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(Elsewhere - Asahi)

Asahi palmed the prism like object in his hands housing a purple ball. Getting it had been super easy, barely an inconvenience. Which was strange because of just how dangerous Urahara was. 

His plan had relied on mostly getting Aizen to work for him. So Asahi had used a unique Kido he had created to transfer a few memories to Aizen's mind. First of all, he had shown Aizen the scene where he fuses with the Hogyoku but still gets defeated and imprisoned for 20,000 years. Then, he had shown Aizen the Multiverse. Revealing to the veteran soul reaper just how insignificant his world was in the grand scheme of things. 

"I…lost." 

The statement carried with it so much weight that Gin's eyes opened up with surprise.  

"What did you see, Captain?" 

He wondered, things had changed so drastically that Gin was still wrapping his mind around it all. Aizen looked at him in a weird way. 

"There is no need to keep up with the pretense Gin. I already know."

A feeling of horror bloomed inside Gin's chest. 'No. It's impossible. How could he have found that out.' Gin readied himself. He wasn't confident about taking on Aizen but he would go down fighting. A small smile appeared in his face. Gin glanced at Asahi who was sitting on a mound of sand while looking at them bored. He couldn't take them both on. But the least he could do was… 

"I'll let you leave Gin. I do not wish to kill you. There is no point to it." 

The words had been said softly and for a second, Gin actually believed him.

Then the second passed. 

"Shoot to kill." 

His Zanpakuto came out of it's sheath and exploded forward, lengthening in the blink of an eye to pierce through Aizen's neck. A clang sounded out as the point of the Zanpakuto was blocked by the Reishi in the air. Gin had never seen anything like it before. 

"I still have a use for him. Why are you trying to kill my get away from this backwater universe card? Bad boy Gin."

He didn't know how it had happened. One minute Gin was looking into the eyes of Asahi, the next he was creating a groove inside the Head Captain's office with his body. An overpowering killing Intent exploded out of Yamamoto Genryusai. His eyes shone with fire. 

"You better have an explanation for this."

Back in Hueco Mundo, Aizen looked at Gin's last position and asked Asahi a question. 

"What did you do to him?" 

The younger man shrugged. 

"I banished him. It was just recently I found out I could control…well basically everything with spirit energy. Soul Reapers are walking batteries. Now, you need to make a decision. Help me fuse your Hogyoku with Uraharas and in exchange I'll give you the power to travel the Multiverse, within limit of course. Only Anime worlds. I don't want to see your traitorous ass in the MCU. The other option is, I kill you, do the dirty work myself and just leave. Your help will just save me the time."

Aizen agreed.

All he had had left to do was to have Aizen use Kyoka Suigetsu to hypnotize Urahara, Tessai and Yoruichi, then using a bit of metaknowledge and the innate cultivator's energy sense, he had figured out where Urahara had hidden his Hogyoku. 

Funnily enough, there had been two energy beacons that had registered in Asahi's sense. One of them had been a decoy and was protected by numerous seals. The real Hogyoku had been placed inside a Gigai just like in Canon. 

They had left just as they came in, unseen and unheard. Asahi had debated copping a feel of Yoroichi's boobs but decided not to. And now Asahi was sitting on a Reishi made throne in Hueco Mundo. No hollow wanted to approach 100 miles of where Las Noches had stood, so they were undisturbed. Aizen was calmly standing beside him, an inquisitive look on his face as he studied Asahi. Aizen's whole personality had gone under a huge change. 

He had figured out how shallow his vision had been. Even by usurping the the Soul King's seat of power, that would be all. He would still be confined to this universe but now that he knew other universes exist…a hunger had been born. A hunger to stand atop it all.

All for the price of his 'alliegience' to Asahi. Aizen would do what he always did, plan and bide his time. He was currently at a disadvantage. But that would disappear soon.

Asahi reached his hand onto his inventory and out came Aizen's own Hogyoku. The two Hogyoku's were kind of similar but the difference was that Aizen's own was made from countless soul reaper souls and pluses while also shined a deeper hue of purple when compared to Urahara's.

"Do you know the true nature of the Hogyoku?" Asahi began, still studying the two artifacts to soul evolution. Aizen kept silent.

