Noblesse Oblige.

For the ability to counter the strongest Zanpakutou, Wonderweiss lost language, knowledge, memory, and even reason. Thus with this advantage Wonderweiss charges at Yamamoto. However, he failed to realize Yamamoto is  not reliant on his Zanpakutou, as he is physically powerful as well. With one punch, Yamamoto sends Wonderweiss flying and he tells Aizen he is the strongest shinigami in the last 1000 years. He shunpos to Aizen and attempts to uppercut him, but Wonderweiss intercepts. It turns out that one punch isn't enough to defeat Wonderweiss, so Yamamoto prepares to deal some serious damage. Wonderweiss makes many attempts to attack Yamamoto, but to avail. Yamamoto breaks off all his limbs and ends it with a double punch. Yamamoto tells Aizen it was cruel to strip away Wonderweiss's feelings, and Aizen responds that Yamamoto has taken his words too lightly, which caused him to overlook something. Wonderweiss's ability allowed him to seal Ryujin Jakka's flames, but those flames must be stored somewhere. It turns out they were stored in Wonderweiss's body, and now that his body has been shattered from Yamamoto's attack, all of Yamamoto's flames that were released earlier will explode at the same time. Yamamoto quickly realizes and runs to contain the explosion. Yamamoto succeeds in limiting the magnitude of the explosion so that only things in the barrier were blown up. However, this was at the cost of his body and stamina. Aizen steps in for the kill but Yamamoto has one last trick up his sleeve. He does Ittou Kasou, which is a self sacrificial Hadou that blows up the user's own body. Aizen realizes this attempt to finish him off and manages to dodge with minor injury. As he exits the smoke from the explosion he collides into a full powered Getsuga Tenshou from a Hollowfied Ichigo.

The attack damaged Aizen severely and Ichigo tries another to finish him off. But since Aizen is no longer caught off guard, he dodges the attack and smacks it away with his bare hands. Aizen tells Ichigo he missed his chance to kill him and then shows him the wound, which is rapidly being reconstructed. Aizen reveals he is unharmed because he has merged with the Hougyoku, and then proceeds to acclaim how Ichigo's reiatsu was well developed .. just like he planned. Ichigo remains shocked as Aizen tells him that everything from his meeting with Rukia to his battle with Ulquiorra was played in the palm of his hand. Ichigo refuses to believe him and Aizen manages to convince him. Ichigo asks why Aizen chose him and Aizen says that he has been aware of Ichigo since he was born, because Ichigo is half human - half shinigami.

Just at that moment, Ichigo's father Isshin appears between them. Ichigo is surprised and Isshin takes this time to headbutt him. He then grabs Ichigo and shunpos to a great distance away from Aizen and puts up a reiatsu masking barrier. While they are safe Isshin tells Ichigo he will explain everything, but Ichigo says he doesn't need to know - not until he finds out why his dad has hid this from him. However, for the time being, he does not want to trample on Isshin's feelings, and tells him he is fine not knowing anything. Back on Aizen's side, he notes that Gin has been watching and not fighting for a long time. Gin explains there was no need for him to intervene as Aizen is strong enough by himself. Just as he finished speaking, Ichigo strikes at him from behind. Gin blocks and tells Ichigo it has been a long time since they fought and he will go all out by finally releasing his Bankai. At the same time, Isshin cuts the building they were standing on in half, to separate Gin and Aizen, and begins attacking Aizen. At the flick of his finger, he manages to send Aizen flying through couple buildings.

Thoughts: I have two concerns with what happened. The first thing I want to say is that Yamamoto is dead ... without ever revealing his Bankai. >_< Usually when characters power up they tend to get healed, or their current woulds are negligible because they are stronger. Yamamoto had already defeated Wonderweiss so now there was nothing to counter his fire-based Bankai. Maybe I am just not fully grasping the gravity of the explosion and Yamamoto was already on the verge of death to shield it. The second thing that caught my attention was Isshin's strength. Yamamoto has just stated he was the strongest shinigami in 1000 years, but now Isshin is pretty much kicking Aizen's ass (by appearance, but there's a good chance he has never seen Aizen's Shikai either.) whereas Yamamoto died in the process. He looks around Kyoraku's age, but we haven't seen him in the flashback chapters so I guess maybe he is the generation before. Hopefully all will come to be explained soon.

Labels: Bleach, Manga