Hey! It's me again, and now that I've cycled through the Visored's perspective- man, Love is really hard to write! stupid minor major character status- I'll bounce around from person to person as I think the story would be best told. I've done my very best to show the steady progression of symptoms of Hollowfication in each chapter. I really don't think that the simple matter of occasional paralysis, talking in the host's head, and nightmares (I think) were sufficient in canon with Ichigo's experience, so I amped it up here. Maybe it's an off-screen thing, though.

So, to sum things up: It's been a little more than three and a half months since the Hollowfication at the start of this chapter, and the Visored are experiencing silencing of their Zanpakuto spirits, hearing voices, temporary paralysis, vomiting, unhealthy weight loss, coughing, hand tremors, bouts of extreme aggression, slight involuntary transformation, leaking of Hollow reiatsu, and a bit of paranoia. Don't worry, I won't add to the physical symptoms- I will increase the severity and natural consequences, but the rest will be mental and willfully induced by the Visored themselves.

-I am a line break, beginning the story-

For once, Juu-chan has competition in terms of 'who can be more mysteriously ill.' Though at least in his case, the cure, if there is one, for his illness is the mystery, not the illness itself. Lisa-chan and the others are a mystery all around.

They're all far thinner than they should be, especially the naturally slender lieutenant. It isn't approaching dangerous levels quite yet, and so far no one's actually been able to pin one of the sick people down to get a look at what's wrong with them.

Still, Kyouraku thinks, Unohana won't stand for refusal much longer. As gentle and maternal as she looks, the Fourth Division's captain is also quite powerful and as martially trained as any other captain has to be to reach their position. When Unohana looks you in the eye, smiles slightly, and asks in perfectly polite and sweet Japanese that you do something, you do it. No question. Maybe it's the fact that her smile is one that appears to stem from another, darker source rather than the situation around her, or maybe it's the minor detail that the black-braided woman is a captain of the Gotei 13 for several very good and very violent reasons.

Rose doesn't come drinking with his equally flamboyant friend anymore, leaving Matsumoto as his only drinking buddy. There are a couple perks to hanging around Rangiku, to say the least, but she can't replace the feeling that there should be another wavy-haired blond lying among the cups of sake.

Kyouraku is jerked out of his thoughts by a pebble between his eyes, promptly noticing that the rest of the captains around him are giving him 'Are you kidding me?' looks of various degrees, save for Rose, Shinji, and Kenpachi, who all maintain their usual expressions of boredom. A dark head ducking back down beneath the windowsill makes it clear that his lieutenant is the culprit. Shunsui supposes that he should break her of that habit, but it was the only reason that he could get her sent to that mission a few months back promptly, and that turned out well enough that maybe it's better that she be allowed to eavesdrop.

The Eighth Division's captain rubs the nape of his neck sheepishly.

"Ah..." He laughs semi-nervously. "Carry on."

With an exasperated sigh from Yama-jii, the meeting resumes with talk of how to reduce the repair budget that the Eleventh Division necessitates.

"Did I miss anything important?" Kyouraku murmurs to Isshin besides him, an expression of concentration on the latter's face.

"Mmm?" The Tenth Division's captain replies absently. "I wasn't really paying attention to the meeting either."

Alright, maybe asking him wasn't the best idea, but the other alternative is Sixth Division Captain Kuchiki- the sheer noble stiffness of the man makes it impossible not to call him by his full title. And frankly, the stick rammed up the old man's nether orifice is one that he would probably ram down your throat if you tried to get him to be complicit in any rule-breaking. As captains are supposed to be silent unless their division is explicitly involved in a problem or they are asked for opinions during a meeting, asking for a little help catching up isn't really an option.

When all the orders of business have been finished, the captains file out. Some move briskly- the aforementioned Captain Kuchiki, despite his advanced age, is one of them. Others, such as Shinji and Shunsui, take their sweet time. No reason to stride when you can stroll, after all.

The Fifth and Eighth Division captains walk side by side, pausing momentarily to let Unohana leave before them. The last person to cut her off had an extremely extended and painful stay in the Fourth Division when he was next wounded, and his experience was warning enough.

