Chapter 223: The Scarlet Creation
Apparently, Yamamoto knows what Aizen's after.
Of course, that's pretty important, so Orihime has to stay and listen to the old man shovel exposition at us. It seems the shinigami have a magic library that Aizen visited before he left. They checked his mystical library card, and apparently he was interested in something called 'The King's Key'. You see, SS apparently has a constitutional monarchy, and using the aforementioned key is the only way to even find the king. Aizen presumably wants to kill the king. But apparently Yamamoto is the only one who knows where the key is, so no problem there. Too bad Aizen now knows how to make a new key. But that's not the real problem either. the real problem is that the method Aizen found needs 100, 000 human souls * and the chuck of special land filled with magic folks. So, in other words, he wants to nuke Karakura Town. Orihime's understandably a bit spooked, but old man Genocide promises to help. The good news, though, is that Aizen won't be able to fully use the Hougyoku for another four months, so things won't get too bad until then. But no slacking off, Orihime, somebody's gotta let Ichigo know. Seem somebody's the line for Hitsu, though. Also, Chad and Renji spar in Urahara's underground lair. Whew. I hate exposition chapters, they take far too long to go over.
Chapter 224: Imitated Gaiety
Hitsu's guest is Hinamori. she seems okay, ashamed that she turned on Hitsu, but he's not holding any grudges and she's otherwise okay… right? Hmm. Well, it seems she might have some lingering emotion for Aizen and is completely delusional, apparently. Poor girl. Poor Hitsugaya, too, when you get right down to it. But he's alright; he has somebody to blame for his misfortune. But anyway, Yeah, Urahara's special training or Chad is just making him fight Renji. Renji's getting answers from Urahara out of the bargain. For his part, Urahara reflects that while Chad has room for growth, his powers is nothing like shinigami or Quincy powers. Also, Hollow. That's what Ichigo's failing to become here. Suspicious scene change? What suspicious scene change? I don't know what you're talking about. Seems like Orihime's closing in on the Visored, though. That's something.
So we have the King's Key's blood-scarlet * creation, and Hitsugaya's forced lightheartedness, or imitated gaiety if you will. Now let's see… Karakura town being the special magic place explains why Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki and Keigo have some amount of power… well, no it doesn't, but it does explain why they had the potential to get power. Also, if the Spirit King is a figurehead, that explains Aizen's comment about 'the throne of heaven' being empty, though I think most people already knew that. And check out that partial, one panel view of Mayuri. Seems a little odd that Kubo would hide a character we've already met, and his mouth and make-up looks a little different than what we're used to. Then we had some nice little motivation establishing for Hitsugaya; his main goal here is to kill Aizen, anything else is just a bonus in his eyes. Also nice to see that Hinamori's back on her feet, though of course it would've been sloppy characterization for her to just instantly accept that Aizen's really bad. Finally, we have hinting at Urahara's bankai. Still pretty vague, but the implication is that it's pretty nasty.
