I said it before - The old Composer died, and the new one was put in his place - a man called Szayel. He'd been an arrancar once - an evolved hollow - but his soul had so much sin on it from his life that he was put into Hell. Szayel...all he cares about is experiments, and he especially loves cruel ones.

[That bitter tone is back - but it vanishes as soon as Akira says that, his face softening.

Ah - what a gentle place he must have been from, to not have the option to be a reaper upon losing the Game.]

I'm - glad. That you got to choose.

I...didn't.

[He looks down for a second, before taking a deep breath and swallowing.]

I told you - how I died, right? That I was ritually murdered to become the Soul King?

[...]

That was only...half true. I was cut up, had my heart removed and all that, but - my body was still alive. It still is, inside that crystal.

What died was my consciousness, because the thing holding the worlds together doesn't need one. All it needs is to be strong enough to hold the worlds apart.

So, when I went through the Game - and I won - I couldn't be reincarnated or Erased, because....

Technically, I was still alive, while also being dead at the same time.

[Like the cat in the box, both alive and dead until the lid was opened - but in his case, the lid had been sealed shut forever.]

So I had a 'choice.' I could go back to my body - trapped inside the crystal, living limbless and wordless and not even being able to speak...Or....I could become a Reaper.

[He closes his eyes, face set and solemn.]

It wasn't really a choice at all.