Ditto.

I was actually enjoying the tactical outmaneuvering more than the power vs. power fights. That said, Yama is still fucking awesome.

Ichigo <<<<< Aizen. Honestly all Ichigo does is go sayan level up every arc. I hope Aizen has something figured out for him like he did for Yama.

And where the fuck is Gin?

 

All Aizen really needs to do to beat Ichigo is unleash his shikai. It's his instant win button. Still, he won't do it because above all else he's arrogant, and we all know what happens to arrogant antagonists of shonen manga >_>.

 

Its not that simple for Aizen. The majority of zanpakuto require a short incantation, the second Ichigo hears that all he has to do is close his eyes. My money's one Ichigo's mask going beserk at the last second or Gin sniping him though.

 

If you have Bankai, then you can se Shikai wordlessly. At least, that's what Byakuya said in his fight with Renji.

 

Well, this is assuming Aizen does have bankai, which is not necessarily true... But yeah, he'll probably have something even more awesome as his bankai.

 

Fuuuuuuck that's right.. Hax!HollowMaskProtection anyone? Maybe if Ichigo gets hit with it his Inner Hollow is still fine? Or maybe there's a limit, like one shot at Hypnosis per person.

 

What the hell is Gin doing in all this? He has to make an appearance. He's one character in Bleach I actually looked forward to seeing in a fight. Maybe he'll get in between Ichigo and Aizen...

I don't see Ichigo beating Aizen if Aizen traps him with his zanpakuto like he did to everyone else. Yamamoto may be able to fight Aizen with such a Handicap but Ichigo can't. Ichigo's not going to fall into Aizen's shikai, and even if he does see it, I'm sure there's going to be an out - like it doesn't work on Ichigo for some insane reason or something...

 

While we're waiting for the next chapter, anyone wanna chance a guess at what's going on with Ichigo's mask? It's been bothering me for a while, and while I'm probably wrong, I get the feeling that his inner hollow 'evolved' under battle stress + Orihime's cries for help.

If it ever comes out again, it could spell disaster for the bad guys or the good guys. Besides, there's no way Aizen could have foreseen something as spontaneous as that, right?

 

Well, it has evolved. The colouring is different and Ichigo's reiatsu/power seems to have gotten another fillip. But as to Aizen being surprised...remember Tosen. He did just what Ichigo did against Ulquiorra. Except he was in full control of his full-hollow powers. Aizen's seen it before and probably engineered it in Tosen. He may be surprised at the extent of Ichigo's evolution, but its not going to make it any more difficult for him to deal with it.

 

Ichigo seems to me to be unique in the Bleach world given that he's a "natural" vaizard, or so it seems. He may have some tricks that even Aizen hasn't seen or thought up.

 

Well it seems to me more than a simple power up, all the way outside the dome Rukia, Renji and Chad felt his power and were nearly pissing themselves. Hes drastically more powerful in this form but he also seems to go batshit nuts and lose sight of that friend/foe line i.e. when he rammed his blade through Uryu's stomach for getting in his way when he was roflstomping Uliquorra. What I'm kind of hoping might happen now is that Ichigo and Aizen start to fight and Aizen does well until for whatever unknown reason Ichigo snaps and the new mask comes out and he drives Aizen off with it but he attacks the other Shinigami as well.

 

Yeah. I'm calling that Ichigo vs. his hollow is the *actual* final fight of this manga.

 

I'm calling Ichigo getting beaten up, Aizen unleashing his bankai, Hollow-Ichigo WTFpwning everyone and then Rukia or Orihime crying his name so he'll 'wake up'.

Although that leaves a lot of plotholes, like the Spirit King, whom we've never seen, Squad Zero, Ichigo's father, where the hell are Urahara and Yoruichi, etc...

 

From what I saw, I'm putting my money on his inner hollow going from adjuchas level to vasto lorde level, in which case, even Aizen will have trouble fighting him. How this actually happened, I have no idea, but it's the only plausible explanation for the power spike. And considering there's supposed to be about a dozen in existence, they're godly powerful.

 

Well, it won't be funny if Ichigo goes full-hollow on Aizen and kills him, only to 'wake up' again - as someone said - to Rukia and Orihime crying to him...

Something else that caught me this chapter...Aizen at one point says "...my world was protected.". Just wondering if Aizen is the Spirit King's son or something. Or maybe he was referring to the fact that it was going to be his world when all this was over?

 

I think he was referring to Yama-jii taking the full brunt of the explosion to protect the living world...the living world that Aizen wants to use to make his key.

 

QFT.

There's a ton of theories running around about Aizen/Isshin, one of the biggest ones is that they're the Spirit King. If so, why would Aizen need a key to get into his own palace/castle/thing, and why would Isshin be allowed to be in the world of the living for 20+ years?

In the last panel, Aizen looks somewhat surprised but is getting his sword ready. I'm thinking he'll stop Ichigo and then pretty much swat him away like the insignificant fly he is right now, and then Yama-jii will wtfpwn Wonderweiss' sealing, releasing Ryuujinjakka and all around fucking everyone not directly associated with/aiding Soul Society over.

I'm looking forward to the aftermath of this fight, if only to see what Yama-jii says to all the exiles running about Karakura Town, but especially Isshin, who left of his own free will and without any extenuating circumstances. (Kisuke left to keep an eye on the Vaizard and help them with their transformations.)

Finally, I've been hearing word about Kenpachi getting both shikai and bankai...overkill much? On Kenpachi, the guy is already powerful enough to be a captain (I believe WITH the eye patch on, no less), so giving him shikai and bankai would probably put him around Aizen's level in terms of raw power, if not a rung or two below Yama-jii.

 

Who knows, maybe Isshin was the previous captain commander and manages to keep his young looks with some awesome face cream.

Gin probably hasn't shown up that much during Aizen's fight because a) He may have had a change of heart or b) Aizen is actually perfectly fine and he's just messing with everyone.

I'm guessing b).

 

I think if Kenpachi even gets Shikai much less Bankai hes just going to be silly powerful I recall reading somewhere that as he is now he purposefully hamstrings himself in fights just to make it more entertaining for himself, hes never actually gone all out on anything so far.

 

After reading the latest spoilers all I can say is this :
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3850108/1/To_really_touch_the_sky