The stroke of the pen pauses slightly on the last stroke of the word "quiet".

"There's something I've never been able to understand," Captain-Commander Yamamoto said in a low voice, as if talking to himself or to someone in the distance, "Ever since the Ryoka invasion, the Second Division's behavior has been very strange."

He didn't look up; the tip of his pen was re-dipped in ink, and his unique, warm Reiatsu began to slowly emanate from his body.

From the very beginning of the search for the Ryoka, the entire Second Division had an extremely negative attitude.

At this critical moment, instead of focusing all his efforts on tracking down the Ryoka, Lieutenant Marechiyo Ōmaeda attempted to rally the other Lieutenant to try and rescue a criminal who was not even in his own squad.

Captain Soi Fon has always followed my orders without question, but lately she's been making a mess of things. Even after I singled her out in last night's Captains' Meeting, she hasn't shown a single sign of improvement today."

He put down the dried brush, picked up the completed calligraphy scroll, and examined it for a moment in the sunlight streaming through the window. The calligraphy was good, but the more he looked at it, the more annoyed he became.

When he placed the paper on the table, the paper, which should have been soft, had become dry and brittle.

"Could you explain to me what the Second Division has been up to lately? The Sixth Seat of the Second Division, Cilian!"

The small door on the side of the study was pushed open a crack by Captain-Commander Yamamoto's Reiatsu at some point, Cilian walked out from behind the door, kneeling on one knee.

"Captain-Commander."

He kept his head down, one arm resting on his knee, his back ramrod straight. However, the sweat and body heat emanating from his body showed that he was not feeling well under the Captain-Commander's Reiatsu.

"At a time when even company commanders have been assassinated, why did the Sixth Seat of the Second Division not pursue the Ryoka, but instead sneak into my office—what is the meaning behind this?" Captain-Commander Yamamoto's voice sounded gentle, but the Reiatsu he exerted on Cilian was anything but gentle.

The pressure, like volcanic rocks, pressed down on Cilian's back, causing him to sink down. The wooden floor beneath his knees developed tiny cracks, and one could vaguely see wisps of blue smoke rising from behind Cilian— Shihakusho that had evaporated.

Cilian's shoulders were trembling; his body was bearing a weight far beyond its limits.

"Captain-Commander, please forgive me." Although Cilian apologized, she still straightened her back. On the surface, it was an apology, but the posture was more like an arrow about to be released from a bow.

"I don't want to hear this." Captain-Commander Yamamoto's tone remained devoid of emotion. "I demand an explanation from your Second Division. Why has the Second Division been behaving this way lately?"

Captain-Commander Yamamoto picked up his pen and paper again and began to write, but the Reiatsu did not dissipate, Cilian felt as if three or four volcanoes were pressing down on her shoulders.

He gritted his teeth, forced the air out of his chest, and struggled to lift his head.

It seems Captain-Commander Yamamoto doesn't intend to let Cilian pass easily—he wants Cilian to speak in this state, to test every word he utters in the most direct way.

"The origin of this matter dates back to the Battle of Bamboo Creek Plain..."

Cilian's voice was broken and intermittent due to the Reiatsu, but her enunciation remained clear, "I sensed something amiss in Yoruichi Shihōin and Kisuke Urahara's attitudes, so I started investigating back..."

He recounted his investigation, starting from the Bamboo Creek Plain Battle and the unusual silence of Yoruichi and Urahara, step by step, until he discovered Aizen's Shikai display of his Shikai to everyone, then the traces of mind interference on the Stealth Force, and the anomalies of the Central 46, listing all the Cilian one by one.

Captain-Commander Yamamoto interrupted him halfway through the conversation, "But the suspect you're speculating about is already dead. If Aizen really is the mastermind, then why did he die? Are you suggesting that someone like him died in internal strife?"

Cilian raised his head. There was not a trace of hesitation on his face, as if he had expected this question to be asked.

Is Aizen really dead?

The scent of ink still lingered in the study, but the air itself had shifted. Yamamoto's grip on the pen tightened imperceptibly. "What do you mean by this?"

Cilian's eyes were resolute and stubborn; she wanted the Captain-Commander to see for himself.

Captain-Commander Yamamoto remained silent for a moment before putting down the banner in his hand.

