#because like he pulled kisuke's hogyoku out of rukia.

[keikakudori]

🔥 ( my bastard man peeking from behind his stupid little fan )

Send “🔥?” and my muse will admit whether they find your muse attractive or not.

❝ -- i'm never going to be that desperate. you're a pathetic, spineless hypocrite. you think that i'd ever find you attractive? no. nothing about you is remotely attractive. if anything, you're rather repulsive. i've never been attracted to you --- i will never be attracted to you. i'd rather tear your throat out with my teeth than ever turn even a hair of a fraction of the possibility in your direction. and even if i didn't? i know that gin would just as gladly do so. i have no wish nor desire to know what ever inspired you to seek an answer to this. everything about who you are and how you look is antithetical to myself. ❞ a momentary pause. ❝ and no --- not even if you were the last man in existence. not even then. but if you would prefer that i attempt to find whatever remains of your spine somewhere in your body, then stand still --- i have never been afraid of getting my hands dirty. ❞

[aizensamasuggestions]

Level with us - has there been a point since you left Soul Society where you've thought to yourself, "I would've been better off biding my time and eating those glasses-shaped cookies a while longer before pulling the trigger"? Or are you confident that the time when you executed your plan was the moment of maximum opportunity?

Level with you, Anonymous? There should be no need. It's patently obvious even to the most casual observer that several miscalculations regarding the nature of Kuchiki Rukia's friends and family significantly altered my plans.

From the very start.

It should not escape your notice that I very carefully chose the two people in the entire Gotei 13who should have had the most trouble obeying the order to bring Rukia back "dead or alive."

Her brother and her best childhood friend.

Anonymous, if I had merely wanted Rukia back and summarily executed, I would have sent Soi Fon.

Like a fool, I thought that an elder brother and a best childhood friend would never obey such an overtly illegal and illegitimate order to bring Rukia back "dead or alive." She committed a crime, yes, but it was a mere infraction. No one should have seen Central's decision to execute her as just.

It should be chilling, Anonymous, that the Soul Society is such a depraved place that literally no one even blinked.

I will admit, even I was shocked by that. Because I very carefully added "or dead" to the order for a reason, Anonymous. I thought that Kuchiki Byakuya would be smart enough to concoct a plan to bring Central 46 Rukia's body. Urahara Kisuke's gigai are works of genius. Surely, between Kuchiki and Abarai, they could have found a way to deliver the gigai--with the hogyoku fused inside--to me, directly. They could have then very easily have squirreled Rukia away into a nobles only enclave for safe-keeping.

I did not expect to have to go through with the execution option.

Clearly, I failed to calculate in the fact that Central 46's order would not only be followed blindly, but also that neither Kuchiki Byakuya nor Abarai Renji had a spine between them.

They eventually grew one, but, in Kuchiki's case, only after it was revealed that I was behind Central 46's orders. Abarai behaved more as I expected, but not nearly swiftly enough. How many times did I have to move that execution date before he acted?

At least twice.

Foolishly, I thought both Kuchiki and Abarai were better men. Better friends. Better family.

They failed utterly in that regard, and that very clearly sent me into a scramble. I had been quietly building my defenses in Las Noches for decades and had hoped, after my dramatic faked death, to simply slip away in the night. But without the gigai, and thus Urahara's hogyoku, in my possession, I could not.

Once again, the only person who I could trust to behave boldly, bravely, and without fear of consequence was Hinamori Momo. In order to provide some chaos cover, I was forced to write a letter with enough truth in it so that she, alone, would act, and act immediately. Apparently, the rest of the Gotei are such dogs of the military that you can put out a CLEARLY ILLEGAL EXECUTION ORDER and all of them will just nod, and, say, "Tut, tut, bad day for Rukia. So sad." Even my Momo needed more than Rukia's execution to spur her to action, so I had to fake my death earlier in the game than hoped.

Such disappointing turns of events.

