Danketsu narrowed his eyes, "I see."

He looked over at his love and although he didn't show it, worry and fear for her was very predominant in his thoughts, as he very well knew her condition was very weak after housing his soul.

"I believe it is time I prove to all Shinigami, that Hollows are no longer the hunted" Danketsu said solemnly as he slowly drew his Zanpakuto.

"An affirmation of truths, an affirmation of lies, an affirmation of facts, all are irrelevant in this world's majority" – OSA

Chapter 14: Deceive

Danketsu slowly drew his sword from its hilt, and raised it above his head towards the heavens, admiring its beauty and strength, before slashing downwards towards the Shinigami in front of him.

"Our pain…"

He then began tearing through the hordes of Shinigami who came at him in droves, decapitating them in half; a shower of blood soon began to drench the area.

"will now become…"

He quickly dodged an attack made by Kyoraku, and traversed across the combat zone to make fast work of the other Shinigami forces, cutting through whatever got in his way.

"your pain!"

As he cut through the air at the Shinigami who stood rather close together, a mixture of spiritual pressure and black energy discharged from Danketsu's blade, knocking out all of the Shinigami if not killing them outright.

"They were fodder" Danketsu began speaking, gesturing towards the countless bodies that lay before them, "they were following orders, out of some pointless sense of duty. They knew very little of the world they were sworn to protect. They knew very little of the truths that lay beyond their superior officer's order. Their deaths were quick and painless, which suited how much of a role they played in this betrayal. You two, however…" he finished saying, resting his eyes on the two Captains who stood before him, "won't die so mercifully."

Kyoraku removed his straw hat and pink kimono as he readied himself for what had yet to come, "The justice of this world demands your death, we cannot place our own personal justice above that, Danketsu-san" Kyoraku said with a tinge of sadness.

"How arrogant" Danketsu said rather plainly, "of Shinigami to presume that they represent the world's justice."

Before Kyoraku had the chance to respond, Danketsu suddenly appeared in front of him, his blade coming down upon him with a speed he could hardly register.

He quickly brought up his Zanpakuto to parry the attack, and the shock on his face at the strength of Danketsu was ever apparent on his normally laidback features.

Danketsu could see, out of the corner of his eye, Ukitake staring intently at Harribel down below as both Danketsu and Kyoraku were fighting on the rooftop of a nearby building.

"Think again" Danketsu thought before reappearing in front of the white-haired Captain and landing a kick into his midsection, vaulting him into other buildings down below.

"Katen Kyokotsu!" he heard Kyoraku say, and with it a notable increase in the Captain's reiatsu.

Danketsu sped towards Kyoraku, his blade reeled back in anticipation to strike, and began crossing blades at lightning pace and frightful strength.

Kyoraku thrust his sword forward in attempt to stab Danketsu in the stomach, but Danketsu twisted his body to avoid the attack and proceeded to slash upward at the Captain's overextended arm, but he was parried before he could reach flesh.

Danketsu quickly aimed a kick within the Captain's guard at a forearm and pushed his blade away, following it up with a spinning back kick to the face, launching the Captain to the same buildings Ukitake was directed into.

"Come now Captains, you haven't suffered nearly enough for either of you to be dead just yet!" Danketsu yelled.

After the dust settled, and the silence came, Danketsu waited patiently for the attack to come, he could feel it in the air, and his instincts were honed to deadly accuracy as he could sense all that was around him.

"Bushogoma!" he heard from down below, and saw a circular attack of wind and reiatsu coming towards him.

Danketsu gripped his blade tightly, lifted his arm, and with the most silent of whispers he said, "Getsuga…Tenshō."

The black and red energy of violent destruction went wailing downwards to meet the attack, and went through it with no visible resistance at all.

Danketsu heard the sound of steel cutting through the air behind him and Kyoraku uttering something quietly, Danketsu deftly spun around to meet the attack he expected to come, but much to his surprise it came from his right side rather than from directly behind.

