Another Bleach chapter is out, so let's talk about it.
Spoilers after the cut.
I guess Aizen wasn't goofing with us this time.
Chapter 618 presents us with a couple of situations that should prove interesting, but at the moment we have no explanation for why things are moving in this direction.
Kyouraku clearly wants Aizen to leave his prison and come back to Seireitei. Why? Who knows?!
Ichigo and Bach are going to fight. Why? Who knows?!
If Hyousube is to be believed, Ichigo and friends have no chance of beating Bach, so I don't really see the point in bothering. It would appear that the Soul King's body has been stabilized by the right hand (Mimihagi-sama). Thus destruction is not imminent and the balance is intact.
Back to the prison, though. Aizen has somehow become able to approach Kyouraku with only one seal removed. If all the seals were in working order, he shouldn't have been able to move. And yet, with a mere one seal removed (and a bunch of keys remaining, if the box from last chapter is any evidence), Aizen is somehow able to become ambulatory. Not only that, his reiatsu is so strong that it melts lesser entities when they get too close to him.
Say what?
Of course, he and Kyouraku do a little dance that tells the reader precisely squat. I'm sure it's pretty and poetic, but it gives us little in the way of usable data. And there may be something lost in translation/interpretation.
Still, it's intriguing that Kubo has been able to maneuver the story in such a way that Aizen is not only NOT dead, but still a factor long after he should have been dead and/or irrelevant. What role could he possibly have in the fight against Bach? He's not going to take over for Kyouraku, is he? That would be a spectacular failure.
I find it difficult to believe that Aizen would be sent up to Reioukyuu either. Though he (allegedly) demonstrated no desire to help Bach, I think that sending him up there would do more harm than good.
Given that Kyouraku is a genius, I'm sure he thinks he's got a plan all worked out and that Aizen will somehow go along with it. And maybe he will. I, for one, wouldn't trust Aizen.