It took the invasion of Kurosaki Ichigo to light a fire under these utterly cowardly and mindless sheep. I had to keep pulling more an more egregious strings--including allowing Captain Hitsugaya to "uncover" our plan before the Gotei finally realized that maybe, just maybe they shouldn't trust Central 46 or consider the fact that Rukia's crime didn't even begin to match the punishment.

I had thought that my constantly shifting plan was obvious. I'm grateful to see that you, at least, were fooled.

I did have a perfect plan. Unfortunately, it depended on soldiers willing to stand up to an illegal order.

It should not have surprised me as much as it did that the Gotei failed. Nearly each and every one of them, with the sole exception of my Momo.

[theseathatsparkles]

faraway (pt.1) (feat. time traveling byakuya)

mmm ive been sitting on this for so long and i finally decided to just post what i have edited. i’ll definitely post more eventually, but i just got a dog so production might be slow. 

so anyways, have some time traveling byakuya

faraway

noun 1. very distant, remote; 2. abstracted; dreamy

***

Kyoka Suigetsu rips through Kurosaki's chest, and Byakuya knows the war is over.

***

"A senkaimon," says Byakuya. His voice is hoarse and it cracks halfway through the statement, but Kisuke is polite enough not to say anything. The pink scars marring Byakuya's throat really aren't his business. "Why?"

Kisuke smiles, but both he and Byakuya know the grin is as fake as the cheery tone Kisuke plasters over his voice. "I've found a way back to Soul Society," he says, and it isn't entirely a lie. He can't tell Byakuya the full truth, though; Byakuya will insist that it's Kisuke who goes through the senkaimon, and Kisuke can't waste precious time arguing. Aizen's coming, Kisuke can feel it, and Byakuya needs to be gone. "It's only stable for one person at a time, but I'll follow you once you're through."

Byakuya's silver eyes widen with incredulous delight, and Kisuke can't help but feel a little bad for the deception. "How did you do it? Aizen blocked off all the -"

"Don't worry about it," says Kisuke dismissively. "It has to do with physics and space-time and technology for gargantas and really, it isn't a problem right now. Just take Senbonzakura and go."

Luckily, Byakuya isn't quite smart enough to question the vague answer, and he's halfway into the senkaimon before he stops and turns around. "You'll follow me, right?" He asks softly, and Kisuke is suddenly and horribly reminded of how young Byakuya is. Hardly three hundred years old; still practically a child.

"Of course," says Kisuke. This time, his words are entirely a lie.

***

The moment Byakuya steps into the senkaimon, he knows that Kisuke lied to him. This senkaimon feels nothing like the familiar portals to Soul Society that Byakuya is used to; isntead, his vision is filled with colors and sounds, blurry scenes that Byakuya can't quite make out. He can feel the senkaimon pulling at his reiatsu, and the gaping scars along his neck that making talking so difficult burn.

Black spots appear at the edges of Byakuya's vision, and he mentally curses Kisuke. Of course the story about getting back to Soul Society was a lie. Byakuya knows that Aizen had used the hogyoku to make travel between Soul Society, the World of the Living, and Hueco Mundo impossible for anyone without Aizen's express permission. And yet Byakuya had been so desperate for a way back to his home that he'd believed Kisuke's obvious lie.

If anything, he'd...

Byakuya's world goes black, and for a long time, he doesn't think anything at all.

***

Byakuya doesn't quite wake up so much as he jolts into sudden alertness. Senbonzakura hums at his side, and Byakuya feels a sudden wave of panic hit him from the bond he has with his zanpakuto. He sends calming thoughts at Senbonzakura until the rush of emotion recedes, and Byakuya promises to meditate and talk to his sword when he has the chance.

After this lightning-quick pause, Byakuya looks up to find out where the senkaimon had taken him, and is confronted with an impossible scene.

Renji, red hair pulled back into a familiar ponytail, skin flushed with blood and adrenaline, stands over Kurosaki, who is very much alive. A few metres away, Rukia lies on the ground, eyes watery and expression desperate. Blood drips from Kurosaki's nose, and a faint sheen of sweat shines on Renji's forehead.

