Gin was hanging about outside the meeting hall, putting off, as usual, his arrival to the captains' meeting. Someone was bound to accuse him of being late because he was nervous, but he'd spent his entire career making an art out of arriving late and he wasn't about to change now. He didn't think he looked nervous. He'd bought a watermelon along the walk from the Fourth, much to the annoyance of Toshiro, which was odd since Toshiro usually really enjoyed watermelon. Toshiro refused even a single slice and went on inside the meeting hall, despite the fact that they were five whole minutes early. Gin refused to step inside until he was at least ten minutes late. It was a matter of principle.
So here he was sitting on the railing along the walkway to the meeting hall, munching on watermelon and spitting the seeds at the First Division men passing below while he mused on his son's inexplicable sense of responsibility. He certainly hadn't gotten it from either parent. One might think he could have learned it somewhere, but where exactly? Who could have been his example of responsibility?
Gin took time out of his wondering to greet each captain as they went by. They were all nice enough. Even Soifon didn't try to push him off the railing, though he thought she might have been tempted.
Komamura was a surprise. He wondered how nobody'd thought to mention that to him before. He nearly fell off his perch when the giant greeted him and he looked up to be met by a pair of glittering canine eyes.
Komamura was not amused and demanded to know if Gin had a problem with him.
"No, not at all," Gin told him quickly. "Just two things; one, bravo on keeping me in the dark on that one; I've always thought you must be horribly disfigured, and two, are you a fox or a wolf? I'm not very up on zoology-oh, or a dog-could be a dog's head. Did you know that Shihoin Yoruichi can turn herself into a cat, and a male cat at that, very impressive. I've never known anyone to do that before, but I've never known anyone with a-did you say it was a dog head?-before either. It just goes to show, that English poet was right; there really are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in one's philosophy-have you seen Hamlet? It's very long and quite depressing; everyone ends up dead, but they mostly deserved it so it could have been worse."
Komamura frowned, which impressed Gin, that an animal face could be so expressive had never occurred to him before.
"Are you coming to the meeting?" the giant, wolf-headed captain finally asked.
"Pretty sure it's required; going to finish my watermelon first though. Could you tell the General I'll be just a couple of minutes-seriously, though, wolf?"
Komamura sighed. "I will see you at the meeting, Captain Ichimaru," he said, nodding his head in a slight bow before walking away.
"That's one very polite wolf-fox," Gin said to himself, before spitting the last watermelon seed into a young shinigami's cleavage.
The girl was a good fifty feet below him and didn't seem to have any idea what had happened. He thought he heard her yell something about a bug, panicking as the black seed slipped into her shihakusho.
He was watching in some amusement as the girl jumped about tugging at her clothes and her two girl friends tried to suggest ways of getting the 'bug' out of her clothing.
There was a soft chuckle behind him, and he turned to find Kyoraku grinning at him. "So the trouble-maker is by nature a trouble-maker," he said. "I can't wait to tell Ukitake; he thought it might be a part of your smokescreen, along with the grin, which I am glad to see is very much intact."
Gin's grin grew. "I've never had to pretend to be an asshole," he said, pleasantly.
"I told Ukitake it was too much to hope," Kyoraku agreed. "Ready to come to the meeting? You've already delayed us twelve minutes, that's well within your average."
Gin frowned. "But I haven't seen-" he broke off. He'd been counting captains as they went by and he'd only gotten to nine, even assuming Yamamoto had arrived before him. Then, subtracting Aizen and Tosen from thirteen and counting himself, and- "Ukitake's out sick?"
"He tends to be down for a while after he pushes himself. You heard he used Sogyo no Kotowari to counter Aizen's illusions?"
