Chapter 195 Aftermath
There is a saying, and I don’t know who said it.

Probably means.

The history of Soul Society is the history of the nobility.

Of course, there is a reason why this sentence was spread.

It is true that the creator of the world is the Spirit King. If the Spirit King had not used his extremely powerful strength to divide the chaotic world into three and suppressed the original hell under the three realms, this world would still be in a state of neither life nor death.

Afterwards, the Spirit King acted as a wedge, maintaining the stability of the world for millions of years.

It is not known whether he developed some other thoughts of his own during this process.

But the one who caused the world to develop into what it is today was not the Spirit King, but the five great nobles.

They stole the greatest power in the world, made the world run according to their will, and enjoyed the best resources in the world. Those who depended on them were also given the title of nobility because they had followed them.

Those who had never been under their command, as well as the indigenous people who emerged later, became civilians.

The common people have always been enslaved by the nobles.

It has been like this since ancient times.

Until the ancestor of the five nobles mysteriously disappeared.

The power of the nobles has just weakened a little.

On the surface, this may not seem like a big deal.

But it was precisely this weakness that led to the rise of the common people.

One by one, powerful civilians emerged.

Until Yhwach invaded Soul Society.

The Gotei 13 were thus formed, and the Death God who came from a commoner background officially stepped onto the stage.

However, even so, for those nobles who occupy the world's best resources and hold power, these strong men among the civilians are just their thugs. Even if the Gotei 13 have great power, this power is just a tiny bit that leaks out from between their fingers.

As a price, they must be dependent on the Central Forty-Sixth Room.

In this way, this order lasted for nearly a thousand years.

Until, Room 46 in the center was vacant.

The Death God, who was born as a commoner, not only did not weaken after losing the leadership of the Central 46th Office, but became even stronger because of the Technology Development Bureau.

This is something unacceptable to the nobility, who are gradually declining and now have no power.

If given the chance, they would certainly want to regain power, even if it is a long process. But as long as the nobles still exist, the current old order will continue to be maintained. Even if it may be overturned in the future, that will be many, many years later.

As a result, no one expected that while declaring war on Soul Society, Aizen would commit such a heinous act within the Soul Society.

Nearly 80% of the nobles, led by the Tsunayashiro family, were wiped out.

Although there are still some nobles left.

But the remaining nobles were those who had never lived in the Soul Society, and those who lived near the Shihouin family. These nobles were not numerous, and their family members all served in the criminal army.

The essence of their existence is different from that of the rest of the nobles.

In the past, Captain-General Yamamoto declared Aizen Sosuke a criminal.

But it is not easy to say where the sin lies.

All we can be sure of is that Aizen was lurking in the dark and did a lot of bad things.

But this time it was not the case.

Whether someone knew Aizen before or not, from now on, Aizen's name will be well-known to them.

In fact, what Aizen did was really too big.

Although it is called aftermath cleaning, the work of cleaning up the mess is not easy for the Gotei 13.

This time, too many people died.

Aizen used strange means to manipulate the head of Tsunayashiro's family, and with the help of Tsunayashiro's family's power, he gathered a large group of nobles.

He took advantage of this opportunity to plant spies in the homes of these nobles.

On the Hill of Double Death, a column of black flame erupted, devouring the lives of these noble leaders.

When Aizen left, the spies hidden in the nobles' homes were activated and destroyed all the nobles.

These are the conclusions reached by the Gotei 13 after reviewing the situation afterwards.

Perhaps because Aizen did not have long enough time to prepare, he was not able to destroy all the nobles.

But from now on, nobility has become a rare species.

Now that the situation in Soul Society has changed dramatically, where should we go?

Leave the aftermath to the Sixth Division?
The Sixth Division is a division specifically responsible for dealing with nobles, so it is a solution.

But the problem is that Byakuya Kuchiki has not yet recovered from his injuries, so how can he have the energy to deal with these things?

The battle that broke out on the Hill of Double Death was not just the battle between Natsuki and Aizen.

Not far from this battle, a fight broke out between Ichigo Kurosaki, a travel disaster, and Byakuya Kuchiki, also for Rukia Kuchiki.

The outcome of the battle was also unexpected.

Ichigo Kurosaki won.

Byakuya Kuchiki suffered a severe blow.

Even if Unohana Retsu treated Byakuya Kuchiki afterwards, it would still take time for him to recover.

It's Ichigo Kurosaki.

Even though he wasn't in much better shape after defeating Byakuya Kuchiki, he recovered from his injuries so quickly, which was amazing.

