Characters: Aizen, Rangiku, Nanao, Hitsugaya, Mayuri, Hinamori
Summary: The other people Aizen considered recruiting.
Pairings: mentioned Shunsui x Nanao, mentioned GinRan, onesided HinaAizen
Warnings/Spoilers: Spoilers for Soul Society, Arrancar and Deicide arcs
Timeline: No time needed
Author's Note: I can't help but think that Aizen originally considered recruiting more people than Gin and Tousen.
Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach.
Mayuri, understandably, is the first person Aizen thinks of when he considers expanding the plot from just himself, Gin and Tousen. Whenever there is subterfuge going on in the Gotei Thirteen, either the Second or more commonly the Twelfth division is at the heart of it. Mayuri, ergo, is the reigning monarch of subterfuge and deception, and, Aizen knows, loves a good conspiracy.
Also, Aizen knows that if he attempts to recruit Mayuri and fails, there's a high chance Mayuri will either be too absorbed in his experiments and research to notice or that he simply won't care enough to inform the higher-ups.
Aizen throws himself into the task of recruiting Mayuri with gusto; all very subtly and non-specifically, of course. While his distrust of the Twelfth division captain is inherent and only reinforced by the unsubstantiated but highly widespread rumors that Mayuri has "clandestine" labs set up in the underground of the Twelfth division grounds where experiments of questionable legality and unquestionable immorality and lack of ethical caliber are held, the intellectual resources Mayuri possesses are vast and could become a huge asset to him, and Aizen is confident in his ability to control the man.
One night, Aizen's attempts to win Mayuri over to his side leads him to Mayuri's above-grounds, legally sanctioned laboratories, where he and Nemu alone are performing experiments.
While Aizen is discussing the finer points of subversion and conspiracy with his counterpart in the Twelfth division, he notices for the first time a door left slightly ajar in the back of the cluttered, quite full laboratory. The door is designed that, when closed, it will appear to simply be part of the wall, and, when Aizen squints, he can see the outline of a bookcase-like shelf, filled with boxes and labeled with markings he can't quite make out.
Just as he moves forward to investigate the boxes more closely, Nemu flash-steps beyond him and closes the door, standing with her body as a bar to keep him out.
Mayuri calls Aizen's attention.
Aizen makes several realizations that night.
One, is that the rumors of Mayuri keeping clandestine laboratories are almost certainly true.
Two, is that Mayuri is an even better secret-keeper than Aizen, because he has managed to keep the existence of these labs secret from Aizen, even with the rumors running rampant.
Three, is that Mayuri entertains ambitions of his own, and though Aizen doubts these ambitions include or even take into consideration godhood, they're enough that they might pose a problem in the future. Specifically, if Mayuri can't control his bloodlust, these ambitions of his are going to prove troublesome in future. Possibly in the near future.
Four: Having taken the first three factors into account, Aizen suddenly comes to the ultimate realization, that Kurotsuchi Mayuri is not a good potential co-conspirator and that Aizen will have to cancel all Hueco Mundo flight plans for the face-painted Shinigami.
For the present, Mayuri is pointing a scalpel (a scalpel covered in dark stains, Aizen notices somewhat nervously) in Aizen's direction, and Nemu is giving him the blank-eyed green stare for which she has become so notorious.
Mayuri, in calm tones with a nasty, toothy grin affixed to his painted face, gives Aizen two choices. Either he can leave, or Mayuri will allow him to stay if he agrees to volunteer for certain experiments.
Aizen has been in many uncomfortable, awkward and dangerous situations as this one before, and he knows of only one thing to do in such a situation.
Back away. Slowly.
Mayuri will have to be cut out of the plans. A pity; his daughter is such a lovely young woman.
Aizen sneaks back in to Mayuri's laboratories three nights later and pushes open the door that Mayuri and Nemu barred against him.
He takes notes. Extensive notes. Aizen finds in Mayuri's covert laboratories exactly what he was expecting to find.
If Mayuri ever decides that he wants to start chatting with Yamamoto or other captains about what has gone on between them, Aizen knows that it will be useful to have blackmail material on hand to keep Mayuri quiet.
.x.X.x.
Ise Nanao is not one whom most people would think that Aizen would even notice, let alone contemplate heavily upon. But she is.
Nanao is skilled at hiding. She always has been, and Aizen realizes that it's a testament to how good of a hider she is that he never really noticed her until she received promotion to become Kyouraku Shunsui's lieutenant.
She instinctively does not want to be noticed. She's the sort of girl that deliberately allows herself to fade into the background, because it is from there that she can the better watch and observe.