A few of the lieutenants are waiting outside, more or less patiently. Yamada Seinosuke is there, and he starts talking to Unohana as soon as she's within a few yards of him about some new healing Kido, rough speech switching to amazingly formal Japanese in an instant. It's a veritable miracle that anyone with a delinquent's character could become the black-braided woman's lieutenant, but then, it's a miracle that Urahara wakes up anywhere close to on time for meetings, so perhaps it's simply a miraculous world they live in.

Kyouraku just happens to catch sight of Shinji's face as the latter spies his lieutenant approaching, and is unsettled by the expression of all-consuming hate that momentarily wipes away the lazy grin on the blond's face. It's not dull dislike, like the kind Kenpachi has for meetings, or frenzied loathing like Hiyori's infamous attitude towards her captain, or even the deep-running animosity that Captain Kuchiki holds for law-breakers. The feeling that dominates Shinji's entire appearance widens his eyes like a trapped animal's, draws his lips back in a snarl, clenches his fists as the blond's posture changes into something much more primal.

Kyouraku grasps all this in the space of a second, before the Fifth Division's captain's standard cat-like smile returns, straightening again while somehow managing to slouch at the same time. But that's part of Shinji's usual facade, and Kyouraku would be a hypocrite to deny him that one thing of which everyone has some measure. Though the sake-loving man had always thought that something rather different lay beneath his friend's public persona...

The blond raises a hand in greeting to his lieutenant, calling out, "Hey, Aizen! Ya decided to stop by, huh? Got somethin' fer me to see?"

Aizen doesn't change his pace, but simply lets his measured steps cross the distance between himself and his captain. The faint awkwardness created is erased as the glasses-wearing man gets within the distance generally considered proper for polite conversation.

"Hirako-taicho. A roving band of Hollows has been detected moving closer to the Seireitei than the nobles prefer," he sends an apologetic glance to Kyouraku for the slightly derisive tone, who waves it off with a smile, "and the Fifth Division has been called upon to prepare a squad to send out tomorrow. I was unsure if you wanted to decide who would be going yourself, as they are strong from what the reports say." Aizen adjusts his glasses uncomfortably. "Would you like me to attend to-"

"Nah, I'll figure it out. Maybe go myself; gives me somethin' to do." His captain cuts in. "The report on my desk?"

Aizen nods. "If Lieutenant Kusajishi hasn't gotten to it to send her captain off on a hunt for them." The two share a wry smile. The pink-haired Shinigami is known for getting into even the most highly guarded places with the power of sugar and her own fearsome spirit power, as all Seireitei well knows. "Are you sure you're...?" He trails off, hesitant to question his captain's abilities. Not that Shinji is likely to try to prove them, but it's a fair point. The blond is a few shades paler than he ought to be and several pounds lighter, prone to the odd jerky movement or sudden need to excuse himself from the premises to throw up.

The Fifth Division's captain waves it off. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Honestly, yer like a mother hen." He nods at Kyouraku. "Sorry, I'll have to catch up with ya later. Duty calls and all that." The blond rolls his eyes, flash-stepping away before Kyouraku can make any sort of response.

The flamboyant captain sighs in exasperation. Shinji loves to have the last word, and he has an unfortunate tendency to make sure of that in everyday conversations.

"Well, Lieutenant Aizen, it's been nice seeing you around. I don't suppose I can interest you in a little bar-hopping tonight? Matsumoto-chan's going to be there..." Kyouraku says, making sure to quirk his eyebrows suggestively.

He's rewarded with a faint blush appearing on the mild-mannered lieutenant's features, but that's all. Aizen gives him a gracious smile and a shake of his head.

"I'm afraid that I cannot go tonight, Captain Kyouraku. Hirako-taicho's had to neglect a bit of paperwork and it's begun to pile up," he replies apologetically. "I'll need to stay late to complete it."

Lisa's tormentor chuckles. "So straight-laced. Fine, fine, if you've got to pick up Hirako-san's slack, I won't try and keep you from it. See you around." He turns and ambles away, back to the Eighth Division, where his own paperwork awaits. Normally, Kyouraku would leave it to his lieutenant, but with her illness, he feels a bit guilty if he doesn't take care of it.