When Xia Mu saw him, he was a guest in the 13th Division.

Shiba Kaien has a very high position in the 13th Division, which is also Rukia Kuchiki's division.

When Aizen's conspiracy was exposed, the nobles themselves were in a mess again. The head of the family, Tsunayashiro, was dead, so naturally no one was holding on to the matter of Rukia Kuchiki. Captain Yamamoto simply gave her face and determined that the sentencing of Rukia Kuchiki was a conspiracy of Aizen. Aizen deliberately used this incident to gather the heads of the nobles and killed them and their family members one after another. Although Rukia Kuchiki was guilty, she did not deserve to be sentenced to double death.

As the captain-general, he granted amnesty to Rukia Kuchiki.

Naturally, after Rukia Kuchiki was fine, Ichigo Kurosaki and the others who had entered Soul Society because of Rukia Kuchiki would also be deported. However, since the Gotei 13 could not spare the time during this period, and Ichigo Kurosaki's injuries had not yet healed, they temporarily allowed him to stay in the Soul Society for a few more days.

Unlike the original work, the current Ichigo Kurosaki has not experienced many battles or made many friends in the Soul Society.

Of course there isn't much to go around.

Therefore, when faced with Shiba Kaiyan's invitation, he agreed immediately.

He also wanted to know what the Gotei 13 looked like.

After coming to the Soul Society in person, he experienced too many things. The original impressions of the despicable Shinigami and the insidious Gotei 13 in his mind were all rewritten. What was most difficult for Ichigo to accept was the figure floating in the air and uttering bold words in a villain's posture that he saw after he defeated Byakuya Kuchiki.

His teacher.

The teacher who had helped him a lot in the real world and later came to Soul Society to help him enter the Soul Society was actually a bad guy.

Ichigo may seem reckless, but he is not stupid.

After learning a lot of things from Shiba Kaien, he knew that the person who made Rukia suffer the death penalty was his teacher, and that his teacher was the mastermind behind everything.

It was because he knew the truth that he felt even more uncomfortable.

It was also at this time that an unexpected guest came to the 13th Division.

"Captain Xia Mu!"

Shiba Kaien, who was handling team affairs on behalf of Ukitake Jushiro, saw Natsuki and greeted him.

There was respect for Xia Mu in his eyes.

At first, when Natsuki appeared in the Palace of Confession, he thought that Natsuki was a person with bad intentions towards Ichigo, but later, Natsuki's actions made Shiba Kaien sincerely respect Natsuki.

"I came here to see Ichigo. Where is he right now?"

Xia Mu stated his purpose.

"Ichigo should be by the river right now."

Shiba Kaien revealed where Ichigo was.

Xia Mu nodded, and then went straight to find Kurosaki Ichigo without any intention of staying.

The locations of the 13th Division's barracks are different.

For example, the location of the 11th Division is near a residential area with many pubs nearby.

The first team is located on a high mountain.

The Thirteenth Division was located by the river, especially the captain's room, which was located on a bridge towering over the river.

When Natsuki found Ichigo, he was standing by the river, staring at the flowing water in a daze.

"How about getting you a fishing rod so you can fish here? Although this is Soul Society, you can totally treat it as another world. There are fish in this water, too."

A gentle voice sounded from the side and reached Ichigo's ears.

Ichigo turned his head and saw Xia Mu standing next to him. His expression immediately became complicated.

In the training ground below the Double Killing Hill, Natsuki gave him some training. It was because he learned Bankai there that he was able to defeat Byakuya Kuchiki.

Of course, the subsequent developments also surprised him.

I thought it was just a matter of rescuing Rukia, but in the end, it had nothing to do with Rukia anymore.

Fortunately, Rukia is fine now.

But he was still feeling a little depressed.

"Are you thinking about Aizen?"

Xia Mu looked at Ichigo's complicated expression and asked him. Ichigo was silent for a while and nodded.

"You know what? You are special."

Natsuki said to Ichigo.

In order to relieve Ichigo's confusion, he doesn't mind telling Ichigo some things.

"I am special?"

Ichigo looked at Natsuki in confusion, these words aroused his curiosity.

Xia Mu said: "Don't you realize this? That's right, you know very little about the world of death gods. Rukia Kuchiki, who had more contact with them before, was not even a chief officer, so naturally she didn't know too many secrets."

"You and I are on good terms, so I'll tell you a little bit!"

A breeze blew, bringing coolness, and it fell on the surface of the river, creating ripples.

