To Steal From Thieves

Thougths

Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach or the characters within.

A/N: New chapter is up, so please read and review :D

Chapter Three: Our Daily Bread

His hand closed around one of her breasts while his mouth licked and teased the other one. The girl beneath him squirmed and moaned in delight. He bit down on one of her nipples. The temperature in the room was nearly unbearable but it didn't bother Keisuke at all. He moved his right hand from her breast to her belly never stopping with his ministrations on the other one. Calloused fingers made their way towards her right hip down to her womanhood. She is already that wet. He grinned. One finger slipped inside of her searching for that soft spot that would drive her near the edge. With his thumb he caressed the small bundle of nerves at the apex of her thighs. Her head flew back against the mattress and a small toneless cry escaped her lips. Her hands tugged at his hair.

Most of the women were just too easy to please. He continued his ministrations. A second finger joined the first one and he started to scissor them. Her moans and cries of pleasure only fuelled his own desire. He withdrew his hand and reared back spreading her legs to make a place for himself. He didn't hesitate nor did he wait for her agreement. With a thrust he forced himself deep inside her. His right hand gripped a fistful of her blonde locks but besides that his body didn't move. A frown appeared at the blondes face. He was teasing her.

"Please" She begged him and her hips rocked desperately against him.

"Please what?" He leaned down to cover one of her full breasts with his mouth.

"Please move…"

With that he began to thrust into her. His strokes weren't slow or languidly but hard and rough and the woman beneath him cried out in pure pleasure. Her hands scratched across his back never standing still while he fastened his pace. He was very close. One of his hands reached between her thighs to press against the bundle of nerves and they climaxed together.

Keisuke finally collapsed on top of the blonde woman. He didn't remember her name nor was it of any interest for him. She was only one of the whores in that brothel but he had to admit that she was worth the money he had paid for her. The tension in his muscles ebbed away and he relaxed a little bit. The dim light of the room nearly lulled him to sleep. With a start he was lifting himself out of the bed and he collected his clothes that were scattered on the floor. No words were spoken. Some moments later the blonde woman dressed silently and left the room.

It was over a week since he had last seen her. Not that he wanted to see her that badly but he was in need of money. It was only two days ago when he lost a great amount of the silvery coins at the bar. Seemed that he was out of luck for once but he wasn't that concerned. Compared to other men Keisuke knew that he was good in what he was doing. Slowly he walked down the now empty streets of the 78th district of West-Rukongai. Inuzuri was one of the worst parts of Soul Society. Murderers and thieves were only waiting for a chance to strike. A leaf of bread or some coins were reason enough to commit murder.

That damn little annoying brat better shows up soon. His pace increased slightly and he contemplated what he was going to tell her this time. The houses on the left and right side of the street were shabby. Some beggars sat on the street with a cup in front of them. Most of them would never survive the coming winter. Fools. Keisuke learned at a very young age that nobody was going to help him in this world and now he was grateful for that attitude. He hated begging. He would never ask for anything but rather take what he wanted and normally he would get what he desired. A moderate breeze brushed against his skin and played with his greasy and uncombed hair. She will visit me soon. A grin appeared on his face. Though he couldn't rely on anybody else he at least could trust his instincts and with that thought he stopped in his tracks and leaned against a wall in a small sideway.

One hand gripped the blade he hid under his wide black cloak and the other hand grabbed the small cigarette packet. Smoking was one of his sins but he never really cared. Indulging in cigarettes, alcohol and woman was a privilege in these parts of Rukongai and he was lucky that he could add gambling to that list, too. With his mouth he took a cigarette from the packet. Where is my lighter? He lowered his head and continued his search. Suddenly out of nowhere a hand that held his lighter shot forward. For a moment Keisuke's eyes went wide but he composed himself shortly after. A soft click sounded through the sideway and Keisuke gladly ignited the cigarette.