"I have my own theories. Probably the same as yours actually." He held up his hands, bringing them closer to one another. The process to fuse both Hogyokus began and a discharge of a huge amount of energy exploded outwards.

"It's a shortcut. The Hogyoku is merely a cheat code to achieve what you already have the potential for, instantly. It doesn't give you raw power from nowhere. It cuts out the process and presents you with the results instead. That explains why you quickly reached the level you did. You're a strong soul reaper, had you given yourself 2000 more years of training, you would still have been that powerful even without the Hogyoku."

The end result was a ball of shining purple in Asahi's hand. He palmed it closer and Aizen's eyes widened a fraction. 

"The connection I felt with my Hogyoku…it disappeared." 

He muttered to myself.  

"Naturally. My ambition is simply bigger than yours Aizen. So is my will and strength. The Hogyoku seeks a worthy master and before me, you fall short."

Asahi allowed a smile to appear on his face. 'With the Hogyoku, awakening my Zanpakuto will be super easy.' Not to mention…Asahi had the potential to be even more than this world's strongest could become. That meant with this, he could complete the mission of scanning the Hogyoku's energy for the requirements to produce more wish energy by himself and also get to the highest level his soul could get, though he wasn't sure the Hogyoku was powerful enough to do that. The wishes the Main had made could have had some unforeseen effects on his soul.

Bit he wasn't worried about that. He had a way to place the odds on his favor despite all that. To ensure he evolved to the highest level, Asahi had a scheme that had been cooking for some time now. 

He looked at Aizen and saw the older man stare back at him in wariness and anticipation. Asahi, just like the main, was a man of his word. His Spiritual energy hummed inside him as he willed it into the shape of a blue ball. 

He walked closer to Aizen and pressed the ball onto his chest. 

"This is your payment. The essence of my dimensional travel skill. It will allow you to teleport to another world in the multiverse. Now leave."

Saying that Asahi turned his back on Aizen and walked away. Aizen looked at the back of the man who had made him feel lesser than even old man Yama had. The young man who had ruined his centuries in the making plan and closed his eyes. 

'You will pay for this, Asahi. Letting me leave will be the one thing you'll come to regret. That much I can guarantee.' 

With that thought, Aizen left.

Asahi briefly stood in place, ensuring he was alone before bringing the Hogyoku to his chest and fusing it with his being. The moment he did that…he felt the boundaries, bottlenecks and world restrictions crumble away. However he stopped short. His body didn't change much. Instead it started glowing with an ethereal energy that shrouded his form. He looked like Ultra instinct Goku.

"So this is what it means to achieve transcendence in soul form. Unfortunately, it's not enough to get me where I should be. Just like I had expected. Let's hope the second plan works." Asahi muttered to himself. He looked up at the featureless sky of Las Noches and a smirk appeared on his lips once he felt another presence appear in his senses. 'Bingo.'

Asahi turned around and made eye contact with his errand boy, sorry, with his fearsome foe. He then spoke up, addressing his guest.

"So how many years of plotting, training and stealing did it take you for you to reach that level Aizen?"

The former squad 5 captain was completely different. Both in shape, power and demeanor. He was dressed in a long black coat. His hair was the same black as it used to be but his facial features were different. The only thing that Asahi recognized was his soul wavelength. 

The most unique thing about him now was that, on his left hand was a red gauntlet with a green jewel. The boosted gear. Asahi kept his face neutral at the new development.

"You sent me to the dimensional rift. The Infinite dragon almost killed me. Not to mention how stressful it was to escape that space, when the dimensional jump skill refused to work. I had to merge my soul with a boy just to avoid my whole being from dissolving." Aizen replied with a touch of anger. " That wasn't our deal. You only gave me enough power to jump to one world."

Aizen's response made Asahi smile. 

"Sorry about that. I promised you a way to let you go to another dimension. I didn't say I would keep on supplying you with the power to do so continuously."

Aizen chuckled, swallowing the feelings of hate and anger plaguing his heart. He didn't want to lash out and kill Asahi too quickly. No, he would make him suffer first. 