-I am a line break, changing the scene-

As it happens, all the paperwork of the Fifth Division is finished. Still, it's a believable and convenient excuse to avoid seeming rude to Kyouraku, so Aizen tosses the line out with his usual smile and gentle shake of the head. The irresponsible man accepts it and walks away, laziness clinging to his image but not touching the power radiating off of him.

Aizen Sosuke is a master of masks, both creating them and seeing through them. He sees beneath the flamboyant pretense Kyouraku constructs and understands that when you strip the flowery words and skirt-chasing away, a cold and very deadly person is left behind. The traitorous lieutenant wonders if, with more power and less need to make people like him, Kyouraku could have been his precursor. Even with his ambition to become God, Aizen recognizes the strength inherent in every Shinigami captain, from the showy Kyouraku to the mild Unohana,

Shinigami is the operative word there, of course. The hybrids are just that, hybrids. They are not Shinigami, but instead mere test subjects, experiments that happen to be able to don masks of normality. It's at once pathetic and humorous to see them attempt to conceal the change.

Aizen sees the shaking of his captain's hands, the crumpled forms in the corner when Shinji's knocked over another jar of ink onto them. He sees the minute widening of Shinji's eyes as an insidious voice whispers in his head and he knows why when the blond has to excuse himself from the room. It's laughable, really, even the devices designed by Urahara to contain residual Hollow reiatsu coming off of the Fifth Division's captain and later shunt it away for the mad scientist to dispose of it.

But it is beneath a god, even one who has not yet ascended to such a station, to laugh at mortals. Gods do not taunt and laugh at heretics. They smite and let the world tremble at their feet. Aizen knows this, and so he buries such ignoble impulses deep within his psyche, and lets the razor-sharp edges of Kyoka Suigetsu's broken mirrors shred them to bits.

Once his soul was a world of silvered glass, of mirrors and flowing waters and open nighttime sky. Kyoka Suigetsu took on a form resembling Aizen's own to speak to him, though the Zanpakuto spirit was clad in a kimono made of many mirrored scales and a silver mask with only the suggestion of features.

And the master of this beautiful, fragile world stood above it and smiled gently. Then he began to reshape it, to shatter every mirror and tear the crescent moon from the sky.

Now Aizen's inner world is a vast sea of clear water, the springs hanging in the sky unseen among the mist. An island lies in the middle of that sea, and on that island kneels a man, naked and scarred with only the remnants of a glimmering mask clinging to the lower right portion of his jaw. The fact that this man is identical to Aizen otherwise does not trouble him, and chains constructed of many shards of mirrors are shackled to each limb, connected to great pillars of the same material, towering high above. The glass that does not compose the chains, island, and pillars drifts through the water, carried by a gentle current.

Kyoka Suigetsu has been made to suffer agonizingly, to submit to Aizen's will utterly so that the deceptively mild man may gain power enough to stand at the top.

Aizen moves unseen through the streets of Seireitei, coming at last to a large building with a plaque next to it that reads: "Great Archives of the Pure White Court." An utterly pretentious name, and he simply refers to it as the library.

Entering, the glasses-wearing lieutenant has no need to search with his spirit sense, nor to ask for directions. He knows exactly where his chosen prey is.

A turn here, a walk down a staircase there, ducking between a pair of bookshelves and finally coming to his destination: the current location of Kojima Masaaki. Not the strongest, brightest, or most perceptive man- all three titles belong to Aizen-, but well-liked, respected, and certainly trusted. A useful tool.

Kojima's dark head jerks up as Aizen approaches, noticing him through sight only and unable to sense the spirit pressure that he is carefully masking.

"Ah, Lieutenant Aizen! I was aware that you frequented the stacks, but not that you had an interest in codes." Masaaki greets him, smiling.

Aizen returns the smile. "I might say the same for you, Kojima-kohai. I was simply on my way to another section when I noticed a spirit signature that I knew, and thought I might take your mind off this work with a simple greeting." He nods at the books. "Could I be of any assistance?"

"I wouldn't want to bother you, but as long as you're offering, two decoders are better than one." He glances around furtively. "I believe there are rebels in Seireitei, and this is correspondence between them. I also...no, that's crazy, and besides, he's beyond me in every sense of power."