"Stealthy as always, my dear Azumi-chan." Keisuke said in a sweet voice. So my instincts were right again. The person in front of him wore a dark blue cloak with a hood that covered almost her entire face. He reached forward to snatch his lighter from her grasp. This thief was the most unpleasant he ever worked with but she also was the best. Usually he would contact his clients and they would play under his rules. However, she was an exception. An unusual exception he had to admit. He inhaled deeply savouring the flavour of the cigarette.

"Did you get them?" He didn't have to ask. After all, she wouldn't contact him if she didn't have this vial. What a troublesome woman. She never uttered a single word and over all she was really careful. He tried to discover her true identity many times; he even tried to snatch that hood away from her face.

She nodded and her hand disappeared in one of her sleeves. A well known leather bag appeared in her hand and she tossed it to him. He followed the small bag with his eyes and caught it effortlessly. As he turned back to Azumi she was already gone. There was no trace left that she even had been there. Unpleasant woman. He looked at the small leather bag in his hand. There would be a notice from her inside, together with this unique vial. He had told her about it at the last meeting a week ago. A rich guy with the codename "Tsubasa" wanted this vial and offered a large amount of money. For him it was a great risk to trade with such rare goods. This vial consisted of a green and blue substance. The green liquid was on the right side and the blue one on the left side. They met in the middle but never mixed with each other. It was said that this vial would protect the person that wore it. Keisuke stuffed the leather bag in one of his pockets and continued his walk to the inn where he had rented a room.

Nanami closed the gap between herself and the upper districts. Her destination was a mansion in the 5th district of West-Rukongai. That mansion belonged to a family named Fujimaru and they were part of the so called landed gentry. Normally, she would be there already but it took longer than expected to find that Keisuke-guy. She didn't like him and above all she didn't trust him. He would sell his soul for money and Nanami had no doubt that he would betray her if he was given the chance. But for the time being she had to work with him if she liked him or not. He was a well known man in the scene and knew many people that would buy artifacts and pay enormous amounts of money. Usually those people also were part of the nobility. A sarcastic smile tugged at the corner of her lips. Those people would hire thieves to steal from each other. It was kind of ironic.

Nanami jumped from rooftop to rooftop. She was silent as always and completely aware of her surroundings. Her senses were sharp and focused on the task at hand. The Fujimaru mansion was in the midst of the 5th district and most of the inhabitants of the mansion were hopefully away or asleep. Finally she was at the border to the 5th district. Some shinigami patrolled the street besides her but didn't notice her. She smiled slightly. They would never see her. With that she gracefully jumped to the next rooftop.

He lowered himself onto the bed in his rented room and twirled the small leather bag with his fingers. Then he opened it and emptied it in front of him. The vial and a piece of paper surfaced. He grabbed the paper and read its contents. There was only an address written on the paper. He sighed and leaned against one of the pillows in his bed.

"Stupid bothersome brat…" He murmured. The amount of money he would get for the vial was enormous. The address written on the paper was the place where he had to deposit the money in an envelope. It was troublesome to walk the streets of Rukongai with so much money but it was worth the risk. After all he would get ten percent of the total amount. Sometimes the thought occurred to him to keep the money but as always he dismissed that kind of thoughts. Azumi was able to steal from the higher districts and he had no doubt that she would steal that money from him as well. He would lose a really profitable source of income. Slowly his eyes closed and contemplated how the delivery of the vial could take place.

She jumped down and landed gracefully on the street. In front of her were the border guards. Four shinigami talked in low voices to each other. Two others played cards and the seventh one was leaning against their outpost and kept watch. The street no longer was a dirt road but a paved one. Lanterns stood on the right and left side and shone brightly. The border to the 5th district was also the main border to the higher districts of Soul Society, consisting of district one through twelve and Seireitei. Everyone who wanted to cross that border was in need of a special travel passport. Only those who belonged to nobility could provide such a passport. Usually servants, maids and messengers owned them.

The young shinigami on the top of the outpost sighed. It was such a quiet night that it was tiring to watch the streets that extended in front of him. They were seven shinigamis in total and that was way too much he thought. They would sense everybody with higher reiatsu within seconds and those whom didn't have any reiatsu at all were fools if they would try to cross the border. He yawned and stretched his arms and legs. Training with the 13th division is much more enjoyable than to watch the empty streets.