Byakuya's eyes widen, and he makes a very undignified, un-Kuchiki noise. This is impossible. He knows this because Byakuya has had nightmares about this before, nightmares about the scene in front of him. This is where everything started to go wrong. This can't be happening, and...

...and Kisuke had said something about space-time before Byakuya had stepped into the modified senkaimon. Had said that he'd found a way back into Soul Society.

The part of Byakuya's brain that still believes in things being rational immediately dismisses the idea slowly forming in Byakuya's mind. The part of his brain that has seen Kisuke work before and knows exactly how smart the ex-captain is tells the rational part of his brain to shut up.

"Goddamn genius," he mutters, and isn't entirely surprised when the words come out smooth and undamaged, when his throat doesn't ache with the effort of talking. Byakuya brings up a hand against his neck, and the skin there is clean and unblemished. Urahara Kisuke is a goddamn genius, and if anyone could send Byakuya back in time, it would be him.

Byakuya opens his mouth to say something, anything, to tell Rukia he's sorry he let her die and that there was never a day where he didn't think of Renji. He wants to tell Kurosaki how to survive, how to defeat Aizen...

Aizen, who is most certainly watching the scene playing out. No, Byakuya can't say anything just yet. Tipping Aizen off to his knowledge would be a suicidal move. A move he can't afford to make.

"Fukutaicho," Byakuya says, careful to keep his voice steady. Kurosaki should be recovering right about now, and Byakuya doesn't want to see Renji hurt. He ignores Renji's blink at the use of the title and no name; Byakuya doesn't think he can say Renji's name without breaking down and telling him how much Byakuya loves him. "Do not waste your time on the Ryoka boy." It's too easy to fall into the role of the Head of the Kuchiki Clan, and Byakuya hates it.

Renji sighs, but pulls Zabimaru away from Kurosaki's throat. Kurosaki looks furious at the slight, even as his blood drips on the ground.

"Taicho, he stole Rukia's powers," Renji says, and really, Byakuya almost wants to laugh. Renji shouldn't be worried about this. Renji should be worried about the megalomaniac who has already murdered the 46.

"I am quite aware," Byakuya responds, tone crisp in the way it only is when he's trying to hide his emotions. "Central 46 made it quite clear what her crimes are. However, wasting your energy on a human is not befitting of your station."

Giving Kurosaki a dirty look, Renji finally steps back. He's angry, that much is obvious, but Byakuya refuses to feel bad. As much as Byakuya loves Renji, there are things more important than Renji's hurt feelings right now.

Things like keeping everyone Byakuya loves alive.

[lo-55]

Shattered Chains of Fate Ch. 13

End of an Era

 Ichigo was going to kiss Yoruichi for teaching him how to move so damn fast.

 Or maybe just buy her a bunch of over priced cat food.

 Yeah, that sounded better.

 Something to show her that he appreciated what she’d done when she had drilled him between bouts with Zangetsu when he was learning his new skills and techniques. It was more or less like a second ascension, this Bankai he’d learned to use.

 (One day, all in all, and he had shattered so many swords even EMIYA would have been hard pressed to keep pace with him, before he finally found the right ones. He had to. After the show they'd put on Rukia was scheduled to die in just one day, barely enough time to prepare a scaffold.)

 If she hadn’t shown him how to use reitsu to launch himself off the ground and really move faster, he would have never gotten there in time. He would have never arrived in time to see Gin, the man who had attacked him at the Shiba house, half covered in ice and a man next to him completely coated while Rukia stood over a bleeding Renji.

 Ichigo had barely noticed she’d been pulling on his powers again. Yet there she stood, a perfect white blade held in steady hands, and determination pinching her brows.

 He came just in time to see Kyo shatter her zanpakuto into snow flakes with his bare hands and hit her with the roughest kido Ichigo had seen yet before grabbing her by the horrible red collar that was still stuck around her throat.

 “Hey!” Ichigo shouted, levelling his sword point at him. “Drop her.”