The chessmaster of Seireitei allows himself a mental smile, crossing the distance between them to lean over and take a look at the letter. A cipher of moderate difficulty to him, but one that would be beyond challenging for anyone else, even Yoruichi. Which is why Aizen took care to write the steps for solving it in the margins of the book containing it, placed right where Masaaki could find it fairly easily.

"Rebels, Kojima-kohai? A dangerous suggestion, and one that could lead to painful consequences if you mentioned it to the wrong people." At the brief fear that flashes over the fourth seat's face, Aizen smiles reassuringly. "Not me, rest assured, but it is a warning to watch who you tell that to. They might...retaliate. But tell me, who do you speak of that is so beyond you in power? Only a captain, I'm sure. You could be a lieutenant if a position opened up." Making sure to hit a weak point and boost his ego at the same time, both good ways to ensure further trust.

"Well...Captain Aikawa. Recently I, ah, happened to be near the Seventh Division, and he was sparring with Kotsubaki-san. Something happened, and Kotsubaki-san nearly lost an eye. It's okay now, of course, but Captain Aikawa didn't use his sword or Hakuda or any of the other Arts in a way that could've done that...and he lied about having scooped up a sharp rock by accident to Captain Unohana afterwards. I don't know what happened, but I have this nagging suspicion that Captain Aikawa is involved with this letter somehow." The olive-eyed fourth seat waves the letter a bit in front of himself.

Aizen forces- though truthfully, with him most outward expressions of emotion are forced- a frown of worry. "Aikawa-taicho? Truly? I heard of the incident, but I didn't realize..."

Masaaki sighs. "It sounds insane, huh?" He asks.

"No, not insane. I've had my suspicions about him and two of the other captains for quite some time now. Sometimes those from the Rukongai adjust well," he motions towards himself, "and sometimes they don't. I could imagine that a few might be disgruntled at seeing the comparative peace and wealth of Seireitei compare to some districts of the Rukongai."

And so the foundations for the castle of suspicions and falsehoods that he will build up around Kojima begins. Now to see if he sets the last foundation himself.

"Yes, I think that's so. My wife...she was killed by rebels in an uprising. We married young, you see, thought we had the future ahead of us, and then some souls no better than Hollows tried to start a revolution and slaughtered everyone who stood against their senseless violence. My wife, Keiko, she hated fighting, always tried to keep the peace." Masaaki stands, shoving back his chair. "Lieutenant Aizen, I know it's out of the blue, but I need to keep the peace for her and I can't do it alone. Will you help me?"

Aizen pretends to be flustered and taken aback for a second before resolving his expression into one of calm determination. "Yes, of course. If it means honoring the wishes of your wife and preserving Seireitei, I will do whatever must be done to root out the rebels."

They talk for a while after that, decoding a few more lines at a frustratingly slow pace, and finally part ways.

And so the rebel vows to help eliminate the enforcers of justice...

-I am a line break, ending the story-

So, for those who don't know, -kohai is the opposite of -sempai, often meaning underclassman but occasionally referring to someone who is the speaker's junior at a company or organization. Also, the way I use gratuitous Japanese with the whole "taicho" and "fukutaicho" thing is intentionally mixed with regular uses of "captain" and "lieutenant" because to me they can convey different nuances. The way Aizen refers to Shinji as "Hirako-taicho" makes me think (I prefer subbed anime) of the Turn Back the Pendulum (favorite arc!) scene in which he thanks Shinji for one thing or another and always refers to him as such. The inflection and tone he uses sends chills up my spine and I couldn't help but keep that. Those who refer to captains as "Familyname-taicho" or "Familyname-fukutaicho" tend to be expressing less respect for the person in question, using the title in place of an honorific because it's conventionally polite. Not in canon or anything else I've seen/read, but simply in this work as my own means of distinction. One more relevant detail to add: you may or may not have forgotten that everyone's favorite chivalrous pervert is technically a noble. At least, I'm pretty sure he is. So that's why Aizen 'remembers' that Kyouraku's a noble and gives him an apologetic glance for his less-than-perfectly-respectful tone towards them.

Off-topic, you had better be happy that I updated this soon! I'm neglecting my other, longer-running fic for this, and it's approaching two in the morning as I write!