Nanami silently observed the young man on top of the outpost. He hadn't noticed her presence. She took a step towards the young man. The leather from her shoes made it impossible to recognize that she even had moved. They will not realize that someone crossed the border tonight. With that she left and continued her path to the Fujimaru mansion within the 5th district. No shinigami at the outpost had ever realized that she was there. It was thanks to a special ability of her. She had a rather large amount of reiatsu but never entered the shinigami academy. She detested violence of any kind. Nanami believed that she could never point a weapon at a person, whether they were good or bad ones and she preferred peaceful solutions.

A long time ago Nanami had discovered that the large amount of spiritual pressure she inherited wasn't a bad thing per se. She had mastered to completely hide her own reiatsu signature. Usually, every shinigami could detect the faintest traces of reiatsu. It was a basic skill that academy students would learn in the first year. In order to find a person they only had to concentrate and push their reiatsu inwards and with enough exercise they would be able to actually see the spirit threads of every person. Threads of shinigamis themselves had a red colour whereas the threads of the normal citizens of Rukongai would be white. Nanami could trick that kind of technique. She was able to suppress her own reiatsu in a way that hid her own signature as well. She simply disappeared and a shinigami would never detect any traces of reiatsu at all. There was no slight pressure of her reiatsu that they could recognize or anything else. Several circumstances had forced Nanami to hide her reiatsu, so it was second nature for her to suppress it. During the day she would hide the traces of her reiatsu as well as during the night. Not even her own employer knew about her reiatsu.

From that kind of view it wasn't remarkable that the shinigamis at the outpost didn't notice her. They were unseated or lower seated division members. Nobody of them had an overly large reiatsu himself and so their chance to detect her around them was slim. However, it wasn't that unusual that someone could suppress their reiatsu in that way. Seated members, captains and vice-captains normally were able to control their reiatsu in the same manner. If that was the only thing the shinigamis would already have realized that she was around but Nanami could not only trick their detection skills but also their senses. It was several years ago that she started to manipulate reiatsu to her liking. It was not that kind of manipulating someone would learn at the academy, it rather resembled kidou. She had run lots of tests with her own reiatsu and methods to use it to her advantage. It had been a coincidence that she had discovered a way to trick the human eye and it had pleased her. A natural phenomenon had caught her eye during a long and hot summer day years ago. In the midst of the day the sun had been high above her head and had shone relentlessly. What had attracted her attention was a flicker on the street. She had tried to concentrate to see clearly but it hadn't worked. Even more interesting had been the fact that the objects behind that flicker were misshaped. Her eyes had widened in sudden recognition and she immediately had left towards the public library.

It had taken a great amount of time to perfect this technique and it had worked out really well. Nanami slowed down and stopped in the middle of the street. Her camouflage was still in place. It was easy to accomplish and yet it was a dangerous endeavour. It was thanks to the fact that a shinigami was able to detect the directly emitted spiritual pressure and failed to detect manipulated reiatsu like kidou. In many cases that was a good thing. Nanami used that to her advantage and let her reiatsu cover her. She could weave a thin layer consisting of thousands of spiritual particles from her own reiatsu that completely overcasted herself and reflected the light in a way that made her nearly invisible to the naked eye. That meant that she wasn't only able to hide herself from being detected due to her spiritual signature, but could also fool the most important sense of a soul. The only thing someone would recognize was a slight flicker when she moved.

Nanami turned her head to the right side. She had been in the 5th district several times before and had already memorised most of the streets and houses. It would take only a few more minutes until she arrived at the Fujimaru mansion.

It was 3:00 am as Keisuke awoke from a dreamless sleep. He lazily stretched and opened his eyes only to realize that it was still dark outside. Today he had to contact "Tsubasa" because of the vial. Sometimes it bothered him that Azumi never told him a time when she wanted the money. She would only give him an address. Every time it was unnerving and it wasn't the first time that he thought that she kept track of him. It was most likely. After all he didn't even know how she looked like.