 Frantically, he searched Kyo’s eyes for that flash of recognition from before. There was nothing. Just calm, flat brown eyes. It was just like when they’d first met, only this time Kyo is a much better liar. He looks docile, even though he’s holding Rukia by the neck. Mild and kind.

 Ichigo isn’t fooled. He hasn’t been fooled by Kyo for a long, long time.

 “Ichigo Kurosaki. You’re quite the interesting one. Sad to say you’ll have to tell Kisuke that your mission ended in failure.” Kyo waves his hand and chants a spell and light smashes into Ichigo from all sides. It’s the same spell Byakuya had used in the human world, just a billion times stronger. Kyo rips the ribbon off of Rukia’s wrist and Ichigo’s power fades from her, leaving her in the simple white kimono.

 Ichigo paused, frowning. He is loath to attack Kyo without knowing more about what he’s doing here, or where he’s been. Is he the captain that had ‘died’? It sounds like something he would do. He’s smart enough to fake his own death.

  “What does he have to do with this?” Just because he opened a gate for them?

 Kyo smiles, a smug phantom, and Ichigo realizes suddenly that he’s been chasing on thread on a tapestry the entire time.

 He’s completely missed a bigger picture.

 “Did you not wonder why Gin came to visit you? Or knew where you were? It was because I knew you would arrive in western rukongai. I even had him waiting at the gate for you, in case you charged in. You see, I knew you would have to use the Shiba canon. With such a dramatic entrance-”

 “It left you free to move around without anyone noticing,” Ichigo cut in. He narrowed his eyes. “You used us as a distraction. Was it you who brought Rukia back, to lure us in? Why the west?”

 “In part,” Kyo tilted his head, the smile still in place. “And the west was simple. That is where Urahara Kisuke’s referencial residence is, you know… oh.”

 Ichigo grit his teeth. His temper was starting to flare, and with it so was his reitsu. Urahara had been using them for something. Kyo was using them for something. He wasn’t a damn puppet!

 “I was under the impression that you were his subordinate. That you came here on his orders. I see now. So he told you nothing at all about what was happening here, or who I am or what I might be doing. I bet he didn’t even tell you about what he needed Rukia here for.”

 Ichigo listened with half an ear as Kyo explained about the limits of shinigami powers, and the only way to break through them. The only way that Kisuke had ever found to break through them.

 Hollow hybrids. White masks. Holes in the chest. Still shinigami. Rukia was just a container, and a hiding place.

 Ichigo grips Zangetsu tighter. He stands somewhere between the present and the past. America and seireitei blur together and he struggles to piece apart the Kyo he knows and the man who stands before him, cold smiles and distant dreams. He is insubstantial and untouchable.

 The bindings on his arms tighten.

 Without warning the world explodes under a massive sword stroke from-

 A werewolf?

 *

 A day before the execution, after they have been freed by a wanna be porcupine,Uryu wonders if he’s ever admired so or been so afraid of a girl that chases butterflies before.

 Orhihime had changed somehow during the fight they’d had with Mayuri Kurotsuchi. Before that she had skittered around fights, even when they’d first been attacked. Uryu had vowed to protect her, but somewhere between the explosion at the start and the wall of gold that signalled the end of the fight she had changed.

 Oh, she was still kind. Still gentle. She treated their former enemies with care and healed them back up to their fullest potential. She greeted their strange, rambunctious new allies with smiles and delight.

 But when it came time to fight she didn’t hesitate anymore. She picked her target and put them on the ground, missing limbs most of the time. She hadn’t killed anyone since the Mayuri, no one else had deserved he guessed. At least not in her mind.

 But she was vicious and determined when she had to be.

 She was also, apparently, a frightening hand to hand fighter.

 Uryu watched with muted horror as she and the little pink terror cleared the way for the rest of them to march up the hill, where Ichigo was.

 “Geez,” Ganju scrubbed his hand over his head. “Why are women so damn scary all the time?”

 “I wish I could tell you,” Uryu winced in pity when Orihime slammed someone into a wall with enough force to crack it.