"Irooni: White" Kyoraku said, and Danketsu felt his blade dig into his shoulder with more force than he expected.

Danketsu kicked Kyoraku's arm out from under him, which effectively removed the blade that was dug into his shoulder, and before he could strike him he disappeared.

Danketsu's attention was brought back to the ground as he saw his own attack, which he used not moments ago, come hurtling back towards him.

He sidestepped the attack and quickly sped towards the ground to close the gap between him and whoever had launched that attack.

The glimpse of white hair informed him that it was Ukitake who had somehow reflected his attack, said Captain having quickly leapt from his previous position to dodge Danketsu's strike, which created a small crater and resulting explosion from impact.

Ukitake landed atop a nearby building, while Danketsu touched down on the opposing building.

Danketsu quickly sensed a presence behind him and spun around, his sword coming along with him as he slashed sideways at his eye level, but much to his surprise, Kyoraku melted into the building.

Growing frustrated, as Danketsu turned back towards Ukitake he charged his blade and released it upon the Captain. The white-haired Captain absorbed the attack and with increased speed launched it back towards its owner.

Danketsu, anticipating the maneuver, had vanished before the attack had even left Ukitake's blade and attacked him from behind.

Frightfully, Ukitake spun around just in time to parry the attack, but the ever-increasing strength that was coming down upon his sword was on the verge of breaking through.

Moments before Danketsu was about to overwhelm Ukitake, Danketsu sensed Kyoraku several hundred meters away from them, and much to his dismay, directly behind Harribel.

Harribel suddenly registered someone behind her, but it was too late. Kyoraku began rising up from behind her, and before she could retaliate, she was impaled through the abdomen with his blade.

"No!" Danketsu screamed.

In almost slow motion, Danketsu discharged an attack at Ukitake as their blades were still locked, seemingly obliterating him in the process, and desperately made his way towards Harribel.

As Kyoraku began to withdraw his blade from Harribel's stomach, Danketsu was suddenly in front of Harribel, and as she fell he slashed sideways, narrowly missing Harribel's head and lopping off Kyoraku's own in the process.

Before Harribel hit the ground, Danketsu caught her body and held her gently, hysterical concern displayed openly in his eyes.

He was at a loss for words.

He quickly placed his hand over her abdomen in an attempt to feed his reiatsu into her and stop the bleeding. It didn't appear to be working and the color of her skin was slowly starting to pale.

The gears in Danketsu's head were working at an exponential rate, thinking of any possible way to save Harribel's life, and suddenly it hit him, "Nel!"

Then realization sunk in, and he felt his throat close up as his emotions began to rise to the surface, and anger seemed to be ahead of all of them.

"We have orders from Central 46"

"And what, pray tell, did the illustrious governing body of Soul Society order the Shinigami before me to do exactly?"

"To eliminate Baraggan's army within Hueco Mundo. We were wondering if perhaps you may assist us in getting there by opening a garganta?"

"Oh, I see. Sure, I can take us all there and we'll end this pointless rebellion."

"Actually, Danketsu-san, Captains Ukitake and Kyoraku would like to speak with both you and Harribel within the Seireitei. We have been instructed to inform your forces within Las Noches so that we may join together to better eliminate Barragan and his followers"

"Have fun."

Those last two words rung louder and louder in his head as he repeated them to himself over and over, and with it his anger rose higher and higher.

"They went to kill ALL Arrancar, not just Baraggan's group, and I told them to have…fun," he thought as he was beside himself.

"I have to save them, I have to save…Harribel. I might not be too late, if I leave now" he thought hopefully and as he was about to lift off from the ground and out of the Seireitei, the presence of another made itself known, with anger, and with fire.

"Betrayer! You will pay for what you have done, hollow!" the oldest and most powerful Shinigami in existence roared.

Confusion briefly appeared across Danketu's features before his face contorted in pure, animalistic rage.

"You have the audacity to say such a thing! No more games, no more talking, simply no more will I endure!" Danketsu bellowed before he gently laid Harribel down and raised his blade, the tip of the sword facing himself.