He got up from the bed and in a matter of minutes he had showered, dressed and shaved himself. He searched for one of his finest hakama and shirt. His mind pondered on some ways how to contact "Tsubasa" without getting too much attention. The corners of his lips cocked up slightly and a mischievous smile appeared. The best way to get this ordeal dealt with was a direct confrontation.

Nanami reached her destination. The large mansion of the Fujimaru clan laid in front of her and was enclosed by a wall. There was only one entrance gate that was highly guarded. Four of them patrolled the walls while the others kept track of the main gate. Nanami leapt to the ground from the nearby branch she was sitting at. Slowly, she moved towards the gate. She made no noise at all. She paused besides a guard and stopped her breathing for a moment. Even if they couldn't see her nor detect her reiatsu they could still hear, feel or smell her. She was thankful that she could be so silent that they wouldn't notice her even if she was that close. Nevertheless, Nanami feared that they might be able to hear her breathing.

Apparently, the guards hadn't detected her yet so she moved on towards the iron gate. The wall that surrounded the mansion was too high for her to simply jump over. The only way she could get inside was through the gate. During her first break-ins Nanami had thought about many possibilities how to get into a secluded area like this and the best solution was to distract the guards that protected the gate. She only needed two seconds to get in so she carefully picked up a stone that immediately was invisible, too. A crack was heard as the stone hit a tree that was in the vicinity and as expected the guards turned their heads away from the door. Silently Nanami opened the door slipped in and made her way towards the mansion.

The catchiest part of her break-in was done and Nanami continued her walk. There were some rules Nanami was accustomed to. One of these rules was never to walk on the footway. It wasn't unusual that visitors of mansions like that were shinigamis and many of them were able to use flashstep. They couldn't see her but that wouldn't do it if she crashed into one of them whilst they were using flashstep. Nanami passed the front door and headed directly to the entrance at the rear end. Another rule was that knowledge sometimes was more important than good skills. Nanami already had an impression of the mansion before she decided to come here tonight. One of her sources was the Grand City Library in the 4th district that collected many plans from the great mansions in the higher districts. Usually only the architects and family members had access to that kind of information but luckily, Nanami didn't have to ask for permission.

As expected, an entrance was at the back of the mansion. Certainly that doorway was for the maids and servants. Nanami made her way towards the door and tried to turn the knob. It was closed. She reached into her sleeves and pulled out a lock pick. Some movements later, she had opened the door and silently made her way towards the stairs. Her destination was the first floor. The whole mansion was quiet. After all, it was 3:30 o'clock in the morning. It was too late for the owner of that mansion who often went to parties and it was too early for the maids and servants but that also meant that she had only some more minutes. The halls were dark and it was hard to see anything. If she hadn't studied the plans at the library the task at hand would most likely be impossible. There also was the possibility that she could form a ball of light from her own reiatsu but it was a really high risk because it was a source of light and recognizable for everyone else, too. Finally, Nanami reached the third shoji door on the left side and pulled it open to enter the room. It was dark inside, too but she could see better because of the moon that shone through the windows. There in one corner of the room was the object of her desire. Carefully she took step after step towards the cabinet and stopped in front of it. She couldn't detect any traces of reiatsu and there were no signs of traps or anything like that. She held her breath and slowly opened the cabinet. Inside was a pendant that was also called "The Rising Sun". It was part of a set, however the second part of this set belonged to someone else. The pendant was amazingly beautiful. Even in the darkness the bright orange and red stones glistened brightly. Nanami hesitated only for a moment. Then she took a small stone from the inside of her sleeves and swapped the stone with the pendant. A sigh of relief escaped her lips because there was no alarm. Slowly she made her way to the hallway. The only thing she had to do now was waiting.