"Alright. As you say, I'll go with you to take a look. But if there's nothing amiss with Aizen's body, the crime of insulting a fallen captain is no small matter."

Cilian kowtowed deeply, her expression unchanged. "Your subordinate understands."

The Fourth Division's Morgue

This place has been deserted for nearly a century. The last time it was filled with Spirit Body was during the Hueco Mundo expedition.

Over the years, the Balance of the Three Worlds has remained stable. Quincy have almost disappeared, Hollows have not proliferated, and injuries to officials of the Seated Officer and above are extremely rare.

No one could have imagined that the first Spirit Body brought into this place, which had been silent for a hundred years, when it was reopened, would be a captain.

The body covered in white cloth lay quietly on the stone platform, and the candlelight burned quietly in the lamp on the wall. Captains Retsu Unohana, Kaname Tōsen, and Sajin Komamura stood in front of the stone platform.

Retsu Unohana reached out and smoothed the wrinkles on the white cloth, her movements very gentle, as if she were tucking a blanket around a sleeping patient. Her fingers slowly slid along the texture of the fabric, finally stopping at the Spirit Body's chest.

"The Fifth Division Captain Sōsuke Aizen, has been confirmed dead. He was already lifeless when he was lowered from the castle wall."

Kaname Tōsen faced the stone platform, tilting his head slightly upwards. "What are the chances that this corpse is Gigai...?"

"Indeed, we considered whether this was Gigai used by the enemy to disrupt morale. But after various tests, it ultimately only proved that he was dead."

Unohana's voice was gentle and calm, revealing no extra emotion, "The new Fifth Division Captain will be selected after this situation has calmed down."

She stood up and picked up the Zanpakuto beside her. "Captain Komamura of the Seventh Division, Captain Tōsen of the Ninth Division, please return to your respective squads and continue leading your soldiers."

I will soon... also head to the front lines.

Sajin Komamura moment, then bowed slightly towards the person lying on the stone platform. Tōsen nodded gently in the direction of Unohana, and the sound of their footsteps gradually faded away.

The morgue door closed slowly behind me, the candlelight flickering slightly in the airflow from the turning hinges before settling back down.

Unohana remained inside the morgue, standing in front of a stone platform with her back to the empty room, as if waiting for something.

"They've all gone far away, Captain-Commander."

Two figures silently descended from the roof beam. Shigekuni Yamamoto-Genryūsai steadied himself with his cane, followed closely by Cilian. Unohana withdrew her hand from the stone platform, her gaze sweeping over Cilian before returning to the Captain-Commander.

"Captain-Commander, if you wish to see your subordinates one last time, you can come openly and honestly; there's no need for concealment."

Captain-Commander Yamamoto didn't reply, but turned his head and looked at Cilian, demanding that Cilian explain why they were hiding.

Cilian stepped forward. "'Suzumushi is not enough.' This is a reminder given by one of my subordinates."

That sentence was like a pebble thrown into still, silent water. No one said it aloud, but those four words were enough.

"Suzumushi" is Kaname Tōsen's Zanpakuto, and "unclear" implies that Kaname Tōsen has ulterior motives.

Cilian didn't explain who said that, nor did he point out what Tōsen had actually done. He simply brought up the statement at this moment to show his distrust of Kaname Tōsen.

Captain-Commander Yamamoto's gaze swept across the white cloth.

"So, in your eyes, Aizen isn't the only captain in my Gotei 13 who has problems?"

He didn't look at Cilian, but the Reiatsu that had been pressing down on the latter's shoulders in the study came down again, even more turbulent and scorching.

"You overheard Captain Unohana's conversation with the other two captains," Captain-Commander Yamamoto said, leaning on his cane, his voice like the low toll of an ancient bell. "These are the remains of Sōsuke Aizen, the Fifth Division Captain. And my perception at such close range tells me that this is indeed Aizen himself. Is there anything else you wish to say?"

Cilian didn't argue. Under the pressure of the Captain-Commander's Reiatsu, he tremblingly reached into his robes and took out a dark gold sphere. This one Little Ichi than the one he had given to Gin Ichimaru before, and its luster was also fainter. It looked like a solidified amber in his palm.

