Chapter Seventeen: The Villain Episode

Gin and Aizen were standing around, waiting for Momo to show up. 'Hey Captain Aizen,' Said Gin.

'Yes.' said Aizen.

'So you've grinded to level 99 right?'

'While in video game terms, that does sum up my present state.'

'And the Captains are all like, level 20 except Yamamoto right?'

'Yes, that is correct.'

'So why don't you ditch this whole gambit thing and start killing people?' suggested Gin. 'I mean you've got your complete Hypnosis, and nobody except me knows about it yet, so who's going to stop you? Wouldn't it make sense to move before the Soul Society can come up with a countermeasure.'

Aizen blinked. 'I hadn't even thought of that. Let's do that instead, and recover the Hogyoku at our leisure.'

Aizen then proceeded to trounce the entire of the Thirteen Court Guard Squads. Only to be killed by Gin at the last minute. He didn't have the Hogyoku, so he didn't resurrect himself.

So apparently his overcomplicated plan did serve a purpose.

The Espada were assembled, and awaiting only the arrival of their master. Lord Aizen entered the room with a certain detached grace. He regarded his faithful {and in some cases not so faithful} subjects.

'Greetings my dear Espada.' said Aizen. 'I know you are all concerned about the incoming ryoka, but first, let's have some tea.'

After everyone had gotten their tea, Aizen sipped his. 'Now then, the ryoka are approaching Los Noches. They are no match for the higher level Espada. However, I think they might be able to take out a few of the less powerful of our number.'

'So what now?' asked Starrk.

'Since the Ryoka are completely out of contact with the Soul Society.' said Aizen. 'It means that whether or not the Captains take the bait is completely out of their hands. They have served their purpose by coming here, and now may only prove to be a nuisance. As such I will dispatch Starrk, Halibel, and Ulquiorra to capture them.

'Thus the Ryoka invasion of Houco Mundo was defeated by a bit of proactive thinking.

Meanwhile, in a prison cell, the Karakura Group remained silent. Their powers were sealed by reishi sealing handcuffs. Uryu opened his mouth.

'SHUT UP!' snapped Ichigo.

'I didn't say anything.' Replied the Quincy.

The Vizard were assembled before Lord Aizen, their blades in hand. They stood in a tightly knit group, shoulder to shoulder as they posed dramatically. Out came their swords as one-

'Bankai,' said Kagame Tosen behind them.

Then they were all consumed in darkness. The Vizard could see nothing, they could hear nothing. Their every sense was shrouded in darkness. It made Tosen's job that much easier.

Moments later as the darkness faded. Bloody pieces of the Vizards rained down upon Karakura Town. There was a long, awkward silence as Aizen turned to Tosen, looking very impressed. 'That was… efficient.'

'I thought you hated using your soul reaper powers.' said Gin.

'I apologize.' said Tosen as he wiped the blood from his sword with a cloth. 'I know principle compels me to avoid using that ability, but that opportunity was too obvious to pass up. I mean, they have first hand experience with my Bankai. They still assembled in a formation that allowed me to catch them all in its area of effect.'

'It certainly wasn't logical.' agreed Aizen.

As a result of the Vizard's utter defeat…

Nothing changed. Oh, Kyroku had to put a bit more work into defeating Starrk. And Captain Commander Yamamoto had to step in to kill Barragan directly. But other than that things unfolded exactly the same way.

It was impressive on Kaname Tosen's part, though.

Authors Note:

Ha! You thought this fic was over didn't you! Well, guess what, its not! And if my calculations are correct by the time I post this, it will mean I have officially outlasted Bleach!

Seriously though, I got sick of writing heroes doing the logical thing. Instead decided to have the villains doing the smart thing. Because while the villains in Bleach are supposed to be smart, they are actually pretty dumb.

Lastly, I finally realized why I hate the Vandenreich Arc. It should have been the climax for the Arrancar storyline.

By all rights, Aizen should have been the son of the Spirit King. It would actually give him a backstory, and a reason for his motives. It would also be in line with his satanic element. By all rights, the Espada should have won the Fake Karakura Town Arc. Then gone on to ravage the Soul Society, forcing the royal guard to play their hand.

Actually, scratch that. I'm of the opinion that the Royal Guard should have been a total anticlimax boss. Having not had a real fight in thousands of years. The Spirit King should have been a decadent and horrible man. A puppet who let Central Forty Six commit all those crimes. It would have been thematically appropriate for the source of the Soul Societies rot.

Finally, it should have been implied that the Spirit King was not the supreme being.

Interesting fact now that I think of it, this entire chapter was written around the Tosen scene. It's always bugged me how the Vizards literally posed in a tight formation. Thus giving him the perfect target for his Bankai, and he didn't use it. Everything else was padding out the story. I view Tosen as the big wasted character of the Bleach Saga. If Tite Kubo had made Tosen into a combat pragmatist, the man would be a hero killing memetic badass of the series. As it is he feels kind of wasted.

Oh and the Vizards could have been completely removed from Bleach. Almost nothing would have had to change. Just give Urahara a hollow mask, and have Orihime defeat Barragan.