Only 30 minutes later some of the servants and maids switched the lights of the mansion on and started their daily routine. Nanami stood in a corner near the main entrance and observed the servants. She was only waiting until one of the servants would leave the mansion to buy groceries and that didn't take long. A young boy headed towards the gate. She followed silently close behind. Even at the big iron gate were no incidents. It was 4:30 o'clock when Nanami finally left the mansion and headed towards the orphanage where she had left her backpack.

Sometimes, Nanami was ashamed of herself, that she would use the orphanage as a hideout but it was safer that way. If her cloak and working stuff were found here, nobody could conclude she was a thief. It was better than someone finding her stuff in her own hut. Back at the orphanage she gathered her backpack stuffed the cloak back into the flush and finally headed towards the pharmacy. She was exhausted to say the least. The distance between the 5th and the 62th district war rather large and she couldn't use flashstep. A normal human wouldn't be able to cover such a distance in only some hours but she wasn't a normal human in many ways. As most of the shinigami, she could use her own reiatsu to enhance her physical abilities. With a little bit more training she could also master flashstep due to her amount of reiatsu. She arrived in one of the sideways that were close to the pharmacy and checked her surroundings for traces of reiatsu and as she found none she finally released the thin layer of reiatsu that surrounded her.

Soi Fon didn't exactly know what she would tell Yamamoto-Soutaicho at all. On the outside, she appeared calm and collected but she had to admit that she was a little bit nervous whenever she was close to the strong and powerful head of the protection squads. Confidently, she knocked at the door in front of her.

"It's Soi Fon-Taicho. I am asking for permission to enter." She said politely. The office of squad one was near the centre of Seireitei.

"Permission granted." Said a low, yet firm voice that unmistakably belonged to Yamamoto-Soutaicho. Soi Fon entered and lowered her head in respect of the first division captain.

"I already expected you, Soi Fon-Taicho. What is it you wanted to talk to me about and that couldn't wait until the captains meeting next week?" His eyes were closed but despite that fact he exuded a kind of power that Soi Fon had never seen before. Even when his words were in a low gentle voice they were filled with authority and finality.

"Yamamoto-Soutaicho, during the last months the third part of the Special Forces have recognized that the crime rate is increasing rapidly, especially in the higher districts of Soul Society. I have received reports from my 4th seat and head of the third Special Forces squad that there were also some strange occurrences." Soi Fon paused for a moment and waited for a response from her superior. Her head was still lowered towards the ground but her voice was firm and the look in her eyes fierce.

"Please continue" Was the only response she got.

"Some artifacts disappeared without a single trace. In the last month altogether 12 artifacts were stolen and the owners haven't got a clue how someone could manage that. In most of these cases the owners only recognized coincidentally that some artifacts were missing at all. They were replaced with stones or branches and there is also the possibility of unreported cases." At first Soi Fon had believed that these old geezers simply were too stupid and had misplaced their beloved artifacts but the 12 reports had striking similarities.

"I understand. Is it possible that someone of the employees is the culprit?" Yamamoto-Soutaicho inquired.

"Omaeda-fukutaicho is checking that fact at the moment. Maybe there is a person or group of persons that had contact to the personal staff or some of the employees to get entrance, but at the moment there are no clues about that."

"What is your opinion, Soi Fon-Taicho?" Yamamoto-Soutaicho asked finally.

"I think that there is a group of highly skilled thieves that had contact to some of the personal staff. It is also strange that most of the owners only accidentally recognized the missing of artifacts. It is also strange that only some of the objects were robbed. For the moment it is most likely that someone from the staff in the mansions stole the artifacts. There are different possibilities. Maybe they were forced to steal or maybe they were part of a special organisation. In any case I highly recommend that there should be more shinigami patrolling the higher districts. I also have some spies whom have access to some intelligencers in the underground. Maybe one of them has a clue about that organisation." It was very likely that Soi Fon put too much effort into that matter, but she had to take these reports seriously as a squad-captain and commander of the Special Forces.

"I want your report about that matter, Dismissed." Was the only thing Yamamoto-Soutaicho said. His brows were knitted together in concentration and he couldn't ignore the feeling that something wasn't alright.