 She turned to them with a bubbling smile. “Let’s go! We need to hurry everyone!”

 “Yeah,” Yachiru bounced at her side, blood on her tiny knuckles. “Let’s go lets go! Maki Maki let’s gooooo~”

 Aramaki gave a long suffering sigh. “It’s not the worst nickname she’s given me… Okay, it’s a le-”

 “To the right!” Yachiru declared.

 “...we’re gonna be late.”

 * *

 The werewolf lasts a total of twelve seconds before Kyo goes right back to monologuing. Ichigo almost pities him.

 “Of course, once you were here,” he said with only a small under current of smugness, “I assassinated the entire Central 46.”

 Ichigo stares at him, and starts laughing.

 He can’t help it.

 After everything Kyo had told him before about the way this place was run, he’d finally offed them.

     Maybe I shouldn’t have told him to ask Robin how to commit a coup?  

 He can’t help feeling it's partially his own fault, and entirely justified. If no one even questioned the orders sent out they were clearly just as power hungry and arbitrary as Kyo had described, all those years ago.

 “Sorry, sorry,” he waves his hand as best as he can, feeling hysterical and worn out in all the worst ways. Somewhere under the betrayal is the twisting need to understand everything. This hogyoku, trapped inside of Rukia, was some kind of super powerful object. He’s getting sick of those.

 “Sorry,” he says a third time and finally manages to get himself under control. “Okay, so your grand plan failed. Give me Rukia and we’ll all go our separate ways. Or, no,” he holds up a hand to stop Kyo from speaking. His mind turns. He still knows Kyo. He still knows how he thinks, even if Kyo doesn’t know him anymore. “You’ll have a back up plan.”

 Kyo looked mildly miffed at being interrupted.

 “You’re impertinent.”

 “You know that old man said something like that when I told him to grow a brain, too.”

 “...My point stands. All the same, you’re right. There’s another way. Another method developed by Kisuke Urahara. “ Kyo held up a small cylinder and tapped it on Rukia’s chest. A hole opened up.

 Ichigo twisted and thrashed. A burst of energy shattered the bindings at last, but by the time Kyo had already pulled out something from Rukia’s chest. Small, faintly glowing and blue.

 The energy hit him suddenly. Unshielded, unfettered energy.

     The curl of fog. Electricity along his skin. Children lost in the river. Sorrow. A desperate wish for change.  

 Kyo pulled his fist back to strike Rukia. Ichigo lifted his left hand, pouring power into it. He’d done it a million times before. He’d never done it alone. He’d never done it as a ghost.

 “      Gandr!    ”

 Kyo freezes. Ichigo darts forwards, his hands outstretched. He gets knocked off course at the last second by Gin’s zanpakuto. He ends up stumbling, and wasting precious few seconds while the spell holds. He doesn’t have time to think of the how or the why, only that it works, but now he only has time for one.

 Rukia or the Hogyoku.

 Rukia or the _______

 It’s not even a question. He snatches her off the ground and rolls to protect her body.

 He comes to a stop hovering above her, Zangetsu raised in defense.

 Kyo twitches back to life a heartbeat after and looks at him with new eyes.

 “An interesting kido, I’ve never seen it before,” he says idly. “You really should have taken the Hogyoku. It’s much more valuable than one girls life. Even a noble one.”

 “I don’t give a shit about any of that. Kings or rebels, gods or demons, the only part I care about is if they’re my friends. You should know that!”

 “Should I?”

 The words bite harder than anything else. Ichigo actually flinches.

 He opens his mouth to say something before a blur shoots out of nowhere. Yoruichi lands with a knife to Kyo’s throat.

 No, he’s not Kyo anymore, is he?

 * * *  

 Kisuke hated having to make the call. He really, really did.

 He wanted to have faith in Ichigo, but he was no fool. He knew he needed to be prepared for the worst case scenario. He knew that Ichigo, as bewildering of a child as he was, could still fail against Aizen.

 Probably would fail.