Ichigo and Natsuki stood by the river.

Due to Ichigo's identity as a traveller, even though he stayed in the 13th Division temporarily, except for Ukitake Jushiro and Shiba Kaien, the other team members did not take the initiative to approach Ichigo. This gave Ichigo and Natsuki the opportunity to talk alone.

"Do you know? Even in the world of souls, Soul Society, among the vast number of souls, there are only a few who truly possess the qualifications of a Shinigami. There are so many souls, but the number of Shinigami is only a few thousand."

"It is precisely because the God of Death is hard to come by that the power of the God of Death is so precious, and Soul Society strictly prohibits the God of Death from giving power to others."

"You just gained the power of the god of death because of Kuchiki Rukia, but this power was destroyed after Kuchiki Byakuya went to the human world."

"But now, you have still come to Soul Society, and you have awakened your own Zanpakutō and mastered Bankai. Do you think all this has something to do with Kuchiki Rukia?"

Ichigo fell silent.

At first, he just wanted to rush to Soul Society to rescue Rukia, so he didn't think about it too much.

Now, after learning some truths about the god of death through Xia Mu's words, how could he not understand his own peculiarity?

The power of the god of death that came from Rukia is gone, but she still awakened the power of the god of death.

Where does this power come from?
It only means that he has the power of death in his body.

Thinking of this, Ichigo's expression changed again.

"It seems you have figured it out."

Natsuki kept watching Ichigo's expression changes. He did not explain to Ichigo the origin of his Zanpakuto, nor did he tell Ichigo that he could not awaken his Zanpakuto without obtaining the Asauchi. After all, this kind of thing involved too many secrets, and it was not convenient to tell Ichigo directly for the time being.

"In your body, you possess the incomparably powerful power of the god of death. In addition to the power of the god of death, you also possess the power of the hollow."

"I think you can harness this power."

"I saw you use that power to fight against Byakuya Kuchiki on the Hill of Double Execution."

"Yes." Ichigo nodded, "This power was taught to me by my teacher. Even the power of the god of death in me was drawn out by him."

After a pause, Ichigo continued in a complicated tone, "My teacher is the criminal wanted by your Soul Society, the guy named Aizen."

"No wonder." Xia Mu looked enlightened. "The fact that Aizen appeared by your side and gave you so much help must be related to your specialness."

"In addition to the fact that Shinigami are extremely rare, there are many taboos in Soul Society. One of them is that it is strictly forbidden to study Hollowification. Hollowification is the process of introducing the power of Hollows into the bodies of Shinigami. In the past, some people wanted to use the fusion of the two powers to increase the upper limit of the power of Shinigami, but later it was discovered that there were problems with such laboratories, which would cause Shinigami to degenerate into Hollows and pollute their own power."

"So, in common sense, the power of the god of death and the power of the hollow cannot coexist."

"But now, this common sense has gradually been broken."

"In addition to the power of the god of death, you can also use the power of the hollow."

"Earlier, Aizen also revealed the power of a Hollow, which means that these two powers can coexist at the same time."

Ichigo gradually realized what made him special.

But he had new questions.

"Maybe I am special as you said, but where does my power come from?"

He was sure that he was just an ordinary person.

Well, maybe it’s not that common. After all, I could see spirits when I was very young.

"You have to find the answer to this question yourself."

Natsuki did not tell Ichigo about his life story.

It's still too early now.

However, there was one thing he still had to remind Ichigo of.

"Also, I hope you can call me teacher."

Ichigo couldn't help but be stunned.

"Why, I can't be your teacher?"

"Or do you think that Aizen, the man who appeared beside you with ill intentions, is your teacher, and you are grateful to him?"

Natsuki asked Ichigo back.

Ichigo came back to his senses and thought about what happened in the secret base below the Double Killing Hill.

Natsuki healed his wounds and taught him Bankai. After some time, Natsuki taught him some fighting techniques.

Although the time was not long, Xia Mu really taught him a lot.

And Ichigo has always been a person who knows right from wrong.

His heart was also filled with gratitude towards Xia Mu.

It was not only because Natsuki taught him Bankai, but also because after knowing all the reasons and the truth of the matter, he understood that it was because of Natsuki that Aizen's conspiracy was exposed. Although some tragedies occurred in Soul Society afterwards, with heavy casualties, if Natsuki had not exposed the truth, with Aizen's ambition and strength, he would probably have caused even more terrible damage.

So, after hearing what Natsuki said, Ichigo hesitated slightly and then addressed Natsuki.

