Well finally Ichigo takes on Aizen and actually gets ahead of the game. Actually scoring a direct hit on Aizen which is more then anyone expected of him and now we find that Aizen has the Hogyoku imbedded in his chest and thus allowing him to heal his injuries. We also learn some pertinent things about Aizen. He apparently holds hollowfication in low regard for whatever reason and wouldn't engage in it himself. The fact that he has had the Hogyoku all this time makes one question how much of his overpowering skill was him alone or just him being powered by the Hogyoku. Something that will most likely becoming a raging debate that may never be clearly answered.
The only real issue I had with the chapter was the beginning portion of the chapter.
>It was ambiguous as to the fate of the captain commander. Aizen insinuates sacrifice but isn't specific if he is actually gone and the panels don't clearly indicate anything. Aizen's words dont really make sense either its somewhat Incoherent. On one side if the captain-commander is gone then the Gotei 13 is done. At least twice Aizen has stated that without Yama there is no Gotei 13 and if he dies so does the history of soul society. It also brings up the point that why would the captain commander use a technique he couldn't guarentee would take out his opponent for certain it doesn't seem like a move he would make. You don't live 2,000 plus years by being rash. The other option is that if something did happen Orihime can always bring him back but that is unlikely as Kubo has yet to bring back anyone important using her ability, thus negating the point of doing this in the first place. Suffice to say no one is qualified for his spot. No one else has the same or close to same level of respect, loyalty, resolve, personality or power to be in his position and there is still alot missed. Maybe he is actually fine and there are details we have yet to fully understand at the moment. Only time will tell before we can accurately determine whats going on.
> The biggest issue that I had with this chapter was the end. Aizen states some things about Ichigo that seems out of place. He knew Rukia was in the human world and he was searching for her because she had the hogyoku inside her. The the fact that she met Ichigo doesn't seem important enough for him to have noted being as he wasn't looking for Ichigo. The makes note of Ichigo's fight with Ishida which is also out of place Ichigo wasn't an issue at that point how could he have known about that fight. Granted he was watching Ichigo upon his entrance into Seireitei so yea he may have knowledge about his fight Zaraki but not about what affect it had on his development of bankai which didn't take place until his second encounter with Byakuya on the bridge. How would he have known about Ichigo's fight with Renji unless he was watching Rukia being taken into custody. The hollow possession he experienced was barely a minute how can he have known about that battle with Byakuya having an affect on that. While he obviously was monitoring the battle with grimmjow how did he know Ichigo mastered his hollow mask (not entirely true, as he has not shown use of any hollow related powers, he just has kept it on longer). There is no way for him to have known what transpired between him and Ulquiorra as he wasn't even in the dimension at the time, having left on a more pressing concern. There is no factual basis for him to say that he has been manipulating Ichigo at all, as interest in him didn't start until about the arrancar arc. The first incursion he didn't sanction the second wasn't even about Ichigo and then hueco mundo he wasn't involved remotely, he wasn't even really shown behind any of the fights Grimmjow wanted to fight him on his own and Ulquiorra seemd to be trying to prove a point. There's just holes in that entire declaration and its not believable (Seemingly a common component of Aizen's character creation).