"You're right. Fortunately, I am a resourceful person. I simply made my own copy of the skill that allowed me to travel back and forth between this world and where your skill brought me and after 500 years," Aizen stopped to unsheath his Zanpakuto. " I finally came back here to kill you."

He pointed his Zanpakuto at Asahi, "what should I cut off first? No, maybe I should skewer you with a million fire blades? Magic is so versatile. Or maybe I should subject you to a million times the gravity of earth? It wouldn't matter that you're a soul, your being would still be crushed."

Asahi frowned.

"Tough talk from someone I made my bitch just a while ago."

Aizen's mood changed. Rage scarred his face.

Power came off his body in a torrential wave. The whole dimension shook as it couldn't handle it.

"I am not who I used to be. A mere instance for you was 500 years for me. The power I possess now is unfathomable to you. I have battled gods, Satan class beings and dragons with the power to destroy the planet many times over! I am unstoppable and you're going to learn that the hard way."

Aizen was incensed. Asahi had stroked a nerve and now he would be destroyed. There wasn't a need for torture anymore. He would take him out, together with this world. And then Aizen would find a way to cross to other dimensions, growing stronger and stronger.

Aizen had experimented on the boosted gear and could not only use the power of balance breaker in its gauntlet form but now the power double would be every second. He had used the boosted gear before coming here to increase his chances of winning. His base power level was multiplied by 50,000 times. Which was what his body could handle currently. 

Including his magic, spiritual power, touki, Aizen would win this in a landslide. He brought up his Zanpakuto while staring at Asahi calmly looking up at him from the ground. He had a small smile on his face that bothered Aizen greatly. 'I will finish this in one attack. Closing the chapter of my past at last and move on to take my rightful place, above all in existence.'

"Judgement of The Saint Emperor art 5: Destruction of All Things."

Aizen slashed out and a black colored beam escaped his Zanpakuto. Las Noches broke apart…

Aizen suddenly and without warning, found himself in a white void, dressed in a soul reaper shihakusho. What had happened? Was the attack so strong that it destroyed reality? He picked up on the sound of footsteps and looked around. 

From his back, Asahi walked calmly to him and stopped near Aizen.

"What is this?"

Aizen stammered out.

Asahi held up a hand and Aizen felt a command deep in his core being telling him to shut up. Horror showed itself on Aizen's face. The opposite of the expression of amusement on Asahi's.

"Did you really think I could let someone like you loose into the multiverse just like that? The good thing about being a viewer is that you understand a character almost better than they understand themselves." Asahi paced around Aizen. "You Aizen are a man who would do anything to achieve your goals. You're intelligent and prideful. I knew you would find a way to have your revenge, despite being given the chance of a lifetime so I thought to myself, why not use that to my benefit."

Asahi sank his body onto a throne. 

"The power I gave you subtly made you take the direction I wanted. I made you seek out Issei's cold dead body, I made you fuse with him to gain the boosted gear and I made you pursue magic, touki and everything else to give you the know-how to increase the strength of the boosted gear."

The look of absolute devastation appeared on Aizen's face.

"You've been a puppet this whole time Aizen."

"Why?"

Aizen finally asked.

Asahi let out a frustrated breath.

"The Hogyoku man! I did something in the past that broke the limits to my existence and that apparently applied to my soul as well. So the Hogyoku wasn't strong enough to evolve my soul to it's absolute limit. So I thought that if I applied the essence of the boosted gear to the Hogyoku, thereby enhancing the Hogyoku's power, I could reach where I wanted."

Aizen's ears couldn't believe the words coming out of Asahi's lips. 

"But how?" 

Asahi looked confused at the question before realization dawned on him.

"Oh you are wondering how I managed to create something that could subtly influence you huh? That's the funny thing Aizen, I just studied Kyoka Suigetsu's power and replicated it to suit my needs. It was on that day you tried to put me in under your illusion. You see everything ties up. In a way this was all your fault. Now, goodbye Aizen."

Aizen did nothing as his soul disintegrated, his energy and the boosted gear's core were sucked by the blue ball of energy that Asahi had given to him earlier on. The ball floated to Asahi and he looked on as it refined the energy inside it. 

"Well just like the Main, I now have my own version of Kaioken in the palm of my hands. With this, evolving to the absolute limit is no longer a dream."