"teacher!"

Hearing this, Xia Mu showed a faint smile on his face.

Ichigo also figured it out.

He even called someone like Aizen his teacher, not to mention that Natsuki helped him so much.

There's nothing wrong with calling him teacher.

They established a master-disciple relationship with each other, and after Ichigo learned about his own specialness from Natsuki, he asked Natsuki some questions.

"Teacher, Ishida and the others?"

"Don't worry, they are all fine. He is currently working with the captain of the 12th Division, Urahara Kisuke, in the Technology Development Bureau to conduct experiments. In addition, your other friend, the boy named Chad Yasutora, has also been released. He is now a guest in the 8th Division."

The person who arrested Chad Taitora that day was Kyoraku Shunsui.

After Ichigo and others got rid of the suspicion of being the enemy, in order to express his apology, Kyoraku Shunsui invited Chad Yasutora to visit the Eighth Division.

After knowing the whereabouts of his companions, Ichigo gradually felt relieved.

The following time saw some more small talk between Natsuki and Ichigo.

Natsuki was selective in what he talked about with Ichigo.

After all, Ichigo has too many secrets.

And now, there are some secrets that are really hard to tell Ichigo and let him know in advance.

After meeting Ichigo.

Xia Mu went to see Ukitake Jushiro again.

Ukitake has always been in poor health.

After Shiba Kaien became the vice-captain, basically all team affairs were handled by Shiba Kaien, while he himself had been recuperating in a villa not far from the 13th Squad. This villa was located on an island in the middle of a lake with a very beautiful environment. In order to prevent intrusion from outsiders, he had to take a boat every time he went here.

Although he had served as the captain of the Gotei 13 for many years, to be honest, the relationship between Natsuki and some of the captains was just that.

Kyōraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jushiro are the captains of his fellow senior brothers. He and Kyōraku Shunsui have had dealings with each other several times, and he was even invited by Kyōraku Shunsui to visit the other's home.

But it was different with Ukitake Jushiro. Natsuki had not had much dealings with him.

Even if the other party is a well-known good guy and a nice person in the Gotei 13.

But now, he had to go and talk to Ukitake.

"Natsuki Kenpachi, how come you have time to come to my place?"

Ukitake Jushiro greeted Natsuki.

After what happened to Aizen, he hid here to recuperate, claiming he was not feeling well.

Although he is indeed a veteran captain, his health has never been very good. Throughout the year, there is always a period of time when he is seriously ill. Xia Mu guessed that the reason for his serious illness may be due to the Spirit King's Right Arm in his body.

When Ukitake was a teenager, he almost died of illness. It was the one-eyed god who was the incarnation of the Soul King's Right Arm who saved his life. From then on, he became the carrier of the Soul King's Right Arm, and his internal organs were held in the hand of the Soul King's Right Arm. The Soul King's Right Arm did not have the ability to directly cure Ukitake Jushiro's serious illness. The ability it represented was the power of "stillness". Ukitake was able to survive because the Soul King's Right Arm used this ability to maintain his internal organs in a state of serious illness and dying. Although he was very ill, time did not move forward, so Ukitake would not die from his illness, but at the same time, time did not go backwards, his illness was not cured, and it would relapse every once in a while, and this cycle would repeat over and over again.

Also, because the Spirit King's power was too high, after the Spirit King's right arm merged into his body, the serious illness had become a part of his body and could not be cured by any medical means.

Of course, these are all Xia Mu's guesses.

It was impossible for Ukitake to let him study the Spirit King's right arm in his body.

But having said that, Xia Mu is still quite interested in this thing.

"I have something I want to discuss with you, Captain Ukitake." Xia Mu explained his purpose and teased Ukitake, "Captain Ukitake doesn't look seriously ill."

Hearing Xia Mu's teasing, Fuzhu was stunned for a moment, then smiled and said, "My health has just improved a little recently."

It was the day of Kuchiki Rukia's execution, and he still went to watch it. But he fell ill afterwards. Of course, he was not really sick, but he did not want to get involved in the finishing touches of those noble affairs.

Although he was born into a lower-class noble family, the Ukitake family moved to Rukongai many years ago, so his family background was not very good. This was also the reason why he fell seriously ill when he was a teenager and finally had to seek help from the One-Eyed God.

"I see." Xia Mu didn't dwell too much on this issue and expressed his thoughts.

"I want to talk to you about how to deal with Kurosaki Ichigo. Do you think it is possible to give him the status of a Shinigami agent?"

(End of this chapter)