Several months had passed since he acquired Tōshirō's Kirin Child skill.
In those few months, his progress had been faster than it had been over the past several decades!
He had naturally already mastered his Zanpakuto's Shikai.
To achieve Shikai, one had to attain "synchronization" and "communication," while Bankai required "manifestation" and "submission."
Synchronization meant bringing one's spirit into harmony with one's Zanpakuto, allowing one to communicate with it.
Though he was still far from proficient, Gaoyu had indeed reached that level.
Thus, he could wield the power of his Zanpakuto!
"Three suffer no peace; Hellish Multitudes of Solitude."
This was the release command of his Zanpakuto, and its ability was simple.
It was—
Exile!
It exiled the enemy's spirit and will to a barren realm, sending them into "Solitary Hell"!
A place empty of everyone but themselves, where they felt endless loneliness.
Of course, the fact that there was no one there but themselves didn't mean the place was empty of everything.
What was loneliness?
There was no absolute definition of loneliness. Everyone felt it differently.
Therefore, Solitary Hell had no fixed location, and its torments varied.
Some were trapped between mountain rocks, some imprisoned inside boulders, some frozen in icy mountains, some plunged into the dark depths of the sea, and others trapped amid blazing flames and boiling oil.
In such a place, a person would feel absolute loneliness for all eternity.
This was the power of the Hellish Multitudes!
Thus, when Gaoyu thrust his Zanpakuto into Metastacia's brain, that force of loneliness instantly invaded his spirit!
It had nothing to do with where his body was. Instead, it sent his entire spirit plunging into Solitary Hell!
No matter how many clones Metastacia split into, the spirit controlling them was ultimately one and the same. As long as that spirit was destroyed, all the clones would stop moving as well.
At that moment, Metastacia's will had fallen completely into the Solitary Hell woven by the Hellish Multitudes. For the next ten, hundred, thousand, or ten thousand years, he would be trapped forever by "loneliness"!
After confirming that his Zanpakuto's ability had worked, Gaoyu gently withdrew it.
The Black Sun behind him gradually faded away. Its power had been exhausted while fighting this "Captain of the Third Division."
Even after he had infused it with spiritual pressure for so long, it was still only equivalent to a Captain's powerful strike...
If Metastacia hadn't forcibly taken root in his body, that blast of Black Sun could never have killed a Captain.
"You really did it."
Aizen praised him from the side. "You saved your 'friend.'"
He had become more and more interested in Gaoyu's abilities.
First, in RinAn, he had used a special Kidō—a highly penetrative, devastating ray—to kill Metastacia.
Now he had used another special Kidō right before Aizen's eyes. His immense spiritual pressure had formed a black sun that hissed and burned, swallowing and dissolving everything in sight.
This was no power an ordinary Soul Reaper could wield. Even someone at Captain-level would likely find it difficult to create such a powerful Kidō.
"I... don't want to fight."
Gaoyu walked past the corpse of the Captain of the Third Division and said, "Every time I draw my sword, I'm snuffing out a living life."
"Every life has value."
"...I didn't expect you to be a kind person. A kind person shouldn't be friends with Hollows."
"No." Gaoyu walked over to Aizen. By then, he had returned his Zanpakuto to its sheath.
"It's just that every life I snuff out is one less subject for me to observe."
"Observe?"
"Yeah. Everyone has a different personality and different thoughts. Even if you can say, 'This is what they'll do next,' why do they do it? Doesn't Captain Aizen wonder?"
"I... have no interest in observing ants. I only observe people who interest me." Aizen smiled.
"Exactly." Gaoyu looked at Aizen and smiled back.
"So I'm searching for people who interest me. Everyone has the potential to be one."
"But unfortunately, everyone is so boring. After observing them for a while, I find that although they seem different, they're all the same."
"People are such complicated and simple creatures. In time, they become tiresome."
After he finished speaking, Gaoyu was startled again.
At that moment, Aizen's fondness for him had actually increased a little!
It had now reached thirty, about the same as Nelliel's!
Before fondness reached sixty, it didn't necessarily mean "friendship."
When you paid someone special attention and found something they said to be insightful, a certain degree of fondness naturally developed.
Or you could put it this way: the moment you paid someone special attention, a kind of "fondness" had already taken root!
Clearly, what Gaoyu had said just now had struck Aizen as interesting—or, rather, had made him even more intrigued by Gaoyu—and so his fondness had risen to thirty.
Still, getting Aizen to consider someone a friend was incredibly difficult.
If Aizen's Soul Ability hadn't been so fascinating to Gaoyu, he wouldn't have wanted to say so much in front of him.
Of course, sometimes it wasn't a matter of what he wanted to say. He had no choice.
From the moment Aizen had set his sights on him and taken an interest in him, he'd had no choice but to act this way.
He had to put on this disguise, or he wouldn't have survived until now!
"Captain Aizen!"
Suddenly, many Soul Reapers' voices rang out in the distance, followed by the sound of rapid footsteps. They came through the woods and immediately spotted Aizen and Gaoyu.
When Gaoyu saw Toru Tanimoto and the others among them, he breathed a sigh of relief.
They hadn't died.
It wasn't because Aizen had shown mercy. Gaoyu had exiled Metastacia with the Hellish Multitudes earlier, causing the possessed Soul Reapers attacking them to stop functioning.
"C-Captain?!"
Some among the crowd also spotted the Captain of the Third Division lying on the ground, a Zanpakuto embedded in his brain, and cried out in alarm. They were clearly members of the Third Division!
"D-Did Captain Aizen do this?"
"I'm sorry. The Hollow had completely fused with his soul, and even I couldn't separate them."
Aizen wore a regretful expression, then said, "After I gravely wounded him, I let my guard down for a moment and he escaped. When I arrived here, I found Gaoyu. He had already ended the fight."
Before you continue