 But he needed Ichigo for other reasons. He needed him stronger. He needed him more motivated. He needed him to see first hand just what he was up against, and how desperately they needed to put a stop to it.

 Ichigo wouldn’t forgive him for his trickery. Another sin Kisuke could live with.

 He did have to wonder what was going to happen to Ichigo now. He’s already lost faith with his father. If he hadn’t already he soon will lose faith in Kisuke, and Yoruichi too.

 What will happen to an already isolated boy when he’s further pushed away?

     “It’s heavy,” Ichigo says, his brown eyes dark and distant. The brilliance he’d displayed during their spars is gone. The vicious gleam and the near recklessness on him is gone, tempered and stamped down.  

     “Heavy?” Kisuke repeats, eying this boy. Perhaps not as much of a boy as Kisuke had thought. He’s seen eyes like these before.  

     “The weight of their lives.  

 So he makes the call and he gathers the army, scant as it is.

 * * * *

 Kon likes this guy, and the lady too.

     She’s    terrifying, and she nearly killed him the first (and only) time he tried to cop a feel, but the second she met the girls she basically adopted them. Kon would have left them in the spare house, but neither of them was letting him go anywhere without at least one of them.

 They have a trick where they go invisible, it makes it easier for every day life.

 The guy is fun. He’s agreeable and gentle, and he doesn’t mind people watching with Kon. Even if he would rather go fishing most days. He’s kinda weird, too, and he insists that Kon practice fighting regularly. Ichigo’s body knows what he’s doing, if nothing else.

 They wile away the summer days while waiting for Ichigo to return.

 * * * * *

 They’re surrounded by people. Enemies and allies, all of them focused the man Ichigo had once called friend. A man he would have trusted with his life.      Had    , trusted with his life.

 Blades gleam in the sunlight and fury weighs heavy across the battlefield. Rukia lies beneath him, her strength vanished, and one man comes to stand between them. His hands are red and raw and his hair is faintly damp but Byakuya puts himself between the pair of them and the traitor.

 “He’s surrounded. It’s over now,” Byakuya says surely.

 “Don’t be an idiot,” Ichigo cuts in. He raises to his knees, then his feet. “He wouldn't come this far without a back up plan.”

   The sky splits open. Ichigo hates it when he’s right.

 Beams of light encompass the three traitors and throw everyone else aside. They’re untouchable inside of them, and menos grande hover at the mouth of the tear, floating through it. Dragging them up and out of reach.

 There’s a buzzing in his ears. Fury roaring under his skin.

 “No one starts at the top.”

     “I was born in the-”  

 “From the very start, no one has stood upon the heavens. Not you, not I, nor even gods. However, that intolerable vacuum has come to an end. Henceforth...I shall stand upon the heavens.”

 All Ichigo can think as he watches      (Kyo)     Sousuke get swallowed by a hoard of menos and darkness is just what the      fuck    happened in the last two hundred years?      

 “Farewell shinigami, and Ryoka. You were… interesting.”

 Brown eyes watch Ichigo, and Ichigo alone as the darkness closes in around him.

 * * * * * 

[midnightactual]

Some Thoughts on the Hōgyoku

I initially talked this out with @mysteriousshopkeeper​ and then wrote it up for @sphaeraa​ to look at. It’s been somewhat edited since then. It mostly concerns my thoughts on what was going on between Kisuke, Aizen, and their two Hōgyokus. While that isn’t exactly Yoruichi’s wheelhouse, it has some bearing on her thoughts on what happened later, so, that’s why I wrote it out. I know the former is working on some extended meta regarding it, so I thought I’d put it up.

People seem to tend to want to think of ‘early’ Bleach (the first 70%, up to Aizen’s defeat and the timeskip) like it’s Death Note: this grand game between Aizen and Kisuke like they’re Light and L. I don’t think that’s really the case. I think they were the grandest pawns of the Hōgyoku. This all started from a link on the nature of the Hōgyoku as it relates to the Soul King, and it got me thinking...