"Captain-Commander, we tend to over-rely on our senses. And the longer we live, the more this becomes." He withstood the Captain-Commander's Reiatsu, holding the sphere before Captain Yamamoto. "Please understand!"

Captain-Commander Yamamoto looked down at the inconspicuous little thing in Cilian's palm, and his eyebrows finally twitched.

He extended his Reiatsu to sense the structure of the sphere—the intricate Reishi circuits had shrunk into a tiny cluster, wrapped layer upon layer within a dark golden shell. This was a tool used to break illusions.

"Are you implying... that someone can influence my perception?" Yamamoto held the small ball between his fingers, as if he were holding some extremely absurd evidence.

"Very well. Now that things have come to this, I'll give in to you one more time."

The dark golden shell shattered silently between his fingers, transforming into an extremely thin, almost transparent wave of light that spread outwards. The light wave gently rippled across the stone platform, the candlestick, the walls, and the dome, without making a sound. When it swept over Aizen's corpse, the white cloth shifted slightly, as if blown by a very light breeze.

Nothing else happened; everything in the morgue was exactly the same as before.

"Cilian." Captain-Commander Yamamoto's voice was as deep as a dark, ancient well. "Now what do you have to say?"

Cilian fell silent, his gaze fixed on the white cloth, his teeth clenched, clearly not expecting that nothing had actually happened.

Just as a hint of resentment began to seep from his lips, Retsu Unohana walked past him, saying, "Excuse me for a moment."

She stood in front of the stone platform, placed her hand on Aizen's corpse again, lifted the white cloth, and pressed her hand directly onto the surface of the Spirit Body's skin.

Her fingertips touched the cold tissue, her Reiatsu probing deeper layer by layer. She then took out a scalpel and dissected the chest cavity to the abdomen, and from the abdomen to the waist, performing another autopsy.

"Captain-Commander," Unohana's voice was calm, yet it chilled the air in the entire morgue, "There is an unbridgeable difference between Reigai and a living Spirit Body. Any conscious Spirit Body will inevitably leave indelible tissue traces in the Saketsu and Hakusui areas within its Spirit Body."

She lowered her head, and the scalpel gently slid along the midline of her chest cavity, and 'Aizen's corpse' unfolded layer by layer like flower petals.

"The Fourth Division previously presumed that Sōsuke Aizen's cause of death was indeed that his Zanpakuto destroyed his Saketsu and Hakusui, as well as his heart. However, on this body—although there are gaps corresponding to the Saketsu and Hakusui, and the cuts are very obvious, no residual tissue can be found at the junction with the surrounding Spirit Body tissue."

"I have treated countless wounds on my Kaidō, Captain-Commander. There has never been a living Spirit Body whose Saketsu and Hakusui have been severed without leaving a single structural remnant."

She withdrew her fingers from the corpse, crossed them in front of her, her movements as still as water. "Only an artificial object that never had these two parts in the first place could remain undetected under this level of microscopic examination."

No matter how high its precision, Gigai is ultimately just a man-made replica.

Therefore, the conclusion is...

This is a highly precise replica of a Reishi Gigai.

Yamamoto's pupils contracted sharply.

He took a step forward, once again enveloping the entire morgue with his Reiatsu. Relying on his perception accumulated over a thousand years, he scanned the 'corpse' again and again.

The incisions made to remove the Saketsu and the openings in the Hakusui, the puncture of the heart—all the fatal wounds were performed flawlessly.

But following the anatomical traces Unohana —as he probed bit by bit—he found not even a trace of the connecting tissue that should have remained.

This wasn't caused by injury, or even surgery; it was because those two organs never existed in the first place.

Captain-Commander Yamamoto gripped his cane tightly. Ryūjin Jakka hummed softly within the cane, like suppressed magma.

"... Sōsuke Aizen!"

When he uttered that name, it no longer sounded like a eulogy for a fallen captain, but rather like a hard core that had to be crushed.

"He actually managed to fool even me—what on earth has he been doing all these years, hiding in the heart of Seireitei?!"

He turned around, his gaze falling on Cilian. The oppressive feeling remained, but a layer of solemnity had been added.

"Cilian, I now demand that you tell me everything you've found about the Second Division, even if it's just speculation."