He grabbed the hilt with both hands, and abruptly thrust his sword into his body, impaling himself in the process.

The Captain-Commander was surprised, albeit briefly as his previous anger quickly took over when he noticed Danketsu's reiatsu began to rise at astronomical rates, and a white substance oozed over his body.

As the white substance subsided and his new form had taken shape, one could see sharp claws on both his hands and feet, a small whole where his sternum once was with black lines going across his body, long flowing white hair draped down his back and shoulders, the focal point of this transformation being his terrifying mask, which screamed of death and devastation.

The Captain-Commander was unfazed, his eyes emitted a steeled resolve and unshakable mental fortitude where one might think he had no emotions to speak of, if not for his obvious outburst earlier over the deaths of his pupils, Kyoraku and Ukitake.

Danketsu glanced down at Harribel, who was looking worse as time passed on, and as Danketsu looked back up he let loose a guttural roar filled with hatred and loathing.

"Reduce All Creation to Ash, Ryūjin Jakka!" Yamamoto bellowed as fires bathed his Zanpakuto, an exhausting heat emanating from his sword.

Danketsu removed his sword from the hilt, bent his knees ever so slightly, and propelled himself towards Yamamoto with no hesitation or fear, only hatred.

They locked blades and the spiritual conflict in the area was on such a grand scale that the nearby buildings were failing under the pressure.

They bore wholes into one another, as each looked the other in the eyes, neither wavering, none giving an inch to the other, and both meeting each other in strength and power.

Yamamoto began to release more flames that passed over Danketsu's form, whether they were having any affect was anyone's guess, as he gave no visible reaction to the exposure.

There was a noticeable increase in reiatsu coming from Danketsu's blade, but was soon forgotten as Danketsu began charging a bright red Cero between the tips of his horns.

The Captain-Commander flash-stepped at the last second to avoid the blast radius and launched waves of fire to the back of Danketsu. Danketsu quickly spun around and released a black wave of energy and negated the Commander's attack.

Danketsu followed closely behind his attack and rushed through the explosion to meet the Commander head on, who was unfazed by the tactic and met Danketsu's blade with his own.

Danketsu began an onslaught of strikes with unbridled fury and strength, and yet the Commander countered each attack with as much zeal and unrelenting resolve.

As the Commander parried yet another one of Danketsu's strikes, Danketsu increased his speed dramatically and landed a kick to the Commander's ribs, marking the first time since their fight began where one surpassed the other, but this would soon change as the Commander was suddenly behind Danketsu and landed a spinning back kick to the hollow's head.

Danketsu stood from the wreckage he caused when he crashed into the buildings and cracked his neck from side to side, seemingly unaffected, much like the Commander was from his own attack previously.

Danketsu quickly vaulted forward with sonido, his movements becoming increasingly difficult to track, and slashed sideways at the Commander who parried the attack, but was visibly pushed by the strength behind it; Danketsu then reeled back his fist and launched a bala directly at the Commander's chest, knocking him back several hundred feet.

The battle continued much in the same way, with each of them landing an equal number of attacks, and neither gaining an upper hand over the other for very long.

However, eventually Danketsu was beginning to slowly ware the Captain-Commander down due to his regenerative capabilities, which the Commander had none to speak of.

Danketsu looked down upon the Commander from higher ground, and as the Shinigami stood up from yet another attack, Danketsu charged his Zanpakuto with dangerous levels of reiatsu and threw several dozen bala down below to obscure the line of sight of the Commander.

Yamamoto narrowed his eyes in suspicion as dust and debris clouded his vision, when a sword came at him with deadly speed and he simply knocked the blade away from his bath several yards away, stabbing itself into the ground.

He soon discovered a presence behind him and skillfully turned around in time to strike down at Danketsu whose sharp claws were halfway from impaling his body.