So, what does the Soul King want? Just bring reunified is a rather transitory objective. What does it want after that? Revenge on the Shinigami? Freedom? Nirvana? I think after a million years (or 70,000 in my HCs) of torment, its foremost goal would just be ending its own suffering, whether that be through death or departure. So, it should follow that the parts of it want the same thing.

If that's the case, then the easiest way to free itself, most certainly, is to be free of the need for it to exist as it does: i.e., to reformat the universe to not require it. The current arrangement of the cosmos broadly follows that of Buddhism:

God’s Realm: Soul Society (inc. Soul King’s Palace)

Human Realm: Earth

Demigod Realm: ??? Quincy Realm?

Animal Realm: ??? Not a place but a state?

Hungry Ghost Realm: Hueco Mundo

Hell Realm: Hell

(The Soul King’s Palace seems less like a separate dimension from Soul Society than a part of the same dimension, whatever the wiki says. You can’t skydive from Hueco Mundo to Hell, for example.)

(It also seems to me that the Quincy occupy the same position with regard to the Shinigami as the Asura who inhabit the Demigod Realm do to the Gods. It also seems notable that there is no one in European history a thousand years ago who really matches Yhwach, which implies his conquests weren’t taking place on Earth. The simplest answer, to my mind, is that there is a sort of Quincy realm. And what happened to that in canon? Well... it probably became Soul Society Western Branch. It’s either that or the analogy with Buddhism is only partial, as there seems to be a repeated emphasis in CFYOW on ‘the three realms’.)

This organization is maintained by the Soul King. If it goes, the whole thing falls apart... seemingly. But to maintain it is to suffer. As it is, to escape the Soul King would have to kill all the Shinigami or be rebound. Even Yhwach, its supposed ‘son’, simply absorbed its powers. Even he didn’t offer escape, as he failed and was cut down into the new Soul King; and even if he’d succeeded, the remnants of the Soul King would’ve been bound to his vision, not the Soul King’s own.

So what does the Soul King want, and what were the Hōgyokus and later The Hōgyoku trying to do? Well, if the goal was to escape, then here’s my theory:

Kisuke develops Hoagie 1, uses it on the Vizard, and doesn’t quite know what it does exactly but decides it’s dangerous.

Unbeknownst to him, Aizen is developing Hoagie 2, and using it for nefarious things like absorbing people’s souls in part or wholesale.

Kisuke decides to hide Hoagie 1 in Rukia on her first mission to the human world that she can’t recall. This is rather early on in her career as a Shinigami, either before or after Kaien’s death, so it’s inside her soul for 40–50 years. Why her? Maybe she was just there, maybe he saw there was something unique about her, who knows.

Hoagie 1 either therefore sees what happens with Kaien (as a result of Aizen’s continued experiments), or knows of it from her memories (or future timeline, depending!). Either way, it spends far more time with her than anyone else, and is likely soaking in her thoughts and desires. Rukia rather plainly loved Kaien and was quite influenced by his philosophy.

Rukia’s rather unique in terms of her ethical perspective. I found this piece on it. So maybe Hoagie 1 can sense that within her philosophy is a means for the Soul King to be free. However, she doesn’t have enough power to do it on her own. (Though it’s notable that Rukia [and Renji] manage to achieve bankai in very short order despite being nobodies from Rukongai when even the Great Noble Clans only yield up someone who can do bankai every few generations, isn’t it?)

Hoagie 1 starts talking to Hoagie 2, because they’re entangled, and they begin to put in motion a plan to produce the power needed for this, which also coincides with a scenario to unite them so they will be one complete and delicious sandwich. (This is remarkably similar to the plot of Neuromancer, wherein two AIs that are designed to fit together into a single super-AI, maneuver humans around to achieve that end.)

Hoagie 1 and Hoagie 2 gradually contrive a situation which draws in Isshin, uncle of Kaien, along with Aizen and his prototype White, and Kisuke, along with Masaki. The result is eventually Ichigo, a being who fuses all the major powers into one package and who also just happens to look and act a lot like Kaien. (Whether Ichigo is “patterned upon” Kaien, or is some kind of nexus event the Hoagies saw in the future timelines, or is “destined” and Kaien is merely his foreshadowing... and indeed if Rukia had Hoagie 1 while Kaien was alive... are all interesting questions but a bit beside the point.)