Gin nodded. That was the other reason Aizen had wanted him to keep the captain out of commission. The illusions were so perfect it was unlikely anyone would suspect them, but in case they did Ukitake's bankai could dissolve them. They'd expected him to destroy the illusion of Aizen's body after Kyoraku was warned by Urahara, but Gin, at least, had been surprised to hear Ukitake had managed bankai again to put a stop to Aizen's illusions before Yamamoto slaughtered Toshiro. He was also grateful-grateful to Kyoraku, too, for putting himself between the two with a barrier that was probably half the reason Toshiro had survived. It was an uncomfortable feeling being grateful to others, and he supposed he'd have to find a way to pay the two captains back at some point. For now though, "Did I mention to anyone that Nemu needs to throw out her jasmine-scented shampoo and also the cocoa butter lotion if she still has that and, well, probably, to be on the safe side, she should probably buy an entirely new set of soaps and cosmetics, because you know, I may have been adding one of Kurotsuchi's experimental poisons to just about all of her toiletries for the past few years."
Kyoraku's easygoing smile slipped for only the tiniest instant before he answered. "No, I don't think you had mentioned that. I'll pass it along though-come along, Gin-kun, we really are getting late, and Yamaji's liable to assign us extra work if we don't get a move on."
Gin nodded and followed after the senior captain, feeling more than a little uneasy. He wasn't sure why, and he was still thinking about it while Yamamoto began the meeting and did his usual bit of scolding Gin for being late. It was when Yamamoto said something to the effect of there no longer being any reason for Gin to draw negative attention to himself if he was no longer playing Aizen's smokescreen that Gin realized what was bothering him.
He really had never minded being hated by the entire population of Seireitei. It had been amusing to him because they were doing exactly what he intended, allowing themselves to buy the image of himself he created and completely missing the monster Aizen in his shadow. It had worked brilliantly, but now, now he would have to be himself, no more playing a part, and if they hated him they hated the real him. For the most part it still didn't matter. He didn't care how much Yamaji or Soifon or nearly any of the other captains or anyone else hated him. But there were a few people, like Kyoraku, that he realized it would actually kind of bother him to be hated by.
And that annoyed him. He'd absolutely known his actions, once revealed, would only lead to greater condemnation. He'd been prepared to be hated by Rangiku. What difference did it make if the old drunk thought he was a nasty piece of work?
His gaze shifted to Toshiro beside Kyoraku. The boy looked so serious and determined, always. For now, Toshiro was holding off on any sort of condemnation, mostly because he was so relieved to find Gin was capable of feeling anything at all. He'd imagined his father to be such a monster that almost anything was better, but Gin wondered if as soon as the relief wore off he, too, would realize that his father was still just as much a bastard as he'd ever been, and he'd write him off for good.
He was startled from his thoughts by the General's sharp voice snapping his name, and when he looked up he was pretty sure it was not the first time he'd been addressed. "What's that?" he said quickly.
"Did Aizen ever mention the possibility of harming Yoruichi? Can you guess what his motivation might be if he is involved?"
Gin blinked, confused. "Something's happened to the cat?"
"You could try to listen," Toshiro muttered.
"She has been missing for three days!" Soifon said, furiously. "Her reiatsu has vanished from Soul Society! We've looked everywhere for her! Someone is using extremely powerful barriers to hide her. This must be Aizen's doing!"
"Well, probably," Gin had to agree. "He never said anything about Yoruichi, but I do think she got on his nerves. Seems petty to make her vanish just for that, but, you know, he is."
"You think Aizen would have his minions attack Shihoin Yoruichi just because she gets on his nerves?" Toshiro demanded. Gin was glad to see Toshiro wasn't intimidated by all the other captains. It would be too bad if he was afraid to speak up just because he was centuries younger than them.
Gin shrugged. "Chaos is always nice, and he's always been willing to take the time to sow a little more distrust between divisions. You ever heard that saying, 'united we stand, divided we fall'? Aizen always thought it fit the Gotei perfectly; thirteen divisions, each one perfectly united with complete loyalty to their captain and their squad mates. Each division performs its unique duties near flawlessly, and failure is rare enough to be considered nonexistent. But, if you hit the Gotei with something so big more than one division is needed, chances are you'll have shinigami at each other's throats before they ever get anywhere near their enemies."
"That's absurd," Byakuya said.
Gin shrugged. "I'm not the one who drew on Ukitake."