Danketsu forced a great deal of reiatsu into his hand as he caught Yamamoto's blade in hand, but did little for stopping his hand, and soon arm, from being engulfed in fire.

Before he lost strength in his arm from holding Yamamoto's blade back, he summoned his blade into his free hand, and much to the shock of Yamamoto, stabbed the Commander straight through.

Danketsu didn't miss the opportunity he was now presented with, and quickly charged a Cero between his horns and fired it straight through the Commander's chest. Danketsu soon let go of Yamamoto's blade, and retracted his own Zanpakuto from the Commander's chest, before leaping backwards and trying to heal his severely burned arm.

Then, with a ragged breath, the Captain-Commander Yamamoto fell to his knees and collapsed onto the ground, seemingly dead.

Danketsu desperately sped off and gently picked up Harribel, who was barely holding onto to life at this point, and he departed for Hueco Mundo.

Yamamoto lay on the ground, his blood pouring out of the several holes in his body, and his weary breaths were all that indicated he was still alive.

Several minutes passed, a silence came that all but decided the battle was finally over, and before Yamamoto could take his last breath, he could hear someone nearby begin to clap his or her hands.

"Allow me to say, what I once told Hirako Shinji. The betrayal you can see is trivial. What is truly fearsome is the betrayal that you don't see, Yamamoto Genryūsai."

The Captain-Commander barely had enough to strength to widen his eyes in pure shock at the sound of the voice that spoke to him, "A-Aizen…Sōsuke!"

Yamamoto could hear footsteps approaching him, slowly becoming louder as they drew closer to his dying body.

"As much as it would please me to kill you with my own sword, I think it would be more befitting that in your dying breaths, were the only person in existence to know the truth behind this entire ordeal," he said while slowly walking towards the Commander.

"It is unfortunate that I cannot thank Danketsu personally, for if not for him, I could not have evolved into the being that I am today. You must understand, Yamamoto Genryūsai, that fear is necessary for evolution. The fear of the destruction of one's soul is the most basic example of this development. Spiritual power increases most easily when the soul is in danger of termination, and much like us, the Hōgyoku works in the exact same way," he explained.

"This deception had little involvement on my part, because Danketsu has had a seed of distrust for Shinigami long before I faked my own death. It simply took another set of fake orders from the Central 46 to break that last wall of restraint, which I had hoped would result in both of your deaths" he stated as he was directly in front of the Captain-Commander.

As Yamamoto glanced up at Aizen, he noticed a difference in his appearance. His brown hair was now much longer, his eyes were now white and purple, he adorned a white colored cloak split into different sections, and the Hōgyoku was embedded into his sternum.

"I shall leave you now, Captain-Commander. I will create the King's King with Karakura Town, and with the Shinigami being vehemently opposed by Danketsu and his remaining allies, no one will be the wiser" Aizen said as he started walking away.

"Be thankful, Yamamoto Genryūsai, that you could witness my fall as a Shinigami, and rebirth from the ashes as a god."

Chapter 14: Deceive

Why doesn't Aizen elaborate more on his death and deceiving everyone?

I didn't want to have Aizen explain too much with regards to the how's and why's, it was meant to be short and concise, while hopefully explaining enough to prevent confusion among the readers, but short enough to not sound too OOC for Aizen and the mood of the scene (Yamamoto is about to die, Aizen cant really lecture him for several minutes).

Will there be a sequel?

Yes. The sequel will be called: Hollow, Understood. Until I have a chapter's worth of story I won't upload it with simply an author's note due to this site's policy.

Will there be other Hollow oriented stories?

You can count on it!

Author's Final Notes:

Writing this story has been a very emotional and fulfilling experience, one that was motivated me to continue writing stories to sate my creative tastes and captivate readers. For those of you who have stuck with me and given me such love, motivation, and positive energy, I simply cannot thank you enough. If you're a new fan of mine, I hoped you enjoyed the experience enough to want to follow me in my future stories, so feel free to join us on this fictional journey.

SEE YOU SPACE COWBOY…