Eventually, Ichigo and Rukia meet. Aizen will later claim this is his doing, but he takes credit for everything and for some reason seems to believe that he’s immune to the effects of the Hoagies because he knows what they really do, as though that’s any defense. More than likely, he is simply doing what is necessary and thinking it’s his own will (especially because he’s self-betraying and doesn’t really want to be Soul King himself). Kisuke, meanwhile, already has objectives that broadly align with that of the Soul King and the Hoagies (the destruction/replacement of the current cosmology) so he doesn’t need much coaxing.

Aizen attributes Rukia’s loss of powers to her guilt, but it’s likely just as much that Ichigo always desired the power to protect and took her powers as much as she gave them. Probably an equal push-pull thing. Either way, Ichigo and Rukia begin an upward power spiral which will continue throughout the series, giving them more and more power. 

Hoagie 1 also creates ‘lancers’ and proxies to accompany and support them, by empowering Chad, Orihime, and Tatsuki with spiritual abilities despite being ‘sealed’ in Rukia. (This alone is evidence that such ‘sealing’ doesn’t prevent its actions whatsoever.) Not much will come of Tatsuki but you don’t always land every hit. (Aside: this means that Ichigo, Rukia, Chad, Orihime, and by association Uryū might be called... Hoagie’s Heroes.)

Hoagie 2 meanwhile ensures that Aizen finds the means to safely remove Hoagie 1 from Rukia’s soul as a “backup.”

Hoagie 1 and Hoagie 2 are eventually reunited into The Hoagie, the Ultimate Sandwich. Aizen eats it.

Aizen’s behavior in Karakura is very strange, erratic, and arrogant, enabling Ichigo to show up and beat him, especially when The Hoagie begins to reject him. It basically causes Aizen to fail, because his role is essentially over.

Although The Hoagie is stuck with Aizen, its plan continues on inertia. Ichigo and Rukia go onward, having become the linchpin of Kisuke’s own efforts to (unknowingly) continue the plan. (Hence: “Kurosaki, Kuchiki, I leave it to you.”)

All of this gets messed up with Yhwach’s own timeline selection nonsense, which causes this plan to fail at the 11th hour, and results in him being chopped up and imprisoned as the new Soul King instead.

But the game is still afoot. If Ichigo and Rukia during TYBW are the equivalent of Paul Atreides in Dune, then perhaps there is still a Leto II (or Duncan Idaho) waiting in the wings to complete the plan and take everyone onto the Golden Path. It could be that Ichika and Kazui have a kid together, or it could be in the thousands of years of the rest of their lives that Ichigo and Rukia do, or it could be someone that they aren’t actually related to but have influenced will try and change things, or all of the above, or something else entirely. The particulars don’t really matter too greatly. Because if nothing else, Kisuke is still out there, dissatisfied with the shape of things. And so too is Aizen.

So, my view is that Kisuke, and thus the Urahara Shōten (to include Yoruichi) are thus likely still aligned with this goal of destroying the existing cosmology through basically rebooting the universe (initially in Ichigo and Rukia’s hands), operating off a plan set in motion by the Hōgyoku to free the Soul King.

Although that plan has clearly fallen apart, it thus stands to reason that this remains the overall goal of the Urahara Shōten, as both Kisuke and Yoruichi seem very dissatisfied with the cosmological setup for their own reasons. This means that they’re basically the Team Rocket of Bleach. (Is Tessai their Meowth?) 

Also, just as an aside... the Japanese maple, Acer palmatum, has a common Japanese name of “Hogyoku” (1, 2) It’s also called “Benihime”. And the names Shihouin and Kuchiki mean “Four Maple Court”, and “Rotten Wood”, respectively. Just a strange but interesting pattern...