"That wasn't Captain Ukitake," Byakuya answered, his tone like ice. Apparently he was still a little ticked about being taken down and knocked out of commission for several days by an enemy he hadn't even been able to hit. Learning about Aizen's illusions had clearly not made him feel any better about it.
"You thought it was," Gin said, grinning back at Byakuya. It was always more fun to tease Byakuya where there was absolutely no chance the other captain would draw his zanpakuto.
"It is concerning how easily Aizen set us against each other, but now that we are aware of the problem we can address it directly," Yamamoto answered. "However it cannot have anything to do with Yoruichi's disappearance; she has not been a member of the Gotei for a century."
"But I'll bet your suspects are Gotei members, right?" Gin said. "Considering they took Yoruichi down they must have a decent amount of reiatsu. Even with Aizen making the plans, you've got to have the strength to carry them out. It's why he liked to collect gifted kids out of the Academy-so who's your top suspect?"
Soifon's eyes narrowed. She clearly didn't appreciate his casual attitude. "Lieutenant Hisagi was the last person to see Yoruichi-sama," she answered, coldly.
Gin nearly burst out laughing. "You suspect Hisagi? The kid is a boy scout. Tosen loved the way he soaked up all the truth and justice nonsense but was always frustrated by the fact that the kid wouldn't budge an inch on what right and wrong might be. He wouldn't buy any of that 'for the greater good' nonsense that Tosen loves so much either. Drove Tosen nuts-till Hisagi fell for Ise anyway; then he just told himself Hisagi'd been corrupted by worldly desires, and that's why he was incapable of seeing how right Tosen's philosophy was."
"We also have a murder that points to Lieutenant Hisagi," Soifon told him. "The seventh seat of the Ninth Division was found decapitated in Rukongai. Lieutenant Hisagi's zanpakuto takes the form of two scythes in shikai."
"Well, that's the Ninth down," Gin said, pleasantly. "Tosen a traitor and everyone in the Gotei spreading rumors Hisagi may be a murderer working for Aizen-wonder which division Aizen'll go after next."
He looked over the assembled captain's, considering their various vulnerabilities. The Gotei depended too much on their leaders. If they were taken down most could not easily be replaced. Of four pillars of the Gotei, Yamamoto, Unohana, Kyoraku, and Ukitake, only Unohana had escaped the conflict with Aizen with her reputation completely untouched. The other three had turned against each other. It must have brought them down from their god-like stature within the Gotei. They were mere men now, failable and dangerous, almost like Kenpachi, whose men feared him more than they trusted him. Komamura's men could probably easily be persuaded he was dangerous, even evil, if Aizen decided to try, and Toshiro had yet to earn the trust of his division as a captain. They loved him, but they still mostly saw him as a child. Ukitake was ill as usual so Kaien would be the one to go after there; a squabble among the nobles could bring him down, along with Byakuya and Soifon if it was done just right. And of course Gin's own division and the Fifth, too, were teetering on the brink, one good shove and they were done for.
"Gin-kun is right. We must put a stop to these rumors before they damage Shuhei's ability to run the Ninth. We know he is innocent. He was home with Nanao-chan when Ogawara was murdered. He is being purposefully framed."
Gin tilted his head to one side as he watched Kyoraku, and he wondered how much it weakened Kyoraku and Ise to stick by Hisagi. There were plenty of people who already thought Kyoraku an old fool, but if Ise, who was expected to be the rational one, was already believed to be emotionally compromised as she stuck by her husband, then who was going to believe that Kyoraku was being anything but naive to support them both? Soifon clearly thought he was, and she should know better.
"We cannot allow Aizen to tear down our morale and fragment our army," Yamamoto said firmly. "We must hold fast and not allow false suspicions to divide us. No further accusations will be made against anyone without concrete proof. We have agents of Aizen within the Gotei, but as much as possible, we must keep that knowledge from the rank and file. We will proceed with utmost caution to investigate any individuals under suspicion. We must be careful, first and foremost, not to cast a shadow of doubt over any person. Otherwise an aura of suspicion may fall over the entire Gotei, and we will be incapable of effective operation."