Bleach/Aizen Stands! Horrible Ambitions

Aizen Stands! Horrible Ambitions
Season 3, Episode 20
Airdate	December 13, 2005
Production Number	61
Written by	Genki Yoshimura Masahiro Okubo Masashi Sogo Michiko Yokote Natsuko Takahashi Rika Nakase
Directed by	Noriyuki Abe
← 3x19 Reality of the Despair, the Assassin's Dagger is Swung	3x21 → Gather Together! Group of the Strongest Shinigami!
Bleach — Season Three

Aizen Stands! Horrible Ambitions is the twentieth episode of the third season of Bleach, and the sixty-first episode overall.

Co-Stars: Kate Higgins (Retsu Unohona), Jeannie Elias (Kiyone Kotetsu), Kyle Hebert (Sosuke Aizen), Wally Wingert (Renji Abarai), Doug Erholtz (Gin Ichimaru), Megan Hollingshead (Rangiku Matsumoto), Grant George (Izuru Kira), Beau Billingslea (Sajin Komamura)

Plot Overview

Renji and Rukia have just been transported to the execution grounds that they just escaped from by the clearly not dead Captain Aizen and his subordinate Captain Ichimaru. He demands that Renji step away from Rukia and allow them to go forward with their plan, although they don't explain what exactly that plan might be.

Back at the Central Office, Captain Unohona and her lieutenant care to the wounded and discover where the two captains just teleported to. When they find out that they're on the execution hill, Unohona sends Kotetsu to warn all of the captains, as well as the ryoka of Aizen's betrayal. She manages to reach everyone through a magic spell, including the two captains still fighting against their general, and belays what exactly is going on with Aizen. After the message has finished, Ichigo considers what he should do next, as do the rest of the people who received the message.

Renji refuses to allow Aizen to take Rukia from him, a move which nearly causes his arm to be severed by Aizen's sword. Aizen tries to appeal to Renji's nostalgia and tells him that he doesn't want to kill him because he cares for all of his subordinates. Renji isn't buying it though, considering that Aizen killed Momo earlier. Renji attacks with his shikai, but Aizen stops it with his bare hands and tears the sword segments asunder. With those fragments he wounds Renji to the point that he can't fight anymore. Despite being defenseless, Renji still refuses to let Rukia go. Aizen begins to swing the killing blow, but is stopped suddenly by Ichigo's bankai.

Before getting into the fight, Ichigo makes fun of Renji not even being able to run away properly before the two get serious about the fight ahead of them. Renji decides that running is futile and that he'd be better off fighting alongside Ichigo. He says that they can't possibly win against three captains, but they may be able to immobilize them and escape. Renji uses a technique that he claims will only work once to attack Aizen, so that Ichigo will have an opening with which to attack him head-on. Or, at least, that's the plan. Aizen easilly defeats both of them and makes his way towards Rukia to complete his plan.

Ichigo awakens and Aizen decides to tell Ichigo what role he played in his plan. He says that he knew that Ichigo and his friends would come for Rukia from West Rukongai because it is Urahara's power base. He knew that they would be forced to use the cannon to get in and that it would distract the captains. He used their existance to fake his own death and move around freely behind the scenes. He also tells them that Urahara was pulling their strings all along.

Aizen goes on to explain the rest of his plan. Because a soul reaper can only grow in his power until a certain point when all of the fighting skills are mastered, he decided that he could gain more power by erasing the line between soul reaper and hollow. He admits that some of the more powerful hollows were partially his doing, but none of them gave the results that he desired. Urahara, however, created something to accellerate the process. He quickly realized that the object was dangerous and hid it inside Rukia's soul because he couldn't destroy it. He explains that Urahara created an untracable faux body and was exiled for creating such an abomination, especially because a soul in the gigai loses its spirtual abilities until it becomes a regular human soul.

When Aizen gets to the point where the beginning of the series picks up, a giant Captain Komamura descends upon the hill and swings his sword at Aizen without hesitation.