Nanao is law-abiding and highly intelligent. Strong too, the undercurrents of the river, the rapids hidden underneath the calm and tranquil surface.
In Nanao, Aizen sees someone as close to an intellectual rival as he has ever known. A skilled tactician. A wise and canny strategist. He considers allowing her into the ranks. Considers it strongly.
Then, he starts to notice.
The looks she flashes him with blue-violet eyes are anything but reverent. They're almost…almost too clear-seeing. As though Ise Nanao of the Eighth division can see clean through the shell of Aizen Sousuke's face and straight into his soul.
It's unsettling.
If he lets her get too close, she'll discover everything far too soon, and to his detriment. So Aizen doesn't approach Nanao, merely continues to look over her head.
Shunsui would have misinterpreted it, anyway, misread the situation, and tried to gut him for attempting to seduce his lovely little Nanao-chan.
.x.X.x.
There is only one reason Aizen even remotely considers roping Rangiku into his plots.
He needs to be able to control Gin.
Gin is unstable. Gin is an unknown quantity, an anomalous factor, a potential danger to Aizen, since he knows the boy harbors thoughts of killing him and can potentially implement those plans.
Rangiku, Aizen knows, is one of only two people whom Gin genuinely cares about, and the only person Ichimaru Gin has ever or will ever love. With her around, he can use the girl (unknowingly, of course) as leverage to keep Gin in line. Perhaps, just maybe, Aizen will be able to keep Gin from trying to kill him long enough for Aizen to get to the King.
But then again, there's just as much of a chance that Rangiku's presence on Hueco Mundo will just provide a distraction to Gin. And she in herself does not present too many assets to Aizen's plans: she is a formidable warrior, as could be expected of any lieutenant of the Gotei Thirteen, but she is not in and of herself outstanding.
It is for the same reason that Aizen does not consider recruiting Kira Izuru.
.x.X.x.
Though few would believe it if they were told, Aizen's original plans involved him taking his little lieutenant with him.
Aizen would prefer for no one to get the wrong idea. He does not, in any way shape or form care enough for little Hinamori to consider that it will shatter her to leave her alone when he leaves for Hueco Mundo. She is not significant enough to register as one of the people Aizen can not afford to alienate.
But she would be useful, in her own way. If there is one thing that Hinamori is good at, it's making herself useful, one way or another. Aizen does appreciate that about his young, pretty lieutenant.
So Aizen does consider letting her in on the plot and hauling her off to Hueco Mundo, if only because it would be absolutely hilarious to see the dumbstruck, open-mouthed look Hitsugaya would be sporting as she cheerily waved goodbye. Very hilarious, and very satisfying.
But no. That will not be happening.
Somewhere along the line, Aizen takes a step back and looks very hard at that lieutenant of his.
Hinamori is, as he always planned, highly reliant on him, but maybe Aizen's moulding of her to be reliant on him worked a little too well.
Scratch that. He knows it worked too well.
If Aizen took Hinamori with him, whenever they came to a battle she would always look to him before doing everything. She would never do anything, do so much as breathe without getting his approval first. She will never be able to stand on her own, never be capable of acting as one of his commanders.
She will have to be discarded.
But Aizen is sure that he will find some other use for Hinamori. She is proficient at making herself useful.
She has always been good at making herself useful.
.x.X.x.
In Hitsugaya, Aizen sees traits of his younger self. Hitsugaya is young and somewhat naïve, and somehow manages to be a prodigy anyway. He carries so much potential within him that it's almost—but not quite—frightening and, most importantly, he is starting to lose his idealism. He is starting to see that the upper levels of the Gotei Thirteen are not the all-powerful, all-knowing, flawless entity of his extreme youth.
Hitsugaya begins to see the cracks in the system. He sees that this society they all strive for is not a perfect place, not a utopian place, not even a particularly good place.
Aizen remembers what started him down the road he walks. He wakes up one day, stares the world around him, and realizes that it all needs to change. No one else can see it—see the imperfections of their world, see how cracked and flawed it is. Aizen is the only seeing man in a world full of the blind.
Therefore, Aizen is the only one who can change the world, since he's the only one who can see what needs to be fixed.
Hitsugaya's beginning to see it too.
It's too late now. Though Hitsugaya may come to the exact same conclusion as Aizen independently, there is no way he will ever join ranks with him now. The lines crossed are ones Hitsugaya would never dare to cross, still clinging to the tattered remnants of his idealism as he is.
But Aizen is sure, and more's the pity, that if he had just waited a few more years, Hitsugaya would have come to him willingly.